Chapter 87 (1/2)
Killer Nights
Chapter 87: The Broken Person
A-Jiao arose early the next morning. She pulled aside the curtains to let the morning sunlight s.h.i.+ne all across the bedroom. Then she opened the loft windows and stepped out onto the balcony, where she took a deep breath of fresh air.
Jiang Zhengkai was still in the bed, but between A-Jiao’s bustling and the piercing sunlight, there was no way he could remain asleep. He reluctantly got up and put on his clothing. Standing next to A-Jiao, he quietly asked her, “Why are you up so early this morning, Honey?”
“Hehe! To prevent you from sleeping in!” said A-Jiao, putting on her best cute face for him. “Go wash up now! I hope you didn’t forget that I plan on helping you go through Sister Xiu’s belongings today.”
“Oh, right!” Jiang Zhengkai helplessly replied. Whenever he was around her, he always wanted to forget about his work, however temporarily, and focus his attention on A-Jiao and A-Jiao alone.
“Come on! Hurry up!” A-Jiao stood beside Jiang Zhengkai and prompted him again, “Don’t just stand there! Don’t you have to work today?” Clearly, she wanted to use the morning pre-work hours to help him find the doc.u.ments that he wanted.
“But…” hesitated Jiang Zhengkai as he looked at her. He then gently raised his hand and grabbed her shoulder. “Actually, Honey… could you… perhaps… hand over all of A-Xiu’s possessions?”
“Oh,” A-Jiao remarked in surprise as Jiang Zhengkai muttered his way through his request. She tightly bit down on her lips and stood silently still. A-Jiao hadn’t thought Jiang Zhengkai would ask this of her, but, sharp as she ever was, it only took a moment before she realized that she should have antic.i.p.ated such a question from Jiang Zhengkai sooner. He was a detective, after all. True, A-Jiao was loathe to part with the belongings that A-Xiu had left behind, but she also knew that Jiang Zhengkai really needed them for his case. She c.o.c.ked her head, blinked her eyes, and then softly said, “Honey, could you return these things to me once you’re done with them?”
“Yes!” Seeing how A-Jiao had agreed to his request, Jiang Zhengkai immediately nodded in response. “I promise!”
“Alright then. Now go and wash up!” said A-Jiao as she left his side. “I put them all in the storage room, but there’s a lot of stuff in there. Let me dig them up and help you load them into your car after breakfast.”
“Thank you, Honey!” Jiang Zhengkai chased after A-Jiao and gave her a tight back-hug. Naturally, her body leaned back into his. No normal woman would reject such a romantic act from the man she loved. A satisfied smile appeared on A-Jiao’s face: not because of Jiang Zhengkai’s hug, but because she genuinely felt his love for her.
After breakfast, A-Jiao led Jiang Zhengkai into her condo’s storage room. The fact that most Chinese urban dwellers lived in high-rise apartments or condominiums instead of townhomes or single-family homes meant that they didn’t have bas.e.m.e.nts or garages in which to store things. As a result, builders of apartment or condo units usually included what was, in essence, an enlarged closet where residents could store their belongings. Inside A-Jiao’s luxury condo unit was a storage room approximately 160 square feet in size. Other than the corner that was right next to the door, where there was a pile of various leftover debris from everyday products, the rest of the storage unit was fully furnished as a whole other bedroom. This included a bed, vanity, chair, and television, as well as those pieces of furniture that a woman couldn’t live without: a dresser and a shoe rack.
“Alright, Honey, it’s all yours!” A-Jiao mischievously pointed at the room’s furnis.h.i.+ngs. “These all belonged to Sister Xiu!”
“Whoa, all of it?” Jiang Zhengkai looked at everything in the room and then turned around to look at A-Jiao. “You didn’t collect everything that belonged to her, did you?”
“Of course I did!” A-Jiao pursed her lips and laughed. “I’m not Sister Xiu, so how would I know what she wanted to keep and what she wanted to throw away? Plus, it’s not like I’m hurting for s.p.a.ce in this condo, so I hired some guys and moved all of her things in here.”
“But…” Jiang Zhengkai laughed foolishly at A-Jiao, knowing full well that she was intentionally messing with him. “I only need her paper doc.u.ments.”