At this moment, Bai Aiting, Bai Aiting’s parents, and the Filipino maid Donna all noticed her.

After Bai Aiting looked at her, she pretended to remain calm as she looked toward Jin Yiken, as if seeking some kind of explanation and comfort, while responding to her parents: “She’s a classmate.”

Long Qi’s phone was still tightly clenched in her hand. After she recovered, she directly crossed through Jin Yiken’s open courtyard gate and walked in his direction.

He stood in place without saying a word. Bai Aiting’s mother sensed some other factors and asked: “Just a classmate?”

Bai Aiting was somewhat anxious and replied: “I know her, just a classmate.”

Long Qi’s entire body was explosive.

Although she hadn’t said a word or made a sound, you could feel she could explode at any time or place. At that moment, disregarding that she had already trespassed into territory that didn’t belong to her, her eyes also carried a hint of murderous intent. Jin Yiken formally retreated two steps as she approached, but still couldn’t stop her emotions. The file originally placed behind him was forcefully grabbed by her. He advised: “Qi.”

“Give it to me!”

With a forceful shout, Jin Yiken’s hand was instantly scratched by her fingernails, leaving two bloody marks. As soon as he released his grip, Long Qi walked away with the paper bag. He tried to grab her arm, but she explosively turned around and shook him off, saying in the cold wind: “My family’s business is none of your concern!”

Then she left. As she stepped out the main gate, she heard Bai Aiting and another female voice simultaneously call out “Yiken!” The latter’s voice was more authoritative, playing a major role in stopping Jin Yiken from following Long Qi out of the courtyard.

After Long Qi looked through all the photos and materials in the file, she went to a residential complex five subway stations away from Langzhu Estate.

It was also a very nice location and housing complex, with quite strict security facilities. The other party required her to register with her ID card, which she didn’t have. The other party then asked which household she was looking for, but she wouldn’t say. The security desk became suspicious and wouldn’t let her in.

However, in the open-air parking lot of the large supermarket across from the complex, she saw Long Ziyi’s car.

Long Ziyi’s aesthetic was flamboyant—she liked purple and also liked matte finishes, so her car had a purple matte exterior that could be recognized at a glance from a pile of cars.

Afterward, Long Qi also saw Long Ziyi inside the supermarket.

By that time, her emotions had calmed down considerably. Long Qi was unexpectedly calm compared to usual. She saw Long Ziyi browsing the meat section that she must visit every time she entered a supermarket, selecting among various frozen beef products, particularly serious, appearing much more virtuous than the version usually seen.

Her shopping cart was being watched by another person. That person was slightly taller than her, with shoulder-length short hair, wearing gray home clothes, looking rather androgynous from a distance, and had a smoking habit—she whispered a few words to Long Ziyi’s ear, and Long Ziyi took out a lighter from her pocket to give her.

After Long Qi stayed in place for a few seconds, she followed that person to outside the supermarket.

When reaching that person’s side, that person was using the lighter to light up. The wind was strong, and the flame kept dancing wildly.

Probably because Long Qi had been watching her light the fire for quite a while, she took the initiative to turn her head to look here, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, eyes half-squinted. But as soon as she saw Long Qi, she removed the cigarette with her fingers, subtle changes appearing in her eyes. She turned her head to look back into the supermarket, as if searching for Long Ziyi’s figure.

Afterward, after confirming Long Ziyi was unaware, she looked back at Long Qi, stuffed the cigarette into her pocket, and said: “You… look better in person than in magazines.”

That was the first sentence.

No hesitation, no surprise. Except for the first second of being caught off guard, she immediately became as natural and familiar as greeting an old friend, also unabashedly expressing her attention toward her, generous and straightforward.

But Long Qi didn’t speak.

The woman sniffed, then looked back again. This glance had a different meaning from before—it seemed she was actually waiting for Long Ziyi to appear, so at least the atmosphere wouldn’t be so awkward.

Long Qi then slowly asked: “You know me?”

The woman listened and put her hands in her pockets.

“Mm, I buy all the magazines you appear in.”

“Does my mom’s husband know about your relationship with my mom?”

“Mm, he knows.”

Long Qi paused for a moment and asked: “Then when were you planning to tell me?”

“Mm, if you hadn’t discovered it, we probably would never have taken the initiative to say it for a lifetime.” After she finished speaking, she asked, “How did you come here?”

“Her car is too conspicuous. I,” Long Qi answered, “followed her from the company.”

“Oh, I don’t like that car of hers either, too flashy.”

Long Qi temporarily didn’t say anything else, nodded, then glanced at the time and walked toward the night outside the supermarket.

The woman immediately asked: “You’re leaving? Stay and have dinner.”

Long Qi paused in her steps for a moment, didn’t respond to her, but asked one last question instead: “Are you the one who transfers money to me every month?”

“Is it enough?”

Alright, most questions had been answered.

Long Qi turned around and answered her: “It’s enough. You don’t need to tell Long Ziyi I came. I just came to take a look. There’s no need for her to know.”

“Oh, I won’t say anything.” Even as Long Qi walked away, she responded to her somewhat loudly.

And Long Qi, while walking, dialed Chu Yaozhi’s number. After the call connected, without waiting for the other party to speak, she asked: “Have you eaten dinner?”

When they met, it was exactly seven o’clock in the evening.

Long Qi had ordered three dishes and one soup in advance. After Chu Yaozhi arrived, he added two more dishes, but he didn’t pick up his chopsticks. The two looked at each other, surrounded by noisy voices. Later he said: “Actually, I’ve already eaten.”

Then he said: “But I know you want to talk to me about that girl’s matter.”

“I know about the nature of the marriage relationship between you and my mom now.”

