NB Chapter45

I hadn’t brought Ah Hai into the house for any other reason than this: he had been standing at the door for twenty minutes with a gaze as steady as a statue, the only movement being a few stray strands of hair fluttering in the wind.

I guessed he had come with a mission, Zhang Mingsheng’s mission.

Seeing that Zhang Mingsheng hadn’t followed him, and taking in Ah Hai’s exhausted face that looked as though he hadn’t slept in days, I sighed and let him in. He set two large bags down on the floor and began unpacking them one by one, arranging everything with care; almost like he was building Keke’s toy castle.

In less than twelve hours, Zhang Mingsheng had already tracked down my new place. Sometimes I truly suspect he’s a human-shaped computer; if you cracked open his skull, you wouldn’t find soft tissue or brains, only chips and wires. Reasonably speaking, I should run. I walked into the kitchen, took out my phone, and hesitated for a long time over who to call; Li Yi or my mentor. I was still wavering when I dialed a few digits, but then my eyes fell on the kitchen walls, stained grey by smoke. After a moment of thought, I deleted the number and ultimately chose to call Li Yi instead.

The phone rang several times, but Li Yi didn’t pick up. I tried again, and he hung up on me. When I called back once more, it became a long, unanswered ring.

I bolted out of the kitchen and interrogated Ah Hai, “Where is Mr. Zhang?”

Ah Hai looked up at me and said, “There was another problem with Sir’s arm. He’s still in the hospital under observation.”

I pressed further, staring intently into his eyes, “Are you sure?”

Ah Hai said earnestly, “If something had happened to Sir, I wouldn’t be the one who came.”

I wasn’t sure whether I could believe those words. Li Yi’s phone wouldn’t connect, and as I recalled things Zhang Mingsheng had said before, a wave of dizziness began to creep over me.

Suddenly, a thought struck me. I grabbed that jacket and started rummaging through it with frantic, clumsy movements.

Did Zhang Mingsheng plant something in my pocket? Is that how Ah Hai tracked me here? My hand began to tremble as I reached deep into the pocket and felt a hard object.

Nowadays, trackers aren’t exactly a rarity; pet owners use them on kittens and puppies, while parents put them on toddlers. Of course, if your partner is overly controlling and intent on completely unbalancing the entire relationship, a tracker might very well end up in your coat pocket.

Gripping it tightly, I slowly pulled my hand out, my heart feeling as if it had been suspended in mid-air.

But what my fingertips dragged out was a flash of pink.

It was Keke’s hair clip.

The little girl didn’t have much hair, and what little she did have was fine and soft; the clip was practically useless for her, sitting on her head like a tiny hat. But the moment Keke saw the picture, she decided it was something she absolutely had to have. One could buy one for ten dollars at a department store, but Zhang Mingsheng spent thousands on it just to get a regular clip with a rather unsightly luxury logo. Still, Keke loved it and couldn’t bear to part with it.

Seeing the clip, Ah Hai spoke up, “That’s right, I’ve already made contact with Ah Shan. He was being followed on his way home, so he ditched the car and took the Young Master and Young Lady to our place to hide for a few days.”

“Your place?” I suddenly realized I didn’t know Ah Hai as well as I thought I did.

Ah Hai scratched his nose and said, “En, yes. That Madam helped us arrange it.”

“That Madam” must have meant Zhang Mingsheng’s aunt. She was clearly the type whose bark was worse than her bite, having driven the brothers away, only to help them acquire property on Hong Kong Island.

Keke and Xiao Yuan have been found, yet Li Yi’s phone won’t go through. I suspect God is playing games with me; the two ends of my life can never seem to stay in balance.

I collapsed onto the sofa, my heart rate accelerating suddenly as if in retaliation.

“Officer Li might be working on a case.” Ah Hai comforted me as he continued to pull items from the bags.

There were medications as well as nutritional supplements.

“How did you find me?”

“Sir is in the hospital; he won’t do anything to Officer Li. After what happened, I think he is also reflecting on things.”

He avoided the question entirely, Ah Hai looked noticeably guilty.

“You didn’t tail me, but you tailed Li Yi, didn’t you?”

Zhang Mingsheng had once installed a camera outside Li Yi’s old apartment and triumphantly showed me footage of Li Yi coming and going to prove to me that he truly held Li Yi in the palm of his hand.

However, Li Yi moved shortly after, and I fell ill again, so the matter was temporarily shelved.

I believe that Zhang Mingsheng and Li Yi have long been clashing in the shadows; it’s just that Zhang Mingsheng hasn’t dealt a lethal blow, and Li Yi doesn’t know exactly who is lurking around him.

Being a police officer meant having plenty of enemies; Li Yi must have gotten used to it long ago, and even if he noticed surveillance, he probably wouldn’t bat an eye.

Ah Hai’s hand paused for a moment, but he quickly moved on to the next action as if I hadn’t asked him a question at all.

