Restricted Area

There was still a day to the weekend. Jiang Chijing took a rare day-off.

He planned to wait for the hickey on his neck to fade away before going back to work, but news of Old Nine having a score to settle with him even spread to the admin officers. When others saw that he wanted to take a day off, they assumed that he was hiding from Old Nine.

Naturally, Jiang Chijing couldn’t care less about Old Nine, but he still gave a perfunctory excuse and took the leave.

But on Monday morning after the break, Jiang Chijing stared expressionlessly at his reflection in the mirror. There was still a pale pink mark on his neck.

Jiang Chijing hadn’t thought of Zheng Mingyi much during these three rest days, but now, at the sight of his neck, he involuntarily felt irritable again.

He didn’t want to guess how many versions the story of his and Zheng Mingyi’s relationship would have morphed into by now.

Fortunately, Jiang Chijing had made the necessary preparations. He took out the powder foundation he had bought from a cosmetics store over the weekend and clumsily smeared some on his neck.

Once it was on, Jiang Chijing discovered a problem.

The store assistant said that this was the fairest shade available, which would match his skin tone. However, Jiang Chijing didn’t have the nerve to try it, simply purchasing it and rushing off. But now that he was putting it on, he then discovered that his neck was still a shade fairer.

Was it possible that he wasn’t applying it correctly?

Jiang Chijing had never used this stuff before and didn’t know how it was meant to work. He tried adding some lotion, but it still didn’t look right. On a whim, he suddenly thought of adding some toothpaste, but it ended up looking even weirder than before. Haphazardly, he spread it around a bit more and gave up, heading out like this.

Neither Lao Wang in the mailroom nor his colleagues when in the locker room noticed anything off with Jiang Chijing’s neck. However, his cover-up still didn’t escape the eyes of a certain culprit.

“Look at the screen.” Jiang Chijing frowned, knocking the table surface with a knuckle, calling the attention of Zheng Mingyi, who had his eyes steadfastly fixed on him. “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll read nonsense?”

“It’s not as if I can tell if you do,” Zheng Mingyi’s chin was resting on a hand and his elbow propped up on the table. His eyes never wavered from Jiang Chijing’s neck. “Officer Jiang, your neck is dirty.”

“It’s not dirty.” Jiang Chijing didn’t want to talk about this, going back to read off the screen, “This week, electronics manufacturing—”

Before he could finish reading the news, Zheng Mingyi suddenly reached out, wrapping a hand around Jiang Chijing’s nape, and with his thumb… rubbed off the powder foundation on Jiang Chijing’s neck.

Jiang Chijing had never experienced this before, nor could he describe what this feeling was. But this action of Zheng Mingyi’s was like those people who curiously asked you if your eyebrows were drawn or tattooed, only to reach out to wipe it natural as can be, ridding a good chunk of the eyebrows you spent half a day meticulously drawing on with eyeliner.

“It still looks more natural like this,” Zheng Mingyi nodded.

Jiang Chijing inhaled deeply. Curiously enough, he had actually spent sufficient time in Zheng Mingyi’s company to get used to such behaviour. He inwardly reassured himself that it wasn’t healthy to keep getting angry anyway, and he pushed Zheng Mingyi’s arm away with apathy on his face. “Don’t interrupt my reading.”

Zheng Mingyi kept staring at Jiang Chijing, as if trying to get his fill for the three lost days. Jiang Chijing finally was unable to keep his temper in check, letting go of the mouse. He leaned back into his seat and said, “Are you even listening?”

“I’m listening,” Zheng Mingyi said. “Just try me you don’t believe me.”

Jiang Chijing arched a brow. “And if you don’t get it right?”

“You can punish me.”

When he heard that word, images of him cuffing Zheng Mingyi to the chair suddenly surfaced in his mind’s eye.

If he really had the opportunity to cuff Zheng Mingyi, then he must use a little leather whip and…

Wait. His thoughts drifted again.

Jiang Chijing hurriedly pulled his thoughts back. His throat rolled and he affected nonchalance. “What is the offshore exchange rate of Chinese Yuan today?”

Zheng Mingyi reported a string of digits. In all honesty, Jiang Chijing had already tossed the information out of his head the moment he read it.

He gave another question, “Then which industry is showing major changes today?”

Zheng Mingyi said, “Manufacturing.”

Got it. There was nothing to punish him for.

Jiang Chijing crossed his arms in front of his chest and asked, “How on earth do you multitask?”

