Ma Jingtian swiftly went up to try to talk Yu Changmo out of it after he saw his cousin getting beaten up. "Big Brother, don"t be so harsh. He"s one of us—""I will beat you up as well if I hear another word from you!".
Ma Jingtian gave up on whatever sense of camaraderie he had. Ai, Big Brothers-in-law have always been difficult to handle since the dawn of time.
The group opened the door and entered the house. The cousin"s whole body ached from Black"s first-time gift. He dared not leave this time and sat on the sofa with his head lowered, looking utterly miserable.
Qianmo and Black took their seats on one side while Ma Jingtian sat on the other side. Without mincing his words, he spoke everyone"s mind, "Who instilled the rubbish in your mind? Why did you talk about School Belle—er… Momo, like that?"
Black"s anger gauge almost hit maximum when he heard the word "Momo" coming out from another man"s mouth.
"I heard it from someone else. Let"s forget it since it"s all a misunderstanding. I apologize to you. We"re all one family…" Ma Jingtian"s cousin said guiltily and glanced at Qianmo.
"Who belongs to the same family as you?!" Black felt as if he had shown him mercy.
Qianmo felt hilarious while looking at him "consumed" by his jealousy. She patted Black"s hand. "You have to stay calm, Big Brother. Let me handle this."
Black"s temples throbbed twice; he was already on the verge of losing emotional control.
"It"s possible for me to forgive you, but you have to complete my request first."
The cousin clenched his fist and put it under his chin.
This was the reaction which signified that he didn"t want to say, but had to come clean. Qianmo was sure that he had a story. Still, she wasn"t in a hurry to expose him.
"An exchange of blows resulted in a friends.h.i.+p between Ma Jingtian and me. Also, whatever you say wouldn"t affect the relations.h.i.+p between us—" Erm, where is this oppressive feeling coming from? Qianmo turned and looked at Black.
Steam was threatening to come out from his ears. Fearing unexpected developments due to his anger, Qianmo held his hand and leisurely knocked its back.
If Ma Jingtian and his cousin had been alert enough, they would"ve discovered that this action had surpa.s.sed what was appropriate between siblings.
Even though there would be hugging and putting their arms around the shoulders between real siblings, a familial hug and a romantic hug were worlds apart. For example, what Qianmo was doing now—looking straight ahead, smiling (pretend) at Ma Jingtian and his cousin, but lightly knocking the back of Yu Changmo"s hand. This action would never happen between real siblings, except for "German Orthopaedics" [1. German Orthopaedics is a reference to an online story: A brother and sister had an incestuous s.e.xual relations.h.i.+p and were found out. Their father broke the brother"s leg, and the brother had to seek treatment to reset his leg bone in Germany.].
Yu Changmo was still furious a second ago but gradually calmed down after feeling her gentle, uneven knocks a second later.
Morse Code.
Qianmo let go of his hand and placed her hand casually on the wooden handle of the sofa. She knocked the same content as she had earlier, clearing Black"s doubts, if any.
Even if she didn"t want to bait the enemy, this sacrifice was still huge. Black tried his best to rein in his displeasure. Endure it.
"The main reason I came here today is to complete my holiday project. My major is Criminal Psychology, and I happen to need to do a survey. Since we have so many people here, cooperate with me and answer a few questions, and I"ll forget that you had bad-mouthed me previously."
Qianmo behaved magnanimously, but her eyes were fixated on the cousin. From now onward, his every expression and word would become the basis for her to uncover the truth.
That cousin was still vigilant, though. He couldn"t quite believe Qianmo would forgive him so quickly.
"We have to do that too?" Ma Jingtian was a little surprised. This wasn"t in his script.
Qianmo nodded; however, she focused on Black instead of him. "Everyone got to do it, including my "lover" brother. Help me with my homework, please." Lovely brother and lover brother sounded similar, but the two unwary people didn"t catch it at all.
Black sat up straight. Why did he feel…
She was trying to kill two birds with one stone? She was also testing him while searching for the real culprit?
A good man is like pure gold, which fears no fire. Black straightened his back; it was time to show his true self.
Qianmo"s questions sounded weird, sort of like, "if you reached a restaurant before your friend, will you order some food first?"
The cousin"s taut nerves gradually relaxed when he realized the questions were all "inconsequential". The posture of his hand also eased. From the content of her survey, it seemed that this young lady was indeed magnanimous.
Yu Changmo was well aware, though. His girl would never do meaningless things that wasted time. If she had asked those questions, there must be a motive behind every single one of her queries.
His dear old mommy at home did the same for a living, so Black was familiar with this routine.
The objective was to secretly find out everything about the other party while maintaining a harmless smile on her face. The same formula and the same style—Why is her working style so similar to Mom?
Even though he knew her goal, Black still replied to the questions in all seriousness. He would answer whatever she wanted to know. It was the characteristic of a loyal dog. No explanations needed.
Black had indeed hit the mark. Although these few sets of questions that Qianmo had printed out at home sounded weird and ridiculous, their investigative directions were distinct.
One set of questions was to test the violence propensity index of three men, the second set was to test their impulsiveness, and the last one, which they were doing now, was to test their love for gambling.
The male criminal psychology was very different from the female. If one used the angle of psychology of both s.e.xes to observe them, male and female were two very different organisms; hence, there were two separate factions of male and female psychology.
Females" crimes were mostly related to emotions, and they behaved more carefully, usually organized and premeditated. They would pick a time and deliberate for a long time before acting.
However, men were different. Under the influence of androgenic hormones, they were likely to commit crimes due to pa.s.sionate impulses. Qianmo was going to dig deeper on this basis.
Ma Jingtian"s cousin most probably set her up because somebody had a hold on him, or they had bought him over. It definitely wasn"t due to a duty to friends.
After all, there were not many like Ma Jingtian, who would do a thankless task indiscriminately for "justice".
If he really was as innocent as Ma Jingtian, why would he deploy the tactic of "murdering a person with a borrowed knife" and use Ma Jingtian to do the deed?
Thus, after eliminating this option, there were only two possibilities left for him: Number 1, he was threatened; Number 2, he was bribed. Actually, to Qianmo, there was no difference between either of the two.
She was searching for the other party"s weakness now.
As for why she made Black do them too…
Qianmo"s eyes roved over to Black"s questionnaire. At that moment, she felt overwhelmed by strong male hormones when she tried to a.s.sess his character through his appearance. This was the ultimate good man who had a strong character, no unsavory hobbies, and was responsible. She judged his personality through the questionnaire, and her heart pounded like a drum.
She had added some questions to test their family responsibility for her personal interest. She was very satisfied, not even bothering to look at the other two"s answers as they had nothing to do with her. Her focus was entirely on Black.