It was already evening when Ruan Yu finished his afternoon meeting.
As the winter solstice approached, the days in December were particularly short. She only waited at the Huanshi gate for five minutes, and the sky turned dark by a degree.
Because of the traffic jam in the evening rush hour, Xu Huaisong came a little late, so that when she got into the car, her hands were already red from the cold wind.
As soon as the car door was closed, Ruan Yu rubbed his hands against the radiator and asked, "How was the trial today?"
"It's going well." Xu Huaisong didn't start the car immediately, but adjusted the direction of the heater. He turned around and took her hands and rubbed them gently. After rubbing for a while, he lowered his head and breathed on her palms. Looking down, he saw that the scabs on her palms had almost faded away. Yes, I thought about it and asked, "I'm going to fly to the United States after the winter solstice. I want to see my teacher that day?"
"What about your parents, won't you go back for the holidays?"
"Suzhou City at noon, Hangzhou City at night."
"Then how tired you are from driving, it won't be too late to go to my house after you come back from the United States. What's the rush?"
Xu Huaisong laughed: "How can there be no reason not to come to the door at a big festival? Don't let me get out of the game with a negative score."
Ruan Yu said "Oh", and smiled with his lips pursed, and suddenly remembered what Li Shican said at noon.
As early as that time, Xu Huaisong had thought about getting married, or in other words, he had been rushing to her from the beginning to the end.
Then she thought, she knew why he hid that solution.
Marriage is a decision that belongs to two people. It should be pure and free from outside interference. He didn't want their marriage to be given any other meaning in her heart.
And precisely because of his prudence in treating this matter, although the two of them have already talked about it tacitly, but before the work in the United States is completely over, he will definitely not take the initiative to mention it.
Thinking about it this way, Ruan Yu felt that he should not worry about it. After all, when his domestic business stabilized, he would have to wait until next year anyway.
Thinking of this, Ruan Yu asked, "When will you come back from the United States this time?"
"It's too late for New Year's Day."
really. Ruan Yu's face collapsed in an instant: "Then we can't spend New Year's Eve together..."
He looked at her with a smile: "What's so great about the Gregorian calendar year? If you love your country, you can just use the lunar calendar together."
Ruan Yu opened his mouth, wanting to say that it's not that she "worships foreigners", but that New Year's Eve in the Gregorian calendar year has special meaning to them, but seeing Xu Huaisong's expression of not caring at all, he swallowed the words back.
Forget it, don't expect men to understand this kind of romance.
The winter solstice is three days away.
Xu Huaisong arranged the plan in an orderly manner, and brought Ruan Yu back to Su City early in the morning. After the ancestor worship, the family had a reunion dinner and afternoon tea, and then drove back to Hangzhou.
It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when we drove to the suburbs, and the setting sun dyed the mountain road, paving a faint yellow halo on the road ahead.
Ruan Yu suddenly thought of Zhou Jun. He and his girlfriend happened on this road from downtown Suzhou to the outskirts of Hangzhou.
She sighed, and before she could speak, Xu Huaisong already knew what she was thinking, diverted her thoughts, and asked casually, "What's for dinner?"
"My mother heard that we had a table meal at noon, so she prepared a hot pot." She turned her head to look at him, "Student Xu, you are going to see the head teacher, are you nervous or afraid?"
Xu Huaisong smiled, "I'm afraid."
Just as Ruan Yu wanted to comfort him, he heard him answer the next sentence: "If you eat hot pot, you have to keep cooking for you. I'm afraid I won't be full."
"..."
Feelings have really deteriorated. Ruan Yu looked out the window and thought desolately.
Xu Huaisong glanced at her, and was just about to say a joke, when he suddenly saw half of the road ahead was blocked, a few policemen were surrounded by bushes on the side of the road, and someone was shoveling the ground with a shovel.
He quickly restrained his smile and frowned.
Ruan Yu also noticed it, and was wondering what it was doing, when he saw a gloved policeman pick up something from the pit.
It's a dirt-covered, rotting out-of-shape... arm
Ruan Yu gasped.
Xu Huaisong stretched out his hand to cover her eyes, and drove over quickly.
But perhaps this speeding up caught the attention of the police. When the car approached the scene surrounded by yellow tapes, it was stopped by a policeman wearing a ID card and gesticulating: "Sir, Ma'am, I'm sorry, please show your identities certificate."
He touched Ruan Yu's head and motioned her to keep her head down and not look out of the window. After handing over the documents, he saw the policeman's expression of surprise: "What a coincidence, Lawyer Xu?"
Xu Huaisong nodded: "You know me?"
He began to laugh: "The fact that you assisted the police in arresting criminal suspects has been widely circulated in our police circle. Also, you were drunk and knocked on the door of more than a dozen households 302 in Jinjiang City. famous."
"..."
Ruan Yu suddenly raised his head and looked at Xu Huaisong in a daze.
He coughed lowly and covered it casually: "Oh, are you handling a case?"
"Yes, the Shanghai stock market caught a suspect who had escaped for half a year at a concert a few days ago, and asked us to cooperate with the investigation. No, the dead are dug up in the wilderness during the holidays." He finished pouring Kushui, nodded apologetically to Xu Huaisong, "I'm sorry, Lawyer Xu, you can go over."
