Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"What were you doing?" Xiao Ze asked, catching Shen Dongqing's focused gaze, instinctively dropping his eyes to avoid Shen Dongqing's stare.

"Just memorizing a few wanted posters." Shen Dongqing said in a low voice, not noticing the change in Xiao Ze's expression.

Hearing Shen Dongqing say "a few," Xiao Ze suddenly remembered the thieves he'd mentioned that morning. Was it really just a few? He had his doubts.

But seeing how stubborn Shen Dongqing was being, Xiao Ze didn't press the issue, only asking, "So, are you heading back now, or...?"

Shen Dongqing replied without hesitation, "Heading back."

"Alright, I'll get you back then." Xiao Ze held Shen Dongqing up with one hand while sending a message in the group chat with the other, telling his colleagues to go ahead and eat, saying he'd catch up later.

"Officer Xiao, I'm fine, I can go back by myself. You should get back to work." Shen Dongqing noticed Xiao Ze's actions and tried to pull away.

But he overestimated his current strength—his struggling didn't break free from Xiao Ze's grip at all, and it only made him dizzier.

"Hold still." Xiao Ze frowned, crouching down. "Get on."

Seeing Shen Dongqing standing there frozen, Xiao Ze added, "Do you even have the energy to make it up the stairs right now?"

"Then just help me—"

"Helping you would be even more tiring. Come on." Xiao Ze sounded a bit impatient.

Shen Dongqing didn't say a word and just climbed onto his back.

This was the first time Shen Dongqing had ever been given a piggyback ride. Between guys, even if you weren't feeling well, getting a hand to lean on was already generous—being carried was unthinkable, a pipe dream.

Shen Dongqing felt super awkward all over, wanting nothing more than to minimize contact between them.

"Are you trying to make me carry more weight because I'm not tired enough?" After climbing two flights of stairs, Xiao Ze suddenly spoke up.

Huh?

Shen Dongqing was confused as Xiao Ze suddenly set him down, then moved behind him, grabbed the back of his collar, and gestured for him to walk forward.

"Go on, see how it feels." Xiao Ze arched an eyebrow.

"I was wrong." Shen Dongqing apologized, and he meant it.

Xiao Ze couldn't be bothered to bend down again, so he just scooped Shen Dongqing up by the waist and carried him up the stairs.

Shen Dongqing barely had time to react, quickly pulling his legs up and burying his head firmly against Xiao Ze's chest. The stairwell was so narrow—if he wasn't careful, either his feet would scuff the walls or his head would hit the railing.

Seeing how quickly Shen Dongqing reacted, Xiao Ze chuckled.

"Officer Xiao, thank you for carrying me up. Come in and take a break, have some water before you head out." Shen Dongqing said thanks.

Xiao Ze hesitated briefly, then nodded and followed Shen Dongqing inside.

The moment he stepped inside, Xiao Ze frowned slightly. He knew Shen Dongqing had just rented this place recently, so it made sense there was no furniture, but this was too...

Xiao Ze had once caught a wanted criminal in a temporary rental the guy was crashing at. The guy had lived there for two months, yet the place was still completely bare. He had no sense of belonging there, felt like he could leave at any moment, so of course he didn't bother buying anything.

Was Shen Dongqing like that too?

But even if you were planning to move out, a normal person wouldn't go this far!

Shen Dongqing had no idea what kind of impression Xiao Ze had formed of him. If he knew, he'd be shouting that he was innocent.

Was it that he didn't want to buy stuff?

It was entirely because he was broke! With the little money he'd had in his pocket before, buying even one thing would've left him flat broke within a month.

He'd made some money from streaming these past few days, but before he could buy anything, he found out the Super Wheel could give him physical items. Now he was even less likely to spend money on non-essentials—what if he won them? The stuff from the system shop was clearly way better quality.

Following Xiao Ze's gaze around the room, Shen Dongqing's face turned red. His living room was way too bare—there wasn't even a chair for guests.

Actually, no, that wasn't quite true. Shen Dongqing looked at the chair at his computer desk, quickly pulled it out, and offered it to Xiao Ze.

Xiao Ze noticed the computer desk against the wall, the laptop still on, the screen showing wanted posters.

So this is what he'd been memorizing!

When Shen Dongqing came out with a bottle of water and saw Xiao Ze staring at the computer, he wasn't nervous.

