CH 21

“Why do you suddenly want to drag us out to eat? I don’t have that much money, I can’t afford it.” Joshua patted his pockets. He didn’t have high-tech gadgets like smart devices and didn’t have an asset card; what he had was practically non-existent in De Carma—cold, hard cash.

Little did he expect that Yan Suizhi would shake his head and say, smiling, “There’s no ‘us’. There’s only your sister, Rosie. I’m not bringing you.” 

Joshua, “…”

His whole face flushed, oscillating sharply between embarrassment and anger.

After holding back for quite a while, he finally grit out a sentence, “Couldn’t you have made yourself clearer? Anyway, why should I let you bring my sister out alone?”

Yan Suizhi said, “I did, I asked her straight-out when I entered the room, what’s your face so red for? Sigh… kid, I’m not deliberately trying to provoke you. It isn’t appropriate for you to be present for what I intend to do. 

The red on Joshua’s face gradually receded. He nodded. “Oh. Then you go do what you have to do, why’d you have to drag my sister along? I…”

He paused before continuing in a low voice, “I don’t have the money to afford lamb chops for her, I can’t return you the money.”

Yan Suizhi leaned against the door and studied him for a while, and out of the blue, asked a peculiar question. “Your sister, Rosie. Can she recognise her own house?”

Joshua, “…She’s already eight years old.” Did you not have enough of attacking me and decide to attack my sister as well?

Yan Suizhi laughed. “I know. What I mean is, if it’s from an unorthodox angle, would she still be able to recognise it?”

“Of course! She’s incredible at recognising places!” Pride coloured Joshua’s voice.

“Great, I’m bringing her because I hope she can help me with something,” Yan Suizhi said. “As for the lamb chops, just take it as her reward for helping.”

Joshua hesitated. He patted Rosie on her head. “Go on, then.” 

Rosie held his finger, wavering still. She quietly murmured, “Aren’t you gonna eat?”

“I hurt my hand, it isn’t convenient to,” Joshua waved his hand. The blisters on the back of his hand had already shrunk down, but the colour still looked terrible.

“Then I’m not hungry too,” Rosie said.

Right after she said this, her stomach uncooperatively grumbled again. 

Rosie silently lowered her head and covered her stomach with her hands, as if she could muffle the sound like this.

Joshua, “…”

Yan Suizhi, “Quite an amusing girl you have there.”

He walked into the room and bent down in front of Rosie. His eyes crinkled as he spoke. “I need you to help me with something, would you? We’ll be back in the evening for sure.” 

Rosie looked into his eyes, all the willpower she could muster beginning to shake violently.

Joshua couldn’t watch on anymore. “Enough of that, just go with him. Helping him will be helping me as well.”

Ebrlf’r fsfr yglutafcfv. “Efjiis?”

“Efjiis. P wfjc la.” 

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Ktfgf kfgf wjcs qfbqif yerailcu jybea bc atf ragffar, yea wbra bo atfw kfgf pera qjrrlcu atgbeut tegglfvis jcv kbeivc’a jmaejiis rabq tfgf. Ktfs kjixfv jibcu atf rlvf bo atf gbjv, delmxis kjixlcu ab lar fcv, jcv aegcfv j mbgcfg ab kjix atf rxlgar bo atf ibk-glrf riew tberlcu vlraglma.

It was just a stone’s throw away, yet the difference seemed worlds apart. 

Any disputes that happened in the slums didn’t impact this street; nobody even talked about it.

Yan Suizhi took Rosie Dale up a building on the side, going straight to the restaurant on the top floor.

Last time, he had lamb chops with soup with Gu Yan at this place.

Oh, that’s not quite right. It was he who ate the lamb chops with soup; Gu Yan had conversely ordered a whole feast to taunt him. 

And this time, he still chose a table by the window. As soon as he was seated, a waiter came by holding a tray.

“My apologies, sir. You may have to wait another ten minutes before you can place your orders.”

Yan Suizhi nodded. “That’s fine.”

After all, three o’clock was rather awkward timing for a meal. It was quite fortunate that they could still order. 

The waiter placed two cups in front of Yan Suizhi and Rosie, then placed two appetisers and a plate of candies, likely because she saw that there was a child at the table. “These are complimentary.”

Yan Suizhi, “Thank you.”

He said that he had business to do here, but he was in truth a little hungry as well. Everything he ordered in the hotel had to be ordered under Gu Yan’s eyes. Ever since he gained a large burn wound on his leg, this Student Gu had started to stick his nose into his diet.

Whenever he got the hotel to send room service up, he would always find that the meal had been swapped out by the time it reached his hands, and what it turned into actually ended up being more expensive than what he had initially ordered. The problem was… it was bland beyond belief. 

He had been fed grass for the past two and a half days. So, he resolved to make use of while Gu Yan wasn’t present to order himself a little something to make up for it.

“Can I eat?” Rosie pointed to the food on the table.

