Gavin did not expect himself to be witnessing such a... shocking image.

Brian, the man who had sworn off all women and had treated them with nothing but aloofness night and day, was actually kissing a woman right now. If it were not for the fact that he was now witnessing it with his own two eyes, Gavin could never imagine how that image would look like.

"Now it seems like... Oh, so Brian is a normal guy, after all!" Gavin thought. He then realized that Brian had not sworn off all women; Brian had merely sworn off any woman who was not Joanne.

Gavin rubbed the tip of his nose awkwardly; this was his first time killing the mood for someone. There was a cupboard beside the door, on which Gavin set the breakfast food he had bought for them as well as Brian's gastric medicine. Pressing his hands together in apology, Shen Yuechuen performed a bow. "I didn't know you guys were... Ahem. The point is, I didn't do it on purpose. Just pretend that I was never here."

Joanne and Brian had kissed each other countless times. Then again, this was still the first time where they had their moment ruined by someone they knew well.

The flush on Joanne's face was so deep that she might as well be bleeding through the pores of her face. She tilted her head aside and shut her eyes forcefully. How she wished she could just disappear right then and there.

Gavin was someone who knew how to take a hint. He quickly made himself scarce, closing the door for the sweet couple on his way out.

Brian released Joanne. "He left already, so why don't we..." Brian said, his tone amused and suggestive.

Joanne could tell what Brian had been about to suggest. She lowered her head and gave him a light shove. "Why don't you leave too!"

Brian actually stood up and headed towards the door. At the sound of his footsteps, Joanne raised her head and stared stupidly at Brian's back. To her surprise, Brian was not leaving. Instead, he took the congee and medication from the cupboard before turning around to walk towards her bed.

Lowering her head quickly, she busied herself with pretending that she had not been watching Brian all this while.

The corners of Brian's lips lifted slightly. He dragged a movable table top towards the bed and set it up before Joanne. He opened the containers to reveal the contents of their breakfast courtesy of Gavin.

Two bowls of preserved egg meat congee, a plate of sushi, and two fried eggs.

Due to his unbearable gastric pain, Brian instinctively reached for the gastric medication first. Joanne stopped him. "Your medication is supposed to be taken after meals."

Then, in a feat of unprecedented acquiescence, Brian put down the medication and reached for the congee instead. He took a sip and then frowned. Seeing the clear frown on his face, Joanne took a sip as well. It tasted mediocre. No wonder Brian seemed so revolted by it.

There was a knock on their door. It was Gavin again.

He poked his head inside. "I forgot to mention just now that I bought the food from a little store near the hospital. The taste might not be stellar, so you guys will just have to bear with it for the time being. I'm looking for a nice restaurant right now. You have my word that you won't be enduring such coarse food for lunch."

City Z was merely a small prefecture-level city; finding a restaurant whose food suited Brian's taste was most likely impossible. Plus, Gavin was not someone who was familiar with the area, so it would not be an easy task for him to find a decent restaurant.

Gavin obviously knew that, too. After a brief pause, Gavin suggested, "Still think that it's best if you guys can return to Arlington, though."

Joanne lowered her lashes in thought. Brian had no idea what was going through her mind right now. Brian gave Gavin a look, signaling him to leave.

It was then that Gavin finally understood what was going on: Joanne was hesitant to go back. Then again, that felt strange to him. "They had been kissing just now. How come Brian hasn't convinced her yet?" He wondered.

Still, Gavin took the hint and left quickly.

After breakfast, Brian booted up his laptop so that he could manage his company remotely. He was so neck-deep in work that he barely spared Joanne a glance.

In contrast, Joanne felt more relaxed than ever, lying on her bed with nothing to occupy herself. The only thing she could do was silently watch Brian work.

Captain Turner and the squad leader came by when it was nearly noon. Hannah and Shawn came with them too.

The few of them crowded the single hospital room. The tiny room, which had been quiet for the whole morning, suddenly became lively.

Brian closed the lid of his laptop and stood up. "You guys chat. I'll step outside for a while."

"Oh," Joanne said in response. Then, she watched as Brian's tall form vanished through the doorway. All of a sudden, there was an indescribable feeling in her heart.

Shawn held out a hand and waved it in front of Joanne's eyes. "He's just stepping out briefly. Do you really have to act like it's an eternal parting?"

"Stop joking around," Joanne said, slapping Shawn's hand away. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to take over your job," Shawn said with a sigh. "If I had known that you would end up getting hurt, I wouldn't have agreed to let you come."

Joanne thought about it. "Well, it's not like I gained nothing by coming here."

At least she had heard those three words from Brian's mouth, even if everything from this morning still felt like a dream.

Shawn knew Joanne far too well. With that kind of look on her face? Surely, this gain had nothing to do with work at all.

He laughed. "What did you gain? Care to share with the class?"

Joanne snapped out of it instantly and schooled her features. The next second, she was back in work mode again. She started relaying her findings from yesterday's autopsy to Shawn in detail, including the fact that the location of the victim's body was not the actual crime scene, etc.

Shawn took down notes as he listened. "Not bad," he said, nodding. "I heard from the doctor that you had banged your head into something. And yet you still remember so many important details."

"Just because I was hit in the head doesn't mean I've become stupid." Joanne was not in the mood to bicker with Shawn. "Also, I've recovered some samples that need to be analyzed from the body yesterday. I left those samples in my kit, which I place under a tree on my way down."

"We've already retrieved it yesterday," said Captain Turner. "The labs in this town just won't cut it. Shawn will borrow the lab in the City Police Station and perform the analysis there. Joanne, your early arrival at the crime scene yesterday to conduct the autopsy proved immensely valuable to us. You shouldn't worry about the rest and just leave the case to us. Focus on getting better."

