Ruan Yu finished her afternoon meeting by evening.
As the winter solstice approached, the December days were especially short. She had only waited five minutes at the entrance of Huanshi when she noticed the sky darken by a shade.
Due to the evening rush hour traffic, Xu Huaisong was slightly late. By the time she got into the car, her hands were already red from the cold wind.
As soon as the car door closed, Ruan Yu rubbed her hands together near the heater and asked, "How did the trial go today?"
"Fairly smooth." Xu Huaisong didn’t start the car immediately. Instead, he adjusted the heater vents, turned to hold her hands, and gently massaged them. After a while, he lowered his head and blew warm air onto her palms. Noticing that the scabs on her hands had almost completely faded, he thought for a moment and asked, "After the winter solstice, I’ll be flying to the U.S. How about we visit your parents that day?"
"What about your parents? Aren’t you going back for the holiday?"
"Suzhou at noon, Hangzhou in the evening."
"That’s a lot of driving for you. Wouldn’t it be better to visit my place after you return from the U.S.? What’s the rush?"
Xu Huaisong chuckled. "What kind of suitor skips a major holiday? Don’t set me up to lose points."
Ruan Yu let out an "Oh," turning her head away to suppress a smile. Suddenly, she recalled what Li Shican had said at noon.
Even back then, Xu Huaisong had already considered marriage—or rather, from the very beginning, his intentions with her had been serious and long-term.
So now, she thought she understood why he had kept that contingency plan from her.
Marriage was, after all, a decision between two people. It should be pure, free from external influences. He didn’t want their engagement to carry any other implications in her mind.
And precisely because he took this matter so seriously, even though they were now tacitly on the same page, he wouldn’t bring it up himself until his work in the U.S. was completely settled.
Thinking this, Ruan Yu decided she shouldn’t overthink it. After all, it would likely be next year before his domestic career stabilized.
With that in mind, she asked, "When are you coming back from the U.S. this time?"
"I won’t make it back for New Year’s."
As expected. Ruan Yu’s face fell instantly. "So we won’t be able to celebrate New Year’s together…"
He glanced at her with a smile. "What’s so special about the Gregorian New Year? Show some patriotism—we’ll celebrate the Lunar New Year together instead."
Ruan Yu opened her mouth, wanting to explain that it wasn’t about "worshipping foreign things"—New Year’s Eve held a special meaning for them. But seeing Xu Huaisong’s indifferent expression, she swallowed her words.
Oh well. She shouldn’t expect a man to understand this kind of romance.
Three days later was the winter solstice.
Xu Huaisong had meticulously planned the day. Early in the morning, he took Ruan Yu back to Suzhou. After paying respects to their ancestors, the family had a reunion meal and afternoon tea before driving back to Hangzhou.
By the time they reached the outskirts, it was already 4 p.m. The setting sun cast a faint golden glow over the mountain road ahead.
Ruan Yu suddenly thought of Zhou Jun. He and his girlfriend had gotten into an accident on this very route—from downtown Suzhou to the outskirts of Hangzhou.
She sighed, but before she could speak, Xu Huaisong seemed to read her mind and casually diverted the topic. "What’s for dinner tonight?"
"My mom heard we had a banquet at noon, so she prepared hot pot." She tilted her head to look at him. "Student Xu, about to meet the homeroom teacher—are you nervous? Scared?"
Xu Huaisong smiled. "Terrified."
Just as Ruan Yu was about to comfort him, he added, "With hot pot, I’ll be too busy cooking for you. I’m afraid I won’t get to eat enough."
"..."The feelings had truly changed. Ruan Yu gazed out the window with a desolate thought.
Xu Huaisong glanced at her, about to say he was joking, when he suddenly noticed the road ahead was half-blocked in the distance. Several police officers were gathered by the roadside bushes, and someone was digging the ground with a shovel.
He quickly wiped the smile off his face and frowned.
Ruan Yu noticed it too and was wondering what was happening when she saw a gloved police officer lift something from the deep pit.
It was a mud-covered, decayed and misshapen... arm?
Ruan Yu gasped sharply.
Xu Huaisong reached over to cover her eyes and accelerated past the scene.
But perhaps the sudden acceleration drew the police's attention. As the car approached the yellow-taped scene, an officer with a badge gestured for them to stop. "Sir, ma'am, sorry to trouble you, but could you show us your IDs?"
He patted Ruan Yu's head, signaling her to keep her head down and not look outside. After handing over their IDs, the officer looked surprised. "What a coincidence, Lawyer Xu?"
Xu Huaisong nodded. "You know me?"
The officer grinned. "Your help in apprehending suspects has been the talk of our police circles. And that time you got drunk and knocked on every 302 door in Jinjiang City—that made quite a name for you in our precinct."
"..."
Ruan Yu abruptly raised her head, staring blankly at Xu Huaisong.
He cleared his throat and casually deflected. "Oh, are you working a case here?"
"Yes, a few days ago, Shanghai police caught a suspect who'd been on the run for half a year at a concert. They asked us to assist with the investigation. So here we are, digging up bodies in the middle of nowhere during the holidays." After venting, the officer nodded apologetically. "Sorry about that, Lawyer Xu. You can go ahead now."
