Chapter Five

Ye Yin parked his car in a parking space, about two or three rows away from the white BMW, and even made a small turn.

It's not close, but at least you can see people coming and going from the elevator entrance.

He turned off the lights, switched to external air circulation, and cracked each window slightly open, intending to let the air conditioning run for a while longer before turning off the car.

Teng Zhi took her phone back from him and pulled a charging cable out of her bag: "Can I use your car charger?"

I don't know how long I'll have to follow Li Tiancheng today, so I need to keep an eye on my phone's battery level.

"sure."

Ye Yin gestured for her to do it herself, and at the same time took out his phone and opened WeChat.

He raised his thick eyebrows slightly as he saw the message Yang Jiawen had sent five minutes earlier, informing her which of her friends she had arranged to have Japanese food at Taikoo Hui for lunch.

When Ye Yin first started dating Yang Jiawen, he treated her group of girlfriends to several meals. However, he and these girlfriends were different in age, education, family, and social circles, and they never had much in common.

Later, Ye Yin only paid for the gatherings and rarely participated in Yang Jiawen's sisterly gatherings. Although he politely exchanged WeChat contacts with two or three of them, he never chatted with them privately.

In truth, Ye Yin knew that in the eyes of Yang Jiawen's girlfriends, he was just a country bumpkin rich kid with a decent family background and a little money in his pocket, nothing more.

He didn't graduate from a prestigious university, had no overseas study experience, couldn't even pronounce slightly complicated English words, looked rough, dressed too casually, and his demeanor was far inferior to those upper-class elites who were dressed in suits, looked respectable, and could chat all day with a cigar and a glass of red wine.

In order to create an opportunity for Li and Yang to meet secretly, Ye Yin, like Teng Zhi, also gave Yang Jiawen a trip that was half true and half false.

Teng Zhi was going to Shenzhen for classes, while he was busy collecting fish maw and dried abalone in a fishing village in eastern Guangdong. He told Yang Jiawen that he would be out of town for two days and would not be back until Sunday evening.

Yang Jiawen looked somewhat displeased, complaining that her boyfriend had been too busy with the shop lately. Ye Yin coaxed her for a while and then transferred a five-figure red envelope to her, telling her to go shopping, eat, and have afternoon tea with her girlfriends on the weekend. Only then did Yang Jiawen pout and forgive him.

Ye Yin didn't reply to the message, after all, he should be "driving on the highway" at this time, and it wouldn't be convenient for him to look at his phone.

He reported to his "friendly forces": "They will most likely go to Taikoo Hui for lunch at Xiaoshan."

Teng Zhi asked in surprise, "You heard about it?"

Ye Yin nodded and responded with a "Hmm".

Teng Zhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at him.

The man in front of me was tall and strong, his broad shoulders blocking much of the dim light from the car window. Only a faint light remained, casting a white glow on his short hair, making it look fluffy and seemingly quite nice to the touch.

His brow bone was prominent, his nose bridge was high, and his outline was even clearer in the backlight than usual.

As if carved with a knife.

Noticing the gaze, Ye Yin looked up: "What's wrong?"

Teng Zhi looked at her intently and said sincerely, "Thank you."

Ye Yin was taken aback by her seriousness and stammered for a moment, "What... what are you thanking me for?"

Teng Zhi looked away, took out a glasses cloth from her bag, took off her glasses, and began to wipe the lenses: "Of course I should thank you, but you really didn't need to help me at all."

Ye Yin pursed his lips and said, "I helped you, and you helped me in return. We have the same goal."

The action of wiping the lens paused slightly, but quickly continued.

Tengzhi's goal was clear: her husband had cheated on her during their marriage, and the affair had progressed to the point where the other woman's partner had come knocking on her door. She made her decision without much time.

She wants to end this marriage that is already mired in problems.

Catching someone in the act of adultery is something that can be done by paying someone to do it, but Tengzhi knows her own weakness: seeing is believing.

Moreover, she is easily swayed. If she confronts Li Tiancheng without sufficient evidence, she will likely be defeated after only a few rounds of debate.

She needs a lot of evidence to fight this battle, and she needs to win quickly; the timeline cannot be dragged out too long.

This is so exhausting. Before the matter is even resolved, I'm already worn down to nothing but a shell.

But was Ye Yin's goal simply to obtain evidence and break up with his girlfriend?

Tengzhi was unsure, but she didn't ask any further questions.