He was somewhat dazed. His first reaction was probably to ask what marriage relationship, then he thought of the answer himself, his expression returning to calm: “Oh, so you know. Did your mom tell you?”

“I want to ask three questions now, is that okay?” Long Qi looked at him.

A server came up to pour tea. After the person left, he said: “Ask.”

Long Qi pushed the teacup in front of her to the side and began speaking: “First question: when I first asked you about the guaranteed admission exam, you said you weren’t clear about it, but later you became an invigilating teacher. With your position at the university, it shouldn’t fall to you to do this—was it a temporary switch?”

“I also want to ask a question.” Chu Yaozhi held his tea and blew on it, looking at the porcelain dishes in front of him. “If I framed that girl, what benefit would that bring me?”

“How would I know?”

Chu Yaozhi twisted tea leaf stems with his fingers, listening to Long Qi’s almost “unreasonably troublesome” answer, making no sound.

Long Qi said: “Do you want to wait until I finish asking before answering, or answer one by one?”

“It was a temporary switch,” he answered unhurriedly. “It was also the school’s decision. The invigilating teacher originally responsible for the interview had some issue, so I became the substitute.”

“Second question: were Vincent and William born through normal reproduction or test-tube babies?”

“Qiqi.” He used a low voice to imply the meaning of “this question is too invasive of privacy,” staring at her.

“Then let me explain why I’m asking this question,” Long Qi said. “Because you’re not homosexual or bisexual, but Long Ziyi is, yet you entered into a marriage of convenience with her while knowing this. I can’t understand this point, so I want to understand how you two get along.”

Chu Yaozhi still didn’t answer. Fine, fragmentary tea dregs fell from between his two fingers.

“Then the third question,” Long Qi continued speaking, taking out Si Bolin’s file envelope, extracting a stack of photos from it, and sliding them open in a row on the table. “Long Ziyi goes to her partner’s home once every Tuesday and Thursday, and you also go to that residential complex once every Tuesday and Thursday, each time parking your car for about half an hour without getting out. One time you did get out of the car—do you remember what you did that time?”

“Who gave you these photos?”

“A dog that had lost its owner passed by your car. After you got out, you kicked that dog.” Long Qi pointed to a “kicking the dog” image captured by the complex’s surveillance camera.

“Long Qi, do you know what you’re doing?”

“You seem very irritable. Yes, every Tuesday and Thursday you’re especially irritable. That dog didn’t do anything, yet you kicked it until it was on the verge of death. You were venting, right? Why would you need to vent?”

“You’re going a bit too far.”

“Because you actually very much resent Long Ziyi going to that place.”

“What’s your relationship with that girl?” As soon as Long Qi finished speaking, Chu Yaozhi finally asked back, his gaze somewhat sharp, his tone also beginning to have some rising and falling inflection.

“Classmate.” She answered.

Chu Yaozhi smiled: “You have a boyfriend, right?”

“That’s not it.”

“Qiqi, I’ve seen you together with that girl. I noticed the way you look at that girl,” during Chu Yaozhi’s slight pause, Long Qi stared at him. He said, “is the same as the way that person in the complex looks at Ziyi.”

Who “that person in the complex” referred to was mutually understood.

Chu Yaozhi continued: “Equally disgusting.”

As soon as the words fell, the sound of a palm slapping the table echoed throughout the restaurant. Long Qi stood up, the entire table shaking, tea water swaying wildly in the cups. She said: “It really was you!”

“My opinion of you doesn’t represent that I did anything. Qiqi, sit down. This makes you look too impulsive.”

Long Qi glared at him. After Chu Yaozhi finished the previous sentence, he immediately said the next: “So regarding your relationship with that girl, I wasn’t mistaken.”

“Why would you frame her? She has nothing to do with me at all!”

“I didn’t frame her, I just happened to see her cheating.” As he spoke, he dipped his finger into the tea water, dissolving the tea dregs on his fingertip into the tea, then pressed his finger onto a napkin, wiping the water stain as if wiping fly droppings.

Then he picked up the suit jacket hanging on the chair back: “I’ll go pay the bill. Qiqi, your emotions are too agitated. You need to calm down. Only the two children are at home. I’m leaving first.”

The surrounding diners murmured. Standing Long Qi became the focus of the entire restaurant. Chu Yaozhi nonchalantly went to the counter to pay, nonchalantly glanced toward her before going out, and finally nonchalantly lifted the door curtain and walked into the night outside the restaurant.

And she stood in place recalling his every sentence.

She recalled Dong Xi’s character all along, recalled the conversation when she first looked for Chu Yaozhi, recalled the way he looked at her. Her chest heaved powerfully, her hand tightly clutching the photos. Then, after a breath of pent-up frustration she couldn’t express, she suddenly turned around and walked toward the restaurant’s main entrance!

Chu Yaozhi had already gotten in his car. He looked at her, the glasses perched on his nose like two reflecting plates, his entire face looking like a cold, emotionless poker face. Long Qi slammed her palm against the car’s front windshield with a “pa” sound: “Get out!”

Winter, nighttime, very strong wind. Chu Yaozhi reversed his car. Long Qi was suddenly three meters away from him. She slammed his car window glass again: “It was you who did it, wasn’t it!”

He hit the gas pedal again, the car’s front moving two meters away from Long Qi. Long Qi kicked the car’s rear tire: “Get out and talk!”

At this time, when Long Qi slammed his car glass for the third time, he looked at her.

He kept looking at her. After his expression froze for two seconds, the corners of his mouth slightly lifted, smiling in an almost contemptuous manner.

After seeing this smile of unclear meaning, Long Qi became even more agitated. Her elbow violently struck the glass, shouting like throwing a tantrum: “Beast!”

And he made another turn, completely distancing himself from Long Qi, driving the car onto the road.