Pure Darkness
Chapter 95
PD Team wishes Happy Chinese New Year to all readers PD – Year Golden Rat! May you have a wonderful time with friends and family (and food).
Oi! I am an article!
As mentioned in Chapter 94, both Fang Qing and An Yan would return to Beijing on personal matters. Starting with this chapter, we have two short stories (two parts each), one for each, before we head into the fourth and final story arc.
In this chapter, someone has poisoned Jin Xiaozhe! Fang Qing might have ended his relationship with him, but there was no way he would keep his distance when he was in danger. Can anyone guess how this short story will end?
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Fang Qing's Side Story – Laughs Me For Being Sentimental (Part 1)
This is a private hospital ward. Fang Qing had rushed back to Beijing the night before, and today had followed the criminal investigators who handled the case there.
Oi! I am an article!
He was wearing gloves and boots, and his face was cold. His entire body was emitting a violent energy.
At first glance, there was nothing extraordinary in this ward. It was new, clean, neat, and spacious. Inside there is a sick bed, sofa, and various machines, a small bar table, and an en suite toilet. A few days ago, Jin Xiaozhe, along with the cast and the rest of the crew, had been filming in this ward. He drank the healing tea his assistant gave him and lost consciousness.
He drank tea every day prepared by his assistant. No one else was handling it, and there was nothing different about how to prepare for it.
Right now, the female assistant who called Fang Qing to inform him due to her deep concern had been detained as the main suspect. The more damning evidence is that the remaining poison has been found in the girl's house.
However, Fang Qing felt that something was amiss. He knew that this assistant had been with Jin Xiaozhe for three years, and had always been loyal. Moreover, his instinct told him that since he immediately informed him, he was clearly uncomfortable with the situation and it was impossible to hide any ill intentions. If they had caught the wrong person, this meant that the danger around Jin Xiaozhe had yet to be truly noticed, and also implied that the innocent person had been falsely accused. Therefore, Fang Qing had to investigate the matter thoroughly.
He stood in the middle of the ward, staring blankly. When the other criminal investigators noticed, he laughed and said, “ Lao Fang, why are you so focused on this? Could it be that you really are the rumored girlfriend of the scandal*** of that big star?
Fang Qing looked at him with a slanted look and said, somewhat indistinctly, “Try guessing.”
In fact, the police were in no hurry to settle the case because the female assistant kept crying and protesting her innocence in the detention center. As a result, their colleagues from the Forensic Department had returned to the CTF to examine it once more.
However, the criminal investigators of this voluntarily-appearing Special Case Unit, were clearly more focused than them, but would also stand in the way of official affairs!
Forensic investigators are examining the soil inch by inch. Suddenly, they saw a huge silhouette crawling on the ground, even more indifferent to dirt and exhaustion than they were. Fang Qing's eagle eyes completely swept across the ground, not allowing the possibility of even the smallest hint escaping from him.
A forensic investigator said, “Camerad, you are blocking us. .”
“Oh . . sorry,” said Fang Qing, but he did not move from his position.
After a while, forensic investigators thought of examining the ceiling boards, only to discover that others had climbed the walls, like lizards, and even dragged their stairs to do so.
They looked at him without saying anything.
Fang Qing said, “Heh heh. . . I have found something, come!”
Everyone was shocked and came to surround him.
In front of Fang Qing's eyes was a dark and narrow passageway – AC ventilation ducts above the ceiling board. Although narrow, a small-bodied person can, with great difficulty, crawl through it. Dust had accumulated on the surface, but many had erased – someone had crawled this way. Moreover, on the air vent cover, Fang Qing had found a very small damp spot of a light-colored liquid. Just below this air vent is a bar counter. Fang Qing knew Jin Xiaozhe's – habits he didn't like to drink anything that was too hot, or too cold. Therefore, after the tea was prepared, he would definitely let it cool. Previously, in the Ancient City (Gu City), he had done this while drinking his teratai leaf tea. At that moment, Fang Qing was in a hurry, and drank his hot tea in one big gulp.
No, he could not be bothered by this memory. They've broken up, what's the point of thinking about it! Fang Qing calmed down, jumped off the stairs and returned the scene to the forensic investigator.
A friend asked, “ Lao Fang, where are you going?”
——
When Jin Xiaozhe regained consciousness, he discovered that the sky outside was already dark. Beijing has always suffered from too much smog. There is a feeling of living in the desert when the buildings outside are not clearly visible.
