Silver Snow Line [Criminal Investigation]

Wei Cheng felt a little dizzy when he woke up in the morning. He originally thought it was because he didn't get enough rest. When he arrived at the police station, the dizziness had not subsided yet, so he sat quietly for a while and simply buried his head in sleep.

He didn't know whether it was because the curled-up posture was too uncomfortable for his body, or because he had consumed too much energy in recent days, but he had a rare nightmare. He dreamed that his former mentor Meng Lanchuan was wearing a white coat soaked in blood and looking at him with a smile.

Wei Cheng asked: "Why did you think of looking for me?"
Meng Lanchuan said: "You are my most proud student, I want to see what you have accomplished now."
Wei Cheng said: "Oh, you are also disappointed in me, right?"
Meng Lanchuan shook his head: "Other people's expectations are not important. What matters is that you do something you think is valuable."
Wei Cheng curled his lips without any emotion: "It would be nice if she thought so too."
"Do you really think you have done it?" Meng Lanchuan smiled, his face gradually appearing in the light, "Acheng, you are afraid, you want to find a reason to retreat."
"I didn't." Wei Cheng retorted subconsciously.

Meng Lanchuan sighed and stroked the top of his head.

Wei Cheng looked up in shock. Meng Lanchuan's smile was so kind, but the blood-spattered wound on his neck was so hideous, not only staining his white coat red, but also ruining his face. Wei Cheng stood there awkwardly, wanting to reach out and wipe his face, but his hands and feet were completely unable to move, and he could only watch Meng Lanchuan's figure being swallowed by the blood.

"don't want……"

Wei Cheng's ears became particularly noisy, with the screams of the nurses and the sharp cries of the perpetrator shouting "Go to hell". The clearest sound was still the slight sound when the tip of the knife broke through the flesh. All kinds of noises intertwined together and rushed to him like a tide before dissipating -

His consciousness was suddenly projected to a farther place.
He became small and fragile, this was when he was young. He couldn't break free from the restraints on his body, so when the huge black shadow came in front of him, he could only sob and cry.

"Say something to your parents, let them hear that you are still alive." The man, whose face was no longer clear, pinched his chin and ordered, then reached out and pulled out the dirty cloth stuffed in his mouth.
The young Wei Cheng retched in his throat. He coughed violently a few times and swallowed hard to regain his ability to speak. He shouted at the phone that was raised to his lips: "Mom! Dad... Ugh!"
The man achieved his goal, and ruthlessly blocked his mouth again. His head hurt, his vision was blurred, and another layer of tape was wrapped around his mouth. The man's rough action almost covered his nose. He struggled to hope that the man would notice, but he didn't get a response until his throat was filled with the smell of blood. The feeling of suffocation soon came like the arrival of death, slowly taking the air out of his world.

“No, no—”

Wei Cheng struggled desperately and suddenly woke up from his dream, only to see a shadow covering his forehead. The feeling of having his vision blocked made him confused for a moment, and he finally calmed down after taking a few heavy breaths.
When the light came back, Wei Cheng looked up hesitantly and found that it was Xie Qingfei who was touching his forehead.

"What? Did you have a nightmare?" Her other hand was still on her forehead. "You have a fever, did you know that?"

Wei Cheng thought he was dreaming for a moment, until he felt the body temperature coming from her. His tense nerves finally relaxed. He stared at her closely, repeatedly tracing her facial features with his eyes, which made Xie Qingfei feel uncomfortable.
Just as she was about to open her mouth, Wei Cheng suddenly stood up, gently rubbed her palm, and said, "Headache."

The scorching temperature touched his palm, and Xie Qingfei immediately withdrew his hand, coughed lightly, turned around and rummaged through the boxes and cabinets in a hurry: "It should be because of the wind last night. Take some antipyretic medicine. What flavor do you like? Uh, I mean, which one do you want to drink, capsules or granules?"
Wei Cheng stared at her back and said, "Capsule."
"Okay, I'll go get some water." Xie Qingfei hurried away empty-handed, and no one knew what she was going to use to get the water.

Wei Cheng pressed his temple for a while, and finally recovered his mind. Then he felt his trouser legs being tugged, and when he looked down, he saw Deng Deng blinking his big eyes at him.

