Chapter 289 — Neither You Nor Me

Crude as it was against the elegant villa, Gu Mengyao said nothing about it. Compared with how she had been at the start, she had grown much more easygoing; she had slowly come to accept Wei Zhao, tacitly acknowledging the fact that he was now one of the villa's residents. So when Wei Zhao parked a beat-up car in the courtyard, Gu Mengyao pretended not to see it.

After a moment's thought, Wei Zhao took out his phone and dialed Qiu Lingshan's number. His own phone was broken; the one he was using now was an old hand-me-down from Shen Yushu.

The pink clamshell phone made Kang Xiaofeng's eyes go wide where he sat beside Wei Zhao. Tang Zhi, chatting with Liu Xinlan up front, did not notice.

"Hello? Wei Zhao?" Qiu Lingshan picked up. The memory of yesterday's business still rankled, but she said, "Your photos—I've already sent them to your phone's inbox. Just check and confirm. Anything else?"

"Oh, I'm calling about something else," Wei Zhao said. "I've got a beat-up van with no plates. Think you could get me a set?"

"I'm a criminal investigator, not a traffic cop!" Qiu Lingshan blew up at his words. "Do you have nothing better to do? I'm busy every day. If you want your car registered, go to the traffic police, OK? The vehicle office is on the back street west of the municipal bureau..."

"The car isn't new either—where am I supposed to register it? If I don't ask you, who should I ask?" Wei Zhao was speechless. Was this girl dense? Did she have a comprehension problem? If the car could be registered normally, why would he be bothering her?

"Then there's nothing I can do! Stop pestering me—a major case just broke, and I'm swamped!" Qiu Lingshan said impatiently. "Remember, I'm a criminal investigator. Don't make me do things unrelated to my work! If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up!"

"Oh, I'll remember. You remember something too: I'm a student, not a cop, and not Ultraman. From now on, don't come to me for anything unrelated to studying." Wei Zhao was annoyed. All he'd asked was a small favor—was there any need for that many words just to put him down?

"..." Qiu Lingshan very nearly smashed the phone. But she held herself back and did not: "The car isn't stolen, is it?"

"No. It should have had proper paperwork before—just pull the file and you'll see. It was Hei Bao's." Wei Zhao smiled. The girl had finally given in.

"Then drive it over this afternoon! But if I find out it's a stolen vehicle, I'll confiscate it on the spot!" Qiu Lingshan said resentfully.

"Heh... all right." Wei Zhao hung up, smiling.

"Boss, your phone... how'd you end up with one like this?" Kang Xiaofeng had no interest in the call itself; he'd seen Wei Zhao drive far better cars, so a beat-up van didn't faze him.

"Didn't I say? My phone broke. This is a hand-me-down from a friend, borrowed for a few days," Wei Zhao said.

"Let me see?" Kang Xiaofeng held out his hand.

Wei Zhao thought nothing of it and handed the phone over.

Kang Xiaofeng flipped it open—and his eyes went wide! The wallpaper on the screen was Shen Yushu! He wanted to ask something, but a glance at Tang Zhi on Wei Zhao's other side and he clamped his mouth shut.

Even someone as dense as Kang Xiaofeng wouldn't dare ask a question like that now—it was asking for a fight! If Tang Zhi got the wrong idea, that would be trouble!

Still, Kang Xiaofeng nudged Wei Zhao with his elbow and handed the phone back with a wicked grin.

By now Wei Zhao had noticed the photo of Shen Yushu on the screen too. He smiled wryly. "The owner of this phone... is the same person as that Beetle from before..."

Having had Shen Yushu's photo caught by Kang Xiaofeng twice now, Wei Zhao felt a bit awkward. Clearly he would have to be more careful from now on. When he'd borrowed the phone from Shen Yushu, he hadn't thought much of it—it was just for a few days, so he hadn't bothered changing the settings. Who'd have guessed Kang Xiaofeng would see it?

Rather awkwardly, Wei Zhao navigated to the image menu, about to change the wallpaper. But it would have been better if he hadn't gone in—because once he did, Kang Xiaofeng's eyes went even wider!

There was more than one photo of Shen Yushu in there. And not just Shen Yushu—Gu Mengyao too! All casual shots: eating together, shopping, selfies at home...

Wei Zhao broke into a cold sweat, snapped the phone shut, and stuffed it into his pocket. He glanced awkwardly at Kang Xiaofeng—whose face had turned to sheer astonishment!

Now he did not even believe the phone belonged to Wei Zhao! To say nothing of the fact that its color was plainly meant for a girl, those photos alone proved beyond doubt that it was not Wei Zhao's.

There was no way Wei Zhao could have so many pictures of Guan Mengyao and Shen Yushu. They were not the sort of revealing private shots one kept hidden away, but they were still intimate glimpses of daily life. How had Wei Zhao gotten his hands on them?

But if the phone was not Wei Zhao's, then whose was it?

Kang Xiaofeng, however, was clearly not the sort to lose his head over things. Though doubts swarmed in his mind, he could only bury them for the moment; once spoken aloud, they would surely make Tang Zhi misunderstand.

The taxi pulled up at the entrance to the hospital's inpatient wing. Wei Zhao paid the ten-yuan fare and got out.

"Wei Zhao? Is that you?" A voice, sweet and bright with pleasant surprise, sounded behind him.

Wei Zhao turned around and saw Guan Xin. "It's you! Ha, what a coincidence!"

"Yes! Wei Zhao, have you come to visit your friend? I happen to be on my way to give her an injection. Let's go up together!" Guan Xin was visibly delighted to see him.

These past few days she had been drifting around the inpatient wing on one pretext or another, though she herself could not have said why—perhaps simply for the chance to run into Wei Zhao. She had volunteered to take charge of the injections for this ward, and had come to know Liu Xinlan, Kang Xiaofeng, and Tang Zhi well enough by sight.

Only the prettiest of them, the girl Tang Zhi, though she smiled when she looked at Guan Xin, carried a flicker of wariness and hostility in her eyes... Guan Xin understood perfectly well why she reacted that way: the girl was afraid she had come to steal her boyfriend.

In truth, Guan Xin had no real desire to compete with Tang Zhi for anything. She was not even certain of her own feelings; all she had was a gratitude toward Wei Zhao that rose from the bottom of her heart—she simply wanted to see more of him, to talk with him. As for anything beyond that, she had not yet allowed herself to think.

Tang Zhi pursed her lips, her face a little pale. Liu Xinlan noticed the shift in her expression at once, squeezed her hand, and whispered, "What, afraid she's come to steal your man?"

Tang Zhi shook her head slightly. "What's so good about him? Does he think everyone's in love with him? Let her steal him—that'd save me from him taking advantage of me..."