Zheng Mingyi said, “It’s just like drawing a circle with your left hand and a square with your right. You just have to go along with the flow of it.”

The corners of Jiang Chijing’s lips twitched in speechlessness. Was this something that could be done just by going along with the flow? However, he suddenly thought of something. He was still holding onto Zheng Mingyi’s little secret, why did he have to contend with this guy in a show of strength?

“By the way.” Jiang Chijing felt a spark of mischief. He unhurriedly moved his mouth to speak, “I was working hard at studying stock trading at home the past few days and made a friend on the forum.”

“Friend?” asked Zheng Mingyi.

“Yeah, he’s called Go. He appears to be very well-respected in the community.” Jiang Chijing paused here. “We chatted for a long time; he advised me to pay more attention to undervalued stocks so I can buy them at low prices.”

Jiang Chijing followed up with quite a number of professional terms. It wasn’t that he had deliberately prepped for this, only that after hanging out with this great god of stock trading for this length of time, he inevitably accumulated a certain threshold of financial knowledge. As such, he was able to speak with confidence, pulling off the bluff.

“…Go?” Jiang Chijing saw bewilderment cross Zheng Mingyi’s face for the first time. “The online friend you made is called Go?”

“Yeah, do you know him?” Jiang Chijing said, “I went through the forum. He sounded very professional in his posts, so I private messaged him and he quickly got back to me.”

After saying this, Jiang Chijing seriously wanted to award himself an Oscar. He never knew that he had such stellar acting skills, not feeling the slightest prick of guilt when pulling a fast one, almost convincing himself with his performance.

“Go replied you?” Zheng Mingyi’s face grew even more bewildered, only that he was still striving to keep a straight face.

The evil little minion in Jiang Chijing’s heart was already rolling on the ground in laughter, but he still spoke in a conversational tone. “He’s quite a nice guy. He always answers any questions I have.”

“Are you certain that the person you’re talking to is Go?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

Jiang Chijing mentally supplemented the rest of Zheng Mingyi’s words: Are you certain that you aren’t talking to an account thief?

“Otherwise? The avatar is his.” Jiang Chijing speedily grabbed the little tail that Zheng Mingyi exposed and said, “From the way you’re asking, it seems that you do come onto this forum.”

In the past, regardless of how much Jiang Chijing hounded Zheng Mingyi, he kept changing the subject. But he was unable to evade the pit that Jiang Chijing dug this time.

“I do.” Zheng Mingyi was obviously unused to being forced to reveal what he wanted to hide. The radian hanging off his lips curved a little unnaturally. Unwilling to divulge any details, he merely spat out these two words.

“What’s your username?” Jiang Chijing blinked owlishly. “We can add each other as friends.”

Zheng Mingyi didn’t answer. His lips pursed, and he only spoke after a long silence. “I’m sitting in prison now, there’s no point in adding friends.”

At this, the evil little minion in Jiang Chijing’s heart laughed his teeth out. He actually had the good sense to realise that he was sitting in prison?

The corners of his lips quirked imperceptibly, but he quickly tucked it away and continued to put on an act, asking, “Who’s better between the God of Go and you? I think that it isn’t a bad idea for me to learn stock trading from him.”

“Why do you need to learn from someone else when you have me?” Zheng Mingyi’s brows furrowed. “And who knows what the hell is up with this Go guy.”

Seeing that Zheng Mingyi was almost driven schizophrenic, Jiang Chijing immediately felt gratified. He felt that he had reclaimed all the ground he lost from being teased to near insanity and got even for the irritability that rose from the ‘strawberry planting’.

Zheng Mingyi was visibly vexed, frowning as he said, “Don’t talk to him anymore.”

Jiang Chijing leisurely said, “Why not?”

“Because.” Zheng Mingyi paused, obviously fabricating an excuse, “At your current knowledge level, you can’t determine the ability of the other party yet.”

It even sounded extremely plausible.

Jiang Chijing lazily went huh. “Then how can I trust your abilities?”

“I…” It was unprecedented. Jiang Chijing had succeeded in making Zheng Mingyi go mute.

Jiang Chijing couldn’t resist any longer. The corners of his lips hooked up as he said, “You’re acting a bit weird today, Zheng Mingyi.”

The subtext: Why are you so weak today?

When saying this, Jiang Chijing even carried the mentality of a proud battle commander who had everything in the palm of his hand. After all, he had been oppressed too many times by the logic monster Zheng Mingyi. It was rare for him to win a round.

