Chapter 28: The Drowned Die of Flood, The Parched Die of Drought

Translator: Abo Dammen

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Case Two: Dance of the Night Charm

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Shao Hui summoned He Yixun back to the police station.

The Chief’s office was spacious and bright. A solemn rosewood desk dominated the center, its dark grain swirling under the light, adding to the aura of authority. A nameplate reading “Chief Shao Hui” was placed prominently. Behind the desk, a display cabinet held numerous trophies. One of the white walls was covered with photos of Shao Hui with others. 

There was Lin Mei, and also Luo En. Xu Pei didn’t recognize the others, but they clearly looked like celebrities from various fields.

“Why are you suddenly investigating the Zhen Li case?” Shao Hui slammed the cup in his hand heavily onto the rosewood desk with a dull thud. The American ginseng slices at the bottom swirled up in a vortex before slowly settling again.

“I said, the case has doubtful points,” He Yixun answered.

“That case was adjudicated twenty years ago! What doubtful points could it possibly have?” Feeling that sitting lacked impact, Shao Hui stood up from his chair and jabbed the desk forcefully with his index finger. “Don’t be so willful! The mayor’s election is happening soon, the station is swamped with work, and you’re the only one with nothing better to do! 

“If you insist on investigating old cases, fine, form a team to look into unsolved cold cases. The Zhen Li case is an ironclad case! What are you messing around for?

“Don’t tell me you’re just doing this to make trouble for your mother! You’re 30 years old, what, are you still going through a rebellious phase?”

Xu Pei mentally tsked. This Chief really laid into someone harshly.

He was pointing at He Yixun’s nose, bawling him out, then grabbed his cup and slammed it on the desk. But seeing He Yixun completely unresponsive was like having his anger with nowhere to go. He tugged at his tie, unscrewed the cup, and took a large gulp of ginseng tea, only to frown sharply from the scalding heat, making his rage even worse. “You are not allowed to investigate this case!” 

He Yixun’s expression hadn’t changed from start to finish, as if saying: Are you done? I have things to do.

The one being scolded was nonchalant, while the one doing the scolding was red in the face. Seeing Shao Hui breathing rapidly, his face turning bluish, Xu Pei was worried he might hyperventilate.

After Shao Hui sat back in his chair and calmed down slightly, Xu Pei couldn’t help but ask, “Why can’t it be investigated?”

Apparently not expecting Xu Pei to interject, Shao Hui frowned at him. “What?” 

“I don’t really understand why investigating this case means making trouble for Lin Mei,” Xu Pei asked. “Is she connected to this case?”

Shao Hui was stumped. His raging fury, as if hitting a firebreak, was abruptly halted, stuck in place.

He Yixun glanced faintly at Xu Pei but said nothing.

“Aren’t you just trying to investigate the Progressive Society?” Shao Hui finally found his footing again, his bluster surging back instantly. “Lin Mei is the new Progressive Society Chairman. How is that not making trouble for her?” 

“We are investigating the Zhen Li wife-murder case, Chief Shao,” Xu Pei reminded him. “You seem to have already assumed this case is related to the Progressive Society.”

“You…” The anger ultimately backfired. Shao Hui was so furious he seemed on the verge of hyperventilating. He quickly opened a drawer, took out a pill box, and swallowed a few pills with his ginseng tea.

“Don’t worry about it,” He Yixun, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. “I’m only investigating Zhen Li’s case. I won’t get involved in Lin Mei’s affairs.”

Shao Hui supported his forehead with his hand, looking utterly weary, and waved his hand dismissively, as if not wanting to see He Yixun anymore for the sake of his own health. 

“You didn’t get scolded for nothing,” Xu Pei said, finding it amusing as they left the office. He never thought a clue would just present itself like that. “The Zhen Li case is related to the Progressive Society.”

“I knew when he called me,” He Yixun said. “But he has underlying health issues. I usually avoid provoking him.”

No wonder. Xu Pei wondered why He Yixun hadn’t said a word in the office. Turns out he was afraid of aggravating Shao Hui’s condition.

He certainly didn’t think He Yixun was concerned about Shao Hui’s health—it was purely to avoid trouble. 

