Chapter 112: I'm holding you

A few days later, Zhuang Zhiqiang passed away.

The old man still hadn't seen his long-lost daughter before he left, but at least he got a little comfort and companionship.

He Yu and Xie Qingcheng made arrangements for his funeral, and then they were ready to leave together for Zhuang Zhiqiang's hometown.

"Chuangjia Village, Qingli County."

Although they already knew Zhuang Zhiqiang's place of origin before, they didn't check it in detail, and at this time, when they took a closer look, they realized that Zhuang Zhiqiang was actually a person from Qingli County, and they were all a bit surprised.

Xie Qingcheng: "That's where Lu Yuzhu was the county party secretary."

"Do you think it's a coincidence?"

Xie Qingcheng shook his head.

He Yu: "I don't think it's that simple either. We'll see what happens, but we have to be faster, and we can't let the other side destroy the evidence before us, like in the Sha Hong case."

He Yu didn't need to say anything, and the two of them took their own vacations and boarded their flights to their destinations that same night.

More than two hours later, the plane landed, and they chartered a car and drove to Zhuangjia Village in Qingli County.

When they arrived at the village, it was dawn, and the sky was dark, so the two of them found a local guesthouse and stayed there. When they entered the house, He Yu was shocked, even though he had been prepared for it.

He Yu had never seen such a shabby hostel, the room smelled of mold, the carpet was not even affordable, the floor was embedded with poor quality tiles, the sink was moldy, the mirror was stained, even the bed sheets were not clean, they were stained with suspicious old light brown stains.

He Yu turned around with his suitcase and left.

Xie Qingcheng : "...... what are you doing."

"I can't stand the aggravation."

"Just make do for one night."

"I don't want it."

"So where do you live?"

"I'll sleep in the open air in a haystack I don't even want to live in a place like this."

Xie Qingcheng originally wanted to leave him alone, a thousand dollars like a young lady really petulant, but on second thought, He Yu is also in order to track down the clues, as soon as possible to follow the vines to investigate Xie Xue was taking the medicine, so he followed himself to this kind of poor countryside.

And so it was just as well.

"...... Okay, stop it." Xie coaxed Missy, "I'll think of something else."

Xie Qingcheng Later, he found a clean-looking farmhouse in the village and gave him a thousand dollars, saying he wanted to stay for two nights. The farmer saw that these two people look handsome, talk well, plus the glory of the RMB, then readily agreed to their request. Although the packed house is not big, and only one bed, but at least it is clean and fresh, the hostess specially from the cupboard to hold two beds of freshly popped cotton mattresses to the two of them, and at the end of the very politely to them to brew two cups of tea to the room.

He Yu is still not comfortable standing in this room.

Xie Qingcheng: "You sit down and have some tea."

He Yu walked over, looked down, the water in the teacup is very impure, boiled still exudes a yellow earth smell, he and a noble cat like walking away, would rather die of thirst than drink the look.

Thanks to Xie Qingcheng, there are still two boxes of softened milk in his suitcase, which he handed to He Yu.

He Yu took it and glared at him, "Is that all you're giving me?"

Xie Qingcheng's patience came to an end: "I brought it specially for you, if you don't drink it, just give it back to me."

He Yu rolled his eyes, and only then reluctantly removed the straw and took small sips of this processed milk that he disliked for not being pure and natural enough.

The two settled down, relieved themselves of some of the hardships of traveling, and then went out to start working on Zhao Xue's case.

They first went to the high school Zhao Xue had attended, but it had been vacated and was overgrown with grass. The school's large iron gate was closed, with a thick locking chain hanging from it, which had rusted away like the molt left by a red snake.

"Renheng Middle School? It was shut down several years ago, the sponsor withdrew his funding, and it was a big mess at the time with many students having no place to study." The man from the nearby kiosk saw them inquiring about this school and said while knocking peanuts, "It's really quite a pity."

He Yu asked, "And do you know who the principal is and where he is now?"

"The principal? The earliest principal left within a few years, and then the principal came from the city, and after the school closed, he also left, and he didn't talk much to others in the village, and the scholar was so noble. We don't know much about him. But you guys can go ahead and ask in Yi Jia Village, there is a nine-year rural primary and secondary school over there, which previously cooperated with Renheng Middle School, maybe their people will know better."

When Xie Qingcheng heard the words "Yi Jia Village", he felt a vague discomfort in his heart, as if he had expected something.

