Chapter 8: 8

Chapter 8: The Place Where Shen Lu’s House is Located Was Really a Secret.

The gunshots caused exceptional terror in this safe, peaceful city.

The hostage Shao Dongmi had just rescued became even more panicked, and he could barely stop her from running out all around the place.


But the strange thing was that Shen Lu, who’d been struck, didn’t immediately fall to the ground. The force of the impact made his waist snap back a bit, but he steadied his figure in an instant, lifting his elbow and ruthlessly striking. The fierce, thunderous blow made the criminal hear the sound of his own bones snapping, his arm was fractured by the blow and even the pistol was flung ten metres away.

After that, Shen Lu fell to the ground, exhausted. Blood gushed out from the wounds in the centre of his forehead and arms, immediately forming a puddle of blood.


“Murder, murder——Aahh! Wuwuwu!! Help!!” The hostage yelled out even more panicked, “I’m gonna die too!! I’m gonna die!!! That security guard who got killed said I injured my main artery, I still have five minutes until I die!! Help me ah!!!”

The moment Shen Lu collapsed, Yan Chenli had already rushed forward to seamlessly take over suppression duty in the first moments, twisting the criminal’s shoulders and turning his back towards him, then grabbing his handcuffs from his waist and cuffing the criminal’s hands behind his back. He had already verified the hostage’s injuries on the instant he brushed past her just now, so he consoled her loudly, “That was him deliberately deceiving your abductor, don’t worry, your injury is not critical. We’ll send you to the hospital right away, northing bad will happen to you.”

“Yes, it’s all right, pressing down on the wound is an effective way to stop the blood flow, I’ll take you to the hospital at once.” Shao Dongmi helped press down on the hostage’s wound, turning his head back to look at the brown-haired man laying in a pool of blood. Although such a close-range headshot was absolutely hopeless, the first-aid procedures still had to be carried out as usual, “Captain, I’ll call an ambulance…”

“Don’t. Just take her to the hospital, remember to notify the closest patrol team to come and escort her.” Yan Chenli’s tone was calm as he stopped him and, after subduing the criminal, he crouched down to examine Shen Lu’s condition. Half of Shen Lu’s face was engulfed in blood, and the scarlet stream crawled past his deeply-arched brows and the straight bridge of his nose, making it look like there was a terrible rupture on that stern face. Yan Chenli pushed aside the bloodsoaked strands of hair from his forehead, clearly able to see the pitch-black, empty bullet hole in the slightly slanted place on the centre of his head.

Yan Chenli leaned down, bending his waist even lower, “A-Lu, are you okay?”


Shao Dongmi thought to himself: It’s over, Captain Yan had been scared stupid. What’s the point of asking? He could just immediately go pick a box.

It was human nature to deny and refuse to believe things when faced with such huge misfortunes, and even Captain Yan was no exception. He was just worrying about sending Captain Yan to a psychologist when he saw Shen Lu, who was lying in a pool of blood, move a little, curling up slightly.


Shen Lu seemed to hear Yan Chenli’s voice amidst the muddled chaos. His field of view flickered on and off chaotically like the screen of an electronic device, and his ears were filled with sharp and chaotic sounds.

He tried to get up, but he couldn’t be sure whether he had moved his limbs successfully or not, and the control over his strength seemed to have failed as much as his other senses.

Fortunately, his situation improved a bit after a few seconds, his line of sight gradually stabilised, but it was still very fuzzy.

Perhaps because of the loss of his light preceptors, his surroundings became dim. As did the other noise in his surroundings.

Something touched his forehead with a bit of a gentle warmth. He roughly guessed what it was and couldn’t help but rub against that warm feeling. He strained to try and focus all his senses on that one spot so that he could ignore the maddening, sharp pain coming from the other wounds in his body.


When Shen Lu was alive, he actually had a very dull pain sensitivity.

Just like his rather slow reflexes and his inability to read people’s faces when interacting with them, his dull pain perception was not to be outshined. This seemed to have been one of the reasons why he didn't fight back when he was bullied as a child, as if he should suffer more because he was naturally more able to endure pain.

And yet, as a hard indicator of combat effectiveness improvement, an Executioner’s senses were very important.

They had to have a hound’s sense of smell, an eagle’s eyesight, a bear’s strength, all of their senses were turned up to the maximum within the limits of what could be controlled by science. They could perceive information about their environment by relying on the wind, and so, unavoidably, their sense of pain was also magnified by countless times.

