Chapter 6: Chapter 5: [Excuse Me, Who Is the Haotian Golden Palace’s Supreme, Most Venerable, Spontaneously and Miraculously Existing, Miluo’s Utmost True, Jade Emperor God?]
Because a young man and woman were standing right outside, and their expressions upon seeing him and his cousin were priceless.
The man’s eyes widened, as if he’d just pictured an extremely unsavory scene.
The woman’s eyes, however, lit up, as if she quite enjoyed the sight of two grown men embracing.
"You two, I’m so sorry. I can’t accompany you to the crime scene right now. It looks like my cousin needs to go to the hospital for a check-up. I’ll call and have another colleague take you. My sincerest apologies. You just got here from the provincial capital, and now I have to trouble you to wait a bit longer."
PFFT!
He Xiaotian felt his cousin’s words transform into a peerlessly sharp sword that plunged right into his heart.
And twisted several times.
’Are you kidding me?’
’I’m just dizzy from hunger!’
’This has nothing to do with anything!’
’And besides, how could you say something so embarrassing to two complete strangers?’
’Even if I really was... getting off... ugh, no!’
’There’s no way in hell I’d ever do that.’
"Off-Off..." The man stammered, though it clearly wasn’t a lifelong habit. He was just so profoundly shocked by the scene—and particularly by his cousin’s choice of words, which left far too much to the imagination—that his tongue had seized up. "Officer Liu, you... you should go."
WHOOSH!
The man and woman didn’t press him. His cousin shot past them at the speed of a hundred-meter dash, opened the door of his car parked on the street, threw He Xiaotian into the back seat, and immediately sped off toward Z County People’s Hospital.
"Cousin..."
He Xiaotian called out weakly.
"Don’t talk. You need to rest."
"No... Cousin..."
"I don’t mind you doing that in my guest room—worst case, I’ll just throw out everything you used. But Xiaotian, I just hope you can find a girlfriend in the future. No wonder Auntie was always nagging you about it. In your condition, you really have to find one!"
"Cousin, I..." He Xiaotian was completely exasperated and tried to explain again.
"Just listen to me. Even if you’re that desperate, you can’t break the law, you hear? Although those illegal establishments usually involve willing monetary transactions, it’s not permitted by law.
According to Article 66 of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law, anyone who engages in prostitution or solicits prostitutes shall be detained for not less than ten days but not more than fifteen days, and may also be fined up to 5,000 yuan; if the circumstances are minor, the detention will be for not more than five days or a fine of not more than 500 yuan."
"..."
’Fine, you win.’
He Xiaotian completely gave up. The longest sentence he’d managed was only two words before he was cut off.
’How am I supposed to explain anything to you!’
Half an hour later, his cousin stood there holding the lab report, completely dumbfounded.
"Mal... Malnutrition?!"
Discovering that things were not as he had imagined, he was suddenly torn.
’No wonder my cousin kept staring at the spicy crayfish on the dining table before we left.’
’So you were just hungry!’
"Why didn’t you say so sooner?"
"???" He Xiaotian rolled his eyes. ’Did you ever give me a chance to speak? And you spent the whole ride giving me a lecture on public decency. Am I that kind of person?’
’I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, so how was I supposed to set the record straight?’
’And how do you do it?’
’You’re the one who completely misunderstood the facts, but you’re looking at me like it’s all my fault.’
’Are you a Demon?’
"Cousin, can we please stop talking about this? Can you just order me twenty pork knuckles first?"
"No. You have malnutrition, you can’t binge-eat, especially greasy things like that. Besides, could you even eat twenty of them?"
’If you’d just order me some takeout, I swear I could eat the bones and all!’
’What a waste of the knuckles I ordered. The delivery guy is probably standing in front of the security door right now, questioning his life choices.’
His proposal was shot down. He Xiaotian was in despair.
’What good is an IV drip?’
’Eating is the most fundamental form of treatment, okay!’
