Le Ning still hadn’t fully recovered from the shock even when a staff member called her into the small room for the interview.
So this was the reason she’d spent all these years “working hard” to get bigger boobs?
Of course not.
Was she crazy?
Besides, when had she ever gotten enhancements? Hers were completely natural, okay!
“Lemon?”
Le Ning snapped back to reality. Her eyelashes fluttered as she looked at the staff member in front of her. “Sorry.”
“Lemon” was the nickname netizens gave her, and for convenience, most people called her that now.
The staff member smiled. “No problem at all.”
“Shall we start with a product introduction?”
“…Sure.”
After the formal interview wrapped up, the host—who was also a staff member—moved to sit across from her with the interview notes in hand.
Le Ning sat on a short sofa, a beauty in red. Even if she wasn’t feeling her best, she was still stunning enough to make it impossible to look away.
The host steadied herself and began the real interview:
“Today we’re giving the fans a little fú lì (fan perk). We randomly drew five questions to satisfy everyone’s curiosity.”
The host looked toward the camera. “Lemon, how does that sound?”
Le Ning naturally played along. Her eyes curved upward at the corners, lips lightly pursed. “Of course, no problem.”
The host nodded. “First question: Everyone knows you actually graduated with a finance degree, Le Ning. So how did you suddenly end up becoming a beauty content creator?”
Le Ning thought for a moment and gave the answer she’d prepared long ago.
The next few questions were fairly standard too. When they got to the last one, the host gave a mysterious smile. “The final question is a bit special. I’m not sure if Le Ning can answer it for everyone.”
Le Ning paused slightly. The host smiled and continued, “Everyone’s really curious about your love life. Your fans want to know: Has Le Ning ever liked someone?”
Le Ning: “…”
The moment the question landed, a blurry figure appeared in her mind again.
After a brief pause, under the host’s curious gaze, Le Ning gave a light laugh and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Care to talk about it?”
Le Ning nodded, not dodging the topic. “Back in high school.”
“And then?” The host was extremely curious. “What kind of guy was he? Do you still keep in touch?”
Le Ning laughed softly. She thought back to how, after being rejected for being “too young,” she’d still shamelessly delivered water to him a few more times—only to get teased and rejected again. She commented, “He was a bit of a delinquent.”
The host looked stunned.
Le Ning burst out laughing, her tone light and playful. “Just kidding. He was just an ordinary guy.”
The host choked for a second. “You sure he was ordinary?” She looked at the stunning beauty in front of her and pressed on, “What about now? Still in contact?”
“No.”
“Have you ever thought about getting back in touch?”
Le Ning raised an eyebrow and answered without hesitation. “No.”
The host saw her attitude and joked along, “Then I bet that guy regrets it a lot right now.”
Le Ning tilted her head with a smile. “Not necessarily.”
……
After the interview, Ruan Qiu stayed with her until Le Luo and the driver arrived before they left.
As soon as they got in the car, Le Luo handed her his jacket. “Sis, are you cold?”
Le Ning looked at him with amusement, reached over, and ruffled his messy hair. “Not cold.”
She sniffed. “Did you tell your parents?”
“Yeah. Staying at your place tonight.”
Le Ning nodded and turned to the driver. “Uncle Liu, thanks for your hard work.”
Uncle Liu was the Le family driver. Hearing this, he grinned at her through the rearview mirror. “Not hard at all. Is the AC okay for you, Miss?”
“It’s fine.”
The car warmed up nicely. After a while, the rain outside grew heavier, blurring the view through the windows.
Le Ning had been resting with her eyes closed, but the rain was pounding so hard on the glass that the dull thuds finally made her open her eyes and glance outside.
She couldn’t see anything clearly.
Le Ning rubbed her eyes and said to Uncle Liu, “Uncle Liu, the road conditions aren’t great. Drive slower.”
“Okay.”
“Miss, want to listen to the radio?”
“Anything’s fine.”
Soon, a warm voice from the radio filled the cozy car interior.
Le Ning closed her eyes again—it was actually quite soothing, almost hypnotic.
Suddenly, Le Luo beside her exclaimed, “Holy shit.”
Le Ning jumped, startled, and looked at him in shock. “What’s wrong?”
Le Luo shoved his phone toward her. “Sis, they just found another female body by the lake on the road back to your place.”
Le Ning looked down. Even though it was just a blurry photo, her face paled noticeably.
