Chapter 11 – I Like Men
Li Er couldn’t believe it. Unconsciously, he wanted to turn around to look at the person behind him, but his head was gripped by someone and couldn’t move.
Not far away, a large pit had been smashed into the mountainside. Saka’s body was torn in two, slowly falling into the cliff, making a loud noise that crushed a large number of trees.
Chen Jing and the other two who had already reached the foot of the cliff looked up. Xiao Pang muttered, “So, that was Xu Tonggui.”
Saka was dead, and as the mist began to gradually dissipate, Jiang Yujin finally let go of Li Er, turned, and slowly walked away, disappearing into the mist.
*
In the morning, Captain Xu, who had been helpful, had already pointed him in the direction of the station. Someone who was supposed to be waiting for a bus at the station shouldn’t be here.
The farce came to an end.
Chen Jing and the others found shattered bones and remnants of arms and hair below the cliff. Wild animal fur was entwined in the hair. They stood silently for a moment before departing.
Xu Tonggui, after questioning the villagers, rushed to the foot of the cliff, found the remaining hair, collected it, and discovered a hidden cave at the edge of the village cliff. Inside, he saw only a single stalk of companion flower left and a tree branch casually inserted into the palm of the hand.
The police later rushed to Congshan Village, completely disrupting the once peaceful village, now in turmoil.
Jiang Yujin took the first bus out of Congshan Village in the morning. There were only him and the driver on the bus. The driver remembered him and glanced back, asking, “Your friend? The tall, handsome one?”
“Friend?”
Jiang Yujin took a second to react, then smiled and said, “He has something to attend to, so I’m leaving first.”
As the bus headed back, fog started to form in the mountains. The person by the window blew the wind that came from the mountains, squinting slightly.
Halfway through the journey, a row of police cars approached from the opposite direction, their red and blue lights piercing through the thin fog as they passed by the bus.
The curious driver asked, “Why are there so many police cars? Did something happen in Congshan Village?”
The passengers in the back didn’t respond, too tired, closing their eyes.
Jiang Yujin, once again, gloriously got motion sickness.
Last time it was because he ate too much on the bus, and this time, it was because he didn’t eat anything.
When getting off the bus, the driver looked at him, gesturing as if he really wanted to come down and help.
The resilient citizen Jiang Yujin politely declined.
Finally, the resilient citizen Jiang Yujin made it home to A City and climbed into bed in the afternoon.
That was close, just one second away from a dead end.
He had spent the entire afternoon and a good part of the evening lying in bed. When he woke up again, the sky had already turned completely dark.
After getting up, taking a shower, and changing into pajamas, he opened the living room window, sat on the couch, and turned on the TV, casually flipping through channels.
The high schooler who had gone out to play returned in the middle of the night. The moment he came back, he heard a piercing scream.
The sound came from the living room. He slipped on his slippers and walked into the room, only to find that it was the TV making the noise.
As he arrived, two men and two women on the TV were fighting intensely, and one person on the side was watching them fight, bewildered. The person on the couch was engrossed, casually remarking, “The relationship between you five is really complicated.”
After his remark, he took a sip of his drink. Then, turning his head, he caught sight of the high schooler standing not far away. He paused his drinking, slightly bent down to toss the empty bottles on the table into the trash, and casually asked, “Had fun with your friends?”
Chen Jing replied, “It was alright.”
Liu Cheng died, the lead vanished. He almost crossed paths with Xu Tonggui; this trip couldn’t exactly be called enjoyable.
Jiang Yujin shifted his gaze back to the TV, finished his drink, and casually said, “Is that so?”
Liu Cheng died, the others lost the lead. In passing, he successfully persuaded Xu Tonggui to download a game called “Xiaoxiaole”; he found this trip quite interesting.
No longer dwelling on the matters in Congshan Village, Chen Jing sighed and asked, “Have you eaten?”
Jiang Yujin immediately indicated that he hadn’t.
*
In the interrogation room in B City.
