Journey of Lies

Sheng Zhi parked his motorcycle, then waved two bags in front of her: "I couldn't have come empty-handed, here you go."

Jiang Xia took one of the bags and found it contained large bottles of mineral water. He couldn't help but admire the man's thoughtfulness.

The two entered the living room, and Sheng Zhihuan looked around before asking curiously, "Doesn't your husband usually live here?"

As Jiang Xia placed the water and drinks that Sheng Zhi had bought into the refrigerator, she said, "He went back to China before."

"Is he not in Thailand right now?"

Jiang Xia pursed her lips, stood up and handed him a bottle of Coke, "You ask so many questions."

Sheng Zhi could tell that Jiang Xia didn't want to answer, so he got up and paced around the living room. "Where's the water valve?"

Jiang Xia led Sheng Zhi to the backyard. The afternoon sun in Thailand is most intense around three or four o'clock. There are several water valves of various sizes on the wall in the corner of the equipment room.

"I turned it on here, but then I turned it off again because there was no water." Jiang Xia squatted down and pointed to the main valve.

The equipment room was so stuffy that the temperature could reach 37 or 38 degrees Celsius. There was no air circulation, and Jiang Xia's forehead was covered with fine sweat.

Sheng Zhi bent down to check, but caught a glimpse of Jiang Xia's collar. He looked away and coughed lightly, reminding her, "Go inside and see if there's any water. It seems you didn't turn it all the way down."

Jiang Xia hurriedly went inside, then quickly ran back to the French doors and shouted, "No, still no."

Sheng Zhi couldn't help but sigh. He had met all sorts of women, with all kinds of styles, but this was the first time he had encountered a woman who was both guarded and didn't know how to protect herself.

After a while, Sheng Zhicai returned to the living room, closed the French doors, and kept the heat out.

"What's the water number for this house?"

"Water number?"

Sheng Zhi raised an eyebrow, not surprised at all: "Never mind, I'll call the company. I guess they ran out of water. Your husband probably prepaid it."

He saw the company name in the equipment room, called the official customer service, and after providing the address, he was able to find out that the bill was in arrears. Considering that Jiang Xia definitely didn't know the account number and password for the house's water and electricity, he could only ask Jiang Xia to write down his email address.

After communicating via email, the payment was finally successful.

After waiting for fifteen minutes, the kitchen tap started running water.

Jiang Xia had just turned off the water when she heard the sound of running water coming from upstairs again. "Oh no, I forgot to turn off the bathroom faucet."

The two went up to the second floor one after the other, with Sheng Zhi following behind her, roughly observing the layout of the house.

Arriving at the bathroom door in the master bedroom, Sheng Zhi frowned: "It smells so pungent."

Jiang Xia also smelled it. When he came in, the window was wide open. Now that the air conditioning wasn't on on the second floor, the bathroom had been stuffy in the high temperature for nearly two hours, and a pungent, strange fragrance was emanating from it.

Sheng Zhi immediately spotted the toilet cleaner behind the bathtub. "Hu Junxi uses this one at home too, so the smell shouldn't be this pungent... How much did you use?"

"I didn't use it; it was probably used by Xiu Jie before," Jiang Xia said, turning off the tap and opening the window. "If you hadn't come over, I probably wouldn't have had any water today. Thank you."

Sheng Zhi didn't stand on ceremony with her. She went to wash her hands at the sink, but couldn't help pausing. She leaned closer and smelled the floor: "It smells like strong perfume."

Having spent the past few days with Jiang Xia, he knew very well that Jiang Xia did not have the habit of wearing perfume, let alone such a strong fragrance.

Hearing Sheng Zhi say this, Jiang Xia hesitated for a moment, then followed his example and sniffed the bathroom tiles. Even from a distance of several tens of centimeters, she could already smell the perfume that Sheng Zhi was talking about.

It smelled very similar to the smell that had been on her hands a few hours earlier.

While washing his hands, Sheng Zhi joked, "It's like spilling perfume and then washing it with toilet cleaner; the final smell is really weird."

As Jiang Xia stood by the pool, listening to Sheng Zhi's words, a clear picture gradually formed in his mind.

"Come with me."

The two arrived at the window, and Jiang Xia wiped the window handle with a clean tissue. Sure enough, he could smell that fragrance again.

Sheng Zhi took the tissue and reached his conclusion in just a few seconds.

"Someone knocked over a perfume bottle, and instead of frantically cleaning it up, they opened the window, which means..."

"Is he worried that people will discover there's a scent here that doesn't belong to him?"

Sheng Zhi shrugged, crumpled the tissue into a ball, and threw it into the trash can, but missed.

"Since you're already sure your husband is cheating, do these details still matter that much? Or are you worried that your husband has been keeping a mistress in the past? Or is he still hiding her in some closet?" Sheng Zhi stepped forward, picked up the crumpled paper, and threw it back in. "If you want to catch him in the act, be sure to call me. I love watching this kind of exciting scene."

If Xu Xiujie were still alive, she would definitely want to get to the bottom of this.

The two went downstairs one after the other. Sheng Zhi walked ahead, looking at the three-story house. "When is your husband coming back? Doesn't he want to be involved in selling the house?"

Jiang Xia stopped and turned to look at him: "Are you that curious about my husband?"

On the stairs, their eyes met for once.

Suddenly, Sheng Zhi leaned closer, and Jiang Xia's heel touched the step.

"I like you. If you two don't get along, then I'll have a chance."

This was the first time Jiang Xia had seen Sheng Zhi up close. He was very handsome, with strong features, thick eyebrows, and big eyes. His peach blossom eyes, paired with his dimples that appeared and disappeared, added a touch of gentleness.

"You have to know your limits when joking, or you won't even be able to be friends." Jiang Xia said, and started to walk around him downstairs.

"Lovers often start as friends," Sheng Zhi said, moving to block her path and gently lifting her wrist. "You're not wearing your wedding ring?"

"I'm just afraid of losing it again." Jiang Xia pulled her hand back, her eyes darting around as she quickly went down the stairs.

Sheng Zhi smiled casually. Jiang Xia was very naive. If he could really win her over, it wouldn't be too difficult.

As I stepped downstairs, my phone suddenly vibrated; it was a message from the client.

I'm near your hotel; let's meet up and chat if it's convenient.

Sheng Zhi frowned. He rarely took on this kind of job; most of the time, he chose his own clients. Faced with such a condescending demand, he did not choose to comply.

[Sheng Zhi: I'm out, it's inconvenient, let's talk another day.]