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On Friday, various financial news channels covered a major industry headliner. The mistress of a board director on ABC Technologies had embezzled public funds. She was making to abscond overseas but was intercepted by the police at the airport immigration checkpoint.

“…Director Dong declares that he has no relations with the accused, but has stepped down from his position due to public sentiment.”

Jiang Chijing finished reading the news and closed the web page, looking at Zheng Mingyi next to him. He asked, “Is this what Guan Wei came to you about just now?”

It had been a week since the arson. The lackey who started the fire took the sole blame for it and was transferred to another prison, and Old Nine was let out from the confinement cell. The prison lifted the lockdown, resuming visitations and correspondences.

Guan Wei came at the earliest to Southside Prison to request a meeting with Zheng Mingyi. Also because of this, Zheng Mingyi came to the library a bit later during today’s lunch break.

“He moved rather quickly, investigating to the end of this within a few days,” Zheng Mingyi said. “Director Dong can’t run far. It’s just a matter of time before he’s caught.”

Jiang Chijing nodded contemplatively, asking, “Will this company’s stocks take a plunge, then?”

Zheng Mingyi gazed at Jiang Chijing. The moment his right hand lifted mid-air, Jiang Chijing slapped it back down.

“You’re not allowed to pinch my face,” Jiang Chijing said austerely. He had already gotten a hang of Zheng Mingyi’s mannerisms; whenever this guy wanted to praise or pacify him, he was fond of pinching his face. However, Jiang Chijing didn’t like having excessively intimate contact with Zheng Mingyi when on the clock.

Zheng Mingyi lackadaisically pulled his hand back and rubbed his chin, saying, “It’d plunge for sure. Check their company stocks.”

Jiang Chijing keyed the company’s name and hit enter. A candlestick chart with a long green line jumped onto the screen, and a notification next to it read that the stock had fallen so much that trading was temporarily suspended.

“A drop exceeding 10% will result in a trading halt.” As Zheng Mingyi explained, he leaned closer, and his right hand naturally reached around Jiang Chijing’s waist.

“Move your hand away,” Jiang Chijing said, his gaze never swerving from the screen.

“The plunge in this company’s stock price,” Zheng Mingyi continued speaking to Jiang Chijing, unheeding his words, “will also impact Old Watch’s stock price.”

Jiang Chijing exhaled in frustration and gave up on dealing with Zheng Mingyi, inputting Old Watch into the search and pulling up its chart. Unlike the earlier trendline, Old Watch’s stock prices had risen steeply to a new historical high.

“Why did Old Watch go up by so much?” Jiang Chijing asked Zheng Mingyi next to him in confusion.

“First, people can see that this industry’s stocks are soaring. When they sell off ABC Technologies’ stocks in their possessions, they’d be more inclined to use their excess position to buy stocks in the same sector.” Zheng Mingyi paused, then continued, “Secondly, retail investors like to follow what’s hot. With the recent popularity of Old Watch, coupled with the scandal involving ABC Technologies, a large number of retail investors have flocked to this stock.”

Jiang Chijing nodded, still digesting Zheng Mingyi’s words in his head, when at this time he heard Zheng Mingyi say, “Is Teacher Zheng’s explanation clear?”

Hearing a certain someone address himself as a teacher, Jiang Chijing was inadvertently amused. This guy really got addicted to being a teacher.

But he had to admit, at least for the stock trading noob that was him, Teacher Zheng’s patient explanation was detailed and completely worth giving a five-star review.

“Very clear.” Jiang Chijing affected a sincere look. “It’s my greatest honour to attend Teacher Zheng’s private class.”

“Good,” Zheng Mingyi, as if waiting for Jiang Chijing to say this, spread open his hand towards him in a businesslike manner. “Pay the tuition fee.”

Jiang Chijing didn’t expect Zheng Mingyi to play this hand. He frowned, “Tuition fee?”

“A strawberry.” Zheng Mingyi closed in to Jiang Chijing’s neck right after saying this, but at this exact moment, the internal line on the office desk suddenly rang, disrupting Zheng Mingyi’s sneak attack.

“Stop fooling around.” Frowning, Jiang Chijing pushed Zheng Mingyi away and reached out to pick up the intercom; it was the warden who called.

The warden had also bought Old Watch’s stocks. Now that the stock price had risen to a historical high, he was itching to sell and especially made a call to consult Zheng Mingyi.

“No hurry, just sell when I tell you to.”

