Chapter 14: The Pond

Good intentions will cost you; Ji Fanyang was up until after three in the morning wandering in the deep night with Lu Hui. 

At seven o’clock, Lu Hui opened his eyes. His gaze was clear and bright, with none of the fogginess that usually comes with insomnia. He got up and went to the washroom to scrub his face and brush his teeth, the sounds waking up Ji Fanyang. The young man used the blanket to cover his head, wrapping himself up into a cocoon. 

“Get up.” Lu Hui knocked his tooth brush against the mug, “Rise and shine, lazybones.”

Ji Fanyang wrapped himself up even tighter, a muffled sound coming out of the cocoon: “Shut up and let me sleep.”

“I’m not your mom. Get up, or you’ll miss work.” Lu Hui prodded the cocoon, “The dead are waiting, and it’s not good to hold them up.”

“He’s already dead! It’s not like he can file a complaint!” Ji Fanyang kept holding onto the blanket. 

Lu Hui’s mood was visibly better. He jabbed at the blanket lump, and it rolled. He smiled in delight, then forcefully pushed the blanket lump off the bed: “Awake, kid?”

“Ah—ow.” Ji Fanyang was sprawled out on the carpet. He rolled over and glared at Lu Hui, “You win.” In a huff, he pulled up the blanket and placed it back on the bed, then walked into the washroom with his slippers to get ready. 

Winning would always spark joy; Lu Hui put on his clothes with a spring in his step, and when considering his usual cold, gloomy self, this was already quite the improvement. 

As Ji Fanyang smeared shaving cream onto his jaw, he asked Lu Hui: “Chief Lu, are you shaving?”

“No.” Lu Hui rubbed the stubble on his jaw, staunchly refusing Ji Fanyang’s suggestion. 

Ji Fanyang recalled Director Gao’s exasperated expression and could not help but advise: “Uh…that might not be in line with regulations?”

“It just grew in, so it doesn’t count.” Lu Hui resorted to sophistry. 

Ji Fanyang cast a sidelong glance at Lu Hui’s five o’clock shadow, then abandoned his persuasion. 

Once Ji Fanyang finished getting ready, he and Lu Hui set out together. 

At the crime scene—the pond. From the looks of things, the forensics technicians had already arrived quite some time ago and set up their battle formation. 

“Overslept?” Shen Pei pulled a whiteboard out of the car and none too kindly shoved it into Lu Hui’s arms, “Sister Wu said that there was nothing visible on the body and no external injuries, an ordinary case of drowning. The ankle was cut a few times by the bicycle’s pedal, which was likely caused while trying to stabilize the bike during the slip.”

“And the appraisal report?” Lu Hui carried the whiteboard sideways under his arm, “Let Ji Fanyang have a look.”

Shen Pei passed the report to Ji Fanyang, then turned his head to say to Lu Hui: “Zhuang Ze’s group is over there. They’re responsible for surveying footprints.”

Lu Hui nodded to indicate his understanding, then turned around and wedged the whiteboard into a fork of a tree trunk. He wrote 【Li Weiguo】,【Wife and deceased sleeping together】.

Shen Pei frowned: “Can’t you be a little more discreet?” 

Lu Hui said: “‘Committed adultery’ it is, then.”

“Fine, fine, fine, ‘sleeping together’ is great.” Shen Pei hurriedly waved a hand. 

Rao Feifei walked over just in time to hear this sensitive intel. She asked uncertainly: “What about sleeping together? You all have made it to this step?”

“Don’t interrupt. Like anyone would sleep with him.” Shen Pei rolled his eyes, “I’m going to do work.”

Lu Hui called out loudly: “Who’s ‘Work’?”[1]

Rao Feifei’s expression remained steady. After working for a few months in team three, which handled rape cases, she was no stranger to dirty jokes. She returned to the topic at hand: “Are we going to interrogate Li Weiguo?”

“Not ‘us’.” Lu Hui said, “It’s ‘you all’, you and Sister Yang. Keep Li Wenguo and his wife separate during the questioning.” Lu Hui glanced at the forensics personnel taking samples by the pond, “Ji Fanyang and I are going to find a certain ‘da-gege’.”

“Understood.” Rao Feifei replied and left. 

