17 - Return He Youan to me

Zhou Chi said that Wu Fengrong may have a slight concussion, and that it would be best for his recovery to keep him resting under observation. In the meantime, he shouldn’t engage in intense physical activities. The scratches on his scalp had been disinfected. Even looking closely, it would be difficult to see any wounds. Still, looking at Wu Fengrong, Zhao Xintao was moved to anger.

“Before, I’d said that you would cause trouble going to him for help, and now, he’s hurt because of you. You’re going to use him as a meat shield next time, aren’t you? Zhou Yanling, he’s not someone you can exploit, even if you’re not worried about incurring the wrath of Heaven!”

Zhou Yanling was disinclined to go and see Zhao Xintao’s bitchy old lady’s face. He and Wu Fengrong were both angry, he accepted that. He got up and closed the doors, regarding this as a family matter. Zhao Xintao disdained him as less than an stranger, so to speak.

“You run after him too much. You’re the vice-conductor, not his mother.”

Even this unquestionable tone of voice was the same as Wu Fengrong’s. Zhao Xintao’s face went ashen, and in spite of everything he dared not retort.

Zhou Yanling pointed as his finger at the bench opposite them, indicating for Zhao Xintao to take a seat: “Did you find that girl, Shi Xiaoran?”

“I couldn’t find her,” Zhao Xintao said, stiffly: “We don’t know where she’s hiding right now. I had the transit police search the entire train twice over and asked several students if they’d seen her. It’s as though she was spirited away 1 . Don’t worry about the boyfriend letting something slip. She fled before that.”

Zhou Yanling was inwardly stunned. Ran away? Her boyfriend took the fall for her, and she turned her back on him and ran away?

“Maybe we could ask He Youan. They are sweethearts. If anyone knows where Shi Xiaoran is, he would. I still think that we’d better contact the parents of these two kids.” Zhao Xintao said.

“I’ll wait for Rong to wake up before I ask again. Right now, I’m going to stay here and keep him company.”

Zhao Xintao didn’t know where to put his face as the two cuddled together, bodies entwined, and he quickly moved away. He couldn’t help looking, but he also didn’t want to look. What did this look like with two men publicly cuddling like this! Having no other choice, he bashfully voiced this thought: “You…you don’t have to be this sticky. There are so many people coming and going on the train. In any event, he’s also a civil servant and can’t act so improperly……”

To protect Wu Fengrong’s honor, Zhou Yanling changed their positions so that Wu Fengrong’s head was pillowed on his thigh. Because of this change in positioning, Wu Fengrong’s brow knitted, restlessly. Zhao Xintao was like someone protecting their bear child 2 . Staring fixedly and with great bitterness at his conductor, he mouthed Amitabha Buddha. Wu Fengrong’s trembling eyelashes were like needles, jabbing Zhao Xintao 3 straight in the heart and briefly filling him with unvented anger. Zhou Yanling looked at him as though he were watching an awfully amusing play. He was about to crack a joke but recalled their last interaction when he’d faked his fall, and he let it pass unsaid.

“Did Xiao Chi say when he’d wake up?” Zhao Xintao asked.

Zhou Yanling shook his head: “He was uncertain. The young woman said that it would be best if he could be examined at a hospital. It can be difficult to say anything for sure with a head injury.”

Zhao Xintao’s complexion grew grim and he looked at the watch on his wrist.

“We still have 27 minutes until we arrive at Wancheng station.”

Zhou Yanling clasped his hands together tightly and thought to himself, this matter is very troublesome this time.

Wu Fengrong awoke from his nap with his face warm on one side and cold on the other. He opened his eyes, which were immediately speared with sunlight, and quickly closed them again. Oh, the sun’s come out. He held up his hand, palm facing inward, to block the light. Through the gaps between his fingers, he could see Zhou Yanling’s sleeping face, half illuminated and half in shadow. The shadows were like a curtain, floating and drifting along the top of his face, like a succession of intersecting dreams forming one thin underground river. Wu Fengrong reached out to caress his cheek and was struck by the sudden need to know who was sharing his dreams and if they were happy and peaceful.

Zhou Yanling awoke from his touch. Still sleepy, he took his hand in his and kissed it: “With you here, I can sleep peacefully now.”

“What time is it?”

“…..a little after 4:30.”

“Why sleep for so long?”

When Wu Fengrong turned over to get up, the sky and the earth started spinning madly. His brows furrowed. Zhou Yanling hurried supported him, leaning his head against the back of a chair. He was terrified that he’d just shaken his brain. Wu Fenrgong fought to stay conscious. It was as though his field of vision was blanketed in snow, and his head felt like a heavy weight dragging him down. A hand guided the back of his his head to settle on a soft cushion. Annoyed, he mumbled to himself, a little impatiently.

