dead innocent

Jiaji hurried back to the police station, and rushed upstairs, Chu Xingyun pushed open the office door, and just wanted to lift his foot to go in, and suddenly stood at the door and stopped.

He Cheng was fine, he was sitting on the sofa perfectly, with his arms resting on his legs, his hands clasped against his chin, and he was looking down at the wet ground in a daze.It's just that his face is not very good-looking, it's white and somewhat gloomy, and the windbreaker on his body is soaked with water for some reason, and it's dripping wet.

"what happened?"

He walked in and asked.

Yang Kaitai was sweeping the floor with a broom, and when he saw him coming back, he said, "Just now I heard movement in the office, so I opened the door and looked, only to see that the fish tank was broken, and Mr. He was lying on the ground, unresponsive."

His attention was all on He Cheng, and he didn't even pay attention to the water and broken glass all over the floor. After Yang Kaitai said this, he realized that the fish tank next to the data cabinet on the opposite side of He Cheng had cracked somehow. , as if someone smashed it with a hammer, the four sides of the glass were broken on three sides, and the water inside flowed out all over the floor.

Chu Xingyun walked up to He Cheng, squatted on the ground and grabbed his hand: "What's wrong with you? Why did you faint?"

He Cheng's expression was very strange, when he saw him asking, he frowned and wanted to hide, his eyes were flickering, he turned his head slightly to avoid his gaze, and said in a fluffy and tired tone, "I don't know."

Chu Xingyun frowned and looked at him for a moment, then turned around and said to Yang Kaitai who was sweeping the floor: "Sanyang, you go out first."

Yang Kaitai responded, leaned the sweeper on the coffee table, and walked out quickly, not forgetting to close the door for them.

After Yang Kaitai left, there were only the two of them left in the office, and the office was very quiet, except for a few fish temporarily living in the paper cup, which had trouble moving in the small territory, and the sound of head and tail hitting the cup wall.

He Cheng seemed to be very sensitive and repulsed by this kind of sound. When he heard the fish struggling in the paper cup, his face turned pale again, and he frowned tightly, revealing a bit of pain. He suppressed his trembling breath and said, "Brother Xingyun , take them away."

When he said "Brother Xingyun", it was too late for Chu Xingyun to go through fire and water, let alone pick up a few fish.

Without asking why, Chu Xingyun picked up the paper cup and opened the office door, shouting: "Sanyang!"

After handing the fish to Yang Kaitai, he closed the door and turned around to look, his heart twitched suddenly.

He Cheng stood on the water-stained ground, looked around blankly with his head down, as if he was anxiously looking for an exit, but he couldn't find it.It seemed that what trapped him in place was not a layer of stagnant water that gradually disappeared from the soles of his shoes, but a boundless ocean.

The panic, confusion, and bewilderment on his face were exactly the same as when he was a child.

Chu Xingyun walked over and grabbed his hand, brought him out of the stagnant water on the ground, brought him to the leather chair behind the desk, pressed his shoulder to let him sit down, and then leaned against the table and asked: "Do you want to talk to me?"

He Cheng's complexion turned slightly better, as if he was gradually waking up from a chaotic dream, and only then did he recognize who the person in front of him was. He stared at his face for a long time, and finally closed his eyes and let out a long sigh of relief, saying: : "I remembered."

Chu Xingyun's throat was blocked, and he suddenly became nervous, and he took a deep breath before asking: "What do you think of?"

"The sound I heard in the banquet hall was not the sound of the crystal ball falling to the ground."

"What is it?"

He Cheng slowly raised his eyes to look at him, and the eyes started to flicker again, like the surface of water being blown by the wind, he said, "It's the sound of people falling into the water."

puff-

It was the sound of falling water.

When did Chu Xingyun raise fish?This fish tank was just a dusty decoration when he came last time.