“But I still get the feeling you’ll end up making trouble for Lin Mei anyway,” said Xu Pei.

The application for regular visitor status was approved, and Xu Pei and He Yixun found themselves back at Binshi First Prison.

Xu Pei was curious why, if Shao Hui didn’t want them investigating the Zhen Li case, their application was still approved. He Yixun explained that the prison and police departments were separate systems.

If Shao Hui wanted to intervene, he would need to contact the Ministry of Justice. But the former prosecutor and new mayor, Li Menglan, was the one with closer ties to the Ministry of Justice, so it wasn’t that easy for Shao Hui to block it. 

Compared to their last meeting, Zhen Li looked much more spirited. He had changed into a plaid shirt, applied hair gel, and his glasses were spotless, reflecting the sunlight coming through the skylight. It was as if He Yixun and Xu Pei’s arrival had filled him with renewed hope for life.

However, Xu Pei still had many questions needing Zhen Li’s explanation.

“We’ve seen the case files,” Xu Pei started. “A neighbor testified that you and Si Lei had a fierce argument. Your explanation to the court was that you were arguing about trivial life matters, which was clearly not convincing. What were you really arguing about?

“Only your fingerprints were on the trash bag by the door. Why is that? Did you really not remember when the glass broke? 

“Right after your arrest, you kept insisting the Progressive Society was framing you. But after meeting with your lawyer, you stopped mentioning the Progressive Society and only said you weren’t the killer. Why was that?”

Xu Pei fired off a series of questions. Zhen Li tried to interject several times but couldn’t get a word in. Finally, he waited for Xu Pei to finish all his questions, adjusted his glasses, and said, “Let me start from the beginning.

“It was a weekend. Around noon, I attended a private gathering with a few scholars. In the afternoon, when I came back, I saw Si Lei hanged at home. You asked what we were arguing about before? She said she was going to expose Luo En’s true face. I told her not to be impulsive because Luo En was powerful and influential, someone we simply couldn’t afford to provoke.

“She wouldn’t listen to me and was determined to do it. So when I came home and saw that scene, my first reaction was that the Progressive Society had come to silence her. 

“But after speaking with my lawyer, I realized I had no evidence. The Progressive Society is immensely powerful. If I kept targeting them, I might also be silenced, without even a chance to go to prison.

“That’s why I didn’t explain the reason for our argument clearly in court. Explaining it clearly would inevitably involve the Progressive Society, but I didn’t dare. So I could only make something up.

“You mentioned only my fingerprints were on the trash bag. That’s because when I came back and opened the door, the trash bag was blocking it from behind. I didn’t think much of it and just picked it up. Thinking about it now, this was probably their method to frame me, which was pretending to clean up the scene, then waiting for me to touch that trash bag.

“As for that glass, I genuinely remembered it incorrectly. Because Si Lei and I had also broken a glass during our argument the previous day, I thought it was that one. It was only when the police told me this glass was newly broken that I realized I had mixed them up. 

“Professor Xu, Officer He.” By the end, his previously measured tone became slightly more urgent. “The reason I was convicted was that I didn’t dare speak freely in court about the situation with the Progressive Society, which made me seem very suspicious. But the journalist and the police can testify for me. I truly couldn’t open the door at the time. If I were the killer, why wouldn’t I leave? Why would I be banging on the door so loudly?”

Xu Pei listened quietly. After Zhen Li finished, he asked, “You said you were at a gathering with several scholars. Couldn’t they prove you didn’t have the time to commit the crime?”

“No. Those few people were all Progressive Society members. We knew each other through the Society. They all denied that I had even attended the gathering.”

So that was it. 

It really was a tightly woven net.

Perhaps Luo En himself instructed those scholars to invite Zhen Li out.

It seemed that to clear Zhen Li’s suspicion, they still needed to solve the mystery of the door lock.

“You’ve been in prison for twenty years. Didn’t you ever think about appealing your case?” He Yixun, who had been silent, spoke up. “You just waited for Luo En to die of illness?” 

“Officer He, Lin Mei is your mother. You should understand the power of the Progressive Society quite well, right?” Zhen Li responded.

