Artifact Report

Chapter 55 Mai Minghe Fu Tailan's Test

In a split second, Mai Minghe knew that she could no longer hide it.

The only way is to keep going.

"...Jonah?"

A film of sweat covered her back, and her face was thick with muscle. Mai Minghe had no idea if she had managed to create a curious expression—but she tried.

"Is that the Jonah I mentioned when I delivered the message?"

She pretended not to notice Fu Tailan's gaze and just looked at Long Zhen and said, "The man whose life was in danger? What happened to him? Is he okay?"

Without waiting for the two to answer, Mai Minghe made a cross in front of him again.

"God bless you," she murmured. "Is it not because I called late that something happened? God will not blame me..."

Long Zhen looked at her boss; Fu Tailan frowned, waved her hand, said "She is religious", and finally moved her eyes away from Mai Minghe's face.

Mai Minghe secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It was normal for her to react to the name Jonah, after all, it was a name she had said several times...

It seems that we have gotten away with it for the time being.

"This has nothing to do with you," Long Zhen said to Mai Minghe first, without continuing in front of her. She picked up the pen and paper on the table, quickly wrote a sentence, and handed it to her boss.

The muscles on his face twitched distinctly.

"I see,"

He suddenly stood up from behind his desk, crumpled the note into a ball, and without even glancing at Mai Minghe, strode toward the office door. As he left, he said, "I'll handle it. Tell her to leave quickly—through the back."

What happened?
What Long Zhen said just now was not just to test her, but something really happened?
Mai Minghe was full of doubts, but she understood one thing: because of an unexpected situation, the Morgan family's attitude suddenly changed; now she could leave.

No matter what the emergency is, since you can leave, why would you hesitate for even half a second?
She jumped up and immediately followed Long Zhen. When they went out, they did not take the same route they came in. She didn't know what happened at the other end of the company.

Long Zhen was preoccupied with Mai Minghe, and no one thought of her was about him. No matter what Mai Minghe asked her, she would just answer, "It has nothing to do with you."

She led Mai Minghe around two hurried corners in the vast office building, stopped, pointed toward the corridor ahead, and said, "Go down the stairs over there. Once you're down, ask security to open the door for you. Don't wander around; it's not safe. Leave now."

After saying that, she turned around and left quickly, so fast that she could almost run.

But in just a moment, Mai Minghe became a human again.

The short corridor was quiet; Morgan's company was well soundproofed, and even if you pricked up your ears from here, you couldn't hear what noise was going on ahead.

Okay, no matter what happens, let's go.

There seemed to be no one around, only the sound of her footsteps, which hit the walls of the short corridor in waves - so when that sound fell into the air, Mai Minghe was a little startled.

"big sister?"

Oh, not her; the last time someone called her "big sister", her parents were still alive.

...Mai Minghe took another step forward and then remembered that "big sister" might be calling her.

She looked in the direction of the sound and saw a clean, brightly lit tea room on the left at the end of the short corridor. The tea room was spacious, with a few long tables, chairs, and sofas scattered around. On one of the sofas, a child was curled up softly.

He looks like a boy of only seventeen or eighteen years old, isn't he just a child?
The young man seemed as if all the bones in his body had been pulled out. He lazily leaned on the back of the sofa, half of his face buried in his arms.

He hung one hand down, holding a cigarette between his slender fingers. Thin white smoke was wrapped around his fingers like silk threads.

The boy's eyelids were half-lidded, and when he spoke, his voice was soft and floating, like white clouds drifting away in the autumn sky with a single pruning. "...Big sis, are you doing well in chemistry?"

Mai Minghe was stunned. "What?"

"I don't like chemistry," the boy said softly and vaguely in that cloud-like voice with a hint of laughter on the edge. "Can you help me with my homework, please?"

Sure enough, there was paper and pencil for homework on the table. But how could I show you homework when I was escaping? What kind of hunter was so careless as to bring his child to work?

"I have to leave urgently, sorry," said Mai Minghe, and hurriedly left the tea room door.

After a while, she turned back and put her head in.

"Um... do you know where the stairs are?" Mai Minghe asked in a low voice, feeling rather embarrassed. "The people from their company just told me to go down the stairs here..."

During the few minutes she was looking for the stairs, the boy seemed to be motionless. Only then did he slowly raise his head, revealing a misty face; in the mist, his lips were moist and bright red, like the sunset reflected in the lake.

Even after living a long life, it is not often that one sees such a beautiful child.

In a moment of distraction, Mai Minghe smelled a faint but heavy odor in the room. She glanced at the cigarette in his hand and realized: "Eh? You're smoking—"

"What's wrong? It's not illegal," the boy said lazily, taking another deep breath. White smoke lingered, blurring the edges of reality.

Is it legal now?
The last time Mai Minghe was in her twenties was when hippie culture was at its peak, so she was already accustomed to it, but she was still surprised by this incident.

However, the key now is to leave Morgan's house as soon as possible.

