A Good-for-Nothing

227. The Handling of the Aftermath (I)

Translator: Dragon Rider

Mountain winds were whistling by. The grass around the gazebo had been burnt and blackened by thunderbolts. He Zheng was carrying Wu Fangshuo’s cooling body in his arms, a myriad of feelings flooding over him.

Chen Qianlin was not trying to catch him out, which was rather rare. He was standing on the side with his face averted, appearing to be pretty upset as well.

Zu Zhichong, who had been responsible for guiding them from the very beginning, knew that none of them had ever had this kind of experience before. He wanted to tell them that dealing with life-threatening dangers was actually part of this job, that they would have frequent brushes with death, that any of their companions could die at any moment, so they should get used to this kind of thing.

But Zu Zhichong was unable to say any of those words.

After a long silence, Zhao Fei massaged his forehead and said, “Call Li Zong and have him send some men here. Although I deployed a magic barrier around this place, we still need more men to clean up this mess.”

Zu Zhichong inclined his head.

Zhao Fei looked at Chen Qianlin and He Zheng and added, “You two kids might want to stay away from Wu Fangshuo’s body. There may be residual demonic Qi in him.”

Theoretically, Wu Fangshuo should have been instantly reduced to a carbonized skeleton by those thunderbolts, but those plumes of demonic Qi had borne the attack of lightning for him, which was why Wu Fangshuo’s body was still intact. As a result, Zhao Fei was worried that the Human Devil might play the same old trick again and possess another person. If by any chance one of the two of them fell victim to it, things would get thorny.

With a leaden heart, He Zheng put Wu Fangshuo down on the side and then adjusted Wu Fangshuo’s clothes with Chen Qianlin to make him look more presentable.

It was about half an hour before a police van came into sight at the foot of the hill.

“Chief and some others are coming.” Zu Zhichong flicked a glance into the distance and saw that Luo Zhou, Jin Qianlai and some other staff members were going uphill.

The one in front was none other than Li Zong. In fact, there was no need for Li Zong to personally come to the scene, and the reason why he came here was only too obvious.

Seeing the massive mess, Luo Zhou gave a gasp of astonishment. Anybody could tell without thinking how fierce the fight had been.

Li Zong tossed a glance at the professionals he’d brought here, who immediately started working. In the presence of Luo Zhou, they removed the burnt, black grass, scattered grass seed over the ground and then sprayed some kind of potion onto it. After merely a couple of minutes, the potion produced the desired effect. The seeds sprouted and grew, restoring the place to its former vitality.

It was as though that life-and-death struggle had never happened.

At the sight of Wu Fangshuo’s body, Jin Qianlai fathomed out what had happened. He heaved a sigh and then started laboring around with Chen Qianlin.

Li Zong walked up to He Zheng who had been standing there all along, rubbed his head and asked, “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

He Zheng shook his head. Everybody has some adaptability. From that incident in the hospital on, all cases he’d got involved were fraught with perils, which helped He Zheng improve his ability to cope with stress.

He Zheng took a deep breath. He was no longer the He Zheng who had screamed in panic the first time he’d been faced with this kind of situation. He still remembered what he should do. He Zheng lowered his head to stare at Wu Fangshuo’s body and related to Li Zong what Wu Fangshuo had just said down to the smallest detail.

“I see.”

If it were anybody else who had said these two words to him, He Zheng would felt that they were being perfunctory, but since it was Li Zong who said this, He Zheng knew that Li Zong would handle it properly.

Zhao Fei said, “That powerful demon he mentioned must be the Demon King. We should report this to the director general as soon as possible.”

“I’ll inform them of it.”

All the other matters were handled and Wu Fangshuo’s body was the only remaining issue. Li Zong winked at Zu Zhichong, who gave a nod and took the staff members away. Zhao Fei was the only one that stayed.

The couple of them waited in the van. For quite a while, they all kept silent, feeling like to say something but couldn’t, as though their lips had grown too heavy for them to lift.

After another few moments, Li Zong and Zhao Fei returned, but they were not carrying Wu Fangshuo’s body.

Nobody asked any of the two of them how they’d dealt with Wu Fangshuo’s body. He Zheng lowered his eyes. The van drove towards the police station at a steady pace.

After they arrived at the police station, a staff member modified Chen Xi’s memory. No longer having any recollection of the previous events, Chen Xi safely returned home and wouldn’t encounter any danger. Wang Jian, however, went back to the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB) with some staff members. After registering as an exorcist, Wang Jian still worked as a common talent scout, and his life wouldn’t be any different from how it’d been before this incident. As regards the matter of winding up the case, Luo Zhou would handle it.

Luo Zhou would remain in cooperation with SMB, and he was fully aware of how he should explain it to outsiders.

It seemed that things had been properly settled, but they were still unable to relax, especially Chen Qianlin and a couple of others who had heard what Wu Fangshuo said before his death. They were all preoccupied and in deep concern. Someone was secretly serving a powerful demon in Coastal City. Sooner or later this matter would bring disasters.

But at the thought that Li Zong was with them, their concern was alleviated somewhat. As long as Li Zong and SMB still stood, they believed that they would surely find out which family had been doing that.

“Chief, should we go back to have a meeting?”

Seeing all of them were a bit down, Li Zong didn’t have them return to SMB. He said, “This case is closed. You may all take a day off. Go back and have some rest.”

Nobody cheered, but nobody declined Li Zong’s kind offer either.

What with the inquiry into the case of Wu Fangshuo, the past couple of days had indeed been quite hectic and tiring for them.

Li Zong added, “Zu Zhichong, make a phone call to Zhen Ni tonight and tell her this year’s SMB recruitment of new staff members has been moved up.”