Although the pain was unbearable, he was always able to conceal it flawlessly, just like those tiny thoughts.

Perhaps this was the price he had to pay to stand by Yan Chenli’s side. This small price was worth it, he still felt grateful.


Shen Lu blinked, discovering that the darkness turned out to be the roof of the car as seen from the inside. He had been moved to the back seat at some point, and a soft, banana-shaped pillow had been placed under his head. Yan Chenli’s face was leaning very close, his eyelashes drooping slightly, and he could feel a tickle on his neck.

Yan Chenli was just confirming the mental pressure value on his collar, and saw the steady blue [12]. Yan Chenli released the neck of his shirt and pulled it up to cover the screen of the collar, letting out a relieved laugh while he tidied it up, “Good, the value is stable.”

Feeling a bit recovered, Shen Lu tried to get up and spoke with the top of his face full of blood, “…I …I’m fine. …I can still perform my regular duties.”

“Okay, don’t try to act brave, it’s over anyway. Even a top supercomputer can’t run normal rendering with a hole smashed into its graphics card. We’re done with work for today, that’s it.” Yan Chenli pushed him back down, leaving the back row and closing the door, then going back to the driver’s seat and fastening his seatbelt. He had just stepped on the accelerator when a phone rang out, and Yang Chenli put it on speaker while driving, hearing Shao Dongmi’s tearful complaints from the other end:

“Captain!! Captain, why did you just slip away?!”

“Because it would be fairly troublesome if you had to take A-Lu to make a statement. Just say I sent a heroic passer-by to the hospital.” Yan Chenli drove the vehicle back to the main road, but turned to a small side road to avoid the police cars he saw in the distance, “Did you see the witness off? Everything all right?”

“I did, she’s being bandaged right now… No, wait, you’re just leaving like that, what about the interviews later??”

“Just say the number of recruits was enough to end ahead of schedule. Gong Xiaolu will definitely be grouchy, so please hold him off for me, Dongmi.” Yan Chenli cheerily made the unilateral decision, then added, “Oh, also, make preparations when you get back tonight, I’ll come pick you up at the station tomorrow morning so we can set out.”

“Set out? Set out where? Where are we going?? Ah?? Why am I——”

Yan Chenli had already hung up the phone.


“Is it here?” Half an hour later, Yan Chenli slowed down and pulled over, preparing to park the car.

Shen Lu nodded.

After that, he realised that Yan Chenli was looking at the road and couldn’t see him, so he added “yes”.

There were residential buildings and shops with only three or four storeys on both sides of the road, whose construction seemed to be about ten years old, and there weren’t many people. The road was paved with autumn leaves, neat and elegant. Yan Chenli looked up and down the street, thinking about something, and smiled, “When I would go to the café to find you in the past, I would offer to take you back home every time, but you’d always refuse very bluntly.”

Shen Lu did not respond.

But Yan Chenli didn’t turn back to look at him, his gaze was still somewhere else. As if he were trying to draw something out.

Shen Lu swallowed somewhat nervously, turning his head to the side and picking at the bloody scab on the back of his hand.

“Let’s go, get down.” Yan Chenli drew back his gaze, pushing the handbrake down and pulling out the keys, then pushing open the door to go out.

Shen Lu also got up obediently, preparing to get down from the car, and glanced back. There was a large bloodstain on the place where he’d been laying, making the nice leather seat look like it had been splashed with soy sauce, and that bright yellow banana pillow had also been stained.

Shen Lu, who was used to being tidy, paused and felt uncomfortable all over.

He suppressed that unpleasant feeling of something being wrong and opened the door to get down from the car, but was stopped by Yan Chenli, “Wait.”

Yan Chenli was just looking at Shen Lu from outside the car: There was a large quantity of dried-up blood on his face, which had dripped down his neck and into his chest, and the dark red stain was incredibly obvious on his white shirt. Both of his arms were also soaked in blood, not to mention that eye-catching, bloody hole on his skull, making him look like a concept photo from a popular zombie game.

Walking out looking like that would be like literally seeing a ghost.

“Wait for me.” Yan Chenli spoke again.