Before she could fully process it, the car slowed to a stop.
……
Heavy rain poured down. Police had cordoned off the area, surrounding the scene. Every passing vehicle was being checked one by one.
Uncle Liu glanced worriedly out the window. “Miss, they’re doing inspections.”
Le Ning gave a soft “Mm.” “It’s okay. Just answer honestly when they ask. We’re not in a rush.”
She curled up in the back seat, looking outside. There were many cars and people blocked ahead. Under the streetlights, she could faintly make out several blurry figures in police uniforms.
This was already the third similar case in the past two months. Zhou Ran’s brows stayed tightly furrowed—he still hadn’t smoothed them out.
“Captain Zhou, we found something.”
Zhou Ran’s dark pupils turned toward the person beside him. “Where?”
Xu Zhi said, “Just checked—the body has traces of some chemical substances. We’ll need to analyze exactly what.”
Zhou Ran nodded.
The night was thick and heavy; rain blocked out the moonlight. Zhou Ran looked toward the distance. “Have all the vehicles that passed tonight been checked?”
“We’re still checking.”
“Be thorough.”
One car after another was inspected. Everyone was terrified of the dead-body incident, afraid suspicion might fall on them.
It didn’t take long before they reached Le Ning’s car.
“Hello, police. Please step out of the vehicle.”
Uncle Liu and Le Luo opened their doors and got out. Le Ning glanced over, picked up the coat beside her, draped it over her shoulders, and followed them out to cooperate with the investigation.
“ID, please.”
The three of them handed over their IDs. The officer started taking notes: “Where are you headed?”
Le Ning’s voice was a little hoarse. She subtly positioned herself in front of Le Luo to shield him.
“Home.”
She added proactively, “My place is right nearby—Mingchen Apartment.”
Hearing that, the officer paused for a second, then used the light to properly look at the person in front of him.
Le Ning’s face was deathly pale. She had a black coat draped over her shoulders; underneath was a short dress… with bare skin still exposed below, and high heels on her feet. She looked cold just standing there.
For some inexplicable reason, Xie Wei felt she looked a little familiar, but he couldn’t quite place where he’d seen her before.
He nodded. “Alright. Open the trunk for us to check.”
Uncle Liu agreed: “Sure.”
After the inspection, Xie Wei returned their IDs and reminded them, “This area has already seen three cases. Be more careful when you go out from now on.”
Le Ning gave a small smile. She’d always had a bit of goodwill toward police officers: “Okay, thank you.”
Xie Wei was about to say something else when a cold voice came from not far away: “Xie Wei.”
Xie Wei quickly responded: “Captain Zhou, coming right now.”
Le Ning froze for a second. Instinctively, she followed the voice and looked over. Through the misty rain, a clear figure gradually emerged in her line of sight.
The man was in a black police uniform, his features sharp and cold, thin lips pressed tightly together, eyes deep and pitch-black. From the waist down, it was all legs. With every step closer, his presence grew heavier.
Le Ning couldn’t help but think to herself—What kind of lucky (or unlucky) day is this?
From chatting about Zhou Ran in WeChat, to mentioning her old crush in the interview, and now…
A person she hadn’t seen, contacted, or even thought about in years—suddenly, in one single night, she’d run into him everywhere.
She held her umbrella and studied the man in front of her.
If Ruan Qiu were here right now, she’d definitely tell Le Ning to go for it—this man, after all these years, had only gotten more lethal.
Zhou Ran walked up beside Xie Wei and handed him the stack of statements from tonight: “Everything’s here.”
“Find anything?”
Xie Wei shook his head and said quietly, “The killer’s too cunning. The vehicle checks turned up nothing at all.”
Zhou Ran frowned and flipped open the documents in front of him to look.
Suddenly, he lifted his gaze.
Caught off guard, Le Ning met a pair of deep, dark eyes.
Her expression froze for only a moment before she calmly let him look his fill.
A few seconds later, Zhou Ran withdrew his gaze. His voice was still cold, but somehow carried a trace more warmth.
“Done here?”
Xie Wei nodded. “Yes.”
He glanced at the trio, then at Zhou Ran’s expression, and understood. “Miss Le, thank you for cooperating. You can get back in the car now.”
Le Ning gave a small smile. “Okay, thank you.”
She had just opened the car door to get in when her body was suddenly bumped hard. The coat she’d casually draped over her shoulders slipped off and fell into the puddle on the road.
