"Zhang Bin, what have you been up to?" Yang Ce asked, rather puzzled. From what he remembered, Zhang Bin was no drunkard—how had he ended up like this? "Who were you drinking with?"

"Myself," Zhang Bin said with a wave of his hand and a bitter smile.

"Drinking by yourself?" Yang Ce was astonished. "Are you out of your mind? It's the middle of the day, and you're drinking alone?"

"Don't even ask—Zhao Sisi wants to break up with me." Zhang Bin sighed and draped his arm over Yang Ce's shoulder. "Boss, you've got to help me out this time."

"How am I supposed to help when you haven't even explained what happened? Weren't you and Zhao Sisi always on good terms? How could she just up and break up with you?" Zhang Bin's words left Yang Ce at a loss.

"It's all because of Wang Mei," Zhang Bin said helplessly.

"Zhao Sisi found out about Wang Mei?" Yang Ce was still puzzled. "The two of them don't have much to do with each other, do they? How did she see her?"

As Yang Ce spoke, he thought to himself: I've got so many women, and I've kept them all hidden well enough. How is it that Zhang Bin can't even keep two under wraps? Ah, it seems he simply wasn't born with the knack for keeping a mistress.

"It's my own carelessness too. Last night I stayed at Wang Mei's place. Today I came to school to register, and Wang Mei was curious, so she wanted to come take a look. Without a second thought, I said yes. Then, halfway there, Zhao Sisi called and asked me to come pick her up and bring her to school. On impulse I told her my car had broken down." Stammering, Zhang Bin laid out the truth of the matter.

"And then you ran into each other at the school gate, right?" Hearing Zhang Bin's account, Yang Ce had guessed pretty much what happened.

"Yeah." Zhang Bin nodded dejectedly. "Zhao Sisi saw my car—and she saw Wang Mei sitting in it."

"You. You've got a pig's brain." Yang Ce shot Zhang Bin a look of exasperation at his failure to live up to expectations, then said, "I can't help you with this one. Deal with it yourself. When Chen Shutang and I had our falling-out, I sorted it out on my own too. Nobody else can do this for you."

"Ugh." Zhang Bin heaved a gloomy sigh. "I'd like to talk to her myself, but right now she won't even give me the time of day."

"Then wait," Yang Ce said. "She's still furious. Of course she won't talk to you."

"You're right. That's all I can do," Zhang Bin said, somewhat plaintively.

Tian Yan did not know the ins and outs of the matter and had no idea how to step in and offer advice, but he still gave Zhang Bin's shoulder a consoling pat.

As the three of them went upstairs, Yang Ce could not resist calling Chen Shutang. After all, Zhang Bin was his brother—he couldn't just leave him to it.

"Mengyan, are you eating?" Yang Ce asked.

"Yeah, we just finished. My roommates insisted on going to a karaoke place for a while and they're dragging me along," Chen Shutang said.

"Then go ahead, and be careful," Yang Ce advised. "Oh, right—how's Zhao Sisi doing?"

"How's she doing what?" Chen Shutang was puzzled as to why Yang Ce would ask that.

"Her mood, I mean—anything off about her?" Yang Ce said.

"Off in her mood?" Chen Shutang said, baffled. "Not at all; she seems perfectly normal. Why?"

"Perfectly normal? Nothing unhappy or anything?" Yang Ce was perplexed. Zhao Sisi and Zhang Bin had just broken up—how could there be nothing unusual about her?

"Unhappy? I didn't notice. Over dinner she was even discussing the company's development with Sister Lin," Chen Shutang said. "And a few of my roommates heard there's a jewelry exhibition in a couple of days, so they want to go work as part-time models."

"Oh, then it's nothing." Yang Ce said, "Never mind. Have fun, and call me if anything comes up."

"Okay," Chen Shutang said.

After hanging up, Yang Ce was about to speak when he saw Zhang Bin looking at him with eager anticipation. Yang Ce broke into a smile at once and said, "Zhang Bin, Mengyan says Zhao Sisi's mood is perfectly normal—nothing off about her at all."

"Ah." Zhang Bin's voice immediately took on a tearful note. "You can't be serious—she's over me that fast? She must really be heartbroken."

"Actually, I think it's probably the exact opposite. Zhao Sisi was just discussing the company trade fair with Zhiyun a moment ago. In other words, she has no intention of actually breaking up with you." Yang Ce's views on matters of the heart were no longer as naive as they once had been, and he could reason a few things out for himself.

"Is that so? Why do you say that?" Zhang Bin asked repeatedly.

"It's simple. Whose jewelry company is it?" Yang Ce countered.

"Ours, of course—yours and mine," Zhang Bin said.

"Exactly. If Zhao Sisi really meant to break up with you, would she still be concerning herself with the jewelry company's affairs?" Yang Ce said. "The way I see it, Zhao Sisi just wants to scare you a little—she's angry that you lied to her."

To be continued

1059. A New Assignment

"That makes sense. It really does seem that way." Having heard Yang Ce's analysis, Zhang Bin nodded at once. What Yang Ce said was indeed reasonable: if Zhao Sisi truly meant to break up with him, it would be impossible for her to keep managing the company's affairs. What would the company's business have to do with her anymore?

"The rest is up to you. This is as much as I can do to help." Yang Ce smiled and said, "Go on, then. You've drunk yourself into that state—go back and sleep it off first."

Yang Ce had nothing much to take up to the dormitory. His things were the same ones from last semester, just a little dusty; a quick wipe-down would do.

Zhang Bin went off to sleep. Tian Yan had not set foot in their department all day, and now he meant to take a stroll around and see whether anything important had come up. Yang Ce, with nothing better to do, decided to head over to Fang Tian's place for a visit.

Fang Tian was the same as ever, sitting in a broken old chair with a worn cotton-padded jacket draped over him, squinting at the animated Detective Conan playing on the television.

"Well, would you look at that, Old Fang—you've got a hobby like this too?" Yang Ce said, looking at the cartoon characters on the screen, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

"Oh, there's not much to do, so I watch and see how they kill people." Fang Tian tossed a peanut into his mouth with his fingers and then said, "Look at this fellow—he kills quite well. That Conan fella wears himself out for ages before he cracks the case."

Yang Ce was drenched in cold sweat. How was this any different from watching a comedy? And besides, most people watched this cartoon from Conan's perspective, while Fang Tian was watching it from the killer's point of view. That truly was an original approach.

"Some of the murder methods aren't very realistic." Yang Ce had caught a few scattered episodes of this cartoon before.

"Mm, but some of them are decent enough—learn from the strong points and make up for the weak ones." Fang Tian said mildly, "I picked up a trick just now, and it struck me as quite interesting. Some other day you can give it a try for me and see whether it works."

"Uh—" Yang Ce broke out in a sweat all over. Was there no end to this? That was murder, and he wanted to test it out to see whether it worked?

"Mm, it's over." Fang Tian pressed the remote and switched the television off. "You've come at just the right time. Help me sort through my things—this place is about to be demolished for redevelopment."

"Where do you want to move to? I'll go buy you an apartment," Yang Ce said. Though he and Fang Tian often spoke to each other with little regard for seniority, Fang Tian was, after all, his elder, and so Yang Ce would do his duty as a junior.

"Anywhere's fine. It makes no difference to me where I live," Fang Tian said indifferently. "It's an old house, and I'm used to living here. I can't be bothered to move."