Chapter 86: Found

The group drove to the cafeteria of Yong’an Security. As soon as the woman in charge of serving food saw Chang Yu, she greeted him warmly:
“Oh, isn’t this Chang Yu? What would you like to eat today?”
Because Chang Yu had been coming here for meals frequently lately, the cafeteria lady had long since become familiar with him.
“Anything is fine, as long as there’s meat,” Chang Yu replied honestly, his eyes fixed hungrily on the meat dishes.
“All right, I’ll give you a bit of every kind of meat.” With practiced ease, the cafeteria lady loaded his tray with chicken legs, pork trotters, lamb chops, and all sorts of other meats.
After serving Chang Yu, the lady finally turned her attention to Katerina.
When she got a good look at Katerina’s stunning, ethereal beauty, her face cycled through amazement, shock, admiration, and envy, before all her thoughts condensed into a single sentence:
“Isn’t this Katerina? It’s been a while since you’ve come here for a meal.”
Chang Yu glanced at the cafeteria lady in confusion and asked, “You know each other?”
Katerina nodded and explained casually, “I used to eat here often when I was a D-rank.”
“Back then, Zhen Youcai was still little, and I’d often bring him food. After I was promoted to C-rank, I didn’t come as much.”
To be precise, it wasn’t that she stopped eating in the cafeteria altogether; she just rarely came to the Yong’an cafeteria after becoming a C-rank investigator.
“Youcai is a good boy in every way, except he doesn’t like the food I make,” the cafeteria lady said, her expression a mix of grievance and indignation.
From the look on her face, it seemed as if Zhen Youcai’s refusal to eat her food was a crime against heaven and earth.
One might even think there was some deep-seated enmity between the two!
“He’s always preferred ordering takeout,” Katerina said, for once defending her younger brother. “All those fries, fried chicken, and other junk food—none of which our cafeteria serves.”
“Forget it,” the cafeteria lady sighed, suddenly deflated. “Young people these days all want to eat foreign stuff.”
“Katerina, what would you like? I’ll serve you,” she said, reinvigorated.
“I’m on a diet lately,” Katerina replied after a moment’s thought. “Just a little rice and more vegetables, please.”
“You call that fat?” Chang Yu was taken aback by her words.
He looked Katerina up and down for a good while—she was clearly a slim young woman, not in need of a diet at all.
Is it that every young woman sees herself as overweight?
“I really don’t understand girls these days,” the cafeteria lady muttered as she served the food. “Skinny as a rail, yet always claiming to be fat and talking about dieting—sigh!”
Handing Katerina her tray, the cafeteria lady put down her ladle. “Eat up, and if you need more, come back for seconds.”
“Don’t go! You haven’t served me yet!” Yang Yang protested anxiously, seeing the cafeteria lady about to leave.
She’d served Chang Yu and Katerina, so why not him?
What, did she look down on Fuling or something?
The more Yang Yang thought about it, the angrier she became, her face puffing up like a steamed bun.
“Who said that?” The cafeteria lady shivered as if startled, scanning the room nervously.
All she saw were Chang Yu and Katerina standing before her—no one else.
“Did you two just hear someone speak?” she asked, glancing at Chang Yu in alarm.
“We did,” Chang Yu replied honestly, blinking.
“I heard it too,” Katerina chimed in.
“I knew it! This cafeteria is haunted!” The cafeteria lady’s round face went pale with fright, looking for all the world like a terrified child of fifty.
“No one ever believes me—they say I’m superstitious. Well, now the ghosts are acting up in broad daylight!”
Chang Yu: ...
Katerina: ...
“You’re the ghost! Your whole family are ghosts!” Yang Yang fumed, feeling utterly insulted and maligned.
He was a venerable thousand-year-old Fuling, so how had he become some nameless ghost?
He stood on tiptoe, hands raised high, trying to hit the glass window above to express his displeasure.
After stretching for a while, he still couldn’t reach the glass.
“???”
Yang Yang’s expression grew awkward, his face shifting from pale to red, then purple to black—like a Peking opera mask changing faces.
He finally understood why the cafeteria lady had mistaken him for a ghost.
His current appearance was that of a five or six-year-old child—how tall could a little sprout like that be?
Even on tiptoe with hands raised, he couldn’t reach the counter.
Yang Yang was simply too short, so the cafeteria lady didn’t see him. Even if she heard his voice, she couldn’t spot him, so she assumed the “ghost” was present: heard but unseen.
“Pfft!”
