Gloria remembered right - following her lead, they found a room with a shoddy “maintenance room” paint job on a crude wooden door. Inside this room were some temporary lockers, metal shelves and coat hangers. The lockers all had stickers with workers’ names on them, while on the coat hangers were vests, thick paint and tear resistant jackets. And on the shelves, stocked hard hats with cracks and small puncture holes.

 

“Well - it’s not spare uniforms, it’s the ‘in need of repairs’ room.” Gloria chuckled and picked up one coat, on its left side was a dark brown stain, the size of roughly her palm. “I hope this is not shit - it’d better be blood.”

 

“Choose one that’s not obvious.” Marcus passed a hard hat with a thin crack on the left side of its back to Gloria: “Do you see boots here?”

 

“No boots.” Gloria took the hat, put it on then passed Marcus one jacket with a large piece of paint and cement stuck to the elbow area. “Sorry, the others are - are kinda busted or heavily stained.”

 

“Alright.” Marcus put his own hard hat on, then put on the jacket.

 

Both of them chose a relatively hidden path to the exterior of the construction site, checking their surroundings every few steps. Before long, they reached a door leading to the outside of the enclosing fences. Marcus peeked at the outside first, then stepped out after making sure no one suspicious was waiting or lingering.

 

“Okay. Do you really not know how to steal a car?” Gloria asked as they were walking down a narrow alley.

 

“No, not really, sorry.” Marcus called Kevin a couple of times, but this time it was Kevin’s turn to not respond. So he decided just to text Kevin to meet him back at the precinct later, with fresh shrimp dumplings if possible. He considered only for a brief moment whether he should contact his father, but decided to do so only when he was certain he was safe: “How - uh, how about you?”

 

“Yeah I know, ‘cause you’re a fucking cop. And neither do I.” Gloria took a look at a motorcycle on the side of the road, to her disappointment the key was not left on the ignition: “I just know the basics - and if I see one I’ll be sure to try. Unless you want to walk to Chef Tang’s.”

 

“Actually I think we’re not far.” Marcus showed Gloria his phone with the navigation app: “It’s close. Probably a 30 minute walk. So it’s like 10 minutes if we hurry.”

 

”I guess we’d better hurry.“ Gloria nodded, smiling under the hard hat: “With all the new energy, right?”

 

“Right.” Marcus chuckled.

 

Both of them walked with the highest speed they could without actually running. Their way over was mostly empty, for it was still early morning and the sun was barely up. Right around midway, just when they were about to get to a more crowded area, they ditched their disguise and sped up.

 

The smell of food from street vendors was never so appealing. Marcus’ stomach growled then rumbled.

 

“You wanna grab something to eat first?” Gloria asked, slowing down her steps.

 

“Not quite polite before going into a noodle shop, is it?” Marcus shook his head.

 

“It’s early, they might not be open.” Gloria shrugged. “What if their kitchen isn’t fully prepped yet?”

 

“Well, I guess one bun wouldn’t hurt.” Marcus took a look at a middle aged woman who was still setting up her stand, with a 8-layered steamer.

 

They bought 16 buns in total, 8 for each. They pretty much cleaned the bottom two layers of the middle aged woman’s steamer. All of them were gone before they even reached the entrance of the famous noodle shop.

 

Gloria paced to the window near the back with the three bells and rang the yellow one.

 

“What do you need?” An impatient looking man in a dirty chef’s hat looked out of the window: “The Chef’s not here yet.”

 

“Tell him we have some intelligence to trade.” Gloria answered, then she took a look at Marcus: “And - we have a returning customer here to collect some - some debt.”

 

The man looked Gloria up and down, then looked Marcus up and down, with a few extra seconds focused on his face, before grunting: “Okay wait here. I’ll call the Chef. Don’t count on it.”

 

Gloria sighed and stepped back. Marcus shrugged at Gloria’s sight. He had no idea what to do either. He had not come to the shop at this hour of the day before.

 

“The chef told me to invite you in and have some tea.” The man opened the window again: “Please come in around the back.”

 

It was the second time Gloria came into the noodle shop from the back. The decorations and arrangements of the furniture weren’t changed as far as she could tell. There was still a long table in the middle, with some smaller tea tables and wooden chairs around. They chose one by the wall and sat in the two chairs on each side.

 

“Ginger tea.” The same employee came over with a wooden tray with two china tea jars with lids.

 

Marcus frowned, for he had never had this tea served to him without him asking before: “The Chef has something major for us?”

 

“I don’t know, mister. I just serve these as the Chef said.” The employee bowed and exited the room.

 

“Shall we - shall we drink it?” Gloria frowned, there were many dishes in the shop with underlying meaning, she had no idea what this one meant either.

 

“Let’s wait a bit.” Marcus sighed.

 

It took Chef Tang around 10 minutes to get here. And the first thing he said after entering the room was: “Huh? You’re not fans of ginger tea?”