Ren Yi hurried out of the house and rushed back to the station. Even though there was only one road between them, for the first time he felt that the distance was a little too far, as though it were keeping him from seeing Gong Yingxian sooner.
Across the road, he spotted Gong Yingxian’s car parked in front of the station. He quickened his pace and ran over.
The car window slowly lowered. The blackness of the night, the black body of the car, and the black interior seemed to form a suffocating web. The only light was Gong Yingxian’s porcelain-white, jade-like handsome face, piercing fiercely through the darkness like a beam of light and illuminating the entire space.
An impulse rose in Ren Yi’s heart—the urge to pull Gong Yingxian into a tight embrace. How he wished he could become Gong Yingxian’s light too, driving away the gloom that had hung over him for eighteen years.
Gong Yingxian opened the door and got out, his tone reproachful. “Where’s your coat? How did you run out dressed like this?”
Ren Yi came back to himself and realized that he’d forgotten to take even his coat. No wonder his father had kept calling after him when he left. Yet he hadn’t felt cold at all. There was a fire burning inside him, and the moment he saw Gong Yingxian, it only burned hotter.
Gong Yingxian opened the trunk and took out a blanket. He shook it open and draped it over Ren Yi, then deliberately pulled it tight around him. “You don’t even know how to dress properly. What were you thinking?”
Ren Yi wrapped the blanket around himself and smiled. “Why does your trunk have everything?”
Gong Yingxian said irritably, “I’d say it has everything if I locked you in there.”
“I can live in your trunk,” Ren Yi blurted out.
Gong Yingxian froze.
Ren Yi’s gaze wandered slightly as he smiled. “As long as you provide food, shelter, and Wi-Fi, you can keep me as a pet.”
Gong Yingxian stared at Ren Yi for a moment, his focused expression making it look as though he were seriously considering the idea.
Ren Yi teased him, “You really want to keep me? I’m easy to take care of. I don’t eat much, I can work, and I know how to find a place to go to the bathroom by myself.”
Gong Yingxian lifted one corner of the blanket and slapped it over Ren Yi’s face. “You don’t eat much, my ass.”
Ren Yi pulled the blanket down and grinned. “So you don’t like me? If you don’t like me, why did you say you wanted to see me?”
Those words—I want to see you—were like an echo lingering in a mountain valley, making him savor them again and again, unable to get them out of his mind.
Gong Yingxian’s expression became slightly unnatural, and he deliberately changed the subject. “Why did you come back from that direction? Did you go home?”
“Yeah, I went home for a bit.” Ren Yi planned to go to the brigade and look through all the records from back then. If he really found evidence casting doubt on the point of origin, he would tell Gong Yingxian. He knew how much Gong Yingxian longed for new clues, and that was precisely why he was even more afraid of giving him false hope.
“So you ate at home.” Gong Yingxian lowered his head and gently nudged a small stone with his polished handmade leather shoe. “Was it good?”
“I didn’t eat dinner. I spent the whole afternoon with the leaders and didn’t have much of an appetite.”
Gong Yingxian raised his head, his eyes gleaming. “I didn’t eat either.”
Ren Yi’s heart stirred. “Did you come here specifically to have dinner with me?”
“After work, having dinner with a friend is… pretty normal, isn’t it?” Gong Yingxian lifted his chin and said fiercely, “Isn’t it allowed?”
Ren Yi was practically bursting with happiness. “Of course it is. Come on, come on. Where do you want to eat? Dinner’s on me tonight.”
Gong Yingxian took his own lunch box out of the trunk.
Ren Yi rolled his eyes. “You’re still eating your boxed meal? My salary’s actually pretty decent. You don’t have to save me the cost of one meal.”
Gong Yingxian shoved the lunch box into Ren Yi’s arms. “I want to eat this. I don’t eat food made by other people. Who knows whether it’s clean?” With that, he walked straight into the station.
“So other than food made by your family’s chef and food I make, you don’t eat anything cooked by anyone else?” Ren Yi followed behind him happily.
Gong Yingxian gave a soft “Mm.”
Ren Yi could barely contain his delight. To Gong Yingxian, he wasn’t “other people.” He was someone special.
The two of them returned to Ren Yi’s dorm room together. Along the way, they ran into several firefighters, all of whom were already accustomed to Gong Yingxian’s appearances at the station.
As soon as Ren Yi opened the door, Miaomiao tried to slip through the gap. He kept Miaomiao confined to his room most of the time now, and whenever she went out to play, someone watched her. The little thing had recently become more adventurous and was always trying to run outside.