But Xu Huaisong didn't move. He frowned and asked, "You're saying the suspect buried a body here half a year ago?"
The officer nodded. "Yeah, he's a repeat offender. Dismembers the bodies and buries them all over. We only found half an arm here."
Remembering what she'd just seen, Ruan Yu shuddered, goosebumps rising all over.
The officer exclaimed, "Ah! Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to scare the lady."
Xu Huaisong turned to hold her hand, reassuring her, but he had to press on. "If it's not too much trouble, could you tell me the exact date the suspect buried this arm?"
"Well... we can't really disclose case details..."
Xu Huaisong nodded. "Then just tell me—was it during the Dragon Boat Festival?"
The officer's eyes flickered with surprise. "How did you know, Lawyer Xu?"
Now even Ruan Yu forgot her fear and looked up in shock.
The Dragon Boat Festival—wasn't that the day Zhou Jun's incident happened?
Xu Huaisong grew serious. "I think... there might be a case that needs your team to reinvestigate."
By the time they left the scene, the sky had darkened slightly.
It took Ruan Yu a while to recover from the shock. She asked, "Could it really be connected to Zhou Jun's case?"
Xu Huaisong shook his head. "Not sure. But Zhang Jie and I did speculate before: if Zhou Jun wasn't the real culprit, then the evidence being cleaned up so thoroughly suggests the real culprit was likely a repeat offender. And a repeat offender committing another crime would likely be to cover up the previous one. At the time, we looked into criminal cases in Hangzhou around that period but found nothing that matched, so we dropped the theory."
And now, a criminal case from Shanghai had surfaced."You mean the victim might have been silenced because they accidentally discovered the killer burying a body?"
"Can't rule out that possibility."
"But the burial site and the crime scene are just on the same road, not the exact same spot."
"If the theory holds, it makes sense that after committing the murder, the killer hastily dealt with the scene and then hurriedly chose another spot to bury the body. If it were the same location, the police would’ve uncovered the truth during their investigation."
Ruan Yu nodded in agreement, but as the realization sank in, she shuddered and rubbed the goosebumps on her arms.
Xu Huaisong, one hand on the steering wheel, took her hand in his and wrapped it in his palm. "Don’t overthink it. Leave it to the police."
After driving out of the mountain road and arriving at the Ruan household, they were greeted warmly by Ruan's Father and Ruan's Mother. Both of them tacitly avoided mentioning the incident, but while eating hotpot, Ruan Yu still felt a lingering discomfort.
Qu Lan noticed her lack of appetite and frowned. "Yu, what’s wrong? Not hungry?"
She let out a soft "ah" and shook her head, not wanting to worry her parents about Zhou Jun’s case. "I had too much afternoon tea at Huaisong’s place. I’m still not very hungry."
Xu Huaisong knew she hadn’t eaten much that afternoon—the real reason lay in what they’d discussed earlier on the road.
He moved the two plates of bright red meat away from her and instead blanched some greens, placing them in her bowl.
Touched by his sharp yet thoughtful care, Ruan Yu blinked at him gratefully.
Ruan Chengru exchanged a glance with Qu Lan: Are these two hiding something from us?
Qu Lan: Seems like it…
Ruan Chengru began pondering while casually making small talk with Xu Huaisong, asking about his family, his parents’ health, and his sister’s academic performance.
By the time the round of chitchat ended, the dishes on the table remained largely untouched.
Qu Lan nudged Ruan Chengru. "Honestly, you’re so busy chatting with Huaisong that he hasn’t even had time to eat. Hurry up and cook some beef for him."
Ruan Chengru quickly complied, picking up the plate of meat to add to the pot.
Ruan Yu looked up at the sight and was reminded of the severed arm she’d seen earlier. Her stomach churned, and despite her efforts to suppress it, she turned her head and gagged slightly, covering her mouth.
Xu Huaisong immediately patted her back. "Do you need to go to the bathroom?" As he glanced up, he noticed Ruan Chengru and Qu Lan staring at him with wide, shocked eyes—their expressions stiff, bewildered, and accusatory.
He froze.
Ruan Yu, still feeling unwell, didn’t fully register her parents’ reaction and stood up. "Yeah, I’ll go for a bit."
Xu Huaisong snapped out of it, excused himself to the elders, and followed her into the bathroom, closing the door behind them.
Ruan Yu braced one hand against her stomach and the other on the sink, retching a few times without bringing anything up. She grimaced and whispered, "The sight of that raw red meat just made me think of…"
Xu Huaisong turned on the faucet to help her wash her face, sighing helplessly. "Your imagination really is…" He trailed off, then added, "Alright, I’ll finish all the meat when we go back so you won’t have to see it. Happy?"
Ruan Yu pouted and nodded. Then, as if recalling something, he asked, "But why were your parents looking at me like that earlier?"
"I didn’t notice. Like what?"
"Like…" He frowned, trying to recall. "Like ‘You beast, what have you done to our daughter?’"
The moment the words left his mouth, both of them realized.
Oh no.
Big misunderstanding.Author's Note: Xu Huaisong: Even when lying down, I still get hit by stray bullets...
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