"Yes of course, dear. They always come to greet me whenever I come outside. Is there a problem?"
While Ma Zhilan was answering, Jia put two and two together and slowly connected the dots as to what could have happened.
She smiled. "Nothing, Mam. We will walk you back."
Her gaze fell on Mingshen, who looked unfazed by this particular fact.
As they reached home, the door already opened before Ma Zhilan rang the bell and a little girl hopped out. "Grandma!"
She jumped to hug Ma Zhilan. "I missed you! You were out for so long," she complained.
"Aish, I missed you too my dear," she lovingly ruffled her head. "Did you have fun at your friend's house?"
"A lot!" She cheered up and giggled. "We played so much and I won all of the games!"
"Really now?" She cocked her brow.
She sheepishly grinned. "N-not all of them but I lost only two games!"
"Good, good. My Juan is so talented," her gaze held pride.
Ma Juan withdrew from her hug and then noticed Jia and Mingshen standing at some distance. The sight of them immediately thrilled her for two different reasons.
"Pretty sister is police?" She curiously circled her and stared longingly at her police uniform. It fascinated her to see a cop in a crisp ironed uniform before her in flesh.
Jia bent to her level and grinned at the adorable girl before her. "Yes, I am a police officer. Nice to meet you. How old are you?"
"I am eight! Do you beat the bad guys, pretty sister?" Her eyes shone with hunger to know everything about her. "Like whoosh whoosh!"
She mimicked a fighting scene she had watched in a movie.
"Well if the bad guys are like this man here…" she wasn't shy to express her disdain and judgemental stare at Mingshen, "Pretty sister pretty much doesn't have any choice left but to beat them."
Mingshen shyly replied, waving his hand at her. "You give me too much credit, Spicy. Making you pissed off is what I live for."
Juan gasped. "Why you beat the handsome brother, pretty sister? Handsome brother is so handsome! And tall too! Handsome brother is good," she nodded with all seriousness. "Don't beat handsome brother."
Mingshen thoroughly appreciated the little girl's taste. "I must say you have inherited the cool eyesight from your grandmother~ You are gonna go really far in your life."
Jia's mouth twitched.
"He is good only because he is handsome?"
Juan gravely bobbed her head. "Heroes are handsome in movies. Villains are ugly and they have bad teeth and they laugh strange too!"
"..."
She is influenced by the movies way too much…
Mingshen agreed, touching his chin. "Indeed I am not ugly or have bad teeth or laugh strangely. Yet I am not a hero. I like to be the devil."
"Devils are bad," Juan said.
"Because people are too blinded by heroism."
Jia pulled her attention away from him and said, "Not all handsome people are good and not all ugly people are bad."
She scrunched up her brows. "Really?"
"Of course. It's how the person treats you well and how right his or her actions are. A good heart is what matters and this handsome brother's heart…" she narrowed her eyes at him, "is all black!"
"Spicy, I feel offended. Black is way too lighter of a shade for my heart."
Juan, who was blinded by Mingshen's beauty, stammered, "Pretty sister, handsome brother shines so b-brightly! How his heart is black? It must be all sparkly too!"
Jia wanted to puke blood.
Sparkly and his heart…
Ma Zhilan coughed. "Now, now, Juan. What have I taught you when we have guests?"
Juan remembered and stuck out her tongue, realizing her mistake. "Pretty sister, handsome brother, welcome our home!" She greeted them with a wide smile, her white teeth showing through it. "Come inside."
Jia laughed. "You did that very well. But I am sorry, dear. The sister and brother will leave now. We came here to drop your Grandma."
She pursed her lips, disappointed. Ma Zhilan asked, "Oh, dear. Won't you come inside for sometime?"
"Thank you for the offer, Mam but we really have to leave. There is a lot of stuff to do back at the bureau regarding the case."
She nodded. "I understand. I won't insist then. Thank you for the ride. Drive safely."
"Bye bye pretty sister, handsome brother!" Juan happily waved her hand to bid them goodbye.
