Chapter 7

Goldfish Flower 4, Men and Women

Standing at the door, Mo Fei overheard Angel pondering to himself, "Why does everyone say men and women are complementary?"

Mo Fei, caught off guard, paused before asking, "Uh... what?"

"Help, help!" came a muffled cry for help from inside, “Murder!”

Surprised, Mo Fei saw two security guards banging on a bedroom door, “Mr. Ou, please calm down!”

Looking at Angel, Mo Fei asked, “What should we do?”

Angel shrugged, “Up to you.”

After a moment's thought, Mo Fei dashed into the house. Seeing the guards ineffectively trying to break the door, he pushed them aside, grabbed the door frame, and kicked near the lock.

With a loud bang, the door flew open. Inside, Huang Jing was desperately clinging to the window, screaming for help, while Ou Kai was pushing her down.

“Hey!” Mo Fei yelled, “What are you doing?” Ou Kai turned, and Mo Fei froze…

The two guards rushed in, pulling Ou Kai away and rescuing Huang Jing, who was crying and shouting, pointing at Ou Kai, “He’s trying to kill me! He wants me dead!”

The guards were petrified. Ou Kai stood aside, staring at Huang Jing in shock, while the guards exchanged disbelieving glances.

“Call the police, call the police!” Huang Jing screamed at the guards, “He’s tried to kill me several times, he wants me dead!”

Ou Kai remained silent, just standing there, as an older guard, sensing the gravity of the situation, hurriedly picked up the phone. Strangely, Ou Kai didn’t try to stop him but just stood aside, pale-faced.

Mo Fei, who had kicked open the door, stood frozen at the entrance. Then Angel casually walked in, surveyed the room silently.

Finally snapping out of his daze, Mo Fei approached Angel.

Angler asked, "What's wrong?"

"Uh... When we burst in, it looked like Ou Kai was about to push Huang Jing down," Mofei said, watching Angler's expression change.

Angler's face remained expressionless upon hearing this, but he seemed quite interested, tilting his head to look closely at Mofei.

"What's up?" Mofei asked, puzzled.

Angler gestured for him to wait a moment, then turned to the security guard at the door, asking, "What happened?"

The guard looked at Angler and asked, "Who are you?"

Angler smiled and replied, "I'm a consulting detective with the police department," showing his credentials to the guard.

The guard was taken aback, then whispered to Angler, "Mr. Ou and Miss Huang Jing have had conflicts for a long time, but this time it seems particularly severe."

Angler nodded, signaling the guard to calm the two down and prevent their emotions from getting out of control.

Outside the room, Angler saw Mofei deep in thought. As he approached, Mofei suddenly looked up, grabbed Angler's arm, and pushed him against the wall.

Mofei gazed into Angler's eyes, which still showed no change in expression.

"You have a police consultant detective's badge. You could have shown it at the parking lot to the attendant, and also at the front desk. Police personnel usually have easy access to such places, right? You had the simplest way, so why make me run around like a fool? Are you playing with me?" Mofei asked, frowning.

After Mofei finished speaking, Angler looked up at him and smiled, "You're quite impulsive... You should work on that. Impulsiveness can blind you, preventing you from seeing the truth that's right in front of you."

Mofei, somewhat puzzled, asked Angler, "What do you mean?"

Angler straightened his wrinkled clothes, lowered his voice and said, "The truth is, in the short time it took me to reach for my badge, you had already thought of a way to solve our immediate problem without easily revealing our identities." He smiled, "I appreciate that."

Mofei was stunned, his mouth agape, feeling his impulsive anger dissipate in an instant.

"Many people think changing their temper is difficult?" Angler said casually, "But in my view, personality and temper are part of oneself, and it's much easier to change them than one's fate." Pointing to his head, he continued, "A change in perspective can make it easily achievable."

Mofei looked at Angler for a long time, seemingly understanding something. Angler gently tugged at Mofei's sleeve, removing his hand from his arm, "There are some things you might not even be aware of yourself."

"What?" Mo Fei asked, puzzled.

