AWB Chapter 378 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (89)
Chapter 378 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (89)
Jin Shuhe replied very quickly, and you could tell from the brevity that he was extremely busy.
But she still managed to squeeze in a few seconds of sweet talk in the short three-second voice message: "Sister Li Ruan, I missed you so much that I dreamt about you last night."
“Okay, I think you’ve got it. I’m going to play this voice message thirty times before I go to sleep tonight!” Lu Liruan typed back to him, to avoid the embarrassment of someone overhearing it if his phone was on speakerphone.
But in reality, Jin Shuhe couldn't be happier...
He wanted everyone to know how much Sister Li Ruan liked him and how much she loved him.
So when Qin Wen saw him with a smirk and tilting his head to lean closer, he pretended not to notice and didn't move away.
Qin Wen originally just wanted to make an appearance, but he didn't expect his eyesight to be so good. His naked eye vision of 1.5, along with the ability to grasp the key points at a glance that he had cultivated over the years, allowed him to see the sweet words between the young couple in an instant.
"Sizzle—" Qin Wen couldn't help but suck on it, his old face wrinkling up.
"What's wrong? What's going on?" Qi Silang, who was eating his second bowl of instant noodles today, asked hurriedly, wanting to hear some news to accompany his meal.
"Stop asking questions. What good will it do you?" Qin Wen said softly.
He then raised his hand and gave Jin Shuhe a tap on the back of the neck: "You little brat, are you feeling particularly smug?"
"Hmm." As he expected, Jin Shuhe nodded with a serious expression.
"You're really lucky, kid. First love, huh? Happy, right? How wonderful!" Qin Wen said with a touch of melancholy, "Unlike a playboy like me, who has been wandering the dating scene for so many years, I still don't have a warm home!"
Chen Mingkang, who was passing by behind him, kicked his stool, almost making him lose his balance and fall over: "You're disgusting! What are you wandering around for? You're just unwanted! You should at least have somewhere to wander!"
After being exposed, Qin Wen was furious and embarrassed: "You think you're so smart! I just love my job! I've dedicated the best years of my life to my work, to the cause I love and am willing to fight for for the rest of my life!"
"Hey, I just walked in and I hear someone taking an oath of office?" Wu Qidong and Team Leader Xie came in from a meeting outside and overheard it.
"Team Leader Xie, Deputy Team Leader Wu, look... I'm just being very conscientious!" Qin Wen said sheepishly.
"Alright, stop joking around! Have you finished what you were supposed to be doing?"
"We've found it! Let me go in and report to you, okay?" Qin Wen glanced at Jin Shuhe before getting up.
Jin Shuhe nodded to him.
After he and the leaders left, Qi Silang sneakily approached Jin Shuhe.
They originally thought that Zhang Jianhe was not the murderer in the case of Jin Shuhe's mother's murder, and this result would definitely have a very big impact on Jin Shuhe.
After all, Jin Shuhe had been tortured for so many years and finally caught the so-called murderer, only to find out that it wasn't him at all, and the real murderer was someone else. It seemed that everything he had done was in vain...
Jin Shuhe was bound to be disappointed and depressed, but to his surprise, Jin Shuhe not only did not show any negative emotions, but even seemed... more invigorated.
This question was answered during the morning meeting this morning, and Qi Silang finally understood why.
He breathed a deep sigh of relief. He had joined the Major Crimes Unit in the same batch as Jin Shuhe. However, after starting work, the pressure came not only from the sudden increase in workload and the unprecedented crimes he had never faced before, but also from his colleague Jin Shuhe, the "King of Cases."
Although Qi Silang didn't say it aloud, he felt in his heart that half of the credit for his rapid transformation into someone who seemed quite useful was due to Jin Shuhe...
But he really liked Jin Shuhe. Jin Shuhe was a good colleague and a good friend. He had a kind of approachable charm that made people trust and rely on him, and he was also good at taking care of people.
A few days ago, when Qi Silang learned that Zhang Jianhe was not the murderer in Jin Shuhe's mother's case, he almost cried...
He was easily moved to tears and had a strong sense of empathy. Jin Shuhe was someone he was very close to. Just thinking about Jin Shuhe's past and the possible disappointment he might feel now made his eyes sting.
Qi Silang didn't say anything, but Jin Shuhe sensed it. Starting a few days ago, Qi Silang would stare at him for a while without saying a word, and even pout.
