Dual Identity

Qin Luming was staring intently at the screen without moving, his mind racing as he worked out the plot. Caicai ran in and shouted, "Three people are pressing the elevator button for our home downstairs. One woman has hair plastered to her forehead like a spatula, and the other two are wearing really impressive big hats. I want to buy one too, Brother Luming. Can you check whether Taobao sells them? Oh, and their clothes are impressive too. You could wear them in winter—they're really thick."

Qin Luming instinctively clicked the Taobao shortcut icon, then came back to his senses. Caicai had said so much, but wasn't the important part that those three people had pressed the elevator button for his home?

"Go open the access door... let them come up. The police should be here." Qin Luming sighed. As expected, his guess had been right. The phone's owner had probably gone missing too, and the police had already come.

More time lost from writing.

Qin Luming was a law-abiding citizen and actively cooperated with police investigations. Taking the phone with him, he left the study and went to the living room.

Zuozuo had already let them in. By the time the doorbell rang again after a short wait, they had reached the door.

Caicai enthusiastically rode the robot vacuum to greet the guests. Gu Shuiyun and the two officers walked in and saw a pair of beautiful twin girls, one tall and one short, standing in the entryway and looking up at them.

They were not actually one tall and one short. One of them was standing on a robot vacuum... But what kind of robot vacuum was that? Usually, only cats and dogs liked sitting on robot vacuums. It could carry a person too? They had never seen anything like it.

That was not the point. With the two girls standing at the entrance, it was difficult for anyone to walk around them and enter. Gu Shuiyun smiled and said, "Little sisters... we came to find... find a gentleman. He picked up a phone we lost and informed us to come retrieve it."

The two little girls were simply too adorable. Their large eyes sparkled with lively innocence, and their slender bodies were as delicate as tender sprouts. Especially as the airflow caused by the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors gently lifted the hems of their white dresses, they looked pure as angels, yet also like kittens one wanted to hold close and spoil.

Both officers had children of their own. Seeing the little girls before them, they could not help revealing restrained, gentle fatherly smiles.

Caicai jumped off the robot vacuum, picked it up, and ran away.

"Please come in. She's just an immature child," Zuozuo explained sensibly. "Brother Qin is waiting for you in the living room."

Zuozuo brought the guests disposable thick-soled linen slippers to change into and invited them inside.

The moment Qin Luming saw Gu Shuiyun, he knew she was related to the phone's owner. He handed the phone back to her.

Gu Shuiyun took the phone but did not turn it on. She did not know its unlock password either, so technical means would be needed to crack it.

"I just heard what your younger sister called you... Mr. Qin, right? Thank you. May I ask where you found the phone my brother lost?" Gu Shuiyun looked at Qin Luming with worry and anticipation.

"The old Zinc Factory." Qin Luming looked at the two officers behind Gu Shuiyun. They had shown their credentials earlier.

"That place is pretty remote."

"Very few people go there... Mr. Qin, what were you doing there?" Officer Zhao asked.

"I saw the news saying someone had stolen the Zinc Factory, and I found it pretty unbelievable, so I went over to take a look. I found this phone by the wall." Qin Luming took out his phone and opened the ride-hailing app's trip record. It could be set to notify one's family of trips, serving both as a safety measure and proof of innocence.

"So... the last place my brother appeared may have been there." Gu Shuiyun was filled with doubts as well. The Zinc Factory? The Zinc Factory that had been stolen? What had her brother been doing there... That area was unsuitable for real estate development, and her family had no metallurgical businesses. Besides, Gu Qing'an could not possibly be involved in the family's affairs now.

"Thank you. Then may I ask whether you know Mr. Gu Qing'an?" Officer Zhang asked, looking directly into Qin Luming's eyes.

Qin Luming froze for a moment.

Seeing Qin Luming's expression, Gu Shuiyun raised her brows slightly, while Officer Zhang and Officer Zhao focused intently on him.

Qin Luming hurriedly took out his phone and searched for Ma Shilong's My Wife Is the Empress of Zhou. He showed it to the three of them. "I've heard that name before. The male lead of this novel is called Gu Qing'an."

Gu Shuiyun's eye twitched. Officer Zhang and Officer Zhao's shoulders slumped, and they lowered their hands from their knees and patted them. Officer Zhao said, "Mr. Qin, we need to conduct a routine inquiry. Please show us your ID so we can register it. Thank you for your cooperation."

Naturally, Qin Luming cooperated and took out his ID card.

"This photo... looks rather different from you." Officer Zhang looked at the photo on the ID, then could not help comparing it with him.

"It's about to expire. I need to renew it." Qin Luming smiled, slightly embarrassed.

The two officers were used to such things and continued asking other questions.

In the end, Qin Luming also marked the approximate spot where he had found the phone at the Zinc Factory on an electronic map, making it easier for them to investigate the scene.

Watching them leave, Qin Luming let out a sigh of relief. When he heard the name Gu Qing'an, his heart had indeed been stirred. But he also knew that such sudden shock was hard to conceal, so he might as well openly admit what he had thought of. Any attempt at concealment, or merely deciding that his thoughts were too absurd to mention, could lead them to misjudge him and bring Qin Luming even more trouble.

"They're gone!" Caicai came out again riding the robot vacuum. "I hid in the Candy House just now."

"Why were you hiding?" Zuozuo was cutting fruit in the kitchen to entertain the guests, but she had gotten a little hungry, so she first pan-fried some fatty liver to eat... Zuozuo did not know whether it was goose liver or duck liver. By the time she happily finished eating and continued cutting the fruit, the guests had already left. So she brought it out, planning to eat it while watching TV.

"I was worried that if they saw a girl riding a robot vacuum, they'd think I was strange." Caicai looked down at the robot vacuum. "If I were riding the Wind Fire Wheels, they'd think I was a childhood idol and wouldn't find me strange."

"Yes, please ride the Wind Fire Wheels whenever you go out from now on." Qin Luming nodded in agreement, reached out to scrape the corner of Zuozuo's mouth, then tasted his finger. "You ate goose liver again. I'm hungry too... Do you want anything else to eat?"

"I want meat too! Just cut me a tiny bit of chopped meat!" Zuozuo followed Qin Luming into the kitchen again.

Caicai hurried after them too. "Then I want some too!"

"We don't eat vegetables!"

"I eat meat and vegetables. What's it to you?"

"Don't you only eat spinach?"

"No! When I'm hungry, I've even eaten Brother Luming's Golden Bullet Fruit."

"You can't eat that stuff! I was wondering why the Golden Bullet Fruit on my whole tree kept decreasing day by day and vanished so quickly last year." Qin Luming turned around and smacked Caicai. "Those fruits are poisonous."

"Oh, so you've eaten them too!"

"I haven't!"

"Then how do you know they're poisonous?"

"I haven't eaten them either... I can't be bothered talking to you."

Qin Luming entered the kitchen, planning to make teppanyaki. After all, he had only eaten a bowl of instant noodles when he came back that afternoon, and he was hungry again now.

He turned on the teppanyaki grill. He had not specially prepared or marinated any ingredients, but there were ready-made steaks. He decided to make teppanyaki wagyu paired with horse dung sea urchin and caviar, along with teppanyaki foie gras and potato slices.

More time lost from writing... Qin Luming knew that the main reason was that he simply was not in the mood to write now.

The name Gu Qing'an made him unable to stop drawing connections.