Eating Melons in the Police Station

Chapter 10

After some playful banter, Yu Feiyang laughed and collapsed onto the sofa. "How about we go for some skewers at the south gate of the compound tonight? I'll call a few people, like Zhou Tian and the others."

"No, I have something to do tomorrow, and it's not convenient with the kid around," Zhong Jin declined.

Little Tong, who had been eavesdropping, immediately asked, "What are skewers?"

Yu Feiyang turned his attention to the child. "Skewers are grilled meat. Beef, lamb, pork belly, prawns, chicken legs—all roasted over charcoal until they sizzle and drip with oil. Then you sprinkle them with cumin, five-spice powder, and chili powder. The flavor is out of this world, I tell you."

The child's eyes widened. "Is it better than hotpot?" Since arriving in this world, the best things she had eaten so far were hotpot and crispy fried chicken, though she had already had the latter today.

Yu Feiyang scoffed, "Hotpot? That's nothing compared to barbecue. Grilled meat is to die for."

Zhong Yuntong immediately decided, "I’ll go. If he won’t, I will."

Zhong Jin, "..."

Yu Feiyang burst into laughter. "Hahahaha!"

Zhong Jin reluctantly gave in. "Fine, don’t call anyone else. Let’s just go by ourselves. I really have something to take care of and I’m not in the mood for a gathering. Once I’m done, we’ll arrange something next time I’m back."

"Alright, as you say, Captain Zhong," Yu Feiyang said, hoisting the child onto his shoulders. He continued to hype up the experience, "You have to try the lamb skewers and the beef fat skewers later. They’re a must-have."

Zhong Jin followed behind, carrying a small basin hat in one hand and a pink piggy backpack in the other. He glanced at the half-eaten fried chicken meal on the coffee table, feeling a bit baffled. Was this kid a bottomless pit? How could she eat so much?

Zhong Jin returned to the hotel to change into a fresh shirt, then headed downstairs to join Yu Feiyang at the barbecue stall he had mentioned. The sky had just begun to darken, and the small square tables outside the shop were already packed with people. The barbecue stand was set up under a tree by the roadside, and from a distance, you could see the smoke and flames rising.

Yu Feiyang instructed Zhong Jin, "Go grab us a seat," while he carried Little Tong to the fridge to pick out skewers.

Zhong Yuntong wasn’t skilled at eating fried noodles, and her barbecue technique was equally clumsy. She held a lamb skewer in her hand, unsure how to take a bite.

Yu Feiyang guided her, "Bite the meat," while holding the bamboo skewer with one hand and gently pushing her face with the other. The lamb slid right off into her mouth.

Little Tong chewed the meat enthusiastically, giving a thumbs-up. "This is so good!"

After swallowing, she popped a small sausage into her mouth and urged Yu Feiyang, "Push my face again!"

Yu Feiyang couldn’t stop laughing. "Oh my, who created this little treasure? You’re killing me with laughter."

Little Tong’s eyes lit up. "Cola? Where’s the cola?"

Yu Feiyang, "..." before bursting into another round of laughter.

Halfway through the barbecue, Little Tong’s eyelids began to droop. Just as Zhong Jin was about to suggest she stop eating if she was tired, the little troublemaker’s head tilted, her forehead bumping against the table, and she fell asleep in an instant.

This sent Yu Feiyang into another fit of laughter, claiming he had never seen such an amusing child.

Zhong Jin carried Little Tong back to the hotel. Her chin rested on his shoulder, and her drool dampened his shirt. Over time, Zhong Jin had gone from being annoyed to accepting it as routine.

Little Tong tilted her head, thinking hard. She didn’t fully grasp everything Zhong Jin was saying, but she understood part of it—because of danger, he couldn’t keep her.

"It’s okay. If there’s danger, I’ll run away," she explained earnestly, her big black eyes wide with innocence.

Zhong Jin patted her round head under the hat. "Your legs are too short. You won’t outrun anyone."

Little Tong let go of his pant leg, blinked at him, and then slowly vanished before his eyes.

In moments of extreme shock, the mind goes blank. Zhong Jin stared at the empty space in front of him, his pupils contracting. If it weren’t for the wrinkled fabric on his pant leg where she had gripped it, he might have thought he had imagined the whole thing.

As he gradually came back to his senses, Zhong Jin began to question his sanity. A child had just disappeared right in front of him. Apart from magic tricks, he had never seen anything like it.

He called out twice into the empty room, "Little Tong? Zhong Yuntong?" His voice trembled slightly.

Zhong Yuntong's figure slowly reappeared by the room's entrance. She ran over to Zhong Jin, wrapped her arms around his neck, and nestled into his embrace, saying happily, "I ran away."

"Where did you go?" Zhong Jin tried to calm the turmoil in his heart, asking in as composed a tone as he could manage.

"I went to the Demon Palace," Zhong Yuntong said, tugging at his ear and resting her chin on his shoulder. "There's no one there anymore."

In the past, when Zhong Yuntong spoke of the Demon Palace, they had all thought she was just watching too many cartoons. But now, it seemed it might not have been cartoons after all—perhaps another world truly existed.

Zhong Jin looked at the innocent child in his arms, feeling his mind grow even more chaotic. He had always been skeptical of the supernatural. Over the years, while solving mysterious cases, others often blamed ghosts or spirits, but Zhong Jin had always relied on his logical, materialistic approach to crack every case.

At 28 years old, Zhong Jin had stumbled for the first time.

Zhong Yuntong's situation defied all the logic he had built up over the years.

After reluctantly accepting Zhong Yuntong's identity as a visitor from another world, he asked, "What do I do in your world?"

Zhong Yuntong, sipping on yogurt, answered loudly, "Demon Lord."

"Demon Lord? Is that a good person?"

Zhong Yuntong shook her head. "A big bad guy."

Zhong Jin, "..."

Zhong Yuntong leaned back against the sofa cushion, slurping the last bit of yogurt from the cup, and handed the empty container to Zhong Jin. "Can I stay now?"

Zhong Jin tossed the empty plastic cup into the trash bin.

What else could he do? He couldn't exactly bring Zhong Yuntong to the leaders at the Jing City Public Security Bureau and claim that this child could travel between two worlds or perform vanishing acts without props.

If he did, either he'd be sent to a mental institution, or Zhong Yuntong would end up in a research lab.

"For now, you can stay," Zhong Jin said.

Zhong Yuntong shook the little hat on her head. "You have to say I can stay forever."