Today was quite strange.
Ji Xun was actually feeling a bit groggy, as if he hadn’t slept enough.
Because of this, even though the sunlight streaming through the window was already shining on his arm, and the various sounds of another person’s morning routine echoed in the room… the noises were extremely faint, requiring him to listen carefully to even catch a fraction of them.
Huo Ranyin had probably gotten up about ten minutes ago.
When the spot beside him grew slightly lighter, Ji Xun had already woken from his slumber.
He just hadn’t opened his eyes.
At that time, Huo Ranyin hadn’t gotten out of bed yet. Ji Xun could feel that the other man had just sat up and looked at him for about a minute or two before quietly getting out of bed. After getting off the bed, he even pulled the blanket that had slipped down to Ji Xun’s chest back up, adjusting it so it covered his shoulders.
Afterward, Huo Ranyin went over to the curtains and, still acting gently with almost no sound, pulled the curtains open just a crack.
The reason Ji Xun could perceive all this was half because a chronic insomniac always had delicate, sensitive nerves, and half because the dim room was pierced by a ray of sunlight—the exact ray that was shining on his arm.
He merely rolled his flat-lying body over to sleep on his stomach, burying one ear into the feather pillow and covering the other with his arm to continue dozing.
During his nap, his not-yet-fully-awakened mind felt as if it were wrapped in weightless bubbles, drifting into random thoughts:
My sleep quality last night was clearly not bad. I woke up with a start less than three times the whole night, so why am I so sleepy? … Could it be that when things reach an extreme, they bounce back? Once I sleep a little better, all the sleep bugs lurking in my body crawl out in droves…?
Huo Ranyin finished his morning ablutions and was facing the mirror to spray his hairspray… when the room’s doorbell rang. The noisy sound made him frown slightly.
He walked out of the bathroom and opened the door. Outside stood a hotel waiter pushing a dining cart. In addition to breakfast, there was a red velvet box on the cart.
“Thank you,” Huo Ranyin said. “Right here is fine, I’ll take it from here.”
He took the breakfast items off the cart one by one, placing them on the room’s coffee table. Halfway through, he lifted his eyes to glance at Ji Xun, who was still sleeping in bed. Ji Xun was still lying on his stomach with his back to him. Unless the guy had grown a pair of eyes on the back of his head, it was impossible for him to see what Huo Ranyin was doing.
So Huo Ranyin brought the remaining item—the red velvet box—into the room.
Opening the velvet box, inside was a pair of green cat-eye stone ear clips.
He held the ear clips up to the light for a look, then put them down in satisfaction.
They gave off the exact same feeling as the photos on the shopping website.
He tossed the receipt tucked inside the box into the trash can, clipped one of the green cat-eye stones onto his ear, picked up the other, and walked over to the bed.
He knew Ji Xun had already been woken up and was just too lazy to get out of bed. He originally intended to speak in his normal voice, but when he opened his mouth, for some reason, his voice was still much softer:
“It’s about time to get up.”
“Ngh…” Ji Xun complained. “Sleepy.”
Huo Ranyin didn’t say anything more. He merely leaned over and fastened the ear clip in his hand onto Ji Xun’s ear.
The sleeping man was still groggy and didn’t open his eyes. He just reached his hand up to touch his ear. The first few tries missed, and it wasn’t until the third or fourth attempt that he found the right spot.
Huo Ranyin watched as Ji Xun’s fingers pressed against the earring. As if feeling deeply bewildered, Ji Xun pinched it first, then rubbed it, and then even gave it a tug… Just as Huo Ranyin felt he had seen enough and was about to stop Ji Xun from continuing to ravage his own ear, the person in bed finally, reluctantly, opened his eyes that seemed glued shut.
“What did you put on me?” Ji Xun asked.
He rubbed his face and sat up in bed. His hand swiped at his ear again, and this time he took it off—it was a green cat-eye stone ear clip. This green cat-eye stone had a pure halo, with a thin golden slit in the middle, resembling an emerald-jade cat narrowing its gleaming golden eyes.
