112 – Going to a Massage Parlor

Chapter 112: Visiting the Massage Parlor

By the time the twists and turns of the day had passed and they prepared for bed, it was already the crack of dawn.

Perhaps it was because they had put their heads together to deduce the facts, but the look in Xie Qingcheng’s eyes toward He Yu had softened, the resistance having faded to some extent.

“Go to sleep early.”

Xie Qingcheng spoke in a low voice and coughed again. Hearing this, He Yu asked, “Are you still cold?”

“I’m fine. I just need to drink some warm water and get some deep sleep.”

He tightened his collar and approached the table. The half-empty glass of water was quite lukewarm.

Leaning against the table, he flipped through the documents again, slowly wetting his throat.

Having struggled for an entire day, Xie Qingcheng looked far more exhausted than before. Or perhaps his body was simply breaking down from smoking so much. Meeting him after a long time, his stamina seemed noticeably depleted.

That frail atmosphere became a pure white veil, enveloping Xie Qingcheng’s sturdy frame. Within his robust masculinity dwelt a beauty visit our siteas cold as unauthorized copymorning mist, visit our siteprecarious and seemingly ready to vanish at any moment.

He Yu stood in place, his gaze fixed on the man. Watching the man who was as elusive as mist, his reason gradually began to blur.

At that moment, Xie Qingcheng looked back.

“Why are you standing there like that?”

“It’s nothing… I’ll go wash up outside. Please go to sleep first.”

After stepping outside, He Yu tore a piece of spare clothing to wrap around his wrist so that Xie Qingcheng wouldn’t discover the marks of self-harm, and only then did he return to the room.

Upon entering, he found that Xie Qingcheng had already lain down on the bed and fallen asleep. He Yu gazed at him silently for a long time. A light that was both tender and dangerous flickered in his eyes.

He Yu was aware that his feelings for Xie Qingcheng were more extreme than those he held for criminals like Wang Jiankang.

People like Wang Jiankang kill and engage in human trafficking. It was truly low-class behavior. Crimes committed simply for money, power, and fame were as filthy and stupid as dogs rolling in the mud.

Though He Yu also had mental issues, he had no interest in such crimes. Whenever the perverse nature embedded in his bones manifested, the only thing he wanted to do was carve Xie Qingcheng into his own work of art.

To blind Xie Qingcheng’s eyes and [stolen content][unauthorized copy]make him follow only himself—that [stolen content]was the ‘carving’ He Yu envisioned.

If he were to reject him, He Yu would pluck his dragon scales one by one, scrape out his tendons, and then pull the blood-soaked body tight against his chest. He wanted Xie Qingcheng’s body and his own to become one, without a single gap, through hot blood and sprouting new flesh.

By doing this, he could obtain Xie Qingcheng.

He could breathe and share the same pulse with the only kindred spirit in the world.

Standing by the wall, ruminating on the scent of blood in his heart, He Yu let out a sigh and walked toward the bedside.

—This time, Xie Qingcheng had left a space beside him.

Of course, He Yu didn’t dare lie in that spot.

Slowly taking off his outer clothes, He Yu spread a blanket on the floor and lay down, closing his eyes.

“…”

As He Yu closed his eyes, Xie Qingcheng opened his. He glanced at He Yu’s face, buried in the darkness.

What is this brat doing now?

Earlier, even when told he couldn’t sleep beside him, he had stubbornly squeezed in.

Xie Qingcheng no longer cared where He Yu slept. He seemed to show no sign of doing anything reckless, and fearing the kid might catch a cold, he had left the spot beside him open.

And yet, now he wanted to sleep on the floor. He couldn’t make head or tail of it.

A moment later, as if sensing the gaze, He Yu snapped his eyes open.

“…”

“…”

Lying on the bed with a pillow, Xie Qingcheng locked eyes with He Yu, who was lying beneath the bed.

“…”

He Yu’s voice was dull, like the bell of a Taoist sealing a demon.

“Why are you staring?”

True to his straightforward nature, Xie Qingcheng didn’t beat around the bush and asked back instead.

“Why are you sleeping on the floor again?”

“The bed is hard, and you’re so skinny that it’s uncomfortable to lie next to you or hug you. You smell like cigarettes, too.”

“…”

“I really hate you.”

“Then keep hating me.”

Having said that, Xie Qingcheng turned off the light.

“Sleep.”

As the light went out, the room returned to darkness.

