After helping finish processing the scene, they did not return to the squad until very late.
Ren Yi put Miaomiao in his room, opened a can of food for it, gave it a bowl of water, and then went to take a shower himself.
It was already late autumn, yet he didn’t turn on the hot water. He let the icy shower water pour down over his head and face, cooling the restlessness and irritation in his heart.
I acted impulsively, he thought. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. After all, Gong Yingxian was only trying to help.
But absolute obedience to orders during emergency dispatches was a principle carved into his bones. A fire scene was like a battlefield. In such a dangerous place, no one could be an exception. Gong Yingxian’s actions at the time had genuinely scared him badly.
What if there were still leaking tanks on the truck?
What if the leaking chemicals were reacting with the oxides?
What if one of them caught fire right next to Gong Yingxian…
These “what ifs,” one after another, were things he didn’t even dare to think about any further. They were the main reason for his anger. Gong Yingxian was so afraid of fire—how could he allow him to put himself in danger of being burned?
Of course, after calming down, he felt that he had overreacted somewhat. Gong Yingxian was afraid of fire, yet he had still gone forward without hesitation to help them. At the very least, Ren Yi should have said thank you.
Ren Yi let out a deep sigh, filled with regret. He banged his head against the bathroom tiles several times.
A faint cat meow came from behind him.
Ren Yi turned around and saw that Miaomiao had somehow pushed open the bathroom door that hadn’t been completely closed. A little black head poked inside, staring intently at him.
“Why are you secretly watching me shower?” Ren Yi flexed his biceps. “Daddy’s got a pretty good body, huh?”
Miaomiao tilted its head.
Ren Yi lowered his arm in boredom and sighed.
“Do you think I should apologize to him or something?”
Miaomiao’s golden eyes stared at Ren Yi without blinking.
“I was a little impulsive, but he was wrong too. I’m the commander. How could he just act on his own? It was so dangerous.”
“But he’s not going to apologize to me. You know what he said when I asked him to apologize last time?” Ren Yi pursed his lips and imitated Gong Yingxian in an affected tone. “I know I misunderstood you, but I just don’t want to apologize to you. Tch, is that even something a normal person would say?”
“But… if he won’t apologize and I don’t go looking for him either, then are we just going to ignore each other from now on?” Ren Yi irritably rubbed shampoo into his hair. “We’re both grown men. What’s the point of giving each other the silent treatment? Besides, we still have work to do.”
Ren Yi muttered to himself as he finished his shower. He changed into his pajamas, picked Miaomiao up, and placed it on the bed.
With his head resting on his arm, he stared at the plain white ceiling. But what appeared in his mind wasn’t the argument that had ended with the two of them parting unhappily. Instead, it was Gong Yingxian’s handsome face as he had approached him wearing the gas mask.
Ren Yi’s heart jolted, and he suddenly came back to his senses.
What was wrong with him?
Had he been bewitched by Gong Yingxian’s appearance?
To say that he had absolutely no thoughts while looking at a face and body like that would be self-deception. But he was long past the age of judging people by their looks. The two of them were practically different from head to toe. He shouldn’t be having unnecessary thoughts.
Besides, the way Gong Yingxian looked at Qiu Yan had already said a lot. Ren Yi wasn’t the type to deliberately make a fool of himself.
It must have been because he felt guilty, which was why he had been overthinking things today.
He should still go apologize. Expecting Gong Yingxian to take the initiative to come looking for him was absolutely impossible. He needed to be more mature and magnanimous. There was no need to compete with a spoiled young master.
The next morning, during morning drills, Ren Yi was somewhat distracted. He held his phone, hesitating over whether he should send a message.
Should he send a message first to ease the atmosphere and warm things up a little? Or should he go directly to find Gong Yingxian and resolve the problem face-to-face?
Neither option seemed very good.
What if Gong Yingxian didn’t reply to his message? That would mean he wasn’t giving Ren Yi an opening. Was Ren Yi supposed to jump up and down trying to make peace with him? How embarrassing.
But what if he went directly to Gong Yingxian and was met with an icy face? That would be even more embarrassing, and there would be no room left for him to make another move.
Ren Yi agonized over it for a long time and became irritated.
When had he become so indecisive?
“Captain Ren, Captain Ren!” Liu Hui called out breathlessly. “We’re done running. Can we rest now?”
Ren Yi answered perfunctorily, “Mm. Rest.”
Everyone immediately dispersed where they stood.
When Li Sa passed by Ren Yi, she stopped. She smiled and said, “Captain Ren, what are you worrying about? You’ve been completely absent-minded all morning.”
Ren Yi looked up at her, then dejectedly patted the space beside him.
“Want to sit?”
He was sitting on the steps leading into the squad building. This spot was usually his “throne” when he watched everyone train on the field.
Li Sa had worked up quite a sweat during training. She wiped her sweat as she sat down beside Ren Yi.
“What’s wrong?”
She then gulped down nearly half a bottle of water.
“You tell me. What do I look like I’m worrying about?” Ren Yi had no intention of discussing it with anyone. He was simply annoyed and wanted to chat for a while. He opened his own water bottle and took a sip.
Li Sa leaned back a little and narrowed her eyes as she looked Ren Yi up and down.
“You look like you made your girlfriend angry and don’t know how to coax her.”
Ren Yi spat out the entire mouthful of water.
Li Sa burst out laughing.
Ren Yi wiped his face.
“What the hell? How did you come to that conclusion?”
