Skin - Chapter 53

Chapter 53 – A Smile

　　Meng Zhao lay on his uninjured arm and fell asleep in just two or three minutes.

　　The deep and long breaths brushed on Lu Shichen’s fingers one by one. Lu Shichen lowered his eyes and looked at the half of Meng Zhao’s profile that was exposed.

　　Perhaps it was fate that wanted to compensate him for the ten years of memory he lost. After the accident when he was ten years old, his memory was far better than that of ordinary people and he could remember almost everything he saw.

　　And among all the memories, the part about Meng Zhao is the clearest.

　　Desperate, broken, crying…

　　And on the day when the second trial ended, he was standing on the side of the road near the court and saw Meng Zhao with a smile on his face.

　　Lu Shichen remembered that it was a very cold day, with the temperature dropping below zero, and Meng Zhao walked out of the court with his family.

　　Meng Zhao was wearing a black jacket and jeans that day, with a black and white checkered scarf around his neck. His uncle and aunt were talking about something, and Lu Shichen heard them call Meng Zhao “Xiaodao”.

　　Meng Zhao walked silently beside his family, just like he did at school. He lowered his head slightly, his chin hidden in his scarf. Lu Shichen couldn’t see the expression on his face, but he always felt that the lines on his face seemed softer than usual.

　　Snowflakes were floating in the sky, and the little girl stretched out her hand, as if to catch them, then she raised her head and said something. The whole family seemed very happy, and Meng Zhao’s uncle bent down and picked up the little girl.

　　Meng Zhao raised his head and looked at the little girl who was held by her uncle.

　　At that moment, Lu Shichen saw Meng Zhao’s expression clearly – Meng Zhao was smiling.

　　The smile was very relaxed, with the eyebrows and eyes curved in a beautiful arc.

　　Lu Shichen has always been unable to perceive other people’s emotions, but the smile on Meng Zhao’s face made him feel happy.

　　It was an inexplicable and unfamiliar feeling of pleasure that made Lu Shichen unable to help but stare at that smile, wanting this moment of pleasure to last longer.

　　Then Meng Zhao also saw him, and they looked at each other for a moment, but Meng Zhao quickly looked away.

　　The family walked across the road and went away, but Lu Shichen clearly noticed that the feeling of pleasure in his brain did not disappear immediately, but remained for a long time.

　　Before going to bed that night, Lu Shichen stood in front of the mirror, looking at his expressionless face clearly reflected in the mirror.

　　The year the car accident happened, ten-year-old Lu Shichen tried to imitate other people’s facial expressions, but even he felt it was stiff and unnatural. Later, he got used to living with a blank expression.

　　But at this moment, he remembered Meng Zhao’s smile, and recalled the happy feeling at that moment. After many years, he tried to slightly curl the corners of his mouth again. Then he found that the expression of the person in the mirror became loose, and the corners of his eyes also curved.

　　This time, the expression of the person in the mirror was not stiff.

　　‘So this is what it feels like when a person smiles,’ Lu Shichen thought, ‘the brain feels happy first, and then the face relaxes involuntarily, the feeling of happiness causes the corners of the mouth and eyes to curve, and a soft luster appears in the eyes.’

　　‘So, Meng Zhao was also happy when he smiled at that moment, right?’

　　This kind of emotional commonality made Lu Shichen feel a little strange.

　　Lu Shichen recalled the memory and looked at Meng Zhao who had fallen asleep.

　　Meng Zhao was breathing evenly while sleeping, and he looked relaxed and unguarded, which made Lu Shichen feel relaxed for the first time in a long time.

　　He recalled the curve of Meng Zhao’s mouth twelve years ago, and his fingers moved and touched Meng Zhao’s lips.

　　Meng Zhao was completely unaware.

　　Warm touch, hot breath, Lu Shichen’s fingers gently rested on Meng Zhao’s lower lip.

　　After a while, the door was pushed open and the nurse came in to change Lu Shichen’s dressing.

　　After years of working as a police officer, Meng Zhao had developed the habit of waking up from his sleep at any time. When he heard a slight noise behind him, he opened his eyes.

　　Lu Shichen’s fingers also shrank slightly, and the warm touch disappeared.

　　Meng Zhao stood up and subconsciously looked at Lu Shichen to confirm that waking up was not a dream.

　　He had slept so deeply just now that only half an hour had passed, but he had the illusion that he had slept for a long time. When he looked at Lu Shichen, Meng Zhao was subconsciously startled. Not only because Lu Shichen seemed to have not changed his posture or closed his eyes during his sleep, but also because the look in Lu Shichen’s eyes seemed to hide some inexplicable meaning.

　　The nurse came over to change Lu Shichen’s dressing. Meng Zhao stood up and stood aside, moving his arm which was slightly numb from being pillowed, and pondered the look in Lu Shichen’s eyes just now.

　　‘It was a look mixed with maybe inquiry. No, it was more than just an inquiry, but also…’

　　‘Desire.’

This word appeared in Meng Zhao’s mind.

　　Then he was immediately shocked by his own thoughts.