As they turned, they bumped with a couple coming inside. They were clearly shocked to see a police officer in front of the house.
"Mama! Dada!" Juan ran to hug them.
Juan's father, Ma Wenyan, asked with caution, "Hello…?"
Ma Zhilan introduced them. "Superintendent Song, they are my son and daughter-in-law. Wenyan and Yanyu."
"Ah, I see," Jia acknowledged and showed a polite smile. "Nice to meet you. We just came to drop Miss. Ma back home."
Ma Wenyan tensely enquired. "What happened? Was Mom in any accident?"
"Not her but there was an incident at the Dahua movie theater."
Ma Yanyu blinked. "Isn't that where Mom went to watch the movie?"
Juan tugged her dress. "Mom, help me with homework please!"
She replied, exasperated. "Not now Juan. I am dead tired and have lots of work to do after dinner. Wenyan will help you."
Ma Wenyan nodded at Jia, reading between the lines. He thought to ask his mother later. "Thanks for dropping Mom off-"
"Ugh let go of my dress, Juan! Don't be so stubborn!" Ma Yanyu lashed out in impatience when Juan still continued pulling her dress.
Tears pooled in Juan's eyes with her harsh scolding and she ran inside, crying.
"W-wait! I didn't mean to-" but she was already gone.
Ma Wenyan patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. I will talk to her." He left inside, and she exhaled a tired sigh. "I really cannot deal with her."
Jia cleared her throat and suggested. "A chocolate and a tight hug with a sincere apology will do the trick."
"Thanks. Sorry you had to see that…"
Mingshen looked delighted. "Is that the trick to win you, Spicy?"
"The trick to win me for you is to disappear from my sight," she dryly said.
"Ridiculous. How will I lovingly feed you chocolates if I disappear~?"
She looked at Ma Zhilan and said, "We will take our leave."
"Ah? Oh yes," she said a moment later. "Thank you once again, dear."
Reaching the police car outside, Jia donned on a serious expression. "It must be the dogs' fur. You said the allergy triggered Mrs. Dai's asthma, and Dai Fengge said she is allergic to pet dander. Mrs. Ma's seat was just beside hers. It's possible that some fur stuck on her dress and body accidentally came into contact with Mrs. Dai."
"That seems to be the only conclusion."
"But what would account for the gap between the onset and death? She couldn't be suffering for that long and nobody even noticed?"
"Medically, it only makes sense for her to have fallen unconscious. She was face down on the right side when I first saw her, her hands were hanging at the side and that position is inconsistent with consciousness. She fainted and an hour later died," Mingshen smiled. "A fortunate accident."
"Excuse me, fortunate?"
He laughed. "You met the cheating couple. The picture-perfect family. That old hag definitely supported this affair. I am pretty sure they planned this 'cute picture-perfect family time' just so that the kid could bond with that stupid woman. It was a crude simulation of how his life was gonna become once his own mother would be thrown out of the family and that stupid woman would become his father's wife."
His words were everything that Jia had already figured when she learned about their affair.
"I agree with your point. But don't say it was a fortunate death if you ever meet Dai Fengge again. You have already caused enough trouble for today."
Mingshen stretched his arms and yawned. "I would rather say that my presence brought life to your otherwise dull investigation."
"It is somebody's death investigation. It's not supposed to be entertaining," she scowled.
Mingshen cocked his brow. "Death is as interesting as life, especially when stupid people die~ But rejoice my dear! Case solved. Now can we get to the part where we get all lovey-dovey~ The part where I kill you and take you to my lab?" He mimicked Juan's sparkling eyes, which only made her puke with disgust.
"Who said the case is solved?"
"You~"
"I only pointed out the possible reason behind Mrs. Dai's death."
"Wasn't your investigation all about that?"
"There is a case yet to be solved."
He tilted his head questioningly. "What that might be?"
She smiled and as she opened the car door, she said, "The case of the missing inhaler."