A Young Woman's Heart

Li Wanyan and Mo Xueyao each took one.

Although it's only the size of a palm, it's made extremely delicately, with various toppings on top and some fruit fillings inside, giving it a very layered taste.

"Do you all live around here?" Gao Yuan asked casually, seemingly not really wanting to know the answer, but just wanting to start a conversation.

“Yes, both of our families own fruit shops.” Mo Xueyao pointed to herself and Lu Chengyuan.

"I'll come visit you guys sometime." Gao Yuan scratched his head, then shamelessly sidled up to Mo Xueyao. "Hey, Mo, the school beauty, your... homework... cough... it's just copying a math problem..."

"You're dreaming." Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes and pointed at Li Wanyan beside her. "'Class monitor' is watching you."

"Hey, haha, class monitor, I didn't say anything just now!"

"Do your own homework," Li Wanyan said earnestly. "You're not learning for others."

"Sigh, I've been studying English diligently lately, but math is just so hard!"

"I agree, math is such a headache..." Lu Chengyuan wiped the cake crumbs from the corner of her mouth with a napkin. "Luckily, we'll be choosing our majors next semester, so our humanities class won't have math anymore!"

"The humanities class still has math, you know..." Mo Xueyao felt that she had said this more than once.

"Huh? There are still more!" Lu Chengyuan clutched her head in pain. Her humanities subjects were obviously much better, but her science subjects dragged her down, especially math, which was basically hovering on the edge of passing.

“However, the difficulty seems to be reduced a lot.” Gao Yuan smiled, as if he wanted to say something witty to lighten the mood, but at that moment his shoulder was gently patted.

A man wearing a white gentleman's hat stood behind Gao Yuan. He looked to be close to thirty, possessing both youthful energy and mature maturity.

"Hey, Gao Yuan."

"Detective Zuo."

"A man dating three pretty young girls?" the man in the white hat joked, casually pulling up a chair to sit down next to him.

The sound of a piano began at that very moment, presumably as the real pianist took over.

"Hehe, how about it, aren't you envious?" Gao Yuan was incredibly shameless, and when he said this, he was full of smugness and didn't seem shy at all.

Compared to Zhou Yong, they are the complete opposite.

"Be careful not to overexert yourself," the handsome detective joked.

"By the way, let me introduce you all. This is my father's friend. He runs a detective agency. His surname is Zuo. You can call him Detective Zuo or Uncle Zuo."

"Hey, I'm not that old yet, am I? You should call me 'brother'."

"You're almost thirty, aren't you old yet? We're all only sixteen or seventeen!" Gao Yuan teased. "This is our class monitor, this is our school's beauty queen, and that... well, she's just an ordinary classmate of mine."

"I'm really sorry it's just an ordinary classmate!" Lu Chengyuan muttered, feigning anger.

"A detective... there really are detectives?" Mo Xueyao looked at Detective Zuo with curiosity. "Do you often encounter murder cases or something like that?"

“Where would Hangzhou get so many murder cases? And why would a detective like me be the one to investigate real murder cases?” Detective Zuo tugged at the brim of his hat. “Most of them are civil cases that require me to collect evidence or materials. Sometimes I’ll get… like someone’s dog is lost and I need to help them find it.”

"It doesn't sound cool at all..." Mo Xueyao said with a disappointed look.

"Well, most detectives are like that, they deal with a lot of cases involving mistresses." Detective Zuo coughed awkwardly twice.

"You didn't come here just for coffee, did you?" Lu Chengyuan asked curiously. "Are you here to catch your lover cheating?"

"No, I really just came here for coffee."

"By the way, Uncle Zuo, since we have a rare opportunity, why don't we visit your firm?"

"Of course, no problem, but I'm already off work now."

"Anyway, it's your own firm, so what does it matter if it's during working hours? The three beauties will definitely be very interested." Gao Yuan said, raising his eyebrows. "Look, if you win one of their hearts, you can get rid of your single life."

"Sorry, I'm not exactly a beauty," Lu Chengyuan said with a hint of mockery, as if responding to what Gao Yuan had just said.

"I have no interest in little girls. Men should be with mature women."

"You wouldn't happen to like my mom, would you?" Gao Yuan asked warily.

"What are you saying!" Detective Zuo covered his face and slapped Gao Yuan's head, then downed his coffee in one gulp and walked to the door first. "Come on, I'll take you little guys to my detective agency for a visit."

Perhaps he was also showing off a little.

Mr. Zuo's detective agency is located next to a private dental clinic. The storefront is not spacious, but the interior is quite deep.

The room wasn't decorated much; it was simply divided into two parts with different styles.

The front is the reception room, and the back is the office.

There are no doors in the middle; they are completely interconnected.

The wall was covered with postcards, all of them featuring beautiful female celebrities.

There were also some I didn't recognize; they were probably female celebrities who weren't very famous but were good-looking.

"Haha—actually, there's nothing special about it, just a simple living room and office." Detective Zuo smiled as he sat down in his seat, a swivel and movable executive chair that seemed quite comfortable to lean against.

"What is this?" Mo Xueyao discovered something new. It looked like a computer keyboard, but it was connected to something else, so it didn't seem like a simple thing.

“Oh, this is a typewriter.” Detective Zuo patted it proudly. “Although it’s basically obsolete, I still like it very much. It has a beautiful mechanical aesthetic. This is the last batch of products from that factory. After this batch, they went bankrupt. I guess the other typewriter factories are probably in a similar situation.”

