Chapter 15 - 1#

It wasn’t until the colleagues said goodbye one after another that Jiang Qin came out of the study and saw them off with Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan glanced at his face sideways and saw that his expression was very appropriate, with a slight coldness between his eyebrows, but it was difficult to see his emotions.

Fang Yuan was secretly surprised. He originally thought he could grasp Jiang Qin’s emotions well, and any reaction from the other party was within his expectations. But now he found that when Jiang Qin became cold, he actually felt very anxious.

All the colleagues left. Jiang Qin cleared the dishes in the kitchen without saying a word. Fang Yuan hesitated for a long time and was about to go up to help when suddenly the mobile phone in his pocket rang.

“Hello, Mom?” The signal in the kitchen was bad, so Fang Yuan walked quickly to the balcony, only to hear Mother Fang ask kindly: “Have you moved? How is the place? Is work busy? When can you come back for dinner during the holidays?”

Fang Yuan laughed: “I just settled down, where can I have a holiday. The rented house is not bad. Do you remember the cousin from Aunt’s family? He helped me a lot back and forth.”

To Mother Fang, Jiang Qin was “someone else’s child” after all. Although they were related by blood, they hadn’t been in contact for many years. Besides, the things that happened back then had passed for a long time, and any resentment had faded.

“Eh, such a coincidence? Did you meet him as soon as you arrived in H City?”

Fang Yuan gave a “hmm” and didn’t say much.

“How is he doing now? If he has difficulties, you should help him well. After all, you are both alone outside, it’s not easy…”

“I know.”

“Oh, Ah Yuan, thanks to me calling you today. You can’t even remember to call home. Raising you so big but you have no conscience at all… Don’t interrupt me, what’s wrong with me saying a few words? Let me tell you, thanks to me calling today, your uncle and aunt are having dinner at our house today. Your father and his old comrades from the Public Security Department caught a lot of big carp…”

Fang Yuan suddenly noticed something, looked back, and saw Jiang Qin clutching the balcony door frame tightly with one hand, his face bearing indescribable sadness and loss.

This expression really came from the bottom of his heart, so deep and sorrowful, as if huge bitterness was stuck in his throat, so painful that it was almost impossible to hide.

Fang Yuan’s heart moved, and he beckoned him: “Come here.” Then he told Mother Fang: “Let Aunt answer the phone, Jiang Qin is right beside me.”

Mother Fang didn’t think much, and subconsciously went to call her old sister to come over and talk.

Jiang Qin’s fingers clutching the door frame trembled slightly. It took him several seconds to walk over, but he didn’t reach out to take the phone, so Fang Yuan turned on the speaker and put it in front of him.

“…” He gasped for a few breaths, and called out with a trembling tail tone: “…Mom?”

The wait was so long that even a few seconds felt hopelessly endless. Finally, a hesitant voice came from the other end of the phone: “…Ah Qin?”

Mother Jiang’s voice had aged a lot, with a bit of uncertainty. She paused and asked again: “Are you… okay recently?”

Jiang Qin felt weak all over, his hands and feet turning cold in waves. Fang Yuan quickly reached out and pressed his shoulder firmly.

“Mmhmm, I’m very good. How about you and Dad? You…”

“We are also very good.”

The conversation suddenly fell into a brief silence, as if both had a lot to say but didn’t know how to start.

Jiang Qin’s lips were trembling, and his usual calm, steady, and serious appearance was gone. Fang Yuan supported him by putting his arm around his shoulder. Looking from the side, he saw that the tip of his nose was red, his voice was choked, and there seemed to be a layer of glistening water in his eyes.

Before coming, Fang Yuan had deliberately inquired and found out that Jiang Qin hadn’t spoken a word to his parents for a full ten years. In the early years, when he called, Father Jiang and Mother Jiang hung up directly. Later, they changed their number, and Jiang Qin didn’t have the courage to call again.

This was the first time he heard his family’s voice since he ran away from home with Jin Yan after graduating from university.

“I… I sent you some things, bought some supplements, see if you can eat them. You and Dad are getting old, I couldn’t be by your side… to support you…”

Jiang Qin was simply incoherent and repeated the whole sentence again. Mother Jiang seemed completely flustered too, saying “mmhmm” after hearing a sentence, and finally said: “Your dad went out to smoke… Your dad said he is also very good…”

Fang Yuan patted Jiang Qin’s shoulder, took back the phone and whispered: “Aunt, I’m Fang Yuan. Cousin is crying.”

