Chapter 7: Campus Romance

A month ago, after reuniting with Zhang Mingliu, Du Qiu had brought her over, so he still remembered the address.

During the time they were dating, even though he knew she had an older brother who was a police officer in Magic City, their relationship was a campus romance and it hadn’t reached the point of meeting the family, so he had never met her brother.

Zhang Mingliu was somewhat surprised and even more touched that Du Qiu could make it at this time.

Qin Yun, Zhang Mingliu’s sister-in-law, upon hearing that Du Qiu was coming over, couldn’t help but say, “Mingliu, this Du Qiu isn’t even attending classes and is coming all this way specifically for you. It obviously shows he still cares about you.

He has credentials, looks, and he is a local. I’m sure he has a house too. How could you have let him go in the first place?”

Qin Yun was from the south of Huizhou, and both she and Zhang Shangqing were not from Magic City. To buy this two-bedroom apartment, both families had joined forces to pay nearly half of the price of the house.

The remaining 1.5 million was made into a 20-year mortgage to be paid off slowly. If it weren’t for the high subsidy for going abroad, Zhang Shangqing wouldn’t have applied to be a peacekeeping police officer.

Now that he was gone, although there was a good amount of compensation money, the daughter was still young and Qin Yun didn’t dare to use it all up.

The rest of the mortgage fell solely on Qin Yun, and the pressure she was under could be imagined.

Fortunately, in the past few years, the housing prices in Magic City had almost doubled, so the decision to buy the house gritting their teeth was still correct.

As the saying goes, blessings never come in pairs, and misfortune doesn’t come singly; Qin Yun recently encountered trouble at work, which was almost unbearable for her.

She had lost a lot of weight, and her eyes were always red and swollen, clearly shedding tears into the wee hours of the night.

“Ah, it’s a long story…” Zhang Mingliu sighed with some melancholy.

“If one sentence isn’t enough, then say a few more. It’ll be a while until he gets here. Your sister-in-law can help you analyze the situation.”

Zhang Mingliu’s face showed an unnatural expression, “Both our temperaments were too stubborn. A small matter could lead to a huge argument. Sometimes, I don’t think he’s like the local men of Magic City at all.”

“Don’t let some myths about Magic City men being gentle brainwash you. In reality, there are gentle and irritable men everywhere. The most important thing for two people to get along is mutual understanding.”

“Sister-in-law, actually, I’ve been quite considerate of him. After all, it was me who pursued him, but sometimes he’s just too infuriating,” Zhang Mingliu said with a sense of helplessness.

“Since you two often fought and argued, why did you end up breaking up? What happened that made it irreparable?” Qin Yun asked while holding her sister-in-law’s hand.

Zhang Mingliu’s eyes showed a reminiscing look, and she said somewhat evasively, “There wasn’t any big issue… It was just that I accidentally damaged a photo of his mother, and then he got mad and yelled at me. I didn’t let it go that time and we argued more fiercely and ended up breaking up.”

Qin Yun fell silent after hearing this.

“Sister-in-law, I really didn’t understand the feeling of losing a relative back then. I couldn’t appreciate his attachment to the photo. Now I know, and I regret it so much…” As she spoke, tears fell from Zhang Mingliu’s eyes.

Qin Yun’s eyes also turned moist as she said, “Yes, now I want to cherish anything your brother left behind.

Last night when I saw the mess in the house, my heart was shattered. Mingliu, since you still have feelings for Du Qiu, you should try to win him back.”

“Mm.”

At this moment, the doorbell of the apartment intercom rang.

Zhang Mingliu sprang up and said, “He’s here.”

She then rushed to the door, pressed the intercom, and Du Qiu’s voice came from the speaker, “I’m here, open up.”

“Is it open?” Zhang Mingliu pressed the switch and asked.

“It’s open.”

Upon hearing Du Qiu’s reply, Zhang Mingliu turned off the intercom but ran into the restroom. She had just cried, and her makeup had been smeared. She needed to tidy herself up to not cause embarrassment in front of Du Qiu.

Qin Yun couldn’t help but shake her head seeing this.

When the door was knocked, Zhang Mingliu, who had freshened up, came out and opened the main door.

“Weren’t you going to come after work? Have you been drinking?” Zhang Mingliu asked.