But perhaps his mannerism deviated too much from the norm. Zheng Mingyi cautiously drew back the vexation on his face, as if he had only just realised that there was something strange about this conversation from the very beginning. He asked, “Why did you seek Go out?”

“Can’t I?” Jiang Chijing knew that Zheng Mingyi had begun his counterattack, but he already had a seamless excuse waiting on the tip of his tongue. “He’s very famous on the forum. There are probably many who want to learn from him.”

“Why don’t you open the forum now?” With his chin in his hand, Zheng Mingyi pointed to the computer display monitor. “Let me see what you’ve been talking about.”

The fierce assault that came out of the blue caused Jiang Chijing’s expression to momentarily stiffen. Three words flashed through his mind: I slipped up.

Why hadn’t he considered that Zheng Mingyi could verify the authenticity of his lie on the spot?

“If there’s nothing wrong with the points he’s making,” Zheng Mingyi went on, “Then you can continue to learn from him.”

Jiang Chijing regretted it. He only now realised that the pit he had dug for Zheng Mingyi was, in actuality, a pit for himself. This was practically dealing an enemy damage at the cost of even more damage to himself.

Zheng Mingyi was likely flustered at first and didn’t immediately react, but when he calmed, his IQ was instantly restored to its usual state.

And Jiang Chijing couldn’t beat a Zheng Mingyi who was at his normal IQ.

“Why do I have to show you our private conversation?” Jiang Chijing grasped at straws. “It contains my confession to the God of Go.”

“Confession?” Zheng Mingyi arched a brow, narrowing his eyes. “What did you confess, share it with me?”

“How would that do,” Jiang Chijing said. “It’s none of your business.”

“I’m afraid that you’ll get scammed,” Zheng Mingyi said and heedlessly took the mouse over, opening the forum’s login page. “Log into your account. I want to see what you’ve been talking about.”

Zheng Mingyi didn’t seem to want to give Jiang Chijing any chance for refusal, dead-set on seeing Jiang Chijing’s baseless ‘confession’.

“I’m not logging in.” Cornered, Jiang Chijing’s brows bunched in worry. “Use your account if you want, why must I be the one to reveal my online handle.”

Zheng Mingyi’s fingers, on the mouse, lifted minutely. It wasn’t difficult to tell that he was fighting the impulse to log into his own account.

But he swiftly set his fingers down. He gave Jiang Chijing a measuring look. “Forget it.”

Jiang Chijing inwardly let loose a sigh of relief. It seemed that he had guessed right; Zheng Mingyi wasn’t willing to voluntarily divulge the pseudonym he used on the forum.

Perhaps it was to maintain an air of secrecy, or perhaps it was for another reason. In any case, he didn’t wish to expose his online handle in front of others. In truth, Jiang Chijing was also like this. He liked to keep his online and real-life identity separate. Somehow, it felt shameful to say out his online pseudonym in real life.

He had barely made it past this crisis. Jiang Chijing was just having a moment of self-reflection, telling himself to play with fire less in the future, when a head suddenly poked into the library at this time, saying to Jiang Chijing, “Idol, I just finished cleaning the third-floor office. Do you need me to tidy up this place as well?”

It was never a good time for Yu Guang to come, and he just had to choose when he was with Zheng Mingyi to come. Zheng Mingyi appeared very sensitive to the word ‘idol’. He looked at Yu Guang, then at Jiang Chijing, and he said, “Idol?”

It was only a label; it shouldn’t reveal anything. Yet Zheng Mingyi’s gaze sharpened like a falcon, making Jiang Chijing flashback to the night that the man in black attacked Zheng Mingyi.

For the very first time, Jiang Chijing realised what it felt like to have prickles shoot up his spine. He waved at Yu Guang and said there was no need, but at this time, Zheng Mingyi suddenly called hold of Yu Guang. “What are you in prison for?”

Jiang Chijing hastily said, “It’s just a minor thing…”

“I’m a hacker of justice.” Yu Guang grandiosely overwhelmed Jiang Chijing’s guilty voice.

“A, hacker.” Zheng Mingyi stressed each word, and he asked pensively, “What’s your name?”

“Yu Guang.” After answering, Yu Guang then frowned warily. “Why do you ask.”

Jiang Chijing wanted to facepalm. Shouldn’t he be asking for the purpose before giving out his name?

“Yu Guang… A-Guang.” Zheng Mingyi mumbled something to himself. Then, he suddenly let out a short laugh, dense interest pooling in the gaze he turned on Jiang Chijing. He said, “Officer Jiang, that’s not how the game is played.”