"Martina did indeed die of acute anaphylaxis, but one thing is very strange," Guo Junyi said. "In most cases, allergies occur because the allergen was ingested. In a smaller number of cases, it's inhaled through the respiratory tract. In short, the most severe allergic symptoms are usually found in the esophagus or the respiratory tract."
"But in Martina's case, the symptoms in her respiratory tract and esophagus appear to be secondary developments." Guo Junyi lifted Martina's left hand. "I’ve looked closely; the most severe allergic reaction on her entire body is right here."
"Her hand?" Lu Linjiang examined Martina's left hand carefully. Indeed, the rash on her hand was more concentrated. "I remember Jiang Cheng saying at the time that her rash started from her hands."
"She must have come into contact with some kind of allergen. The question is, what exactly was it?" Guo Junyi lowered Martina's hand and gestured for Lu Linjiang to come to a nearby table.
"Look, these are her personal belongings: wallet, phone, translator, power bank, room card, receipts... nothing unusual."
Lu Linjiang looked through the items one by one, finally picking up a receipt. It was a slip from a milk tea shop. It had been through some wear and tear, leaving only half of it intact. Fortunately, the top half remained, clearly showing the name of the shop and the time of purchase. Lu Linjiang checked the time; it was around the time they were having dinner.
"I remember that after Jiang Cheng and the others arrived, Martina didn't seem to leave. Who bought this milk tea?"
Guo Junyi glanced at the receipt in Lu Linjiang's hand. "I was making a scene all night; I didn't notice who was coming in or out of the private room. Anyway, it was all our own people. We can just ask around."
Lu Linjiang scrutinized the scrap of paper. There were obvious water stains near the tear. He recalled for a moment before saying, "I remember the water glass in front of Jiang Langmin was knocked over. This was likely dampened then."
Guo Junyi looked at the receipt, then at Martina lying on the autopsy table, his expression turning subtle. "So it belongs to Jiang Langmin? If that's true, she really liked him—to even keep a receipt he had touched."
Lu Linjiang glanced at Guo Junyi and asked, "Was Jiang Langmin drinking milk tea that night?"
Guo Junyi shrugged. "I wouldn't know."
"I'll go check the hotel surveillance first." Lu Linjiang looked at the receipt in his hand. "And see if I can find her medical records. We'll discuss the rest later."
Private rooms generally don't have surveillance cameras, so Lu Linjiang could only try to find clues from other angles. He and Tang Hua combed through the hotel's footage from that night and finally confirmed that the receipt most likely belonged to Jiang Langmin.
"When will a girl ever collect my receipts?" Tang Hua sighed with envy. "And such a beautiful girl at that."
Lu Linjiang glanced at him. "That's easy. Treat the girls at the bureau to milk tea, and I guarantee they'll be chasing you for the receipts."
Tang Hua looked at his captain. "You're going to end up with no friends if you keep this up. Hey, when did Jiang Langmin finish that milk tea?"
Lu Linjiang shrugged. "Didn't see. He was fast enough." He checked his notes, having recorded every visible object entering or leaving the room that night. "Take this back to Guo Junyi and see which of these could cause an allergy."
"Got it." Tang Hua tucked away his notebook and saw Lu Linjiang already heading out. "Boss, where are you going?"
"To pick someone up."
Tang Hua followed him out, confused, all the way to the taxi drop-off point outside a shopping center. Lu Linjiang didn't say who they were waiting for, so Tang Hua played on his phone out of boredom. Fortunately, the wait wasn't long. Lu Linjiang suddenly slapped him on the shoulder. "Be sharp in a moment."
Before Tang Hua could understand what "being sharp" meant, Lu Linjiang had already approached a taxi and gallantly opened the door. Jiang Cheng stepped out of the car.
Tang Hua: "..." Big news!
Lu Linjiang had left things half-said earlier and was dying to finish. Moreover, Jiang Cheng hadn't moved out of Micro-Big University yet. The thought of him living with a man of ill intent like Jiang Langmin made Lu Linjiang feel a frantic sense of urgency. It was better to clear things up sooner rather than later. After much wheedling and using the excuse of returning keys, Lu Linjiang had finally managed to fish Jiang Cheng out of the university.
Jiang Cheng had originally intended to take the keys and leave, but Lu Linjiang clearly had other plans. "Let's just have a casual meal. It's almost dinner time anyway; it's not too early to eat."
Tang Hua took the cue and joined the persuasion with great discernment. Faced with a pincer attack from the two, Jiang Cheng could only nod.
The three of them found a random restaurant in the shopping center. After ordering, Lu Linjiang secretly kicked Tang Hua under the table. Tang Hua, waiting for the food, looked at Lu Linjiang blankly, only to be kicked again without mercy.
Tang Hua: "..." He hadn't realized that "being sharp" included this. He could only say tentatively, "I'm going to the restroom?" After receiving an approving look from his captain, the detective, daring to be angry but not to speak out, strolled away.
He actually did go to the restroom. After washing his hands, he stood before the mirror and began to ponder a serious workplace question: If he went back now, would he be given "small shoes" to wear in the future?
He slowly dried his hands and decided to ask for his leader's intent, only to find that he had received a digital red envelope a few minutes ago. The message was blunt: "Go eat something good."
Tang Hua's anger was instantly smoothed over by the amount in the red envelope. He unhesitatingly went next door to buy a steak, deeply feeling that he could help his leader like this more often in the future.