“Where did you conjure this from?” Ji Xun asked in surprise. Looking up, he noticed the other cat-eye stone on Huo Ranyin’s ear. A thought flickered through his mind, and he said with admiration, “Not bad. One for each of us—subtly telling everyone that we’re a couple.”
Indeed. I can’t out-talk you, so I’ll just have to act a little faster than you. Huo Ranyin glanced at Ji Xun, thinking to himself.
However, he was unwilling to reveal even a hint of this thought. Seeing the man was up, he didn’t linger by the edge of the bed. He walked over to the nearby desk to boil some water, casually kicking the trash can—which now held the receipt—deeper under the desk, and gave a perfunctory excuse:
“Brought it with my luggage. You mentioned it yesterday, and I remembered I had this, so I just dug it out. Alright, breakfast has been brought up. Get up and eat; we’re heading out after. Weren’t you muttering about going to Daye Temple to pray for a good marriage right before bed last night?”
“Not praying for a good marriage,” Ji Xun corrected Huo Ranyin. “It’s asking the Buddhist temple to bless us with sweetness, eternity, peace, and growing old together.”
“…I really couldn’t tell you harbored such superstitious thoughts,” Huo Ranyin said, speechless.
“It’s just seeking a good omen, how can you call it superstitious?” Ji Xun retorted.
Yeah right, it is superstition, Ji Xun knew very well in his heart.
The more you desire, the more you fear, and the more superstitious you become.
Yawning, he got out of bed and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. While brushing, he casually fixed his bedhead and took the opportunity to clip the cat-eye stone ear clip Huo Ranyin had just given him back onto his ear.
This cat-eye ear clip was green.
His favorite color, no less.
Ji Xun admired himself back and forth in the mirror, quite full of himself.
After breakfast, the two packed their things, went to the hotel front desk to check out, and stored their luggage.
They had two plans for today: during the day, they would visit the final two scenic spots in Qin City, and at night, they would take the high-speed rail back to Ning City. They had been in Qin City for three days; it was about time to head back.
If they continued to linger aimlessly, they might end up bringing some of Huo Ranyin’s little troubles to Qin City, which wouldn’t be ideal.
The first stop today was Daye Temple.
For attractions like temples, it was always better to go early. The most devout believers would even arrange things with the abbot before the mountain temple opened, just to be the first person of the day to offer the first incense to the Buddha.
However, this trip to worship the Buddha encountered a minor hiccup.
They met someone in front of the temple.
—The eccentric old man they met at the abandoned port yesterday, Old Hu.
“What a coincidence,” Old Hu greeted them. His outfit today was as fashionable as ever. He wore a pair of sunglasses, and pinned to his chest was still that sparkling sapphire brooch. “You two young folks also came to the temple this early?”
“Grandpa,” Ji Xun looked around left and right, “Where’s your family?”
“What kind of talk is that?” Old Hu grew angry. “Why do you ask about my family the moment you see me? Just because someone is old, can’t they have an independent conversation with you? Do they absolutely need a family member standing by to supervise?”
“Having a conversation as an independent person is no problem. But having a conversation as a stalker is a bit strange,” Huo Ranyin said coolly.
“Who’s stalking you? Are there stalkers who arrive before you do?”
“Grandpa,” Ji Xun chuckled, “Don’t play dumb when you know the truth perfectly well. You saw the Qin City tourist map stuffed in my pocket yesterday, right? You saw the red circle drawn around Daye Temple on the map, didn’t you? That’s why you came here early today to stake us out… It’s a very easy deduction to make; there aren’t even any branching paths to confuse anyone.”
Being called out on the spot for stalking, Old Hu didn’t blush. He merely gave a chuckle: “You young folks are pretty smart. As expected of criminal detectives.”
“How do you know I’m a criminal detective?” Huo Ranyin raised his eyes.
