Deer Luhan, With Love

65

Chapter 65 – In Which We All Go Swimming

Deer Luhan,

You do realise we still could have trolled them in the water if you’d jumped in with your clothes on, right?

Leigh

I got a surprise which couldn’t really be classified as either pleasant or unpleasant but that still made me laugh incredulously when my bodyguard of seven knocked on the door about five minutes after the others had left.

“Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed, hardly able to believe my eyes when I opened the door onto Super-intendent Yi.  “You?”  I’d only actually met him in person once, but hey, photographic memory.  Even though his hair was no longer dyed dirty blond and he was cultivating the beginnings of a moustache.

Yi looked thoroughly taken aback.  “Both of you came here?”

I liked this guy.  He was smart.

“Yeah.  Visa problems.”  I stood back to allow him in.  The other six policemen were looking uber-confused, but Yi ignored them.

“So you’re dropping the whole spy thing and admitting you aren’t supposed to be here?”

“Well, I thought that was pretty obvious from the moment you heard me telling Luhan I couldn’t use a gun.”

Yi gave me a reluctant smile.  “It nearly gave me a heartattack when it turned out you were a normal civilian.  You’re lucky I was the only one who heard – Feng probably would have had you detained.  Still, I was impressed.  You’re quite resourceful.  And you survived.”

“Sir,” said one of the policemen, “can you explain what all this is about?”

“No,” Yi told him.  “It’s not something you need to know.  The six of you are to guard this suite while Mr Lu and I have a good old chinwag.”  He stretched, popping his shoulders, and turned to me.  “Let’s speak privately.”

I shrugged, looking around, and then motioned towards the master bedroom, since I didn’t have the keys for any of the other rooms.  And also since it was the only room I could guarantee was tidy.  Yi gave the place a precursory sweep with his eyes as I shut the door behind us, and immediately crossed to the windows out onto the balcony to shut and lock them.

“I presume it was you rather than Mr Lu who made it into the news yesterday for jumping between the balconies?”

I nodded.

“Not everybody’s as stupid as the person who wrote that article,” he warned me.  “But thankfully, not that many people know that there is more than one person who looks like Mr Lu who is hanging around EXO on a regular basis.  I assume you are also his… ah, twin brother?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed, cutting in before he could continue talking, because it had clearly been a rhetorical question.  “But can I just ask, what are you doing so far away from Baoding?  And without a Baoding accent?”

Yi just smiled at me and produced a police wallet, holding it so I could see clearly.  It made me frown: according to his ID, he was Commissioner General Huang Meng-Yao (孟姚) of the Changsha police department – only I was pretty sure he actually wasn’t.

“So…” I said slowly, trying to work out exactly what was going on here, “what do you want me to call you?”

His smile broadened.  “Huang, here, please, or I’ll shoot you.  And unlike you, I actually was the top shot in my training class.”  He pocketed the ID again.  “I’ve been working on this case for the best part of a year now and I just go where I’m needed.  Transferred into Hunan province a week and a half ago.  There was a rather alarming influx of mafia to the area and neighbouring towns last Thursday evening, so I wasn’t too surprised the police department got a call from Mr Lu asking for protection.”