Cao Wenmei had not slept all night. Her home, already crammed with miscellaneous junk, had been turned upside down until it looked as though it had been robbed. Several times in the middle of the night, she called the same number, but the phone remained switched off. Her anxiety grew almost neurotic. She threw her phone away, only to immediately scramble across the floor to pick it back up. At dawn, she sat amid a pile of useless clutter and stared blankly at the window.
People on Xingwen Street rose early. Before seven, shouting could already be heard in the alleys. Cao Wenmei seemed to wake from a dream. She suddenly sprang up and began packing, yanking a badly worn travel bag from the wardrobe and stuffing clothes, her household registration booklet, and other necessities inside. Then she burst out of the door and nearly knocked over an elderly man heading downstairs for his morning exercise.
“Isn’t that Wenmei? Where are you rushing off to so early?”
Cao Wenmei ignored him, head lowered as she hurried among the old corridor-style apartment blocks that looked like scraps of worn cloth. The mahjong parlors and hair salons had not opened yet. Occasionally, a satisfied-looking man slipped out through a salon’s side door. Cao Wenmei wore no makeup, and to them she looked like nothing more than a middle-aged woman not worth a second glance.
She was grateful she had come out early. The only people wandering the streets were elderly residents buying groceries or exercising. Suddenly, a man’s voice came from diagonally ahead. Her entire body stiffened.
“Cao Wenmei.” Chen Zheng stepped out from the corner. “Where are you planning to go this early?”
Cao Wenmei’s eyes trembled. Seeing Chen Zheng walking toward her, she quickly lowered her head and clutched the travel bag tightly in both hands. Her feet instinctively shifted backward. “I… I came out to buy… buy a few things.”
Chen Zheng had already reached her. “Really? What are you buying that requires all those bags?”
There were more people at the mouth of the street than inside the alley. Curious gazes turned toward them. Cao Wenmei backed away, looking as though she might bolt at any second.
“I’m buying… breakfast. The things are for… for someone else.”
“For who?” Chen Zheng pressed.
“I…” Sweat broke out across Cao Wenmei’s forehead. “For my daughter. Didn’t you say she’s missing? I’m going to look for her!”
Chen Zheng said, “You were planning to run, weren’t you?”
The moment the words fell, Cao Wenmei sharply inhaled, her chest rising high. Since her secret had been exposed, there was no point trying to explain anymore. Only one thought remained in her mind: run.
But she was a woman in her forties. How could she possibly escape under Chen Zheng’s nose? The instant she showed the intention to flee, Chen Zheng was already blocking the direction she meant to turn.
She stared at him in shock, her eyes filled with fear and disbelief. A moment later, tears began to spill from her swollen eyes. She slowly crouched down and clawed irritably at her hair. “My daughter is missing! Am I not even allowed to look for her?”
“The school and police are already searching for Liu Wenran. Yet you, her mother, showed no concern whatsoever about whether she lived or died until I came to see you yesterday.” Chen Zheng exposed her coldly.
Cao Wenmei dropped heavily onto the ground, and the contents of her bag spilled everywhere. “What else am I supposed to do? I have to survive too! She looks down on me, but if I didn’t do those things, who would pay for her school?”
The words seemed disjointed, more like unreasonable complaints than an explanation. Chen Zheng crouched as well. “Cao Wenmei, hiding is useless. I knew you might hide, which is why I waited here. Even if I let you escape today, we’d find you tomorrow. What would be the point? If you really want to find your daughter, cooperate with us.”
Cao Wenmei was breathing hard. “How… how do I cooperate?”
“You answer whatever I ask. If you conceal things, it won’t help either you or Liu Wenran.”
Chen Zheng’s car was parked across the street, with detectives from Beiye Sub-bureau waiting inside. Chen Zheng took Cao Wenmei over. At some point, Sister Bao had appeared at the entrance to the street and watched Cao Wenmei get into the car as though she were enjoying a spectacle.
Chen Zheng switched on the interrogation-room light and deliberately brought in a female officer to sit in on the interview. Cao Wenmei’s nerves were stretched taut, and the bright light made her even more uncomfortable. Only after the female officer chatted casually with her for a while did she relax slightly.
Chen Zheng asked, “If I hadn’t stopped you, where were you planning to go?”
Cao Wenmei avoided answering for a long time. “I… I really was going to look for my daughter. You… you don’t understand her.”