“The ‘Most Beautiful Police Officer’ on the trending searches…”
“Traffic police, civil police, SWAT, armed police—there are plenty of police branches.”
“With such strong analytical skills, what else could you be but criminal detectives?” Old Hu, having no other choice, could only say this.
Huo Ranyin’s sharp gaze swept Old Hu up and down. That kind of X-ray-like scrutiny made even Ji Xun, who was standing nearby, instinctively feel his hair stand on end.
If the person standing in front of him were a young man, Huo Ranyin might have already made a move to subdue him and give him a thorough interrogation.
But the person standing in front of him was an old man nearing eighty.
In the end, Huo Ranyin merely said to Ji Xun, “Let’s go.”
Old Hu quickly called out, “Wait, I specially came looking for you today just to give you the brooch! Do you really not want this brooch? Don’t worry, I can write you a certificate of gift, there will absolutely be no legal risks, and you won’t have to worry at all about being scammed—”
Huo Ranyin quickened his pace slightly.
This had to be said, was a rather brilliant way to cope.
For two young men, as long as they sped up just a bit, the old man behind them would absolutely be unable to keep up, no matter how hard he tried.
Time, age.
Unbeknownst to anyone, they had long since coldly left the aging far behind.
In a short span of time, the distance between the old man and them widened from one meter to five meters, and then to seven or eight meters.
In front of Daye Temple, people were coming and going. They had already set foot on the stairs leading up the mountain to worship the Buddha.
On the densely packed stairs was a densely packed crowd.
Once they stepped onto the stairs, the crowd would naturally become their cover, and it would be impossible for the old man behind them to catch up. Ji Xun already had one foot on the steps.
He was actually pondering: why was this old man so insistent on giving that expensive brooch to Huo Ranyin?
It couldn’t really be just because Huo Ranyin looked pretty, right?
Perhaps there was some story behind it…
However, he had no intention of contradicting Huo Ranyin’s decision. He was merely exercising his specialty as a novelist, casually brainstorming some bizarre and melodramatic stories. But just at that moment, Old Hu’s shout rang out from behind:
“I have a murder case here—”
Ji Xun halted his steps, and Huo Ranyin stopped as well.
They turned their heads back, and through the flowing crowd, they saw a peculiar smile breeding on the old man’s heavily wrinkled face.
“Do you want to hear it or not?”
When a former criminal detective and a current criminal detective together heard Old Hu say those words, what lay before them was no longer a lighthearted choice of “want to hear it or not.”
Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin walked back down the steps.
Their positions swapped. Now it was Old Hu’s turn to put on an unhurried, leisurely air: “Getting old makes standing tiring. Let’s go find a coffee shop to sit down and have a cup of coffee first.”
This old man was always a bit out of place compared to other elders.
Even for a thirst-quenching drink, he chose Western coffee instead of the tea generally accustomed to by older folks.
Fortunately, there was no shortage of anything at the foot of the Buddhist temple.
They sat down in a coffee shop. It was still early, so they were the only customers in the cafe. Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin had just finished breakfast and had no intention of ordering any coffee or food, turning a blind eye to the menu.
Old Hu, however, was different. He held the menu and studied it carefully, ordering a cup of coffee first, followed by a sandwich.
For an old man nearing eighty, his back wasn’t hunched, his legs didn’t limp, and his eyes weren’t blurry. Perhaps it was precisely his excellent physical condition that granted him such robust energy, allowing him to chase after them. Ji Xun, idle and bored, thought casually.
When the coffee was served to the table, Old Hu—who had put on enough airs—once again revealed that peculiar smile, looking as if he could barely hold back his amusement.
“You two young folks want to go up to worship the Buddha, but do you really know what kind of Buddha you’re worshipping?”
“That Buddha… its ears and eyes are closed. It promises no futures, protects no peace, and grants no marriages.”
“It doesn’t even pay heed to the anguished cries of the corpse inside its belly.”
