The setting sun flooded the sky, and a gentle breeze blew.
Jian Jing decided to go to the fast food restaurant at the entrance of the police station to have dinner, to see if she could run into another overtime dog.
To be honest, she was mostly curious and excited to meet Kang Mu Cheng and Jiang BaiYan, but she had high hopes for Ji Feng.
If she could fool him, it would prove her disguise today was quite successful.
Of course, it would be even better if she could play a trick on him.
Luckily for her, she had just ordered when Ji Feng and his colleague came in for dinner. They were regulars and greeted the owner before sitting down with their trays.
On this ordinary day, the police chatted about mundane things.
Lao Gao complained, "Little Child and Little Baby are getting more and more difficult to handle. What are elementary school kids thinking about these days?"
"What school does your kid go to?" another dad asked.
Lao Gao: "Public school, we really can't afford private."
"Elementary doesn't matter, but you have to pay attention when entering middle school." The experienced dad chimed in.
Lao Gao: "Sigh, my wife is already looking at which middle school to go to. Our school district isn't great."
"Oh, that's a big problem alright."
Everyone began to discuss schools, which middle schools were good, which high schools had high college acceptance rates. This naturally cued to Ji Feng: "Yun Yun goes to the affiliated high school right? How is it?"
"Not bad, I think the first-tier university rate is 30% this year," Ji Feng replied. "The college rate is 80%."
"Oh, that's pretty good!" The parents all mentally added it to their list of options.
The obviously fresh-faced newbie looked shocked and said, "I thought Brother Ji wasn't married yet. Your kid is already in high school?"
Jian Jing: "Pfft, cough—"
She almost couldn't hold in her laughter. That was close.
Ji Feng had a black line on his forehead.
The others laughed raucously. "Haha, Little Li, your instincts need some work. Brother Ji is still a bachelor, he doesn't even have a girlfriend yet."
Little Li was even more shocked and foolishly asked, "Why?"
"Whaddya mean why," Ji Feng rolled his eyes. "Do you have one?"
Little Li: "I do!"
Ji Feng: "..."
Little Li scratched his head and happily shared, "We're planning to get married next year!"
The other seniors looked at him appraisingly. "Not bad Little Li, you move fast. We won't have to worry about you in the future."
"Hehe, I'll treat everyone to a wedding banquet then." Little Li grinned foolishly. He was also very proactive, "Brother Ji, let me introduce you to some girls. My girlfriend knows a lot of people, they're willing to date cops, they say it makes them feel safe."
Ji Feng was hopeless: "I'm very grateful to you."
Lao Gao maliciously poked, "Little Li, you don't know this, but don't bother introducing anyone. He's already gone on at least 20 blind dates, all failures. Best not to offend people."
Little Li was stunned into silence, hesitating on what to say.
"What are you imagining?" Ji Feng frowned.
Lao Gao disingenuously helped explain, "It's not what you're thinking... Cough, he's just shy, doesn't dare pursue the girl."
Little Li looked at his senior in surprise, re-evaluating him.
Ji Feng: "..." His reputation was smeared.
"Gonna use the bathroom." He was too lazy to bicker with them further. He got up and walked toward the washroom around the corner.
Jian Jing immediately looked away, pretending to pick at her rice.
As Ji Feng walked past her seat, his professional instincts kicked in and he casually glanced at her.
Tsk, he thought idly, her picky eating habits could rival a little princess's.
Why come to this kind of place if you don't like the food?
As soon as he had that thought, his guard went up a notch.
He glanced at her again from the corner of his eye.
She was looking at her phone.
Oh, she was eating slowly because she was on her phone — the behavior now had a reasonable explanation, and his sense of unease disappeared. His gaze swept over her and moved on to observe other customers.
Jian Jing silently breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help wondering: where did she reveal a flaw?
Miss Jin Jia'an was poor, she hadn't ordered much, just a meat dish, vegetable dish, and free soup, reasonably priced. Why would he be suspicious?
Plus, although she was eavesdropping, she kept her head down looking at her phone the whole time, never directly looking their way.
Strange.
It's not like he thought he was so handsome that a glance from him was necessary for things to be normal, right?