He Yu pulled the blanket up to his chin and [stolen content][stolen content]murmured in a tiny voice that Xie Qingcheng wouldn’t hear.

“Xie Qingcheng is an idiot. That was a lie.”

Although Xie Qingcheng was lying right next to him, He Yu took out his phone under the blanket, opened the chat window with Xie Qingcheng, and typed a message he would never actually send.

[Goodnight, Qingcheng-hyung.]

After closing the chat app, he took a photo of Xie Qingcheng’s profile and quietly kissed it.

He had to release his overflowing emotions in some way.

He couldn’t let the seizure-like symptoms, which he had barely suppressed through self-harm, flare up again.

Honestly, He Yu didn’t mind if he committed beastly acts. In Xie Qingcheng’s eyes, he had been a beast from the start anyway.

However, the part Xie Qingcheng would have to endure weighed on his mind.

Of course, Xie Qingcheng was the most steadfast, brave, and strong man he had ever met in his life. But He Yu believed that everyone has a limit to their capacity to endure pain.

Xie Qingcheng had already endured too much. He visit our sitehoped his own desires wouldn’t become visit our sitethe thing that crushed Xie Qingcheng’s final limit.

The night passed in this manner.

The next morning, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu asked the owner of the farmhouse where they had stayed for a few days where Lu Yuzhu’s ex-husband lived.

“If it’s that person, he probably lives in the center of the county.”

The landlady, sounding unsure, looked at her husband and asked, “Is that right?”

“Well. Was it the north street of the county center? I’m not close to him, so I don’t know for sure, but it’s probably there.”

After speaking, the owner kindly gestured to the two of them.

“Heading that way? I’ll give you a ride.”

Of course, the means of transportation to carry them was that flamboyant tractor.

Finally, the owner smiled and said to He Yu, “Young man, you’ve got a real connection with my tractor. Last night you went out to buy side dishes for your brother, and as soon as you wake up, you’re riding it again, hahaha.”

Country folk are often talkative without malice. Having his embarrassing [stolen content]history exposed while unguarded, He Yu pressed [visit our site]his hand to his forehead in disbelief.

Xie Qingcheng, listening to the conversation, also realized something.

With a frown, he looked at the kid standing beside him.

When he saw the variety of side dishes last night, he wondered if He Yu had bought them specifically for him. Now that the guess was proven true, his mood became even more complicated.

Xie Qingcheng had always taken care of people like Xie Xue, Li Ruoqiu, and Chen Man in this way. However, he was not used to being the one receiving care.

It even made him feel uncomfortable. He only wondered why on earth He Yu was doing this.

After all, they had already severed the link of being fellow psychiatric patients. The relationship of shared misery had ended long ago.

“I just bought them while I was out for some fresh air. Could you stop looking at me with those eyes? It’s creepy.”

“…Let’s just get on.”

Even though it was the 2020s of the 21st century, remnants of an older era were scattered throughout the streets of Qingli County.

Grocery stores with signs written in red paint, evoking an 80s atmosphere.

Hair salons with handwritten price tags dangling on glass windows.

At the snack shop in front of the school, the owner, dressed in navy blue factory overalls, lazily picked his teeth while selling skewered snacks. At the entrance of the shop, cheap plastic toys, popping candy, potato chips, and hard candies that looked like marbles were lined up.

Born after the millennium, He Yu knew what the atmosphere from the 70s to the 90s felt like, but he belonged to a generation that had never actually experienced it.

Xie Qingcheng, on the other hand, was different. As he walked the streets of Qingli County, he became somewhat lost in nostalgia.

In particular, when he discovered a junk food shop at the entrance of Qingli Elementary School—the kind that had disappeared from Huzhou long ago—his steps came to a sudden halt, as if caught by an invisible string.

He Yu followed Xie Qingcheng’s gaze and was shocked.

“Bubble milk tea is two yuan a cup?”

“It was all like this back then.”

“…When is ‘back then’?”

“When was it…”

Xie Qingcheng thought for a moment, then shoved his hands in his pockets and headed toward the junk food shop.

“Before you were born.”

“…”

Soon, the two entered the shop. The smell of old grease and skim milk powder vibrated in the air. He Yu frowned at the scent, while Xie Qingcheng’s frown vanished.

“Boss, two milk teas, please. And there’s something I’d like to ask.”

He Yu spoke in a very low voice.

“Just ask what you need; why are you buying milk tea? How can you drink something that’s two yuan a cup?”

“You don’t die from drinking a two-yuan cup of tea.”

