A Good-for-Nothing

305. A Last Resort

Translator: Dragon Rider

There was no doubt that He Zheng had not been this happy for weeks. Now he understood why people kept saying that everybody needed a friend or two, that lifelong friendship did exist. The company of friends could indeed lighten your mood.

He Zheng was a good example. He was now savoring the astonishing gossip that Chen Kai had just told him, a broad smile on his face. This was the charm of gossip – it made you grow faster!

Naturally, most people, after finding out about something surprising, they tend to have an urge to share it with a second person – when doing that won’t hurt anybody, of course.

At this time He Zheng was itching to share it with Li Zong. He glanced at Chen Qianlin who was sitting in the seat in front of him, listening to music. Having checked that Chen Qianlin would not hear him, He Zheng gingerly leaned closer to Li Zong and whispered the gossip about Chen Qianlin and Qiu Luo in his ear.

Eventually He Zheng, believing that Chen Qianlin could not hear him, made a summary in a voice that was neither too loud nor too low, so that the others sitting in front of him could all hear him.

“So our buddy Lao Chen, finally rid himself of the nickname ‘Virgin Chen’. Qiu Luo is taciturn but quite the doer, one who always handles things with great efficiency. Tsk, tsk. I wonder how much longer Chen Qianlin would last,” said He Zheng, fingering his chin. He forgot that he was in a similar situation.

Chen Qianlin, who had not been able to turn on his earphones, heard He Zheng’s every word, his face sulky. Why was he having an urge to kill He Zheng?

However, Chen Qianlin knew very well that it was next to impossible to convince He Zheng to behave like a normal person, that if he confronted He Zheng right now, they would definitely end up quarreling with each other. Therefore, Chen Qianlin suppressed his anger and managed to keep from turning his head around.

Fortunately, He Zheng, after finishing the story, did not mention anything else about Chen Qianlin, who felt greatly relieved and focused on his music.

There was no direct flight. Their plane would stop at a couple of transit airports. It would be something after six o’clock in the afternoon that they reached Shen City, and now it was only 1 p.m. There was several hours left.

He Zheng played with the others for a while before he noticed the dark circles under Li Zong’s eyes. After all, they were a married couple, so of course his heart ached at the sight of this. He Zheng had a stewardess bring Li Zong a blanket and a pillow, and suggested Li Zong get some sleep. Li Zong took his kind advice and closed his eyes to have some rest.

Chen Qianlin and the others were sitting in the front, watching videos or listening to music. None of them disturbed the two of them sitting in the rear.

The cabin was very quiet. All the other passengers were sleeping, and it made those who were not asleep feel sleepy. He Zheng, bored stiff, glanced around him and, feeling tired, yawned. A stewardess kindly walked over and asked him if he needed a blanket and a pillow as well. He Zheng waved his hand and turned down the offer. He rubbed his eyes, trying to keep from drifting off.

After what had happened the last time he had slept, He Zheng did not dare sleep at all. In fact, when he was awake, he had his free will and it was very difficult for the Demon King to possess him, but when he was asleep, the Demon King could easily control him and make him do horrible things.

As a result, though very sleepy, He Zheng still did not dare let himself fall asleep.

He looked at his wristwatch and found that there was still several hours to go. Even if He Zheng wanted to while away the remainder of the time by reading magazines, there would not be that many magazines for him to read, not to mention that he did not want to read magazines.

Of course, there were a lot of methods for passing the time. He Zheng was bored out of his mind and recalled the Marionette Master that Li Zong had mentioned. His curiosity piqued, he used his cellphone to look for information about it.

A Marionette Master, as the name suggested, used marionettes to achieve their ends. Star City was famous for shadow play, in which people used threads to control marionettes, having them make different movements. Marionette Master did similar things, but the threads they used to control their marionettes were rather special. They were invisible and intangible but were wrapped around Marionette Masters’ fingers.

In fact, Marionette Masters’ puppets bore some similarity to Nakayi Hakute’s paper-cut men, which was why He Zheng had suspected that his enemy was from the Neon Kingdom at the sight of those puppets in his home.

But afterward Li Zong had told He Zheng that the Neon Kingdom was unwilling to and did not dare get involved in any matters concerning the Republic of Hua. Nakayi Hakute had kicked the bucket, and nobody in the Neon Kingdom held grudges against Li Zong or SMB.

He Zheng read a lot about it on the Internet and eventually concluded that Marionette Masters were unnaturally powerful, because a qualified Marionette Master was capable of controlling countless puppets at the same time. Their only weakness was that their Qi would be evenly shared by their puppets, and the more puppets a Marionette Master controlled, the more difficult it was for them to have their puppets perform tasks requiring accurate movements.

But puppets were not afraid of death or fire and were almost indestructible. After one was downed, hundreds of thousands more would show up. They were like an arm of punching bags and were very hard to handle. If Zhu Jin decided to fight them, they would not stand a chance of winning.

He Zheng suppressed his annoyance and lapsed into a foul mood again.

Meanwhile. SMB.

Li Zong and some others had left, but it did not mean that there was no more trouble. In fact, there were still various meetings to be held. And not all meetings went well.

Staff members had checked the six demon-binding magic circles and found that all the body parts of the Demon King had been reduced to dirt and were nowhere to be seen, but the demonic Qi that had escaped was giving them severe headaches.

Zong Xian had run out of patience some time ago. Clearly there was a shortcut, but they were going down a narrow, winding path. Zong Xian smacked his hand down on to the table and said in a stern voice, “Director Zhen, this is the second time you’ve allowed Li Zong to take He Zheng away without my consent. You know this better than I do – ‘Replace him with a son and destroy him, and there shall be peace again.’ He Zheng’s life is nothing compared with the security of our country!”

