Chapter 100 Epilogue (End)
Three months later.
After finishing the work at hand, Li Qingyao went downstairs with his partner Xia Yongze. Xia Yongze went to drive his own car, while Li Qingyao went to wait under the tree in front of the office gate.
After a while, Xia Yongze drove out and lowered the window: "Then I'll go first. How long will it take for Chenpu to arrive?"
“Soon.”
"You actually made your girlfriend wait. I never make my wife wait."
"Fuck you, he just finished a mission and was on his way back."
Xia Yongze smiled and left.
The smile on Li Qingyao's face disappeared, and he looked at the traffic with a calm gaze.
Of course Chen Pu couldn't let her wait for long. After a few minutes, the familiar car stopped in front of her. Zhou Yangxin got out of the passenger seat, waved his hand and said, "I won't delay the arrival of my son-in-law. Today's work report is in my hands. Do a good job, Chen Pu!"
Chen Pu smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
Li Qingyao opened the passenger door and went up to ask, "Are you done?"
"Well, the person has been arrested and handed over to the Economic Investigation Bureau."
Li Qingyao looked at him twice. After being on a business trip for three days, he still looked energetic and handsome, but there was a thick shadow under his eyes. If today had not been the day he had made his first visit to her house, as arranged long ago, he probably would not have come back.
"Have you brought everything?"
"It's been ready for a long time. It's been in the trunk."
The car started and merged into the traffic. Chen Pu also looked at her and asked, "How did you sleep these two days?"
"fine."
"What time did you fall asleep?"
"12 o'clock."
"What time did you wake up?"
"A little after 6 o'clock."
"real?"
She rolled her eyes at him: "Why would I lie to you? I really fell asleep. I slept well before you went on a business trip."
Chen Pu thought so too and felt relieved. Just as the traffic light turned red, he freed one hand, held her hand, held it tightly, and then brought it to her lips and kissed it. Everything was said without words.
After finding Li Jincheng that day, Chen Pu didn't realize it for the first few days because he couldn't sleep for whole nights. Later, he could not bear it any longer and went to Li Qingyao's house to spend the night. He found that her condition was much more serious. She had not closed her eyes for several days and nights. She looked very calm and did not cry. She just sat there very alertly all night.
But that night, Chen Pu held her in his arms and she fell asleep, almost unconscious. Chen Pu was also infected by her and had the only good sleep he had in those days.
Chen Pu thought this wasn't going to work, so he cheered himself up faster than her and went to talk to Ding Guoqiang, asking them not to go on business trips for the next few months. It was understandable that they had solved such a big case and suffered so much, so Ding Guoqiang agreed. After that, every day, no matter how late Chen Pu worked, he would always go home and sleep with her in his arms.
Gradually, three months later, Li Qingyao's sleep finally became regular and he began to smile. That's why Chen Pu felt at ease going on the business trip.
The two discussed and decided to move to Xingyue Bay together. Chen Pu bought the house in Chaoyang Home. If he can sell it, he will sell it. If he can’t sell it, he will rent it out. The small house that Li Qingyao rented was kept. Sometimes when the two of them worked overtime late, they would stay overnight nearby.
After living together for so long, Yuan Ling began to hint that it might be time for them to meet formally. Hence today’s arrangement.
Soon they arrived downstairs of Li Qingyao's house.
Chen Pu parked the car but didn't move.
Li Qingyao unbuckled his seat belt and asked, "What are you daydreaming about?"
"come over."
Li Qingyao stretched out her arms towards him, and he hugged her tightly in his arms, burying his head in her shoulder, breathing deeply and rubbing her. Li Qingyao could feel his heartbeat in his chest, so he closed his eyes and hugged his shoulders tightly.
After a while, he raised his head, found her lips and kissed her deeply. The kiss was powerful, sweet and bitter. His kiss was a little different from before, always deeper and he was more silent.
After a while, the two let go. He still liked to put his forehead against hers, looking into her eyes, and said, "Do you know what it means for me to go upstairs today?"
"What?"
"From now on, we are a real family."
Li Qingyao's eyes slowly became wet and he smiled: "Chen Pu, you have always been our family."
He smiled too, let her go, and they both got out of the car.
He took out various gifts from the trunk, filled his hands with them, and held her hand with the other hand: "Let's go."
It was dark, the path was quiet, and there was no one walking around. Li Qingyao looked down at the swaying shadows of the trees under the street lights and suddenly said, "Please carry me back."
He was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "But what should we do with these things?"
"I'll take it. Kneel down, I want to carry it."
Chen Pu smiled helplessly and shook his head, so he had to hand her the wine and cigarettes in his hand, and reminded her: "Hold it firmly, this time you can drop people, but you can't drop things."
