“Right, I almost forgot to ask you something. Do your parents know about our relationship? Or rather, can they accept that you’re a lesbian? What if they can’t? I can’t just run away with you, can I? We’re both over sixty combined.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
Not all parents could accept having a lesbian daughter, especially since Xie An was an only child and had always been the perfect good girl. Her parents probably wouldn’t be able to accept it even more. Her life was different; she had no parents and had long grown wild without anyone watching over her.
No one was holding her back anyway.
She also didn’t want to see Xie An arguing with her parents because of her.
It would make her feel like a femme fatale.
Xie An’s family didn’t even know she did voice acting as a side gig.
They probably didn’t know their daughter was a lesbian either, right?
Xie An smiled.
“They’ve known for a long time that I like girls, and they’re actually pretty happy about it.”
“Happy? You’re not messing with me, are you?”
She had never heard of parents being happy when they found out their daughter was a lesbian.
Xu Qingzhou didn’t believe it at all and thought Xie An was just lying to her.
To tell the truth, Xie An’s parents had been genuinely happy the moment they found out.
They had tried introducing her to a few boys before—decent-looking ones at that.
But later, they all turned out to have poor character.
On top of that, Xie An kept posting videos in the family group chat about murder and dismemberment cases.
Over time, forget about setups. Her parents even hoped she’d stay single forever—it would be fine that way.
Even when she started dating Xu Qingzhou, she had told her parents about it.
When they heard it was a girl, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
They had nearly burst into tears of joy.
Because it was a doctor’s family, there weren’t often people at home.
She was usually alone every day; doctors were very busy.
She rarely saw anyone.
“No, they like you a lot. I showed them your photos and told them everything. They nearly cried and told me to date you properly, saying that if I broke up again, they’d break my legs.”
“What did you do?”
“I just kept posting murder and dismemberment cases—ones stemming from emotional disputes. Over time, they agreed to let me date a girl. They stopped nagging me to find someone or get married. They even thought it would be pretty good if I stayed single forever.”
Xu Qingzhou: …
This woman didn’t just scheme against her; she even schemed against her own parents?
“Do you want to come home with me for the Dragon Boat Festival? They really want to meet you.”
“Meet me?”
“Yeah, meet you. They want to see which family’s cabbage their little pig has arched.”
…
Lin Shuyi never imagined the professor would arrange for her to intern in June, right before summer break started. Her plans to travel to various cities and check out their food during vacation were completely ruined, but since she was already there, she might as well make the best of it. The professor brought her into the Lancheng Criminal Police Brigade.
She became a brand-new intern.
Assigned to work under the captain of the criminal police team.
Thanks to the professor’s exaggerations, she had been treated like a rare animal for several days.
Only after becoming a police officer did she realize they didn’t handle many cases.
She just did odd jobs every day, like reviewing files.
Tidying up hygiene and such.
It was nothing like the nonstop exciting cases on TV.
In the half month since she arrived, no new cases had cropped up.
In one sentence: she was bored enough to grow mold.
The kind with green fur.
Her older sister and brother-in-law had gone traveling.
Song Wanqing had taken Yu Qiuli abroad for fun.
She was the only one working. She used to think school was pretty interesting.
She thought work would be the same, but no.
Work was just as annoying.
Every day, she wondered why she had chosen this major.
She bought a cup of coffee from Luckin.
Her black short hair was a bit messy.
None of the professional knowledge she studied was being used.
She was already twenty-one and had never thought about dating.
Being alone was great; she could buy whatever she wanted to eat.
No one to control her.
It couldn’t be better.
A long-haired girl sat down across from her, having bought a coffee too.
Lin Shuyi didn’t even look; she wanted to eat quickly and wasn’t interested in girls.
“Officer Lin, eating so fast? Careful, or your stomach might hurt.”
Lin Shuyi looked up, twitching her lips. Talk about enemies on a narrow road.
The world was so big, yet why was she interning at the same police station as this person?
She had complained to the professor, but her protest was invalid.
Lu Pan looked at her, legs crossed, smiling slyly.
“Forensic Doctor Lu, hurry up and eat. Too slow isn’t good for your health—of course, that’s not the only thing I mean.”
Lin Shuyi stood up.
Back at school during the martial arts tournament, she had taken first place.
Lu Pan came second. The bruises and small cuts on her face were courtesy of the other woman.
Halfway through the fight, this person had pulled out a small knife from somewhere. The tournament rules didn’t ban other tools, so treating every match like real combat, Lin Shuyi got serious too. They went back and forth evenly; she had barely won.
“Wait, why the rush? At your six o’clock, someone’s hand seems itchy. How about I gift you a merit?”
Lin Shuyi glanced over.
Sure enough, a guy behind her was stealthily pickpocketing a woman’s wallet.
At this time of day, everyone was heading to work, and it was crowded.
If you didn’t look closely, you wouldn’t notice.
Lin Shuyi strode over quickly.
She grabbed the man’s wrist with one hand and flashed her police ID.
Everyone in the coffee shop looked their way.
The woman’s leather backpack had already been slashed open; half the wallet was stolen.
Lu Pan had already called the police. This minor issue was better handled by patrol officers.
But after dealing with this, Lin Shuyi would definitely be late.
Lu Pan did it on purpose—to make her late.
The Criminal Police Brigade hated tardiness; they were strict about punctuality.
When Lin Shuyi looked back, Lu Pan had vanished.
She checked the time.
She knew what the other woman meant. This wasn’t a merit.
It was trouble.
When Lu Pan arrived at the station to report, she spotted Lin Shuyi talking to someone.
“Hey, Forensic Doctor Lu, you really are slow.”
Lin Shuyi grinned mischievously.
Even if they bickered, it didn’t change that they were partners.
The station didn’t care about that; everyone had to mesh when they arrived.
In personality, physique, habits—they all needed to adapt to each other.