The meddlesome shop owner wrote the address of Lu Yuzhu’s ex-husband on a greasy Post-it note and handed it over. Shortly after, the milk tea was ready.

Xie Qingcheng took a [unauthorized copy]sip of the milk unauthorized copytea and was Read on Read BL Novelsvery satisfied. It tasted exactly as it did in the past.

He, too, had walked home in his school uniform as a child. Xie Ping and Zhou Muying, who were busy with work, would give him five yuan in pocket money every day after he entered elementary school, telling him to buy snacks after school. If he hadn’t had something to tide him over, little Xie Qingcheng might have starved to death by the time the two police officers finished work.

Milk tea appeared in front of the school when Xie Qingcheng was in the upper grades of elementary school.

At the time, milk tea was a very ‘foreign’ drink. A price of two yuan per cup was not particularly cheap for elementary students back then. It made sense, considering one could buy four chicken skewers for one yuan. Despite that, people were desperate to drink the cool milk tea. In the early days of opening, people would line up for ten meters.

Xie Qingcheng often visited the milk tea shop back then. This was because the shop had a space where students could sit and do their homework. Moreover, they sold not only drinks but also fried skewers, grilled sausages, and fish cake soup. Xie Qingcheng would order a cup of milk tea and a snack there and quietly finish his homework. Because of this, his parents would first stop by the milk tea shop at the school gate after work. It was so they could take him home if he was still there finishing his homework.

Since then, Huzhou had undergone changes akin to a total transformation. Small shops like this gradually vanished like scraps of paper on the street.

To Xie Qingcheng, the two-yuan milk tea was not just milk tea. It was the sound of Xie Ping’s bicycle bell ringing outside the shop in every season—spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Then the shop owner would greet him at the door.

Detective, have you come to pick up your son?

“Yes,” the man would answer with a smile, entering the shop and bumping his head against Xie Qingcheng’s.

Let’s go. You drink milk tea every single day. You need to go home and eat.

“Cough, hack, wheeze!”

While he was in the midst of this nostalgic journey, a world-shaking coughing fit pulled Xie Qingcheng back to reality.

Xie Qingcheng turned toward the source of the sound. The protagonist of the coughing was He Yu. He seemed to be trying to hold it back, but his complexion had already turned pale. Looking as if he could be sent to the crematorium right this second, the young master set the milk tea down on the table.

“…What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

Since it was awkward to say anything in front of the shop owner, He Yu simply dragged Xie Qingcheng outside.

As soon as they were outside, he spoke honestly.

“Is this actually meant for humans to drink?”

“I grew up drinking this since I was a kid.”

“No, I mean, this…”

“Forget it. There’s such unauthorized copya thing unauthorized copyas a visit our sitegeneration gap. Of course you wouldn’t understand.”

Between ‘understanding Xie Qingcheng’ and ‘not drinking poison,’ He Yu steadfastly chose the latter. He boldly threw away the milk tea. Scientifically, drinking such a thing wouldn’t suddenly open some wise acupoint that would allow him to understand Xie Qingcheng. Surely Li Ruoqiu grew up drinking this kind of milk tea. At that age, she must have tried it.

And did that woman understand Xie Qingcheng?

No, she didn’t.

In conclusion, this was a poison that didn’t need to be drunk.

Regardless, Xie Qingcheng sipped his milk tea happily, as it suited his taste. Surprisingly, he didn’t smoke once while they searched for the address the owner had given. When Xie Qingcheng swallowed the last remaining bubble, the two of them stopped in front of a shop that served as both a commercial and residential space.

The two elders looked back and forth between the shop name and the address number for a long time before confirming they had arrived at the right place.

—The thick red curtain hanging over the shop’s entrance was quite striking. On the stained glass door, without any accurate price list, only the words ‘Massage,’ ‘Shampoo,’ and ‘Foot Massage’ were written.

Looking at the sign at the top, the name of the shop was ‘Awen Barbershop.’

To anyone, it was an illegal massage parlor conducting that sort of business.

It was unexpected that Lu Yuzhu’s [stolen content]ex-husband would live unauthorized copyin such a place. Xie Qingcheng hesitated for a moment before knocking on the door.

About ten minutes passed. While they were wondering if no one was there, the curtain of the massage parlor was slightly lifted and the glass door opened.

A girl stood behind the curtain. She had a youthful face, looking to be about eighteen or nineteen. The girl scanned the two of them from head to toe with high suspicion, and then, as if having reached a decision, tried to close the door without a word.

