A Good-for-Nothing

250. Xiao Chen Was Very Busy

Translator: Dragon Rider

A young man wearing a pair of clogs was standing by the shore, his hair flying in sea breezes. The katana hanging from his belt and his bare chest made him look very much like a Japanese ronin.

A meek teenage girl was sitting on the ground, cuddling up against his leg.

Waves were dashing against the rock, turning into snow-white sprays, making an aesthetically pleasing sight.

A white paper-cut man appeared out of thin air and flew up to the man, chirping all the way, breaking the silence, bringing the man the information he needed.

As the paper-cut man finished speaking, a patch of black gas wafted out of his mouth which was actually a slit made with scissors.

“So this is the payment they gave me?”

The paper-cut man tilted his little head, floating up and down, appearing to be nodding.

“A pleasant surprise,” chuckled the man, the patch of black gas slowly circling around above his fingertip.

After receiving the message, the young man folded the paper-cut man and tucked him back into his belt along with what the paper-cut man had just delivered to him.

“Susuhana, we need to get going as well. I don’t want to fight an opponent like that guy, but it seems we don’t have a choice,” said the young man, looking across the sea in the direction of somewhere far away.

That was the Republic of Hua.

…

The exorcism championship was an important event, so He Zheng, Li Zong and the others arrived at the airport early.

Zu Zhichong had been the one responsible for booking flight tickets, but this irresponsible guy had indulged himself with video games and forgotten about the whole thing. It was only the day before their scheduled departure that he had recalled it, and by that time, the first-class cabin had been fully booked, so he had had no choice but to book coach seats. The flight would take over ten hours. He Zheng almost beat Zu Zhichong to death after finding out they were going to fly coach.

In order to make amends to them, Zu Zhichong had got up very early and gone to the airport to see them off. Of course, a more important reason was that he had to help check in their baggage. No airlines would openly allow anybody to check in a sword. Zu Zhichong had some official papers which made things a lot easier.

When He Zheng and Li Zong arrived, Qiu Luo, Tao Wujiu and Carnotte were already in the airport. They chanced upon each other at the check-in counter.

After glancing at the time displayed on a giant LED screen, He Zheng asked, “What’s taking Chen Qianlin so long?”

The words had hardly left him when a showy long black Lincoln limousine steadily stopped at the entrance of the airport. A lot of passengers’ eyes were drawn to it, wondering if some TV star was in it.

After a brief moment, the car door opened and Chen Qianlin, gorgeously clothed, got out.

“What a moron.” He Zheng was amused. Could anybody be more showy than this guy?

Leaning against the car door with a sulky face, Chen Qianlin bobbed his head repeatedly at someone sitting in the car. Eventually, seeming to run out of patience, he sniffed, “Okay, I get it, Grandfather. Just go already. You’re embarrassing me.”

Countless people looked in his direction. Chen Qianlin was handsome and dashing and struck some people as a gigolo.

The old man inside the car said, “Okay. Have a safe trip.”

With a sullen face, Chen Qianlin slammed the door shut.

Suddenly he felt someone clapped him on the shoulder and with that he twisted his head around and was startled. “What the hell are you all standing here for?” he asked.

He Zheng pointed at the car with his chin. “Watching a grandpa bidding his loving grandson farewell.”

Chen Qianlin’s face darkened further as though somebody had just stuffed a fly into his mouth. He was terribly embarrassed, feeling that he was like a grandpa’s boy. A faint flush spreading over his ear lobes, he affected a fretfulness he didn’t feel and started shooing them away. “It’s just a car. Let’s go inside already.”

At the sight of Li Zong, Chen Wu was amazed, but because of the current situation, he did not get out of the car and just inclined his head at Li Zong in a very serious manner, inwardly reproaching his grandson for not having told him in advance Supt. Li would be in the airport. Had he known beforehand, he would arrange for a meeting with Li Zong.

“It seems your grandfather loves you pretty much,” He Zheng said to Chen Qianlin, handing his passport to a staff member of the airport. If his memory served him well, Chen Qianlin lived in Lin City. For an old man, such a long drive could be quite an ordeal.

“Yeah,” answered Chen Qianlin honestly, despite the fact that he had been rather impatient when talking with his grandfather. “The old man is in his declining years and feels lonely. He couldn’t help it.”

Though his tone was disapproving, the deep affection in his voice was manifest.

Qiu Luo walking ahead of them curled the corners of his mouth at these words but didn’t say anything.

They had arrived at the airport not long before the departure time, so shortly after checking in, they got aboard the plane.

The seating arrangements were perfect. He Zheng and Li Zong were next to each other. Qiu Luo was beside Chen Qianlin, sitting in the same row with Lao Ka and Tao Wujiu.

They were holding their respective boarding passes. At the sight of his seat number, Chen Qianlin could barely forbear from hurling curses at Zu Zhichong, because his seat was beside Qiu Luo’s!

He impassively glanced at Qiu Luo on the side, pretending to be composed. After sitting down, he didn’t even dare put his arm on the armrest, afraid of touching Qiu Luo.

Qiu Luo naturally noticed it. He lowered his head, a gleam in his eyes. Nobody noticed anything out of the ordinary about him.

Well, nobody except Tao Wujiu, who saw it and became curious, but who subdued his urge from asking.

The economy class was rather narrow, and there wasn’t even enough room between seats for them to straighten their legs. It was something after three o’clock when they arrived at the transit airport where they got a connecting flight to the city nearest to the island. It was an eight-hour flight. Zu Zhichong, who seemed to be determined to go the whole hog in being an asshole, had failed to book business class seats for their second flight as well.

The thirteen-hour journey was long and weary, with every second feeling like a year. When He Zheng walked out of the airport, tiredness was written all over his face. His legs were trembling and he nearly lost his balance.

