Eating Melons in the Police Station

Chapter 28

By early morning, Liao Hongji had finally cracked under pressure.

The reason behind his crime was also quite absurd. While industry competition might have played a small role, the main catalyst was Principal Zhuang of Xiaotaiyang School, who had inadvertently offended Liao Hongji without even realizing it.

It happened during an industry exchange meeting organized by the Education Bureau. Liao Hongji had greeted Principal Zhuang, but for some reason—perhaps she simply didn't hear him or wasn't paying attention—she didn't respond.

With several industry big shots present, Liao Hongji felt humiliated, believing that Principal Zhuang had shown him a lack of respect. From that moment, he decided to seek revenge.

During previous interrogations, when the police asked Principal Zhuang if she had recently offended anyone, she hadn't even recalled this incident.

This small, seemingly insignificant event was enough to ignite Liao Hongji's hatred, fueled by his low self-esteem and vanity. This also explains why, despite the education industry being less lucrative than others, Liao Hongji insisted on entering it—to appear cultured and respectable.

It truly lived up to the saying, "Men who are too concerned with their image often have lives that are a mess underneath."

Zhong Jin watched as Liao Hongji signed the confession. After confirming everything was in order, he handed over the follow-up work to Mao Feixue and decided to take Little Tong home to catch up on sleep.

Outside, the sky was just beginning to brighten. Little Tong had also barely slept that night, staying up late watching drunkards and eventually dozing off on the couch.

Zhong Jin placed her in the car seat, and she woke up, her eyes barely open. "Going for a run?" she mumbled.

"Not today," Zhong Jin replied, patting her head. "Go back to sleep."

When they reached their usual breakfast spot, Zhong Jin planned to get some fresh food before heading home to have a warm meal, a bath, and a good rest.

Little Tong, not fully asleep, woke up again when the car stopped. "I want to come too," she said.

Lacking her usual energy after a bad night's sleep, Little Tong didn't bounce around the breakfast stands as she normally would. Instead, she lethargically walked over to the old man selling steamed buns, leaning on the edge of his bamboo basket, and chatted with him for a while.

When the old man learned that Little Tong had an upset stomach, he gave her a large steamed bun, advising, "Have your mom toast it for you. Eating it that way will help your stomach feel better."

Little Tong carried the bun to find Zhong Jin, occasionally taking a bite from the soft, fragrant bun. By the time she reached him, the bun was already half-eaten, as if nibbled by a small animal.

"Did you get the bun from the old man's stand? I'll go pay for it later," Zhong Jin said as he accepted a bowl of chicken soup dumplings from the vendor.

"The old man gave it to me. He said eating it toasted will make me feel better," Little Tong replied.

Zhong Jin wasn't sure what she meant by "toasted," but he assumed the old man had heard Little Tong was unwell and suggested the bun as a home remedy.

He went to the steamed bun stand to clarify the specific method and bought another bun, paying for two in total.

Back home, Zhong Jin looked up online and found that traditional Chinese medicine does recommend that "scorched foods aid digestion and nourish the spleen." This aligned with what the old man had said.

He cut the bun into small slices and fried them in a pan without oil until both sides were golden brown, then arranged them on a plate.

When he stepped out of the kitchen to call Little Tong to eat, he found her already asleep on the couch, her face turned toward the kitchen. She must have stayed awake to watch him cook but fell asleep before he was done.

Zhong Jin gently shook Little Tong's shoulder. "Little Tong, eat something before you sleep," he said.

The child, still half-asleep, managed to open her eyes when she heard the word "eat." "Is there meat?" she asked.

Stepping out of the bedroom, he found that it was still daylight. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room, he could see the remains of the sunset hanging between the high-rises. The darkness in the bedroom was because the blackout curtains had been drawn earlier.

Little Tong was sitting on the rug in the living room, her back to Zhong Jin, fiddling with something quietly. The child was dressed in soft, stretchy pajamas, and from behind, she looked like a bouncy little toy bear.

"Little Tong, are you hungry?" Zhong Jin stretched and walked over to her.

But instead of turning around as she usually did, Little Tong continued to sit with her back to him, quietly up to something.

Zhong Jin's intuition told him the child was up to mischief again.

He took two steps closer and first checked the floor, finding only a picture book, a marker, and a few scattered small bread wrappers, nothing out of the ordinary.

Then Zhong Jin circled around to face Little Tong, who had been hanging her head low the whole time... and burst out laughing.

The mischievous child's face was smeared with marker pens, looking a mess—the area around his eyes was entirely blackened, and there was a blotch of ink on the tip of his nose, resembling a sloppily drawn giant panda. It also looked like how a hungover office worker might look the next morning, startled awake by an early alarm clock, completely dazed.

Zhong Jin tried to stifle his laughter with a fist pressed against his lips but failed to contain the chuckles that escaped. “Did you do this to yourself? Hahahaha.”

Little Tong glared at him fiercely. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“Hahahahahaha.”

Little Tong pounced over, wrapping his arms tightly around Zhong Jin's legs, and rubbed his face messily against the sleeping pants. “It won’t come off, aaaaaah!”

Zhong Jin continued to laugh. “Hahahaha.”

When Zhong Jin finally stopped laughing, he picked up Little Tong and carried him to the bathroom, intending to see how he could help the poor kid wash off the silly panda makeup.

But upon seeing his own reflection in the mirror, with an identical panda face, Zhong Jin’s laughter abruptly died.

When the heck did this kid manage to draw on his face like this? He hadn’t even noticed it at all.

Now Zhong Jin knew he was in trouble. He rushed to the bedroom and fetched a bottle of Little Tong’s insect repellent, using it to wipe off the ink from the oil-based marker.

After cleaning his face, Zhong Jin took out some children’s moisturizer from the cabinet and applied it to her face. His fingers, with nails trimmed clean, gently smoothed the lotion over her cheeks as he softly reprimanded her.

“You mustn’t use pens to draw on your face anymore. Your skin is so delicate—this could scratch it.”

With her face now clean and pale, the child started laughing again. “Then I’ll draw on you.”

“How could you bear to draw on such a handsome face?”

Little Tong pointed at Zhong Jin’s nose. “You’re shameless.”

Zhong Jin retorted, “...You’re the shameless one.”

“Big big big big shameless!”

“You’re the big big big big shameless baby.”

Little Tong laughed so hard she swayed from side to side. “Hahahaha, you’re so funny.”