Chapter 30

"I'll meet Young Master after his exams."

Chen Dulan explained that he would try to catch the perpetrator by himself, but it wouldn't be possible to do so within a week, so he'd call Yao Fang again. That was the last time they had talked, and Yao Fang's exams went pretty smooth. Chen Dulan, was absent throughout the week, faking sickness and running around the town gathering evidence. He hadn't heard much of the case since then.

"Yao Fang, did you kill and bury him somewhere? Why isn't he coming to school?" Su Yun approached him and spoke rudely. "I should've warned him properly to not mingle with delinquents like you. Did you get him in some danger?"

"You've got guts, woman. To approach me after such an accusation, do you want to join him in his grave?" To which she made a frowned expression and left.

'Hah, if he's already caught the guy... it'd be pretty sad.'

Yao Fang was lost in thoughts, walking outside the school gate. He almost missed her by, but she held his shoulder in place and caught his attention. "Yao Fang really forgot about Li-li?" She smiled and held his arm tightly. He'd totally been ignoring Feng Huali! To the point that she'd come to his school to meet him.

"I- I'm sorry... There were exams and..." And Chen Dulan, he wanted to say.

"It's okay, alright. But I missed Yao Fang so much, your exams are over, right? I asked a student about it, they're over now. Let's go get a coffee." She pulled him to a cafe near their school, many girls had gathered there right after the exams. "Ah, this place is full of students during the day. Or is it because of the exams?" She giggled by herself before rushing inside to order. Yao Fang checked his phone. No message from Chen Dulan, kind of disappointing.

"Did I catch you at a wrong time?" Feng Huali walked outside with their orders. Two black coffees, and no cakes. They both were stared at by the students inside ordering parfaits and pastries. Neither Yao Fang nor his girlfriend didn't have a sweet palate. He had noticed so long ago, that their table at the karaoke would look devoid of colour, since they both preferred the strong bitter drinks. Today though, he wasn't noticing much of Fund Huali. He would get distracted and quite rudely ignore her while talking. Typical of Yao Fang when he wasn't interested in someone, but why with his girlfriend?

Would Chen Dulan drink his coffee with milk and sugar? He found himself thinking. Would he order cakes with it? Though the image of him sitting at a cafe doing nothing was pretty funny in itself. Chen Dulan had too much of a cold expression to do that.

"You didn't answer." She insisted again. Her smile was somewhat strained because of his disinterest. "Ah, sorry again. I was spacing out again."

"How did you give your tests if you're spacing out?"

"I'm fine." And they were silent for some time. She wasn't intent on talking too much and his mind was elsewhere. It was a sad meeting, and boring too. "If you say so." She replied after a long gap of silence. "Well, this wasn't gonna be a long date anyway, I have things to do after this. I'll get going, get home safe." She smiled one last time, picking up her purse, she walked away.

'Get your act together!' Yao Fang cursed at himself for acting strangely. He even made Feng Huali upset with his behavior. If Chen Dulan had to call him, he wouldn't keep Yao Fang waiting. He was just a little excited after their last meeting. After all, he couldn't find one other memory of sneaking out around midnight with someone his age. The corpse thing was disgusting, but it wasn't a bad experience.

He made his way walking towards his home. Midway he had already begun wandering in the wrong direction. Maybe he'd take a nap or something. Had to catch up on sleep after his finals. 'Ugh, I shouldn't have had the coffee, now I can't sleep.' He could work out, or read something fun.

Out of all the plausible options, he chose the worst one possible. He blamed caffeine, but his feet dragged him to lane 18, he gulped rethinking his decisions, standing in front of the familiar shabby two storey building.

Yao Fang was acting just pathetic.