“I’m not made of iron 4 . I haven’t slept since I left at 5AM.”

“You need to fix that!” Wu Fengrong held up a hand as he suddenly recalled: “Have we already stopped at Wancheng?”

“We already made that stop a while ago. What are you worried about?”

“How did it go? Did we hand over those people?”

Zhou Yanling explained as he slowly dressed.

“The stop went normally, and the thief was handed over. As for the murderer, since we still haven’t caught them, we couldn’t hand them over. The Wancheng police’s records were also rather muddled. Who’s being handed over, how the hand off should go, confusion over the needed Ids. Then the thief looked roughed up, and they weren’t sure whether or not to address that. In this mess, they simply forgot to ask about the murder case. Zhou Xintao didn’t bother to broach that topic. If they forgot, then that’s one less problem.”

“How could they forget about something so important?”

“They were also busy. There were only two of them, altogether. One was in plains-clothes, the other in uniform. They said that they were short-staffed because of the holiday. Rest a little, eat something, then we can talk to that child He and look for his girlfriend.”

“Shi Xiaoran hasn’t been found yet?”

“No. Right now, Zhao Xintao wants to search each passenger’s luggage, one by one.

Wu Fengrong said, severely: “What about when we stopped at the station? By any chance, could she have fled then?”

Zhou Yanling said, faintly: “It’s unlikely that she disembarked. She wants her boyfriend, ne.” He picked up a cellphone from the office desk and handed it to Wu Fengrong. The cellphone was in a soft gummy case emblazoned with red grapefruit flowers and fake diamonds. On top were a pair of cat ears which were very cutesy. Wu Fengrong felt strange. He poked at one of the fake diamonds with a fingernail, his expression giving away his disgust.

“Whose phone?”

“He Youan’s.”

Being in love is hard. Wu Fengrong rolled his eyes: “If in the future you want me to use something like this, let’s break up now.”

Zhou Yanling couldn’t help but smile, his gaze focusing on the cat ears: “The ears are very cute. I think they fit you. If you don’t like pink, then we can it in black or blue, instead. I know that they also make tails. If you wear one, I know you’d look good.”

The cellphone screen turned on, and he entered the pin to unlock it. Upon opening up the text messages, he saw that the first one was sent from ‘darling’.

–Give me back my Youan.

“We couldn’t find her anywhere. I had He Youan call her, but she didn’t answer. She responded quickly to a text, though. This is all she typed. We’d almost thought that she’d fled but, for her boyfriend, her jumped back into the fire. She’d turned her head and left him behind but still was unable to abandon him. When He received that text message, he was almost moved to tears. You weren’t there for that, tsk tsk.”

“She wants us to release He because she fears that we’ll use him as a scapegoat to simplify matters. Which is wrong. If [she] doesn’t want her boyfriend to take the blame, why doesn’t she just surrender herself? He was only fighting with Xiao Quan. A fight between boys is nothing. If she stops hiding, will her boyfriend be arrested?”

“I think that she might want to grab He Youan and run.”

Wu Fengrong’s fingers stiffened: “Ridiculous! It’s gone this far and this child believes that the police are incompetent?”

Zhou Yanling spoke gently: “RongRong, she’s already old enough to face criminal charges. If you ask me, she’s not a child. She clearly knows what she’s done and she knows what the consequences for her actions are. Perhaps her mother and father think that she’s an obedient daughter, and He Youan continues to believe that she’s his delicate girlfriend. You see her as a confused child. But in Xiao Quan’s eyes, she’s his killer. Nowadays, children are faced with many different notions and it’s easy for them to walk a crooked path. This isn’t something we can help with just because we would like to help. And even if we help this one, there are still thousands of others.”

“I know.” Wu Fenrgong sighed. He thought of the girl who attached more importance to her makeup than to life, and thought that perhaps she could no longer take off the mask that she wore until it slowly turned into her real face.

Zhou Yanling pulled out his own phone to show him the “Sometimes the process isn’t important, but the outcome is key” text message. He said: “This is my fault because of my original understanding 5 . Now that I think about it, people had already given hints. Here where it says process, it actually refers to He Youan’s fight. We had always thought that the person who fought with Xiao Quan was the murderer, when actually they were two different people. Therefore, the focus shouldn’t have been on the fight but on the killing blow, that is to say ‘the outcome’. Shi Xiaoran represents that outcome.”

Wu Fengrong sighed, bewildered: “They conceal their meaning in ambiguous words and then blame you for catching the wrong person. For what reason?”

Zhou Yanling knew that he was comforting himself: “Right now, He is being watched by the transit police in the office. Two police officers and two of the service crew are closely guarding him. As long as he’s here, it’s unlikely that Shi Xiaoran will get off and we have a chance to find her.”

