Chapter 58: Chengnan Bookstore 5
Yao Qi changed her clothes and tidied her hair. Naturally beautiful and graceful, she looked as pure as a college student fresh out of university, appearing completely non-threatening. Considering that the monster had run away at the sight of people earlier, its courage was likely not great. And since Yao Qi had the authority to act alone, Zhang Hugang did not arrange for other team members to accompany her, only letting her act as she saw fit.
“No problem, Captain Zhang.” Yao Qi was very experienced in this area and didn’t need much instruction. She attached her real-time camera and went out.
Zeus Grand Hotel—just from the name, one could imagine a magnificent and splendid building, and Bao Yuzhou had indeed been aiming for splendor from the beginning. There were arched domes and Roman columns everywhere. In the first-floor lobby stood a huge, headless statue of Zeus. As for why it was headless, it was because when Bao Yuzhou was communicating with the design team, he had strongly insisted on replacing the face with his own. It was the first time the design team had encountered such a startling request, and they were also dumbfounded. But not wanting to offend their wealthy client, they could only keep making excuses to delay. And as they delayed, they no longer needed to delay, because Bao Yuzhou’s business had collapsed.
“Bao Yuzhou has an almost pathological narcissistic personality. It’s not strange that he would do something like this,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “He built his career entirely on his father-in-law’s support in his early years, and his wife’s personality is that of a typical pampered young lady, very domineering. Therefore, Bao Yuzhou’s status in the family was not high. For a highly narcissistic person to have to be subservient at home, it must have been extremely difficult for him to accept. Besides lust and wanting a son, perhaps a more important reason for keeping a mistress was that he needed a woman who worshiped him to balance his emotions.”
Not long after Bao Mingming’s death, his mother, who was Bao Yuzhou’s mistress, chose to jump to her death on the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for family reunions.
“What’s with these rich people? Why do one or two of them always have mistresses outside?” Dong Xiang shook his head repeatedly. His gaze unintentionally met Yi Ke’s, and he immediately added a correction. “Of course, our Xiao Yi is an exception. Xiao Yi looks like a dedicated and deeply affectionate good man. A couple of days ago when a few of our teams went out for dinner, he even packed a few kumquats that he found delicious for his wife, saying they could relieve a cough.”
Zhuang Ningyu, who had been eating kumquats for several days, “Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough.”
Yi Ke reached out to pat his back, while smoothly changing the subject. “Yao Qi has gone up to the second floor. We encountered the monster at this location just now.”
The other colleagues all craned their necks to watch. The storm had completely darkened the sky, and rain was pouring down through the yet-to-be-glazed openings, “pitter-patter.” Puddles quickly formed in the corridor. Yao Qi held a transparent umbrella and walked forward unhurriedly. The sparse wall lamps flickered on and off with the sound of electric currents. Suddenly, at the end of the corridor, a dark shadow flashed by!
“He’s appeared,” Zhuang Ningyu reminded.
Yao Qi stopped. The wind blew her hair up into the rain, beautiful and pure.
A moment later, “thump, thump,” the footsteps sounded again. The monster’s shadow was cast on the wall by the light. It could be seen that he was approaching slowly and cautiously. And just as that big foot was about to step around the corner, another loud noise suddenly came!
“Boom!”
The monster’s figure stumbled and fell to the ground with the sound, letting out a roar of pain!
Yao Qi’s expression changed, and she ran over. At the same time, the people in the command room also rushed up. It was a gunshot. Someone was attacking the monster!
Blood sprayed out again, dyeing the corridors on both sides a dark red. The sound of gunshots continued. The monster, almost shot into a sieve, angrily got up and turned to pounce on the shooter! The opponent did not dodge, but leaped up like a nimble ape and rode on his shoulders. The dagger in her hand plunged into his eye socket, came out through his nose, and with a forceful twist, rip—almost sliced the monster’s face in half!
Monsters don’t die, but that doesn’t mean they don’t feel pain. He spun around crazily and ran forward, his huge body crashing through the wooden railings. Yao Qi chased after the two of them, shouting loudly, “Get down!”
The person on the monster’s shoulders did not listen. The rain had soaked her body, and her hair was plastered to her flushed face in strands. It was a young woman.
“What’s going on?” Zhuang Ningyu asked amidst the howling wind.
“It’s a volunteer!” Yao Qi said while chasing. “The girl from the flower shop!”
The volunteer from the flower shop, Tang Xiaoyuan, a B-level evolver. She had experience participating in rule-breaking operations a few times before and had always performed well, never causing such an outrageous mess.
Yi Ke leaped down from the third floor and caught Tang Xiaoyuan, who had been thrown off by the monster. However, before he could steady himself, the girl in his hands had already broken free with a backhand move. Her strength was bizarrely great. When she struck, it was like a hard iron hammer. Yi Ke’s arm went numb; this was definitely not the attack power a B-level evolver should have.
Tang Xiaoyuan kicked the monster in the chest, and they both fell from the opening directly to the first floor. The ground trembled, thunder boomed, and the terrifying roars were so close they seemed to be right outside the door—and in fact, they were. The trapped crowd turned pale with fear. The Order Maintenance Department team members protected them from behind, all their guns aimed at the doorway.
