HPDBC Chapter 54: Humbert Humbert Twenty-one
Chapter 54: Humbert Humbert Twenty-one
Chapter 54: Humbert Humbert Twenty-one
Fei Du was taken aback at first. He sat back into the chair and asked disingenuously: "Huh?"
He slouched in the seat like a playboy. With a faint smile lingering on the corner of his mouth, he turned to face Luo Wenzhou and added, deliberately: "What did I do?"
Luo Wenzhou: "......"
"Had it coming." Luo thought, quickly regretting his cheap and unnecessary question. Rather than dealing with a Fei Du that's ambiguously flirtatious, he'd rather race the one that's got the word "jackass" written on his forehead.
It happened every time when they were alone: when one seemed irked the other would make sure to rub it in some more.
Mistaking Luo Wenzhou's short pause for embarrassment, Fei Du felt quite amused. He couldn't help but add, "I treated the respectable officers with something warm last night. Is Captain Luo going to petition me another honorary flag?"
Fei Du moved in a little closer as he spoke. Luo Wenzhou could see the different shades of lights reflected from his eyes and the delicate patterns of his iris that's like ripples in a pond. Fei Du continued: "What do you plan to write on it this time? Let's see..."
"Fei Du." Luo Wenzhou suddenly interrupted, in a straight face, "Keep doing it and I'll think that you have an 'unspeakable agenda' on me."
Fei Du: "..."
Because of their peculiar history, Luo Wenzhou usually acted like an old fuddy-duddy in front of him, so much so that Fei Du had almost forgotten how shameless and brazen this man actually was.
Surprised at the enemy's charge, Fei Du decided to retreat. He looked out at the shady memorial building and replied:"Captain Luo, are you sure you want to discuss such an unserious topic in this circumstance?"
"Well, I have serious topics too." Luo Wenzhou replied, "Are you really going to go back to school in September and leave that heavy fortune of yours to the others' hands?"
"Worry not. I have a reliable team." Fei Du shrugged, "They don't even need to be very reliable, just a little more reliable than me would do. Besides, even if I'm not there everyday, they'll still need my signature on the larger decisions. I am still in charge. Granted that they were to screw it all up and bankrupt me..."
"The remains are still worth more than a base level civil servant's lifetime salary, parenthesis: including retirement pensions based on an average lifespan of 250 years, end parenthesis. Am I close?" Luo Wenzhou finished his flaunting for him, "Cut the crap. When your father had the accident you were still a student and not a particularly bright one why didn't you 'trust' that reliable team of yours and live on your stock dividend?
Fei Du looked up. In the rear view mirror he ran into Luo Wenzhou's gazes the man's eyes were earnest and stern.
"You took over your father's company, but not for the money. You were probing for something." Luo Wenzhou asserted, "You must have applied for the Yan-cheng Police Academy for the same reason. What is it... or should I ask, who is it?"
"You, perhaps?" Fei Du replied calmly, "Maybe I've suddenly acquired a niche taste in the prim and proper?"
This son of a b**ch Fei Du kid is full of sh*t. Nothing sincere ever comes out of his mouth.
Fei Du squinted, eyes aggressively sizing up Luo Wenzhou's sculpted nose bridge and lips as if ready to kiss them. In a soft and slightly nasal tone, he asked: "How do you know that I was not a good student? Captain Luo, besides smuggling electronic gadgets to me, were you concerned with my grade book too?"
Luo Wenzhou: "..."
He huffed, then unlocked the door. But before Fei Du retracted his mischievous gazing, Luo Wenzhou suddenly reached out and grabbed the collar of his haute couture shirt, successfully ruining his irking and flamboyant sitting posture.
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"First off, "Luo Wenzhou lectured, "My handsomeness had stood the test of time and is widely applauded by the People. This is the most classical kind of handsomeness. Calling it niche only reveals how poorly-read and ignorant you are."
"Secondly," He glanced at Fei Du's plastered arm in a pity, "Tut tut...honey, it's been awhile since I last saw a shameless douche like you. After me? You'll need more milk baths to toughen up the bones, Director Fei!"
He pointed at the door and commanded, "get out."
