"What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?" The girl cut a piece of fish and asked with a graceful smile.
The food was exquisite and fresh, the piano melody was elegant, and the waiter came and left lightly without making a single sound. Yan Xie's gaze darted to the other corner of the restaurant and remained there until the girl's mood worsened and her tone sounded aggravated: "--what do you like to do in your spare time?"
"Hmm?" Yan Xie came back to his senses: "There is no such thing as spare time. The City Bureau works overtime twice a month for half a month at a time."
"... Then do you read books, travel, or go to concerts when you are on vacation?"
"I listen to the music," Yan Xie said with little interest, "when driving I listen to Phoenix Legend or something."
"..." This girl was rather good at controlling her facial expression, and she even came up with a new topic: "Since you are so busy, you should have encountered many cases, right? "
Yan Xie: "Ah, that's true!"
"Great, I've always admired the police since I was a kid! Do you know of any new and exciting cases that you can tell me about?"
Not far away, in front of the dining room window, Yang Mei was talking about something, not even touching the food on her plate, but chattering with Jiang Ting. Jiang Ting was eating as methodically and slowly as ever, occasionally making a single sound from his nasal cavity, neither nodding nor shaking his head.
For the eighth time, Yan Xie withdrew his dignified prying eyes and said absentmindedly, "Novelty? There's nothing new, it's all the same."
The girl looked at Yan Xie's face and decided to give the man one last chance on account of his looks.
"There have been a few new ones recently." As if the heavens had heard her voice, Yan Xie finally thought about it and reluctantly opened his mouth, saying, "A few days ago, a suspect was killed on the highway, the truck ran over him twenty to thirty times. Oh, his corpse looked just like the meat gravy on your plate, we were collecting the parts in plastic bags with iron pliers for two hours. And last month, there was a girl of your age who assisted in smuggling drugs, putting them in plastic wrap and stuffing that into her private parts, shit that was disgusting, our policewomen almost didn't eat for a few days afterwards ..."
Shouldn't have given him any chance, the girl thought blankly.
"... That's why I say girls of your age shouldn't go out too late, be vigilant when walking at night, and dress conservatively. It's not that our patriarchal society blames female victims or anything, the problem is that some animals are not human, and it's useless to blame them. Even if they are arrested and put in jail to enjoy the pleasure of their chrysanthemums turning into sunflowers a million times, the trauma of the victims themselves will be hard to erase, so it is important to look at the probability... Hey waiter!"
The general manager, who was secretly watching, immediately stepped forward quickly, "Young master."
Yan Xie pointed at Jiang Ting and Yang Mei who were getting up in the distance and heading for the observation deck: "Where are they going?!"
The general manager was sympathetic: "They've finished eating and want to get some air."
Yan Xie: "..."
Yan Xie was like the primary wife that had caught an adulterous couple in the act. Judging from his expression, those two might not be going to the observation deck, but going hand in hand to the Civil Affairs Bureau to register their marriage.
"Ahem!" The blind date girl put down her knife and fork, wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin, picked up her bag and smiled, "I'm so happy to have met you today, Mr. Yan, it's almost time for me to go back, so let's not exchange contact information."
"?" Only then did Yan Xie come back to his senses again, "What's the matter? Aren't we having a good conversation?"
The general manager covered his eyes miserably.
At that moment Miss Qianjin really used up a lifetime worth of good upbringing and self-cultivation, and said with a smile, "No Mr. Yan."
Mr. Yan: "..."
"May I take the liberty of asking, is the pair you've been looking at just now a couple or a husband and wife?"
Husband and wife? Husband and wife, my ass!
Yan Xie said categorically, "Brother and sister! ... No, they're brother and sister!"
The girl's eyes were full of enthusiasm and encouragement: "Since they're not lovers or a married couple, go for it if you want to! Use force to stamp out all obstacles! It's better to fight now! I'll leave now, bye bye."
Yan Xie said, "Huh?"
The girl gave him a look of "come on", even though it looked like she was rolling her eyes; then grabbed her Chanel snow white rabbit fur clutch and walked away without looking back.
"... Although you're pitiful," the General Manager patted Yan Xie's shoulder, and honestly replied with pain in his voice, "this is really your fault."
Yan Xie was dumbfounded, seemingly not like the direct participant of the situation, and even a little aggrieved: "I just looked twice!"
Yan Xie quickly ate the rest of the steak on his plate, wiped his mouth and stood up, heading straight for the observation deck with a cigarette case in his pocket.
