Morbid Addiction

 In the evening, when Chen Yuncheng called Long Zhanyu, Long Zhanyu told him that he was busy and would call him back later.

       In the end, when Long Zhanyu finished his work and called Chen Yuncheng back, it was already past ten o’clock.

       Now this house was very small and there was no study room, so Ning Junyan sometimes reads at the dining table. If Chen Yuncheng was at home, he used to sit on the bed and read.

       When Chen Yuncheng’s phone rang, Ning Junyan turned his head to look at the caller ID and then looked up at Chen Yuncheng.

       At that moment, Chen Yuncheng hesitated for a short while on whether to go out to answer the phone, but after noticing Ning Junyan’s eyes, he still chose to lie on the bed and answer Long Zhanyu’s call.

       Long Zhanyu’s voice was exhausted as always, “What’s the matter?”

       Chen Yuncheng said, “It’s about Guan Anlin.”

       Long Zhanyu seemed to think about it for a while, and said, “Oh, you said that Guan Anlin called the police earlier.”

       Ning Junyan’s specialised field books were spread out on his knees, he turned his head sideways and looked intently at Chen Yuncheng’s face.

       Chen Yuncheng felt uncomfortable being looked at by him, so he simply leaned over and put his head on Ning Junyan’s shoulder, looked at him flatteringly, and continued to say to Long Zhanyu, “Can you guarantee his safety? You asked him to be your informant, right?”

       “Listen to me,” Long Zhanyu said in a noisy background, and he could hear men arguing loudly. He seemed to have changed places, and the surroundings became quiet after a while, before he said, “He mentioned I checked the company registered by Yu Jie. It is a formally registered company. Now it only has a business scope and no specific business. Then he said that Yu Jie is going to start an investment project. I also checked, but I can’t find any relevant information so far Yu Jie may have told Guan Anlin about this matter alone.”

       Chen Yuncheng felt that Ning Junyan raised his hand to wrap around his shoulders, he kissed Ning Junyan’s chin, and asked Long Zhanyu, “If you can’t find evidence, you can’t touch Yu Jie for the time being, right?”

       “That’s for sure. I didn’t want Guan Anlin to take risks, but I don’t even have a clue what was going on. What kind of project does Yu Jie have? Is he going to engage in pyramid schemes? Illegal fundraising? Or is he simply targeting Guan Anlin, scamming him out of his money just for the sake of it? If Guan Anlin withdraws at this time, it is very likely that nothing will be found in the end, do you understand?”

       Chen Yuncheng said, “I understand, but can you guarantee Guan Anlin’s safety?”

       Long Zhanyu was quiet for a moment, “I have an idea. Didn’t Yu Jie ask Guan Anlin to pull in investment? I’ll find someone here to pretend to be taken advantage of and invest in him. If Yu Jie isn’t going after Guan Anlin alone, and he wants to start any investment project, whether it’s a pyramid scheme or illegal fundraising, we can arrest him once we find evidence.”

       “You must not trick him.”

       Long Zhanyu’s tone was a little helpless, “How could I trick him? I told him to contact me at any time, and I have his mobile phone location here. We have known each other for so long. To be honest with you, at present, with the evidence of Guan Anlin’s reporting to the police, I can’t touch Yu Jie. Guan Anlin and Yu Jie had something going on before, you know it in your heart.”

       As he said this, someone on Long Zhanyu’s side was calling him loudly, he covered the microphone and replied “Right away”, Chen Yuncheng still heard it.

       Long Zhanyu said, “Let’s talk slowly next time.” After he said that, he hung up the phone in a hurry.

       Chen Yuncheng stared at the phone for a while, then raised his eyes to Ning Junyan.

       Ning Junyan asked him, “What? Yu Jie came to trouble you guys again?”

       The two of them were too close, and Ning Junyan could hear almost everything Long Zhanyu said on the phone.

       Chen Yuncheng sighed, and threw the phone aside, “I don’t know what Yu Jie want, he must have no good intentions, but I don’t know if he is after Guan Anlin, or if he is after me at all.”

       Ning Junyan’s eyes sank. He kissed Chen Yuncheng’s forehead, and asked him, “Why? Because of my mother’s incident?”

       Chen Yuncheng heard that his tone was not very good, looked at him and said, “No, I’m just guessing, don’t you go looking for trouble with Yu Jie.”

       Ning Junyan pressed his lips against Chen Yuncheng’s forehead and did not leave, and said gloomily, “As long as he doesn’t mess with you.”

       Chen Yuncheng couldn’t help sitting up and looked at his expression carefully, “What do you want?” After he finished speaking, Chen Yuncheng added nervously, “Anyway, the police have already been called, if he does something illegal just leave it to the police, we can’t do anything to him.”

       Ning Junyan said in a flat tone, “It is actually easy to deal with this kind of person. After all, he is not a desperado. He has a family, a family and a career. He thought he could control Guan Anlin, but in fact, Guan Anlin didn’t need to be afraid of him at all. Whoever has more entanglements will have more burdened.”

