Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 550: Seven Years

The world did not stop spinning just because of He Juan’s absence.

Following Xuanlong’s downfall, the direction of the news took a completely different turn altogether, especially when rumors that XIU was the very reason behind this started to circulate like a tempest. When netizens raised questions about the credibility of the malicious rumors surrounding XIU, it was then that voices in support of XIU began to emerge. Those who had been saved by XIU, those who had witnessed the positive impact of XIU’s tyrannical clean-up, came forward one after another.

The stark contrast between these opposing forces thrust He Juan into the headlines for the next six months. Alas, no matter how hard people awaited any kind of action from him, he never showed up.

Just as swift and sudden as Xuanlong’s destruction, XIU also vanished without a trace.

Mu Yuze watched over these developments with indifferent eyes, almost mocking. Why had these people only come out now? Where were they, when Juan-gege was drowned in hateful curses and insults?

He had never cared about what the masses thought about his Juan-gege, but it did not mean he could stand seeing the false black materials continued to circulate in public. However, just as he was about to pay people to delete those articles once and for all, one day everything just disappeared mysteriously, leaving only various speculation about Xuanlong and XIU’s whereabouts.

This time around, though, there were no more attempts to tarnish XIU’s reputation.

As time passed, people gradually let go of the monikers they had attached to XIU – blight of the nation, scourge of the society, cold-blooded devil of the underworld – and he became a gray figure shrouded in numerous mysteries.

The year Mu Yuze enrolled into the police academy, XIU had even become a mandatory topic to be analyzed, and it was quickly becoming Mu Yuze’s favorite subject.

He took to the academy like a fish swimming in water. Perhaps it was because of his brooding countenance, or his unique temperament that made him seem more mature than others, or maybe it was his physique that often led others to mistake him for an Alpha – Mu Yuze was immensely proud for his height sprout that made him grow way taller than average Omegas – nobody dared to bully or even so much as to slight him, even after they discovered his secondary gender.

After all, Mu Yuze had proven himself as an outstanding candidate, excelling in both theoretical knowledge and combat skills.

Yet, despite his achievements, Mu Yuze had always been alone whenever he went. That was, until he took a class of Criminal Law.

For the first meeting, the professor asked them to introduce themselves and share their motivations for pursuing a career in law enforcement. The cadets offered various reasons – some stated they had always admired this profession, or they chose this out of their love for their country or a strong sense of justice. The fresh enthusiasm of a budding youth was evident on their faces. But when it was Mu Yuze’s turn...

Solemnly, he declared, "There’s a criminal I want to capture with my own hands."

"Oh?" The professor raised an intrigued brow, and the cadets gave him curious looks. "And who might that be, if you’d like to share?"

But Mu Yuze shook his head and remained silent, for he knew that if he were to mention XIU’s name, he would be taken as a joke. His ambition would sound like wishful thinking to their ears. After all, XIU was a figure that not even the highest-ranked and most capable officers in the whole country had been able to apprehend.

The professor did not press him further for answers, and called for the cadet next to him.

"Hello everyone!" A bubbly voice greeted, accompanied by a wide and gummy smile. "My name is Kang Guanyu, please take care of me! My reason, hmm... it’s nothing noble like you guys. But I kinda have a promise with someone?"

Yet another interesting answer. The professor asked with a joking tone, "It couldn’t be your childhood sweetheart, right?"

As laughter erupted in the class, the tip of Kang Guanyu’s ears turned red. "No, no, no!" He hastily denied, shaking his head in frantic. "It’s not my childhood sweetheart, it’s my teacher!!"

The cadet took his seat, huffing and puffing. But then he caught sight of the papers on Mu Yuze’s desk, filled with deep and detailed analysis of XIU’s criminal behavior over the years. In an instant, his eyes lit up and he nudged Mu Yuze with his elbow, "Classmate, are you a fan of XIU too?"

Mu Yuze raised a brow as he quickly grasped onto the crux of the sentence. "’Too’?"

"Yeah," Kang Guanyu admitted unabashedly with a proud look. "He’s my idol!"

Surprise flashed through Mu Yuze’s eyes. People tended to have uncertain opinion about XIU, no doubt because of his controversies. This was the first time Mu Yuze had ever met someone who could admit something like this out loud. For some reason, it made him relax, as he felt like he had found a kindred spirit.

"Yeah," he whispered, his voice a little hoarse. "I’m a fan of his too."

Kang Guanyu offered him a million-watt grin. "I knew it! Mu Yuze, isn’t it? From now on, we will be the bestest friends!"

They did not, in fact, become the bestest friends like Kang Guanyu had claimed.

Mu Yuze still kept people within an arm’s length, partly due to his reclusive nature and partly due to his secondary gender. However, Kang Guanyu remained the only person whom Mu Yuze would take the initiative to greet, and whom he did not mind spending time studying with.

