Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

December was an extremely cold period for Nanmu.

It was not snowing, but when the cold winds blew, it would send a chill right into the bone.

The long stretch of desolate mountains and wilderness made the heart feel heavy.

Xiang Wan dared not wound down the window till they reached Nanmu City.

n.o.body knew why this city was called Nanmu.

When Xiang Wan initially heard of the name, she had thought it sounded artistic, but after seeing the situation at the town of Jiang Zhong, she had already labeled Nanmu as a backward city…

And the truth was, she was right.

Even though Nanmu was a city, it wasn't any bigger than the districts of the big cities.

The buildings were old and low—there were no high-rise buildings. Public amenities were also severely lacking. The people there walked along the run-down streets were donned in their minority ethnic costumes. The renovation and decoration of the shops there were also full of the local ethnic flavor.

Throughout the journey, there were very few cars on the road that it was impossible to run into a traffic jam.

Xiang Wan was attracted to the different sights that the city of Nanmu had to offer.

She leaned against the car window and she looked at the scenery in high spirits. Her brain was busy describing the scenery of the city till the car stopped outside Nanmu Hotel.

The signboard of the hotel was rather old, but the building was taller than most. In one glance, the building stood out from the rest of the low buildings.

"We've arrived!" Tu Liang got everyone to take their luggage off the car and turned to Tang Yuanchu: "You park the car, we'll check in first."

"Leave it to me!"

"Give me all of your ID cards."

"Okay!" Tang Yuanchu gave his ID card to Tu Liang.

Bai Muchuan handed over his card together with Xiang Wan's.

It was the same when they arrived at Jiang Zhong two days ago. Tu Liang would gather all the cards and check in. Thus, Xiang Wan didn't take it to heart and didn't pay attention to the ID cards. At that moment, she happened to turn around and caught a glimpse of Bai Muchuan's ID card. Only then did she realize something not quite right…

The name written on the ID card was not the words "Bai Muchuan"!

"Umm…" Her eyes went wide-opened.

"What is it?" Bai Muchuan raised an eyebrow.

"You… why? It's not you…"

She was as though frozen as she looked at Bai Muchuan while her head came up with an explanation of at least ten thousand characters to validate what she had just seen.

"In order to carry out our investigations with ease, everyone at Serious Crime Division One has another set of ID card."

Oh! So that's the reason.

Xiang Wan kept quiet after seeing the calmness on Tu Liang's face.

So it was an open secret that everybody knew, except her.

She was able to understand the reason behind such an arrangement.

For a detective in an unfamiliar place, one would not know who they would b.u.mp into, not to mention knowing what would be waiting for them.

—For example, this Nanmu Hotel.

Staying in the hotel would require their ID cards, but the ID card was very important as it would be disadvantageous if they got exposed by the target they were investigating.

She looked at Bai Muchuan. "Will there be a problem with my ID card?"

Bai Muchuan looked serious. "I'm afraid there's going to be a bit of a problem."

Xiang Wan was shocked. "What problem?"

Bai Muchuan gazed at her gravely. "Your name is not correct. You should be called Bai Xiang Wan."

At this moment, the rest were busy moving the luggage. No one paid attention to them.

Xiang Wan blushed upon hearing that. She knew what he was referring to and pinched him.

"Taking advantage of me again, huh!"

"Isn't it normal for a woman to take her husband's last name?" Bai Muchuan nodded his head seriously. "I should get another ID card for you where the name shows 'Bai Xiang Wan'."

"You're annoyingl!" Xiang Wan gave him a glare. "You're joking around while I'm talking seriously."

"Don't worry!" Bai Muchuan gave a pat on her hand. "Tu Liang knows what to do."

In no time, Xiang Wan knew how Tu Liang solved the problem.

Yup, there were seven of them but only six rooms.

In other words, Tu Liang did not use Xiang Wan's ID card for check-in but directly take it that she would share a room with Bai Muchuan.

As Bai Muchuan led Xiang Wan up the stairs, the female receptionist at the counter took a look at her without uttering a word. That made Xiang Wan's heart pound uneasily.

"Eh, is this against the rules or something? Why is she looking at me that way?"

"Probably she finds you beautiful."

"… I don't think so."

Six men, one woman, and she didn't book a room. She wondered what Tu Liang told the receptionist. Based on the expression on the young lady's face, she must have thought of something indecent. Fortunately, Nanmu was a messy place, to begin with, so no one would bother about this.

"Aye!" Xiang Wan let out a sigh. "If you have brought another subordinate, we will be Snow White and the seven dwarfs."

"Hahah!" Bai Muchuan looked at her from head to toe. "Who's the short one?"

"…" Fine, she's… not tall.

"Well, the car can't hold eight people."

"…" Young Master Bai was so serious.

