Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 68

Chapter 68: Biting a Rotten Strawberry

To get an appointment for Xu Sui’s surgery, Qin Luo had been very busy. She had even postponed the meeting to terminate the reading group’s contract and had specially invited the big boss of the beauty salon out for afternoon tea, and had even gotten a VVIP card at her shop on the spot.

The card had no owner’s name, no reservation phone number, just a blank card.

When Qin Luo left, she had placed the card on the table and had said that after the doctor had finished Xu Sui’s surgery, she would invite the doctor to have afternoon tea with them.

The implication was that the card was for the doctor.

Zhan Luo was standing at the entrance of the beauty salon with a group of security guards.

He was holding a sun umbrella in his hand and had been waiting for more than four hours before he saw Qin Luo come out.

As soon as she came out, he opened the umbrella to shield Qin Luo from the ultraviolet rays.

Qin Luo was sending a message to Shen Yiyi. The screen’s brightness was self-adjusting. The sun umbrella blocked the light, and the weak light made it difficult for her to see the words. “I didn’t get a treatment. You don’t have to hold it.”

“Then shall we go back to the company?” Zhan Luo closed the umbrella.

“No, take me to the production.”

“Then the content meeting for this quarter of the reading group, you haven’t been to it for a while.”

Qin Luo was annoyed. Her hand was still typing. “No matter what content we do, the reputation is bad. It doesn’t make much of a difference whether I go or not.”

Zhan Luo fell silent and walked to the car to open the door for Qin Luo.

[Xu Sui’s matter can be settled soon. If you have time tonight, I’ll call you.]

Halfway through the drive, Qin Luo received a reply.

[Then I’ll come and see you after work.]

Coming to see her tonight? So proactive?

[What time do you get off work? I happen to be near your unit.]
[In half an hour.]
[Then I’ll come and pick you up for dinner.]

Qin Luo was very tired today and didn’t want to go home to cook any of her specialty dishes. “Zhan Luo, go to the city’s public security building.”

Zhan Luo observed his boss’s expression in the rearview mirror.

It was impolite to stare at others, but he couldn’t help but be curious. “Are you going to see a friend?”

[Okay, see you in a bit.]

Qin Luo put her phone in her bag. “Yes.”

The police officer on duty at the entrance was already familiar with this license plate. He walked to the car window with a familiar ledger. Zhan Luo took it and turned to look at Qin Luo.

Qin Luo held out her hand. “Give it to me.”

She left her ID number and signed her name. But this time, Qin Luo did not write “picking someone up” in the purpose of visit column.

The manual was handed over to the police officer on duty by Zhan Luo. Then the barrier was raised, and the car entered the police station.

“Take us to dinner in a bit. I’ll send you the address.”

“Okay, then do you need me to pick you up after dinner?”

“No need. You can drive back. I’ll just take a taxi.”

Zhan Luo’s words were stuck in his throat. He held the steering wheel with both hands and waited quietly with his boss.

A few minutes later, a person walked over from a distance, swaying. She was wearing a summer duty uniform, holding a laptop bag in her hand, and was looking down at her phone. She walked to the car and opened the door, only to find that the person in the driver’s seat was not the right one. She was stunned for half a second.

Zhan Luo nodded in greeting. “Director Shen.”

Only then did Shen Yiyi realize that this was the assistant she had met at the airport.

Qin Luo had already moved and patted the boss’s seat in the back row. “Come and sit.”

Only then did Shen Yiyi open the back door again and get in.

Qin Luo saw that her blue duty shirt was half-soaked. “Little Zhan, turn up the temperature a little.”

With that, she took a tissue from her bag and handed it over. “What did you do? It’s all wet.”

“I just came back from an event. It’s fine. Don’t wipe it.” The tissues Qin Luo used were very soft and thin. The rubbing of her fingertips on her collarbone made Shen Yiyi feel very itchy, as itchy as the day Qin Luo had buried her head between her legs and said she would serve her. “I can do it myself.”

“Then let’s not go out for dinner. Let’s go back and change.” Qin Luo patted the back of the car. “Let’s go back to the Cloud Top.”