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He went back around to the trunk to pick out a few suitable spare clothes and leaned back into the car to put them on Shen Lu. Yan Chenli himself was 1.87 metres tall, and the black rain jacket fit him loosely, so it was enough to cover Shen Lu’s body with. He pulled up the zipper and turned up the collar, using it to cover the lower half of his face, then covered the top of his head with a black cap and sunglasses, after that, he used the hood to reinforce the defensive perimeter so that the whole person was tightly covered up.

Yan Chenli smiled, pleased, “Hey, you look ten years younger. You look great, do you want to try wearing clothes like this in the future?”

Shen Lu shrank back inside the clothes.


Yan Chenli locked the car and the two of them crossed the street together. They climbed up the outdoor corrugated iron steps, going up three floors to Shen Lu’s former home.

Although it was Shen Lu’s house, the key was kept by Yan Chenli. After police officer Shen Lu died, Yan Chenli contacted Shen Lu’s relatives and found out there was no family living in Shen Lu’s home. He couldn’t send his things back, and Executioner Shen Lu was in active service, so he had kept police officer Shen Lu’s remaining items in his care, since Executioners were not allowed to have any personal possessions.

“Can I.” Shen Lu suddenly spoke.

The key had already been half-inserted into the lock, and Yan Chenli, who was just about to turn it, stopped, turning his head back to look at him with a questioning gaze.

Shen Lu’s tone wavered, “Can I, first, tidy up a bit? …Just give me a minute.”

“Of course, this is your house.” Yan Chenli took a step back, getting away from the door and smiling, “I can go to the convenience store to buy something to eat, you don’t need to worry. Call for me at any time.”

“No need. I’ll be done right away.”


Shen Lu went inside for a very brief period of time, he was out again in about ten seconds.

He said it was fine, and invited Yan Chenli inside.

The room wasn’t big, about 40 square metres, just right for someone living alone. The open-layout only used the counter and glass partitions as dividers, making the place seem very spacious and bright. The style was similar to that of Shen Lu’s dormitory at the Tribunal, both with a steady and reserved brown colour, but this place had been inhabited for longer, so it had a more profound sense and character.

There were even more books, more coffee jars, and more glass liquor bottles, from whiskey made from fermented rye and corn, juniper berry flavoured gin, and even crystal clear, tangerine yellow tequila. The loft was the most unique place, with large and bright windows, a dark wooden desk and chair, and a rattan chair. Flowers and plants had been clamped underneath the window, but unfortunately the green plants that had once been arranged there had already completely disappeared, leaving behind only the circular traces of their flower pots. However, there was one highlight on the loft that was enough to decorate the entire room:

A beautiful cello sat in front of an entire wall of books on one side of the loft. The windows didn’t extend to that place, allowing the corner to avoid the onslaught of the sun’s rays, and the cello reclined quietly in the shadows, like a dormant soul filled with stories.


No one had come for two years, so there was a faint mouldy smell and dust in the room. There was only one photo frame on the desk, and the clearly displaced dust on the tabletop showed that the picture frame had just been moved a bit by someone.

At this moment, the picture frame was empty.

It was located in the same place as that group photo of Yan Chenli’s team in Shen Lu’s dormitory at the Tribunal.


“I thought you lived in some sort of secret military base, isn’t this a great place? I’m very familiar with this spot, I used to pass by often.”

Yan Chenli stood by the window and looked down to the street, turning back to see Shen Lu still stiffly standing by the doorframe, so he smiled and walked outside, “Don’t you want to pack some things up? I’m gonna go wash the car, I’ll see you in a moment. Can I borrow a bucket of water?”


Yan Chenli went out the door, but Shen Lu didn’t start tidying things up. He pulled open the window curtains and stood by the window, gazing down.

The point of view from the third floor was very low, and he had a panoramic view of the street across from him, where a pitch-black Chevrolet Suburban was parked on the curb. The exemplary American full-sized SUV had a cold, hard, and tough body design, with its iconic straight lined shape and distinct edges, looking like a tall steel man as it kept watch over the street corner with a powerful atmosphere.

Soon after, he saw Yan Chenli walk past holding a bucket of water. He stopped by the side of the car, and that spot of lively and enthusiastic red offset the hard lines of the SUV and brought them a little bit to life. Yan Chenli turned his head and looked back, he smiled and waved when he saw Shen Lu by the window, then opened the car door wide and began washing the blood left on the seats.


The place where Shen Lu’s house is located was really a secret.