"What are you looking at?"

He hooked its chin with the tip of his shoe, intending to drive it away, but Deng Deng apparently mistook it for a signal that he was teasing it. The cat suddenly became bolder, jumped from the chair to the table, and did a difficult roll towards him.

Wei Cheng was amused by it: "How can you be so shameless? I told you that I don't like you, but you keep rubbing against me."
Deng Deng, this cunning little cat only listens to nice words. When he meets Wei Cheng, who always says he doesn't like him, he chooses to play innocent and continues to act cute, vowing to conquer this short-sighted human.
"So annoying," Wei Cheng said disdainfully while stroking its fur, "Don't think I like you just because I touched you twice. I just feel sorry for you."
After he finished speaking, he was stunned for a moment and his expression became strange.
"Maybe... I like you a little bit." He added unconfidently.
Deng Deng wagged his tail, showing his satisfaction with his sensible attitude, and turned over to signal him to touch it as well. Wei Cheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he couldn't reason with a cat, so he just rubbed it twice perfunctorily.

Deng Deng was enjoying the high-end spa service of the handsome man when the door was pushed open with a "bang", and both the man and the cat were startled.
Wei Cheng was thrown down on a chair by Deng Deng who jumped up and bumped into his arms. He grimaced in pain as his head hit. He looked up at the instigator and was about to speak when he found that the person was a strange woman.

She was probably about 40 years old, with a neat ponytail and no makeup on her face, but her facial features were deep and heroic, giving people a feeling that she was very capable. Even the fine lines at the corners of her eyes were full of mature and reliable charm.

Wei Cheng stared at her for a moment, and she came over to look at him carefully, then smiled and said, "It's you."
"Do we know each other?" Wei Cheng searched the social network in his mind to make sure that he had never met this person.
"I don't know you," she said, "but I can tell that you're a doctor, uh... an internal medicine doctor. Being a doctor is hard, and such a busy profession is not suitable for dating a police officer. Have you ever considered changing careers? Your family is so well-off, why don't you go back and inherit the family business?"
After a few words, Wei Cheng was sure that this person was also a criminal police officer. Before he could answer, Xie Qingfei had already returned. She was stunned for a moment, and her expression was obviously a little cold: "Captain Pu."
Pu Yu let out an exaggerated "Hey!" and ignored Wei Cheng. She enthusiastically hooked her arms around Xie Qingfei's shoulders and gave her a kiss on the cheek: "Xiao Qingfei, I miss you so much!"
Wei Cheng: “…”

Xie Qingfei stiffly pushed the man away, placed the hot water and antipyretic medicine in front of Wei Cheng, and explained: "This is Pu Yupu Team of the Municipal Bureau's Anti-Drug Brigade."
Then he turned to Pu Yu and said, "Wei Cheng is the psychological consultant of our bureau."
"I know. At first Director Wang said he wanted to hire a great foreign player, but Director Huang intercepted him halfway," Pu Yu's eyes flickered between the two of them and said meaningfully, "It turns out it was you who intercepted him."

"Okay, let's get down to business." Xie Qingfei felt awkward when he saw her nonsensical look, and didn't want to say anything about why Wei Cheng chose the Tianning Branch. "What was the result last night?"
Pu Yu said, "We caught two people who were reselling banned drugs. We found other things on one of them. This is a breakthrough. We can probably catch some big fish by following this line. I came here to make some changes with Xiao Lu. Why is he not here?"
"I'll be back soon," Xie Qingfei glanced at his watch and realized something, "You... want to wait here?"
"You're not welcome?" Pu Yu looked at her with a smile, "I won't disturb you at work. Besides, you don't have much work to do right now. Isn't it good for me to chat with you?"

"Whatever you want." Since she was going to stay here, Xie Qingfei called Wei Cheng, "Come with me."
Wei Cheng swallowed the capsule, glanced at Pu Yu, and stood up obediently.
Xie Qingfei reminded: "Cat."
Wei Cheng picked up Deng Deng again.
Pu Yu sighed: "You won't even leave the cat for me to play with?"
The sound of Xie Qingfei's office door closing responded to her.
Pu Yu was not angry. He just found a seat and sat down to wait for Lu Shaohui.