The warden seemed to have great faith in Zheng Mingyi. He didn’t require any explanation from Zheng Mingyi at all; as long as he gave a definite answer, the warden would take his word for it.

After Zheng Mingyi hung up, Jiang Chijing couldn’t help but ask, “HX Management is trying to short Old Watch but their stocks are soaring so much now. How can they keep their short position, then?”

“It’s simple.” Zheng Mingyi said, “They will release an industry survey report, attacking this company as much as they can, getting investors to lose confidence in this company. Stocks rise and fall is related to popular opinion. Even if you believe that this stock will rise, you still have to worry if others think otherwise and dump the stocks they have in a panic.”

When the majority started to sell, the stock price would take a frenetic dip.

“But why should others believe the report HX Management releases?” Jiang Chijing said, “aren’t they manipulating the stock price like this?”

“Because Old Watch really doesn’t have the R&D capabilities to back it up, HX Management’s report isn’t just a hollow statement.” Zheng Mingyi gazed at Jiang Chijing and said, “This is also my former work, so I understand their tactics well.”

This was the first time that Zheng Mingyi brought up his job to Jiang Chijing. From the looks of it now, retail investors couldn’t compete with corporations because they were always one step behind and could only become leeks to be harvested.

Go’s appearance on the stock trading forum provided guidance to retail investors. However, human nature was fickle. Just like the warden who couldn’t resist thinking of selling, there would always be people who, due to greed or timidity, were unable to grasp the timing to trade.

“Then when the industry report comes out, won’t the stockholders lose money?” Jiang Chijing asked.

“Don’t worry,” Zheng Mingyi lifted his right hand from Jiang Chijing’s waist and took, while he was unprepared, to quickly pinch his face. “I’ll stabilise the stock price.”

“You’re so almighty?” Getting sneak-attacked again, Jiang Chijing frowned in dissatisfaction.

“Don’t trust your husband?” Zheng Mingyi said.

“I…” Jiang Chijing was about to retort when he abruptly noticed the fishiness of the words from Zheng Mingyi’s mouth and glared at him. “What did you say?”

“Nothing much.” Zheng Mingyi calmly stood up and said to Jiang Chijing, “There are a lot of strawberries to harvest this afternoon, I should be going off to work.”

Zheng Mingyi was allowed to stay in the library until three o’clock, and he would always drag it out to three-ten before leaving. However, for some reason, it was only two-thirty today and he was already planning to leave.

It was really quite peculiar.

After walking out of the work area, as though suddenly remembering something, Zheng Mingyi turned partially over, telling Jiang Chijing, “Oh, by the way, the warden should be looking for you in a bit. Remember to answer his question well.”

“The warden?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Zheng Mingyi didn’t elaborate, turning around and leaving the library.

Jiang Chijing didn’t know if Zheng Mingyi had worked out some kind of arrangement with the warden and didn’t take it to heart, such that he’d already forgotten this by the time it was close to the end of the workday.

In the end, the warden called him over to the third floor, and when he entered, several people were already seated on the sofa—the admin department head, Block A’s supervisor, and the strawberry shed foreman.

“Come, Officer Jiang, take a seat.” The warden waved at Jiang Chijing, who had last arrived, then spoke to the others. “Everyone should have heard of the news regarding ABC Technologies, right?”

They nodded. Baffled, Jiang Chijing sat down on one side of the sofa, nodding as well.

“This company is one of those shorted in Zheng Mingyi’s case in the past,” the warden said.

By this time, Jiang Chijing had some inkling of why the warden had called them over. It was obviously to discuss Zheng Mingyi.

But he still couldn’t understand why the warden had to call a meeting to discuss Zheng Mingyi just because of something happening to this stock.

“After this case was exposed, it led to many points of contention in Zheng Mingyi’s case.” The warden continued to say, “The agent in charge of Zheng Mingyi’s case is Mr. Guan. He came by to discuss with me today if he could bring Zheng Mingyi out for a day to assist with the case investigation. I’d like to ask for your opinions.”

The warden spoke slowly, and he didn’t beat around the bush. It was easy to understand what he meant.

And yet, Jiang Chijing was thoroughly stupefied by the end of it, for a good long while, unable to keep up with the warden’s pace.

Could Guan Wei, when dropping by to look for Zheng Mingyi, have looked for the warden in passing as well?

That couldn’t be right.

Jiang Chijing immediately dismissed this thought. It couldn’t be in passing; it must have been Zheng Mingyi who had gotten Guan Wei to look for the warden.

