Enforcer Manual
Chapter 127: Would Rather Die Than Lose Face, Live to Suffer_1

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: Would Rather Die Than Lose Face, Live to Suffer_1

"This is what you’d call, ’proud to the point of pain’."

Shortly after, Song Lan’s voice could be heard from the kitchen.

Alongside it, the sweet scent of fruit wafted through the air. Lu Xiang closed her eyes, taking a careful sniff.

Indeed, this was how food should smell. She simply couldn’t comprehend why Gao Yuan had maintained such a confident expression at the dinner.

Instead of saying she was angry, it would be more appropriate to say she was rather pitiful towards him.

If food of that level was what she had to eat every day, she would rather use nutritional injections.

Lu Xiang sat comfortably at the table, admitting that her taste buds had been spoiled by Song Lan.

"If it’s salty, just drink water. It’s amazing how you managed to restrain yourself till you got out of the building."

The more Lu Xiang listened, the more she wanted to laugh. She pinched her own arm again, trying to keep herself calm. She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but she seemed to be laughing more frequently lately.

Upon reflection, the primary reason was that Song Lan, deep down, had the soul of a comedian. Like right now, it was hard to imagine a man who had chased the Foster Family out of District 17, a man the United Government was wary of, bustling around the kitchen in an apron and tirelessly rambling.

The more he rambled, the more Lu Xiang wanted to laugh. The hand pinching her arm even began to use more force, enough to redden a small patch of her skin.

"Why aren’t you saying anything?"

Taking advantage of a brief pause after putting the cut fruit into the pot, Song Lan turned to glance at Lu Xiang. And there it was - Lu Xiang’s face was puffed-up and her cheeks were flushed. Her hands were folded on the table like a high school student and, noticing his gaze, she straightened up deliberately.

There was something weird about Lu Xiang today.

"Are you alright?"

Song Lan moved in closer to have a better look at her. Even though Lu Xiang’s face was comically distorted, her eyes were sparkly, almost shimmering like running water.

It was mainly because of the pain.

Then, she felt Song Lan’s palm on her forehead. The warmth from handling pots and pans and the mixture of the scent of apple, pear, and orange were perceptible.

"Open your mouth. Let me see."

"Ah-"

Lu Xiang obediently opened her mouth, sticking her tongue out.

Song Lan kept his face stoic like a doctor. But after a few seconds, he realized his medical knowledge was non-existent and couldn’t discern anything.

"You wait a moment. The fruit soup will be ready soon."

He had no choice but to change the subject. A bowl of fruit soup could always solve most problems, be it from eating something too spicy or too salty.

Lu Xiang didn’t say anything but just lightly nodded.

The diced beef from Tesla Tech tonight was indeed outrageously salty. But even then, it shouldn’t have numbed her tongue for this long, all the way till after the meeting at home.

So, there was only one truth.

She was faking it.

"A Love Tip Every Day" had achieved tremendous success for the first time. The sympathy pleading strategy was outstandingly effective to the point where Song Lan immediately rushed to the kitchen to cook once they got home.

Today, Lu Xiang also had a plan.

In order to carry out this plan, she had to learn from past lessons, the most important of which was to remain patient.

About ten minutes later, a bowl of crystal-clear fruit soup was placed in front of her, hinting at the sweetness that filled the air.

However, it was not yet time to partake.

Even if she had to suffer through pretending to be uncomfortable and waiting for so long at the table, her goal was not merely having this bowl of fruit soup.

Lu Xiang didn’t move her spoon. She just sat there, looking straight into Song Lan’s eyes from across the table.

"Drink it. Why aren’t you drinking it?"

When the fruit soup was brought out, Song Lan had tasted it himself. It was both sour and sweet, tasting fantastic, and would be perfect for neutralizing any residual saltiness on her tongue.

Lu Xiang gritted her teeth, squeezing the back of her hand even more tightly.

Almost at the same time, the expression of discomfort immediately appeared on her face. Under the manipulation of pain, her pitiful expression turned out, naturally devoid of any pretentiousness.

She extended her hand, showing Song Lan the reddened patch.

"It hurts."

At that moment, Song Lan was astonished, his mind going blank.

The fearless Director Lu, who would usually take the lead in the fight against crime amid a hail of bullets without batting an eye, was now yelling about pain from a small red spot on her hand.

"Feed me."

Song Lan was now certain he hadn’t misheard. Today’s Lu Xiang was definitely acting strangely, her behavior could even be described as a serious deviation from the norm.

He gingerly extended his hand to the spoon resting in the porcelain bowl.

"Smack-"

The right hand that had been whining about pain just a moment ago slapped him, then pinned his hand down onto the table.

That night, Lu Xiang suddenly understood a truth.

When Song Lan said, "proud to the point of pain," he couldn’t have been more correct, especially on the path of love. A person who was adherent to their pride would never attain the ending they desire.

So she took a deep breath. The words from "A Love Tip Every Day" had been deeply etched into her memory -- "It seems a bit hot. Help me taste it."

"Alright, wait a moment. Let me taste it first for you."

Song Lan was nervous, even more so than when he confronted the worst crimes in District 17 as a "concerned citizen".

He picked up the spoon and scooped up a bit of the fruit soup from the bowl with the precision of a chemist, as if the spoon didn’t contain food but a chemical agent about to be accurately poured into a beaker. His movements were slow as he sent the fruit soup into his mouth bit by bit.

"It’s slightly hot, but it’s also-"

His words abruptly stopped.

What followed was a soft sensation that stole his words away.

As befitting the head of the law enforcement unit, Lu Xiang’s agility was akin to having the power to stop time. Before he could react, a soft and sliding thing - her tongue - slid into his mouth.

This sensation mixed with the sour-sweetness of the fruit soup made Song Lan understand a truth.

There wasn’t a single tinge of salt left on Lu Xiang’s tongue. Those pallid cheeks, the downcast mood upon arrival home, the silence at the dining table, the reddened spot on the back of her hand, those pitiful puppy eyes... everything from the anomaly in the hover car pointed towards this moment.

Lu Xiang’s scheme was far beyond his imagination.

"It’s tasty."

During their break, Lu Xiang, as always, gave high praise to Song Lan’s cooking skills. "But it’s not enough. Keep feeding me. Don’t stop."

He had been tricked!

However, Lu Xiang didn’t seem to want to give him time to think and come up with a strategy. For a moment, Song Lan almost couldn’t tell who was feeding whom.

During this process, he gradually adapted, almost instinctively complying with Lu Xiang’s actions.

Underneath the night sky, the bright moon and the warm light in the living room complemented each other. The rising heat from the bowl of fruit soup blurred their vision of each other.

At the very least, Song Lan figured out one thing.

As to who was the victor today,

he had lost rather thoroughly.

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