Actually, Xu Qiuyan and I should have had a lot to talk about. Years had passed since we'd parted, and I wanted to know how she had lived and what she had gone through.
I also wanted to ask her about that memory of Little Ancestral Hall Entrance—what exactly had happened there, and whether what she had experienced was the same as what I had experienced.
But I didn't know where to begin. In the end, I simply said nothing. There was plenty of time ahead; we would have plenty of chances later.
I looked around. This place was going to be our "home." I was the man of the house, and she was the woman of the house.
I couldn't help but start imagining our life together.
"What are you thinking about?" Eccentric Song sat across from me, watching me with a wicked look in his eyes while glancing now and then at Xu Qiuyan in the distance.
I glared at him. "What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to see what kind of woman had you so completely smitten." Nothing good ever came out of Eccentric Song's mouth.
I said irritably, "What does that have to do with you?"
He laughed. "How could it not? As your buddies, we have every right to vet the woman you're marrying, right, brothers?"
"Yeah!"
"That's right!"
Those two idiots, Duan Hongbin and Chu Ge, had shown up too. They sat on either side of Eccentric Song, both wearing mischievous grins.
I glanced at Xu Qiuyan, afraid she might overhear what the three of us were saying. That would have been incredibly awkward.
By then, Xu Qiuyan had walked over. I hurriedly signaled for the three of them to leave, but they didn't budge. They just sat there, openly staring at Xu Qiuyan with six eyes.
I was on the verge of losing it. Seeing my expression, Xu Qiuyan looked at the sofa across from me and smiled. "Your friends?"
I froze. She could see them?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"I said, are those three your friends?" She looked at Eccentric Song and the others again. The three idiots looked equally dumbfounded.
"Hello, I'm Xu Qiuyan!" She generously held out her hand to the three of them. The idiots became embarrassed instead. After shaking her hand, all three vanished in an instant.
"Huh? Where did they go?" she asked.
I coughed awkwardly twice. "They left."
"Oh." She didn't seem surprised by where those three had come from, nor was she curious about how they had disappeared.
"Qiu Yan, aren't you curious about who they are?" I asked.
She shook her head. "What's there to be curious about? Aren't they your friends? Your friends must be the people you trust the most."
I fell silent. She wasn't wrong. Those three were the brothers I trusted most, but no one knew better than I did what they really were. To other people, it would have been utterly unbelievable. Yet she didn't think anything of it. On the contrary, she found it perfectly normal.
"I have friends like that too. I'll introduce them to you when I get the chance." After saying that, she walked to the door. "I'm going to buy some groceries. We'll cook and eat at home tonight." She put heavy emphasis on the word "home." It seemed that, like me, she cared deeply about our little nest. Perhaps she was thinking the same thing I was—that one day, we would definitely end up together.
She left, but my heart was full of doubts. What had she just said? She had friends like that too, and she would introduce them to me someday!
Could she be someone like me? It wasn't impossible. Didn't I look the same way to the supposedly normal people around me? They were always whispering and pointing behind my back. I knew they were talking about how abnormal I was, wondering whether there was something wrong with my mind.
Fortunately, I'd been lucky enough to have Grandpa protecting me. That was how I had made it this far without being locked away as a lunatic.
"She's one of your kind." Eccentric Song spoke as he dug at his ear with one hand.
I said, "So now you know that too?"
"I'm very good at reading people. One look is enough for me to tell whether someone is good or bad, and what their true purpose is for getting close to you."
I laughed. "Aren't you tired of spending every day figuring out what other people are thinking?"
Eccentric Song put on a profound expression. "You wouldn't understand. A great man once said that fighting heaven, fighting earth, and fighting people brought endless joy. The joy of battle isn't something ordinary mortals like you can comprehend."
I gave him a cold look. "Keep bragging."
His expression turned serious. "I'm not bragging. She really is one of your kind. Most of the time, you both live in your own spiritual worlds. How should I put it? You both shut yourselves away. But interestingly, neither of you rejects the other."
