Zhou Jin practically fled the scene, hurrying to put the subject of children far behind her.

She made her way into the convenience store, picked two bottles of water off the shelf, along with some ready-made bento boxes. Back when she used to do stakeouts, she’d basically make do with instant noodles, but now that Jiang Hansheng was with her, she couldn’t afford to eat quite so carelessly.

She queued up, paid, and left the store, heading back the way she came — but the toy cart stall was nowhere to be found, and neither was Jiang Hansheng.

She looked around in puzzlement, scanning the area, until she finally spotted Jiang Hansheng’s figure at the mouth of a small alley.

He had the balloon dog in one hand, and with the other he was pushing something away.

Zhou Jin walked over, and only then saw that a woman was standing in front of him — short skirt, long hair, heavy makeup, her vivid red lips moving as she tried to chat him up.

“Handsome, want to come upstairs for a sit?” Her eyes were flirtatious, her pretty face lit by the glow of red and green neon signs. “I won’t bite.”

Jiang Hansheng disliked being touched by others, and couldn’t stand the heavy perfume she was wearing. He frowned faintly and said: “No thank you.”

The woman still refused to let it go. She pressed her full, fair chest up close to him and tried again: “Just for a little while — is that all right? I’m not like that. I just want to be friends.”

“…”

“By your accent — are you from out of town, handsome?”

The woman’s slender white fingers slid from Jiang Hansheng’s chest up toward his neck, just about to pull him into an embrace — when suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her fingers.

“Ah!” She cried out, still not quite sure what had happened, and then her entire arm was wrenched behind her back.

“He already said no, sweetheart.”

Zhou Jin had one hand pressed firmly on the woman’s shoulder, and with the other she tossed the shopping bag to Jiang Hansheng. She pushed the woman into the alley and pinned her up against the wall.

The more the woman struggled, the more it hurt. Eyes brimming with tears, she shrieked: “Who do you think you are?! Let me go — ow, it hurts! It hurts!”

Zhou Jin jerked her chin in Jiang Hansheng’s direction and said: “He’s my man. And what exactly are you doing out here?”

Jiang Hansheng: “…”

He pressed his lips together to contain a smile, and said nothing.

The woman was rolling her eyes inwardly. She had gone up to him because he was so strikingly handsome and appeared to be wandering the street alone — how was she supposed to know he was out here accompanying his wife?

The woman said: “I got the wrong person, all right? It’s just a misunderstanding.”

Zhou Jin pulled out her identification from her pocket and held it up in front of the woman’s face. Even in the dim light, the bright silver of the police badge was unmistakable. The woman’s eyes went wide.

Zhou Jin interrogated her: “Name?”

The woman deflated like a punctured balloon. “You’re doing a sting operation? Damn, you really went all out on this one.”

Zhou Jin tightened her grip, and said in a stern voice: “I ask, you answer. Do you need me to invite you back to the station for tea?”

The woman was in too much pain to keep struggling. She tried a few more times, and this time Zhou Jin let go. She didn’t run. Instead she turned and leaned back against the wall, looking from Jiang Hansheng to Zhou Jin and back again.

Zhou Jin asked again: “Name.”

The woman spat on the ground and answered with a completely unapologetic air: “Feifei.”

“And what do you do?”

Feifei scoffed: “You’ve already got me pinned — and you’re asking what I do? I’d like to know what you two are doing out here! Officer, if you hadn’t shown me that badge, I’d have thought you came over to have a threesome.”

“…” Zhou Jin said: “I want to ask you something.”

Feifei caught her meaning at once and laughed. “Oh. So you’re not here for a bust. Makes sense — I know every officer around here by face. Since when did the vice squad have women on it?”

Zhou Jin cut straight to the point: “I want to know who’s running you.”

Feifei’s thin brows arched upward. “And why would I tell you?”

Zhou Jin: “So you do have someone above you.”

Feifei: “…That was just something I said off the top of my head.” Her gaze drifted toward Jiang Hansheng not far away, and she broke into a sudden smile. “Tell you what — let your man spend the night with me, and if I’m in a good mood, maybe I’ll tell you everything. Actually, you’re pretty good-looking yourself. A threesome works too. I don’t mind.”

Zhou Jin was entirely unmoved by the provocation. She said coldly: “I’ll give you one more chance.”

She glanced around at their surroundings and said: “He has manners — he won’t lay a hand on you. But I’m not so refined. I have a particular aversion to other women putting their hands all over him. There don’t seem to be any cameras around here. So tell me — do I dare beat you badly enough to land you in hospital right now, and then turn around and file a complaint against you for sexual harassment?”

Feifei looked at her face and could see she wasn’t simply bluffing. She was getting a little nervous. Summoning a thin thread of courage, she thrust her chest out and shot back: “You’re threatening me?”

Zhou Jin gave a cold laugh, shot out a hand, grabbed her by the collar, and raised her other hand as if to strike.

Feifei flinched back in terror and cried out: “Fine! Fine, I’ll talk!”

After a moment, Zhou Jin smiled and turned to look at Jiang Hansheng, who was standing at the mouth of the alley. She gave him a bright, triumphant look.

Jiang Hansheng pressed a hand to his forehead, his expression caught somewhere between amusement and helplessness.

According to what Feifei disclosed, she operated in this area partly by soliciting clients on the street herself, and partly through a man called Brother Hong, who sent business her way.

Each job paid three thousand yuan — Brother Hong took a thousand off the top — so Feifei had no great warmth toward the man, and told them everything she knew without much hesitation.

As for Brother Hong’s real name, Feifei couldn’t answer that. She had never asked. All she knew was that he ran a teahouse of his own, and on weekends he was usually there. If they wanted to find him, that was the place to look.

Once Zhou Jin had the specific address, she let Feifei go.

Feifei hadn’t expected it to be that easy. She shot Zhou Jin a cautious glance. “You’re really letting me go?”

“If you don’t leave soon, I’ll be arresting you after all.” Zhou Jin looked her up and down. “It’s breezy tonight. Aren’t you cold, dressed like that?”

Feifei blinked, taken aback. After a moment, she let out an amused snort. “What would you know? This is called being sexy. How else am I supposed to catch a man’s eye?”

Zhou Jin said: “Wouldn’t it be better to do something else? You’re clearly beautiful enough.”

Feifei pressed her lips together. For some reason she couldn’t quite explain, something lodged in her throat, and she found she didn’t particularly want to keep talking.

She waved a hand. “Clearly not beautiful enough — I couldn’t even get your man. I’m leaving.”

Feifei straightened her top, and on her way out of the alley, tossed one last flirtatious glance at Jiang Hansheng. She didn’t go looking for any more business that night, and headed straight home.

Zhou Jin followed her out of the alley.

She looked at Jiang Hansheng with a thoughtful expression for a moment, then said, barely suppressing a smile: “Professor Jiang, you are truly wasted in the serious crimes unit. You should be in the vice squad.”

Jiang Hansheng: “…”