"By the way, that man and woman we saw downstairs, are they new colleagues of yours?"
"No, they’re from the special task force. Sent down from the provincial capital. Even our Chief can’t afford to offend them. I was supposed to be in charge of receiving them and taking them to the scene of the disappearance case. The route from the station to the food street on the east side of town just happened to pass by our place.
So I bought you lunch, but as soon as I walked in, I saw you, pale as a ghost, clutching the refrigerator door. You’re a young man full of vigor. How could I not let my mind wander?"
"A special task force? Just two people, and so young?"
He Xiaotian was surprised. He might not be a police expert, but he knew how the world worked.
How could a man and woman in their twenties possibly compare to seasoned, older officers?
Besides, it was just a disappearance case, and in a backwater place like Z County at that.
To have a special task force dispatched from the provincial capital for this... what was that all about?
And what was even stranger was that the entire task force consisted of just two people.
Isn’t that a bit too bare-bones?
"Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know either. Anyway, all the case files have been handed over to them now." His cousin rubbed his nose. He wasn’t against the so-called special task force, but he wasn’t exactly welcoming it with open arms, either.
It made sense. The case happened in Z County, but before they could make any headway, the provincial capital suddenly airdropped a task force on them.
This was practically a blatant show of distrust. No one would be happy about being looked down on like that, right?
"Cousin, did you guys analyze that black substance you brought back yesterday?"
"We were about to, but the Chief told us to stop. He said to wait for the comrades from the task force to arrive and hand it over to them."
Before He Xiaotian could ask any more about the case, a worried voice rang out from outside the door.
"Xiaotian!"
The door was suddenly pushed open from the outside, and a well-maintained, beautiful middle-aged woman walked in.
"What happened to you?"
"Mom, I’m fine. I just..."
Before he could finish, He Xiaotian’s mom frowned.
She first scanned him up and down, then gave his cousin the same treatment.
Finally, she cut him off with a mournful expression and asked, her voice trembling on the verge of tears, "You two didn’t... last night, did you? Oh dear... No wonder you always ignore me when I tell you to find a girlfriend. You even ran straight to Junming’s house. So it turns out, you two..."
By the way, his cousin’s surname was Liu, and his given name was Junming.
He Xiaotian: "..."
His cousin, an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire: "..."
"Auntie, my cousin is just suffering from malnutrition. Our relationship is completely pure, it’s not what you’re thinking."
"Is... is that so?"
He Xiaotian’s mom’s expression froze, and she stammered doubtfully.
His cousin helplessly held out the medical report. On it, the single word "Malnutrition" was written in large, clear print.
"That scared me to death, scared me to death."
He Xiaotian really wanted to look to the heavens and sigh. ’Do people these days really not know the difference between malnutrition and exhaustion from overindulgence?’
"Mom, let’s not talk about that. Can you just order me twenty pork knuckles first?"
"No! You can’t eat anything too greasy right now, sweetie. Once you’ve recovered, Mom will give you money. You can eat whatever you want."
He wasn’t surprised that his mom had refused him outright.
’Sigh! My poor pork knuckles.’
’Twenty of them, that’s a lot of money.’
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
A knock came from the door of the hospital room.
"Come in."
CREAK!
A delivery guy in a yellow jacket, carrying a large bag of food containers, offered a reserved yet polite smile to the three people in the room.
"Hello, excuse me. I’m looking for... ’The Peerlessly Supreme and Utmost True Jade Emperor God of the Golden Tower of the Vast Heaven, who is of Natural and Miraculous Existence’?"
His cousin and mother: "?!"
Tears welled up in He Xiaotian’s eyes. ’The delivery guys truly brave wind and rain for their customers.’
’I had barely arrived at the hospital, and you tracked me down right after.’
’It seems what they say online is true—the delivery guys are a bunch of crouching tigers and hidden dragons. I guess I met the Sherlock Holmes type today!’
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