Being locked in the office by him, He Cheng was not anxious, nor was he in a hurry to go out, because what Chu Xingyun said was true, as long as he dared to go out, he would not get a certificate from him.In order not to let him find an excuse to backtrack, He Cheng sat down on the leather chair behind his desk in a fit of anger, picked up several newspapers placed at the corner of his desk, and read them one by one. After finishing several newspapers, suddenly Feeling thirsty, he picked up the black thermos cup Chu Xingyun put on the table and walked to the water dispenser to get water.Only then did I notice that the fish tank next to the water dispenser started working at some point. Several fish were swimming in it, and there were coral plants at the bottom of the tank, which were very beautifully dressed.

Although he doesn't like water and hates all aquatic animals, he would rather read fish than read newspapers.

He stood in front of the fish tank with a thermos, watching the fish swirling in the water.One of them is particularly beautiful, with a more colorful tail and a more vigorous figure swimming in the water.

His eyes followed the fish swimming slowly in the water, his eyes became more and more focused and deeper, and unconsciously, he put all his attention on the fish in the water.Gradually, he could almost feel the rhythm of the fish breathing through its gills, and the tingling sensation of the cold water covering its never-closed eyes...

Guppy seemed to realize that he was being stared at for a long time, and his active figure suddenly stopped, swinging ninety degrees to the left, facing He Cheng who was standing outside the bathtub.

Looking at it, He Cheng suddenly felt chills all over his body, as if he had been thrown into the water and turned into a fish in the water.At this moment, the fish in the bathtub looking at him is him, they are all trapped in the water, looking at the other self...

Suddenly, there was a strange sound from the fish tank, the water surface kept vibrating, and there were layers of ripples. The guppies swam back and forth as if they were frightened. The arc, followed by a 'plop', fell to the bottom of the water again.

"boom!"

The fish tank was broken, and the broken glass splashed on him. Several fish leaked out of the broken glass along with the water, and the water overflowed the ground.

He Cheng wanted to back up, to avoid the fish that was struggling and jumping on the ground out of the water, but his vision darkened and he fell down.

He didn't lose consciousness, the door of the office was opened, he could hear Yang Kaitai calling his name, but he couldn't react, as if his soul had left his body and wandered around somewhere.He clearly sensed that Yang Kaitai was trying to drag him up from the ground, and he also intended to cooperate, but he couldn't control his body until more than ten minutes later, he felt familiar with the weightlessness of falling from a high place into the water and the suffocation of being submerged in water. Feeling poured into his body along with his wandering soul for a long time, and he woke up.It was like... a dream.

Chu Xingyun stretched out his hand to support the back of the chair, bent over and approached him, and asked hoarsely, "What is the sound of someone falling into the water?"

He Cheng lowered his eyes, his pale lips trembling slightly, said, "A child."

He said the answer he was least willing to hear. Although he had expected it, Chu Xingyun was still stunned for a moment, then forced himself to remain gentle and calm, and wiped off the cold and greasy film oozing from He Cheng's forehead Khan asked again: "Who? Is it you?"

The sound of a child falling into the water, who could it be? Why did 'he' fall into the water?Is it He Cheng?Is that why He Cheng hates water, or even fears water?

He Cheng shook his head, closed his eyes as if he was extremely tired, and said, "I don't know."

As he said that, he paused for a moment, then quietly opened his eyes and looked at Chu Xingyun and said, "But I know where to find the answer."

"where?"

"Hall No. [-], Heping Avenue."

Jiang Ma went back to her hometown to visit relatives, and Hall No. [-] was empty inside and out, and the courtyard had already been planted with seasonal flowers and trees, so the courtyard was still fragrant and beautiful, and its charm remained undiminished.

Chu Xingyun opened the wrought iron gate with the door card that was always in his hand, and walked into the courtyard where they lived for many years with He Cheng.

Back here today, Chu Xingyun's heart is very heavy and complicated.The house he once thought he was familiar with may hide some unknown secrets, which have been forgotten in the deep corner of time along with the past.Now they come back here to find the truth, and the witness of the truth may be this house.

But 'it' can't tell them anything, 'it' is like an old man with a long bell, as tolerant as the sea, and as deep as the sea.It has witnessed everything that has happened in this house, all the good and bad, it knows it all, and digests all the sorrows and joys of all people.

He followed his aunt's anxiety and fear when he first arrived here, He Cheng's anger and hesitation when he came back here after being rescued, his sadness and reluctance when he packed his bags and left here with the admission notice, when He Cheng took over Swan City and moved away from here helplessness and nostalgia.

