Skin - Chapter 35

　　Chapter 35 – Testing Lu Shichen

Although he was holding Meng Zhao’s wrist, because the position was very low, Lu Shichen’s fingers almost touched the palm of Meng Zhao’s hand.

　　Meng Zhao was startled yet again. Earlier in that alley, the man’s actions could be explained as walking unsteadily and needing support. But now, even if he was slow, Meng Zhao realized that the current position was a bit ambiguous.

　　What was even stranger was that he found that he didn’t actually mind the ambiguity of the moment.

　　He suspected that he was bewitched by the mixed smell of sandalwood and alcohol on Lu Shichen’s body. He even found himself a little moved the moment that hand covered him.

　　He actually had a moment of heartbeat towards a man? The sheer thought startled Meng Zhao sobered up.

　　”Don’t you dislike dogs?” Meng Zhao changed the subject and tried to pull his wrist free, but failed. “Then, why did you think of raising a dog?”

　　”It was hit by a car.” Lu Shichen leaned his head back on the sofa, “The original owner didn’t want it anymore.”

　　‘Hit by a car…’ Meng Zhao thought of the scene in high school. At that time, Lu Shichen indifferently watched the dog struggle for five minutes after being run over by a car. How come his personality had changed after twelve years?

　　Before Meng Zhao could speak, Lu Shichen said, “Then I thought of you.”

　　‘So he took it in?’ Meng Zhao didn’t know how to react.

　　He realized that his heart rate was a little too fast and that it was beating very loudly in his chest.

　　At this moment, his cell phone which was in his pocket vibrated twice.

　　Meng Zhao remembered that he still had Lu Shichen’s cell phone in his pocket, so he planned to take the phone out and return it to Lu Shichen, but the phone was in his right trouser pocket and his right hand was still held by Lu Shichen. Meng Zhao tried to pull it out again, but found that Lu Shichen’s grip was very strong.

　　‘Is this the strength a drunk person should have?’ Meng Zhao looked at Lu Shichen and couldn’t help laughing: “Lu Shichen, you belong to the crab type…”

　　Lu Shichen just turned his head to look at him, still not letting go.

　　There was a hint of drunkenness in his eyes, and besides drunkenness, there seemed to be something else mixed in.

　　Meng Zhao felt as if a drop of water had dripped into his chest, causing it to ripple slightly. He avoided Lu Shichen’s gaze and looked down. The bony fingers were tightly clasping his wrist, and under the warm yellow light, they looked like fine porcelain. Meng Zhao didn’t dare to pry his hand open, for fear of breaking his fingers.

　　‘Forget it… I won’t bother with him.’ Meng Zhao sighed and took out the phone from his pocket with his left hand.

　　Just as he was about to return it to Lu Shichen, Meng Zhao saw the text message on Lu Shichen’s screen in a flash: 【Have you been to Wenyi Nursing Home? How did it go?】

　　Meng Zhao’s expression changed, and almost instantly, he calmed down the indescribable emotion he had just had.

　　‘What on earth did Lu Shichen do at Wenyi Nursing Home? On the phone, he said that he was visiting an old man, but if it was just visiting an old man, then what did this text message mean?’

　　‘Could Lu Shichen be involved in Xu Yingying’s affairs?’ Various thoughts flashed through Meng Zhao’s mind, and then he glanced at Lu Shichen who was leaning on the sofa next to him, and an idea popped into his mind, ‘Otherwise… take advantage of Lu Shichen being drunk and test him?’

　　”What’s wrong?” Lu Shichen, who had been staring at Meng Zhao, asked, noticing the change in Meng Zhao’s expression.

　　”Let me show you a photo.” Meng Zhao took out his mobile phone, quickly searched for a photo of Xu Yingying on the Internet, and then shook the phone screen in front of Lu Shichen.

　　Lu Shichen’s eyes moved to the photo, and his brows slightly frowned: “Who is this?”

　　‘Do you really not know her?’ Meng Zhao observed the expression on Lu Shichen’s face and lied, “What do you think of the blind date that my colleague in the bureau introduced to me?”

　　Lu Shichen looked at the photo, and the hand that had been tightly holding his wrist suddenly loosened. He moved his gaze from the screen back to Meng Zhao’s face, stared at him for a moment and said, “Not bad.”

　　‘This reaction was a bit strange. Did he know her or not?’ Meng Zhao put away his phone.

　　Lu Shichen’s expression didn’t seem to indicate that he knew her.

　　To say that he didn’t know him… Lu Shichen’s reaction was really a bit abnormal.

　　”Where is the girlfriend you had when you were in public university?” Lu Shichen asked after a moment.

　　”Huh?” Meng Zhao was stunned for a moment, “How do you know I had a girlfriend?”

　　”When did you break up?” Lu Shichen asked again.

　　”How many years ago was that?”

　　Lu Shichen didn’t respond, closed his eyes, and fell asleep as if he didn’t want to say anything more.

　　It was like a silent order to leave. Seeing that Lu Shichen stopped talking, Meng Zhao waited for a while, then got up from the sofa, took the cup on the table, walked to the water dispenser, and poured a cup of hot water for Lu Shichen.

