Ding Ding!
The bell to the cafe rang as Liu Tang walked inside. DongFeng was on the counter when he arrived, the latters eyes showing nothing but anger towards him.
"You really think you can get away with this?" DongFeng asked. "You need to grow up, Liu Tang. You can't use the excuse of your accident forever."
Liu Tang was silent after DongFeng's confrontation. He didn't know what to feel after the words DongFeng said to him, perhaps because he was guilty of it.
"I'm sorry," Liu Tang said. "But I can take on the customers for today. You can sort boxed or rest if you want to."
DongFeng sighed. "You should know that among anything in this world, I hate sorting boxes the most."
"Then I'll do it," Liu Tang offered. "But I have to serve here after lunch and you can rest."
"We rest for the majority of the day," DongFeng scrunched his face. "Liu Tang, are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Liu Tang dismissed their conversation. He went to the back room where they keep their aprons on. This is also their rec room to rest and eat their meals.
A rack was located in front of the door of the break room. This is where they keep their aprons that had the logo of the cafe. It was a lotus flower but had the color of vermilion, hence the name of the cafe which was Vermilion Lotus.
The door opened and ShuChun came in. Just like DongFeng said, she wasn't happy at all. "You're late?"
"I'm sorry, boss," Liu Tang bowed. "My neighbor was murdered last night and the police came to ask me questions."
Instantly, ShuChun's face softened. She cleared her throat, recovered her posture and nodded. "Alright. Then I'll leave you to the cafe. I will be back by this afternoon."
"Alright," Liu Tang nodded. ShuChun didn't say anything else and let herself out, leaving the man sigh in relief. "Good thing I didn't actually lie."
Creak.
"Your neighbor was murdered?" DongFeng suddenly asked from nowhere, making Liu Tang jump in shock. "I'm sorry. I overheard your conversation with the boss. Why didn't you say anything?"
For Liu Tang, murder was a normal thing. Cultivators get murdered all of the time either because of envy, revenge, or thirst for power. It has been a widely known rule that when you kill a Cultivator, their Qi will immediately transfer to you.
All their efforts in banishing evil spirits and hunting demonic creatures would be passed on to their murderer. This was why many cultivators settle for hunting other cultivators instead of collecting Qi the proper way.
This was also the reason why Liu Tang was used to the mention of murder, and that he didn't feel the need to tell it to everyone. He keeps all his thoughts to himself, that was how he lived.
"Yeah, my neighbor Quan Rui was brutally murdered," Liu Tang said. "The murderer is still on the loose, and to make matters worse, I'm the last person she ever talked to."
"Oh," DongFeng was silent for a couple of seconds. "You know, we don't have many boxes to sort. You can just come up front and clean tables or something."
Liu Tang felt odd about what DongFeng just offered. He was so used to him wanting to rip DongFeng's face off of his body, that an interaction like this with the man sent new shivers to his spine.
"Alright," Liu Tang said. "I'm gonna head there soon."
Ding Ding!
"Alright. There's a customer I have to tend to. Take your time," DongFeng smiled before he closed the door.
Liu Tang was left there, frozen in place. "W-What just happened?"
He laughed at himself after remembering how awkward DongFeng looked when he smiled. The DongFeng he knew would only smirk when there's a torture or murder happening right in front of him, but a full blown smile was even more impossible than achieving the Celestial status.
It took a while for Liu Tang to fix himself. He forgot how to tie his apron properly, so he took his time trying to finish the job. After a while, he sighed and got out of the room to ask DongFeng for help.
"Will you tie my…" Liu Tang trailed off after he saw two familiar men in the seat right across the counter. He gulped in fear, but casually approached DongFeng. "Can you please help me tie with this? I–"
"Forgot," DongFeng cut him off with a sigh. "Of course, you forgot. Turn around."
Liu Tang took a turn and let DongFeng fix his apron for him. "Hey, DongFeng. Do you know those two customers we have?"
"The police officers?" DongFeng leaned in to ask. "What's up with them? Are you getting arrested or something?"
"Of course, not," Liu Tang scoffed. "But I know them. They're the ones who investigated Quan Rui's murder."
"So, they are coming for you," DongFeng grinned awkwardly. "Good luck."
The tie of the apron was finished, making DongFeng tap Liu Tang's back. "Done."
DongFeng was about to turn around when Liu Tang pulled him. "How did you know those two are police officers?"
"The color of their shirts, their huge-ass badge, and their stern look," DongFeng fixed Liu Tang's collar ad tapped his chest. "Anyone would know. Now clean those tables."
"You–"
Liu Tang sighed and nodded multiple times. "Alright. I see that it has come to this."
"Clean them!" DongFeng yelled from the counter.
This made Liu Tang groan, but had no choice but to do as DongFeng said. He took his time to wipe each dark brown wooden tables, starting from the corner of the store.
It took him twenty minutes to reach the middle, hoping that the police officers would be finished, but they still weren't. This made the emperor groan again. He walked past the row of tables that Yuan and his co-worker was on.
"Oh, Mr. Liu Tang," Yuan called. "You work here?"
"You know everything about me, don't lie," Liu Tang said in his mind, but didn't actually spoke the words. Instead, he spoke. "Oh, what a coincidence. I'm just going to pass by your row to clean the rest. It would be disrespectful if I clean the table beside yours."
"Mr. Liu Tang, we're used to seeing bodies get mauled by different objects," the other police officer said. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Officer Jiang. Jiang Shen."
"Hello," Liu Tang bowed. "No, I'm going to clean the other ones."
Yuan suddenly stood, and so did Jiang Shen. This surprised Liu Tang, making him look at DongFeng in panic.
Liu Tang's forehead started to sweat. He gulped and cleared his throat simultaneously, causing him to cough when he almost choked on his own saliva.
For some reason, the police officers were also sweating. They keep on clearing their throats, making Liu Tang wonder. "Are you guys okay?"
"We're fine!" Jiang Shen shrieked, pulling Yuan's sleeve with him. "Let's go. I remember I have to do something."
"We're going to take our leave now," Yuan smiled, but his face was covered with sweat. "The service was nice, and the coffee was amazing. Ten out of ten would recommend to my friends."
"Thank you, officer," Liu Tang bowed.
The police officers left the cafe immediately. They hurried to their car with Yuan sighing. "This is going to be hard, and you go turbo on the road. I need to go."
"Me too. But why is hard?" Jiang Shen asked. "I don't think he's the culprit."
"But he's obviously lying," Yuan said. "We'll be back here. For now, let's head back to he station. I need to take a dump."
"Yeah, that coffee was mad," Jiang Shen agreed.
Meanwhile, back in the cafe Liu Tang saw a packet on the trash can. They didn't have much trash so he went ahead an picked it up, only reading something he wouldn't expect.
"Laxatives?"