Ch18 - Conjecture

On Tuesday, Ji Qinghuai joined the group as scheduled. In the afternoon, he posted a selfie of him wearing a costume in his WeChat moments. In reality, Ji Qinghuai rarely posted selfies but this photo was meant for Xie Yan.  As for why he didn’t send it as a private message, he didn’t think that Xie Yan was familiar with him yet.

Coincidentally, Xie Yan, who usually didn’t look at WeChat moments, was scrolling through Ji Qinghuai’s moments and just happened to see his new photo. Xie Yan took a glance and didn’t have much interest in Ji Qinghuai’s selfies. He was only going through his WeChat moments to search for clues.

Since meeting Ji Qinghuai for the first time, Xie Yan felt that Ji Qinghuai seemed to know him very well. At that time, Xie Yan speculated that Ji Qinghuai had ulterior motives, but could not understand his repeated “self-exposing” behaviour. Now, Xie Yan had thought of a reasonable explanation.

Ji Qinghuai may be the silver gradient cat he had picked up.

It was strange and inconceivable, but it was the most plausible explanation. Ji Qinghuai wanted to get close to him because he had spent a lot of time with Xie Yan when they lived together. However, in Xie Yan’s perspective, he and Ji Qinghuai had never interacted before.

As for Ji Qinghuai’s sudden appearance that night where he interrupted Zheng Lin’s pursuit…

Xie Yan looked down. If Ji Qinghuai was really the heartless wild cat, then it seemed reasonable that Ji Qinghuai mistakenly thought Xie Yan was in danger and tried to save him.

But if he guessed wrong… It would be troublesome.

Xie Yan put down his phone. He didn’t find any clues in Ji Qinghuai’s WeChat moments and his privacy protection was also very good. However, since he had some speculations, he had to investigate it, even if he had to resort to some illicit methods.

As he was thinking, the phone on the table vibrated. He unlocked it and found it was a message from Xu Luo.

“Xie Yan, the medicine is ready. Come and get it when you have time.”

The medicine Xu Luo was referring to was the medicine that Xie Yan requested for the kitten. Its purpose was to control and relieve the cold poison when it flared up. Although the cat ran away, Xu Luo had still prepared the medicine. Xie Yan thought that if he ever ran into the little wild cat again, it would still be useful.

It turned out that he was right. Since the cat come back once, it would come back the second time. Now this medicine could be used on both the kitten and Ji Qinghuai.

There was still a major doubt in Xie Yan’s mind, but he was not in the mood to deal with anything so he returned a message to Xu Luo and prepared to head to Xu Luo’s clinic first to pick up the medicine.

Xu Luo’s current job was to deal with illegal drug use and unlicensed business operations so he would travel regularly for inspections. When he was not busy and idle, he would often play games.

When Xie Yan arrived, Xu Luo had just finished a game. “Hello, Mr Xie.” Xu Luo stood up and pulled out a chair, “Please sit down.”

“Thank you.” Xie Yan walked over and sat down at the table, “I’ll take the medicine now.”

Knowing what he meant, Xu Luo went back to his seat and took out a transparent ziplock bag from the drawer. Inside were two small bottles of pills.

Xu Luo took out a bottle and gave it to Xie Yan, “It’s not easy to produce this medicine. Try to keep it well, and don’t lose it.”

Xie Yan took it and looked at the other bottle in the bag. “What’s in that one?”

“The same,” said Xu Luo as he sealed the bag. “This one is for young master Ji.”

Xie Yan was now very sensitive to that name. “Young master Ji?”

“Yeah,” Xu Luo spoke casually, “the Chinese medicine I prescribed for him is too bitter. He takes the medicine and… poof…”

“He said that taking medicine every day was more painful than the director forcing him to shoot a bed scene. Since the medicine was unbearable, I made an extra batch for him.”

Xu Luo thought to himself, “They’re both cats anyway so it should be effective for both of them.”

Thinking about Zheng Lin’s pitiful situation yesterday, he understood one thing.

When Ji Qinghuai was in front of him, he had restrained himself in his speech and actions. He had never said unpleasant words to him and had always been polite. Perhaps he was afraid that he would leave a bad impression on him.

