Chi Qing didn’t expect Ren Qin to be working nearby, so he lingered for a bit. After seeing her, he intended to leave, but Xie Lin’s way of handling things was completely different from his. Once those few customers had walked out the door, he pulled Chi Qing into the shop: “What are you in such a hurry to leave for? Your friend and Officer Su have been watching surveillance in the monitoring room for ages. Let’s bring some food back for them, and conveniently support Miss Ren’s business while we’re at it.”
The dessert shop smelled like sweet cream and was kept very clean.
Xie Lin: “What flavor does your friend like to eat?”
Chi Qing recalled Ji Mingrui’s rough, completely unparticular personality and said, “Whatever, as long as eating it doesn’t kill him.”
Xie Lin picked up some tongs from the side and, following flavors a girl might like, picked a donut for Su Xiaolan. He didn’t force the issue: “As long as there are no dietary restrictions, it’s fine. He’s just an afterthought anyway.”
In the monitoring room, Ji Mingrui let out a huge sneeze: “…Who’s talking about me.”
After Xie Lin picked out two, he asked Ren Qin for recommendations. Ren Qin knew the desserts in the shop like the back of her hand: “This one uses 80% animal cream, with a layer of freshly cut strawberries on top. The cake layers also have cheese and cranberries. The sweetness is moderate, and the taste isn’t cloying. It’s our shop’s signature item; there are only two left right now.”
“We’ll take this one then, two of them, please wrap them up,” Xie Lin smiled, chatting with her about her recent life: “Have you adapted since changing stores?”
While boxing and packing them, Ren Qin said: “I’m quite used to the work, and the living facilities are much more convenient than where I lived before… I just don’t know why I always feel lacking in energy when I wake up recently.”
“Maybe the winter weather is too cold to get up, or maybe you’re exhausted from moving,” Ren Qin skillfully tied pretty bows on the individual cake boxes with thin ribbons one by one. Although she still smiled gently, it was visible that her mental state wasn’t as good as the day she first moved in. “…Changing places, it takes some time to adapt.”
“Have you gone for a medical checkup?” Xie Lin looked at a strand of hair behind her ear that hadn’t been tied into her hair tie and asked.
Ren Qin answered: “I can’t spare the time from work, and there’s no need for a checkup. It’s nothing more than an old ailment, nothing serious.”
She didn’t explain in detail, but Xie Lin knew that when a girl’s physical or mental state was poor, there was usually a very common reason: anemia or low blood sugar.
Xie Lin didn’t ask further. Before leaving, he simply left one of the cake boxes tied with a red ribbon on the counter. Ren Qin froze for a moment, just about to call out to him: “Mr. Xie…”
“Didn’t leave it behind by mistake,” the man pushed open the dessert shop door and walked out. Unafraid of the cold, he left his shirt collar open, his collarbones sharp and gaunt. When he spoke, his eyes curved in a smile, making people unconsciously sink into them. “Bought it especially for you. Last time you moved, I went down empty-handed and didn’t bring you a housewarming gift. I won’t say more, if I say any more, a certain someone is going to lose his patience… Oh right, thank you for your recommendation.”
The impatient Chi Qing had waited on the side for a while, and indeed had just thought to himself, Are you done yet.
Chi Qing said expressionlessly: “Had a nice chat? If you haven’t chatted enough, go back and keep chatting.”
Xie Lin paused for a few seconds before replying: “When you talk like this…”
“?”
Xie Lin: “It sounds like you’re jealous.”
“…”
Sick in the head.
What kind of jealousy would I be having.
As if he could hear him, Xie Lin went on to comfort him: “I bought some for you too. Pick whichever one you want to eat. After you pick, I’ll take the rest over to them.”
Chi Qing didn’t want to say a single word. With his hands stuffed in his pockets, he walked straight ahead.
Even though both Xie Lin and Chi Qing felt it was unlikely the killer would appear in the surveillance footage, the surveillance still had to be checked. They stayed in the monitoring room until evening. Staring at the screens, Ji Mingrui didn’t even taste what flavor the cake in his mouth was.
“Let’s stop here for today, we’ve pretty much looked through the surveillance,” Ji Mingrui pinched the bridge of his nose. “If you guys don’t have plans tonight, want to grab a meal together? I’ll call Jiang Yu, we haven’t gotten together in a long time.”
Mainly it was because that kid Jiang Yu hadn’t seen his idol in a long time. After muttering, “Why couldn’t I go to the surveillance team, why is my idol always so far out of reach,” he had also pestered Ji Mingrui to ask if his idol wanted to get dinner together tonight.
