A Good-for-Nothing

254. I’m Straight!

 

Translator: Dragon Rider

 

Originally they had come here with the intention to talk business, and none of them had bargained on hearing such a sentimental story, but overall, gossip of this kind struck them as quite entertaining. However, now that the time for gossip was over, they had to get back to more sensible matters.

Therefore, the topic changed from a psychopathic lovesick girl’s pursuit of love to Nakayi Hakute.

When Li Zong had finished speaking, Tao Wujiu, who clearly had heard a lot of gossip, said, “That explains why Nakayi Hakute is our arch-rival in this year’s championship.”

“Why?” He Zheng and Carnotte asked in unison.

Of all people in this room, they were evidently the only two who knew nothing about it. Lao Ka was a newbie, and it was understandable that he was unaware of the situation. He Zheng, however, had been living among a bunch of gossipy teammates all along, but he had never heard anything about it. Even Tao Wujiu was astonished.

But Tao Wujiu did not dare explicitly tell He Zheng to pay more attention to gossip in the presence of Li Zong, so he said in a roundabout way, “Zheng, actually I feel that it’ll do you some good to spare one tenth of your time to do something other than exorcism practice – like socializing with people around you.”

Bemusement written all over his face, He Zheng said, “I do socialize with people. My private life is pretty rich, okay?”

‘I should forget this. He’s incurable.’ Tao Wujiu gave up and shifted his gaze to Chen Qianlin who, of all his teammates, liked to squabble with He Zheng the most, but on this occasion, Chen Qianlin was as quiet as a sloth and had not said anything for quite some time.

Tao Wujiu felt that everybody was acting weirdly today.

He gingerly stole a glance at Li Zong, who showed no inclination to say anything, so Tao Wujiu cautiously continued, “Nakayi Hakute has some special feelings for his master Honya Nali. After Honya Nali died, he once sent Supt. Li a challenge, but Supt. Li did not accept it. The relations between the Republic of Hua and the Neon Kingdom have been stabilizing in recent years. The government of the Neon Kingdom was worried that Nakayi Hakute’s personal affairs would have negative influence on their international profile, so Nakayi Hakute was forbidden to leave the country.

As a result, Nakayi Hakute, who is said to be even more powerful than his master, has never attended any exorcism championship on behalf of the Neon Kingdom before.”

He Zheng suddenly caught on to what Tao Wujiu meant, but the expression on his face was manifestly odd. “Are you saying that Nakayi Hakute having feelings for his master Honya Nali is common knowledge in the Neon Kingdom?”

“Um, probably everybody who knows Nakayi Hakute is aware of it. His contracted psychic entity, Honyani Susuhana, is modeled after Honya Nali.”

“He made her soul his contracted psychic entity?”

“Yeah. That’s theoretically doable. A contracted psychic entity is a Yin Yang Master’s spiritual puppet. Humans, beasts and Yōkai could all be controlled by a Yin Yang Master with spiritual power. Abe Nucoli, a famous Yin Yang Master in the Neon Kingdom’s history, once owned twelve powerful contracted psychic entities, all of which were in human form.”

“Wait.” He Zheng furrowed his brows and said, “Did nobody in the Neon Kingdom object to Nakayi Hakute making Honya Nali his psychic entity?”

That did not make any sense. Given that Honya Nali had been a member of an aristocratic family in the Neon Kingdom, her family should have objected to their most powerful Yin Yang Master’s soul becoming someone’s slave.

Li Zong explained, “It was Honya Nali herself who made the decision. She died after her forbidden spell backfired on her. According to the rules, she was supposed to serve an evil god after death. She tampered with her soul, dividing it into two parts. One part received her punishment, and the other part, in which part of her abilities and consciousness was sealed, became a contracted psychic entity of Nakayi Hakute’s after her death so that she could continue to ‘live’.

For exorcists of the Neon Kingdom, the combination of Nakayi Hakute and Honya Nali’s soul would give birth to an unequalled contracted psychic entity, so they naturally were willing to see it happen.”

Carnotte and He Zheng, after hearing the story, were both at a loss for words.

“It sounds like we’ll have a hard job winning this year’s championship.”

Leaving aside the relative powers, there were several competing teams who wanted them dead, and it was very difficult to guard against their subterfuge.

After hearing these words of He Zheng’s, the others had fairly heavy hearts.

Unexpectedly, the next moment He Zheng stretched and lay down onto the bed. Staring at the ceiling, he said, “It seems we’ll have to give it our best shot. If we lose with Li Zong being our instructor, it’d be such a disgrace.”

Li Zong gave a smile and rubbed He Zheng’s hair.

The others instantly relaxed as well. Chen Qianlin, with a patronizing look on his face, said, “Seeing as you’re our team leader, you need to shape up a little. Don’t be a burden to us.”

He Zheng, with a twinkle in his eye, looked at Chen Qianlin, who averted his sulky face.

Everybody else dissolved into laughter.

He Zheng laughed, “This is my first time hearing Chen Qianlin say half a decent sentence since I made his acquaintance.”

Bewildered, Lao Ka asked, “Why only half of it is decent?”

Tao Wujiu explained with a smile, “Because in Zheng’s eyes, the latter half is still bullshit.”

Though none of them had ever said He Zheng was their leader, during the training before their departure, they had tacitly acknowledged He Zheng as the team leader. And now, even Chen Qianlin had said it out loud, which further proved that He Zheng had gained their unanimous acknowledgement.

