The tea culture in Hong Kong has evolved over time, becoming less pure. Many teahouses now blend Western and Chinese tea arts, creating a new type of flair.
However, the teahouse chosen by Jiayi today still retains the original Hong Kong flavor.
Old-fashioned large kettles for brewing tea and covered tea cups, stacks of various newspapers and magazines readily available for browsing, enjoying tea snacks while reading the paper, and occasionally closing one’s eyes to enjoy the sunlight streaming through the windows—this is the leisurely, old-school charm of life here.
“The water boils, the tea is fine, and everyone is happy,” one could say, as they admire the traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy hanging in the inner room, adding a touch of ancient elegance.
After reflecting on Uncle Jiu’s rebirth, the detectives’ spirited emotions faded, leaving them feeling tired and lazy.
Qiu Sushan tried to get everyone back to work, but couldn’t withstand the detectives’ tantrums.
“Madam, don’t rush us. We’ve all just been crying, we’re really dehydrated. Let’s sit for a while longer,” Liu Jiaming pleaded, pulling Qiu Sushan by the right hand and pushing her towards the sofa.
“Yes, Madam, let’s have some tea first,” Sanfu said, grasping her other arm.
Caught between two detectives, Qiu Sushan had no choice but to surrender and plunk down on the soft sofa of the teahouse.
Once the top-grade Tieguanyin tea was brewed and released its fragrance, they blew on it to cool the heat, sipped delicately, and then drank deeply, feeling the steamy warmth fill their stomachs, their bodies beginning to sweat, and only then did they truly appreciate the satisfying joy of drinking tea.
Leaning on the sofa, Qiu Sushan watched everyone slurp their hot tea and crunch into the flaky egg tarts, her fingers touching the BB-call at her waist.
She had planned to wait until returning to the station to tell Jiayi the news, but lying back in the teahouse, she suddenly felt like adding a layer of joy to the moment.
Pulling out the BB-call, Qiu Sushan handed it to Jiayi.
The young policewoman took the pager, raised an eyebrow curiously, and looked back.
“Take a look. It’s your promotion order,” Qiu Sushan said with a smile.
The sunlight on her face felt slightly intoxicating. Could it be that even tea could make one drunk?
“!” Jiayi’s eyes widened as she brought the pager closer to her face.
“What? A promotion? Let me see too!” Liu Jiaming immediately leaned in curiously and read aloud without realizing:
“Detective Yi Jiayi, for outstanding performance in solving multiple cases and receiving commendations from various departments, is hereby promoted to Senior Officer.”
“Wow! Eleven is amazing! It took me many years to become a Senior Officer!” Sanfu snatched the BB-call, exclaiming in awe and drooling with envy.
“Ah ah ah, Eleven is surpassing us, I’m so envious!” Liu Jiaming leaned on Gary, pretending to cry while waving at the teahouse owner, “Madam, do you have any cake? We have a double celebration here and need to celebrate!”
Fang Zhenyue patted Liu Jiaming’s head and stood up, moving efficiently to the counter to select a cake.
The landlady immediately pushed forward a freshly baked fruit cake, reorganized the cream and lettering, inserted candles, lit them, and with a beaming smile, brought it to the long table, offering a lucky phrase before placing the cake down and stepping away.
“Come on, raise your glasses. Let’s celebrate Uncle Jiu’s safe return and Eleven’s promotion and pay raise!” Fang Zhenyue sat at the edge of the sofa, leg stretched into the aisle, and grandly lifted his tea cup.
“To cheers!”
“Cheers!”
“I’m downing mine, you all go at your own pace!”
“Hahaha…”
The clinking of porcelain cups was continuous as everyone drank their hot tea with exaggerated gusto and then playfully encouraged Uncle Jiu and Jiayi to each blow on the candles.
Following the virtue of loving the young, Uncle Jiu insisted Jiayi blow first.
Jiayi, respecting her elder, urged Uncle Jiu to go ahead.
The old and the young laughed and decided to play rock-paper-scissors.
Uncle Jiu won and blew out three candles in one go. Jiayi followed, extinguishing the remaining five with a single breath.
Liu Jiaming quickly removed the eight auspicious red candles, took up the knife, and began serving everyone, cutting the largest pieces for Jiayi and Uncle Jiu, then for madam, Brother Yue…
Thus, what was simply a plan to pick up Jiayi and return to the police station turned inexplicably into a group sitting around a table, drinking tea, eating cake, and enjoying themselves until noon. They then headed to Shelter Bay to enjoy crabs before finally returning to the station at two in the afternoon.
Qiu Sushan had never indulged like this before. When she returned to her office, her face was flushed, unsure if it was from the joy or a slight shame of leading her team in such indulgence.
Team B returned, and Jiayi immediately went with Qiu Sushan to see their superior.
After a bit of a lecture, she signed the promotion order and smoothly completed the transfer procedures.
On the way back with Qiu Sushan, Jiayi felt a surge of excitement.
Now a senior officer, her next step would be toward Senior Inspector.
Those distant goals now seemed a bit closer, which was really nice.
“By the way, your salary has been raised to 18,000 Hong Kong dollars, starting this month,” Qiu Sushan turned to look at the young female officer nearly her height, seeing genuine surprise in her eyes, as if a few thousand dollars raise was the happiest thing in the world.
Youth is wonderful, so pure and simple, with emotions so transparent.
She couldn’t help but reach out and rub Jiayi’s shoulder, loving beautiful things as everyone does, and even Qiu Sushan, a woman, found herself fond of someone as lovely and excellent as Jiayi.
