Chapter 3183 — Qiu Lingshan's Suitor

Though Mr. Yang had vanished long ago, Gu Pengzhan could never put those years out of his mind.

He parked the car at the hotel entrance. Gu Pengzhan's car was so fine that the guard at the door asked no questions, and Gu Pengzhan went straight up in the elevator to the twenty-ninth floor and arrived before the door of Room 2901. His breathing grew short with excitement. He reached out to knock, yet for a long while his hand would not fall.

Ye Rou'er was a practitioner of the early Heaven Rank, and the instant someone approached outside her door she sensed it. At first she took it for room service, but after waiting a good while she found no knock came, and the person outside had not gone away. She began to suspect it might be someone from the Dark Night Palace, so without thinking further she walked to the door and flung it open, meaning to see who was secretly tailing her.

The Ye Rou'er of old would never have done such a thing, for though she was the Palace Master in name, the people beneath her paid her no heed at all; even when she discovered she was being followed, none of them would lift a finger for her. But things were different now. Gu Mengyao had gained a firm footing in the Dark Night Palace, and with it these people were obliged to show Ye Rou'er sufficient respect—for to offend Gu Mengyao would buy them the fate of Zhao Qibing, scrubbing toilets.

But when the door opened and Ye Rou'er saw who stood there, she froze on the spot.

Gu Pengzhan had not expected the door to open suddenly either, and gave a great start; then, when he saw Ye Rou'er inside the room, he was struck dumb. Ye Rou'er looked just as she had when she left—scarcely changed at all, as though she were still the woman who had just given birth to Gu Mengyao.

True, Ye Rou'er had glimpsed Gu Pengzhan from afar before this, but this was the first time she had seen him up close. Looking at the graying hair at his temples, she felt a pang of grief: she had been gone all these years, leaving Gu Pengzhan alone at home, not even making a single phone call…

All at once Ye Rou'er's tears fell like rain. "Pengzhan, you've grown old…"

"Heh, it doesn't matter if I've grown old—you haven't. An old husband and a young wife, people will envy us…" Gu Pengzhan laughed. "But you won't despise me, will you?"

Ye Rou'er shook her head. "I'm sorry… all these years, leaving you and Yaoyao behind here…"

"You had no choice in it; I understand. But our daughter has done us proud. That Grand Elder—apart from being treated by Mr. Yang—now has only Yaoyao who can keep her in check!" Gu Pengzhan sighed.

"Mm…" At last Ye Rou'er could hold back no longer and threw herself into Gu Pengzhan's arms…

Two people parted for more than ten years were reunited at last. Gu Pengzhan held Ye Rou'er and led her into the room, closing the door behind him with a flick of his hand…

……………………

Qiu Lingshan had been greatly troubled of late, and for no other reason than that Tang Yuqi's courtship grew more blatant by the day, leaving her quite helpless. On one hand, Tang Yuqi was one of the finest investigators around; with him in the force, Qiu Lingshan's burden had grown much lighter—many a case was solved the moment Tang Yuqi laid eyes on it.

On the other hand, Tang Yuqi asked for a pittance in salary, no more than the auxiliary officers in the department drew, which made everyone in the force thoroughly satisfied with him. Who would not want a cheap and capable employee?

So there was no dismissing him now; Qiu Lingshan could only face Tang Yuqi's advances and pretend to notice nothing.

"Lingshan, how about dinner together after work?" Tang Yuqi, his work finished, came over with a smile. The night before, he had just taken a Qi-Gathering Pill and smoothly broken through to the early Heaven Rank.

In truth, Tang Yuqi had once been unwilling to rely on pills to advance, but for Qiu Lingshan's sake—to make her see him as powerful—he had been obliged to take them often of late.

The resources of the Overseas Cultivators' Association were abundant indeed, and Tang Yuqi was a core member of that association, so he still had no small store of them on hand.

Tang Yuqi had learned from others that Qiu Lingshan's standard in a partner was that he must be stronger than she, must surpass her—which was why he had hurried so to advance, to open up an absolute gap between himself and Qiu Lingshan.

Qiu Lingshan was of the early Earth Rank; to open an absolute gap between them, only the early Heaven Rank would do.

"Not today. I still have work to do." Qiu Lingshan did not even look up from the case files in her hands.

"I broke through to the Heaven Rank just yesterday. As a colleague and a friend, won't you help me celebrate?" Tang Yuqi said.

"You broke through?" Qiu Lingshan was slightly taken aback, and a little astonished. Lately Tang Yuqi had been breaking through again and again—he had actually become a Heaven Rank expert? Wasn't that a bit too fast?

"That's right. So, shall we celebrate?" Tang Yuqi asked with a smile.

"I really do have things to do today. We'll see about the time once I'm done." Even so, Qiu Lingshan was unwilling to go out alone with Tang Yuqi again. Ever since she had seen through his purpose, she had stopped going to dinner with him alone; there was already someone in her heart, and she could never accept Tang Yuqi.

"Is that so? Then I'll wait for you," Tang Yuqi said, naturally unwilling to give up. "Is there anything you need my help with?"

"These cases are a backlog from before. Lately the victims' families have been coming to ask about progress, so I want to go through them again and see if there are any leads," Qiu Lingshan said. "If you've nothing else to do, I'll split them with you—take a look through them with me!"

"Ah… all right…" Tang Yuqi's face fell into a black scowl. Many of these backlogged cases were years old; to take them up now—never mind so many of them, finding a thread in even one would be hard beyond hard. If he were to sort out leads and clues for all of them, how long would that take? How could such a thing be finished in a single evening?

But since Qiu Lingshan had spoken, Tang Yuqi had no choice. In any case, so long as he could be with her, doing a little more work hardly mattered. At that thought, Tang Yuqi picked up several case files and began to leaf through them…

Time flew, and in the blink of an eye it was seven in the evening. Seeing that Qiu Lingshan was still reading case files and showed no sign of going to eat, Tang Yuqi finally could not hold back any longer. He set down the files in his hands and walked over. "Lingshan, it's already seven. Man is iron and food is steel—you can't go without eating! How about we go eat first and come back to the files after? You can't skip meals even for work, can you?"