CH 57

Fate’s twists and turns sometimes unfold like a chain reaction, where one small event sets off a series of consequences.

With one question answered, the rest suddenly fell into place—such as why Qi Yanbai knew him so well, why his “help” always came so timely, and why he could… always run into him at the “perfect” moments.

Thinking of this, Lu Ye’s thoughts suddenly froze. He hesitated while examining the listening device, and then it seemed like he remembered something. He stood up abruptly from his desk, checking his jacket carefully.

His colleague sitting next to him was taken aback by his sudden movement, and while gulping down a mouthful of soy milk, they asked, “What’s going on? Is something wrong?”

After checking his jacket without finding anything unusual, Lu Ye’s gaze wandered around his desk for a moment, carefully inspecting every “suspicious item.” Finally, he focused on his phone.

“It’s nothing,” Lu Ye’s eyes narrowed, and without saying a word, he picked up his phone, put it in his pocket, and said, “I’ll go to the Technical Investigation Department for a moment, and I’ll be right back.”

As he said this, he hurriedly left the office. His colleague watched him leave, puzzled for a while, then shook their head and tossed the soy milk cup into the trash.

“What’s gotten into him?” the colleague muttered.

The tech department was much busier than the Public Security Brigade during working hours. In the office next door, the Criminal Investigation Division’s personnel were bustling about, several specialized machines were emitting a low hum, and printers along the wall were spitting out reports one by one.

Lu Ye stood at the entrance of the Technical Investigation Department, peeked inside, lightly knocked on the door.

“Oh, it’s Lu Ye.” A middle-aged police officer near the door heard the sound and greeted him with a smile. “What’s up? Do you need help with a case?”

“Nothing like that,” Lu Ye smiled and said, “Liu-ge, can you do me a favor? Check my phone for me.”

“Your phone? What’s wrong with it?” The middle-aged officer asked in confusion.

“It seems like it has a virus,” Lu Ye vaguely replied, “I’m worried about security, so I want to check it.”

The middle-aged officer said, “Oh,” nodded, and said, “No problem. It’s simple. Just find Xiao Zheng in the Communications Department.”

He raised his voice and shouted, “Xiao Zheng, are you busy? Help Lu Ye check something.”

A young officer at the other end of the office quickly raised his head, said “Okay,” and gestured for Lu Ye to come over.

He said. “What’s wrong Lu Ye?”

“Nothing serious,” Lu Ye said, placing his phone on Xiao Zheng’s desk. He politely asked, “I just want you to check it for me, see if there’s anything unusual on my phone.”

Regularly cleaning communication devices was common practice for police officers, so Xiao Zheng didn’t find it unusual. He nodded and removed the protective case from Lu Ye’s phone, examined it inside and out, and then plugged in a data cable, connecting it to the nearby mainframe computer.

Xiao Zheng worked quickly. He scanned through all the data, and after a moment, he furrowed his brow and made an intrigued sound.

Lu Ye’s heart skipped a beat. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You have a hidden software here,” Xiao Zheng said, his brow furrowing deeper. He stared at the screen and then adjusted the mouse wheel. After carefully examining the data for a while, he turned the screen towards Lu Ye and pointed at one of the folders.

“Hidden software?” Lu Ye had already guessed, but he asked anyway, “What’s it for?”

“It’s for tracking,” Xiao Zheng replied with a tight frown. He said seriously, “It has been continuously accessing your information and transmitting it externally. Look here, these are the transmission records.”

As expected, Lu Ye thought.

His speculation had finally turned into reality. The truth in front of him felt like dust settling, lightly weighing down on his heart.

Perhaps due to the mental preparation he had made this time, Lu Ye’s mood was much calmer than he had imagined. He looked at the dense transmission records on the screen in the direction Xiao Zheng had pointed, and felt his heart sinking with every moment. It made it difficult for him to breathe.

“So…” Lu Ye’s voice sounded somewhat stiff. He paused for a moment before continuing, “Can you tell when this was installed?”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Xiao Zheng replied hesitantly. “It’s been there for a while. This software regularly clears its records. I can only see the transmission records from the past three months.”

Three months, Lu Ye thought. At that time, he and Qi Yanbai hadn’t even started dating yet.

Perhaps due to his profession, Lu Ye was always cautious about any unreasonable “coincidences.” However, even with that in mind, until today, at this very moment, he had never doubted that those coincidences were “fabricated” by Qi Yanbai.

The romantic “coincidences” from before were suddenly shrouded in a wet and cold gloom. Lu Ye’s back felt chilled, and he stared at the densely packed data on the screen, feeling that he might never have truly understood Qi Yanbai.

He felt a chilling sensation on one side, but on the other, his questions were growing in magnitude.

Lu Ye couldn’t understand. If everything Qi Yanbai had shown him was a beautified facade of himself, and why had he gone to such great lengths to get close to him?

In terms of wealth, Qi Yanbai’s family background might even be richer than his. In terms of power, he was just an ordinary public security police officer. Lu Ye couldn’t understand why Qi Yanbai would invest so much in pursuing him.