“Not specifically,” He Yixun remarked. “They seem to rarely engage in public activities.”

“That’s true too. The Progressive Society today has long become a small clique for those in power, as low-key as can be,” Zhen Li sighed. “Let me put it this way. The Progressive Society has five core members: the former Chief Justice Luo En, Mayor Lin Mei, Police Chief Shao Hui, the retired Minister of Finance Qian Kuang, and the owner of Binshi Television, Wei Tai.

“Besides them, there are many underlings. How could I appeal? 

“Now Luo En is dead. Lin Mei has stepped down from the mayor’s position. I have high hopes for her successor, Li Menglan. Shao Hui should be retiring soon, right? Qian Kuang is already largely inactive. Wei Tai just follows the lead of the others. So now is the good opportunity to appeal.”

He’s incredibly patient, Xu Pei thought.

“But your case has no new evidence at all. It will be very difficult to overturn the verdict,” Xu Pei pointed out.

“Have you looked for that journalist?” Zhen Li asked. “So many years have passed, so finding the real killer is probably impossible. But I think you could at least prove that I’m not the killer.” 

That line of thinking was correct.

They still needed to start with the journalist and the police to prove there was something wrong with the door lock.

“Did you notice if the coffee table had been moved when you came home?” He Yixun suddenly asked.

Zhen Li was taken aback. “The coffee table? What about it?” 

“The coffee table had moved about twenty centimeters closer to the sofa,” said He Yixun.

“The coffee table… I’ve almost forgotten what the coffee table at home looked like…” Zhen Li lowered his chin, his eyes moving side to side as if trying to recall. “Where did it move to?”

“Right up against the sofa,” He Yixun reminded him.

“I didn’t notice,” Zhen Li answered. 

Xu Pei said to He Yixun, “We should still go find that journalist.”

He Yixun observed Zhen Li’s reaction and gave a faint “Mm” of agreement.

“Oh, right.” Zhen Li stood up from the sofa, took a magnet out of a drawer, and said to Xu Pei, “I thought of a possibility. That stone you have might be a meteorite.” 

Xu Pei: “A meteorite?”

“And it’s very likely capable of disrupting magnetic fields,” Zhen Li remarked. “Why don’t you take it out and try?”

Xu Pei disassembled the blocker and handed the small stone to Zhen Li. Just as Zhen Li suspected, the stone actually stuck to the magnet.

“Just as I thought! I knew it!” Zhen Li became instantly excited, like a child who’d gotten a new toy. “So the trigger for the crossing is a change in the magnetic field! And you, Professor Xu, the stone on you must have interacted in some way with the magnetic field during the thunderstorm… I’m a genius! 

“No, your parents are! They left this special stone to you.” Zhen Li calmed down a bit and added, “But they must be very worried since you crossed over.”

Xu Pei didn’t feel excited at all. “They died in a car accident when I was ten.”

He Yixun glanced at Xu Pei upon hearing this.

“Uh, I’m sorry,” Zhen Li responded, looking embarrassed, and changed the subject. “Can you tell me about your world? 

“You said you’re a biologist. What kind of research do you do specifically?”

Zhen Li’s acceptance of the unknown was clearly higher than He Yixun’s, so Xu Pei didn’t mind sharing with him.

“A few hundred years ago, we had a plague over there…”

He told Zhen Li everything he had previously told He Yixun and even expanded on some social conditions: “We live in an A-dominant society. I’m not really fond of the natural rule that omegas go into heat twice a year. So I wanted to develop a drug that would allow omegas to choose when to go into heat, or even not to go into heat at all. But this goes against the interests of the alpha groups, so my research proposals always get rejected for various reasons. 

“My current research direction is gland repair and modification. This helps some alphas regain their ‘prowess,’ so my funding has always been quite sufficient…”

“That’s how scientific research is,” Zhen Li shook his head. “There’s no pure academia. In the end, it’s all about interests.”

The two chatted very congenially until Xu Pei suddenly felt something was off with his body. Startled, he quickly said to Zhen Li, “Dr. Zhen, can I have the stone back? I need to put my ring on.”

How could I forget the most important thing? That was really careless. 

