Yi Heye, who was gay, blushed bright red at the innuendo: "Damn it...wow! Why don't you just say it's because you have poor observation skills!"
I was forced to stare at the photo over and over again precisely because I didn't want to read the text.
Pei Xiangjin, who had been joking, then began to seriously consider the issue: "What you said makes sense. These missing persons seem to have been carefully selected."
He was in his prime, good-looking, and had a clean record. These characteristics made him seem like a mountain bandit king looking for a husband for his daughter, thus attracting all the best men in the city.
At that moment, a little cloud, amusing itself, was tossing coins in the corner of the room.
Since its hooves couldn't lift anything, it used its mouth to hold the coin, then flicked its head, sending a silver parabola flying, and with a "clang," the coin fell to the ground.
Simple-minded animals always find the simplest joys. Little Cloud played this little game tirelessly for an entire afternoon.
After countless heads and tails, the coin finally stood upright and rolled out of Little Cloud's arms.
With a startled bleat, it saw the coin stop at Yu Yili's feet.
This man had been sitting in a room reading a book since the beginning, until the coin rolled to his feet, at which point he bent down to pick it up.
"Meow!" Little Cloud mustered up her courage and tried to get the coin back, but to her surprise, Yu Yili took the coin and examined it seriously.
The little cloud got anxious and stomped its feet twice more on the ground: "Baa!"
Yu Yili bent down, perfunctorily patted its head, and then reached out to groom its fur, saying, "Wait a moment, I'll take two photos and return it to you in a bit."
Pei Xiangjin also heard the commotion and turned around to ask, "What's wrong?"
Yu Yili shook his head and said, "It's nothing, you guys chat. I have something to confirm."
As Yu Yili left, Xiao Yunduo hurriedly followed behind him, afraid that he would abduct her precious child.
When he returned, Xiaoyunduo had lost the coin, but he wasn't sad because Yu Yili had traded it for a small skull model. Now he had a treasure he liked even more.
When Pei Xiangjin asked him what was wrong, Yu Yili didn't say anything, only saying, "Captain Pei, please order me a boxed lunch. It looks like I'll be working overtime again tonight."
By this time, Yi Heye and Pei Xiangjin had finished their conversation, and it was getting late, so he took Xiaoyunduo and its new lover downstairs.
This afternoon, he and Pei Xiangjin had almost finished sorting through the information they had, but under the current circumstances, they still hadn't found any breakthrough in the case.
If Jian Yunxian were here, they would probably have already started an investigation.
What is Jian Yunxian doing now?
Thinking of this, Yi Heye sighed again, picked up Xiaoyunduo who was playing with her new toy, and stood on the skateboard.
Xiao Ming sensed that Yi Heye was in a bad mood and cautiously asked, "Ye Bao? It feels like it's been so long since I've seen Daddy Sheep..."
Yi Heye's heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself, "Am I really that obvious? Even Xiaoming saw right through me?"
Seeing that he didn't speak, Xiaoming asked while revving the car, "Did you break up with Daddy Sheep?"
Yi Heye slammed on the handbrake, almost causing the car to overturn.
The little cloud was caught off guard by the sudden braking and its head was plunged into the back of the car. If it weren't for the low chassis and stable center of gravity, it would have been sent flying like a small cannonball.
Yi Heye quickly reached out and pulled him back, then clarified to Xiaoming, "No."
After a long, long time, until the cold wind cleared his head, he finally realized—damn… what nonsense was he spouting?! They were never even together!
If that's the case... then saying "no" doesn't seem wrong either, right?
He shook his head, sighed, and drove home, deep in thought.
The car sped through checkpoints and flew through familiar alleyways. Everything seemed normal, yet something felt missing.
But what Yi Heye didn't notice was that every time he crossed a street, the shadow of a little lamb would appear on the street cameras and floating screens.
The figure had been quietly escorting him all the way, and it was unclear whether they had overheard his conversation with Xiaoming. They only blinked when they saw him safely return home with the sheep.
It seems they've finally put their minds at ease.
Author's Note:
You're thinking about Meimei, and Meimei is thinking about you too.
Chapter 88, number 088
Standing at his front door, Yi Heye seemed to sense something. He looked around for a while, but didn't see anyone, so he chuckled self-deprecatingly and closed the door again.
Back home, Little Cloud hugged his new pet skull and started playing with it. Only then did he realize that he had forgotten to buy it a little nest.
It was already dark, and he didn't want to go out anymore, so he took a quilt from the wardrobe and spread it on the side of his bed.
Little Cloud sensed something was wrong as soon as it saw the situation. It stood blankly by the bed, seemingly thinking nervously about something, and was so frightened that the little skull in its mouth fell to the ground with a "thud".
Yi Heye glanced at him and patiently explained, "Little Yunduo, you're a big kid now. You need to learn to be independent, like starting by sleeping alone."
Little Cloud didn't listen to his explanation at all. After realizing what he was up to, she leaped onto his bed without saying a word. After a series of creaking noises, she settled firmly in the center of the bed, with an expression of resolute determination to defend territorial sovereignty and a willingness to die for it.
When Yi Heye heard the wailing sound of the bed board, he was so scared that he almost threw up. He was really afraid that the bed would collapse and he would have to sleep on the floor with Xiaoyunduo tonight.
He glanced at Little Cloud, then at the bunker on the ground, and suddenly had an idea. He then asked in a gentle voice, "Little Cloud, do you miss your father?"
Upon hearing the word "father," Little Cloud's two beady eyes immediately welled up with tears, looking as if it were about to cry—it seemed that its beloved sheep father had become an untouchable pain in its heart.