He hadn't planned on hiding it. If he ran into a wanted criminal, he'd have to report it anyway, and calling the hotline would waste time. Better to contact a cop he knew directly—it could even earn them some credit.

The cops he knew were Zhao Rong and Xiao Ze. Shen Dongqing had it all planned out: for lower-risk wanted criminals, he'd contact Officer Zhao; for high-risk ones, he'd contact Xiao Ze.

"So this is what you were memorizing?" Xiao Ze unscrewed the bottle, took a sip, and asked offhandedly.

Shen Dongqing nodded. "What if I run into one? Forget the reward—if I see one and don't recognize them, that's dangerous."

For a normal person, running into a wanted criminal might not be that dangerous, but with his luck, even without danger, danger would find him anyway. If he actually ran into a dangerous character, the chances of something happening would shoot up.

Xiao Ze caught Shen Dongqing's meaning right away and nodded silently.

With Shen Dongqing's luck, he really did need to be careful!

But...

"Here, you take the chair." Xiao Ze stood up. Shen Dongqing looked a bit better than he had downstairs, but still seemed off. Xiao Ze didn't want to fight over a seat with someone who wasn't feeling well.

"No need, I'm going to the kitchen to make something to eat. You sit down." Shen Dongqing shook his head.

"Were you about to go out to eat?" Xiao Ze asked.

Shen Dongqing nodded.

"Sit down, I'll fix you something." Xiao Ze said, heading straight into the kitchen before Shen Dongqing could protest.

Looking at the neatly arranged pots and pans in the kitchen, Xiao Ze raised an eyebrow. Given how empty the living room was, he'd expected the kitchen to be the same, but it actually had a bit of a lived-in feel. Maybe he'd been wrong about his earlier assumption.

But with all that cookware, where was the food?

Xiao Ze scanned the kitchen and couldn't see any food anywhere. Even the seasonings were still unopened.

Shen Dongqing followed him over and met Xiao Ze's eyes, saying, "There are eggs and instant noodles in the cabinet."

Boiling eggs with instant noodles was cheap and tasted pretty good—as long as you didn't use too much seasoning, it was fairly nutritious too.

Adding some greens would've been better, but veggies didn't keep well, so Shen Dongqing hadn't bought any.

Xiao Ze opened the cabinet and saw a box of instant noodles. They weren't the supermarket kind—they looked like the super cheap ones from corner stores or online, with skimpy noodle cakes and seasoning packets. Next to them was a tray of eggs, already about half gone.

"Is this what you normally eat?"

Xiao Ze's voice wasn't loud, but it inexplicably made Shen Dongqing feel like a kid caught with a bad habit by a parent, and he quickly explained.

"No, no, I usually order takeout too. This is just emergency food." Seeing Xiao Ze remain silent, Shen Dongqing said, "How about I order takeout then?"

"I'll order. You go rest first." Xiao Ze gestured for Shen Dongqing to sit down, made a phone call, murmured a few words, and after hanging up, said to Shen Dongqing, "Food will be delivered in twenty minutes. Just wait."

With that, Xiao Ze pushed the door open and left, totally brushing off Shen Dongqing's offer to pay.

Shen Dongqing looked back at the living room, then thought about the instant noodles and eggs in the kitchen, and shuddered. His whole act just now seemed like he was playing the pity card.

Coming downstairs, Xiao Ze's phone buzzed. He looked down.

"Officer Xiao, I was just broke for a few days. I'm making some money from livestreaming now. How much was the meal you ordered for me? I'll transfer it to you."

He could almost picture Shen Dongqing's conflicted face as he typed.

"You've got the wanted posters memorized, so I won't charge you. Just give me one wanted criminal instead." Xiao Ze joked.

Shen Dongqing didn't reply for a while, and Xiao Ze didn't give it another thought. It wasn't until he sat down at a restaurant with his colleagues that his phone buzzed again.

"Officer Xiao, don't worry. Any wanted criminal I encounter this month, I'll definitely contact you."

The earnest tone of the text made Xiao Ze's lips twitch into a smile, and the tension from days of nonstop work eased a bit.

"Brother Xiao, who are you chatting with? You look so happy?" A head popped out from beside him, and Xiao Ze reached out to push the person away.

"Go eat. If you're that nosy, why not think about those unsolved cases."

...