Chang Yu couldn’t help but laugh. He scooped Yang Yang up so that their eyes were level with the cafeteria lady’s.
“It was this little guy talking to you, not a ghost,” Chang Yu explained with a smile.
He thought his explanation would calm the cafeteria lady.
But, unexpectedly, she grew even more agitated upon seeing Yang Yang.
Her gaze at Yang Yang was a mixture of shock and a touch of fear, fear tinged with delight, delight spiced with alarm, and alarm containing all sorts of subtle emotions.
“It’s only been a few years, and your child is already this big?” The cafeteria lady swallowed hard.
“When did you get married? Why didn’t you tell me?” she reproached Katerina, her squinty eyes appraising Chang Yu.
“Katerina’s a good girl—you should treat her well. Always be considerate; after all, she gave you a child.”
“!!!!”
Chang Yu was stunned, his mind nearly forgetting how to breathe.
Mouth or nose? Mouth felt too obvious, nose was a bit suffocating. His thoughts were in a jumble.
What did the cafeteria lady just say? Katerina gave him a child? Since when?
“I always wondered why I felt such a connection with Chang Yu, even though we haven’t known each other long,” the cafeteria lady mused.
“It must be Katerina—her presence makes me feel like we’re family.”
She fumbled for her wallet. “I didn’t make it to your wedding, but I must give you a gift.
“Even if it’s a bit late, this way you’ll know my love is no less than anyone else’s.”
Suddenly, the world seemed to fall silent.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Chang Yu’s heart pounded faster and faster, and he could feel every beat.
Married to Katerina?
Me?
He thought carefully, and to his delight discovered:
Aside from being poor, not quite six feet tall, not particularly handsome, unable to beat Yang Yang, ranked at the very bottom in the bureau, and always missing Koji’s true form, he really had no flaws. Rounded up, he was practically perfect.
With someone like him, wasn’t marrying Katerina perfectly natural?
For a moment, he looked at the ladle-wielding cafeteria lady and found her more and more pleasing to the eye—almost beautiful.
She truly had an eye for people, instantly seeing his “marital resemblance” with Katerina.
“I’m not married,” Katerina’s cheeks flushed red behind her ears.
Though she forced a calm demeanor, inside she was thoroughly flustered.
Any unmarried woman would feel uncomfortable being mistaken for a wife.
“Oh, stop joking!” The cafeteria lady gave Katerina a strange look, as if examining a suspect stubbornly denying the obvious.
“Not married? Then where did such a big child come from? Did Xiao Yu have him all by himself?”
Chang Yu: ...
Well, you hit the nail right on the head!
He took a deep breath; his good mood had already vanished.
Lady, you really know how to pick the sore spot.
He silently recited a ditty the director often quoted:
Don’t get angry
Life is a play; fate brings us together
Growing old together isn’t easy, so treasure it
Why lose your temper over trivialities? In hindsight, is it worth it?
If others are angry, I won’t be; no one else will suffer for my illness
“I’m not angry, I’m really not angry,” Chang Yu muttered, feeling a toothache.
“We’re not what you think,” Katerina decided it was best to clarify at once. “That child isn’t ours. You’ve really misunderstood.”
“Really?” The cafeteria lady looked at Chang Yu, her eyes full of questions.
Katerina also glanced at Chang Yu, hoping he’d clear up the misunderstanding.
Under their gaze, Chang Yu felt awkward. Though he was tempted to tease Katerina, a man’s intuition told him to drop the idea.
He could sense that Katerina truly wanted him to say something honest at this moment.
So, to avoid upsetting her, he braced himself and said, “This child really isn’t ours.”
“Then where did he come from?” the cafeteria lady asked, still suspicious.
Chang Yu glanced aside guiltily and mumbled, “Found him in a cesspit.”
Yang Yang: !!!
Yang Yang was indignant.
“This poor child, abandoned since birth, thrown into a cesspit,” the cafeteria lady sighed.
“Chang Yu, you scoundrel! You’re the one from the cesspit!”
Yang Yang struggled furiously in Chang Yu’s arms, kicking his little legs.
“Calm down, calm down,” Chang Yu whispered in his ear. “Remember our agreement?
We can’t reveal your true identity, or a horde of villains will snatch you away to use as medicine.”
At the prospect of being captured and used as a medicinal ingredient, Yang Yang immediately fell silent, his little face collapsing.
The thought of someone like Master Koji locking him in a dark room again filled him with dread.
He’d escaped once, but the fear still haunted him.
So, he kept his mouth shut, looking for all the world as if he’d accepted Chang Yu’s story.