Liu Cheng died, and Xu Tonggui was no longer responsible for what followed; it had to be taken over by Hu Li.
This time, there were too many people involved, including the old and young, making it somewhat complicated. There wasn’t even enough room in the interrogation rooms to accommodate them all.
Li Er was one of the key persons being interrogated and was placed in a separate room for questioning.
He confessed to all the things he had done previously and explained that the gun had been passed down in the family, previously used specifically for warding off wild animals that trespassed into the village.
The interrogator asked him, “Apart from what you mentioned earlier during the sacrifice, did anything else happen?”
Suppressing the urge to touch his right wrist, still feeling the grip someone had on it here, Li Er’s lips trembled for a moment before saying, “…nothing.”
Hu Li stood outside the interrogation room, peering through the one-way window at the people inside. Finally, retracting his gaze, he said, “Today, we’ll remove the body of the strange species.”
The Special Investigation Unit was only responsible for searching for the strange species and those related to the game, handling other matters like interrogation, investigating the inside story, and sentencing was not their concern. He didn’t want to add extra work to his plate.
The nearby staff glanced at his large floral shirt and nodded.
Without looking again at the situation in the interrogation room, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and hurried to the other side, starting to contact the people in his team for overtime work.
Before they could ask Liu Cheng who he had sold the Special Investigation Unit’s information to, he died. Now they had to rely on manual searching and conducting individual investigations.
The Special Investigation Unit’s Fifth Unit and Sixth Unit in A City were forced to wake up and work overtime.
Meanwhile, the high schooler was still doing homework.
Too much time had already been wasted going to Congshan Village. Chen Jing still needed to finish the remaining homework in the time left.
On the desk, a warm yellow desk lamp was lit. The room’s window was open, allowing the night breeze to blow in, rustling the pages of books, blending with the sound of the TV in the living room.
“…”
Chen Jing paused.
Something cold and icy pressed against the back of his head, metallic in feel.
A glass of milk appeared in front of him.
Jiang Yujin, standing behind him, withdrew the iced beer in his hand, raised an eyebrow, and said, “You really don’t pay attention to your surroundings when you’re focused on something.”
Chen Jing’s tense posture instantly relaxed, and he let out a sigh.
Jiang Yujin offered the iced beer to him. “Want some?”
Only someone like him would willingly offer alcohol to an underage person still studying.
He…
Chen Jing declined.
Regretful, Jiang Yujin withdrew his hand and skillfully opened the iced beer, drinking it with satisfaction. “Then, I’ll reluctantly drink it for you.”
That was his true intention.
“…”
Chen Jing remarked, “You’ve had too much tonight.”
Jiang Yujin waved it off. “No, not even half of my usual amount.”
That night, the reliable adult man, Jiang Yujin, ended up in the hospital.
Lying on the hospital bed, the doctor examined him for a while and said, “Your stomach… is quite capable of tossing huh.”
Facing Chen Jing’s indifferent but icy gaze, Jiang Yujin ruffled his disheveled hair and modestly said, “It wasn’t that much tossing.”
It was almost like not eating for two days and having a few extra sips of alcohol upon returning.
Chen Jing scoffed.
“…”
Jiang Yujin remained silent, peacefully closing his eyes.
After he closed his eyes, the high schooler didn’t leave. Instead, he placed his homework on the bedside table and continued studying.
Jiang Yujin quietly resisted the urge to play “Xiaoxiaole” on his phone.
The good news was that the high schooler went to school the next day.
The doctor said he needed to be observed in the hospital for at least a few days. With nothing to do in the morning, he went for a stroll and coincidentally met Xu Gao, who was also out for some fresh air.
They sat in the small garden. Jiang Yujin greeted Xu Gao with a nod, and Xu Gao mentioned that his hand was recovering quite well. He also asked why Jiang Yujin was dressed in hospital attire.
Jiang Yujin sighed deeply, “I made the mistake every man makes.”
Xu Gao: “?”
