CH 54

Lu Ye didn’t want to speculate about Qi Yanbai, but he found it hard to convince himself to ignore the inconsistencies in Qi Yanbai’s words.

The rain in the sky was getting heavier, the cold rain felt like a knife, pouring down on him. The taillights of the police car had already disappeared into the night. Lu Ye’s gaze shifted, and he suddenly felt his heart in turmoil.

On one hand, he wanted to believe it was just a misunderstanding. Maybe there was a new student in Qi Yanbai’s class. On the other hand, he knew that the training center had just started, and the possibility of a new student joining so soon was extremely low.

“Why are you standing here?” A colleague, holding an umbrella, had approached him without him realizing it. While shielding him from the rain, the colleague looked in the direction of his gaze and asked, “What are you looking at? It’s pitch-black, what can you see?”

“Nothing,” Lu Ye finally came to his senses. He shook his head, didn’t say much, and just took the umbrella. He asked, “Is it time to head back?”

“Yes, all the suspects are in the vehicles behind,” his colleague heaved a long sigh of relief and said, “Finally done with it. After working late for so long, we can finally have a regular shift starting tomorrow.”

Their team had been working extra shifts for almost half a month, and their uniforms were almost worn out. Now, out of the blue, they were talking about having a regular shift, which felt like a ray of sunshine.

However, Lu Ye’s reaction was unusually indifferent. He gave a faint “hmm” and seemed preoccupied. He turned and got into the police car, closing the passenger-side door with ease.

His colleague sensed that something was amiss and followed suit, getting into the car. While starting the engine, he asked, “What’s wrong? Are you in a bad mood?”

“No,” Lu Ye said after a pause, as if he had remembered something, and he reached out to his colleague, saying, “By the way, can I borrow your phone?”

“Hmm?” His colleague patted himself down with one hand and then pulled out his phone from his pocket, unlocking the screen and handing it to Lu Ye. He casually asked, “Is your phone out of battery? There’s a portable charger in the glove compartment.”

Lu Ye shook his head and didn’t answer. He quickly opened the dialing interface with one hand and paused for a moment. Then, from memory, he dialed the front desk number of the training center.

At this time, the training center had finished its classes, but the front desk was still open. Lu Ye’s call hadn’t even rung twice before someone answered.

“Hello, this is the Wei Si Art Training Center,” the receptionist said. “How may I help you?”

With one hand, Lu Ye took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and, with a hoarse voice, said, “Hello, I’d like to inquire if the advanced class students have all been dismissed for the evening.”

“They’ve all been dismissed,” the receptionist, not recognizing his voice, assumed he was a parent picking up a student. She quickly replied, “The advanced class was dismissed ten minutes ago. There were no delays today.”

“All of them?” Lu Ye emphasized, asking, “Are there any students who haven’t left yet?”

“No, there aren’t,” the receptionist answered, a little nervous. Her initial thought was that a student might not have made it home in time, and a parent was inquiring. She quickly explained, “All seventeen students from the advanced class have already been dismissed. Due to the rain, their respective parents came to pick them up, and we matched them up one by one before letting them go.”

“Are you a parent of one of the students?” The receptionist asked cautiously. “I can help you check with our administrative teacher to see which parent came to pick up the students tonight.”

“No need,” Lu Ye got the answer he wanted and, with a faint laugh, said, “My child just got back. Sorry for the trouble.”

He hung up the phone without waiting for a response from the front desk.

“What’s going on?” His colleague asked in confusion. “Isn’t your niece in the basic class? hasn’t she gone home either?”

Lu Ye was feeling emotionally drained. He shook his head in response to his colleague’s question, didn’t say anything, and simply handed the phone back to him. Then, he sighed softly.

There were seventeen students in the advanced class, and the number was correct. Moreover, for a training institution, knowing the whereabouts of the students was a big deal. If there had indeed been a student who skipped class and had gone missing, when dealing with an unknown student’s parent inquiring about the students’ whereabouts, they would, at the very least, ask if they were the parent of the absent student rather than confidently stating that all students had been dismissed.

So, Qi Yanbai was indeed lying, Lu Ye thought.

Having been in the police force for so many years, Lu Ye had seen too many liars. Lies meant concealment, and something that someone didn’t want to be discovered had occurred. That wasn’t a big deal, but Lu Ye couldn’t understand why Qi Yanbai would lie about such a trivial matter.

