Chapter 109 - I'll do some digging

"I'll do some digging. By the way, thanks for your help earlier," Detective Qing said as she looked at his bandaged arm. "I might be the one injured if it weren't for you."

"No big deal." 

Before they parted, Detective Qing asked, "Oh, when are you going back to Imperial City?"

"Early tomorrow morning." 

Detective Qing looked at her calendar on her phone before she said, "You said that you're staying at the 5* hotel on X st, right? If you're free, I'd like to invite you to dinner as thanks. That hotel has a great hotpot restaurant."

Callum thought for a while. He shrugged and said, "Sure, why not. I have to eat anyway." 

....

At dinner, Callum's lips were burning as he downed an entire glass of water. 

"F*ck, Detective Qing! You didn't tell me that it's mala hotpot!" Callum cursed before he poured himself another glass of cold water. "Waiter, milk! A GALLON!" 

Detective Qing laughed as she ate another skewer of meat. "I didn't know that the heir of Shenlong Family can't eat spicy food." 

"You knew?" Callum glanced at her suspiciously.

"Kinda hard not to know, considering my line of job. It's a good thing that your people doesn't operate here. Otherwise, I won't have a chance to eat with the elusive heir." 

Callum smirked. "That's why you were asking all those questions. Well, if you're trying to get any information out of me, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm the wrong person to ask." 

"Really now?" she asked with a brow raised.

"If you've done your homework well, you'd know that I grew up in the Du Family. I have nothing to do with Shenlong Family's operation."

"I doubt that Du Family has completely distanced itself from the Shenlong Family."

Callum raised a brow at her. He wanted to look cool but he couldn't. His red, burning lips completely ruined his image. A second later, he drank the entire glass of milk that the waiter just brought him. "Another one," he said to the waiter as he handed the glass back to him. 

Detective Qing laughed softly. "But today, I just want to treat you to a meal. Our backgrounds aside, I'm impressed with your shooting skills."

"My brother made sure that I know the basic skills to defend myself. After all, as you can see, I'm frequently targeted by others even though I made it clear that I'm not interested in joining that side," Callum said and shrugged. He looked at the meatballs that were in his bowl, drowning in red spicy soup.

He was still hungry, and in front of a woman, he did not want to wimp out. 

Therefore, he picked up a meatball and bit into it. After the third meatballs, he was groaning again. "How the heck do people eat this..." 

Detective Qing laughed and said, "How about I order some fried rice for you?" 

"Yes, that would be great." It was embarrassing, but at least it was better than having his stomach pumped from excessive spiciness. He could only imagine what his "wife" would say if that were to happen.

Detective Qing nodded before she chuckled. "I'll tell them to make it kid-friendly." 

"Ha. Ha." Callum glared at her. 

While waiting for his meal, Detective Qing continued to eat without even breaking a sweat. Her feat impressed Callum, and he started to lower his guard around her. 

In order to respect each other's job, they did not talk about their work. Instead, they talked about their families. For Callum, that meant Luo Guangying. He told Detective Qing how much he loved his "wife" and how much he had to suffer back when he was courting his "wife". 

Detective Qing laughed when Callum told her how often he got his "nuts" hit for misbehaving.

"Your boyfriend seems interesting," Detective Qing said. 

"Yeah, he is. He's also very beautiful. Trust me, if you don't look at his perfect body and put a wig on him, you'd think that he's actually a hot woman!" Callum said with a loving smile as he showed her the photo of Luo Guangying, which was on his phone wallpaper. 

"Well, he's handsome, that's for sure," Detective Qing as she looked at Luo Guangying's photo. "I'm sure you have lots of competition." 

"Well, of course! But he's mine though, so you can only see and not touch. That job is mine," Callum said and winked at her. He enjoyed her presence as she did not treat him differently. Furthermore, she was cool with talking dirty jokes, which Callum could not do with his upper-class female friends.

Well, there was Kai Xin... but he did not want to hear the jokes as it usually involved his brother's prowess.

Callum did not have many friends growing up, so he was thinking how great it was to have her as a friend. "You know. If you ever drop by Imperial City, come and find me at Du Corporation. I'll buy you a better dinner than this."

"Ha! There's nothing better than mala hotpot!" 

Callum made a "i'm disgusted by this" face before they resumed back to their conversation. 

They chatted until quite late at night and even drank some alcohol. However, after a while, Detective Qing murmured, "I feel... so tired..." 

