I never imagined you were this thirsty.
The atmosphere inside the car was eerily quiet. The person in the driver's seat seemed as if spring hadn't arrived yet, their expressionless face like it had been carved from ice. The person in the passenger seat was clutching their stomach, leaning against the car door, laughing so hard they were almost breathless.
Before they got into the car—
After Wen Dai's question, Chen Sizhe didn't seem to realize anything was wrong. He just assumed she was annoyed by his tone. But he didn't back down and still held his chin up, standing high up. "Otherwise what? It's not exactly being magnanimous, just nipping it in the bud. What if you can't hold back one day? Rather than waiting until things get out of control, I might as well satisfy your desire now."
"Do you treat other people like this too? Do you give it a try with other girls who confess to you? But when Aunt Qi asked me to help you with your marriage before, I didn't see any signs of you having any dating experience. She even said you'd never been in a relationship before..." Wen Dai looked at him, completely puzzled.
Unfortunately, her innocent confusion was mistaken by the person involved for jealousy.
Such clear yet bewildering eyes.
But Chen Sizhe, who was looking into her eyes, couldn't help but think—the way she looked at him was so intense.
With his eyelids drooping, Chen Sizhe slowly avoided her gaze. "You're already so possessive before we're even together. You must have been holding back for a long time."
He turned his head to the side, and the flower bed in front of him was filled with soil sprouting green shoots; spring had indeed arrived.
“I directly reject other girls. Why should I care about their opinions if there's no need for further contact? I'm only willing to give you a try because of our business relationship. I've always valued long-term development and don't want this to affect our cooperation. Besides, my parents like you a lot, and I have no interest in causing trouble for myself. That's all the reasons. Don't flatter yourself.”
His explanation was very plausible, but he never made eye contact with Wen Dai, only showing her his nostrils.
Wen Dai, standing with her hands clasped behind her back, tilted her head and glanced at him, her eyes darting up and down with interest. She raised her chin and let out a long "Oh!" in a tone of sudden realization, then abruptly asked, "Then can I kiss you?"
Her audacious remark startled Chen Sizhe, who abruptly turned to look at her. His lazy, fox-like eyes widened in shock, his dark pupils staring directly at Wen Dai, his astonishment barely concealed. "What did you say?!"
Struggling to suppress the urge to smile, Wen Dai took two steps forward, shortening the distance that could have easily accommodated another person. Leaning forward, her captivating eyes filled with sincerity, she said, "Can I kiss you? You said you wanted to try it with me, so if we try, it shouldn't just be a change in our status, right?"
Before his wide, fox-like eyes could even catch their breath, Chen Sizhe's Adam's apple bobbed. He abruptly turned his face away, his hand at his side clenching into a fist, and a rapid rebuke burst from his mouth: "This...this is too fast! I never expected you to be so thirsty, so impatient, so unreserved...I can only give you one kiss." His volume dropped sharply at the end, his speech slowed abruptly, and his tone changed slightly.
Looking at the awkward man in front of her, Wen Dai's gaze shifted from his profile to his reddened ears under his tousled hair. The laughter that had been suppressed burst forth, and her tense muscles were completely released. She supported herself on the car with one hand and covered her stomach with the other, letting the laughter escape from her throat.
The atmosphere of the segment titled "Forced Abduction of a Man, Man's Compromise" suddenly changed. Chen Sizhe, the lead actor, glanced inexplicably at another lead actor. He looked at Wen Dai, who had suddenly burst into laughter, and after passing her blushing face, he couldn't help but frown and ask, "What are you laughing at?"
However, his displeased tone seemed to tickle someone's funny bone.
Wen Dai, who was laughing so hard that her abdominal muscles ached, hunched over and her shoulders trembled. Her response to Chen Sizhe was a goose-like laugh of "giggle giggle".
After a long pause, catching his breath several times, the person who had been laughing so hard that tears welled up in his eyes lifted his face. Wen Dai looked at him, her hand that had been covering her stomach now on her hip. "Actually, I was just teasing you. Expressing my feelings for you during dinner was just to avoid being relentlessly pursued by that guy. But—"
Once she caught her breath, Wen Dai's smile held a hint of mischief. She leaned closer to him, her chest almost touching his, and looked up at the person leaning back, teasingly saying, "Could it be... that you're the one who actually has feelings for the other person? If you didn't have feelings for me, how could you accept me kissing you? Even if you're selfless, you wouldn't go so far as to disregard your own innocence, would you?"