Gong Yingxian bent down and picked Miaomiao up with one hand. His slender fingers, still wearing gloves, gently stroked the burn scars on Miaomiao’s back. “She has gotten a little fatter. It’s even more obvious than in the pictures.”
“I’ve been feeding her well, right?” Ren Yi placed the lunch box on the table, arranged the chairs, then made a gesture of invitation. “Please, have a seat.”
Gong Yingxian took off his long trench coat and casually draped it over Ren Yi’s arm. Then he elegantly unbuttoned his suit jacket before leisurely settling into the chair.
Ren Yi stared stiffly at the coat hanging from his arm, both amused and helpless. He resigned himself to hanging it on the coat rack, while silently grumbling, Princess.
Gong Yingxian removed his gloves and picked up his chopsticks. Looking at the food in front of him, he slowly exhaled. “I spent the entire afternoon fighting with Peng Fei. I didn’t have much of an appetite. It’s only now that I feel hungry.”
Ren Yi had already heard the low spirits in Gong Yingxian’s voice over the phone, so it was obviously related to the case. He softened his voice. “If you’re hungry, eat properly. Nothing is more important than eating.” He picked up a shrimp and put it into his mouth. “This shrimp is really fresh. Try it.”
Gong Yingxian also took a bite. “Actually, Peng Fei…”
“Eat first.” Ren Yi interrupted him. “I’ll talk with you after you finish eating. Don’t mention him right now. Don’t think about him.” He pointed at himself. “Look at this handsome and dashing face of mine. Just think about me.”
The corners of Gong Yingxian’s lips curved into a smile. As he looked at Ren Yi, his heart truly began to settle down.
The two of them stopped talking about work and instead chatted about working out, even making plans to spar with each other next time.
Only after they finished eating did Ren Yi ask about the progress of the case.
Gong Yingxian let out a soft sigh. “Peng Fei confessed.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Ren Yi asked in surprise. He had assumed that Gong Yingxian’s gloomy mood meant they had run into another obstacle.
“When we put all the evidence we’d gathered over the past two months in front of him, he finally couldn’t deny it anymore. It’s just that this case makes me feel extremely…” The muscles on Gong Yingxian’s face shifted into an indescribable expression. “Disgusted.”
Ren Yi listened quietly.
“Peng Fei said he’d never heard of Sachiel. Six months ago, he simply made a post on a sports enthusiasts’ forum complaining about his awful neighbor. That was after he and the male owner of 2209 had gotten into an argument and the police had mediated between them.”
“Then Red Flame approached him?”
Gong Yingxian nodded slightly. “Someone claiming to be in the same boat as him replied to his post. The two of them chatted for a while. That person said he could help Peng Fei teach 2209 a lesson, but Peng Fei would have to help him teach someone he hated a lesson too. That way, no one would be able to trace who had done it.”
“Isn’t that an arson exchange?”
“But Peng Fei said that at first, he didn’t know that person intended to set a fire. He showed us their chat history. From beginning to end, neither of them mentioned arson. The other person simply egged Peng Fei on to retaliate in kind, telling him to dump all the garbage in front of 2209 and leave the rest to him. He would give 2209 a lesson they’d never forget.”
“And Peng Fei believed him?”
“At first, Peng Fei was skeptical. He kept some precautions in place as well. Thinking that the law wouldn’t punish everyone, he got the other neighbors to help him dump garbage in front of 2209. He said he never expected a fire to break out, much less for people to die. Once such serious consequences occurred, he naturally didn’t dare admit anything. He gathered all the residents on the west side together and threatened them, telling them that no one was allowed to say a single word. Otherwise, they would all be considered accomplices.”
Ren Yi sucked in a breath, suddenly feeling a chill run through his body. “You mean… every household on the west side knew who the murderer was from the very beginning.”
Gong Yingxian nodded heavily.
Ren Yi immediately understood why Gong Yingxian felt “disgusted.”
Two months had passed since the incident. They had countless opportunities to confess, but they had chosen silence or lies instead. On the surface, they were victims, but in reality, not a single one of them was innocent. To protect themselves, they were willing to let their own biological mother, their neighbors, and firefighters die unjustly, while continuing to conceal the truth and obstruct the police investigation. Looking back now, the reason the investigation had progressed so slowly at the beginning had a great deal to do with those statements that were so difficult to distinguish as truth or lies.
“What about the car-burning case…?”
“After the incident, Peng Fei was threatened by that person and had to fulfill his promise. He heard that all he had to do was burn a car, so he agreed. But he was cautious. He paid his cousin to do it for him, creating an alibi.”
“So your initial judgment was correct. When he showed no reaction upon seeing Zhou Chuan, he wasn’t pretending. He really had never met Zhou Chuan.”
