Chapter 67: The Spirit Materialized (1/2)

The atmosphere in the car became awkward again. It seemed that since last night, I had developed feelings for Huang Xiaotao. And from her reactions, it seemed that she too might have the same feelings for me?

I know it wasn’t right to observe a girl using Cave Vision, but this was a special case, and it should warrant an exception. I had to figure out if Huang Xiaotao had any feelings for me.

I noticed that Huang Xiaotao placed her hands on both sides of the seat, only inches away from my hand. I hovered my hand slowly towards hers, all while my heart was thumping in my chest. But before our hands touched, Huang Xiaotao suddenly retracted her hands—I thought she must’ve seen through my trick and was not amused, and I was completely disheartened by this turn of events.

To my surprise however, that fair hand of hers ended up on my burning cheek. Huang Xiaotao was touching me with the back of her hand. The hand was so smooth and cool—it felt like it was made of jade.

“You’re sweating. Is it too hot in here?” asked Huang Xiaotao.

“Did you turn on the AC?”

Huang Xiaotao chuckled and sighed. It turned out that she had forgotten to turn the air conditioning on. She then casually rested her hand on top of mine. I thought it was an accident and that she was going to take it off immediately after realizing it, but seconds passed and her hand was still there. In the silence of the car, I could hear the sound of her heart pounding in her chest—she was nervous too!

That knowledge unexpectedly calmed me down. We sat there wordlessly for a few minutes, but I could clearly feel that there was something in the air—something between me and Huang Xiaotao that required no words to explain. I knew she could feel it too.

I glanced at her, and she actually looked at me at the same time, and then we both quickly looked away. Huang Xiaotao removed the hand that was placed on top of mine.

Then, a voice in my head urged me to take action, telling me to act like a man for a change. I turned towards Huang Xiaotao, drew a breath to drum up my courage, and grabbed her shoulders. They felt small and slender in my hands. I subconsciously braced myself for getting yelled at or pushed away, but she did not resist at all.

That was all the encouragement I needed. I moved in closer to her. As our faces were about to touch, I noticed that her cheeks were faintly flushed, and she was biting her lips and looking into my eyes shyly. I closed in on her lips, barely able to stand the anticipation of a kiss.

Our faces were getting closer and closer until we could feel each other’s breath. Huang Xiaotao closed her eyes, seemingly looking forward to the kiss too!

Then, my phone rang. The atmosphere with all the special moments that built up to it was completely ruined.

I sat back in frustration and picked up the phone. It was Dali. After pressing the answer button, I heard his voice yelling, “Dude, help!”

“What happened?” I asked.

“I forgot the toilet roll! You need to come and save me now!”

I sighed heavily, trying to resist the urge to bite Dali’s head off.

“Okay, just give me a minute, I’ll be right there,” I said.

I hung up and told Huang Xiaotao, “I have to go save Dali.”

“Okay,” she answered monotonously. She continued to face the window, away from me, probably to hide her blush.

I was hit by a gust of cold wind the second I stepped out of the car. It brought me back down to reality and I began to reconsider what I had just done in the car. Had I gone too far? Would Huang Xiaotao hate me for what I did? I then fell into a downward spiral of self-doubt and endless worrying. My mind felt like it was wrapped in a dark cloud.

I soon ‘rescued’ Dali and we both went back into the car. With such a massive third-wheel like Dali, the atmosphere that was in the car when Huang Xiaotao and I were alone together was completely gone without a trace.

We waited for two more hours, then I noticed a few workers walking out of the factory. It was lunchtime. Our eyes were fixed on the factory gate with bated breaths.

After a huge number of workers had left the factory, Yu Jun finally drove out in his Passat. Huang Xiaotao waited until he had driven a certain distance before she started the car and followed him. She texted as she drove. After half an hour, we followed Yu Jun to an old residential building.

Huang Xiaotao looked at her phone and said, “I just confirmed with Officer Liao. This isn’t where Yu Jun lives.”

“He’s probably got a mistress here,” Dali guessed.

“No, not a mistress,” I said. “This is probably where he keeps his ‘cat.’”

Yu Jun walked into the building. I couldn’t decide whether we should continue to stalk him here or to follow him. Huang Xiaotao said, “We’ll go inside and search the house after he’s gone.”

“But we’ve got no search warrants!” Dali reminded her.

“We’ll never solve the case if we wait for that!” Huang Xiaotao countered.