Chi Qing was currently just an assistant. Whether he went to eat or not depended on whether Xie Lin went.
Xie Lin fiddled with his phone on the side, seemingly replying to someone’s message. When he looked up, he said, “Sorry, I’m afraid I can’t today. I already have plans.”
Ji Mingrui wasn’t surprised by this answer. After all, Xie Lin had a face that invited countless invitations.
Ji Mingrui then turned to his good brother: “What about you? I’ll try to book a private room, there definitely won’t be many people.”
However, before Ji Mingrui could get Chi Qing’s reply, Xie Lin spoke up for him first: “He has plans too.”
Ji Mingrui: “…?” What’s the situation?
There seems to be a problem between these two.
“Ren Qin just messaged saying she got off work early and bought some groceries, asking if we wanted to go over and eat,” after getting in the car, Xie Lin explained. “Said she just moved in a while ago, was busy arranging things, and finally got some free time.”
As someone who didn’t interact much with people, Chi Qing knew very well how to shatter all social pleasantries: “If she finally has some free time, she should rest more at home. Inviting the upstairs neighbors for a meal for no reason, what’s she playing at.”
Xie Lin: “…”
After a long while, Xie Lin asked: “That apartment you rented before, how long did you live there?”
Chi Qing didn’t know why he was asking this: “Over two years.”
“In those two years, you probably haven’t spoken to the neighbors living in the same building. Even if someone came knocking on your door, you wouldn’t have had much interaction with them,” Xie Lin said while paying attention to the road conditions. “If you really want treatment, you should actually interact more with the things you resist. Of course, the interaction I mean isn’t telling you to touch them. Touching or not touching has no meaning. You should try to accept them.”
The evening rush hour traffic was congested. Xie Lin’s voice sounded together with the sound of car horns drifting in through the gap in the car window:
“Although this thing called humans isn’t that simple, it’s not that complicated either.”
The first thing Chi Qing did after getting home was take a shower and change out of the clothes he wore out. Then, toweling his hair, he walked into the kitchen and stared silently at the pile of spotlessly clean tableware, hesitating for a moment.
Finally, he took out a set of bowls and chopsticks, plus a dining plate.
A few minutes later, after finishing the last dish, Ren Qin saw her two diners coming down from upstairs.
When she opened the door, the two were talking.
“I was wondering why you didn’t open the door when I knocked just now,” Xie Lin leaned slightly closer to Chi Qing while speaking, saying, “You’ve changed clothes, and the smell of the shampoo on your head has changed too… Do you germophobes really take a shower as the very first thing you do when you get home?”
Chi Qing’s freshly washed hair hung before his eyes, making him look somewhat soft and docile, dispelling a bit of his decadent vibe. However, he remained unforgiving with his words: “You can even smell a change in shampoo? Are you a dog?”
Ren Qin hesitated to interrupt: “Uh… you’re here.”
Xie Lin was holding a bottle of red wine. She didn’t know wine, but just by looking at the bottle and the label, it seemed quite expensive. After she opened the door, Xie Lin handed the wine to her: “Didn’t have anything else at home, so I just grabbed a bottle of wine to bring over.”
The orange cat came out to receive them along with Ren Qin, its round eyes wide open trying to see who had come. It circled around Ren Qin’s feet while meowing—only this time, it meowed a bit fiercely, carrying some vigilance.
Ren Qin took the wine with both hands: “You didn’t have to be so polite.”
As Ren Qin spoke, she looked at the other person. The other person was also holding something, but…
Carrying the bowl and chopsticks he brought himself, Chi Qing said: “Sorry, I’m not used to using other people’s.”
Normally, when eating out, he had no choice, so he could only scald them with hot water before using them. This time, it was just going downstairs, so bringing bowls and chopsticks from home was clearly more convenient.
From the first day she moved in, Ren Qin felt this Mr. Chi looked very strange.
But a person’s first impression is very important. Since her first impression was that he was strange anyway, she wasn’t so unable to accept it when Chi Qing did other strange things later.
Ren Qin ushered them to sit down: “You came at just the right time. I’ll just ladle out the soup and we can start eating… People from my hometown like to eat spicy food, I don’t know if it suits your taste.”
During the meal, Xie Lin was responsible for chatting with Ren Qin.
“Like spicy food, huh. Then I’ve probably been to your hometown, the scenery is very beautiful.”
No one could refuse this kind of conversation topic that closed the distance between people. Ren Qin smiled: “If you go again next time, I can recommend a few places to you, the kind of places you can’t find in travel guides.”