These questions were like a tangled mess, hard to unravel. Lu Ye pinched his nose and, in the end, couldn’t help but chuckle self-mockingly, thinking that perhaps his love life had been cursed from the start. Just as he thought he had finally met someone reliable after getting rid of two scoundrels, it turned out that Qi Yanbai had taken an entirely different path, one that no one else had ventured down.

“Lu Ye.” In the blink of an eye, Zheng had finished examining all the records. This type of software involved complex information flow, and he tried to trace it back but couldn’t find the source of the signal. He had to reluctantly close the page and said, “I couldn’t find the device that receives the location. What happened? Did someone take your phone?”

It was a sensitive question, and Lu Ye quickly regained his composure. The name “Qi Yanbai” was on the tip of his tongue, but he bit it back.

“I accidentally clicked on a few shady links on my phone earlier,” Lu Ye said. “Maybe I accidentally downloaded some malware.”

He had to shoulder this responsibility himself, and Zheng didn’t raise any suspicions. Zheng nodded in agreement and casually clicked a few times.

“Be more careful next time. There are many phishing links out there now,” Zheng said. “But this software is a bit rogue. Do you want me to remove it for you?”

“Not for now,” Lu Ye said, with a sudden thought. He shook his head, refusing, and added, “I have some important files on my phone. I’ll make a backup and format it when I get home.”

As a regular police officer, confidentiality wasn’t always high in his line of work, and his daily tasks weren’t particularly sensitive. Zheng probably hadn’t considered the possibility of someone monitoring him, so he simply nodded, unplugged Lu Ye’s phone from the mainframe, and said, “Sure, do that, Lu Ye. If you can’t handle it yourself, come back, and I’ll help you.”

Lu Ye took his phone, smiled in gratitude, and said thanks. He didn’t say much more, turning and leaving the tech department’s office.

The exposure of any lie could be cruel, and Lu Ye hadn’t expected that Qi Yanbai’s initial insignificant lie would lead to such a shocking truth.

He had finally figured out what Qi Yanbai had hidden from him last night, but he felt no relief. The disappointment and frustration that came after being deceived, the belated realization, all of it surged within him. Lu Ye felt as though a sharp truth had poked a big hole in his heart, and the cold wind was rushing in, causing his heart to sink endlessly.

In the afternoon, Lu Ye discreetly got rid of the listening device. He didn’t reveal any clues and simply cut the wires connecting the battery pack. He effectively shut it down.

Perhaps noticing something amiss, in the evening, Qi Yanbai sent two unrelated WeChat messages, asking if Lu Ye wanted him to pick him up after work. At the time, Lu Ye absentmindedly toyed with his phone, but in the end, he didn’t reply.

His mind was in chaos, and he lingered in the office long after work hours. It wasn’t until his boss, Li Zhiwen, urged him to leave that he finally walked out of the sub-bureau’s gates.

With a lot on his mind, Lu Ye was absentminded and even forgot to ride his bike. He walked home with his head down, lost in thought.

The winter night after the rain was bone-chillingly cold. Lu Ye walked towards home, but he realized, when it was already too late, that he had unknowingly wandered onto the riverside trail where he and Qi Yanbai had confirmed their relationship.

The river remained the same, and everything before him hadn’t changed, but Lu Ye stopped in his tracks and felt that everything was strangely unfamiliar.

The river water flowed relentlessly forward, and the name that had been deliberately forgotten for an afternoon resurfaced in his mind. Lu Ye pursed his lips and found it hard to describe how he felt at that moment.

The initial shock, anger, disappointment, and sadness seemed to have gradually faded with the passage of time, replaced by a nearly blank sense of confusion.

The disorienting confusion that made him feel as if he had erased all his awareness of the surroundings. Even though he could still vividly remember that confession day, when he turned around and faced the pitch-black night behind him, he suddenly felt as though he had never truly seen any of this.

The bracelet that Qi Yanbai had given him was still wrapped around his wrist. Lu Ye stared at the golden chain for a while and then reached out to unclasp it.

He wanted to remove the bracelet, but it felt as if something invisible was holding it in place. He couldn’t move it.

As the cold wind blew, the river made a mournful sound. Lu Ye stood alone in the dark night. He struggled with himself for a while, but in the end, he failed.

Lu Ye had to admit that Qi Yanbai had disguised himself very well—so well that even now, with his eyes closed, Lu Ye could still imagine Qi Yanbai’s lips curling up as he smiled softly in front of him.

It was so real, so tender, as if it were an unintentional display of true feelings, discovered by Lu Ye by sheer coincidence.

“Coincidence…” When Lu Ye thought of this word again, he couldn’t help but find it ironic. He shook his head and, after a moment, burst into self-deprecating laughter.

At this moment, he finally understood what the strange feeling that had unknowingly lingered in his chest was—his intuition, his premonition, warning him time and time again.

Unfortunately, despite all the warnings fate had given him, he had never heeded any of them.

It serves me right, Lu Ye thought.