She put her clean-lensed glasses back on: "Should I find someone in the company and ask them to keep an eye on Li Tiancheng's movements?"

She would occasionally make some clever cakes and cookies and send them to Li Tiancheng's company for the employees to have afternoon tea. She maintained a so-so relationship with several female colleagues in private.

One of the new female employees was a fan of hers and often left comments and interacted with her on Weibo.

"No need, let's just wait here. It's ten o'clock now, and we probably won't hear anything until before lunchtime."

Ye Yin, being a large man, felt a bit uncomfortable cramped in the car, so he simply moved the seat back and straightened his legs slightly. "I'll know as soon as Yang Jiawen comes out of the house."

Fearing that Tengzhi might misunderstand, he proactively explained, "My house has an electronic peephole installed, and it will send an alert whenever there is any movement in front of the door."

Teng Zhi said "Oh", then, remembering something, slowly said, "Wasn't there a social case last week? A girl was followed by a stranger, but luckily there was an electronic peephole on her door, which captured the suspect's image... Then I suggested to Li Tiancheng that I install one on my door too, but he didn't agree."

Ye Yin opened the electronic doorbell app and, without thinking much, asked directly, "Why won't you allow it?"

A few seconds later, before Teng Zhi could reply, he had already realized what was happening.

Ah, is that so...?

Ye Yin turned his head to look at her, his mouth opening and closing, unsure of what to say.

It seemed like nothing he said was right; he just wanted to curse the man with countless words related to reproductive organs.

He grew up on Yide Road, a place teeming with all sorts of people. His academic qualifications aren't particularly impressive, but when it comes to fighting and swearing, he was already at a "doctoral" level.

Teng Zhi exchanged a glance with him, said nothing, and simply smiled quietly.

That smile contained a lot, a touch of sadness, and a sense of helplessness.

And there was also a faint sense of apology.

Ye Yin sat up slightly and angrily cursed, "How dare he?! Doesn't he even know the 'etiquette of stealing food'?!"

Unexpectedly, Tengzhi was able to comfort him instead: "But these are just my personal suspicions... the truth may not be like that."

"However, the reason why I am so eager to get evidence is because I have been deeply trapped in this kind of emotion for a while. I know that this will be bad. As long as I encounter the slightest suspicious point, I will keep magnifying it in my mind, keep getting stuck on the details, and keep overthinking."

She sighed, turned her face slightly, looked at the familiar white car in the distance, and continued in a flat voice, "Let Li Tiancheng cheat on me, it's not like the sky is falling just because we're divorced... I just want to know the whole truth as soon as possible, and then put an end to it."

This leftover dish had been rotting in the refrigerator for far too long, and now it was rotten and smelly. No matter how high-quality the ingredients were initially, or how skilled she was in cooking, there was no way to salvage it.

Ye Yin was still organizing his thoughts when suddenly his stomach rumbled.

The space inside the carriage was only so big, and since there was no music playing and no one was talking, Tengzhi naturally heard her and turned around to ask, "Didn't you have breakfast this morning?"

"Hmm, haven't eaten yet." Feeling as if his ears had been burned, Ye Yin secretly hunched his back, trying to cover his groaning stomach. "I left too early today, then I was busy changing cars, and there were this and that things to do..."

But the stomach was uncooperative, and finally let out a long, mournful "gurgle," sounding so pitiful and miserable.

The car then fell silent, making the earlier noise seem exceptionally loud in stark contrast.

Even the thickest skin gets embarrassed, so Ye Yin said awkwardly, "I... I'll go upstairs and buy McDonald's or something... What do you want to eat? I'll buy it all together."

Teng Zhi shook her head: "Ah, no need to buy, I brought my own food."

As she spoke, she reached behind her and took out a lunch bag from the back seat. She then handed a sandwich to Ye Yin, saying, "Here, take this. If it's not enough, I made four more."

Ye Yin took the still-warm sandwich: "Did you make this?"

"Yes, I just made it this morning."

Ye Yin stopped being polite and peeled off the film on the surface, opened his mouth wide, and bit off a third of it.

Soon, his dark eyes lit up, and he praised without reservation, "It's delicious!"

Teng Zhi smiled, her eyes crinkling like crescent moons, and said confidently, "Of course."

————Author's ramblings————

Am I writing about catching someone in the act of adultery?

Of course, it's about the dating process (just kidding)

I've been busy these past few days. If I have time and can finish writing on the same day, I'll update; otherwise, I'll do it the next day.