Gold Nugget whined as it chewed the xiaolongbao.
Luke turned his head with a smile. “It didn’t steal anything. It’s helping me check the taste of the xiaolongbao. Yours will be ready soon. You can go to the dining table.”
Selina quickly went to the dining table. “Chef, service.”
Gold Nugget followed her and sat down next to the dining table too.
Selina angrily stretched out her foot to kick its butt gently. “Don’t copy me.”
Dollar stuck out its big tongue and tried to lick her. This time, it was Dollar the dog who was trying to cozy up to her. Selina laughed and held Dollar back with her foot so that this scary slobbery monster didn’t launch an attack at her.
Luke came out holding aloft some steamer baskets. Ignoring the two overly-energetic fellows, he minded his own business and ate his food.
He threw out one xiaolongbao, instantly distracting the two dogs, and the three of them stopped horsing around.
Two humans and two dogs finished twenty steamer baskets of xiaolongbao for breakfast. Then, Luke brought out a box from his room. “This is a special gift from Rio.”
Selina chuckled and quickly accepted it.
Feeling chastised last night, she had forgotten to ask for her gift.
Opening the box, she asked doubtfully, “Is this diamond?”
Luke chuckled and said, “Good thing you didn’t say glass. It’s tourmaline. It’s not too expensive. You can wear it when you’re on break.”
Examining the bright yellow gem in her hand, Selina suddenly realized something and held it next to Dollar. Comparing them for a moment, she exclaimed in surprise. “This looks a little like Dollar!”
Amused, Luke nodded in agreement.
That was exactly why he bought her this gift.
It seemed the perfect combo along with the gold pig that he had given to her before.
Watching Selina put the gift away in her room, Gold Nugget began to whine at Luke.
Luke was stumped. “Your gift… Fine, I did get you something.”
Saying that, he returned to his room and then took out a stack of unique Brazilian juice flavors from his inventory.
He put the juices in front of Gold Nugget. “They’re specialties of Brazil: eighteen mysterious juice flavors. I guarantee they’re unique.”
Gold Nugget sniffed them for a moment, then looked at Luke disdainfully as it began organizing the juices.
There were two rows of five cans each, plus one extra.
Luke was instantly embarrassed. “Fine, there are only eleven cans. But that’s not because I’m bad at math; I just said it without thinking. Do you want them or not?”
Hearing that, Gold Nugget ran off with a swoosh to drag out an empty bag from Selina’s room. It then put all the juices into the bag and brought it back to its doghouse.
From the room came Selina’s angry yell. “That’s my new bag. I only bought it several days ago! It cost me fifty dollars! You bad dog…”
Putting their respective gifts away properly, Selina and Gold Nugget were perfectly satisfied as they went to work.
Today, Luke and Selina reported at the police department together with Gold Nugget.
After showing up with Dollar several times and seeing that nobody had any objections, Selina no longer left it in the car.
Seeing Luke, who had been away for a long while, their colleagues at the Major Crimes Division all greeted him and received some snacks from Selina in passing.
Billy Wang, who had always had a cheap mouth, said, “Luke, Selina’s mood has improved since you returned, right? We asked her why she hadn’t made any snacks recently, and she said she wasn’t in the mood. Hehe…”
Luke poked the old guy’s belly with one finger. “So you didn’t eat the donuts she bought? How did it get this big if you didn’t?”
Billy Wang slapped his hand away angrily. “Get lost. This is called a beer belly in Chinese, alright? It’s not from eating snacks.”
Luke said, “Then drink less and go home early to spend more time with your wife.”
Depressed, Billy Wang turned around and walked away. “Don’t bring that up, or we won’t be good colleagues anymore.”
Luke chuckled and saw the middle-aged police detective off.
Billy’s wife was Chinese as well, and pretty bossy. Billy was always obedient at home and could only let loose when he was out drinking.
But his wife took good care of him and the household. There was nothing for Billy to be unhappy about; just consider it the pains of happiness.
After saying hello to his colleagues, Luke went to Elsa’s office.
Elsa didn’t even bother to look at the snacks that Selina brought. She just put them in her drawer before she asked, “Had a good break?”
Luke nodded with a smile.
Elsa stood up and took down a stack of case files from the top of a cabinet on the side. “These are yours. Any objections?”
Luke: “Not at all. However, boss, want to have lunch with us?” Elsa: “Is something wrong?”
Luke: “Everything’s fine. I just want to talk about Martin and Roger.”
Elsa nodded. “Okay. Get to work now.” Case files in hand, Luke left the office with a smile.
At her desk, Selina started looking at the case files as she said, “It’s probably her time of the month. Don’t take it to heart.”
Luke was stunned. “It’s her time of the month? I thought it was only because of work pressure.”
Stumped for a moment, Selina nodded. “Fine. Maybe it’s a combination of the two.”
Luke: “Has work been busy lately?”
Stark: “You don’t know? The Stark Expo is happening again, and all sorts of people are pouring into Los Angeles. Can you imagine how much work that involves?”
Luke scratched his head. “Is that so? That explains a lot.”
The Stark Expo in itself wasn’t that big a deal, but during this period, L.A.’s city center would see an astonishing amount of traffic.
Merchants, clients, and tourists who wanted to be part of the fun would take this opportunity to visit Los Angeles from all over the world.
Moreover, Stark Industries sold weapons.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what sort of clientele and tourists they would get.Los Angeles had never been a peaceful place. It wouldn’t be unusual for foreign bigshots to clash with the local tyrants.
A couple of hundred crime cases happening at this time would be enough to run the Major Crimes Division off its feet.
But Stark Industries was a major taxpayer in Los Angeles, and also made all kinds of donations to the police department every year.
What were the American police for? To provide a safe environment for the big patrons, of course.
Since they had already taken the money, LAPD could only get their entire police force to work overtime and maintain order. As she flipped through the case files, Selina started throwing some at Luke. “This one has to take priority. This one, too. This one can’t be put off either…”
Looking at the case files that were thrown at him, Luke clicked his tongue. “It’s already this bad?”
Selina didn’t raise her head. “Why else would I go out at night… Cough, cough, that’s why I’ve been busy recently.” Luke shot her a glance but didn’t ask further.
He knew what she didn’t say was that she had been out at night recently to beat up a lot of hoodlums precisely because of the deterioration in public safety. Swiftly skimming the case files, he got up and said, “Let’s go. We’ll have to work overtime for the next few days.”
