SDT 65

Chapter 65 I Thought You Missed Manjing

Azalea Island, an outlying territory of a small nation, boasted stunning natural scenery but chaotic governance. They found a nearby residence near their landing site, paid to rent the owner’s ancient pickup truck, and drove toward the safe house marked on their satellite navigation.

At dawn, as the sky began to glow faintly blue before full light, the vehicle came to a halt on a dilapidated, cluttered street.

Through the car window, Lu Kongyun gazed at the old house across the street.

“Is this the one?” Lu Kongyun asked.

He was handcuffed together with Yu Xiaowen, so Dai Lanshan took the wheel. He glanced at the street address in the message: “Yep, this is the one.”

Lu Kongyun reached to open his bag. But Yu Xiaowen was being uncooperative.

Lu Kongyun unlocked his own handcuffs and fastened them to the front seat headrest. He told Dai Lanshan, “Keep an eye on him.”

“…You’re going alone?” Yu Xiaowen immediately objected. “No way! Ye Yisan is a professional operative. You’re a doctor, you’re going to find him yourself? Are you out of your mind?!”

“Then I’ll go,” Dai Lanshan said. “He probably won’t touch me.”

“Yes, send Dai Lanshan!” Yu Xiaowen agreed, shaking the handcuffs violently. “Don’t go. Send Dai Lanshan!”

“…Hmph.” Dai Lanshan gave Yu Xiaowen a glance.

Lu Kongyun drew his pistol, chambered a round, and holstered it at his waist.

Without a word, he got out of the car.

“Lu Kongyun! Lu Kongyun!” Yu Xiaowen called after him from inside the car, but it was useless. He watched helplessly as he walked toward the old house.

“What about you? Isn’t he your friend?” Yu Xiaowen turned to Dai Lanshan. “You just let him go off and do something so dangerous?”

“Friends know when they can’t intervene,” Dai Lanshan replied. “If my brother were here now and told me to take on Ye Yisan one-on-one, I wouldn’t let Lu Kongyun go with me either. You really don’t understand Alphas at all. No wonder you’ve pushed him to this point.”

Yu Xiaowen：“……”

There was no reasoning with a fool like Dai Lanshan. Yu Xiaowen could only curse him before glaring anxiously toward the old house.

“If you ask me, just pick one already and make up your mind,” Dai Lanshan said.

“Pick what?” Yu Xiaowen replied casually.

Dai Lanshan tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, his tone tinged with disdain. “Lu Kongyun’s family has a history of… well, let’s just say they’re not exactly normal. With you always chasing after this one and that one, getting tangled up in messy affairs, I’m afraid you’ll end up in the tabloids someday.”

Yu Xiaowen felt anxious, his attention inevitably drawn by those words. He recalled Lu Kongyun mentioning in the cabin that he suffered from a serious illness, and the peculiar state he had been in throughout their journey.

So he asked, “What’s wrong with him?”

“He seems calm normally, but he’s actually crazy as hell,” Dai Lanshan said. “During the officer promotion training, right when we first met, we shared a dorm. One guy in our dorm made a snide remark about a cop who died in the line of duty, and he beat the guy so badly he ended up in the hospital. Because of that, not a single person in our dorm passed the promotion exam that year! My brother yelled at me for days. That was also when I found out he’d been keeping in touch with Ye Yisan behind my back.”

Dai Lanshan’s tone, which had started out gossipy, turned gritted-teeth by the end.

Promotion camp… fallen officer.

These words instantly transported Yu Xiaowen back to that night in Manjing two years prior. At the time, Lu Kongyun had been undergoing promotion training at the military training ground in the suburbs, yet he suddenly appeared at the police station entrance.

He stood in the drizzle beneath a streetlight, his face bearing injuries. He claimed they were from training. He also said…

Police officers cannot turn off their phones.

“……”

This past memory, now tinged with the added context from others, had subtly shifted in hue within Yu Xiaowen’s recollection. It seemed to hold another dimension, but remained impossible to verify. Something began to grow within his chest, spreading inch by inch. Like a flower, but also like thorns.

His fingers curled.

Dai Lanshan: “Two years ago, he ended up in the ICU because he couldn’t control his pheromones after being triggered. Since then, he’s been undergoing sensory deprivation therapy, and he still hasn’t fully recovered.”

“Two years ago… triggered.” Yu Xiaowen froze.

“Hey Hao Dali, why did you betray the country?” Dai Lanshan asked curiously. “Then on the ship you pretended not to know Lu Kongyun. What’s the real reason? What’s your relationship? Who do you actually like? Honestly, I hoped you liked Ye Yisan.”

Yu Xiaowen was brought back to the reality of being a captured fugitive named Hao Dali.

He abandoned his foolish fantasies and resumed watching the movements in the old house across the street.

Yu Xiaowen: “Ye Yisan also hopes I like you. You two are truly a mutual pursuit.”

Dai Lanshan: “.”

He turned his head around to glare at Yu Xiaowen, his eyes cold as ice. “Fuck, Ye Yisan really had designs on my brother?!”

“Asshole,” Yu Xiaowen said.

Unexpectedly, Lu Kongyun emerged quickly, hurrying along without target Ye Yisan in sight. He opened the car door, climbed in, and pulled out a note: “He’s not in the room.”

Dai Lanshan took the note and unfolded it. Only one sentence was written: Dali, if you see this, come to Wuxiang City to meet me.

Along with a crude, abstract pinpoint marker.

Lu Kongyun asked Dai Lanshan, “Has your brother ever mentioned Wuxiang City to you?”

“No,” Dai Lanshan replied. “And my brother never intended for Hao Dalì to come to Azalea Island.”

