Today, the soon-to-be college student and his friends went to another city to volunteer. After calculating the distance from the Special Investigation Bureau to his home, Jiang Yujin decisively chose to go to the place where Captain Xu used to live.
Sitting in the car with nothing to do, Jiang Yujin leaned back and saw several paper bags on the back seat.
Xu Tonggui, who was driving, said, "I saw them when I passed by today and bought them on the spur of the moment."
Jiang Yujin took the bags to see what this person had bought.
"..."
He opened one, glanced at it, and his expression became indescribable before putting the paper bags back on the back seat.
When they returned to the community, Xu Tonggui carried the paper bags upstairs. Jiang Yujin pretended not to see them, holding hands with Xu Tonggui while busy playing Candy Crush with the other.
When he went inside to get a drink, he chose to let go of his boyfriend's hand to get the water cup, between his boyfriend Xu and Candy Crush.
His main goal here was to ruin Xu Tonggui's clothes; he hadn't planned to buy pajamas, so he randomly picked a lucky item each time he came to use as pajamas. Almost all of Xu Tonggui's clothes had already been ruined.
He'd ruined another shirt this time, and after showering, he came out to watch TV with his goose.
There weren't any particularly exciting soap opera reruns tonight, but it was alright. When the soap opera commercials ended, the water in the bathroom stopped, and Xu Tonggui, who had showered after him, came out.
Jiang Yujin glanced sideways and saw the other pull a small black box from several pockets.
There was nothing special inside, just a thin red ribbon, the color of which was quite similar to the red string on his wrist.
"I saw this today," Xu Tonggui said, holding the red ribbon closer, "and I thought it would suit you perfectly."
Jiang Yujin sat on the sofa, hugging his goose, his eyebrows twitching, slightly tilting his head back, and said, "You bought so many...clothes just for this little string?"
Xu Tonggui responded, bending down to look at the person sitting on the sofa.
Some people's silence was deafening.
Meeting his gaze, Jiang Yujin gave up struggling, nodded haphazardly, and even tilted his head back slightly to cooperate: "Fine, go ahead and play."
A thin ribbon wrapped around his neck, the bright red ribbon contrasting sharply with his white neck. Xu Tonggui bent down and lowered his eyes, carefully tying a bow.
The ribbon was long; even after wrapping it several times and tying a bow, the end was still tucked into his shirt, hanging down in the middle of his snow-white back.
Jiang Yujin was curious, so he took his phone and used the screen as a mirror to look at himself, only to find that the person behind him was still as bad at tying bows as ever.
But he was protective of his boyfriend's pride, so he reluctantly complimented him a couple of times, saying it looked good.
That evening, as expected, Jiang Yujin worked overtime and tried on all his new clothes. His boyfriend, Xu, really knew him well; all the clothes fit him perfectly.
When he woke up the next morning, Xu Tonggui didn't wake the person still sleeping with their face buried in the goose. After making breakfast, he quietly went to work.
When he entered the office, someone was inside. They greeted him and then looked behind him, but didn't see him. So they asked, "Captain Xu, where's Boss Jiang?"
They seemed a little disappointed.
Hu Li entered the office after Xu Tonggui and said, "He only came yesterday."
This time, the people in the office looked visibly disappointed.
To be honest, the unprecedented sense of security they felt during yesterday's mission was really overwhelming, plus they could gossip together. They were originally looking forward to going on another mission together today.
"The bureau can't afford him,"
Hu Li said, putting down the documents in his hand. "His salary for one day yesterday is more than yours for a month."
This guy even extorted a workers' compensation and extra bonus on top of his original salary.
The others shut up.
—
By the time the soon-to-be college students who went to other cities to volunteer returned, most of the summer vacation had passed. It was time to pack their bags and prepare for school.
Chen Jing was packing his bags in his room, while Jiang Yujin was outside, using gestures to show Xu Tonggui how he had raised a little kid who was shorter than him into a college student. He looked very reluctant to part with him.
He gestured wildly, then turned and went back into the room before Xu Tonggui could comfort him, determined to help pack.
His "help" meant haphazardly stuffing things into the suitcase; after mentally preparing himself, he even considered shoving a large goose inside.
The suitcase couldn't fit the goose. Xu Tonggui scooped it out, saying, "This won't fit, you keep it."
Jiang Yujin then took the goose away.
The soon-to-be college student was always independent and knew how to pack, but with the help of his two parents, he ultimately chose a corner to stuff in various pretty but useless little things.
On the day of registration, Xu Tonggui asked for leave from the bureau and drove the college student to school.
Perhaps because it was the start of the semester, the road to the school was jammed, making progress extremely difficult.
It was already autumn, but the weather was still hot; while others were frustrated by the traffic, the three in the car remained relaxed.
Driver Xu watched the people next to him playing Candy Crush, while Chen Jing, who was to speak as a freshman representative at the opening ceremony, quietly read his prepared speech.
Moving slowly, stopping and starting, the car managed to get into the school.
Chen Jing had originally packed only one suitcase, but with the help of his kind-hearted father, it became two.
The trunk opened, and Xu Tonggui took the suitcase down. His arms were muscular and supple, making the once-full suitcase seem surprisingly light.
