CH 236

Qi Ye limped into the office.

His overalls were torn and tattered, his arms were covered in bruises and nail marks, and his face had a few bloodstains.

Qi Ye, dragging his injured leg in silence, is the only one in the office. Qi Ye walks up to Lu Youyi's desk and throws the box in his hand onto his desk.

Lu Youyi was sleeping when he woke up and looked up to see Qi Ye bruised and battered, "Damn, what's wrong with you?"

Qi Ye had lost a lot of weight and his eyes, once arrogant and dazzling, had become cold and silent.

He couldn't help but be slow, Qi Ye's right leg was already soaked in blood and stuck to his leg, only the colour of his trousers was darker and the blood was invisible.

Lu Youyi stood up and walked around the desk, " Qi Ye, why are you hurt? I'll take you to the hospital."

Qi Ye didn't seem to hear me, but the more Lu Youyi chased him, the faster he walked. One leg was not as fast as the other and he stumbled twice, but even so, he left the office without slowing down.

Lu Youyi knew that this was a rejection of his own. He stood still for a moment, turning back to the box Qi Ye had placed on his desk and opening it, there was a key and a warehouse address scattered inside, exactly where Qi's family had hidden the poisonous tail scorpion blood.

This ......?

Lu Youyi rushed out to catch up, but Qi Ye had already disappeared.

*

Qi Ye did not go to hospital.

He moved a little to the pantry. There was a small space of two square metres at the far end of the pantry, a smoking area with a window in the wall up to his chest.

Qi Ye leans against the wall, looks out the window at the sparsely populated road and silently takes a cigarette in his mouth.

There is an ashtray on the window sill here, but few of the people who work here are addicted to smoking, so the ashtray is disposed of once every two days. Qi Ye can see the butts of other people's cigarettes in it, and he shakes the ashes from it with his eyes hanging down, so he doesn't have to guess that it's Jiang Luo and Wen Renlian's finished cigarettes.

In a small space, it's best to open a window for air. Qi Ye didn't because two little sparrows were flying over the counter outside the window, chattering away, and Qi Ye was afraid they would smell the second-hand smoke.

After all, he himself knows that second-hand smoke smells bad.

Someone came in at the door and Wen Renlian looked at him in surprise, " Qi Ye, you're back?"

Qi Ye's body tightened and he turned firmly to look at him, like a bereaved dog ready to flee. Wen Renlian smiled and closed the door, "Just myself. Was going to pour a cup of coffee, ran out of hot water, mind if I pass the time here?"

Qi Ye silently handed him a cigarette.

Wen Renlian took it and walked over to Qi Ye, "Thanks."

"The cigarettes aren't good," Qi Ye said, "so it's good that you don't mind them."

Wen Renlian, of course, didn't mind, and he borrowed a light and made small talk, "So why don't you buy better cigarettes? We get paid a lot of money."

Qi Ye laughed, "I paid off part of my debt and donated half of it."

Wen Renlian was stunned, "How much did you keep for yourself?"

Qi Ye did not speak again.

Wen Renlian frowned and sighed inwardly.

The Research Bureau has its own canteen and its own flat. If he was entitled to the benefits of the Research Bureau, he could live without spending any money in a month. But looking at Qi Ye, he probably left himself a few hundred dollars a month.

In their line of work, donations are common. You have to give money for divination and fortune telling, and giving a penny is money anyway. The money received has to be used to do a lot of good deeds, partly for merit and partly for karma. However, Qi Ye's behaviour, in which he puts himself in the lowest position, is a little hard for Wen Renlian to watch.

He advised in a low voice, " Qi Ye, life is for people, can't you be kind to yourself? Look at your clothes, the injury on your leg, the first thing you do when you get hurt is to go to the hospital, aren't you torturing yourself?"

Qi Ye then knew that Wen Renlian had come specifically for his injury, not for a cup of coffee alone at all.

He nodded casually, "A minor injury, I'll go to the hospital after this cigarette."

He said it with conviction and a look on his face that left no room for doubt. Wen Renlian knew he didn't want to be bothered, and sighed softly, "How was the mission?"

Qi Ye hesitated for a moment, "It's okay."

Wen Renlian, however, did not let go of this short delay of a few seconds, " Lu Youyi said you gave him the Qi family's poisonous tail scorpion blood water, how did you get it?"

Qi Ye didn't want to explain, nor did he want to be grateful like Shi En, so he simply said, "Well, it's for him."

Wen Renlian laughed bitterly, "Talking to you is much harder than talking to other people, don't you have anything to say? How did you hurt your leg, where did you get the poison tail scorpion blood, and didn't the rest of your relatives stop you?"

Qi Ye put out his cigarette, "No."

"Bullshit," Wen Renlian said bluntly, "you don't want to go to the hospital because they're the reason you're all bruised up, right?"

Qi Ye had nothing to say.