After making that promise to Xiao Ze, Shen Dongqing's stress immediately shot up. Although his chances of encountering criminals were high, the odds of running into wanted criminals should be pretty good too, but he still had zero hands-on experience, so he felt a bit unsure.

Especially when the takeout arrived—four dishes and a soup, with a good mix of meat and veggies, and even the containers weren't the usual disposable takeout boxes. It clearly looked expensive. Shen Dongqing was even more eager to catch a wanted criminal fast to pay him back.

Over the next few days, Shen Dongqing continued reviewing wanted criminal information while also tentatively going out to search for potential wanted criminals.

But perhaps because he had caught seven or eight thieves in one go, draining the energy of his Criminal Attraction Aura, he spent two days out and about, and it was totally quiet—nothing happened at all.

This didn't make any sense!

Still, Shen Dongqing silently noted this. If that were really the case, he could figure out how much peace and quiet he'd get and wouldn't have to stay so tense.

Even though staying on high alert hadn't been too bad so far, he knew that a string pulled too tight snaps, and he had to balance tension and relaxation to last long.

He just didn't know if it only drained by quantity, or if quality mattered too.

No, he'd stick with the quantity route for now. He couldn't handle high-tier criminals yet.

Shen Dongqing shook his head hard and continued observing people on the streets. After two straight days of this, his patience had gotten a lot better—at least now scanning faces wasn't as tiring, though he still couldn't deal with super crowded places.

But after observing so many people, Shen Dongqing discovered that just by looking at facial data, he could even tell if two people were blood-related. That was pretty wild.

"Xiao Shen, you're out again." Luo Meilan walked over, holding her daughter Zhang Sisi's hand.

"Yeah, it's pretty boring staying home all the time. Just came out for some fresh air." Shen Dongqing replied, glancing at Zhang Sisi and couldn't help but remark, "Sister Luo, Sisi really takes after you."

"Of course. When Sisi was born, everyone who saw her said she looked like me, not a bit like her father." As she said that, Luo Meilan's face fell, turning a bit grim.

Luo Meilan had indeed been heartbroken when she first learned her husband had died, but after the police investigated the reason behind her husband Zhang Feng's murder, it got hard for her to stay sad.

Zhang Feng had been cheating, hooking up with Zhao Zhi's wife. Zhao Zhi's wife had even gotten pregnant, and the scan showed it was a boy. So Zhang Feng had already been preparing to transfer the family's money away, planning to leave Luo Meilan with nothing.

But then Zhao Zhi discovered their affair. In a rage, he killed his wife first, then used her name to lure Zhang Feng out in the middle of the night, which was how he lost his life.

In fact, if Zhang Feng hadn't died, Luo Meilan's life afterward wouldn't have been easy either.

Zhang Sisi heard the mention of her father and was about to say something, but seeing Luo Meilan's expression, she didn't dare speak.

Though only a few years old, children already know how to read adult expressions. She knew that if she mentioned her father, her mother would cry and get angry.

"Xiao Shen, I won't chat with you anymore. I'm taking Sisi home." Luo Meilan forced a smile and carried Zhang Sisi away.

Shen Dongqing figured there was something off about how Zhang Feng died, otherwise Luo Meilan wouldn't change her expression at the mention of her husband.

Shen Dongqing continued watching passersby. Suddenly, the world before his eyes changed again—the skill card's time was up, and the skill wore off.

Looking at people's faces, Shen Dongqing felt both regret and relief.

Although the skill was extremely powerful, when using the skill card, he went totally face-blind, unable to tell if a face was pretty or ugly—it was all just data, and looking at it for too long was truly exhausting.

Thinking about this, Shen Dongqing suddenly felt that he should pull more of these limited-use cards in the future, otherwise he wouldn't know what pitfalls the skills had.

If he'd gotten super lucky and pulled an unrestricted face-recognition card, Shen Dongqing was sure he would have used it immediately. By the time he discovered the pitfall, it would be too late to regret.

That would really be a case of getting stronger but going face-blind.

Even though Shen Dongqing wasn't a total looks-obsessed guy, everyone likes a pretty face, and he still enjoyed looking at attractive people.

Shen Dongqing's mind suddenly flashed an image of Xiao Ze.

Xiao Ze's looks weren't the most striking, but with his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and composed demeanor, he had this natural vibe that made him pretty good-looking.