"All right, let's say I was deliberately waiting here." Lingren readily went along with it. "So, want to take a look at some old books?"
Yu Xing stopped.
He turned around to face the bookstore entrance. A faint, almost distant smile appeared on his face, but his eyes remained calm and unreadable. "I'm not interested in old books, especially the one you're holding."
His gaze passed over the book in Lingren's hands and the shadowy bookshelves deeper inside the store.
They weren't alone in the bookstore.
A brown-haired man in his middle years, with slightly messy, wavy hair and gold-rimmed glasses, sat behind the counter, head down as he repaired the spine of an old book.
Several other men and women with quiet, scholarly demeanors, who looked like students or academics, were scattered throughout the store, browsing the shelves in silence. Every now and then, the faintest sound of a page turning could be heard.
Yu Xing and Lingren's conversation at the entrance should have attracted their attention, but they didn't even twitch an ear. It was as if they hadn't heard a thing. Clearly, Lingren had deliberately made them less aware of what was happening by the door.
Lingren didn't seem surprised by Yu Xing's refusal, laced with sarcasm. If anything, his smile deepened slightly, and a glimmer of light shifted in his eyes. "What a shame. But..." He changed tack, lowering his voice. "I happened to find a small clue that... might be connected to our 'work assignment.' It's tucked away among these piles of old papers. Don't you want to take a look, A Xing?"
Yu Xing raised an eyebrow and studied Lingren's flawless smile for two seconds.
Offering him a clue?
Well, that was fine. Ever since Yu Xing had stopped rejecting Lingren's deliberately obnoxious "advances,"