"I like you!"
Late at night, the street—meant to be washed in amber by neon lights—was left with only a few scattered lamps flickering weakly in the dark. Standing behind a ramen cart was a young man with black hair and black eyes. The lamplight cast a wavering glow across his fairly handsome face, making him look resolute, as though he had steeled himself and was ready to throw caution to the wind.
But the moment the words left his mouth, the way he subconsciously clenched his fists, along with the fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead, revealed that inside, he was nowhere near as composed as he appeared.
Facing him was the woman he had just confessed to.
She wore hard-soled boots, a crimson sword hanging at her waist, and a sharp, imposing police uniform. Dragon horns crowned her head. Her posture was straight and proud, like a pine standing against the storm. Her blue hair was neatly combed back, exposing a pair of keen, cutting eyes, while her refined features radiated a valiant kind of beauty.
Of course, if she hadn't been holding a half-finished bowl of ramen in her hands, that heroic aura might have lasted a little longer.
The little dragon lady currently slurping noodles in front of him was named Chen Huijie, codename Chen, a senior superintendent of Lungmen and the leader of the Special Inspection Unit of the Lungmen Guard Department.
At the same time, she was also the fastest officer in Lungmen's history to climb from the bottom ranks to those two positions. Naturally, there had once been whispers that such a young officer must have had some powerful backing to rise so quickly. But before long, Superintendent Chen silenced those doubts with her own conduct: scrupulous dedication to duty, an unyielding hatred of evil, and standards so strict that she applied them not only to everyone else in the Guard Department, but to herself most of all.
Back then, many people had looked at such a young superintendent with doubt and disdain. Yet only two years after she took office, Lungmen's crime rate and casualty rate began dropping in a straight line. At the same time, young officers with real ability and a willingness to work were being promoted faster and faster. There was no question that all of this was inseparable from the very same Superintendent Chen whom no one had once thought much of.
Without a doubt, someone like Chen Huijie was what anyone would call a classic strong woman: a truly independent woman of the new era, the kind who could probably punch ten useless keyboard warriors into next week.
She was beautiful, capable, young, and already held a high position. To outsiders, that was the kind of existence Miss Chen Huijie was.
As for the man confessing to her...
Though his messy hair was neatly kept, and his face also had a certain clean-cut charm, the grease-stained apron he wore and the ramen cart beside him, still boiling water, made his identity painfully obvious.
He was Zuojian, an utterly "ordinary" ramen cook.
No matter how one looked at it, he and Superintendent Chen ought to have been people walking on two completely parallel lines, with virtually no chance for their lives to intersect.
The only connection between them was probably this one ramen stall that stayed open deep into the night, and those few exhausted officers who, after working brutal overtime hours, came out to the street in search of some still-open food stand where they could wait for bowls of hot food to soothe their starved, weary bodies.
Yes. If not for the fact that these officers were all overtime maniacs who got off work at downright inhuman hours—leaving Zuojian's ramen stall as practically the only one still open on the whole street—their lives should never have crossed at all.
At least, that was how it looked to everyone else.
Chen Huijie had been completely caught off guard by the sudden confession. She froze where she stood. It seemed this was the first time in her life she had ever encountered something like this, and for a moment, she simply didn't know how to react.
Thanks to her decisive and thunderous way of handling things as a superintendent, almost no one had ever dared express improper thoughts toward her, no matter how lovely her appearance was. Most civilians felt only respect for her, while her colleagues in the Guard Department mixed that respect with a touch of fear.
She had always thought she had seen it all. She had handled countless cases and weathered more than enough storms.
...What do you mean, I just got confessed to?
That was one damn thing she really had never seen before.
Seeing that Chen Huijie gave no response, and that the colleagues behind her were either too eager to watch the show or simply too terrified to speak, the scene fell into dead silence.
Then, in the very next second, the one who broke that silence was the confessor himself—Zuojian.
He took a deep breath, as though gathering up the emotions in his chest so he could finally pour them all out.
"To be honest, I know that in Officer Chen's eyes, the only time we've probably ever met is when you come by late at night after work to eat a bowl of ramen from my stall. But in truth, that's only when you've noticed me."
