Chapter 35: You’re Free

Xie XingMu knew it was a sign of intimacy and responded patiently over and over again. The SUV drove into the center of Haiyun City and stopped in front of a supermarket, Xie XingMu took DuoDuo inside and purchased a large cart of fresh ingredients and household goods.

After buying what they needed, they went back to the car, and soon drove into a community in the city center then parked in the underground parking lot. Xie XingMu’s left hand was carrying a large bag of things, right hand carrying DuoDuo’s clothing bags, followed behind DuoDuo who jogged to the elevator, then he entered the code into the elevator.

The elevator went straight to the top floor and stopped with a ding, and the door opened to face the living room entrance of the house. DuoDuo gave a cheerful cry, broke free from his arms and darted to his room. Xie XingMu called him loudly and took out a pair of small slippers from the shoe cabinet, “Change your shoes first.”

DuoDuo was too impatient to change shoes, since before Xie XingMu left for the mission, he had bought an intelligent toy panda. But the panda was only held in DuoDuo’s arms before he was sent to Old Chen’s home. His heart had been thinking about it this entire time.

Seeing DuoDuo rush into his room, Xie XingMu changed his shoes.

The bag with the ingredients was carried into the kitchen, one by one each item went into the built-in refrigerator by category. The apartment was very large, decorated and furnished with high class items. It had been a lot of money to buy the whole top floor of this building, but it wasn’t for the prosperity of the location, but for DuoDuo’s elementary school. Thinking of the child walking home every rainy day, Xie XingMu bought this apartment close to DuoDuo’s future school in advance. DuoDuo and Xie XingMu moved from the suburbs to this city apartment.

After putting the ingredients and household items away. Xie XingMu went back to his bedroom. Passing DuoDuo’s room, he saw him lying on the carpet, and talking to the furry intelligent panda, teaching it words.

“DuoDuo, I’m your uncle.” DuoDuo very patiently taught the panda, “Uncle, uncle.”

“DuoDuo’s my uncle.” Panda replied in sincerity according to its program.

“DuoDuo, don’t worry.” DuoDuo crawled two steps in front of it and said seriously, “I’ll keep you company.”

The panda paused for two seconds and then said, “I will keep you company.”

Xie XingMu laughed silently, went back to his room, and went into the bathroom to take a shower. When he finished his shower, shaved his face and came out of the bathroom clean, DuoDuo was already watching cartoons in the living room with the panda in his arms. He walked over and put away the few children’s picture books scattered on the sofa, then went to the kitchen to make dinner.

“DuoDuo, how about we have wontons tonight? I’ll make you some small wontons to eat.” Xie XingMu pulled open the refrigerator and took out the wonton skins, fresh shrimp and beef he just bought.

“Okay, let’s have wontons!” DuoDuo had raised his voice happily, “I like to eat wontons!”

“Okay, Uncle will fill half of them for you with shrimp and half with beef.”

Xie XingMu tied the waistband of his apron and started chopping the wonton filling with a rhythmic thumping sound echoing in the room. When the chopping was done, he mixed the seasoning and tasted it, and felt that the saltiness was right. He took the wonton wrapper in one hand and plucked the filling with chopsticks in the other.

With skillful fingers, the wontons were soon wrapped on the board, like small money bags. The water in the pot was boiling, so he put the wontons in the pot, washed some vegetables and blanched them.

The wontons were quickly cooked, one floating on the surface, rolling around steaming hot. While shouting to DuoDuo, calling him to eat, he put the wontons in a large and small bowl and covered them with a few strips of vegetables.

DuoDuo’s chopsticks skills weren’t very good, so he spooned them into his mouth and ate them in big bites. When he was scooping the vegetables and trying to sneak them into the garbage can at his feet, he noticed Xie XingMu looking at him, so his hands shook and he hurriedly stuffed the vegetables into his mouth.