Jin Shuhe found it somewhat amusing, but felt a warm glow inside.
He didn't understand it at first, and it was difficult for him to notice or appreciate it. Just as Sister Li Ruan said, his stubbornness and his hidden inferiority complex seemed to have trapped him.
Even though he stands up for his classmates, takes care of his colleagues, and is always at the forefront, it's not so much because of deep friendship that he's so selfless, but more because of a sense of responsibility and the feeling that he should do it.
When Jin Shuhe was in high school, he wanted to be like Sister Li Ruan... Sister Li Ruan stood up for him at that time, and he wanted to be like her.
Beneath his handsome and gentle exterior lies a somewhat lost heart that doesn't know how to cherish itself.
When did it start to change...?
Jin Shuhe couldn't remember the exact time, but it was probably when he felt deeply loved by Sister Li Ruan. Jin Shuhe originally thought that even if he left Sister Li Ruan, she would live a happy life forever.
Her life would still be complete even without her.
Then Sister Li Ruan said in person that she couldn't live without him, and that they would be together for life... It seemed that from that moment on, a thought suddenly appeared in Jin Shuhe's mind.
I have to live...
My life is so wonderful, so happy, and I will continue to be happy in the future. It is something I should savor and cherish.
Live each day to the fullest, and cherish the kindness of everyone you truly connect with. They are precious people, like jewels. This is proof that I am a happy and alive person.
After truly understanding and experiencing these things, Jin Shuhe felt even happier. Sometimes when he was alone, he would think: How did my life turn out like this?
How did things suddenly become so clear? If Mom knew, she would definitely be happy for me.
Jin Shuhe blamed himself countless times. When the tragedy happened, what could he have done? Even if everyone said he was not wrong, that he was just a child.
But whenever I think of my mother, no matter how gentle her smile or how warm the days, I can't help but feel pain.
But now he can only happily recall his mother...
Thinking of my mother and the short time we spent together makes me smile.
Because he can recall the happiness he felt at that time.
It's good to be alive.
The last time Jin Shuhe thought about death was when he was lying in his hospital bed, with only a faint trace of consciousness left, before Sister Li Ruan arrived.
He vaguely wondered: If I were to die like this, would my mother come to take me away with the same smile as before, just like in the stories?
probably not.
Mom will probably be very angry.
If they are to meet again, it should be after he has traveled a long way, at the end of his happy times.
"elder brother……"
"Hmm?" Jin Shuhe tilted his head. "You're older than me, right?"
"It's a feeling, bro..." Qi Silang said with a grin.
"I have something to ask you."
"Go ahead," Jin Shuhe said, feeling certain he wouldn't get any serious questions.
"Um, how do I get a girlfriend? I've...never had a single female friend in all these years. Do you...do you have any secrets?" Qi Silang asked very humbly.
Then, when he saw Jin Shuhe squinting at him, he suddenly added, "Brother, handsome, besides being good-looking, I definitely can't get plastic surgery!"
Jin Shuhe: ...Huh?
"Then I..." Jin Shuhe had just pulled himself out of his heartfelt emotions and now felt a sense of urgency to treat the whole world with genuine kindness.
They really did think about it seriously.
"What?"
"That's all." Jin Shuhe knew that although Sister Li Ruan had a good temper, he had always tried not to cause trouble for others since he was a child.
But how can you live together without any conflicts or friction?
Jin Shuhe boasted that over the years, he must have done quite a few annoying things.
But there was nothing he could do; Sister Li Ruan just liked him. Thinking of this, Jin Shuhe felt a sweet warmth in his heart...
Qi Silang, unaware that Qi Silang's attention had already shifted away from him, sighed, "Sigh... there's no one who can learn from him. Last time I asked Deputy Captain Wu, he bragged to me the whole way that his wife pursued him, saying he was handsome, dashing, and strong..."
"We've already arrived at our destination, and he still hasn't finished speaking. I'm never asking him again!"
……
When Lü Chun entered the office, she saw that the two men had different expressions.
One looked visibly distracted but in a good mood, while the other looked gloomy, holding a fork of instant noodles but not putting it in his mouth for a long time.
"What are you two doing? Performing a two-person comedy routine here?" Lu Chun's anger hadn't subsided when her shout woke them both up.
"What's wrong, Sister Lü? Did Brother Wen make you angry again?" Qi Silang's words hit the nail on the head again.
