CH 22

Ning Junyan drove Chen Yuncheng back.

Chen Yuncheng sat in the passenger seat and was a little absent-minded all the way.

It wasn’t until Ning Junyan pulled up in front of Chen Yuncheng’s small kiosk that he said to Chen Yuncheng before he got out of the car, “Take me to see Zhou Yan’s child first, and I will talk to his attending physician.”

Chen Yuncheng had already unbuckled his seat belt, he nodded and asked, “When is it convenient for you?”

Ning Junyan replied, “Tomorrow, I don’t have surgery scheduled in the afternoon, give me a call before you come.”

Chen Yuncheng replied, “Okay.” Then he said, “Thank you.”

Ning Junyan did not say anything.

After Chen Yuncheng got off the car, he stood on the side of the road and watched Ning Junyan drive the car away. His whole self still felt a little disoriented, and it took him a long time to find the key to the rolling shutter door.

As he entered the store, Chen Yuncheng locked the door, but did not rush into the inner room, and sat down on the chair at the counter.

The words that Ning Junyan had said to him were always on his mind.

He was twenty-eight years old this year, and he grew up in a complex environment since he was a child. He had come into contact with all kinds of people in society, but he had never had a girlfriend because he had not met the right one. Most of the girls he could meet in this environment were from poor families and had come out to work at a young age to earn money. Some of them had taken the initiative to show him affection, but he just didn’t feel that way and didn’t feel he could take on the responsibility of a family.

Although his emotional experience was in a blank state, it didn’t mean that he had no social experience to judge the world.

Ning Junyan said that his words were all in jest, but Chen Yuncheng felt that the two men would not joke like this. Even with his brothers and friends who had a good relationship with him, no one would make such ambiguous jokes like this.

As he thought of this, Chen Yuncheng suddenly felt a little irritable. He reached out and picked up the cigarette case that was sitting on the counter, and shook out a cigarette. He didn’t usually smoke, and he didn’t light the cigarette. He just held it in his mouth, as if it could relieve his anxiety a little.

He wanted to borrow money from Ning Junyan, and it was not a small amount. With money involved, many things became more complicated. It was difficult for him to refuse Ning Junyan’s request, and he had no idea what kind of request Ning Junyan would make of him.

Chen Yuncheng didn’t hate Ning Junyan, not at all, even in the two years they just separated, he still missed Ning Junyan very much, but he never thought he liked men. Today, Ning Junyan held his hand, which made him squirm a little. After tomorrow, how should he continue to face Ning Junyan?

However, in the next second, Chen Yuncheng began to wonder if he was thinking too much. Perhaps Ning Junyan was really just joking. He wanted to recall every word and expression of Ning Junyan today but found that his memories were not quite clear. Aside from their childhood experience, Chen Yuncheng couldn’t even think of the reason why Ning Junyan liked him. They were like people from two worlds who had crossed paths because of childhood misfortune, and it was a rare occurrence for them to be friends.

Chen Yuncheng threw the cigarette on the counter. After he sat in the store for a long time, he began to feel the cold of the night eating away at his body, so he got up and carried the small heater from the counter into the room inside.

He plugged the heater in and reached out to turn the switch, which instantly emitted strong orange light, but after less than two seconds, the heater’s glow suddenly disappeared.

Chen Yuncheng turned off the heater and turned it on again, but this time the heater was completely off. Annoyed, he unplugged it and left the broken heater in the corner of the room.

It was only before he went to bed that Chen Yuncheng remembered that Zhou Yan had not called him.

At this time, it was already past 10.30 pm. Chen Yuncheng sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the quilt and dialling Zhou Yan’s phone. But Zhou Yan didn’t pick up after many rings.

He was not sure if Zhou Yan was on the night watch in the hospital ward, and turned off the sound of his mobile phone for fear that it would affect other patients and their families in the ward.

After hesitating for a while, Chen Yuncheng didn’t call Zhou Yan again but sent a WeChat message asking Zhou Yan to call him back when it was convenient.

In the end, Zhou Yan did not call Chen Yuncheng back until the next morning.

Chen Yuncheng got up, and when he opened the shutters of the kiosk, he put the phone on his shoulder and called Zhou Yan again. This time, it was not that no one answered, but the call prompted that the other party had turned off.

