A Good-for-Nothing

190. Dragon Blood (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

After dripping three droplets of blood into the lamp, Li Zong withdrew his finger. Seeing He Zheng was still standing not far away, Li Zong walked up and casually pressed the slit in his finger against He Zheng’s lips. When the two of them were in bed, He Zheng would occasionally lick Li Zong’s finger, so he subconsciously stretched his tongue and licked it.

He had originally thought that it would taste like rust, but unexpectedly, the taste of Li Zong’s blood was farthest removed from that. It was aromatic and extremely strong, like mellow wine.

He Zheng’s forehead was burning badly, but after a while, as the pleasant taste in his mouth ebbed away, He Zheng felt that his weary body had suddenly become energetic, which came as a surprise to him.

“It turns out I didn’t waste a shred of it,” smiled Li Zong. “I forgot to bring my Thermos bottle with him. I’ll make some tea with slices of ginseng for you after we return.”

“Chief!” While the two of them were talking, Zu Zhichong hastened over with Chen Qianlin following in his wake.

“Haha… Xiao Chen, you were worried that something bad might happen to them, but I told you my chief would make sure they came to no harm. Besides, Cutie is a very smart guy!”

Xiao Chen???

He Zheng appeared quite perplexed, looking back and forth from Zu Zhichong’s face to Chen Qianlin’s, a peculiar expression in his eyes. “You’re calling him ‘Xiao Chen’ now? You two have become friends with benefits, I suppose?”

Chen Qianlin, wearing his usual disgusted look, was speechless for quite a while before he snapped, “It’s Zu Zhichong’s unilateral decision to call me that! I’ll never accept this form of address.”

He Zheng, with his sharp eyes, noticed that Chen Qianlin’s ear lobes actually reddened somewhat. As if having just found something amusing, he abruptly fixed Chen Qianlin with an appraising stare.

Sometimes this is how people’s mindset works. When someone whom you’ve always believed to be patronizing suddenly has a facial expression unrelated to their image in your mind, that image they’ve “had a hard job to build” would collapse, and you’ll see them differently.

This was exactly what was happening to He Zheng, who was now much less hostile to Chen Qianlin.

“Oh, I see. Xiao Chen, you may set your mind at ease now. I’m unharmed.” He Zheng gave a wicked smile, exposing a set of white teeth.

Chen Qianlin almost went berserk. As he saw Qiu Luo out of the corners of his eyes, his body fell rigid for an instant. “What happened to him?”

He Zheng was terribly embarrassed at Chen Qianlin’s question. What with his excessive excitement at Li Zong’s arrival, he had completely forgotten about Qiu Luo who was still performing Qi circulation on the side.

“He…got his chest penetrated when trying to save me.” Somewhat awkward but more worried, He Zheng hurriedly gave Li Zong a push and said, “Check on Qiu Luo. He’s still breathing, but he’s been like this since he told me he needed to perform Qi circulation. Do you think anything would go wrong?”

Of course Li Zong was not as careless as He Zheng. He had noticed Qiu Luo some time ago. Qiu Luo was a sword spirit, which meant that the only way he could make a full recovery from the wound was to restore the sword.

“It’s okay.” Without the slightest change of his countenance, Li Zong squeezed He Zheng’s hand, as if telling him not to worry. “I’ll have Zu Zhichong take Qiu Luo to nurse his wound.”

Zu Zhichong hastily nodded. “I got this, Chief. Qiu Luo is in self-healing, and it might take some more time. You may return first.”

He Zheng knew that staff members of the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB) wouldn’t talk about other people’s primary forms in private. In addition, Li Zong had made some arrangements, so He Zheng didn’t persist with his questioning.

“All right.”

Li Zong inclined his head.

In the presence of Li Zong, Chen Qianlin could always manage to get off his high horse and show some sense of humility.

“Group Leader Li, we drove two cars here. How about I do the driving?” Chen Qianlin tossed He Zheng a quick glance and added with utmost reluctance, “Given that you broke the defensive enchantment of the Phantom Market to get in, you must be quite tired. Besides, He Zheng…”

Through gritted teeth, Chen Qianlin continued, “I think He Zheng could also use some rest, so you two may sit in the back seats. I’ll drive.”

He Zheng could have sworn that he detected unwillingness in Chen Qianlin’s tone.

But He Zheng was not in the mood for a verbal duel with him at all. Instead, he smiled, “All right. Li Zong, let’s do it his way. Xiao Chen is really very considerate.”

Chen Qianlin’s hand holding the handle on the car door paused, blue veins throbbing in his other hand which was hanging naturally. ‘Control yourself. Control yourself, Chen Qianlin. You still want to be Li Zong’s apprentice!’

They got into the car. Chen Qianlin, not very familiar with the route, was using satnav.

He Zheng and Li Zong were sitting in the back seats. There weren’t any intimacies between them. They were just sitting there.

He Zheng, who had been feeling exceptionally vigorous after consuming a drop of Li Zong’s blood, couldn’t help twisting his head aside with the intention to ask Li Zong about the reason, but when he saw the weariness on Li Zong’s face, he closed his mouth.

In fact, though not having asked Li Zong anything about it, he had a shrewd deduction: the day before, he had entered the so-called ‘Phantom Market’ by accident, and of course Chen Qianlin and the others had immediately tried to make contact with Li Zong; besides, he had part of Li Zong’s primordial spirit in him, and it seemed to share some kind of telepathic bond with Li Zong, which was why Li Zong had quickly located him and come to his rescue.

He Zheng’s lips clamped together. He stared at Li Zong’s face for a while, keeping silent.

The voice of the satnav was the only sound in the car, but surprisingly, to He Zheng’s ears, the impersonal, synthesized voice sounded warm and sweet.