"…"
Amuro Tooru hesitated.
It wasn't until the Mazda had driven two blocks that he cautiously said, "When you're out, don't drink random stuff people offer you."
…Sure, that was just common sense. But as the words left his mouth, Amuro realized something: this line was usually reserved for warning girls.
Clearly, that kind of gender bias was outdated. Public safety education needed to be more inclusive—men could be affected too.
Jiangxia paused. He could tell Amuro was overthinking things again.
But since he had technically accepted drinks from someone he didn't know very well, he didn't argue outright. He just gently pushed back:
"It was the waiter who handed me the drink."
"…" Amuro fell silent for a beat longer. Then: "Anyway, don't go into bars."
"…I usually don't. This was a special case. I couldn't exactly turn her down."
"…"
...
Silence.
Silence was the real third passenger in today's Mazda.
As they passed the Amuro Detective Agency, Jiangxia glanced out the window and cleared his throat. "I'll get off here."
Amuro snapped out of his musings on how best to educate today's youth. He remembered that Jiangxia had a habit of checking his mailbox regularly.
He pulled over nearby, dropped him off, and drove off alone.
He really was busy today. In addition to juggling his usual three part-time jobs, he'd loaded himself up with bonus side quests—like figuring out when exactly Vermouth and Gin turned into mortal enemies, and why Vermouth now seemed determined to dig up Gin's dirty laundry.
Also, the case of that has-been famous detective whose status was now squarely in Schrödinger's life-or-death.
…
Jiangxia stood on the roadside, watching the Mazda disappear down the street.
He let out a discreet sigh of relief.
In truth, he'd just checked the mailbox yesterday. There was no real reason to stop by today.
But the car ride had gotten… weird. He hadn't expected Amuro to jump from Black Organization drama to yesterday's "abducted by big sister" incident.
Sure, from his point of view, being carried off by a beautiful older sister—for drinks, no less—sounded like a solid win.
But to outsiders, it probably looked… sketchy.
Especially if Amuro had spotted those ahem caregiving tools when he barged into the hotel room.
Jiangxia shuddered slightly. Hopefully Vermouth had had the decency to kick those props under the bed or something before she left.
Pulling his open jacket a little tighter, he made a beeline for the detective agency.
…
Ever since Detective Jiangxia's fame began to rise, his mailbox had started filling up at a noticeably faster rate.
Unfortunately, more letters didn't mean better ones. In his experience, 90% of the increase was junk: ads, flyers, suspicious insurance pitches…
And as his popularity grew, so did the absurdity of the products being advertised.
Just last week, someone actually set up a home appointment to try and sell him a yacht.
Jiangxia stared at that slip for a long moment. Then, against better judgment, he accepted.
A few days later, a competent-looking middle-aged saleswoman showed up at his door.
He politely chatted her up—for "casework purposes," of course—extracting her name, her former name, her husband's name, her father's, her sister-in-law's maiden name, and half the phone book.
After confirming she had zero connection to any unsolved crimes, he respectfully declined the offer and sent her off. She looked mildly disappointed but expressed interest in booking "future appointments."
…
Jiangxia thought back on that unproductive interaction with a vague sense of melancholy.
As he rifled through today's batch of papers and magazines, he quietly reflected on more efficient ways to extract intel without falling for fake missions disguised as yacht pitches.
And then—
—he spotted it.
A rare envelope.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 20/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:3/10*