At four o'clock in the afternoon, Qin Shen returned to the detachment, called Xu Man out of a group office, and gave her something.

Xu Man took it, looked down, and found that it was a name card with her personal information and ID photo printed on it. It seemed that it was taken from her resume. But she just decided to stay here yesterday, so how come the name card was made today? Didn’t you say that you would help to suppress it first and then do it after she made her decision? It's been done in less than a day? Is administrative efficiency so fast?

As if seeing her confusion, Qin Shen explained, "When I went to the bureau, I passed by the personnel department and happened to remember your badge, so I went in and asked them to make a copy. Check to see if there is anything wrong with it. If not, use this one."

He said it casually and nonchalantly, as if it was just a trivial thing he did and not worth mentioning, but Xu Man was surprised. She thought that the name card was already made and he just happened to see it, so he just took it and gave it to her. She didn't expect that it was made and brought back by someone.

Her heart was in turmoil. She did not hear what Li Shijie said after she left during lunch, so even though Tian Si and Zhao Jia had been giving affirmative answers, she was still uncertain about Qin Shen's love for her. She had some expectations in her heart, but more of them were suspicion and lack of confidence. Now, all the doubts turned into expectations, and her inner uneasiness reached an unprecedented level.

Did he do that on purpose? he--

"How is it, is the information accurate?"

Qin Shen's words interrupted Xu Man's wandering thoughts. She came back to her senses, took a closer look at her badge, and nodded: "Yes, they are all correct, there is no mistake." After a pause, she lowered her head again, gave a slightly reserved smile, and said, "Thank you, Captain."

Qin Shen smiled: "You're welcome."

There was a brief silence in the atmosphere, but it was soon broken by Xu Man: "Is this a magnetic card?" The card in her hand looked similar to the school card she used in school, except that one was horizontal and the other was vertical.

Qin Shen hummed, "It's a format uniformly stipulated by the headquarters, and is used for clocking in and out. However, we don't have a clocking in system here, so it's just for show."

As he spoke, he took out his cell phone to check the time, muttered to himself, "It's past four o'clock," and pushed open the door of a group of offices. He raised his voice and shouted to the inside, "Everyone has worked hard to investigate the case all night in the past few days. If there is nothing important this week, just leave work early. If you want to apply for a day off, you can tell me. I will arrange everything I can."

There was a burst of cheers from inside, with Li Shijie's voice being particularly loud. He shouted, "Brother Qin, you are so kind. Can I apply for two days off in a row?" Qin Shen ignored him and pushed open the door of the second group's office opposite and repeated the news. Xu Man was watching from the side, thinking that he would go to every department and tell them, but he stopped after only saying it twice, and stood in the corridor with his mobile phone, pressing something on the screen.

She asked curiously, "You won't tell anyone else?"

"It's okay. With their loud voices, the whole building will know about it in a few minutes." Qin Shen lowered his head and fiddled with his phone. "And I also sent a message in the group, so everyone can receive it."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Man's phone screen lit up, and a new group message notification popped up, roughly repeating what he had just shouted to the two investigation teams, @ing all the members. Soon, the group was flooded with a bunch of like emojis.

Qin Shen obviously saw it, because he sneered at his phone: "This time the news came really fast. It seems that everyone is slacking off. No one is concentrating on work." After laughing, he asked Xu Man, "You live alone in a rented house now. What do you eat at night? Takeout? Or cook your own meals?"

Xu Man smiled awkwardly: "I'm not very good at cooking, and I've been working overtime in the team these days, so I order takeout at night... Maybe I'll get off work early today, so I'll go to the store to eat a box lunch or something."

She felt a little guilty when answering this, wondering if directly saying that she couldn't cook would lower his impression of her. When she was hesitating whether to say something to make up for it, Qin Shen's words made her completely forget what she was going to say next.

"Have you decided what to eat tonight? If not, why not join me and go out for dinner together?"

The smile of the person in front of me was somewhat lazy and casual, and he was cool and handsome, like the rising sun, casting a halo of light.

Xu Man stared at it in a daze, her heart was like an overflowing pool of water, joy dripping out of it bit by bit, making her feel lighter.

After a few seconds, she came back to her senses, lowered her head, tucked the hair that slipped down from her ears, and replied softly: "...Okay."

…

Qin Shen took Xu Man to a dumpling restaurant. Like the noodle shop last time, this restaurant also has a long history, dating back to the Republic of China period. It has also been on CCTV's food channel and is one of Minnesota's famous foods.

There are also differences in places. The noodle shop has a simple decoration with a strong nostalgic flavor, while this dumpling shop takes a refined and retro route. The tables are separated by carved partitions, octagonal glazed palace lanterns are hung on the ceiling of the aisle, and the waiters are also wearing cheongsams and long gowns, giving the whole atmosphere an antique flavor.