The glass dome was full of flowers, the jasmine was snow-white and fragrant, the phoenix wood was lush, the rose vines were curving upwards around the marble columns; Jiang Ting had his back to him, his hands were in the trouser pockets, Yan Xie saw that Yang Mei's head was slowly tilting at a rate of half a centimetre per second, just about to lean on Jiang Ting's shoulder unnoticed.
Yan Xie: "Ahem!!"
Yang Mei: "!!!"
Yang Mei turned her head and glared, Yan Xie flashed a smile not unlike hers back in the parking lot: "I just received a call from the city bureau."
Jiang Ting looked back sensitively.
"Urgent warning about the circulation of the new fentanyl compounds ...," Yan Xie paused with deep meaning.
As expected, Jiang Ting lived up to his expectations, "Yang Mei, you should go back first, I'll discuss some things with Deputy Chief Yan."
Yang Mei was so furious, that she felt as if someone had shoved an egg down her throat, after puffing and panting for a while, she flung back her head and glared fiercely at Yan Xie as she stomped past him, the words "I'm going to tear you apart" were clearly written in her eyes.
Yan Xie nodded politely. Judging from Yang Mei's follow-up reaction, she probably thought her high heels were Yan Xie's corpse.
·
"What about the new drugs?" Jiang Ting said faintly.
Yan Xie didn't answer, but walked up to stand beside him and lit a cigarette.
"..." Jiang Ting looked up at the "No Smoking Here" sign not so far away, pondered for a moment, and then raised his hand and hooked his index finger.
Willing to accept other people's views, Yan Xie then kindly gave him a Chunghwa Soft cigarette and lit it. The two of them turned towards the huge floor-to-ceiling glass wall and exhaled long and hard at the same time. The bustling city in the distance beneath their feet was submerged in a white mist, which then instantly dissipated into smoke.
"What's the reason this time?" Jiang Ting asked.
Yan Xie said, "I don't know, inexplicably, a woman's heart is a needle in the ocean."
Jiang Ting slightly turned his head sideways, Yang Mei's figure had already disappeared in the restaurant. He flicked the ashes of his cigarette and said to Yan Xie, "Maybe you haven't met your other half which your heart awaits for yet."
Yan Xie gave him a particularly stunned look, something along the lines of I didn't expect you to have a literary talent, Captain Jiang.
Jiang Ting shook his head, "I don't have much experience either, I'm just giving you some advice from a rational point of view."
Yan Xie blinked and suddenly elbowed him twice, "Hey, senior."
"What?"
"We're the same age, haven't you been on a blind date?"
"I was introduced by the organisation."
"What happened?"
Jiang Ting said, "Didn't you see it?"
Yan Xie looked him up and down and teased, "Oh, I didn't expect my senior to also have broken his halberd and sunk into the sand..."
"It's basically me rejecting people."
"-- ah?"
Jiang Ting inhaled the smoke and said: "As a front-line policeman, if you aren't ready to protect your family and children, you shouldn't drag them into the water. If your heart is restrained by something, you'll be constantly looking back even if you're looking ahead, and it will not only harm others, but it can also harm yourself. Of course, another important reason is that I'm not interested in blind dates."
"Oh ..." Yan Xie dragged out his words, nodded thoughtfully, and suddenly seemed to have realized what was wrong: "No interest?
"Not interested?"
"Hmm."
Yan Xie quickly blinked a few times, "You ...have you ever had a girlfriend? The young first love that ended in failure during the school years does not count?"
"Not interested."
Yan Xie repeated: "... not interested?"
Jiang Ting said, "I work overtime twice a month for half a month at a time. It's already not bad that I haven't suffered a heart attack at my age, where's to get much interest?"
Click!
It was like a lightning bolt hitting his soul and echoing in Yan Xie's mind for a long time - not interested!
He is not interested in having a girlfriend!
Could it be that he likes men?
Fuck, the captain of the second anti-drug team in Gongzhou likes men, the gossip would spread all over the land of China. But if he doesn't like men, how come he didn't have a girlfriend, that's not in line with normal behavior logic ah? Don't tell me that he's??
Wait, assuming that captain Jiang likes men, there are no contradictions in the logic of his behavior. In his early years, he stood against the public opinion and returned the second-class merit to me. After all, I was handsome, skillful, and my testosterone took Jianning plus Gongzhou by storm, both 60-year-old aunts and 16-year-old girls alike ... and so on! Wait! Could it be that he's secretly in love with me?!
