According to Gan Qing's general knowledge, "I'll treat you to a meal next time" was about the same as "You're not fat at all"; both belonged to the category of "New Year greetings." They were purely to express politeness and had no practical value. Most people did not take them to heart.

There was a possibility that the alliance leader was not "most people."

"This… Aren't you very busy?" Gan Qing was dumbstruck for a while and it took her a lot of effort to squeeze out a few words. "I see that you work overtime every day and have so many things to do, so I didn't dare ask you."

"It's okay." Yu Lanchuan looked at her intently. "This month is still all right. Next month will be the end of the year and there will be even more miscellaneous things to take care of at the office. So it's better to fix the time at a nearer date."

And also to avoid letting it drag until the end of the month when you'll run out of money again.

Yu Lanchuan paused, then added, "After all, that day, I helped you out of the kindness of my heart."

In the end, not only did you abandon me in the villains' den, I even had to face the police and shoulder the blame for you.

Yu Lanchuan's every word had half a word's worth of breathing space. His tone was calm and mild, and didn't sound particularly impolite. But the unspoken accusations were all in his gaze, letting her feel them for herself.

The wages Gan Qing had received that afternoon was like a box of tissue during flu season; she couldn't avoid pulling from it a few times and more than half of it was gone by now. Her heart felt colder than her stomach.

She looked at Director Yu's structured and stylish wool coat, then glanced at her own cotton-padded jacket that she had bought at a huge discount, and felt that this was the scene of a brutal and merciless exploitation.

But owing a debt to someone and even having that someone come up to collect it was indeed something rather embarrassing. Gan Qing had no choice but to grit her teeth and acknowledge it. Thinking that it was better to end the pain as soon as possible, she said, "Then, have you eaten today? I happen to be hungry now. It's rare for us to bump into each other, why don't I treat you to supper?"

She thought calculatively, Supper is cheaper than a proper meal.

As an expert in keeping a healthy lifestyle, unless he was so busy that he really had no other choice, Yu Lanchuan was strongly against consuming food late at night. But now, he stared at Gan Qing for a while for some reason, and then unexpectedly nodded his head. "Okay."

Even though Gan Qing had furtively changed her words from "meal" to "supper," she was still treating someone after all. Hence, she still picked the most luxurious place within her level of expenditure—she brought Director Yu to a McDonald's about 300 meters away.

After the age of twenty-four, Yu Lanchuan had never stepped foot into a fast food restaurant and he was shocked to his core. After locking eyes with the red-headed uncle at the entrance for a while, he turned his head around to give Gan Qing an incredulous look—This is what you're treating me to?

"Not used to it?" Gan Qing beamed and extended a hand to point at the opposite side of the road. "There's a malatang place over there. It's also pretty good. I know the boss well, we can go there too."

Yu Lanchuan followed her gaze to see that there was indeed a hole-in-the-wall place on the opposite side of the road. The shop's door was a thick hanging screen the colour of dirt yellow. The cooking grease might have been used to smear the windows and he couldn't see what it was like inside. The shop's environment was extremely dire. At the entrance, the name of the shop was spelled out using a string of lightbulbs, three words in total, half of them spoiled, all of them trembling in the cold wind.

Why hadn't it been shut down by the relevant agencies?

Gan Qing said, "It's just that his shop is a little small. At this hour, there might not be seats anymore and we'll have to stand-"

Quick as lightning, Yu Lanchuan bolted into the McDonald's.

Once he entered, the heavy smell of the frying grease and butter greeted him. Yu Lanchuan had a vague feeling that he had entered some arranged dating forum—Topic: My arranged dating partner is a weirdo.

Based on incomplete statistics, stories complaining about these "weirdos" usually started with "The place where we met up for the first time was, of all places, a McDonald's / KFC."

Gan Qing asked considerately, "Is there anything you don't eat? What do you like to eat?"

Yu Lanchuan thought discontentedly, There's nothing here that I eat and nothing that I want to eat.

However, beyond his control, his mouth said, "...No, anything is fine."

Gan Qing said, "So easy to feed? Then, I'll order as I wish."

Yu Lanchuan put on a fake smile. "...Sure."

Fuck this.

After ordering and while waiting for the food, Gan Qing turned her head around and saw that Director Yu had taken off his coat, folded it neatly and draped it over the back of his chair. Under the cuff of his shirt, a section of a crocodile leather watch strap could be seen.

Speaking of which, Yu Lanchuan was actually a rather solemn person. He had quite the proper and serious air about him.

This kind of bearing was very hard to maintain because it usually required a person to have a sense of being aloof and remote, a cold indifference, a pureness and an immortal-like air. If the person was not immortal-like enough, just a bit of carelessness and it would turn into a kind of greasy and ill-bred kind of feeling. A sanctimonious kind of ill-bred manner was often even more of an annoyance than the kind that looked ugly and sly.