Just then, I heard a knock on the door. I glanced at the two keys the man in the black suit had left on the dining table by the door. Xu Qiuyan had probably forgotten something and come back.
I went over and opened the door. Xu Qiuyan stood outside, looking a little embarrassed. "Um, I just realized I don't have any money on me. Could you give me some money to buy groceries?"
I slapped my forehead. She had come out of Second Provincial Hospital, and even the clothes she wore were brand-new. Of course she wouldn't have any money in her pockets.
I took out a hundred-yuan bill and handed it to her. Grandpa had given me that money.
She took the money, turned, and left. I shook my head and closed the door.
But less than three minutes after I sat back down on the sofa and got engrossed in chatting with Eccentric Song, there was another knock at the door.
Neither Xu Qiuyan nor I had many friends. Even if we did, we had only moved in less than half an hour ago. Who could possibly have found us here? It was probably someone knocking on the wrong door.
When I opened the door, a middle-aged man in his forties stood outside. He was very tall, around 1.85 meters. In our southwestern region, that height was exceptional.
"Who are you looking for?"
He looked somewhat nervous, lightly rubbing his hands together with unease written across his face.
"Excuse me, does Mr. Jiang live here?"
Mr. Jiang? Could he be talking about me?
I wasn't one to flatter myself. Normally, no one would come looking for me, so I asked again, "Which Mr. Jiang?"
"Mr. Jiang Xiaobai." As he spoke, the middle-aged man glanced into the room behind me. Clearly, he didn't know me and had no idea that the Jiang Xiaobai he was looking for was standing right in front of him.
"I'm Jiang Xiaobai. What can I do for you?" I had originally wanted to ask how he knew about me, but then I figured that once he told me why he had come, I could probably guess how he had found this place.
In truth, I already had an answer in mind. I merely wanted to confirm whether my guess was right.
There was only one person who could have known I lived here and sent him to find me: Xie Yi!
Disbelief appeared on his face, followed by disappointment, as though I was the cause of it.
"Mr. Xie told me to come find you. He said you could handle my problem!"
Just as I had expected, Xie Yi was the one who had pointed him in my direction. Could this be a test for us? Was he trying to find something to measure Qiu Yan's and my abilities?
"Go on. What's the matter?" I asked flatly, while silently cursing Xie Yi.
"It's like this. My wife died half a month ago. Last week, though, I received a text message from her. She said she hadn't really died in an accident—she had been murdered."
After hearing that, I said, "Are you sure the message was sent by your wife?"
I thought the man was being ridiculous. If his wife had been murdered, then it was a criminal case. He should have gone to the police, not me.
Of course, if his wife really had sent him the message, that would have been interesting. But what did it have to do with me?
But I quickly came back to my senses. I was no longer just an ordinary student at Qianzhou University. I was also an investigator for the Special Division of Bureau Five, Section Nine, responsible for investigating unusual incidents. This was probably the first job Xie Yi had arranged for us.
As I was thinking, my phone rang. The old-fashioned phone's ringtone was rather grand and stirring. Not only did it nearly startle the middle-aged man, it nearly startled me too.
"Sorry, I need to take this call first." Xie Yi was calling. This was probably what he wanted to talk about.
"Xiaobai, Gu Song found you, right?"
I said irritably, "You're assigning us work already?"
Xie Yi gave an awkward laugh. I could hear the embarrassment in his voice.
"I can't help it. He and I have some history, so I can't refuse him this favor. You'll have to put in some effort."
"If his wife was murdered, he should go to the police. What the hell can I do?"
I was still somewhat dissatisfied. We hadn't even officially started work yet, and he was already sending jobs our way.
"This matter is very strange. You'd better be patient and listen to him finish. I suspect the person who killed his wife wasn't ordinary."
I was stunned. What did he mean by not ordinary?
Before you continue