Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

The weekend sunlight streamed through the large glass curtain wall, casting large, bright patches of light on the floor tiles.

The largest IKEA store in Jinghai City is currently packed with people pushing yellow shopping carts.

A strong smell of grilled sausages filled the air.

It also had the sweet aroma of Swedish meatballs, mixed with black pepper and mashed potatoes. Following the food area on the first floor, we continued upstairs into the furniture exhibition area.

The cart wheel rolled over the tile grout, making a series of clanging sounds.

Several five- or six-year-old children were running around in the model room, while an adult carrying a bag yelled at them from behind.

Lu Jingyan stood in the middle of this pile of model houses filled with the noise of the city.

He wasn't wearing his police uniform today. He had changed into a plain gray pullover sweater, with a section of white cotton T-shirt trim peeking out from the collar.

The sleeves were casually rolled up to the middle of the forearm.

His strong muscle lines clung to the gray knitted fabric, making him look more approachable and human than his usual image as a law enforcement machine.

But what he was holding had absolutely nothing to do with the warmth.

"Whoosh—"

A yellow and black industrial-grade steel measuring tape was suddenly pulled out. The metal strip stretched taut in mid-air, making a crisp sound.

Lu Jingyan knelt on one knee in front of a set of off-white fabric sofas.

He firmly wedged the rusty iron hook at the end of the measuring tape onto the solid wood edge of the sofa base.

With your finger pressed against the graduation mark on the measuring tape, pull it upwards.

He kept his head down, his gaze sweeping over the row of fine black numbers. His lips moved slightly.

"Seat depth is 60 centimeters. Backrest recline angle is 115 degrees."

He retracted the measuring tape. The metal strip slid back into the plastic box and landed on his palm.

Then, he stretched out two fingers and pressed down hard on the edge of the sofa cushion.

The sponge collapsed and then quickly bounced back.

"The high-density cold-foamed sponge rebounded with a delay of 0.5 seconds."

Lu Jingyan stood up, his brows furrowing slightly.

"The bottom keel is made of spliced ​​wood. The load-bearing points are unevenly distributed. If it is hit by a falling object from a height, or subjected to a sudden burst of kinetic energy exceeding 300 kilograms, it will be vulnerable."

He looked at Su Xiaoxiao standing behind him and made a serious conclusion.

"This sofa will break in the middle within 0.2 seconds. There is a structural safety hazard."

Su Xiaoxiao was holding a vanilla ice cream cone that was half-eaten.

She was licking the cream that was about to melt onto her fingers with the tip of her tongue. Upon hearing this, she froze in place.

She rolled her eyes so hard she almost dropped the ice cream on the floor.

"Boss, boss... no, Lao Lu." She quickly corrected herself, swallowing the crushed ice cream cone.

"We're here to buy a sofa for our wedding home. We'll use it to sit and watch TV, and lie down and eat potato chips."

She tugged at the sleeve of his gray sweater with the hand that wasn't holding the ice cream.

"Who would randomly unleash a burst of kinetic energy in their living room? Do you think this is some kind of antimatter bomb shelter?!"

Su Xiaoxiao stomped her feet in frustration, the soft rubber soles of her shoes making a thumping sound on the floor.

A middle-aged couple who were looking at the coffee table nearby turned around when they heard the noise.

She looked at Lu Jingyan as if he were a lunatic, then quickly left, holding his hand.

Lu Jingyan ignored the stares of others.

He walked to the side of the sofa, bent down, and looked at the white care label sewn into the seam.

"Risk prevention must begin before an accident occurs."

He pointed to a few lines of small print on the care label, his tone as rigid as if he were announcing autopsy results.

"Chemical fiber blend fabric. Flame retardant rating is only B2."

He removed the label and turned to look at Su Xiaoxiao.

"This means that if an electrical short circuit fire occurs in the living room, this sofa will become an accelerant within ninety seconds and release a large amount of toxic gases."

He stuffed the steel measuring tape into his sweater pocket. "Unacceptable. Next one."

Su Xiaoxiao broke down.

She took a bite off the tip of the ice cream and gasped from the cold.

"Please, please put that tattered measuring tape away!"

She followed Lu Jingyan forward, muttering to herself as she walked.

"We've been looking around for two hours since we came in. You've measured thirty-eight sofas and seventeen beds. You even calculated the fatality rate of impact on the beveled corners of the bedside tables."

She stuffed the last bit of the cone into her mouth and chewed it with a crunching sound.

"You're not picking out furniture here. You've practically brought me here to conduct a criminal investigation at IKEA."

She pulled out a wet wipe to dry her hands and pointed to a sales assistant not far ahead.

"Look at that woman in the yellow vest, the way she's looking at us has changed."

Su Xiaoxiao lowered her voice and leaned closer to him.

"They've probably already called the police, suspecting we're spies sent by the furniture factory next door to steal secrets."

Lu Jingyan stopped in his tracks.

Ahead is a corner showroom near a huge floor-to-ceiling window.

Light streamed through the double-glazed windows, illuminating the carpet.

In the center of the showroom, there is a set of dark gray tech fabric sofas.

Lu Jingyan walked over and rubbed the back of his hand against the fabric of the sofa twice.

"The structure of this set is acceptable." Instead of taking a measuring tape, he used his knee to test the stability of the sofa against the edge.

"The frame is made entirely of steel with a lining. The fabric is a flame-retardant polymer material with a high coefficient of friction."

He straightened up and glanced at the height of the sofa armrests.

"The handrail is thick enough to stop a standard 9mm pistol bullet. It can serve as temporary cover in close-quarters gunfights indoors."

He turned around and nodded, a rare occurrence for him.

"Let's go with this one."

After hearing his evaluation of the bulletproof shelter, Su Xiaoxiao was so angry that she threw the wet wipes into the trash can.

She strode over to the sofa and plopped down on the soft cushions.

The spring made a slight creaking sound.

She was completely enveloped in the gray fabric, making her appear particularly petite.

"No! I disagree!"

Su Xiaoxiao patted the sofa armrest and glared at him with her head tilted back.

"This color is awful. Dark gray, it's so depressing. It's like being in an interrogation room of a special investigation team."

She pointed to another set of ginger-yellow leather sofas diagonally opposite.

"I want a warm color scheme. It should look homey and inviting. Who would put a concrete fortress-like sofa in their home for a wedding?"

She became more and more aggrieved as she spoke, her lips pouting so much they could hold an oil bottle.

"It's one thing for you to wear dark colors all the time, but you also make the house feel gloomy. I don't care, I'm going to change the colors."

She stood up from the sofa and took two steps forward.

We stopped right in front of that huge floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside lies the bustling ring road. Cars crawl along the road like ants.

The afternoon sunlight shone through the glass and fell on Su Xiaoxiao's light-colored coat.

She had her back to the window, still grumbling incessantly about the gray, dreary atmosphere.

Lu Jingyan stood two meters away.

He was about to take his hand out of his pocket, intending to offer a compromise.

Just as Su Xiaoxiao was complaining that the gray sofa was too dark, a faint, almost invisible red laser dot silently passed through the mall's floor-to-ceiling glass and quietly climbed onto Su Xiaoxiao's right shoulder.