Lin Cheng recounted every detail of his conversation with Green Hair to Solar Corona. Solar Corona nodded lightly and asked, “So… you just slept here for the night?”
Lin Cheng’s smile carried a hint of helplessness. “Where else could I go? I had no reason to break out, after all.”
“True enough.” Solar Corona nodded again. Soon, he received a message through his earpiece. “Let’s go get your phone and change back into your clothes. You’re free to leave.”
Lin Cheng followed Solar Corona to retrieve his belongings. Solar Corona’s car was parked right at the prison gate. He was about to ask where Lin Cheng wanted to go and offer him a ride when Lin Cheng noticed another vehicle parked nearby.
It was a white convertible sports car. Men had little resistance to sports cars, and the instant Lin Cheng’s gaze locked onto it, it was inevitably drawn to the woman in the driver’s seat. She wore a light green skirt that hugged her figure.
“Get in.” Lu Xiaoxiao’s eyes swept over him coldly.
“Looks like someone’s here to pick me up.” Lin Cheng flashed a light smile at Solar Corona. “I’ll be off then. Thanks for looking after me.”
“No problem.” Solar Corona replied softly.
Lin Cheng slid into the passenger seat of the sports car. Before he could open his mouth, Lu Xiaoxiao gunned the engine. The car rocketed away at top speed.
Lin Cheng rode motorcycles fast himself, but something about hurtling along in a car made him uneasy. This was a suburban road, wide open and traffic-free, so Lu Xiaoxiao pushed it even harder. Lin Cheng began hollering, “Slow down!”
Lu Xiaoxiao said nothing, as if she were sulking. It was only after a long stretch that she pulled over onto the shoulder of a deserted road, startling a flock of birds from the trees overhead.
She turned to him. “What else are you keeping from me?”
Lin Cheng met her gaze with a wry expression. “That depends on what you already know.”
“You’re not just some ordinary guy, not just a twenty-year-old jobless drifter. You’re a member of the Fruit Shop—that civilian outfit that’s been stealing the spotlight these last couple years—with the codename Watermelon. You’ve got history with those women in the Fruit Shop, you’re an S-Rank physical-system ability user. You’ve killed before, you know your way around a gun, you just took down an S-Rank plunderer, and you even know my best friend Xu Wanyue. What else is there?”
Lin Cheng leaned in closer, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Didn’t you say you wanted to dig up these secrets on your own? Admit defeat, and I’ll spill every last one.”
He had turned the tables on her.
Lu Xiaoxiao’s expression froze for a split second. She bit her lip, placed a hand on his chest, and shoved him back. “One day, I’ll uncover every single one of your secrets.”
“Drive slower… please. I’ll really get sick.”
Lu Xiaoxiao let out a cold snort, but she eased off the gas. A gentle breeze washed over them as she drove on. Then, out of nowhere, she asked, “Si Ming showed up in your prison last night. Did you see him?”
“I only heard about it this morning…” Lin Cheng sighed. “Last night, my new cellmate busted out with a crew. I had no reason to bolt, so I stayed put. And wouldn’t you know it, Si Ming picked that exact moment to appear… I regret it big time. Should’ve tagged along for an autograph or something.”
Lu Xiaoxiao fell silent for a beat. “Do you know Si Ming killed someone last night?”
“Si Ming killing? That’s par for the course.”
“He never used to kill.” Lu Xiaoxiao’s tone grew serious. “But last night, he cut down an ability user with his own hands.”
“People change. Like I said, nobody’s perfect in this world.”
“Why did Si Ming show up right after you landed in that prison?” Lu Xiaoxiao asked, her voice deceptively casual.
“Busted. Truth is, I’m Si Ming!” Lin Cheng declared with puffed-up pride.
Lu Xiaoxiao slammed on the brakes and pulled over. She stared into his eyes, dead serious, for what felt like forever—so long that Lin Cheng’s bravado started to wilt into awkwardness. At last, she said flatly, “Ming Si explained it. Si Ming sensed the man-made spatial rift. The Alliance had it under control at first, but something felt off. He picked up on Ming Si’s SS-grade power surge and rushed over. Pure coincidence.”
“Sigh. You’d sooner buy that than believe I’m Si Ming.”
“Si Ming could never be someone like you…”
Lin Cheng braced for another round of scumbag or jerk, but Lu Xiaoxiao faltered for a second or two. She turned away and muttered under her breath, “You annoying pest.”
Lin Cheng scooted closer. “That sounded awfully coquettish.”
“It didn’t.” Her voice iced over again. She hit the gas and kept driving. “Think Si Ming will show up again sometime?”
“Beats me.”
“His appearance last night proves his power isn’t totally spent like he claimed. He scared off over two hundred S-Rank ability users single-handedly.”
“Solar Corona told me he just made an example out of one to spook the rest back into line. Didn’t unleash his old-school terror, but they’re all terrified of him anyway.”