“You’re already sitting here and you still want to lie to me?” Chen Zheng said. “What did I tell you back on Xingwen Street?”
Many people connected to cases were like this. Their attitude constantly changed with their emotions. One second they decided to cooperate with the police, and the next they decided the police could not be trusted. Chen Zheng had seen too many people like that to let their mood swings affect his own. A police officer’s calm often provided the greatest pressure of all.
“I…” Cao Wenmei clenched her hands. “I really did want to look for her, although… although my main purpose was to hide for a while.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Why hide? You’re the mother of a missing person. You wouldn’t cooperate with the school or the police, and instead you wanted to run. Did you do something you can’t let the police know? Did you cause Liu Wenran’s disappearance?”
“No, no! How could I hurt her?” Cao Wenmei defended herself frantically. “No matter how much she hates me, she came from my own body! How could a mother hurt her daughter?”
“So we’re back to the same question. Why hide? Explain clearly, and then we can decide what to do next. And you said she hates you. What did you do to make your own daughter hate you?”
A strangled sound came from Cao Wenmei’s throat. A moment later, tears slipped down her cheeks, as though all the shame she could not bear to put into words had turned into silent tears.
The female detective handed her a tissue and patted her gently on the back.
Cao Wenmei covered her face with the tissue. At first she cried silently, but before long she began wailing. Kong Bing was startled when he saw her on the surveillance monitor and hurried over to ask Chen Zheng what was happening. Chen Zheng waved him away, signaling that they should let her cry.
Half an hour later, Cao Wenmei finally calmed after exhausting herself. She lifted her head. Her eyes were severely bloodshot, and a trace of self-mockery appeared in her smile. “She hates me because I couldn’t give her the kind of family her classmates have. I’ve worked myself to death, and the best I can do is make her live somewhere like Xingwen Street. Do you know where she wants to live? Aiyue Meizhu. Dingxiang Xiaocheng. Those aren’t places people like us can afford. She said her classmates live there.”
Both were famous upscale residential developments in Zhuquan. Chen Zheng guessed that the classmates Liu Wenran meant were probably Zhou Xi and her circle.
“I know what she thinks of me. She thinks I’m the same as those bitches, that I sell myself, that I’m embarrassing.” Cao Wenmei lowered her head. Only after a long while did she continue. “Yeah. I think I’m embarrassing too. Sometimes I think it would’ve been better if I never had her. If I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t have to live like this. Don’t people say having a kid is the biggest waste of your life? If I didn’t have to raise her, why would I do this to myself? Those people, the old ones…”
Cao Wenmei seemed to remember an unbearable image. Gooseflesh rose across her arms, and she could not continue.
Chen Zheng said, “Old ones? What old ones?”
Cao Wenmei shook her head and closed her eyes, refusing to speak.
“Some of your clients are elderly. In fact, you sometimes specifically provide services to elderly men. Is that what you mean?”
Cao Wenmei jerked in terror, nearly rising from her chair. Her voice shook violently. “You… know?”
“I’ve heard something about it.” Chen Zheng continued, “Remember the photograph I showed you yesterday? You said you didn’t know him, but every expression and every movement of your body said you had an unusual connection to that man.”
Cao Wenmei’s heartbeat seemed to fill the interrogation room, as though Chen Zheng had torn it from her chest and placed it, bloody, on the table.
“That man is important. He’s dead, and Liu Wenran visited him shortly before his death and gave him a gift. Now Liu Wenran has disappeared.” Chen Zheng put heavy emphasis on the word dead. “We have reason to suspect his death has some connection to Liu Wenran. And Liu Wenran’s relationship with him may very well have been established through you.”
“No!” Cao Wenmei shook her head forcefully. “Old Yin and I never…”
Chen Zheng said, “You know his name.”
Cao Wenmei collapsed back into the chair. After a moment, she finally admitted it. “Yes. I knew him. But I didn’t know my daughter knew him too, and I have no idea why he died!”
“How did you meet him?”
Cao Wenmei struggled to speak. “He… he almost became one of my clients.”
Cao Wenmei had only a middle-school education. Her man had been Liu Haitao. After Liu Haitao disappeared, she had run a clothing business at a wholesale market by herself. The work was too exhausting, and without a man in the family, she was easily bullied in that kind of place. Eventually, she simply quit and began doing odd jobs around Xingwen Street. Gradually, she discovered that keeping men company at mahjong was the easiest work. Running the business was the owner’s problem. All she had to do was keep the customers happy.
