Chapter 52: The Key

After coming from the mall with a big bag, Yu Chu stood in front of a small store and stopped.

It was a tattoo store. Someone who had just gotten a tattoo had just left with a tiger’s head tattooed on their arm, it looked very powerful.

Xie XingMu pulled Yu Chu two times but didn’t pull hard as he asked, “What? You want a tattoo?”

Yu Chu looked at him askance, “What do you think of that man’s tiger head? A nice tattoo?”

Xie XingMu looked at his white face, he seemed a little speechless, and in a rare instance of non-compliance he only said, “If you want a tattoo, consider it for a few days before, so you won’t regret getting it.”

“I won’t regret it.” Yu Chu used force, pulling him into the same store.

Yu Chu was greeted by the tattoo artist and after asking if Yu Chu had an image in mind, Yu Chu pondered for a moment. Suddenly, he didn’t want a tiger’s head any longer and hesitated as he said, “I’ll let you decide, just pick one.”

Xie XingMu called the tattooist aside and whispered some instructions, the tattooist came back and asked Yu Chu, “If you’re not sure, how about putting it in a less obvious place? For example, the back waist.”

“Okay.”

“A tiger?”

“Okay, a tiger.”

Xie XingMu sat next to Yu Chu and stared sternly at the tattooist’s every move, causing him to sweat, while his assistant was on the sidelines not sweating.

“Does it hurt?” Xie XingMu leaned down and asked Yu Chu.

“No, just a little tingling feeling.” Yu Chu raised his face and asked Xie XingMu, “Do you want to get a tattoo too? The same as mine.”

Xie XingMu said, “My job doesn’t allow tattoos.” After saying that, he came to his ear and whispered, “It’s nice, a small tiger tattoo with a heart.”

When it was over, it was already dark outside, and Yu Chu was helped to sit up by Xie XingMu, showing a section of his white, strong and thin waist.

“Does it look good?” Yu Chu couldn’t see the back of his own waist, so he could only ask Xie XingMu.

Xie XingMu stared at his tattoo there, his breathing became heavy, the knot in his throat rolled up and down, as he spoke in a hoarse voice, “Very good-looking.”

Yu Chu rushed to look at the tattoo. The tattooist’s assistant took the mirror, but Xie XingMu stopped him, “Our daycare has called several times, we need to pick up our son. When you go home, you can look.”

Yu Chu then realized that it was almost eight o’clock in the evening, and didn’t care to look at his own tattoo, so he stood up and urged: “Go, go! We need to pick him up. “

They picked up Chi DuoDuo from Old Chen’s and found a restaurant to eat at. Chi DuoDuo had already eaten, so he drank juice on the side.

After eating, they went home, and Xie XingMu handed pajamas to Yu Chu, “Change clothes. These should be loose and won’t hurt your waist. “

Yu Chu changed into his pajamas, pulled up the loose cuffs and pants, and went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. Ten seconds later, from the bathroom, a cold voice sounded, “Xie XingMu, come here!”

Xie XingMu stood at the door of the bathroom, as Yu Chu looked at his back in the mirror, “Did you have the tattoo artist do this tiger tattoo?”

Xie XingMu glanced at him, “Yes, this tiger looks both fierce and beautiful. I think it’s better than the tiger’s head you wanted at the beginning.”

“You think I’m blind and can’t recognize whether this is a tiger or a cat?” Yu Chu’s voice was very soft and sounded dangerous, so Xie XingMu smartly closed his mouth.

In the mirror, on Yu Chu’s waist was that piece of white and tight skin, with a living and breathing kitten. Looking very cute and lovely, round eyes full of cunningness. Especially the cat’s tail, hanging down, along the undulating lines, extending to furrow along his buttocks.

In fact, Yu Chu knew that this tattoo was very beautiful, and set off by the surrounding skin, it was too stunning to describe, but he would never admit that he kinda liked it, so that Xie XingMu would feel bad.

“Say, did you ask the tattoo artist to put this tiger tattoo on?”

He looked askance at Xie XingMu, backhandedly pressed the two cat ears, and his fingers slowly followed that tail down… 

Xie XingMu’s eyes followed his fingers, “Maybe so.”

Yu Chu’s fingers played lightly on the tail, “You like this kind of tiger?”

“Like it very much.” Xie XingMu murmured.