Yan Suizhi, “Go ahead, feel free.”

She deliberated for a long time between the sweet appetiser and the candies, then reached out to touch a candy. 

That type of candy was obviously the type used to wheedle children into behaving; each candy was beautifully wrapped. Adults might find it garish and suspect that the taste wouldn’t match the attractive wrapping, but it would never fail to please children.

Rosie chose a blue one and shoved it into her mouth. Her cheeks bulging on one side, she stared at Yan Suizhi, asking, “You’re hungry too?”

Yan Suizhi drank a glass of water to whet his appetite before taking a bite of the appetiser. “Mhm.”

“Brother said, adults don’t get hungry.” Rosie spoke again. 

Yan Suizhi found that this little girl seemed to have a slight speech problem. Her words were a little incoherent and disjointed, unlike other kids around her age that he had previously come into contact with. Those little rascals were always able to chatter non-stop, giving him a headache with their endless stream of because, so, and then, also conjunctions.

Perhaps it was because those little rascals went through systematic education in school. Whereas Rosie only had Joshua.

Yan Suizhi smiled at her, “I get hungry easily, and I like candy too.”

He now ate very little at each meal, instead dividing his daily intake into five meals. Therefore, he still needed to eat something sweet once in a while to keep himself from getting dizzy. 

When Rosie heard that this adult was like herself, she instantly felt closer to him and that she had found a kindred spirit. She picked out another blue candy from the plate and handed it to Yan Suizhi.

“Thank you,” Yan Suizhi said and glanced out through the window at the mess of slum houses beneath. His gaze scanned across. Those houses all looked about the same at first glance, it was difficult to make out which was whose. “Rosie, come over and help me look. Which is your house?”

Rosie pressed up against the window and looked for a while, then pointed towards a particular alley. “That one.”

“Which one is that one?” 

“There’s a pail,” said Rosie.

After looking in the direction she pointed towards for a long time, Yan Suizhi finally found the house squeezed between many others. It had a dusty bucket hung from one side of the sloping roof.

Since he was able to find Joshua’s house, Kitty Bell’s house naturally wasn’t hard to find.

From where they were seated, however, they could only see the top of the roof of Kitty Bell’s house. The lower part was blocked by the windbreak wall of the house in front and a few long planks stacked vertically. 

Contemplative, Yan Suizhi stood up. From where he stood, he was also only able to see the upper half of Kitty Bell’s roof. He still couldn’t see any windows to look into the house.

Despite that…

He raised his head and looked towards the few surveillance cameras the restaurant installed on the ceiling. There was one close to the French windows on this side. If it was a panoramic camera, then the area outside the window could also be recorded, simply that the restaurant would probably ignore it.

But the ceiling of this restaurant wasn’t very high. He didn’t know if the camera could capture Kitty Bell’s window from that angle. 

“Do you require any help, sir?” The waiter asked, having seen him stood up.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Can I order yet?” Yan Suizhi said.

“My apologies, it might take another three minutes or so. A slight issue came up with the machine, it will be fixed soon.”

“Alright.” 

Over here, lawyers needed to submit an application in advance and get approval before finding new evidence, but this process was very fast and could usually be approved within the same day. He couldn’t just roll his sleeves and deal with it willy-nilly when finding new evidence; he had to call for a notary.

Mulling over it, Yan Suizhi pulled up his smart device’s hologram.

But before he had even done anything, he received a new notification.

He tapped the notification— 

Your application to loan copies of case files is being processed. If approved, you will have the authorisation to access the files from your other devices.

Loan access: Ruan Ye

Application filed by: Gu Yan

Yan Suizhi, “???” 

After thinking about it, he directly screenshotted this and sent it to Gu Yan through an internal network.

Despite being on business, Gu Yan replied very quickly. Within a few seconds, the ring vibrated against Yan Suizhi’s finger.

-I need you to tidy up five years of files. After the application is approved, you can transfer them into your smart device, then you won’t be paid for loafing around and doing nothing in the hotel.

Yan Suizhi, “…” 

Who’s the one getting paid for doing nothing? I haven’t seen even a penny yet.

However, Gu Yan doing this really touched his heart. If the application went through, wouldn’t he have access to the explosion cases at any time and place? That really couldn’t be any better.

Another message swiftly came in from Gu Yan.

-Don’t go out the next few days. Just keep organising the files. 

Seeing this, Yan Suizhi, uncharacteristically sincere, replied:

-No problem. I’ll sit tight in the hotel waiting for the files to be sent over.

-Mn.

Little did he expect that less than two minutes after this conversation, the restaurant door opened again. A figure walked through the door. 

The waiter gave the customary response, “Welcome, sir. This way please.”

There was another weird guy who’d come to eat at three in the afternoon?

Yan Suizhi inadvertently glanced over and immediately raised a hand to shield his face…

What a coincidence, Student Gu.