Pressed close and teased by her, Chen Sizhe suddenly took two steps back, pressed the car key in his hand, and then quickly walked around the front of the car to the driver's side.
"You're overthinking it. I'd rather agree now than be forcibly kissed by a wolf-like woman later. Who knows if you'll become even more thirsty and crazy if you hold back for too long? It's just nipping it in the bud. Either way, consider it as being bitten by a dog."
Noticing his sour face, Wen Dai's goose-like smile reappeared.
The passenger door opened and closed, revealing a person inside who made goose-like noises.
She leaned against the car door, laughing so hard she almost couldn't breathe, while he drove with a sour face.
Rubbing her aching stomach from laughing, Wen Dai pulled her phone out of her pocket, intending to glance at the time, but instead saw a new WeChat message. She tapped the screen a few times; the new friend request message read—
Hello, I am the grandson of the lonely old man who died during the first month of the lunar calendar. My son and daughter told me that they saw you mention in the police report that your profession is a spiritual medium who helps people with divination. My son happened to see your profile while browsing nearby accounts, and I have something I would like to ask you for help with.
“Eh…” Wen Dai’s smile faded. She sat up straight, accepted the friend request, and then politely inquired about the details.
She vaguely remembered the grandson of the lonely old man who had died, the man who was questioning the case officer about the distribution of the estate.
Having stopped hearing laughter, Chen Sizhe glanced at her twice, then his deep voice rang out from his throat: "What?"
Before receiving a reply, Wen Dai put down her phone, her hands holding the phone dangling on her thighs. "This is a long story. It happened last month, the day we went to help the eldest granddaughter of the domain with some matters."
The process was recounted in detail, and Wen Dai's lips became dry from talking, so she licked them several times.
Just then, the light turned red, and Chen Sizhe used one arm to block her way. His slender, fair fingers opened the glove box and placed a bottle of water he had retrieved into her arms.
Feeling a strange pressure from the water in her arms, Wen Dai subconsciously glanced at Chen Sizhe, but the man had already withdrawn his hand. Just as the green light turned on, he said, "Continue." He didn't explain why he suddenly took the water, nor did Wen Dai ask.
She unscrewed the bottle cap and took a few sips to soothe her throat. "That's roughly how it went. The dumplings and glutinous rice balls made by that female detective's mother were really delicious. Also, seeing a corpse that had been dead for some time was incredibly impactful. You can't understand how I felt when my sight and smell betrayed me at the same time if you haven't seen it."
"Do you have time to deal with this case? If you don't, I'll handle it myself. They don't seem to have much money. After all, their first reaction after their grandmother passed away was to ask about the inheritance. They're probably quite stingy. Your time is worth eight thousand per hour. If you help them, you'll be losing out big time." Wen Dai twisted the bottle cap back on and glanced at him sideways.
“I never intended to make money from this as a side job. We signed a contract, and since we have a cooperative relationship, I can’t just abandon you because the pay is low. I’ve said it before—I have a strong sense of cooperation; unlike you,” he glanced at her sideways and sneered, “not only did you use me as a shield to block your blind date’s advances, but you also kept me in the dark and played me for a fool.”
Knowing she was in the wrong, Wen Dai chuckled dryly. "I promise there won't be a next time. I used you as a shield back then mainly because you came at just the right time, you know? You know, when someone is helpless, they'll grab onto any straw they see. I didn't intend to keep you in the dark all along. The key is that I forgot to explain afterwards, and you brought it up again, so I couldn't help but want to turn the tables on you."
"So, according to you, the fault lies with me? Your apology is really insincere." Her mocking tone was accompanied by the disdainful look the man gave her.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, it's my fault, I admit my mistake, okay?"
"You're still pretty unconvinced?"
"I didn't! Chen Sizhe, can't you stop being so petty?"
"Ha. You really are not convinced."
Wen Dai, who was completely overwhelmed, had a dazed feeling of coaxing her little girlfriend.
Finally, she used the water in her arms to moisten Wen Dai's parched throat from apologizing. Every time she drank water, Wen Dai reminded herself not to splash it on his face; if it caused a traffic accident, it would be a case of hurting the enemy a thousand while hurting herself eight hundred.
...
That evening, Wen Dai learned the name of the grandson of the lonely old man who had died alone.
The room was filled with the glow of the incandescent light. Wen Dai lay on the bed with her chin resting on the pillow. The phone screen in front of the pillow displayed a WeChat chat page, and the contact name she had saved for the other person had been changed to "Zhang Xia".