“Oh, oh, he…”

“I will take care of him, you and Uncle can rest assured.”

Mother Jiang still couldn’t get over that hurdle in her heart. Suddenly hearing her son’s voice, she instantly forgot the estrangement of years. Now that she calmed down after a few words of conversation, she couldn’t help but think of the previous things again. Her feelings were very complicated, and she didn’t know what to say.

“Let’s leave it like this for today. You and Uncle take good care of your health. I’ll call you again later.”

Mother Jiang quickly agreed in a low voice.

Fang Yuan exchanged a few polite words and hung up the phone. Turning his head, he saw Jiang Qin leaning against the balcony railing, his fingers nervously clutching his own wrist, his nails digging deep into the flesh. He had lost a lot of weight recently and looked very haggard. Under the sunlight, those eyes with already light pupil color were almost completely covered by tears, but he couldn’t make a sound, only big drops of tears flowing down his cheeks.

“Uncle and Aunt are getting old, you have to let them accept it slowly, don’t be impatient.” Fang Yuan patted him comfortingly: “Blood ties can never be cut.”

Jiang Qin nodded while wiping his eyes hard with his palm, as if very embarrassed by his loss of composure, and turned to walk into the living room.

Fang Yuan followed a step, thought about it, and stopped.

Looking at Jiang Qin’s back, he had an indescribably complicated emotion in his heart. He had always felt a bit disgusted and looked down upon this overly beautiful cousin—when men see a same-sex person with a delicate appearance, they always feel contempt and an impulse to tease. This is a nature rooted in the bones. Especially for someone with the nature of his work, that disgust was even more obvious.

He originally hated some young people in the police station who would break down and cry when encountering things, crying like women. However, when this cousin whom he had always despised walked away from him hurriedly with tears, he couldn’t help but want to follow and take a few more looks.

As if addicted and unable to extricate himself.

Fang Yuan lit a cigarette and played with his mobile phone unconsciously. After a long while, his mood slowly calmed down.

The Jin family is related to many shady businesses. This is tacitly understood by veterans in the police circle. The only thing missing is ironclad evidence.

However, they have different views on Jiang Qin. Some people think that he can live with Jin Yan for more than ten years, and his status in the Jin family is definitely extraordinary. Maybe he is a key figure in many businesses; some people think that he is still just an ordinary accountant, and his life status is also detached from the Jin family. Treating him as a breakthrough to investigate the Jin family can only be a waste of effort.

Some people also feel that Jin Yan runs a highly influential entertainment company and is surrounded by countless handsome men and beautiful women all day long, but there has been no scandal so far. It can be seen that his relationship with his only legal partner is quite deep. Although this person named Jiang Qin is low-key and ordinary, he must have a huge and decisive influence on Jin Yan; Jin Yan has not completely stepped into the underworld so far, the key is that Jiang Qin’s existence limits him.

Fang Yuan remembered seeing Jin Yan in the hotel that day. Would that kind of man abruptly stop his progress because of scruples about someone?

If so, will these two eventually break up or get back together?

Fang Yuan couldn’t help imagining what Jin Yan would look like after Jiang Qin left. He would definitely have no more scruples.

He had seen so many people in the police station and was confident that his vision was sharp enough. Someone like Jin Yan might eventually become a crazy desperado.

Fang Yuan sneered silently and exhaled a deep smoke ring.

Although Fang Yuan spoke rudely and made Jiang Qin angry once, he directly facilitated the first call between Jiang Qin and his parents in more than ten years, so he was quickly forgiven.

His home now has two bedrooms, a study, and a small living room connected to the kitchen. The space is too large and he doesn’t want to rent it out, so he invited Jiang Qin to live in his house.

In fact, Jiang Qin also had this intention. He was tired of living in the hotel. Not to mention the high cost, it was also inconvenient in various ways. Every night when he lay on the empty strange bed, he would immediately start to have insomnia. Fang Yuan was his biological cousin after all, and he didn’t intend not to share the rent, so it was reasonable to move in and live together.

In Jiang Qin’s view, this was only a short stay of at most a few weeks, but when the news reached Jin Yan’s ears, he smashed an ashtray on the spot.

“He has moved to that policeman’s house?!” Jin Yan didn’t even use a name to address Fang Yuan, and roared furiously: “He just moved there like this, didn’t even think of going home to pack some things?!”