The doorbell only rang once before the door opened.
Behind the door was Lin Youfei's smiling face: "Been waiting for you two for ages."
Shen Ting thought to himself, It seems these flowers were requested back in quite a hurry.
Lin Youfei was wearing dark blue loungewear, with a cartoon-patterned apron tied around his waist. This getup was an eye-opener even for Chu Huainan, who had known him for a long time.
"Are you guys planning to eat lunch at home?"
Although he vaguely knew that Lin Youfei invested more into this relationship with Lu Xinghe, seeing him looking so domestic all of a sudden still quite surprised Chu Huainan. Glancing at the cartoon apron stained with light grease spots, he smiled at his friend who had transformed into a househusband, teasing: "Oh, going on a killing spree in the kitchen, are we?"
"Xinghe eats out all year round. Today is a special day, and it's rare for him to have free time, so we're eating some home-cooked food at home."
The rich aroma of soup filling the room, combined with Lin Youfei's outfit, couldn't help but remind Shen Ting of the Eggs Benedict from this morning.
It seems the saying "birds of a feather flock together" was quite reasonable to some extent. At the very least, in terms of superb culinary skills, Chu Huainan and Lin Youfei did indeed share a similarity.
"Hello Mr. Song, we meet again." Lin Youfei greeted him with a smile. Seeing him holding the flowers, he turned his head and slightly raised his voice toward the inside of the house: "Xinghe, could you please bring over that bouquet the concierge delivered by mistake?"
The person who responded to the call was Lu Xinghe, whose name Shen Ting had heard for a long time but whom he had never seen in person.
Shen Ting recognized this face; he had been appearing frequently in commercials after the evening news lately. He was quite famous. In person, he was a size thinner than on TV, and his facial features were deeper and more refined.
The real-life Lu Xinghe was very tall and pale, his eyes and brows carrying an aloofness that seemed unconcerned with worldly affairs. His fluffy, dark chestnut hair naturally parted at the front, revealing a full, well-shaped forehead.
He handed the light purple tulips in his hand to Chu Huainan, then took the blue carnations Shen Ting was holding.
Because he didn't know Shen Ting, he only said, "Thank you, President Chu."
When thanking him, his voice was a bit hoarse. He probably had a cold, occasionally suppressing his throat to cough a few times. Lin Youfei immediately handed him a cup of water, and he thanked him again, holding the cup and tilting his head back to take a small sip.
Only then did Shen Ting notice that a small piece of Lu Xinghe's eyebrow tail was missing—it was a "slit eyebrow," currently quite trendy and expressive of individuality.
This slit eyebrow made his already somewhat frosty appearance even more distant. Standing there, his aura was as ruthlessly cold as a cryogenically frozen person—the kind frozen from the inside out, radiating freezing air from the very top of his head. He didn't have the slightest bit of the youthful, sunny demeanor he displayed on screen.
"Why are you being so polite? Just call me Huainan like Youfei does."
Lu Xinghe smiled distantly, his whole demeanor screaming reluctance.
This guy is weird. Shen Ting lowered his eyes and then noticed that around the other's wrist was a thin black rubber band.
He doesn't have long hair, why is he wearing a hair tie?
A criminal investigator's eyes and occupational disease made Shen Ting subconsciously summarize and analyze every person and object he saw.
He wasn't a celebrity chaser. Seeing a real-life star, aside from a momentary curiosity, he had no other thoughts.
If Pan Xiaozhu, who shipped this CP to death, were here and saw the way Lin Youfei instinctively handed the coughing Lu Xinghe a cup of water with a "knowing the arrival of autumn from a falling leaf" level of attentiveness, she'd probably get so excited her blood pressure would spike to 180, putting on a performance of "passing away on the spot."
The outermost layer of the bouquet of tulips Chu Huainan bought was light beige Parisian wrapping paper. Inside, the irregular sharp corners of transparent wax paper poked out, and the dark green stems were wrapped in a soft, airy layer of Sydney paper.
The dreamy, pale white paper contrasted with the lush, delicate flowers, making them look soft and mysterious, like a bride waiting to be married beneath a light veil.
The design of the entire bouquet was indeed meticulously crafted, possessing a special artistic aesthetic.
But Shen Ting was not a romantic person. He always held the very straight-male belief that when it came to giving flowers, sending a single stem to express one's feelings was enough. People willing to waste money buying a whole bunch of flowers probably had a mental illness.
