Chapter 11#
Outsider#
Li Heng asked: “Do you recognize me?”
Ji Landong handed over his wrist.
The abnormally pale skin covered clear wrist bones, and the scars in the wrist were criss-crossed and hideous.
Li Xingyun struggled even harder, making a lot of noise. Li Heng looked back: “You think I’m going to arrest him?”
This scene really did look like that.
Who told Ji Landong to be so cooperative.
Twelve years ago, Li Heng was still a new detective who had just entered the Investigation Bureau. He received a panicked alarm from a woman late at night and was ordered to investigate the death of a well-known director.
On the narrow and dark wooden steps, the fifteen-year-old Ji Landong also reached out towards the handcuffs like this.
It was a very strange scene: the moonlight poured in from the attic window, the body of a middle-aged man who fell down the steps and died, a woman who was so frightened to the point of being neurotic and hysterical, asking them to take away her eldest son, and a silent teenager who was covered in injuries.
Tall and thin, with very thin shoulders, the school uniform was half-old and washed to the point of being nearly white, with slightly fragmented black hair covering his bleeding eyebrows and eyelashes, a naturally noble appearance.
Compared to his mother who had gone mad, the fifteen-year-old Ji Landong was overly calm.
That was like a tree under the moonlight, silent and upright, letting the branches and leaves be pulled and torn, and chewed by borers.
Li Heng twelve years ago did not investigate the case in detail, nor did he arrest Ji Landong—the conditions were insufficient, and it was not necessary. With that level of injuries all over his body, even if an adult fought back and killed someone, it would be judged as justifiable defense.
Not to mention fifteen years old.
“It seems.” Li Heng put away the handcuffs, “In these twelve years, you have not been doing well.”
Ji Landong smiled: “I’m much better.”
Li Heng was the first to hear this answer. Although strange, he didn’t care. Li Xingyun, who was pressed on the ground, had his pupils contract, and he gritted his teeth and struggled again: “His body is bad, don’t touch him!”
In the Investigation Bureau, they deal with quite stubborn and vicious criminals. Li Heng’s methods of interrogating people are famous.
Ji Landong propped himself up on the ground, stood up, and tidied up the wrinkles in his clothes.
He really looked fine, but his movements were slightly slower than ordinary people. The meeting at the scene of the crime twelve years ago made him very clear about the procedure of the Investigation Bureau. He was taken to a separate room by Li Heng’s investigators to wait for inquiry.
When passing by Li Xingyun, Ji Landong stopped: “Can you let President Li go?”
Li Heng ignored Li Xingyun, who was struggling and shouting “Ge”. He had heard about the relationship between these two people. When he came to handle the case this time, the Li family asked him to conveniently break this ill-fated relationship.
Li Heng casually knocked out a cigarette and became interested: “Why, is he the ‘kind of person who can be let go’?”
Ji Landong slightly curved his eyes.
Ji Landong reached out and very politely asked for a cigarette. This scene also reminded people of twelve years ago.
For a fifteen-year-old boy to ask for a cigarette, it was naturally difficult to get his wish, but twenty-seven years old was nothing. Li Heng gave him a pack and pressed the lighter. The fire that rose illuminated his pale eyebrows.
“Yes.” Ji Landong said.
Li Heng nodded and had Ji Landong sent to the guest room. This strange tacit understanding stimulated Li Xingyun’s eyes to turn red, his chest fluctuated violently, and his teeth clenched.
Fortunately, whether for public or private reasons, Li Heng is a person who has the patience to explain: “In the investigation procedure of the Investigation Bureau, the person who can be let go is an unrelated outsider.”
“The person who never helped him.”
“The person who never stood on his side, and who absolutely cannot be an accomplice with him.”
“The person who doesn’t understand him at all.”
Li Heng tapped the notebook and asked officially: “Is it you?”
Li Xingyun was pinned to the bone by these words, and maybe also pinned to the throat. His body began to tremble, as if he wanted to deny it desperately, but not a word could be rushed out, and even some bloody smell seeped out of his mouth.
He was trying to understand Ji Landong…
He regretted it, knew he was wrong, and just a few days after breaking up with Ji Landong, he actually began to regret.
He thought his sense of justice was bursting, thought he would never be blinded by love, and would not cover up or tolerate because Ji Landong was his own person. He thought he was redeeming for those whom Ji Landong had once harmed on his behalf.
But after the burning impulsive emotions faded, he found that he couldn’t live without Ji Landong.
So that day, he mustered his courage and made a call.
On the other end was the busy signal that had been in arrears for a long time.
…
Li Heng squatted down, listening to the intermittent painful whimpering, it was really difficult to empathize at any link: “If so, Ji Landong was not wrong.”
A completely unrelated outsider.
“Isn’t that you?”
Li Xingyun’s eyes widened, with red bloodshots in the corners of his eyes, and his face was pale. Even if his shoulders were no longer pressed, he could not move at all.
Li Heng waved his hand, crushed the cigarette, and stood up.
Private affairs cannot interfere excessively with public affairs. Too much time was wasted on Li Xingyun, and repeating words is meaningless.
He should go and see Ji Landong.
Ji Landong has always been very cooperative.
Whether twelve years ago or now, when pushing open the door, Ji Landong sat alone at the table, with the desk lamp on, and the shadow was lengthened by the light.
Li Heng walked over.
This was a not-so-large room, with the bed next to the desk. Li Heng sat by the bed: “Ji Landong.”
Ji Landong seemed to regain his senses. Under the warm yellow light of the desk lamp, his eyes also seemed to gradually regain some of the luster of the past, and smiled at him.
Li Heng asked: “How are you doing?”