"You'll never be able to stop gossiping!"
After being scolded by the policewoman, Qi Silang wilted and peered at the documents that Lü Chun had thrown down.
"Where are these DNA comparison results from?"
"From the village!"
Lu Chun sat down, took the bottle of cold cola that Jin Shuhe had already opened for her, and took a few big gulps: "Xiao He is so perceptive. No wonder she and Xiao Lu are so sweet together!"
Lü Chun overheard a few words between the two of them.
Qi Silang was discouraged.
"The comparison is successful?" Jin Shuhe picked up the papers and looked at them.
"Yes, the match is there. We had everyone in the village come and provide their DNA. We thought someone had done something wrong and was too scared to come, but they came right away."
"Later, when I found out, it turned out that because so many years had passed, all the elders who knew about this had passed away. You couldn't tell the children about this, could you? Several children... had no idea that their mother was..."
Qi Silang and Jin Shuhe understood what she meant, and both of them fell silent for a moment.
The traffickers and buyers have undoubtedly committed heinous crimes, and these children from back then were also products of evil, but now they are middle-aged...
Perhaps, like Zhang Jianhe, they harbored longing for their mothers, or perhaps they had been deceived for years by lies fabricated by those bad people.
Now that they're middle-aged, according to the information they have, they've all gotten married and had children, and some have even settled in other places.
I wonder what you'll think when you hear this news.
“I don’t care what they think,” Lü Chun said softly. “Because they have lived most of their lives peacefully and smoothly in lies, while their mothers, those poor women, were already gone before they were even as old as them.”
No one refuted her words, and the group was somewhat dejected.
“Even if the person isn’t dead, the statute of limitations for the case has expired, and no one reported it back then.” Qi Silang sighed deeply.
"Oh, there is one... well, it's not exactly good news."
"What?" Jin Shuhe walked over with the instant noodles she had prepared for her.
“There are even people in their village who buy wives…” After Lü Chun finished speaking, the two people next to her cast “absurd” glances at her.
"In this day and age! How can they still commit crimes like this?" Qi Silang exclaimed in shock. "Didn't Zheng Qingping go there to teach back then? Would they still dare to do something like this with outsiders coming and going?"
"It's lucky that Teacher Zheng was able to come back safely from there back then," Jin Shuhe sighed.
Qi Silang recalled what Zhang Jianhe had said in his confession: his father had actually blocked Zheng Qingping's door, shouting that Zheng Qingping should be his wife...
They initially thought it was just a drunkard causing trouble, but now that they've discovered the filth and depravity hidden beneath, it's truly... chilling.
“Decades ago, the area was very isolated, and the village was very united. No one would talk about whose family was in the village. This kind of thinking still exists now. But now that the internet is so developed, some villagers understand the law and feel that what they are doing is too unscrupulous…” Lu Chun himself felt very conflicted when he said this.
"They felt it was wrong, but they were concerned about the reputation of their neighbors in the village, you know? This time, as soon as the police arrived, some of them spoke up directly, and the investigation went more smoothly than expected."
Jin Shuhe didn't know what to say. The crime had been hidden for so long, just because of a sentence: "We're all neighbors, how could this hurt our relationship?"
"The police there said they'll definitely pursue this to the end, arresting everyone they can! They've completely cut off the remaining human trafficking routes!"
What's past can't be undone, but at least from now on, we must cut off these remaining evils.
When Lu Liruan received Aunt Xia's call again, she already understood something.
“Xiao Lu, Xiao He said she wants to find a job for Xiao Chen? Old Zhao has mentioned this to me several times… He said he doesn’t know how to talk to a young girl like you, and he feels bad about it. He was thinking of inviting you and Xiao He to dinner sometime, so he asked me to pass on his message to you…” Aunt Xia obviously also felt something was strange, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“Aunt Xia, I haven’t returned to Pucheng yet. Uncle Zhao is too kind. How about this, he can just call Xiao He directly. I’ve been a bit busy lately, so I probably can’t go back.” Lu Liruan stood in front of the newly installed blackout curtains in the living room.
The curtains were drawn tightly shut, not a single ray of light could get through.
The next day, Jin Shuhe received a call from Zhao Lizhu: "Xiaohe, when are you coming to my house for a meal? Your aunt has been asking about it."
“Sure, Uncle Zhao, I just finished a case and I’m not busy. When would be a good time for you?” Jin Shuhe readily agreed.