Chapter 100 Misunderstanding and Family Dinner

"Mom, what A-Zhou means is that this person may not be very familiar with the little girl's parents."

“But he is very likely to work in the same system as her parents, such as the coal mining system.”

This will give each system its own work schedule.

If you're in the same system and want to find out about business trip dates, it's quite simple.

But after thinking about it, something felt off.

Seeing that she had her eyelids lowered and hadn't spoken for a long time, and that her hair was still half wet, I noticed that she was silent.

Huo Tingzhou asked his mother for a clean towel and wrapped it around her hair.

"Mom, I'll go back to my room now."

"Go on, go on, dry your hair before you go to sleep, otherwise you'll have a headache the next day."

"Okay, Mom."

Just as the two were about to walk out the door, Huo's mother seemed to remember something and suddenly grabbed Huo Tingzhou's arm.

Jiang Si roughly guessed what her mother-in-law wanted to tell her, so she smiled and went upstairs first.

About five minutes later, Huo Tingzhou returned to his room.

He took the towel from Jiang Si's hand and helped her lie down on the bed.

While drying her hair, I also massaged it for a while.

Jiang Si was so comfortable that she didn't want to look up. After a while, she finally asked, "What did Mom want to talk to you about?"

Speaking of this, Huo Tingzhou was also helpless, recalling what his mother had said.

"You can stay at Xishan Compound, but you need to be careful when you do that."

“My daughter-in-law has thin arms and legs, she can’t withstand your constant torment day and night.”

"Besides, she's busy with work right now, as a man you should be more understanding of her..."

He then made up an excuse to interrupt Huo's mother.

Otherwise, if we keep talking like this, we might end up having to give them separate rooms.

"You didn't say anything, just told me to be more understanding of you."

After exchanging a few brief words, Huo Tingzhou changed the subject.

"What was wrong with you just now? Did something come to mind?"

Jiang Si nodded.

During the half hour she was enjoying the massage, she thought about many things.

Especially the previous conversations with the two eyewitnesses.

"I feel that the first case and the later cases are different in nature."

Huo Tingzhou sensed it too, but he liked listening to his wife talk, so he followed her lead and asked a question.

"What's different?"

Jiang Si pursed her lips. "After he killed someone in the first case, he didn't leave. Instead, he stayed at the victim's house."

"I feel that his behavior is very much like a provocation or retaliation."

Based on the fact that this person had previously suffered a nasal fracture, Jiang Si had a bold guess in her mind.

Actually, she quite dislikes, and even strongly dislikes, the victim-blaming theory.

But in the case at hand, Jiang Si always felt that there should be some special relationship between his first murder and his injury.

As for the later cases, they were clearly not revenge killings, but rather seemed to be for satisfying their own perverse desires.

Of course, these were just experiences she gained from watching crime dramas in her later years; the specifics would depend on the final conclusion of the police.

As we chatted, it got late.

Ever since she transmigrated into the book, Jiang Si goes into standby mode every night at 8 PM, as if she's been deactivated by batteries.

Seeing that she was so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes open, Huo Tingzhou couldn't bear to bother her any longer.

After taking a quick shower, he lay down on the bed.

Perhaps because they already had experience sharing a bed, as soon as they lay down, Huo Tingzhou reached out and pulled Jiang Si into his arms.

Jiang Si mumbled something, but didn't push him away.

Although the house has heating, the temperature is still incomparable to that of later generations.

With this human-shaped heater, Jiang Si slept soundly and peacefully all night.

It's a pity for that guy, with his sweet and soft wife right in front of him.

But you can only look at them, not eat them.

Huo Tingzhou endured six hours of sleeplessness until after 2 a.m.

Finally, unable to resist the weariness of the past few days, she slowly fell asleep.

I probably slept too late, and when I woke up the next day...

Huo Tingzhou looked much more haggard than yesterday.

As he went downstairs, the fourth brother stared at him for a long time.

"Third Brother, did you not sleep well last night?"

Huo Erge, who was following behind, couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder.

"Fourth brother, you and your wife are together every day, going to and from get off work. How would you know what 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' means?"

"But, third brother, this won't do. I'll have Mom give you some extra nourishment later..."

As soon as Mrs. Huo stepped out of the kitchen, she heard her second son's voice, "What are you supplementing?"

Huo Erge originally wanted to tease Lao San a bit, but when he saw Huo Tingzhou's expressionless face, he immediately shut his mouth.

"Mom, I have something to do, I'll go first."

After saying that, he rushed out the door in two strides.

