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Over the weekend, the blazing summer finally welcomed a heavy downpour, washing away the many days of prolonged heat.

The uninterrupted pitter-patter of rain made for suitable background music to his reading. Jiang Chijing set down the book in his hand, Fundamentals of Weiqi, and went into the kitchen to make himself a cup of chrysanthemum tea to reduce eye strain.

Although Jiang Chijing worked as a librarian, he actually didn’t often read books. Now that he suddenly found a new interest, he found that it wasn’t as easy to pick things up as it would have been in his schooling days.

While the rules of weiqi appeared simple on the surface, the various tactics fried his brain. The more Jiang Chijing read about it, the more he felt that this game was perfectly fitted to Zheng Mingyi’s temperament.

As he read, he rested; half of his weekend passed in this leisurely manner, backdropped by rain. Jiang Chijing had intended to nestle at home for two days without stepping out of the house, but on Sunday afternoon, Guan Wei’s call disrupted this plan.

“Was it a serious incident at Southside Prison last week?”

In a small cafe outside the community, Guan Wei drove over from Southside Prison, inquisitiveness stamped in bold across his face.

“It was rather serious; an inmate committed arson to create chaos,” Jiang Chijing said. “The prison has decided to impose a lockdown for a week, forbidding all visitations and correspondence.”

News of the fire alarm at the prison had circulated widely outside and even made it to the local headlines. But the lockdown wasn’t announced to the public, so it was only natural that Guan Wei wasn’t aware of this.

“Hell of a time for this to happen, though.” Guan Wei sipped his coffee, looking frazzled. “I just went to look for Zheng Mingyi in hopes of a meeting. Geez, no wonder they turned down my request straightaway.”

“What are you looking for Zheng Mingyi for?” Jiang Chijing asked.

“The last time I met with him, we chatted about my unit and he gave me a tip. He got me to put out a few pieces of fake intel, then find out who the mole is through the fluctuations in the stock prices.”

“Fluctuations in the stock prices?” Jiang Chijing gave a start.

“Stock trading is an information war; any kind of positive or negative news can affect the stock market,” Guan Wei said. “Zheng Mingyi analysed the possible consequences of each piece of information for me. Then, I waited until now and finally uncovered the mole.”

“Just by looking at the fluctuations in the stock prices?” Jiang Chijing was incredulous.

“Just by looking at the fluctuations in the stock prices.” Guan Wei lamented, “One of the fake intel was that I had evidence of the mistress of the board director of ABC Technologies being involved in embezzlement of public funds. As a result, it didn’t take long for someone to start dumping a large number of their company stocks.”

“Because they expect the stock price to drop?” Jiang Chijing asked.

“Exactly,” said Guan Wei. “This is abnormal behaviour because the new policies introduced recently are favourable to the tech industry, and yet their stock price started to fall, so it’s obvious that someone is manipulating it behind closed doors.”

Jiang Chijing abruptly felt that ABC Technologies sounded familiar to him. When he thought back on it, wasn’t the group that came for a visit to the prison previously from that company?

He recalled what Zheng Mingyi said to Mr. Dong at the strawberry shed that day, and asked contemplatively, “About this mistress embezzling public funds, you don’t think it’s real, do you?”

“To tell the truth, I don’t know either. But isn’t getting such a big reaction from casually dropping fake intel a sign of a guilty conscience?” Guan Wei said in a grave tone, “I now suspect that all those pieces of information that Zheng Mingyi gave me are authentic.”

It was difficult for Jiang Chijing to judge the authenticity without understanding the full picture. So he could only sigh helplessly, “That’s quite like him.” Zheng Mingyi had the whole board in the palm of his hand from start to end; no one could guess or read his play.

“I was worried that this would influence the stock market at first, but when I gave it more thought, it’s more important to catch the mole.”

Any move the regulatory board made would influence the stock market. It likely went against Guan Wei’s principles to affect the stock market using fake intel, but from the way it appeared now, there might be some nugget of truth contained within them.

“Now that the mole in my unit has been caught, I just wanted to check with Zheng Mingyi if the information he gave me was true. If it is, I have to investigate it.”

Hearing this, Jiang Chijing’s brows jumped. “Are you not investigating Zheng Mingyi’s case anymore?”

“Still on it, I’m waiting for him to give me his clues,” Guan Wei said. “During our last meeting, he told me to ferret out the mole before going to him again.”

In other words, Guan Wei needed Zheng Mingyi to show him the next step to take. But Old Nine just had to act up at this time, preventing Guan Wei from meeting Zheng Mingyi, holding up the whole thing.

