Chapter 35

Apart from his parents, Chen Pu was the third person to carry Li Qingyao.

The first one, of course, was Li Jincheng, who had carried her since she was a child. Li Qingyao still clearly remembered that the boy's back was thin and straight, and his hands always held her steadily. Little Qingyao didn't know how many times she had fallen asleep on her brother's back. Until now, she still remembered the smell of her brother's back. The boy's body always had a slight heat, a little soap smell, and sometimes a little sweat smell.

The second person who carried her on his back might be considered her first love.

It was the second semester of the second year of high school, and the school held a sports meet. Li Qingyao, who was not very active, relied on her good jumping ability and signed up for the high jump, but ended up spraining her ankle. The teacher asked someone to carry her to the infirmary, but Luo Huaizheng appeared out of nowhere and squatted in front of her first among the boys.

At that time, the burning gazes of the girls around her almost drowned her. She was a little hesitant, letting Luo Huaizheng's back attract too much attention, and she didn't like attracting attention.

But if Luo Huaizheng wanted to carry it, who would dare to compete with him? Li Qingyao didn't know that the boys who had a crush on her at that time were almost jealous.

But Li Qingyao was a quick man, and he quickly lay on his back and said, "Thank you, squad leader."

She immediately corrected everyone's thinking: Oh, yes, Luo Huaizheng is the class monitor, this makes sense.

But soon someone remembered, why was it that last time, and the time before that, when a girl sprained her ankle or fell down, Luo Huaizheng didn't bend his proud back, but instead ordered this boy or that boy to carry her or help her up, while he himself just stood there doing nothing?

Luo Huaizheng had already walked away carrying Li Qingyao on his back.

The back of a teenager is completely different from the back of a young man. At that time, although Luo Huaizheng was about 1.78 meters tall, he was very thin. Li Qingyao lay on his back and felt that there were ribs everywhere. The two of them didn't talk much. He was a silent person, and she was also a quiet person at that time.

After carrying it for a long distance, Li Qingyao asked, "Is it heavy? How about I get off? I feel like I can actually walk."

"Not heavy!" he said almost immediately, clenching his hands.

Li Qingyao lowered his head and said nothing.

When they were almost at the infirmary, Luo Huaizheng said, "Do you agree to what I asked you last time?"

Li Qingyao looked around like a thief, and seeing no one around, he breathed a sigh of relief, blushing again, and said, "You wanted to celebrate your admission to Tsinghua University, so why did you drag me to the movies?"

The boy hesitated for a long time before he said, "Because I think you are the most like-minded among my classmates."

Li Qingyao was puzzled: "When did we vote?"

The boy sighed and said, "Just tell me whether you want to go or not. It's a comedy. Aren't comedies your favorite?"

"Then go ahead. Thank you, monitor. By the way, have you called the others?"

The boy was silent for a long time, until he walked into the infirmary and put her on a chair, then he said in a mosquito-like voice: "Can you not call other people?"

……

Chen Pu was already 29 years old. He was taller than any man who had ever carried her on his back. He had the same masculine aura as Li Jincheng, but his shoulders were broad, and there was more than enough space for Li Qingyao to hang his arms over his head. His muscles were tight, his spine was undulating, but his waist was narrow and thin - Li Qingyao could feel it.

Li Qingyao was no longer the shy and introverted girl she used to be. She lay there for a while, feeling very satisfied, and pinched his shoulder, praising him: "This feels so good, you must work out regularly, right?"

Without needing Chen Pu to answer, she continued to talk to herself: "I also want to exercise, but I just can't stick to it. How do you do it when you are so busy at work?"

Chen Pu didn't want to pay attention to her nonsense, and just said: "Can you give me a little respect between men and women? Put your hands down and don't pinch them?"

Li Qingyao snorted. She was also tired, so she hooked his neck from behind with both hands, tilted her head, and rested her head on one of her arms, with her face leaning against his neck.

Her breath was light and Chen Pu felt a slight tingling sensation, which went straight from his coccyx to the back of his neck, as if countless little bugs were biting and crawling around in his spine. He gritted his teeth and endured it, still walking steadily step by step. But he walked faster.

"Are we still investigating Liu Huaixin's clue?" Li Qingyao asked.

Chen Pu was silent.

A month ago, they found a suspicious empty room in the residential building. However, after investigation, the landlord was not suspected, and no other suspects were found in the surrounding surveillance. No DNA, fingerprints or blood of Liu Huaixin were found in the empty room, so there was insufficient evidence of homicide.

In the end, Liu Huaixin's case was closed as suicide. The criminal police team had many more urgent and important murder cases, and with limited manpower, it was impossible for them to waste time on a case with insufficient evidence.

However, Ding Guoqiang agreed that Chen Pu should continue to investigate this line privately.

In the past few weekends, Chen Pu and Li Qingyao have been running this route.

Over the years, Chen Pu has collected a lot of information about the residents of Chaoyang Home seven years ago, but there are always some tenants who have not registered and cannot be contacted, so they cannot collect information. Liu Huaixin is one of them.

Moreover, Liu Huaixin not only cancelled his mobile phone number, but also his WeChat and QQ numbers, and no records could be found. This made Chen Pu and Li Qingyao feel that Liu Huaixin had experienced something unusual that year.

