While Jingwei was having a great time introducing his new favourite house guest to his extravagant apartment, the opposite was happening for Tianwei.
Not only was his peaceful breakfast disrupted with horrific news, he arrived at the police station to realise the police knew nothing more than he did (which was abysmally little to begin with), and the cherry on top of this terrible cake?
His ex-girlfriend just strolled into the police precinct in a form-fitting pantsuit.
He nearly had a goddamn seizure at the sight. After six years, one would think he'd be over a relationship that crashed and burned more horrifically than any stock market crash and avian disaster put together, but no, his heart still twinged painfully when he saw her walk in, her heels making loud clicking noises on the tiled floors.
She used to avoid wearing high heels. But that was a long time ago. They had both become different people, but the polite smile she gave to the officer duty was still the same.
The way it faded to an angry frown the moment she spotted Tianwei from the corner of her eye, was also sadly, regrettably, also the same.
She whirled around, and Tianwei fought to keep his face politely even. Years had not dampened Lian Xingzi's beauty, but rather added a maturity and patience, a patience that was fast fading when she stared at him.
The scent of lilies permeated the air. He fought the urge to take a deeper sniff of her familiar scent.
"It's you." Xingzi stared at him, unblinkingly. "What are you, out of all people, doing here?"
"I have a case to settle." Tianwei replied, his voice deliberately cold. Business was business, and she was, as always, in the way.
"Funnily enough, so do I," Xingzi replied with as much warmth as Tianwei. Having had enough of conversing with her ex-boyfriend, she turned back to the officer and gave him a winsome smile. "May I speak to my client now?"
"Client?!" Tianwei interrupted. He had a bad feeling about this. "Here?"
"Where else," Xingzi said, barely managing to not roll her eyes, glaring at him with a scoff. "I do not make a habit of visiting police stations for fun." Unlike you. Her eyes implied, which was an erroneous assumption, but of course she would get him wrong.
Tianwei's eyebrow twitched at his words and her implication, but he did not look away. He would rather gouge out his own eyes than to show weakness in front of this woman!
"Madam, he's in one of the rooms. I'll guide you there?" The police officer asked hesitantly, staring at Tianwei and Xingzi. The tension between them could be cut with a knife, and it wasn't helping the already terrible morale of the police department.
Because they broke up.
"Thank you for your help. It's good to know that some people care about getting things done." She replied sweetly, and Tianwei clutched at the sofa armrest at the sheer injustice.
The nerve! How dare she imply that he was here to idle time away? He was here because he cared about getting things done!
After her back disappeared from his view, he sucked in a deep breath to calm himself down, ignoring the way her scent caused him to reminisce about a time in his life where he was happier, even if he spent the bulk of that time arguing with her.
Officer Tang, who watched the entire confrontation silently, finally emerged with a paper cup of water. "I got this for you, because we don't allow alcohol in the station."
"Thanks," he said as he downed the whole thing in one gulp. It would be better, if it was vodka.
"So I guess you know the pro bono lawyer that was assigned to our officers." Officer Tang stated, instead of asking because there was no way two people who stared at each other with that much hatred and longing could be strangers.
"Hmph. You can say that." Although he probably knew as much about her now as a stranger on the street. He rubbed a hand over his face. "This will complicate the investigation, but it's a small setback."
"I'll begin with the interrogation when he's done meeting her." Officer Tang raised a hand like he wished to pat Tianwei on the shoulder, before thinking better of it and putting it down.
"I wish to watch."
"Normally I could make exceptions, but I'm certain this lawyer in particular would have a lot of things to say if she knew that you were watching the interrogation."
He scoffed. "That's nothing I've never heard before. I can handle it just fine."
Officer Tang sighed. "No, Tianwei, I meant that this could cause more trouble for the precinct as a whole if she let it slip that you, an unauthorized personnel, had access to the interrogation investigation. If she was a good friend of yours, I wouldn't worry as much. But just from that short conversation, it's clear there's a lot of bad blood between the both of you."
Bad blood was an understatement. Lawyer Lian Xingzi looked like she wanted to gouge out Tianwei's eyeballs the moment they were alone!
Tianwei clenched his hands. Officer Tang had a point. Curse her for showing up now!
"Don't worry, I'll remain behind the one-way mirror." He promised. "She will not know about me. Besides, my family can handle a single pro bono lawyer."
Officer Tang frowned in displeasure at what his words implied. He needed to tread carefully. If someone of Sun Tianwei's status insisted on having his way, it would be folly to argue otherwise. No matter what, their precinct was caught between a rock and a hard place.
Kick out Sun Tianwei? They'd be accused by the Sun family of covering for their own officers if there was no conclusive result to the investigation. There would be no future for their precinct.
Include Sun Tianwei? They'd be accused by the court of public opinion for disregarding investigation protocol, which would bring doubt into investigation results. His family might even destroy the life of the defense lawyer, just because they could.
There was no right answer to this dilemma!
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