       “Don’t scare me, don’t talk nonsense,” Chen Yuncheng was very disturbed, and he moved closer to Ning Junyan, “Guan Anlin has a one-track mind, you are not allowed to instigate him to do anything, just leave it to the police. And who says Guan Anlin has no worries? His sister is coming to college soon.”

       Ning Junyan looked at him, suddenly smiled, and said, “It was just a joke, don’t be nervous, I won’t do anything.” Then he hugged Chen Yuncheng and kissed him on the cheek hard.

       Soon the summer was coming to an end, and when September came, Guan Anlin’s most important bond took the high-speed train from his hometown to go to college alone with her suitcase.

       That afternoon, Guan Anlin asked Chen Yuncheng to drive with him to the high-speed rail station to pick up his sister.

       Guan Anlin’s younger sister was named Guan Anqin. She was a rural girl who graduated from a high school in the county town after taking the college entrance examination.

       They picked up Guan Anqin outside the station and planned to take her back to the shop first and then have dinner with her in the evening.

       When Guan Anlin found a chance to be alone with Chen Yuncheng, he asked him, “Is my sister beautiful?”

       Chen Yuncheng responded with a “hmm”, “beautiful.”

       Guan Anlin smiled, “It’s too late for you to regret.”

       Chen Yuncheng didn’t bother to talk to him.

       The dinner was arranged in the downtown business district, mainly because Guan Anlin wanted to show Guan Anqin around, and knowing that his sister was shy, he didn’t call anyone else, only Chen Yuncheng and the three of them had dinner together.

       Chen Yuncheng had an easygoing personality, and he quickly got acquainted with Guan Anqin. He told her that Guan Anlin could accompany her to visit the scenic spots when he was free these few days, and he could take care of the shop.

       Guan Anqin didn’t know how to answer, so she blushed slightly and smiled.

       Halfway through the meal, Chen Yuncheng answered the phone, and after hanging up, he told Guan Anlin, “Ning Junyan is coming.”

       Guan Anlin was immediately unhappy, “What is he doing here?”

       Chen Yuncheng replied, “To come and pick me up. You can drive xiao Qin back to the store later, so you can rest early.”

       The time for school registration hadn’t arrived yet, so Guan Anqin came a few days earlier. Originally, Chen Yuncheng suggested booking a hotel for her at first, but later felt that it was not safe for her to stay in a hotel alone as a girl. Anyway, the store has bunk beds, so staying with her brother for a few days was not a big problem.

       Guan Anlin had deliberately left the bottom bunk for his sister and replaced it with clean bed sheets and bedding.

       Less than 20 minutes after Chen Yuncheng answered the phone, Ning Junyan appeared in the restaurant.

       Although it was early autumn, the temperature had not dropped yet. Ning Junyan was wearing a loose short-sleeved T-shirt and long jeans and walked towards them with a coat hanging on his arm.

       The three of them sat in booths, with Chen Yuncheng’s back facing the direction Ning Junyan came in, but Guan Anqin, who was sitting opposite him, was the first to notice Ning Junyan. She stole a glance, just thinking that the man coming towards her was good-looking and distinguished, something she had rarely seen in the past, but she was too embarrassed to look more than that and quickly turned her eyes away.

       Ning Junyan walked to Chen Yuncheng’s side, raised his hand and pressed it on the back of his neck naturally.

       Only then did Chen Yuncheng realise that he was there, and quickly moved a seat inside for him to sit down.

       “Have you eaten yet?” Chen Yuncheng asked him.

       Ning Junyan shook his head, “Not yet.”

       Chen Yuncheng hurriedly beckoned the waiter to take the menu and asked Ning Junyan to add dishes.

       When Guan Anlin introduced Ning Junyan to his younger sister, he only said that he was Chen Yuncheng’s friend. Guan Anqin didn’t know what kind of friend he was, and couldn’t help but peek at them.

       Ning Junyan opened the menu, lowered his head and casually flipped through a few pages, then suddenly raised his head to look at Guan Anlin, and asked, “Has Yu Jie contacted you recently?”

       Guan Anlin was stunned for a moment before he realized, “No.” He followed Long Zhanyu’s instructions and introduced an investor to Yu Jie, but Yu Jie kept saying that he was too busy and hadn’t formally met with him yet.

       Chen Yuncheng kicked Ning Junyan under the table.

       Ning Junyan looked at him, and Chen Yuncheng leaned closer to Ning Junyan’s ear, “Anlin’s sister is here, don’t say such things.”

       “Okay,” Ning Junyan replied softly and then beckoned the waiter to order.

       Guan Anqin picked up her glass of water and silently took a sip of water, curiously looking at the two people across the table.

       It wasn’t until Ning Junyan handed the menu back to the waiter and his eyes fell on her face that she hastily lowered her head.