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"Forget it, then. I definitely want A-Xun with me." Pei Qingyu shrugged and continued walking out. Behind him, Zhou Yang gritted his teeth and shouted, "Fine, I can get both of you in!"

"No need for that either." Pei Qingyu turned his head with a mischievous smile. "I can get A-Xun in myself."

Zhou Yang's fingers instantly clenched. Without looking back, Pei Qingyu waved and walked straight off, pulling Xun Yin along.

They had just rounded the corner when a strong force came from behind. Before Pei Qingyu could react, Xun Yin had backed him straight into a corner.

Pei Qingyu was taken aback. Although he had known Xun Yin would certainly question him, he had not expected him to be in such a hurry.

-Looks like my deputy captain has really been put through the wringer.

Pei Qingyu could not help laughing. He simply leaned backward, and Xun Yin hastily reached out, afraid he would hit the wall. The distance between them immediately closed.

Xun Yin's Adam's apple bobbed. He lowered his eyes to Pei Qingyu and, for a moment, forgot what he had meant to say.

"Hmm?" Pei Qingyu tilted his head up slightly, resting against Xun Yin's arm, and chuckled. "If you're not going to do anything, A-Xun, I'm leaving."

"I'll do... ahem, no." Xun Yin answered instinctively, then immediately came back to his senses. His face felt a little hot. He wanted to step back but feared Pei Qingyu would bump into something, so he could only brace himself and maintain that position. "Why are you so familiar with Zhou Yang, Captain?"

"We're not familiar." Pei Qingyu denied it outright. "He just keeps bothering me for no reason. Like this time, when he insisted on dragging me out of the hospital early to work on his case. Who else do you think gave him the nickname 'Mad Dog'?"

"You know roughly what my family is like." Pei Qingyu glossed over that before continuing, "When we were little, my brother and I were forced to attend all sorts of banquets. Sometimes my brother could slip away with Brother Xuanmo, but I was young, so the adults always kept me there as a decoration with no feelings. Zhou Yang too. But he liked bullying people from an early age and never behaved at banquets. Once, I couldn't take it anymore and taught him a lesson, and he's held a grudge ever since."

"And he's held it for all these years. Far longer than I've known you, Captain," Xun Yin added glumly, only to have the tip of his ear suddenly tugged.

"Oh, come on. You're not going to compare that too, are you?" Pei Qingyu did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Xun Yin fell silent for a moment, and Zhuo Wumian's words surfaced in his mind again-this was all he could compete over now. Xun Yin lowered his eyes. From the moment Zhuo Wumian's photograph appeared, Zhou Yang had given him the impression that he knew something, but he could not tell his captain.

Pei Qingyu's fingers absently pinched the tip of Xun Yin's ear. Although he did not understand why Xun Yin felt so intensely uneasy today, he still spoke as if coaxing him. "Let me put it this way. Zhou Yang knowing me wasn't something I could choose."

"But at the public security university, getting to know A-Xun was a choice I made myself."

The tips of Xun Yin's ears grew even redder, and he slowly calmed down. He tried to help Pei Qingyu stand upright, but a startled cry suddenly came from beside them.

"Captain, I've finished looking into Zhu Qi's information... ah!"

The computer in Song Ranran's hands fell to the floor with a bang, but she had no time to mourn it. She covered her mouth, staring at the two of them in shock.

Now even someone as thick-skinned as Pei Qingyu felt his face heat up. He patted Xun Yin's arm to signal him to move aside, but Xun Yin unexpectedly put an arm around him in a fluster and pulled him to the side. Pei Qingyu let out a quiet "ah," lost his balance, and fell straight into Xun Yin's arms.

"Hss, A-Xun, you..." Pei Qingyu looked up, disoriented. Just as he was about to say something to Xun Yin, Song Ranran spoke first.

"Captain." Song Ranran lowered her hands with a look of acceptance and spoke quickly in a low voice. "It's fine. You two can do whatever you want. This corner isn't safe. I'll keep watch for you."

"Wait..." Pei Qingyu's temple twitched. He had just spoken again when Song Ranran actually turned back and swiftly crouched to pick up her computer.

"I saw Brother Lin coming this way. Captain, I'll go lure him away for you." Song Ranran's expression returned to normal as she said brightly, "No need to thank me. Just reimburse me for the computer."

Pei Qingyu: "..."

Pei Qingyu lowered his eyes and said nothing more. Xun Yin carefully helped his captain stand upright. Seeing him turn and leave without a word, he hurried after him and asked quietly, "Captain, are you..."

Hearing the voice behind him, Pei Qingyu was just about to reply that he was not angry when Xun Yin asked, apprehensively but firmly, "Are you... feeling shy?"

Pei Qingyu: "...Shut up!"

He turned around with a stony expression, looked Xun Yin up and down, and suddenly asked, "Do you have anything a bit more formal besides your police uniform?"

Xun Yin thought hard for a moment before replying hesitantly, "Um... that black jacket you left with me for safekeeping last time, Captain?"

Pei Qingyu fell silent. He thought back for a moment too, instantly recalling the rows of nothing but T-shirts he saw in the wardrobe whenever he returned to Xun Yin's home each day. His chest began to feel tight again.

He turned once more and strode forward. "Come with me."

"Captain, where are we going?" Xun Yin hurried after him.

"To the mall," Pei Qingyu said through gritted teeth. "To buy you clothes and cheer myself up."

In the end, however, the two of them still had case files to deal with and could only borrow a suit from Pei Qingyan, whose build was similar to Xun Yin's.

The Zhu family had specially hosted the banquet to celebrate their son Zhu Qi's company going public. To the celebrities and wealthy guests, it was merely an ordinary evening banquet, yet it was lavish in the extreme.

The hotel was one of the city's finest and belonged to the Zhou family. The wealthy mingled within it, chatting and laughing, and not one of them paused their socializing for the two people who had died among their ranks.

"Check your headset. Everything working?" As Pei Qingyu spoke, he rose onto his toes to adjust Xun Yin's headset and instructed him softly, "Try every channel again and see if you can hear them all clearly."

"Yes," Xun Yin answered, turning to walk toward a corner.

The venue for this operation was unusual. If all the other members of the Special Case Team entered, they could easily alert their targets. Pei Qingyu therefore arranged for Wang Yu and Song Ranran to stay in contact remotely, one handling sniping from the top floor and the other handling backend operations.