“Okay.”

“It’s fine. The duty uniform dries quickly. It’ll be dry in a bit.” Shen Yiyi waved her hand.

But Zhan Luo was Qin Luo’s employee. He looked at his boss in the rearview mirror and found that she had no intention of changing her destination.

With Zhan Luo in the car, both of them were uncomfortable. Qin Luo’s eyes would occasionally glance to the side.

This was the first time she had seen Director Shen in a duty uniform.

Shen Yiyi was a person with sharp lines, but her personality was reserved. It was as if she were born to wear this police uniform.

Qin Luo glanced again.

The epaulets and badges were not removed. The light blue was filled with a little black, which made her look particularly oppressive. Qin Luo did not say another word on the way.

It wasn’t until they were downstairs and Zhan Luo had left that Qin Luo finally spoke. “I’ve contacted the doctor for you.”

Shen Yiyi had not expected it to be so fast. She had also asked many people, but there had been no results for a week.

She was a little embarrassed. “Was it a lot of trouble for you?”

“It was okay.”

Qin Luo found a string of phone numbers on her phone and copied and pasted it into the chat box. “This is the doctor’s private number. You can just say it’s about Chen Sui. She’ll find someone to help you with the hospitalization. If the check-up is done this week, the surgery can be done next week.”

The speed was so fast that Shen Yiyi was not prepared.

She looked at the string of phone numbers on the screen and was silent for a long time. When the elevator doors opened, she looked up. Qin Luo still had that polite posture, holding the elevator door for her with her hand and gesturing for her to go in first.

“Thank you so much. I’ll go and tell my uncle in a bit.”

This “thank you” had a sense of distance, constrained and polite.

“It’s fine.” Qin Luo smiled and nodded at her. She thought: Even if I had gone to all this trouble to find a life-saving doctor for Wang Dapao in Singapore today, I wouldn’t have gotten such a bland reply, let alone the fact that we’ve already been half in bed together.

Qin Luo would rather she be bound by love, subject to responsibility and obligation, and say, “It’s fine. Your sister is my sister.”

But now the anchor was lost in the storm again.

She let go of that rope. “It’s fine. We’re all friends.”

Shen Yiyi, who had just taken a shower, was wearing a cotton and linen shirt and holding her soaked police uniform, standing by the living room.

Qin Luo looked up from cutting vegetables and raised an eyebrow. “How do you wash a police uniform? Can it be machine-washed?”

Shen Yiyi hid the police uniform behind her back. “I’ll take it back and wash it myself.”

Qin Luo looked down and shifted her attention to the radish.

She brought the knife down steadily, cutting it into strips and then shreds. Then she picked it up and threw it into a prep plate, and walked to the stove without a word to turn on the heat.

…

Shen Yiyi could sense that the atmosphere was not right. “Do you need my help?”

Qin Luo shook her head. “No need.”

Shen Yiyi could only see Qin Luo’s back. The apron hanging on her waist was not tied properly. She was holding a wok handle in one hand and a spatula in the other.

It was clearly the same person.

But it was not the back she had seen through a dim kitchen light during the winter vacation of her second year of high school, the one who was cooking hot ginger soup.

Shen Yiyi folded the police uniform and went into the kitchen to find something to do.

Washing vegetables, it seemed they were all washed.
Cutting vegetables, it seemed the vegetables were all prepared.

Finally, she picked up a kitchen paper towel and began to clean the corners of the island counter.

The hot oil was thrown with scallions and garlic, and the aroma immediately spread. Shen Yiyi’s hunger was ignited. She stopped what she was doing and turned her head to see what Qin Luo had made.

It was ribs!
And in the pot next to it, there was also seaweed soup…

Shen Yiyi made small talk. “Are you going to the production tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

Qin Luo watched the ribs sizzle and turn golden in the hot oil. The soft surface was seared to a crisp. She was only focused on flipping the ribs. After saying “yes,” she fell silent.

Shen Yiyi had originally wanted to take the opportunity to talk, but Qin Luo had not said the familiar “I’ll pick you up tomorrow.” She suddenly couldn’t continue the conversation.