The group chatted happily on their way up. When everybody put down their luggage, Tu Liang gathered everyone for their meal.

However, Bai Muchuan rejected the invitation.

"I'm going out with Xiang Wan to look around and we'll be having our meal outside!"

The wind was very strong on the street of Nanmu.

Looking up, the fog could be seen covering the sky.

Xiang Wan adjusted the scarf around her neck and glanced at Bai Muchuan.

"Why are we going out?"

"Don't women love shopping? I shall bring you around."

She loved shopping, but not in a place like this.

The shops in the street looked shabby with nothing much to sell. What was there to buy?

Xiang Wan raised her eyebrows in antic.i.p.ation. "Don't tell me you're out on a scouting trip?"

Bai Muchuan could sense the jesting in her tone. "Are you hungry?" He only gave her a casual look, totally ignoring her question.

"I'm hungry!" Earlier on, they had only eaten a little while on the journey.

"Let's find a place to eat!"

It was already three in the afternoon and there were not many restaurants on the street. There were even lesser restaurants that were open for business.

They held hands and walked for a long distance but didn't manage to find a restaurant they liked. Xiang Wan could not help missing those delicious eateries that could be seen almost everywhere in Jin City.

"It's still hard to believe that we actually have such a 'city' in our country."

"There are still lots of things that you have not seen. I think we did not walk the correct street…" As Bai Muchuan said this, a smile suddenly formed on his face. He held her shoulders lazily as he spotted a noodle house to the left of the street. "Want to eat some noodles?"

"Sure."

Xiang Wan was not a picky eater, especially so when she was at a foreign place.

Looking at the surrounding of the city and then at the noodle house, she did not place much hopes on the taste of the food.

The noodle house was rather rundown. From inside out, the noodle house was so shabby that it looked like it was before liberation.

Furthermore, there were no customers inside.

"It's such a rundown place, how do they survive?"

"Well, each business has their own method of survival!"

As the two of them chatted, they stepped into the noodle house.

She had braced herself that she would not be able to taste something great there. To her surprise, a simple bowl of noodles could actually taste so good.

"You are probably too hungry!" Bai Muchuan concluded. His bowl of noodles was also exactly like hers—no soup nor noodle strand was left behind. "If you are not hungry and could finish half of such lousy noodles, I'll concede defeat!"

Xiang Wan blinked her eyes while looking at him to get him to keep his mouth shut.

Nonetheless, Bai Muchuan did not seem to get it.

"Is there a problem?" His eyebrows squished together in an arrogant frown and he even spoke in a loud tone. "I don't say things that are against my conscience. If the food has a horrible taste, it has a horrible taste! This type of noodle house can only survive in a place like Nanmu, otherwise, it would have closed down long ago."

Xiang Wan felt a little embarra.s.sed.

He doesn't usually behave in this way? she thought, why is he so bold and unrestrained today?

She looked awkwardly at the local whom she deemed to be the owner of the noodle house who was standing behind Bai Muchuan. "Please don't take it to heart, he's just joking."

That local man seemed to be in his late forties with a dark complexion and skinny build. He had been listening to their conversation and Xiang Wan thought this man would get angry over Bai Muchuan's remark that the noodles were awful. However, that man's expression merely changed a little.

"One hundred yuan!" he said.

Eh?

Xiang Wan thought she had heard wrongly. "I beg your pardon?"

That man repeated, "Two bowls of noodles, one hundred yuan!"

That means each bowl of noodles costs 50 yuan! Is this daylight robbery?

Xiang Wan was dumbstruck for an instant. "Boss, this is just a bowl of plain noodles! Why does it cost so much?"

The owner did not say another word. But, that was not all…

Puff! There was a loud sound of the curtain being pulled aside that separated the kitchen from the dining area. Three young men who resembled the boss walked out of the kitchen.

The locals of Nanmu did not care about the country's nationwide policy of birth control. From their similar looks, these three young men should be the sons of the boss. They were not of the same age and were not considered tall, but all three of them were brawny. Each of them was holding a knife in their hand.

They did not say anything but surrounded Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan instead.

Owner: "Pay up now!"

Xiang Wan was fuming mad during that few seconds of silence.

This place is too terrifying!

Any random restaurant could turn out to be actually run by gangsters.

Wasn't it obvious that these people were bullying them just because they were not locals?

Bai Muchuan kept quiet. Xiang Wan did not want to say anything rashly as well.

If she was alone, she would just pay up and leave as safety was more important. However, Bai Muchuan was no pushover. He had zero tolerance when it comes to situations like this. The last time at Xi City's hotpot restaurant, there were so much more people, but he never showed any sign of fear. This time round, there were only four of them…

"I'll pay you 500 yuan!" Bai Muchuan suddenly said.