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Cute

Never before had time passed more excruciatingly in the afternoon. Jiang Chijing was basically glancing at Zheng Mingyi every few minutes.

Zheng Mingyi was leisurely holding a comic book in his hands, reading it with relish, whereas Jiang Chijing could barely get himself to do anything at all, not even in the mood to open the surveillance on the recreation room.

The reason for this was simple. This was already the second time that he hadn’t performed well, just like that time when Zheng Mingyi used his eyelashes as an excuse to tease him.

Zheng Mingyi could find the openings in his words with alacrity, but it took him a long time, only noticing during dinner that there was something wrong with Zheng Mingyi’s words.

The annoyance he felt from this was way higher on the scale than losing an argument.

Time slowly ticked to two o’clock. The inmates in the library finally began to stream out. However, Zheng Mingyi appeared to be enraptured by the comic book he was reading. Though there was no one else in the library, he was still steadfastly planted in his seat by the windows.

“1017.” Ultimately, Jiang Chijing was still the first to crack. “Are you coming over or not?”

Zheng Mingyi raised his head and looked at Jiang Chijing, the corners of his lips hooking in a subtle arc. He openly met Jiang Chijing’s gaze. “Officer Jiang, your eyes are very intense when looking at me today.”

“Are you hiding something from me?” Jiang Chijing didn’t give any buffer and directly struck out first, not giving Zheng Mingyi any chance to ready himself.

This question obviously carried the intent to unearth answers, but in any case, Jiang Chijing wasn’t expecting Zheng Mingyi to honestly own up to anything. He merely wanted to judge his reaction to it. But little did he expect that Zheng Mingyi would fall silent for a moment and give an unexpected response. “Yes.”

“What?” Jiang Chijing unconsciously frowned, his nerves pulling tight.

Zheng Mingyi slowly opened his mouth, as if deliberately keeping him in suspense, waiting for a good while before finally saying, “I think you look very attractive in your uniform.”

Just that?

Jiang Chijing froze for a split second then swiftly cottoned on to that Zheng Mingyi was teasing him. He suppressed the ire that rose in his heart, asking sternly, “Zheng Mingyi, do I look easy to bully?”

“Nope,” Zheng Mingyi’s attitude was sincere as he said, “I’ve seen how you fierce look when beating someone with a baton, how can I dare?”

But compared to the prowess Zheng Mingyi showed when beating someone up, Jiang Chijing practically paled into obscurity. He couldn’t put a finger to it, but he kept feeling that Zheng Mingyi was repeatedly skipping back and forth across the line of bullying him.

“Say, Officer Jiang,” Zheng Mingyi naturally changed the subject. “How did your date go?”

“It was alright,” Jiang Chijing casually replied then immediately brought the subject back. “When you asked me before whether I was going into the city, how did you know that I don’t live in the city?”

“Did I?” Zheng Mingyi asked without a flicker in this expression.

Jiang Chijing never expected that Zheng Mingyi would actually flat-out deny it. He could only blame himself for not catching it on the spot, else Zheng Mingyi wouldn’t even have the opportunity to play dumb.

“You did.” Jiang Chijing glared at Zheng Mingyi, saying, “You asked me if I was going into the city to have fun.”

“Oh, you mean that.” Zheng Mingyi skillfully countered, “After you get off work, wouldn’t that be going into the city?”

There was certainly a difference between going into and going back to the city. But if they really were to pick at the logic in it, they would go around in a circuitous argument. And here, Jiang Chijing finally spotted a problem—no matter what he said, Zheng Mingyi could just say that he was overthinking it.

This was unlike his obvious slip-up when he said that he didn’t know. The feeling that Zheng Mingyi gave him was that he was purposefully exposing his tail, only for him to look and not to touch.

It was infuriating.

“Do you know where I live or not?” Seeing that he was unable to unearth anything at all, Jiang Chijing couldn’t resist asking the question that he had stewed over the entire weekend.

“Where do you live?” Zheng Mingyi asked curiously. “Is it near me?”

Jiang Chijing was teetering on the verge of an explosion, almost giving up the game.

Yeah, I live right across the street from you, when I’ve nothing better to do I’d spy on you.

But, for better or for worse, his rationality pulled him back from charging off the cliff, letting him swiftly regain his normal composure.