Yan Xie's face looked calm, but inside his heart heaven was falling and earth was rending.
No wonder he agreed to accept the room key to move from Yang Mei's KTV to my house, no wonder he was willing to accompany me on a blind date and also asked Yang Mei to cover for him, no wonder he specifically asked me before leaving home this morning if I wanted to bring a bottle of milk as well .....hold on! No wonder he drank milk in my car! Everything has an explanation!
Jiang Ting asked casually, "What's wrong with you?"
What's wrong? I am a straight man. What else can I do? Although you are good-looking, have a high IQ, thin waist, long legs, white skin, but ... but ...
Yan Xie puffed out smoke in a trance, his soul seemed to be on the edge of the cliff swaying, trying to find a life-saving rope to grab on - but what?
--Yes, men can not have children!
Yan Xie was relieved to feel that his precarious straight cognition, no, even his soul, had been saved. If he went back to the car for a few minutes to read the work of the psychology master, maybe he would immediately ascend to heaven.
"Hey," Jiang Ting frowned slightly. He probably felt that Yan Xie was immersed in the pain of failing his blind date, so he took the initiative to pat him on the back: "Accept it and move on, it's hard to tell with fate, maybe you'll meet it tomorrow around the corner."
Yan Xie was caught off guard and stumbled. For a moment, he felt that the place he was touched on the back was electrified, his hand went soft so he almost dropped his cigarette.
"..." Jiang Ting finally realized that something was wrong: "Are you okay?"
Yan Xie looked at him blankly, and for a long time his eyes rested on Jiang Ting's beautifully shaped lips and neat white teeth. His brain was buzzing, he could not hear anything apart from the movement of opening and closing.
WTF does he mean by meeting fate around the corner, is he suggesting that I chase him? Although I am not unable to pursue him, and the captain Jiang is very good-looking, but after all, men can not ... can not ... just said that the males can not...
"Yan Xie!" Jiang Ting scolded him in a lowered voice amidst the strange looks of several tourists around him, "Your phone is ringing!"
"Huh?" Yan Xie quivered, he subconsciously took out the phone, and it really was a call from the Municipal Bureau.
A call from the city bureau was usually not a good thing, especially on the first day of vacation, but it had to be answered. Yan Xie was just about to find a secluded and unoccupied place when he suddenly turned back to Jiang Ting and said hurriedly, "Wait for me here, don't run around!" With that, he took his phone and walked away in long strides.
"Hello, Da-Gou?" Yan Xie casually pulled a chair behind the bar and sat down, signaling the general manager who was also following him to stay away. There was a hidden spark in his tone: "What's the matter, a case?"
"Call Director Gou!" Gou Li arrogantly said, "You crow's mouth, can't you hope for something good? Can't Lao Wei just be considerate of everyone's hard work and take the initiative to give each person two more bags of rice and two bottles of oil, or take money out of the public fund to invite everyone to a barbecue tonight?"
"Oh, that's good, it just so happens that our family has opened a new barbecue restaurant..."
"I'm talking nonsense," Gou Li smiled, "there's a case."
The air around Yan Xie suddenly solidified, and the temperature instantly dropped to minus twenty degrees.
"The couple received a blackmail text message that their son, who had just finished the third year of junior high school, had been kidnapped when he went out camping with his classmates, and the kidnappers are demanding two hundred million yuan." Gou Li said, "Do not say anything, hurry up and make the criminal investigation detachment people come back, we are not destined to have a vacation."
Yan Xie felt that something was wrong, "Two hundred million?"
"Mm-hmm, the amount is particularly huge, that the city bureau took over the case as soon as possible."
"According to my understanding of the wealthy class in Jianning City, no more than five families can withdraw two hundred million from their liquid funds in a short period of time, and the only family with a son, who is in the country, is talking to you right now, I'm sure I wasn't kidnapped." Yan Xie said suspiciously, "What do the parents of the missing child do? Are you sure it's a kidnapping and not a prank?"
"This I do not know. It is said that the couple started a small company and their family background is better off than that of ordinary people, but forget about 200 millions." Gou Li said, "I personally think this case is very strange."
"What?"
"The photo that the kidnapper sent with the text message was a T-shirt soaked with blood." Gou Li paused in the forensic room, with a microphone around his neck, staring at the high-definition enlarged picture in front of him, he frowned: "According to this amount of bleeding, the missing person is not very likely to be alive."