She avoided mahjong parlors crowded with women and specifically played with middle-aged men. Those men rarely had much money, but they loved pretending to be wealthier than they were and were always eager to take small liberties. In her younger years, Cao Wenmei had been attractive. Even now, although she no longer had a young girl’s beauty, she was still a reasonably attractive middle-aged woman. Combined with the glib tongue she had developed while working in the wholesale market, she could usually keep the men entertained. As more customers came to play, the owner paid her more, and some men occasionally gave her little gifts.
Of course, keeping men company at mahjong was not her only work. She also took private jobs connected to the hair salons, putting her in competition with Sister Bao. Back then, however, most of her customers were young or middle-aged men without much money. As she put it, if they had money, why would they come to Xingwen Street?
Whenever the police carried out anti-prostitution sweeps, that side of her business temporarily stopped. But the sweeps never lasted very long. She only had to endure it, spend more time around the mahjong parlors, and life went on.
Then Liu Wenran got into No. 10 Middle School, and everything suddenly changed. No. 10 was a good school. Liu Wenran had gotten in on her own merit, but her grades were not high enough for a scholarship. Everything cost money, and Liu Wenran loved participating in student activities. Cao Wenmei wanted her daughter to have a little more breathing room financially, so she gritted her teeth and increased the amount she spent on her. Once she did that, the mahjong parlor and hair-salon work were no longer enough. She desperately needed a job that paid more.
Brother Zheng approached her and said he could act as her broker, but she needed to prepare herself psychologically. All the men she would serve were elderly, and she would have to endure more than she had before. The money, however, would be correspondingly higher.
She had briefly worked as a caregiver, but she could not stand dealing with elderly people who could barely move and quit very quickly. Thinking about those old men nearing death made her hesitate for a long time.
Brother Zheng did not pressure her. Instead, he praised her looks and how well she maintained herself, telling her that very few women he represented could compare. Cao Wenmei loved compliments, and his flattery gradually tempted her. Then Liu Wenran came home asking for money again. Cao Wenmei could not provide it, and Liu Wenran actually began imitating her by keeping men company at mahjong.
Cao Wenmei thought that being born as her daughter was not Liu Wenran’s fault, but neither had Cao Wenmei done anything wrong. They both simply wanted to live better. The money she earned had never exactly been clean. Was there really much difference between serving younger men and serving old ones?
So she contacted Brother Zheng. He quickly found her first job. Cao Wenmei refused to describe the process in detail, saying only that afterward she drank herself into a stupor. Yet the moment she received the money, she felt it had all been worth it.
Brother Zheng acted almost like he was doing charity. He barely took any commission. At first Cao Wenmei assumed that was only because she was new, some sort of introductory benefit. But even recently, Brother Zheng still took only a token cut.
Yin Gaoqiang had been one of the later clients Brother Zheng introduced to her. As usual, Cao Wenmei prepared herself mentally, dressed carefully, and went to the address Brother Zheng gave her. But that meeting was completely different from every job she had done before or afterward.
Yin Gaoqiang was neatly dressed. He invited her to sit in the living room, brewed tea, and served her fruit. Cao Wenmei thought this was some sort of role-play, but Yin Gaoqiang explained that he missed his late wife and would never again engage in marital relations with anyone. Cao Wenmei was shocked and asked why he had called her there. Yin Gaoqiang was silent for a while before saying that a friend kept insisting he should experience it. He had refused many times, but there was always another attempt. Better to agree once, then tell his friend he had tried it and did not like it.
That afternoon, Cao Wenmei talked with Yin Gaoqiang for three hours. She learned that he ran a noodle shop outside No. 2 Middle School and that he had spent years waiting for his missing son. She was deeply moved and privately decided that when she had time, she would patronize his noodle shop.
The affection within Yin Gaoqiang’s family made her think of her own daughter, warming her heart. When she returned home that day, she cooked Liu Wenran’s favorite spicy diced chicken. Liu Wenran noticed the unusual change in her too. After watching her for a while, she asked what had happened that day.
The kind of work Cao Wenmei did was no secret within their household, but she did not discuss it openly with her daughter either. She only said she had met a very kind elderly man that day.
Disgust immediately appeared on Liu Wenran’s face.
