The car drove into the residential complex and stopped in front of the door of Xu Man's unit. Qin Shen unlocked the central lock, turned around and said, "We're here."
Xu Man nodded, picked up her backpack, smiled and said "Thank you, Captain", then pushed open the door and got out of the car. Before closing it, she hesitated, stopped, bent down and looked at Qin Shen who was sitting in the driver's seat: "Captain, will you be in the detachment tomorrow morning?"
Qin Shen looked at her: "Yes. What's wrong? Do you want to talk to me?"
Xu Man forced a smile: "I wanted to bring you some breakfast, thank you for taking me back tonight." When she said this, a bit of reserve appeared on her face, and it was obvious that she was not used to this kind of initiative towards men.
In the dark night, Qin Shen's eyes seemed to brighten as he looked at her.
A car turned at an intersection not far away, and the dim headlights of the approaching car swept across the two people, making both of them's vision clear for a moment, so that they could see each other clearly in the dark.
"Isn't it troublesome?" he asked.
"No trouble." Xu Man's cheeks felt slightly hot. This conversation sounded really ambiguous. Coupled with Tian Si's previous unread message asking her to "seize it well", a wonderful chemical reaction was produced. It seemed that she had other intentions for this thank you. She dared not look Qin Shen in the eye again. She looked away and tucked her long hair behind her ear to conceal it.
"Captain, what do you like for breakfast?" As she became nervous, she changed her way of addressing Qin Shen back to a respectful title.
"Both steamed buns and pancakes are fine." Qin Shen smiled. "Pancakes need sweet sauce and whatever fillings you have, but no cilantro."
The last sentence made Xu Man couldn't help laughing. She relaxed and was no longer nervous. She didn't expect that Qin Shen didn't like coriander as much as she did. They could be considered like-minded to some extent.
"Okay, I'll bring pancakes tomorrow." She smiled at Qin Shen, said goodbye, closed the car door, and walked towards the apartment building. However, after she took only two steps, Qin Shen lowered the car window and called her from behind.
"Can you get to the detachment before 6:30 tomorrow morning?"
Xu Man stopped and turned around, somewhat puzzled by his question, but still nodded: "Okay."
It takes half an hour to get to the detachment by bus. Arriving at the detachment at 6:30 means she has to go to the platform to wait for the bus at 5:50, and she has to get up at about 5:00. Fortunately, it is summer and the sun rises early, so getting up early is not a difficult task. I just don't know why he wants her to go to the detachment so early.
"Then you don't have to bring me breakfast." Qin Shen said, "Come to me tomorrow morning and I'll take you to breakfast." After thinking about it, he changed his mind and proposed again, "Forget it, it's a bit long for you to take the bus to the team, I'll pick you up directly. I'll be downstairs at your building at 6:20 tomorrow morning, so it should be about the same time."
Xu Man was stunned, and quickly declined with a smile: "How can this be so embarrassing? This is too much trouble for you, Captain."
"It's okay." Qin Shen smiled slightly, resting his wrist on the steering wheel, lazy and casual, "It's only fifteen minutes away, very close."
Xu Man hesitated.
Going downstairs to pick her up for breakfast, no matter how you look at it, this has exceeded the normal distance between superiors and subordinates, but she couldn't say anything because it was she who proposed the breakfast. If she refused now, it would seem too deliberate, as if she didn't want to have too much contact with him.
The words of rejection lingered on my lips, but I just couldn't say them.
At this moment, Qin Shen had already moved the topic forward a step.
"Would you like to eat tofu pudding? There is a breakfast shop next to the detachment. The tofu pudding sold there is especially delicious. There are two flavors, salty and sweet. Which one do you like?"
"Salty, I guess." Xu Man said uncertainly, "Does tofu pudding here have sweet and salty flavors? There's only one flavor at home."
"Where is your home?"
"Jiangzhou."
"That's quite normal. This isn't popular in the south." Qin Shen tapped the steering wheel with his knuckles. "But didn't you eat it when you were in college in Xinjing? It's the same here in Xin Province, divided into sweet and salty."
Xu Man thought about it and shook her head: "I didn't see any place selling this near the school."
Qin Shen smiled and said, "You'll be able to taste it tomorrow. I'll pick you up downstairs at 6:20 tomorrow morning. It's settled." He took out his phone and took a look at it, and just like that, he decided to have breakfast. "It's almost 9:30, it's very late. You should go upstairs and have a rest early. There are still a lot of things to check tomorrow."
Xu Man opened her mouth, wanting to say something to refuse, but in the end she swallowed it all back into her stomach, turning it into a faint smile.
The night wind blew her long hair, causing a few strands of hair to brush past her ears.
"...Okay, thank you, Captain."
Qin Shen gave her a calm smile in return: "You're welcome. See you tomorrow."