Xie Yan suddenly felt a bit bothered. Didn’t you say you wanted to treat each other with sincerity? How can you be sincere when you hide your true nature like this?

The more he thought about it, the more troubled he felt. Ji Qinghuai hadn’t been presumptuous in front of him but the last time he ran two red lights, he had been very willful and it did deduct points of his impression of Ji Qinghuai.

For a moment, he didn’t know whether to blame Ji Qinghuai or himself.

Seeing that Xu Luo was going to place the bag back into the drawer, Xie Yan reminded him, “Ji Qinghuai joined the film crew today so he won’t be able to collect the medicine in the near future.”

“I know.” Xu Luo answered casually, “I’m going to send it to him.”

Xie Yan looked at the medicine in Xu Luo’s hand and thought of the speculation in his heart. After a moment, he offered, “I’ll pass it on for you.”

“Ah?” Xu Luo thought he heard wrong. “You want to deliver the medicine?”

“Mhm.”

The expression on Xu Luo’s face was as if he had just seen a ghost.

He and Xie Yan had known each other for a long time so he was quite familiar with Xie Yan’s temper. Xie Yan actually offered to send the medicine to Ji Qinghuai? There was definitely something wrong.

Xu Luo tentatively asked, “Did he provoke you somehow?”

Although Ji Qinghuai was a notorious demon among the four districts, there was still his father, Ji Xianzhi, to put him in place. At most, he would fight and stir up a little trouble but Xie Yan was different. He was both cruel and ruthless and lived up to the word ‘demon’. Even if the other party is Ji Qinghuai, Xu Luo was afraid that Xie Yan would kill Ji Qinghuai the moment he provoked him.

Xie Yan looked calm, “No.”

Xu Luo breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “Why are you looking for him?”

“Investigate something.” Xie Yan said seriously.

“Investigate?” Xu Luo was confused again.

“Yeah.” Xie Yan said, “Last week, I was fighting Zuo Lan in Century Square. I could have caught him but Ji Qinghuai suddenly appeared and I got distracted. In the end, Zuo Lan managed to escape.”

Xu Luo was stunned. “You suspect Ji Qinghuai is working with them?”

Xie Yan didn’t say anything, neither agreeing nor denying it. Xu Luo frowned and refuted, “I don’t think so.”

He analyzed, “Ji Qinghuai’s background is very good, few demons can contend with him. There is no need for him to abandon his easy-going life to struggle on a desperate path.”

Xie Yan retorted, “But Ji Qinghuai is rebellious by nature and we don’t know if he’ll stray from the right path.”

“This…” Xu Luo choked on his words. “You can’t believe the rumours.”

“I don’t believe in even a single one.” Xie Yan cut off Xu Luo’s words. “Even if it’s groundless, there’s always a trace to follow. If you’ve been obedient and sensible since childhood, how can you come up with the appalling act of forcing someone to stand outside the community and ask brainless questions?”

Xu Luo: ” …”

He really couldn’t explain this.

Xu Luo gave up and passed the bag in his hand to Xie Yan, “Since it’s a business matter, I’ll have to trouble Mr Xie.”

Xie Yan’s face remained unfazed, “No worries, it’s on the way.” He looked at the two bottles of medicine in his hands and formulated a plan in his mind.

If Ji Qinghuai was the little wild cat, many doubts would be cleared naturally, and he would no longer have to guard against Ji Qinghuai, but if it wasn’t…

Xie Yan raised his hand and gently pushed up his glasses. Ji Qinghuai, if you really stray away from the right path, don’t blame me for being rude.

Hmm, I recently got into Stray Kids, a K-pop group. They’re a really talented group and I like their recent style of music. I’m practically obsessed with them and my friends are all celebrating the fact that I’ve entered K-pop hell with them XD. To be fair, I don’t think I got into K-pop, K-pop has been gaining popularity in the recent years but they never appealed to me because K-pop songs weren’t my cup of tea but Stray Kid’s music? Fits my tastes perfectly hehe. Actually I got in because of Hyunjin and somehow ended up obsessed with the whole group, no regrets tho