Chapter 91: The Bullet in the Cat’s Nest

"Zhou Sen, don't push your luck!"

Zhou Sen lay on the sofa with his head resting on Bai Yulan's pair of supple thighs, his eyes closed in contentment.

Though their relationship had progressed fairly quickly, Bai Yulan still had not entirely accepted this younger, somewhat improper man.

Zhou Sen was certainly not about to leave. In matters like this, if a man did not take the initiative, was he supposed to wait for the woman to do so?

"Yulan, tell me—if there were a girl who wanted you to pretend to be her boyfriend so you could help ruin a marriage her family had arranged for her, would you help with that?" Zhou Sen asked.

Bai Yulan frowned. "This person you're talking about isn't you, is it?"

"Forget that for now. Answer my question first." Zhou Sen opened his eyes and met hers.

"Helping others is a good deed. If I can help, of course I would." Bai Yulan's eyes glimmered as she gave a sly smile.

"That's no answer at all."

"So which young lady has taken a liking to you? Tell me about it." Bai Yulan smiled faintly, suddenly interested.

"Su Yun, Su Wenqing's daughter." Zhou Sen did not hide it from her and said it outright.

"And how did you come to know her?"

"Didn't I tell you before? Su Yun lost her wallet in the district where I was patrolling, and I helped her find it." Zhou Sen explained.

"Now that you mention it, I do seem to remember that." Bai Yulan thought for a moment. "But just helping her recover her wallet hardly makes it worth entrusting her whole life to you, does it?"

"What are you thinking? She's Su Wenqing's daughter, and I'm just a little cop. Do you really think she could look at someone like me? If anything, someone like me is only fit to match you, Boss Bai, at best."

"What, am I not as good as that Su Yun?" Bai Yulan said displeasedly.

"No. Dating a young girl whose mind isn't mature is exhausting. I prefer more direct communication. Mature women who've lived a little know better what they need, and they understand men better too." Zhou Sen said.

"You're just sour grapes because you can't have them," Bai Yulan laughed. The logic was crooked, but it was oddly pleasing.

"So I refused. Given the way things are between the two of us, if I got tangled up with Su Yun too, Su Wenqing would probably want to tear me apart with his bare hands." Zhou Sen said.

"The invitation to Su Wenqing's daughter's engagement banquet has already been delivered. It's on the sixth of this month, the sixteenth night of the first lunar month, at the Grand New World Hotel," Bai Yulan said.

"He even sent you an invitation?"

"Not just me. Qin Laoqi got one too. Unless there's a blood feud, everyone lives in Ice City, and we all see each other sooner or later. Invitations are only proper. I'm also a director of the Ice City General Chamber of Commerce, but whether I go or not is another matter." Bai Yulan said. "I hadn't intended to go, but after hearing you say that, I am a little interested."

"If you go, and Su Wenqing misreads it, or thinks you still want..." Zhou Sen asked in confusion.

"I want you to go with me," Bai Yulan said carefully.

"You mean you want to make our relationship public now?" Zhou Sen said in surprise. "Stealing the spotlight at someone else's daughter's engagement banquet—that's not very decent."

"Has what he did to me been decent?"

"Then wouldn't I become the pawn you're using to get back at Su Wenqing?" Zhou Sen gave a strange little laugh. "Unless you beg me."

"Go to hell." Bai Yulan pushed him, nearly sending him straight to the floor, and then asked, "Do you regret getting on this pirate ship with me?"

Zhou Sen chuckled. "Fine. It's not right for us to keep sneaking around like this anyway. The sooner we make it official, the sooner I can move in here and live with you."

"You'd better think this through. Once you do that, Su Wenqing will not let you off." Bai Yulan froze in surprise; Zhou Sen had actually not objected.

"If you're not afraid, what have I got to fear?" Zhou Sen changed his posture and turned slightly away. "Then I can live a life with a wife, a child, and a warm bed by the stove. Just thinking about it feels wonderful."

"You really agree to go with me?"

"Of course. We'll dress ourselves up beautifully and go. When the time comes, you can outshine every other woman there and eclipse the bride-to-be herself—that would be rather interesting." Zhou Sen inhaled the seductive fragrance clinging to Bai Yulan and said with satisfaction.

A faint smile curved Bai Yulan's lips. The last time she had stunned an entire crowd was many years ago, when she represented the Fragrant Light Pavilion in the Ice City Queen of Blossoms pageant. The result, naturally, was that her beauty and talents carried her all the way to the title.

Only then did she acquire the reputation of being the most beautiful woman in the outer city.

It was just that she was the proprietor of the Fragrant Light Pavilion; she could not simply receive clients in person. Otherwise, the threshold of the place would have long since been worn flat.

When Bai Yulan had entered the Queen of Blossoms competition, the original Zhou Sen was still in police academy training. He had only heard of that grand occasion and never seen it with his own eyes.

"Never mind. I'll still not go compete with a little girl. Better to break up a temple than ruin a marriage."

"Why do you women always like saying one thing and meaning another? You clearly want to go, but insist on saying you won't."

"I'm only trying to keep a low profile. You're spitting on good intentions and calling them dog's liver and lungs." Bai Yulan reached out and tapped Zhou Sen on the forehead, then spat lightly.

"If we ruined this engagement banquet, wouldn't that be helping Su Yun?"

"So you haven't taken a liking to her after all? And yet you're clearly thinking about her..." Bai Yulan said angrily, raising her hand as if to strike him.