“You’ve been looking at your phone all morning, picking it up and putting it down over and over again, and you’ve got this worried look on your face.” Li Sa laughed. “I was just guessing. What, did I actually guess right?”
“Bullshit.” Ren Yi felt a little guilty. Although Gong Yingxian was neither a woman nor his girlfriend, this feeling really, really was a little similar.
A woman’s intuition was terrifying.
“Then what are you worried about?” Li Sa asked curiously.
Ren Yi glanced at Li Sa and cleared his throat.
“First, let me make one thing clear. I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m just curious, purely curious. Generally speaking… if you make your girlfriend angry, how do you coax her?”
Li Sa gave him a meaningful “Oh,” then revealed a teasing smile.
“I can teach you a three-step method. I guarantee it works.”
“What method?”
“Apologize, buy a gift, and say sweet things. You have to use all three together. I guarantee you’ll make up like nothing ever happened.”
Ren Yi blinked.
“Oh. You girls are pretty easy to coax.”
Would this work on Gong Yingxian?
Li Sa patted Ren Yi on the shoulder.
“The most important thing is sincerity.”
Ren Yi clicked his tongue.
“Stop guessing. I’m worried about something at work.”
In the end, Ren Yi decided to send an apology message first.
After sending it, he waited anxiously for a long time. Sure enough, there was no response from the other side.
Although he had expected it, he still couldn’t help feeling somewhat depressed.
He even seriously considered whether he should buy Gong Yingxian a gift or something. But Gong Yingxian seemed to lack nothing, and someone as picky as him might make things even worse if Ren Yi chose the wrong gift.
After thinking it over and over, Ren Yi felt that it would be better to go find Gong Yingxian directly.
But not now.
He would calm down for two days first. Besides, he needed to deal with the paperwork that had piled up recently.
That afternoon, while he was writing a report, Qu Yangbo notified him that Gong Fei Lan had arrived.
He went downstairs and saw several firefighters helping Gong Fei Lan carry several paper bags. It was obvious that she had come to bring them snacks again.
“Fei Lan? Aren’t you supposed to be at school today?”
“I took the day off.” Gong Fei Lan said proudly. “I caught a cold. I didn’t want to go to school.”
Ren Yi lightly scolded her. “You look perfectly fine. Don’t tell me you’re skipping school.”
“Of course not. I really did catch a cold a few days ago. I just got better now. I’ll go back to school tomorrow.” Gong Fei Lan happily ran over to Ren Yi. “I just came from my cousin’s place. Uncle Sheng prepared lots of delicious food and had me bring it over.”
“You just came from your brother’s place?” Ren Yi asked casually. “Is he at home?”
“He happened to go home to get something, and I ran into him.”
“He… how is he?”
Gong Fei Lan looked confused.
“How is what?”
The firefighters who had witnessed the two of them arguing all revealed faintly amused expressions.
Ren Yi glared at them.
“Oh, I was just asking casually. He’s pretty busy, huh?”
“Yeah, but when he heard I was coming to the squad, he even told Uncle Sheng to prepare more things.” Gong Fei Lan said proudly. “So I brought a lot this time. There are Cantonese pastries and desserts. There are definitely lots of things you like.”
As she spoke, she began opening the pastry boxes.
Ren Yi’s heart lifted.
Gong Yingxian had personally told Uncle Sheng to prepare more food for him?
It looked like Gong Yingxian had already gotten over his anger. He was just too proud to talk to Ren Yi.
As long as Ren Yi took the initiative…
“Ah!”
Gong Fei Lan suddenly let out a scream, startling everyone.
“W-What happened?”
“My mango mousse!”
Gong Fei Lan looked at the desserts inside the box, which had been knocked into a crooked mess, and stomped her foot angrily.
“This one was so pretty! What happened? How did it get smashed up like this?”
“Oh, this box got smashed too.” Ding Qing opened another box and looked at the radish pastries inside, which had been mashed into a lump. He said regretfully, “What a shame.”
“This box too…”
Gong Fei Lan’s expression changed. She began checking them one by one and discovered that at least half of the exquisitely shaped delicacies had gone through a miniature storm inside their boxes.
She said furiously, “How did this happen? I was really careful when I carried them. I never dropped them!”
“Could someone else have mishandled them?”
Ding Qing and the others immediately raised their hands.
“Wasn’t me! I carried mine very carefully. The box didn’t even tilt.”
Sun Dingyi laughed. “Oh, it’s not a big deal. Don’t worry. We’ll eat every last bit of it anyway.”
The others also chimed in, comforting Gong Fei Lan.
Gong Fei Lan still couldn’t understand it. She said gloomily, “After everything was prepared, Uncle Sheng and my cousin helped me carry them to the car. The car drove very smoothly the whole way, and I was very careful when I carried them just now. How did this happen?”
Hearing this, Ren Yi’s brows knitted together.
“Your cousin helped you carry them?”
“Yeah. My cousin rarely bothers with these kinds of little chores.”
Gong Fei Lan went to the kitchen to get some tableware, still annoyed.
Ren Yi froze for a long moment before finally realizing what had happened.
He actually laughed from sheer anger and gritted his teeth.
“Damn, what a spoiled young master.”
“Captain Ren, are you talking about Gong Fei Lan?” Liu Hui asked quietly. “I think she’s pretty cute. She doesn’t really have a spoiled-young-lady attitude.”
“I’m talking about Gong Yingxian.”