“I didn’t do anything…” Sun Xin sat up straight, his face turning red as he gestured with his hands.
“How is he letting me win? It’s just my luck,” Jiayi leaned on the table, smiling at Sanfu, “Sanfu brother, time to pay up!”
“Ha, you tofu boy!” While Sanfu paid up, he was still visibly upset.
Thinking that Sun Xin could still manage not to lose money while letting Jiayi win just irritated him more. It was clear to everyone at the table except how Sun Xin was doing it, and Sanfu couldn’t figure out how to counter it.
Really frustrating.
Indeed, he was better suited as a detective than playing games like mahjong, which were simply too hard for him!
“It’s not cheating… It’s all within the rules,” Sun Xin weakly explained, then exchanged a look with Jiayi and couldn’t help but smirk.
Today, he and Ms. Jiayi had indeed won a good amount of money.
“In the future, I’ll post a big notice in front of Yi Ji’s entrance: ‘Do not play mahjong with Chef Sun Xin!’ Let everyone know!” Sanfu stood up, stretched lazily, and sighed:
“Thank goodness Little Tofu doesn’t go to casinos. Otherwise, the casinos in Hong Kong would have to implement a new rule: ‘Sun Xin is banned from entering.'”
“Hahaha, that’s an exaggeration!” Jiayi also stood up, happily twisting her waist.
As the sky darkened, everyone had been playing at Brother Yue’s house for most of the day, and it was time to disperse, allowing the host to rest properly.
While everyone was tidying up the card table, Jiayi sneaked up to Sun Xin and whispered, covering her mouth: “I’ll treat you to ice cream when we get back! Two of them!”
“I really wasn’t holding back…” Sun Xin scratched his head, his skin around the eyes turning red again. Because his face is pale, any color shows up very clearly.
Jiayi shook her head, disagreeing: “Little Tofu, you’re really not suited for lying.”
It’s too easy to see through.
“…” Sun Xin, embarrassed, gave a silly laugh and then bent down to help tidy up.
The setting sun cast a golden, fiery glow over the sky, sea, and city, creating a breathtaking scene.
As Jiayi was tidying up the chairs, she casually turned her head to gaze at the sunset over the sea. She saw two beautiful, egg-yolk-like suns, one on the sea’s surface and the other just below it, all so beautiful, all emanating a multicolored light that covered the sky…
So beautiful.
While Jiayi was watching the sea and the sunset, Fang Zhenyue was watching her.
The twilight reflected on the delicate and smooth cheeks of the girl, tinting them with a blush hue, making her brows, eyes, and lips seem softer and more appealing.
He casually pocketed one hand, while picking up a plastic chair to stack on another, his lips curling slightly as his gaze then shifted to Sun Xin by the pool helping with the grill.
Little Tofu’s skin was originally very pale, but these days he seemed well-fed and well-rested, looking much rosier. His facial expressions were more lively, the once timid expressions now calm and gentle, and his attractive features stood out even more.
He is a rare sight of a handsome guy, a great Sichuan chef at Yi Ji, who could likely overshadow many young actors if he were at TVB.
Fang Zhenyue’s lips unintentionally straightened as he looked back at Jiayi, his eyes filled with a complex expression.
…
Crossing the small steps in the yard, circling around the soundproofing trees, they reached the road.
Uncle Jiu drove Sanfu and the others away, while Fang Zhenyue drove the Yi family down the mountain in a large jeep to Central to catch a ferry at Star Ferry Pier.
The winding mountain road was smooth, offering different angles of the setting sun.
As the sky slowly lost its warm hues, the rainbow faded, the surroundings draped in a light purple, deepening into blue-purple, then shrouded in gray, finally sinking into that touch of deep navy blue in the dark.
The mountaintop was much quieter than the city center, surrounded by lush vegetation in the villa area, which seemed very quiet without the sunlight.
Probably every wealthy resident here enjoys a holiday-like peace and seclusion after returning home at night. There’s none of the noise of the downtown area, nor the light pollution from the neon lights below the mountain.
Wrapped by nature at night, it must feel blissful.
That was Jiayi’s sentiment. If she actually asked, Fang Zhenyue would probably give her a negative answer: it’s lonely and desolate.
The Jeep’s chassis is high, offering a better view than Uncle Jiu’s car ahead. The headlights are bright, illuminating the vegetation on the downslope to the right as clearly as daylight when turning left.
