SES Chapter 110 Part 1

Chapter 110

Bright light streamed through the window, tickling her face.

Mu Dai reluctantly opened her eyes. For a moment, she couldn’t remember where she was. From the doorway came the sound of someone fussing. She rubbed her eyes and looked over—Luo Ren had just closed the door and was carrying in a takeout bag.

“You’re eating again?” Mu Dai asked.

“It’s lunchtime,” Luo Ren replied.

Already noon?

Mu Dai climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash up. Passing by him, he asked, “Do you always sleep with your hair tied up?”

Instinctively, Mu Dai reached up to touch the little knot at the back of her head. “I tie it up when I wash up at night. Sometimes I’m too tired to take it out before falling asleep.”

“You’d feel more relaxed if you let it down,” Luo Ren said.

“Oh,” Mu Dai murmured.

She came out, washed up, and was ready to eat. Stir-fried pork with green peppers over rice. The food was still hot and smelled good, but the atmosphere at the table was nothing like last night’s—strained, awkward.

She tried to make conversation. “So… what’s the plan for today?”

“You’d better not go out,” Luo Ren said. “I’ll see if I can follow up on a few leads we worked through last night.”

Mu Dai fell quiet, then, after a pause, he said, “Thanks for that.”

“It’s what I should do.”

After the meal, Luo Ren pulled out a syringe and told her to roll up her sleeve and clench her fist. As he was about to insert the needle, he adjusted her arm with one hand, his palm warm against the bare skin of her forearm.

Mu Dai didn’t know what came over her—she flinched back without thinking.

Luo Ren was silent for a second or two, then said, “Don’t move, or I can’t keep it steady.”

Awkward. The feeling stuck with her until he left.

Mu Dai stayed inside for a long time. With nothing to do, she cleaned the whole room: folded the quilt, wiped down the sink, and straightened every object that was even slightly out of place.

Still felt like something was missing. Then she remembered—she ought to wash Luo Ren’s clothes. But he seemed to have worn that shirt out again.

By late afternoon, she heard sounds at the door, a key in the lock.

Mu Dai got up to look. The door cracked open, but the person outside didn’t come in right away. Instead, a head poked in, glancing around.

Then she was spotted.

“Ya!”

It was Yan Hongsha.

Meeting Mu Dai’s stunned gaze, she dashed in, her heavy backpack thumping as she ran.

She threw her arms around Mu Dai in a huge hug.

Mu Dai was still reeling. “What are you doing here?”

Yan Hongsha cupped her cheeks with both hands. “Oh, Mu Dai, you poor thing. I heard everything. How unlucky can you get? Look at you—you’ve lost so much weight.”

Mu Dai stared at her in a daze, then glanced toward the door. Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan had come in too, bags in hand. Luo Ren was last, closing the door behind them.

It felt surreal. She asked again, “Why are you all here?”

This time, Luo Ren answered. “There’s too much to investigate for me to handle alone.”

That wasn’t the whole truth. With Huo Zihong, he’d hidden some details, just saying Mu Dai had been found and nothing serious had happened. But he had told Yan Hongsha and the others everything.

Since Mu Dai’s accident, Yan Hongsha hadn’t seen her. The moment she heard she’d been found, she rushed over. Cao Yanhua was horrified—“Murder? No way! Someone’s framing my little master! This is huge—I’ve got to be there!”

To him, that mattered more than any case file.

Yi Wansan was more conflicted.

—If Luo Ren’s there, do we really need to go? What, you’re both going? …Fine, I’ll go too.

Half following the crowd, half curious: she had three personalities now? He had to see for himself what she looked like.

Yan Hongsha eagerly dug through her backpack. “I brought your things—clothes, toothbrush, face wash, and…”

She handed Mu Dai a phone, speaking like an old auntie. “Whatever happens, you’ve got to talk it out with people. Stop running away from home like in those novels—you just make everyone worry sick.”

“Rich lady, you talk too much,” Yi Wansan muttered.

“I’m happy, that’s why,” Yan Hongsha said.

But then her eyes reddened.

Mu Dai handed her a tissue. “Why are you crying?”

Luo Ren looked at Mu Dai. “Don’t use that phone, don’t even turn it on. The police are checking things right now—better to avoid trouble.”

Mu Dai nodded, handed the phone back, then turned and noticed Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan staring at her.

“What are you looking at?” she asked.

Yi Wansan kept quiet. Cao Yanhua stammered, “You… you seem a little different, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

The second half of his thought stuck in his throat. He’d wanted to ask: Which personality are you right now? But that felt crude, maybe even taboo.

So he hurried to change the subject. “Anyway, I don’t believe you’d kill anyone. None of us do, right, Brother San?”

He nudged Yi Wansan with his elbow, hinting that he should say something uplifting.

Yi Wansan sighed, forced into it. “Little boss lady, even though I never thought much of you…”

Damn it—Cao Yanhua wanted to smack him right then.

“…I know you’d never kill anyone,” Yi Wansan finished coolly. “Especially some random stranger with nothing to do with you.”

After that fight with the old clam and the wild man, Cao Yanhua had gotten cocky and thought of himself as someone special. In his eyes, the whole world was ordinary folks—except him.