Xu Huaisong didn't move, frowned and said, "You mean, that suspect buried his body here half a year ago?"
He nodded: "Yes, it's a habitual offender. After dismembering the body and burying it everywhere, only half of the arm was found here."
Remembering the scene just now, Ruan Yu shuddered and got goosebumps all over his body.
He said "ah": "Sorry, sorry, I scared this lady."
Xu Huaisong turned his head and held her hand, indicating that it was okay, but he had no choice but to ask: "If it's convenient, I'd like to ask the suspect the specific time when he buried this arm."
"We can't disclose the details of this..."
Xu Huaisong nodded: "Then you just need to tell me if it's the Dragon Boat Festival."
A strange look flashed in his eyes: "How does Lawyer Xu know?"
Now even Ruan Yu forgot to be afraid, and raised his head in surprise.
Dragon Boat Festival, isn't that the day when Zhou Jun's accident happened
Xu Huaisong became serious: "I think... there is a case that I may trouble you to investigate again."
Leaving the scene, the sky was already a little dark.
It took Ruan Yu a long time to recover from this episode, and asked, "Is it really related to Zhou Jun's case?"
Xu Huaisong shook his head: "I don't know, but Sister Zhang and I did have this kind of speculation: Assuming that Zhou Jun is not the real murderer, then the evidence has been dealt with very cleanly, indicating that the real murderer is mostly a habitual criminal, and it is very easy for a habitual criminal to commit another murder. It may be to cover up the facts of the previous crime. It’s just that we investigated the criminal cases that happened in Hangzhou at that time and found no match, so we gave up this speculation.”
As a result, a criminal case in the Shanghai stock market has now emerged.
"You mean, the victim might have been silenced because he accidentally discovered the murderer was burying the body?"
"This possibility cannot be ruled out."
"But the place where the body was buried is on the same road as the place where the victim died, not the same place."
"If the speculation is true, it would be reasonable for the murderer to dispose of the scene in a hurry after committing another crime, and then hastily change the place to bury the body again. If it is the same place, the police will find the truth when they investigate the scene."
Ruan Yu had a look of approval on his face. After he figured it out, he shivered again and touched the goose bumps on his arms.
Xu Huaisong held the steering wheel with one hand, and wrapped her hand in the palm of his hand with the other: "Don't think about it, leave it to the police."
After driving out of the mountain road and arriving at Ruan's house, they met Ruan's father and Ruan's mother who happily came out to greet them. The two had a tacit understanding and didn't mention this matter, but Ruan Yu still felt a little uncomfortable when eating hot pot meat.
Seeing that she didn't move her chopsticks too much, Qu Lan frowned and said, "What's wrong with Yu Yu, don't you have any appetite?"
She said "ah" in a low voice, not wanting her parents to worry about Zhou Jun's affairs, so she shook her head: "I've eaten too much afternoon tea at Huai Song's house, and I'm not too hungry."
Xu Huaisong knew that she didn't eat much in the afternoon, and the root cause was the scene on the road just now.
He removed the two plates of bright red meat in front of her, boiled some green vegetables for her, and put them in her bowl.
Receiving his sharp and considerate care, Ruan Yu winked at him.
Seeing this, Ruan Chengru also exchanged glances with Qu Lan: Is there something these two kids are hiding from us
Qu Lan: It seems to be...
Ruan Chengru began to ponder with his mind, while calmly talking to Xu Huaisong, concerned about his family situation, his parents' health, and his sister's grades.
After a round of homework, the dishes on the table didn't move much.
Qu Lan said to Ruan Chengru, "Hey, you're really too busy chatting with Huai Song. See if he doesn't have time to move chopsticks. Hurry up and cook beef for the kid."
Ruan Chengru said "Oh" twice, then picked up the meat and poured it into the hot pot.
As soon as Ruan Yu looked up and saw this scene, he remembered the arm he saw in the evening, his stomach twitched slightly, he couldn't help it, he turned his head and covered his mouth and retched.
Xu Huaisong hurriedly patted her on the back: "Do you want to go to the bathroom?" After speaking, he raised his eyes to see that Ruan Chengru and Qu Lanqiqi's eyes were as big as walnuts, and they were looking at her with a stiff, surprised, and questioning attitude. he.
He froze.
Ruan Yu felt uncomfortable, didn't pay much attention to his parents' reaction, got up and said, "Well, I'll go down."
Xu Huaisong came back to his senses, greeted the two teachers, followed her into the bathroom, and closed the door.
Ruan Yu supported his stomach with one hand and the sink with the other, vomited a few times but did not vomit anything, and whispered with a bitter face: "When I see that bright red raw meat, I think of it..."
Xu Huaisong turned on the faucet to wash her face, and said helplessly: "Your imagination is really..." He paused in the middle of speaking, "Okay, I'll eat all the meat when I get back, and I won't let you see it, okay? .”
Ruan Yu pouted and nodded, then asked him as if thinking of something, "But why did your parents look at me like that just now?"
"I didn't notice, what kind of look?"
"It's a kind of..." He frowned and recalled, "'What did you do to my daughter' eyes."
The voice fell, and the two reacted together.
Oh shit, big misunderstanding.