“Ah Hai,” I felt my eyeballs tightening. Closing my eyes against the throbbing pressure, I lowered my head and buried my face in my hands, rubbing them briefly before lifting my gaze to look at him with exhaustion. “What do you think the relationship between Mr. Zhang and I is right now? A separated couple? You can keep lying to yourself if that’s the way to make you feel better, I understand.”

Ah Hai’s movements finally ground to a complete halt.

“Do you remember that time I tried to run away with Keke? I used her to threaten him, saying if he didn’t let me go, I would drop her on the floor.” I ran my hands through my hair, nearing a breakdown as I poured my heart out. ““Do you know what Zhang Mingsheng did? He just kept walking straight toward me anyway, not caring at all that I was already holding up Keke’s swaddling clothes in front of me.”

“If I were the only one suffering,” I uttered each word with deliberate weight, “perhaps I could endure it. Another ten years, twenty years; maybe we really could have become a harmonious couple. But what about the children? Every time I see Zhang Mingsheng holding Keke so tightly, my heart fills with terror. I think back to seeing him approach while Keke dangled precariously in my hands, and I always wonder: if I threatened him with Keke again now, what would he do?”

“Now is different from before,” Ah Hai said. “I don’t know exactly what Sir is thinking, but I know things are different now.”

“But the past has already happened,” I told him. “And there are things you don’t know.”

I paused, then said, “Zhang Mingsheng hates me.”

A flicker of sadness crossed Ah Hai’s face; I thought he, too, understood what had happened in the past. These eight years were nothing more than an abscess on an old wound, not a scar that had truly healed. He would never live to see the day when Zhang Mingsheng and I truly reconciled.

I didn’t know why he looked so heartbroken.

I was desperate to confirm Li Yi’s safety.

“Inspector Li will be fine,” Ah Hai said, sitting on the floor with his back to me, his voice cold and hard. “If Sir were going to make a move, he would have taken me with him.”

“How exactly did you find me?”

“I once installed a tracker in Inspector Li’s car,” Ah Hai said. “It hadn’t been used for a long time; I only activated it yesterday.”

So, he had tracked Li Yi.

Now certain that Zhang Mingsheng didn’t intend to move against Li Yi, I felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted. I leaned back against the sofa, and after a moment, I spoke, “About just now… I’m sorry.”

His experiences and character would never allow him to betray his master, yet friendship and morality had been torturing him for years. Caught in the middle, he had been pulled in opposite directions for a long time.

Ah Hai didn’t acknowledge my apology. He remained with his back toward me, his expression hidden from view.

He slowly stood up, brushed the dust off his trousers, and said, “If you had asked me a few years ago whether Sir cared about Keke, I wouldn’t have known how to answer. But now…”

“I had many brothers. When we were little, we all played together; it was happy, it was fun. When I see Sir and Keke together, they’re sometimes like two children. But at other times,” Ah Hai said, “he really does seem to be learning how to be a father.”

“It’s quite incredible, Madam. Despite how well he does everything else, his natural talent for fatherhood is worse than my uneducated father back in the village. He learns very slowly, very clumsily. I don’t think he ever had a role model for it in his life. Being a father isn’t like learning to swim, it won’t save your own life. Most men with children only need to manage the bare minimum of appearances to be praised by everyone. But Sir… he seems to be learning with real sincerity.”

Having finished, Ah Hai walked to the door. He added:

“The same goes for being a husband.”

I covered my face, feeling my eyelashes flutter against my palms.

“I know this doesn’t represent much, Madam. He hasn’t been good enough to you, he’s done many things wrong. You say he hates you, and maybe he does, but I just feel it’s a pity.” Ah Hai opened the door and continued, “But in the end, I don’t even know what I’m regretting, so there’s no need to say more.”

As he stepped out, Ah Hai added one last thing, “Officer Yu, seeing you run that day, my heart was racing. I truly wished for you to fly far away, ideally to the ends of the earth, where no one could find you. But I also hope that you won’t be so lonely.”

“Both you and Mr. Zhang.”

With that, Ah Hai left before closing the door very softly.

I stood there stunned for a long time, then a sudden burst of anger flared up. I hurled a throw pillow at the door: “Why don’t you say those things to Zhang Mingsheng! Are you too scared? Are you afraid he’ll kill you too!”

Then I slumped down instantly, breathing heavily until the phone rang.

I picked it up; it was Li Yi.

As soon as I brought the phone to my ear, I heard him shouting frantically on the other end, “Senior! I’ve caught the killer from a homicide case several years ago. You’ll never guess who it is!”

If I couldn’t guess who it was, it probably wasn’t Zhang Mingsheng.

Relieved to hear he was safe, I answered weakly, “Who is it? Someone we know?”

“Of course we know him!” Li Yi yelled at the top of his lungs. “It’s that ‘pretty boy’ ex-boyfriend of yours!”

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