If anyone were to ask Mu Yuze whether he was doing well, then he would say yes. After all, he had a solid roof above his head, a substantial amount of money in the cards He Juan left him – which was suspiciously under his name. He ate three warm meals everyday, slept in soft beddings, and his neighbors were pleasant to talk to. He graduated from high school with flying colors, adapted nicely to the police academy, and he had a strict, supporting Master who carved a path for his career.

If he could exclude the hollowness in his chest, then he was doing extremely good. Stellar, even.

And there was no reason why he shouldn’t, was there? Compared to his omega peers, compared to the homeless children he saw on the street, he was already faring very well.

(Every single time he recalled his life before He Juan, Mu Yuze would feel grateful for where he was today. Or at least, he tried to. He reckoned that it was the very least he could do for everything He Juan had done for him.)

The heats, however, would be a little hard to bear. Twice a year, Mu Yuze was forced to dismantle his emotional guard to pieces. It was during that period that the emptiness and hollowness in his chest would be magnified indefinitely. He would cry himself to sleep because he longed too much for a person who was not there for him. He would weep and mourn, replaying the image of He Juan in his mind over and over again. His smile, the twinkles in his silver eyes, his deep voice, his warm embrace— it was to those memories that Mu Yuze would relieve his heats.

Over time, he grew disgusted for the sheer monstrosity of his desires that made him so needy, so wanton and indecent. Hence, he began to take heat suppressors regularly.

All in all, he was good.

Or so he had tried to convince himself.

However, everything came crashing down on the day of his eighteenth birthday. It was coincidentally Saturday and he only had one class in the morning. Mu Yuze had planned to spend the rest of the day in the dojo, sparring with Master Song Yin until he perfected the tricky moves that had been taught to him recently, when he received a huge surprise in the form of an unfamiliar man.

"Who..." Mu Yuze began, confused when he found a middle-aged man in a neat suit and briefcase in front of his door.

"Mr. Mu Yuze?" The man introduced himself as a notary, here to hand over a trust fund which had been set up for him, one he would receive now that he had turned eighteen. The person who had arranged this was none other than He Juan, and the sum of money was huge enough to last him for a lifetime.

Even when He Juan was no longer here, he still found a way to send Mu Yuze a birthday present.

However, what utterly wrecked Mu Yuze apart wasn’t the gift of the trust fund itself but the date it had been set up – his fifteenth birthday.

Mu Yuze remembered that day very well, for that was the very first time someone had ever celebrated his birthday with him. Not only that, he also got to have a whole cake all for himself, and a mountain of gifts enough to switch out his entire wardrobe. It was an unforgettable day he had cherished and revisited countless times since He Juan’s disappearance. The day he tasted what true happiness felt like.

Yet it was not until now that he learned how He Juan had given him more than that...

Mu Yuze did an excellent job in holding his composure while signing the documents and sending the notary away, but the moment he was alone, he broke down on the spot. It was the first time he had cried so intensely again since the day he’d decided to become a police officer. He curled himself up as small as possible on the hard floor of the living room and bled his heart out, his body racked with sobs.

"Stupid Juan-gege..." he choked out between tears. "How... How could you do this? You only knew me for a few months! So how could you have given me so much?!"

The world did not stop spinning just because of He Juan’s absence, but the same couldn’t be said about Mu Yuze’s world.

Even after a year, he was still stuck in that moment when He Juan had left him behind and walked out of the door. He tried his best to live his life, and he had even convinced himself that he was doing fine.

But everything was just a façade.

Mu Yuze was not doing well. Not at all.

His heart ached so much that it felt like he was going to die, and the void in his heart only grew bigger and bigger each day. Beneath his stoic exterior, there lay an insecure and lonely child who was yearning for someone else.

He lived just so that he could see He Juan again with his own eyes. Aside from that, he did not even know how he managed to endure a world without He Juan.

A world without his sun in it.

Thus, Mu Yuze worked even harder after that day. He gave his all into his studies and graduated from the police academy with the highest honor. After that, he entered a probationary period where he spent all day outside working and chasing after petty thieves. He never allowed himself a chance to take a break.

With the help of Master Song Yin’s network, he was introduced to Captain Li Zhi of the Violent Crime Unit in the Yuyang City Bureau.

Thanks to Mu Yuze’s outstanding performance, numerous divisions had been keeping an eye on him, including Li Zhi. Upon hearing Mu Yuze’s wish to join the team, it was not difficult for Li Zhi to facilitate his transfer to the City Bureau. Starting from a trainee, Mu Yuze climbed up in ranks step by step until he became an official core member of the Violent Crime Unit three years later.

But he was not alone, because Kang Guanyu – his self-proclaimed best friend – also joined the team half a year after he did.