This nap hadn’t been a peaceful one for Wu Fengrong. His temples ached dully, his body was racked with chills and his back was clammy with cold sweats. When he awoke, his mouth was dry, he felt listless, and a sense of impatience was diffused throughout his entire being. Zhou Yanling massaged his head, gently and carefully avoiding the abrasions on his scalp. From both sides, he pressed his fingers into the cervical vertebrae behind his head. Wu Fengrong relaxed and slowly color returned to his face.

Now that it was calm he was able to start to collect his thoughts. Because he had been worried about the improper handover, Wu Fengrong had nearly forgotten about being ambushed. His attacker was probably the same person who had secretly tailed Zhou Yanling. Zhou Yanling had caught the wrong person, so, as was clearly from the text, the one who had put him on the train was awfully dissatisfied. However, Wu Fengrong couldn’t discern his assailant’s motive. Was it that he wanted Zhou Yanling’s life?

“You’re not hurt, ba?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Have you found out who’d attacked you?”

“There are some clues.” Zhou Yanling thought: “When he and I fought, we were pretty evenly matched. His fighting prowess wasn’t bad. Not only wasn’t it bad, it could even be described as very old-fashioned and the sequence of movements bore some resemblance to the ones that we learned back at the military academy. I think this person might be a professional, or perhaps also retired, like I am. When two people like myself fight, it has a distinct feeling and I can tell them apart. This one is a real soldier, not some dilettante.”

As Wu Fengrong repressed the anger in his heart, his expression unconsciously became august: “They cannot make trouble like this again. Daring to do such a thing in broad daylight, on a train , do they have no honor? Just my own injury would be enough to ask the riot police to come here. This is a terrorist attack! They could straight up shoot to kill!”

Zhou Yanling said: “We still need to understand their aim. That behind-the-scenes writer who wanted me to get on this train and find the murderer is sure to know my assailant’s motives. I don’t think it’s as simple as just uncovering the real murderer.” If their purpose was really just to catch the murderer, they could’ve handed over evidence to the police. This meant that catching the murderer was but one objective. He feared that this mystery person still had other reasons for his actions. What Zhou Yanling still couldn’t figure out was why the police couldn’t be the ones to investigate. Why send him to this train? This mystery person didn’t appear very fond of the police and was already impeding the police’s investigation. Yet they urgently want to catch the real murderer. Was it because there was something that would be too embarrassing to disclose?

“First, let’s eat.” Zhou Yanling said. “Lunch has been delayed until now. My stomach can’t endure further.”

On top of the table were two metal lunchboxes containing the train crew’s meals. At first, Zhou Yanling wanted to go and put it in the microwave, but then he opened it up. His brows wrinkled. The meat was greasy, the spinach was over-cooked and mushy, and the colors, red and green, were garish. All of this together was enough to make anyone lose their appetite. Wu Fengrong had a head injury and might be experiencing nausea. Eating something like this was absolutely out of the question.

Zhou Yanling changed his mind and headed to the kitchen. There, he cooked plain congee and scrambled two eggs. He found a small piece of frozen meat, thawed it, cooked it and shredded it. Then, he mixed it sesame oil, mijiu, and white sugar. After that, he took yellow cucumbers, carrots, and shredded leeks, mixing them together into a cold salad.

“There’s no salt. Right now, you can’t eat anything with heavy seasoning. The train didn’t have much. If I were at home, I would’ve been able to add a little mustard. Mustard isn’t like hot peppers, they won’t cause a build up of too much internal heat 6 and adds a little flavor, stimulating the mind.” Zhou Yanling pressed the chopsticks, holding a little food, to his mouth: “When we arrive back at Tongzhou, you have to come to my home for a meal. It’s not haute cuisine, but when the right ingredients are used, it’s tasty nonetheless.”

Wu Fengrong had never been the type of person to worry and find it difficult to enjoy a blessing. He felt very satisfied. As he sampled the food offered from the chopsticks, he smelt the traces sesame oil on Zhou Yanling’s fingers. He leaned over and, along with the chopsticks, sucked two fingers in to the root as though he feared that Zhou Yanling had drops of sesame oil left on these fingers and he absolutely needed to click them clean. Zhou Yanling calmly put down the chopsticks to make it easier for his fingers to stir up his mouth. Wu Fengrong’s nimble tongue wound around them, moist and warm. The moist drag of his tongue caused an itch in his stomach. It was as though all ten of his fingers connected straight to his heart, so that the scratching sensations ended up at the foundation of his heart. Zhou Yanling’s expression remained unchanged, as though he were merely performing a routine oral examination. His fingers ran along the bumps of his gums, tracing circles along the inside of his mouth and making out several teeth clearly and neatly. The conductor carelessly nipped him, holding his finger still and heavily sucked on his mouthful.

