Chương 34: Mom: "Are you fucking asleep?"

Su Wan came out of the bathroom.

Her face was wet, and her hair was damp; she combed it back with her fingers.

There were a few drops of water on the collar of her sweatshirt. She walked over to the coffee table.

She looked at the half-empty bottle of mineral water on the coffee table.

"So, did I say anything last night?"

Seeing his expression, Su Wan immediately added a sentence.

"Forget it, stop talking."

Lin Zhou swallowed the second half of the sentence along with the mineral water.

Row.

Don't say anything.

"Your bag is on the shoe rack, your phone is inside, it's out of battery. The vomit on your clothes is in the bathroom, I rubbed it off for you, it's still wet."

He paused for a moment after saying this.

"There was another shirt, one button was missing, it was hanging next to the radiator to dry. That one didn't vomit, it was just wrinkled."

Su Wan nodded.

"The shirt belongs to Lao Zhou."

She pursed her lips after she finished speaking.

I borrowed it a long time ago and forgot to return it.

"Do you have Brother Zhou's shirt?"

"He lent me the item when I was out on a field assignment and it was raining."

Lin Zhou nodded.

The image of Lao Zhou taking the shirt out of the drawer and handing it to Su Wan flashed through his mind.

It happened around last year.

The shirt had been with Su Wan for so long that she forgot to return it.

He leaned back on the sofa armrest.

Su Wan stood next to the coffee table.

"I saw the police ID in your bag. I didn't rummage through it. Your bag opened when you vomited, and it fell on the ground. I picked it up and put it back."

Su Wan didn't say anything.

She picked up the mineral water bottle, unscrewed the cap, and took another sip.

The bottle was half empty, so she put the lid back on and placed it on the coffee table.

Then he picked up the bag, pulled the police ID out of the compartment, glanced at it, and put it back.

She looked at Lin Zhou.

The morning light shone on his face, turning his pupils a light brown.

The row of lock cylinders on the TV cabinet gleamed with a bronze-yellow light in the sunlight, arranged from largest to smallest, like some kind of strange ornament.

The living room had no extra decorations, no green plants, no paintings, only a row of lock cylinders and a pile of delivery boxes.

He lives alone.

I live alone. There are no extra pillows in the living room, but there is a whole row of lock cylinders.

Su Wan turned her gaze away from the row of lock cylinders.

"You said yesterday that you like picking locks."

she says.

Lin Zhou looked at her.

"It's not because of anything else."

"right."

"OK."

Su Wan placed the last bottle of water on the coffee table, where a small piece of undissolved white pill fragment lay on the surface.

She turned and walked to the shoe cabinet.

She took her phone out of her bag, and the screen was indeed black.

She pressed the power button, the screen lit up, and the Apple logo popped up.

She held her phone and glanced up at Lin Zhou.

Good luck on your blind date!

Then she opened the door.

The morning light streamed in from the stairwell, illuminating her dark gray sweatshirt.

The door closed in front of Lin Zhou.

The lock cylinder clicked.

The living room fell silent again.

Lin Zhou leaned back on the sofa, remaining motionless in the same position Su Wan had taken when she left.

He glanced down at the half-empty bottle of mineral water on the coffee table—the one Su Wan had drunk from, the cap not tightly closed.

He reached out and tightened the bottle cap, then put it back on the coffee table.

I lay back down on the sofa.

He put his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling for about ten seconds.

Then I took out my phone and started the live stream.

The barrage of comments poured in like a floodgate being opened.

The number of online users jumped from zero to three thousand, and then from three thousand to eight thousand. The numbers were flipping up faster than a stopwatch.

"It's airing! It's airing!"

"King of Three Seconds, you're late today."

"It was supposed to be 7: 30, but it's almost 8 now."

"How was last night? Is Officer Su still at your house?"

Has she left?

I'm keeping track of the swordsman's father, the Cola novel, and every update of "You're just a locksmith! What are you catching at the start?"

Did you two have sex last night?

"Upstairs, be more subtle."