He was a little inexplicable. He didn’t know what Zhou Yan meant by turning off his phone, or whether his phone was out of power when he woke up in the morning.

Chen Yuncheng stood in front of the kiosk, hesitating whether he should go directly to the hospital to find Zhou Yan now. He wanted to quickly tell Zhou Yan about Ning Junyan’s promise to lend money for the child’s medical treatment so that Zhou Yan could draw a clear line with Zhang Wenyong earlier, and the impact on them after the crime could be minimized.

Afterwards, Chen Yuncheng wanted to call Gu Yaojia first and ask her if Zhou Yan was still in the hospital. Just when he was looking for Gu Yaojia’s phone number in the address book, a police car stopped in front of his store.

Chen Yuncheng stopped, locked the mobile phone screen and put it on his chest as he watched Long Zhan Yu get out of the car with another male police officer who looked quite familiar.

Long Zhanyu was wearing a crumpled-down jacket, his hair was not properly groomed, and his whole body looked a bit haggard.

He was smoking a cigarette. After he got out of the car, he took the cigarette in his hand and said to the other policeman, “I want a big bowl, mixed sauce.”

The policeman nodded and went directly to the noodle shop next to Chen Yuncheng’s kiosk. It seemed that the two had come to have breakfast nearby.

Long Zhanyu walked to Chen Yuncheng and asked, “So early?”

Chen Yuncheng stuffed his phone into his trousers pocket and said, “Officer Long, are you working the night shift?”

Long Zhanyu said, “I worked overtime last night and was busy all night, so I only had time to come out and have something to eat now.”

Chen Yuncheng smiled, turned to look at the noodle shop over there, and said, “Do you want to eat noodles? Let me treat you.”

After he finished speaking, he turned to walk towards the noodle shop, but Long Zhanyu suddenly stopped him, “Hey! What about what I asked you to inquire about?”

Chen Yuncheng stopped, turned his head and said to Long Zhanyu, “Officer Long, you think too highly of me, this area is so big, unless I go and keep an eye on those two X-people every day, how else would I be able to know who they are hanging out with?”

Long Zhanyu looked a little serious. He said, “It’s not that you don’t know. You’re just afraid of implicating your friends, so you don’t dare to say anything, right?”

Chen Yuncheng suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart.

Long Zhanyu said, “Where is Zhou Yan?”

Chen Yuncheng asked, “What did he get into?”

Long Zhanyu sneered, “I’ll give you a chance. It’s not too late for you to ask Zhou Yan to turn himself in.”

After he finished speaking, Long Zhanyu walked toward the noodle shop next to him. He and his colleagues sat at the table by the roadside.

Chen Yuncheng looked at them, and the two of them were also looking at Chen Yuncheng. The other policeman said something to Long Zhanyu, but his eyes fell on Chen Yuncheng’s face. Long Zhanyu nodded, stretched out his hand and took out a pair of chopsticks from the chopstick holder, placed it on the table with a clean chopstick, and waited for his large bowl of mixed sauce noodles to be cooked.

Chen Yuncheng turned around and went back to the store, took out his mobile phone and called Guan Anlin.

The phone rang for a long time before it was connected. Guan Anlin didn’t seem to awake yet, and his tone was impatient, “What?”

Chen Yuncheng asked, “Did something happen to Zhang Wenyong?”

Guan Anlin was silent for a moment, “How do you know?”

Chen Yuncheng asked, “What happened to Zhang Wenyong?”

Guan Anlin said, “The police came and took him away last night and asked him to assist in the investigation.” After speaking, he paused for a while and then asked, “How do you know? You betrayed him too?”

Chen Yuncheng ignored him and just asked, “Where’s Zhou Yan? Do you have any news about Zhou Yan?”

Guan Anlin said coldly, “No.”

Chen Yuncheng said, “Okay.” Then hung up the phone.

Guan Anlin was about to taunt him with a few words, but when the phone was suddenly hung up, he suddenly slammed his phone onto the bed in anger.

________________________________________

Chen Yuncheng: There’s something I’m not really comfortable talking about, I’m still a virgin at the age of 28…

Ning Junyan: It doesn’t matter, I’m 30 years old.