Jiang Chijing looked at Guan Wei and asked, “Do you need me to help?”

In the past when Guan Wei approached Jiang Chijing for help, Jiang Chijing had his reservations as he feared that his guarantee would affect Zheng Mingyi’s judgement. If anything cropped up, he wouldn’t be able to account for it with Zheng Mingyi.

But the situation now was vastly different from before. Since he and Zheng Mingyi were sitting on the same side of the playing board, it was only right for him to get involved.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

***

Please do not repost or retranslate.

It was the morning of a new week. After his usual shower, Jiang Chijing, for some baffling reason, took out hair wax and played around with his hair.

The hair scattered on his forehead had almost grown past his eyebrows. He combed all of it back, revealing a full and smooth forehead, giving a layer of suaveness to his delicate features.

No matter from which angle, Jiang Chijing was very satisfied with his styling today. But the more he looked at it, the more he felt that it was just one tiny bit short of perfection.

He took out his cologne and sprayed the faint grapefruit fragrance around his neck. Now, he considered the job done.

Jiang Chijing checked the time and saw that he was running late again, so he hastily took his breakfast and drove to the prison.

But the moment he entered the locker room, he was constantly tempted to head home and take another shower.

“Officer Jiang, are you going on a date after work tonight?”

“D’uh, he’s going to be a lady-killer with how he’s dressed up.”

“Truly deserving to be called the eye candy of our prison.”

Every time he ran into a colleague, Jiang Chijing would get teased. He suspected that his brain must have been high on something this morning, or he wouldn’t have dressed up on a whim.

Fortunately, as he didn’t have to deliver mail today, he had plenty of time in the morning. After changing into his uniform, Jiang Chijing mussed his sharply-styled hair, but now it had a roguish charm to it that only added to his handsomeness instead.

In short, no matter what he did, there was still a singular allure to it.

In the end, all Jiang Chijing could do was pray that Zheng Mingyi had gone blind and wouldn’t notice any difference in him today.

But how could something that even his straight male colleagues could notice evade Zheng Mingyi’s scrutiny?

Sure enough, after coming into the library and sitting next to Jiang Chijing, Zheng Mingyi immediately zeroed in on it. “Officer Jiang, do you have something on after work today?”

Jiang Chijing vaguely hummed and opened the financial news, reading, “Today’s…”

“What’s the occasion?” Zheng Mingyi interrupted Jiang Chijing.

“It has nothing to do with you.” Jiang Chijing’s gaze was fixed on the computer screen. He was about to continue reading when Zheng Mingyi interrupted him again.

“Why aren’t you telling me?”

“I already said it has nothing to do with you.”

“I haven’t seen you in two days.”

Perhaps out of his guilty conscience, Jiang Chijing once again thought back to Zheng Mingyi calling him a scumbag. He really wanted to ignore Zheng Mingyi’s gaze, but he eventually exhaled, caving, “There’s nothing on.”

“You’re not going to meet anyone?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

“Mm-hmm.”

Not going to meet anyone. The pains I took to dress up today are all for you.

Jiang Chijing didn’t know when he had come to this state. He could have sworn that it was just a whimsy to dress up this morning and didn’t delve into why that was, yet inexplicably, it all turned out to be for Zheng Mingyi.

“Keep reading then, Officer Jiang.”

Jiang Chijing leaned towards the screen, his right hand naturally circling behind Jiang Chijing’s back to rest on his waist.

Jiang Chijing looked at his waist, and then at Zheng Mingyi, asking in confusion, “What is your hand doing?”

“The injury on my arm hurts. I need to find someplace to put it for it to be comfortable,” Zheng Mingyi said.

The seriousness of his tone didn’t make it sound like he was telling a lie at all. Jiang Chijing even doubted for a split second if it was because his work area was overly cramped, such that Zheng Mingyi’s injured arm had nowhere to rest.

But he swiftly discarded the idea. He expressionlessly looked at Zheng Mingyi and said, “Take it away.”

Zheng Mingyi didn’t move, just staring back at Jiang Chijing like that, as though completely certain that Jiang Chijing wouldn’t be able to do anything about him.

Of course Jiang Chijing wouldn’t give Zheng Mingyi the opportunity to reach for a yard after gaining an inch. He glared back with knitted brows, using his eyes to warn Zheng Mingyi: If you don’t remove it, I’ll be crossed.

Neither was willing to let up. Their gazes met in the air, engaging in a silent showdown.

