novelThe Path of Slow Coaxing (2)
| ← Ch.061 | Ch.063 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
He opened the message and was taken aback by the contents. Reading in between the lines, Wu Wendi's consideration toward Xu Lan and her determination to find the killer was revealed.
She stated that in light of everyone's fixation on finding Bai Wu, she went by herself to the bar in Lanshan with the hope that she might find a lead. After typing out the message and deleting many parts of it, he finally replied with four words, 'Be careful out there'.
Both their situations were reminiscent of a lone ranger going to war, and indeed, there was no other way to describe it. The only difference was that she was alone, whereas Xu Lan had Bai Wu at least.
Under Xu Lan's loving guidance, Bai Wu wilfully sat down at the cave entrance. His legs turned stiff - akin to a popsicle that came fresh out of the fridge - and trembled continuously. His hands held onto Xu Lan firmly and in his tremor, he softly called out 'Papa'.
Holding in laughter, Xu Lan coaxed Bai Wu patiently. The man was so close to success, but the slightest small movement - deemed suspicious by the boy - frightened him so much that he stopped moving altogether; he simply threw himself into the man's embrace and started wailing. That whole ordeal could be considered to have satisfied some secret delight, one where Xu Lan was able to move Bai Wu's pretty face to tears.
After repeated wailing, Bai Wu almost cried himself to muteness. Finally, he realized that it was all a joke to Xu Lan. He grabbed Xu Lan and firmly bit into the man's arm. Even when the coppery scent of blood began to surface, he did not loosen his bite.
"Oh God, I've been wrong, I did the wrong thing. Bai Wu, could you please let go of me?" Xu Lan asked in between bouts of chuckles. He began carrying Bai Wu into the cave. Xu Lan would never take a person's life as a joke. After all, a deep overhanging cliff was present beneath the cave
"Ss! Bai Wu dear, I know I was wrong. Please let go, my flesh is about to come off. Human meat isn't tasty at all."
"Agh, I wouldn't dare to do it anymore. There won't be a next time, haha, please, let's go in. We're on the verge of falling."
While Xu Lan used sugar-coating and sweet-talking as his weapon, Bai Wu was finally enlightened as to the power of words, or lack thereof - that night, he made the decision not to speak with Xu Lan!
Bai Wu cut a sorry figure and got up. He wrapped himself in the blanket and lay down beside the extinguished bonfire, then closed his eyes and went to sleep.
"Hmm, Bai Wu, are you mad?" Xu Lan immediately went up and sat beside Bai Wu. He held in his laughter and asked if Bai Wu was angry.
"No." Came Bai Wu's muffled grunt. He turned over to the other side so his back faced Xu Lan. Anyone could see that he was angry. Not even the dark cave could obscure the writing on his face which said, 'I'm angry. Make it up to me'.
Xu Lan sighed and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made things hard for you."
"..."
"Hey, there won't be a next time. I have completely realized my wrongdoing and the evilness of my actions. Can you forgive your papa?"
"..."
After more sighs, he pleaded, "Bai Wu dear, I know my wrongs. Please forgive your papa. Don't stay silent all by yourself. Do you want to bite me another time?" Noticing how Bai Wu remained unyielding, Xu Lan panicked. Xu Lan had gone too far, apparently.
"..."
"Fine then. Since you're not willing to forgive me, I'll offer my death as an apology. I'll walk to the entrance of the cave now. I'll count until three. If you're still unwilling to forgive me, I'll jump down. Would it be better this way?"
"..."
"One..." Xu Lan stood at the cave entrance and slowly uttered the word 'one'. No response.
"Two..." Still no reply."Mm, I'll jump now."
"Three."
"NO, DON'T! Hic!" Amidst cries, he sat up and called out to Xu Lan.
Xu Lan turned back into the cave and with the faint light of the bonfire, he located Bai Wu and planted a kiss on Bai Wu's head."I'm sorry. Please don't cry. Papa hasn't been good."
"Huuhuuu... I hate Papa when he's like that. Papa's lied to me. I didn't say I'd forgive Papa!" Tears streamed down Bai Wu's face the instant he buried his face deep into Xu Lan's chest.
