Pure Darkness
Chapter 69
In the morning, when the sky was just starting to clear, Jian Yao was already awake. He could not sleep; whether he was in a daze or in a state of deep remembrance and feeling everything, all of that was torture.
Oi! I am an article!
He walked out of the police dormitory and realized that Fang Qing, the next door neighbor, must still be sound asleep, as everything was silent. The world was vast and shrouded in darkness, and he had nowhere to go. Therefore, he once again walked towards the nearby building that housed the office of the criminal investigation team.
The criminal investigator on duty was greatly shocked when he entered. “So early, Master Jian? Have you eaten?”
Oi! I am an article!
“But.” He smiled and said, “It's too early, so I don't want to eat.” At the same time, he glanced at the office that Shao Yong had set up for them. Lights on.
“Someone there?” she asked.
“Yes. Professors Bo and An Yan came after 3 am this morning. . there may be something.”
Jian Yao stood right outside the door, motionless. After a while, he pushed the door open lightly. One person was sitting at a table, the other was lying on the sofa, sleeping, like a big bear. Naturally, this was An Yan who was constantly addicted to sleep.
Oi! I am an article!
The person at the table was dressed neatly even in the middle of the night. Black suit, and light-colored shirt. Jian Yao noticed that she had even changed her clothes from what she was wearing before. Under the gentle light, her pale face exuded an indescribable sense of peace.
He still wears sunglasses even though it is dark outside and there is no one around him. Before he arrived.
He raised his head after hearing the movement.
He might sense who it was, just like him, who would run to this place to wait whenever sleep was elusive.
“You here?” he asked gently.
“Ehm”. He thought to himself, he must have identified his footsteps with a voice. Before he was blind, he could already distinguish his footsteps from others.
He smiled faintly, at a glance. So, Jian Yao knew that she was happy at that moment.
Jian Yao could not smile.
He sat down opposite her and took out his laptop and some information. It seemed that he also realized his desire not to speak, as he slightly lowered his head, and his fingers twitched, before he asked, “Have you had breakfast?”
Jian Yao replied, “Yes, already. How about you?”
He replied, “Ya. I also ate.”
He had seen clearly, the day before, that he was his once arrogant and outspoken self when dealing with others. However, when dealing with him, he was uncommunicative and reserved, like a different man. A man he doesn't know.
Jian Yao opened the file and stared at the text on the page, but her mind was in a mess.
There was a stack of files in front of him. He did not turn the page of the file that was in front of him; instead, his fingers rested on the paper. Jian Yao noticed that she was wearing something on her finger and consequently asked, “In your hand. . . what is it?”
He lifted his finger, looked down and replied, “This is a finger reader for the blind.” Then he put his finger on the page and traced the text line by line. As he did so, the reader took out, with a mechanical and soft female voice, “There are no fingerprints on the CPI, and no DNA samples were collected. .”
Picture taken from https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/37864401
“Is it convenient to use?” she asked.
“Ya, right. The only problem is this reading speed, for me, is like being in slow motion. It could only finish reading two books a day! ”
His tone was so helpless yet insulting that Jian Yao could not help but laugh. However, after laughing, when he saw her face, he felt a bit of heartache. Previously, he could read quickly*, and anything he read was always saved. It must have been very difficult for him to bear having to rely on mechanical readers. But, he was in the mood to make a joke about it suggesting that he must have adapted well.
*T/N (yi mu shi hang) – literally, 10 lines at a glance
His finger moved across a few more lines of text before he asked, “Will my actions affect you?”
Jian Yao replied, “Not at all.”
He smiled faintly as he said, “That's great.”
Both of them worked in silence for a while. At this point, there was some movement from the sofa as An Yan lazily stretched and sat down. He rubbed his eyes repeatedly before realizing that Jian Yao was there, where he immediately stood. “Sister-in-law, are you here?”
An Yan glanced at Bo Jinyan who was listening to their conversation. He said gently, “Isn't it because of someone who has no appetite* and can't sleep at night. .”
*T/N (cha fan bu si) – literally, no thoughts for tea or rice/food
Bo Jinyan did not make a sound, but Jian Yao saw a hint of a shy hue on her face.
Jian Yao pretended not to hear anything. In an indifferent tone, he asked, “Have you had breakfast?”
An Yan influenced his cheerful expression. “Of course not! Sister-in-law, I've been starving to death since midnight! He didn't even have dinner. Do you have anything to eat? ”
Bo Jinyan still did not say anything. Everyone could feel his uncommunicative silence stemming from shame.
Jian Yao stood up and looked at Bo Jinyan for a bit. “I'll go and buy you both breakfast. I am quite familiar with Xun Town. ”
“Thank you, sister-in-law!” exclaim An Yan.
As Jian Yao turned around and walked towards the door, she heard Bo Jinyan say softly, “Thank you, my wife.”
Jian Yao's footsteps halted for a moment before she continued walking out of the room.
Only two men remained in the room.
After An Yan washed his face, that indifferent expression returned as usual. He sat at the table, his stomach rumbling as he waited for his breakfast. At the same time, he did not forget to continue advising Bo Jinyan, “After that, be nice!”
Bo Jinyan said, “Do I need you to remind me?”
——
Jian Yao walked along a path that was no stranger to him as he had visited Xun Town many times before. He walked down two streets and bought his favorite breakfast. On the way home, he looked up to see that the sun had risen, and white clouds spread throughout the blue sky. From the roadside came the sound of cars, the sound of people chatting, the steam and the smell of breakfast stalls.
Suddenly, Jian Yao thought of how Bo Jinyan called him ‘istri’ as she exited the room just now.
Then he thought about the past.
She always called him ‘Jian Yao’, and when she was excited, she would earnestly call him ‘my dear’. In front of others, she calls him as ‘my wife ‘ or ‘my wife ‘. He almost never called him ‘istri*’.
*T/N These are all different terms for ‘istri’. (tai tai) and (qi zi), both more formal, which I translate respectively as ‘nyonya’ and ‘istri’. (lao po) more colloquially, and I have translated this as ‘istri’.
This man, who grew up in America, this man, who had always been thick-skinned and shameless, seemed to have some sort of natural shame to use the local form of sapaan, ‘istri’. At best, he might whisper ‘istri’ into his ear when in the throes of passion.
However, he had just called her that.
In response to him, Jian Yao's heart was pounding nervously like ripples in a lake.
He looked at the bustling city with moments of calm around him, and suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly.
How does it feel to be reunited?
It was as if they had not separated for a long time, as if nothing had changed between them.
But I clearly felt that everything around me had become real once again.
——
When Jian Yao returned to the office, Shao Yong was talking to Bo Jinyan. He nodded at her with a faint smile when he saw her.
Bastards are always assholes. This old bastard seemed to be completely unaware of the confusion he had engineered the day before. In a really business way, his tone is serious and moderate, he said, “Jinyan ah, I want to tell you about a situation. Since yesterday, we have conducted a thorough investigation into the area around the victim, the rented apartment of Nie Shijun, and the people who interrogated him. The area is basically made up of two neighborhoods and several scattered buildings. Right now, we're more than halfway through, but we haven't found a clear suspect yet. It does not look very promising.”
Bo Jinyan smiled grimly before saying, “He thinks carefully and deliberately, and his behavior is very cautious. Naturally, it won't be easy to find this demon*. I have another clue here, today. .”, He stops, “we will investigate.”
*T/N (cha chu ma jiao) – literally, to search and find split legs
Shao Yong smiled. “What's hint?”
Jian Yao and An Yao also stared at Bo Jinyan.