Chi Qing listened from the side.
Ren Qin was a very simple girl. She had loved desserts since she was young, because she felt desserts could bring people a good mood, a very wonderful existence.
Her family relationships were also simple. Although she was far away from home, and there were many younger siblings, so they contacted each other less after she came out to work, she didn’t complain at all when mentioning her family: “It’s not easy for them either, having to work and take care of my younger brother and sister. It doesn’t matter if they neglect me, I just need to care more about them.”
She also occasionally had little emotional moments.
“The employees in the shop have a better relationship with the original manager, so they always make trouble for me. When she was late today, I deducted points from her.”
It had to be admitted that Xie Lin was a master of conversation. In less than half an hour, he had chatted with Ren Qin about everything under the sun.
Only, Chi Qing couldn’t help but pay attention to one thing: from beginning to end, she had never mentioned her boyfriend.
Although his out-of-control state had ended and he wouldn’t be woken up at night by the voice of Ren Qin’s boyfriend anymore, that voice that appeared deep in the night still made him mindful—she really didn’t look like someone who had a boyfriend.
When Ren Qin got up and went to the kitchen to ladle out the crucian carp soup, Xie Lin turned to look at Chi Qing: “You’ve been glancing around, what are you looking at?”
Chi Qing put down his chopsticks and asked a completely unrelated question: “Do you think she’s single?”
If anyone else asked this question, Xie Lin would suspect if they were interested in Ren Qin. But the person asking this question was Chi Qing, and Chi Qing clearly was not in the ranks of normal people.
So Xie Lin casually followed Chi Qing’s gaze, glanced at the shoe cabinet in the entryway, and simply looked around the living room arrangement. In a tone of stating a fact, he said: “Single.”
Xie Lin rested his fingers on the edge of the dining table: “Moving alone, didn’t mention a single word about it while chatting, no men’s slippers in the shoe cabinet, and isn’t wearing any couple accessories—don’t look at me like that, most people don’t wear rings just for fun like I do. Of course, the most important thing is, her phone lock screen is that cat named Gaogao, and she hasn’t touched her phone once during the entire meal. If she had a boyfriend, knowing she’s hosting two male neighbors from upstairs at home today, it’s impossible he wouldn’t send a single message… Why are you asking this question?”
This basically aligned with Chi Qing’s deductions. Even if Ren Qin’s boyfriend only came over at night to stay over, it wouldn’t be to the point of not leaving a single trace.
Although the doubts in his heart were growing bigger and bigger, Chi Qing’s face remained expressionless. He found an excuse that didn’t sound too forced: “Nothing, just suddenly remembered she said before she had a friend moving in with her.”
Xie Lin said: “Her friend should be a girl. And if nothing unexpected happens, probably hasn’t arrived yet.”
Chi Qing was still holding his bowl when he walked in the door, so it was Xie Lin who opened the shoe cabinet to find the disposable slippers.
“Just now when I opened the shoe cabinet, I accidentally took a look. Although there are two pairs of household slippers in the shoe cabinet, the new pair hasn’t been opened and is still in its transparent packaging bag. Moreover, it’s a pair of women’s slippers.”
As Xie Lin’s sentence ended, Ren Qin also came out of the kitchen carrying the soup bowl. She was wearing thick heat-resistant gloves on her hands. As she put the bowl down, she said, “Careful, it’s a bit hot…”
“What were you guys chatting about just now? I think I heard Gaogao’s name.”
“Saying the photo of Gaogao on your lock screen is very cute,” Xie Lin said.
Since the topic had just been on Ren Qin’s “friend” she was living with, Chi Qing very naturally followed up with a sentence: “Haven’t seen that friend you’re living with all along.”
Even though his tone was always icy cold, making it very hard for people to feel it was “natural”.
Smiling, Ren Qin picked up the soup spoon and said, “Look at my memory. We chatted so much, I think I forgot to mention I’m living alone right now.”
“Originally, my best friend said she wanted to come to Huanan City to develop her career. We used to be college roommates,” as Ren Qin spoke, she happened to be facing away from the half-open bedroom door behind her. The lights weren’t on in the bedroom, making the lighting seem somewhat dim. The girl’s bed was made very cleanly, the light pink floral duvet cover laid out perfectly flat. “…But plans can’t keep up with changes. Her parents wanted her to stay home, take the civil service exam, and have a more stable job, so she didn’t end up coming.”
Sitting in the dining room facing that half-open door, Chi Qing’s always expressionless face finally showed a trace of slight fluctuation.