The two followed the kiosk owner's directions, walked two miles to another small village under Qingli County, there is a big tree in the village entrance, under the tree there are several rubbing spiny old man playing cards, there is also a two-storey mud tiled building nearby, there is a mahjong shuffle and dice shaking cups rattling coming from the building, it is obviously an underground casino.

And right next to the casino, a stone tablet was erected, on which were artificially written three large letters--

"Yijia Village".

He Yu easily from the scene in front of him to read the village of gambling into the nature of the culture, he looked coldly at those half of the neck have been buried in the yellow earth of the old man is still gambling so intense, quite some contempt, turned back to Xie Qingcheng said: "This place is really ...... "

Before he finished speaking, his eyes touched Xie Qingcheng's face.

He Yu paused.

He noticed that Xie Qingcheng's face suddenly became very pale.

He froze for a moment, and after a few seconds, smart as he was, he realized what was going on - the Yi family village, surnamed Yi, poor countryside, addicted to gambling, the small gambling house at the entrance of the village ......

A name came suddenly to mind--

"Yi Beihai."

--

This is where Qin Ciyan's killer lived!

Xie Qingcheng has seen photos of Yi's village in the newspaper, and after the Qin Ciyan incident, many journalists flocked to Yi's village and photographed Yi Beihai's old house. Until now, the yellow house has not been torn down, but the door is closed and the cobwebs are dense, a broken wall.

Xie Qingcheng walked outside the old house and stared at every brick and tile.

Slowly, his eyes reddened.

I don't know if it's hateful or hurtful.

Just as he was mesmerized, his wrist was suddenly clutched by someone, and it was He Yu.

Xie Qingcheng: "You--"

"Let's go, don't look at such an ugly, shabby house. It's bad luck to look at it too much."

He Yu said, his other hand covered Xie Qingcheng's eyes, compulsively turning his face away, and said in an undeniable manner, "You should quickly go to that school with me."

He Yu's attitude was comforting and unreasonable.

"......"

Xie Qingcheng could not give an accurate characterization of his behavior, He Yu was just too strange lately, always talking to himself in such a stiff manner, as if he owed him five million dollars for the project.

But it's also true that He Yu hasn't done the same asshole things he did before.

He Yu: "Let's go."

Xie Qingcheng was quiet for a while and pulled his wrist out of He Yu's palm. He very much disliked being controlled, especially when the other person was a boy so much younger than himself, but he knew He Yu's guidance was right, so he just adjusted his cufflinks, calmed down, and said, "It's fine. I can walk by myself."

He really relied on his determination to avert his gaze from Yi Beihai's old mansion, his hands in his coat pockets, his eyebrows fixed, and walked in front of He Yu.

He Yu looked at his back--

The man, despite the hard look on his face as he turned, was still erect, tall, and strong, as if nothing but death could destroy him.

Xie Qingcheng ......

He Yu mumbled his name in his mind and chased after him.

The two arrived at the Yijia Village School of Hope.

The school was once called Yijia Village Hope Primary School when Zhao Xue was a student there, but it was later restructured and merged into a nine-year system of consistent education, with the primary and junior high schools merged into one, hence its current name.

As soon as Xie Qingcheng saw the principal who received them, he knew the situation was not promising.

The principal was very young, just under thirty. Obviously, he was not the same old principal who had helped Zhao Xue at that time. After they had a brief conversation with the new principal, their hearts sank to the bottom - the old principal had died years ago. The rest of the school's teachers, too, have had a lot of turnover.

Most of the teachers who come to the countryside to teach don't stay for long, only a few stay for five or six years, and none of these people have ever come into contact with the head of Yanheng High School.

"Are the files also inaccessible?" He Yu asked.

"There used to be an archive in the village, but it caught fire a few years ago, and all of In Heng's information was stored there, so now there's nothing left ......"

--Fire in the archive building.

When He Yu and Xie Qingcheng heard this, they were even more certain that all of this was closely related to the Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital and the Shanghai Transmission Tower case. This series of modus operandi was so similar that it was hard to say it was a coincidence.

But the problem had also become obvious: the other side had left no trail that could be traced.

With the passage of time, those in the know have been as hard to find as the waves.

At the end of the day, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu had almost nothing to show for their efforts, and when it was dark, they went back to their farmhouse together.

The farmer prepared some food, Xie Qingcheng ate some and went back to the house to rest.