“Director General, calm down,” said Tan Lubai gently.

There had been a lot going on in the bureau lately. Almost everybody had been working overtime, and Zong Xian was no exception. On top of that, the reconstruction work was still ongoing outside, and there were a lot of noises. The hot weather, coupled with the heavy workload, inevitably made people restless. It was understandable that Zong Xian lost his temper.

But he knew better than take it out on Tan Lubai. Zong Xian was not an unreasonable person. After affectedly venting his anger, he collected himself.

Zhen Daoyuan, seeing that Zong Xian recovered himself, said slowly, “Director General, He Zheng’s life is insignificant compared with national security, but we made Li Zong a promise.”

Zong Xian was embarrassed by these words.

In the final analysis, he and the other top-ranking officials had taken a shortcut. Since they were unwilling to deal with the Demon King themselves, Li Zong had undertaken to do it for them – on the condition that they made sure He Zheng survived.

Li Zong had indeed been doing his best, and he had sustained serious injuries.

But Zong Xian was still unconvinced. “But he needs to kill the Demon King first! As long as the Demon King still draws breath, people’s lives will always be at stake!”

The office fell silent.

“Let’s wait another few days,” said Zhao Yidi who had been quiet all along. There was no piercing look in her eyes, which was rather uncharacteristic of her. “They’ve left for Shen City. If they find Zhu Jin and figure out another solution … it might not necessarily be a bad choice.”

“Yidi! Even you are taking their side?!” Zong Xian suspected that he misheard her. Zhao Yidi had always been the one who hated demons the most. The Zhao Yidi he knew would have killed He Zheng with a single sword stroke some time ago were it not for Li Zong.

Zhao Yidi raised her hands to knead her temples. “The worst has not come to the worst yet. We’ll cross the bridge when we come to it.”

Tan Lubai slightly frowned. Zong Xian kept silent for a while. The anger in his eyes dissolving, he was just about to say something when Zhen Daoyuan suddenly spoke.

“Director General, about Li Zong, there is another thing that I haven’t told you.”

Zong Xian had had enough of hearing Li Zong’s name. He furrowed his brows at Zhen Daoyuan’s words, waved his hand and smiled self-deprecatingly, “It’s no good news, I suppose?”

“What worries you the most is the possibility of the Demon King making a comeback, but if Li Zong could guarantee that the Demon King would never be resurrected, would this matter be easier to solve?”

Zong Xian gave a derisive smile. “Oh? Is Supt. Li really that powerful?”

Zhen Daoyuan shook his head and replied, “At that time, when a soul of He Zheng’s was at the mercy of Zhou Qi, Li Zong had the head Gu-master in Miaojiang perform Mutual Abandonment on him to spare He Zheng from the pain caused by his incomplete soul. With the Gu worm in him, Li Zong’s and He Zheng’s lives are closely related.”

“He what?” Tan Lubai blurted. “He … ”

It was only then that Zong Xian appeared interested. “Go on,” he said.

Zhen Daoyuan continued in a calm voice, “Because of the Phoenix Plume, there has always been a link between him and He Zheng, which was later strengthened by Mutual Abandonment. If He Zheng does fail to keep the demonic Qi in him under control, Li Zong will naturally have a way to transfer the demonic Qi from He Zheng’s body to his own.”

“Wouldn’t he be creating another Demon King by doing that?”

“If things do come to that, Li Zong will break into the cycle of reincarnation one last time.”

Li Zong would not die in this incarnation or be reincarnated. It was his destiny. This was his last chance to enter the cycle of reincarnation, but the others did not have to know about this secret.

Zhen Daoyuan, trying hard to make his voice sound less sad, said in a would-be calm tone, “So that’s Li Zong’s last resort. Even if Zhu Jin is not the turning point He Zheng needs, we still won’t have anything to worry about, because Li Zong will handle it. His Phoenix Flame could burn anything, including demonic Qi.”

Zu Zhichong, who had been eavesdropping outside, was unable to restrain himself anymore. He abruptly pushed the door open and, lunging inside, burst out, “No! Chief must not die!”

Zong Xian frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Zu Zhichong was holding some files in his hand. Zong Xian recalled that he had forgotten to bring some papers and casually asked Zu Zhichong to get them for him.

Zu Zhichong stared unblinkingly at Zong Xian for a moment and then his eyes swept across all the others in the conference room. “Chief must not die. Under no circumstances will I let that happen!”

…

A couple of hours later the plane was finally descending, preparing to land. Li Zong was having such a deep sleep he did not open his eyes when the plane jolted to a halt in the end.

He Zheng gave Li Zong a push, waking him up. Seeing that Li Zong looked better, He Zheng was in a better mood.

No sooner had they disembarked from the plane than Chen Qianlin’s cellphone rang. At the sight of the caller’s number displayed on the screen, Chen Qianlin gave a somewhat embarrassed cough and said, “I need to use the bathroom.”

Chen Kai quipped from behind him, “We all know it’s from Qiu Luo. There’s no point pretending.”

Chen Qianlin gave him a dirty look, walked to the side and answered the phone.

He Zheng snickered. They went through the security gate and walked a short way before they reached the exit. He Zheng and the others went out through No. Three exit and were just about to hail a taxi when a blue car halted sweetly in front of them. It was midsummer and the heat was intense. The AC was on in the car. The driver expressionlessly lowered the car window and invited them to get in.

Li Zong and He Zheng exchanged a glance. Tun Shanhai also sensed that there was something queer going on.

“Let’s get in,” Li Zong said to them.

With that, he pulled a car door open and sat down beside the puppet.