"For most of the rest of the time, as just another ordinary citizen of Lungmen, I've seen the way you handle cases. And from the perspective of a mere bystander, your attitude toward your work and your unyielding resolve have long since made me admire you deeply."
"I also know that although you seem strict most of the time, in private you're actually a very gentle and thoughtful woman—because I once saw you comforting a lost child."
"But what truly made it impossible for me to suppress my feelings was every time I saw you working late into the night, dragging your exhausted body home after your shift. It made me realize more clearly than ever that you give everything of yourself for the people of Lungmen... And from that moment on, I knew that Officer Chen, you weren't only a superintendent I deeply respected—you were also a woman with such overwhelming charm that I had fallen for you completely, unable to pull myself back out!"
"I know your job keeps you busy, and that your shoulders bear a heavy burden of responsibility, so... I'm sorry for troubling you at a time like this. But there are some things I just can't keep buried in my heart any longer!"
"So—I like you, Officer Chen Huijie!"
His confession rang out like thunder, as if he had compressed every ounce of emotion he possessed into those words.
As for the one being confessed to...
After a brief moment of bewilderment and stunned silence, Chen Huijie gradually returned to her usual stern, unsmiling expression.
She gently set down her chopsticks and bowl, placed several Lungmen bills on the counter to pay, then cleared her throat with a serious look before replying to Zuojian.
"Ahem... First of all, as a superintendent of Lungmen, I'm very glad to receive praise like yours. It's an affirmation of our work. But as for what you said... ahem, I'm sorry. I think that sort of thing should only happen after both people understand each other well enough. So, I'm sorry, but... at least right now, I can't give you an affirmative answer."
"Sorry. I just remembered there's still some cleanup work left on the case, so I'll have to excuse myself."
With that, she turned and left, her steps growing faster and faster until, after only a few breaths, she had disappeared from everyone's sight.
Only Zuojian remained, one hand half-lifted as though he had wanted to stop her, though in the end he hadn't managed to say a single word. He could only stand there in the bleak night wind, feeling the chill sweep past him.
He turned to look at the other members of the Guard Department and said with a self-deprecating smile,
"Sorry for making you all laugh. I knew it was pretty impossible anyway. I'm just some lousy noodle cook—how could I possibly..."
"Holy crap, brother, that was incredible! You're the man!"
Unexpectedly, the ridicule Zuojian had braced himself for never came. Instead, what greeted him were looks of admiration from the officers.
A few of them even gave him enthusiastic thumbs-ups.
"You actually dared confess to Chief Chen? Brother, your guts are unreal."
"Exactly! Most people are scared stiff just seeing her. And you actually managed to say a whole string of lines that mushy right to her face. You're unbeatable."
"R-Really? Was it that exaggerated?"
Zuojian scratched his head in confusion. In front of him, several veteran officers wore the expressions of seasoned survivors as they began explaining.
"You just don't get it. When Chief Chen gets angry in the bureau, it's basically—"
But just as the older officer was happily launching into his "wisdom from experience," the radios on everyone's belts crackled to life. Then Chen's voice came through, cold and clear.
[I said there's still cleanup work left on the case. Did none of you hear me?!]
[I want every last one of you back at your assigned posts in the Guard Department within five minutes.]
In an instant, the officers who had been grinning a second ago all turned deathly pale. After letting out a chorus of miserable wails, they shoved their payment into Zuojian's hands, then scattered from the ramen stall like startled birds.
And just like that, the tiny ramen stall was left with only Zuojian standing there alone, clutching a handful of Lungmen dollars in the wind.
After a long while, he let out a sigh and dropped the money into the cash tin. But when he went to collect Miss Chen Huijie's payment, he realized that the bills she had left behind... seemed to be the wrong denomination.
A bit too large, in fact.
She had probably been so startled by his abrupt confession that she just wanted to get away quickly and didn't bother paying attention... Better keep it for now. He'd return the extra next time they met.
If there even was a next time.
"Ahhh—"
Thinking that, Zuojian let out another long, heavy sigh and muttered to himself gloomily,
"So that makes a hundred times now."
And just then, from an angle visible only to him, a blue-and-pink light screen appeared in front of his eyes. Along with it came a mechanical voice tinged with faint helplessness.
[So, does that satisfy you, Host?]
[Any thoughts on your hundredth failed confession?]
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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