Return: My Hell and Heaven
Chapter 45: Suspicions
Luan Qiaoqing was overly frightened that she suddenly straightened up and banged the back of her head hard against the top of the car. She covered her head in pain and stepped back.
Whether it was the force of the hit or that one sentence that left her stunned, Luan Qiaoqing felt her head buzzing, as if hundreds of bees were circling around her. She pinched the back of her hand.
It hurt, so it wasn’t a dream.
The drunk person was the one lying inside, not her, so it should also not be an illusion or auditory hallucination.
That means the person inside who looked like Song Shu really called her “Qiaoqiao.”
Luan Qiaoqing swallowed. An unbelievable thought flitted through her mind in that moment—although rationality told her it was impossible, the thought just wouldn’t disperse, and began to linger in her mind.
Qin Qing… She…?
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“Ckd Ckdt kp kdpkel?”
Nwyd Ckysikdt’p lmralppksd oyp nsxrzknyvle. “Zlp, cwv—”
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Compared to the woman she usually saw in the company, always wearing a gentle smile that seemed as fake as a mask, this “Qin Qing” seemed so familiar to Luan Qiaoqing.
Coming to her senses, Luan Qiaoqing shook her head vigorously—
She must be going insane! She had personally seen Song Shu remove the ventilator, watched the doctor declare the time of death, even seen the person sent to the crematorium…
How could Qin Qing possibly be that person!?
When Qin Lou straightened up with Song Shu in his arms, he saw Luan Qiaoqing’s face full of doubts, confusion, and disorder.
Luan Qiaoqing’s emotions and thoughts were always written all over her face.
Qin Lou frowned, feeling a hint of unease as he glanced at the sleeping Song Shu in his arms: It was the first time Little Clam got drunk. She didn’t have a habit of talking in her sleep, did she?
“…I’ll take her home. You should go back.” Qin Lou decided to wait until Song Shu was sober tomorrow. He picked up Song Shu and prepared to leave.
Without thinking, Luan Qiaoqing blurted out, “I’ll go with you—”
“Go with me where?”
Qin Lou stopped in his tracks, his eyes darkening as he turned to look at her.
Luan Qiaoqing was taken aback.
Sending one person, especially a woman weighing around 50 kilograms, didn’t require both Qin Lou and herself to go—there wasn’t even a reason to follow.
During this time, Qin Lou had already furrowed his brow and resumed walking.
The only sound left behind was, “You inform Chu Xiangbin to come to my office tomorrow morning!”
“…Oh.”
Noticing the stormy undertone in Qin Lou’s voice, Luan Qiaoqing didn’t dare to argue. Plus, tonight’s events had indeed left her disoriented—watching the two figures walk away, Luan Qiaoqing stood in place for a long while before finally frowning and getting into her car.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, Luan Qiaoqing didn’t start the car immediately but instead, after a long moment of contemplation, inexplicably took out her phone and dialed a number.
After a few seconds, the other side answered, “Minister Luan?”
“How’s the person I asked you to investigate?”
“We’re still looking into it. It’s a bit difficult because Qin Qing grew up abroad, and the available footage from her childhood is very blurry, making it hard to compare if she had plastic surgery…”
“Then find out a specific time point. Tell me where she was, which country, which city, and what she was doing.”
“Oh? Minister Luan, which specific time point do you want to investigate?”
“…” Luan Qiaoqing closed her eyes, a pained expression on her face, “August 2010. I want to know where she was and what she was doing at that time.”
“Alright, I’ll check it out as soon as possible.”
“Mm, I’ll wait for your news.”
After hanging up the phone, Luan Qiaoqing rubbed her face. “Don’t think too much.”
She muttered to herself, her eyes reddening as she started the car and drove off.
Meanwhile…
On the Other Side of the Parking Lot
Qin Lou placed Song Shu in the front passenger seat, adjusted the seatback to a comfortable angle, and fastened the seatbelt.
After completing these actions, Qin Lou paused slightly, leaning over the back of the leather seat to look at Song Shu’s peaceful sleeping face.