And people like Chu Huainan, who inexplicably gave him giant bouquets multiple times in a row, belonged to the terminally ill category.
After coming out of Lin Youfei's house, the "terminally ill" Chu Huainan stood side-by-side with him in the hallway, using his eyes to urge him to open the card clipped next to the petals with a heart-shaped clip.
Having witnessed this capitalist's level-ten sweet-talking abilities, Shen Ting took a slight breath before opening the card.
Even though he had fully mentally prepared himself, he still shuddered when he saw the contents.
The top of the card listed the meaning of tulips: [Declaration of love, eternal blessing]
Below that was Chu Huainan's highly distinctive handwriting. The strokes were flamboyant and overbearing, yet carried a restrained tenderness at the turns.
[To my water of the Canghai Sea:
Having seen the vast Canghai Sea, no other waters can compare;
Save for the clouds of Mount Wushan, no other clouds exist.
By your clouds of Mount Wushan]
Holding the flowers, Shen Ting was stunned for a full three seconds. Back in school, his language grades were pretty good, but he never imagined that a romantic poem like this could be split apart to become a signature hiding a confession.
Q-quite creative.
Chu Huainan leaned in like someone claiming credit. As he turned his face, his warm breath blew entirely onto Shen Ting's sensitive neck: "It's Valentine's Day, how do you want to spend it?"
How to spend Valentine's Day?
Shen Ting had never celebrated Valentine's Day in his life. Moreover, as a good youth who always obeyed the Party's directives, he knew the higher-ups currently didn't really approve of everyone flocking to celebrate Western holidays. The traditional Qixi Festival was the proper, serious Chinese Valentine's Day.
Chu Huainan didn't know he was secretly grumbling. Looking contentedly at the young man before him—whose face remained calm but whose redness had spread all the way from his ears to the base of his neck—he took a step back, a deep smile in his bright eyes: "I want to go see a movie."
The atmosphere of a movie theater was most suitable for pre-couples who hadn't officially established their relationship and were still in the mutual probing phase.
Then let's go. Shen Ting didn't know what Chu Huainan was plotting. He actually watched movies quite often in college, though they were usually organized by the school. He had watched a 90s biographical film called Jiao Yulu alone five or six times, and had even written three reflection essays on it.
Chu Huainan wanting to see a movie was always better than him wanting to get a hotel room, or playing the hooligan right here at home.
Besides, there were a lot of people in a movie theater, and he could buy a bottle of mineral water to reward his lips and tongue, which hadn't touched a drop of water all night. In short, he wasn't at a disadvantage either way.
The two had lunch together and chose a nearby movie theater.
It happened to be a Saturday, and the parking lot under the mall was packed full.
Right now, there were only ten minutes left until the movie started. Finding an empty spot in such a short time would probably be tough. But Shen Ting wasn't in a hurry. He wasn't really here to watch a movie anyway; his main goal was to keep an eye on this capitalist who always acted on his own. To prevent him from making a move ahead of the police the moment he let his guard down.
After all, Li Songyuan was now basically locked in as the criminal suspect. Regardless of whether this capitalist was loyal or treacherous, friend or foe, even if he were Iron Man, Shen Ting, as a police officer, couldn't let an ordinary citizen face off against a vicious, desperate murderer alone.
Chu Huainan wasn't troubled by the parking issue in the slightest. With practiced ease, he navigated past rows of neatly parked cars. With a shift into reverse, he parked in a spot marked VIP ONLY.
Next to the exclusive VIP parking spot were two barriers framed with red silk, and a giant red silk bow stood at the rear of the spot.
It's just parking a car, and they make it look like an ancient top scholar parading the streets! These decadent proponents of privilege!
Shen Ting got out of the car disapprovingly, realizing this parking spot was drawn right at the main entrance of the mall, and even the elevator directly facing it was VIP exclusive.
He finally understood why Xu Kai had said that for an ordinary person to see Chu Huainan was harder than ascending to heaven. It turns out this decadent capitalist took the back door every day, loved exceptionalism, and even when watching a movie or parking a car, he never forgot to detach himself from the masses and place himself above them!
In his peripheral vision, the cuffs of Chu Huainan's dark shirt were elegantly rolled up in layers to his forearms, and a perfectly ironed suit jacket hung in the crook of his arm.
A hypocrite of solemn appearance! A beast in human clothing! Shen Ting evaluated silently.