"Mm, I'm sorry. I was wrong. What can I do to earn your forgiveness?" Xu Lan lifted the boy's face and wiped off those tears with his thumb but almost immediately, a new batch of tears came gushing out.
"... I don't know, but I don't feel like talking to Papa now!" Bai Wu shook his head and hugged Xu Lan.
"Okay, no talking. Let's sleep first. When tomorrow comes, think about what you want me to do in order to earn your forgiveness. Don't cry, don't cry. My heart hurts when you do, " Xu Lan said while wiping away those newly-formed tears.
It would be best for him to refrain from doing such things in the future. The process may be fun but the result was one that Xu Lan felt hard to endure.
Bai Wu hugged him hard and fell into a deep sleep. In the meantime, the silver snaking of torchlights began to spread slowly.
At the first glimmer of light, Xu Lan woke up. The disturbance outside was quite severe during the previous night and he wondered what the situation was. He gently pushed Bai Wu aside. The young man mumbled something and readjusted his position to a more comfortable one.
A troop of people searched day and night in the mountains to no avail. Aside from that, he received two texts from Wendi and got no reply. Hu Cheng called him as well, so with a twitch of the mouth, Xu Lan flung the cell phone to a corner and immediately slept. Even after all that, the old unbranded cell phone was still brimming with battery!
"Surely he won't be waiting for us to capture him? He's not that crazy right?" Xiao Zhang scratched his head and said embarrassingly. The police dogs were incapable of locating the scent. When they reached the cliff, they backed off and began simultaneously barking and turning around in circles.
"Yes, it's not like Xu Lan has wings. He can't just fly up to the sky." With a pinch of the nose, Xiao Li remarked. His tone was akin to that of a person who questioned the furtiveness of an absurd suggestion.
"He can't, but the dragon can fly like a helicopter. I absolutely refuse to believe that they can escape out of the Qinglong Mountains in such a short period of time." A grey-haired old man adjusted his glasses and keenly pointed out.
He was exactly the same as that refined yet scum-of-the-earth person, Li Xiu! Xiao Li rolled his eyes surreptitiously and cursed silently to himself.
Hu Cheng stepped to one corner and made a phone call with Sun Fei following behind.
"Lao Hu, are we really gonna waste our time with this? Xiao Wu just sent me a message saying that she went to the red-light district alone." Sun Fei looked worryingly at Hu Cheng. In that day alone, Sun Fei looked as though he aged tremendously, even to the point of having a few strands of white hair.
He had no idea what went on during Hu Cheng's discussion with the experts and what drove Hu Cheng to change his mind so abruptly. In spite of everyone's advice, Hu Cheng was dead set on finding Xu Lan and Bai Wu, so much so that he was willing to take advantage of Xu Lan's trust in order to locate their location by way of tracing their phone call.
"What?! Xiao Wu's getting into it by herself? If she gets into trouble, how then? Who's gonna take responsibility if something happens?" Hu Cheng was about to light a smoke but when he heard that, his body jerked - as if a needle had been pierced into his skin - and the hand that held the light stopped just inches away from the pipe.
"She said she wrote a disclaimer notice and left it in your office." Sun Fei was rather stunned - he did not expect that big of a reaction from Hu Cheng.
"A disclaimer? How cute. Does she think a disclaimer will solve everything? If something happens, the blame will still fall to us and I'm the one that's left with the headache! Damn it! It's like rules don't exist at all! Back then I should've accepted Xu Lan's suggestion to close the damn case!" Hu Cheng remarked with full of disdain.
He poured out the tobacco from his pipe and placed some fresh strands into them.
"How about this, you go back and check up on Wu Wendi. Don't let her cause us any setbacks here. I'll see what the experts have to say. If the two of them still can't be found, I'll head back too."
"What benefit have they given you, for you to sell off your own kindness?! If you do find Xu Lan, what then? Are you really gonna have them locked up?" Sun Fei shouted when he saw that Hu Cheng was walking away.
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