Chapter 9
Lu Chengtian put his arm around his waist, handed a paper cup of warm water to his pale lips, and whispered, "Drink some hot water, you'll feel better."
The warm liquid flowed into his empty stomach, and Lin Xian took a deep breath.
Lu Chengtian only felt the person in his arms trembling violently, like a fallen leaf shaking on a branch, as if it would be blown away by the wind in the next second.
He put the paper cup aside, freed one hand, patted Lin Xian's thin back, and kept repeating in his ear: "It's okay, it's okay, I'm here."
Lin Xian rested her forehead against Lu Chengtian's shoulder, her soft hair falling onto the two four-pointed stars on the epaulettes of her uniform. A hint of freshness from the young man's shower wafted into his nose.
With Lu Chengtian's patient comfort, his breathing gradually returned to normal.
At this moment, Lu Chengtian's eyes fell on a silver lighter on the ground. It was printed with some words that looked like Tibetan, but also a little different. It had a fine texture and a cool sheen.
When Lin Xian finally calmed down and walked out of the bathroom, Lu Chengtian followed behind and put the lighter into his trouser pocket as if nothing had happened.
At the booth, Lu Chengtian saw Lin Xian's eyes deliberately avoiding the table, and said to the passing waiter, "Please take the meat away. I'll buy it separately. Thank you."
There was no meat on the table, so Lin Xian sat down, but he had lost his appetite.
Lu Chengtian recalled that Lin Xian did order boiled pork slices that year and never showed any resistance to meat.
He leaned forward slightly and asked, "Brother, why can't you eat meat all of a sudden?"
"As people get older, they have more and more problems. I'm sorry to have wasted Captain Lu's kindness." Lin Xian's voice was a little weak, but he quickly put on the invulnerable mask of an adult.
Lu Chengtian called the waiter and ordered a bowl of millet porridge with a little rock sugar for Lin Xian.
"Thank you for your trouble." Lin Xian scooped a mouthful of hot millet porridge and brought it to his mouth with satisfaction. Even though his stomach was extremely empty, he ate slowly and methodically, as if even the falling sky couldn't shake his eating rhythm.
Lu Chengtian took a few bites of his food and began to peel the crayfish for Lin Xian, putting on his gloves and arranging them neatly on the plate. The peeled crayfish were white, tender and chewy, looking very tempting.
After drinking the millet porridge, Lin Xian felt much better in his stomach. He picked up a whole peeled crayfish and put it into his mouth without hesitation.
"I didn't expect Captain Lu to be so caring. Your girlfriend must be very happy." Lin Xian commented.
Hearing this, Lu Chengtian smiled.
He was the kind of handsome man with a tough demeanor. When he wasn't smiling, he looked almost cold, someone to be admired from afar and not to be touched. But when he smiled, it was like a ray of sunshine filtering through cracked ice, making it impossible to look away.
Lin Xian couldn't help but take a few more glances. Captain Lu, who was saying, "My girlfriend is so happy," said, "My boss introduced me to some girls before, but they all ended in failure. The girls all said the same thing."
"What are you talking about?" Chief Editor Lin's curiosity was piqued, and he even stopped picking up the crayfish.
Lu Chengtian raised his head, his deep gaze meeting Lin Xian's amber pupils: "They said I was a straight man and a workaholic."
Hearing this, even the knowledgeable Editor-in-Chief Lin couldn't help laughing and looked at him teasingly.
Lu Chengtian continued to peel the lobster and said, "You know, my parents are not good at taking care of people. They are lucky that I am still alive. I learned these caring skills from you."
He paused, as if hesitating, and then said after a while: "If you could teach me more, maybe I would have a girlfriend."
Lin Xian paused for a moment, but didn't respond. He felt there was something strange about these words, yet they were clearly heartwarming.
Lu Chengtian placed another crayfish on his plate and asked casually, "Brother, how did you know there was something wrong with the incense ash found on the roof of Jinyuan Building?"
Here we go, this is the purpose of this meal.
Lin Xian continued to eat the crayfish slowly, without looking up. "I was undercover in the Golden Triangle a few years ago, so I'm quite sensitive to the smell of drugs."
"Really? I've also seized a lot of drugs, but why don't I have such a keen sense of smell as yours?" Lu Chengtian stopped what he was doing and looked at him.