　　‘As a homosexual and also suffering from emotional cognitive disorder, would Lu Shichen have desires for me?’

　　‘…Is this an illusion?’

　　Meng Zhao raised his hand involuntarily and gently rubbed his lower lip with the tip of his index finger. He felt that the moment he woke up, the touch on his lips disappeared… ‘Was this also an illusion?’

　　The nurse changed the medicine and was about to leave when she saw the wound on Meng Zhao’s arm and reminded him, “Your wound is bleeding too much. You should rebandage it. It will be troublesome if it gets infected.”

　　”Okay,” Meng Zhao came back to his senses, “Thank you, I’ll be there right away.”

　　After the nurse left, Lu Shichen looked at Meng Zhao and said, “Go quickly.”

　　”Then I’ll go down first. Call me if you have anything to say.” It was rare that the case could be put on hold for a while. Meng Zhao planned what to do next. “The imprisonment case of the basement in the sanatorium has just begun. I will be busy later. I will ask someone to hire a reliable nurse. I will ask him to take care of you for the next few days.”

　　”After the nurse comes,” Lu Shichen looked at him and asked, “will you come again?”

　　Meng Zhao was stunned: “Of course.”

　　After saying this, he felt bad again. Lu Shichen’s serious injury was caused by him, but he was entangled in the case and couldn’t get away.

　　Lu Shichen said, “Hmm,” and said, “Go and bandage it quickly.”

　　”Well, I’ll be back in a bit.” Meng Zhao finished speaking and was about to turn around when he heard Lu Shichen say, “By the way, Xiaodao…”

　　When Meng Zhao heard Lu Shichen calling his nickname, his chest felt empty and his heart seemed to skip a beat.

　　”No one is feeding it,” Lu Shichen continued, “Remember to go to my place later.”

　　The heart rate returned to normal. Meng Zhao gritted his teeth and turned around and said, “I understand.” He couldn’t swallow this breath and said, “Don’t call it that in the future.”

　　Lu Shichen looked at him: “What’s wrong with it?”

　　”It doesn’t sound good to me,” Meng Zhao said, with the attitude of a deputy captain who had the final say, “Changed it.”

　　Twelve years later, Meng Zhao’s angry reaction was still funny. Lu Shichen’s eyes showed a little smile: “Change to what?”

　　”Let me think about it, let’s change it to… Xiao Lu?” Meng Zhao leaned over, supported the edge of the bed with both hands, and looked at Lu Shichen, “Or Mr. Lu, what do you think?”

　　”Not happening.” The smile in Lu Shichen’s eyes seemed to be more obvious.

　　Lu Shichen had laughed before, but Meng Zhao felt that it was mostly a sneer of sarcasm. But now, leaning over and looking at Lu Shichen, Meng Zhao could be sure that Lu Shichen was in a visibly good mood at the moment.

　　This not-so-obvious smile made Lu Shichen no longer look like a stiff mannequin wearing a mask.

　　‘Was I blind twelve years ago?’ Meng Zhao thought to himself, why did he feel that Lu Shichen was related to the word “hateful”?

　　”Why don’t you go and treat the wound?” Lu Shichen said.

　　Meng Zhao stood up and said, “I’ll go right away. Send me the password of your house and I’ll go get the dog. I’ll let Xiaoshu take care of it for the next few days.”

　　After Meng Zhao finished speaking, he left the ward and went downstairs to treat his wound.

　　The shark’s fangs drove into his skin very deeply. When Meng Zhao came out of the clinic, his arm was wrapped with gauze again. The gauze went from the palm to the elbow. Fortunately, it did not affect his flexibility too much.

　　After leaving the hospital, Meng Zhao went to Lu Shichen’s house.

　　As soon as the door opened, the Border Collie stuck his head out.

　　The Border Collie had a good memory and still remembered Meng Zhao, so it kept wagging its tail at him.

　　Perhaps because there was no one to accompany it for a day and a night, it rubbed against Meng Zhao’s legs and circled around again and again.

　　Meng Zhao squatted down and rubbed its neck, thinking that although Lu Shichen looked cold, his dog was surprisingly clingy.

　　He picked up the collar and put it on the Border Collie, then walked out the door holding the leash: “Come on, I’ll take you for a walk.”

　　After walking the dog, Meng Zhao took the dog to the police station.

　　Meng Ruoshu and Xu Yan were still at the police station, waiting for Lin Lang to finish her statement so that they could go back together.

　　Meng Zhao showed up at the Municipal Bureau with a dog, which made many colleagues passing by feel strange: “Captain Meng, is this your dog?”

　　”Yeah, I raised it.” Meng Zhao said casually.

　　He first went to find the female police officer who was responsible for taking Lin Lang’s statement to find out the situation. Her colleague said that Lin Lang’s statement was taken very slowly. She had not communicated with anyone in ten years, and it was not easy for her to speak suddenly. What’s more, what she said was related to her experience of sexual assault that year. Considering her mental condition, she was asked to stop every once in a while to calm down.

　　”How long will it take to finish?” Meng Zhao looked at his watch. “Will six hours be enough?”

