Mo Junyi stood in the doorway, staring at his phone for a moment of silence. When Liu Minghua finished taking the statement and led Liu Hongyu out, she jumped at the sight of him. “Holy—! Boss, why are you standing there like a stone guardian?”
Mo Junyi snapped out of it and quickly typed a “Fine” in reply to Su Xingtong. He looked up and gave Liu Hongyu a brief nod before turning to Liu Minghua. “The suspect confessed.”
Seeing that they had business to discuss, the other female officer greeted Mo Junyi and led Liu Hongyu away.
Liu Minghua was surprised. “He confessed? I remember him keeping his mouth shut like a tomb just a few days ago. Not bad, Boss.”
Liu Hongyu looked like she desperately wanted to thank Mo Junyi, but seeing that he had work to delegate, she left with a look of lingering reluctance.
Mo Junyi began briefing Liu Minghua on some specific details. As she listened, she suddenly stiffened. “Wait a second… something feels off here.”
Mo Junyi paused. “What’s off?”
“The way you’re handing this over sounds like you’re planning to be a hands-off manager,” Liu Minghua said, narrowing her eyes at him. “Are you bossing me around again?”
Mo Junyi didn’t show a hint of guilt for exploiting his teammate. Instead, he nodded candidly. “Yeah. I have some things to do this weekend. I’ll have to trouble you to handle the legwork.”
Generally, filing a public prosecution takes time, and the courts are closed on weekends. Therefore, much of the paperwork needs to be organized over the weekend and submitted on Monday to maximize efficiency.
Liu Minghua hissed through her teeth. “Is it fishing or mountain climbing this time?”
Mo Junyi’s hobbies were quite broad, but unless there was a police emergency, he was basically unreachable during his time off.
To her surprise, Mo Junyi shook his head. “It’s not my own business.”
Liu Minghua rubbed her chin. “Whoa, a development! You aren’t… accompanying your wife back to her parents’ house, are you?”
She had only said it as a passing joke, but Mo Junyi gave her a look that made her eyes widen in disbelief. “Ah? No way!”
Mo Junyi turned and walked away, leaving Liu Minghua shouting at his back: “Remember to treat us to dinner when you finally register the marriage!”
The week passed quickly, and the case reached its conclusion. Compared to the early stages of investigating leads through the night, this week’s work was tedious and dull—nothing more than the trivialities of organizing case files and writing reports.
In their spare time, the restless police officers found ways to entertain themselves—sports, gossip, or gossiping while playing sports.
The station had various exercise rooms that were crowded during the lunch break, with over half the people there being criminal investigators.
Mo Junyi stood at the table, holding a ping-pong paddle, and scanned the room. “Anyone else want a turn?”
The people around him shook their heads in unison. An investigator surnamed Liu said mournfully, “Boss, if you have nothing to do, please just go climbing or fishing. Fishing at least has some difficulty. Slaughtering us rookies doesn’t give you any real satisfaction, does it?”
Standing nearby with her lunch box, Liu Minghua mocked him: “If you know you’re bad, you should practice more.”
The young investigator gave her a resentful look. “Sister Liu, even food this fragrant can’t shut your mouth.”
Liu Minghua’s husband was a freelancer with a flexible schedule; the lunch boxes she brought every week were prepared by him. There were eighty different varieties in seven days—a selection so rich it made everyone green with envy.
Liu Minghua arched an eyebrow. “Jealous? If you’re jealous, go find someone to marry you.”
“Sigh, I want to,” the young officer sighed half-jokingly. “But once you’ve seen Captain Mo, you’re ruined for life.”
The room erupted in laughter. Liu Minghua laughed and cursed, “Our sister-in-law is going to be a big star in the future. You? Forget it.”
The people present took her words as a joke, laughing along, but no one took it seriously.
Mo Junyi gave the group a helpless look, set his paddle on the table, and walked to the side to give the others space to play. Once he stepped down, the others breathed a sigh of relief, and a few people eagerly stepped up to the table.
Mo Junyi stood to the side drinking water, overhearing a few female officers chatting nearby. “So boring. Are there any good dramas out lately?”
“Nope. The ones airing recently either have an ugly lead, an embarrassing plot, or an ugly lead and an embarrassing plot.”
“Ugh. I have to go to court next week, and this is my only free weekend. I just want to find something to relax with, but there’s nothing.”
“Hey, I heard Su Xingtong is about to start a new drama. The filming location is right here in our province.”
“Hiss, I heard about that too. Didn’t he trend a few days ago for getting torn apart by antis?”
“Torn apart again? Why?”
“Who knows. Some say he did ‘something’ with the director to steal the lead role from Bai Yuan.”
“Psycho behavior. People in those fan circles are always a bit unhinged.”
“Looking at male stars these days, every single one of them acts like they’re rushing to join a ‘who’s the ugliest’ contest. We finally get a real beauty, and they still bash him like this? I think they’re just salty.”
The female officers spoke with righteous indignation, and a few idle male officers joined the chat. No one realized that someone was silently listening nearby.
Liu Minghua finished her last bite of food and looked up to see Mo Junyi standing not far away with his water bottle. She immediately arched an eyebrow, set down her lunch box, and walked over. “Boss, eavesdropping?”
Mo Junyi glanced at her without responding, turned, and walked away.