After Xie XingMu ate a few bites, he slowed down somewhat absent-mindedly and frequently looked at the phone resting on the dining table.

DuoDuo was concerned, so he also stopped eating and looked at it and asked, “Uncle, are the wontons not good?”

“Hmm?” Xie XingMu was stunned before replying, “They’re delicious.” After saying that, he simply put down his chopsticks and got his phone, “You eat, I’ll make a phone call first.”

He took the phone and dialed a number, put it to his ear and walked towards the floor to ceiling window. The phone rang a few times before it was picked up.

“Team Leader Xie,” Li SiMing’s voice came through.

“Mhm, how’s the situation on your end?”

“Normal, nothing’s going on, watching TV.”

Xie XingMu listened to the background sound of the TV in the face and suddenly asked, “What are you guys watching?”

“Huh?” Li SiMing didn’t expect to ask this question and was stunned for a few seconds before replying, “I’m watching a TV show.”

Xie XingMu also felt that he was asking a very inexplicable question, so he lightly coughed to change the subject, “Have you eaten yet?”

“Yes, I just finished eating.”

“What did you eat?”

“The food from the hotel.” After Li SiMing answered, seeing that Xie XingMu didn’t answer, he had to continue, “We had stewed tofu with shrimp sauce, squid with sauce, stir-fried seasonal vegetables and soup.”

Xie XingMu said after two seconds of silence, “That restaurant is too heavy with oil, it’s not good for your health if you eat too much.”

Li SiMing thought, Don’t you usually eat at that restaurant?, but he still said politely, “Team Leader Xie, we eat too much noodles, we don’t have an appetite for that smell.”

Xie XingMu said, “Who told you to eat noodles? If you are so free, why don’t you buy food and borrow the hotel kitchen to cook your own food? It’s more nutritious and healthy.”

Li SiMing: … 

“…I have no change of clothes after my shower…”

Xie XingMu wanted to say something, then heard Yu Chu’s voice on the other end of the phone, sounding a distance away from the phone. He was probably talking to Li SiMing.

Li SiMing wondered why Yu Chu was suddenly so loud, but still turned his head and said, “Wear the bathrobe hanging in the closet first. The clothes you’re wearing are now washed and hung to dry, they will be dry in the morning.”

Yu Chu didn’t have any objection, turned around and walked slowly to the bathroom.

“What’s wrong?” A silent Xie XingMu asked.

Li SiMing explained, “Yu Chu doesn’t have a change of clothes, so I told him to wear his bathrobe for now, since his clothes were washed and are drying so he can wear them in the morning.”

Yu Chu’s steps were slower, and the bathroom was just a few meters away, he wasn’t even halfway there.

Xie XingMu said, “Go out and buy some, it’s only seven o’clock now. Go buy a set of pajamas, and a change of clothes and pants.”

“…Oh, well, then I called to Pepper Street, there’s a lot of clothing—”

“No, the fabric of the clothes in that place aren’t fine enough.” Xie XingMu interrupted quickly.

Li SiMing was shocked, “Team Leader Xie, you’re discriminating. Not all of us are rich kids. The team wears clothes that are basically bought on that street, and not only the stall goods, there are many affordable brand clothing stores, inexpensive and good quality.”

“Is it all cotton?” Xie XingMu, the rich young man, asked.

“Yes.” Li SiMing’s voice got a lot louder, “It’s all cotton, cheap and comfortable.”

Xie XingMu paused, “Okay, then go there to buy, but pay attention to the selection ah. Some poor quality fabric will cause allergic reactions after being worn and cause rashes.”

“Got it, I’ll let my colleagues go.”

Yu Chu somehow already stopped and turned around, when Li SiMing patted the sofa, “I’ll get you new clothes. Take a shower later, let’s find another TV show to watch.”

“Okay.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Li SiMing’s phone rang with two consecutive WeChat beeps. Opening it, it was a transfer of two thousand yuan from Xie XingMu, and a message: Buy a change of clothes, and a set of pajamas. Good quality ones. The rest of the money is yours.