“Right.” Gong Yingxian spoke in a muffled voice. “The case is solved, but no one can feel happy about it. First, Red Flame still hasn’t been caught. Second, the whole thing is so absurd. So many innocent lives were lost simply because of a dispute between neighbors…”
Ren Yi felt just as heavy-hearted.
People always make choices when they’re angry, and those choices are almost always wrong.
Who could have imagined that ordinary conflicts in daily life could result in such an irreversible tragedy? In this story of a dispute between neighbors, there seemed to be no truly good people and no truly bad people. Each person released a little bit of evil, and all those little evils accumulated until they became a mountain.
It was chilling.
“Regardless, the case has been solved. At least that can offer some small measure of comfort to the victims and their families,” Ren Yi sighed.
Gong Yingxian gritted his teeth, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. “It’s not enough. Red Flame hasn’t been caught. The person who started all of this hasn’t been caught. I will catch him. I will make sure he faces the executioner!”
“You’ll catch him.” Ren Yi’s gaze was unwavering. “Not just Red Flame. That legendary ‘organization,’ and the murderer from eighteen years ago whom you most want to catch—they’ll all be brought down by you.”
Gong Yingxian stared at Ren Yi. “You have that much faith in me?”
Ren Yi nodded. “You’re the most outstanding, smartest, and most persistent person I’ve ever met. I don’t think there’s anything you can’t accomplish.”
Gong Yingxian froze for a moment. Then he slowly revealed an exceptionally beautiful smile, one that seemed capable of making even the sun and moon pale in comparison.
“You… you’re pretty great too.”
Ren Yi felt his emotions surge. Every extra glance at Gong Yingxian, every additional word he exchanged with him, made his longing deepen another degree. Just how long could he keep himself restrained? He was genuinely afraid that one day, all these feelings he had locked away would erupt beyond his control.
Their eyes met, and inexplicable sparks flickered through the air, making them both suddenly feel somewhat awkward.
Gong Yingxian glanced at his watch as though to cover his discomfort and realized that it was already getting late. Yet he didn’t want to leave. At some point, he had begun to like and enjoy Ren Yi’s company. Ren Yi was an unexpected element in his orderly, rigid life, like a drop of colored ink that had accidentally fallen onto a black-and-white painting, unexpectedly bringing the whole picture to life.
As long as Ren Yi was by his side, he felt comfortable, relaxed, and at ease. Yet for the moment, he couldn’t think of an excuse to stay.
Just then, Ren Yi’s phone rang. It was lying right in the middle of the table. The two of them glanced at the screen at the same time.
The caller ID read: Qi Xiao.
Gong Yingxian immediately straightened, and the smile disappeared from his face.
Ren Yi snatched up the phone. If he didn’t answer it right in front of Gong Yingxian, it would look far too suspicious. He stood up and deliberately strolled toward the window.
“Hello?”
“Bro…”
Just that one brief word was enough for Ren Yi to hear three parts drunkenness and seven parts dejection. He asked in surprise, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I… I want to see you.” Qi Xiao’s voice was thick with tears. “Can you have a drink with me?”
“What happened? I’m on duty at the station right now. I can’t leave, and I can’t drink either.” Ren Yi didn’t dare turn around, but he could feel the scorching gaze behind him.
“But I-I’m right downstairs at your station.” Qi Xiao sniffled. “I really want to see you.”
“You’re downstairs?” Ren Yi’s scalp went numb.
Gong Yingxian’s eyes widened, obvious anger surging across his face.
“I’m downstairs. I just want to see you. It’s okay if we don’t drink.” Qi Xiao sounded utterly pitiful.
Ren Yi felt caught between a rock and a hard place. He didn’t want Gong Yingxian and Qi Xiao to have any contact at all, terrified that his secret might be exposed. But Qi Xiao had already come all the way to the station. Not to mention that the two of them had a fairly close “relationship”—even if they were strangers, as a firefighter, Ren Yi could never turn away someone who had come seeking help.
At that moment, he heard Liu Hui’s voice coming through the phone.
“Hey, buddy, what’s wrong? Do you need help?”
Ren Yi hurriedly said, “Wait there. I’m coming down to get you.” He was afraid that Qi Xiao would say something reckless after drinking too much.
Gong Yingxian stood up from his chair. Whether intentionally or not, he happened to block the doorway. With his tall, broad frame, he completely blocked Ren Yi’s path.
Ren Yi looked at him guiltily and explained, “A friend of mine. He drank too much. I’m going to see what’s wrong.”
Gong Yingxian narrowed his eyes, his tone extremely cold.
“That actor named Qi Xiao.”
“…Yes.”
“Fine. I’m coming with you.”