A Good-for-Nothing

222. To Stir Up Trouble (II)

Translator: Dragon Rider

A bead of cold sweat slid down from Zhou Yihao’s temple. He affected a calmness he didn’t feel and smiled, “What are you talking about, Father? Lately, I’ve been quite well-behaved and haven’t done anything out of bounds.”

While saying this, he was actually wondering what this was about exactly. Had it come to his father’s knowledge that he’d been secretly having that talent agency provide ‘food’ for him, by any chance? That was impossible. He had already handled it. Even if his father had found out about it, he could just deny it.

Without the slightest change of his countenance, Zhou Yihao looked sidelong at Zhou Yize who was impassively sitting bolt upright in the sofa. He knew without having to give it a thought that his brother had definitely said something to his father!

His brother just wanted to make things unpleasant for him, but he would never have his way!

Zhou Yihao was very smug.

“Kneel.”

Zhou Yihao instantly slumped to his knees in a reflexive way.

“Do you have any idea what you did wrong?”

“I–I–I didn’t do anything, Father.” Zhou Yihao panicked.

Zhou Congzhi lightly tossed his newspaper to Zhou Yihao. These days, not many people still read local newspapers, but Zhou Congzhi did it on a daily basis. The newspaper fell onto the floor in front of Zhou Yihao with a faint sound. In the local events section of it, the title “A TALENT AGENCY INVOLVED IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING” was very obtrusive.

Zhou Yihao’s throat felt rather tight. He took several deep breaths before he managed to force a smile. “Rest assured, Father, they won’t be able to trace it to us–Ah!”

Caught off guard, Zhou Yihao felt a breeze mixed with demonic Qi blow on him head-on and with that he was instantly brought crushingly to the ground. With a puff, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Holding his heart, curling up like a worm, Zhou Yihao groaned in pain.

Zhou Congzhi gracefully took his glasses off his nose bridge and said to Zhou Yize, “Clean up the mess your brother left behind.”

“I’ve found the one possessed by the Human Devil,” said Zhou Yize.

Zhou Yihao, who was moaning in agony on the ground, still had part of his consciousness, and his mind started racing at Zhou Yize’s words, pondering over them. The Human Devil? What did the Human Devil have to do with this? Hadn’t the Human Devil been eliminated already?

Zhou Congzhi rose from the sofa and flicked a downward glance at Zhou Yihao who was writhing constantly on the ground. “Yize, about the matter of the Human Devil, your handling of it didn’t quite satisfy me. We must not let anybody jeopardize our master’s plan.”

“Yes, Father. I understand.” Zhou Yize slightly lowered his head.

“Keep Yihao confined to his room for a couple of days. Don’t send him to meet Master. I’ll have someone step into the breach.”

“I know.”

Zhou Congzhi gave a nod and then made towards the staircase. His hand had just touched the rosewood banister when a weird gust of wind suddenly blew into the room and with that a little white paper-cut of a man flew inside through the gap between the door and the floor and landed right in front of Zhou Congzhi.

“It is always a pleasure to greet a friend from afar.” (a quotation from Confucius)

The paper-cut man bowed down to Zhou Congzhi, his mouth which was just a slit cut with scissors opening and closing. “I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Zhou.”

Both Zhou Yihao and Zhou Yize kept silent.

Zhou Congzhi narrowed his eyes, staring at the paper-cut man before him. “What is it that you came such a long way to come here to see me about, my guest?”

The paper-cut man was bending and curling as a voice came from his trunk. He had a certain accent and sounded like a foreigner.

“There’s no need for you to be so vexed, Mr. Zhou. Those people would never be able to trace it to you. I know you could use some smokescreen to blur their vision. I can handle that for you, but I expect you to do something for me in return.”

Zhou Congzhi gave a smile. He didn’t look like the patriarch of the largest family of Demon’s Attendants at all. Everybody knew that the patriarch of the Zhou family was very approachable.

“Why should we seek help from others when we can handle it on our own?”

The paper-cut man bowed even lower. “Of course, our powers are nothing compared to yours, but we don’t have as many misgivings as you do, and even if we are exposed, we could always extricate ourselves from trouble unscathed. You’ll get what you want without taking any risks. It’s a very good deal, isn’t it?”

Zhou Congzhi raised his hand, his fingers instantly turning into black gas. The little paper-cut man sensed danger and abruptly flew sideways. He was very fast, but Zhou Congzhi’s demonic Qi was faster. Grabbed by Zhou Congzhi’s hand, the paper-cut man said in Mandarin which was emotionless and as rusty as always, “Mr. Zhou, my powers will suffer a decrease if this paper-cut man gets hurt. Please go easy on him.”

“I will make this deal.” Zhou Congzhi’s black gas quickly devoured the trunk of the paper-cut man, leaving only his head. “But I don’t like uninvited visitors.”

“I like your ruthlessness.” The paper-cut man managed a growl before his little head which the only part of his body he had left was entirely engulfed, too.

Both Zhou Yize and Zhou Yihao remained silent behind him.

Zhou Congzhi resumed ascending the stairs. “Someone offers to work for us. You know what to do, Yize.”

“Yes, Father.” Zhou Congzhi had entered his study upstairs and closed the door when Zhou Yize bowed his head.

Zhou Yihao was still groaning in pain on the ground. Zhou Congzhi’s demonic Qi had invaded his body and was now rampaging in his blood vessels, hitting and expanding them, causing anguish far beyond common people’s tolerance.

In just a short while, Zhou Yihao’s hair overhanging his forehead was dripping wet with sweat. Unable to endure the agony any longer, he struggled to grip Zhou Yize’s pant leg with all the energy he could summon. “Help me, Big Brother… I was wrong. I apologize.”

Zhou Yize casually flicked a glance at Zhou Yihao and shook his hand off his pant leg.

Despair flooded over Zhou Yihao, but when Zhou Yize walked to the doorway, he found that the enormous excruciating pain had disappeared.

With a fit of cough, Zhou Yihao managed to sat up, cutting a sorry figure, and heavily smacked his fist onto the floor.

“Shit!”