Jian Jing complained inwardly, and immediately refocused herself.
Ji Feng soon returned.
But this time, his attention lingered on the table diagonally behind her.
What was over there?
With her back to them, Jian Jing couldn't directly observe. She picked up her phone and tilted it to look at the selfie screen. But selfie mode was too obvious, and the black screen didn't show a clear enough view. After squinting for a long time, she could only tell it was a man and woman.
They acted intimate, likely a couple.
Their conversation wasn't very substantive.
The woman said the weather was too hot, she wanted to buy an ice pad for her pet at home. The previous one broke too quickly, bad quality, she would definitely give the store a bad review.
The man sounded impatient, urging her to hurry up and eat so they could go back home and play cards. He also said she shouldn't have come so far just to eat, they'd have to sit on the subway for a long time to get home.
The woman retorted, saying she came here to save him money. If they ate at the mall they were at earlier, it would've cost over 50 RMB per person. This fast food place was cheap and large portions, nothing wrong with it.
Jian Jing was certain they were just an ordinary couple, mundane and trivial, completely normal.
If she had to say something was off, it was that the man seemed impatient to leave this place.
But many men were like that, not too strange.
What was interesting was that after Ji Feng returned to his seat, he whispered with his colleagues for a bit. The others also surreptitiously watched the couple.
Jian Jing: Tsk, don't tell me they're wanted fugitives?
She picked up two grains of rice and waited to see what would happen next.
Five minutes later, the man went to pay. Lao Gao and Little Li got up one after the other, pretending they were also going to the counter. Once they got to the man's side, with lightning speed, they flanked him from both sides and restrained him.
Lao Gao barked, "Don't move, police!"
Little Li nervously cuffed the man, almost slipping because he was too excited.
The owner glanced up, "What's going on?"
"Fugitive." Lao Gao said.
"Oh." The owner casually sat back down.
The man surrendered in disappointment.
His girlfriend was stunned, unbelieving as she asked, "Why are you arresting my husband?"
"Fugitive," Ji Feng took out his phone and politely explained, "See, involved in black crimes. Look him up when you get home and you'll understand."
The girlfriend was confused.
Lao Gao patted Little Li's shoulder, "Young man, get more experience. Come on, take him back."
Little Li was participating in an arrest for the first time and was thrilled about it. He was so excited that he completely forgot about his dinner. Raring to go, he prepared to take the man away. But his mentor clearly remembered that catching criminals didn't mean forgetting food. He called out to Lao Gao, "Pack up my food for me."
"Got it."
Lao Gao and Ji Feng continued eating.
They hadn't eaten lunch today, and really didn't want to miss this meal.
After eating, Lao Gao helped pack up his coworker's food and advised Ji Feng, "Rare to have all your current cases wrapped up, get off work early today."
Ji Feng: "Nothing to do when I get home anyway."
"Go catch a movie with Teacher Jian, that's not bad right." He refused to give up. "You have to take more initiative."
Ji Feng retorted, "What if a call comes saying there's a new case? Then what?"
"What's the big deal, Teacher Jian isn't my wife. She'd probably get scared to death seeing a dead body." Lao Gao didn't think it was an issue. "Who knows, she might even want to come along."
Ji Feng: "..."
"Go on, give it a try." Lao Gao was more anxious than him.
"Try my ass." He said, "I remember my sister-in-law loves cooking. Ask her, if you told her you were going out to eat but got stood up at the door and had to cook yourself, would she beat you or not?"
Lao Gao was rendered speechless.
Ji Feng took out his phone again, seemingly casual as he scrolled around before putting it back in his pocket. "Alright, it's not like Teacher Jian can't watch a movie herself if she wants to. No need to force me into it if it'll make her unhappy."
He picked up the packed meal boxes and waved his hand. "I'll take this over. You head back first."
Lao Gao sighed.
Ji Feng crossed the street but didn't immediately go in. He first went to the small supermarket next door and bought a pack of cigarettes and two cans of instant coffee.
When he came out, he saw the girl from the restaurant again.
She was standing across the street, seeming to have been watching this side the whole time.
