Chapter 69
Chapter 69
In the morning, by the time the sky was just beginning to brighten, Jian Yao was already awake. She could not sleep; whether she had been in a daze or in a state of acutely remembering and feeling everything, all of it had been a torment.
She walked out of the police dormitory and realised that Fang Qing, next door, must still be fast asleep, for all was quiet. The world was vast and shrouded in darkness, and she had nowhere to go. Thus, she once again walked towards the building nearby which housed the office of the criminal investigation team.
The criminal investigator on duty was highly surprised when she walked in. “So early, Teacher Jian? Have you eaten yet?”
“Not yet.” She smiled and said, “It’s too early, so I don’t feel like eating.” At the same time, she glanced at the office that Shao Yong had arranged for them. The lights were on.
“Someone’s there?” she asked.
“Yeah. Professor Bo and An Yan came over after 3 this morning . . . perhaps something’s up.”
Jian Yao stood just outside the door, unmoving. After a while, she pushed the door open lightly. One person was sitting at the table, another was lying down on the sofa, sleeping, just like a big bear. Naturally, this was the constantly sleep-addicted An Yan.
The person at the table was dressed neatly even in the middle of the night. A black suit, and a light-coloured shirt. Jian Yao noticed that he had even changed his shirt from what he had been wearing earlier. Under the soft light, his pale face exuded an indescribable sense of peace.
He still wore sunglasses even though it was dark out and there was no one around. Before she arrived.
He raised his head upon hearing movement.
He probably sensed who it was, just like him, who would run to this place to wait whenever sleep was elusive.
“You’re here?” he asked softly.
“Uhm”. She thought to herself, he must have identified her footsteps by sound. Previously, before he was blind, he was already able to distinguish her footsteps from those of others.
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He smiled faintly, fleetingly. So, Jian Yao knew that he was happy at that moment.
Jian Yao was unable to smile.
She sat opposite him and took out her laptop and some information. It seemed he was also aware of her desire not to talk, for he lowered his head slightly, and his fingers twitched, before he asked, “Have you eaten breakfast yet?”
Jian Yao replied, “Yes, I have. What about you?”
He answered, “Yeah. I’ve also eaten.”
She had clearly seen, the previous day, that he was his old arrogant and forthright self when confronting other people. However, when faced with her, he was uncommunicative and silent, like a different man. A man she did not recognise.
Jian Yao flipped open the file and stared at the text on the page, but her mind was a confused jumble of thoughts.
There was a stack of files in front of him. He was not flipping the pages of the file currently in front of him; instead, his fingers were resting on the paper. Jian Yao noticed that he was wearing something on his finger and consequently asked, “On your hand . . . what’s that?”
He lifted his finger, looked down and replied, “It’s a finger reader for the blind.” Then he replaced his finger on the page and traced the text line by line. As he did so, the reader issued forth, in a mechanical and soft female voice, “There were no fingerprints at the crime scene, and no effective DNA samples were collected. . .”
Image taken from https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/37864401
“Is it convenient to use?” she asked.
“It’s all right. The only problem is that this reading speed, to me, is like being in slow motion. It can only complete reading two books a day!”
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His tone was so helpless yet disdainful that Jian Yao could not hold back a laugh. However, after laughing, when she looked at his face, she felt a little sick at heart. Previously, he was able to speed read*, and anything he read was always retained. It must be very hard for him to bear having to rely on a mechanised reader. But, his being in the mood to make a joke about it showed that he must have adapted well.
*T/N 一目十行 (yi mu shi hang) – literally, 10 lines at a glance
His finger moved across several more lines of text before he asked, “Will my doing this affect you?”
Jian Yao replied, “Not at all.”
He smiled faintly as he said, “That’s good.”
The both of them worked in silence for a while. At this point, there was some movement from the sofa as An Yan lazily stretched and sat up. He rubbed his eyes repeatedly before realising that Jian Yao was there, whereupon he immediately stood up. “Sister-in-law, you’re here?”
Jian Yao felt a lot more at ease as she faced him and said, “Mhm. Why are you both here so early?”