The surveillance footage from seven years ago is gone. The only clue is a neighbor who lived in Building 17, Room 201, right above 101, and he still lives there. He was a courier in his forties named Zhang Mingyong. According to his recollection, there were three young men living in 101 at the time. Chen Pu showed Zhang Mingyong a photo of Liu Huaixin, and he recognized Liu as one of the three men because he was quite handsome and had a deep impression of him.

"They seemed to be doing something together. They stayed at home all day and rarely went out," Zhang Mingyong recalled. "Were they taking drugs or making drugs?"

When asked about the appearance of the other two men, Zhang Mingyong shook his head: "I only met them two or three times in the corridor. They looked ordinary, so I can't remember them clearly."

"If we meet again, or see a photo, would you recognize me?"

Zhang Mingyong couldn't be sure.

They showed him a photo of Li Jincheng, and Zhang Mingyong answered with certainty: "I have never seen him."

……

"Keep investigating," Chen Pu replied, "Maybe one day, a clue will come to you."

"Yeah." Li Qingyao said, "Thank you for your hard work."

When she first came to the criminal police team, she despised Chen Pu's ability. When she really got involved, she found that looking for someone from seven years ago was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Moreover, the criminal police team was not a pushover. So many people were mobilized and so much effort was put in but they still couldn't find him, which meant that there was little hope.

Chen Pu knew that the hope was slim, but she still spent almost her entire youth on her brother, her friend.

Chen Pu was surprised by her rare comfort. He smiled and lowered his head, making his neck look even more slender and flexible. He replied calmly, "What's the big deal?"

Li Qingyao blew gently towards his neck.

Chen Pu's whole body froze: "Just shut up!"

Finally, they trudged to the police car. This was originally a joint investigation mission, and their second team was not responsible for the main responsibility, and they also caught someone, so that was the end of the matter, and the other cars had almost left.

Chen Pu held Li Qingyao with one hand and opened the car door with the other hand, then put her down. Li Qingyao sat in the back seat. Chen Pu looked at her ankle again, which was more swollen than before. He closed the car door, put the shoes and socks in his hand on the passenger seat, and then drove.

"I'm not going back to the bureau." Li Qingyao said, "Send me to Yuan Ling Clinic at No. 222 Yinshan Road, where my mother is. She can treat this disease faster."

Chen Pu paused as he started the car and stepped on the accelerator.

-

During the years when Chen Pu was in the police academy, he went to Li Qingyao's house for dinner several times. But he didn't know whether he and Li Qingyao were not destined to be together, or whether he was too busy as a high school student, so he never met them once.

Chen Pu's impression of Li's mother, Yuan Ling, who runs a clinic, is a pretty woman who wears gold-rimmed glasses and looks very bookish. She speaks softly and sometimes humorously. Like Li's father, she makes Chen Pu feel very comfortable. The couple not only always prepares sumptuous meals for the two young men from the police academy. Every time Chen Pu comes with a gift, Yuan Ling must have prepared a return gift. Later, he simply comes empty-handed to avoid burdening others. But every time he leaves, Yuan Ling also brings him fruit or homemade braised beef or something. The main point is that he has everything that Li Jincheng has.

Even Chen Pu's father once said when he saw those gifts that although this family's conditions were far inferior to his, they were very polite and principled.

Chen Pu's favorite dishes were the braised beef cooked by Li's father and the fried pork with dried tofu cooked by Yuan Ling. Every time, Li Jincheng would fight with him for the last few chopsticks. He was not a talkative person by nature and liked to keep his thoughts to himself. He secretly observed the relationship between Li Jincheng and the couple once or twice, and finally came to the conclusion that Li Jincheng had grown up in their family and had never suffered any grievances. They really treated him as their own flesh and blood.

Chen Pu, who was in his early twenties at the time, had some strange ideas in mind - if he married their daughter in the future, it would be a closer relationship and he could also be half their son. But he suddenly remembered that the girl was still in high school and laughed.

They are five years apart in age, so she would become my little wife. That's not good, no. He knew the young master's temper and had no patience to coax anyone, so he gave up the idea immediately.

Later, when Li Jincheng got into trouble, Chen Pu thought many times about going to visit Li's father and mother, but for some reason, no matter how many times he drove to the vicinity of Yuan Ling's clinic or outside Li's residential area, he couldn't push open the heavy car door.

-

Seeing that Chen Pu had become obviously silent along the way, Li Qingyao knew what was going on. He sighed secretly and asked, "In the past few years, during every Chinese New Year and other festivals, those extremely expensive gifts without senders' names were all sent by you, right?"

Chen Pu didn't say anything.

If Li Qingyao was not sure who the sender was before, after interacting with Chen Pu for some time, he was 100% sure that it was him.

"You can actually go and see them. They will definitely be happy to see you," said Li Qingyao.

Chen Pu smiled, and that smile revealed an unprecedented tenderness. He said, "No, I'll walk you to the door and say hello for me. I'll knock on your door after I find your brother."

Li Qingyao's nose felt a little sour, but he muttered quietly, "Coward."

He heard it, but didn't comment. He opened the car door, walked around, took her shoes and socks, and helped her to the glass door of the clinic. When he saw the nurse coming out, he put the shoes and socks on the ground and turned away.

I was too busy yesterday and didn’t have time to fix the legal bug. I will do it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.