“Yeah.” Lu Xiaoxiao nodded faintly. “Only Si Ming packs that kind of deterrence.”
“That mask of his is creepy as hell, though.”
“Mask?”
“Heh, ever hear of Lanling King?”
“Of course.” Lu Xiaoxiao got it right away.
Lanling King was said to be so strikingly handsome that he lacked intimidation on the battlefield, so he donned a fearsome demon face mask. Enemies would see it and quake in their boots, ready to turn tail.
“Why do you know so damn much about Si Ming?” Lu Xiaoxiao wondered. Her gut was nudging her toward something outrageous, something that flew in the face of reason.
“I’ve pored over every scrap of intel on him. Die-hard fan here—spent countless nights theorizing about who’s behind the mask and what drives him. I’ve even got a novel brewing: Those Years I Was Si Ming.”
“…You’re not writing that.”
“Oh yes I am.”
Lu Xiaoxiao stomped the accelerator, and Lin Cheng’s screams filled the air once more.
In a standalone villa in A City.
The moment Green Hair stepped inside, he peeled off the disguise mask, shedding the brutish bald-man look for his prison-yard self. Looks meant nothing to him; this body wasn’t his real one anyway. Years back, he’d offed his original form and carried on in this shell.
“Mission failed.”
Green Hair crossed into the living room, snagged a bottle of booze from the cabinet by the fridge, grabbed a clean glass, fished out an ice cube, dropped it in, and poured.
He was addressing the woman sprawled lazily on the recliner.
“Why?”
“Si Ming showed up. I saw him. He got in my way… saw right through my powers but couldn’t be bothered to finish me off. So I bailed.” Green Hair threw back a hefty swig.
The woman bolted upright in her chair, her eyes a storm of conflicting feelings—excitement, joy, dread, anxiety.
Seconds ticked by, and her face smoothed back to serenity. “Did he leave any message for me?”
“Said he’s doing fine. Told us to quit poking at the Abyss, stop trying to tap its power, and quit hurting innocents.”
The woman stared out the window. Sunlight blazed beyond the glass. The room hung in heavy silence until Green Hair ventured, “How do you even know him?”
“We go way back.” She answered evenly.
“Boss, you’ve never breathed a word about your past to us.”
“Past is past. No point dredging it up. I was Alliance once, saw it for what it was, and bailed. What made him pop up there all of a sudden?”
“No clue.” Green Hair shook his head. “Plan’s busted. Now what?”
“Stick to the script.”
“Right.” Green Hair crunched the ice between his teeth. “Boss… you think Si Ming gives a damn about anybody?”
The woman offered no reply for a long, long while.
“So, where we headed?”
Lu Xiaoxiao’s car had finally rolled into the city. Lin Cheng eyed her profile.
“No idea.”
“Then… drop me home?” Lin Cheng floated the idea gingerly. Lu Xiaoxiao shot him a sidelong glance. “Fine.”
Lin Cheng couldn’t shake the feeling that her look was… off.
“You still on suspension?” he asked out of curiosity.
“Yep.”
“Didn’t your mom already handle that Priest guy?”
“That was all her. Got nothing to do with me. I was benched for ignoring orders and saving people instead.”
“Can’t she pull strings?”
“Not that cut-and-dried.”
“Then get her to toss you a mission. Nail it, and boom—back in the saddle.” Lin Cheng tossed out the suggestion. It tracked, but Lu Xiaoxiao peered deep into his eyes and asked something else entirely. “S-Rank, huh?”
“My power’s a weird one: mimicking Abyss creatures. S-Rank? Sure, if you want. But each different mimic burns life force. One go as a plunderer docks me a year or two. Skip the burn, and I’m your standard A-Rank physical system.”
“Then why’d you…”
“Village nearby. If I’d split, they’d be goners.”
Lu Xiaoxiao snapped back to reality. Right—what a dumb question.
“I’m no hero like you, throwing myself into the fray for justice as an adjudicator. I’m a coward, scared stiff of dying. That’s why I’ve been hunkered down at home these years, dodging catastrophe monsters. But when it’s staring me down… if I just tucked tail and ran, I’d never sleep again.”
Lu Xiaoxiao lowered her gaze. “I didn’t have a choice. Mom’s the Alliance vice leader. What, I gonna play house as a normie?”
“Why the hell not?” Lin Cheng’s voice warmed. “Want it, and you can be whatever you want.”
“You don’t get it. It’s my duty.”
“What are you, some light messenger from the M87 Nebula dropped to save the world? Cosmic mandate or whatever?”
“You don’t get it.” Lu Xiaoxiao doubled down.
“Fine, fine, I don’t… But you don’t look thrilled. Wanna do something fun instead?”
“What?” Lu Xiaoxiao lifted her head, wariness flickering in her eyes.