Zhou Yanling suddenly withdrew his fingers, pulled the other man towards him and slotted their lips together. Wu Fengrong eagerly welcomed him, greedily and eagerly sucking. Saliva trailed from the corner of his mouth, which he was too busy to wipe away. His mind was overtaken with the faint traces of sesame oil. In Zhou Yanling’s heart resonated with the same feelings, and laughter bubbled up from his throat. The two’s heads leaned together, and they paid no mind as their noses warmed as they rubbed against one another’s.

“Can you guess how many times I’ve kissed you while you were sleeping?” Zhou Yanling asked, speaking next to his ear.

Wu Fengrong’s eyes creased with laughter: “How am I to know? I need to keep count even while I’m asleep, a?”

“Whenever I thought about you, I kissed you. Everything I do is to fulfill emotions and fate. Others owe you, there was never a time that you owed anyone. In the matter of this murder investigation, you’re helping me, and thus I owe you in return. You like to take grab hold of a lot of people like this so that they can’t leave,” Zhou Yanling stared deeply into Wu Fengrong’s eyes. Wu Fengrong’s eyes were really beautiful. The pupils had a ring of lighter spots winding like rings around the darker center. Brightly gleaming, they gave him a proud and lively air that made others feel hopeful and spirited. Zhou Yanling was unaware that his eyes were squinting: “I think here that you’re lovely. You’re so lovely that I love you so much it hurts. I don’t want to stop kissing you, even for a little while. And the more I kiss you, the more I don’t ever want to be parted from you. Do you think me particularly selfish?”

Wu Fengrong’s body broke out in goosebumps as he Fengrong listened to this intimate display: “I think you’re particularly shameless.”

Zhou Yanling chuckled shamelessly and accepted the scolding, but he didn’t feel ashamed. Wu Fengrong lingered in his embrace for a while, eating the provided salad fed to him as they alternated chopsticks 7 . Neither knew how much saliva had been swallowed.

“Zhao Xintao didn’t give you a hard time, ba?” Wu Fengrong asked.

Zhou Yanling joked: “Are you sure he’s capable of giving me a hard time?”

Wu Fengrong cursed him, silently. Zhao Xintao weighed several catty more than him and had already suffered at Zhou Yanling’s hands. It was only natural that he could make things difficult. But he’d been unconscious for so long. There must have been someone helping Zhao Xintao with the transfer at that last stop. Zhou Yanling wasn’t a member of the crew. Actually, there was no need to expend the effort to repair this. Since they must have rushed to assist each other, that must indicate that these two had ultimately come to an agreement.

“My crew and I are of one mind.” Wu Fengrong said, proudly.

Zhou Yanling sneered: “En, he’s very loyal. No doubt about that. Although the little brains he has don’t seem to function well.”

Zhou Yanling said: “He followed me from the same place in the south. It’s a serendipitous fate that won’t change easily. You asked me before why I came here from the south. I told you that I switched with a coworker, and that wasn’t to deceive you. But that wasn’t all of it. The other reason is because I have a bad relationship with my family. I took this opportunity to break away from them so that, later, no one would be able to hinder me. As far as I’m concerned, that was a difficult time, but Zhao Xintao accompanied me. He’s not very clever, but he has a good heart. I look for people who are willing to help, not perfection. For people who can share in the hardships as well as the joys.”

Having never heard him mention his family before, Zhou Yanling unconsciously straightened his body.

“What’s happening at home? Can you talk about it?”

Wu Fengrong’s already dark expression darkened further, anger appearing on his face. Zhou Yanling was secretly startled. Presumably, this was surprisingly dangerous tale. In the twinkling of an eye, Wu Fengrong’s expression changed, once again looking serene. Only a little grief was visible.

T/N: Thank you, everyone, for being patient while I recuperated!

蒸发 : meaning mysteriously disappeared https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-46946642# added for clarity Basically, meaning that someone is not impervious/is only human 眉头 : literally [eye]brows. @Boss translated it as ‘spy’ which could be possible because of that mysterious other person who assaulted ZYL before he got on the train. I didn’t use this one because later in chapter they discuss the spy and narratively it wouldn’t make as much sense for it to be mentioned here ; @Daed translated it as a ‘sign’ or an ‘inkling’, which could also be possible, but I didn’t use that because the next sentence is talking about clues; @EDSL stated that someone on baidu translating ‘brows’ as having to do with understanding, which is the one I chose. Of course, feel free to pick a different meaning if you’d prefer it!) a phenonenon of traditional chinese medicine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5234349/

https://giovanni-maciocia.com/diagnosis-patterns-and-treatment-of/ Thank you to @EDSL for correcting my mistake!