Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Friendships Where You Can Be Truly Open With Each Other

88 Courtyard.

Old Cat lay sprawled by the window of the left-side room, eyes wide open, scanning Lin Nianglei’s room: “Still not back this late?”

From the right-side room, Qin Yu craned his neck and shouted: “Can you come give me a hand? Did I bring you here to sightsee?”

“Alright, alright, coming.” Old Cat replied half-heartedly, turned and crossed the courtyard, then walked into Qin Yu’s room: “It’s just a rented place, you only come back to sleep anyway, you planning to turn it into a palace? Just tidy it up a bit and call it a day.”

“If you’re living here yourself, shouldn’t you keep it clean?” Qin Yu fanned his nose with his hand: “Help me mop the floor, it’s covered in dust.”

“Come on, you want a deputy team leader to mop your floor? Brother, you’re getting a little full of yourself.”

“I’ll treat you to dinner later.”

“Now that’s more like it.” Old Cat was lazy to the bone — back in the dorms he’d practically ask someone else to scratch his own itch — so helping Qin Yu get some work done today was nothing short of a miracle.

The two worked in perfect sync, with Old Cat mainly handling the directing and Qin Yu doing the actual work. They kept at it until around eight or nine o’clock, and still there was no sign of Lin Nianglei coming back.

“How is she still not back?” Truth be told, a big part of why Old Cat had come over today was to catch a glimpse of the girl.

“Stop staring, she’s not your type.” Qin Yu rolled his eyes: “Let’s go eat.”

“Alright, let’s head to Second Sister’s place.”

“Screw Second Sister’s place, I’ll just go grab some late-night snacks and make do.”

“What kind of snacks?”

“Instant noodles. Convenient.”

“Damn, I helped you move and this is what you’re feeding me?”

“Instant noodles are cheap. You eating or not? If not, head home — we’ve been at it all evening, you must be tired.” Qin Yu shot back with a sideways glance.

“You ungrateful bastard, you’ve got some nerve.”

“Heh, I’ll throw in a sausage for you. That’s final.” Qin Yu said with a grin, tossed out the words, and walked out the door.

……

The small courtyard had five households in total. The landlady lived behind the iron gate of the inner courtyard and rarely came out. Of the remaining four, Lin Nianglei and Qin Yu lived on the left and right sides of the main entrance. The last two households were in the side rooms next to the inner courtyard, with no water or electricity, and you almost never saw anyone there.

After Qin Yu came back with food, he boiled some hot water, had a simple dinner with Old Cat, and planned to turn in early so he could continue interrogating Ma Laoer and Damin the next day.

“Alright, we’re done eating, you can head back.” Qin Yu took off his jacket and said casually to Old Cat.

Old Cat let out a satisfied belch: “Forget it, I’m not going back. I’ll just crash here tonight.”

“Bro, it’s a one-and-a-half-meter bed, how are we supposed to sleep?”

“I’ll cuddle up with you.” Old Cat couldn’t even be bothered to clean up the leftover trash, and flopped onto the bed with a thud, kicking off his two stinky shoes.

“Are you out of your mind?” Qin Yu asked with a hint of unease: “Did you come here for Lin Nianglei or for me?”

“Hey, have you ever fooled around with a guy?” Old Cat lay on the bed and asked with genuine curiosity.

Qin Yu was stunned, completely at a loss for words.

“I’m asking you, have you or not?”

“Have you?” Qin Yu shot back.

“I… I’ve seen others do it. Apparently it can stimulate the prostate…” Old Cat launched into what was shaping up to be quite the story.

“Shut up!” Qin Yu felt a wave of disgust: “Are you going home or not?”

“I’m not going back, it’s too late, I’m staying here.” Old Cat yawned and carelessly stripped off his clothes.

Qin Yu had no way to deal with him, so he just did a quick wash up and got into bed too. But there was only one set of blankets in the room, so after lying down, Qin Yu felt things were a little awkward — after all, what Old Cat had said earlier was still rattling around in his head.