The last person sent away by this house was He Cheng. After He Cheng left, the house was empty.

Suddenly, Chu Xingyun seemed to understand, when He Cheng confessed to him, why he said that if he couldn't wait for him, he would move back here, drive everyone out, and guard the house for the rest of his life.

Hearing it at first was only his childish crazy talk, Chu Xingyun never thought about it deeply, and now he came back here again, he understood.The pain and happiness he brought to He Cheng, and the pain and happiness that He Cheng brought to him, all happened in this house and plunged into the center of the earth along with the foundation.For He Cheng, this house is no longer a simple residence, 'it' is more like a witness, witnessing the process of their reunion, separation, reunion after separation, and finally no separation.

He Cheng is like this house, which used to welcome him, then watched him go, then accepted his return, and now stays with him forever.

He Cheng's arms were always open to him, never closed.

I haven't been so "sentimental" for a long time, and I suddenly feel a lot of emotion.Chu Xingyun looked at the red wall and white tiles in front of him in a daze for a while, and waited for a gust of autumn wind to blow the rich fragrance of flowers on his face, penetrated into his nasal cavity, made him feel uncomfortable and sneezed, and then he came back to his senses.

He turned back to look for He Cheng, and saw He Cheng standing by the flowerbed on the left side of the yard, with his hands in the pockets of his windbreaker, his hair and the hem of his windbreaker fluttering in the aimless autumn wind.The background is a bright and beautiful rose field, shining in the sun.

He walked lightly to He Cheng's side, and asked softly as if afraid of disturbing him: "What are you looking at?"

He Cheng's quiet eyes fell on the most luxuriant plants among the rose flowers, and said, "There, there was a yellow swing before, I've seen it before."

What he was talking about should be his childhood memory, and it happened before his arrival. He didn't participate in He Cheng's memory during that time, so he didn't have the right to speak, but asked, "When?"

"A long time ago."

He Cheng seemed to only regard him as a listener, and didn't intend to ask him to help find out the answer. When he narrated these past events, his tone of understatement seemed to be talking to him with some irrelevant homely words.

Chu Xingyun was about to ask carefully, and saw him turn around and walk in front of him, and went to the other side.

When he first arrived many years ago, the first thing he was amazed at was the swimming pool with clear water in front of the verandah on the east side of the courtyard.

He followed He Cheng to the pool, looked down at their figures thrown into the water, distorted by the swaying ripples.

In his memory, He Cheng has never swum in this swimming pool, and he has never even been close to this swimming pool.He knew from the adults in his family that He Cheng was afraid of water, but he never got to the bottom of it. Now it seems that the reason for He Cheng's fear of water may be in this swimming pool.

The sound of a child falling into the water.

If the child is He Cheng, then 'water' is the swimming pool in front of you.

"...Brother Xingyun, do you have paper?"

Maybe He Cheng himself didn't realize it, but whenever he was helpless and in urgent need of some help and support, he would be extremely dependent on Chu Xingyun, calling him 'Brother Xingyun' just like when he was a child.

Chu Xingyun took a deep look at him, turned out a page of A4 paper that was torn from the document in the jacket coat, and handed it to him.

He Cheng took the paper, held it in his hand, lowered his head and thought about it for a while, then folded the white paper in half with a stiff and unfamiliar hand, then unwrapped it again, folded it in half again, and unwrapped it again. Xingyun took it away.

"What do you want to fold?"

Chu Xingyun asked.

He Cheng was inexplicably relieved, and said, "Paper boat."

Chu Xingyun was smoothing out the paper marks he folded. Hearing the words, his hands paused for a moment, and without saying anything, he began to fold the paper boat.Within a minute, he returned a paper boat to He Cheng.

He Cheng held the paper boat, looked at it calmly for a while, then squatted down, and placed the paper boat on the water surface of the swimming pool. The paper boat was quickly blown away by the wind, like a boat floating on the sea. Gufan.

Chu Xingyun didn't know the significance of what he did, and he didn't worry about asking questions. He just watched the boat on the water of the pool with him for a while, and helped him when he stood up.

