The next day, Lü Qingqing reported to the team on time.
"You're here?"
"Where do I sit?"
"Here." Hu Jia pulled over a stool. "We'll share a desk."
Lü Qingqing nodded. The office wasn't large, only about 50 square meters, with just four desks.
It was normal for her, as a new addition to the team, not to have new furniture. Besides, the boss was a Seven Days Detective, his memory completely unreliable.
"You live at Hongyamen?" Hu Jia leaned in.
"Mm," Lü Qingqing nodded.
"Do you have a younger brother at home?" Hu Jia asked again.
"Yes, his name is Duobao," Lü Qingqing replied patiently.
"I'm an only child. My parents are gone," Hu Jia suddenly said.
Huh?
Lü Qingqing was taken aback. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said I was your mom yesterday."
Hu Jia paused, forced a smile. "It's okay! What do you usually like to do?"
Lü Qingqing frowned. What was this person up to? Making awkward small talk?
"Is there something you want to tell me?" Lü Qingqing asked.
Hu Jia's expression was unnatural. "Well, they told me you're my fiancée."
Boom!
Lü Qingqing's head was spinning. How could she have forgotten this? I'm not your damn fiancée.
This misunderstanding is really like pulling a light bulb on a rope, all messed up!
"We were acting, pretending to be a couple to catch the Fire Demon," Lü Qingqing quickly explained.
"But when you saw me yesterday, you wanted to hold my hand, which shows we're very close," Hu Jia said after thinking.
Lü Qingqing blinked. What was all this?
At that moment, Lü Qingqing again felt the urge to request a transfer back to the police station.
"It's like this..." Lü Qingqing meticulously, completely, and without omitting any detail, recounted their story.
However, she had talked herself dry, and Hu Jia still looked skeptical.
In fact, it wasn't that he didn't believe Lü Qingqing. More accurately, he trusted Li Yang and Luo Wenwu more.
"You're the first girl to appear in my diary, and Li Yang and Wenwu both said you're my fiancée. Did you find out I have amnesia and regret it?"
Hearing Hu Jia say this, Lü Qingqing felt she was losing her temper again.
But, she had to endure!
This was just a misunderstanding, after all!
"No, it's not regret..." Lü Qingqing waved her hands repeatedly.
But before she could finish, Hu Jia interrupted, "I know this might be hard for you to accept, but don't worry, I won't forget you from now on," Hu Jia vowed earnestly.
"No! You can forget me forever."
"See, you're still angry."
Lü Qingqing was speechless. It was like an old lady crawling into a quilt, making her laugh.
She could only turn away and ignore Hu Jia: Don't rush, don't get angry. His mouth is his, but your body is your own. Let him say what he wants, and you get angry. When he's done talking, you'll be sick with anger. You reap what you sow. As the ancients said, endure for a moment and the storm will pass. He's sick, I should understand him. As long as I can endure for a week, he'll forget everything after the weekend.
"What are you muttering about?" Hu Jia tilted his head, looking at Lü Qingqing.
Lü Qingqing turned her head away.
"Tell me, how far have we developed?"
Ah!
"Get out, you old man..."
Patience worn thin, no need to endure further!
Lü Qingqing directly kicked Hu Jia out of the office.
...
"Hahaha..."
As soon as Yu Yue started work, Lü Qingqing immediately poured out her troubles to her. This made Yu Yue burst into laughter. "Alright, don't be angry. That's just how he is. As long as we're not talking about work, he's usually quite slippery."
Hearing this, Lü Qingqing recalled when she first met Hu Jia and how he pretended to be her boyfriend at her embroidery shop. His performance, his gaze, and the way he tricked the waitress.
Wasn't that just a slippery demeanor?
"He's like a Golden Retriever!" Lü Qingqing said.
"What?" Yu Yue asked.
"I said when he's normal, he's like a Golden Retriever. But once he encounters a case, he changes. The first two days he was okay, the middle two days he was like a Husky, and the last two days he was like a Pug," Lü Qingqing said, finding it amusing herself.
Uh...
Golden Retrievers are warm and clingy.
Huskies are hyperactive and always have boundless energy.
Pugs look perpetually sad and quiet, as if lost in thought.
This analogy...
Perfectly captured Hu Jia's three changes during his case investigations.
The office erupted in laughter again!
"How about you go explain to him, say it was all an act?" Lü Qingqing looked at Li Yang, who was nearby.
"No, our boss is already suspecting you're trying to trick him about his amnesia. If I go explain now, he'll definitely misunderstand further," Li Yang refused outright.