"Well... as for the stairs, I'll take you there."

As if sensing her eagerness to leave, the boy stood up from the sofa and approached. His body seemed to consist of nothing but smoke or clouds, and he moved as silently as a cat. "My name is Xiaotai. What's your name?"

"...Mai Minghe."

Facing the boy, she felt there was no need to use a pseudonym; real or fake, they were names no one in the world would recognize anyway. The boy's eyes were red and if it weren't for the cigarette in his hand, Mai Minghe might have thought he'd been crying. Thinking about how she hadn't even helped him with his homework, and how he'd still offered to lead the way, she felt a little embarrassed. "Thank you," she said. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone else."

"Oh? This?" The boy seemed to have just remembered the cigarette between his fingers. He glanced at it and smiled at her. "It's okay. No one cares about me."

When this child grows up, how many girls will be heartbroken, Mai Minghe thought secretly. He looked at the cigarette, and unexpectedly made people feel that the cigarette's life was worth it.

"Let's go then," she said, thinking about leaving early. "I'm in a hurry."

"Why? Are you going on a date?"

Is this the style of speech that all kids use nowadays?
"I have something to do at home," Mai Minghe responded. "Which way is the staircase?"

The boy tilted his head, his eyes hazy, revealing a small red mole on his neck. He stared at Mai Minghe for a few seconds, his thoughts unclear, making her anxious. Then he suddenly smiled, "Oh, I almost forgot. There's plenty of food and wine in the tea room, right?"

"How about you show me where the stairs are and I can go there myself."

Mai Minghe knew it was pointless to get anxious with people in this state; their reactions were often slow. "I'm really in a hurry."

"Don't be so quick to abandon me," the boy laughed, and took Mai Minghe's wrist in a familiar manner. "Come on, the stairs are over there. You've gone too far. You really don't want to show me your homework?"

"There's really no time," said Mai Minghe.

"Others also said they didn't have time," the boy said, pouting. "Because Jonah just returned from the lair with a resident and left him at the company."

Before Mai Minghe could react and had the chance to stop herself, she had already braked suddenly with a look of shock on her face.

All the mysteries just now became clear and solved at once.

The residents came in? No wonder Long Zhen was so anxious just now and didn't let her stay; with that big bug, Jonah he——

No, wait.

This young man...

When she turned her head, she happened to see the boy smiling at her again.

It was still a hazy and light smile, but when Mai Minghe looked at him, a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.

Even time seemed to be filled with mercury, slowly suffocating between the two of them.

Maybe when he saw me at Morgan's house, he thought she was also a hunter, so she spoke without restraint...

"I'm sorry, big sister,"

The boy lowered his head, one hand still holding hers, and with the other hand he lifted his cigarette and took a drag. "I'm a big liar, and girls don't like that."

Mai Minghe felt like she was watching a car accident. She was powerless to stop it from happening and could only watch.

"Jonah hasn't come back," he said, as if to comfort her. "I haven't been to the nest yet. No one brought him back. How could he have ended up in the company? Don't be afraid. There are no residents here."

Mai Minghe seemed to hear some faint footsteps in the distance behind the corner of the corridor.

Is it for her?

"Big sister, you're not a homeless person. You really put a lot of effort into pretending to be one... When you came in, I saw you and thought I probably wouldn't be able to get anything out of you."

His voice was vague and soft, almost a whisper.

"Why don't you just tell us you're a hunter?"

The boy paused and chuckled softly.

"My guess is, either you were involved in Jonah's misfortune and you're afraid of being held responsible by the Morgans, or you were involved in what Jonah was chasing and you're afraid of being caught."

Mai Minghe had an illusion: it seemed as if the "snake belt" had left her, and she felt the pain of peeling off her skin when it was detached.

His fingers gently curled around his wrist, as if he could pull them back with just a pull.

But what happens after you pull it out?

In a Morgan company full of hunters, where would she go? What would she do?
Mai Minghe's voice was hoarse. "You are..."

"Don't blame me for not telling you my real name just now."

The boy's eyelids were still half-closed, as if he were still dreaming. "My last name is Fu... Fu Tailan. I'm the head hunter of the Morgan family."

　Hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey hey.

　　Rub your hands together. Um, is everyone doing well? Did you all eat cake on Children's Day?

　　Why do I particularly like to write beautiful characters? Because I
　　He is the number one beauty lover of this century.

　　If the main character isn't beautiful, writing about them is simply boring, because when I write I translate the images in my head into words.

　　If the characters in my mind are not good-looking, there is no point in writing them.

　　Anyway, no matter whether it is a beauty or a man, I can lose my soul when she smiles.

　　Can you imagine how I felt when I saw Li Xiaoran and Zhang Yuqi?

　　That feeling, I immediately understood King You of Zhou. I, King You of Zhou, am back to work. I'm going to raise the smoke signals now. It's no big deal for the princes to run a few times. I can only make the beauty smile!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)