When half the dishes had arrived, Jiang Cheng noticed that the man who claimed to be going to the restroom showed no sign of returning. He quickly realized what was happening and said helplessly to Lu Linjiang, "Isn't this a bit much?"
Lu Linjiang was candid to the point of being thick-skinned. "Just helping each other out. I'll pay him back when he's in a relationship."
Jiang Cheng pressed a hand to his forehead in exasperation. "You..."
Lu Linjiang naturally placed some food in his bowl. "I know what you're thinking. I have no standing or excuse to defend the past, nor am I bold enough to ask you to forget it... I just want to show my determination and my sincerity."
He understood that Jiang Cheng was practically radiating the word "disagree" from every pore. "Pursuit itself is just an effort to gain a possibility. I don't have the right to demand that you accept, I'm just..." He coughed lightly. "Asking for a chance, shamelessly."
Jiang Cheng leaned back slightly. He wanted to refuse directly, just as decisively as he had refused Jiang Langmin. But when the words reached his lips, he found they weren't so easy to say. He spent the duration of the meal reflecting, and finally concluded that aside from the unhappy past, they had grown up together. Facing someone he had known for over twenty years, when that person took such a humble stance, it was truly difficult to say anything harsh.
Jiang Cheng finished the meal in silence, listening to Lu Linjiang's intermittent chatter, feeling that the situation was quite surreal.
Lu Linjiang led the silent Jiang Cheng out of the restaurant. This man was a homebody through and through; having finally gotten him out, Lu Linjiang didn't plan on letting him go back so soon. Conveniently, there was a cinema right there. Before Jiang Cheng could react, he was being subtly steered toward the theater.
In modern shopping centers, the only thing that rivaled the number of restaurants was milk tea shops. Lu Linjiang's leisurely pace suddenly stopped, and he said to Jiang Cheng, "Wait for me here a moment, I'm going to buy some milk tea."
When Lu Linjiang finished buying the tea and turned around, he found the world had turned upside down—in just a few minutes, someone was blatantly trying to poach his man right in front of him!
A few young girls were gathered around Jiang Cheng. The boldest and most striking one asked with a blush, "Hey handsome, could I trade you for two coins? I'll pay you back via WeChat transfer, is that okay?"
Jiang Cheng happened to have a few coins in his wallet. Without a second thought, he reached for his wallet and replied, "Sure." Jiang Cheng, focused on finding the coins, completely missed the excited looks the girls were exchanging.
The girl who asked for the coins took the money and held out a pre-prepared QR code. "Scan me, and I'll send the money back to you."
Jiang Cheng took out his phone and opened the scanner. Just as the phone was identifying the code, a hand suddenly descended from above and unceremoniously snatched Jiang Cheng's phone away.
The girl cried out before Jiang Cheng could. "What are you doing?" She immediately shut her mouth upon facing the tall and imposing Lu Linjiang.
Lu Linjiang glared at her with a dark face. "No need. It's just a bit of change; consider it a good deed."
"How can I do that? I'd be no better than a beggar!" The girl's voice rose halfway before shrinking back under Lu Linjiang's menacing aura. Seeing that Lu Linjiang was not to be trifled with, she decided to appeal to Jiang Cheng: "Handsome, I really must pay the money back!"
"No need." Lu Linjiang unceremoniously pulled Jiang Cheng into his side, lecturing the girl with righteous indignation. "It's a gift. Consider it an emergency aid. If you're really that embarrassed, just remember to pass this kindness along."
Jiang Cheng: "..." What on earth?
Lu Linjiang walked away, holding Jiang Cheng intimately, stuffing the phone back into his pocket while lecturing him: "Don't be so naive. You give your WeChat to anyone who asks? Do you even know what kind of people they are?"
Having spent years in a laboratory, Jiang Cheng didn't understand these little tricks. He pulled away from Lu Linjiang's embrace. "It was just trading some change, wasn't it?"
Lu Linjiang was about to tell him that it was a classic pick-up tactic, but then he felt that explaining it would be letting those girls off too easy. Better to let him worry. "People who randomly ask you to scan QR codes on the street are, at best, micro-business owners looking for potential clients. Once you add her, your Moments will be flooded with hundreds of posts a minute, so many you won't see anyone else's."
Seeing Jiang Cheng's blank expression, he unhesitatingly added fuel to the fire: "But at least you can block those. If you run into a scammer, the QR code could be linked to a Trojan horse. One scan, and your bank account passwords are all cracked. By the time you realize it, your money is long gone."
Jiang Cheng had probably never heard of such things and was completely hoodwinked by Lu Linjiang's bluff. Just as they reached the cinema, Jiang Cheng asked with an innocent face, "Since you knew there might be a problem with her, why didn't you interrogate her? Maybe she was the second kind?"
Lu Linjiang: "..."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 郭俊毅 | Guo Junyi | The forensic doctor. |
| 陆临江 | Lu Linjiang | The protagonist, a police captain. |
| 江澄 | Jiang Cheng | The love interest, a scientist. |
| 姜朗旻 | Jiang Langmin | The antagonist, Jiang Cheng's "brother." |
| 唐华 | Tang Hua | A detective/police officer under Lu Linjiang. |
| 微观大 | Micro-Big University | Likely a shorthand for "Weiguan University." |
| 红包 | Red envelope | Digital money sent via apps like WeChat. |
| 穿小鞋 | Wear small shoes | A Chinese idiom meaning to make life difficult for a subordinate as a form of petty revenge. |
| 微商 | Micro-business | Individuals who sell products through social media platforms like WeChat. |
| 木马程序 | Trojan horse | Malware/virus. |
