Chapter 16: The Person in the Mirror (1)

Several days passed after Qiao Anni officially joined the agency.

This morning, someone knocked on the office door again.

Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Qiao Anni went to open the door, while Bres was dozing off behind his desk.

“Welcome, how can I help you—Miss Olivia?”

It was Olivia at the door.

As soon as she saw Qiao Anni, Olivia showed a delighted expression.

“Good morning, Qiao Anni!”

“Mm, good morning…”

Bres pulled the magazine off his face and asked in confusion:

“Olivia? Why are you here?”

Bres touched his face.

The injury from a few days ago had mostly healed and shouldn’t show any signs.

“Can’t I come?”

Olivia cupped Qiao Anni’s face and kept rubbing it.

“And it’s a good chance to see Qiao Anni.”

“Uwaahh…”

Qiao Anni made a protesting sound.

‘Why is she tormenting me?’

But Olivia ignored her.

“Oh my, this kid gets cuter the more I look at her…”

“You should consider the client’s feelings…”

Bres sighed.

“Out with the old, in with the new, huh—”

Slap.

A stack of papers flew precisely into Bres’s face.

“Nonsense, who’s your old flame?”

Olivia snorted.

“And that’s the stuff you wanted. See for yourself.”

After saying that, Olivia went back to bothering Qiao Anni.

Bres opened the documents and flipped through them, asking as he read:

“Speaking of which, isn’t today a workday? Why aren’t you at work?”

“It’s a holiday, sort of compensation for the high-intensity overtime from the past few days.”

“What holiday compensation? Isn’t it just a symbolic pittance of overtime pay—did you get promoted?”

“That’s right,” Olivia released her hands from Qiao Anni, looking a bit smug.

“Now please call me Inspector Olivia.”

“Yes, yes, Inspector Olivia Hope.”

Bres waved his hand dismissively.

“What? I earned this through my own hard work.”

Olivia was a bit dissatisfied.

“Mm, if you say so.”

Olivia wanted to argue a few more words with Bres, but was interrupted by Qiao Anni’s curiosity.

“Overtime? Did something happen at your end recently, Miss Olivia—”

Before Qiao Anni could finish, she saw Bres repeatedly signaling her with his eyes.

Then she realized something and was about to stop, but it was too late.

“Yes…”

Olivia said bitterly.

“It’s about that murder case from a few days ago. Ah, you must have seen it on TV too, right?”

“Mm…”

“Yes…”

Olivia, who was chattering away, didn’t notice that the other two present guiltily averted their gazes.

“I don’t know which gang or company caused the trouble. Dozens more died, and one of them was an intermediary, named… Veles?”

Olivia seemed to remember something.

“Right, Bres, isn’t the intermediary in your area that Veles? Are you familiar with him?”

“Not very familiar,” Bres looked out the window, avoiding Olivia’s gaze.

“We have an average relationship. I can’t get much work from him either.”

“Is that so… Anyway, those cops in the Third District, I don’t know what they were doing, but they made a mess of evidence protection. Almost nothing that could be used as a clue was left at the scene! And yet they dared to boast to reporters that they arrived first on the scene… Don’t repeat that, okay?”

“Didn’t you just say it yourself—”

Before Bres could finish, he saw Olivia smiling sweetly.

“Then pretend you heard nothing, okay?”

“Okay…”

“Thanks, old… friend.”

Leaving Bres, who dared not speak despite his anger, Olivia turned back to tease Qiao Anni.

“Can you stop treating me like a child, Miss Olivia…”

Qiao Anni was being swung back and forth by Olivia.

Qiao Anni felt helpless.

Although she wasn’t exactly short, she was far from Olivia’s height.

‘No, she’s basically treating me like someone’s pet cat.’

Thought Qiao Anni as she was tossed around.

“Sigh, I’ve always wanted to—”

Thud.

The sound of something dropping to the floor came.

Olivia looked down.

It was a long strip of cloth.

Without a doubt, it had fallen from Qiao Anni.

“What is this?”

She was puzzled.

“Ah, it fell off from all the shaking.”

Qiao Anni picked up the cloth strip nonchalantly.

Then, she reached into her clothes and wrapped it around her chest again.

“…”

Olivia stared blankly at Qiao Anni.

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

Qiao Anni was confused.

“What is that?”

“Uh… a chest binder?”

“You wrap that around?”

“It feels okay?”

Olivia examined Qiao Anni’s clothing.

The clothes she wore were extremely loose, as if a child had stolen an adult’s clothes.

No, looking closely, these are adult clothes.

“Bres?”

Olivia turned around.

“Why is this kid wearing your clothes?”

“Huh? Because she doesn’t have any extra clothes,” Bres pointed toward the window where the laundry was drying.

“The clothes aren’t dry yet, so she’s just making do with this.”

“I don’t really mind.”

Qiao Anni said.

Olivia ignored Qiao Anni’s words.

“Not even one?”

“Just like I told you before,” Bres shrugged.

“Her luggage was stolen when she first arrived in Nightless City. All she had left was that… pajama set.”

‘The story actually connects here?’

Qiao Anni thought.

“That’s still not okay!”

Olivia was adamant.

“Not to mention other things, but if a kid doesn’t wear proper underwear, her development will have problems!”

‘Can this body even develop anymore?’

Although she wanted to ask, Qiao Anni ultimately remained silent.

“Then I’ll take her to buy clothes after a while.”

Bres scratched his head.

“After a while? This kind of thing can’t be delayed, can it?”

“That depends on me having money first… I just paid rent and the clinic’s bills. My wallet’s flat again.”

“Then I’ll take her!”

“?”

“I’ll take her to buy clothes!”

Olivia glared at Bres.

“Unbelievable. How can you let a young girl dress like this? You have no common sense.”

“Is it not okay?”

“It seems like there’s no problem…”

Unfortunately, the two people present indeed had no common sense in this area.

“Anyway, I’m taking her first!”

“Hey, wait…”

Bres’s eyes shifted between Qiao Anni’s clothes and Olivia.

He wanted to stop them but didn’t know how to say it.

“If you’re worried, you can come along too? You’re not working today anyway.”

Bres still wasn’t too comfortable letting Olivia and Qiao Anni go out together.

He didn’t know what trouble they’d cause.

“Alright, I’ll go too.”