Xie XingMu stared at the screen when the transfer was accepted and his heart suddenly rose with a strange feeling.

He didn’t understand why he was worried if Yu Chu had eaten properly and had clean clothes to wear. After all, it was for the sake of the mission that he lurked around Yu Chu as a bodyguard for a few months, and now that the mission was over, he was no longer obligated to continue to take care of the Yu Family’s Young Master.

“Uncle, come and eat! Your wontons are sticking together!” DuoDuo spoon poked the wontons in Xie XingMu’s bowl and turned his head to shout.

“I’ll eat right away.” Xie XingMu turned off his phone.

DuoDuo buried his head again to pay for his own bowl of wontons, Xie XingMu looked at the little boy with a mouth full of grease and suddenly figured it out. It should be just like raising DuoDuo for his sister, Yu Chu’s care was for Grandma Zhao.

Half an hour later, a policeman delivered the clothes to Yu Chu’s hotel door.

“Ha, my favorite kebab.” Li SiMing happily pounced on them and took out a can of beer to throw to Yu Chu, which was rejected.

“You guys eat, I want to take a shower first.” Yu Chu took the clothes and went to take a shower. 

Li SiMing was eating the meat skewer when the policeman next to him elbowed him. Li SiMing asked, “What’s wrong?” 

The policeman asked, “Why is Team Leader Xie so nice? He’s paying for a hotel, buying clothes and so on.”

Li SiMing chewed on the meat and mused, “Didn’t Team Leader Xie become a father and mother to raise DuoDuo? This time he was Yu Chu’s bodyguard for a few months, and I think it’s like his father’s love has been transferred to Yu Chu, right?”

The restroom in the hotel was cramped, but clean. Yu Chu turned on the nozzle, rinsed himself under the hot water, and began to think about his future plans. The original body owner didn’t participate in those acts of Yu ShiQing, and Xie XingMu should be more than clear of this. Him being detained meant that they still needed him for the investigation and evidence, the second was to get the key from his hands.

The key was hidden somewhere he didn’t know of, but the police believed he was withholding information, but soon he should be free. Yu Chu’s hand wiped the water off his face, his mood also becoming a lot better.

Yu Chu began living in the hotel, but every morning at about nine, Li SiMing brought him to the Public Security Bureau, where another round of investigation continued to be conducted. But it wasn’t hard to get through it all, and the police were getting more and more lenient. Although it was a rip-off to say he’d lost his memory, there was countless evidence that showed that the pretty-faced, innocent Yu Family’s Little Young Master was really quite innocent.

They only verbally asked about Yu ShiQing daily, before Yu Chu was handed over to Li SiMing again.

Yu Chu finished eating in the morning, and was familiar with the way to follow Li SiMing to the criminal investigation brigade. When he had just crossed into the second floor passage, he saw a familiar tall figure, and unconsciously stopped his steps.

Xie XingMu was talking with a police officer in front of him, and Yu Chu noticed something was different. Xie XingMu suddenly raised his eyes to this side. After looking at Yu Chu for two seconds, he turned back and spoke to the police officer before striding over.

He wasn’t wearing the black T-shirt that Yu Chu was used to, but a straight silver gray shirt, his two legs wrapped in pants with the texture of leggings, looking tall. This outfit suddenly made his temperament seem calm and his body have a bandit air, both contradictory and surprisingly harmonious.

Yu Chu looked at this strange and familiar Xie XingMu, suddenly becoming a little dazed.

Xie XingMu stared for a few seconds and then said, “Yu Chu, you can go now.”

“Huh?” Yu Chu was momentarily confused, his mouth half open, looking a bit dumb.

Xie XingMu’s eyes quickly flashed with a smile, and said, “Your matter has been investigated clearly, so you can leave. In other words, you’re free from now on.”