Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“All right.” Shi Jin took out his phone and calculated everything on the spot before he transferred it.
Xu Qingbo was wide-eyed and speechless.
Ten seconds later, a text message came in. Xu Qingbo counted the number of zeroes and said sincerely to Shi Jin, “Let me know if there’s anything you need in the future. I’ll be at your beck and call.”
Shi Jin nodded and left the police station.
It was already past midnight, and the officer on duty in the station was extremely drowsy and kept falling asleep.
“Hello.”
The officer rubbed his eyes and looked around to see who had spoken. It was a young lady who had come to give her statement for a traffic accident. He had been waiting on her for the past half an hour.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“The person who just walked out is someone I know,” she said. “Can I ask…” She looked around cautiously and continued, “What did he do something wrong?”
The officer looked the young lady up and down. “Why are you asking me this?”
The young lady appeared to be a bit shy. “A friend of mine really likes him,” she explained, “and I’m afraid that he’s a bad guy who might hurt my friend.”
Even the bureau chief had been alerted about the two individuals from earlier—they must not have been average citizens. This thought made the officer wary.
“That’s private,” he said. “I suggest that you stop asking.”
“Oh, thank you.”
The young lady was slightly disappointed. She lowered her head and returned to her seat.
Just then, someone standing at the door of the interrogation room called out, “Chen Yiqiao?”
“I’m Chen Yiqiao,” replied the young lady.
“Come give your statement.”
“Okay.”
At nine o’clock the following morning, Mo Bing called Jiang Jiusheng’s phone.
“Hello.” Jiang Jiusheng had just woken up, so her voice was still hoarse.
Mo Bing had always been very efficient, and she utilized a straightforward approach.
“They’ve investigated it,” she said. “The man’s name is Qian Zhipeng. He’s mentally unstable, and he moved into your apartment building two months ago. He’s just a normal working-class guy. His apartment was rented. The police have already confirmed that there are photos and posters of you plastered everywhere throughout the apartment, even in the bathroom. Xiao Qiao has also checked with the martial arts parlor and confirmed that this person has been following you for some time.”
Everything was just as Jiang Jiusheng expected. “Where is he now?” she asked.
“He was in the hospital, but I went to ask about him this morning and found out he has been transferred to another hospital.” Mo Bing contemplated this for a second. Her tone grew sterner as she said, “It’s a bit fishy. All the police told me was that they would deal with it according to the law. They wouldn’t say anything else. However, even the victim wouldn’t say anything about it, which is odd. Moreover, the two security guards who called the police last night are nowhere to be found. I can’t help but feel that there’s a third party involved in this.”
Moreover, this matter was being dealt with shockingly fast!
Jiang Jiusheng had no special reaction to Mo Bing’s words. “Then stop interfering,” she said, “in case the reporters catch wind of this and write something.” After a long moment, she added softly, “That stalker fan will probably not appear again.”
“How can you be so sure?” Mo Bing shot back. “Did anything else happen last night?”
Jiang Jiusheng didn’t answer. Instead, she asked Mo Bing, “What else could have possibly happened?”
Mo Bing was well aware that this celebrity—whom she was meant to be taking care of—was not the type to obediently report everything to her. “I heard from the hospital staff that the stalker fan was admitted with severe injuries,” she said, her voice carrying a measure of skepticism. “Was it your doing?”
Jiang Jiusheng certainly had the capability, but that wasn’t her style.
After a long time, Jiang Jiusheng admitted, “Yes, I did that.”
For some inexplicable reason, Mo Bing didn’t fully believe her, but who else could have beaten him up that night if not Jiang Jiusheng? Now that Jiang Jiusheng had begun to spread her wings as an artist, she was starting to harbor her own secrets.
“What about the person with the license plate 0902?” Mo Bing had also found out that day that there had been another stalker fan tailing Jiang Jiusheng. “Did you run into him last night?”
Jiang Jiusheng changed the topic. “How are you?”
It was evident that she no longer wished to continue talking about this, so Mo Bing stopped asking.