If truth be told, He Zheng felt happy.

When they were in the room, He Zheng managed to keep a straight face. After they took their leave, He Zheng started rolling around on the bed in delight.

Li Zong closed the door and returned. At the sight of He Zheng rolling around on the bed, he pulled a wry face, perched himself on the edge of the bed and tweaked He Zheng’s ear playfully. “Why are you so happy?” he asked.

He Zheng, resting his head on Li Zong’s hands, looked at Li Zong with twinkling eyes and said in a voice tinged with excitement, “I’m happy because this is my first time being recognized to be a leader by others.”

He said these words with a smile on his face, but Li Zong did not feel like smiling after hearing them.

Nobody could have believed that this young man lying meekly beside Li Zong used to be one of the most troublesome playboys in Coastal City, a devil, especially for the He family. Although he had had nobody at his back when he had been in the He family, Qiao Peiyu and the others had not been able to run roughshod over him, because He Zheng could be aggressive and heartless.

However, that did not mean He Zheng had no desire to be appreciated.

Li Zong softly ran his long fingers through He Zheng’s hair, heavily rubbed one of them against He Zheng’s forehead and then stroked He Zheng’s lips.

He Zheng’s lips were very soft, making it hard to believe that harsh words could come out of them. Li Zong gently kissed them. He Zheng was somewhat amazed, because Li Zong wouldn’t normally do this unless he asked for it.

“Let’s go. We’re supposed to be at the venue today.” Soon Li Zong pulled He Zheng up from the bed.

Eyes narrowed, He Zheng licked his lips as though reliving the kiss. He Zheng tended to be in a very good mood after getting what he wanted, and when in a good mood, he tended not to make trouble for others and was thus easy to get along with.

Before Chen Qianlin and the others left, Li Zong had told them that they were going to the venue later this day.

Therefore, when He Zheng and Li Zong carried their baggage downstairs, Chen Qianlin and the others were waiting for them.

Apart from them, the other competing teams were also downstairs waiting for the buses which were going to take them to the pier.

At the sight of Li Zong and his team, some people boldly shifted their gaze to them, but none of them was thin-skinned, so they ignored them.

There were clearly a couple of factions among the competing teams, and none of them made overtures to He Zheng or any of his teammates.

“By the way, didn’t you say that the sixth member will be here waiting for us?” asked He Zheng, hoisting his backpack a little higher.

“Chen Kai has gone to the island already.”

“I see.” The others said nothing else.

Before long the buses rented by the organizing committee arrived one after another. He Zheng and his teammates got on a bus and headed for the pier.

It would take them an hour to travel from this city to the island by ship. Most of them were okay, but Lao Ka, the tough and cool werewolf, who had grown up in mainland, got seasick. A few minutes after they went aboard, he began to feel dizzy. A thickset man as he was, he leaned against Tao Wujiu’s shoulder like a vulnerable girl, his face pallid, looking quite feeble.

He Zheng wanted to tease him and call him “a delicate baby wolf”, but he was just about to speak when his eyes alighted on Chen Qianlin who was standing beside Qiu Luo.

He Zheng found that when with Qiu Luo, Chen Qianlin was so quiet as though he were another person. He was not only quiet but also not patronizing. Astonished, He Zheng nudged Li Zong, who looked at him. He Zheng pointed in the direction of Chen Qianlin with his chin, pouting.

Qiu Luo and Chen Qianlin were sitting on the same bench, but on two ends of it. Even when two strangers were sharing a bench, the gap between them would normally be about the width of a fist, but the distance between Qiu Luo and Chen Qianlin could easily give people the impression that they were foes.

“I feel Xiao Chen has been acting a little weirdly recently.”

He Zheng lowered his voice. “Does it strike you there’s something strange going on between him and Qiu Luo?”

Li Zong squinted his eyes. He had no interest in gossip, but there did seem to be something going on between Chen Qianlin and Qiu Luo.

“Yeah.”

“Incidentally, is Qiu Luo straight or gay?” He Zheng suddenly inquired, stroking his chin.

“Gay, I think. Do you not know Qiu Luo is a drag queen?”

“Really?”

On hearing this, He Zheng suddenly recalled that during the training process there had been a time when he had mistakenly believed Qiu Luo was a girl.

He Zheng’s eyes gleamed with desire for gossip. He edged closer to Tao Wujiu and asked, “Xiao Tao, do you know anything about it?”

“You call me Xiao Tao when you want to hear some gossip, and Lao Tao when you don’t,” sighed Tao Wujiu piteously.

He Zheng heavily jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow and said, “Just tell me!”

“I only know one thing about it – Qiu Luo on occasions dresses like a girl,” said Tao Wujiu. “He’s indeed a drag queen, but I don’t know whether he does that because he’s a cosplayer or because of something else.”

“But I won’t be surprised if he’s gay, given that he’s okay with dressing like a girl,” added Tao Wujiu. He thought about it for a while and then suddenly felt his flesh creeping. “Wait. He Zheng, you’re gay. Why are you discussing this with me? For your information, I’m straight, like unbendably straight.”

He Zheng grinned at him, revealing his white teeth. “Well, you’re in a team full of gays. And, you might not be as unbendable as you think you are, considering there’s a man leaning against your shoulder.”

Tao Wujiu, ” … ”

Tao Wujiu twisted his head aside, looked at Lao Ka whose head was rested on his shoulder and heaved a sigh.

‘Oh, God, will you please let me remain straight?’