Ji Feng thought for a moment, then walked back and asked, "Student, were you wanting to call the police?"
The girl looked him over but didn't say anything.
Pretty cautious. He took out his badge and casually asked, "Did you run into some trouble? Got your stuff stolen? Boyfriend hit you? Creep took pics of you? Or got scammed by an online date?"
"No." She said angrily, "I'm not that unlucky, don't curse me."
Ji Feng laughed and looked at her, "Really nothing?"
She shook her head.
"Okay, then go home quickly." He pointed the way, "Turn left in front, take the bus, or go straight, there is a subway station at the second intersection."
The girl made an "Oh" sound, and indeed prepared to leave.
Ji Feng narrowed his eyes and looked at her for a good while.
This classmate was a little strange, her eyes dodged several times, avoiding eye contact with him, as if afraid of being discovered, but not like a fugitive, her body language did not show fear.
At first, he was worried that she wanted to call the police, but didn't dare to call the police for some reason.
But after asking, it didn't seem to be the case.
Weird.
He thought about it for a while, and suddenly made a call: "Xiao Li?"
Xiao Li: "Brother Ji?"
"What does your girlfriend look like?" he asked.
Xiao Li was puzzled: "Ah, what's up?"
"I just saw a girl who seemed to be looking for someone, I don't know if she was looking for you."
Xiao Li was dumbfounded: "Ah, I don't know, she didn't say she was coming!"
Ji Feng asked, "Describe her appearance."
Xiao Li described: "Her hair is not long or short, she is of medium height, very cute, and has dimples when she smiles."
Ji Feng compared it, but he wasn't sure. Girls all looked like this, and it wasn't Teacher Jian.
"Bro, did my girlfriend come?" Xiao Li asked again.
"I don't know if it was her or not, she left." Although Ji Feng said so, he felt it was highly likely.
She was obviously coming to the police station, eating, but not very interested in eating, afraid of being discovered by others, but not nervous, and did not pay attention to the guards.
Based on past experience, most likely she came to see her boyfriend.
But those in the bureau who were married or about to be married were basically old couples, they could just come in and drag people out directly, how could they hesitate and linger repeatedly at the door?
It must be Xiao Li.
Otherwise, why did she keep her head down at the restaurant just now? Hmm, Xiao Li's vigilance was not good, he actually didn't notice all along?
Ji Feng complained inwardly, although he still felt it was strange, it was a small matter, not worth thinking too much about, and soon forgot about it.
"You can ask him yourself later."
He hung up the phone, and like every other day, returned to the brightly lit building.
Around the corner, Jian Jing saw him return and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
His questions were too outrageous, she almost lost her temper, fortunately she got through it.
For her first attempt, this result was satisfactory enough.
Jian Jing went back to the hotel to finish homework.
Before she could knock, Zong Ye opened the door first, and said, "You're back a little earlier than I expected."
"I was afraid it would be too late to come back, and the place would be empty, what would happen to my face then?" Jian Jing complained half-jokingly.
Zong Ye laughed softly: "So in your heart, I'm such a heartless person." He touched her cheek, "Don't worry, I'll solve your troubles right away."
He washed his hands clean and started to remove her makeup.
The vanity mirror cast a warm glow.
Zong Ye looked focused, his dexterous fingers gliding over her face, barely tugging at her skin, extremely gentle.
The adhesive tape peeled off, accompanied by a slight sting and intermittent hot breath. The silicone came off, and the soft cheek bounced back, regaining its full curve.
The makeup cotton wiped over her eyes and brows, revealing fair skin under the dark foundation.
"Done?" she asked.
"Just a little bit left."
Zong Ye reached out, his fingertips wiping away the faint white lipstick on her lips, restoring her rosy lip color.
Jian Jing looked up to see the person in the mirror.
Her heart began to pound.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Then—
System, draw a card.
[Name: Disguise Skill Card (Beginner)]
[Description: With skillful hands, a thousand faces with one person, able to disguise oneself using common props, unfamiliar ordinary people cannot see through your true appearance.]
[Note: Dangerous skill, please use cautiously, do not go astray]
Ah. She happily curved her lips.
The long-coveted magic was finally obtained.