Counting back, it had been four years since He Juan’s departure, yet Mu Yuze had never missed celebrating both his own and He Juan’s birthdays each year. He would make a wish on his birthdays to let him meet He Juan again, and he would also make the same wish on He Juan’s birthdays. Even though none of his wishes had been granted so far, he kept praying.

Because that was the only thing he could do.

Four, five, six and seven years... Mu Yuze’s wishes continued to accumulate, a silent plea for a glimpse of the person he longed for.

Please, please let me see him again, even if it’s only a glance.

Alas, everything turned out to be for naught. It was as if the universe conspired to keep He Juan hidden from him, despite his exhaustive efforts to locate the man. He had used his authority to investigate citizens with the surname He, and found no less than hundreds of people with the same name scattered all across the country. However, what were the odds that He Juan would be using his real name? Wouldn’t it be safer if he were to use an alias instead? But if this was the case, then how was Mu Yuze supposed to find him?

Even though Mu Yuze did not show it on the outside, only he knew how he was slowly losing hope inside. Each year passed was a year full of wishes only for it to be crushed again and again. Mu Yuze felt as though he was withering inside, and he was desperate to search for that one cure that could bring him back to life.

Of course, he did not fear having to search for He Juan his whole life, but... the longer this went, the more blurry his memory of He Juan became. It got to the point where Mu Yuze could no longer trace the vivid shape of his eyebrows or lips, as all he could remember was how gentle and kind the man looked when he smiled.

And that realization utterly terrified him. He did not want to forget He Juan. He must not!

Yet much to his dismay, time was merciless in its endeavor to erode his memory bit by bit, and Mu Yuze, oh he was helpless to prevent it from happening. It was like he could only watch as the most precious thing He Juan had left him slipped through his fingers like scattering fine sand.

And thus on He Juan’s 33th birthday, which fell on April 25th, Mu Yuze made a different wish, one that reflected his deepest fear. Please, don’t ever let me forget him.

Seven years later, less than two weeks after he made that wish, his sun finally reappeared in his life.

Mu Yuze suspected nothing when the team received a new murder case early in the morning, he still suspected nothing when the janitor and the other tenants talked about a Mr. He. It was because he had encountered no less than a thousand people with the surname He throughout his career, and he had learned not to give himself any hope.

That was, until the door swung open in front of him and oh— there his Juan-gege was.

Mu Yuze’s heart, which had been frozen in time for seven long years, suddenly started to beat again. Spring returned to his world of eternal winter as he absorbed the sight of He Juan greedily. A heavy lump lodged in his throat, his blood soaring in joy and delight. Oh how he almost threw himself into the arms of the man he thought he might never see again.

The layer of dust on the memories that had lain dormant for years were cleared away, and it felt like Mu Yuze had been transported back to the day he first saw He Juan in the police station ten years ago.

He Juan still looked exactly as he remembered, yet also very different at the same time. There was a hint of awkwardness in his usually confident gait, his clothing style had changed, and he had taken to braiding his long hair. But what struck Mu Yuze the most was the ugly scar running across his forehead, a sight that caused a sharp pang of sorrow in his heart.

Even then, those fleeting emotions were offset by the overwhelming euphoria and ecstasy upon seeing the man again. Juan-gege, Juan-gege! His heart cried out. Gege, it’s me, Mu Yuze! I have come such a long, long way to find you. Look, aren’t you proud of who I’ve become?

Alas, he should have known that the universe liked to play a sickening joke on him.

His sun had once again appeared in his monotone life. Yet within those beautiful silver eyes that met his, there was no longer a trace of Mu Yuze, the pitiful and miserable boy he had left behind.

.

Gege, is there really nothing left of me in your memory?

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.

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Volume 2 - The End

A/N: This is it! We have come to a full circle, everyone! QAQ congratulations for making it through the worst of CBCD *cheers* *pulls confetti* If I can insert tags here, then we have passed the ’heavy angst’ and in volume 3, we’re entering ’hurt/comfort’ era! And in case you haven’t noticed, the one who deleted all those articles about HJ before MY could is none other than Kang Guanyu :)

As the icing on the cake, here’s one poem I thought would suit MY perfectly. I also got the art in the comment section, so please check it out!

Had I not seen the Sun

I could have borne the shade

But Light a newer Wilderness

My Wilderness has made—

(Emily Dickinson, 1233)

With this, CBCD is 80% completed and the final volume is mainly conclusion + tying up loose ends. Let’s see, I should be able to finish this before Jan ><

Thank you so much everyone for being here with HJ and MY until now <3<3<3 I promise all the pain we went through will be compensated in volume 3! Tomorrow, we will return to the present timeline (and HJ can finally be fished out of the ocean after months *wipe sweat*)

Let us welcome depressed tyrant HJ x pretty yandere MY~