"At your age, and you're still splashing around in puddles?"
A familiar voice drifted from behind.
Wen Yiqian turned around and saw An Zhi standing a short distance away, poised and composed, twirling a car key between her fingers, her expression laced with amusement.
He scratched his head and offered a sheepish smile.
"It's late. The captain was worried you wouldn't catch a ride, so he asked me to drive you home," she said, shaking the key lightly.
"Thanks, I appreciate it."
Without further words, An Zhi started the police vehicle.
Wen Yiqian hesitated for a moment, then reached for the backseat door.
"Sit in the front," An Zhi said coolly.
He obediently climbed into the passenger seat, and the engine purred to life.
When it came to "local customs," Ditan City rivaled even Gotham—perhaps surpassing it.Citizens rarely ventured out at night. By 1 a.m., the streets were ghostly quiet, not a soul in sight.
The silence inside the car was just as heavy—so still it bordered on suffocating.
"You know where I live?" Wen Yiqian finally broke the quiet, unable to bear the awkward stillness any longer.
"Aren't you living in the same neighborhood as Xu Xuanmei?" An Zhi glanced at him as if looking at an idiot. "Fortune Gardens—I know the way."
"Uh… good to know." Wen Yiqian gave a resigned nod, inwardly sighing.
All this over a little sneeze?
It wasn't that big of a deal. Was it worth being so petty about?
Turns out, a woman before you know her, and a woman after—are truly two different people.
Wen Yiqian couldn't help but feel he'd been too naive.
At first, An Zhi had struck him as gentle and elegant, the kind one couldn't help but be drawn to. Now she seemed petty, irritatingly so.
"You don't have to keep pretending to be clueless," An Zhi said, eyes fixed on the road.
"Uh…" Wen Yiqian tested cautiously, "Are you calling me stupid?"
"No. I'm calling you clever." Her voice was flat. "No one could call you foolish, not after how you took down those two lunatics."
She turned slightly, the corner of her lips curling. "Not just clever—dangerously so."
"And yet, someone like you insists on playing dumb. That can only mean it's all part of your act."
Wen Yiqian frowned, increasingly unsettled. "So… you are calling me dumb?"
"Drop the act," An Zhi scoffed. "Wearing a mask all the time must be exhausting."
Wen Yiqian fell silent. He finally understood—An Zhi had trapped herself inside her own web of assumptions.
In her mind, both of today's cases were carefully orchestrated by him.
To her, Wen Yiqian wasn't a bystander—he was the mastermind. A criminal genius who hid behind the perfect facade of idiocy.
"You're overthinking things," he said after a pause.
He didn't know how to explain that he really was just… a lovable fool.
A red light brought the car to a halt.
"You may have been flawless this time," she said, turning to him, eyes sharp as blades. "But I'll be watching you. Slip up even once, and I'll be the one to tear that mask off your face."
Watching her sink deeper into her self-spun theory, Wen Yiqian finally remembered her character profile—
Spoiled, entitled, and… an over-imaginative conspiracy theorist.
That last bit had been designed to make her fixate on the original male lead, imagining him even more powerful than he was, thereby heightening the dramatic payoff.
Now, it was backfiring spectacularly.
An Zhi had completely convinced herself he was some rogue mastermind operating outside the law.
The original protagonist had been exactly that. But Wen Yiqian, in his current form, was simply… a doofus.
With a sigh, he decided to stop explaining. The more he tried, the deeper she spiraled.
So he tilted his head against the window and feigned sleep.
Unfortunately, An Zhi had no intention of letting him off so easily.
Or rather—she was trying to provoke him, hoping to catch a crack in the armor of this supposed criminal genius.
She talked the whole way, not a single word of it normal.
Pure torment.
Wen Yiqian, barely holding on, clutched his ears. "Please, master, I beg you… stop chanting."
It was the first time he'd realized that even the most beautiful women could be utterly maddening.
At long last, they arrived at Fortune Gardens.
He quickly unfastened his seatbelt, ready to bolt—only to find the door locked.
"Do you know why I said all that?" An Zhi's voice was soft, but piercing.
"No idea," Wen Yiqian replied, playing along.
"No—you already know," she said with certainty.
"I really don't."
"Stop pretending. There's no way you don't know."
Wen Yiqian had half a mind to punch her, but didn't dare lay hands on an officer.
Scratching his head, he gave a tentative guess: "You want to use yourself as bait, to uncover my true identity?"
"Exactly." Her gaze gleamed with triumph. "After everything I said tonight, you'll definitely see me as a threat.
The moment you try anything against me, your true nature will be revealed."
"You didn't… send out some timed email or message, did you? Saying that if something happens to you, it must've been me?" Wen Yiqian asked bitterly.
Her expression shifted instantly.
Wen Yiqian had been joking—but nailed it.
He rubbed his temples, drained. "Don't tell me you're still recording?"
"Heh. Clever as expected." An Zhi smirked, pulling out her phone and ending the recording.
"...Open the d*mn door. I want to go home and sleep," he muttered.
Click.
As the lock released, he wasted no time getting out. He genuinely feared she might hold him hostage with more speculation.
"This is only day one," her voice called out smugly from the driver's seat. "And already so many holes in your story. I might just catch you sooner than you think."
Wen Yiqian paused, inhaled deeply. Even saints have their limits.
He rubbed his weary face, stepped around the vehicle, and stopped beside her window.
It lowered slowly. An Zhi looked up at him with a teasing smile. "What, something to say?"
Wen Yiqian leaned on the window, brought his face close, and whispered in a low, gravelly voice:"If you're so eager to know the truth, then listen closely."
"Yes. Those two cases today? I orchestrated them from beginning to end."
"And those so-called maniacs? They were nothing more than my playthings."