"What did you see the moment you rushed through the door?" Angler prompted.

After some thought, Mofei replied, "Huang Jing was grabbing the window and screaming for help, looking like she was about to fall. Ou Kai was beside her, holding onto her."

"You heard me call out at the beginning, right?" Angler asked. "Then what? What did you see?"

"I saw Ou Kai turn his face to look at me..." Mofei said in a low voice, "There was something unusual in his gaze."

"Oh?" Angler smiled, "What was unusual about it?"

"Can't quite put it into words," Mofei admitted, somewhat troubled. "I'm not very good at expressing myself."

Angler waved his hand dismissively, "Don't sell yourself short, you have a good way with words." Walking over to the living room's floor-to-ceiling window and looking at the distant cityscape, he continued, "When I asked what you saw, you said, 'It looked like Ou Kai was pushing Huang Jing down when I burst in.' What I find significant are the words you used beyond just describing the facts, which contain many implications."

Mofei frowned slightly, observing Angler.

"First, you added a time frame—right when you burst in," Angler nodded. "Your implication is that only at that moment was there such an effect. You're not sure what happened before, right?"

Mofei nodded honestly, "Yes."

"Then," Angler continued, "before saying 'Ou Kai was pushing Huang Jing down,' you prefaced it with 'it looked like,' implying it might not be the case."

Mofei agreed with Angler's interpretation.

"Your first reaction was 'Hey, what are you doing,' as if you were convinced that Ou Kai was pushing Huang Jing down. But then you hesitated, because of something you saw that changed your mind... Ou Kai's gaze, right?"

Mofei quickly nodded, "Yes, I thought his gaze was unusual, which made me question my initial assumptions."

"You might not have realized it," Angler told Mofei, "but when you see something out of the ordinary, you instinctively calm down."

Mofei nodded in agreement.

"You have excellent observational skills," Angler commented. "It's related to your extensive life experience."

Mofei found this to make sense and nodded, but then curiously asked Angler, "Your survival skills and life experience are almost non-existent, so why are your observational skills so strong?"

Angler looked at Mofei, slightly surprised, and replied, "Since childhood, I’ve been painting. The only method my teacher taught me was to imprint everything I see into my mind, down to the smallest detail."

Mofei had an epiphany, realizing why everything Angler painted was so lifelike.

"So, do you think my sense of calmness in your gallery could be because there's something different in your paintings? Something abnormal that makes me feel comfortable just by looking at them?"

Angler nodded with a low chuckle, "It's not just your observational skills; you're also quite intelligent."

For Mo Fei, who had grown so much, being praised was a rarity, especially being commended for his intelligence. In fact, it was the first time he had ever heard such praise.

At that moment, the sound of police sirens filled the air. Several police cars stopped downstairs, and four officers entered the building.

Angler's words had dispelled the sudden agitation in Mofei's heart, redirecting his excessive energy towards the case. Looking at Angler, Mofei said somewhat awkwardly, "I shouldn’t have reacted that way towards you just now..."

Angler merely smiled faintly, "You were just responding to the unusualness in my words. My tone implied 'provocation,' and you picked up on that and reacted appropriately."

At this point, the elevator doors opened, and footsteps rushed in. Mofei asked Angler, "Did you know from the start what this was all about?"

Angler spread his hands lightly, "The clues were quite complete, although it originally seemed like it might turn into a homicide case."

As they spoke, the police burst into the living room. The leader, an older middle-aged officer, showed great respect upon seeing Angler.

"Angler is here too?" Several officers greeted Angler politely, and he nodded in response.

"What did you mean when you just said, 'it could have been a matter of life and death'?"

Angler thought for a moment and replied, "Nothing much, just that those who should have died haven’t, and those who shouldn't have died also haven’t."

"Huh?" Mofei puzzledly thought of scratching his head.

"By the way, about the question I asked you earlier, did you find an answer?" Angler asked softly.

"What problem?" Mo Fei was somewhat confused.

"Why do people say men and women are a perfect fit?" Angler inquired, "I think they are inherently opposites."