He Yu looked at his tired side profile, just a figure that could be seen to be preoccupied.

He thought for a moment and asked the peasant woman, "Auntie, are there any better restaurants around here?"

"There's one that's not bad, but it's a bit far, it's over thirty minutes walk." The woman was a little worried, "Is dinner not to your liking?"

"Ah, no. I ate happily." He Yu smiles, "It's just that my friend he's not feeling too well, and I'm afraid of disturbing you, so that's why I wanted to go to the restaurant to buy some food for him."

The woman understood and asked again, "Is that gentleman your brother?"

"...... sort of."

"The lad is so kind to your brother, look at you two, brother and friend."

He Yu smiled without saying anything.

The woman was very enthusiastic, just as her family man was going to the fields, said that she could give He Yu a ride on the way, He Yu gladly agreed.

Turns out the man drives a tractor.

He Yu: "......"

There's not much to be picky about in this poor countryside, and it's better to have a tractor to ride in than to walk alone for thirty minutes on a lightless night road.

He Yu then becomes a president who rides in a tractor to buy takeout for his Dr. Hsieh thousands of miles.

Thanks to the store, the food was really colorful and delicious, and although the store was a bit small, it was clean and refreshing. He Yu ordered a few fried dishes to pack, remembered that Xie Qingcheng had been coughing a lot lately, and asked the shopkeeper to help him make a pear cream with rock sugar, and then got on the tractor to go back.

As soon as he returned to the house, he saw that Xie Qingcheng had already fallen asleep.

There was only one bed in the house, and Xie Qingcheng obviously didn't want to sleep with him, so he made a floor bed.

The commotion of He Yu's return home woke him up from a light sleep.

"Where have you been?"

He Yu went to the table and took out the boxes from the plastic bag, filling the room with the smell of food.

"I'm not used to eating at night, so I went to a nearby restaurant and got some random food, are you eating?"

Xie Qingcheng : "...... don't eat."

He Yu's hand with chopsticks paused for a moment, a bit gloomy: "I ordered too much, if you don't eat it I'll pour it all out."

"Can you stop wasting food like that?"

"Then get up and eat some with me."

Xie Qingcheng had no choice but to cough, get up from the floor bed with his clothes on, and sit down at the table.

But as soon as he took a look at the dishes on the table, he frowned slightly before his gaze moved upward and landed on He Yu's face.

"What's wrong? Not appetizing?"

"No."

It's not unappetizing. It's too appetizing.

Pepper Chicken, Mapo Tofu, Tomato Beef Brisket Bisque, Sauteed Sweet Potato Vine ......

Although they are all homemade stir-fries, they are all dishes that Xie Qingcheng would love to eat.

Not something He Yu would like to eat.

He Yu is a very delicate person, he wants sea urchins from Sardinia, oysters from Ireland, and beef from Australia, but only from Japan. He doesn't eat spicy food, he doesn't eat hemp, and he doesn't like vegetables that much.

However, given Xie Qingcheng's knowledge of He Yu, it was unlikely that He Yu would go out and buy some extra food for him.

The thought persisted until He Yu pulled a jar of iced pear cream out of a paper bag and pushed it into his hand with a stern face.

Xie Qingcheng : "......"

He Yu : "What are you looking at? I'm afraid your coughing at night will disturb my sleep."

Xie Qingcheng glanced at him, this person is also direct, do not like to twist and turn, since He Yu is indeed specially for him to buy, he said openly, "Thank you."

While he was open-minded, He Yu had an impure mind and looked away, "Take your time eating, I'm going to go wash up."

Farmers wash place is also really simple, He Yu look at the body is uncomfortable, barely make do to wash a little, immediately put on the clothes back to the house. Xie Qingcheng has already cleaned up his things, leaning against the window, looking out at the gray field, while sickly drinking pear cream.

He Yu walked over, and for a moment, he really wanted to hug this person's thin waist from behind, and then kiss the vermilion sand on the back of his neck, the green veins on the side of his neck, and lower his eyes down his velvety jaw, and ultimately kiss his pale lips.

He wanted to kiss him, he wanted him, a thousand times over.

But He Yu knew it wasn't his place.

He loves Xie Qingcheng, but he doesn't want to lose himself, and he doesn't want this love to cause more harm to Xie Qingcheng. Xie Qingcheng has already borne enough feelings, and He Yu feels that if he casually pours more heavy things into his body, it will crush him and break him into pieces.