Yi Heye quickly made a "hold back" gesture, forcing it to swallow its tears.
Then he pointed to the blanket on the floor: "This is the blanket your father used to sleep in."
Little Cloud immediately sat up and peered at the blanket her father had slept in by the bedside.
Yi Heye pressed on, "Go smell it, doesn't it still smell like Dad?"
Little Cloud immediately jumped off the bed, scanned the sheets with its black nose, and then looked at Yi Heye with bright eyes as if it had confirmed something.
Yi Heye hadn't expected it to actually smell Jian Yunxian's scent. Then he thought, what was so surprising about that? Of course, there was Jian Yunxian's scent on it, because he had not only slept on it, but also...
The thought of their wonderful moments back-to-back under the covers made Yi Heye cough quickly, stopping his uncontrollable reverie.
He coaxed and tricked Xiaoyunduo, saying, "When you sleep on it, it's like Daddy is hugging you from behind, so you won't be lonely at night, right?"
The easily coaxed little cloud immediately bent down, like a cat that had just tasted catnip, rubbing its head against the sheets as if it were intoxicated.
Yi Heye: "Little Cloud, how about you keep Daddy company tonight?"
Little Cloud immediately exclaimed happily, "Meow!"
It felt as if Dad had really come back.
That night, Yi Heye had a dream.
He dreamt that Jian Yunxian had returned, and when he saw the real person standing in front of him, grinning at him, he couldn't help but punch him in the face.
In his dream, he cursed, "You fucking know how to come back! Your son almost crushed my bed! How are you going to compensate me?!"
In the dream, Jian Yunxian wiped his face, adjusted his glasses, and said with a smile, "For you, I've booked the entire milk powder factory in Area A. From now on, you can drink it whenever you want, as much as you want, achieving complete milk powder freedom, okay?"
Upon hearing this, Yi Heye immediately forgave him in his heart, but on the surface he still had to pretend to be reluctant: "Okay, there's really no way to deal with this."
In his dream, he followed Jian Yunxian to his milk powder factory. The moment he pushed open the door, a dazzling holy light pierced him. Inside the factory, the towering stacks of milk powder bags collapsed like a mountain, crushing him to the ground.
"Cough cough! Damn!"
Under immense pressure, Yi Heye woke up with a start.
He opened his eyes in fear and found that in the blinding morning light, the mountain that had overwhelmed him was the enormous body of Little Cloud.
Before I could even drink the milk powder, the bed started creaking again.
But at this point, it wasn't just about the bed anymore; he felt like he was about to be crushed to death. He hurriedly raised his hand to push Xiaoyun off him, and then he heard his messages ringing out.
Little Cloud was excitedly watching me, holding my communicator in its mouth, its short white tail wagging as it waited for me to answer it.
It turned out to be urging him to answer the phone. Yi Heye forgave it, but still ruthlessly removed it from his body.
It wasn't time to get up yet, and Yi Heye wondered who might call him at this hour.
He rubbed his ribs, which had almost been broken, and took the communicator—Pei Xiangjin.
There must be some clue in the case.
He quickly answered the phone: "Hello?"
Pei Xiangjin: "I'd like to trouble you to make another trip. I have something important to tell you."
Yi Heye instantly regained his senses.
An hour later, in Pei Xiangjin's office in the Security Department.
When he opened the door, he was greeted by the composed Pei Xiangjin and the radiant Yu Yili, who had dark circles under his eyes.
Seeing his tired face but shining eyes, Yi Heye knew that this man's all-nighter last night had not been in vain.
Yu Yili looked at him and went straight to the point, picking up the two evidence bags in his hand—
In the bag on the left is the sheep-head coin that I coaxed and tricked into giving away yesterday in an equal exchange with Xiaoyunduo, and in the bag on the right is another coin.
That was a coin that Yi Heye had never seen before. The coin's surface was severely corroded, and it looked much smaller than the one on the left. The surface was completely black, and the pattern was no longer visible.
Yi Heye carefully compared the contents of the two bags. Although they were both coins, the surface of the bag on the right was so badly damaged that it was almost impossible to tell from the appearance that the two bags had any other connection.
He asked hesitantly, "You won't say... about these two..."
“Yes,” Yu Yili answered eagerly, “These two are the same type of coin.”
Presumably due to being privately minted, both coins contain a large amount of iron, making them extremely susceptible to corrosion. The corrosion alters their surface shape and chemical composition, greatly complicating the identification process.
As an outsider, Yi Heye felt that the most difficult thing in the whole process was connecting these two completely different coins—they now look as different as one yuan and fifty cents.
Yu Yili only glanced at it before he began to have such suspicions.
Yi Heye pointed to the badly damaged coin on the right and asked, "So what's the deal with this one on the right?"
“Chen Mu,” Yu Yili said, “this girl swallowed this thing before she died.”
This corroded coin was found in Chen Chenmu's stomach during the autopsy, Yu Yili.
Based on the degree of corrosion of the coin, Chen Mu should have swallowed it on the day he was murdered.
When Yu Yili removed this thing from her stomach, he was completely baffled and couldn't imagine why she would swallow it before she died.
“I thought she was tortured by the killer, and that swallowing coins was one of their methods of torture,” Yu Yili said. “But then I thought that didn’t make sense. If they really wanted to torture her, swallowing a razor blade or a piece of glass from the scene would be much more interesting than swallowing a coin…”
"Watch your words," Pei Xiangjin reminded him sternly.