Journey of Lies

Along the way, Ren Jiayi talked about how she met Oscar.

They met while surfing and quickly fell in love. Oscar, who seemed like a playboy, turned out to be a marriage fanatic.

"Isn't that just like me?" Jiang Xia said self-deprecatingly.

"Of course they're different," Ren Jiayi laughed, glanced at Jiang Xia, and said, "You really love Xu Xiujie, Oscar just needs love."

Jiang Xia doesn't understand Ren Jiayi and Oscar's way of getting along, and she knows she has no right to judge them, since everyone has their own desired life.

"Jiayi, do you think he wouldn't have died if I hadn't forced Xiujie to get married?" Jiang Xia murmured.

Ren Jiayi opened her mouth, but after a long while, she could only comfort her, "Xiaxia, don't think too much. He's gone, there's no use thinking about it. It's like how you always suspected Xu Xiujie had a woman in Thailand. Even if he did, he's gone now..."

"Actually, I've thought about it seriously. You're right. I'm no longer curious about that woman at all. I just want to find those paintings, as a final farewell to him."

*

The car gradually drove into the downtown area and finally stopped at a public parking lot.

"My rented apartment is across the street, but it doesn't have a parking space, so I can only park here. It's just across the street."

After crossing the road, Jiang Xia noticed that although Ren Jiayi's rented house looked old, it was carefully decorated.

Opening the security door, I stepped into the narrow courtyard, where the cracks between the floor tiles were covered with dense moss.

"Mimi".

Ren Jiayi called over an orange cat, bent down and changed its water bowl. "This is the cat I adopted, but it's not tame. It always wants to climb walls and roofs outside to show off."

Jiang Xia is allergic to cat fur, so she only teased it from a distance before following Ren Jiayi into the house.

The wind chimes by the door tinkled in the breeze, their clear sound prompting someone who was resting on the sofa to get up and look at them.

"Jiayi, you're back..."

It was Yuki, the Thai-Japanese girl from that night.

"We're having hot pot for lunch, hurry up and help clear the table." Ren Jiayi casually tossed her backpack onto the sofa.

Yuki rubbed her eyes, got up, and greeted Jiang Xia, seemingly unsurprised by her arrival.

only……

"Where's that handsome guy? Why didn't he come with us?" Yuki ran to the window and peeked out, pouting slightly in complaint.

Ren Jiayi had just changed her clothes and came downstairs, calling out, "Yeah, invite your friends over to eat together, I have plenty of food in my fridge."

Jiang Xia didn't want to bother Sheng Zhi, but she couldn't resist Yuki's nagging, so she had no choice but to call Sheng Zhi.

To my surprise, he readily agreed.

While helping wash vegetables in the kitchen, Yuki wandered around for a bit before running off to play on her phone.

"Yuki always just eats what's already prepared," Ren Jiayi said, shaking her head helplessly.

"Do you all live here together?" Jiang Xia asked curiously.

"Of course not. I've been living with Oscar. Yuki was kicked out by her landlord last night, so I let her sleep on the sofa for the night."

Seeing that Jiang Xia didn't quite understand, Ren Jiayi explained, "In Chiang Mai, you can find all sorts of people. Yuki is quite young, and she's prone to both loving and hating people. She's having an ambiguous relationship with her landlord. When he gets angry, he kicks her out, and when he's happy again, he coaxes her back. This is the third time this month."

Jiang Xia was somewhat surprised. The last time they met, Yuki had expressed interest in Sheng Zhi, but he hadn't expected her to be such a complicated person.

All the meat rolls and vegetables were prepared here, and Sheng Zhi also arrived.

Yuki rushed to open the door, her off-the-shoulder dress now pulled into a one-shoulder style, her bra barely visible.

Jiang Xia wiped her hands with a tissue, glancing at Sheng Zhi being entangled by Yuki in the yard. It was truly a case of different ways to tether a monkey to its leash. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but laugh.

"That's great, Xiaxia. Seeing you in a better mood makes me feel relieved too."

The two chatted idly, and Sheng Zhi also shook off Yuki and went inside, carrying two bags of alcohol, all of which were beer, with at least three or four kinds at a glance.

"Look at us Chinese, we never come empty-handed," Ren Jiayi poked Yuki's forehead. "Get dressed, wash your hands, and let's eat hot pot."

Yuki pouted and turned to go to the restroom.

Thai hot pot has a different flavor from that in China. Ren Jiayi prepared a half-and-half pot, with one side containing the broth she bought from China and the other side containing the Tom Yum soup base.

"Come on, let's have a drink together, the three of us. It's quite a small team-building event for Chinese people in Chiang Mai."

The three clinked glasses, and Jiang Xia only took a small sip. Ren Jiayi knew that she wasn't a big drinker.

We ate hot pot for almost two hours, chatting about everything from Chinese cuisine to interesting stories about Chiang Mai.

Ren Jiayi drank a few more glasses today, and fell asleep on the sofa at the end of the meal.

Yuki is a phone addict; she even looks at her phone while eating, playing games or browsing TikTok.

Seeing that they had almost finished eating, Jiang Xia took the initiative to clean up.

Sheng Zhi followed him into the kitchen, helping out while asking, "How did the meeting with the agent go?"

Jiang Xia shook the beer that was still a little bit left, tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp. "Not so good. The price was much lower than we expected."

"Take your time, selling a house can't be rushed."

Jiang Xia nodded in agreement, then suddenly remembered something, glanced at the restaurant, and turned away to ask in a low voice, "Do you think burglaries are common in Chiang Mai?"

Sheng Zhi was completely confused. "Chiang Mai is quite safe. Are you worried about your valuables being stolen?"

"It's not that I'm worried, it's just... how should I put it," Jiang Xia didn't know how to begin, so she simply said, "I suspect that a lot of paintings have gone missing from the house."

"Did your husband draw this?"

"Well, although his paintings aren't high-value works worth seven or eight figures, they can still fetch several thousand or tens of thousands of yuan each. When he returned to China, he told me to sell the house, but to ship the paintings back to China... But there isn't a single one at home. It's really a ghost."

Sheng Zhi opened another can of beer, drinking it while thinking, "Considering what you said before about the possibility of a third party, perhaps she was taken away by that person?"

"Is that what you think too?!" Jiang Xia's expression was slightly serious; Sheng Zhi thought the same thing as her.

Sheng Zhi shrugged and spread her hands, saying, "Based on your description, your husband is a very low-key person and doesn't have much of a social life. I think the probability of him breaking into your house is low. I've seen the easel in your house, and each painting is at least a meter wide. It's more likely that it was committed by someone you know."

Suddenly, Jiang Xia's phone beeped, startling him so much that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Jiang Xia took out his phone and frowned. It was a message from Lin Shuting.