Editor-in-Chief Lin said shamelessly, "It's talent."
"How many drug enforcement officers have lost their lives in the Golden Triangle..." Lu Chengtian looked at him steadily: "Did you encounter any danger during your time as an undercover agent in the Golden Triangle?"
Lin Xian's gentle gaze suddenly froze behind the lens, and the action of picking up the food also stopped, but only for a moment.
However, Lu Chengtian saw everything at this moment.
Yes, Lu Chengtian thought, that made sense. He'd been undercover in the Golden Triangle, gotten into trouble, been harassed by drug lords, and even had such a strong reaction to a slice of boiled pork... Even the excessive concentration of antidepressants in his blood had a reason.
"Have you been targeted by a drug trafficking gang and forced to work for them?" Lu Chengtian's eyes were as solid as if they were real, and they were heavy and depressing.
During interrogation, suspects often feel immense psychological pressure when faced with such a gaze. Unfortunately, Editor-in-Chief Lin is a stubborn person, unmoved by the pressure and unable to change his demeanor even in the face of a catastrophe.
His slender, white fingers picked up the chopsticks again, picked up a small pinch of "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" and put it into his mouth, revealing an almost sarcastic smile. "Captain Lu, you remind me of a phrase - concern leads to confusion. If I were really controlled by a drug cartel, would I still be toiling away like a slave at a magazine? Or would I be able to sit here leisurely and have a meal with the head of the city bureau's criminal investigation detachment?"
The next second, Lu Chengtian grabbed his wrist, pointing at the faint pink scar beneath the shackles. He stared at him sharply, lowering his voice, his eyes red. "Then why did you tolerate being controlled by a scumbag like Zhou Mubai? And—how do you explain that gunshot wound?" At the end, his voice was almost trembling. "And why do you keep taking antidepressants?"
From beginning to end, Lin Xian said nothing, looking down at the hand Lu Chengtian was holding. It was not until he heard the words "take antidepressants" that he coldly shook him off.
He was so smart that he quickly realized that Lu Chengtian had clearly taken the opportunity to change his medicine to take his blood for testing.
After nine years, even the most tender memories will collapse as fragile trust breaks down.
Lin Xian stared at Lu Chengtian, his gentle expression shattered, replaced by a cold one. Every word he spoke was tinged with chill. "What's wrong with me? Does it have anything to do with you? Don't be so self-righteous—Lu, Cheng, Tian."
Before he could finish, Lu Chengtian's expression changed.
While Lin Xian was speaking, he noticed a black figure wearing a baseball cap swaying back and forth outside the door, seemingly staring in their direction.
The other person was wearing a black mask. After meeting his gaze, he pretended to be unintentional and left the store.
"Editor-in-Chief Lin, I'm afraid you're in trouble." Lu Chengtian grabbed his jacket and took Lin Xian's coat from the side and put it on him. He seemed unaffected by Lin Xian's words and said briefly, "Chase!"
The two chased to the door and saw that the man in the peaked cap had not gone far. Seeing the two people come out, the man rushed to the alley entrance, hurriedly rode a motorcycle, and drove out of the narrow alley with a roar.
"Get in the car!" Lu Chengtian skillfully operated the steering wheel of the Wrangler.
The alley was too narrow for the car to turn around, and the figure on the motorcycle left from behind them. "You bought such a junky car, what else can it do except show off!" Lu Chengtian quickly shifted into reverse gear, stepped on the accelerator, brushed past the old man's tricycle on the side of the road, and backed the huge car out of the alley.
Looking at the speeding motorcycle in front of him, he swerved the steering wheel, stepped on the accelerator to the bottom, and caught up.
Lin Xian said coldly, "It's a scratch, a traffic violation. Remember to repair my car and deduct the points afterward."
"If I drive your car to pieces, I'll be your full-time driver and take you to and from get off work." The black motorcycle weaved in and out of traffic flexibly. Lu Chengtian accelerated to overtake in the gap, attracting a chorus of dissatisfied horns.
The motorcycle quickly drove into the urban village, and the Wrangler chased after it.
The pursuer, dressed in black, dashed left and right, trying to shake off the Wrangler behind him. But Lu Chengtian's driving skills were not to be underestimated, and he was able to keep up with him in the dense traffic on the city roads and in the alleys full of parked cars.