Tang Xiaoyuan was like a madwoman who had completely lost her mind. When she was finally pulled away by Yi Ke, her eyes were still fixed on Dou Dekai, even though he had been stabbed by her until he was a bloody mess. The monster staggered to its feet, using its one remaining eyeball to see, and fled to the second floor in a panic. In the corridor, the white fog was so thick it almost formed a solid barrier.
At the same time, a new poster appeared in the hall, with only four large, bright red words—
WEDDING CANCELED.
…
Tang Xiaoyuan’s file looked simple. A local of Jincheng, she had lived with her divorced mother since childhood. After graduating from a vocational high school, she first worked in a clothing store. After a while, she took the initiative to resign, saying she wanted to open a flower shop.
“Where is the flower shop located?” Zhuang Ningyu asked.
“No. 329 Chunlin Road,” the investigator replied.
Chunlin Road was the most prosperous commercial street in Jincheng, where a shop space was hard to come by. No. 329 was located at the subway entrance, a prime location within a prime location. The rent was astonishingly high, yet Tang Xiaoyuan had rented it for ten years. Zhuang Ningyu continued to ask, “Where did she get the startup capital for the flower shop?”
The investigator didn’t know either. Before the incident, who would have thought to investigate the financial situation of an ordinary volunteer? Now that something had happened, it would take a certain amount of time to check bank records or ask the landlord. The investigator was also at a loss and tentatively asked, “Can we ask the person herself?”
“She won’t say a single word,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Also, her evolution level is higher than B. To be able to flip Yi Ke, she’s at least an A+, or S.”
Evolvers had to undergo a physical examination at the Evolver Management Center every year, and Tang Xiaoyuan’s rating last August was still B. So there were two possibilities. The first was that Tang Xiaoyuan had been deliberately hiding her strength all along. The second was that she had evolved from B to A+ or S in just four or five months.
“Then it’s the first one,” the investigator said. “The second one is absolutely impossible.”
“It’s impossible through natural evolution, but what if it’s with the help of drugs?”
“Drugs?” The investigator was stunned. Using drugs to turn ordinary people into evolvers, and to make evolvers stronger, was indeed something that countries had been researching, but there hadn’t been any major breakthroughs yet. Unless it was a black market prohibited drug. But this type of illegal drug, which had not undergone multiple rounds of verification, was extremely dangerous. Currently, the most effective one could only provide less than 5 hours of high-intensity physical fitness, and after the effects wore off, nine times out of ten…
Zhuang Ningyu looked at the new message he had just received on his phone. “Tang Xiaoyuan is dead.”
The investigator sighed. “A side effect of the drug. As expected.”
A flower shop owner who could get her hands on prohibited drugs and a laser gun. Zhuang Ningyu said, “Let’s check her relationship with Bao Mingming first.”
Tang Xiaoyuan’s body was temporarily moved to the third floor.
Without a wedding, how to resolve this rule zone became a problem everyone had to face again. But fortunately, the space did not distort and tear apart because the monster was disfigured. The mission was not a failure, and everyone still had a chance to leave safely.
In the temporary medical room, Yi Ke was holding up his arm, waiting for treatment. There was a large, obvious bruise on his forearm, which was now swollen high. Zhuang Ningyu pushed the door open and took the first aid kit from the nurse’s hand. “I’ll handle it. You go check on the trapped crowd and see if anyone needs things like blood pressure or blood sugar medication. Distribute them in a timely manner.”
“Okay, Captain Zhuang.” The nurse didn’t suspect anything and left with her registration book. Zhuang Ningyu pulled up a chair and sat opposite Yi Ke, using his fingertips to spread the cool ointment for him. “Captain Zhang and his team just found ten empty syringes on the second floor. You happened to catch Tang Xiaoyuan at her most out-of-control moment after her forced evolution.”
Yi Ke grumbled, “It hurts.”
Zhuang Ningyu said, “Then I’ll be gentler.”
This conversation sounded wrong no matter how you heard it. Yi Ke mulled it over in his mind and, with a jolt, realized where the problem was! But to add “it doesn’t hurt” now would also be strange, so he added a prefix to his address: “Wife, it hurts.”
This was the first time Zhuang Ningyu had heard these words with his own ears. He was so shocked that he almost couldn’t resist slapping him again. But Yi Ke was quite pleased with himself and continued to press his luck. “Wife, wife, wife.” And after calling him that, he timely brought the topic back to serious work. “You suspect Tang Xiaoyuan and Bao Mingming were a couple?”
Zhuang Ningyu’s mind was filled with the lingering echo of “wife” and he couldn’t think for a moment. He looked up at him in confusion and asked, “What were you just saying?”
Yi Ke: Why is he distracted? Could it be that he’s savoring my term of endearment for him!
“Wife, hug!”
“Get lost!”
In the end, he still got a hug.
In this thunderous and accident-prone ghostly weather, an intimate embrace could also be a form of relaxation. Yi Ke’s palm cupped the back of Zhuang Ningyu’s head, ruffling his soft hair. A formal confession was still missing between them, but this was obviously not a good environment for it.
Zhuang Ningyu buried his face in his shoulder and let out a soft breath.