“…” Lu Kongyun frowned in thought before saying, “That’s highly unusual.”

He quickly asked Yu Xiaowen, “Besides Lu Qifeng, is anyone else looking for Ye Yisan?”

Yu Xiaowen also took the note and examined it closely.

After a moment, his brow furrowed with worry and urgency. “Ye Yisan never leaves traces behind. This is a trap. He’s likely already been targeted by the ‘Cleaners’.”

Lu Kongyun asked, “What are the Cleaners?”

Yu Xiaowen explained to him, “Mr. Ye has many secret agents like Ye Yisan working under him. They are all his personal property. If they fail to complete a job cleanly or violate any rules, they will be ‘cleaned up’ by their master. The people who carry out the ‘cleaning’ are killing machines specially trained by Mr. Ye, all emotionless, cold-blooded psychopaths who kill without hesitation. I guess because my involvement was discovered, Ye Yisan ended up on the cleanup list. “

Lu Kongyun: “Because of you?”

Lu Kongyun stared at Yu Xiaowen: “Explain yourself.”

Yu Xiaowen thought: All along, he had concealed his true identity solely to protect Ye Yisan. Given the current situation, Ye Yisan was almost certainly exposed, captured by the pharmaceutical company’s assassins and now being used as bait to trap “Hao Dali.” Therefore, there was no longer any need to withhold certain facts from Lu Kongyun.

He was in Lu Kongyun’s hands, while Ye Yisan’s life was in danger. The choice was obvious.

After sorting through the logic, he immediately offered a concise explanation: “Two years ago, Ye Yisan saved me. To ensure I could smoothly join the new drug trial at M Country pharmaceutical company, he concealed my true identity as a former foreign police officer from the company. Believe it or not, Ye Yisan and I only met after that case. Neither he nor I have any connection whatsoever to the transnational illegal drug organization.”

Though this untrustworthy habitual liar was making baseless claims to distance himself from the other man, Lu Kongyun showed no sign of doubt. He merely looked at him and said in a low voice, “So that’s how your illness got better.”

“…Mm.” Yu Xiaowen was momentarily surprised by his quick acceptance before replying, “Can you lend me a gun? I absolutely have to go…”

Lu Kongyun raised his hand to cut him off, then instructed Dai Lanshan, “I’m heading to Wuxiang City immediately. Keep an eye on Yu Xiaowen and find a safe spot nearby to wait for me. If I haven’t responded or lost contact within two hours, call this number for backup right away. I’ll also leave a marker there.”

Yu Xiaowen: “Wha—!”

“You’re going alone?” Dai Lanshan received a message from Lu Kongyun and tapped to open it.

“We still don’t know the situation over there,” Lu Kongyun said. “To be safe, we can’t deploy everyone. Besides, this fugitive is cunning, you need to keep an eye on him for me.”

“…Lu Kongyun!” Yu Xiaowen’s expression was unusually serious and flustered. He even grabbed his sleeve with his unrestrained hand. “You said yourself you don’t know what’s going on. Don’t go! Don’t get involved in this mess. This is my own business. Let me go…”

“Your own business?” Lu Kongyun repeated the words coldly.

“How is Ye Yisan your own business?” Lu Kongyun grabbed his sniper rifle and checked the scope again. “He’s also a witness in this Ministry of National Security case. I came looking for him.”

“…You can’t go! How about we go together? I promise I won’t run. I absolutely won’t run!”

“I don’t trust you. You’ll just run off with Ye Yisan once you get there,” Lu Kongyun said.

“I won’t,” Yu Xiaowen said. But would Lu Kongyun believe him?

Of course not. He was already that boy who cried wolf.

Lu Kongyun stared at Yu Xiaowen’s fingers, which were clenching tighter and tighter, then looked up at him. “Yu Xiaowen, if Ye Yisan is still alive, I’ll fight tooth and nail to bring him back. But I need to make a promise with you.”

“You can’t go alone. You can’t risk your life!” Yu Xiaowen gasped urgently, his eyes red with anxiety.

“If I rescue Ye Yisan, you tell the whole truth. Deal? I need the truth about this case. Everyone in the military department needs to know the truth. After this case, we can pretend we never met. You won’t have to feel guilty about disrupting my life anymore. We’ll be even.”

Yu Xiaowen’s voice trembled as he shouted, “…But you never owed me anything!”

“…”

Over these past two years, thinking about that pink love letter, that promotional brochure postcard with the smiley face drawn on it, and the text messages that never got a reply… so many times Lu Kongyun woke up from nightmares, completely soaked in guilt.

Now, from this person’s mouth, came the calm, matter-of-fact words: “You never owed me anything.”

He felt a dead calm, or perhaps a strange kind of liberation.

Lu Kongyun: “Yu Xiaowen, you probably think it would’ve been better if we hadn’t met on that cruise ship. Then you wouldn’t have been arrested, and you could’ve kept living your life. These past two years, you’ve been doing well.”

Upon hearing the words “these past two years,” Yu Xiaowen’s lips trembled, and he remained speechless for a long time.

Lu Kongyun watched him.

“You really don’t feel the slightest bit reluctant to leave? Then why did you bring that wristband that won’t even turn on aboard the ship?”

Yu Xiaowen：“……”

Lu Kongyun: “I thought you really wanted to.”

After a moment’s pause, he said, “I thought you missed Manjing.”

Lu Kongyun didn’t ask anything else. He looked at Yu Xiaowen for a moment before shifting his gaze away from his red, tear-filled eyes. Lowering his head, he gently pried apart the fingers holding his sleeve.