Chapter 20#
Phoenix Man (6)#
To be honest, Qiao Yi was quite picky about food. The taste of the meat-filled flatbread was downright unbearable. After just two bites, he couldn’t eat any more. He sealed the paper bag and waited to get off the car to toss it into a trash can.
Lately, besides learning to drive, he had also spent a considerable amount of his spare time studying the laws of this country. Regardless of the industry—whether one wanted to do good or bad things, handle marriage or work—knowing the law always gave an advantage over those who didn’t.
The class ended around nine in the evening. The driver took the same route as before. By this hour, there usually weren’t many people on the streets, but today, the traffic was unexpectedly heavy, and they kept encountering red lights, causing quite a few delays along the way.
About ten minutes into the drive, they hit another red light at a corner, and the cars ahead lined up in a long queue. The driver muttered quietly, “What’s going on today? This road is never this congested.”
He said this to avoid making the passenger think he was deliberately taking a crowded route to drag out the time and make more money, which could lead to a bad rating.
Qiao Yi didn’t respond to the driver’s small talk. He rolled down the window about two-thirds of the way so the cool night breeze could blow into the cramped car.
Although it couldn’t compare to the world-famous city that never sleeps, D City at night was still immersed in its own glitz and glamour—bustling and captivating.
Across from the car was the city’s Times Square, with dozens of towering skyscrapers piercing the clouds. The fourth-floor cinema still had a massive billboard hanging on the building’s exterior, featuring a beautiful female star holding her skirt, her gaze both innocent and alluring, strikingly eye-catching.
Qiao Yi glanced at it briefly, then looked away. As his eyes swept over the crowd, his eyelid suddenly twitched. He felt like he had seen a familiar face.
Just as he wanted to get a clearer look, the red light finally ended, and the driver started the car.
Qiao Yi immediately spoke up: “Driver, could you turn around later? I need to go to the other side.”
“If I turn here, I won’t be able to turn back. It’s a one-way street, and we’d have to take a long detour.”
“Money’s not an issue. Just drive the way I tell you.”
“Alright, then.” The driver made a U-turn as Qiao Yi instructed. At that moment, Wang Cheng and another person had already gotten into the car Qiao Yi had bought, driving off in the opposite direction.
Qiao Yi added, “Driver, can you follow that car?”
The driver was reluctant: “What are you trying to do? They’re heading the opposite way, and it’s hard to turn around here.”
As an ordinary citizen, he didn’t want to get involved in some shady business.
Qiao Yi’s expression was cold, his tone icy: “The person in that car is my newlywed wife, along with a young man I don’t know. They just walked out of the cinema, and I had no idea about it.”
The driver, who had been unwilling just moments ago, suddenly got excited: “Brother, why didn’t you say so earlier? Something this thrilling! Hang on, I know a turn here that can get us around. I’ll make sure we catch them.”
Qiao Yi: …
The driver’s car quickly caught up to Wang Cheng’s, tailing it all the way to a somewhat run-down residential building, where both of them got out.
The driver pulled over to the curb and asked Qiao Yi, “Wait, little bro, those two are men.”
“My wife is a man. Is there a problem?”
Oh, right—same-sex marriage had been legalized for over a decade. The driver, in his forties, still had his thinking stuck in the past and hadn’t quite processed it. “No, no problem. So, are you going up there to slap that homewrecker?”
He was more eager to see a scene where the lawful spouse takes down the mistress.
“No, I’ll wait a bit first.” He raised the tinted window, then lay back flat on the rear seats, hands clasped over his stomach. “Call me when the man in the gray plaid shirt drives off.”
Since it was confirmed that Wang Cheng was cheating, he needed to gather all the evidence. If he went up there and exposed it directly now, Wang Cheng would just deny everything, and if he couldn’t produce solid evidence in court, he’d be the one at a disadvantage.
He wasn’t dealing with an unreasonable shrew. Compared to violence, Qiao Yi preferred to use his brain and the law to solve problems.
