On October 2nd, while having breakfast together in the morning, the two were still laughing and discussing the matter from yesterday. It turned out that a man had met his ex-girlfriend at the swimming pool[1] and said too much. The current girlfriend went into a fit of rage. While they fought, hands were thrown, and his girlfriend blindly shouted about homicide.

Through this incident, Chen Shi was convinced that he wasn’t a disaster star, and he could rest assured when he went out to play during his holidays.

After talking about this matter, Chen Shi temporarily fell into silence at the table. Chen Shi considered the suggestion made bravely by Tao Yueyue yesterday and coughed. "Yueyue, your hairclip isn’t too bad. It looks good!"

"I’ve had it for a long time already!"

"Oh... Your skin is so nice!"

"I haven't washed my face yet!"

"It's so white even when you haven’t washed your face. It can be seen that it's natural beauty. Your Elder Sister Lin still needs skincare products!"

Tao Yueyue laughed. "Uncle Chen, what are you doing?! It's disgusting!"

"Praising you!"

"Who praises like that?"

"Okay, okay, it seems that I need to learn how to praise children. Then, let's proceed to the next item!" Chen Shi stood up and opened his arms. "Come! I’ll give you a warm, fatherly hug twice a day in the future, in the morning and the evening."

"Is this medication? How long is this course of treatment?"

"Hurry up! Get it while it’s hot!"

"I don't want it!" Tao Yueyue went back to her room and then popped her head out. "You won't have a case today, right?"

"No, the city of Long'an is peaceful today. Criminals are busy on vacation. I said so!"

"Then, play with me!"

"Play what."

"Play games!"

"I'll tidy up the table and I'll come in a bit."

Tao Yueyue opened the game and was looking forward to it. However, when Chen Shi came in, he received a phone call. Her mood plummeted. She would have to stay at home alone again today. Chen Shi said to the phone, "What? Someone is going to kill President Trump? I don’t care. I don’t care. I’m going to accompany Yueyue today. That's final!"

Tao Yueyue's heart was full of enthusiasm. However, after the two of them played two games, the phone rang again. Chen Shi sandwiched the phone between his shoulder and ear, holding the remote in his hand. On the other end of the line, kk said, "Brother Chen, there’s a difficult case. Come over for a bit!"

"No, I’m staying with Yueyue today."

"No, we really can't solve this..." kk lowered his voice. "That man looks deranged!"

"Send him to a mental hospital!"

"But he gave us a deposit, so we can’t get rid of him. You can keep Yueyue company any time!”

"I didn’t go out even when the police tried calling for me, let alone you."

"My God, this agency was started with your own hands. You can't just detach yourself from it. We can only find you since we couldn’t handle it ourselves. God, please come and save us!"

"Would you die if you don't earn this money?"

"It’s very unlucky to drive out a customer so early in the morning. If we don't do well, we might not have business for a month. Please."

Tao Yueyue asked, "Can I go too?"

"You want to go?"

"Yes, I do!"

Chen Shi said to kk, "I'll be there soon!"

kk was overjoyed. "It turns out that you’re not the decision-maker in your family. If I’d had known, I’d have called Yueyue directly. Please, thank Yueyue for me!"

The two got in the car and Tao Yueyue said on the way, "Should I become a private detective in the future? There’s freedom and it’s fun."

"Don't even think about this. The police equipment is being updated year by year. The surveillance cameras have cut off the livelihoods of many private investigators. This industry will be even worse when you grow up. It’s a miracle that this agency can continue its business."

"Thinking about it, that’s true. It seems boring since kk investigates affairs and mistresses everyday.”

"It’s the same in any industry. When you’re in it, you’ll notice that there’s a huge gap between reality and your imagination. It’s difficult to succeed in this industry without strong motivational support. In the end, it will only be days that pass you by."

"Why do you like to solve cases?"

"Because I want the world to be peaceful... This is the official answer."

"What about the private answer?"

"The private answer is because I’m sinister at heart and like to spy on the dark side of others. Police are like visitors, opening a window to observe the lives of others. Police officers can see many different things. Human nature at its dirtiest and characters at their lowest who can do anything horrible. It’s like a doctor seeing a strange tumor. When solving these puzzles, it’s very pleasurable!"

"Oh, if so, I want to be a police officer too."

"The income isn’t that high!"

"It's okay."

"It’s very tiresome. There’s basically no time for a private life."

"Hmm..." Tao Yueyue fell into silence. Chen Shi was thinking that since Yueyue had a complicated childhood, a precocious mind, and had seen the menacing parts of society, she might be a good seedling if she became a police officer.

Afterwards, the two went to the agency and opened the door. They saw a naked man sitting in a chair. Chen Shi was shocked and quickly covered Tao Yueyue's eyes. "Children shouldn't see this...Put on your clothes!"

"The clothes are too hot to bear," the man said.

"Put them on!"

The man had no choice but to put on a pair of underwear. kk whispered to Chen Shi, "This man has a problem with his brain. Don't ask too much. Listen to him first."

"I know!" Chen Shi said to the man, "I’m from this agency and at the same time, I’m also a police consultant. Do you require any help?"

"Ah!" The man screamed. "Zombie! I saw a zombie!"

"Calm down first. Can you start from the beginning?"

The man took the cup of coffee offered by Sun Zhen and stared at the steam in a daze. It took a long time before he opened his mouth.

His name was Wei Yi. He was an ordinary office worker. He came back from working overtime one day and passed by downstairs of his house. He saw a car parked there and a red-clothed, long-haired woman sitting in the passenger seat. He glanced at her out of curiosity.

Unexpectedly, the long-haired woman slowly turned her face around, revealing a zombie face before she slowly opened her mouth, as if to say something.

Wei Yi was scared shitless and rushed to escape. He called the police, but the police looked at him as if they were watching a maniac and left without much investigation.

Soon after that, Wei Yi began to have nightmares. A woman in red appeared often in his dreams. She was very beautiful. When Wei Yi was about to get intimate with her, the woman suddenly said, "Want to see my true face?" Then, she ripped her face to reveal the zombie face covered with maggots underneath.

This nightmare recurred repetitively, torturing Wei Yi's spirit. He began to languish. He always felt inexplicably hot, and took off his clothes to take a cold shower as soon as he got home.

His symptoms became more and more serious, so much that when he walked on the streets, his body suddenly burned like thousands of ants were crawling all over him. He once took off all his clothes on a street with a lot of people and was caught by a police officer saying he was an exhibitionist.

Now, wearing clothes was like capital punishment. At home, he must turn on the air conditioner to the lowest setting. Since he had taken continuous leave, he even lost his job. He went to the temples to ask the masters for help. The masters said that he was haunted by a soul that wasn’t at peace and packed a pack of incense ash for him. However, he dared not drink it.

He also turned to a psychiatrist, but the other party just thought that he was having delusions and continued to do psychoanalysis to determine the psychological traumas of his childhood, which caused Wei Yi to be furious. He repeatedly stressed that he wasn’t sick. He even smashed everything on the psychiatrist’s deck. The other party actually called the mental hospital. If he hadn’t run fast enough, he would have been caught and put in the mental hospital.

Wei Yi felt that he was about to have a mental breakdown. No one wanted to believe him at all. Later, he heard his neighbor’s aunt’s classmates saying that this firm specialized in these kinds of difficult stuff, so he came to ask for help with a might-as-well-try-it mentality.

1. The last chapter mentioned indoor surfing hall (for artificial surfing), but it looks like they had a swimming pool as well, which is where Tao Yueyue was probably learning freestyle in.