He lowered his eyes and quietly asked, “Did you get into trouble, Little Clam?”
“……” The sleeping person naturally could not answer him.
Qin Lou frowned thoughtfully for a moment before his expression relaxed a bit. “But she’s always had a low IQ, so she should be quite easy to deceive. Even if she says something wrong, there should be a way to cover it up, right?”
With this thought, Qin Lou prepared to stand up. However, his gaze inadvertently fell to Song Shu’s bright red lips.
His figure froze.
After a few seconds of restraint, Qin Lou still couldn’t hold back. He tightened his grip on the seat and leaned in.
Muttering to himself in a low voice, he justified, “I’ll just give her a kiss, nothing else.”
“……”
The “kiss” lasted a bit longer than expected. It wasn’t until Song Shu, still asleep, frowned slightly and pushed him away that Qin Lou reluctantly pulled back.
He returned to the driver’s seat, starting the car with a grim expression: The fact that his Little Clam was so drunk and someone else took advantage of her without her waking up… Chu Xiangbin was doomed tomorrow.
— The unsatisfied Qin Lou, who had gained an advantage and acted coy, drove away.
——
Qin Lou was always clear about Song Shu’s address, even knowing it was an accommodation arranged by Yu Qisheng for her—this was something that particularly annoyed him.
As a result, Qin Lou had repeatedly urged Song Shu to move to the 23rd floor to live with him.
Naturally, Song Shu refused.
Qin Lou knew she had many concerns and couldn’t act freely until the Bai Song case was resolved, so he didn’t press her too hard about it.
In fact, this was the first time Qin Lou had visited Song Shu’s apartment.
This apartment was one of the best high-end residences in L District, Q City, with very elegant decor. The layout was an open-plan design, slightly smaller in area compared to Qin Lou’s place on the Vio 23rd floor.
Inside, there were no partition walls apart from the load-bearing columns; instead, bookshelves and display racks served as space dividers.
After entering, Qin Lou carried Song Shu and placed her on a low bench in the entryway.
He then squatted down to help her take off her shoes and put on slippers.
Next, Qin Lou carried Song Shu again and placed her on the sofa near the entryway.
After being jostled around from the car to the building, even the deepest drunkenness and sleepiness were mostly shaken off.
After an unknown amount of time, when Song Shu gradually woke up from her deep sleep leaning against the corner of the sofa, her head was spinning, and she didn’t know where she was. As she moved her legs, she felt a difficulty in moving.
Song Shu looked down—
In the light of the floor lamp beside the sofa, a man in a suit, shirt, and long pants was sitting on the carpet below the sofa, half hugging and half resting his head on her legs, soundly asleep.
Song Shu’s movement woke Qin Lou as well. They stared at each other, one looking down, the other looking up, for a few seconds, before both of them struggled to regain their senses.
Song Shu looked around, “How did we end up here? I remember… weren’t you supposed to be on a business trip to City C this afternoon?”
“I came back from City C in the evening. As soon as I landed, I heard Chu Xiangbin took you to a drinking party,” Qin Lou said, his voice tired and hoarse. He loosened his tie and his frown revealed a hint of irritation. “I barely made it back and almost got intercepted by someone.”
Song Shu struggled to clear her drunken haze, “So Team Leader Chu has already gone?”
“Mm.” Qin Lou stood up, then seemed to recall something, his brows furrowing as he said sternly, “Don’t mention him.”
Song Shu rubbed her groggy forehead, “He didn’t—uh—”
Song Shu was pressed into the sofa by Qin Lou, who kissed her forcefully for a long while before finally letting go. Qin Lou, his voice muffled, leaned against her neck, “From now on, you’re not allowed to go out drinking with other men alone—if you get drunk and taken advantage of by other men, what then? Do you want me to turn you into a fermented clam?”
Song Shu choked a bit on the term “fermented clam.”
Perhaps due to the effects of alcohol, which made emotions hard to control, she couldn’t help but raise her hand, partially covering her eyes as she laughed softly.
