After changing into a decent attire, Mu Yu rushed downstairs. But when she reached the last step of the stairs, she felt perturbed and slowed down her pace. In her mind, she was organizing words to say to Xin Yihan.
“Forensic Doctor Mu.”
Chief Rong?
Mu Yu looked around in surprise.
“Are you able to work today?” Rong Jian approached her and asked gently.
“Sure.” Mu Yu realized she was overthinking as she could not find Xin Yihan anywhere. After all, Xin Yihan did not even know where Qin Jinhuan stayed.
She then replied to Rong Jian with a smile, “I’ll go to work after I have my breakfast.”
“That’s great.”
Noticing the relief on Rong Jian’s face, Mu Yu felt anxious. “Has something happened again?”
“Everything’s fine so far,” Rong Jian explained promptly, “but Rubing is sick, and Doctor Nie is on leave, so there’s no forensic doctor in the forensic lab now.”
“I see. What happened to Teacher Feng? Is she alright?”
“Nothing serious, but the doctor has urged her to rest for at least a week. There’s no breakthrough for the case in the forest yet, and we need a forensic doctor to examine some material evidence from time to time, so…”
“I understand. I understand. Let me get ready, and I’ll go to work immediately.” Mu Yu dashed up the stairs.
“There’s no need to rush. I’ll wait for you while you have your breakfast.”
Upon hearing that, Mu Yu stopped her steps and waved her hands. “You don’t have to wait for me. It’ll be too troublesome for you. I’ll go by myself later.”
“It’s fine.” Rong Jian smiled and sat in the living room.
“Chief Rong…”
“Go ahead and get ready.”
Seeing his persistence, Mu Yu knew that she would only be unreasonable if she declined any further. So, she ran up the stairs to grab her bag and ran back down to Rong Jian, panting heavily as she said, “Let’s go.”
Rong Jian pointed at the dining room and said, “We’re not in a rush anyway. I’ll wait for you to finish your breakfast.”
“I’ll grab some buns from the stall in front of the workplace entrance.”
“Is that fine for you?”
“Yup, buns are my favorite breakfast.”
She would probably choke if she made her leader wait while she had her breakfast.
“But…”
“Really, it’s fine. Let’s go.” Mu Yu turned away, and when she was about to leave, Wen Zeyu came out from the dining room and stopped her with a smile.
“Mu Yu, you’re putting Rong Jian in a difficult situation. He won’t dare to bring you out before you eat your breakfast.”
“Why?”
“Because Jinhuan cares for you, of course.” Wen Zeyu pouted his mouth in the direction of the dining room.
He cares about me? He just wants to flirt with me, all right?
Although Mu Yu was mocking him in her heart, she replied with a smile, “I didn’t say that I’ll skip my breakfast. I’ll buy some buns at the workplace entrance. That stall makes delicious buns.”
Before she could make a move, Rong Jian glanced at his watch and halted her. “Forensic Doctor Mu, I need to talk to Zeyu for a while anyway, so you can have your breakfast at home.”
He then waved at Wen Zeyu, as though he really had something serious going on.
“Why don’t you just tell Mu Yu frankly that you are willing to wait for her and fetch her to work?” Wen Zeyu rolled his eyes at Rong Jian. He disliked the way Rong Jian was hiding his intentions.
Mu Yu widened her eyes at his words.
“Mu Yu, don’t misunderstand me.” Wen Zeyu realized that his words were misleading. He took a glance at the dining room and explained hastily with an awkward smile, “I mean, he has his own intentions to wait for you, so you don’t have to be courteous to him. In fact, you should relax and let him wait.”
“Zeyu!”
“This isn’t something to be embarrassed about.” Wen Zeyu rolled his eyes at Rong Jian again. He then turned to Mu Yu and bantered, “He is doing it for the one and only…”
“How is it that you can still talk with a mouthful of food?” Rong Jian threw an annoyed glance at him.
“Ice beauty. Ice—do you understand?” Wen Zeyu ignored his displeased glance and finished his sentence.
