Chapter 17
AN HOUR LATER, Luo Wenzhou parked outside a funeral home on the city’s outskirts. A few hearses were parked nearby as well. The funeral home was in front of a mountain, and it was very quiet. Under the looming mountain’s shadow, the atmosphere was heavy and gloomy. The only sign of life was the white smoke coming out the chimney from the crematory.
Fei the Half Incapacitated craned his neck to take a look. When he went to push open the car door, he realized the driver hadn’t unlocked it. He tapped on the door lightly to prompt Luo Wenzhou, who sat next to him, when the man suddenly asked, “What was last night all about?”
Fei Du leaned back apathetically, playing dumb. “Hm?” That lean backward oozed playboy energy. The corners of his lips rose slightly in what could’ve been a smile as he turned to look at Luo Wenzhou. “Last night? What did I do last night?” he asked, knowing the answer to that question full well.
Luo Wenzhou was speechless. He realized that, in posing that question, he was really asking for it. Compared to Fei Du’s bizarrely suggestive attitude now, he felt more comfortable with the version of Fei Du whose forehead was labeled I deserve a good beating.
When the pair were alone together, if either one found himself on the verge of rage, the other was quite likely to goad him on. Fei Du misread Luo Wenzhou’s silence as meaning he had nothing to say. His interest piqued, he couldn’t help but tease Luo Wenzhou.
“Last night, I decided to provide some of your officers a bit of warmth. Are you about to award me another banner, Sergeant Luo?” The light reflecting off the texture of his irises seemed to ripple outward from his pupils, forming concentric rings of light and dark resembling frozen waves. “What do you plan to put on it this time? Let me think…”
“Fei Du.” Luo Wenzhou sighed. “If you keep flirting with me like this, I’ll think you have untoward intentions.”
For a moment, Fei Du said nothing. Luo Wenzhou had always played the big-brother role. Apparently, all the time he’d spent acting serious in front of Fei Du had given Fei Du the mistaken impression that Luo Wenzhou was someone who actually felt shame.
Fei Du looked back at the dark-colored funeral home. “You must be in an easygoing mood to act this way in front of a funeral home, Sergeant Luo.”
“On that note, let’s talk about something serious,” Luo Wenzhou suggested. “What are you after, trying to sneak onto our police force and leave others to look after your huge fortune?”
“No need to worry about my fortune. I have a reliable team.” Fei Du shrugged. “They don’t even need to be that reliable, just more reliable than me. Besides, they’ll still need me to sign off on any major decisions, even if I no longer oversee the company’s day-to-day operations. I’ll still have control. And if I really let it all go one day—”
Luo Wenzhou cut off his showboating. “All you’d need to do is sell some random junk of yours, and you’d have more money than a standard civil servant’s lifetime income, including the pension they’d receive if they lived to be two hundred and fifty years old, right? Enough. When your dad got into that accident, you were still in school. You were probably barely trying, but still, why didn’t you trust that ‘reliable team’ back then? Why did you spend all that time and energy making sure the company was truly in your hands?”
Fei Du looked up and met Luo Wenzhou’s eyes in the rearview mirror. There was a frank severity in his penetrating gaze, the kind you wouldn’t show to strangers.
“You didn’t take over your father’s company for money,” Luo Wenzhou said with certainty. “You’re investigating him. That means you applied to Yancheng Public Security University for the same reason. What—or I should say who—are you doing it for?”
“Maybe I’m trying to get into your pants.” Fei Du shrugged, his expression unchanging. “Maybe my tastes have changed, and I’m into niche hotties like you now.”
Back and forth, dodging and deflecting—this brat was all smoke and mirrors, merging truth and deceit. He narrowed his eyes, raking his gaze over the high, straight bridge of Luo Wenzhou’s nose and delicately defined lips, as if he would seal those lips with a kiss at any second. “Oh, also—how did you know that I didn’t pay attention in school?” he asked in a soft, silky voice. “Did you look at my grades on top of secretly getting me little gifts?”
Luo Wenzhou huffed a breath out through his nose. Under Fei Du’s playful gaze, he unlocked the car doors. Then, without warning, he roughly grabbed at Fei Du’s skillfully designed collar, throwing off his wolfish stance.
“First of all,” Luo Wenzhou said somberly, “my good looks have always been widely acknowledged by the masses. I am a classically handsome man whose beauty will never go out of style. If you think that’s ‘niche,’ it just means you need to read more, you ignorant fool. Secondly…” Luo Wenzhou shot a pitying look at the cast encapsulating Fei Du’s arm and scoffed. “Babe, it’s been years since I saw a man act as shamelessly cocky as you are right now. You? Looking like that? Hooking up with me? You might want to hook up with some calcium supplements first, Fei-zong!” He pointed at the door. “Get the hell out of my car.”
Fei-zong had never lost a battle of seduction. This was his first time meeting such a stiff setback; the feeling was very novel. Having been chased out of the car, injured and uncoordinated, he watched Luo Wenzhou from behind, eyes bright. He was eager to rise to the challenge—but after a moment, he set his desires aside temporarily and followed Luo Wenzhou in silence.