When buying tickets, the little girl at the cashier counter kept stealing smiling glances at them. Seeing two massive, movie-star-handsome guys at once, her small face was flushed red with excitement.
Seeing that the movie was about to start and the tickets still hadn't printed after a long time, Shen Ting frowned slightly and tapped his fingertips stiffly against the plastic casing of the register: "Hey, what are you looking at? Is it illegal for the two of us to buy a couple's ticket?!"
The little girl's face grew even redder, the smile at the corners of her lips instantly magnifying, her mouth grinning almost to the roots of her ears: "Not illegal, not illegal! I-I wanted to say, I will always support you two!" Saying this, she frantically printed the tickets and even threw in a "Love Battle Combo"—a large bucket of popcorn plus two cans of cola.
When the little girl handed over the tickets and snacks, she was so excited her fingertips were trembling: "This combo is a personal gift from me to you. I hope you have a peaceful life and quiet years together!"
Why didn't you just say 'grow old together'?
The expression on the little girl's face knotted Shen Ting's intestines. You really couldn't blame him for not finding a girlfriend; he had absolutely no idea what went through the minds of young girls these days!
Feeling both annoyed and amused, he maintained a thuggish, rogue-like appearance on the surface. Extending two fingers, he pushed one of the cans of cola back into the girl's hands, "Swap this for a bottle of mineral water for me!"
Licking his dry lips, he raised his elbow and nudged Chu Huainan, who was just standing there smiling: "Why are you standing there like an idiot? Pay up!"
"No need, no need! The tickets were already paid for just now, and I'm giving you the popcorn—"
"Little sister, this guy, he has nothing else going for him except that he's exceptionally rich. I appreciate your kindness, but he has to pay. Today of all days, I will only eat the popcorn he buys." Saying this, he winked with particular coquettishness, thinking to himself, I absolutely cannot let this comfortable, decadent bourgeois class take even half a cent's advantage of the working masses!
He purely wanted to defend the fruits of the proletariat's labor, executing a glorious revolution against capitalism.
However, the two people outside of his revolution both misunderstood his intentions.
Hearing his words, the gaze Chu Huainan shot his way instantly heated up a few degrees.
And that cashier girl was so excited she was almost in tears, repeatedly saying: "Right, right, I wasn't being thoughtful enough." The hand holding the scanner gun trembled from sheer joy, having to scan several times before finally scanning Chu Huainan's payment code.
Chu Huainan reached out to hold the popcorn, took the tickets, and gentlemanly said thank you. Glancing at the tickets, his empty left hand lightly rested on Shen Ting's waist, whispering in his ear: "Theater Five."
Under the joyful gaze of the cashier girl, stepping to the rhythm of the theater's background music Because of Love, the two entered the screening hall side-by-side.
Shen Ting hadn't set foot in a movie theater in eight hundred years. The last time he entered a theater was to arrest a suspect involved in a drug crime. While the suspect had his arm around his girlfriend, happily watching the movie, Shen Ting and his teammates descended from the heavens. With a pair of cold, gleaming handcuffs, they added a touch of live-action police-thriller excitement to his harmonious movie-viewing experience.
What was playing back then? That movie directed and acted by that chubby bald guy... Oh, I think it was called 'Dying to Survive'.
To wait for the right moment, he had actually watched almost half the movie in the theater, but unfortunately didn't get to finish it. He had always wanted to know the ending, but got so busy he forgot.
To this day, he was still stuck right in the middle of the plot where the authentic pharmaceutical rep called the police to investigate the source of the pirated drugs.
Tsk, profit-driven capitalists.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but glance at the representative of real-life capitalists sitting right beside him: Chu Huainan.
From this angle, Chu Huainan's nose bridge was very high, the lines of his face undulating like mountains and hills, and his jawline was smooth. In the flickering light of the large movie screen, the expression on his handsome face was concentrated, his brows slightly knitted together, looking like a character statue lost in deep thought.
Shen Ting's phone vibrated silently and briefly twice in his pocket; a teammate had sent him a message. Cautiously monitoring his companion with his peripheral vision, he unlocked his phone with a normal expression.
In just a few short sentences, Chen Cong concisely relayed the latest progress of the case investigation.
—This afternoon, the police had already sealed the cooking utensils in the braised meat shop used to boil the meat slices provided by Li Songyuan. They also scouted a few locations where he might have committed the crime, but still came up empty-handed.
Where exactly could the crime scene be? Shen Ting knitted his brows slightly.