Du Qiu, who had changed his shoes and entered the room, said, “Starting from today, I no longer need to go to work. I had a farewell lunch with some good colleagues at noon.”

Seeing Qin Yun, Du Qiu hurriedly greeted, “Hello, Sister Qin.”

Hearing that Du Qiu didn’t call Qin Yun ‘sister-in-law’ like she did, Zhang Mingliu’s face dimmed a bit.

However, she quickly asked, “Why did you resign all of a sudden?”

“It’s not quitting; the company closed down. I can take a break for now,” Du Qiu explained as he looked around the living room and checked the windows.

“Sister Qin, you must have called the police last night, right?”

Qin Yun nodded and said, “Yes, the police arrived really quickly. It was not even three minutes after my call that they arrived, and they were very thorough.”

Du Qiu was surprised by the three minutes?

“Sister Qin, are you sure the police arrived in less than three minutes?”

“Umm, I think so. I didn’t check the time. At that moment, I was holding Xiao Yu and saw the mess in the room. I was standing at the door, not daring to enter because I knew I needed to preserve the crime scene. Anyway, it felt like they arrived quite fast.”

Du Qiu asked further, “How many people came?”

“Two men, both police officers. They looked younger than 30 and weren’t in uniform.”

Recalling carefully, Qin Yun added, “Oh, about twenty minutes later, two more came, one man and one woman. That woman was really pretty.”

“Weren’t wearing a uniform? Did they show you identification?” Du Qiu asked, frowning.

“They did. They were police.”

After hearing this, Du Qiu didn’t say much but continued to observe around the living room and checked the windows again.

He then inspected each of the bedrooms, the kitchen, and the bathroom.

During the check of the master bedroom, he saw the three-year-old Xiao Yu sleeping and carefully inspected the window and the wardrobe before leaving quietly.

Returning to the living room, he asked, “What time exactly did you get back home from the hospital last night?”

“I didn’t notice, but when I called the police, it was about 1:20 AM,” Qin Yun quickly said.

“Did you lose anything valuable from the house?”

Frowning, Qin Yun said, “It’s strange, it seems like nothing is missing. The 3,000 yuan in cash on my bedside is still there.”

Just as she finished, Qin Yun suddenly said, “Oh, a photo from before the peacekeeping police set out seems to be missing.”

Du Qiu paused for a moment and then walked over to the door again, studying the door lock for a while and then smiling with relief.

He closed the door and returned to the living room.

“Du Qiu, what do you think you’ll find with all this snooping around? The police have already carefully inspected the scene and haven’t found anything,” Zhang Mingliu teased, seeing Du Qiu acting so seriously.

Du Qiu sat down on the sofa and said to Zhang Mingliu, “What do you know? Go get me a glass of water; I’m dying of thirst.”

“Who are you, the emperor? Isn’t the water cooler right next to you? Can’t you pour yourself a glass?” Zhang Mingliu retorted irritably.

Qin Yun glanced disapprovingly at Zhang Mingliu, quickly picked up a cup from the coffee table, and filled it with water from the water cooler, asking, “Do you want hot or cold water?”

“Cold is fine, thank you, Sister Qin.”

Du Qiu, after taking a drink of water, then looked at Zhang Mingliu and exclaimed, “There’s no harm without comparison.”

Zhang Mingliu was suddenly at a loss for words.

But hearing Du Qiu’s tone, she could not help the anger rising within her. Suppressing it over and over again, she finally said, “All you do is make fun of me.”

Seeing Zhang Mingliu getting angry, Qin Yun handed the glass of water to Du Qiu and quickly changed the subject, “Du Qiu, after your inspection, did you find anything?”

Du Qiu, having drunk half the cup of water, then said, “According to my judgment, the thief who entered last night was alone, not tall—probably no more than 1.65 meters—and must have something like a master key.”

“Really? No way, how could you tell?” Zhang Mingliu asked in surprise.

“Don’t think you know me that well. I know a lot of things. Back then, I was almost a cop,” Du Qiu said with a smirk.

He and Zhang Mingliu hadn’t been in love for even a year, and their time together had been full of conflicts. The passion quickly exhausted, and ultimately, they split up, their understanding of each other far from complete.