Her vision was blurry. "I think... dr-"

She fell down with her face planted on the table before she could finish her words. 

Worried, Callum tried to wake her up by shaking her. When it didn't work, he stood up with the intention to go to her. Yet for some reason, the moment he stood up, he felt faint all of a sudden.

"Someone drugged the food?" he thought as he tried to call out for help. He felt energy drained out of him, and he fell onto the floor with a loud thud. 

Before he fainted, he saw someone's legs walking toward him...

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Every step the person in front of him took, there was a tapping sound... a familiar tapping sound. 

"B-black..." Callum murmured before he completely passed out.  

....

By the time Callum woke up, he had a splitting headache and a confused mind. Looking around, he recognized that he was in the hotel room that he booked.

"How..." Callum patted his forehead as he tried to think about what happened last night. However, he could not remember much. "Detective Qing... Dinner?" 

When he sat up, he realized that other than the bandage on his arm, he was not wearing anything else. 

"Sh*t!" Panic ran through him as he slowly turned his head. Underneath the blanket, there was a huge bump. While he stared at it, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. 

Worried that he might have fallen into some "rice turned to porridge" scheme, he slowly pulled the blanket away while praying, "No one, no one, no one..."

"Thank god..." he sighed in relief when he saw that he was alone on the bed. The bump was caused by pillows and a bolster. However, he was still confused as to why he was wearing only a pair of boxers. 

THUMP!

When he stood up, he felt so dizzy that he fell down hard on his knees. "Urgh!" Callum groaned as he pulled himself up with the help of the bed frame. As he sat on the bed, suddenly, he felt nauseated and ran clumsily to the toilet.

A flushing sound later, Callum dragged himself out of the toilet and went to get his handphone. As he sat on the bed, he then called someone. 

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be at home by now?" Luo Guangying asked as he kept his eyes on the laptop. The moving graphs on the screen were giving him a headache. 

Callum groaned, "Wife... We're in trouble." 

"What?" 

Callum lay down on the bed and complained, "My head hurt... My back is aching... and I just vomited... I think I'm pregnant..."

Thud!

A soft thud came from across the phone.

Callum looked at his phone before putting it back against his ear. "Hello? Are you alright?"

"It's the cup, and stop joking around. If you can get pregnant, then we need to get my 'little brother' test out for supernatural ability!" Luo Guangying said annoyingly as he wiped the water off the table before they could reach his laptop. 

"Ok... but I'm not joking about feeling sick... I really vomited..." Callum said weakly before he gagged again. He then ran back into the bathroom to vomit. 

Hearing him vomiting in the background, Luo Guangying was worried that his idiot was really sick. Even though it was not unlike Callum to fake an illness, but given that Callum just told him not to come over yesterday when Luo Guangying offered, the latter did not think that he was faking an illness now.

When he heard flushing followed by the sound of someone picking up the phone with a groan, Luo Guangying sighed and said gently, "I'll come and pick you up. You're probably sick from the wound you received yesterday." 

Callum nodded. He was too weak to do anything else, so he merely told him the hotel details before he hung up. 

A few hours later, Luo Guangying arrived at the city and went straight to Callum's room. After he knocked, he waited for Callum to answer the door. And the moment the door was pushed open, Callum, who had put on a shirt, hugged him immediately and placed his head on Luo Guangying's shoulder. 

"Xun?" Luo Guangying called out softly as he looked at the man's back. 

"I feel so terrible..." Callum groaned as he leaned against Luo Guangying. "No energy..." 

Luo Guangying helped him back into the room and placed Callum on the bed. He then looked at his own palm and thought, "His back... feels kind of warm?"

With a frown, he then placed his palm on Callum's forehead before exclaiming, "F*ck! You're having a high fever!" 

Callum gagged again and ran to the bathroom to vomit. By the time he was done, he sat on the bathroom floor and looked at Luo Guangying. 

His face was so pale that Luo Guangying could not bear to even be mean for him. He wet a towel and wrung out the water before he used the water to wipe the sweat away from Callum's face and body.

"I'm sorry..." Callum said as he looked at Luo Guangying. "Waste time..." 

Luo Guangying sighed. He placed a kiss on Callum's forehead before he murmured, "It's fine, you idiot. How did you get this sick?" 

Once he was done, he helped Callum back into the room to change into a clean set of clothes. Callum's previous shirt was stained with dried vomit and sweat.

Luo Guangying then called someone on his phone, and once he was done, he helped Callum's up and said, "Come. I'll take you to the hospital."

....