A Good-for-Nothing

130. The Thirteen Moves of Qingwei (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

Zu Zhichong’s room, though also one of the staff quarters, bore no resemblance whatsoever to that of Li Zong: a large pile of dirty clothes in the laundry basket beside the washing machine; a variety of snacks and drinks on the table in the small living room, including potato chips, beers, Fenda (a soft drink) as well as several boxes of pot-stewed peppery duck.

Tun Shanhai in a pair of shorts, his fair-skinned thin legs exposed, was sitting on the ground eating a piece of duck rib.

A voice came from the cellphone placed before him.

“Help me win another chicken dinner, handsome.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll play another round after taking a bite of supper.”

“Your voice is so charming, handsome. I want to hear more. Would you please sing a song for me?”

“Humph. Sing Conquer before a garbage can and maybe I’ll think about it.” Tun Shanhai tossed the duck rib into his mouth, quickly chewed it with some noises and then spit out the cracked naked bones.

Zu Zhichong drew He Zheng into the room. Seeing Tun Shanhai had already finished four boxes of pot-stewed duck ribs, he said, “You might catch constipation, bro. And it could be really nasty.”

“Humph.” Tun Shanhai snorted and ignored him.

Zu Zhichong, with an obseqious smile on his face, hurriedly settled He Zheng on the only chair he had in the room and handed him a bottle of bubble milky tea in which there was still unmelted ice. He Zheng asked curiously, “Are these from some takeout restaurant? You can order takeout here?”

“Of course not. I just sneaked out and bought them.”

Tun Shanhai said, “He performed the Spell of Shrinkage. You should tell this to Chief and have Chief batter him to death right away!”

“I want you to spit out what you’ve eaten!”

“Beat it!” Tun Shanhai, lips red with pepper oil, snapped back and continued bolting duck ribs, spitting out the bones like a Peashooter (a plant in the game Plants VS Zombies).

He Zheng, bored with hearing their squabble, rolled his eyes upwards.

“You haven’t had supper yet, I suppose? Drink some milky tea first. Just now I also got some hamburgers and fried chicken. You want some?”

He Zheng searched through those bags and boxes, found himself a double-layer chicken burger and slowly gnawed at it.

Seeing Zu Zhichong and Tun Shanhai were so carefree, He Zheng couldn’t help but think of his husband who was always occupied with this or that. After finishing the burger, He Zheng asked, “How come you guys get to stay here enjoying snacks and drinks when Li Zong is working overtime?”

“Alas, you misunderstood, I’m afraid.” Zu Zhichong hastily explained, “The results of the interview for the Special Talents Training Program (STTP) are to be announced in two or three days, and the couple of big names don’t really have inexhaustible energy, so of course group leaders have to share the burden.

Let’s drop this. I wonder if you could do me a little favor, Cutie.” Smiling, Zu Zhichong moved closer to He Zheng, both his facial expression and his tone unbelievably sycophantic.

“What is it?” He Zheng had guessed some time ago that Zu Zhichong couldn’t have invited him over for no good reason. Though he’d lived in a rich family for many years, seldom had anybody come to him to ask for favors, so he was fairly curious about it.

Zu Zhichong, hearing no refusal, hurriedly fished some photos out of a drawer. There was a pile of them, the total number of which was probably over ten. He put them down in front of He Zheng and said, “Sect-uncle opened the Yin Yang Eyes for you, so I want you to take a look at these people’s pictures and find out which ones have black gas on them.”

Tun Shanhai said coolly, “If it comes to Chief’s knowledge that you take a short cut like this instead of conducting investigation by yourself, he will definitely give you a good scolding.”

“Who could possibly find out about it if you, Cutie and I never talk about it? Besides, I’m just trying to work this out more efficiently.” Zu Zhichong, after saying this, vigilantly tossed a glance at Tun Shanhai. “I’m warning you – if you dare tell on me, I’ll make sure you don’t see another dawn.”

Tun Shanhai angrily twisted his head back and started gnawing a drumstick, disregarding Zu Zhichong.

“The Yin Yang Eyes of mine don’t seem to work every time,” said He Zheng.

“What do you mean?” Zu Zhichong was surprised.

He Zheng explained, “On that day, after settling that matter in that school, I happened to walk past the Central Cemetery and went inside to take a look. The air in that place should be heavy with ghost Qi, but I didn’t see a shred of it.”

“Huh? How was that possible?” Zu Zhichong was also somewhat puzzled. “Was it by any chance because your Yin Yang Eyes were opened artificially, not something you were born with? So the functions of them are a little different – for example, you can only see demonic Qi or some thing like that? Never mind. Let’s give it a try.”

Zu Zhichong handed the photos to He Zheng. “Can you see anything in this one?”

He Zheng was surprised to see that the person in the picture was none other than Liu Lanxue, the teacher who had died not long ago. In it, her face was veiled in a shroud of black gas and couldn’t be seen distinctly.

He Zheng said, “There’s black gas on her face.”

Zu Zhichong was delighted. “This means you can see demonic Qi. Take a look at these.”

He Zheng checked them one by one, all of which were pictures of common people, and picked out three in which black gas could be seen. Zu Zhichong gave a smug smile. “I always feel these three bastards seem to have had dealings with those Demon’s Attendants. How thick is the black gas?”

“Pretty thin.”

“I see. That’s because these people are neither demons nor Demon’s Attendants but just made contact with them.”

“If they were demons, what would I have seen?” He Zheng was curious.

Zu Zhichong stroked his chin. “I don’t have the Yin Yang Eyes, but I guess the black gas would be very thick. Anyway, nowadays all demons are masters of disguise. I’ll show you when I catch one some day.”

He Zheng gave a bob of his head. “So this is the main emphasis of your work now?”

Zu Zhichong giggled. Instead of answering the question, he gave He Zheng a big hug and said, “Alas, you’re our human-shaped radar now, He Zheng. From now on, detecting demonic Qi on people will be a piece of take for us.”

Tun Shanhai, who was drinking cola on the side, sniffed, “Stop dreaming. His Yin Yang Eyes are not something he was born with. Overuse of them will take a heavy toll on his vital essence. Besides, not all Demon’s Attendants are so weak as to let the black gas around them show. In the normal course of events, only the lamest ones who don’t know how to hide their demonic Qi would be easily identified.”

On hearing this, He Zheng couldn’t help but wonder, ‘So the Yin Yang Eyes aren’t really that useful?’

“Well, he’s still better than none.” Zu Zhichong was not disappointed at all.

He Zheng, who had been sitting here eating for quite some time, was full. He looked at the clock and found that it was almost seven o’clock.

“Li Zong is still at work?”

Tun Shanhai flicked a glance at He Zheng and said meaningfully, “Chief probably has to work overtime tonight.”

He Zheng was thrown into perplexity by that glance from Tun Shanhai’s eyes.