After putting the blocker back on, Xu Pei inexplicably felt someone’s gaze on him. He turned his head and met He Yixun’s deep eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Xu Pei asked.

“You told him so much,” He Yixun commented with a slight frown.

“You heard it all too, didn’t you?” 

He Yixun’s frown didn’t relax, but his phone suddenly rang. Without saying more, he went aside to answer the call. Just as Xu Pei was about to continue his conversation with Zhen Li, He Yixun returned from his call and interrupted, “Qian Kuang is dead. An asthma attack.”

Zhen Li was completely stunned. “He’s dead too?”

Xu Pei had just heard the name. “Who was he again?”

“The retired Minister of Finance,” He Yixun explained. “I need to go take a look.” 

Xu Pei could have stayed behind alone, but thinking they had been there long enough and that it would be inconvenient to get a taxi in this remote location, he decided to leave with He Yixun. However, in the car, Xu Pei faintly realized that even wearing the blocker, he was feeling unwell. So he found an excuse to part ways with He Yixun and took a taxi home by himself.

Just like an itchy throat is a precursor to a cold, an itchy gland is a precursor to heat.

People with itchy throats keep drinking hot water, praying not to get sick. Similarly, after Xu Pei got home, he took a cold shower, hoping his body wouldn’t act up.

But things didn’t go as planned. 

That headache-inducing situation appeared again, and it was different every time.

This time, there was no secretion of fluid, but his reproductive cavity was unbearably itchy, making Xu Pei wish he could reach in and scratch it.

Of course, he wouldn’t do that. Nor did he know how.

So he tried his best to remain calm, lay down on the sofa, positioned his legs in an M-shape, and dealt with that iron will. 

If only I had a gland massager, he thought, at least it could secrete some fluid for lubrication. Right now, Xu Pei’s hand was almost getting chafed, but the “will” showed not the slightest reaction.

No good. Too dry.

Even heat cycles play the ‘drowned die of flood, parched die of drought‘ game?

After struggling for a while longer, Xu Pei resigned himself to his fate. 

He didn’t know when He Yixun would be back, so he had to make this quick. So he simply set the blocker index to zero, went to the bedroom, and burrowed under the covers.

…The new mattress was really comfortable, with great support. 

What are you thinking! Get on with it!

Perhaps because he couldn’t fully immerse himself, even the familiar juniper scent couldn’t stir that steel beam.

Maybe…

He needed a little… stimulation. 

To get this over with quickly, Xu Pei could no longer afford to be ashamed. He opened He Yixun’s wardrobe, swallowed nervously like a thief with a guilty conscience, and then…

…carried He Yixun’s police uniform to the bed.

He had to admit, He Yixun looked pretty handsome in his uniform…

Finally, he started getting some feeling. Hiding under the covers, Xu Pei worked diligently like a busy little bee, not stopping for a moment. 

Visual imagination was more effective than smell, and the sense of transgression from stealing the uniform added to the stimulation.

Xu Pei’s mind was completely filled with the thought, “Focus, or the feeling will be gone,” so much so that he didn’t even hear the sound of the front door opening and closing.

So, when He Yixun returned home after dealing with the Qian Kuang matter, he found Xu Beagle misbehaving again—sneaking into his bed.

Not entirely unexpected. 

Because every day when he came home, Xu Pei had a surprise for him, whether it was misplacing things or dirtying his clothes.

But as he got closer, He Yixun realized the movements under the covers seemed… not quite right.

He didn’t know what Xu Pei was doing under there, but he was making some strange… muffled sounds.

Almost like… moans. 

Whoosh. He Yixun yanked the covers back, his hand freezing mid-air.

He saw Xu Pei wearing the Beagle pajama top, his lower body bare… engaged in an indescribable act.

Perhaps due to extreme shock, a white stain flew from his hand, splattering all over He Yixun’s police uniform.

So— 

He Yixun gradually processed the scene: the little dog at home was… enjoying himself with his police uniform.

Even Officer He, who was accustomed to all sorts of scenes, was quite shocked by this sight.

“What. Are. You. Doing?”

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Author’s Feed: 

Xu Pei: I’m dead.