“Not at all,” Jiang Chijing coldly said. “I live in the city.”

Since he couldn’t get anything, then there was no point in asking. He couldn’t be sure whether or not Zheng Mingyi was playing dumb. If he was, then he’d play right along with him.

“Is that so?” Zheng Mingyi touched his chin, affecting a perplexed expression. “Officer Jiang, how do you know that the city is far from where I stay?”

In other words, how do you know where my house is?

Jiang Chijing gave a start. When his brain finally rounded the bend, he instantly felt like he was struck by lightning.

He’d actually slipped up again.

He said that they didn’t live near each other, but the question was, it was only by knowing where Zheng Mingyi stayed that he could determine the distance between their residences.

“Officer Jiang,” Zheng Mingyi sighed. His expression looked slightly exasperated and fond. “You’re really…”

Jiang Chijing whipped his head over, his eyes glaring at Zheng Mingyi like knives. He had already steeled himself to pretend not to know anything if Zheng Mingyi persisted on asking to the end of it.

Zheng Mingyi leaned over, pressing their shoulders together. He tilted his head and, next to Jiang Chijing’s ear, lightly uttered two words, “…stupidly cute.”

With that, Zheng Mingyi backed away, moving naturally as he took the mouse, beginning to study the stock trends.

Jiang Chijing stared at Zheng Mingyi incredulously. Ever since he started middle school, no one had ever called him cute. And even if his grades weren’t the cream of the crop, he had steadily remained in the above-average band—nobody had ever called him stupid to his face.

He even had a moment of doubt; was it really possible that he was mentally deficient?

Impossible. Zheng Mingyi was clearly the abnormal one here.

“Move.” Jiang Chijing got up, the veins on his temple bulging as he peered down at Zheng Mingyi.

“What is it?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

“I’m going to find the warden.”

Jiang Chijing seriously couldn’t get it. He didn’t owe Zheng Mingyi anything, why did he have to waste his time reading books for him?

Zheng Mingyi should have understood the look in Jiang Chijing’s eyes. He let go of the mouse, casually resting his hands on his thighs, telling Jiang Chijing, “Go ahead then.”

“Make way.”

There was only one exit from this fan-shaped office area, which was on Zheng Mingyi’s side. If Zheng Mingyi didn’t give way, then Jiang Chijing had to step over him.

“I’m not stopping you,” Zheng Mingyi drawled.

But it was clear from his posture that he had no intention to move.

Jiang Chijing refused to squander time on something like this. He only hesitated for a moment before lifting his leg and stepping across Zheng Mingyi’s body.

Jiang Chijing moved very naturally, just as if he was stepping over a railing. However, right as his foot landed, a problem popped into his head. He couldn’t let Zheng Mingyi use the computer unsupervised and had to put it on hibernate.

At the thought of this, he turned over and pressed the power button on the keyboard.

Due to the ill-distributed centre of gravity and the awkward posture, after Jiang Chijing hit the key and was about to straighten back up, his body involuntarily swayed.

Swear to god, he was sure that he was completely capable of regaining his balance on his own. But Zheng Mingyi just had to raise a hand and support his waist, which conversely disturbed his balance, and by the time he came back to his senses, he was already sitting smack on Zheng Mingyi’s lap, legs spread apart.

There was something messed up about this position.

Jiang Chijing had a bad habit of analysing people, which stemmed from his inability to rein in his imagination. It was somewhat similar to mysophobia. People with mysophobia might not necessarily want to wash their hands anymore, but due to their psychological condition, would still involuntarily reach for the tap.

Jiang Chijing was just like that. In such a situation, all he wanted to do now was to empty his brain, yet various indescribable images surfaced in his brain like a comic strip.

He had even stripped off Zheng Mingyi’s shirt in his imagination.

No can do, Jiang Chijing’s rational mind kept flogging himself. He wasn’t a pervert.

He bit his tongue, driving the racy filth inappropriate to the occasion out of his mind. But just as he was thinking of getting up from Zheng Mingyi, he suddenly heard footsteps at the door of the library.

Jiang Chijing followed the sound and looked over, then saw Luo Hai standing there gobsmacked.

“The two of you…”

That did it. Right now, Jiang Chijing was sorely tempted to ram himself headlong into a wall and greet death.

