Chapter 161: A mayor and his potential thief.
Madam Xu almost told them her plan with Tai Alix, but she held back. They had to endure for a while. Without that beauty system, sooner or later, Weifeng would come back to his senses.
Mr, Shen surprised everyone by whispering, "Maybe she thinks tears are currency."
Someone snorted and replied, "I think only Zhang Alix has that special quality. Don’t you see how none of us rushed to cut our chests open and give our hearts to Manman?"
As they muttered, they stuffed more pastries, milk and tea into their mouths. The younger children were so focused on eating that they had drowned out the noise of the adults altogether.
Weijun raised a strudel like a sword. "Enough! Tonight is about souvenirs, not sobbing."
Liwu stood up and grabbed the strudel from his hand. "Don’t even think about eating another one of these or else will tell stories from yesterday."
Weijun’s eyes widened. He tossed the strudel on the pastry pile quickly, looking green in the face. He looked sick. He took a sip of honey and peppermint tea and slowly calmed his stomach. When he was finished, he started telling the story of the coin! Once again, he was depicting himself as the hero.
Liwu waited for a minute before stepping out. She went to their villa and called her mother, requesting for the services of a teleporter to transport her souvenirs to the different relatives.
After accomplishing that, she gave Butler Chen snacks to give the servants, and then took a bath and got in bed. But instead of sleeping, she opened a detective novel, disappearing into it the way children disappeared into forests in fairy tales.
She did not even put it down when messages of gratitude from her family members poured through. Liwu was still engrossed in the book two hours later, when Weijun slid into bed beside her.
"Liwu," he called.
She didn’t answer.
He called again, and got no response. So, he laid his head on her chest, and sighed. For someone that fresh off a vacation, he seemed to be even more stressed. He sighed again, and she closed her book. "What?" she asked, stretching the question out.
Weijun yawned. "My body feels heavy."
"Because you ate too much junk and sweets." She replied. "Maybe next time we take a trip to Europe, you will treat your body like precious cargo." She looked down at his dark hair and gently placed her hand on his head. "I gave you a pill that washes out all the dirt from the inside. You should be better by now."
"I am..." he yawned again. "The pill worked, but I think its my brain that is tired. I am surprised you have the mental energy to read a book."
She lifted her hand, and lowered it again, running her fingers through his hair. "I have been on stake outs that lasted all night for a week, while surviving on four hours of sleep during the day."
There was silence for a moment. She listened to his breathing, and he listened to hers.
"You know what I don’t understand," he said, after a while. "How you can work on solving murders all day and come home to read books or watch movies about the same thing. Doesn’t it exhaust you?"
She smiled. "On the contrary, it invigorates me. Funny enough, I can watch the movies, but not the series. They exaggerate everything."
He chuckled.
Once again, there was silence between them for a while, until he broke it. "I am sorry I ruined your fun in Vienna. We didn’t get to have the sex you wanted."
Her hands tightened on his hair, making him wince. "You don’t have to rip my hair out for that! I can make it up to you right now."
She rolled her eyes. How romantic of him! "That was an accident, your words caught me off guard. You don’t have to make it up to me tonight, you are tired and so am I. There is no need to rush into intimacy between us. I find that I am also enjoying this slow process of getting to know each other."
Weijun sighed softly. "Good. Good, good."
Liwu’s hands found his head again, and her fingers played with his hair.
In a tired, deep voice that was rumbly he said,"I haven’t seen Majesty and Reaper tonight. I brought them souvenirs too. Where are they?"
She frowned lightly. The question was a tricky one because she could not pinpoint exactly where the two animals were. "They were assigned a job, but I don’t know the details. I think Butler Chen mentioned that they were picked up by my Uncle Aang and taken. It’s a regular thing, don’t worry about them much."
Weijun almost laughed through his exhaustion. Why would he worry about the world’s scariest cat? A talking cat at that, and a dog with a system? They had more capabilities than he did.
"Do you know that Cross and your sister Xixi are on their first date today?" he asked softly, breathing deeply. Sleep was calling him, and yet he was still fighting it because he wanted to talk to Liwu. "He is taking her to that new restaurant, Cipher and Spice. It is in the Flame district, and its supposed to be a combination of technology and food."
"Sounds like a hustle," she muttered.
He said through a soft yawn, "Mmm, apparently their specialty is secret coded recipes. Diners receive encrypted menus that they must decode to reveal the dish."
She chuckled softly. "I was right, it is a hustle. I don’t have the patience to wait that long for my food."
Weijun went on to praise the restaurant. "Meals arrive with hidden flavors unlocked only when you solve another puzzle."
This made her wince. Once again, her opinion on the restaurant being a hustle grew to a bigger size. If she was the diner, she would throw a tantrum bigger than Manman. Hungry people didn’t want puzzles, they wanted food!
"I thought you would love it," He said, voice weak and on its last life for the night. "every dinner feels like cracking a case."
Before she could respond, he slipped into slumber land. Carefully, she turned him over and covered him. All the while promising herself that she would never eat at Cipher and Spice. No type of food was worth the hustle.
At most, she would send Majesty in to steal a few meals for her to see if the place was worth the hype. Of course, this was something her husband would never find out.
A mayor and a thief! What a great couple they made.