Yu Qingxue sat cross-legged on the sofa, playing the single-player mode of Street Fighter. The computer-controlled characters always acted like they had dementia; within two or three rounds, she could beat them into utter submission.
“I’m so bored…”
Between crushing the computer and crushing real people, Yu Qingxue found crushing real people far more interesting—especially crushing a scrub like Gao Sijin, which gave her an immense sense of accomplishment.
She glanced at the time on her phone and roughly calculated that Gao Sijin should be home soon. It was true that tomorrow he was going to enjoy a cherry blossom viewing date alone with Young Lady Tsukiyuki, but at least for now, Gao Sijin spent every day by her side gaming. Come to think of it, things had been pretty enjoyable. She might as well maintain the status quo.
It was almost five o’clock. Yu Qingxue stretched her body and rose from the sofa.
“Gotta make dinner for that guy Sijin. I must have owed him in a past life.”
Despite her words, Yu Qingxue wore a blissful smile.
She opened the refrigerator, which was packed with various ingredients. Just as she was debating whether to make Escargot à l’ail or sashimi today, her phone rang.
Yu Qingxue checked the caller ID; it was Morgana. Gao Sijin still wasn’t back by this time, which likely meant something had gone wrong.
“Hey, Morgana, what’s up?”
“Head Maid, terrible news! The Master has been kidnapped by Feng Na.”
“What the hell?”
Gao Sijin was kidnapped?
Yu Qingxue froze for a second, as if she couldn’t quite grasp the situation.
When Morgana said this over the phone, the first image that popped into Yu Qingxue’s mind wasn’t Gao Sijin being dragged into a van by several burly men. Instead, it was the image of Sha Wujing running up to Sun Wukong yelling, “Eldest Senior Brother, disaster! Master’s been captured by a demoness!”
“So? Hurry up and chase them! I specifically ordered the maids to monitor the Master’s location at all times. How did this happen?”
“Just now, when the maids tried to keep eyes on the Master, a group of thugs suddenly blocked their path, aggressively hitting on them. Then, a dense crowd resembling a tour group obstructed the way, and we accidentally lost the Master. We didn’t think much of it at the time; after all, he has a built-in GPS for tracking, and his distance to the apartment was very short, so…”
“Ugh, you guys are useless, getting played by a bunch of street thugs. Wasn’t the last time a classic case of ‘the light is darkest under the lamp’? I still haven’t figured out how Feng Na even managed to enroll in school in the first place. How could you be so careless?”
Yu Qingxue questioned Morgana with a tone that bordered on an interrogation. On the other end of the line, Morgana, unusually lacking her typical competitive fervor for the Head Maid position, simply fell silent.
“Forget it. There’s no use dwelling on it now. Young Lady Tsukiyuki mentioned that Feng Na traveled back from the future and possesses tools that don’t exist in this era. She probably used some kind of misdirection item to divert your sight and seize the opportunity.” Yu Qingxue took a deep breath, biting her lip. “The most important thing right now isn’t assigning blame for this incident. The priority is getting the Master back.”
The silver lining in this disaster was that although Gao Sijin was currently kidnapped, a GPS chip had long been implanted in his body. Even if he fled to the ends of the earth, they couldn’t possibly lose him.
Yu Qingxue threw on a trench coat and stepped into her high heels, her movements efficient and without a single wasted gesture. She was going to handle this personally.
If she could rescue Gao Sijin with a dashing and elegant demeanor, it would be quite romantic, too.
This incident needed to be resolved before Young Lady Tsukiyuki returned to demand answers. Early this morning, Tsukiyuki Rio had taken her private jet to Karuizawa for a family meeting. Karuizawa is roughly 180 kilometers from Tokyo. To keep the situation from escalating, Yu Qingxue had to move out immediately.
However, the very instant Yu Qingxue opened the door, she came face-to-face with Young Lady Tsukiyuki.
Compared to her usual self, Tsukiyuki Rio’s face had lost its typical confidence. Her complexion was pale, so much so that it was somewhat frightening.
“Young Miss, you look terrible…”
“Qingxue, what exactly is going on?”
An icy, oppressive aura radiated clearly from Tsukiyuki Rio’s body, a pressure that stirred a sense of dread within Yu Qingxue. Her dark crimson eyes drifted menacingly, like a vengeful ghost.
Though her tone was flat, Yu Qingxue could faintly hear the internal roar behind Tsukiyuki Rio’s words. She had trusted her subordinate maids and felt at ease enough to leave Tokyo temporarily for the family meeting at the Karuizawa estate. But why? Why would you, whom she trusted so deeply, lose my most beloved man?
Yu Qingxue swallowed hard.
In her towering rage, Tsukiyuki Rio killed without blinking. She must not be provoked any further.
“Th-this is my responsibility, Young Miss. We didn’t expect that crazy woman Feng Na to actually dare lay a hand on the Master. This is our territory…”
“Enough!” Tsukiyuki Rio interrupted Yu Qingxue. “Bring Sijin back to me right now. If you don’t bring him back before eight o’clock tonight, you can go die.”
“Relax. I can handle it in three hours. Please calm yourself, Young Miss. I’ll rescue the Master immediately.”
Yu Qingxue left hastily, not daring to linger a moment longer. As for the Young Miss, she likely wouldn’t be just waiting around for news either, but would have her own follow-up moves planned.
She went down to the underground parking lot, got into her BMW, and used her phone to locate Gao Sijin. But the moment she hit the main street, intense gunfire erupted. If you knew where you were, you’d recognize it as Tokyo. If you didn’t, judging by the noise alone, you’d mistake this place for a battlefield in Syria.
“Good lord, Feng Na has lost her mind.”
Men in black suits, wielding firearms, were trading shots with SWAT teams on the streets. It was anyone’s guess where these weapons had come from.
A bald, sumo-built fat man was holding a DP Light Machine Gun, firing indiscriminately. The barrel spat a continuous tongue of mad flame as it rattled off rounds, riddling Tokyo’s pristine, clean buildings with holes.
However, the arrogant fat man didn’t get to gloat for long. A sniper rifle round struck him right between the eyebrows, splattering his brains. Yu Qingxue also saw several civilian-clothed individuals lying in pools of blood on the street, groaning in agony. Was this really the streets of 21st-century Tokyo?
Madness.
Yu Qingxue spun the steering wheel and floored the accelerator, peeling away from the street.
She could still distinguish her priorities. The gangsters could do whatever they wanted; the SWAT teams were there to counter them, and if things got out of hand, they could even mobilize the Self-Defense Forces to intervene. But with Feng Na, there was no time to lose. Any further slip-up, and it would be her own head rolling.
The BMW sped through a storm of bullets, executing a beautiful drift to break away from the main conflict zone and onto a main avenue.
One day, when she herself tried to take Gao Sijin away, would the scene look just like this?
Yu Qingxue couldn’t help but ponder that thought, hoping that when that day came, she wouldn’t be turned into a sieve. Dying in such an ugly way would be absolute hell.