Afterward, Cao Wenmei visited Old Yin’s noodle shop once. Her intentions had been good. She wanted to give Yin Gaoqiang some business. But when Yin Gaoqiang saw her, he looked extremely embarrassed. Cao Wenmei realized she should not have appeared there, hurriedly finished her noodles, and never returned. She never contacted Yin Gaoqiang again either.
“I don’t know why my daughter would go looking for Old Yin.” Cao Wenmei frightened herself as she spoke, arriving at a terrifying possibility. “Did Wenran think Old Yin and I really had something going on, and kill him because of that? But… but I’ve been with so many other people too…”
Chen Zheng said, “Because Yin Gaoqiang was the only one you spoke positively about, Liu Wenran may have been especially sensitive to him.”
Cao Wenmei fidgeted helplessly. “Then what do we do?”
“We take this one thing at a time.” Chen Zheng asked, “Did Liu Wenran ever follow you?”
“I don’t know. Surely not?”
“Could she easily see what was on your phone?”
Cao Wenmei suddenly understood. “You mean Old Yin’s address? I deleted it, but that day…”
She trusted Brother Zheng deeply by then, so she never took private jobs behind his back. Whenever she returned after finishing a job, she deleted the client’s address. Sometimes, though, she was too exhausted to do it immediately, and waiting two or three days was not unusual.
That night, after eating the spicy diced chicken, Cao Wenmei spent a long time washing dishes in the kitchen while Liu Wenran was alone in the living room.
“Wenran looked at my phone then? She memorized the address?”
Chen Zheng asked another question. “Who exactly is this Brother Zheng?”
Cao Wenmei froze and said nothing for quite a while.
“We’ve reached this point and you still want to protect his identity?”
“No!” Cao Wenmei said anxiously. “It isn’t that I want to protect him. I only just realized that I don’t actually know who he is.”
The female detective looked up and frowned at Cao Wenmei.
Cao Wenmei explained, “He said his name is Zheng Tian and that he’s a broker specializing in services for elderly people. He said there’s a company behind him too, but I don’t know what company. I only have his phone number. I’ve called him several times since yesterday, and now it won’t go through at all!”
“Were your transactions in cash?”
“Yes. Brother Zheng said cash is the safest.”
Chen Zheng took Cao Wenmei’s phone. There were no transfers from Brother Zheng or any of the clients, and Cao Wenmei had already deleted all of the elderly men’s addresses.
Chen Zheng sealed the phone in an evidence bag and told Cao Wenmei, “Try to remember every elderly person you dealt with and every place you visited.”
Cao Wenmei’s mental state was highly unstable. She could remember only a few residential complexes and not a single exact address.
Chen Zheng then asked, “When did something happen to Liu Wenran’s father?”
He deliberately did not say your husband, which made Cao Wenmei less agitated.
What Cao Wenmei described largely matched what Jiang Luoqing knew. Not long after she gave birth to Liu Wenran, Liu Haitao began fooling around outside. Their marriage existed in name only. He later smuggled himself out of the country to escape his debts, although that was only Cao Wenmei’s assumption. Liu Haitao had said he would leave the country, but only he knew whether he actually had. All these years, Liu Haitao had never returned, and no one had come looking for mother and daughter over his debts. Cao Wenmei therefore treated him as dead, while Liu Wenran behaved as though she had no father.
For now, Liu Haitao did not appear connected to the current case.
Cao Wenmei’s phone was turned over to technical investigators. When Chen Zheng returned to the squad office, Kong Bing was already waiting for him. “Could there be a criminal organization using ‘services for the elderly’ as a front?”
Chen Zheng stood in front of the evidence wall and was about to pick up a marker when he paused. “A front?”
“It has to be,” Kong Bing said. “Didn’t you hear Cao Wenmei say that Brother Zheng barely takes a commission? Then why would they risk getting caught in an anti-prostitution sweep to run this business? Cao Wenmei earns money, the clients get what they want. So what does Brother Zheng get out of it? Don’t tell me ‘a sense of achievement.’”
Chen Zheng laughed at the phrase. “True. It sounds more like they’re planning something more criminal.”
What he did not immediately say was that servicing elderly men might not merely be a front. There could be some motive behind it that the police had yet to discover.
For the moment, at least, there seemed to be a possible explanation for Liu Wenran’s DNA appearing in Yin Gaoqiang’s home. Liu Wenran and her mother, Cao Wenmei, were like their names, sharing the character Wen. No matter how much Liu Wenran looked down on Cao Wenmei, she had to acknowledge that this woman was her mother, the person she watched most closely. And even knowing that her daughter looked down on her, Cao Wenmei still accepted degrading work for Liu Wenran’s sake.
