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Having stayed up late reading the forum the previous night, Jiang Chijing almost overslept the next morning.

After a quick shower, he took out that dubious, unbranded and unlicensed product from the freezer, rapidly smearing some jam on a piece of bread, holding his breakfast in his mouth as he hurried out of the door.

Jiang Chijing finally found an interval while waiting for the first traffic light on the way to work to finish his breakfast. He didn’t feel that this twice-processed strawberry jam was to his taste at first, but over time, he grew used to it, conversely growing to like it even more than those factory-made strawberry jams.

After polishing off the bread, Jiang Chijing lifted his chin and glanced at the rearview mirror. Sure enough, a bit of jam had gotten onto the corners of his lips.

He first licked off the jam with his tongue, but before he could wipe his mouth again with a tissue, the red light jumped to green. He hurriedly stepped on the gas pedal, managing to rush to Southside Prison before eight o’clock.

There was less mail to deliver today. Jiang Chijing hastened his walking pace. Usually, he would chat a bit with a few inmates about the contents of their letters, but today he was like an emotionless mail delivery machine, getting this job done in the quickest possible time.

At eight-fifty, Jiang Chijing hurriedly returned to the library before Zheng Mingyi’s arrival, and found a book from the bookshelves called Learning to Trade Stocks from Ground Zero. Then, he pretended to read it in his work area.

When Zheng Mingyi came to the library and sat in the work area, he looked at Jiang Chijing with quite some surprise indeed. “Officer Jiang, you want to learn stock trading?”

“Mm-hmm.” In a good mood, Jiang Chijing hummed lightly.

“Didn’t you have no interest before?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

“I changed my mind.” Jiang Chijing closed the book and looked at Zheng Mingyi. ” Are you going to teach me?”

Zheng Mingyi didn’t immediately respond. He looked first at the book, then at Jiang Chijing, obviously finding it weird.

Jiang Chijing didn’t actually want to learn stock trading. He only wanted to see Zheng Mingyi in over his head for once. In spite of Zheng Mingyi’s careful calculations, he surely would never have guessed that Jiang Chijing already knew his little secret.

“You don’t have to read books to learn stock trading,” Zheng Mingyi slowly opened his mouth to speak, observing Jiang Chijing’s expression. “Accumulating experience is more important.”

“If I don’t read books then what should I be looking at?” Jiang Chijing touched his chin in thought for a beat. “Ah, I got it. I’ll go look at forums.”

After saying this, he heedlessly clicked on the web browser to open the stock trading forum he had spent the night surfing.

“I heard that this forum is more authoritative. Have you heard of it?” Jiang Chijing asked.

Now, Zheng Mingyi’s vigilance instantly rose, and he soundlessly scrutinised Jiang Chijing’s actions.

Jiang Chijing’s expression was as immovable as Mount Tai, with nary anything clouding his eyes, aglow with a pure, inquisitive look. But in reality, he was already laughing to high heaven on the inside.

He finally understood why Zheng Mingyi liked teasing him so much. He only discovered now how fun it was to tease someone.

“I have.” Zheng Mingyi said without any change in his expression. “Many retail investors have gathered on this forum.”

“Do you frequently come on here?” Jiang Chijing kept with his questions.

Zheng Mingyi continued measuring Jiang Chijing, returning, “What do you think?”

Jiang Chijing was deeply familiar with Zheng Mingyi’s style. The moment that he started answering with a question, it meant that he had drawn his defences up.

“You probably do.” Jiang Chijing smothered the amusement in his heart, replying with a straight face, “I heard that there are a lot of specialists on this forum.”

“Where did you hear it from?” Zheng Mingyi abruptly asked, “You said that this forum is more authoritative; who told you this?”

Zheng Mingyi was starting to go on the offensive, just as Jiang Chijing had expected. Following Zheng Mingyi’s way of doing things, he definitely wouldn’t passively take a pummelling.

“I casually looked it up online,” Jiang Chijing said calmly, “Is this forum not authoritative?”

Jiang Chijing flung the question back at him. He didn’t directly bring up the God of Go, because, with Zheng Mingyi’s intellect, he would definitely be seen through if he took out his killing move right off the bat.

However, he still underestimated Zheng Mingyi’s level of vigilance. Zheng Mingyi didn’t continue to answer his questions, nor did he probe him with questions in return. Instead, he looked straight at Jiang Chijing and said, “Officer Jiang, you’re acting weird today.”

“Am I?” Jiang Chijing blinked innocently.