"Shall we go and see the house?"

Chu Xingyun asked.

He Cheng looked at the surface of the water as if he hadn't heard it, and was stunned for a while, then turned around and raised his head to look at the house standing in the sun.

Chu Xingyun waited for a while, saw that he was just looking at the house in a daze, and did not urge him, and planned to go to the house by himself.Just as he was about to leave the swimming pool, He Cheng suddenly closed his eyes, as if being pushed hard by someone, he lost his center of gravity under his feet, and his body fell straight back...

With a plop, he fell into the swimming pool.

He Cheng's falling into the water only happened in an instant, it happened so suddenly, Chu Xingyun didn't have time to react and watched him fall into the water, waves appeared on the surface of the pool, pushing the paper boat on the water farther.

"He Cheng?!"

He Cheng didn't lose consciousness, he was very awake. He lay on the bottom of the swimming pool with his arms open and relaxed, his body slowly heaving up and down with the buoyancy of the water.He heard Chu Xingyun calling him, so he opened his eyes and looked up, and saw Chu Xingyun standing by the pool, disturbed by the constantly shaking water patterns...

He frowned slightly, and suddenly couldn't tell whether it was him or Chu Xingyun who was in the water, or both of them were in the water, and Chu Xingyun was trapped in a deeper water prison.

As if he was saving him, or asking him for help, He Cheng raised his arm to him in the water and stretched out his hand.

There was another sound of falling into the water, Chu Xingyun jumped into the water, parted the water and swooped down to the bottom of the pool, grabbed He Cheng's hand and pulled him up, then hugged his waist and rushed out of the water.

The two went ashore one after the other, Chu Xingyun was like a water ghost crawling out of the sea, drenched all over, and the cold was threatening, he squatted by the pool and pinched He Cheng's chin vigorously, roaring angrily : "What the hell are you trying to do?!"

He Cheng was wronged, he didn't want to do anything dangerous, he just wanted to use himself to do an experiment to see if the protagonist in the 'dream' was his own experiment.

"I……"

He wanted to talk, but Chu Xingyun really annoyed him this time, the force he put down was so strong that he hugged his chin tightly, almost crushing his jawbone, so that he couldn't help but feel the pain after he said a word frowned.

He Cheng slowed down before saying, "I'm just looking for a feeling."

Chu Xingyun's eyes were red, but he still didn't exert any effort in his hands, as if He Cheng would fly away if he relaxed a little.

"What do you feel?"

He Cheng raised his water-stained eyes to look at him, as if the test of the water just now had exhausted his whole body strength, he said weakly: "Look for the feeling of weightlessness and suffocation in the dream."

Chu Xingyun was stunned, and gradually withdrew his strength from his hands, and his voice softened unconsciously: "Found it?"

He Cheng lowered his head and gave a wry smile, sitting by the pool and looking at his legs still submerged in the water, said: "Unfortunately, I found it."

Chu Xingyun stared at him for a while with a complex expression, then stood up and stretched out his hand to him: "Get up, go in and take a shower and change your clothes."

He Cheng held his hand and stood up. Both of their hands were cold, but He Cheng seemed to be absorbing the warmth from his hand, unwilling to let go of his hand.

Chu Xingyun had no choice but to grab his hand and lead him to the house, but stopped suddenly in front of the door.

"what happened?"

Seeing that he stopped suddenly, He Cheng asked.

Chu Xingyun turned his head, his eyes quickly swept across the wide-open wrought iron gate, and confirmed the existence of the black vehicle parked opposite the gate that he glimpsed just now.

A car was no surprise, but that car was a black Haval, and the wipers on the windshield were still wiggling back and forth.

Chu Xingyun's eye folds trembled slightly, and suddenly he felt colder, and every pore in his body was permeated with cold air. He was so cold that he unconsciously clenched his fists, and the cracks in his bones were rattling.

"You go in first, I don't tell you not to come out."

After finishing speaking, he didn't give He Cheng any chance to ask, he took out his wet mobile phone from his trousers pocket and pressed it to his ear a few times, pretending to be on a call, and casually walked towards the door.