CJLTNS Chapter 22

“Fang Xu!”

At nine in the morning, Jiang Chong walked into the forensics lab and found two people lying on the autopsy table: Fang Xu and his apprentice, Sun Xiaoyang.

Even for someone as worldly as Jiang Chong, seeing living people sprawled out on an autopsy table was a first.

Jiang Chong walked up to Fang Xu’s side and patted him on the shoulder. “Why are you two lying here? What — trying to see the world from a corpse’s perspective?”

Fang Xu lifted the white sheet off himself and let out a huge yawn. “What else could we do? Xiaoyang and I worked overtime until the middle of the night. The bureau didn’t arrange a dorm for our forensics team, so we had to make do and catch some sleep here.”

Jiang Chong’s family was well-known for their wealth in the Kangzhou City Public Security system, but Fang Xu was actually a hidden second-generation rich kid. Fang Xu’s family was mainly in the pharmaceutical industry — their net worth had surpassed the Jiangs’ two years ago, ranking second on Kangzhou’s wealth list. First place belonged to an internet finance tycoon.

“Aren’t you loaded? Why don’t you just get yourself a bed?”

Fang Xu sat up on the autopsy table, rubbing his tired face with both hands. He turned to his apprentice, Sun Xiaoyang, and said, “Xiaoyang, go down to Captain Jiang’s office and get me something to eat.”

Sun Xiaoyang did whatever Fang Xu said — he was Fang Xu’s number one lackey. He immediately dashed out the door, thumping down the stairs.

“What money?” Fang Xu sighed. “My family originally sent me to med school hoping I’d take over the family business. But now I’m a forensic doctor — pissed the old man off so much he basically wants to disown me. They took back my cards and my apartment. I’m living off an 8,000 yuan monthly salary — got to pay rent, feed myself, and support my apprentice. How far do you think that stretches?”

Fang Xu looked at Jiang Chong with pure envy on his face. “Your family’s better — your parents are open-minded. You wanted to be a cop, they supported you. Unlike me — now I can only go home during the holidays, and even then, I risk getting thrown out if we argue.”

Fang Xu reached out to feel Jiang Chong’s new shirt and jacket. The fabric clearly wasn’t cheap. Fang Xu silently wiped away the tears in his heart. Back in the day, he’d been just as free-spending — how had he ended up like this?

Jiang Chong stepped back to dodge Fang Xu’s hand — the way Fang Xu’s eyes locked onto the fabric was like a dog eyeing a bone. It made Jiang Chong’s scalp tingle.

“I actually came here to ask you something. About depression — do you know how it’s treated?”

Fang Xu got off the autopsy table and shook his head. “Captain Jiang, I’m a forensic doctor. I handle dead people — anything to do with the living, not my problem.”

Jiang Chong sighed and pulled a membership card from his pocket, handing it to Fang Xu. “Thanks for the tests you did before. This shop — pick whatever clothes you want. It’s on me.”

Fang Xu’s face instantly lit up with a huge grin. “Captain Jiang, you’re too generous. Just say the word if you need anything.”

---

That afternoon, Jiang Chong led the Criminal Investigation Unit and Shen Xuan’s team from the Public Security Brigade out to Wenfeng County in the suburbs. The Li Gui case they’d handled before had started out as an intentional homicide over gambling debts — but the follow-up had uncovered an underground casino. This time, the Criminal Investigation Unit and Public Security Brigade were conducting a joint operation to shut it down.

The underground casino was hidden inside a courtyard house in a rural area — from the outside, it looked like any ordinary farmhouse. There wasn’t a single hint that it was a gambling den.

Preliminary investigations showed this casino involved over a hundred people, with an amount of money in the tens of millions. Plenty of people had lost everything gambling there.

“Everybody down!”

Shen Xuan led the charge into the house first, swiftly taking control of the twenty-some people inside.

“Bang!”

A man took advantage of a moment when the Public Security team wasn’t watching and bolted out the back door — only to run straight into Li Fangfei, who blocked him from escaping. Li Fangfei landed a solid kick to his chest.