“Why do you suddenly want to learn how to trade stocks?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

“The warden told me that it wouldn’t hurt for me to pick it up in my free time.”

Jiang Chijing had prepared his answers in advance knowing that the teasing had to be done in moderation, especially when he was up against an old fox like Zheng Mingyi. The slightest moment of inattention would expose his feet of clay, thus he didn’t go too deep into it, saying carelessly, “So are you going to teach me or not?”

“I am,” Zheng Mingyi said. “If you want to learn, why wouldn’t I teach you?”

With his objective accomplished, the corners of Jiang Chijing’s lips subtly lifted.

He needed a legitimate reason to bring up stock trading in the future to create opportunities to tease Zheng Mingyi. As long as Zheng Mingyi remained in the dark about what this was about, then he could recoup his losses from being teased in the past.

“Officer Jiang,” Zheng Mingyi’s voice cut into the mirth hanging off his lips. “Did you eat strawberry jam today?”

“Hm?” Jiang Chijing returned to the present, looking at Zheng Mingyi. “I eat it every day.”

“Is it the jar that I gave you?”

“I didn’t buy a new one.” Not wanting Zheng Mingyi to think that he had some kind of attachment to it, Jiang Chijing added, “It would be a waste, otherwise.”

The moment his voice fell, Zheng Mingyi suddenly reached over to him from the side, cupping Jiang Chijing’s face, wiping a corner of his lips with a thumb. “How did it end up over here?”

Imperceptible doting was laced in his tone as he said this, which, coming right after Jiang Chijing was deliberately making mischief just now, involuntarily caused his back to prickle numbly.

“Is there?” Jiang Chijing self-consciously wiped the corner of his lips with the back of his hand.

He swore that he had licked off the jam from the corners of his mouth, but perhaps due to him not taking a tissue to wipe it, he could have missed some.

The amount that he missed definitely wasn’t much, or someone would surely have noticed before now. With the close proximity at which Zheng Mingyi was sitting, if there was really something on Jiang Chijing’s face, it naturally wouldn’t escape his notice.

“How did you process it?” Zheng Mingyi asked. “I’ll do the same next time.”

“I added some fresh lemon juice,” Jiang Chijing said. “The sweetness would be too cloying, otherwise.”

When saying this, Jiang Chijing completely overlooked something, which was that Zheng Mingyi wanted to continue making it for him in the future.

“Is that so.” Zheng Mingyi dropped his gaze in thought for a split second, then abruptly sucked on the thumb that had just touched the corner of Jiang Chijing’s lips.

His lower jaw moved, as though his tongue was running over his thumb, like he was reluctant to waste any hint of flavour on it.

A moment later, he set his hand down and looked at Jiang Chijing. “I can’t taste it.”

Wasn’t that only natural?

Jiang Chijing hastily averted his dazed look, refusing to expose the racy filth that had floated up in his mind again. However, at this time, he found that Zheng Mingyi had a strange look in his eyes; he was gazing fixedly at his lips, seemingly saying: Since I can’t taste it from my thumb, let me taste it from your lips.

A peculiar thought suddenly popped up in Jiang Chijing’s mind. Was it possible that during the time that he churned essays with his imagination, Zheng Mingyi’s mind was also swimming in the gutter?

“What are you looking at?” Jiang Chijing subtly leaned towards the windows. “It just occurred to me. There isn’t a next time, I’ll buy it myself from the supermarket.”

“What’s the point?” Zheng Mingyi finally lifted his gaze from Jiang Chijing’s lips. “I can make it for you.”

“Don’t you have other things to do?” Jiang Chijing asked seriously.

“Nope,” Zheng Mingyi said. “You know I’m very free.”

Fair enough; compared to his past life as a social elite, Zheng Mingyi did have a lot of free time in the present. Lights-out was at ten in the evening, they rose from bed at six in the morning, and aside from the three hours of afternoon break, the rest of it was spent endlessly planting strawberries.

It also happened that this period of time was also the fruiting period for strawberries in Southside Prison. If it were Jiang Chijing, he would also find a little something to occupy himself with.

“Then don’t add so much sugar next time,” Jiang Chijing said.

“All right.”

After the long chat, the central bank had already released the stats. As usual, Jiang Chijing read everything to Zheng Mingyi, but after he finished today, Zheng Mingyi suddenly looked at him and asked, “Where do you want to start first?”

“Start?”

Jiang Chijing assumed that it was Zheng Mingyi’s thought processes beginning to play leapfrog again, yet heard him say, “Didn’t you want to learn stock trading?”

