[02/25, 08:23, Nanyi City Public Security Bureau Criminal Investigation Division]
The team responsible for investigating the orchid pattern consists of Zou Bin, Jian Ru, and Wen Huabei. Jian Ru stayed in the office to filter images from the internet’s big data. Zou Bin was tasked with going out to check all the registered stores selling fireworks and firecrackers from the industrial and commercial bureau, while Wen Huabei was assigned a new task: to stake out Pang Daozi’s home.
This morning, the two walked into the small conference room specially set aside for them at the Nanyi City Bureau. Jian Ru looked up from the computer, his panda eyes staring at them. “How did your fieldwork go?”
“Wow!” Zou Bin was startled. “Forget about us for now; what happened to you? Did someone hit your eyes?”
Wen Huabei walked over and saw the takeout boxes from last night still on Jian Ru’s desk, surprised. “Bro, you didn’t go home last night? Just stayed here at the bureau?”
Jian Ru nodded, yawning. “I got too absorbed in my work. Before I knew it, it was two or three in the morning. I didn’t bother going home, just lay down for a bit and continued working when I woke up.” He then eyed them with his panda eyes. “Aren’t you on stakeout? Why are you back?”
“We’re on shifts for the stakeout too. After I had a meal, I switched with someone else to rest.”
Jian Ru nodded and finished his iced Americano in one gulp.
Zou Bin walked to the computer to check Jian Ru’s progress. He saw dozens of browser tabs open, mostly searching for images or materials, interspersed with sites like Zhihu, Baidu Knows, and forums. Jian Ru explained, “I also posted questions to netizens. You know, there’s nothing the all-knowing netizens don’t know.”
“Any progress? Did you find anything?”
Jian Ru shook his head. Judging by his panda eyes, if he had found something, he wouldn’t have needed to stay up all night.
“How did you ask?” Zou Bin clicked through the webpages and found that all the posts were the same question: “Can anyone help identify this image?” Below was the half orchid pattern. The post times were from their first day in Nanyi. Two days had passed with a pitifully low number of views and even fewer responses.
Wen Huabei shook his head. “This isn’t working. It’s too plain and ineffective. Netizens are busy; who’s going to pay attention to this? If I saw it, I wouldn’t click it either.”
“Exactly, you need a more eye-catching title. There are amateur detectives online; you need to spark their interest!” Zou Bin said.
Jian Ru stood up and made a “please” gesture. “You two experts, please start your performance.”
Zou Bin thought for a moment and printed out the half orchid pattern. He had Wen Huabei borrow a women’s bag from the police flower in Nanyi, preferably one containing lipstick, foundation, and other female items. Soon, Wen Huabei returned with a black messenger bag, borrowed from Shen Ruirui.
Inside the bag were only two lipsticks and a cushion foundation. After some fiddling, they took a few photos and posted them online.
[Help! My girlfriend has been getting up in the middle of the night to make phone calls. When I ask her, she says it’s just friends calling. This is her daily work bag. Please help me figure out what’s going on!]
The picture showed an open women’s leather bag with lipstick, powder, four coins, a key, a lighter, and a piece of paper casually placed under the lipstick, revealing the half orchid pattern.
Jian Ru was confused. “……What’s this for?”
“Of course, it’s to stimulate interest. Let me ask you, when you see the theme of this post, what do you think?”
“It looks like the poster is being cheated on,” Jian Ru answered honestly.
Zou Bin nodded. “Exactly. Human sadness and joy might not be universal, but people are always eager to gossip! Discovering a brother who’s been cheated on across the internet is like finding a melon stand; amateur detectives like Conan will definitely analyze every detail of the bag and leave no clue untouched.”
“Ah, so this is what effective questioning looks like?” Jian Ru learned something new. He glanced at the bag. “What about the coins, lighter, and such? What could they mean?”
Wen Huabei waved his hand. “I don’t know. Just put them in randomly. The more mysterious, the better. Let them guess.”
Zou Bin hooked his arm around his neck. “Didn’t we all do reading comprehension in school? The question was, ‘How does the description of a rainy day reflect the author’s mood?’ The author replied, ‘Nonsense! It was just raining that day!’ Got it?”
Jian Ru’s mouth dropped open, impressed by his colleagues. People who make it to the first team are truly different, much more agile-minded!
Ten minutes after the post went live, there were already dozens of replies, mostly sympathizing with the poster about being cheated on and waiting for the experts to analyze the details. Zou Bin replied to several comments, using incredulous tones like “No way?!” and “How could this happen?!” to make the netizens even more eager to see the poster’s reaction to the truth.
