The Road Home

Chapter 3

Lu Yanchen took his jacket back from Gui Xiao and, without bothering to get rid of the snow on his button-up shirt, slipped it on.

Soon two police vehicles arrived on site.

The expression of the police officer hopping off the car had originally been rather grave, but seeing that it was once again Lu Yanchen, he could not hold back a chortle. "We see each other again, Commander Lu. Such good luck for me on my shift tonight. I got to run into you twice."

Lu Yanchen gave a shrug of his shoulders, rather resigned about this himself. "Discharged from service now. Nothing to do."

The police officer let out a laugh. Then, efficiently, he took the thugs away.

Afterwards, they once more followed proper procedures and went to give... police statements.

When that group stole Xiao Cai's vehicle previously, the people had not known it was worth a million RMB or so and had just dumped it out on the grasslands and then left. During dinner, they showed a photograph of the vehicle to the fence who would be selling the stolen goods. That other party knew a good thing when he saw it and, with a slap to his thigh, had cried, "That's good stuff, bros. Quick, go get that car." Everyone thought they had struck it big, but when they went back, they discovered the vehicle had been driven away and a case had even been filed with the police.

All that hassle and it turned out to be nothing more than an untouchable fancy, like a flower in a mirror or a moon's reflection in the water[1].

That gang of people had been burning in fury with no outlet, and so they had searched everywhere for a place to eat, planning on having a meal of booze to douse the flames. To their surprise, they came across that vehicle again... Unable to contain their delight, that gang of ruffians had wanted to give a scare to the vehicle owner to get some revenge, and then while they were at it, they would take the vehicle away.

But they had not expected that this time the ones with the vehicle owner were no ordinary people. They were the just-discharged commander of the counter-terrorism squadron and one of his most capable subordinates.

Not only had those ruffians not managed to gain anything out of this, they ended up getting rounded up all in one go. What was more, they had been the ones to deliver themselves straight into the people's hands.

"The guys over in Sonid want to catch these thugs. Not bad now. We've saved ourselves some work." As the police officer saw them out the door, he patted Xiao Cai on the shoulder. "That vehicle of yours should be presented with a silk banner of acknowledgement of contribution. Ha! It helped us save police manpower and helped the country save on resources spent."

By the time the fuss was over, it was already approaching midnight.

Lu Yanchen had Qin Mingyu take Xiao Cai's vehicle and drive the three men while he drove Xiao Cai and Gui Xiao back to the hotel. The snow was coming down hard and the roads were slick. Because it was late at night, Lu Yanchen did not drive very fast.

Warm, comfortable air blew out from the heat vents. Gui Xiao discovered after the fact that this time he had shut the window of his own accord. This snowy night in the depths of winter actually ended up stirring up the memories of that summer of her youth. Back then, she had loved to catch rides in his car. Beneath the sweltering sun, in temperatures of more than thirty degrees Celsius, she would use up his gas while, with the car windows all tightly shut, enjoying the rush of air-conditioning on her.

Lu Yanchen fished out a package of smokes from his pants pocket and clamped his teeth on a cigarette, then felt around in the storage compartment beneath the center console. His fingers slid back and forth, searching for something. Gui Xiao reached a hand over, picked up a lighter, and handed it to him.