Chapter 33

Chapter 33

“Use saliva. It’s free, cheap, and most importantly, it works.”

Wang Xiao suddenly sat up straight from his chair. While Wu Xiaojiu was reaching for something, he grabbed him by the hand.

Then he lowered his head, showing him the wound that had already stopped bleeding.

He tapped it with a finger.

“Look. When he hit me, he really put his back into it. The skin split open here and bled. Back then, there wasn’t any alcohol or iodine around to disinfect it or stop the bleeding, so I used a folk remedy and replaced it with saliva. See? I’m perfectly fine.”

To be honest, the wound was pretty deep. It ran straight from his brow bone to beneath his eye.

The scar twisted across his face, frightening whether viewed up close or from a distance. If it weren’t for Wang Xiao’s face, this would basically count as disfigurement.

“Let me see. Oh wow, it really is. But this cut is too deep. If you used saliva, it feels like a scar is definitely going to-”

“It’s fine. If it scars, it scars. What kind of man doesn’t have scars? What I mean is, the wound hurts a little again, but using my own spit is too disgusting.

“Wu Xiaojiu, why don’t you kiss it better for me?”

Wu Xiaojiu hadn’t even finished speaking before Wang Xiao cut him off in a rush.

One of Wang Xiao’s hands clamped around his neck. He lifted his eyes, forcing Wu Xiaojiu to meet his gaze.

Hearing the lingering, coaxing note at the end of his voice, Wu Xiaojiu felt his heart sink.

This bastard Wang Xiao was acting a little like he was in heat.

“That suggestion is disgusting. Rejected. Tonight, you sleep on the bench. I sleep in the bed.”

Dropping that line, Wu Xiaojiu turned over and climbed into bed.

No one said another word all night.

Except, throughout the night, he could always hear the sound of someone shifting and rubbing around beside him.

Various parts of his body would itch every now and then too. By the time he slept until around two or three in the morning, Wu Xiaojiu was so irritated by the noise that he finally couldn’t stand it anymore.

His eyelids were fighting each other as he cracked his eyes open a sliver.

In the darkness, he saw a figure standing rigidly at the foot of the bed. A pair of eyes shone in the dark with terrifying brightness.

They stared at him without blinking.

No words, no movement. Just pure staring.

Wu Xiaojiu was startled at first, but quickly calmed down. He narrowed his eyes even further, gathered every bit of focus he had, and frowned as he looked toward the person at the foot of the bed.

He muttered inwardly.

Who is that? Sneaking into his hotel room in the middle of the night instead of sleeping. Did they not know there was a cop in the room?

But once he finally saw the person’s face clearly, Wu Xiaojiu was a little dumbfounded. It wasn’t anyone else.

It was Wang Xiao, who had originally been sleeping perfectly fine on the chair. Who knew what had gotten into this bastard?

He was standing at the foot of the bed, staring at him for a full three hours.

“Why aren’t you sleeping? What are you doing here?”

Once Wu Xiaojiu saw who it was and knew there was no danger, he immediately sat up and threw off the blanket.

He pointed at Wang Xiao’s nose, ready to start cursing.

“Looking at you for a while. You’re pretty cute when you sleep.”

Wang Xiao rubbed his nose first, then turned and walked toward the bathroom.

“Fucking pervert.”

The other man had already left. What else could he do? Wu Xiaojiu could only curse to vent his anger, then turn back and burrow into the blanket.

The bathroom door shut with a bang.

Wang Xiao quietly curled up in the corner. His whole body began to tremble gradually from excitement, and he pressed the freshly dampened towel tightly over his mouth and nose.

The damp smell. The dark surroundings.

This was the place best suited to breeding a disease like Wang Xiao. Those days abroad, forcing smiles every day, had left him sickly and listless.

But now, Wang Xiao felt as if he had been reborn. Even his soul felt like it had shot straight to heaven.

It felt so good.

Too good.

The thought that he had spent the entire night watching Wu Xiaojiu, observing the sleeping positions he liked best, the little habits he had while asleep… and so on.
Wang Xiao was happy. His whole body felt indescribably light and free.

That felt amazing.

Those were the only three words left in his head.

…

Early the next morning.

The two of them drove toward the Police Station.

Along the way, Wang Xiao’s phone kept ringing, and it was always the same number. Whenever he answered, he usually had to get out of the car to take the call.

Judging from his movements and the way he gestured at Wu Xiaojiu, the conversation seemed pretty heated.

When Wang Xiao got out for the fifth time to answer that call, Wu Xiaojiu finally could not hold back and asked, “Who is it? Why are they calling so urgently? Don’t tell me you owe loan sharks money somewhere.”

Wang Xiao patted the roof of his car, switched the phone to his other hand, and held the number out for Wu Xiaojiu to take a closer look.

“The local administrator’s number. Did something happen to those two from yesterday?”

“No. Remember that head that appeared out of nowhere? The Liu Family dug up the body and ran another DNA test. Seems like there’s news. Since the case has a bit to do with me, the higher-ups told me to come over.”

Wu Xiaojiu nodded.

Truthfully, he had always been curious about that head that had come out of nowhere.

Now that the truth seemed close to coming to light, he naturally wanted to go along and see what was going on.

“Then let’s go. I’m pretty curious where that head came from too. You don’t think the people who claimed the reward got blinded by money, dug up someone else’s grave, chopped off the head, and brought it in, do you?”

Wang Xiao nodded with a tense expression, hung up, and got back into the car.

“Don’t say that. It’s actually possible. Wasn’t there a case like that a few years ago?”

They chatted all the way back.

When they got out of the car, someone from the local Police Station came out to greet them.

The moment he saw Wang Xiao, his face bloomed with smiles. He patted Wang Xiao on the lower back and kept ushering him inside.

“You actually came in person? The DNA comparison is back. It really doesn’t belong to the original Headless Corpse. It’s someone surnamed Li. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, we don’t know, but it’s the same surname as those two who came to claim the reward last time.”

The local administrator’s enthusiasm made Wu Xiaojiu feel a little unused to it.

After he sat down in the Police Station, not only did no one question his identity, even the cleaner brought him a fruit plate and then poured him water.

Wang Xiao nodded at several officers.

Then he gave a soft hiss.

“Did you keep the reward claimants’ IDs and phone numbers?”

“We did, but when we called, the number was disconnected. We can’t even confirm whether their names were real.”

“Then pull the surveillance footage. Get clear images of those two, post notices across the whole village and county, and offer two thousand yuan to anyone who finds them. The Police Station doesn’t need to pay for it. I’ll cover that little bit myself.”

“Of course, of course. Detective Wang is generous as ever, and efficient too.”

Here in this local Police Station, Wang Xiao did not look like an ordinary detective. If anything, he seemed rather familiar with everyone.

He only had to stand there, and everyone who saw him smiled. Wu Xiaojiu had never seen that kind of treatment back in the city.

“Why are they so nice to you? Wang Xiao, do you have some side income behind the scenes? You’re just an ordinary detective. There’s no reason for them to treat you like this.”

Wang Xiao did not answer. He only smiled at him.

Then he plopped down onto a nearby chair and began peeling a tangerine like some old master.

“Don’t worry about it. In any case, what I do in private isn’t anything bad. Besides, weren’t you asking me how to prove Bo Suihan has been hurting the Wu Family behind their backs?”

“Here. There’s news.”