Off-road vehicles have good performance, but they're not comfortable to sit in. Lin Xian's stomach had just been through some abuse, and now, sitting in this car with sudden braking and swerving steering, it felt like riding a roller coaster, and his face turned pale.
While Lu Chengtian was concentrating on driving, he also took the time to look at him distractedly: "If you feel uncomfortable, close your eyes and rest for a while."
Lin Xian decisively closed his eyes and ignored him.
Meanwhile, the pursuer glided across a section of the city on his motorcycle while talking to the person on the other end of the Bluetooth headset. His Chinese was a little choppy: "Boss, there's a police officer with him. I'm being targeted. Should we terminate the operation?"
The middle-aged man on the other end of the phone had half of his hair gray, and wore a string of Buddhist beads around his neck. He sat in the tea room with his legs crossed, leisurely watching the young girl in cheongsam performing the tea ceremony in front of him.
When he heard the word "police", he frowned as if he felt a little troubled.
The girl handed him a cup of tea. He took it and took a sip. It seemed a little hot. His face suddenly became gloomy and he poured the tea on the ground.
Seeing this, the girl next to her quickly lowered her head and stepped aside, her eyes full of fear.
"Kill them all, I'll send people to support you." After saying this, the middle-aged man hung up the phone.
The motorcycle suddenly changed direction and headed towards the sparsely populated suburbs of the city.
Leaving the narrow alleys and busy city roads, the Wrangler's off-road advantages immediately came into play and quickly shortened the distance.
"Editor-in-Chief Lin, please take a picture of his license plate number." Seeing that Editor-in-Chief Lin was unmoved, Lu Chengtian stopped playing the "affectionate younger brother" and changed the address back to normal.
"Don't call me brother anymore?" Lin Xian raised his eyelids, took out his mobile phone, and took a picture of the figure speeding in front of him along with the license plate, which he didn't know whether it was real or not. He made a sarcastic remark, and then continued to close his eyes to rest.
Lu Chengtian said calmly, "Let's forget it, so as not to be considered as being sentimental."
Lin Xian reached out and pinched his eyebrows, and the naturally upturned corners of his mouth became more pronounced.
After going around in circles for a few times, they followed the motorcycle to an abandoned urban village on the outskirts of the city that was waiting to be demolished.
The Zhou Group acquired this land and planned to develop it into a sea view villa. However, due to the recent downturn in the real estate market and the uncertainty of the market, construction has not started and has been put on hold.
The urban village, which resembles a shantytown, is littered with broken bricks and tiles, rusty steel bars and scrap iron. The word "demolition" is spray-painted in red on the white walls where the red bricks are exposed. There is even a tattered white flag hanging on a clothesline that used to be used for drying clothes, with big red characters reading "Give me back my life", giving it the atmosphere of a horror movie.
"The Zhou Group is a piece of shit. It's obvious that this is a forced demolition." Lu Chengtian commented.
He said this deliberately for Lin Xian to hear. Whenever he thought of the kiss mark Zhou Mubai left on his neck, he felt inexplicably unhappy.
"Yes, the evil capitalists." As if he had read his thoughts, Lin Xian said lazily.
The motorcycle weaved in and out of the maze-like alleys of the urban village and soon entered an extremely narrow alley. Compared with the alleys here, the alley where they had just eaten was simply too wide to be true.
Lu Chengtian had no choice but to turn off the engine, unbuckle his seatbelt, and look at the "crispy skin" beside him whose lips were almost bloodless. He felt a headache: "You stay in the car, I'll chase after him and take a look."
But Editor-in-Chief Lin did not listen to the advice and got out of the car calmly.
"Can you run like this?" Lu Chengtian frowned as he looked up and down at Lin Xian's frail and scumbag outfit.
Lin Xian put his hands in the pockets of his cashmere coat, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why should I run? Isn't that person here to follow me? I just need to stand here and wait for him to come."
Lu Chengtian: ...
As expected, the man in black came back on his motorcycle. He parked the motorcycle at the entrance of the alley, took off his helmet, opened the back seat, and took out a dagger.
"We're two against one, isn't that a bit of a bully?" Lu Chengtian stood in front of Lin Xian and met those slender and fierce triangular eyes.
At this moment, the roar of a car engine sounded behind them.
Lu Chengtian turned around suddenly and saw five or six people walking towards them with machetes and iron bars in their hands and fierce eyes.
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