Chapter 46

Chapter 46 4. The Game-01

Nearly a month had passed since the kidnapping and ransom murder of Liu Yang’s only son, Liu Lingxiao. The arguments had long since run their course, and the online headlines had been swept away by other trending topics. Before there were any new developments in the case, this incident had already lost its freshness in the minds of netizens and long since faded from heated discussion.

With the Lunar New Year approaching, the pre-holiday travel rush had already begun. Many people had saved their annual leave for this period to secure a long, easy trip home.

Over the past week, the entire Legal Research Institute had been restless. Departments were busy arranging New Year duty schedules, swapping shifts, and booking round-trip train or flight tickets in advance.

Liu Yi had already returned to his parents’ home for Christmas, so he didn’t plan to travel again during the Spring Festival. Being a lonely, unattached man with no one to share New Year’s Eve dinner with, he took on most of the holiday duty himself, thinking, “I’ll work hard for everyone else’s benefit.”

That night, Liu Yi woke again in the middle of the night.

Recently, although he no longer repeatedly dreamed of the bloodied little boy pleading for help, his irregular schedule seemed to have completely disrupted his biological clock. His sleep had become shallow, and he often experienced illogical dreams. After waking from these dreams, he found it hard to fall asleep again, dragging the process until dawn and leaving him exhausted the next day.

Caught in this vicious cycle… Liu Yi reached out in the dark to touch his face. Whether it was psychological or not, he felt as if his skin had deteriorated during this period.

Resigned to being unable to sleep, Liu Yi climbed out of bed, donned a thick winter coat, slid open the balcony door connected to his master bedroom, and stood in the January cold, lighting a cigarette and smoking it slowly.

When the cigarette burned out, he stubbed it in the flowerbed, rubbed his frozen fingers, and gazed into the distance.

His rented apartment was on the top floor of a thirty-two-story high-end single-residence building—though labeled “single,” the apartment was over 150 square meters, luxurious enough for one person.

In this most expensive central city district, both residential and office buildings around him were tall. Even at 2:30 a.m., many windows still shone with light.

From Liu Yi’s perspective, the night view didn’t feel lonely, but in such quiet hours, it was especially easy to feel the restlessness of sleepless nights.

Liu Yi wasn’t much of a smoker, but unusually, he shook out another cigarette from the pack, hesitated briefly without lighting it, and held it between his teeth. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed his friend Xue Haofan.

“…Hello?”

The sixth ring was answered by Xue Haofan’s hoarse voice, still not fully awake.

“You bastard, calling me at this hour, what the hell do you want?”

Without letting Liu Yi speak, Xue Haofan’s impatient voice continued:

“I wrote until 1:30 a.m. before lying down, not even an hour of sleep! So either you’re calling with a big case scoop, or you plan to come over and sleep with me. Choose one!”

“Unfortunately, neither.”

Liu Yi removed the unlit cigarette from his mouth with his free hand. “I just can’t sleep, wanted to chat with someone, kill some time.”

“F*ck!”

A short, sharp curse came through the line, then the call abruptly ended, leaving only a stream of electronic noise.

Shrugging, Liu Yi quickly dialed another number.

This time, the call was answered quickly. A man’s voice, similar in tone to Liu Yi’s but slightly deeper and tinged with amusement, came through: “Xiao Yi, what’s up? Missing your big brother?”

“Yes, I do.”

When speaking with someone close, Liu Yi’s tone always softened. “How’s the baby? Let me talk to him.”

“Oh, so you’re not missing me, you’re missing your little nephew!”

Liu Yi’s eldest brother understood his youngest sibling well. Being the youngest, Liu Yi had always been especially charming and well-loved, fostering a strong bond with his family.

Accounting for the time difference between countries, it was nearly 3 a.m. in China. Calling his brother in England just to chat with his two-year-old nephew clearly meant something was on Liu Yi’s mind that he didn’t want to show weakness to anyone else, seeking comfort through family conversation.

Eldest Brother didn’t ask more, just teased lightly, then handed the phone to his son.

Hearing it was his favorite uncle, the baby immediately beamed, speaking in both languages, chirping and chatting with Liu Yi for a good half hour, until the father could no longer watch and ended the call.

After speaking with his nephew, Liu Yi felt refreshed, all the frustration swept away.

He finished the unlit cigarette on the balcony, wrapped his coat tightly, returned indoors, shivering under the blanket, grateful it was a weekend with no work, planning to catch some more sleep.

Yet before closing his eyes, on a whim, he grabbed his phone and sent Qi Shanyu a message on WeChat.

“What are you doing?”

The message was idle; at this late hour, unless on duty, Qi Shanyu could only be sleeping.

Liu Yi didn’t intend to wait for a reply and didn’t realize that this behavior might be seen by the general public as “flirting.”

Yet Qi Shanyu replied almost immediately.

“I’m on duty, anything?”

Liu Yi saw the six characters plus punctuation on the screen and couldn’t help smiling.

He knew Qi Shanyu’s duty rules required officers to stay at the station, though they could sleep in the duty room at night, staying ready to answer calls.

Apparently, Qi Shanyu, like Liu Yi, was awake, having seen the message and replied immediately.

“Nothing, can’t sleep, wanted to talk to someone.”

Liu Yi curled under the blanket, sending this shameless message.

Seconds later, the reply came: “Then what do you want to talk about?”

Liu Yi chuckled holding the phone, amused imagining Qi Shanyu’s conflicted but diligent expression while typing.

“Oh, I still owe you that scarf. Haven’t given it to you yet.”

Glancing at the phone’s timestamp—03:34 a.m.—he quickly added: “Shall I bring it to you now?”

Qi Shanyu replied quickly with a long string of ellipses: “……………………”

A few seconds later, as if feeling the reply rude, he cautiously sent: “Not very convenient now, is it?”

Liu Yi moved the phone to his lips, sending a voice message: “Fine, I’ll wait until morning to bring it to your station.”

This seemed to startle Qi Shanyu; the reply came quickly: “Don’t come!”

Before Liu Yi could type another teasing message, Qi Shanyu sent another voice message.

Liu Yi tapped the screen, hearing Qi Shanyu’s clear voice say, in a consulting tone:

“I hand over duty at 8 a.m., free in the afternoon… maybe then, okay?”