“Check back in a few hours; we’ll definitely get some unexpected results.” Zou Bin closed the webpage and patted Jian Ru on the shoulder. “You should go get some sleep. We’ll handle things here.”
Jian Ru was barely keeping his eyes open, but he still had some reservations. “Make sure to pay attention to the replies. If they’re all unreliable, we’ll need to think of another method. We can’t waste time on this.”
“Just wait a bit. We’re not short on a few hours,” Zou Bin sneered. “I don’t believe a simple orchid pattern can escape the wisdom of the internet users.”
—
Early in the morning, Sheng Guoning parked his car in front of the Magic Cube Youth Apartment. In the passenger seat was a box of colorful macarons in a beautifully decorated paper bag. At Yuan Maoqiu’s suggestion, he had insisted on sending several safety knowledge links to Lin Zhizhi the night before. He finally received a response: a “Thank you, Officer Sheng~” along with an adorable thank-you sticker.
Sheng Guoning, with a serious face, made up a story about receiving several reports recently of women encountering perverts on their way to and from work, advising Lin Zhizhi to pay attention to her personal safety. He then naturally suggested that he passed by the Magic Cube Youth Apartment on his way to work and could give her a ride in the future.
Unexpectedly, Lin Zhizhi declined Officer Sheng’s kind offer, saying she wasn’t going to work recently and was busy with design work at home. That was the end of that.
Sheng Guoning’s limited skills couldn’t win her over, so he needed external help. Yuan Maoqiu told him not to dawdle. If the mountain won’t come to him, he should go to the mountain. He instructed him to buy a box of macarons from XX store and wait at the apartment entrance before 8 AM for a “chance encounter” with Lin Zhizhi.
At first, Sheng Guoning was skeptical of this plan, thinking Lin Zhizhi would likely not be out early since she wasn’t going to work. Yuan Maoqiu had an edge, revealing that Lin Zhizhi had a brother, Lin Hequ, who had been taking her for morning runs since she was young. This habit had continued for over a decade, and even during a recent hotpot chat, she had mentioned she continued her morning runs in Nanyi to stay fit.
Convinced, Sheng Guoning went ahead with the plan. At 7:30 AM, he dashed into XX dessert shop as soon as it opened and bought a box of macarons. Arriving at the Magic Cube Youth Apartment, he kept a sharp eye on the crowd, not daring to slack off for a second.
Unfortunately, plans changed. Right under his nose, an electric scooter accident occurred between a lady delivering a child and another rushing to work. The two middle-aged women argued furiously while the child cried loudly, causing chaos at the scene.
Sheng Guoning was troubled. He glanced at the apartment entrance, and Lin Zhizhi hadn’t arrived yet. Looking back at the scene, more and more people gathered. Why wasn’t the local police station responding? Why hadn’t they called the traffic police to assign fault? Why wasn’t anyone dealing with the crying child?
“Ah, being a police officer and trying to date is really tough.” Sheng Guoning sighed, locked the car, and squeezed through the crowd.
“What’s going on? If someone’s injured, they should go to the hospital, and if it’s about compensation, go to the police station. You’re blocking the road from the slow lane to the fast lane. Who’s going to be responsible if this causes a bigger traffic accident?”
The two middle-aged women stopped their shouting and turned to the young man who had suddenly appeared. Sheng Guoning pulled out his ID, and the women’s eyes lit up. They surrounded him, chattering and defending themselves.
“Officer, it was this woman. She suddenly changed lanes while riding her bike, causing me to swerve and fall with the child!”
“Officer, don’t listen to her nonsense. I checked my rearview mirror and saw no one before I moved slightly to the right. How could she just appear out of nowhere?”
“Hey, how can you talk like that?! I was with the child. Why should I have to squeeze with you?!”
“So what if you have a child? Does that mean I shouldn’t go to work? You crashed into me, and now you’re pretending nothing happened, just trying to scam money!”
Surrounded by the commotion, Sheng Guoning’s head ached from the deafening noise. Women with loud voices can be overwhelming, like dozens of loudspeakers creating a surround sound effect. Sheng Guoning raised his voice to calm them down and clear the road, moving the two fallen electric scooters to the sidewalk. He also picked up the spilled vegetables—bought by the lady with the child—leaving only one good tomato and no intact eggs.
The local police station finally arrived. They first dispersed the onlookers to ensure the road was clear, then called the involved parties over. “You two, come over here. And you, sir, come here too.”
Sheng Guoning was puzzled but carried the vegetables over. One officer was talking to the two women while another asked Sheng Guoning, “Who are you related to? You should have stopped this instead of letting them argue on the road.”
“Me?” Sheng Guoning was still fuming. He showed his ID. “I’m with the government!”
