“Swoosh——”
The rain gradually grew heavier. Droplets gathered at the tip of the umbrella, cascading down like a liquid curtain.
Guo Xingchang stared at the pair of black gloves. The man shifted his hand slightly, causing the umbrella to tilt backward and revealing a pair of deep, dark, and seemingly emotionless eyes.
Ji Mingrui was just as astonished as Guo Xingchang: “A criminal investigator?”
Chi Qing didn’t bring up the case file—nor could he.
He simply recapitulated a few of Guo Xingchang’s characteristics from an objective standpoint: “…Of course, those factors aren’t the most critical. What’s most critical is that the ornament in Mr. Guo’s car is quite interesting. Furthermore, he has been observing me ever since I got out of our vehicle. Because by all accounts, I shouldn’t have been in that car.” When police go out on a mission, their vehicle shouldn’t be carrying someone who is clearly not an officer.
It defied regulations.
Hearing this, Ji Mingrui glanced over and noticed that the ornament in Guo Xingchang’s car was a tiny model gun. Model guns weren’t rare—they were practically a staple of male romance—but Ji Mingrui spotted at a glance that the model was wrong. It wasn’t a standard, commercially available firearm; it was clearly modeled after a police-issue service weapon.
Even if a normal person were to buy a model, they wouldn’t choose a police-issue handgun.
So, he really used to be a criminal investigator?
That made things very strange.
Even though it was raining today and not ideal for driving, as a former criminal investigator, Guo Xingchang’s alertness should be far higher than that of an average person. He shouldn’t be making such a low-level mistake on the road.
And most importantly—
He wouldn’t make a low-level mistake and simultaneously fail to appease the other driver.
Guo Xingchang used to do this for a living; he couldn’t possibly not know how to handle it. Sinking to the point where the other party felt compelled to call the police indicated that he had lost his composure just now—and to a degree far exceeding the ordinary. Chi Qing could practically picture how, an hour ago, Guo Xingchang had been driving utterly bewildered and lost.
His eyes would have been panicked and unfocused, his hands tightening instinctively on the steering wheel. The road ahead would have grown increasingly difficult to discern through the rainwater and his own absentminded state. In the end, he might have even felt an out-of-body sensation, as if the person driving wasn’t his true self, but rather his soul floating in mid-air.
Chi Qing stood quietly in the rain, wondering why.
What could have happened to throw Guo Xingchang into such a state of chaos?
The pages of the case file from last night flashed across Chi Qing’s mind again, and an answer gradually surfaced.
Guo Xingchang had never expected this man, who had just stepped out of a police car, to see right through him in a single glance. While marveling at the man’s observation skills, he watched as the stranger placed his free hand over the one holding the umbrella, maintaining his posture, and pulled off one of his gloves.
The downpour was too heavy, and the wind blew haphazardly from all directions. A few drops of rain splashed onto the man’s pale hand, causing him to frown.
Chi Qing looked up, meeting Guo Xingchang’s gaze, and said casually, “It got wet. Do you have a tissue?”
The windshield wipers swished back and forth across the glass.
Ji Mingrui, now back in the car, remarked on their way back: “That guy is pretty weird too.”
Chi Qing was pinching a tissue in his hand, lost in thought.
Suddenly, Ji Mingrui asked, “Speaking of which, isn’t Consultant Xie’s birthday coming up soon?”
Chi Qing paused.
Ji Mingrui: “You didn’t know?”
Chi Qing honestly didn’t.
He and Xie Lin had exchanged too many “secrets,” yet they had somehow forgotten to exchange basic information.
The primary reason was that Chi Qing simply didn’t care for holidays or celebrations—aside from being willing to go out for a walk on rainy days, he was highly averse to any crowd-gathering activities.
“Look at my memory, I forgot that you don’t even celebrate your own birthday,” Ji Mingrui said. “Back in high school, no matter how much I begged you to come to my birthday parties, you never showed up. In the end, I had to go to your dorm room alone at night, wasting half the evening just to squeeze a ‘Happy Birthday’ out of your mouth.”