“…… What are you laughing at?” Qin Lou looked up and saw her with the corners of her bright red lips turned up, her cheeks blushing.
His dark eyes shifted with emotions again, and he couldn’t suppress it. Qin Lou leaned in and lightly nipped the corner of Song Shu’s lips.
Then he slightly lifted his head, frowning as he tried to control the jealousy that had been building up all night, “Stop laughing, Little Clam.”
Song Shu slowly stopped laughing but still kept her eyes covered, unwilling to let go. “Then don’t call me that anymore.”
Qin Lou frowned, “Why not?”
“If this continues, I’ll really start to think I’m some kind of shellfish…” Song Shu lowered her hand, stood up, and pulled open a cabinet in front of the marble table. She took out a box from inside.
Then she opened the box, revealing many small shell bracelets of different styles inside.
Song Shu slightly lifted her head, her cheeks flushed with the effects of alcohol. With a wooden expression, she handed the box to the stunned Qin Lou.
“Look, every time I visit a new city, I see these bracelets and… I can’t help but buy them…”
Qin Lou took the box in a daze.
After holding the box for a few seconds, he lowered his eyes and smiled quietly, “Actually, you’re still drunk, aren’t you, Little Clam?”
Otherwise, why would she hide them so well, as if she never thought he had been hurt, and show him such things?
His Little Clam was really adorable, even when drunk, she was like she was sober.
“…… You’re talking nonsense.”
Song Shu lightly rebutted, then bent forward slightly, reaching for the small shells in the box.
After playing with them for a while, Song Shu raised her head with a smile, “Are they pretty or not…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Qin Lou leaned in and lightly kissed the corner of her mouth.
“They’re not as pretty as you.”
“…… Is that so?” Song Shu furrowed her brows seriously, then hugged the box and studied it intently. “But I think they look quite nice.”
“Not as nice as you.”
Song Shu thought carefully, “What color is my Clam shell?”
Qin Lou was taken aback.
Song Shu sighed in frustration, “I can’t see my own Clam shell.”
Qin Lou couldn’t hold back any longer and laughed quietly.
Song Shu frowned, “What are you laughing at? Is my Clam shell’s color ugly?”
“I want to get you drunk every day,” Qin Lou said with a muted laugh. He then embraced the now much smaller-looking Song Shu. “Your Clam Shell’s color is the most beautiful.”
Song Shu’s eyes lit up, but she still tried hard to keep a serious face, pretending not to care too much.
“What… what color is it?”
Qin Lou looked down at her for a few seconds, then smiled, “Light orange.”
Song Shu was stunned for two seconds, “Light orange?”
“Mm, with a hint of Clamescent white.”
“……”
Qin Lou lowered his head, gently kissing her hair as his eyes closed slightly.
“There’s a little girl sitting inside the shell, wearing a white dress, always holding a Rubik’s Cube… I see her in my dreams every time. She hides inside the shell, refusing to come out and meet me, no matter how much I call her, she ignores me… I’ve waited for her for many years, Little Clam. She finally came out to see me.”
Song Shu was stunned.
She felt something cool fall into her long hair, and the sweet voice gradually became hoarse.
She slowly reached out to hug him.
After a few moments of silence, the girl carefully asked, “Then should I open the shell a little so you can come in too?”
Qin Lou paused for a moment.
After a while, with red eyes, he kissed the corner of her lips, half smiling and half crying, “Okay… This is your promise to me, you can’t go back on it.”
The girl shook her head, tightening her hold on him, “I won’t go back on it. From now on, my shell is also your shell.”
Qin Lou silently smiled, “Alright.”
——
The next morning, Saturday.
No need to go to the office or attend meetings, after a tiring week, this should have been the happiest time. However, Song Shu lay on her apartment’s big bed with a blank expression and vacant eyes.
— Can someone tell her, who has replaced and used her body last night, with all these memories now filling her head?
Otherwise, how could she have asked, “What color is my Clam shell?”