Someone knocked on the door and entered. It was a nurse and her manager.
The nurse helped him change the infusion bottle, while his manager sat by the bed, his face full of exhaustion and deep worry.
“ Xiao Xi has been arrested. Poison found in his house, ” said the manager. Xiao Xi was Jin Xiaozhe's personal assistant.
Jin Xiaozhe was shocked. “Xiao Xi can't be a killer!”
The manager looked helpless. “I don't believe it either, but the evidence is convincing. Maybe it's a case of not knowing a person's original color. . . . Do you feel better?”
Jin Xiaozhe's thoughts were chaotic, and he also felt nauseous and dizzy. However, he was not used to revealing too much of his vulnerability in front of others, even if that person was his manager. He nodded and said, “Much better. I'm a little thirsty.” The nurse could feel Jin Xiaozhe's discomfort, and, after all, this was the celebrity he was dealing with. He immediately poured a glass of water and brought it. The manager picked it up and extended it to Jin Xiaozhe. Jin Xiaozhe received the glass and was about to drink it, but stopped. After a moment of silence, he put it aside.
The manager doesn't know what to say. Indeed, once bitten, twice shy*.
*T/N (yi zhao bei she yao, yi nian pa jing sheng). I love this idiom! Literally means – once bitten by a snake, afraid of the rope in the well for 10 years.
Both the nurse and the manager left the room quickly, leaving it with a quiet space. But how can he calm down? He had left home for many years in search of success elsewhere, and a bright light and glory had always accompanied him wherever he went. However, how many people did he meet that really cared about him? There is no love, no true friendship, and she interacts less and less with her family. He worked very hard, filming until late at night, night after night. His mind flew to someone else, somewhere else in the world. Ever since he left the man, there seemed to be a definite emptiness within him. The more he achieved and had, the greater the emptiness, but he always put it aside.
Even now, he finally realized that it had come to a point when he could not even drink a glass of water comfortably. He had been saved from death after two days and two nights. Only those who had walked the thin line between life and death could understand the deep-rooted pain he was experiencing. There was no way for him to deny the fear that was in his heart – fear of death, fear of trusting others, fear of life. But, now, on whom could he really depend?
In the gathered twilight, he heard his phone ringing as a text message was received.
The person with the number had not contacted him for a long time.
The text is a simple sentence, as short and firm as before: Don't be afraid, you have me.
Jin Xiaozhe looked at the text for a long time, and suddenly cried.
——
Fang Qing walked quickly over the roof of the building bathed in a bright golden light with a ferocious expression and a demonic caring attitude. About 10 meters in front of him, a skinny little man staggered in his attempt to escape.
The frightened man looked at him and continued to say, “This is not me, cop friend, I did not poison anyone!”
“This isn't you?” Fang Qing smirked and sped up. Like a wolf hunting a rabbit, he grabbed the man's collar. “You @^$*%, so fingerprints in the warehouse are garbage?”
T/N Ding Mo had just left a row of asterisks here. You can fill in the empty part yourself, I guess!
The man's face was a combination of a cry and an ugly smile when he stuttered, “That's not trash, it's not trash. . . I want a lawyer, I want a lawyer. .”
Fang Qing narrowed his ingenious eyes and caught the man.
In fact, once they learned of the poisoning mechanism that Conan* copied, it wasn't hard to find the killer. There were only so many people familiar with the hospital as well as Jin Xiaozhe's daily routines and habits. The police quickly followed the instructions and narrowed down the suspect to this young man, the assistant editor in some of Jin Xiaozhe's plays, who was also quite clever. However, he is light and has stolen from the cast and crew. Jin Xiaozhe had discovered his theft and he had been reported to the production team. Thus, the youth who could go far in this industry lost the opportunity to do so. However, despite being upright, Jin Xiaozhe was also very gentle-hearted. So, he asked the production team to keep this young man, otherwise he would have to leave the industry and might as well get carried away. He did not want to ruin his professional career.
*T/N (to nan) – may refer to Detective Conan, a popular Japanese detective manga series that was also made into a television series. For more information, see here.
In Fang Qing's opinion, this was a clear example of two things: pampering the enemy only asking for trouble*, and women had an exaggerated tendency to clemency.
*T/N (yang hu wei chuan) – literally, petting tiger invites havoc.