Following Chen Zheng’s reconstruction, Liu Wenran may have despised Cao Wenmei and despised Cao Wenmei’s so-called clients even more. When she learned that her mother serviced elderly men, that hostility may have reached its peak. What kind of old man had so little dignity at his age that he would do something this filthy?
Perhaps she tried to suppress that anger, comforting herself that Cao Wenmei merely treated those men as a way to earn money.
What destabilized that thought was the night Cao Wenmei made spicy diced chicken for her. For the first time after seeing a client, Cao Wenmei had returned with a happy, contented smile and had even treated Liu Wenran far more warmly than usual. What had this old man done to Cao Wenmei?
While Cao Wenmei washed the dishes, Liu Wenran may have secretly looked through her phone and memorized the address. She felt an anger she could barely conceal, but at that point she probably did not know what she intended to do to the man.
Then, on October 28, she received the gift, something so disturbing that merely looking at it made her uncomfortable.
She had left the gift unopened all day because she wanted to open it in front of Zhou Xi and the others. They possessed so many things she could never have, but at least she had a mysterious admirer. The box was so beautiful, wrapped in shimmering purple paper. Surely the present inside would be equally exquisite. Yet the moment the box opened, she became the clown. It was not a gift at all. It felt like a curse. Amid Zhou Xi and the others’ cries of surprise, she shoved it back into the box in embarrassment, intending to throw it away once they left.
But perhaps while drinking milk tea, an idea suddenly flashed through her mind. She would take this “gift” to the old man living on Hele Street. She would disgust him with it to his face.
She still had to throw away the box. She wanted Zhou Xi and the others to see that she had no interest whatsoever in accepting something like that. Zhou Xi even came back to comfort her, joining her in cursing the bastard who had sent it.
A few days later, Liu Wenran went alone to No. 2 Middle School, passed Old Yin’s noodle shop, and knocked on the elderly man’s door. Yin Gaoqiang opened it and asked kindly, “Child, who are you looking for?”
In this reconstruction, Liu Wenran felt disgust, believing Yin Gaoqiang was pretending. How kind could an old man who paid women for sex really be to a young girl who appeared at his door?
She imitated Cao Wenmei’s manner and said she had come to deliver a gift on her mother’s behalf. Yin Gaoqiang was startled and embarrassed to learn that she was Cao Wenmei’s daughter. Liu Wenran asked whether she could come inside and sit for a while. Yin Gaoqiang agreed.
She took out the doll, expecting to see revulsion and disgust appear on Yin Gaoqiang’s face. Instead, to her surprise, Yin Gaoqiang accepted it and said it was cute, then thanked her.
She may have assumed he was pretending, but she could find no trace of pretense on his face. Somehow… she had become the clown again.
She fled through the door, unwilling to remain another second.
Perhaps Yin Gaoqiang never understood the girl’s intentions, right up until his death. Nor would he have understood why the doll was supposed to be cursed. The little toy favored by young people only reminded him of his son. He brought the doll to the noodle shop, thinking that if one of the students liked it, he could give it away.
But before any student did, Huang Fei saw the doll. Like Yin Gaoqiang, Huang Fei did not understand what was strange about it. He only thought it was unusual. He could not afford toys like that, so why refuse something free?
Huang Fei asked for it, and Yin Gaoqiang gave him the doll.
Chen Zheng said, “That may be the truth behind the doll, Liu Wenran’s hair, and the other clues.”
Kong Bing frowned deeply after hearing this reconstructed analysis. “So Liu Wenran going to Old Yin’s home may have been nothing more than a side episode. Old Yin’s case should still follow our original line of investigation and may have nothing to do with Liu Wenran’s disappearance. As for Liu Wenran’s case…”
“I think it’s more closely connected to Zhao Yu’s disappearance,” Chen Zheng said. “Then there’s Brother Zheng. I suspect the identity ‘Zheng Tian’ is fake. If servicing elderly men is only a front, what crime is actually hiding behind it? And Captain Kong, Liu Haitao’s disappearance doesn’t appear closely connected to the current cases, but it is still a disappearance. Cao Wenmei never reported him missing back then, so we don’t have his DNA on record. But we have Liu Wenran’s now. If Liu Haitao ever left DNA evidence somewhere else, we may be able to identify him through a parent-child relationship.”