“Alright, the gray plaid one is your wife?” The waiting time was clearly boring, and the driver grumbled, “He looks all gentle and proper, but who would’ve thought he’d be this kind of person.”
“You’re right,” Qiao Yi said, without clarifying whether he was answering the driver’s first question or agreeing with his last remark.
The driver asked again, “How long have you two been married?”
“Not long. About twenty days.”
When he had arrived, Wang Cheng and Qiao Yi had just been married a few days. After seeing off Wang’s father, he’d started learning to drive. Today was the thirteenth day of his lessons.
“Cheating on a brand-new marriage? I think you should divorce sooner rather than later. Cut your losses,” the driver said. As a man, what he couldn’t stand most was his wife cuckolding him.
The driver had quite a strong sense of justice, but Qiao Yi didn’t want to discuss his personal affairs any further, so he stayed quiet. After waiting about five minutes, the driver’s voice perked up: “The gray plaid guy drove off.”
“Thanks. You can drive back now.” Qiao Yi sat up, opened the door, and stepped out, paying the driver’s fare.
“Want me to wait here? It’s hard to get a cab around here,” the driver offered enthusiastically.
“No need. This is my family matter, and I can handle it myself.” He no longer restrained his aura, reverting to a cold, stern expression that looked refined yet carried an overwhelming sense of pressure.
“Alright, then.” No more drama to watch—what a shame.
After getting out of the car, Qiao Yi lowered his head, straightened his collar, and strode toward the shabby little building. This was a suburb of D City, full of demolition-resettlement houses. The landlord had renovated the place and rented it out to nearby workers, with monthly rents averaging no more than 500.
The main gate was locked. Qiao Yi knocked on the door: “Who is it?”
“I’m looking for a friend.”
“Who are you looking for?”
Qiao Yi didn’t know the name of Wang Cheng’s lover. He fell silent, then knocked again.
“What’s all this knocking for?!” The sound of slippers slapping on the floor came closer, and two minutes later, the impatient landlord opened the iron gate. Seeing Qiao Yi’s face, she swallowed her complaints and forced a friendly tone: “Young man, who are you looking for?”
Qiao Yi softened his cold expression, putting on a gentle face: “It’s someone wearing a white shirt and black pants, about 175 cm, white sneakers, looks around twenty.” He explained, “My friend needs to see him. I just saw him go into this building, but I can’t remember his name. I got a bit anxious. Sorry for the trouble.”
“You mean Little Yu, right?”
“Yu Ke?” Qiao Yi blurted out.
“I don’t think that’s it. He lives on the third floor. Want Auntie to take you up?”
The young man was very handsome, with a particularly striking presence, and his eyes seemed honest. People always liked to offer convenience to good-looking folks.
“I’d appreciate that.”
“No trouble, no trouble. Young man, are you married?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Oh, well, that figures—someone as outstanding as you would be married.” The auntie’s attitude cooled a little. After leading him to the door, she knocked: “Little Yu, a friend of yours is here.”
The young man opened the door from inside: “Who is it?”
When he saw the tall, refined young man standing outside, he blurted out: “It’s you! How did you find this place?”
Qiao Yi had been buying his hand-gripped pancakes almost daily for nearly a month—always no cilantro or green onions, one egg, lettuce pan-fried to eighty percent done, with a little ketchup and a little mayo each. Paired with such a distinctive face, it was hard not to remember him.
The landlord auntie interjected, “You two know each other, then? I’ll head downstairs.”
Qiao Yi hadn’t expected the other person to recognize him, which meant he was knowingly acting as the other man. His expression turned slightly disgusted.
But then the young man said, “I closed up early today. I still have something to do later and need to go out. If you want a pancake, come back tomorrow.”
Huh?
This time, it was Qiao Yi’s turn to be stunned. He studied the young man’s face carefully and found no trace of guilt about being caught.
He raised his hand, showing off the ring: “Does this ring look familiar to you?”