　　Lu Shichen leaned back on the sofa, breathing evenly, as if he had fallen asleep. Meng Zhao put the cup of hot water on the table, glanced at Lu Shichen, then got up and left.

　　He walked to the door, grasped the door handle and was about to push it open. The dog followed him, as if it also wanted to go out.

　　Meng Zhao became furious when he thought that the dog was also called Xiaodao.

　　He half-knelt down, raised one arm and hugged the dog’s neck, and regardless of whether the dog could understand human language, he called him: “Lu Shichen.”

　　The dog was much more docile than Lu Shichen and even wagged its tail at him.

　　The shoulder-to-shoulder gesture was quite brotherly, but a warning could be heard in Meng Zhao’s tone: “You’d better not get too involved in this case, otherwise, I won’t let you off the hook.”

　　The dog woofed at him and looked at him with its two black eyes.

　　Meng Zhao raised his hand and stroked its head, then looked at Lu Shichen again. Lu Shichen did not react at all, and seemed to have fallen asleep.

　　Meng Zhao stood up, opened the door, and left Lu Shichen’s house.

　　The door closed, and Lu Shichen slowly opened his eyes. He reached out for his phone, stared at the text message, and his eyes gradually became clear.

Chapter 39

　　Walking downstairs, Meng Zhao took a deep breath.

　　The nights in Huai’an District are very quiet. The clanging construction noise during the day disappeared, leaving only a peaceful night.

　　Meng Zhao realized that he had just spoken too much and the last sentence should not have been said.

　　If Lu Shichen was really involved in this case, his words would undoubtedly alert the enemy.

　　But when Meng Zhao said that, he was impulsive, and people often cannot control their impulsive behavior at a certain moment.

　　Subconsciously, he would rather believe that Lu Shichen is innocent, but from a rational point of view, the various connections between Lu Shichen and the case seemed a bit strange. For example, the dog hair of unknown origin, the overseas phone call that provided information to the official account, and his encounter with Lu Shichen before Zhao Yunhua committed suicide, and the Wenyi Nursing Home that Xu Yingying and Lu Shichen went in and out of together…

　　Although there is no evidence to prove that Xu Yingying’s disappearance is related to Zhao Tong’s case and Zhou Yan’s case ten years ago, Meng Zhao’s years of criminal investigation experience have given him a hunch that there seemed to be an invisible thread connecting these three cases together…

　　‘Let’s solve the case of Xu Yingying’s disappearance first.’ Meng Zhao calmed down his thoughts. Before the truth came out, he chose to believe Lu Shichen, just like how Lu Shichen chose to believe his uncle, Meng Xiangyu.

　　‘What’s more, Meng Xiangyu’s case was almost a done deal at that time, and Lu Shichen’s was just getting started…’ Meng Zhao shook his head.

　　After making his decision, Meng Zhao walked to his car, opened the door and got in. While fastening his seat belt, Lu Shichen’s question flashed through his mind: 【”Where is the girlfriend you had when you were in Public University?”】

　　Damn, even he had almost forgotten about that, but how did Lu Shichen know about it?

　　Meng Zhao did have a girlfriend in college, and she was a famous beauty in the department of the Central Conservatory of Music.

　　At that time, Meng Zhao was a sophomore and was having dinner with his roommates at a small restaurant outside the school. It was the weekend dinner time and the restaurant was full. Halfway through the meal, two girls came over and said they wanted to share the table with them.

　　Because the two girls were pretty, his roommate agreed enthusiastically.

　　When the meal was almost over, Meng Zhao looked up at the wall clock. The school had invited Zhou Mingsheng to give a lecture at the Public University that night. Meng Zhao wanted to go there in advance to greet Professor Zhou, so he stood up, bid goodbye to his roommate, and planned to leave early.

　　The girl opposite took the initiative to ask Meng Zhao for his contact information. Several people at the table started to make a noise, and the roommate next to him took out his phone and gave the girl Meng Zhao’s phone number. Since then, the girl often came to Meng Zhao out of her own initiative.

　　Meng Zhao had never been in a relationship at that time, and he had never even been attracted to anyone, but being pursued by a beautiful girl who also had a generous personality was not a bad feeling.

　　However, after about a month of getting along, Meng Zhao began to feel that something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong.

　　The girl was naturally very nice, and the two of them got along well most of the time, but the longer they spent time together, Meng Zhao gradually discovered that the relationship brought him a lot of trouble. For example, he often couldn’t understand why the other party suddenly became unhappy, even though they were chatting happily at the last second. He was good at making inferences based on various clues, but he couldn’t guess the other party’s thoughts.

　　He even consulted his roommate who had been in several relationships, and the answer he got was puzzling: “This is the fun part of love. If you don’t guess, what’s the point?”

　　Meng Zhao found it incomprehensible. Compared with guessing the girl’s unpredictable thoughts, he preferred to speculate on the clues of the case that could be traced.

　　And the girl was really smart. Before Meng Zhao was fully clear about his thoughts, she saw that Meng Zhao didn’t like her enough and proposed to break up first.