Kong Bing wrote everything down one by one. He was about to go verify Zheng Tian’s identity when he reached the doorway and turned back. “Right. Where’s Ming Han?”
Chen Zheng had just raised his cup to drink and set it back down. “At No. 10 investigating the dolls.”
Kong Bing was also a criminal investigator, and a captain at that. A captain’s instincts were usually sharp, whether regarding a case or ordinary life. Suddenly, he felt something about Chen Zheng was slightly off. His tone had shifted just a little when Ming Han came up. Kong Bing turned back. “Director Chen, what’s wrong with you?”
Chen Zheng frowned. “What do you mean, what’s wrong with me?”
Kong Bing could not explain it. Intuition rarely came with evidence. “It’s just… you sounded a little strange when you mentioned Ming Han. You two didn’t have a fight, did you?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Captain Kong, are you interrogating me? You seem pretty free. Come on, I’ll give you another…”
Kong Bing was terrible at resisting provocation. He immediately scoffed. “What’s there to interrogate about you? Forget it if you don’t want to talk!”
After driving Kong Bing away, Chen Zheng checked the time. Cao Wenmei had probably calmed down, but Chen Zheng’s thoughts kept wandering. If anyone was to blame, it was Ming Han, and Kong Bing for bringing up Ming Han of all people.
The previous night, Chen Zheng and Ming Han had separated after entering the residential complex. They had not discussed plans for the next day. Whenever Chen Zheng had a case, he found it difficult to fall asleep peacefully. Now the missing-person case, the explosion, the dolls, and all the other branches that refused to connect had made it even harder to stop thinking.
It was almost three in the morning before exhaustion finally slowed his racing mind. He slept only briefly before waking again. Cao Wenmei could not simply be left alone. There was a strong possibility she would try to disappear from police view.
Before dawn, Chen Zheng had already gotten ready and planned to pick up one of the detectives on duty before heading to Xingwen Street. While going downstairs, he suddenly thought of Ming Han. Should he tell Ming Han that he would not be giving him a ride to the sub-bureau that morning? Then he decided there was no need. It was not as though he had any obligation to drive the man around every day.
But before Chen Zheng even left the residential complex, someone stopped him.
Ming Han emerged from the shadow of a streetlight with a grin. “Bro, how come you left without telling me?”
It was not even six yet. The sky was pitch-black. Ming Han appearing without warning from the darkness made him look suspiciously like someone planning a crime.
For a moment, Chen Zheng did not know what to say.
Ming Han caught the brief dazed reaction immediately. “Did I scare you? No way.”
Chen Zheng came back to himself. “What are you doing here this early?”
“Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing. What are you doing here this early?”
“Going to Xingwen Street. Cao Wenmei might run.”
Ming Han put on a wounded expression. “You have a mission and didn’t call me?”
Chen Zheng was just about to say that Ming Han could come along when the man continued, “Then whose car am I supposed to hitch a ride in today?”
So all he cares about is the car? Chen Zheng walked forward expressionlessly. Ming Han kept following. Once they reached the car, Chen Zheng assumed he was getting in too. He waited, but Ming Han made no move to open the passenger door.
“Weren’t you going to hitch a ride?” Chen Zheng asked impatiently.
Ming Han pulled a bag out from behind his back and tossed it onto the passenger seat. “Who said I wanted a ride? I’m going to No. 10 today. Wrong direction.”
Chen Zheng looked into the bag. There was a sandwich inside. The crust was still slightly warm, clearly freshly toasted.
“Then you…”
“Obviously I came to deliver some warmth.” Ming Han bent down, resting one arm across the car door. “I guessed you’d come out early to wait for Cao Wenmei today. I also guessed you’d leave too early to eat breakfast. All right, get going. I’m going back to catch up on some sleep.” He yawned, waved at Chen Zheng, and said, “See you later.”
The warm breakfast sat in the passenger seat. Chen Zheng had driven for a while before he noticed an unfamiliar sensation in his chest. It was soft and yielding, like cotton, leaving him unsure what to do with it.
He pulled over, ate the sandwich bite by bite, then devoted himself completely to work. But Kong Bing’s words just now had stirred that unfamiliar softness back up again.
Chen Zheng quietly considered it. He only felt at a loss because he was not accustomed to it, but he did not dislike it.