Li Fangfei dragged the skinny, forty-something man back inside, his arm twisted behind his back as he yelped non-stop, “Easy! Easy! You’re gonna break it!”

She pulled out a pair of handcuffs and snapped them onto him, then frisked him and found his ID card. A quick check confirmed it — this guy was a repeat offender, previously detained three times for gambling. But since the sums were small, he’d always ended up being released after a short stint.

Guo Baoshan’s eyes were bloodshot, and his face was greasy and worn out. When they’d caught him, he’d still had a stack of playing cards in his hand — obviously deep in the gambling frenzy.

Now Guo Baoshan squatted on the ground, putting on a seasoned act, pleading and faking remorse like a pro: “Officer, officer, please — take it easy, I was wrong! I swear, never again, never again!”

But Jiang Chong didn’t believe a word. He knew these gamblers — before they got caught, they’d sink deeper and deeper into their addiction, always dreaming they could strike it rich with a small bet.

Even when they lost, they’d keep telling themselves “One more round and I’ll win it all back.” Round after round, the hole only got deeper until they were drowning in despair. And that despair just pushed them to gamble more, hoping for one last lucky break to change their fate — which only dragged them further into the mud.

The joint operation wrapped up fast. In less than half an hour, all the gamblers were rounded up and loaded onto police vans.

After that, the rest was up to the Public Security team. Wenfeng County was named after Mount Wenfeng within its borders — a mountain with picture-perfect scenery that hadn’t been developed much, still covered in its original forests.

Li Fangfei, fresh out of college and still playful, wanted to check out Mount Wenfeng. Once the bust was wrapped up, Jiang Chong didn’t mind letting his team relax — this joint raid was led by the Public Security side anyway, and the Criminal Investigation Unit was just assisting. With the case done and tomorrow being Saturday, he figured they might as well stay the night in Wenfeng County.

The county town was lively at night. There was a bustling night market, where Yu Xin sat at an outdoor food stall with a man. The guy was bald — his shiny dome gleamed under the lights.

He looked to be about thirty, wearing a black T-shirt and dark blue jeans, a thick gold chain hanging from his neck, and a tattoo sleeve covering one arm — he looked exactly like a street thug.

“If you’re Scar Bro’s buddy, you’re my buddy. This meal’s on me, brother.”

The man next to Yu Xin was Xing Kai, one of Duan Zhao’s old hooligan buddies from his school days. Back then, he’d been Duan Zhao’s right-hand man — whenever Duan Zhao skipped class or got into fights, Xing Kai was always there to back him up.

After high school, Duan Zhao went off to Beijing for med school, while Xing Kai didn’t get into college. With help from his family, he opened a car repair shop — which eventually grew into the biggest chain of auto shops in Wenfeng County.

Yu Xin picked up a beer and poured Xing Kai a glass, but he raised a cup of tea to clink with it instead. “Xing Kai, here — a toast to you.”

Duan Zhao had already given Xing Kai a heads-up: his little brother had a sensitive stomach and couldn’t drink alcohol. So when Yu Xin toasted him with tea instead, Xing Kai didn’t take offense at all.

Yu Xin was wearing a simple white T-shirt and light blue jeans, with a baseball cap on his head. Xing Kai rubbed his own shiny bald head, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious about how he looked for the first time in his life.

They were both thirty now, yet how did this guy still look like he was in his early twenties? Xing Kai felt both jealous and speechless. If he looked like that, would he still be single and on his own now?

Xing Kai downed the beer in his glass in one gulp, then slammed the glass down with a loud “bang”. He scooted his chair closer to Yu Xin and said, “You know, back in the day Scar Bro was just like us, fooling around at school. Nobody knows what girl caught his eye, but he suddenly started working his ass off — totally changed. Stopped skipping classes, stopped fighting, studied for two years straight and actually got into a university in Beijing. Later he even went abroad. We’ve heard all these years that he found someone, but he’s never brought them back to meet the brothers. Bro, you tell me — what kind of beauty managed to get our Scar Bro so hooked?”