The fourth brother still has some things to do at the research institute. "Mom, third brother, I'm leaving too."

"What's wrong with these two? They only say half of what they mean, Third Brother..."

When Huo Tingzhou turned around, Huo's mother immediately fell silent.

No wonder the second son said we need to replenish our bodies more!

How can we not replenish it?

If he's young and good-looking but useless, wouldn't his daughter-in-law suffer terribly?

With that thought in mind, how could Huo's mother remain seated?

Just as Jiang Si and Huo Tingzhou were about to head to the stadium, Huo's mother stuffed a thermos containing half-soaked goji berries into his arms.

Huo Tingzhou hadn't thought much about it at the moment.

When the two returned in the afternoon and saw that the dinner menu included mutton, green chives, soaked sea cucumber, and oysters, Huo Tingzhou's face darkened.

He was about to explain that he had just not rested well these past two days.

Does he not know whether it's feasible or not?

Mrs. Huo, however, had a knowing look on her face. "I know, I know. Mom just saw that you've all been working hard lately, so I thought I'd give everyone something to eat. Third son, don't overthink it..."

Just then, a commotion came from outside, and Huo's mother didn't have time to discuss this with him.

They quickly went to greet him at the door.

A short while later, Mrs. Huo entered the living room arm in arm with a woman with short, ear-length hair who was wearing a long, yellow-green Lenin-style suit.

Following them were two men, two women, and four children.

I noticed that the group of people were carrying quite a few things.

The old man scolded, "You came, but why did you bring anything?"

“Dad, this is what we should do. It’s always my eldest brother and sister-in-law who take care of you. If we come empty-handed, what kind of people would we be?” Aunt Huo said with a smile.

The four young men put their things down and quickly greeted the old man.

"grandfather--"

"grandmother--"

The remaining little ones followed suit, lined up in a row, and shouted in unison.

"Hello, Great-Grandpa! Hello, Great-Grandma!"

The old man smiled so hard his eyes narrowed into slits, and he grabbed a handful of shrimp crisps for each of the children.

"Alright, alright, sit down and talk."

There were many people today, so Mrs. Huo brought out the large round table and benches from the storage room early in the morning.

Once everyone was seated, Huo's mother pulled Jiang Si aside and introduced her to everyone one by one.

"This is your fourth aunt; she is a forensic doctor from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau."

"This is your eldest cousin and his wife. They are both engineers at the petrochemical plant."

"This is your cousin and his wife. They work at the National Daily and the Beijing Broadcasting Bureau, respectively."

After listening to her mother-in-law's introduction, Jiang Si greeted her while inwardly sighing.

The younger generation of the Huo family is truly full of talented people.

It truly lived up to what she had said before: when we gather, we are a blazing fire; when we scatter, we are a sky full of stars.

The group had all heard that Jiang Si had recently been drawing up templates for the facial features database for the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

So, being polite on our first meeting was genuine.

The mutual respect is genuine.

At this moment, the old man asked, "Where are the fourth brother?"

Seeing that the old man sounded a bit anxious, Aunt Huo explained on behalf of her husband.

"Dad, Zhenbei went out after receiving a phone call last night and hasn't come back yet."

"But I told him that he would try to come back if he could."

The old man didn't say anything after hearing this, but he was a little disappointed.

He had originally planned to take a family photo after dinner, since everyone was present today.

I'll wash a bigger one and hang it in the living room, and then send a few more to my grandson and his wife.

Grandma Huo comforted her, "It's alright, there's still plenty of time. Let's wait a bit longer, maybe the fourth brother will come later."

They waited and chatted like that, from 4 pm until after 7 pm.

As it grew darker, and knowing that everyone had to go to work early the next morning...

The old man spoke up directly: "The children are hungry, let's eat first."

Aunt Huo was a little embarrassed and quickly said, "Yes, yes, no need to wait for him. It's common for him to be busy for days and nights without coming home."

After saying that, she looked at Huo's mother with a bit of embarrassment and said, "Sister-in-law, I'm so sorry."

Mrs. Huo patted her lightly, not allowing her to be so formal.

"There are no outsiders here today, so please sit down. I won't serve you anything. Help yourselves to whatever you want to eat."

Just as everyone sat down and prepared to pick up their chopsticks...

A knock suddenly sounded on the door.

Uncle Huo rushed as fast as he could and finally made it to the family banquet at the last minute.

Seeing the slight upturn of his lips, his face showed an expression of barely suppressed excitement.

Everyone forgot about eating and waited until Uncle Huo caught his breath.

He quickly asked, "How is it? Have they caught the serial killer?"