Chapter 20 : Dinner

“I doubt it. Blake is a sorcerer; we won’t find him this way,” Rachel said, ruthlessly pouring cold water on the idea.
“For a guy like him, without a clear motive and no connections to anyone, who’s also a dual-specialist in magic and psionics, unless we have a special item or person to track him, the chances of picking him out of a crowd are zero.”

“I think so too. Unless we find his motive, it will be very difficult to find him,” Yuhui turned around.
“Then let’s go.”

“Go? I just got here,” Rachel said, crossing her arms.
She could feel a lot of eyes on her, and the feeling made her very uncomfortable.

“What are you looking at? Haven’t you ever seen a beautiful woman before? Are you asking for a beating?” Rachel scolded unhappily.

She was used to the various gazes she received on a daily basis.
Normally, she could completely ignore them.
But today, she had been interrupted while enjoying herself, and her clothes had been misunderstood.
She was in a very bad mood.

After her shout, many of the gazes immediately retreated.

“I thought you would have made some progress,” Yuhui said.
“And, I hope we can talk about things face to face, so we can be clear.”

“There’s one more thing I have to tell you. The people working here are not from the Bureau of Abnormal Affairs, but from the police station. They don’t know the specifics of what happened. I just vaguely reminded them that this matter is related to a case the Bureau is handling.”

“So we still have no progress?”

“No.”

“So we can only wait here and do useless work?”

Rachel was extremely frustrated.
A huge sense of failure made it a little hard for her to breathe.

“Are you in a bad mood?” Yuhui noticed that Rachel’s expression was a bit off.
“Relax. Today’s operation must have been very tiring. Your work for today is over. Get some rest.”

“Don’t let this affect your judgment. We have to be prepared for success, but also for failure. After all, this kind of thing is very common, and Blake is no pushover.”

“Are you saying Old Luo will be killed?” Rachel was a little worried.

“That’s not very likely, but Blake might run away. After all, he’s been running for many years. He’s good at it.”

Rachel took out her phone and checked the time.
“Then I’m going to eat dinner. I haven’t eaten all day and I’m starving. Do you want to come?”

Yuhui nodded.
“Besides a few snacks, I haven’t eaten all day either.”

The two left the scene, crossed the road, and went directly to a nearby restaurant.

Ten minutes later, Rachel looked at the plate of fried meat noodles on the table with a blissful expression, swallowed her saliva, and picked up her chopsticks.

Yuhui, sitting opposite her, was silent, holding a glass of water and taking a sip.

“Let me tell you, the noodles at this shop are very similar to my hometown’s specialty. They taste exactly the same. It took me a whole two days to find this shop when I first came to Sinhe. The taste is really exactly the same.”

“Where is your hometown?” Yuhui asked.

Rachel was stunned for a moment, then said in a low voice, “It’s not important, it’s just a very far away place…”

Yuhui remembered his conversation with Luo Hao and realized he had said the wrong thing.
He coughed awkwardly and shut up.

“Oh, and the noodles here are brushed with a layer of oil when they’re made. They’re especially fragrant and chewy. I think it’s because they add a pinch of salt when they knead the dough, but it might also have something to do with the flour. I’m not really sure,” Rachel returned to her previous state, continuing to speak excitedly.

“You should eat first. We can talk after you’ve eaten,” Yuhui said softly.

“Then I’ll start.”

Rachel ate the noodles and vegetables like a madwoman, shoveling them into her mouth like a starving person who hadn’t eaten in three days and three nights.

Yuhui almost thought she was going to push the whole plate into her mouth.
He was so scared that the hand holding the water glass trembled, splashing a little tea.

The whole process only lasted less than three minutes, and Rachel had devoured the entire plate of noodles, peppers, onions, and mutton—she had even ordered an extra portion of noodles, which she also finished.

Yuhui subconsciously pushed his untouched plate of noodles in front of Rachel.

“You’re not eating?” Rachel blinked.

“I’m not hungry,” he said, not realizing that his statement contradicted his earlier one, lying with a straight face.

“How about… we split it? You can give me a little,” she said, a little embarrassed.

Yuhui nodded and used his chopsticks to move more than half of the noodles and vegetables onto Rachel’s plate.

Rachel watched him give her the noodles and suddenly remembered the times when she and her father used to eat at restaurants together.
At that time, her father would also give half of his noodles and vegetables to his greedy self.
He only ate half of the noodles.

How long had it been since she had seen her father?

Yuhui saw that Rachel’s expression had become gloomy again, and his eyelids twitched.
“Did I do something wrong?”

“Huh? No, what’s wrong?” Rachel came back to her senses.

“You look unhappy.”

“Do I? You can tell?”

“It’s written all over your face.”

Rachel’s face immediately turned red.
She felt that it was a shameful thing to let others see through her thoughts so easily.

Her parents had reminded her more than once that as an adult, she shouldn’t wear her heart on her sleeve.
In this world, besides your own parents, no one wanted you to have a good life, so you had to hide your negative thoughts and not let others know.

Yuhui also took a bite of the noodles.
It was indeed as Rachel had said, the taste was good.

Rachel wanted to divert her attention to cover up her shame.
She looked at the metal prosthetic on Yuhui’s left hand and suddenly became a little curious.
To be honest, his metal prosthetic looked like a forehead-flicking device.
Was it really for flicking people’s foreheads?

But she hesitated for a moment and didn’t ask.
After all, losing a finger was never a good memory to recall.
She had only known him for a short time, and it would be too impolite to ask such a question directly.

She shifted her gaze to Yuhui’s coat hanging next to him: it was a black trench coat, not the same one Yuhui had worn before.

“Why did you change into this trench coat?” she asked.
“Isn’t it hot to wear something so thick in the summer?”

“With all due respect,” Yuhui said truthfully, “with you, it’s not only not hot, but a little cold.”

Hearing his answer, Rachel pouted unhappily.

“There’s oil on your face. Wipe it,” Yuhui pushed the tissue box on the table in front of Rachel.

Rachel took a tissue and wiped her mouth casually.

“There’s still some on your face, on the right side.”

Rachel subconsciously put the tissue on her left cheek.
“Your right side?”

Yuhui pointed with his finger.
“Your right side.”

The restaurant had a not-too-large TV hanging above the cashier’s counter.
The content playing on it caught Rachel’s attention.

The TV was showing a news program.
A host was reading his report with a deadpan expression on the screen:

“Regarding the recent and widespread ‘Imperial Capital Intelligence Leak Incident,’ several nobles and members of parliament have claimed that the incident was a direct result of interference by the L1st Federation. This incident has caused the leakage of some confidential documents. Prime Minister Nie Guangyu stated: Regarding this incident, the Holy See has compiled a 25-page investigation report. The report shows…”

“What’s going on?” Rachel asked curiously.