CH 33

Long Zhanyu called out to people to leave. He got into a police car parked at the roadside, handed the keys to his colleague and sat on the passenger side himself.

Before he left, he leaned over next to the car window and called Chen Yuncheng, “Come here.” He hooked his finger.

Chen Yuncheng walked over and bent down to look at him through the car window.

Long Zhanyu leaned close to Chen Yuncheng’s ear and whispered, “I will definitely catch those few people, and I will also ask someone to keep an eye on your side, and I will not give Zhang Wenyong another chance to trouble you.”

Chen Yuncheng said, “Thank you, Officer Long.”

Long Zhanyu said again, “But you are the one who let Zhou Yan run away from me. You go and ask him to come back and surrender.”

Chen Yuncheng was a little helpless, “I don’t know where Zhou Yan is.”

Long Zhanyu said, “His wife and son are in the hospital now. I believe he can’t run away. You tell him that if he turns himself in, he can go to the court and asks the judge for mercy. Considering his family situation, it is not impossible to give him probation. Let him clear his head a bit and don’t get into bigger trouble.”

When Chen Yuncheng heard Long Zhanyu’s last words, he suddenly remembered Zhou Yan’s stepfather who was beaten to death at home, and his heart beat a few times uncomfortably.

Long Zhanyu looked at him, “What’s your expression?”

Chen Yuncheng closed his eyes to keep his expression from looking too grave. He stood up straight from the car window and said, “Got it, Officer Long. As long as I see Zhou Yan, I will definitely persuade him.”

Long Zhanyu nodded and asked the colleague beside him to drive.

When Long Zhanyu left, Chen Yuncheng turned his head and saw Ning Junyan standing there expressionlessly looking at them. He hurried over and hesitantly explained, “That one just now is the officer in charge of the case.”

Ning Junyan did not speak.

Chen Yuncheng turned to look at the small kiosk he had been running for more than two years and could not suppress a sigh as he reached for the broom that was leaning against the corner.

He wanted to sweep all the broken glass together, but before doing so, he squatted down and picked up the cigarettes and other things on the floor that still looked intact in their packaging.

Ning Junyan walked in at this time, took the broom from Chen Yuncheng’s hand, grabbed his wrist and said, “Go to the hospital first.”

Chen Yuncheng said, “No need, I’m not injured. It’s just my palm was cut by broken glass.”

Ning Junyan said, “Show me.”

Chen Yuncheng lowered his head and wanted to untangle the messy gauze on his hands and showed him.

Ning Junyan said, “Also on the body”

Chen Yuncheng stopped and looked up at him.

Ning Junyan stopped talking, grabbed Chen Yuncheng’s hand, and personally helped him untie the gauze on his hand.

The wound on his palm stopped bleeding, but it still looked bright red, and there were two deep wounds that looked somewhat hideous.

Ning Junyan asked him, “Has it been disinfected?”

Chen Yuncheng said, “I sprayed it with alcohol.”

Ning Junyan let go of his hand, turned and left the store and went to the pharmacy behind the street. He bought iodophor1 and cotton swabs. After he returned, he held Chen Yuncheng’s hand and carefully used the cotton swabs to disinfect the wound on his palm with iodophor.

Chen Yuncheng looked down at him, but there was not much expression on his face.

Ning Junyan wrapped his palm again with clean gauze and said, “Don’t get it wet.”

Chen Yuncheng gave a soft “mmm”.

Then Ning Junyan took off his coat and helped Chen Yuncheng to tidy up the store simply. The goods that hadn’t been smashed were picked up from the ground and placed on top of the counter.

“Who did it?” Ning Junyan asked in a cold tone.

Chen Yuncheng said, “It’s just a few gangsters. I’ve already called the police, and the police will take care of it. Don’t worry.”

Ning Junyan asked, “What are they up to? Is it related to Zhou Yan’s incident?”

Chen Yuncheng leaned against the still intact counter and said, “It’s alright. It’s just that there was a little conflict before, not a big deal.”

He was very afraid of involving Ning Junyan. Ning Junyan was not like the likes of them; it was not a big deal if they got caught and locked up for a few days. Ning Junyan was so good that he shouldn’t get involved in such things.

After he finished tidying up the store with some difficulty, when Chen Yuncheng was about to enter the inner room, he suddenly saw a small head peeking out from the door and looking in.

He stopped and saw that the person who was secretly peeking in the doorway was the little girl who hadn’t been seen for quite some time stealing things.

As she saw that Chen Yuncheng had seen her, the little girl asked, “Is there any more bread?”

The bread had a short shelf life. Chen Yuncheng didn’t open a shop two days ago and didn’t ask anyone to deliver it. He said to the little girl, “There’s no more bread, do you want biscuits?”

The little girl shook her head, “No, then.” After she said this, she turned around and was about to leave.

Chen Yuncheng quickly stopped her, “Little missy.”

The little girl looked back at him.

Chen Yuncheng said, “I don’t want your money, I’ll give you the biscuits.”

The little girl looked at him hesitantly.

The biscuits and snacks, which are not valuable goods, did not suffer much. Chen Yuncheng said to Ning Junyan, “Help me get her a bag of biscuits.”

Ning Junyan glanced at the counter and asked, “Which bag?”

Chen Yuncheng said, “All of them. There should be stuffed cookies, I think.”

Ning Junyan took a bag of Oreos, walked to the entrance of the shop, reached out and handed it to the little girl.

The little girl looked up at him but did not reach out to take it.

Chen Yuncheng leaned over the counter, looked at them with a slight smile, and said to Ning Junyan, “Be gentle.”

Ning Junyan half-squatted down and said to the little girl, “The boss gave this to you. Take it.” His tone sounded slightly warmer.

The little girl finally reached out to take it. She turned her head to look at Chen Yuncheng and said, “Thank you.” Then she turned and ran away.

Ning Junyan stood up, Chen Yuncheng was still looking at him with a smile and said to him, “Will you be gentler with your own children in the future than you are now?”

“I won’t have children,” Ning Junyan said in a calm tone as if he was saying he hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and walked inside, “The life that I like didn’t happen.”

The smile on Chen Yuncheng’s face suddenly froze and then warmed slightly. He thought that his face was probably red, but at that moment Ning Junyan wasn’t looking at him and didn’t notice.

The condition of the inner room was not much better than the outside. A lot of drinks that Chen Yuncheng had piled up against the walls were knocked over and stepped on. The ground was still wet. Because the drinks had sugar in them, it was very unpleasant to step on them as they were sticky and greasy.

Then he found that the scarf that Ning Junyan had given him that he was hanging in the room had been torn off, and it fell to the ground and stepped on it a few times.

Chen Yuncheng walked over to pick up the scarf and said, “I’ll send it to dry cleaning tomorrow.”

Ning Junyan followed him to his side, reached out and took the scarf and casually tossed it aside, saying, “Come and stay at my place tonight.”

“No need,” Chen Yuncheng refused without thinking.

Ning Junyan said, “There is no way to sleep here.”

Chen Yuncheng turned his head and glanced at the whole room, “The bed is still good.”

Ning Junyan didn’t speak and just looked at him silently.

Chen Yuncheng said, “Let me sweep the water off the floor—”

“I’m not discussing with you,” Ning Junyan interrupted him, his voice was soft, but his tone was heavy.

The author has something to say:

I don’t feel like I’m writing very well today