"Lock Picker, say something!"

Lin Zhou looked at the comments but didn't say anything.

He leaned his phone against a water bottle on the coffee table, with the front-facing camera pointed at his face.

He leaned against the sofa armrest, his hair still sticking up, and the mark left by the sofa cushion on his face hadn't completely faded.

Then he laughed.

It's not the kind of smile you give for the camera.

It's a smile where the corner of your mouth twitches first, then your eyes curve up, and then your whole expression relaxes.

He smiled without saying a word.

The comments section erupted in panic.

He smiled.

"The King of Three Seconds Laughs"

"He's been smiling ever since Officer Su left."

"What are you laughing at? Tell me!"

"Lock Picking King: I won't tell you, I'll keep you waiting forever."

"That smile carries a lot of information."

He wasn't laughing; he was savoring the moment.

"Your choice of words is precise."

"He started broadcasting as soon as Officer Su left, and then just kept smiling without saying a word. What does that mean? It means nothing happened last night; he was just pretending."

"Yes, if something really happened, he wouldn't laugh; he'd feel guilty."

"Three-Second King: You guys are already on edge just because I'm showing off a little."

"He was showing off, the kind of showing off that nothing actually happened. He didn't do anything, but he was very smug. Because Su Wan slept at his house for one night, and he slept on the sofa."

Lin Zhou finally spoke. He pulled his down jacket up a bit, put his hands behind his head, and leaned against the sofa armrest.

"You people," He said his voice was still hoarse from just waking up.

"My thoughts are too complicated. Last night, I was like Liu Xiahui (a legendary figure known for his chastity)."

The live chat exploded.

"Liu Xiahui!"

"The 'Three-Second King' claims to be a paragon of virtue."

"He's proud to sleep on the sofa."

"Su Wan got drunk last night and slept at his house all night. He slept on the sofa. He calls himself Liu Xiahui (a legendary figure known for his chastity). Makes sense."

"He's not faking it, he's genuinely faking it."

"The Three-Second King's logic: I can open all locks, but I couldn't open Su Wan's lock last night. So I'm awesome."

Lin Zhou picked up his phone and pointed the front-facing camera at his spiky hair and the imprint on the sofa cushion.

He was about to say something when his phone vibrated.

An incoming call screen popped up, overlaying the live stream.

Note: Mom.

He answered the call.

Before I could even put the phone to my ear, his mother's voice blared from the receiver.

The volume was roughly equal to 1. 5 times the volume I heard yesterday in front of the police station.

"Did you go?!"

Lin Zhou moved the phone slightly away from his ear.

"What?"

"Lin Zhou, are you still half asleep?!"

His mother's voice penetrated the receiver and the air, echoing in the quiet living room.

"Didn't I tell you to go on a blind date?! Starbucks on Renmin Road! Eight o'clock in the morning! What time is it now?!"

Lin Zhou glanced down at the time on his phone screen.

Eight forty-seven.

His expression transformed from "Liu Xiahui" (a legendary figure known for his chastity) to "forgotten something important" in a mere 0. 5 seconds.

His pupils contracted slightly, the smile on his lips vanished instantly, and the skin next to the sofa cushion imprint tightened slightly.

The comments section reacted faster than him.

He forgot.

"The Three-Second King Forgot He Was on a Blind Date"

"He was busy with Officer Su last night and forgot about his blind date."

"Locksmith King: I'm Liu Xiahui (a legendary figure known for his chastity). His mother: Did you go on a date? Locksmith King:..."

"His mother's voice is so loud, I can hear it even in the live stream."

"The Three-Second King's expression went from that of a virtuous man to someone about to get a beating from his mother in just 0. 5 seconds."

Lin Zhou sprang up from the sofa. His down jacket slipped to the floor, but he didn't pick it up.

Barefoot on the floor, holding a phone in one hand, the other hand was already grabbing the keys and wallet on the table.

"Go! Go! Go," He spoke into the phone, his voice rising half a tone from before.

"I'll go now."

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