“Ah……”
As the memories replayed in her thoughts, Song Shu, rarely feeling on the verge of breaking down, pulled the covers over herself.
Why didn’t she have the skill to forget things after drinking…
“Are you awake?” Footsteps sounded from the other side of the apartment. Qin Lou, wearing light gray slippers, walked around the bookshelf at the front of the big bed, climbed the three wooden steps, and then stood by the bed.
Song Shu slowly pulled down the covers, revealing half of her emotionless face.
Qin Lou, wearing only a bathrobe with a tie, was drying his wet hair with a towel, looking at her with eyes that seemed to smile and not smile at the same time.
Song Shu struggled to find her voice, “Why are you still at my place…”
“If I’ve been tossed around like that last night, and now you want to throw me out, don’t you think that’s a bit heartless?” Qin Lou stopped beside the bed and leaned down slightly.
Song Shu replied, “Don’t say things like that… they can easily be misunderstood.”
“But I’m speaking the truth.”
“…”
Song Shu looked away, “I don’t have any men’s clothes here.”
Qin Lou straightened up, “That’s okay. I had my assistant bring some.”
“——?!”
Qin Lou paused for two seconds, then chuckled softly, “I didn’t know you could be so unsettled, Little Clam.”
“——”
The brief three words brought back uncomfortable memories from last night. Despite her efforts, Song Shu’s face slowly reddened.
She struggled to keep her voice steady, “Isn’t it a bit inappropriate to have your assistant come here?”
“What’s inappropriate about it?”
“It could… cause misunderstandings?”
“As far as they can see, there’s no misunderstanding.”
“……”
Song Shu gave up trying to discuss this further—right now, the circumstances were not in her favor. She needed to wash her face to wake up and change the “battlefield.”
The bathroom next to the foyer was the only room in the apartment with separate partition walls.
While Song Shu was washing her face with cold water, trying to wake up quickly, she heard the doorbell ring.
Song Shu hesitated for two seconds.
Those two seconds made her lose the chance to take control of the conversation—
“Mr. Qin, here’s the item you requested.” An Xingyun’s calm voice came from outside the door, causing Song Shu’s expression to freeze.
After a series of “Oh” sounds, Qin Lou accepted the items and placed them in the foyer, “Thank you for your hard work, Assistant An.”
“As an assistant, it’s just part of the job.” After a pause, An Xingyun asked, “Is this Mr. Qin’s new residence?”
“——!” Song Shu, in the bathroom, quickly turned around to signal Qin Lou not to say anything inappropriate at the door.
However, before she could reach the door, Qin Lou’s pleasant laugh came from outside the frosted glass door.
“No, this is Song Shu’s residence.”
“……”
The air was filled with prolonged silence and stillness.
After about ten seconds, An Xingyun’s voice resumed, sounding as usual but with a hint of barely perceptible stiffness, “I see. I apologize for my intrusion, Mr. Qin.”
“No need to apologize. Even if you hadn’t asked, I would have told you.”
“……” An Xingyun paused slowly, looking down, “Then Mr. Qin and… Miss Song, continue with your business. I’ll leave now.”
“Mm.”
The door closed with a “thud.”
Qin Lou turned around with satisfaction, and as he passed the bathroom, he saw Song Shu standing inside with a blank expression and a disapproving look in her eyes.
Qin Lou raised an eyebrow slightly, “What’s wrong?”
“Is this how you usually greet Assistant An?” Song Shu’s gaze slowly scanned Qin Lou—from his half-open bathrobe exposing his collarbone, to his wet hair, and his lazy eyes.
It all presented a post-event appearance.
Imagining how An Xingyun might be feeling and processing things right now, Song Shu felt her recently reestablished rationality was on the verge of collapsing again.
Song Shu lowered her head and covered her eyes with her hand.
“…… Forget it, it’s nothing. As long as you’re happy.” After saying this, Song Shu turned to go back to the bathroom.
But before she could complete her turn, she was pulled out by someone from outside the door, then pinned against the wall outside the bathroom.