"Okay, see you tomorrow." Xu Man replied softly, picked up her bag, turned around and walked into the apartment building.
Qin Shen did not drive away directly. Instead, he sat in the car and watched her figure gradually disappear behind the unit door through the front windshield. Then he released the brake, stepped on the accelerator, turned the car around and left.
Xu Man was completely unaware of his attention to her. She went up to the fifth floor, took out her key and opened the door to her rented apartment. Before she could turn on the light, her cell phone screen lit up in the dark. She picked it up and found that Tian Si had sent her another message.
[Have you returned home?] Did your captain send you home tonight? 】
When she saw the message, a strange feeling arose in her heart, like a naughty cat, gently scratching her heart with its furry tail, but hiding in a secluded place so that she couldn't find the source.
She closed the door, fumbled to turn on the living room light, unlocked her phone and brought up the reply interface, but she had no idea how to reply to the message.
Qin Shen not only sent her home again, but also made an appointment with her to pick her up downstairs the next morning and have breakfast together.
This matter is very strange just thinking about it, and it is even more wrong when it is typed out.
To be narcissistic, just looking at the text, it feels like Qin Shen is pursuing her.
Xu Man held the phone and walked slowly towards the bedroom.
She deleted and typed, and finally replied to Tian Si with the following message: [I'm home. It’s too late today, I’ll take a rest first. We can talk tomorrow when we are free.]
If Qin Shen hadn't suggested picking her up downstairs tomorrow morning for breakfast, she might have simply thought that he was a kind-hearted person, and that he was taking a little extra care of her just because their mothers knew each other and she was a girl. But once this matter was brought up, she couldn't convince herself.
It's not like she had never been pursued by boys in school, and she had encountered quite a few cases of being courted by boys. After so many times, she had gained experience. Just now, she also felt the same feeling from Qin Shen, but it was so subtle that she couldn't be sure.
Unlike the boys in school, he was too special, too unique, like a misty smoke, visible and tangible, but impossible to define, so that she could not see through him.
...Let's wait and see. By tomorrow morning, I should be able to confirm this feeling.
Thinking this way, Xu Man avoided the main point in her reply to Tian Si, because she herself was not sure whether this was just her illusion or Qin Shen really had a good impression of her.
Good feeling...
These two words caused a ripple in Xu Man's heart.
Qin Shen was interested in her. Just thinking about it made her feel a strange emotion in her heart. She couldn't explain it, but there was one thing she was sure of, that is, she didn't hate it.
She didn't hate contact with Qin Shen.
Not opposed to getting along with him.
What kind of mood is this? Why do I feel this way? Could it be that...
Xu Man spent a long time struggling with this problem, but in the end she still didn't figure it out, or rather, she didn't want to figure it out. By the time she had taken a shower, washed her clothes, packed everything and lay down on the bed, it was almost midnight. After forcing herself to close her eyes, it took her some time before she fell asleep.
At five o'clock in the morning, the alarm rang on time, giving her a headache. Even at school, she had never gotten up so early. But when she thought that Qin Shen would come to pick her up this morning, she still struggled to get up from the bed and went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.
Considering that her job today was to watch surveillance and she would not be going out on field trips, she did not need to wear simple sportswear like she did yesterday, so she chose a khaki dress to wear. Then she sat down at the desk, opened the dressing mirror, took out her makeup bag, and began to put on makeup carefully in front of the mirror.
Lotion, eyebrow pencil, eye cream, lip gloss... she carefully applied each one after another. By the time she realized that the steps of putting on makeup and dressing up had completely exceeded the complexity of an ordinary work outfit, she was already worrying about her hairstyle. She even sent a message to Tian Sidu, attaching a selfie and asking him what kind of hairstyle would suit her makeup.
Tian Si did not reply. She and Xu Man attended different schools. Her internship period was in the second half of her senior year. She was now in a wonderful summer vacation and would not get up until noon. It was only a little after six o'clock, so naturally she would not be able to respond to any suggestions.
But Xu Man didn't need to do that. After realizing that something was wrong with her mental state, she immediately untied her half-tied hair and combed it according to the hairstyle she had when she went to work two days ago. She didn't change out of her dress, not because she didn't want to, but time had passed quietly while she was putting on makeup. When she packed her things, it was almost 6:15. Looking down from the window of the back balcony, Qin Shen's car had already parked downstairs of the unit.
Without having time to think about whether this outfit was suitable, she hurriedly picked up her bag and cell phone, put on high-top shoes in the same color as her skirt, and hurried out and down the stairs.
When I got downstairs, it was still one minute before 6:20.
As soon as he walked out of the unit door, Qin Shen's car honked.
Xu Man let out a long breath, calmed her suddenly nervous mood, moved the bag to her left hand, raised her right hand to comb the hair beside her ear, put on a slightly delicate smile, and walked towards the car.
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