Liu Minghua grinned teasingly at his retreating back before turning to the gossiping officers. “I’m afraid Captain Mo’s ‘Spring’ is about to arrive.”
A young officer in the middle of the gossip circle gasped. “Captain Mo? Spring? If the King of Hell gets a ‘Spring,’ wouldn’t that be a ‘Winter’ for us? Please, no.”
The crowd laughed, but Liu Minghua curled her lip. “Summer insects cannot speak of ice.”
The young officer was unhappy. “Hey, Sister Liu, you can’t say that. How about we bet on it?”
Liu Minghua’s interest was instantly piqued. “You’re on! Don’t regret it when you lose!”
Mo Junyi, who had already left, had no idea that his subordinates had started a betting pool behind his back concerning his marital affairs. Fortunately, he wouldn’t have cared even if he knew.
The week flew by. On Saturday morning, Su Xingtong appeared at the base of Mo Junyi’s building, bundled up tightly.
Looking at Su Xingtong, who was armed from head to toe, Mo Junyi finally felt the man looked like a celebrity.
“What do we need to buy?” Mo Junyi asked after they got into the car.
Su Xingtong froze, his voice muffled behind his scarf. “Captain Mo, are you really treating this like ‘meeting the parents’?”
Mo Junyi looked at him. “What else would it be?”
He spoke with such blunt honesty that Su Xingtong, after holding his gaze for a moment, withdrew his eyes. “Um, true. Then let’s just buy two boxes of milk at the intersection up ahead. I’ll pay.”
When visiting a partner’s family—even if not married—it was impossible to just carry two boxes of milk. As a dignified criminal investigation captain, Mo Junyi couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing. Ultimately, he cut the engine and got out, pulling two bottles of premium liquor from his home storage.
These were brought over by Lu Hengyu last year. The Lu family was terrified that Mo Junyi would come back to claim the inheritance; with the exception of Lu Hengyu, everyone else avoided Mo Junyi like he was a plague-bearing deity.
Seeing this, Su Xingtong frowned. “Feitian Moutai? Keep that for yourself. People from a small household like theirs can’t appreciate this.”
Even for a stranger, these words were harsh—let alone for one’s own parents.
But Mo Junyi only glanced at Su Xingtong. He didn’t criticize him; instead, he explained, “Moutai has a harsh scent. I don’t drink it.”
Su Xingtong didn’t know much about liquor; to him, expensive meant good. He raised an eyebrow. “Captain Mo certainly has grand tastes. If even Moutai doesn’t catch your eye, what does?”
“Wuliangye goes down a bit easier. Fenjiu is also quite good.” Mo Junyi got into the car and closed the door. “Who upset you?”
Su Xingtong’s every word was laced with irritation. Seeing that Mo Junyi had called him out directly, Su Xingtong didn’t bother hiding it. He huffed. “Who else? The director whose brain was stepped on by a dog, and his ‘precious’ darling.”
The relationship between the two of them was currently delicate. If you called them friends, they had a marriage certificate; if you called them a couple, there wasn’t a trace of romance between them.
However, because of Mo Junyi’s profession and his dislike for idle gossip, Su Xingtong didn’t care about their labels and felt safe venting to him: “We just started filming three days ago, and we spent a whole day stuck on the very first shot. In the end, that brain-dead Bai Yuan threw a tantrum and quit, and the director had to go grovel and coax him back. Two morons really deserve each other. It’s disgusting.”
Hearing such sharp words from a beauty like him created a significant contrast. Mo Junyi glanced at him. Sensing his gaze, Su Xingtong frowned. “Can’t Captain Mo handle foul language?”
Mo Junyi had likely heard every curse under the sun while handling cases. He looked back at the traffic light. “No. Carry on.”
Su Xingtong was clearly genuinely angry. He adjusted his scarf and continued his rant.
Mo Junyi listened quietly for as long as he talked.
Perhaps because he spoke too much during interrogations, the private Mo Junyi spoke even less than the professional one. But that didn’t mean he was a bad conversationalist; on the contrary, he was a perfect listener.
Every time Su Xingtong finished a segment of his rant, he received a response. They were short, but enough to let him know Mo Junyi was paying attention.
Gradually, Su Xingtong’s anger subsided, replaced by a slight sense of embarrassment. After all, he wasn’t that close to Mo Junyi, and saying so much was somewhat inappropriate.
To cover the awkwardness, Su Xingtong cleared his throat and summed it up: “A cracked pot for a cracked lid. They’re a perfect match.”
The car came to a stop at the base of his parents’ building. Mo Junyi pulled the handbrake and looked at him. “Indeed.”
It wasn’t until Mo Junyi turned off the engine and got out of the car that Su Xingtong suddenly realized the double meaning in those words. His face flushed red instantly, and he hadn’t recovered by the time they reached the door.
Mo Junyi’s mood, however, seemed much improved as he carried the gifts up the stairs with Su Xingtong.
Although the neighborhood where Su Xingtong’s parents lived was still a far cry from Mo Junyi’s villa district, it could be called prosperous—a sharp contrast to the urban village where they used to live.
Mo Junyi stood beside Su Xingtong at the door, feeling a bit strange. Strictly speaking, this was his first time meeting a partner’s parents, even if it was fake.
However, those feelings quickly vanished. The moment the door opened a crack, he heard a loud, sarcastic female voice: “Oh my, the big star actually remembers where his parents live? He actually knows the way back?”