"I heard you say you were used to eating noodles before, so I brought you here." He found a table near the back and sat down. While pushing the menu on the table to Xu Man, he introduced it to her, "The dumplings in this restaurant are the most famous in the whole Xin Province. There are also several stores in Xinjing, but they are all in the East District. You probably haven't eaten them before."

Xin'an University is located at No. 183, Xinfu Road, which belongs to the South District of Xinjing, which is quite far away from the East District. Xu Man went to the East District several times with her roommates during school, but they basically just went shopping in the malls and rarely walked around the streets. She had never been to a dumpling restaurant like this one, and indeed had never eaten there.

She nodded and hummed: "This is my first time here."

"Then let me recommend a few to you." He said, "Fresh shrimp dumplings, cuttlefish dumplings, and Yunxiang fried dumplings are all the signature dishes here. They are freshly made and delicious." He laughed and said, "Fortunately you are not allergic to seafood, otherwise I would not dare to bring you here. The dumplings here are basically filled with fish and shrimp. There are also meat ones, but nothing else is delicious."

Xu Man looked down at the menu he handed over: "Does this restaurant only sell dumplings?"

"We sell other things, too. We have fried rice, fried noodles, and so on. But we come here just to eat dumplings. It's more convenient to go to a restaurant if we want to eat other things. You don't like dumplings?"

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m just asking because we rarely eat dumplings as a staple food there, so I think it’s a bit strange to have only dumplings for a meal.”

"You can order something else." Qin Shen said, "Order a plate of three-in-one dumplings, and some other dishes, and eat the dumplings as a meal. It's almost the same. The taste is pretty good, I'm not kidding."

After hearing what he said, Xu Man ticked the box for the recommended three-in-one dumplings on the menu, discussed with him and selected a few other side dishes, then handed the menu to the waiter. During this period, she wanted to hand the menu to Qin Shen and let him choose a few dishes, but he did not take it. He said that he had been to this restaurant several times and knew what dishes were available. He asked her to see. She then paid special attention to the prices on the menu and kept the prices within a moderate range to avoid giving him the impression that dining with her was too expensive and he would not eat with her again.

When taking the menu, the waiter specifically reminded her that the dumplings in the store were freshly made and that she would need to wait about 25 minutes. Xu Man didn't think it was a big deal at first, as many restaurants took longer to serve the dishes than this. But when the waiter left and only she and Qin Shen were left sitting face to face, she felt that this time was a bit long.

Each table in the restaurant was separated from other tables by a partition, which was equivalent to a small private room. In addition, it was not yet five o'clock in the afternoon and it was not yet the peak dining time. There were very few customers in the restaurant and the surroundings were particularly quiet. Under such circumstances, it was a little difficult for her to sit still.

Qin Shen sat opposite her, very quietly, without saying anything, but it was enough to make her heart flutter.

The two of them sat face to face at a table to have dinner, not for business, not just for convenience. Whenever she thought of this, she couldn't calm down.

What kind of feelings does her captain have for her? Why did he invite her to dinner and why did he go out of his way to pick her up for work?

Is he...really...

She wanted to ask the person opposite her these questions, but she just couldn't muster up the courage. She was afraid that she was overthinking and would be embarrassed if she asked. She had to take out her cell phone to distract herself, but it was no use. She couldn't concentrate at all. After a few minutes of torment, she couldn't help but raise her head to see what Qin Shen opposite her was doing.

Qin Shen did nothing but sit opposite her, propping his hand against his forehead, looking at her quietly, his hair fluttering in front of his forehead, covering his eyebrows, outlining a hazy and profound temperament.

The two people's eyes met in the air. Xu Man was stunned for a moment, and then quickly withdrew her gaze as if she was caught in the act. She lowered her head, and her cheeks felt like they were burning.

Qin Shen also moved, but his reaction was much more leisurely than her panicked one. He put down his hand, leaned back on the chair, and changed to a comfortable sitting position again. He did not move his eyes away from her, still looking at her: "What's wrong?"

Xu Man's heart was beating wildly. She felt like a child who was caught doing something bad. She was nervous and panicked.

"...Nothing." She answered softly, secretly praying that Qin Shen would not ask, "Then why are you looking at me?"

Her prayers worked. It was unknown whether Qin Shen hadn't noticed her peeking at him, or if he had noticed but considerately avoided her. He smiled and brought up another topic: "You're studying criminal investigation, so who teaches the on-site investigation course? Li Qing?"

"Current investigation" is the abbreviation of crime scene investigation course. Students majoring in criminal investigation in Xu Man's school like to call it that. The first person to start this practice was a professor, who then learned it from his students and passed it down from generation to generation.

This person is Li Qing, a nationally renowned criminologist and also the professor who taught crime scene investigation in Xu Man's class.

"Yes, it's him." Although she didn't understand why Qin Shen suddenly brought up this, as long as she could get away from the previous topic, she could talk about anything, so Xu Man nodded and answered his question almost with relief.