　　”You don’t like me enough,” the other person bluntly told him under the influence of alcohol, “If I like you ten points, you probably don’t like me even one point… I think you like your roommate more than me. Tell me the truth, do you like men?”

　　Seeing that the other party was drunk and talking nonsense, Meng Zhao was speechless.

　　The girl got drunk that night, and Meng Zhao sent her back to school for the last time. Before arriving at school, she actually asked him to sleep with her. She said she didn’t care whether he liked her or not, but she was unwilling to accept that she hadn’t slept with Meng Zhao after dating him for that long.

　　After being rejected by Meng Zhao, she shouted at him with certainty: “You liar, you definitely like men!”

　　There were a lot of people on the street at that time. After hearing that sentence, many people turned around and looked at Meng Zhao, ‘the scumbag’.

　　Just like that, Meng Zhao’s short experience, which could not even be called a love affair, ended completely. After the girl sobered up, she called Meng Zhao to apologize and asked him a soul-searching question: “I’m really curious about what kind of person can make your heart beat.”

　　That statement had appeared several times in Meng Zhao’s life. Every time someone around him fell in love, got married, or had a child, the statement would pop up at the right time.

　　After that relationship ended, Meng Zhao made up his mind that his next relationship must start with a heartbeat, but ten years later, that heartbeat had completely disappeared…

　　On the night when his last roommate got married, Meng Zhao began to wonder if he had some kind of psychological disorder. There are all kinds of disorders in this world, such as choice disorders, social disorders, emotional disorders, erectile disorders, and maybe love disorders too. After self-diagnosing himself, Meng Zhao never thought about love again.

　　However, a moment ago, under the temptation of the smell of sandalwood and alcohol, when Lu Shichen’s hand gradually slipped into his own, he was unexpectedly affected…

　　Meng Zhao’s mind suddenly flashed back to the voice from ten years ago: 【”You scumbag, you definitely like men!”】

　　‘Shit, I don’t really like men, do I?’ The slight thought made Meng Zhao feel like he was struck by lightning.

　　Two seconds after being struck, he came to his senses and reached the conclusion that he must have been driven insane by the case at hand.

　　Meng Zhao started the car and drove to the Bureau. He thought the matter was unlikely.

　　He and Lu Shichen had known each other twelve years ago, and if he wanted to be attracted to him, he would have been attracted to him a long time ago, but he clearly hated Lu Shichen very much back then…so there was no chance.

　　The car stopped at the parking lot of the Municipal Bureau. When Meng Zhao was about to push the door and get out, he smelled the faint scent of sandalwood again. He paused, thinking of Lu Shichen’s hand holding his arm, and a thought flashed in his mind: ‘Lu Shichen wouldn’t… also be attracted to me, right?’

　　What was he thinking about? Meng Zhao quickly came to his senses. He pushed the door open and got out of the car, slamming it shut. He thought to himself that he must have been single for too long, and that next he would probably fall in love with the dog at Lu Shichen’s house.

　　The lights were still on in the Criminal Investigation Office. Zhou Qiyang was working overtime to check the surveillance footage, while Cheng Yun was trying to find clues in Xu Yingying’s past live broadcasts.

　　Meng Zhao pushed the door open and entered. The smell of barbecue had not yet dissipated in the room.

　　Seeing Meng Zhao coming in, Zhou Qiyang greeted him: “Brother Zhao, we are going to forgive you for abandoning us and going on a date with someone else for the sake of the barbecue.”

　　”Forgive? Your sister!” Meng Zhao laughed. It was a little hot in the room. He took off his coat and held it in his hand. Then he walked behind Zhou Qiyang and looked at the surveillance footage on his screen. “How is it? Where was Xu Yingying last seen?”

　　Zhou Qiyang didn’t answer immediately. He turned around and sniffed the coat in Meng Zhao’s hand. “Perfume… Is it perfume? It smells pretty good… Brother Zhao, did you abandon your colleagues to go on a date with some girl?”

　　”You are born in the Year of the Dog,” Meng Zhao brushed the back of his head with his coat, “Smell it carefully. Is this women’s perfume?”

　　After asking the question, both of them realized that something was wrong.

　　After a strange silence, Zhou Qiyang said faintly: “I told you that there is definitely something wrong with you not having a girlfriend for so many years…”

　　”Go away.” Meng Zhao laughed and raised his hand to knock him on the back of the head. “Talk about the case.”

　　”Oh…” Zhou Qiyang raised his hand and touched the back of his head. “I’m so old that my eyes are blurry from searching. Brother Zhao, look, after Xu Yingying came out of the sanatorium, she first walked straight through this road and walked about 800 meters. At this intersection, she turned left again.” Zhou Qiyang dragged the progress bar below the video. “There were so many people on this road that I almost lost her. It was too difficult to find her in the crowd. After about 500 meters, she turned onto this road and walked about 200 meters. There is an alley here. Do you see it? Xu Yingying turned into the alley…”

　　Meng Zhao looked at the surveillance video carefully: “And then?”

　　”I don’t know what happened next,” Zhou Qiyang shrugged, “There is no surveillance in this alley.

　　”Xu Yingying entered an alley with no surveillance?” Meng Zhao pondered as he watched the video, “What was she doing in this alley?”