She even felt a slight urge to pinch Jiayi’s cheeks.
“Thank you, madam!” Jiayi’s mouth was so agape with joy that she stood still and saluted Qiu Sushan.
Qiu Sushan laughed at this, and feeling good, she couldn’t suppress her strongest impulse—she actually pinched Jiayi’s cheek.
“It’s what you deserve, it has nothing to do with me, why thank me?” Qiu Sushan withdrew her hand, feeling a bit embarrassed.
Here was an exceptional and powerful detective, and there she was, the commanding officer acting improperly by pinching and prodding at the police station, which was really quite unbecoming.
She worried that Jiayi might be upset, but when she nervously glanced at Jiayi, she saw only joy in her eyes, her face and heart equally filled with happiness, completely unconcerned about her touchy behavior.
Such a likable young person indeed.
Truly… so wonderful it makes one want to exclaim in awe.
“Go back to work,” Qiu Sushan said, her expression unknowingly softening into a warm spring.
“Yes, madam!” Jiayi nodded vigorously, her mind looping the mantra ‘make money, save money, buy a big house’.
If she were a cartoon character, her pupils would surely have turned into dollar signs by now.
As she walked through the corridor, about to reach the office, Qiu Sushan suddenly remembered something and quickly grabbed Jiayi’s wrist.
The policewoman turned her head, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.
Qiu Sushan let go, smiled slightly, and then said solemnly:
“When Uncle Jiu was in trouble… although we all believed in his character, we weren’t completely convinced that he hadn’t been overwhelmed by his emotions to push Ming. Thank you for believing in him wholeheartedly.”
Jiayi slightly parted her lips, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
Her belief was because she had ‘seen with her own eyes’ that Uncle Jiu hadn’t pushed.
“In this world, trusting others is the easiest and the hardest thing to do. Every detective is taught to ‘question’. As we experience more over time, we really become good at questioning and forget how to trust. Even towards a brother, there’s likely a bit of scrutiny.”
Qiu Sushan patted her suit, found her pocket, and slipped her hand in, taking a deep breath before shrugging slightly:
“For everyone, protecting oneself is most important.”
“If you trust the wrong person, you might end up like Uncle Jiu, betrayed by Ming. As you get older, you’ll find that the people who can deceive you the most are often those you trust the most.”
“But Eleven, you really did well.”
“Your trust in Uncle Jiu, and your stubbornness to prove his innocence because of that trust, didn’t just preserve his reputation. It probably also preserved what little faith Uncle Jiu had left in many things…”
If in this case, even his brothers didn’t trust him, didn’t believe that evidence proving his ‘so-called innocence’ existed, and didn’t relentlessly search for that evidence because of their trust in him…
What will the final outcome be?
Uncle Jiu might not only be framed by Zhao Zhicheng’s false testimony and uncontrollable circumstances but might also never trust anyone again. He could become even more disillusioned with human nature, becoming increasingly…
And then there’s herself.
Qiu Sushan pursed her lips, reflecting on the insights she gained throughout this case.
She had learned how to be an adult in society but had forgotten how to retain a child-like sincerity after becoming one.
These days, watching Yi Jiayi, seeing her reckless yet unhesitant charge forward, Qiu Sushan felt as if she was learning to be candid from her, and also learning to rediscover her original intentions.
“Thank you,” Qiu Sushan suddenly said.
“Madam…” Jiayi stood somewhat bewildered in the corridor, staring at Qiu Sushan.
She saw something in madam’s eyes but couldn’t quite understand what it was.
“I hope your purity is never shattered,” Qiu Sushan nodded to Jiayi, “While trusting others, remember to protect yourself a bit more.”
“I understand, madam,” Jiayi nodded earnestly.
Qiu Sushan took a deep breath, raised an eyebrow at Jiayi, and without further ado, turned and entered her office.
Jiayi lowered her eyes, pondering madam’s words, and smiled to herself before cheerfully turning into the B team’s office.
The warmth and melancholy stirred by madam’s words instantly turned into ‘Raise time~ Raise time~ Raise raise raise~~~’.
Buoyed by the joy of a promotion and raise, Jiayi spun through the afternoon like a tireless top.
She went upstairs to fetch lab results, downstairs to organize files, and back to her computer to work on reports, all done with great enthusiasm.
Wrapping up old cases was enough to keep everyone busy for a while, and Fang Zhenyue even went to discuss with Qiu Sushan about taking on a few more old cases.
In the Major Crimes Unit’s office, there truly were no idle hands.
…
After Lin Wangjiu returned to his office, he first went to burn three sticks of incense in front of the statue of Guan Gong.
He apologized for not having burned incense daily in the past few days, explaining that unfortunate circumstances had kept him from coming to work at the police station, which caused the delay.
He also thanked Lord Guan for sending dreams to Eleven, chatting with the deity about household matters for quite some time.
Once he finished with his superstitions, preparing to ease back into work with some simple tasks, Inspector Guo from Public Relations suddenly came to talk to him.
Uncle Jiu then left the simplest task to Team B and followed Sir Guo to the Public Relations Office.
After sitting down, Sir Guo beat around the bush with several pleasantries before getting to the heart of the matter:
“Now that the case is closed, the major newspapers will surely want to do a summary of the case. I’d like to discuss this matter with you personally.”
“Sir Guo, I don’t know much about this area, I’ll just follow your lead,” Uncle Jiu replied, sipping the green tea handed to him by a young female officer of the Public Relations Office, and answered calmly after taking a sip.