A Good-for-Nothing

195. Two Women (1)

Translator: Dragon Rider

He Zheng had never been an interfering busybody, but his ear twitched at that girl’s Coastal City accent. He shook his hands to rid them of the water, walked up and asked, “How can I help you?”

The girl’s face was full of anxiety. “Handsome, my sister seems to be suffering from heatstroke. Would you please be so kind as to keep an eye on her for a while? I’ll go over there to buy some water.”

It was just a small favor, so of course He Zheng wouldn’t decline. He inclined his head. “Go. I’ll look after her for you.”

The girl thanked him effusively and then hastened away.

The elder woman was sitting facing the wind. She feebly bobbed her head at He Zheng, cold sweat oozing out of her forehead constantly. Anybody could tell that she was in misery.

He Zheng fumbled in his side pockets but failed to find anything that might be helpful.

After a while, the girl ran over with some iced water and a bottle of rubbing alcohol and hurriedly helped the elder woman lie on her laps. Seeing the anxious expression on the girl’s face, He Zheng asked, “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

“That’s so nice of you. My hands are kind of busy here. Would you please help me unscrew the lid of that bottle?” The girl looked at He Zheng gratefully.

He Zheng conveniently opened the bottle of water for her. When he handed it to her, their hands inevitably came into contact with each other. He Zheng felt an extremely cold sensation, as though he were touching ice. That feeling made his skin crawl.

He Zheng lowered his eyes and casually tossed a glance at the girl, whose face was covered with very thick foundation make-up which made her seem deathly white. He Zheng kept feeling that there was something indescribably weird about her, but he was unable to tell what it was exactly.

“I’m sorry to have put you to all this trouble, handsome.” The girl gave a gentle smile at He Zheng. She was wearing bright red lipstick, which added a touch of life to her.

She poured some of the water and the rubbing alcohol onto a towel and then started wiping the woman’s brow.

“It’s the least I could do.” He Zheng subdued his confusion and smiled back at her.

After a few moments, the woman finally felt better and also expressed her gratitude to He Zheng.

Seeing the travel bag beside their feet and their outfits, He Zheng felt that they were tourists but didn’t specially ask them about it. He just said, “You’re here for fun?”

“Yes. We’re from Coastal City and plan to go to the West Lake to do some sightseeing, and after that, if we have the time, maybe we’ll pay a visit to the Millenary Islands Lake.”

Having recovered from that bout of sunstroke, that woman managed to rise from the bench. Her features were much less attractive than the girl’s – quite plain actually, but strangely enough, looking at her, He Zheng found himself having trouble taking his eyes off her, the suspicion inside him intensifying.

“Thank you very much, handsome, but we still have a long journey ahead of us, so we need to get going.”

It was a while before He Zheng returned to the scene, where they had almost finished their jobs.

“Oh, He Zheng is back. Let’s go.”

They got into the van. Zhao Fei and Li Zong were sitting in the front. He Zheng, Zu Zhichong and Chen Qianlin were sitting in the back seats.

What with the hot weather, they had all broken out in a sweat. Chen Qianlin’s cheeks had reddened somewhat owing to the sunlight, a thin layer of sweat on the bridge of his nose. This was the first time that He Zheng had seen Chen Qianlin show such little care about his image, but neither the sunburn nor the sweat seemed to be dampening Chen Qianlin’s excitement which was all over his face. “Zu Zhichong, the last two footprints I found just now are indeed key evidence, right?”

A while ago they had scoured that massage parlor. There was no doubt whatsoever that the parlor had been the Human Devil’s temporary den, so all staff members had been searching it to see if they could find any useful information, and in the end, Chen Qianlin had discovered a small door leading to a secret chamber. There weren’t any bodies in it, but there was a trail of footprints.

“Uh… Those footprints don’t seem to belong to a man. As far as I could tell, they were left by two women.” Chen Qianlin, as though something had just occurred to him, craned around the back of the chair in front of him and excitedly asked Li Zong, “Group Leader Li, is there any chance the Human Devil transformed into a woman and infiltrated into that place?”

“We can’t rule out that possibility.”

Zhao Fei said, “We need to think out of the box while conducting the search. The Human Devil could be a man, a woman, a child or even an animal. He’s capable of taking anything as its vessel.”

While saying this, Zhao Fei turned up his lips. “But in the normal run of things, demons prefer vessels that look powerful. Given that this time around the Human Devil chose to be a woman, I think his powers are not as great as they used to be, which is why he has to lay low.”

He Zheng just listened to their words. He hadn’t joined the search on the scene, so he had no idea what they were talking about.

The air conditioner was sending cold wind out of the vents with a constant whoosh. The sound of the air conditioner working struck He Zheng as unbearably irritating.

When Li Zong looked into the rear-view mirror and saw that He Zheng was leaning against the back of the seat averting his sulky face from the others, something flashed across his eyes but he didn’t say anything.

Soon, the van arrived at the hotel.

Zu Zhichong and Chen Qianlin, having sensed that the vibes between Li Zong and He Zheng weren’t right, slunk away as soon as they got out of the van, proving themselves to have no team spirit at all.

Before running away, Zu Zhichong had clapped He Zheng on the shoulder telling him to play the spoiled spouse.

He Zheng was very fretful. Originally he had felt that it wasn’t a big deal, but Zu Zhichong had put it as though he and Li Zong were having a relationship crisis.

Zu Zhichong’s suggestion made He Zheng feel even more unwilling to make eye contact with Li Zong.

A warm sensation spread from his shoulder. He Zheng listlessly raised his eyes which saw Li Zong looking him in the face. “Are you tired?” asked Li Zong.