Lu Ye considered himself to be an easy-going person. Even if Qi Yanbai had come out to attend the carnival out of curiosity or just wanted to have some fun, Lu Ye wouldn’t have found it difficult to accept.

However, perhaps because Lu Ye had never imagined the words “lying” would be associated with Qi Yanbai, he suddenly felt a strange sense of dislocation when he unexpectedly discovered this.

It was as if some taken-for-granted understanding was being shaken, and Lu Ye turned to look at the thick night outside, feeling an inexplicable and deep sense of unease slowly spreading.

Through the gap in the car seat, Lu Ye’s phone screen suddenly lit up, and a WeChat message from Qi Yanbai appeared on the home screen. Lu Ye glanced at it briefly, and for a moment, he had a very unfamiliar sensation.

The new message quietly lay on the screen, and he remained silent for two seconds. In the end, he didn’t reach out to check it and just watched as the screen went dark again.

The sent message seemed to have vanished into thin air. Qi Yanbai unlocked his screen, only to turn it off again. He repeatedly played with the cold phone in his hand.

A few minutes later, the car door beside him was reopened, and Yao Xing returned, handing him a cup of lukewarm hot milk tea.

“Teacher Qi, are you cold? Have some hot tea,” Yao Xing said.

“Thank you,” Qi Yanbai put away his phone, held the cup with both hands, and smiled at Yao Xing. “You’re a big help.”

“No trouble at all. It’s what Lu Ye instructed,” Yao Xing said as she got back into the car, started the engine, and glanced at the rearview mirror. She joked, “Lu Ye said you’re working tomorrow, and you got caught in the rain tonight, so make sure you don’t catch a cold.”

Yao Xing tilted her head and gestured to the blanket draped over Qi Yanbai. She added, “He brought the blanket from their car.”

The blanket Qi Yanbai had wrapped around himself was a bit worn, with frayed edges and a faint smell of smoke. It was clear that it had been in the police car for years, far from the refined and clean image of a teacher like Qi Yanbai.

But perhaps because it was Lu Ye who brought it over, Qi Yanbai hesitated for a moment and didn’t reject it. Instead, he subconsciously clutched the blanket tighter, feeling that the lingering scent of smoke had softened.

“Lu Ye might seem tough, but he has a kind heart,” Yao Xing said. “He thinks of everything.”

Qi Yanbai was gentle and friendly, and he got along well with colleagues from the sub-bureau. So Yao Xing spoke to him without reservation and even praised Lu Ye.

“Especially when it comes to you, Teacher Qi,” Yao Xing said with a smile. “Since he started dating you, he rarely goes out to eat with us anymore. He always says he’s picking you up from work, and he remembers your work schedule even better than the duty roster.

Lu Ye was attentive, and Qi Yanbai knew it better than anyone else.

He always seemed to sense Qi Yanbai’s emotions immediately, and then he would comfort him and take care of him without leaving a trace, shielding him from everything he didn’t like.

Qi Yanbai knew that Lu Ye didn’t have any special means to do this; he simply cared deeply enough.

Until today, Qi Yanbai used to be delighted, satisfied, and even smug about Lu Ye’s caring attitude. But now, as he held the warmth of Lu Ye’s consideration in his hands and listened to Yao Xing talk about it, he couldn’t feel any satisfaction.

Envy surged in Qi Yanbai’s heart for a moment. He thought he didn’t want to be “Teacher Qi” anymore. He wished Lu Ye would see him, notice him, and love him. The real him.

For a brief moment, Qi Yanbai suddenly had the urge to be honest with Lu Ye. He wanted to tell him what kind of person he truly was, reveal everything Lu Ye didn’t know about him, and take what he wanted from him again, relying on Lu Ye’s indulgence.

But as he glanced at the tea in his hand, Qi Yanbai quickly dismissed the idea on his own.

Lu Ye disliked being lied to, Qi Yanbai thought. He would definitely get angry.

But it was also fine not to be completely open. Qi Yanbai lowered his head, took a sip of the tea, and thought aimlessly: He could slowly, bit by bit, reveal the harmless aspects of himself to Lu Ye, just like when he first approached him, slowly and quietly reshaping Lu Ye’s impression of him.