Joanne shrugged. "It's not like I can do anything about it even if I worry."

"I bet your Mr. Brian doesn't have the heart to let you worry about work. Not when you're hurt like this," Hannah said in a giggly tone. "He went up the mountain to search for you yesterday despite the heavy rain. He even beat the pros by locating you first. That really shocked everyone for quite a while. In the past, we're always so envious about how nice he's been treating you. Now it seems like he's willing to lay down his own life for you."

Joanne cleared her throat awkwardly. "Aren't you guys supposed to be busy? How is it that you guys still had the time to engage in idle gossip?"

Captain Turner glared at Hannah. "Be serious!" He said. Then, turning back to Joanne, he said, "Just rest well. We'll head back to the town first. There're still loads of things waiting for us to do."

The squad leader, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke. "Miss Scott," he said. "I'm here on behalf of our entire police station. We wish you a speedy recovery, and we deeply appreciate the dedication you have shown to our case."

"It's all in a day's work. I'm just doing what I should so." Suddenly, Joanne remembered that the squad leader was a local. "By the way, squad leader. Can I ask you something?"

"By all means," said the squad leader. "I'll answer you anything as long as it's within my knowledge."

Joanne suddenly felt a bit sheepish. But then she remembered Brian's picky appetite, so she decided to go all in, "Are there any decent restaurants in town?"

That was obviously not a question that the squad leader had been expecting. It took him a while to recover and give her an answer. "Ah, you've come to the right person for that question," the squad leader said. On a piece of paper, he wrote down the names of a few restaurants including their addresses and handed it to Joanne. "I've been to every restaurant in town. These few aren't bad and are worth a try."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," the squad leader said before leaving the room with the others.

Brian came back into the room not long after. He was speaking on the phone when he walked in, leaving work instructions to his assistants. He was frowning as he spoke, and his forehead bore the signs of exhaustion.

"It's probably a huge inconvenience for him to be in City Z, right?" Joanne thought.

When Brian hung up, Joanne asked to borrow his phone. She then used the phone to send the address of the restaurants to Gavin. When she was giving his phone back to him, she looked as if she had something to say.

Brian knew every single one of her facial expression far too well. "What is it?" He asked straightaway.

"Um... Do you want to head back first?" Joanne asked. "What's going to happen to the company if you keep staying here?"

"What's going to happen to you if I go back?" Brian stared at her with a blank expression. "I can run the company remotely. Do you think I'll be able to do the same when it comes to you?"

Joanne interlaced her fingers together. "My injuries aren't that serious. Plus, my brother and Shawn are both here. You don't have to worry about me. I'll head back once this case is solved."

Her intention was to relieve some of Brian's exhaustion, though Brian had completely misconstrued her meaning.

His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Oh, so you think Shawn will be doing a better job looking after you, is that it?"

"That's not what I-"

Joanne was cut off before she could finish.

"Also, I won't be able to look after you, since I'm flying back to Arlington tonight." The door opened and in came Chris. "I'm your brother. Some tasks will be too awkward to handle if I'm the one taking care of you. How can my care compare to Brian's?"

"..." Joanne bit her lips and said nothing.

Chris gave Brian a look, signaling him to leave first. Feeling a surge of frustration in his chest, Brian left with a frown.

Joanne and Chris were the only ones left in the room.

"Why are you refusing to go back with him?" Chris asked without preamble. "It's impossible for him to leave you on your own at a time like this."

"I don't know how to face him," Joanne said, her head hanging low on her shoulders, and her voice betraying her confusion. "He told me a few things, and right now, I'm still in a state of disbelief. I feel the same way as Freya did when you suddenly told her that things were possible between you two. I feel like I'm in a dream. I guess I just want to figure things out before I go back."

"What else is there to figure out?" Chris laughed. "You said you lacked confidence. But Brian was the same. He lacked confidence, too. He thought you had feelings for someone else, so he tried to be nice to you without saying anything. In fact, he even had to worry about you feeling burdened if he was too nice to you. It wasn't easy for him, you know? If it were me, I wouldn't have that kind of patience. I will just make the person you like disappear from the face of the earth and then take you for myself."

"But he said..." Joanne trailed off, feeling a bit sheepish. After a bout of stammering and stumbling over her words, she told Chris about Brian having feelings for her long before they were even married.

Chris was stunned at first, and then he started laughing.

"I was wondering why he was so nice to you after you two got married. So the truth is that he's got his eyes set on you ages ago," Chris said, shaking his head. "You two really make an interesting pair. Your feelings for each other were already so obvious from your daily interactions, and yet neither of you realized a thing. At the end of the day, it all boils down to your lack of confidence, the both of you."

"Joanne, he really does have feelings for you. Otherwise, he wouldn't even bother being nice to you, because that's just not his personality. Look, you should give it a rest even if he really did piss you off this time. A person like him? I'm telling you, his patience and temper are much worse than you imagine."

"What do you mean, 'a person like him'? I seem to recall you being the same type as well," Joanne said, mercilessly having a dig at her own brother.

"Fine, I'm the same." Chris raised his hands in surrender. "I'll be heading back to Arlington tonight. You should go home after two days' rest. Don't mess around anymore, understood?"

"Fine," Joanne said grumpily.

Chris patted his sister's head and left the room. Outside, he saw Brian smoking at the end of the corridor.

He walked over and took the cigarette out of Brian's hand. "Stop smoking. She'd probably ignore you again if you go back inside smelling like tobacco." "That's just how she is. She's headstrong and yet easily moved. If you still can't handle her in two days, just take the hard approach."

Chris patted Brian's shoulder and left the hospital.

Brian opened the window, and a breeze swept in. The smell of tobacco on his body gradually diminished...