“You mean Feng…”
“That’s right. Shh… Let’s keep it to ourselves.” Wen Zeyu looked at Rong Jian from the corner of his eyes and smiled teasingly.
Mu Yu gave an acknowledging look and gazed at Rong Jian from head to toe once again. She was analyzing how well-matched he and Feng Rubing would be.
“Don’t listen to his nonsense.” Rong Jian felt slightly unsettled.
“How was it nonsense? Tell me.”
“Do you want me to beat you up?”
“If you dare to beat me, I’ll tell the whole world that you are Feng Rubing’s(“bing” means “ice” in Chinese character) secret admirer!”
“Enough of your nonsense!”
……
Mu Yu walked to the dining room while listening to their arguments. At the same time, she could not suppress her laughter as she amusingly gauged the development of the relationship between Rong Jian and Feng Rubing.
At this moment, Li Xianglan came straight to her and informed, “Young mistress, your breakfast is ready. I’ll clean the room upstairs now.”
“Oh, all right. Thank you, Auntie Lan.”
After seeing Li Xianglan leave the dining room, Mu Yu hummed a tune while she entered the dining room. Suddenly, she saw Qin Jinhuan sitting in the dining room, enjoying his breakfast leisurely. The disgraceful scene in the morning reappeared in her mind, and she felt suffocated. The smile on her face vanished involuntarily at once.
What a pesky and annoying beast!
She would never want to share a space with him alone!
She then turned around and walked away.
“Eat your breakfast before leaving for work.”
She pretended to be deaf and continued to leave.
“You can’t go to work if you don’t eat your breakfast!”
Listening to the threat in his voice, she turned around and stomped toward him angrily. She then shouted frustratedly, “It’s my freedom to have breakfast or not before going to work. Freedom, do you understand?”
“People will see through us if we don’t put up a great performance. Do you want that to happen?”
“I…” Mu Yu sat down unwillingly and grabbed the chopsticks like it was Qin Jinhuan’s arm. She then rebutted huffily, “Nobody will see through us so easily! Do you think everyone is as shrewd as your grandpa? Besides, I don’t think your grandpa is that shrewd.”
After what happened in the morning, she pondered for a long time. The more she thought of it, the stranger she felt.
She and Qin Jinhuan were a ‘real’ married couple. Doing some ‘intimate activities’ was normal whether it was at night or in the morning, and it wasn’t something to be kept as a secret, but they still had to throw their clothes messily on the floor. Wouldn’t that seem suspicious as if they were trying hard to conceal something?
He must have intentionally used his grandpa’s room-rounding as an excuse to take advantage of her. She had noticed the lecherous look in his eyes.
Fortunately, she was able to grab a scalpel in her hand, or otherwise, she wouldn’t dare to imagine what this beast, who wore the skin of a human, would do to her.
She reminded herself to always put her guards up around people once again.
“Mu Yu.”
“What?” Qin Jinhuan seldom called her name in such a serious manner, but she could not help to respond gruffly.
Qin Jinhuan paused for a while and said in a low voice, “What happened earlier was an accident.”
Did he think that he could shirk from his responsibility by claiming that it was ‘an accident’? Wasn’t this apology too insincere?
Mu Yu’s face went sullen and glowered at him.
Qin Jinhuan’s mouth twitched, but he was rendered speechless.
It was rare that his apology went unappreciated by someone.
He would just forget it since she did not appreciate it.
He then finished the milk in his cup slowly and got up gracefully.
“Hey!” Mu Yu, who was sitting on the outer side, blocked him. “Well, since you’ve said what happened today was just an accident, I’ll trust you this time, but I hope that there won’t be any accident like this in the future,” she said softly.
Otherwise, don’t blame me if I give you the rough side of my tongue! she added in her heart.
Qin Jinhuan, who had stopped his pace, replied to her with a low hum without even looking at her.
To be honest, he did not want anything like the accident to happen again either.