"Why don't you say I'm simply a kindhearted, softhearted man?"

"You're nothing but a rogue, and a lecher to boot!"

"Yes, I'm a rogue. I've latched onto you, and you're never getting rid of me for the rest of your life." Zhou Sen said.

"I'm afraid that someday you'll regret it..."

In his heart, Zhou Sen silently thought: the one who will regret it may well be you.

If he had known how much trouble would come with this, he would never have provoked Bai Yulan in the first place. If he simply let go now, that would be irresponsible.

Given Bai Yulan's temperament, she would certainly do everything she could to find out the truth, and then matters would only grow worse.

Better to grit his teeth and keep walking forward.

So there were some things he would not hide from Bai Yulan. Of course, what should not be said, he would not say.

"Yulan, if someone hides something, where would they hide it so that no one can find it?" Zhou Sen asked.

"If it's hidden at random, then that's hard to say. Apart from the person who hid it, outsiders would find it very difficult to locate." Bai Yulan thought seriously for a moment, then continued, "If it was hidden deliberately, then it would have to be a place you would never expect, yet still one that makes sense."

Unexpected, yet reasonable...

Zhou Sen suddenly opened his eyes and sat up.

"I have to go back!"

"Not eating first?" Bai Yulan was startled. She did not know why Zhou Sen was suddenly so desperate to rush off.

"Not eating."

...

"Uen, come on. Harness the horse and take me home."

"Right away, bro!"

Uen hitched the carriage and drove Zhou Sen toward the district of Gosh Street in the docklands, fast yet steady all the way.

"Uen, tomorrow morning go straight to the Sen shop. No need to come pick me up." Zhou Sen said after getting out of the carriage.

"Right, bro." Uen nodded and drove away.

"Young Master Vasim, you're home a bit early today..." Irina heard the door and came out, then saw Zhou Sen entering the yard. She looked somewhat surprised.

"I don't have much to do today, so I came back early." Zhou Sen went inside, took off his coat, changed into slippers, and patted his pocket. "Irina, I'm out of cigarettes. Go buy me some more—the usual kind I smoke."

"Very well, Young Master Vasim." Irina took the banknotes Zhou Sen handed her, nodded, and agreed.

Watching Irina leave, Zhou Sen quickly went up to the second floor, taking care to make as little noise as possible.

In fact, the building Zhou Sen lived in also had a small attic, and that attic was Lucy's own nest.

Bai Yulan's casual remark had just reminded Zhou Sen: he had basically searched every place in the house that could hide something, except for the cat nest in the attic.

Lucy was not much of a destroyer, but it did have sharp claws, so it was also a little troublemaker.

If Old Man Anthony had hidden something in the cat nest, that would truly be an unexpected place.

He was not sure whether the little creature was in. Zhou Sen had called twice from downstairs, but heard no response from Lucy, so it should have gone out to play. Lucy was very clever and rarely looked as though it had ever suffered a loss.

There was a small opening in the attic door, made specifically for Lucy to come and go; no human could get through it.

The door was locked, and the key was placed on top of the doorframe. Zhou Sen, given his height, only had to lift a hand to reach it.

When he opened the door, a pungent, musky odor rushed out at him. A cat's living quarters could hardly compare with a person's, especially when no one knew how many days it had been since they were cleaned.

After the smell in the air had dispersed a little, Zhou Sen covered his nose and went inside. The light was rather dim, and in the field of view stood a handmade cat house. Judging from the roughness of the workmanship, it must have been Old Man Anthony's handiwork.

In the original memories, after adopting Lucy, Old Man Anthony had brought back some wood and tinkered in the yard for nearly a whole day, building it a cat nest.

In summer it was placed in the yard; in winter it was moved up to the attic.

The attic stood right beside the chimney of the fireplace, and the roof used insulating material, so it was not too cold up there.

Inside the little wooden house, Zhou Sen caught the scent of dried fish. The little thing had definitely brought back the unfinished dried fish and stored them in its own den.

As expected.

Inside the cat nest, Zhou Sen found a small pile of dried fish. He thought to himself that the reason the creature ate them so quickly must be because it had stored them away to nibble on later.

He switched on his flashlight and began searching through the cat nest, which was full of cat hair.

And that search truly led him to a bulge-like protrusion on one of the supporting beams of the nest.

He touched it and found that it was movable. After removing it, there was a small recess beneath—something like a tiny hidden compartment.

Zhou Sen reached inside and felt something shaped like a small cylinder.

He took it out and looked at it under the flashlight. It was actually a gleaming golden bullet, and by its caliber and shape it should have been a pistol round.

Why would Old Man Anthony hide a bullet here for no reason?

Zhou Sen weighed it in his hand and found that the bullet seemed somewhat off. It was a little lighter than the bullets he had seen before.

There must be something hidden inside this bullet.

Could it be the clandestine roster the Japanese were talking about?

Zhou Sen was so tense and excited that his little heart was almost leaping out of his chest.

Meow...

PS: A quick note in advance: starting tomorrow, I'll be updating twice a day, because my stockpile of chapters has been used up. Writing espionage fiction is always agonizing for me; I have to come up with fresh ideas and make it unlike anyone else's. So six thousand words a day is truly my limit. As a middle-aged man, my body is riddled with ailments and can't take too much strain anymore—I still want to live a few more years. So please understand, and please subscribe to support me. If you have any monthly votes, please don't forget to cast one. Thank you!