So she changed the subject. “Then… has the case of your company’s resale been solved?”

“Yes.” Qin Luo picked up the soy sauce and poured it into the pot. “Liu Jia has almost solved it.”

The mention of Liu Jia had blocked the conversation again.

Shen Yiyi threw the paper towel into the trash and turned to ask, “Are you unhappy tonight?”

Qin Luo was flipping the food in the wok. “No.”

Shen Yiyi didn’t believe her. She walked to Qin Luo’s side. The aroma of the braised ribs was steaming. The thick, rich sauce looked very appetizing.

“It was hard to tell if you were happy or sad before, because you would smile whether you were happy or not.”

“But now I can clearly sense your emotions… I don’t know if it’s related to my profession.”

“Of course, I also have to explain that I’m not deliberately profiling your micro-expressions. It’s probably because I’ve been to a lot of scenes recently and have been a little confused between public and private.”

Qin Luo didn’t say anything, but the spatula flipping the food in the wok didn’t stop.

“I mean, if you have anything you’re unhappy or sad about, you can tell me. Although I might not be able to help with work, I can provide a way to solve the problem.”

Seeing that Qin Luo had turned off the heat, Shen Yiyi immediately picked up a plate and handed it over. “There’s no relevant topic about Logos online recently. The negative news will always disappear. When I was on a business trip a few days ago, Guo Rui even sent me a message to ask how you were doing…”

“My current state is a natural state.” Qin Luo placed the ribs on the plate one by one, then drizzled the sauce over them, and finally picked up the plate and walked to the dining room. “I’m not happy, and I’m not unhappy. It’s a very ordinary mood.”

Only a case would make Shen Yiyi feel drained. Everything else was just a passing cloud.

Shen Yiyi nodded. “It’s good that you’re not unhappy.”

Qin Luo placed the plate on the table. “Thank you, Director Shen, for being willing to observe me, to profile me, and to put so much thought into me.”

The plate clattered on the table. Her expression was a forced smile, her steps were more buoyant than usual, and she even frowned and glanced at her as she passed.

So was she happy or not?

After observing for a long time, Shen Yiyi could only come to one conclusion: her micro-expression profiling should be retaken.

The whole dinner, Shen Yiyi did not dare to be boring again. She buried her head and ate two bowls of rice and drank a large bowl of soup, using her actions to show Qin Luo that her cooking was very good.

But Qin Luo didn’t even look up. She drank her soup and scrolled through her phone, not even taking a single piece of rib.

“I’ll wash the dishes.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Strange! Strange! This atmosphere was so strange!

Shen Yiyi was washing the dishes. In front of her was the floor-to-ceiling window of the river view room. Qin Luo was curled up in the single sofa, on the phone.

Her tone when talking to others was polite and gentle, and she would even laugh a couple of times. The person on the other end of the line couldn’t see Qin Luo’s smile, but Shen Yiyi could.

The orange floor lamp was behind Qin Luo, half-bright and half-dark. The glass reflected her outline. Her black hair was scattered, and a warm feeling flowed around her, slowly focusing.

For some reason, Shen Yiyi took the initiative to open the refrigerator. The butler hadn’t bought any grapes recently. In the compartment lay a box of very expensive cream strawberries.

You should eat sour and sweet iced strawberries in the summer.

Shen Yiyi was bewitched. She took out the strawberries and washed them. While Qin Luo was still curled up in the warm light, smiling at a stranger, she walked over.

She didn’t ask if she wanted to eat them.

Shen Yiyi chose the one that was most suitable for her to bite, the one that could block her mouth, the one that could fill her mouth, an iced strawberry. She gently removed its stem.

“Here.” She said “here,” but her movements were like a dissection, forcefully holding the strawberry to Qin Luo’s mouth, stuffing it into her smile, and interrupting her laughter.

Qin Luo’s breath was blocked. Her lips were forced to swallow the other’s fingertips. She let out a soft, trembling “mm” and frowned, looking up.

“It’s very sweet,” Shen Yiyi said with a smile.