A beauty? In terms of looks, Zhao Xun wasn’t really all that handsome — the point was that he carried a strong scholarly vibe, a gentle steadiness that made people feel at ease the moment they looked at him.

If Zhao Xun ever found out that Duan Zhao’s old buddies thought of him as a “beauty,” he’d probably make sure Duan Zhao didn’t get to climb onto the bed for a whole month.

Yu Xin held back a laugh, pressing his lips together as he nodded. “Beautiful. Definitely a beauty!”

Xing Kai picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a bite of food, and chewed as he asked, “Bro, you got a photo? Lemme see!”

Yu Xin did have photos of Zhao Xun on his phone, but without Zhao Xun and Duan Zhao’s permission, he could only bluff: “I just changed phones — didn’t transfer them yet. I’ll look for some when I get back and send them to you.”

Luckily, Xing Kai wasn’t that obsessed with seeing Duan Zhao’s partner — so Yu Xin casually changed the subject and steered the conversation away.

---

On the other side of the night market, Jiang Chong and Shen Xuan were there too, leading their teams. Shen Xuan had only been at the Public Security Brigade for a month and was still getting in sync with his squad, so he figured this was a good chance to hang out and bond.

When the two teams had headed out earlier, they’d run into each other and decided to stick together — more people meant more fun, anyway.

The guys from the Criminal Investigation Unit were chatting casually with the Public Security team, building rapport. Li Fangfei trailed quietly at the back, watching Jiang Chong and Shen Xuan walking ahead of her, feeling like a storm was brewing.

Li Fangfei hadn’t forgotten the look in Jiang Chong’s eyes the last time he’d caught Shen Xuan having dinner with Yu Xin — that look could practically spit fire. Now the two were all polite and civil on the surface — but who knew how it’d end up later?

“Captain, look!”

Yuan Kai pointed at a table about ten meters away and said to Jiang Chong.

Jiang Chong followed the direction of Yuan Kai’s finger — and sure enough, he saw Yu Xin’s profile. Next to him sat a slightly chubby guy.

Before Jiang Chong could say anything, Shen Xuan stepped right up and called out, “Hey, Yu Xin!”

Yu Xin heard someone calling his name and turned his head — and there was Shen Xuan. Yu Xin stood up. “Hey, Shen Xuan! What are you guys doing here?”

Shen Xuan turned his head and gave Jiang Chong a nod. “We’re out here on a joint operation.”

Yu Xin turned too — and his eyes met Jiang Chong’s. Just yesterday they’d seen each other; they’d pierced that thin layer of distance between them. Somehow, Yu Xin’s face felt a little hot.

Xing Kai, who’d been working and hustling since he was eighteen, was a master at reading people. One glance at Shen Xuan and Jiang Chong and he could tell they were from the state system — so, sticking to his belief that more friends equals more paths, he greeted them warmly: “Come on, come on — we’re all friends here. Sit, sit! This meal’s on me — nobody fight me for the check.”

The entire table filled up with people from the Criminal Investigation Unit and the Public Security Squad, crowding around until it was packed. Jiang Chong stood next to Yu Xin and spotted the faint bite mark on Yu Xin’s neck — it was so faded it was nearly invisible. Jiang Chong gave it a meaningful glance, a faint smile playing at his lips as he sat down.

Both Jiang Chong and Shen Xuan had already reported to HQ, so they were free to drink.

Everyone at the table was from the city bureau, so they ran into each other all the time — even if they weren’t close, they’d at least heard of each other. Naturally, the drinking rounds kicked off fast.

Shen Xuan raised a glass of beer and clinked it against Jiang Chong’s. “Captain Jiang, this one’s for you. I hope you’ll keep guiding me on the job in the future.”

Jiang Chong raised his own glass, touched it to Shen Xuan’s with a crisp clink, and downed it all in one go, giving him full respect.

Around the whole table, aside from the lone girl Li Fangfei, Yu Xin was the only other one drinking tea. One of Shen Xuan’s guys noticed Yu Xin sipping tea alone and came over with a bottle of beer. “Yu Xin, why are you drinking tea? Come on, let’s have one together!”