Yu Chu raised his hand and beckoned him, his oversized pajamas fell down because of this, exposing half of his shoulders, “Come.”

Xie XingMu’s eyes became deep, he took a step across the bathroom and clicked the lock. The result was that just as he pulled Yu Chu into his arms, a hand pushed against his chest.

The palm of that hand also held a bottle of medicine.

“Then put on the medicine. If you like it, you can look twice.” Yu Chu came up to his ear and whispered.

Xie XingMu: … 

Although it was just medicine, this medicine took a long time and Chi DuoDuo was rubbing eyes as he knocked on the bedroom door, “Uncle, Xiao Chu, are you sleeping? Still not sleeping ah.”

Xie XingMu then mercifully let Yu Chu go, carried the person back to bed, and washed up Chi DuoDuo himself.

The place where Yu Chu learned to bake was some distance from home, Xie XingMu was too busy to pick him up, so he bought him a new car. Because the family already had a cross-country big G, this time, they bought a car, and chose a safe one with plenty of space, a good Volvo.

Yu Chu didn’t resist and accepted the new car openly.

In his perception, people gave things to others, but definitely not for free; they had to pay the same amount in return. In the past, even if he received a piece of bread from someone, he had to think carefully and accept it only after he could afford to return it. If the price was more than he could pay, he would reject it right away.

But Xie XingMu was different. Yu Chu didn’t have to think about giving back to him. As long as Xie XingMu wanted him to have it, he could have anything he wanted. Conversely, what Xie XingMu gave, he also openly accepted.

Xie XingMu didn’t care about this, he only thought of Yu Chu as his wife.

Shouldn’t the wife also care about money? Jokes, there were families where the wife was the money maker.

This day Yu Chu drove his Volvo home, and was jumped on as soon as he opened the door. He picked up Chi DuoDuo as he walked into the kitchen, where Xie XingMu was already cooking dinner.

“Back?” Xie XingMu heard the sound and turned his head, “Today I was quite free. Originally I wanted to pick you up but wanted to make the tofu fish you like and went to the vegetable market.”

Yu Chu put down Chi DuoDuo and walked into the kitchen, and from behind, wrapped his arms around Xie XingMu’s waist. Yu Chu put his face on Xie XingMu’s back and rolled from side to side, mouth muddled as he said, “Next time, you’re not allowed. “

Xie XingMu laughed, and his entire chest was filled with vibrations, “Yes, picking you up is important, no matter what, you come first.”

Yu Chu’s hand dishonestly touched the firm pectoral muscles, but Xie XingMu grabbed his hands, “Don’t mess around, do you still want to eat or not?”

“I want to eat you.” Yu Chu blew on the side of his neck, satisfied to see a layer of small bumps appearing behind his ear.

Xie XingMu gripped the spatula tightly, looked at Chi DouDOu sitting in front of the TV, gritted his teeth and whispered, “You must wait. You can come back tonight with even more profits.”

Yu Chu rubbed his chest hard before letting go, laughing and watching TV with Chi DuoDuo.

Xie XingMu suddenly remembered something and said, “By the way, Singwon Island has been cleaned up, and your former items are in the guestroom. Go see what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.”

“There shouldn’t be anything, right?” Yu Chu muttered, but still went to the guest room. There were two large cardboard boxes in the middle of the guest room floor, and Yu Chu looked through them, but they were just a few crafts he had made and a bunch of books.

The training class was off tomorrow, so he decided to clean up the pile the next day.

After dinner, Yu Chu did the main dishwashing, letting Xie XingMu rest. Xie XingMu stood right next to the cooking table, saying he was resting, but actually made the dishwasher more tired.

“The water on the side of the sink should be wiped all clean. Look, there are still water stains there… Kitchen knives can’t be just rinsed and put away, it will leave a smell… The vegetable plate is placed wrong, the left side is the raw food plate, the right side is the cooked food plate, don’t put it in the wrong place…”

Yu Chu threw the rag in his face several times, or used a wire ball to block his mouth, or held back. When he finished washing the dishes, Xie XingMu praisingly kissed him on the lips, “Baby is really good, the dishes are really clean.”

Yu Chu’s fire was instantly gone. He was washing his hands, Xie XingMu hesitated for a long time, suddenly said, “The trial will start tomorrow on Yu ShiQing’s case.”