At this moment, Chu Huainan was also lost in deep thought regarding the exact same question.
To reduce the possibility of Li Songyuan fleeing to evade justice, his people had been tailing Li Songyuan all day, constantly switching cars. But up to this point, no one had informed him that the police had arrested Li Songyuan.
This meant that the police still hadn't found any direct evidence linking Li Songyuan to the crime.
And Chu Huainan had watched surveillance footage all morning, but failed to discover any other suspicious stops Li Songyuan made during his deliveries.
The two surveillance cameras near Chen Feng's home were both in a dormant state when the incident occurred, so Li Songyuan's movements weren't captured near the victim's house either.
Shen Ting's phone vibrated silently again. He took a look, then calmly shoved the phone back into his pants pocket, but tempestuous waves surged in his heart.
It was bad news. —Just a moment ago, Li Songyuan received a phone call while driving, and then suddenly changed his route. Not only did he fail to follow his designated work route to the next delivery location, but he also suddenly turned around and, uncharacteristically, drove the heavy truck—which was restricted from entering certain zones today—onto the heavily congested elevated highway.
Fortunately, a few minutes later, Chen Cong sent another message saying the higher-ups had approved the arrest warrant. The CID had rapidly joined forces with the traffic police department to intercept and capture the attempting-to-flee Li Songyuan.
Shen Ting's gaze returned to the movie screen, but his brain was rapidly analyzing the case. Why would Li Songyuan, who had been acting completely normal, suddenly decide to flee? Additionally, where on earth did he commit the murder?
The video clips of the driving trajectories he had seen in Chu Huainan's study this morning played over and over in his mind. In Shen Ting's mind—who possessed an excellent sense of direction—the entirety of Jianghu City automatically compressed into a detailed bird's-eye view map. And that cold-chain truck modified from an Iveco became a tiny, blinking blue dot on the map.
Wait, the truck! In a flash of lightning, he pulled a clear thread from his tangled, yarn-ball-like thoughts. Following this line of thought, that cold-chain truck instantly became incredibly suspicious!
Shen Ting's left hand, resting on his knee, slowly clenched into a fist. Then, the back of his hand was covered by another warm palm. He swiftly turned his head, frowning as he looked at Chu Huainan, who had suddenly reached out to hold his hand.
In those bright peach-blossom eyes reflecting the faint light of the screening hall, the excitement of a lion hunting its prey danced faintly. Chu Huainan's small action of licking his upper lip was magnified and slowed down several times in Shen Ting's eyes: "What if... the crime scene is mobile?"
His voice was very soft, yet enough to make the hair on Shen Ting's entire body stand on end. He instinctively sensed danger; instinctively felt offended. This person shared a synchronous, almost eerie telepathy with him.
What if he is an enemy? He looked down at his hand, firmly grasped in the other's palm, as if those long, slender, resilient fingertips were gripping his very life.
Knowing to buy 'couple’s tickets'—you’re certainly thrifty and know how to manage a household! Let’s celebrate: the Cinema Play is complete!
Continuing tomorrow at midnight~ Let's have something a bit more... exciting~
Rubber band on the wrist: In modern Chinese internet/youth culture, a boy wearing a simple black hair tie on his wrist signifies he has a girlfriend (holding her hair tie for her) or that he is "taken."
Knowing the arrival of autumn from a falling leaf (落叶知秋): A Chinese idiom meaning to be highly perceptive and attentive to small details. Here, it describes Lin Youfei noticing Lu Xinghe's slight cough and immediately handing him water.
Having seen the vast Canghai Sea... (曾经沧海难为水，除却巫山不是云): A famous Tang Dynasty love poem by Yuan Zhen. It means: "Having seen the vast ocean, no other streams can catch my eye; having seen the clouds of Mount Wushan, no other clouds matter." It is an expression of absolute, irreplaceable, and singular love.
Jiao Yulu (焦裕禄): A real 1990 Chinese biographical film about Jiao Yulu, a devoted and selfless Communist Party cadre who worked himself to death for the people. Shen Ting noting he watched it five times highlights how much of an upright, "red," and patriotic cop he is.
Dying to Survive (我不是药神): A massive 2018 hit Chinese film (literally "I Am Not the God of Medicine"). It tells the true story of a man smuggling cheap generic cancer drugs from India to sell to Chinese leukemia patients who couldn't afford the exorbitant prices set by authentic pharmaceutical companies (the "profit-driven capitalists" Shen Ting grumbles about).