"Exactly, it's only seven days of memory anyway, no need to drag this out," Yu Yue also advised.
"Yeah, right. At most, I won't call you 'sister-in-law' in a couple of days," Li Yang chimed in.
Lü Qingqing glared fiercely at Li Yang. It was all this kid's fault.
Fortunately, these people weren't stupid and could still listen to her explanation.
As for Hu Jia, whoever he wants to be with.
Just as everyone said, it's only seven days, just endure it, it'll pass.
Thinking this, Lü Qingqing let go of all her frustration.
...
After lunch, Yu Yue asked Lü Qingqing to go for a walk downstairs. There was a grocery store on the street with delicious roasted nuts. Yu Yue liked to buy a couple of ounces of sunflower seeds there.
"Master Gong, hasn't Hongmei Zi returned yet?" Yu Yue greeted him warmly.
"Not yet. She didn't even send a message. If business wasn't so demanding, I'd go check on her," Gong Tishi said.
"Ah, no matter how important business is, people are more important. What's wrong with taking a day or two off?" Yu Yue skillfully grabbed a handful of five-spice sunflower seeds, waiting for Gong Tishi to weigh them.
"Hehe, Miss Yu is right." Gong Tishi bagged the seeds. "Here you go, exactly two ounces."
Gong Tishi's wife was Yang Xiaohong. They had been married for just a year, in the sweet throes of new love. A while ago, Yang's family sent a letter saying Yang's mother was critically ill and asked Yang Xiaohong to come home to see her. Their family lived in Ba County, south of the city, more than 20 kilometers from Chongqing, and they had to cross the Yangtze River.
Before leaving, Yang Xiaohong told Gong Tishi that she would go back first and return within two to three days at most.
However, three days passed, and Yang Xiaohong still hadn't returned, nor had she sent any news. Now ten days had gone by, and there was still no word from the Yang family.
Don't ask Lü Qingqing how she knew. Yu Yue was a gossip, and she told Lü Qingqing all the neighborhood stories.
Lü Qingqing also picked out some preserved fruits, planning to pack some for her brother. As she was about to pay, a middle-aged man approached. "Excuse me, is this Master Gong Tishi's stall?"
Gong Tishi was startled. "I am. May I ask who you are?"
"Oh, Master Gong, I'm from the south city's coffin shop. Could you please settle this bill?" the middle-aged man asked politely, taking out an account book and handing it over.
Gong Tishi frowned. "Hey, what are you talking about? When did I owe you money? And it's a funeral supplies shop."
The man wasn't in a hurry. "Didn't your wife pass away? We delivered the coffin and funeral supplies to the Yang family yesterday. Your brother-in-law, Yang Xiaoren, said to ask you to settle the bill. Look, the account book is here, and it has his signature on it."
Gong Tishi took the account book and saw that it indeed listed a coffin and funeral supplies, and there was Yang Xiaoren's signature below. "This useless brat, his own mother died, and he still has to come to me to pay."
Saying this, he took out his money box and paid, saying, "You've made a mistake. It wasn't my wife who passed away, it was my mother-in-law. You need to be careful about this in the future, it's so inauspicious to say the wrong thing!"
After speaking, Gong Tishi was still sighing. It seemed his mother-in-law's illness was very serious, and she hadn't made it.
The funeral shop owner heard this and repeatedly apologized. "I'm really sorry, I didn't understand the situation. I just heard from Yang Xiaoren that it was a coffin prepared for his sister, I didn't expect it to be an older sister."
"Oh dear, oh dear, stop, stop. It's getting ridiculous. What older sister? Yang Xiaoren is my brother-in-law, and his mother is my mother-in-law."
"Ah? Then that's not right. Yang Xiaoren's mother is alive and well. We just went to their house to prepare the body yesterday and saw it with our own eyes. Moreover, the coffin is still at the Yang family's house."
Gong Tishi became anxious when he heard this. Could it be that his wife had really passed away? He asked several more questions, but the middle-aged man couldn't clarify. Gong Tishi quickly packed up his stall, intending to go back to his mother-in-law's house to check.
"People, you really can't tell. Hongmei Zi was such a steady person, how could she be gone just like that," Yu Yue said with emotion on the way back.
"Yes, it's a pity." Lü Qingqing hadn't met that Hongmei Zi, but she had heard from Yu Yue that the girl was warm and hospitable, and did business honestly, so she must have been a good person.
Alas, one could only sigh at the impermanence of life.