“Bold!”
Chen Pu squatted down with his long arms resting on his knees, revealing a slender neck. Li Qingyao climbed up with the things in her hand, and he easily lifted her up.
The street lights are bright and the road is long.
Suddenly, tiny snowflakes floated down from the dim sky, landing on Chen Pu's hair and in front of Li Qingyao's eyes. She reached out her hand and took one.
"It's snowing," she said.
He looked up at the snow and answered, "Yes, it's snowing."
He seemed to be less anxious. In this cold snowy night, he walked slowly, step by step, with great stability.
Li Qingyao put his face against his neck and called out, "Brother Chen Pu."
"Why."
"Let's go home."
"good."
——
Li Qingyao's father, Li Xizhou, washed his hands immediately after work and went into the kitchen to help. Yuan Ling was stewing spareribs and instructed him: "Cut the meat into shreds, cut it evenly, and prepare more chili and garlic seeds, Chen Pu likes it."
"Okay." Although he agreed, Li Xizhou felt uneasy in his heart. It was one thing that he had always admired the young man Chen Pu, but wanting to kidnap his precious daughter was another.
"Do you think it's a good idea for our daughter to date a policeman?" he muttered.
Yuan Ling rolled her eyes at him and said, "They have officially come today, and you are still hesitating. I think Chen Pu is a good guy, he is handsome, honest, and his family is well-off. He is five years older than Qing Yao, and he will definitely be caring."
Now Li Xizhou had something to say: "Looks like me, right?"
"roll."
As she walked toward the restaurant carrying the cooked spare ribs, Yuan Ling subconsciously glanced at the portrait on the wall and her eyes became sore.
Li Jincheng in the photo still looks so young, energetic, and smiling.
In fact, the couple had already prepared themselves mentally for the fact that the person had not been found for so many years. Three months ago, Li Qingyao came back and told her that the case had been solved. His brother had indeed died in the line of duty. He was shot to death by the criminals and his body was abandoned in the wilderness, so he had never been found. Criminal police team leader Ding Guoqiang also expressed his condolences and apologies to Yuan Ling and his wife.
Yuan Ling felt sad when she heard this. When the child first came to their home, they had spent so much energy in taking care of and raising the child. He is gone at such a young age. How can the parents bear it? But one must always look forward. Li Xizhou also comforted her by saying that it was better for the child's body to be found and buried than to be exposed to wind and rain in the wilderness and unable to return home. Only then did Yuan Ling gradually come out of her emotions and resume her normal life.
What Yuan Ling didn't know was that Li Xizhou, also a criminal policeman, had drunk countless amounts of alcohol and cried countless times behind her back.
The doorbell rang.
"Here I come." Yuan Ling was delighted and quickly ran over to open the door, shouting, "Old Li, come and greet them too, quickly."
Li Xizhou also walked out of the kitchen and saw the portrait on the wall at a glance. The old criminal policeman who had worked for decades, for some reason, almost burst into tears on this happy day just by looking at his son. He quickly lowered his head and wiped it with his sleeve, as if nothing had happened. He walked to Yuan Ling's side and finally revealed a sincere smile, looking at the pair of well-matched and extremely obedient children who walked in.
It's winter already.
The first snow covered Xiangcheng. The oasis in the river was like a thousand-year-old man in white clothes, always looking up and gazing at the green Yuelu Mountain.
It was also on this day when it was snowing lightly that Lu Xing stood in the courtroom. Facing the multiple charges read out by the judge, he said very calmly, "I plead guilty." The bailiff escorted him down from the dock. There were cries coming from the audience seats nearby, and someone was calling his name. Lu Xing raised his head and saw his sister holding her five-year-old daughter, looking at him with tears in her eyes. But he smiled brightly and shouted to her, "Take good care of my niece. I will come out to find you when she goes to junior high school." The sister nodded with tears in her eyes, and while crying, she smiled at her brother.
Snowflakes also drifted past the windows of the Third Municipal Hospital. Zhang Chaohua, the night shift minibus driver from Yingzhu Mountain to Songya Lake, and his family have been waiting anxiously outside the internal medicine operating room for several hours.
Finally, the lights in the operating room went out.
The surgeon came out with a smile on his face: "The operation was very successful. Your son is fine. You can take him back to the ward to see him later."
Zhang Chaohua's wife cried for joy, and Zhang Chaohua thanked her repeatedly. After a while, he couldn't help wiping away his tears. His wife cried for a while, then grabbed his hand and said, "Ms. Xiang from the charity fund saved our son's life! When the child is discharged from the hospital, we must go and thank her."