Yu Chu continued without the slightest pause, faintly responding, “Oh.”

Xie XingMu glanced at his expression, his language also relaxed, so he was no longer as cautious, “Yu ShiQing hasn’t said a word since we took him into custody that day. I don’t know if tomorrow in court he will have a breakthrough. The court is worried about the condition of the road from the guards, so they’re looking for the Public Security Bureau to borrow people, and the personnel responsible for escorting them tomorrow. “

Yu Chu was silent for a moment, before saying, “Then you have to be careful.”

“Understood.”

In the middle of the night there was a rainstorm, the sound of crashing rain woke up Chi DuoDuo, so he knocked on the door of the master bedroom while rubbing his eyes, wanting to sleep with his uncle and Xiao Chu.

Xie XingMu put him next to himself, he crawled over again, to lie between the two. Yu Chu pinched Chi DuoDuo’s fingers, and listened to the sound of the rainstorm outside. It felt like they were in the middle of a rainstorm.

He realized that he had been sleeping in Xie XingMu’s arms all day, and there was Chi DuoDuo lying in the middle, so suddenly he wasn’t used to it.

A warm hand fell on his head, and Xie XingMu softly said, “Wait for him to fall asleep—”

“Why? Waiting for me to sleep and then bring me back to my room?” The seemingly sleeping Chi DuoDuo steeply opened his eyes, a face of indignant accusation.

Yu Chu hugged him tightly with amusement, “Sleep, sleep. I won’t carry you away.”

Chi DuoDuo closed his eyes and began to sleep.

The next day Xie XingMu left early, Yu Chu sent Chi DuoDuo to school, but because the training course wasn’t in session today, he sent Chi DuoDuo to his classroom and then drove home.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and there was a car accident in front of him, so Yu Chu’s car was stuck in traffic. He held the steering wheel frowning at the front, wipers scraping back and forth on the windows of the water, feeling a little irritated for no reason.

He simply turned on the car radio to listen to the local traffic conditions.

“…reporter is now on Red Maple Road, where the car has been blocked into a long line, estimated to be about two kilometers…”

“…The situation in Le Fu town isn’t optimistic either, this rainstorm has caused the road to collapse…”

The good thing was that there was only a small accident ahead, so it was quickly resolved, and Yu Chu drove back home. When he got home and watched TV for a while, he got up and cleaned up the two large cardboard boxes in the guest room.

The bookcase in the guest room was empty, so he simply took the rough little ceramic crafts and books and placed them in the bookcase one by one. After placing a few books, he saw a familiar notebook cover; it was the original’s diary. He had read it once and put it back in the bookcase, but this time it was brought back with him.

Yu Chu picked up the diary, and when he saw the original and Yu ShiQing, he couldn’t tell what he felt in his heart, so he opened a page.

2010.10.30

Today is Dad’s birthday, good people came to the island but I’m not allowed to leave my room. Dad and brother are standing together at the front door. Mom, sorry, I’m still happy in my heart, and handmade a birthday gift. I was only allowed to like him today… 

This should be the last entry by the original Yu Chu, because the back of the notebook was all blank. Yu Chu sat on the floor, reached out and took off the necklace around his neck, and looked at the cross pendant above with a complicated gaze.

This was the original’s birthday gift to Yu ShiQing, his own handmade wooden carving. It was made of two pieces of wood spliced together, although they were crooked, it looked quite solid.

Mom sorry, I’m still happy in my heart, and handmade a birthday gift. I was only allowed to like him today… 

Yu Chu stared at the pendant, mouth muttering the words of the diary.

Why did he say sorry? He gave this small gift, why would he say sorry? And did the act of not recording the diary again later indicate that he was avoiding it? Because his mother asked him to keep his diary, and he never touched it again because he was running away from it?

Something crossed his mind and he caught it instantly, stood up abruptly, and grabbed the necklace and went to the guest room. He looked for the toolbox in the storage room, used a screwdriver to align the slit where the cross was attached, and then struck the end of the screwdriver with a hammer. With the tip of the knife embedded, the gap of the cross widened a little, and finally broke into two halves.

A copper-yellow delicate key was lying quietly in one of the halves.

A lightning bolt struck outside the window.