“And,” Mu Yu peeped outside and continued her sentence in a low voice, “if your grandfather makes up excuses to ‘round rooms’ in the morning next time, you don’t have to scatter our underclothes all over the floor. After all, we are a ‘real’ married couple, so don’t make it look like we are having extramarital affairs.”
Once she reminded him of this, Qin Jinhuan suddenly figured out the mistakes he made this morning. His face sank at once.
Adding to his frustration, Mu Yu continued, “The experience you gained outside will only make the situation worse if you use it here. If anything goes wrong, it will be all your fault, so don’t blame me.”
Ignoring her taunts, Qin Jinhuan left the dining room.
Mu Yu felt a faint pleasure for reproaching Qin Jinhuan with confidence. Hence, her mood shifted dramatically, and she enjoyed her breakfast.
After finishing her breakfast, she went to the living room. Qin Jinhuan and Wen Zeyu had left, so she got into Rong Jian’s car to go to work. After calling Feng Rubing on the phone to inquire, Mu Yu started to take over her tasks and helped her to complete her unfinished tasks.
In the afternoon, after Mu Yu finished her work, she used her free time to flip through the record file in the forensic lab regarding the homicide case in Cheng Xi forest once again and looked for Rong Jian to get a better understanding of the situation. Later on, she returned to the forensic lab and jotted down the important points in her notebook, which she carried around with her. After that, Rong Jian’s voice interrupted her when she was about to analyze the case.
“Chief Rong? Are there any important details to add on?” Mu Yu got up and welcomed him immediately.
“No, I didn’t realize the time when I was talking to you just now. It’s already four o’clock. I’ll fetch you back first.”
“Did Grandpa’s illness recur?” Mu Yu felt anxious instantly.
Qin Jinhuan informed her before that if his grandpa’s illness recurred while she was working, Rong Jian would fetch her home at once.
“No, Grandpa is well. There’s nothing much to do in the forensic lab, so you don’t have to stay here for the whole day. Therefore, I’ve made changes to your working hours. From today onward, you just need to work from ten o’clock in the morning to four o’clock in the evening every day. I will pick you up and drop you off.”
“Ten o’clock to four o’clock?!” Mu Yu responded swiftly. “Did Qin Jinhuan ask you to change it?”
“Not really…”
Mu Yu noticed his reluctance. She then said in a serious tone, “Chief Rong, I am paid by the country to work, so I must comply with the rules and regulation of the workplace. Please don’t offer me privileges. I don’t want to tarnish your reputation in the workplace, and I don’t want to affect my passion for the job.”
“I understand what you mean, but Jinhuan… He has done me a huge favor by allowing you to work. You might not understand his temper, but he is a person who means what he says. If I don’t fetch you back in time, he won’t allow you to work again the next morning, and he might even blame me for that.”
“Isn’t it my freedom and right to work?” Mu Yu was enraged, but looking at Rong Jian’s reluctant face, she did not have the heart to make things difficult for him. After some consideration, she compromised and said, “If there’s nothing urgent in the forensic lab, I’ll return home earlier. But I’ll prioritize the work if there are urgent matters.”
“All right.” Rong Jian was pleased. “There’s nothing urgent now, so I’ll fetch you back.”
“Fine.” Mu Yu went home with him unwillingly.
When she reached home, Qin Jinhuan had not returned. To minimize the contact with Qin Xiaozhi and Dong Wanqing, she headed straight to her room when she reached home until Qin Jinhuan came back and called her down for dinner.
For the next couple of days, Qin Jinhuan would come home on the dot at half-past six o’clock for dinner. After dinner, he would go back to his room and get busy on his computer. He rarely communicated with Mu Yu, let alone ask her about her work and working hours.
Mu Yu was also at ease. She would take out her notebook and analyze the case when she had time.
At four o’clock today, Rong Jian came to fetch her home as usual. She suddenly had an idea, so she told him that she wanted to visit her family. After Rong Jian dropped her off at Peaceful Cloud Residential Area where her parents stayed, she hailed a cab immediately and headed to another area.