At that moment, Xie Qingcheng held the door.

“Wait.”

The girl looked at him bluntly.

Xie Qingcheng continued.

“Excuse me, but is there someone here named Li Chang?”

Li Chang was the name of Lu Yuzhu’s ex-husband that they had discovered.

As that name came out, the girl flinched and stopped closing the door.

“Are you police?”

For a moment, He Yu found it absurd. Even if they were actually police, would they answer ‘Yes, we are police’ if asked like that?

Thinking this, he spoke.

“No. We’ve come to see Li Chang.”

“My dad has been gone for a few months. He’s not home right now.”

At these words, He Yu paused. Dad?

Could this girl in front of him be the daughter of Lu Yuzhu and Li Chang?

However, far from resembling Lu Yuzhu, the girl looked fragile, as if she might blow away in the wind. If the woman from last night had been this girl, He Yu would never have let her get away. He certainly wouldn’t have mistaken her for Lu Yuzhu.

“Are you Yi Awen?”

When He Yu asked, the girl answered soul-lessly.

“That’s my older sister. My name is Lulu.”

As it turned out, this girl was the daughter Li Chang had with the wife he remarried.

Contrary to expectations, the atmosphere was peaceful, and Lulu relaxed her guard slightly while keeping her eyes fixed on their faces.

“Why are you looking for my dad?”

“It’s not a very important matter. If he’s not home, that’s fine. Oh, right.”

He Yu spoke, pretending to be indifferent.

“Could we meet your sister?”

Lulu shrank back, almost hiding her face behind the curtain, and peered at the two of them through a narrow gap.

“Neither my dad nor my sister are here, so please leave.”

Xie Qingcheng joined in.

“We aren’t police and we have no bad intentions, so if it’s alright…”

However, Lulu quickly shut the door.

Xie Qingcheng tried to knock again, but He Yu stopped him and shook his head.

“Let’s go for now.”

After leaving ‘Awen Barbershop’ side by side, He Yu spoke.

“We can’t find out anything this way. It’s only natural that she’s so guarded, having grown up in an environment like that.”

“Then what do you plan to do?”

“Let’s try again in the evening.”

It was only after dinner that Xie Qingcheng found out what He Yu’s plan was.

The young man returned to the farmhouse they were using as lodging, borrowed a few sets of old clothes worn by locals, cut his hair slightly to shape it into a beard, and meticulously attached it to his philtrum and chin. Finally, he sprayed cheap tanning powder bought from a Qingli County cosmetics retail store onto his face.

Who knew his makeup elective would be so useful at a time like this.

When He Yu stepped out of the bathroom, Xie Qingcheng was shocked.

The person before him was no longer the elegant and upright male college student. He was the embodiment of a dirty country person who had been rolling around in a field.

He Yu asked with a smile, “How is it?”

“…I can’t recognize you at all.”

“Good. Now it’s your turn, hyung.”

Xie Qingcheng narrowed his eyes.

“Exactly what is the plan?”

“What more can we do by going to a barbershop like that in the evening?”

“Don’t tell me you…”

“When I was talking to that girl Lulu, I saw several girls sitting [visit our site]through the gap in the door. I don’t know exactly how many, but there were at least four or five. We won’t get anything by causing a unauthorized copyscene just to ask a few questions at an illegally operated massage parlor.”

He Yu pulled Xie Qingcheng’s hand and led him to the bathroom.

“So, let’s pretend to be customers. Here, I’ll do your makeup. I’ve already worked out the story. The setting is that we were introduced by someone from another village. We want to have some fun, but it would be troublesome if we were caught, so we came all the way here because we didn’t want to do it in our own town.”

Xie Qingcheng thought that, sometimes, he was a truly reckless fellow.

But upon further reflection, while the idea was morally sigh-inducing, there certainly didn’t seem to be any other sharp alternative.

He Yu was diligently working on the makeup. He often enjoyed listening to music when he was focused on something.

He turned on his phone and listened to music on shuffle, and just then, a familiar song began to play.

After listening to the intro for a moment, He Yu thought to himself, Ah, this is the soundtrack from .

The makeup brush in He Yu’s hand came to a sudden halt. It was because another idea had popped into his head.

“Xie Qingcheng.”

At the sound of his voice, Xie Qingcheng opened his eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Would you be okay with wearing contact lenses? I have some usable ones rolling around in my suitcase, and I just thought of an idea that might lower the girls’ guard.”