Wen Renlian took a deep breath and stifled his hateful anger, " Qi Ye, what do you still care about them? They're not in jail, but you think they'll get better?"

Qi Ye's face showed a stubborn look, like a battered, bony head wolf, moving forward on his own against the cold and snow, even though he knew his pack was just a drag, preferring to eat only a little and pull people along.

Not for the sake of the people in the community, but to restrain the community from harming others.

Qi Ye seems to have changed, becoming more mature and silent. In some ways, he still retains a naivety that appears to outsiders to be "silly" and "sick".

Wen Renlian is completely helpless to deal with such naivety, and God knows he is most afraid of dealing with people like Kuang Zheng Qi Ye.

Wen Renlian changed the subject, "I think you're missing someone, and when you have another partner you know to be good to yourself. Even if you don't treat yourself well, your other partner will still monitor you. Qi Ye, get into a relationship, don't live like a 70-year-old man every day. Tell me, what kind of person do you like? I'll introduce you to one."

Qi Ye refused straight away, "No, I'm not suitable."

Wen Renlian was furious and laughed, "How do you know if it's suitable or not when you haven't even talked about it?"

Qi Ye was silent for a moment and raised her eyes to look out of the window at the two sparrows, who were leaning against each other, grooming each other's feathers.

Wen Renlian looked along and smiled, "Look, even the birds are two together."

"...... And what kind of people should I look for?" Qi Ye's tone was undulating and he asked calmly, "People outside the circle don't know what goes on inside the circle, they have no common language with me and have to always keep part of their life a secret from each other. The people inside the circle dislike the fact that I don't have a spiritual body, that I can't see ghosts or do mystical things, and that I live like an ordinary person. I can't even protect them if they are in danger."

Qi Ye said that Wen Renlian was speechless, but he laughed at himself, "I'm quite comfortable alone, so let's leave it at that."

Wen Renlian: "You're still young ......"

Before the words were out of his mouth, Qi Ye suddenly stood up straight and looked out the window onto the road. The window was even opened and two sparrows were startled into spreading their wings and flying away.

The cold wind outside the window whooshes down the cracks and blows inside, making people shiver all of a sudden.

It's been a very windy autumn this year.

Wen Renlian looked down the window and saw the familiar used car belonging to Jiang Luo.

He looked thoughtfully at Qi Ye. After all this time, could it be that Qi Ye still couldn't forget Jiang Luo?

Downstairs, the car pulled up to the curb and after a moment Jiang Luo stepped out of the car, looking down and straightening the folds of his clothes, and just as he was about to leave, another pale hand reached out, the one that looked so pampered in its expensive jewelled cufflinks, and gently twirled a black strand of hair that had fallen down Jiang Luo's back.

Qi Ye slammed the window shut, turned back to Wen Renlian and said, "I'll go first."

Wen Renlian: "Now?"

"Well," Qi Ye limped around him and opened the door, "I'm going to the ground floor to find the logistics team ...... Don't tell anyone I'm coming."

Qi Ye tried to get out of the pantry as fast as he could and headed down the other side of the stairs.

His leg was injured and he should have taken the more convenient lift, but Qi Ye did not want to meet another person.

Wen Renlian came after him and helped him down the stairs. Qi Ye tried to refuse but could not resist Wen Renlian's insistence.

As the two men stepped down the stairs one by one, Wen Renlian suddenly asked, "Why do you want to give us the poisonous scorpion blood water? You know, if you sell it, you can easily pay off your family's debts."

Qi Ye, "You need it, consider it my atonement."

"You've done nothing wrong, what's the point of making amends?"

Qi Ye shook his head in silence.

Wen Renlian sighed, " Qi Ye, you are a good person."

A good man?

The very sound of those two words filled Qi Ye with guilt and shame, and he was terrified that he could carry them, that it was not he who was insulted, but the word 'good'.

With difficulty, he uttered a dry, hoarse explanation, "No, I'm not a good person."

The voice sounded like it was squeezing through a doorway, helpless, thin and filled with a strong sense of guilt.

Wen Renlian said, "What?"

Qi Ye shook his head and, after taking the last step down the stairs, ripped Wen Renlian's hand away and headed out alone.

He was not a good person.

So he wanted to spend the rest of his life trying to gain forgiveness one by one.

This may be difficult.

But if he does nothing, Qi Ye will only burn in the fire of regret and guilt.

Although it may look difficult to others, Qi Ye is willing to do it.

It was as if he had been bruised all over to get the blood of the Venomous Tail Scorpion, just because he wanted Teng Bi to get better as soon as possible, just because, he wanted to thank Teng Bi for saving Jiang Luo.

But it's the sort of thing that neither Jiang Luo nor Chi You need to know.

He just wants to do what he can, secretly and covertly, like a rat in the eye of the beholder.

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The author has something to say.

I have one more chapter to finish, I'm revising it, so you can go to bed and read it tomorrow