As if feeling his gaze, Xie Qingcheng turned back to him and coughed gently, tall and tough and fragile in his body can be miraculously blended: "It's late, you go to sleep, tomorrow we have to continue the investigation."

He Yu just wanted to answer, but when he saw Xie Qingcheng's other hand resting on the window pane, his whole body froze, and then suddenly sank his face.

--What the hell! Xie Qingcheng is still smoking!

And it's drinking cough syrup and smoking at the same time!

The young man bounces around drinking goji berry tea, and the old man in menopause is even more desperate that he can contribute to the country's tobacco industry while sipping cough cream.

He Yu was really surprised and infuriated by him.

He went to the window and snatched Xie Qingcheng's cigarettes with his hand.

"What are you smoking?"

"...... Marlboro."

"Who asked you about the brand! I said what are you smoking!"

He Yu hissed the cigarette out against the wall and threw it outside, disliking Xie Qingcheng to no end: "You smell of smoke all over you, it's awful. You're not allowed to smoke anymore."

Xie Qingcheng didn't mess with him either, he pushed He Yu away, "If you don't smoke, don't smoke. Go to sleep."

He Yu said, "What are you doing on the floor, it's a double bed."

"......" Xie Qingcheng feels that youngsters nowadays are really casual.

Why is he bunking? Do you even have to ask?

He had slept with He Yu so many times, he hadn't felt any special so-called before, but the last time was the last time, that time he actually got unprecedented pleasure in the necking and wrangling with He Yu, and this "unprecedented" was real, meaning that he hadn't experienced this kind of sensation before, no matter whether it was with Li Ruoqiu, or solving the problem by himself. This "unprecedented" was the real thing, meaning that he had never experienced this kind of feeling before, either with Li Ruoqiu or by himself.

He thought about what he'd done with He Yu that night, and especially remembered how he'd looked when he'd initiated it, and it all seemed too ridiculous and dangerous to him.

He simply felt that He Yu had bewitched him.

How else could things have turned out the way they did?

When he woke up the next day, smoking a cigarette afterward and watching the boy sleeping peacefully against the nape of his neck, alarm bells went off in his mind, knowing that he must never have this kind of relationship with He Yu again.

The best way to do that without having a relationship, is to minimize unnecessary contact.

Xie Qingcheng looked at He Yu soberly and calmly : "The two of us are not suited to sleep in the same bed, and for what reason, you're so smart, you should know very well."

He Yu: "......"

"You're young, the bed is yours, I'm going to rest, thanks for dinner."

Xie Qingcheng said that he wanted to lie down and rest, but the young man's hands and feet were faster than his and had already occupied the nest.

"I'm not so much as to steal the bed from uncle." He Yu said grimly, "I'm the president of the student council, it's my duty to respect the old and love the young. You sleep on the bed, you are old, don't hurt your back when you turn around."

Xie Qingcheng saw that he was really persistent and did not want to waste this time.

Besides, his mind was already heavy, and he really didn't have much strength to pull with He Yu anymore.

With that, he gave He Yu another quilt on the bed, then sighed, took off his jacket, and laid down on the large, empty double bed.

"Go to sleep, I'm turning off the lights."

"Good."

Yet the quiet night was sleepless for both.

He Yu, needless to say, young people would have slept late and little, Xie Qingcheng is because there are too many things, too many thoughts, tossing and turning in the darkness, gently sighing, but how can not sleep soundly.

Although Xie Xue's illness is not serious for the time being, as long as that new medicine is not found, she may be in danger at any time, and he can't rest assured at all.

And Yi Beihai ...... This is Yi Beihai's hometown, and Lu Yuzhu's hometown ...... These inconspicuous little people but turned up the shocking waves, they all came from this remote Qingli County, could it really be a coincidence! The first time I saw this was when I was in the middle of the night.

Then he remembered Qin Ciyan.

Xie Qingcheng's heart throbbed uncontrollably.

He squeezed his eyes shut, but couldn't sink into sleep.

In the middle of the night, rain began to fall outside the window, and it poured down so fast that the wind broke into the house with a cold, wet air.

The quilt was thinner, Xie Qingcheng coughed harder, the more he coughed, the heavier he coughed, unstoppable, in a daze, he vaguely heard movement behind him, and before he could react, he felt a familiar warmth-

He Yu gets on the bed and hugs him from behind.