“No.” Jiang Yao smiled and shook her head. “I’m not looking at you. I’m just looking at the painting behind you. I think it looks good.”
Then, Jiang Yao said to the waitress, “Give me the coat. I don’t need your shop to help me dry clean them, and I don’t need your colleagues to compensate me.”
“Hey! Yes! Yes! Of course!” The waitress did not let go of Jiang Yao’s coat.
Jiang Yao’s grip was stronger than the waitress’s. She snatched it back and quickly put it back on. Then, she said, “I’m afraid of the cold, and I didn’t bring any other coat with me. If you take it to dry-clean it, I’ll freeze to death.”
Then, Jiang Yao left the ladies’ room. Unsurprisingly, when she returned to her seat, all five people at that table had already left. Colonel Lin had also returned to his seat and was waiting for her.
“Why were you gone for so long? It’s been 20 minutes.” Colonel Lin sighed. “I heard that your clothes got spilled by coffee? You didn’t burn yourself, right? Your coat is fine?”
“I’m fine.” Jiang Yao took a tissue to dry the wet stain.
“You’ve wasted too much time by yourself. Twenty minutes have already passed. Do you see anything?” Colonel Lin’s face was filled with regret. “At that point, if you hadn’t been scalded, you shouldn’t have wasted your time in the bathroom. Yes, there are priorities.”
Jiang Yao was speechless. She glanced at Colonel Lin and said leisurely, “It’s okay. I’ve already observed almost everything that needs to be observed.”
“Just that little bit of time? You’re so confident?” Colonel Lin looked unconvinced. “Tell me.”
“So little time?” Jiang Yao repeated Colonel Lin’s words meaningfully, then muttered in her heart, ‘Old fox!’
When she saw Colonel Lin’s face harden, Jiang Yao said, “Let’s start with the first one. The man in the black high-quality handmade suit is around 40 years old. The suit is well-made and not a knock-off. I can tell that the person put a lot of time and attention into the attire. It is a shame that the suit was borrowed. It is a bit big on him. The suit’s true owner should be a younger man, perhaps about 30 years old. His stature is slightly higher than that of the other man.”
Colonel Lin raised an eyebrow. “Looks like you’ve observed him seriously.”
“That person has two books beside him. One is about stocks, and the other is about finance and economics. However, underneath those books are newspapers about lifestyles. That man was chatting with another man in a light gray suit beside him. Most of their conversation was about stocks. He might have looked like a successful person in stocks and securities, but in reality, he’s not.”
Jiang Yao smiled. “He was lamenting the continuous collapse of stocks recently, which caused many shareholders to lose everything and have to commit suicide. I heard him mention the recent trend and prices of two of the stocks. I could tell from his words that he doesn’t know anything about stocks, and he doesn’t have any habit of buying stocks. He doesn’t even pay much attention to the stock market.”
“Are you sure?” Colonel Lin asked.
“Because the stock prices and trends that he mentioned were all from six months ago. The stock market has improved over the New Year, and there’s no record of it ever gone below the daily limit.” Jiang Yao smiled. “After I realized that he was in disguise, I started to wonder about his occupation.”
