For a few minutes, neither of them spoke, letting the silence ferment in the night street.
It was not until Qin Shen had smoked most of the cigarette in his hand that Xu Man moved. A gust of wind suddenly blew, blowing most of the smoke that was originally floating forward and upward towards her. She quickly took two steps back, but a few wisps of smoke still entered her nostrils, choking her and causing her to cough several times.
Qin Shen exhaled slowly, flicked his fingertips, and dropped some of the cigarette ash, "Not used to it?"
"It's okay." Xu Man barely stopped coughing, "Just now... it was too sudden."
He smiled and asked casually, "Does your boyfriend smoke?"
"I don't have a boyfriend," she whispered.
In the smoke, the flickering sparks paused for a moment, like a star, before the clouds quietly obscured the faint light.
Xu Man coughed again. It wasn't that she meant to do it, but her throat was so itchy that she couldn't help it.
"Sorry, Captain," she said, trying to maintain a normal tone, "I may need to go to the side..."
In the smoke, Qin Shen turned his head towards her with a slight smile on his face, which looked particularly attractive under the dim street light: "Can you really not stand the smell of cigarettes? No one in your family has ever smoked?"
Xu Man felt a little embarrassed and looked away. She, as the captain, always had a magical power that could easily make people fall into it.
"My dad used to smoke, but he stopped after I found out he was allergic to smoke."
"Are you allergic to smoke?" Sparks flashed twice and disappeared completely. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"It's not serious." Xu Man replied, "It's just a mild positive reaction. It was a little more serious in the first two years, but it got better after taking medicine for a few months."
“Are you only allergic to smoke?”
"I also had mild allergic reactions to beef and mutton, but they were not serious," she said. "It's not like I haven't eaten these things before. I suddenly had an allergic reaction. It might be because I'm not used to the local climate."
Qin Shen suddenly realized. No wonder she said before that she didn't eat spicy food and beef or mutton. He thought she was a little picky about food, but he didn't expect that she didn't eat it because of a diet taboo. "You said you were suffering from acclimatization. Did you get this disease after you left home?"
Xu Man nodded and hummed. "It happened when I was a freshman, when I first entered university." She said, glancing at Qin Shen secretly, "Captain, do you think I'm a little too delicate? Others would only feel uncomfortable for two or three days due to unfamiliar climate, but I was sick for several months..."
"No way, you are from Jiangzhou, it's normal for you to have trouble acclimatizing to the climate here. Besides, it's normal for girls to be a little delicate, it's no big deal." Qin Shen smiled, threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out. As the evening breeze blew, most of the smoke around the two of them dissipated, making the air a lot fresher. "Besides cigarettes, beef, mutton, and chili peppers, are there anything else you're allergic to? Seafood?"
"No more." Xu Man shook her head, "Just these few."
"That's right. If you're allergic to seafood, then this meal is completely meaningless." Qin Shen took two steps towards her. "If you encounter similar situations in the future, tell us earlier. Don't wait until the last minute to speak up. Otherwise, if you get hurt and we send you to the hospital, and you happen to be allergic to some medicine, we won't know about it. Wouldn't that be a big problem? This is not something to be embarrassed about."
Xu Man lowered her head and smiled, raised her hand, tucked the hair by her ears, and made a slight response. "Yes, I understand."
Qin Shen smiled slightly.
"Well, have you decided?"
The sudden question made Xu Man a little confused. She raised her head in confusion and asked, "What did you decide?"
"Staying or not," Qin Shen said, "Zhang Xiaojuan's case has come to an end. What's left are some scattered and trivial investigations. If you really want to wait until the court pronounces a verdict on the grandparents, you'll have to wait until next year. Your internship is over, so don't even think about not going to the Municipal Bureau."
Xu Man understood and said "oh" in a low voice.
My thoughts seemed to be frozen by the spread of ice, and my heart became empty, as if something had disappeared and was hanging in a distant place.
"So what?" Qin Shen asked again, "Have you decided to stay or go to the Municipal Bureau?"
"I..." Xu Man opened her mouth, but fell silent after saying one word. Qin Shen looked at her through the dark night. The street lights were dim, casting a shadow of his hair on his forehead. His dark pupils were like a deep pool in a valley, shimmering with bright light.
Looking at him like this, her heart suddenly beat fast, as if something was taking root in her heart and sprouting tender leaves.
"Stay." Qin Shen looked at her. "Life in the detachment is not as hard as you think. There are cases these days, so we have been working overtime. When the case is over, we can have some free time. And by investigating the case, we can give the deceased the truth and let them die with peace of mind. This is also the value of this job. It's good to do it."
He smiled at her and repeated, "Stay."
The night breeze blew slowly between the two of them, as light and graceful as a wind chime under the eaves in summer.
Xu Man's eyelashes trembled, she lowered her head, smiled lightly and agreed softly: "Yes."
…
[So you agreed?] 】Tian Si asked her on the other end of WeChat.
Xu Man replied: [Yes. I think the internship experience in the detachment these days is okay. It's just a little busy, but I can relax after the case is over. Besides, there is a sense of accomplishment in solving the case, which can be regarded as a contribution to the society.]
