I Deduce the Female Lead Likes Me [Transmigration into a book] - Chapter 26: Dinner

Song Muxue rarely finished work early. When Kou Shuang returned home, the dishes were already on the dining table, emitting tempting steam.

Kou Shuang walked to the table with a smile, reached out to pick a small piece of meat, and just then, Song Muxue walked out of the kitchen, catching her in the act. Song Muxue tapped Kou Shuang’s hand with her chopsticks and said: “You haven’t washed your hands yet!”

Kou Shuang chuckled, licked her thumb, dropped a “Tastes good,” and ran into the bathroom to wash her hands.

While washing her hands, Kou Shuang chatted about Xiaodie, the little girl she met today. She found it very interesting.

“Let me tell you, I met a homeless little girl today. I bought her snacks, but her mom actually gave me a dirty look, glaring at me several times. But both the mother and daughter are quite cute. I wonder how they ended up in their current situation.”

“Do you really only look at people’s faces?” Song Muxue said, arranging the bowls and chopsticks, “If a little girl isn’t cute, you wouldn’t help her?”

Kou Shuang shook the water off her hands and said: “Oh, it’s not like that. But why do you have time to cook today? Has your company finally stopped exploiting you?”

Song Muxue said: “The last big case is closed. It shouldn’t be busy for the next week or two.”

“Then that’s great! I come home and there’s food waiting, haha!” Kou Shuang’s words subtly pushed the week’s cooking duties onto Song Muxue. She even chuckled and said: “Before I moved in, I thought you couldn’t cook.”

Song Muxue asked: “Why?”

“Well… you just don’t seem like someone who knows how to live. Perhaps you’re too ethereal. But my cooking is so bad, it seems you eat not only smoke, but pig slop too.”

“Are you scolding me or yourself?” Song Muxue laughed, picked up a piece of cabbage with her chopsticks, tasted it, frowned, and said: “I’ve been trying to cook for four years now. You’ve spoiled me for a few months; the taste seems a bit off… The heat wasn’t controlled well, and it’s a bit salty… No, too salty.”

Song Muxue picked up a piece of each dish, tasted them, and offered comments, seemingly intending to learn from her mistakes for next time. Kou Shuang, who hated perfectionists, quickly grabbed the water glass nearby, poured a small spoonful into it, and said: “See? Not salty anymore, not salty!”

Song Muxue: “…”

Kou Shuang: “…”

Kou Shuang laughed awkwardly, then nonchalantly drank the remaining water in the glass, saying: “Uh, I poured it in too fast, haha, haha…”

Song Muxue stared at the plate of food, her chopsticks paused for a long time. She must have been undergoing a very complex psychological struggle. After a while, she sighed and continued: “Never mind, let’s just eat it as is.”

Kou Shuang secretly glanced at Song Muxue, thinking that she could remain expressionless even in this situation, truly like a great general. She was indeed someone unafraid even if Mount Tai collapsed!

But looking at the plate of hand-shredded cabbage, where the oil and water had completely separated, with a bit of oil floating on the half-cup of water she had poured in, it looked quite disgusting. Kou Shuang couldn’t bring herself to eat it. She sighed, picked up the plate, and said: “I’ll recook it; I really can’t eat this.”

But her wrist was caught by Song Muxue.

She turned around. Song Muxue looked at her with a pair of cool eyes and said: “A parent came to consult about a lawsuit a few days ago, saying her child was abducted.”

“Oh? And then?” Kou Shuang rarely heard Song Muxue talk about work, so she was curious. She put down the plate and sat down at the same time.

“I asked her if she wanted to file a lawsuit directly or send a lawyer’s letter first to seek communication. But she didn’t even know the other party’s name and just said she wanted to sue them based on a photo her colleague took,” Song Muxue continued: “I suggested she call the police, and the officer who took the report happened to be Zheng Fenglin.”

Song Muxue’s face held a smile, but Kou Shuang felt a little confused. She said: “Wait, wait. How do you know Zheng Fenglin was the one who took the report?”