Upon reaching the third turn, Fang Zhenyue’s headlights suddenly shone on a person standing by the roadside, prompting him to brake and slow down, carefully maneuvering around the pedestrian and his motorcycle.
If Fang Zhenyue were prone to road rage, he might have leaned out to curse the other person, standing on the edge of a cliff at a turn at night, practically suicidal.
Fortunately, although Sir Fang’s temper is not great, he is not impulsive. Instead of getting angry, he slowed down and took a careful look at the other person.
Sitting behind the passenger seat, Jiayi suddenly leaned forward, gripping Fang Zhenyue’s seat with both hands, and spoke softly:
“Brother Yue, did you see that thing down the slope? It looks like a light-colored blazer with embroidered red roses.”
The reason that man was standing at the roadside corner seemed to be that he was retrieving something.
The mountain-top villa area is very clean, with road cleaners clearing, maintaining, and cleaning the roads twice a day. They ensure all trash within view along the roadside is collected daily, even if cleaning below the slopes is dangerous, the workers use tools to achieve this.
After all, the wealthy pay high taxes and have high expectations for their living environment.
Logically, it wouldn’t make sense for such clear trash to be lying on the slope uncollected.
Especially since it looked like a blazer, it certainly wasn’t mere trash.
As Jiayi spoke, Fang Zhenyue was turning around a bend and slowly pulling over to a safe spot on the road.
After parking the car, he informed everyone, then took a flashlight from the car and went back to check if what they had passed was indeed a blazer.
Jiayi also jumped out of the car, after telling her eldest brother to watch over the others, she quickly followed Fang Zhenyue’s steps, looking ahead into the flashlight’s fan-shaped area along the roadside.
By now, night had completely fallen. The distant sea withdrew its beauty and grace, releasing deep, mysterious shadows. Looking out, Jiayi felt a sense of awe.
Finally, when they reached the bend, Fang Zhenyue and Jiayi stood side by side and confirmed that the light-colored item by the bushes was indeed a light-colored blazer.
But there were no embroidered roses on it; the clusters of red were the scars of cuts soaked in blood.
“Did you see anyone?” Jiayi asked a passerby, showing her credentials before speaking.
“No, I just saw it while I was cleaning up the street trash. It looks like a bloody garment, madam.” It turned out that the passerby was a sanitation worker on a night shift, riding a small motorbike.
Fang Zhenyue took off his jacket and hung it on the sanitation worker’s motorbike, preparing to descend to the cliff to investigate whether the suit had been worn by someone who was stabbed and bled.
Jiayi looked down the slope below the road, which was full of bushes. With Fang Zhenyue’s tall and strong physique, it would be difficult to make his way down, so she held him back and said:
“Brother Yue, I’m smaller than you, let me go down and check.”
She tested the firmness of the slope with her foot and then prepared to walk down sideways.
As soon as she stepped, her shoes began to slip.
Jiayi hurriedly bent down to hold onto the concrete road to stabilize herself when a large hand caught hers and pressed it towards the ground. The expected rough concrete was replaced by a strong and warm palm.
Though the inside of this hand and the fingertips had many calluses, holding it back felt not only smooth but also reassuring.
“I’ll stand here and hold you. Take a few steps down and take a close look. If we can confirm that the red is blood, it means someone was wearing it and got stabbed. Then we can go back to my place and call the police,” Fang Zhenyue laid out his plan, nodding to her.
Jiayi felt the strength in his palm, as well as the reliability of being held by him.
She squeezed his palm in return, nodded without hesitation, faced Fang Zhenyue and the ground, and slowly descended backward down the slope.
She stepped firmly with each foot, ensuring the soil under her was solid enough before moving on, continuing down until she reached the maximum distance Fang Zhenyue could reach while squatting with his arm outstretched.
A man held a flashlight in his other hand, shining it on the suit jacket.
The sanitation worker stood nearby, also helping with his flashlight.
Watching Jiayi, a tall and slender female police officer, tackle the task without disdain for the muddy slope or fear of the bushes scraping her clothes, boldly and efficiently, he couldn’t help but admire her and said as he looked on:
“Amazing, oh be careful with your step, madam.”
Jiayi picked up a branch, moved the obstructing bushes aside, and examined carefully before turning to Fang Zhenyue:
“Brother Yue, the suit is indeed punctured by a knife, and the area around the hole is stained red, much like blood. There seems to be blood on the branches behind as well… with vertical and splattered droplets.”
“There are traces of bushes being pressed down over there; someone must have come down from that direction.”
