hmau

Uh, hold on...

Before the two of them could answer, Hung suddenly shakes his head. Then, he clasps his hands.

Let's head out for a meal. I know a pretty decent place. What do you two think? It's a little early for lunch, so if we head there now, there likely won't be much of a wait.

Oh right, Mr. Lau, I may need a little advance payment after all.

Haha, not a problem! I'm hungry too. Come on, we'll call a taxi. This meal's on me!

Gragh, how could this all just be a misunderstanding?! What a freaking letdown.

Can you believe it? I tailed that guy for the better part of the day, and it turns out he was a part-time water fitness salesman!

I asked him what kind of business he had with Mr. Lau, and you know what he said?

*cough* 'Lau promised me to come to the pool to try out our fitness program, but he never picked up when I called, nor did he answer when I knocked on his door. What the hell?'

What the hell?' I could've asked him the same thing!

Calm down. It's nighttime already. Why are you still mad about that? What's wrong with it all being a misunderstanding?

When Mr. Lau left, he even told me that now that he's talked to Mr. Wong, he didn't feel like he was being followed anymore. He even bought the essential oil I recommended. I'm sure he'll have a good night's sleep tonight.

And I feel kinda bad about this. We didn't really do much, but he paid us such a huge sum of money.

Hey, I put a lot of work into this case... I mean, I approached it in the wrong direction, but still.

Weird, though... If this was all a misunderstanding, then what was up with those sneaky guys whispering to the part-timer dude?

Maybe they were just going about their business.

I mean, most folks in this city are still law-abiding citizens going about their normal, everyday lives.

And come on, don't just eat the meat. The veggies and shrooms are all fresh, too. The braised bamboo shoots aren't bad either. Give 'em a try.

You're way too optimistic about people, you know?! Yeah, things turned out fine this time, but what if the next time you bring the client to a meeting a hundred mafia hitmen come running out?

At least Lee has a bunch of tricks up his sleeve, and I'd be more worried about anyone <i>he</i> flimflams. But you? You trust others way too easily!

I'm telling you, this client, no, that guy who tailed him, and that company! All of them have got some shady business going on, I know it!

*sigh* For real, what would you do without me? I really gotta keep an eye peeled and look out for the both of us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I couldn't do it without you. Now eat.

Anyway, thanks for your cooperation.

We're here for a midnight snack, and you still want to talk work?

...Do the two of us even have anything to talk about but work?

That was a close one, though. Those guys were gonna settle the score today. If that 'concerned citizen' hadn't gone and apologized, he'd have died for sure.

<i>They</i> would've died.

Huh?

The guy they apologized to is an informant of mine. He went straight home as soon as he was discharged from the hospital, not even realizing he was being watched.

*sigh...* What a coincidence, then.

You call that a coincidence? If you ask me, that big fella from the detective agency may look like an honest guy, but he's actually pretty sharp. He even knew to bring his client to a place with lots of people around.

Gotta say, a certain somebody's really not handling these things up to snuff. I mean, there were terrorists hiding in the residential buildings. Can you believe it?

Well, I'd say a certain somebody should take better care that the personal information of her sources doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Mind your own business! I was just going to look into that!

You're wide open.

(Om nom nom)

Huh?! That was the last finball! How dare you, you stinky rat—