“I accompanied her there,” Song Muxue sighed and said: “This parent is a sanitation worker in the city, uneducated, and usually lives in the slum. She was timid when she entered the law firm. I offered her a glass of water, but she didn’t dare to drink it. After I clarified the situation, I suggested she report to the police and file a case first. She asked me if she would be arrested; she said she was afraid of the police. I couldn’t leave her, so I took leave and accompanied her to the public security bureau to report the case, and that’s when we met Zheng Fenglin.”

“I thought you were a workaholic, but it turns out you have quite a bit of humanitarian concern,” Kou Shuang said with a smile.

Sympathy and sorrow appeared in Song Muxue’s eyes. “The times are developing too fast; too many people are left behind. Perhaps it’s because I was kind to her; she talked a lot with me. She said she rarely entered government departments, fearing she’d trouble the government. She couldn’t even distinguish between calling the police and hiring a lawyer. She came to our law firm with tens of thousands of cash, still worrying it wasn’t enough. The photo of the ‘abductor’ she showed me was a picture she took of her colleague’s phone screen. I asked her why she didn’t use WeChat or MMS, and she said she didn’t know how. She must have gathered immense courage to come to our firm… If I had let her go to the police alone, she might have been scared away by the strong young men as soon as she entered. In the end, she would only have that blurry re-photographed image, watching every pedestrian on the street, trying to find her daughter and the abductor, wasting her whole life.” Song Muxue sighed and said: “After reporting the case, she held my hand and kept bowing. Finally, she cautiously asked me what ‘five insurances and one fund’ were, asking if a sweep cleaner like her had them.”

“I find it very tragic,” Song Muxue said: “Perhaps she herself doesn’t feel that way, and I’m just being hypocritical and self-moved, but I think I should help her. You always call me a ‘workaholic,’ but work and performance are just means. I just want to seek justice, uphold justice, and help those who need help.”

Kou Shuang was somewhat dazed.

In the original novel “Snow and Wind’s Gift to Me,” Song Muxue wasn’t so soft. She was portrayed as a rational, almost harsh, middle-class intellectual. She adhered to elitism and was a “refined egoist.” She helped people whose justice was not served, but she always upheld procedural justice. She pursued justice and fairness, not because she sympathized with the suffering people, but more because she believed it was right. She sympathized with those who suffered undeserved misfortunes but despised anyone who wasn’t hardworking enough or “elite” enough.

But the Song Muxue before her had eyes filled with human compassion. Compared to pure efficiency-first, she was softer, more compassionate. She personally felt the parent’s pain and could understand the other’s weakness and ignorance, yet she wouldn’t be frustrated by their shortcomings. Even if it meant taking leave and interrupting work, she was willing to accompany the other person and solve problems for them. This Song Muxue was more human.

And much gentler than the one in the book.

Song Muxue lowered her head, took a bite of the cabbage, and said: “Do you know how my parents died?”

Kou Shuang’s chopsticks trembled, and a meatball fell into the pot.

Regarding Song Muxue’s family, the original novel mentioned a little. Song Muxue’s mother started from the grassroots as a lawyer and eventually became a senior prosecutor in the court; her father was a businessman who grew up with Kou Deqin, close as brothers, and the two brothers jointly ran several companies. The couple founded a private welfare institution, which Song Muxue later handed over to the state. Zheng Fenglin was one of the adopted children there. He grew up with Song Muxue and could be considered a childhood sweetheart. Song Muxue always looked up to her mother as a role model, and her life trajectory basically replicated her mother’s.

Both parents died in an accident when Song Muxue was seventeen. Kou Shuang had always thought the elderly couple were just background characters, providing Song Muxue with ideas of justice and a wealthy family background. But now it seemed they brought Song Muxue not just material wealth or principles, but many deeper things.