　　”It won’t take that long. If everything goes well, another hour will be enough, or two or three hours at most.”

　　”That’s good.” After learning about Lin Lang’s statement, Meng Zhao went to the interrogation room to check on Wu Weihan.

　　Although the appearance of the lawyer gave Wu Weihan peace of mind, Wu Weihan, who had experienced an intense interrogation, no longer had the arrogance he had before. He sat there with his back slightly hunched, looking a little embarrassed.

　　”How is it?” Meng Zhao walked over and asked the colleague who was responsible for monitoring Wu Weihan.

　　”He just asked us to let him go, saying that if the summons lasts more than 24 hours, he will definitely sue us when he gets out.”

　　”After he gets out?” Meng Zhao sneered, “He can’t get out. He’ll just have to wait until he goes to the detention center.”

　　Coming out of the interrogation room, Meng Zhao walked towards Meng Ruoshu and Xu Yan with the dog.

　　”Where did this dog come from? It’s so cute.” Meng Ruoshu saw the Border Collie that Meng Zhao brought. She stood up from her chair, squatted down to touch the back of the dog’s neck, and asked, “Brother, you stayed up all night, why didn’t you go back to sleep?”

　　”I came to see the progress here. Please help take care of this dog for a few days.”

　　”Is it your friend’s dog? By the way, brother, you have to thank Xu Yan very much,” Meng Ruoshu said, looking up, “your boss was furious just now and wanted to call you over for a lecture. If Xu Yan hadn’t asked her father to understand that you hadn’t slept for more than 30 hours, you would have definitely been scolded.”

　　”Director Xu is furious? What happened?” Meng Zhao looked at Xu Yan.

　　”The lockdown of Wen Yi Sanatorium has become a hot topic in the local news…”

　　Meng Zhao took out his phone and searched for relevant news about Wen Yi Sanatorium on the Internet. Sure enough, the news that Wen Yi Sanatorium was sealed off overnight had spread, and there were many different opinions on the Internet about this matter.

　　An ambulance coming out of the nursing home was hit badly and someone took a photo of it and posted it online.

　　”It seems that there are a lot of reporters who want to interview the department this afternoon.” Xu Yan said again.

　　”Interview?” Meng Zhao put away his phone. “We don’t have all the evidence right now. Let them wait for the announcement. Is Director Xu in the office? I’ll go find him.”

　　”He went to a meeting.” Xu Yan said.

　　”Then please tell him for me. I will go to see him tomorrow morning.”

　　”Okay.” Xu Yan nodded.

　　The windows in the corridor were wide open. A cool breeze blew in the evening and the temperature dropped sharply. There was already a breath of early summer in the past few days, but today the weather seemed to be a return to the period before liberation.

　　When the wind blew, Meng Ruoshu shivered and reached out to hug Xu Yan for warmth.

　　”Go wait in the lounge. The corridor is cold.” Meng Zhao handed the dog leash to Meng Ruoshu. “Take care of it. Be careful.”

　　”Don’t worry,” Meng Ruoshu reached out to take the dog leash and asked Meng Zhao, “What’s its name, brother?”

　　Meng Zhao looked at the Border Collie and said, “Call him Mr. Lu.”

　　Meng Ruoshu believed it and walked towards the lounge with the dog: “Mr. Lu, let’s go.”

　　She pulled Xu Yan to go back. Xu Yan took a few steps and turned around again: “Brother Meng Zhao.”

　　”Hmm?” Meng Zhao was about to go back to the hospital, but he stopped when he heard this. “What’s wrong?”

　　”There’s something I need to tell you…” Xu Yan walked over and raised her hand to stroke her hair. “That is, when your friend woke up today, he asked me a question.”

　　”What?”

　　”He asked me what flavor that ice cream was. I guess… maybe he mistook me for Xiaoshu?” Xu Yan said, and then looked at Meng Ruoshu behind him, “What kind of ice cream is it?”

　　‘Ice cream?’ Meng Zhao hadn’t eaten ice cream since his mother passed away. He often bought it for Meng Ruoshu when he was in high school. But when he heard Xu Yan say this, he couldn’t guess why Lu Shichen suddenly mentioned ice cream.

　　Meng Ruoshu was squatting behind and playing with the dog. She paused when she heard this.

　　Noticing that Meng Ruoshu looked strange, Meng Zhao looked at her and asked, “Do you know?”

　　Meng Ruoshu looked up and pretended to be stupid: “What ice cream? I don’t know…Does your friend want to eat ice cream?”

　　‘Lu Shichen wants to eat ice cream?’ Meng Zhao always feels something is wrong.

　　He walked downstairs, opened the car door and got in, Meng Zhao was still thinking about Lu Shichen’s words.

　　The car started up with a slight sound, and he whispered to himself, “Hr asked for ice cream right after he woke up… Did he want it that badly?”

　　Half an hour later, Meng Zhao parked the car in the hospital’s underground parking lot.

　Pushing the door and getting out of the car, he walked towards the inpatient building with an ice cream in his hand.