“There are… it looks like two sets of footprints.”
“There’s also a red liquid over there… a lot of it.”
While examining the surroundings, Jiayi directed Fang Zhenyue to shine his flashlight towards the direction indicated by the branch she was holding.
As her field of vision expanded and she gathered more information, the grip on his palm grew tighter.
The sanitation worker, hearing Jiayi’s observations, couldn’t help but exclaim, “Madam is so professional, has someone been harmed?”
Jiayi did not respond to the sanitation worker’s question. Fang Zhenyue, having gathered enough information, took her hand and pulled her back:
“Let’s go back.”
“Should we call the police, Brother Yue?” Jiayi used his strength to climb up the sloping hillside.
Fang Zhenyue effortlessly pulled her up in a few tugs.
When they stepped onto the concrete road, Jiayi hadn’t yet adjusted to the flat surface and leaned forward. Fang Zhenyue immediately reached out to steady her shoulders.
In an instinctive move to stabilize herself, Jiayi grasped his arm. Under her fingertips, she could feel his solid muscle contours, warm and strong, just like his large palm, conveying a reliable signal.
Being led by him down the slope, Jiayi felt very secure, not at all afraid that he couldn’t hold on to her, nor worried about falling down the hillside.
Because he was there.
This probably stemmed from the sense of security that Fang Zhenyue always provided. Everyone in the team trusted him; as long as he said it was okay, everyone felt it was okay.
So, she hadn’t even felt it was particularly dangerous or scary.
Turning her head for another look at the steep hillside, it was still very steep, dark, and falling down might mean being shattered to pieces…
Looking up at Fang Zhenyue, because they were standing so close, she had to tilt her head back quite a bit to see his firm jawline. Her gaze then shifted to his well-defined Adam’s apple. It bobbed slightly, and Jiayi quickly averted her eyes, stepping back a little.
“Please, sir, help us guard the scene, and make sure not to go down the slope lightly to avoid disturbing the scene,” Fang Zhenyue said to the sanitation worker, glanced at Jiayi, and then spread his arms.
He didn’t touch her, but he separated her from the hillside to prevent her from accidentally falling:
“Let’s go back to my place to call the police.”
Jiayi nodded and followed him back to the jeep.
“Brother Yue, you go back and call the police, and I’ll stay here with the sanitation worker uncle to watch the scene. How about that?” Jiayi stood by the car, discussing with Fang Zhenyue. Leaving the sanitation worker alone here made her a bit uneasy.
If it really was a crime scene and the killer returned to retrieve something they had left behind, like a bloodstained garment, then the sanitation worker could be in danger.
Her presence would at least provide some backup and ensure that the sanitation worker didn’t do anything reckless.
“…” Fang Zhenyue had also considered this, but today was his day off without his gun, and he hadn’t spoken out of concern for her safety.
Moreover, before the situation was clear, the sanitation worker could not be ruled out as a threat.
However, looking at her serious expression and determined eyes, he pondered for a few seconds and then took a baseball bat out of the trunk for her:
“Hide here by the roadside, and keep your distance from that sanitation worker. Be wary of anyone. If you see any other suspicious people, try not to engage, and shout for the sanitation worker to run away separately, understand? Your own safety is always the most important.”
“I understand, Brother Yue,” Jiayi nodded seriously. She never acts recklessly nor takes matters into her own hands, always a reliable and reassuring officer.
“I will arrange for your elder brother and the others to spend the night in the guest rooms of the villa, and after calling the police, I will come right away to meet you.” Fang Zhenyue nodded, the thought ‘I should buy a mobile phone’ crossed his mind. He scanned the surroundings once more, gave a final admonition to “be safe, stay alert,” then got back into the jeep and sped away with a press of the accelerator.
Jiayi withdrew her gaze, leaning in a safe and wind-sheltered spot on the inner side of the mountain road, gripping the baseball bat, vigilantly watching and listening in all directions.
Not even a whisper of the wind was ignored, ready at any moment to confront someone or flee towards the Fang Zhenyue family’s villa up the mountain.
The sanitation worker stood idly by the edge of the cliff, occasionally looking at clothes hanging on the bushes below, occasionally shining his flashlight around, and occasionally looking back at the female officer facing him, scratching his head, finally blowing in the mountain breeze, gazing towards the northern bay.
The evening breeze was serene, rustling through the grass and trees.
In the distance, the sea began to swell, and clusters of dark clouds began to dot the previously clear sky.
Night fell, and the weather was changing.