Song Shu was taken aback, then looked up. “How…”
“Don’t you like me being honest about our relationship?” The man leaned in slightly, his handsome face devoid of any expression, except for his dark eyes, which were filled with her image and the intense desire to hold her close.
Song Shu looked away uncomfortably, “It’s not that, it’s just…”
“Just what?”
Song Shu was at a loss for words.
“Why don’t you like me being straightforward? You shouldn’t care about an assistant’s opinion. You never cared about what others think, did you? Why do you care now— or do you just not want to have a close relationship with me in front of them?”
Qin Lou’s speech became faster and his voice lower, Song Shu could sense his emotions rising violently—yet it was so inexplicable. She didn’t know what from last night to today had triggered his insecurities.
Song Shu could only explain, “It’s not because of that.”
Qin Lou’s gaze darkened as he pressed on, “Then what is it because of?”
Song Shu was silent for a few seconds.
The intensity of his gaze increased, becoming more dangerous.
Feeling the emotions inside him nearing a critical point, Song Shu finally gave up the internal struggle. She helplessly looked down and muttered.
Qin Lou didn’t catch it clearly, “What?”
Song Shu numbly looked up and repeated, “Assistant An is a close friend of my mother. I usually call her Aunt An.”
“.” Qin Lou was taken aback.
Having said that, Song Shu decided to get everything out in the open to prevent any further misunderstandings—
“So, you just had someone who is a close elder to me, on a random morning, deliver your change of clothes to my doorstep— and you answered the door in a bathrobe.”
Song Shu paused for two seconds, “Now do you understand why?”
“……”
A few seconds later, Qin Lou suddenly burst into laughter.
The joy in his voice was overwhelming, to the point where even burying his face in her long hair didn’t stifle his laughter.
Song Shu’s expression remained blank, “……”
Then she sighed slowly, her lips curving into a smile, “Are you really so happy to have made my elder misunderstand like this?”
Qin Lou, still laughing, managed to say, “Yes, if I had known earlier that Assistant An was such a close elder to you, I would have shown my feelings in front of her much sooner.”
“……Are you immature or what, Qin Lou?”
“Mm, do you have other elders like that? Why not invite them over today?”
“……”
Song Shu was helpless.
After a moment, she gently raised her hand, resting it on the back of the man’s neck, soothing him.
“No need.”
“I think it’s very necessary,” Qin Lou asked with a smile, “Why not?”
“Sorry.”
Qin Lou paused, “Sorry for what?”
Song Shu sighed softly by his ear, hugging him tighter, “I’ve made you feel insecure, Qin Lou.”
“……”
Qin Lou’s laughter faded from his face, and slowly dissipated.
After a long while, he leaned down, resting his chin on her shoulder, and with his eyes cast down, spoke in a flat tone, “Ah, you’ve discovered it. So how do you plan to make it up to me?”
“I need a bit more time. Until this matter is resolved, I can’t allow myself to accept all your feelings… You know that.”
“I don’t want to know.” Qin Lou said in a muffled voice.
Song Shu was about to speak further when the doorbell rang.
After a few seconds of exchanging glances, and under Qin Lou’s increasingly dangerous gaze, Song Shu quietly said, “I never have guests here.”
Qin Lou paused, “Is it Assistant An again?”
“……” Song Shu’s head immediately started to ache.
Qin Lou’s lips curled up, and he straightened to go open the door.
Song Shu snapped back to her senses and quickly blocked him, “Let me do it. You’re not dressed appropriately.”
“I’ve already seen it.”
“……”
“Hiding now would only make it more conspicuous.”
“……”
Song Shu gave up the struggle, “Then you just stand next to me and don’t say anything. I’ll handle it, okay?”
Qin Lou nodded.
Song Shu breathed a sigh of relief, quickly regaining her composure.
She grasped the door handle and pulled it open.
“An—”
“May I ask if Qin Qing lives here—”
The voices stopped simultaneously.
Looking at the dazed Luan Qiaoqing outside the door, Song Shu felt a headache coming on.
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