“Don’t misunderstand.” Jiang Chijing hurriedly got up from Zheng Mingyi’s body. “It’s not what you think.”

“Really…?”

Luo Hai’s line of sight shifted downwards, resting on Jiang Chijing’s waist. It was only at this time that Jiang Chijing realised that Zheng Mingyi’s hand was still holding onto the small of his back.

“Let go.” Jiang Chijing slapped Zheng Mingyi’s arm away, whilst Zheng Mingyi put on a blameless expression, as if saying that it was clearly Jiang Chijing who had sat on him.

“What are you looking for me for?” Jiang Chijing walked to the library door, asking Luo Hai.

“Just came to chat.” Luo Hai’s expression still looked complicated. “Don’t worry, I can understand that you’re interested in his type, but can’t you at least close the door?”

Jiang Chijing’s head throbbed. “How many times do I have to say it? Nothing is going on between us.”

“No wonder Zhang Fan said that you weren’t interested in him. He is lacking a little spice,” Luo Hai mused. “But at the end of the day, Zheng Mingyi is still a con; is this really okay?”

“First of all, what you saw just now was a misunderstanding. There’s really nothing between us,” Jiang Chijing stressed. “Secondly, so what if he’s an con? Isn’t your Yu Guang one, too?”

“How’s that the same?” Luo Hai said. “A’Guang is silly, but he’s not a bad kid by nature.”

“Then what made you decide that Zheng Mingyi is bad?”

Luo Hai shot him another weird look. Suddenly realising that he was only making things worse the more he spoke, Jiang Chijing dropped the topic, waving a hand at Luo Hai and walking to the staircase. “I have some business with the warden. We’ll talk later.”

When Jiang Chijing arrived at the warden’s office, the warden was looking intently at the computer screen, seemingly reluctant to tear his eyes away for even a second.

He swiftly glanced up at Jiang Chijing then back down again at his computer screen, saying, “Little Jiang, my stocks have been doing quite well in the recent.”

Uh-huh. He was looking at his stocks.

Jiang Chijing couldn’t help but find it strange; why would the warden chat with him about stocks for no rhyme or reason? And then he heard the warden speak again, “Zheng Mingyi called me on the intercom just now and told me that you wanted to stop reading to him.”

The library’s office desk had a telephone which Zheng Mingyi would normally use to give the warden suggestions on which stocks to trade.

Jiang Chijing never expected that Zheng Mingyi would seize the initiative before him. Despite the bad feeling that he was getting in his heart, he still raised his objections. “Yes, I don’t want to get too close to an inmate.”

“Our prison should naturally support an inmate if he shows a willingness to learn. How about this, you can just find someone to replace you,” the warden said.

Hearing this, Jiang Chijing secretly let out a sigh of relief. By right, Zheng Mingyi should be the charge of the Block C Supervisor. When it came down to it, he could just toss him back to the supervisor.

“However,” the warden’s words suddenly took a turn, “the person you find must receive Zheng Mingyi’s approval. After all, he’s the one being read to.”

Jiang Chijing, “……”

He shouldn’t have bothered.

Poker-faced, Jiang Chijing returned to the library. Zheng Mingyi seemed to have already expected the outcome, his voice tinged with regret as he said, “It’s already half past two, Officer Jiang.”

While half an hour wasn’t a short time, it wasn’t long either. The two of them had only talked a bit before Jiang Chijing went out; just like that, the afternoon reading time blinked past them.

Zheng Mingyi stood up, saying to Jiang Chijing, “See you tomorrow, Officer Jiang.” With that, he left the library, following behind the prison guard who was outside the door.

Jiang Chijing sat back on his office chair. The library was restored to its usual quietness, and with it, his frustration ebbed away.

However, right then, Jiang Chijing suddenly glimpsed the mouse on his table.

Jiang Chijing was very sensitive to the placement of items in his office area. He clearly remembered that before he left, the position of the mouse was different from it was now; it should be a little closer to the side where he was sitting.

He hit the enter key; the computer was still locked. Logically, no one should have been able to use a password-locked computer.

However, he definitely hadn’t misremembered the placement of his mouse, which also meant to say that just now, after Jiang Chijing left…

Zheng Mingyi had touched his computer.