“Uh.” Jiang Chijing had almost forgotten this. After all, he had only expressed a wish to learn stock trading to tease Zheng Mingyi, but had never taken it to heart. But in view of the solemnity with which Zheng Mingyi took this duty, he could only harden his neck and say, “What causes stock prices to change?”

“It’s simple. The price rises when many people buy it, and it falls when many people sell,” said Zheng Mingyi.

“Then how do you analyse whether a stock is going to rise or fall?” Jiang Chijing continued to ask.

“It depends on various factors,” said Zheng Mingyi. “I’ll teach you how to read the candlestick chart first.”

Zheng Mingyi moved the mouse while explaining to Jiang Chijing what the different numbers on the screen signified. As he was seated closer to the screen than him, Jiang Chijing could only read it with his head tilted.

At this time, Zheng Mingyi was speaking of the data on his side of the screen over there. Due to the reflection of the light on the screen making it hard to read, Jiang Chijing was forced to shift his body closer to Zheng Mingyi, until even the tips of his hair were brushing against the other man’s ears.

Zheng Mingyi inclined his head over slightly, glancing at Jiang Chijing. Then, he let go of the mouse and circled his arm around Jiang Chijing’s shoulders before holding the mouse again. “Can you see it better now?”

Now, Jiang Chijing was indeed closer to the screen. But the problem was, how did he somehow wind up in Zheng Mingyi’s embrace again?

Their shoulders were pressed against each other’s chest, in the model posture that a pair of lovebirds would sit in.

Jiang Chijing unconsciously turned his head over to look at the arm that was circling around him, but at this moment, Zheng Mingyi abruptly let go of the mouse away to press a hand to the side of his face, pushing his head back.

“Focus,” said Zheng Mingyi.

Just how was he supposed to focus like this?

Jiang Chijing couldn’t help but find it weird. Since when were he and Zheng Mingyi on this level of familiarity?

“Do you teach others how to trade stocks like this too?” Jiang Chijing frowned.

“Of course not,” Zheng Mingyi said. “This is special treatment for Officer Jiang.” He paused, then added, “Or you can sit on my lap so you can see the screen more clearly.”

“There’s no need for that.” Jiang Chijing glared at Zheng Mingyi and continued to act like he was studying seriously. “And what’s this number for?”

Jiang Chijing had to admit that he was feeling a teensy bit of regret.

He wasn’t that interested in stocks and had only given himself such a persona to tease Zheng Mingyi. Little did he expect that Zheng Mingyi would actually get addicted to teaching and seem to have no intention to stop at all, rattling off explanations of various terms, making Jiang Chijing flash black to his schooling days.

Jiang Chijing frequently checked his watch, and when watch hands finally pointed to nine-thirty, he immediately straightened up. “Time’s up, we can talk about this next time.”

“There’s a more important point, you must keep your composure when trading stocks, don’t just jump blindly—”

“Teacher Zheng,” Jiang Chijing hurriedly interrupted Zheng Mingyi. “That’s enough for today. It won’t be too late to continue tomorrow.”

Zheng Mingyi looked at Jiang Chijing. He asked, “What did you call me?”

“Teacher Zheng.”

Comrade · high-school graduate · Zheng, seemed greatly pleased with this address, and he finally let go of the mouse. “See you in the afternoon, then.”

“This afternoon won’t do,” said Jiang Chijing. “Some government officials with enterprises are dropping by for a visit, I have to accompany them.”

They would host groups that came to survey the prison on occasion, mostly as a deterrent against committing crimes. It was the warden’s job to receive these groups, but Jiang Chijing guessed that it was probably related to Zheng Mingyi for the warden to have asked him to tag along.

“They want to visit the strawberry shed?” After listening to Jiang Chijing’s explanation, Zheng Mingyi asked, seemingly pensive.

“Yeah, your case is relatively high-profile. You know the way it is.”

It was difficult for visitors to develop a resonance from inmates they couldn’t recognise. Conversely, it was more effective as a deterrent for them to watch the prison life of someone they personally saw incarcerated.

“If you’re unwilling to, you can let the warden know,” Jiang Chijing said. “He would probably agree to your requests.”

Zheng Mingyi was silent for a moment before asking, “Will you also be visiting the strawberry shed this afternoon?”

“Yeah,” said Jiang Chijing.

“Great,” said Zheng Mingyi. “I’ll pick strawberries for you to eat.”

Once again, Jiang Chijing couldn’t understand Zheng Mingyi’s brain circuit.

He was already going to be made a spectacle for others to see. Was picking strawberries really the main point here?