Which also meant to say…

While Jiang Chijing had assumed it would still be a long while until Zheng Mingyi’s release, Zheng Mingyi had long planned to use Guan Wei for a temporary release from prison.

At this thought, Jiang Chijing’s back involuntarily prickled again.

“Zheng Mingyi’s performance score has always been full and he hasn’t actively taken the initiative to cause trouble. As long as we can ensure that he will come back as arranged after getting out, there’s no problem on my end,” the admin department head said.

“Agent Guan would be with him during the 24 hours. He would also have an electronic tracking anklet on him,” the warden said.

“He’s usually very cooperative. I feel that he has a good character,” the block supervisor said.

“He’s very responsible when working. I don’t have any opinions against him,” the strawberry shed foreman said.

The three people spoke of their thoughts about Zheng Mingyi in turn, but not a single word got through to Jiang Chijing. His brain was already daydreaming off to outer space, until the warden looked at him and asked, “What do you think, Officer Jiang?”

“I think…”

Jiang Chijing’s mouth was dry. His body was as unresponsive as a rusty piece of machinery and his heart sank infinitely one moment only to spring high the next. If he were to check his electrocardiogram at the moment, it’d probably resemble the waveform of a magnitude ten earthquake.

It was only now that he understood what did Zheng Mingyi mean when he told him to ‘answer well’.

But people always had a rebellious mentality. The more someone told you to do something, the more you didn’t want to do it. As such, when Zheng Mingyi told Jiang Chijing to answer well, Jiang Chijing just didn’t want to give a good answer.

However, what was precisely most despicable about this was how Zheng Mingyi knew that even if Jiang Chijing resisted following his words, he couldn’t resist following the deepest desires in the abyss of his heart.

Jiang Chijing wanted Zheng Mingyi to go out, so he couldn’t not answer well. Zheng Mingyi had long had a handle on him.

Truly despicable.

But he had to admit…

Jiang Chijing liked playing such thrilling games with Zheng Mingyi.

“I think,” Jiang Chijing cleared his throat, opening his mouth to speak, “I… am in favour of his release.”

Today was a Friday. This meeting lasted until six o’clock, long into Jiang Chijing’s off-work time.

It wasn’t difficult to tell that the warden leading this meeting in person was to make things easier for Zheng Mingyi. The meeting went extremely smoothly.

Ultimately, Zheng Mingyi’s release was scheduled for 8 a.m. on Saturday to 8 a.m. on Sunday. Guan Wei would be with Zheng Mingyi during these 24 hours, and would be responsible for bringing him back to prison by 8 a.m. on Sunday.

After coming out of the warden’s office, Jiang Chijing drove home straightaway, his mind spaced out, unable to focus no matter what he did.

Guan Wei was bringing Zheng Mingyi out to investigate the case and would be by Zheng Mingyi’s side for the entire duration. If that was so…

Would Zheng Mingyi check how badly his house had been burned?

Would he drop by Jiang Chijing’s house for dinner?

Or when done investigating the case, would he spend a night at his house?

Should he quickly get around to moving the bed to the middle of the room?

Jiang Chijing’s mind was imploding with a jumbled mess of thoughts, and even at three in the morning, he was still wide awake as if given a shot of adrenaline.

Stop. Thinking. About. It.

Jiang Chijing kept hypnotising himself that Zheng Mingyi was out to investigate the case. After leaving prison, he’d definitely head straight to the city; why should he worry about whether Zheng Mingyi would drop by?

Moreover, with Guan Wei following him, it was impossible for Zheng Mingyi to look for him.

Yes, there’s no way…

Jiang Chijing gradually drifted off to sleep in this self-hypnosis. But after an indeterminate amount of time, the doorbell suddenly rang, startling him awake.

It was really unpleasant to be woken up all bright and early when not having gotten a good night’s rest in the first place.

Jiang Chijing climbed out of bed with annoyance written all over his face, prying the curtains open for a look. But this one look thoroughly shook the last vestiges of drowsiness from him.

The sunlight on this Saturday morning was tranquil and beautiful, awash with clean luminance. No one was up and about in the community this early, and the stillness was only broken by the occasional birdsong in the distance, reminding Jiang Chijing that the scene before his eyes wasn’t just a dream.

A familiar figure stood outside the iron fence. He was in a white dress shirt, and a suit jacket was casually draped on his left elbow. A hand was raised in the air, fingers wriggling in a wave at Jiang Chijing.

“Morning, Officer Jiang,” said Zheng Mingyi.