Lin Qiye and An Qingyu walked side by side down the corridor, illuminated by the overhead lights.
Their shadows on the wall overlapped from time to time, entwining indistinctly.
At the end of the passage stood a young man on guard duty.
“Brother Lin, who’s this?”
The young man looked at An Qingyu beside Lin Qiye in confusion.
He knew Lin Qiye, but he didn’t recognize the boy next to him.
An Qingyu placed a hand on Lin Qiye’s shoulder.
“I’m Qiye’s family.”
He casually rested his chin on Lin Qiye’s shoulder, creating the impression of intimacy.
Lin Qiye’s body tensed instantly.
He felt somewhat nervous.
What if the lie were exposed?
After all, An Qingyu’s surname was An, and his was Lin, they didn’t look related at all.
If the other person asked about their exact relationship, he would just say An Qingyu was his distant cousin.
Yes, that would work.
Lin Qiye gradually calmed down.
The young man glanced at Lin Qiye, then at An Qingyu, and instantly understood.
“Alright, please go on in.”
He had seen plenty of same-sex couples before. To be honest, Lin Qiye and the handsome guy beside him looked pretty well-matched.
An Qingyu and Lin Qiye walked side by side into the room where the victims’ bodies were stored.
An Qingyu carefully put on a pair of white medical gloves.
“It seems that being your ‘family member,’ Qiye, grants me smoother access than credentials do.”
He added casually, as if it were an afterthought,
“Qiye, why don’t we just make that identity official?”
Lin Qiye hesitated.
“That might not be a good idea. I already have a cousin, having another one would be a bit strange.”
What if his cousin Yang Jin found out and got upset?
An Qingyu spoke vaguely,
“We wouldn’t be cousins. I mean the kind of relationship with no blood ties, but very close.”
Like a married couple.
Lin Qiye immediately caught his meaning.
“I get it, you want to become sworn brothers with me.”
An Qingyu wasn’t surprised by Lin Qiye’s response. After all, Lin Qiye was as straight as they came.
Winning him over would have to be done step by step.
An Qingyu changed the subject.
“Let’s take a look at the bodies.”
He carefully examined the corpse, his hand instinctively moving toward the scalpel in his pocket.
Lin Qiye grabbed An Qingyu’s wrist, stopping his next move.
“Control that habit of yours, wanting to dissect everything you see.”
An Qingyu calmly glanced at the spot where their skin touched and agreed readily. “Alright.”
Only then did Lin Qiye feel reassured enough to let go.
Looking at the body in front of him, Lin Qiye couldn’t spot anything unusual.
“Did you find something?”
With An Qingyu’s “Only Correct Answer” ability, the examination would certainly be more efficient.
Wearing gloves, An Qingyu pointed at the severed palm of the victim, Sun Xiao.
“The direction in which this body’s fingers were cut off doesn’t match what’s shown in the surveillance footage. The video can’t be fake, which means—”
“The person who died in the footage wasn’t Sun Xiao,” An Qingyu and Lin Qiye concluded almost in unison.
Lin Qiye recalled the case files he had read.
“Only Sun Xiao’s DNA was found at the crime scene, which misled us into thinking the deceased was Sun Xiao.”
A headache crept in. The case was developing in an unpredictable direction.
An Qingyu’s eyes burned with fervor for uncovering the truth.
“The more complicated it gets, the more interesting it becomes, isn’t that right?”
“After all, only a difficult puzzle is truly challenging to solve.”
Lin Qiye couldn’t quite understand An Qingyu’s preference.
It was like taking an exam, most students would hope for easy questions.
But someone like An Qingyu would want the test to be as hard as possible, preferably filled with questions beyond the syllabus for him to tackle.
Beep—
Lin Qiye lowered his head to check his phone.
“The vice-captain found a lead related to this case.”
An Qingyu held out his phone with the QR code displayed.
“Let’s add each other. It’ll make communication easier.”
“Sure.” Lin Qiye scanned it without hesitation, and the two of them successfully became friends.
Staring at the new profile icon added to his contact list, An Qingyu trembled with excitement.
He had Qiye’s contact information now.
Although he had long since hacked into the system and checked Lin Qiye’s social media accounts, and even gone through all of Lin Qiye’s chat histories with others, the moment they officially added each other, An Qingyu still felt his blood boiling.
This was a chat space that belonged exclusively to him and Qiye.
One of a kind.
Lin Qiye shot An Qingyu a glance, noticing the change in his demeanor, somewhat puzzled.
Was it really necessary? It was just investigating a case.
Look how excited An Qingyu was.
Lin Qiye sighed inwardly.
Sure enough, the way a lunatic like An Qingyu thought was completely different from his own.
Not something ordinary people could understand.
Lin Qiye twisted the doorknob.
“I’m heading back to meet with my teammates. If you find any leads, send me a message.”
“Got it.” An Qingyu replied calmly.
He watched Lin Qiye leave, his gaze following him until his figure disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Then An Qingyu tapped on Lin Qiye’s profile picture in his contact list.
Then he edited the remark:
Wife.
An Qingyu’s long fingers tapped against the phone screen as he set Lin Qiye as a priority contact.
The moment the other party sent a message, he would know immediately.
After finishing all this, he returned to the laboratory in the sewer with a satisfied expression.
An Qingyu unlocked his phone.
The wallpaper was clearly an image of Lin Qiye asleep.
In his photo gallery were pictures of Lin Qiye from every angle and in various poses.
There were photos of Lin Qiye wearing an outfit with animal ears, and others of him completely naked.
During the nights he had previously gone to “meet” Lin Qiye, he had left records each time, including videos of the process.
In his spare time, An Qingyu would repeatedly watch those photos and videos, savoring the beauty of those moments.
“Qiye, no matter which angle it is, you fascinate me so much.”
An Qingyu gently stroked Lin Qiye’s face on the phone screen, his fingertip sliding downward— from Lin Qiye’s collarbone and lower…
as if what he were touching were not a photograph, but the living, breathing Lin Qiye himself.
An Qingyu went to the restroom and rinsed himself with cold water, calming the heat rising in his body.
He didn’t like handling this kind of thing by himself.
It would be better to have his Qiye help him.
Thinking of Lin Qiye’s rosy, alluring lips, a suspicious flush spread across An Qingyu’s face.