Jiang Yujin briefly recounted, saying, “It’s really because of that last bottle of alcohol last night.”
It resulted in him coming to the hospital without sorting out the relationship between the five people on the TV.
Xu Gao looked even more astonished.
Jiang Yujin leaned on his chair and glanced at him, “I meant, I drank too much.”
Feeling his thoughts were too impure, Xu Gao quickly changed the subject, talking about his former colleague who was still working tirelessly.
Due to someone’s death, Fifth Unit and Sixth Unit had collectively worked overtime, combing through clues from start to finish, conducting surveys everywhere. The previous teams were tough, and even the clerks in Fifth Unit and Sixth Unit were also quite resilient to some extent, willing to work overtime.
Jiang Yujin expressed deep sympathy and regret for the deceased.
Just as he finished expressing his condolences, Xu Gao received a call from his superior.
His boss mentioned the current shortage of manpower and how he had been on leave for so many days. Despite missing a hand, he could still walk, so they asked him to visit a nearby location for an investigation.
After firmly stating that his hands were still intact, Xu Gao, dressed in a patient’s gown, prepared for the mission, his silhouette bleak.
Thus, only Jiang Yujin remained, sitting alone on a bench, basking in the sun without the slightest hint of guilt.
Someone passed by as if brushing against him. With drooping eyelids slightly raised, Jiang Yujin leaned back to avoid collision.
He leaned away to avoid the collision, but the passerby halted and turned to look at him.
Touching porcelain?
Then he heard the passerby ask him in an incredulous tone tinged with anticipation, “Can you see me?”
Jiang Yujin replied, “Guess why I leaned back.”
The person standing by the bench sat down next to him.
He seemed flamboyant and arrogant, yet oddly had a composed manner, starkly contrasting with Jiang Yujin, who lacked a conventional appearance.
“Well, it’s like this…”
The passerby was named Zhou Yang. A few nights ago, he and his friends were racing on an uninhabited mountain road in the outskirts. He blinked, and suddenly, a tunnel appeared in front of him.
He was familiar with the area and knew there couldn’t possibly be a tunnel there. However, the speed was too fast, and he rushed into the tunnel, losing consciousness thereafter.
When he woke up again, it was already daylight, and he had become what he was now. No one could see or hear him, and he couldn’t interact with anyone. He could only witness his friends being questioned by the police, see his parents crying uncontrollably at the scene, and hear someone report that they couldn’t find him, and the tunnel had disappeared without a trace. Returning from the outskirts to the city, he wandered around as if he no longer belonged to this world.
Today was the first time he encountered someone who could see him.
Zhou Yang said, “Can you help me? Just find the tunnel, capture evidence to prove that an abnormal phenomenon indeed occurred, and hand it over to the Special Investigation Unit.”
The Special Investigation Unit had limited manpower, and incidents across the country far exceeded their capacity. This unit was unique, treating everyone equally, and couldn’t act without evidence of abnormal phenomena.
Although it seemed odd to ask a stranger for help on their first meeting, he had no other choice.
Jiang Yujin casually tugged at his patient’s gown. “For now, I’m still considered a patient.”
Zhou Yang said, “As long as you agree, conditions are open.”
“Is this a commission?”
“Huh?” Zhou Yang said, “Yes.”
Jiang Yujin sat up straight. “I’ll go back to the ward and change clothes.”
When he returned, he moved so swiftly that it was hard to believe he was a patient.
Zhou Yang followed him into the room.
Jiang Yujin slowly unbuttoned the patient’s gown, then suddenly spoke in a serious tone, “Do you want to see?”
He continued, “Don’t judge by appearances. I actually like men.”
“…”
Zhou Yang turned his head.
Jiang Yujin chuckled and continued unbuttoning, His head bowed, revealing numerous strands of white hair shimmering under the sun.
**TN
Touching Porcelain – a situation where someone/something is ready to fall at the slightest touch so that the scammer can claim compensation
