Chapter 17 – Bar

Chi Qing rarely dreamt of the past.

He was stunned for a moment, immediately forgetting that he and Xie Lin were too close together; since the dream was suddenly interrupted, his mysophobia didn’t flare up immediately. He got out of the car, saying “thank you” to Xie Lin for the second time.

Xie Lin: “Really want to thank me? Saying thank you is quite useless.”

Chi Qing instinctively felt that the next few words might not be anything good.

Sure enough, Xie Lin readily accepted his feelings and took out his phone, clicking on a small WeChat program: “Give me your WeChat, I’ll add you, consider adding me as a friend as thanking me.”

Even if Xie Lin was taking the initiative to ask someone for their number, it still didn’t seem like he was striking up a conversation with someone on the side of the street. The main reason being that he had the appearance of someone being approached.

“It’s the first time I’m taking the initiative to ask someone for their number,” Xie Lin said, “It’ll be too embarrassing if I don’t get it.”

The electronic door made a faint sound: “Drip.”

Chi Qing opened the door when he got home, the light at the entrance not turned on. He leaned against the door, lowering his head to look at the small red dot on the phone screen.

[You1 have a new notice]

[Accept friend request? Accept OR Decline.]

There weren’t many active friends on Chi Qing’s WeChat.

People like him, with a face that offends people easily without saying anything, offend people even more easily when speaking. Most of the people who knew him when he was studying acting didn’t care to chat with him. After that incident, everyone’s evaluation of him had gradually changed from someone else’s child to ‘looks pretty, but it’s just that his personality seems a bit gloomy.’

He actually doesn’t like to chat much, the only one chatting usually being Ji Mingrui.

Ji Mingrui had been full of a sense of justice since he was in junior high school, the specific phrase being that he likes to look for trouble. He always felt that he had an obligation to take care of the gloomy and taciturn person in the desk behind him.

Through years of incessant efforts, with amazing perseverance, he managed to just barely change from “an ordinary classmate whose name he doesn’t remember” to “a classmate with a name” in Chi Qing’s eyes when he graduated from high school.

Chi Qing pushed aside the uncomfortable feeling, pressing accept.

Xie Lin was likely still driving, so there was nothing for the time being.

He thought about it, then sent one thing in advance: Don’t send me messages if there’s nothing.

After Chi Qing sent that, he felt that the message didn’t fully convey his thoughts, so he added another message: Don’t even if there’s anything.

When he exited the chat, Ji Mingrui coincidentally sent a few messages.

– Have you gotten home yet?

– I just heard an awesome old case, it’ll scare you to death when said, it’s a shadow of my childhood.

Ji Mingrui thought about it as it came out, the topics coming up one after another, and he started a new topic every few minutes before he got a reply.

– I’m off tomorrow, everyone is ready for team building. Jiang Yu that brat has never been to a bar at his age, if you have nothing to do then wanna come with?

Ji Mingrui then sent another message.

– Ah talking about bars, I suddenly thought of something, ever since I met you…… it seems I’ve never seen you drink.

The room was as dark as usual, Chi Qing turned on the TV in advance, the only light in the living room being the TV, the pair of fallen black gloves placed on the coffee table.

Chi Qing sat on the sofa drinking from a glass of water in his hands after washing up, looking at the pair of black gloves, and thought of the events after that he hadn’t dreamt of just now.

During those three months in the hospital, he also couldn’t believe in this supernatural ability.

When the symptoms of deafness disappeared, he thought he was cured.

All of this could have really just been an auditory hallucination, so all the swarming voices weren’t real. He’d finally returned to the real world.

However on the day he was discharged, he found that the ability to read minds did not disappear with the symptoms of deafness. It was just that unlike the three months of deafness, it was no longer a condition that was triggered within a certain range, but there was an additional condition— he had to touch the other party with his hand.

But this condition wasn’t completely absolute, there was one thing that could break this shackle.

[……it seems I’ve never seen you drink.]

Chi Qing’s gaze fell on a certain word in the chat.

If he drank, the mind reading would get out of control.

To be precise, he would return to the state when he was deaf, when he could hear the voices within a certain range. Within this certain range, as long as the other party was talking at the present moment, he would be able to hear it.

As if the entire world was whispering strangely into his ears.

–

“Are the lives of you model students so boring?” The next day, Ji Mingrui sat in the dimly lit bar, pushing the drink that the bartender just mixed towards Jiang Yu, “You can’t have also not drank before.”

Jiang Yu took it, speaking somewhat uncomfortably: “Does beer count, I’ve drank my dad’s cold beer a couple of times during meals in the summer.”

“……”

Ji Mingrui didn’t know what to say about him: “Look at Lan-jie next to you, she’s even more daring than you, not even blinking when she drinks whiskey.”

Su Xiaolan had a short, neat haircut that reached her ears, dressed smartly despite taking off the police uniform. Those who didn’t know would think she was here for some plainclothes missions, which didn’t match her gentle looks at all.

Jiang Yu: “Xiaolan-jie, why don’t you wear a skirt, do you not like it.”

Su Xiaolan glanced at him, saying the harshest words with a gentle voice: “Inconvenient, skirts affect the speed of my kicks.”

Ji Mingrui: “We’re here to relax.”

Su Xiaolan: “What if something suddenly happens in the bar and the civilians need us?”

Ji Mingrui cupped his fist with his hand: “That’s reasonable, it’s me who didn’t think carefully.”