The person who’d bumped her didn’t seem to notice anything. He looked excitedly toward Zhou Ran: “Captain Zhou, I know what it is now—that woman’s neck had cosmetic residue on it.”
Zhou Ran’s eyes lit up. He closed the file: “Let’s go take a look.”
With that, the three of them started to leave.
Suddenly, Zhou Ran’s steps halted.
When Le Ning bent down to pick up her coat, a hand appeared in her vision, reaching it first.
The man’s hand was large, nails neatly trimmed. Though tanned wheat-color, it looked clean and comfortable—long fingers, distinct knuckles.
Le Ning was dazed for two seconds before withdrawing her own hand.
Zhou Ran had already picked up the coat. He glanced at the person beside him.
Xu Zhi caught the look and belatedly realized: “Sorry, miss, I didn’t notice earlier. This coat…”
He paused. “I’ll compensate you.”
Le Ning shook her head. “No need.”
She said, “Serving the people isn’t easy.”
Then she looked at Zhou Ran, her tone cold: “Excuse me, can you give me back my coat now?”
Zhou Ran looked at her. His gaze dropped—first to her exposed delicate collarbone, then lower… pausing for a second at a certain spot—before moving to her legs trembling in the wind. His eyelids lifted slightly as he said indifferently, “Sorry. The police station will compensate at full price.”
Without waiting for Le Ning to say whether that was okay or not, the man strode away quickly, disappearing into the rain.
And he conveniently took her coat with him.
Even after getting back in the car, Le Luo still hadn’t noticed anything off.
His attention was still on the man from earlier: “Sis, I’ve decided—I want to be a police officer!”
Le Ning slowly came back to her senses and glanced at him. “Tomorrow you’ll change your mind again and want to be a soldier, right?”
Le Luo: “No way.”
Le Ning gave a small laugh. Right now she had no energy to chat with him.
She just said lightly, “Whether it’s police or military, the goal is the same. Once you’ve thought it through, go for it.”
“I know.”
When they got home, Le Ning took a bath and rested.
Le Luo’s room was on the first floor; hers was on the second. Unless something was up, he wouldn’t come upstairs to bother her.
The night had been a lot to take in. After washing up, Le Ning climbed into bed. She was exhausted, but she just couldn’t fall asleep.
Later, when she finally did drift off, she had a hazy dream.
It made Le Ning so angry that she woke up early and climbed out of bed.
Crazy, right? After so many years without seeing him, how could she dream about him the very first time they met again—and the content was so… explicit.
Le Ning grabbed a handful of her hair, feeling a mix of embarrassment and irritation.
The heavy rain from last night had stopped at some point. Morning sunlight gradually broke through the clouds.
She glanced outside twice, then decided to go for a run to breathe some fresh air and—most importantly—forget that dream!
Normally she’d run around the park lake, but after what happened yesterday, she didn’t dare go there anymore.
She only did two laps around the neighborhood before heading to the nearby breakfast shop that Le Luo loved.
She was a little hungry and planned to eat first, then pack something for him.
She had just ordered and sat down when a familiar yet unfamiliar voice came from behind her.
“Excuse me, is this seat taken?”
Le Ning froze, then turned around.
Zhou Ran paused too—he clearly hadn’t expected to see her either.
Their eyes met. Xie Wei’s lit up with excitement. “Miss Le, we meet again!”
Le Ning gave a soft “Mm.” The moment she looked into Zhou Ran’s deep, dark eyes, her face instantly heated up.
That dream from last night… his low, hoarse voice right against her ear, his breathing heavy and obvious, incredibly seductive.
Instinctively, Le Ning grabbed the glass of water on the table and downed it in one go, her gaze darting away.
“No one’s sitting here.”
Xie Wei nodded. He was about to take the seat next to Le Ning when his captain beat him to it. Xie Wei frowned as he moved to the opposite side, thinking—
Captain usually hates sitting next to women. Is he just too tired today and forgot?
Zhou Ran sat down. The person beside him visibly tensed up even more.
He glanced sideways, his eyes casually sweeping over her flushed face, and asked very nonchalantly, “Are you nervous?”
Le Ning: “.”
Author’s Note:
Le Ning: No, I’m not nervous. I’m really not nervous at all.
Captain Zhou: You sure? Then why is your face so red?
Author: …Secretly telling you—it’s because—[beep (censored)]