“You must know that my parents ran a welfare institution and had always adopted various people. Elderly without heirs, sick children who were abandoned, children rescued from abduction gangs whom government welfare institutions were unwilling to take in,” Song Muxue said: “Before my parents’ accident, my mother happened to take on a case about an abduction gang. The criminal suspect tried to bribe my mother, but failed. I was in my third year of high school then; these things were never told to me. I only heard about them occasionally. Later, my parents died in a car accident. I don’t know if there’s a connection between these two events. I have no evidence. Suspecting people arbitrarily is wrong, but…”

“After my parents’ accident, a different prosecutor took over, and the abduction case was subsequently tried. The criminal suspect was acquitted. I was there that day. I saw many parents and children testifying in court, proving that the criminal suspect had abducted children and trained them, using them for profit. With such conclusive evidence, the prosecutor actually said there was insufficient evidence, and the judge also ruled not guilty. I never knew there was any law in China that allowed a single middle-aged man to adopt so many minors at once!” Saying this, Song Muxue’s emotions became agitated. She took a deep breath, then continued: “From that day on, I swore to inherit my mother’s dying wish and become a just and selfless prosecutor.”

Song Muxue looked at Kou Shuang and said: “After I woke up from my injury, I was so insistent on returning to my internship at the law firm because during that time, the firm took on a major case, assisting the public security, procuratorate, and legal defense in prosecuting a criminal syndicate involved in an abduction case that the police had just cracked. I worked day and night then, just to get justice for those parents. There are so many injustices in the world, and what I can’t forgive the most is child abduction. Perhaps I selfishly wanted to catch the culprits who caused my parents’ death back then, but, no.”

Song Muxue shook her head sadly and said: “My parents died because of it, and I admit I’m not objective enough. But looking at the parents around me, I remembered the people crying in court. I can’t bear their heartache again. And if it really is abduction, if they really are traffickers… then is it possible that I could catch the group my mother was going to prosecute? We didn’t catch them last time; could we this time?”

Song Muxue looked at Kou Shuang, her eyes unusually hesitant. Her voice was light yet deep, and listening closely, one could even detect a tiny hint of a cry. Only then did Kou Shuang understand what kind of force was supporting Song Muxue’s unwavering determination.

Justice on a rational level, empathetic compassion on an emotional level, and even a slightly dark desire for revenge… Various complex emotions mixed together created the Song Muxue of today.

Diligent, rigid, yet gentle.

Much more complex than the one in the book, more like a “person.”

Lost in her memories, Song Muxue completely stopped picking up food. Kou Shuang unconsciously grasped her hand.

Song Muxue was startled by Kou Shuang’s hand and said: “Was I talking too much? Was I too bad?”

Kou Shuang shook her head and whispered: “I’m listening. You’re very good, much better than I imagined. What happened next? After Zheng Fenglin took the police report?”

Song Muxue gradually recovered her composure and said: “Zheng Fenglin took the report, recorded it, and then told the parent to go home and wait for news. Oh right, he’s just been officially hired, and he invited us to celebrate. It’s probably this weekend. Are you interested?”

Kou Shuang was surprised for a moment and said: “He’s a detective now?!”

This promotion speed was too fast! He was still a junior police officer intern during summer vacation!

Song Muxue smiled and said: “What are you talking about? He’s just been officially hired as a junior police officer, specifically in charge of taking reports. He works incredibly hard every day. When I arrived, I just happened to hear him asking a colleague to borrow money for lunch.”

Song Muxue seemed to have emerged from her previous self-disclosure, smiling quite gently.

Kou Shuang joined in the laughter, saying: “How about we treat him to dinner! Junior police officers earn so little; exploiting them further would be inhumane, hahahahaha!”

Song Muxue tapped the dining table with her chopsticks and said: “And just treat him to water-soaked cabbage?”

Kou Shuang: …

Damn it, I forgot about that!

“Shut up! That’s a dark history! Absolutely don’t tell anyone, especially Zheng Fenglin!” Kou Shuang yelled, pointing frantically at Song Muxue.

Even after dinner ended, Kou Shuang hadn’t touched the plate of hand-shredded cabbage that she had poured tea into, making it unappetizing. But when washing the dishes, she found the plate was empty.