You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 37 Part 2

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 37 Part 2

Ruan Yu’s choking voice reminded Xu Huaisong of something. The tone of his voice became a little stern: “In the future, if you have to cry over the phone, you better let me know what happened before crying.”

The touching feeling that Ruan Yu had felt instantly disappeared when she heard the tone of his voice.

Xu Huaisong continued in a serious manner: “You probably are crying over nothing but I might freak out so badly that my heart might stop beating.”

Ruan Yu didn’t know what to say but replied with an “oh”. Since she had gotten what she was looking for from him, she didn’t bother about the sternness in his voice. She said: “I know now. You better go back to the room to check on your father.”

Xu Huaisong stood beside a street light and took a look at the direction of the hospital wards: “It’s alright, the caregiver’s there. He’s basically stabilized right now. He’s sleeping now.”

“So you like to stand outside feeding the mosquitoes that much?”

“En. Since I pinched the one on your chin dead last time, I felt sorry about it and now I’m taking care of its fellow creatures.”

“......”

Ruan Yu laughed. With phone in hand, she walked away from the door, breathed out a long breath, and fell down on the bed.

Xu Huaisong heard a rustling sound on  the phone and asked: “What are you doing?”

“I’m tired. I’m going to lay down for a while.” She said with a sigh: “Actually I was very scared today. My feet were like jelly. I didn’t know beforehand that I had to climb up the aerial ladder……”

“You got on the aerial ladder?” Xu Huaisong sounded very surprised: “Aren’t you afraid of heights?”

It was Ruan Yu’s turn to feel surprised: “How do you know that?”

This was because on the day of the 40th anniversary of First High School, many students were assigned by the teachers to decorate the area where the celebration was going to be held. Since there was a lot of work to be done, the teachers assigned work randomly without consideration of whether the work was suitable for a girl or not. Ruan Yu had been assigned to hang ribbons on poles over the top of the window frames. She was looking all over the place trying to find someone willing to switch jobs with her since she was afraid of climbing heights.

Then he went to do the job for her.

By the time Ruan Yu had found someone to do her work, she saw the ribbons were already hanging high above the windows. She thought someone probably had mixed up their assignments.

Xu Huaisong was silent in the dark night for a long while. Finally, he looked up at the first quarter moon in the sky and said: “I’ll tell you after I come back.”

What’s this? So mysterious.

But Ruan Yu was too tired to get to the bottom of it. She changed positions on the bed and simply said the first thing that came to her head: “What do you think will happen to Zhou Jun? I went to take a statement at the police station this afternoon. I saw him being taken into the interrogation room and they didn’t come out for a long time.”

Xu Huaisong had learned about the case from the police already and said: “In the current situation, all the objective evidence points at him. His explanation is only a one-sided story. Even if he hadn’t killed her, it would be hard to prove him innocent.”

Ruan Yu almost choked but kept listening to him: “There are two possibilities for him to be cleared of any charges. First, other suspects surface before the trial and all the evidence pointing at him could be reasonably refuted. Second, he gets acquitted during the trial due to insufficient evidence.”

“Judging from the current situation, if there’s a real killer, he must be a very experienced hardened criminal. It would be hard to catch this person in a short period of time. So it’s very likely that he can only try the second approach for his defense.”

Ruan Yu: “En. You can’t defend him?”

“No.”

Not to mention that he hadn’t taken the national judicial exam yet, even if he had passed it and got his lawyer license, he wasn’t a criminal lawyer either. Zhou Jun needed a specialized criminal lawyer.

Xu Huaisong said: “I’ve already asked Liu Mao to arrange for a defense lawyer for him. I’ll discuss the case with them after I have taken care of things over here and go back to China.”

Xu Huaisong kept feeding the mosquitoes until 2 am before going back to his father’s hospital room.

Ruan Yu got up to cook dinner for her parents afterwards. Then she went to bed early but had nightmares the whole night. The next morning when her parents saw the dark circles under her eyes, they sent her back to the city.

Her parents’ home was close to the crime scene. Her parents figured that since Ruan Yu was easily frightened, she would probably keep having nightmares if she stayed at home with them.

Ruan Yu also felt that the location made her uncomfortable and she would feel better after getting back to the city.

What she didn’t expect was that once she was back in the city all by herself, she still didn’t feel comfortable, especially at night.

Shen Mingying happened to be out of town when Ruan Yu came back. Ruan Yu therefore went to the hotel to pick up the cat, Xu Pipi, to keep her company. For the following two nights, Ruan Yu relied on the cat’s company and Xu Huaisong’s online presence to just feel safe enough to fall asleep. 

Ruan Yu’s night time was Xu Huaisong’s day time. For two days straight, Xu Huaisong wasn’t able to do anything other than accompany Ruan Yu online. Occasionally he had to turn off the mic to take care of some business. When Ruan Yu woke up not hearing any sound on his side, she would immediately ask “why isn’t there any sound.” He had to turn the mic on again to explain to her and keep her company so she could fall back asleep.

He knew that she was a person with a sense of propriety and that she wouldn’t be this needy unless she was truly scared.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.