Jiang Chijing abruptly thought back to how, once, after he had hidden behind his computer screen, Zheng Mingyi had sat in a corner at the back row of tables. The two of them had also sounded out and faced each other off then as well, only that they were separated by a far distance at that time, whereas now he could clearly make out the changes in the pupils of Zheng Mingyi’s eyes.

The cool composure abruptly flashed, and a dangerous light seemed to gather in his pupils. The originally straightforward showdown was suddenly suffused with suggestive undertones, and even Jiang Chijing was unable to focus his gaze, which kept sweeping across Zheng Mingyi’s lips.

It was probably better not to keep this up. It was too easy for things to go awry.

Like last time, Jiang Chijing decided to yield again. However, in the fleeting moment that he dropped his gaze, Zheng Mingyi abruptly leaned forward, pressing him against the window, kissing his lips.

“Are you insane?” Jiang Chijing immediately braced his arms against Zheng Mingyi’s shoulders, his eyes brimming over with panic. “There’s surveillance at the door!”

There was a surveillance camera installed above the front door of the library, capturing footage of the space at a 45-degree angle.

Although the work area where the two of them were seated was facing the door, also situated next to the windows, the surveillance camera couldn’t capture the entirety of it. Nevertheless, it could still capture half of it; Zheng Mingyi’s figure would still appear inside the frame.

“It can’t capture us.” Zheng Mingyi lifted his chin, covering Jiang Chijing’s lips again. “Don’t you want to give the thrill of kissing in a surveillance blindspot a taste?”

Jiang Chijing almost burst out in expletives.

This bastard really knew damn well what he liked.

He was utterly unable to resist the stimulation of this hidden affair, let alone that this was happening in broad daylight and the library door was wide open. The atmosphere was even more nerve-wracking than pleasures stolen in the night.

“Zheng Mingyi, stop.”

Jiang Chijing was so keyed up that his fingertips were tingling numbly and the voice tremored uncontrollably in his throat. But he evaded Zheng Mingyi’s lips, clinging onto the last shred of his rationality, saying, “Are you trying to make me lose my job?”

“I’ll take care of you,” Zheng Mingyi said.

“You’re an inmate!” Jiang Chijing finally found the strength to push Zheng Mingyi away, pulling open the window and turning towards it, taking deep breaths.

However, despite the recent rain, the summer day had turned piping hot again. The gulps of air that he took into his mouth didn’t abate the dryness of his parched throat.

“Wait for me to get out,” said Zheng Mingyi coolly from behind him.

Jiang Chijing quickly realised one thing. He was completely unable to calm down in such an environment. He suddenly closed the window and stood up, gazing down at Zheng Mingyi. “I’m bringing you to the infirmary to change your bandages.”

Zheng Mingyi raised his brows. “Now?”

“Right now.” Jiang Chijing pestered, “Hurry up.”

Once stepping into Luo Hai’s domain, Jiang Chijing’s rationality finally docked back on its normal trajectory. He walked to Luo Hai’s office desk, taking out the first-aid kit from the side, telling Luo Hai, “I’m borrowing this for a while.”

“Do you need help?” Luo Hai surveyed Zheng Mingyi’s injured arm.

“It’s fine, I can do it.”

When Jiang Chijing turned around with the first-aid kit in hand, probably smelling the cologne on him, Luo Hai asked, “Oh, right. Are you running out of the cologne I gave you last time yet? I’m going to buy a new bottle, do you want me to get you another one?”

“It’s fine, I just bought a new one.” Jiang Chijing casually chatted with Luo Hai, completely oblivious to the changed look in Zheng Mingyi’s eyes.

“Are you going into the city tonight?” Luo Hai asked.

“No.” Knowing how well Luo Hai understood him and his disinclination to wear cologne outside of special occasions, he made up a random excuse. “That bottle of cologne is too big, I’m never able to finish it.”

“You can just buy a smaller bottle,” Luo Hai said. “I gave you a 100-ml bottle last time.”

“I didn’t think that much,” Jiang Chijing said. “I just bought one that was exactly the same.”

The two men chatted back and forth amiably, neither noticing the air pressure on the other side pressing down heavier and heavier.

“Dr. Luo,” Zheng Mingyi abruptly spoke, interrupting their idle chatter, “you use the same brand of cologne as Officer Jiang?”

“Yeah, why?” Luo Hai asked. “I spent a long time picking this fragrance.”

It was only then that Jiang Chijing noticed that Zheng Mingyi’s expression seemed to be a bit off.

His eyes were completely flat and his lips were pursed into a thin line. If Jiang Chijing wasn’t mistaken, Zheng Mingyi seemed to be… angry…