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.

He laid her down on the bed, using a warm towel to clean her face, hands, and feet. Her tiny hands and feet were chubby and soft, feeling like squishy, solid little pillows in his hands. He found clean clothes for her to change into. Little Tong mumbled a few words in her sleep, rolled over, and buried her face in the pillow, sleeping soundly.

Zhong Jin folded her dirty clothes, sealed them in a plastic bag, and prepared to take them back to He'an for washing. As he placed the bag into his suitcase, he noticed an evidence bag containing some clothes and paused, lost in thought.

The evidence bag held the clothes Little Tong had been wearing when she first appeared: a silk blouse, wide-leg cropped pants, and a pair of tiger-head cloth shoes.

Officer Wang had looked into the tiger-head shoes but found no records of any brand producing such designs, nor had any embroidery workshops crafted anything similar. It was as if they didn’t exist.

Zhong Jin had been carrying these items with him, intending to hand them over to the Jing City Public Security Bureau to help trace Little Tong’s origins.

However, he wasn’t sure what to expect when he reported this tomorrow. The paternity test results confirmed that Little Tong was his biological child, so they likely wouldn’t take her away. But whether he should raise her—or even if he could—were questions he needed to consider carefully.

Zhong Jin placed the evidence bag back into the suitcase and went to take a shower.

Little Tong shifted in her sleep, going from lying on her stomach with her butt in the air to sprawled on her back, arms and legs spread out like a starfish. Zhong Jin, still damp from the shower, walked over and tugged her T-shirt down to cover her round little belly, then pulled the blanket over her.

That night, Zhong Jin barely slept. He sat on the curved sofa by the window for hours, and as dawn approached, he stood up, splashed cold water on his face in the bathroom, changed into a shirt and trousers, and woke the sleeping child.

Zhong Yuntong sat up groggily, her eyes half-closed, and mumbled, "I want to sleep more," before flopping back onto the bed.

Zhong Jin scooped her up and carried her to the bathroom to wash up.

After being forcibly "switched on" by her dad, Little Tong yawned a few times, her eyes still closed, and shoved the toothbrush he handed her into her mouth, scrubbing haphazardly.

Her sleeping habits were atrocious. Zhong Jin, who hadn’t slept at all, had watched her cycle through a dozen different sleeping positions throughout the night. When she woke up, her short, bowl-cut hair was sticking up in all directions, no longer looking like it had been struck by lightning but rather like she had sprouted a few lightning rods on her head.

Zhong Jin tried to tame the stubborn strands with a warm towel, but after several attempts, a tuft of hair at the back of her head still refused to lie flat. Losing patience, he grabbed a small basin hat and plopped it onto her head.

After washing up and dressing Little Tong, he helped her put on her pink piggy backpack.

By the time they were done, Little Tong was fully awake. She looked up at him with bright, curious eyes and asked, "Dad, where are we going today?"

Zhong Jin placed the packed suitcase by the door, then turned back and walked over to her. He crouched down in front of her, meeting her gaze at eye level. His expression was complex, but after a moment, his eyes returned to their usual calm, deep and unreadable like an abyss.

"Little Tong, I need to tell you something. Listen carefully... and don’t joke around."

Little Tong, still smiling, covered her mouth and nodded. "Okay, okay."

Zhong Jin continued, "My work is going to be a bit dangerous from now on. It’s not safe for you to stay with me, so I’m going to hand you over to the state. They’ll investigate your background and make sure someone takes good care of you as you grow up. Do you understand what I’m saying?"

Little Tong pursed her lips and stared at him intently. "I don’t know."

Zhong Jin rephrased it more directly. "I can’t raise you. Someone more suitable will take care of you."

Little Tong reached out and clutched Zhong Jin’s pant leg tightly, shouting, "No!"

Zhong Jin sighed softly.

"I don’t know if you can fully understand me, but remember this: it’s not your fault that I can’t raise you. It’s because I can’t. My work is dangerous, and my family has already lost their lives because of it. I can’t keep you with me. But no matter where you are, I’ll always be watching over you from the shadows, making sure you grow up safe and sound."

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."