Jiang, a citizen who had been suffering from motion sickness since getting out of the car and had squatted by the roadside for a while, felt much better and stood up, putting a hand on his eldest son's shoulder.
On their way to the registration office, they encountered Zhang Xin, who had also been admitted to University A through a special admission program. She was walking beside her mother with her backpack, talking to her father who was carrying a suitcase, her face bright and cheerful. Seeing the three of them, she waved and greeted them.
As she raised her hand, her long sleeve slipped down, revealing the small, crisscrossing scars still visible on her arms from previous encounters.
Chen Jing returned the greeting, and the two families went their separate ways.
After walking a distance, Chen Jing turned back to look at the three people who were about to disappear into the crowd, then looked at the person carrying a suitcase walking quietly on the other side.
Things had changed after all.
He originally thought that Xu Tonggui's joining the family was just a change in family structure, that there was now another person in the family to take care of a level 10 paralyzed patient. But now he finally realized that this change was not only for the paralyzed patient, but also related to him.
Someone would pick him up late, and someone would accompany him to the start of the semester.
— He really seemed to have become the son of two sets of parents.
The two parents could only drop him off at the dormitory building; a kind senior took his suitcase.
The senior introduced himself as Zhao Lin, then asked, "Which floor are you going to, little brother?"
Chen Jing said the top floor.
Zhao Lin froze, but he couldn't put the suitcase down since he had already taken it. He gritted his teeth and continued carrying it upstairs. Halfway up, he smiled and asked, "Little brother, want to get a card?"
Chen Jing said no.
The senior's hand loosened its grip on the suitcase, but he managed to hold on tighter in the end. After catching his breath, which had become rapid, Zhao Lin said, "There was a monster in this building before, it ate people's hair, and it plucked all your hair out in one night."
He lowered his voice and said, "Although that thing has been eliminated, who knows what else might still be lurking in this building, waiting to come and pluck the hair out of you freshmen tonight."
The senior, who hadn't sold any cards, started making up a bunch of nonsense as revenge.
But the freshman wasn't scared by him; he seemed strangely calm, saying "Really?" and then asking, "Were you captured by this monster, senior?"
Zhao Lin: "..."
Zhao Lin touched his finally growing hair and ultimately chose to remain silent.
After escorting the freshman to the top floor, he rushed downstairs before even catching his breath.
He thought he was fast, but when he turned around at the bottom, he realized that the freshman who hadn't bought a card was also behind him, seemingly without sweat or breathing. There were
two other people standing on one side of the building. Zhao Lin glanced over and recognized one of them.
It was the owner of the agency he had desperately sought out when he was balding.
Then he saw the freshman who had been behind him stand next to the other person.
"..."
The other person clearly recognized him too, opening his eyes slightly and focusing his gaze on Zhao Lin's hair. He looked quite surprised and said before Zhao Lin could stop him, "Your hair has grown back."
"..."
Meeting the freshman's gaze, Zhao Lin painfully closed his eyes.
The news report ended with the freshman orientation ceremony, but it was already the next day, and the two parents saw it for no apparent reason.
There were no suddenly appearing aliens, and no antisocial organization secretly capturing experimental subjects. Everyone smoothly entered the school, starting a new life and heading towards a better future.
The sky was cloudless.
On the second day of his eldest son's school, Captain Xu once again happily worked overtime, while his lonely elderly father, left at home, went to the small bar.
It had been a while since they last met, and the bar owner smiled broadly upon seeing him and handed him another drink.
The old television set from before still sat in the corner of the bar, lit up, still showing the evening news.
The news reported that not long ago, the last remnants of the antisocial organization banded together and were wiped out in one fell swoop; all the cadres were either dead or wounded, and none escaped.
The Special Investigation Bureau found many missing citizens in the prison cells of the area where the organization was located; some were dead, some were alive, and some were alive but worse off than dead.
The news did not release any photos of the scene, but just looking at the blurred photos was enough to make one nauseous, and the discussion in the small bar gradually grew louder.
Jiang Yujin silently took a sip of his drink.
Because there were too many people involved, and the branch was located in the city center, this matter couldn't be kept secret. Rather than letting the public speculate, it was better to issue a news report directly, preserving most of the facts. The higher-ups compiled this incident into a news feature, focusing on the follow-up handling of the citizens who exhibited unusual behavior.
The news report unexpectedly flashed a blurry image of white hair.
"..."
Citizen Jiang, who had just taken a sip of his drink, choked, but managed to hold back a cough, raising his hand to touch his hair, which had now turned its natural black color again.
Fortunately, the tavern owner didn't notice anything unusual and even said to him, "I remember your friend is from the special investigation team, right?"
The friend the owner was referring to was Xu Tonggui.
Citizen Jiang, who had been gossiping all his life, returned to being gossip himself. The news of Xu Tonggui moving in had already spread throughout the neighborhood on the very first day. Everyone knew about the relationship between the two immediately, but no one had ever explicitly stated it, always referring to them as friends.
Jiang nodded in resignation.
"You'd better be careful," the tavern owner said quietly, glancing around. "Someone might specifically target the families of Special Investigation Bureau personnel for retaliation."
Unlike his friend, this person was more like them—just an ordinary person who enjoyed a drink. If someone retaliated against him, he might not be able to withstand it.
Jiang Yujin thanked the owner for the reminder.