[Come on,] the other end said disdainfully, [You are just deceived by her beauty]
Xu Man quickly replied with a "no", but her face turned slightly red because she recalled Qin Shen's quiet and dazed look standing under the street light, which... had a little influence on her decision.
But of course she couldn't admit that the selfie she sent to Tian Si in a fit of confusion in the morning caused the other party to scroll through more than ten pages of messages, all of which were filled with the question "Who are you going on a date with???". She explained that she just suddenly wanted to dress up before work, but the other party didn't believe her at all and asked her if she was going on a date with her criminal investigation team leader.
She denied it at first, but then she thought about it and felt that there was nothing to hide, so she told him that she and Qin Shen had gone to have breakfast together in the morning. In order to prevent him from going crazy, she added a special note at the end, saying that Qin Shen took care of her so much only because of the instructions of his elders, and told him not to think too much.
Tian Si sneered at this: "You think too highly of men. If he is not interested in you, even if his father, grandfather and grandmother come into play, he will not pay any attention to you. At most, he will ask about your situation when you first come. How could he send you home and ask you out for dinner like he is doing now? Is he sending you home again tonight? 】
If the two were talking on the phone at this moment, the other party would have noticed that Xu Man was suspiciously silent after reading her last sentence.
[It’s almost ten o’clock, it’s too late, and it’s on the way, so it’s normal to hitchhike]
Tian Si: [Why doesn’t he let others take his ride? 】
Xu Man: [Maybe it’s because there’s no place on the way? 】
Tian Si: [……]
Tian Si: [Sister, I noticed that your brain cells are very active]
Xu Man: [Then why do you think that is? 】
Tian Si: [Why else? He likes you, is interested in you, and wants to pursue you]
Three consecutive groups of synonymous words made Xu Man's heart tremble, as if they had become real. She felt a little excited, but she quickly suppressed it. Her fingers tapped back and forth on the keyboard a few times, and she sent a message hesitantly: [Really? 】
Tian Si: [……]
Tian Si: [Xiao Man]
Tian Si: [I don’t know whether your captain likes you or not (although I think he definitely does)]
Tian Si: [But you]
Tian Si: [I like him]
Tian Si: [I noticed it]
Messages popped up on the phone screen one after another. Xu Man looked at them and her cheeks turned red as if her secrets had been exposed.
She replied vaguely: [A little bit] But she knew in her heart that given her quiet personality, such an answer was basically a direct admission.
Sure enough, as soon as she sent the message, Tian Si immediately replied, "Really? That's it], a voice message was sent to her ten seconds later, she clicked it, and her friend's voice came from the phone: "I know what you're feeling now, you feel that you like someone, but that person doesn't have that kind of interest in you, you're very distressed, right? But in fact, I really think that your captain is interested in you, you think too highly of men, if it wasn't a girl you liked, how could you have the time to flirt with her and accompany her? What kind of position is a criminal investigation captain? He's already overwhelmed by cases every day, but he still took time out to pick you up and have breakfast with you. If you tell others about this, who would believe that he's not interested in you?"
After she finished listening, another new voice message came: "Even if you insist that he is not interested in you, that's fine. If you are interested in him, you can pursue him. You are so good, I will take your last name if anyone can resist your pursuit. But do you know how to pursue someone?"
...She really doesn't know how to pursue someone. She has never had any experience in love since she was a child.
Xu Man typed a sentence and sent it over: [You know I’ve never been in a relationship.]
Tian Si: [Yes, I know, your parents are very strict with you. So now the problem arises. 】
Tian Si: [But you have me, why are you panicking?] My sister has dated more men than you have ever met. If you don’t understand something, just ask me. Have you ever seen a pig run, even if you haven’t eaten pork? 】
Xu Man stared at the latest message on the screen and felt a little moved. She typed a few words on the keyboard, deleted them, and re-edited a message and sent it: [I don’t even know if he has a girlfriend. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if he does? 】
Tian Si: […I think, since he can send you home and have dinner with you after work, he definitely doesn’t have a girlfriend]
Tian Si: [If you are really worried, just ask someone. You have his mother’s contact information and you work in the same place as him, so why would you worry about not being able to ask anyone? 】
After sending this message, the other party asked her whether the case she handled was closed, and whether she planned to stay in the detachment or go to the Municipal Bureau. If she went to the Municipal Bureau, she would lose the opportunity to be so close to the police. Xu Man told her that Qin Shen asked her to stay that night, and then the two replies above appeared.
Finally, I said to her: [You have to believe in your own charm. How many boys have pursued you since you were a child? Why can't your captain be one of them? Be brave and accept his advances. Isn't it easy to have a relationship these days? 】
The last sentence made Xu Man's heart move.
She lay on the bed, staring at the chandelier above her head in a daze, her washed hair scattered on the pillow, emitting a faint fruity scent. Unexpectedly, she thought of Qin Shen smoking a cigarette under the street light, with white smoke lingering around him, like the clouds on the top of a mountain, hazy and graceful, and vaguely revealing a bit of affection.
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