But Little Master Yu was just that incredible. His "clear, cold and proper" manner was not pure enough. One look was enough to tell that it was a pretence; yet, it did not feel crass. Instead, it was a touch comical. The moment he came on stage, he blew away all the cold wind and flames of anger in her belly today.

She saw him pick up a paper placemat menu. His posture as he studied the thing with knitted brows was just like an emperor reading petitions—a very severe expression, like he was ready to sentence a corrupt official to death by beheading.

Gan Qing amused herself with her own thoughts and accidentally let out a laugh. Yu Lanchuan, who was sitting with perfect posture, had very alert ears and unexpectedly heard her even from so far away. With an immortal-like yet severe manner, he lifted his head to glance at her.

Gan Qing let slip another puff of laughter.

It only made her want to laugh even more.

At this hour, there weren't many people eating in the restaurant. The few, straggling customers were mostly not there to eat. Yu Lanchuan surveyed his surroundings and saw a clean scrap-collector dozing in the corner. A seven or eight years old student was taking up an entire table, sipping on Coke while doing homework. A food delivery worker was perhaps there to rest his feet and was sprawled on a table, sleeping. There were a few more people who had ordered some snacks and were hotly discussing a "Series A Financing" at a table where the average expenditure was thirty yuan per person.

Gan Qing bought an extra bowl of corn and put it down before the primary school student as she passed by, and patted him on the head. The little boy seemed to be very familiar with her. He cheerfully accepted the corn and gave her a gap-toothed smile.

"The kid is from the malatang place on the other side of the road," Gan Qing said. "The family of three all stays in the shop. The shop is doing business and there are customers who drink at night. It's too rowdy so he comes here to do his homework."

Yu Lanchuan watched her tear open a sauce packet with ease and familiarity, and thought he could hear the sound of a bomb exploding.

Gan Qing said, "The fries are newly fried."

High GI food.

Yu Lanchuan stared at her fingers, a string of words starting to pop up frantically in his heart: Once ingested into the stomach, your blood sugar will take a helicopter straight up to the sky. Then, you will open the sluice gates and release the insulin, rapidly converting the calories into fat. When your blood sugar is in mid-flight, the helicopter under your butt will disappear and you will start to freefall. You will realise that you are hungry again, and you just can't stop. These freshly made fats will clog your arteries and organs. Once ingested, they cannot be vomited out. In the future, what awaits you is high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar.

He glanced at the reed-thin Gan Qing and felt that her pancreas was at the moment frantically shrieking.

As the person paying for the meal, when Gan Qing saw that he was not moving, she thoughtfully took a cup of Coke, poked a straw through the cap and passed it to him. "Don't hold back."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

High sugar!

High sugar will trigger dopamine production, similar to how addiction to drugs is formed. As time goes by, it will lower your cognitive ability and increase emotional disturbance—which is to say, you will become gloomy and foolish.

The main speaker at the "Series A Financing" table next to theirs was as impassioned as ever. "...Health will definitely be the issue that people will be most concerned with in the future, especially healthy eating! But due to the lack of professional knowledge and also the negligence of nutritional makeup, we always consume a lot of junk food without realising it. The main purpose of our product is to take care of this problem. It provides our customers with a comprehensive and all-rounded nutritional balance…"

Yu Lanchuan couldn't bear listening anymore. He took a gulp of the Coke, putting on a brave face like he was testing poison with his body, and thought resentfully, Why am I here… Damn, this tastes good.

The more Gan Qing looked at him, the more amused she was. With his expression accompanying the meal, her appetite improved significantly.

To prevent himself from accidentally eating even more junk food, Yu Lanchuan drank two gulps and then reached out to firmly pinch off the straw and tried to occupy his mouth by talking. "Since when did you start following Xiang Xiaoman and that group of people?"

Gan Qing fobbed him off without even looking up. "I was bored and wandering around, and accidentally bumped into them."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Since you had always known that they were there, why didn't you report them to the police earlier?"

"How would I know what they were going to do?" Gan Qing spread her hands helplessly. "What if they were non-locals who came here for a holiday and were just meeting up with their internet friend on the way?"

"You do know." Yu Lanchuan was not willing to let her off. "On the day when Xiang Xiaoman made her move, when you called the police, those two people had just reached the intersection. Don't deny it, there's CCTV at the traffic lights at the intersection."

"Don't make blind guesses. How can I have the ability to tell the future?" Gan Qing dipped a fry in her ice-cream and ate it, not revealing a thing. "What did the person who called the police say? 'I saw two suspicious people walk over from the intersection'? 110 pays attention to calls like this nowadays too?"

Yu Lanchuan was unmoved. "That gang had a wooden memorial tablet carved with the words 'Wan Mu Chun.' Someone broke it."

Gan Qing's hands paused. The fry she was holding dipped into a spot of chocolate. Then, as though nothing had happened, she said, "Is that so? I didn't notice it. Maybe it was broken when we were fighting."

"Wan Mu Chun is one of the Five Supremes. Have you heard of the name?" Yu Lanchuan asked mildly, "Aren't you curious why the descendants of a hero would do such things?"