After what happened last month, my family and I cleaned the house thoroughly. There was no point in keeping this old house, so we thought we'd rent it out. After the Spring Festival holiday, people came to view the house, and everything was going smoothly until the beginning of this month when the tenant suddenly told me he didn't want to rent it anymore. He said he kept seeing an old woman in the house and was experiencing sleep paralysis at night.
We were initially skeptical because he started by haggling over the price, and I thought he was trying to lower the rent again. But then he described my mother-in-law's appearance. We don't know why she's still here. Do you have time this weekend? If you are, could you please come over and help us deal with this? We need to continue renting out this house.
Looking at Zhang Xia's statement, Wen Dai already had a guess in her mind.
She reached out and tapped her fingertips on the screen.
Why don't you ask about the cost first? This kind of thing requires a procedure, and I'll be going with my partner.
Wen Dai had an inexplicable intuition that this person was probably planning to sabotage her in the matter of fortune-telling.
Is eight thousand okay then? My rent for this apartment is only eight thousand a month.
Wen Dai saved a screenshot of the chat on her phone, replied with an "OK," and then forwarded the entire message to Chen Sizhe, along with a separate message: "Draft a contract. My gut feeling tells me this guy's up to no good."
After receiving Chen Sizhe's permission, Wen Dai put her phone back on the bedside table to charge, got out of bed, turned off the light, and then crawled back into bed and closed her eyes. She was always prepared, and she especially trusted her intuition.
Besides Wen Dai and Chen Sizhe, Zhang Xia also met with a contract prepared by Chen Sizhe in triplicate over the weekend.
The three of them stood at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor, with inkpads and pens readily available. Wen Dai smiled and handed the three contracts to Zhang Xia for his signature, reminding him, "You can take a closer look at the contract terms."
However, whether out of trust in them or trust in himself, Zhang Xia gave a vague answer and, as if time were more precious than Chen Sizhe's, flipped straight to the signature page of all three contracts and signed and pressed his fingerprint without thinking.
Looking at the person in front of her who was signing the contract against the wall, Wen Dai nudged Chen Sizhe with her elbow, tilted her head toward him, and lowered her voice: "Hey, the contract you drafted should be fine, right? Don't give him a chance to find loopholes."
With his hands casually tucked into his pockets, Chen Sizhe raised his chin, his disdainful gaze falling on her face, and said arrogantly, "Do you think I might have a problem?"
"You should know that it's usually the swimmers who drown. I'm just being cautious. What if you take this lightly and cause problems with the contract? But don't worry, I trust you completely. Just ignore what I said before."
The sudden shift in the conversation was due to Wen Dai noticing Chen Sizhe's mouth, which was about to launch an attack.
Knowing how it feels to be questioned by non-professionals in one's field of expertise, she quickly changed the subject, patting Chen Sizhe's arm to comfort him.
The whispering ended after Zhang Xia signed the contract. After taking the contract back, they followed Zhang Xia upstairs.
Zhang Xia, who was leading the way, kept turning his head to glance at them, "You guys should be able to handle this for me, right? I won't pay you if you don't handle it well..."
“Mr. Zhang,” Chen Sizhe suddenly interrupted him, his fox-like eyes sweeping over him with a half-smile, “Didn’t you hear a word my partner just said? The contract clearly states—'The total cost is eight thousand yuan. Party A must pay a 50% deposit, or four thousand yuan, upon signing the contract, and the remaining 50% shall be paid immediately after the ceremony. The deposit is non-refundable.' You need to pay the deposit before the ceremony begins.”
His leather shoes clicked on the stairs as he calmly read out the terms: "'If Party A fails to pay the final payment on time or unilaterally cancels, the deposit will not be refunded.' Also, the contract states that 'Party B is only responsible for completing the agreed ceremony according to traditional rituals and makes no promises regarding Party A's subjective feelings or subsequent life changes.'"
"Furthermore, the contract also states that 'the services provided by Party B fall within the scope of folk culture, and Party A voluntarily participates and acknowledges their symbolic meaning. Party B shall not be liable for any consequences arising from Party A's own psychological or health conditions or those caused by third-party factors.'"
As he turned the corner and climbed the stairs, Chen Sizhe remained perfectly calm even when he reached the sixth floor. He glanced at Zhang Xia, who was staring in disbelief, and said leisurely, "Mr. Zhang, don't abandon your sense of contract before cooperating with others. I don't need to explain the principle of 'helping others to establish themselves as you wish to establish yourself, and helping others to achieve as you wish to achieve yourself' to you, do I?"
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