Looking at the bright smile of her lover in front of her, Xu Man was unsure for a moment whether he was serious or joking. However, it was not a big deal. She had always been casual about her diet. As long as she was with him, she would eat anything. So she nodded, smiled and agreed to his suggestion.
Qin Shen invited her to have lunch together, and his original intention was definitely to be alone together for the two of them, but he overlooked one thing, that is, a well-known century-old restaurant had just opened across the street, and there would definitely be people in the detachment who would want to try it, and if they teamed up with a few colleagues, it would be easy to get a table full of people.
So when Xu Man went back to the office to put away the documents and followed Qin Shen to the roast duck restaurant, the first greeting she heard was not from the waiter, but from Li Shijie who was sitting at a table closer to the inside.
"What a coincidence, Brother Qin, Junior Sister, are you two coming over to eat roast duck too?"
"..." Looking at Qin Shen's expression of not knowing what to say, one could tell that he had never thought he would encounter this situation - Xu Man had underestimated before. There were not just one table but two tables of detachment members who came to this restaurant to eat roast duck, and the table was full. When they heard Li Shijie's greeting, they all turned around and looked at them.
What followed was a series of greetings.
"Team Qin."
"Team Qin."
"Captain Qin, good afternoon."
"Hello, Captain Qin. Xiao Man, are you and Captain Qin coming over to eat roast duck? It's really late."
"Yes, our roast duck is already on the table, why did you come just now?"
Qin Shen: “…”
Facing the greetings from the crowd, Qin Shen raised his hand and stroked his forehead, looking as if he had a headache: "Why are all of you here?"
The word "all" can express thousands of words.
Xu Man was standing next to him. She could hear the helplessness in his words and could not help but lower her head and smile. It seemed that the lunch they had planned for today would be cancelled. But it was not bad either. It would be lively for everyone to eat together. Anyway, they would have plenty of time to spend together after returning home, so they would not lack such a moment.
Sure enough, after Li Shijie greeted them, he ran over and pulled people over. "Brother Qin, Junior Sister, you came at a great time. You came just when the roast duck was served. Did you choose this time specifically?" He asked the waiter to add two chairs and put them at the table where he was sitting. "Come, come, come and sit down."
Qin Shen didn't move, he just stood there and looked at him with a half-smile: "There's something wrong with your enthusiasm. If I just sit over there, do I have to pay for the food?"
Li Shijie laughed shamelessly: "How can I do that? I was embarrassed enough to let you treat me on my birthday last time, how can I let you treat me this time? Don't worry, we will pay for the food on this table. As for you and Junior Sister Qin, I will pay for your share! You can order whatever you want, don't be polite!"
As soon as he made this promise, someone was immediately unhappy. It was Zhu Zhuo, who always liked to watch the fun and never mind making trouble: "Hey, you are treating us differently. Either you treat all of us, or we all share equally, right? Unless you treat me as well, I won't agree."
"Get lost, who are you to me? How dare you compare yourself with my brother Qin and my junior sister?"
"Your junior sister?" Qi Fei pretended to be surprised, "Isn't that your sister-in-law? I should remember correctly, right?"
Several people started to joke around. Fortunately, the atmosphere in the store was lively, so their laughter didn't seem out of place. Taking advantage of the moment when Li Shijie's attention was diverted, Xu Man quietly pulled Qin Shen's sleeve and whispered to him, "Come over. It's nice to eat with them."
Qin Shen looked at her helplessly, as if he wanted to say something, but she gave him a well-behaved smile in return, which turned into a silent sigh. He took her to sit on the new chair added by the waiter and asked the people at the table what dishes they ordered.
Li Shijie followed and sat back in his seat, answering enthusiastically: "We ordered two roast ducks per table, and some side dishes. Do you want anything else? Here is the menu."
He took the menu from the table and handed it to Qin Shen. Qin Shen took it, took a look, and then handed it to Xu Man: "Take a look, what do you want to eat?"
After listening to the interrogation for a whole morning, Xu Man felt a little hungry. She took a quick look at the menu and ordered a portion of crystal shrimp dumplings. Considering that there were two tables of people, she counted the number of people and ordered a double portion. Then she returned the menu to Qin Shen, indicating that she had already ordered.
Qin Shen seemed to be uninterested, or perhaps he was bored of having lunch with such a large group of people. He casually flipped through the menu, added two dishes, and asked the waiter to take them away.
At this time, the table was already filled with the dishes that Li Shijie and others had ordered earlier, including four servings of roast duck, all of which had been sliced and brought up. Seeing that they had ordered the dishes, everyone picked up their chopsticks and started eating, chatting as they ate.
All the people sitting at Li Shijie's table were from Group One, including Zhu Zhuo, Zhao Jia, Qi Fei and Shen Donglei. The people from Group Two and the Technical Department were sitting together at the next table. Xu Man originally thought that they would make fun of her and Qin Shen's relationship, but unexpectedly, they were surprisingly well-behaved. Only Zhu Zhuo said a few words about his sister-in-law and junior sister, and after they sat down, he stopped talking and started chatting about other topics with the people next to him.
Could it be because Qin Shen was present? So this group of people have stopped gossiping?
