A Good-for-Nothing

238. Here’s My Chance (II)

 

Translator: Dragon Rider

 

Eventually, before departure, Li Zong still took He Zheng to a jewelry store and purchased a watch. He Zheng picked the most expensive one, regardless of whether it suited Li Zong or not. The storekeeper had the watch delivered from their headquarters. The saleswoman had an inexplicable look in her eyes when looking at Li Zong, probably thinking that He Zheng didn’t at all look like someone with a successful career, and Li Zong didn’t look like a kept man either.

Was this a kept man buying things for his sugar daddy with the sugar daddy’s card, by any chance? Whatever. That sounded way too ridiculous.

Eventually, Li Zong walked out of the store wearing a shiny watch full of diamonds around his wrist, the light reflected from the watch so glaring that he began to have dizzy spells. He undid the buttons on his sleeve to conceal the watch. He Zheng didn’t say anything at the sight of this, believing that Li Zong did this because he didn’t want to make anybody jealous, that Li Zong did the right thing by hiding it, for nobody deserved to see what he gave Li Zong.

After He Zheng’s strong wish to buy Li Zong a watch was gratified, they finally went to the airport and got on their flight bound for Shen City.

In Shen City.

It wouldn’t be easy to bring all those in the Zhu family who might have connection with the Demonic Seed back to Coastal City, so the headquarters had sent an official document to Fengdu Special Action Group. When Li Zong and He Zheng got off the plane, Mu Fangsheng, the leader of Fengdu Special Action Group, along with his subordinates, had been waiting for them in the airport.

Some members of a branch of the Li family, who had received Li Zong’s instructions and come to Shen City in advance, had also been waiting for them.

As there were so many people waiting for the two of them, when they walked out, some people took Li Zong to be some celebrity and ran over to ask for his signature.

The moment they got in the car, a man with a baby face greeted Li Zong. “Supt. Li.”

Then he looked at He Zheng and asked, “This must be He Zheng, I suppose?”

Li Zong said, “This is Mu Fangsheng, the leader of Fengdu Special Action Group.”

He Zheng saw that there was an odd aura about Mu Fangsheng. His eyes briefly gleamed and he greeted him.

The car slowly started moving. Noticing the look in He Zheng’s eyes, Mu Fangsheng smiled, “I heard that you have the Yin Yang Eyes. Just now you saw something unusual on me, didn’t you?”

He Zheng inclined his head.

Mu Fangsheng stretched and confided, “I used to be a Chinese scholar tree Yōkai growing in front of the gates to the underworld?”

“The gates to the underworld really exist?”

“Of course. Even such a special entity as Supt. Li exists, what’s so strange about the existence of the gates to the underworld?”

Having astutely noticed the words “special entity” that Mu Fangsheng had just said, He Zheng twisted his head around and tossed Li Zong a glance. Li Zong, who hadn’t expected that he would get himself into this kind of trouble, was just about to say something to coax him when He Zheng, as though totally indifferent about that, asked, “So the underworld is a real thing as well?”

“The so-called underworld is just another governing body with its own independent system, but it’s another world, and people there don’t normally go anywhere outside the gates.

Living people dwell in this world, and spirits in the underworld, so life and death are separated, respecting each other’s boundaries. When a spirit is reincarnated, it’d be a new start.”

He Zheng was unable to speak for quite a while. Eyes glinting expectantly, he asked Mu Fangsheng, “Are there a lot of souls in the underworld?”

Mu Fangsheng stroked his chin. “In the ordinary course of events, the souls of all those who have been dead for no longer than thirty years, if registered, should be in there. Those unregistered ones and some special ones might not be found in the underworld.”

“No longer than thirty years…” mumbled He Zheng. It hadn’t been thirty years since his mother’s death, which meant that he might be able to see his mother again if he managed to get into the underworld…

“Stop filling your head with foolish notions. Your mother is not among those souls.” Li Zong pressed his icy cold finger onto his forehead, his lips motionless, and with that these words directly appeared in He Zheng’s mind.

Realizing that this was some kind of telepathic skill, He Zheng looked at Li Zong, who had an impassive face, but whose eyes seemed somewhat deeper than before.

He Zheng quickly shook his head. What was he thinking? How did he suddenly come up with the idea of venturing into the underworld?

“I–” He Zheng opened his mouth in spite of himself and was just about to say something when Li Zong, maintaining a poker face, stopped him.

Li Zong casually flicked him a glance and then asked Mu Fangsheng, “About the Zhu family, all arrangements have been made, I suppose?”

Mu Fangsheng was confused as to why they suddenly fell silent and then abruptly asked about this matter, but as a petty official in Shen City, he always kept his nose out of others’ business. “Yes. We’ve informed Old Master Zhu as well.

Supt. Li, would you please tell me when you’re taking them away so that our men can step into the breach in time?”

Taking all those from the Zhu family related to the Demonic Seed into custody was one thing, and whether or not they should do it in a big way was another. No matter what, they needed to make sure no outsider came to know that there was some kind of connection between the Demonic Seed and the two families. At least they had to keep a semblance of normality. Otherwise, these two families, including He Zheng, would be in deep trouble.

As a result, all trainees and SMB staff members that had been on the mission in the south-west, except for the two group leaders, had had their memories modified by Spells of Erasure.

However, they’d overlooked one thing.

He Yu, the daughter of the He family’s patriarch, had recently been quite close to Zhou Yihao, the youngest son of the Zhou family’s patriarch, but she suddenly ghosted on Zhou Yihao, which made him realize that something was wrong.

That stupid woman had been pestering him all along. It was very unusual that she suddenly stopped calling him.

Zhou Yihao had a lot of demerits, but he had the merit of being astute and careful. Therefore, Zhou Yihao started covertly looking into the reason, pretending that he didn’t know anything. The SMB had been doing a good job keeping this matter confidential, but Zhou Yihao, who was pretty good at analyzing people’s mentality, found a faint clue, smelling a secret that was exciting him.

His chance to get back in favor with his master had presented itself.