Chapter 25

Chapter 25 The Slippery Old Loach

88 Courtyard.

Tiger walked to the courtyard gate and finished his call. Not long after, Qin Yu’s phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, saw it was Yuan Ke’s number, and immediately stepped to his own room door and hit the answer button.

“Hello, Captain Yuan?”

“What are you up to?”

“Ah, come on, it’s such a small thing, and it’s already gotten to you.” The intensity Qin Yu had shown while beating Tiger had completely vanished, replaced by a face full of flattery. “Those people who came to my courtyard — they’re friends of yours?”

“More or less.” Yuan Ke said, blinking. “They know my older brother. When they heard you were with the police, they called me.”

“Well, this is quite the case of mistaken identity.” Qin Yu made something up on the spot, since he’d already overheard Tiger’s words from inside and knew the guy was acquainted with Yuan Ke.

“How did it come to blows though?”

“It really wasn’t my intention to fight.” Qin Yu was the type who always thought out his exit strategy before acting, so he responded with complete clarity. “That girl your friends were going after — she’s the one from the kidnapping case a while back.”

Yuan Ke was taken aback. “The one who was kidnapped?”

“Exactly. She works at a streaming platform and rents a room in the same courtyard as me. She was outside crying and screaming just now, and I had no choice but to come out and check. Because, as you know, this woman must have some connections — otherwise Commissioner Li wouldn’t have personally come down to see her off that day.” Qin Yu explained quietly. “So since I ran into it, I couldn’t just ignore it. If things blew up, we’d all be in trouble. I was going to go out and talk your friends into leaving, but then… they got a little carried away. They pulled knives on me… You know, I had no idea they knew you. So when they came at me like that, of course I hit back.”

“Do you know what kind of connections this woman has?” Yuan Ke asked with a frown.

“I don’t.” Qin Yu shook his head. “But the person who came to pick her up that day was a media executive, and Commissioner Li personally came downstairs to see her off.”

“Oh, are you close with this woman?”

“…!” Without a moment’s hesitation, Qin Yu started boasting. “Pretty close, yeah. We’re friends.”

“Then this was all a misunderstanding. Hand the phone to Tiger — I’ll say a few words and send him on his way.” Yuan Ke said with a smile. “You should also have a word with the girl. Tiger probably didn’t know about her connections, so tell her not to take it to heart. I’ll set something up later and have Tiger take her out for a meal.”

“That’s nothing, I’ll talk to her.”

“Alright, that’s that then.”

“Hold on a sec, Captain Yuan.” Qin Yu took the phone and walked over to Tiger. “He wants to talk to you.”

Tiger paused for a moment, took the phone, stepped aside, exchanged a few words with Yuan Ke, then hung up with a slightly dark expression on his face.

“Ha, small world — you two know each other. You should’ve said so earlier. If you had, I wouldn’t have laid a hand on you.” Qin Yu said to Tiger with a grin.

Tiger held it in for a long moment. “Get the hell out of here, you little punk. This isn’t over between us.”

“Sorry about that, Tiger. Shame I didn’t let you successfully strip my clothes off.” Qin Yu replied breezily.

Tiger ground his teeth, tossed the phone back to Qin Yu, waved his hand, and called out, “Let’s go.”

Nearby, Zhu Wei had watched the whole thing unfold in a daze, and turned to Qin Yu completely baffled. “How did you sort that out? What exactly is your relationship with Captain Yuan?”

“What relationship?” Qin Yu shot back.

“Yuan Ke usually shows Tiger a fair amount of respect. You beat the guy to a pulp, and one phone call fixes everything? I really thought you were going to end up getting stripped.” Zhu Wei couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Qin Yu thought it over for a moment, then leaned in close to Zhu Wei’s ear and said, “Actually, I’ve never told you this — the Supreme Administrator of the Ninth Special Zone is my second uncle…”

“Give me a break, not a single honest word out of your mouth.” Zhu Wei rolled his eyes and didn’t press further. “Anything else? If not, I’m heading out.”

“Thanks for the trouble.” Qin Yu patted Zhu Wei on the shoulder. “Go home and get some sleep. Just show up at the station tomorrow at noon.”

“At least you have some humanity.” Zhu Wei smiled. “I’m off.”

“Take care.”

“Yeah, take care.”

The two exchanged a few parting words, and Zhu Wei turned and left Courtyard 88.

At the doorway, Lin Nianlei brushed her hair back and stepped up to Qin Yu. “I’m sorry… I’ve caused you trouble again.”

Qin Yu looked at Lin Nianlei curiously. “Seriously, are you here specifically to test my professional abilities? How come every time I run into you, nothing good comes of it?”

Lin Nianlei pouted and sighed at that. “I’ve just been really unlucky lately…”

“Hey, let me ask you — why were they coming after you?” Qin Yu suddenly asked.

Lin Nianlei glanced at Qin Yu’s outfit and said politely, “It’s cold out. Let’s talk inside.”

“Let’s go.”

Lin Nianlei turned and opened her door, leading Qin Yu into her room.

Qin Yu glanced around the interior. The layout was the same as his own place, except that a girl’s room had a more refined touch — it was very tidy and carried a faint, pleasant scent.

“What would you like to drink?”

“Do you have anything besides water?” Qin Yu asked.

“Uh, no.”

“Then skip the formalities.” Qin Yu sat down in a chair. “Just get me some water.”

Lin Nianlei took off her coat, poured Qin Yu a cup of warm water from a thermos, and explained quietly, “I wanted to do a feature story on low-income patients, but I ended up stumbling onto this drug-trafficking ring. The more I got involved, the more I realized these people have absolutely no limits — they’re ruthless. I work in media, and beyond just making a living, I feel an obligation to speak up for society. So I took some photos of them… and then the trouble started.”

Qin Yu held his cup and asked bluntly, “Your family’s pretty well-off, aren’t they?”

“…I suppose, why do you ask?” Lin Nianlei was caught off guard.

“Feels like you’ve got nothing better to do.”

“Bullshit!” Lin Nianlei couldn’t hold back. “You work in law enforcement — how can you say something so tasteless.”

“Ha, why do you look like such a naive little fool? We’re just having a conversation — why are you getting worked up?” Qin Yu tilted his head back, drained the cup, stood up, and said to Lin Nianlei, “What you do is none of my business, but as a neighborly heads-up — destroy whatever photos you have and switch to a more upbeat topic. Because your reporting isn’t going to change anything about Songjiang’s situation. It’ll only provoke certain people.”

“If media people can’t provoke anyone, what’s the point of us existing?” Lin Nianlei stared with her big, dewy eyes, so earnest she almost looked adorable.

“You really are a naive little fool…”

“Get out, you’re the fool!” Lin Nianlei was starting to lose it. “You’ve insulted me twice since you walked in.”

“I’m leaving.” Qin Yu couldn’t be bothered to keep lecturing her and turned to go.

“Put my cup down.”

Qin Yu set the cup down and left Lin Nianlei’s room with his hands behind his back, the playfulness gone from his face.

Lin the Naive said Tiger was also dealing drugs. Was it really just a coincidence that Tiger knew Yuan Ke?

It was the first time Qin Yu felt something was off — but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what.

……

Inside the hospital.

Tiger sat in the surgical clinic, phone in hand, shouting at Yuan Ke. “I just don’t get it — some reckless kid with no connections whatsoever, why are you covering for him?”