The officer’s attitude changed immediately. They realized he was a city bureau leader and became much more polite, saying it was a misunderstanding and they hadn’t recognized him in plain clothes. Sheng Guoning used the opportunity to lecture them about their slow response time and low efficiency. He said he’d visit the city bureau another day to discuss it with their leader.
The officers were also aggrieved. They hadn’t known about the accident until an onlooker reported the road blockage, and they had responded immediately, not wasting a minute.
“……” Sheng Guoning looked at the two middle-aged women. “You didn’t report the accident? You’ve just been arguing?”
“Yes, my granddaughter is fine. She’s okay. I just wanted her to pay for the vegetables. Why report it?”
“My car isn’t damaged. I was just in a hurry to get to work. If she hadn’t been arguing, I’d have left already.”
Sheng Guoning was even more speechless. He handed the vegetables back to the lady, leaving the rest for the local police to mediate, which was their specialty. He decided not to get involved further.
After the noise settled, the street finally quieted down. Sheng Guoning checked his watch; it was 8:20. According to Yuan Maoqiu, Lin Zhizhi should have finished her morning run and gone back by now. Sheng Guoning sighed, realizing he wouldn’t be able to deliver the macarons today and would have to try another time.
He turned around and saw a long-haired beauty in a royal blue sports outfit standing at the apartment entrance, smiling brightly at him. Beside her was a small, delicate boy. Bathed in the morning sun, they looked like angels descended from heaven.
Sheng Guoning was surprised and jogged over. “Miss Lin!”
“Officer Sheng, it’s you again. You really like helping people, I saw it all,” Lin Zhizhi said, tilting her head with a sweet and charming smile. “Are you passing by on your way to work?”
Sheng Guoning touched his nose, feeling a bit awkward. “Ah… yes, I happened to drive by, saw the road blocked, and stopped to check.”
“How coincidental. I was bringing Xiao Shitou back from our run and saw the crowd. When the police arrived and people dispersed, I saw you.”
“Yes, very coincidental. I didn’t expect to see you…” Sheng Guoning opened the car door and took out the bag of sweets from the passenger seat. “This is for you. My sister gave it to me last night, and since I don’t eat sweets, I thought you might like it.”
Lin Zhizhi opened the bag. “Wow! Macarons! I go to this place often. I’m not bragging, but among all the dessert shops in Nanyi, theirs are the best.”
She noticed the label on the bag, showing it was produced this morning at 7. She bit her lip but didn’t call out Sheng Guoning’s clumsy “lie.”
“If you like them, that’s great. It’s getting late. I need to go to the bureau,” Sheng Guoning said, nervously sweating. “If you need a ride when you go back to work, just let me know.”
Lin Zhizhi looked at his nervous but trying-to-be-casual demeanor and laughed softly. “Sure, thanks in advance. Since you’re treating me to macarons, how about I treat you to dinner sometime?”
Sheng Guoning was stunned. Lin Zhizhi was asking him out for dinner?
“No time now? Then maybe another day—”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Sheng Guoning nodded repeatedly, glancing at his watch. “If I don’t leave now, I’ll really be late. Let’s discuss the time and place on WeChat, okay?”
“Sure! You go ahead and get busy. I need to go back and work on my drafts.”
Lin Zhizhi held Xiao Shitou’s hand and carried the macarons into the Magic Cube Youth Apartment, her smile as radiant as ever. Xiao Shitou looked up at her. “Auntie, is he the one who wants to date you?”
Lin Zhizhi bent down and winked at him. “Yes, I thought my brother was exaggerating, but it seems he was right.”
“But Uncle Lin doesn’t like him.”
“Ah, it’s not my brother who’s dating him. When you grow up, you need to have your own opinions!”
Sheng Guoning was thrilled on his way to the city bureau, almost wanting to open the car window and cheer. Today’s plan was to leave a good impression on Lin Zhizhi, but the development was so quick. Could this mean he had a chance? Did Lin Zhizhi have some feelings for him too?
Where should the first date be? Should he prepare a gift? What’s the success rate of confessing on the first date?
Poor Officer Sheng, for the first time feeling so moved, is already thinking about how many children to have in the future and what to name them, just from Lin Zhizhi inviting him to dinner.
Yuan Maoqiu was also having breakfast when he received a few WeChat messages from Sheng Guoning. He almost choked on his bun when he opened them.
[Master! Thank you for your guidance, you are the beacon lighting my path to love!]
[Please publish a book soon, I’ll buy it, even if I have to take out a loan!]
——————–
Author’s Note:
The romance between Sheng Guoning and Lin Zhizhi is very important and closely tied to the subsequent plot. As sweet as it is now, thinking about what comes next… aaahhh.