Yu Xin stood up with his teacup in hand, just about to refuse — but Jiang Chong reached out and blocked Shen Xuan’s guy with his hand. “He can’t drink.”

The guy had meant well — seeing Yu Xin alone with his tea, he just wanted to be friendly. Now that Jiang Chong had stopped him, he looked a bit awkward.

Luckily, Ma Pingchuan reacted fast. He came over, threw an arm around the guy’s shoulders and said, “Hey bro, Yu Xin’s stomach can’t handle booze — he really can’t. I’ll drink with you. Let’s go.”

Yu Xin had run into Ma Pingchuan twice before at the Public Security Bureau and knew he was tactful and smooth — he realized Ma Pingchuan was helping him out, so he shot him a grateful smile.

That smile landed right in Jiang Chong’s eyes — and it made him feel a bit sour inside. I’m the one who blocked the drink for you — why are you smiling at him?

Jiang Chong picked up a bowl and ladled out some seafood porridge for Yu Xin. Shen Xuan caught the move and gave him a subtle, unreadable smile.

Yu Xin lowered his head and sipped at his porridge. Suddenly, Shen Xuan called out to him: “Yu Xin, do you remember the first time we met?”

Yu Xin looked up, swallowed the mouthful of porridge, and answered, “Of course I do — you saved my life! If it weren’t for you, I’d have been killed back then.”

He lifted his water cup, stood up and clinked it to Shen Xuan’s glass, took a sip, then sat back down.

The first time they met? Saved his life? Just how did Shen Xuan and Yu Xin know each other?

Jiang Chong knew nothing about this. Wasn’t Yu Xin in America? How did he and Shen Xuan even meet?

Countless resentments welled up in Jiang Chong’s heart. Yesterday, he had finally managed to pull Yu Xin a little closer to himself, and now, with Shen Xuan’s words, he was once again reminded of those six years in Yu Xin’s life where Jiang Chong had not been a part.

Jiang Chong picked up the beer bottle and poured his glass full. White foam rolled over the surface of the golden liquid, then slowly began to dissipate.

He raised his glass and clinked it against Shen Xuan’s before downing it in one go. Shen Xuan followed suit, lifting his glass and draining the beer in one gulp.

Cup after cup, the two of them drank three or four rounds in a row. Across the table, Li Fangfei carefully observed the drinking duel, secretly thrilled by the drama while also worrying that, once drunk, the two men might actually start fighting.

Suddenly, Yu Xin’s phone rang. He stepped aside to take the call, head bowed, absently kicking at a pebble on the ground as he spoke.

The conversation lasted three or four minutes. When he returned, he looked a little embarrassed.
“I’ve got something to take care of. I’ll head off first, you all go on without me.”

Xing Kai followed alongside Yu Xin, turning to the others at the table with a quick apology.
“Sorry about this. You all enjoy yourselves. I’ve already paid the bill.”

Once Yu Xin left, Jiang Chong and Shen Xuan’s drinking contest came to an abrupt halt. Nearby, Ma Pingchuan, Yuan Kai, Tang Qijun, and a few others from the Public Security Division had already had too much to drink, slurring out all sorts of nonsense.

Jiang Chong pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and tossed it onto the table. He lit one up, the spark flaring to life before a thin wisp of smoke spiraled upward, carrying a faint scent of tobacco.

“How did you meet Yu Xin?”

Lowering his head, Jiang Chong exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. Through the haze, Shen Xuan couldn’t quite make out his expression.

Shen Xuan had already heard rumors about Jiang Chong and Yu Xin back at the bureau. At the dinner table today, he could clearly see it for himself—the way Jiang Chong looked at Yu Xin was absolutely not the way one looked at an ordinary friend. Shen Xuan was a man too; he’d been in love before. He could recognize it at once—Jiang Chong’s eyes were the eyes of someone looking at the person they loved.

He picked up Jiang Chong’s pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, and lit it. White smoke drifted from his lips as he slowly began to recount his very first meeting with Yu Xin.