A case that was neither big nor small was over. The three members of the team of newcomers felt as if they had a taste of reality after joining the force. The occupational disease also emerged at this historic moment, unable to relax. They habitually studied the bar’s facilities, to see whether there are any violations, whether the qualifications are sufficient, whether there is a shortage of business licenses or not, and whether there are private transactions or illegal industrial chains in the store.

The bartender in front of them was stunned by the three of them.

But no matter how they looked to him, the most eye-catching person in the entire bar was an acquaintance.

The man was sitting alone on the sofa in the seating area, sitting lazily, shirt cuffs rolled up, the fingers resting on his knees occasionally tapping along with the music. There was no one sitting next to him, but the people around him who leaned over either intentionally or unintentionally weren’t few.

“Can I…… sit here?” Finally there was someone who couldn’t hold back and asked.

“My apologies,” Xie Lin wasn’t as easy to talk to as he usually was, although his eyes still held a smile: “The seat is taken.”

“You’re very good looking,” Xie Lin lifted his finger, signaling for the waiter next to him to give her the wine he just brought over, “……Although the seat is taken, I’m not sure if I can treat you to a glass of wine, wishing you a good time tonight.”

Ji Mingrui had never witnessed this kind of brave advancement, dumbfounded by the sight.

“……Everyone in this entire venue has passed by.”

Jiang Yu: “My idol, being attractive is not very common.”

As a woman, Su Xiaolan couldn’t not admit this: “But he didn’t accept a single one, not fitting his looks.”

Ji Mingrui: “Probably has an appointment.”

Right as Ji Mingrui finished speaking, he saw another eye-catching person walking down from the upstairs box to the sofa area. This person was mainly eye-catching because he looked very flamboyant, a typical trendy rich second generation, a few strands of yellow dyed hair. He looked around anxiously, finally walking towards Xie Lin.

“Lin-ge!”

Yellow hair sat down, took a sip of wine, slapped his thigh as he spoke: “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you.”

Xie Lin: “Speak, what is it.”

Yellow hair’s full name is Wu Zhi, a well-known playboy in Huanan City. He lives up to his name, becoming an aspiring young man with no other ideals in his heart besides picking up girls in the end. It’s just that although this person’s entire body was covered in gold, his emotional intelligence is really not high, so he has repeatedly fought and repeatedly failed in the battle of picking up girls.

The Xie family was also in the business industry in the early years, later producing someone on the level of captain of the Criminal Police Corps like Xie Feng, so they still had a good relationship with the children of these aristocratic families.

Before Wu Zhi said anything, he respectfully picked up a glass of wine, toasted while skillfully saying a single: “Dad!”

Xie Lin tilted his head and smiled, took the wine, leaning against the back of the sofa as he looked at him: “I don’t have a son as stupid as you, don’t mess around, speak if there’s something to say.”

Wu Zhi: “It’s just, there’s a lady who caught my interest recently, I don’t know what to say in passing, give me some advice?”

Xie Lin glanced askance at him: “The amount of ladies who catch your interest in a month is a bit much.”

Wu Zhi protested: “But every time I’m interested, it’s sincere!”

Wu Zhi’s policy was like this: although he himself cannot.

But he can seek advice from those who can.

The facts proved that Xie Lin is indeed his parent reincarnated. It didn’t mean that Xie Lin’s methods were excellent; it’s just that he is very capable of understanding the other party’s mind. This ability convinced Wu Zhi.

Xie Lin pinched the wine glass with his fingers, the ambiguous lights in the bar illuminating him: “Which one.”

Wu Zhi: “The one on the floor, both gentle and sassy, as soon as she entered the bar today, she attacked my heart.”

Xie Lin: “Your ‘recent’ really is recent.”

Wu Zhi: “It’s just the last ten minutes, love is something that comes suddenly.”

Xie Lin looked in the direction that he was pointing at, paused in shock, then said: “I’m afraid you have to switch.”

Wu Zhi: “?”

“Officer Su,” Xie Lin walked over with wine in hand, greeting Su Xiaolan and the others, “Off duty today?”

Wu Zhi was sluggish: “……”

Officer?

Su Xiaolan didn’t know what had happened; she clinked glasses with Xie Lin: “I came here for a drink or two on this rare day off, didn’t expect to meet you here. I haven’t gotten the chance to thank you properly for what happened last time.”

Xie Lin: “I didn’t do much, if you’re giving your thanks, isn’t there someone missing.”

Su Xiaolan realized that he was talking about Chi Qing.

Ji Mingrui explained from the side: “I asked, he’s unwilling to come out, nothing will make him willing. I’ll send a long paragraph, and he’ll reply to me with three words and a punctuation mark.”

Xie Lin could roughly guess which three words those were.

Xie Lin: “Noisy, comma, many people.”

Ji Mingrui: “???”

Did this person take a peek at their chat.

Xie Lin placed the wine glass on the bar, took out his phone, searching for a newly added person: “I’ll try asking him out.”

Xie Lin opened the chat with Chi Qing, turning a blind eye to the two “greetings” sent by Chi Qing.

– I drank too much.

– If no one picks me up, I might be thrown on the streets.

Wu Zhi, who had ended his brief ten-minute crush, caught a glimpse, praised “master” internally, and planned to write down these two sentences as study material.

However he never imagined that the level of recklessness of the person opposite him was almost equal to that of Lin-ge.

Chi Qing: Since you can still type, you can also take a taxi home by yourself.

Xie Lin: ……

1 The formal “you”