Impossible Not To Love You

I. FAULT OF LENIENCY

Mere days apart, — and it was already festering the insufferable feeling of helplessness, akin to wading an eternity through quicksand with absolutely no hope whatsoever to escape the long and arduous passage of time.

Having slaved away the good last week and a half at a dreadfully monotonous stakeout, before expending full strength on a back-breaking action to apprehend the 'latest reason as to why he couldn't be at home, contentedly holding his Feishi'r in bed', — Luo Wenzhou was pretty much teetering on the brink of desperation.

But life's a sadistic bitch, and so was the City Bureau.

As fellow underpaid civil servants, — captain of the Criminal Investigation Team on top of that, — it was impossible for Luo Wenzhou to escape the clutches of the bureau until it has satisfyingly taxed every iota of life out of him. Safe to say that the pitiful servant did not have a chance to escape until an ungodly hour in the day.

As soon as he got out of the excruciatingly long debriefing session with Director Lu, he expertly demonstrated the art of Tai Chi perfected over the years — by ditching the subsequent interrogation proceedings to his very abled deputy, Tao Ran, and the rest of the tedious follow-ups and paperworks to his grumbling, but ever so loyal 'subjects'; — while he himself, made a beeline straight for the exit.

His first agenda outside the bureau front door, was to light a severely overdue smoke.

Carefully balancing the cigarette between his lips as he lit the other end with practiced ease, he belatedly noted that they had once again toiled away another day. Although the sky was still shrouded in darkness, and dawn was still hours away from breaking, — it was a new day nonetheless.

Doggone tired to the bones, Luo Wenzhou inhaled the last few lungs full of nicotine with deep urgency, in hope to stave off the impending fatigue until he can finally crawl in bed with his little lover.

One foot had already traversed across the bureau threshold, when he came across Lao Qin from the traffic department, busy directing his underlings to tow a crashed SUV to the back of the compound for the forensics to chew over later.

Out of courtesy, he strolled over to exchange harmless quip with the man.

"The day has barely started, and already it has gotten you working off your butt for the taxpayer's every penny's worth, Lao Qin."

The senior officer however, returned his jest with a rather obscured reaction, — brows furrowed in perplexity, smile lines seemed to be etched deeper than usual, bracketing his grimly downturned lips as he asked in return, — "You don't recognise the SUV?"

Turning his head toward the general direction leading to the back, Luo Wenzhou barely managed to catch a last glimpse of the vehicle before it disappeared completely behind the bureau main building. From his meagre knowledge of traffic collisions, he could roughly make out the vehicle sustained a horrible side impact on the driver's side towards the back, and a front hit causing the bonnet to compact upwards, effectively losing its car plate in the process.
Overall, — looked nasty enough to be fatal.

Shaking his head in puzzlement, "Should I?" he questioned in return.

Considering its near disrepair state, it was only fair for Luo Wenzhou not to recognise the black continental SUV. And from his current disposition, it was also safe to conclude that the young captain had yet caught wind of what had happened earlier that evening, either.

Lao Qin patted his oblivious compatriot on the shoulder and let out a profound sigh.

"You can thank God for small favours; — thank God for President Fei's richness, thank God for the reinforcements money can buy... Otherwise, it wouldn't just be a wrecked car we'd be hauling in today..."