An Yan spared a glance for Bo Jinyan who was listening to their conversation. He said, mildly, “Isn’t it because of someone who has no appetite* and can’t sleep at night . . .”
*T/N 茶饭不思 (cha fan bu si) – literally, no thought for tea or rice/ food
Bo Jinyan made no sound, but Jian Yao noticed a slight blush of embarrassment on his face.
Jian Yao pretended not to have heard anything. In an indifferent tone, she asked, “Have you eaten breakfast?”
An Yan affected a cheerful expression. “Of course not! Sister-in-law, I have been dying of hunger since midnight! He didn’t even eat dinner. Do you have anything to eat?”
Bo Jinyan still had not said anything. Everyone could sense his uncommunicative silence stemmed from embarrassment.
Jian Yao stood up and looked briefly at Bo Jinyan. “I’ll go and buy you both some breakfast. I’m pretty familiar with Xun City.”
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“Thank you, sister-in-law!” exclaimed An Yan.
As Jian Yao turned and walked towards the door, she heard Bo Jinyan say, softly, “Thank you, wifey.”
Jian Yao’s footsteps stuttered to a brief stop before she continued walking out of the room.
Only the two men remained in the room.
After An Yan had washed his face, it resumed its usual indifferent expression. He sat down at the table, stomach rumbling as he waited for his breakfast. At the same time, he did not forget to keep exhorting Bo Jinyan, “Afterwards, be nice!”
Bo Jinyan said, “Do I need you to remind me?”
——
Jian Yao walked along the streets which were familiar to her as she had visited Xun City countless times before. She walked down two streets and bought her favourite breakfast. On the return journey, she looked up to see that the sun had already risen, and white clouds were dispersing throughout the blue sky. From the roadside came the sound of cars, the sound of people chatting, the steam and fragrance of breakfast stalls.
All at once, Jian Yao thought of how Bo Jinyan had called her ‘wifey’ as she walked out of the room just now.
Then she thought about the past.
He had always called her ‘Jian Yao’, and when he was being passionate, he would earnestly call her ‘my dearest’. In front of others, he addressed her as ‘my missus’ or ‘my wife’. He almost never called her ‘wifey*’.
*T/N These are all different terms for ‘wife’. 太太 (tai tai) and 妻子 (qi zi), are both more formal, which I’ve translated as ‘missus’ and ‘wife’ respectively. 老婆 (lao po) is more colloquial, and I’ve translated this as ‘wifey’.
This man, who had grown up in America, this man, who had always been thick-skinned and shameless, seemed to have some kind of natural bashfulness about using the local form of address, ‘wifey’. At best, he might whisper ‘wifey’ into her ear when in the throes of passion.
However, he had called her that just now.
In response to him, Jian Yao’s heart was palpitating nervously like ripples on a lake.
She looked at the bustling city with its moments of tranquility around her, and laughed self-deprecatingly all of a sudden.
How did it feel to be reunited?
It was as if they had not been separated for any length of time, as if nothing had changed between them.
But I distinctly feel that everything around me has become real once again.
——
When Jian Yao returned to the office, Shao Yong was inside talking to Bo Jinyan. He nodded at her with a faint smile when he saw her.
A rascal is always a rascal. This old rascal was apparently absolutely ignorant of the confusion he had engineered the previous day. In a totally businesslike manner, his tone grave and moderate, he said, “Jinyan ah, I want to tell you about a situation. Since yesterday, we have been carrying out a thorough investigation of the area surrounding the victim, Nie Shijun’s, rental apartment, and interrogating people. The area principally consists of two neighbourhoods and a few scattered buildings. Currently, we’re more than halfway through, but we haven’t found any obvious suspects. It does not look very promising.”
Bo Jinyan smiled grimly before saying, “He thinks meticulously and deliberately, and his behaviour is especially careful. Naturally, it would not be easy to find this devil*. I have another clue here, today . . .”, he paused, “we will investigate it.”
*T/N 查出马脚 (cha chu ma jiao) – literally, to search for and locate the cloven foot
Shao Yong smiled. “What clue?”
Jian Yao and An Yao also stared at Bo Jinyan.