Lu Hui didn’t immediately call Ji Fanyang over. He walked to the side of the pond and looked at its rippling water. The three-day downpour sustained by the area a week prior had rendered the soil into a slippery mud underfoot. Then, six days of clear skies had dried the soil out afterwards, so the whole pathway had resumed its ordinarily hard texture. 

Lu Hui took a step forward so that half of one sole was suspended off the edge while the other half was on solid ground, creating a sense of danger. 

“Hey!”

Ji Fanyang, who had just come to the crime scene after buying breakfast, rushed forward and grabbed Lu Hui’s arm: “What are you doing?!” He left out a breath as he hauled Lu Hui back a few steps from the edge of the pond. He gave the breakfast to Lu Hui, “You can’t kill youself on an empty stomach.”

Lu Hui held the breakfast, a trance-like expression flitting across his face. He took a bite of the jianbing[2], then nitpicked: “I don’t like green onions.”

Ji Fanyang ignored his grumbling and took several big mouthfuls of the jianbing, one after another, like he had a profound hatred of the thing. 

After experiencing a night of drinking and midnight walks, Ji Fanyang and Lu Hui’s relationship had taken a massive leap forward. As before, Lu Hui’s mouth obstinately refused to acknowledge their friendship, but his attitude was completely different from before. At the very least, he didn’t use his position of “Squad Chief” to oppress him, and he didn’t mind Ji Fanyang scolding or ignoring him. 

Of course, Lu Hui didn’t pay attention to anyone’s scolding. He would just mark it down in his ledger to pay them back later. 

Once he finished his jianbing, Lu Hui hung the plastic bag of jianbing on Ji Fanyang’s wrist in passing. He turned his head to glance at the pond and stepped back to behind the pathway by the pond’s side. He scanned around and walked to the grass along the edge, bending at the waist to carefully observe the tussocks. 

Ji Fanyang stood on the pathway and watched his odd movements. His curiosity was involuntarily piqued, but he didn’t say anything out of fear of breaking Lu Hui’s concentration. 

Lu Hui kept walking until he reached a distance of about thirty meters from the berm where the deceased fell into the water. He took a deep breath, then bellowed: “ZHUANG ZE!!!”

“…” Ji Fanyang, who had been absorbed in each of Lu Hui’s actions, was just about deafened. He pinched the bridge of his nose to ease the shock. 

He saw Zhuang Ze, who was squatting down to survey footprints some distance away, scrabble to jump up: “What’s wrong, what is it?”

Ji Fanyang noticed that Lu Hui planned to shout again. He rubbed his ears and walked to Lu Hui’s side; on the berm was a set of footprints. He waved Zhuang Ze over. 

Zhuang Ze intuitively grabbed his tools and walked over: “Did you find something?”

“Here.” Lu Hui pointed to the berm, “Prioritize this footprint.”

Zhuang Ze pulled out a marker with a “1” on his and placed it beside the print: “Mm.”

“You’ve finished eating?” Lu Hui asked Ji Fanyang, “Let’s go find this so-called ‘da-gege’’.”

Ji Fanyang threw out the two greasy, plastic bags in the trash can by the crime scene: “But we don’t know his name yet.”

“Go ask.” Lu Hui commanded, “The old lady sitting at the village’s entrance, the little kids playing beneath the tree, or…” He raised his head, narrowing his eyes at the village’s entrance, “You can go ask the students in school.”

Ji Fanyang touched his own cheek and thought again of Lu Hui’s words, “Charming face”.

Lu Hui glanced at the young man, and he immediately knew what he was thinking of. He sneered: “So fond of strutting your feathers. Is your dream job being a duck?”

Ji Fanyang acted like he hadn’t heard him, and he tried firing back: “Maybe women like more mature men.”

“Tch.” Lu Hui unexpectedly sounded a little happy. 

After all, in recent years, Lu Hui came across very few people who dared to return fire directly, unafraid of his scathing sarcasm. Ji Fanyang was a distinguished presence among the mighty armies who retreated in battle. 

 

Footnotes↑1This is a dirty joke, just want to make sure y’all catch it. Shen Pei said 我去干活了, meaning “I’m going to work”. But, the character 干, which means “to do”, can also mean “fuck”. So, when Lu Hui says 谁是活, meaning “Who is Huo?” or “Who is ‘Work’?”, he changed then meaning of Shen Pei’s original sentence to “I’m going to fuck ‘Work’.” ↑2A flat, tortilla-like pancake, filled with different ingredients.