Gan Qing said, "Please excuse my ignorance, I'm rather uninformed of what's going on in the world."

Yu Lanchuan said, "I think no. In that gang of criminals, there was one person whose body had a few blood marks. The line on his neck is in the exact same position as the one he drew on Nie Ke's neck. Such a coincidence—either you were there watching when Xiang Xiaoman was about to commit murder, or you have an exceptional understanding of these people's methods. You went to their den on your own and broke that wooden tablet, is it because you have a grudge against the legendary Wan Mu Chun who disappeared without a trace or because you are related to Wan Mu Chun in some way, and can't bear to see others laying false claims to the name?"

Gan Qing sighed and looked at him in resignation. "Little Master Yu, the reason why I live in your esteemed neighbourhood is really only because I'm poor. I couldn't find a suitable place so I thickened my skin and begged for shelter. I don't have any other intentions. We're neighbours after all so this is also fate. If we can get along without any trouble, that's for the best. If I happen to turn rich one day, I may move out immediately. I've never questioned you about the lineage of your skills, have I?"

"You want to ask which lineage my skills belong to? The Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang was taught to me by my grandfather. The schools where I did my undergraduate and masters are listed on my resume, you can find it on my company's website," Yu Lanchuan said frankly. "Which lottery did you buy that you're prepared to get rich from? Is it a number you divined yourself?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Yu Lanchuan said, "I'm not being a busybody. However, I helped you cover up for this matter. I have a right to know who I helped and why I helped, don't I?"

Gan Qing fell silent for a few seconds. Just as Yu Lanchuan thought she was going to drown herself in the ice-cream, she finally said slowly, "That day, Xiang Xiaoman's screams made me think of a friend."

Yu Lanchuan raised a brow slightly.

"She had been abused by her own husband and had never been able to walk out of that shadow. Sometimes, when she startled awake from her nightmares in the middle of the night, she would scream in that way."

"Which way?"

"Screaming herself hoarse. Consciously and purposely screaming herself hoarse." Gan Qing thought awhile. "Not because of pain and also not because she was frightened. What she was letting out was the pain that had accumulated over a very long time but could not be expressed… or perhaps she had expressed it before but no one understood her, no one listened to her."

Yu Lanchuan said, "But Xiang Xiaoman had no injuries. The neighbours can also testify that Nie Ke had never abused her. The soundproofing in the old building isn't good. When the kid next door gets a little louder when practicing music, sometimes the sound travels through the heating vents. If Nie Ke had hit her before, there's no way the neighbours wouldn't know at all. They've stayed there for a year already."

"Yeah." Gan Qing smiled placidly. "I heard. I guess I was mistaken."

Perhaps Xiang Xiaoman had really become mentally unstable to the point where she saw Nie Ke as some kind of enemy. In any case, someone was taking care of it now. Evidence would speak, the investigation would have a conclusion.

Fortunately, there was no loss of life.

Since that was the case, as this was somebody else's business, outsiders like them could not poke their noses in and neither did they have the right to.

The two of them finished eating and went back home. It was already very late.

When Gan Qing was about to open her door, Alliance Leader Yu suddenly spoke up. "Let me add you on WeChat."

Gan Qing looked up to glance at him.

Yu Lanchuan met her eyes and felt a little nervous for some reason. Hence, he lowered his head and forced an explanation. "I've vouched for you to Yu Yan before. I hope that the next time you get up to these antics, you can notify me beforehand."

Gan Qing had added all sorts of customers to her WeChat, adding one more person made no difference. In her heart, she thought, This alliance leader doesn't get paid a single cent for his efforts but he's acting quite the part.

Yu Lanchuan said, "You…"

Gan Qing poked her head out from the apartment, "Mm?"

Yu Lanchuan hesitated a while, wanting to speak but stopping himself again. He shook his head.

Gan Qing's usual bedtime had long since passed. The overpowering circadian rhythm was urging her to lie down and she said goodbye to Yu Lanchuan without thinking too much. She washed up, then walked through the heated air contentedly and burrowed into her blankets, ready to sleep.

Right then, her phone buzzed.

Gan Qing opened her eyes a slit and realised that the message came from next door.

Yu Lanchuan asked: From the way you speak, you sound like a local?

Gan Qing replied: Not really. When I was young, I attended school here for a few years as a temporary student.

Yu Lanchuan replied almost immediately: Primary school? Secondary school?

Secondary.

Yu Lanchuan sent: You're so familiar with Mudpool Backlane, was it because you have stayed there before?

Gan Qing was probably sleepy. It was a while before she sent a brief reply: Yeah.

Yu Lanchuan stared at that "Yeah." Then, he opened the photo Yu Yan had sent him. After a while, he realised that he had been subconsciously holding his breath. He took off his glasses and pressed hard at the center of his brows….

Fifteen years ago, the girl from Mudpool Backlane…

...might be right next door.