Zhang Chaohua was stunned and remained silent. When he looked up, he saw snowflakes falling. He murmured, "I hope she...will live a peaceful life."
As snow fell on the barren fields in the south of the city, the door of the South City Women's Prison opened, and a thin woman in her fifties, wearing simple clothes, slowly walked out.
The warden in charge of her discipline personally sent her out and said to her, "Song Hui, live a good life after you are released from prison and forget about the past." The warden gave her a gentle smile.
Song Hui also smiled and bowed to the supervisor: "Thank you."
Based on Liu Tingmei's last words before her death and the comparison of fingerprints at the scene, the police accurately reconstructed the crime process and confirmed that Liu Tingmei was the main culprit and Song Hui was an accomplice. She was retried and her charges was re-examined. In addition, she has always behaved well in prison, so she was finally released from prison today with a reduced sentence.
The prison door was closed. Song Hui, the former director of Dahai Welfare Home, who was alone, looked up and saw snowflakes falling. She stretched out her hand, took one, smiled, but her eyes gradually turned red.
In the farther north, the winter snow falls even more heavily, adorning the century-old and famous university with a silver-like look, solemn and majestic.
Luo Huaizheng got off the taxi dragging his suitcase.
He was wearing a black cashmere coat, which made him look taller, thinner and more refined.
Luo Huaizheng stood under the plaque of "Tsinghua University" for a long time, so long that snowflakes fell all over his body and his eyes were wet. But he lowered his head and smiled, and kept smiling. He pulled his luggage and walked into the door that he had been dreaming about.
…
If one can be a free bird in this life, who would want to be a young and weak cicada?
One day, when I saw the cicada falling from the branch again, tears filled my eyes. I decided to walk behind those mantises and become a fearless oriole from then on.
When I was seventeen, I met a boy I liked very much, and I witnessed him falling from the sky.
When I was seventeen, I met a boy I liked very much, and I had fallen from the world.
I lost everything when I was seventeen. When I was twenty, I met a young man I liked very much. I watched him fall from the earth.
I finally met the young man I liked very much. I saw him calling that name in the night, I saw him swallowing all his sorrow and pain, and I saw him smile at me.
Life is as brilliant as the vast galaxy, and life is as cold and biting as the eternal night.
The warmth of the world is like a mother’s first embrace, and the darkness of the world is like an empty cemetery.
Take care.
(End of full text)
————
The author has something to say: (The following takes up the text space and I will write a free short play later to post in the book review section and on Weibo)
Congratulations, you've finished another book!
This ending was what I had in mind before I started writing, but today it was so sad that I didn’t dare to post it. After I finished writing it, I sat there for a long time.
In fact, from the beginning, I had in my mind that this book had three female protagonists. You can see my intention from the title and the text. On the first day of writing this book, I posted a sentence on the wall next to my desk: "A female suspense romance novel that is told in a leisurely and gentle manner, full of life, reality, and humor." At present, Lao Mo feels that the writing goal of this book has been basically achieved and has not deviated from it from beginning to end. But it may also be because of the pursuit of realism and excessive effort, and some parts are written too tragically and biased. Also, the pace of the middle part is a bit slow. I have actually seen everyone’s opinions and have thought about them carefully. I will try my best to revise these in the next two weeks. Thank you for your understanding.
In fact, before I started serializing, I was mentally prepared that this might not be a book with the typical advantages of online novels. Not cool enough, not exciting enough, not novel enough. But I still wanted to write this story. I am also very grateful for your support, understanding and encouragement along the way, and for accompanying me to the end of the story. I promise the next book won’t be so cruel! I also thank everyone for their rewards, especially the classmates who give rewards every day, rain or shine. I have seen them all and I am very sorry. Thank you.
Let me talk about a few things that everyone is concerned about:
1. Extra. I didn’t plan to write a sequel as I have already finished the main text. But yesterday I saw a reader suggest writing a story about a criminal police brother and his Peking University sister Ting in a parallel universe. This is a good idea. In addition, the editor told me that there will be an update on November 8th, and there will be a list. Therefore, this article will have two extra chapters, which will be updated on 11.5 (next Tuesday) and 11.8 (next Friday) respectively. They will have titles and you can purchase them as needed.
2. New book. There will definitely be a new book next year because that’s stipulated in my contract with Yuewen, haha. Follow @丁墨 on Sina Weibo to get news about new books.
3. Activities. Today, both Qidian.com and Qyue.com have building activities in their book review sections. The special prize is a signed traditional Chinese book of "Achan". In addition, there are also the previously popular customized wallets and specially signed postcards as a small reward for everyone.
Thank you everyone, see you in the new book.
Ding Mo
October 31, 2024 Changsha
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