In a separate office.

Wei Cheng asked: "That Captain Pu just now, don't you like her?"
Xie Qingfei: "I hate her."
Wei Cheng was a little surprised. This was the first time he heard Xie Qingfei express his dislike for someone so bluntly.

But before he could ask, Xie Qingfei had already pulled out a folding chair from the crack in the wall and unfolded it, saying to him, "You should get some sleep. If you meet her next time, don't talk to her as much, and don't answer her no matter what she asks you."
Wei Cheng was flattered and immediately stopped caring about Pu Yu. He smiled and said, "I really hope I have a fever every day."
"Well, then you really need to have your brain examined." Xie Qingfei gave him a caring look and sat down at his desk to look through the documents.

Wei Cheng didn't want to sleep. He leaned on the folding chair and could see Xie Qingfei's profile clearly from this angle. Because she was too alert, he had to be cautious even when he peeked at her.
Xie Qingfei probably never knew that she would make some small expressions inadvertently when she was concentrating. For example, when she read the file where the suspect was obvious to her, her eyebrows would be slightly raised, and her eyes would be particularly calm. In some cases with more twists and turns, the tip of her eyebrow would be slightly raised, and the corner of her lips would be slightly raised. This is an expression that should not be shown as the embodiment of justice, but Wei Cheng knew that this meant that she was very interested in this matter and wanted to challenge it. She didn't know that she also had moments of compassion. When she sympathized with the victim's experience, what emerged from her slightly frowned eyebrows was often not the deep hatred for the perpetrator, but self-blame.

Every time this happened, he would develop a subtle empathy with her.

Xie Qingfei finished reading the thick documents on the table, stretched his shoulders, and looked sideways.
Wei Cheng closed his eyes in time, but the room was so bright that he could feel Xie Qingfei walking towards him very lightly, so he had to adjust his breathing and pretend to be asleep.

Xie Qingfei didn't notice his disguise. She leaned over and stared at him carefully. As she looked at him, she remembered that it was not right for him to lie there like this, so she went to find a blanket to cover him. After all, the folding chair was small, and Wei Cheng took up too much space, so he felt very aggrieved when sleeping. Xie Qingfei thought for a moment, and moved his head to the center of the pillow. After doing all this, she looked at her masterpiece with satisfaction, but she became anxious again.
She had never seen Wei Cheng sick before. The last misunderstanding had already made her worried. This time, she felt his unusual body temperature with her own eyes, and her anxiety doubled, even though a fever was just a small problem.
I wish he would never get sick and always be healthy.

Deng Deng, who was lying on the recliner with his tail coiled, came over and rubbed her legs after sensing her scent. Xie Qingfei lowered her eyes and looked at the cat without an owner. She thought, if the cat's life span was as long as that of a human, she would still be willing to keep it. It was hard to accept separation in life and death, and she was afraid of facing loss.

Deng Deng saw that she was reluctant to hold it and was about to meow again. Xie Qingfei was afraid that it would wake up Wei Cheng, so she compromised and reached out to it, and received a furry and soft paw pad.

Wei Cheng couldn't pretend anymore and moved his head, which was immediately discovered by her. Xie Qingfei thought it was the light that made him sleep uneasy, so she went to the window to draw the curtain, but the curtain in her office didn't block out the light, so she came back and pulled the blanket higher to cover Wei Cheng's eyes.
Wei Cheng was forced to be sealed in a state of resting in the ground. He admired Xie Qingfei's thinking. He was just having a fever, but he was going to be sent away. Fortunately, she soon realized that she couldn't cover it like this, and released his mouth and nose again. Wei Cheng first heard her chuckle that she tried hard to hold back, and then felt her sitting down beside him.

The disturbing light did not reappear. Wei Cheng narrowed his eyes and was surprised to find that she had blocked it for him with her hand.

She stroked the cat with one hand and shielded him from the light with the other, leaning against the wall with her back feeling a little drowsy.

Still a little bit fond of it, right? he thought.
His emotions seemed to be calmed down at that moment, and he fell asleep again when the effect of the medicine took effect, and this time he did not have nightmares.

(End of this chapter)