“Did you catch the drug dealers?” Old Cat was lying face-to-face with Qin Yu, eyes already closed, drifting toward sleep.

“Yeah,” Qin Yu nodded: “Caught two of the ringleaders.”

“Heh, Yuan Ke must be over the moon.” Old Cat said with a cold laugh: “That bastard, all talk of righteousness and morality, but behind the scenes he’s always pulling shady crap.”

It wasn’t the first time Qin Yu had heard Old Cat talk like this: “Sounds like you’ve got a bit of a grudge against Team One.”

“It’s hard to explain in a few words, but I should warn you — when it comes to work, do your job, but on a personal level, you’d better not…”

“Move your leg, it’s touching me.” Qin Yu interrupted with a reminder.

“I didn’t move my leg.”

“What do you mean you didn’t, it’s touching my leg.”

“That’s not my leg…” Old Cat said with his eyes closed.

“Then what is it?” Qin Yu froze, reached over to feel, then shot bolt upright.

“What are you doing?” Old Cat was startled.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Qin Yu’s face had gone red: “One-and-a-half-meter bed, one blanket, and you couldn’t sleep with your underwear on?”

“You sleep with clothes on?” Old Cat looked genuinely puzzled.

“No, I mean… the clothes down in the triangle region.”

“Ah, I find it uncomfortable.”

“You… you’re already… pitching a tent…” Qin Yu scolded: “Put it away, put them on, put them on…”

“Damn, I come here to sleep and there’s so much drama. Relax, you only fed me instant noodles — there’s no way I’m doing anything with you.”

“Stop talking nonsense, put them on, hurry up.” Qin Yu hollered like a man possessed.

“Knock knock!”

Just then, a knock at the door rang out.

“Who is it?” Qin Yu called out.

“It’s me, Lin Nianglei… are you back?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m back.”

“Do you have hot water? I just got off overtime and the water’s been cut off, I can’t wash up.” Lin Nianglei hadn’t known Qin Yu was in the room just now, so she had been pressed up against the window, peering inside while knocking, and had vaguely made out Qin Yu climbing down from the bed.

“I do, give me a second.”

Qin Yu had no pajamas to speak of, so he just threw on his jacket and opened the door.

“Sorry to bother you, were you already asleep?” Lin Nianglei was wearing a woolen coat, her little face flushed red from the cold.

“It’s fine, I’ve got hot water, haven’t used it all yet.” Qin Yu smiled: “Let me get it for you.”

“Sure, thank you.” Lin Nianglei was quite polite and didn’t barge in uninvited.

Qin Yu turned to get the water: “Your job sounds pretty exhausting, getting off this late?”

“Just started, still getting the lay of the land.” Lin Nianglei rolled her fair, slender neck: “Ugh, been sitting all day, my neck is practically turning to stone…”

“Nianglei, we don’t have much hot water left.”

At that moment, Old Cat suddenly sat up on the bed, grabbed his underwear and called out: “Hold on, I’ll go draw some cold water from the well for you, then you can heat it up, just wait…!”

At the doorway, Lin Nianglei stared in stunned disbelief as Old Cat grabbed his underwear and pulled it on under the covers, then stiffly turned to look at Qin Yu, her expression bewildered, her voice stumbling as she asked: “Oh… is… is your partner here too?”

“??!” Qin Yu stood there holding the kettle, completely dumbstruck.

……

At the entrance of No. 88 Courtyard, an electric motorcycle came to a stop. The person on the back seat glanced at the main gate and said: “… Xiao Hu said one of his colleagues lives here too.”

“Two people?” the rider asked.

“Right.”

“Okay, let’s stake it out. Wait for Qin Yu to come out on his own before we make a move.”

With that, the motorcycle slipped away down the street with barely a sound, disappearing into the night.