The reason why Shen Lu kept such a strict distance between himself and Yan Chenli stemmed from something that was almost an instinctual fear.


During the years he was in the Investigations Department, aside from chatting about cases and work, the most discussed topic in his team was gossip about Yan Chenli. Among these, the most unreasonable was a rumour that there were two male hosts at an escort shop downtown who relied on cosplaying as Yan Chenli as their selling point to solicit clients, some colleagues even suggested organising a group excursion, and multiple people agreed.

Shen Lu deeply felt that there was something really wrong with the group, but when he remembered that handsome grown face on Yan Chenli’s ID photo, it seemed that they weren’t so unreasonable.


The relatively less outrageous ones were the experiences Yan Chenli had ever since he was in school of admirers confessing their feelings for him. But these stories seemed to have the same process and result no matter who the prospective partner was.

First, Yan Chenli would set aside a day to meet with the admirer and seriously inquire and communicate the ideas of both parties——although Yan Chenli’s response would always be that of gratitude and refusal——after that, Yan Chenli would talk about who he believed was the ideal partner for the other person, he would ask about their plans for the future, and at this point the topic would always inexplicably turn into a detailed thirty year career plan for the future. Finally, after the meeting was over, Yan Chenli would distance himself from the other party as much as possible, and keep his distance from the other person from then on. Yan Chenli’s explanation was that, since he wasn’t going to respond, he simply wouldn’t waste the other person’s time.

The Investigations Department called this procedure the Three Step Yan Plan.

Their colleagues would shake their heads at the team-building parties and say: “You guys didn’t see that girl, this morning she walked into the café with Captain Yan all dressed up and filled with excitement, and in the evening she walked out stupefied and holding a huge stack of career plans. It was both funny and sad.”

It was fine when outsiders confessed, but the risk was even greater for members of the Criminal Investigation Bureau. If the other party kept trying to win Yan Chenli over after being rejected and influenced their work, the conclusion was basically only a transfer.

So much so that the Criminal Investigation Bureau had once described the fate of confessing to Yan Chenli as: First time rejection, second time a warning, third time exile to Siberia.


Shen Lu had never even dared to think about crossing the line, but he couldn’t explain his own behaviour.

He tried his best to keep everything hidden, and he didn’t know what he was afraid of.


During police officer Shen Lu’s life, there was an important iron rule during his work and rest routine; He would set an alarm clock for very early at 4 AM, pour himself a cup of boiled water, and then he would pull open a thin slit on the beige-coloured windows, then he would practice his instrument and wait.

This was because, if nothing unexpected happened, Yan Chenli would pass by this street on his morning run from the hours of 4:30 to 6:30 AM.

After he left the Investigations department, aside from a scant few strictly controlled ‘chance encounters’, this was the only opportunity Shen Lu had of seeing Yan Chenli.

He was an ordinary person, far from Yan Chenli whose energy was so extraordinary he only needed four hours of sleep to be lively and full of spirit, so he waited until after Yan Chenli had gone far away to put down his cello, then he would go back to sleep for a bit, until waking up for real at 7 AM.


If Yan Chenli had ever brought him home, he would know his home address, and he would have discovered that every time he ran past this street in the morning, Shen Lu would always, come rain or shine, be in front of the window, watching him.

How could the Shen Lu of that time ever dare let him know?


It wasn’t long before Yan Chenli finished washing the car and came back. Shen Lu had been standing there in a daze, and only came back to his senses when Yan Chenli disappeared from his sight.

Fortunately, Yan Chenli didn’t ask much. He took the bucket of water and poured it out in the bathroom, then took that squishy banana pillow with a smiley face drawn on and a round green leaf at the top of its head, stuffing it into the water to soak and rub, while asking, “Do you have the things you want to bring back? I’ll help you pack up.”

“I’m not bringing anything.” Shen Lu stood at the door of the bathroom, watching him lift the banana and pull at it until its simple smiley face went from ^u^ to —_—, as he spoke:

“I want to sell everything off. The books, the cello, the car, even the house.

“I hope you can accept the money, and use it to pay a portion of the Executioner’s expensive medical costs.”

 

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TN: A few extras for today! Firstly, the author illustrated the scene of Yan Chenli checking up on Shen Lu, you can find the original post here and the colour version among the art posted here, though I put both versions together in a post here for easier viewing.

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