However, Zu Zhichong, who seemed to still have a small part of his humanity left, had arranged car service for them. The moment they walked out of the terminal, they saw a white driver holding a big board with names on it. At the sight of them, the driver greeted them by saying “Hello” several times in a row.

The venue for the exorcism championship was located on an island. This city was the nearest to the island, and the plane couldn’t take them any closer to it. This city was at 60 degrees south. They had traveled across half of the earth.

They had departed from Coastal City, where the air temperature was over thirty degrees Celsius, so they were all wearing short-sleeved T-shirts, but the air temperature in this island city was only ten degrees during the day, and they had to wear coats at night.

When they walked out of the terminal, they felt goosebumps rising up on their arms because of the air temperature which was considerably lower than it was in the building.

“Shit. It’s so cold here.” Tao Wujiu wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt couldn’t help but start rubbing his arms after exiting the terminal.

The driver hurriedly opened the door of his SUV for them. It was much warmer in side the vehicle.

It was a six-seat SUV. Chen Qianlin took the front passenger seat quicker than a monkey.

Qiu Luo pursed his lips, keeping silent.

It was 10 p.m. when they arrived at the hotel.

This was a designated hotel for contestants of the exorcism championship, and the organizing committee had assigned rooms to the competing teams according to their respective numbers of members. Since there were too many contestants, all the rooms offered to them were standard double rooms.

Chen Qianlin began to suspect that Zu Zhichong was deliberately making life difficult for him, because when he got the room key, he found that his roommate was none other than Qiu Luo.

In fact, Chen Qianlin, as a not-so-straight man, was fairly sensitive to romantic relationship, despite his pursuit of Tao.

He had not had many dealings with Qiu Luo, but it struck him that Qiu Luo had … some kind of inexplicable feelings for him.

After being given the room key, he somewhat hesitantly walked up to Tao Wujiu. Several times he opened his mouth with the intention to switch rooms, but because they were both men and such actions might be considered inappropriate, Chen Qianlin eventually gave up.

Qiu Luo naturally noticed all this.

They were all exhausted from the journey. After getting their room keys, they went back to their rooms to rest one after another. Chen Qianlin intentionally hung back. It had been quite some time since Qiu Luo had entered, but Chen Qianlin was still pacing up and down in the corridor outside the room.

He Zheng was hungry, so Li Zong ordered food. When He Zheng went to open the door to get the food, he caught sight of Chen Qianlin standing in the doorway. “Why are you standing there?” he asked, confused.

Chen Qianlin glanced at He Zheng as though He Zheng were a retard. “You don’t know anything,” he said.

He Zheng rolled his eyes upwards. “Yeah, Mr. Know-All.”

He couldn’t be bothered to say another word to Chen Qianlin, took the food and went back to his room.

The corridor was covered with soft carpet. Some others came upstairs one after another, who seemed to be members of other competing teams and were all curious about Chen Qianlin standing in the doorway.

One of them, who could tell that Chen Qianlin was from the Republic of Hua from his recognizable features, accosted Chen Qianlin in halting Mandarin.

A white man of medium, seemingly particularly interested in Chen Qianlin, walked up to him, his facial expression suggesting that he was seeking a one-night stand.

Chen Qianlin felt that he would rather go inside to face Qiu Luo than deal with these morons.

As a result, with the air of a warrior cutting off his own hand, Chen Qianlin opened the door with the room key. Fortunately the hotel had provided two room keys for each room. Otherwise the situation would be rather awkward.

The interior decoration of this hotel had a local, exotic flavor – blue walls, light white ceilings with patterns. Standing in the room, he felt like he were by the sea beneath blue sky.

From the high ceiling hung multicoloured glazed lamps instead of filament lamps, which were giving off soft glow. The room was filled with the smell of a kind of spice peculiar to this country. In the tender light, Chen Qianlin’s mood gradually lightened.

At the entryway there was a pair of non-woven slippers. Chen Qianlin changed into the slippers, put his shoes into the closet and then walked inside.

On hearing the sound of water running out of shower head in the bathroom, Chen Qianlin, who had had a hard job calming down, tensed up again. He subconsciously looked in the direction of the bathroom, which was not far away from the front door. The insulation was rather poor.

Before long, the sound of water running stopped. Qiu Luo’s voice was heard. “Chen Qianlin?”

“Yeah, it’s me. You–You may continue your bath,” Chen Qianlin stuttered. Seeing that his figure was reflected in the glass wall, he felt it inappropriate to stand there and hurriedly walked to the far end of the room.

Qiu Luo had picked the bed further away from the window. Chen Qianlin quickly took his change of clothes out of his suitcase. He had not bargained on sleeping in a standard double room. Before departure, his grandfather had had a pair of old school pajamas packed into his suitcase. Chen Qianlin thought for a few moments before he fished out a white short-sleeved T-shirt. After another while, he fumbled in his suitcase again and then produced a pair of pants.

Soon Qiu Luo finished bathing.

He was toweling his hair when walking out of the bathroom. “I’ve finished my bath. You may go.”

Probably because having just had a bath, Qiu Luo sounded quite soft. Chen Qianlin’s heart gave an inexplicable lurch and with that he subconsciously looked up at Qiu Luo, who was wearing a carelessly buttoned bathrobe. Droplets of water could be seeing sliding down his bare skin.

Chen Qianlin swallowed hard. Qiu Luo’s face was really …

He hastily grabbed his clothes and stopped himself from giving it any more thought. “Ahem … I’ll go and take a shower!”

With that he trotted into the bathroom as though fleeing from something. He was in such great haste that he forgot to change his slippers.

Qiu Luo paused in the act of toweling his hair, a gleam flitting across his eyes as he looked at Chen Qianlin’s back.