Excuses

"Can I come to your lab, Mingshen?" Yun asked.

Huojin looked away and controlled his choke.

Mingshen's eyes gleamed like stars in the night sky. "I will be happy to show you my lab where your pretty sister and I spent such a delightful time together and where she fell in love with me too~"

Jia kicked his knee without a warning and scowled at him. "Don't disturb the investigation with your useless commentary!"

"I was just accepting this kid's pure-hearted request of visiting our love nest, my dear," he innocently explained.

"Go back to that same love nest. As a medical examiner, your job was done here ages ago."

"I will follow you till the end of the road, Spicy. Partners are supposed to be with each other through thick and thin," he roguely smiled.

Jia took a deep breath and tried to ignore his existence for the hundred and tenth time now.

Mingshen pouted and looked at Yun. "Your pretty sister is not being fun anymore. Let's head to where the cool grandma with the cool eyesight is. I wanna know how more awesome things she can guess about Spicy and I~"

"..."

Yun said, "I miss Mama."

"I can lend you my phone to call her. Thirty Yuan per minute are the call charges."

Jia looked at him, dumbfounded.

What is this idiot saying?

Yun blinked. "I don't have money."

He smiled. "But your Dada does. He will happily pay for the call charges."

Dai Fengge choked. "Why should I pay for a phone call when Yun can do that for free from my mobile? And what's with the ridiculous charges? Who charges thirty Yuan for a minute! This is daylight robbery!"

Mingshen sneered. "You sure have thirty Yuan to spend on a movie ticket for your lover, but now you are counting numbers when your son wants to call his mother? Quite shallow of you, aren't you?"

It wasn't enough to describe how poisonous Mingshen's words felt to him.

For the first time in life and albeit with resistance, Jia appreciated Mingshen's sarcasm. As a cop, she had her boundaries to behave professionally in all her cases, but her heart felt extremely satisfied seeing the twisted and embarrassed look on Dai Fengge's face.

What am I doing? I just scolded him to not make any judgmental remarks and here I am actually rooting for him…

She stared at the cheating couple.

I don't know how Dai Fengge and Dai Mehui's relationship is as a husband and wife and she might be a troublesome spouse for him for all I know, but cheating is never a solution to escape a marriage.

Mingshen whistled and nudged Yun forward. "Let's meet the cool grandma with cool eyesight~"

"Hey wait-" Dai Fengge stepped forward to stop them but Jia blocked his way. "Stay back, Mr. Dai. We are not done getting answers from you yet. Yun tried to talk to you too. Now tell us what had gotten you and Miss. Yin - both so agitated to ignore a child's repeated calls for help? Let's start with Miss. Yin."

Yin Xiaoling stuttered. "I-I am telling you there is some misunderstanding…"

She squinted her eyes. "Miss. Yin. I hope you start speaking the truth now because hiding important information will derail our investigation. Don't make me take action against you."

Huojin smiled and added. "If need be, we can have a good conversation at the bureau. I think that will surely refresh your memories."

Yin Xiaoling turned white. There was no way she wanted to be escorted to a police station for questioning. Grudgingly, she began to talk, "I remember Yun d-did calling for me. But I didn't pay much attention…"

"Xiaoling you-"

"Please don't interrupt, Mr. Dai. You will have your turn too," she looked back at Yin Xiaoling and asked, "Why did you not pay attention to Yun?"

"...I was annoyed."

"By?"

She looked away. "It were some incessant w-work calls by my colleagues-"

"Let's take them to the bureau, Huojin. I had enough of them lying. I know where they will start properly answering our questions."

Yin Xiaoling quickly stopped her and stammered. Tears poured out in full swing. "N-No! Don't take me to the police bureau please!"

"Then stop wasting our time," Jia warned her with a harsher edge to her voice that diminished any hope of lying left within Yin Xiaoling.

She bit her lip and said after some awkward silence, "...I was annoyed at Dai M-Meihui constantly trying to call Fengge. I told him to ignore the calls but in the end, he went outside to talk to her and…it ruined my mood."

Jia smiled. "Why were you annoyed at a wife calling her husband?"

Silence. Dai Fengge uncomfortably rubbed his neck, averting his eyes from Jia and Huojin.

Yin Xiaoling found it harder to speak and replied almost inaudibly. "Fengge and I are…indeed…t-that…together…"

"Even after knowing that he is married and has a child."

"That…"

There was nothing left for Yin Xiaoling to defend herself for being a third person in somebody's marriage.

"What did you say to Yun when he approached you?"

"At first I ignored him…but when he didn't stop, I-I just told him not to bother me…But I didn't really s-scold him that much!"

"It's hard to believe a woman who wants to send Yun to a boarding school in order to live a life without any baggage from Mr. Dai's previous marriage if he divorces his wife and marries you."

She froze.

Jia then shifted her attention to Dai Fengge. "Why did you ignore Yun too? I can understand Miss. Yin's side for argument's sake. She is not Yun's mother. But you are his father. What excuse do you have?"

Dai Fengge looked shaken. "It's like Xiaoling said…Meihui somehow came to know that…I took Xiaoling with me today, so she kept calling me. We fought, and I got into a bad mood. I returned to my seat but Xiaoling started to get mad at me too for talking to Meihui and disturbing our time together…"

Jia inwardly grimaced with disgust.

"I-I just got more irritated. First Meihui and then Xiaoling both fighting with me…I think it was at that time when Yun came to me, b-but I was in no mood to entertain him. I don't remember what he was asking…but he kept on with Dada, Dada and I snapped at him…"