Chi Qing suddenly said, “Pull over ahead.”
Through the wipers, Ji Mingrui saw a commercial intersection up ahead. “…What are you getting out for?”
Once the car stopped, Chi Qing got out, opened his umbrella, and said right before closing the door, “Taking a walk.”
“…”
The pedestrians on the street were all rushing to seek shelter from the rain. Only this grand master here would purposely get out of a car to run into the downpour.
Ji Mingrui respected Chi Qing’s peculiar eccentricity. After dropping him off, he drove back to the police station alone.
On one side of the intersection stood a very famous large mall in Huanan City, its golden logo looming over the plaza. Because of the rainy day, the foot traffic was sparse—but even “sparse” was still considered “densely crowded” to Chi Qing.
He frowned at the scattered groups of people at the entrance, pulled the black glove he had just removed back on, and fully prepared himself at the mall entrance before pushing the door open to walk inside.
This was his very first time entering a mall, and his sole purpose for being there was to pick out a gift for someone.
The word “pick” implied that he would have to visit more than one store.
Chi Qing had absolutely no idea what to choose, nor did he have any experience buying gifts for others. After entering a few watch boutiques, he found nothing that caught his eye.
The sales assistants in those shops watched a man wearing black gloves walk in and make bizarre requests—such as requiring the staff to stand far away from him, and demanding that they not try the watches on his own wrist, but instead find a mannequin hand and place it on the counter a meter away from him.
The assistants exchanged glances, all thinking the same thing: He’s so handsome, but why is he a little unstable?
After doing a lap, Chi Qing left the watch section. Just as he was about to patiently try another mall, he passed a shop. Resting quietly in the display window was a silver ring that looked very similar to the one Xie Lin usually wore.
By the time Chi Qing came out of the mall, his phone buzzed twice.
-Where did you disappear to?
-Where are you?
Chi Qing glanced at the name of the mall and sent over his location.
Xie Lin replied almost instantly.
-Wait there, I’ll come pick you up.
-Are you in the area?
-For anyone else, it’d be out of the way. For you, everywhere is on the way.
This was a blatantly flirtatious line. Chi Qing, who had just told Ji Mingrui that “dating isn’t hard,” replied expressionlessly:
-Forget it, it’s too much trouble.
Xie Lin: It’s no trouble.
Chi Qing: It’s trouble for me. If you drive over, I’ll have to wait for you. In that time, I could have already made it home.
Xie Lin: …
Chi Qing: Do you really think it’s necessary?
The “typing…” status at the top of the chat box flickered for a few seconds before quietly disappearing.
A few more seconds passed, and Chi Qing’s phone rang. Xie Lin’s habitually lazy voice carried a hint of helplessness: “Then I’ll have to trouble you to wait for me. I’ll be there in ten minutes, alright, my grand master?”
There was a bit of traffic on the road, so the ten-minute drive ended up taking a full quarter of an hour.
Chi Qing sat in a café for a while. When the time was about up, he grabbed his umbrella and walked out. Upon getting into the car, he noticed that Xie Lin’s shoulder was damp, though the water stains weren’t very obvious on the black fabric.
The two men, for whom nothing was out of the way, drove home together.
“What did you go to the mall for?” Xie Lin asked.
No matter how inexperienced Chi Qing was, he knew that it was best not to mention a gift beforehand; it had to be a surprise on the day of.
Thus, he recycled the excuse he used to brush off Ji Mingrui to brush off Xie Lin: “Taking a walk.”
Xie Lin tapped his fingers twice against the steering wheel. “There are so many people in a mall, and you went there for a walk?”
Chi Qing: “Curing my illness while I was at it.”
“…”
“My psychologist said so,” Chi Qing added. “Correct your attitude, and take the initiative to seek treatment.”
After saying this, Chi Qing casually threw a question back: “What about you?”
After a long pause, Xie Lin looked at the red light at the intersection and said, “I went out to meet someone.”