The Investigation Bureau is very busy. Li Heng is in politics, far away from the messy and rotten dyeing tank like the entertainment industry.
“Very good.” Ji Landong said, “The days go by very fast.”
He asked for a cigarette but didn’t smoke it. The cigarette died in the ashtray, and his pale fingers pulled at the ashes as if he didn’t know they were hot, burying them into a not-so-large grave.
Li Heng took out a recording pen, which represented the beginning of the inquiry.
“After the case back then, in these years.”
Li Heng: “Is there anything, happy or sad, that leaves a particularly deep impression on you?”
Ji Landong: “No.”
Li Heng: “Is there such a person?”
Ji Landong: “No.”
Li Heng: “Li Xingyun doesn’t count? His heart seems to have been taken by you.”
This was not a regular inquiry. Ji Landong paused at this question, thinking for a few seconds, as if realizing in hindsight that Li Heng and Li Xingyun both have the surname Li.
Ji Landong tried to explain, he didn’t take anything, his palms were empty: “I returned it.”
Li Heng saw the mottled scars on Ji Landong’s wrist again.
These things were actually eyesores. Li Heng frowned, he would have unpleasant feelings, which was only natural—Ji Landong twelve years ago was almost intentionally let go by him.
Now he has become like this.
“Why do you do this.” Li Heng asked, “Just because someone scolds you?”
There are indeed many people who scold and attack Ji Landong unscrupulously, with Ji Ran’s fans being the most. These people really scold unpleasantly, making them unbearable, and even have many quite vicious curses.
The extreme fan who caused Ji Landong and Li Xingyun to have a car accident was sentenced to intentional injury and imprisoned. He even had a mouth harder than his face and refused to repent: “Oh, not even a life was lost, and he’s sentenced to prison. He’s acting resolutely now, isn’t he?”
“Ji Landong has two and a half lives on his hands.”
“The Investigation Bureau turns a blind eye and is playing dumb. The lives of big stars and big bosses are lives, but others’ lives are not?”
These public opinions were coming fiercely, dragging Li Heng, the handler of the case, into the water. Even a group of fans formed a team to repeatedly report and complain, and would not rest until Ji Landong was sentenced to death.
This led to this investigation team.
Ji Landong looked at his wrist and shook his head. Countless people have been scolding him all the time, he has long since gotten used to it.
Li Heng frowned. Originally he wanted to ask more, but looking at Ji Landong’s pale face, he felt that this topic shouldn’t be probed into at this time.
Li Xingyun said Ji Landong’s body was bad, it seems that at least this sentence was not a lie.
“Rest.” Li Heng stood up, “I want to run for senator and have a clean record, so I have to prove you innocent. We are in the same boat.”
“Ji Landong, I have seen you when you were fifteen.” Li Heng said. He never makes rash conclusions, and only evaluates the part he knows, “You were very good then.”
The puppy left alone whimpered and scratched the door crazily. Li Heng walked to the door, picked it up with one hand, and placed it in Ji Landong’s arms.
Ji Landong’s arm was pressed down to his lap.
As soon as the door was closed, the system popped up, full of worry and revolving around the chair: “Ji Landong, Ji Landong, are you okay? I heard someone cursing you, don’t be afraid, I’ll help you beat him.”
Ji Landong wanted to help the mushroom cover its ears, but the mushroom didn’t have any.
He comforted the system: “It’s a hallucination.”
The cursing voice came from auditory hallucinations. Once the system was adjusted to the sympathy mode, it could hear it.
Ji Landong didn’t get this disease deliberately. The system searched the memories that could still be found. The first time Ji Landong appeared auditory hallucinations was when he was accused of being a “murderer” by Li Xingyun.
When he was in a slightly better mood, Ji Landong accompanied the system for analysis and considered this a failure.
He has almost practiced to be invulnerable, can resist the cruelty of his biological father and the brutality of his adoptive father, can ignore the hatred of his biological mother, and even doesn’t care about the betrayal of Ji Ran and the overwhelming insults and curses, yet.
Yet, he was unsatisfied with his greed.
Suffering for himself.
“Nonsense!”
The system was so angry that it pulled the puppy’s hair: “Ji Landong, wanting a home is not greed, and wanting to love someone is not greed.”
“You gave him your weakness, and he didn’t cherish it. He hurt you like this. It’s his fault, not yours…”
Before the system finished nagging, it was startled by the fluctuating data: “Ji Landong, what’s wrong with you? Are you uncomfortable? Call Li Heng, Li Heng looks okay, doesn’t he? He said you were very good when you were fifteen!”
Ji Landong poked it: “Rescue the puppy.”
The system hurriedly carried away the puppy. Ji Landong coughed up some blood, and mottled blood stains splashed on the wooden floor.
He also lost his balance, fell to the floor, turned his body over, and lay quietly on his back, wanting to ask the system to help bring a word of apology.
“No more apologies at such a time!” The system hurriedly pried open the door and let the dog bite Li Heng to save him, “To whom?”
Ji Landong said: “To me.”
The system was stunned for a moment.
He found that Ji Landong’s external reaction and the internal feelings of his body seemed to have completely fallen out of sync—the data showed severe pain, but Ji Landong only pressed his stomach with one hand and opened his eyes very calmly through the cold sweat.
This made what Ji Landong said lose its persuasiveness.
No one would believe what an “I’m in a lot of pain” said by such a calm person.
The system was running the sympathy program. Under the cold moonlight, the scarred pale teenager stood in front of the window, his eyes quiet and dark, like a lonely tree.
“Sorry.” Ji Landong apologized to his fifteen-year-old self, “We didn’t become better people.”