Recalling Qin Shen's outburst in the buffet restaurant at the end of July, Xu Man felt that it was very likely. Even she was scared that time, so it was normal for them to still have psychological trauma.
But you can't just bully the other one because one of them is not easy to deal with.
She thought a little depressed.
The grand occasion of everyone in the office participating in the topic of red envelopes and gifts is still vivid in my mind. Does she really look like she is easy to bully, so much so that others like to tease her? Even Qin Shen likes to tease her. Why is that?
…
The two tables ordered a total of four roast ducks, which consisted of three parts: duck skin, duck body and duck rack. Two of the duck racks were served with salt and pepper, and two were served with rice. The duck skin and duck body were sprinkled with sugar and sliced respectively. The former was sweet, and the latter was fragrant, each with its own flavor.
The plates of duck skin were placed on both sides of the table, one of which was closer to Qin Shen and Xu Man. Qin Shen took advantage of the moment when everyone was talking to ask Xu Man if she wanted to eat the sugar-roasted duck skin, but she shook her head and quietly refused.
"It's too sweet and will make you fat."
Hearing this, Qin Shen smiled and said, "It's okay, just eat a little, you won't get fat, and I think your current figure is just right, you don't need to lose weight."
Xu Man: "Even if you don't want to lose weight, you have to keep it off. Besides, you are not me, how do you know that I am not fat..."
She didn't say anything else after that. She gradually realized that the man in front of her was indeed able to know her figure, and she also understood the meaning of his previous words - he could actually say that!
"No more talking." She bit her lip in embarrassment. This was not the time when the two of them were alone in the interrogation room. She could not let him kiss her and flirt with her. There were a lot of people sitting around. He was not afraid of being embarrassed by being heard when he said these words, but she was afraid.
To prevent Qin Shen from saying something unexpected, Xu Man simply instructed him to wrap the roast duck for her: "Please wrap a piece of duck for me. The dough is too oily. I don't want to touch it."
In fact, there was a pile of disposable gloves next to Li Shijie. She could have worn a few more layers if she didn't like the oil. However, a little willfulness has always been a lover's privilege. In addition, Qin Shen was happy to serve her, so he smiled and listened to her. He took a lotus leaf skin and put it in his hand, and asked her, "What do you want to add?"
"Just cucumber sticks, nothing else."
"I didn't realize you're such a picky eater." Qin Shen said this with a smile. He picked up a piece of roast duck and a few cucumber strips and placed them on the lotus leaf skin. He dipped them in some sauce and wrapped a square piece in a few strokes. He put it in her bowl. His technique was skillful and experienced, and it was obvious that he had eaten this many times before.
Li Shijie, who was standing next to him, saw this scene, shook his head and sighed a few times, but perhaps because he was concerned about Qin Shen's presence, he did not dare to tease him too much and did not say anything. However, from his exaggerated facial expression, one could guess what he was thinking at the moment.
Xu Man pretended not to see it. She lowered her head, picked up the food with chopsticks, took a small bite, and chewed it slowly. Her earlobes felt a little hot. She felt that the two of them were showing their affection in public, but it was only because she, as their lover, was able to calm the situation that she did not attract any open ridicule. She wondered what was going on in her heart.
I hope no one will come and laugh at her when she is alone, like Zhao Jia or Li Shijie and his group. She really can't handle it...
Everyone continued to eat and chat about other topics. In addition to some daily casual gossip, they were also busy with the Lin Fangfang case. Zhu Zhuo said in a suspenseful tone: "Qi Fei and I went to Jiangzhou to investigate Cheng Yao's network of relationships. Guess what we found?"
Zhao Jia: "Didn't you write down everything you found out in the report? Did you keep the case information to yourself? Captain Qin, write it down and deduct their points when you get back."
Zhu Zhuo was anxious: "Why do you deduct points for a disagreement? Of course we didn't keep the information of the case privately, but the focus was on Lin Fangfang at that time, so I omitted some things and didn't read them out at the meeting. I only printed them in the report for Captain Qin and Team Zhang to see. You definitely don't know about it."
"What's the matter?" Li Shijie became interested and put down his chopsticks to urge, "Don't keep us in suspense. Tell me now."
Zhu Zhuo cleared his throat and was about to speak, but Qi Fei beside him interrupted him and said with a smile: "Cheng Yao found a woman outside, you all know this, but his wife Yu Wei also found someone outside, don't you know?"
"Hey, why are you interrupting me?"
"This is something you and I found out together. Why do you think I'm interrupting you?"
“How shameless.”
"You are shameless."
The two of them started to argue with each other, and the conversation went off topic. Xu Man saw that she couldn't hear any more news for a while, and she wanted to know what was going on with Yu Wei, so she asked Qin Shen in a low voice: "Is what they said true? Did the deceased's wife also have a lover outside?"
Just then the waiter brought in a few new dishes. Qin Shen picked up a piece of crystal shrimp dumpling and put it in her bowl, answering, "That's right. During the days when the deceased came to Mingzhou, his children happened to be away attending a week-long preschool summer camp, and his wife Yu Wei was the only one left at home. Jiangzhou police found out that her whereabouts were erratic during those days, and they thought she had something to do with the case, so they put her on the suspect list. Later they found out that she had a lover outside, and she might have gone to meet her lover because she was coming in and out of the house irregularly during those days."
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