Yu Chu walked around the room anxiously, calling Xie XingMu’s phone over and over again, but he couldn’t get through. He knew that Yu ShiQing was about to go to court, and he also knew the importance of the key, which would be an important physical evidence to pry open Yu ShiQing’s mouth.

He didn’t feel comfortable giving it to anyone but Xie XingMu.

It was nine o’clock in the morning, and Xie XingMu was going to send them from the guard, and they weren’t expected to arrive at the court yet.

Yu Chu put the key in his wallet, but he wasn’t satisfied, so he took the shirt pocket where he put the sticker, and then put the cross on the necklace back together and put it back on his neck.

He grabbed the car keys down to the garage, opened the cell phone navigation, drove his Volvo, as he rushed through the blanket of rain.

According to the navigation, the route from the caretaker to the Haiyun City Courthouse coincided with his, which meant that if he drove faster, he might still be able to catch up with Xie XingMu and get the key to him before the convoy reached the courthouse.

The road was clear of pedestrians and there were very few cars, so Yu Chu sped through the rain in his Volvo and was soon on the main road. After driving for half an hour, he reached a bridge before slowing down.The traffic on the bridge ahead was blocked again.

He tapped the steering wheel anxiously, staring at the front of a not a line of cars, and pressed the Bluetooth phone to dial Xie XingMu’s number.

Still not working.

SInce he was on a mission today, his phone was taken away.

Next to him was someone with a microphone, wearing a raincoat with a camera in front of them, shaking in insistence on live; they should be the local news reporter.

Yu Chu rolled the car window a slit, and the female reporter’s voice could be heard with the rain, together with the car engine.

“…everyone saw, the Red Maple Bridge was blocked. The reporter came all the way over the…  wait, they saw that there were several other guards and court cars also trapped inside. I wonder if it will affect their official business…”

When Yu Chu heard that, he opened the door and jumped out of the car, running forward along the right side of the bridge sidewalk.

The rain poured down on his face and soon soaked him through, but thankfully, after only a few hundred meters, he saw the escort vehicles in the convoy.

Knock, knock, knock.

He knocked anxiously on the window of one of them.

The window was rolled down and a heavily armed bailiff cautiously asked, “Who are you? What’s the matter?”

“Is Xie XingMu here? There’s an urgent matter I need to find him for.” Yu Chu asked directly.

The bailiff returned guardedly, “No.”

After saying that, he rolled up the car window.

Yu Chu didn’t ask any more questions, nor did he knock on the windows of the other cars, because if Xie XingMu was here, he would have realized what was wrong when he saw him and wouldn’t have stayed in his car. He went back to his car, fully wet and got into the car, closing the door when the voice of the female reporter, who was still on the air, came into his ears again.

“Sir, is this a detour for you?”

The driver replied, “Yes, the Red Maple Bridge isn’t blocked? There’s an urgent matter, so take the old road instead.”

“Is that old road good?”

“Not sure. I saw a few court cars on the old road, so it should be available.”

Yu Chu looked from the car window, saw a not wide concrete turnoff on the left, not far from the entrance to park a car, where the driver was being interviewed. He immediately drove the vehicle, turned off the bridge and drove onto that concrete road. This road had very little vehicle traffic, gaps were born from a tangle of grass, but the good thing was that the road was still flat, so the car could go forward without problem.

The rain was scraped away by the wipers, gurgling down the sides of the windshield, Yu Chu firmly grip the steering wheel, filled with unexplained irritation and panic. He couldn’t say what this panic was because of, but it just made him feel lost, his heart seemed to be hanging in mid-air.

“Five hundred meters ahead turn right to reach Lijiawan stone bridge. The road is slippery in the rain, please pay attention to safety.” The soft female voice of navigation rang out in the car.

Yu Chu’s left hand was on the steering wheel, while his right hand clicked on the Bluetooth, as he tried to connect again to Xie XingMu’s cell phone, but just as he put his finger on it, a shocking boom came from ahead. Like a mountain collapsing and crumbling rocks, even made the car shake, the car windows sending buzzing echoes.

He suddenly had a bad guess in his heart, so he felt cold all over. His heart that had been hanging in the air fell straight to the abyss, and his hands trembling almost made it impossible for him to hold the steering wheel.

He only came back to his senses when the sedan rushed to the edge of the road, violently turning the steering wheel. And then with deep throttle, the Volvo made a beautiful drift tail, the engine suddenly roared as it rushed to the front.