Director Fei had never had such a slap on the face in his ample flirting experiences. Facing a hard landing for the first time he actually found it quite refreshing. As a handicapped personnel, he dragged his crippled body out of Luo Wenzhou's car. His tempted eyes followed Luo Wenzhou as he walked towards the memorial. After sizing him up, he decided to cease fire for now, and followed him into the hall.
The air in the memorial hall is cold and crisp. They might have installed a refrigerator rather than an AC in there.
The two were greeted by frigid air, both literally and figuratively. The handful of staff checked Luo Wenzhou's police badge dubiously, trying to figure out why on earth would a police want to search the ashes of the deceased.
"201?" The staff flipped through the record, "Nope. It's always been under the same name."
Tao Ran panted heavily: "Is the last name Xu?"
"No, not Xu. It's Sun. A family of two." The younger staff turned to look at the more senior one for assurance, "Right, sister Zhao?"
"Yes. They were an older couple, with a daughter. Their daughter was what...close to forty?" The mid aged woman on the right poured Tao Ran a glass of water.
Tao Ran thanked her. Meanwhile he felt a little disappointed. Just now in the hallway he had a strangely strong feeling that something was off with apartment 201. Turned out that he was just overly sensitive.
Just when Tao Ran was about to leave, he heard the mid aged woman who poured him water say: "Their daughter is quite the achiever, you see...A couple years ago she went abroad, and then took her parents abroad too. Once I heard from the father's brother: seemed like they wanted to sell the apartment before leaving. But god knows what happened -- maybe they didn't find a suitable buyer or something -- the apartment wasn't sold in the end. Perhaps they rented it out, I mean, at least the water and electricity bills were always paid on time..."
At that time, as if suddenly thought of something, sister Zhao's ranting abruptly ended. She awkwardly exchanged a look with the colleague next to her.
Tao Ran keenly picked it up: "Mam, do you know who the tenant is?"
Sister Zhao beat around the bush, eyes awkwardly looking downward: "I don't really know. You see, nowadays even the water and electricity bill payments don't go through us any more. We don't have much interaction with the residents really."
Tao Ran's eyes landed on a wall poster that wrote: Safety First: say 'no' to group renting. His expression turned stern. Deliberately, he asked: "Wait, you guys don't have any illegal group rental going on here, do you?"
The two management staff both stuttered. Sister Zhao explained: "No no no...that apartment was just a little short of luck they never found a long term tenant so you sometimes see different faces in and out of that one. But it wasn't group renting, I guarantee you..."
Tao Ran shot up: "Give me the keys!"
The management might have taken some bribes and kept their mouths shut about group renting here. But is room "201" -- with people coming and going -- really one of such cases?
Meanwhile, Luo Wenzhou had flipped Su Xiaolan's "home" upside down and found nothing worth noting. Disappointed, he turned to Fei Du: "Director Fei, seems that you're not always right on target after all."
Fei Du leaned on the wall of ashes taboolessly: "You might want to check the last remaining place, before judging my judgement."
As he spoke, he reached in and pulled out Su Xiaolan's ash box. The box was covered by a double folded satin drapery. As if undressing his lover, Fei Du's fingers gently ran through the fabric. The satin eagerly opened up for him, exposing a square wooden box.
Luo Wenzhou: "..."
Anthem of Five Rings : This is Captain Luo's ringtone, a reflection of his particularly down-to-earth taste (or should we say lack of taste?) in music. The Anthem of Five Rings was a parody song written and sung by Chinese traditional stand-up comedian Yue Yunpeng. The melody was borrowed from an old pop song "Anthem of the Peony", and the lyrics are some silly statements about the fifth ring road in Beijing.
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Notes from the Translator:
Ta-da! Christmas treat ;p Hope you guys enjoyed it.
My apologies for the low and irregular posting frequency in the past couple of months -- just been swamped by life.
Going forward I'll try my best to do two chapters every month. Thank you guys so much for accompanying me through this long long journey. This is the first piece of translation work that I take on, and I do it purely out of love for Mo-du. This is such a brilliant piece and I can't wait to share it with all of you around the world!
If you've enjoyed it so far, awesome. Because the story only gets better and better from here on :)
All the best, and Merry Christmas to you!
QuantumC
2019.12.20