“Hmm,” said Mo Bing. “Lin Anzhi is here. It’s no big deal. I’ll be discharged this afternoon.”
Mo Bing turned and opened her mouth. Lin Anzhi tried to feed her a mouthful of porridge, but she shook her head, and he took it away. He was serving her dutifully, and Jiang Jiusheng found it funny that Mo Bing was ordering him around. One of the top three emperors of the film industry was being treated like a nanny.
“What’s wrong with your voice?” Mo Bing asked.
Jiang Jiusheng cleared her throat. “I just woke up.”
“Why do you sound so tired?”
“I didn’t sleep well.”
Mo Bing thought about it. “Do you need me to get an appointment with Dr. Chang?”
There had been a period when Jiang Jiusheng had suffered from severe insomnia. Dr. Chang was her main doctor, but it had been a long time since she’d gone to him for psychological counseling.
Jiang Jiusheng’s philosophy was that if she had sleeping pills, she didn’t need a doctor; she was naturally reticent and unwilling to share her thoughts. As such, she gave a crisp rejection.
“No need,” she said. Then, after a pause, she added seriously, “If you’re worried, you can just give me two packs of cigarettes.”
Mo Bing was speechless. She hung up straight away.
Jiang Jiusheng threw her phone aside and rubbed the area between her eyebrows. Her head was throbbing. The sleeping pills she had taken the night before had failed to work, and she hadn’t been able to sleep. Shi Jin’s face filled her mind whenever she closed her eyes. Nothing was clear, but she just couldn’t stop thinking about him.
She grabbed her phone and found Shi Jin’s number. After staring at it for some time, she threw her phone back again and seized hold of her hair in frustration. She picked up a cigarette and went to the balcony to smoke.
At 9:30 a.m., she decided to go out. She pushed open the door without hesitation and found herself looking into eyes as dark as the deepest night in winter.
“Shengsheng.”
Shi Jin’s voice sounded dry and incredibly hoarse. He was still wearing his clothes from the day before as he stood before her door.
Jiang Jiusheng was stunned for some time. “I thought you left for a conference.”
He was standing in a prim and proper manner. “Didn’t you ask me to wait for you?” he said in a low voice.
“How long have you been waiting?”
“Since 12:30 last night.”
The distance between her house and Shi Jin’s house was a mere two meters. What had he been thinking—standing at her front door for nine hours?
“Why didn’t you ring the doorbell?” she asked.
Shi Jin maintained his posture and stood completely straight before her without moving. “I didn’t want to disturb your sleep,” he replied.
He was such a strange person; who knew what he was thinking?
Jiang Jiusheng stared at him. It was only then that she noticed the faint trace of blood-red color in his dark eyes. There was some stubble on his jaw. It wasn’t obvious, but it gave his appearance a degree of neglect. In all the time she had known him, this was the first time she had witnessed Shi Jin unconcerned about his appearance. He was in a sorry state. However, she still could not tear her gaze away. It was truly strange—she initially thought that there were many things she wanted to ask him and many doubts she wanted to address, but now that she was looking at him, she drew a complete blank. In fact, she found the sight of such an unruly looking Shi Jin rather sexy.
Suddenly, she felt the urge to smoke again. Her mind was a mess.
“Shengsheng.”
She lifted her head. “Hmm?”
“I’m different than that stalker fan,” he said, then vowed, “I will never hurt you.”
His eyes were quite dark. There were no traces of impurities, especially when he was serious and focused. They looked like shining stars in a midsummer night sky. When he looked at others in such a manner, his eyes were so captivating that they could suck someone right in.
Jiang Jiusheng was momentarily dazed. She nodded and said, “I know.”
She knew that he was probably afraid that she would compare him to the stalker fan from the night before, or perhaps he feared that she was afraid of the violence and bloodshed she witnessed last night. She, too, had initially thought she would be afraid. After all, she had seen many crazy fans. Yet she felt differently about Shi Jin.
“I wasn’t suspicious of you last night,” she explained without reservation. “Nor was I afraid that you would hurt me. Mo Bing was involved in an accident, so I rushed over to her instead of listening to what you had to say. I’m sorry.”