"typewriter……"

Before Mo Xueyao could continue, Gao Yuan chimed in: "Anyway, it's more difficult to use than a printer. You have to type it all out by hand, word by word, and it can only type English, not Chinese. It should have been eliminated by history long ago."

"That's called sentimentality, isn't it!" Detective Zuo hung his hat behind the door. "Hey, there are more and more drug addicts in Hangzhou lately. Are they going to do anything about it? Or are people waiting for these drug addicts to lure out the drug dealers?"

"A lot?"

"Yes, there are quite a few more than before. A new force is emerging." Detective Zuo sighed. "I recently took on a case where a woman said her husband had been using drugs, but she couldn't find any evidence or the people selling the drugs. She wanted to ask me to find them and then report it to the police."

Why not just call the police and let them investigate?

“That’s what I’m wondering about too,” Detective Zuo said, stroking his chin.

"Could it be that that person isn't just a drug user, or maybe he's not only a drug user but also a drug dealer? So his wife wants you to find evidence to threaten him and force him to change his ways?"

"It's not impossible." Detective Zuo nodded, making a gun gesture and pointing it at Mo Xueyao. "Little girl, what's your name? You're quite clever."

"Mo Xueyao, you didn't even think of this? You're just too stupid, aren't you?"

"Haha, I thought of this a long time ago, but I can't jump to conclusions without evidence."

"Tsk tsk." Mo Xueyao clicked her tongue.

"Actually, there's not much fun in my firm—want to try playing pool?"

"Where is the pool table?" Mo Xueyao looked around but didn't see a long pool table.

"In the back, my bedroom."

"Why did you put a pool table in your bedroom...?"

“That’s a gentleman’s romance,” Detective Zuo said with a narcissistic look.

Mo Xueyao and Lu Chengyuan rolled their eyes in unison, expressing their contempt for him.

In any case, he is indeed a detective without any airs of a detective, although he also seems quite unreliable.

So, can he really complete the tasks assigned to him by others?

Hmm... I guess it's not particularly difficult to capture evidence of someone's partner having an affair?

Otherwise, his firm would definitely not be able to stay afloat.

……

Chapter 278 Wing Chun

In the pitch-black night, something that can't stand the light will always crawl out from a rotten, stinking corner.

Urban villages are like slums in other countries.

There is always a lot of hidden darkness here.

Chen Cheng sat in the chair, his body not restricted, but he dared not move.

In front of him stood several burly men, whose physiques were quite robust for an Asian.

"Kid, why don't you eat one? I already said, the first ten are on me, and the rest will be 20% off. Such a great discount is not something ordinary people can enjoy. If I didn't appreciate you, I wouldn't have invited you to come and sit down."

"I..." Even Chen Cheng, who was used to dealing with thugs, was sweating profusely. "I really don't have any money..."

"Don't talk about money. Why don't you try it? Try it, and you'll definitely feel a pleasure you've never felt before in your life." The man wearing sunglasses leaned forward slightly. "And as someone who has a lot of pocket money every month, you can definitely afford it. Believe me, this stuff is really not expensive. Even if you eat one a day, it will only cost you a few hundred yuan a month. It's much better than smoking."

"I don't like this..."

"Why don't you like it? What's the difference between this and smoking? Oh, if you like smoking, I can certainly satisfy you. Here's what I'll do: I'll give you a pipe, absolutely top quality. Then you can stuff some tobacco in it, light it, and take a puff. Then you'll understand why I invited you to try it."

"The boss has invited you like this, you're not going to refuse, are you?" Tiger, who often hangs out in the alleys, said with a hint of threat.

Chen Cheng looked around. Everyone here was the so-called "boss's" men. He had heard that these people had all practiced martial arts, and not the kind of "useless" Chinese martial arts, but real martial arts with actual combat effectiveness.

For example, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, or kickboxing.

Although he was quite tall, he had never systematically learned any fighting skills. When he fought with thugs, he only relied on his brute strength.

"Cough..." Chen Cheng calmly reached into his pocket, intending to dial '110' using the familiar buttons.

"Don't even think about trying anything sneaky, and don't be stubborn," Tiger said, his tone fierce but his words betraying his underlying weakness. "Calling the police won't do you any good. Ha, we have people in the police station!"

Chen Cheng's hand trembled, unsure whether he was startled by the presence of their people in the police station or by the fact that Tiger had discovered his little action.

"Young man, don't be afraid. You can leave anytime you want. I just want to treat you to some good stuff," the boss, wearing sunglasses, smiled. "If you don't want to, that's fine too."

"Then I'm leaving." Chen Cheng tried to appear calm, but as soon as he stood up, several burly men next to him glared at him, which frightened him so much that he sat back down in his seat.

Faced with absolute power, no matter how angry he was, he couldn't resist them.

That boss is called Brother Yang. He talks a good game, but who knows if he'll get beaten to death if he actually walks out the door?

Or perhaps they won't kill him, but they'll blackmail the people around him into buying these drugs?

The only person around him was Zhuang Lianlian, so there was basically no need to investigate; everyone he knew knew about it.

In this era, organized crime still wields considerable influence.

Logically speaking, Hangzhou, which is not a port city, should not be in such chaos, but Shanghai's recent inaction has allowed many organized crime groups to expand, thus affecting neighboring Hangzhou.