SES Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Li Tan tossed out that sentence and fell silent on purpose, pausing to see Mu Dai’s reaction. But… he couldn’t say he wasn’t a little disappointed.

She seemed entirely unconcerned. Her first question was: “Your friend… Li Yaqing… is dead?”

What kind of question was that? If it weren’t for her having a bit of ability, Li Tan would have gotten up and walked away.

He kept his temper in check. “Back then, I was also working at the county police department. Even though my colleagues tried to keep me from going, I insisted on seeing the scene myself. There were 3 bodies.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Mu Dai pressed on anyway, even though she knew it would irritate him. “I meant… did you see with your own eyes that the dead person was Li Yaqing?”

Li Tan was so mad he almost laughed. “Miss, you watch a bit too much TV. Are you suggesting someone masqueraded as Li Yaqing’s corpse? Do you think I’m blind, that I wouldn’t recognize my own fiancée’s face? Do you think we, the detectives on the scene, were all incompetent?”

Mu Dai knew it was a ridiculous question, but she felt unsettled if she hadn’t asked it. She forced a nervous smile. “Just a casual question.”

Then she remembered something more urgent. “So… do you have any solid evidence?”

“For years, I kept investigating, even after losing my job for staying on the case without permission… a little over two years ago, I crossed paths with the killer.”

Mu Dai’s eyes widened in surprise. Li Tan seemed to have expected her disbelief and nodded firmly. “It’s true.”

The killer, according to Cen Chunjiao, was Liu Shuhai, born in 1972. He died more than 5 years earlier in a small hotel near Jinan’s West Bus Station. Yet, a little over two years ago, Li Tan crossed paths with him.

It seemed a given that either Cen Chunjiao or Li Tan was lying — and it was 80% likely it was Cen Chunjiao. After all, Aunt Hong had said Chunjiao’s story was “definitely false.”

Red lips and white teeth — everyone seemed to have a hidden agenda. Things were getting more confusing by the moment. Even Aunt Hong, whom Mu Dai saw nearly every day, seemed shrouded in fog.

Mu Dai looked at Li Tan, losing interest. “So… what’s your point in telling me all this?”

Li Tan was more surprised than she was. “Aren’t you interested?”

Mu Dai was the one who was now confused. Was she supposed to be interested in this?

Li Tan sighed in disappointment. At first, seeing Mu Dai had some ability, he’d hoped to win her over. But now it seemed she was just a young woman with some training, nothing more.

He stood up wearily. “I’m going back to my hotel to get some rest. You…”

He meant to say: a young woman shouldn’t wander around at this hour. But then he decided it was needless; with her skills, a few ruffians wouldn’t harm her.

Mu Dai didn’t stop him. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Aunt Hong and Li Yaqing.

In martial-arts dramas, it’s a cliché — the male lead finds a woman who looks exactly like his deceased lover. His friends exclaim in disbelief: “How can two people look so much alike?”

Of course — identical twins.

As Mu Dai was turning this over in her mind, someone sat down across from her.

The wooden seat creaked under the person’s weight; Mu Dai glanced sideways first. “What, you came here looking for revenge?”

It was the chubby guy she’d run into on the cable car. He casually tossed a peanut into his mouth and crunched it. “Pretty, but not much for talking nicely, huh. We’re not going to bully you just because you’re a woman.”

Then he added, “Once we know each other, it’s not a big deal. The name’s Cao Yanhua.”

Mu Dai glanced at him. “Did you find your name in the Hundred Family Surnames?”

Cao Yanhua was taken aback. “Hey, you’re a woman of culture!”

As he spoke, he held his hand out to shake hers.

Mu Dai sighed inwardly. She’d memorized the Hundred Family Surnames when she was a child — back then, it was a supplementary textbook. She could still remember the first 32, and by coincidence, the last 8 were “Kong, Cao, Yan, Hua, Jin, Wei, Tao, Jiang.”

But what was with this abrupt “let’s get to know each other”?

Cao Yanhua remained undeterred when Mu Dai ignored him. “What’s the matter? Look down on me?”

He certainly had a bit of a temper. Mu Dai chose not to shake his hand, but she did introduce herself. “Mu Dai.”

“So you know a few moves, huh?”

“Some.”

“This morning, you kept a low profile. Tonight you’re all fired up.”

“It depends on my mood.”

Cao Yanhua nodded in approval. “I like someone with character.”

He swung his arm in a dramatic circle. “Jiefangbei is under my protection this month. Whatever you lose, come find me.”

Mu Dai sighed. “You certainly talk big.”

“That’s a given.” Cao Yanhua nodded smugly. “To be frank, I’m more powerful than you realize. I know you’re staying at Bashu Bieyuan. I know Wan Fenghuo — I once helped him retrieve something, and I also got him information. You went to Laojiu Hotpot today, didn’t you?”

“Are you following me?”

Cao Yanhua sneered. “I hang around here all the time. Naturally, we bump into each other. Anyway, you made a bit of a scene. I was curious, so I kept an eye on you. The best skills I have… cutting purses, spotting tails, and having eyes and ears everywhere.”

He called the owner over to order food. “Boss, add a plate of pickled fish, chili chicken, and mao xue wang… and fatty intestine.”

Then he nodded toward Mu Dai. “Sister, pay the bill.”

Mu Dai remained unfazed. “For what?”

Cao Yanhua smilingly raised an eyebrow. “Once you pay, big brother will tell you which pervert has been following you all this time.”

Mu Dai fell silent for a moment, then opened her wallet and tossed 3 one-hundred-yuan notes on the table with a decisive slap.

Cao Yanhua kept his head down, snickered quietly, then casually tossed a peanut into his mouth. “See that corner fruit stall over there? The man in a black leather jacket — you see him?”

Mu Dai’s face darkened. She stood up and walked away without a word. Cao Yanhua remained sitting, smiling mischievously. “Sister, I kept watch for you. He’s quite a good-looking guy. Weigh your options carefully… make the most of it…”

As Mu Dai stood up, Luo Ren quickly turned away, lowered his head, and made a show of choosing fruit. But the icy pressure from Mu Dai made him nervous.

Turning and fleeing seemed reasonable, but running away was not his style. So he nodded casually at the stall keeper and said, “Two more pounds of apples… do you have bananas, too? Give me a pound.”

As he spoke, a dramatic “bang” came from nearby — a small noodle shop. Mu Dai had gotten a folding stool from outside and slammed it on the ground. She turned it toward him and sat down, facing him directly.

The owner of the pea noodle shop glanced over, probably alarmed by Mu Dai’s aggressive display, and kept silent. The fruit stall owner looked at Mu Dai, then back at Luo Ren: “Uh…”

Uh… what? Luo Ren knew everyone in this half of the alley was watching them. Mu Dai’s demeanor was so overt it was straight out of a 1990s Hong Kong gangster movie — the boss casually drops a folding stool in the middle of the street and sits down boldly, and all the little guys come forward, ready to draw their knives.

Luo Ren turned his head slightly and briefly met Mu Dai’s gaze. She was smiling faintly, a face full of arrogance — not avoiding him in the least — pure hostility and provocation.

Luo Ren smiled back.

In twenty-seven years, it was the first time he’d come across someone this brazen. There were people more aggressive than her, sure, but…

How the hell did Ma Tuwen get it into his head that she was naïve or childlike? Where were the “kitten-head bracelet” and “18-year-old mental age” that were supposed to be true of her?

Luo Ren remained composed and turned back to the fruit stall owner with a small smile. “Weigh me another two pounds of strawberries.”