A Good-for-Nothing

304. More Secrets

Translator: Dragon Rider

Just now, in the conference room, Old Master Zhu disclosed a great secret of the Zhu family, one that only members of the Zhu family were privy to, one that even He Zheng was unaware of.

If Zhu Jin had not had a puppet of his put another piece of paper bearing divinatory symbols in the last demon-binding magic circle, the identity of the person that this secret mainly concerned would probably never be revealed.

Zhu Jin.

You could tell from her name alone that there was shame attached to her identity. And it was the truth. The Zhu family in Shen City was closely related to the God of Divination, who had pity for mankind and favored the Zhu family. Legend had it that among every generation of the Zhu family’s members, a girl was chosen to be the Herald. In times of peace, the Zhu family was not faced with any danger, and the God of Divination, naturally, would not give them any instructions.

But if there was a crisis, the God of Divination would tell the Herald what to do, so that the Zhu family would be able to take precautions.

For thousands of years, there was a Herald in every generation of the Zhu family, but over a century ago, a pair of twins had been born in the Zhu family.

For the Zhu family, a family of exorcists, the birth of twins was not really good news. Just like some ancient, aristocratic families, the Zhu family also superstitiously believed that the birth of twins was a bad omen. Whenever a pair of twins were born in their family, they had to kill one of them, so that there would be a Herald in the younger generation. If they brought up both, there would never be a Herald in the Zhu family again.

However, the twins were both his blood and Old Master Zhu had not had the heart to kill one of them. Eventually he had come up with an expedient solution. He had brought up the elder one, who later had become the Herald, and Sealed the cardiac meridian of the younger one, reducing her to a “puppet”, then entrusted her to an old friend of his, who had taught her how to control marionette with Qi and imparted some life-saving skills to her.

To make sure of his daughter’s survival, Old Master Zhu had had no alternative but to make hard decisions. He had forbidden all the other family members to visit the girl, and also forbidden Zhu Jin to have dealings with the Zhu family. Even he himself hardly knew anything about Zhu Jin.

In that way, he had really deceived the eyes of the Divine Law and helped the girl, Zhu Jin, survive.

But there had also been ramifications, and the current situation was one of them. Right now Old Master Zhu did not have a clue when Zhu Jin had started planning all this, and he certainly had no idea what she wanted.

Zhu Jin had only sent them two messages. The first one was that He Zheng must die, and the second one was that she knew a lot of things.

If He Zheng’s death was the only thing she wanted, she would not have sent the second message. Everybody in the conference room was at a loss what to do. After conferring with each other for a while, they decided to track down Zhu Jin. Maybe the sudden appearance of Zhu Jin was the turning point that Li Zong had been waiting for all this time.

…

The reconstruction of the headquarters was coming to an end. The workmen were still bustling around, making the headquarters livelier than usual.

He Zheng was standing at the front doors of the United Front Work Department, watching unseeingly as the workmen passed by. Li Zong walked out and, as he noticed the distant look on He Zheng’s face, patted He Zheng’s shoulder and asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

Li Zong keenly felt the patch of skin he touched abruptly tense before it relaxed a second later.

“N–Nothing. I was just thinking about my grandfather’s words.” He Zheng’s voice was very low, so low it sounded somewhat unnatural. When Li Zong looked at him, He Zheng subconsciously averted his face.

Li Zong pressed his lips together and stared at He Zheng for a while. His eyes were so penetrating as though they could see through any pretense. Beneath such gaze, He Zheng felt a little uncomfortable and furrowed his brows.

Li Zong, naturally, noticed He Zheng’s reaction, but he did not say anything about it. “I think the matter of Zhu Jin has something to do with the turning point that Abbot Huiming told us about. She’s been pulling the strings all along. We find her, we find the final answer.”

He Zheng’s mind wandered for a while and it was a long moment before he caught on to what Li Zong meant, hastily nodded and said, “Yeah”.

He closely followed in Li Zong’s wake, staring at Li Zong’s legs, wordless. He produced his cellphone and, pretending to play some game on it, looked into the screen at his own face and was taken aback as he saw that his eyes were bloodshot and emanating a faint air of bloodlust.

He Zheng’s heart started pounding madly. In fact, just now a myriad of horrible thoughts had crossed his mind, and he had had an urge to kill everybody around him. Worse still, nobody but he himself knew that a short while ago, when Li Zong had touched him, he had wanted … wanted to ruthlessly sink his fingers into Li Zong’s throat and tear Li Zong to pieces on the spot.

He Zheng knew that he was under the influence of the Demon King’s powers. The Demon King, restrained by him, was unable to possess him in broad daylight, which was why the demon had been trying to evoke He Zheng’s desire to kill. The Demon King had split He Zheng’s soul in two and been attempting to have the dark half annex the sane one.

He Zheng’s face was somewhat pallid. He tremulously pocketed his cellphone and sneaked a furtive glance at Li Zong, as though this glance would give him the power he needed to recover himself.

‘Maybe it’s not that bad yet,’ He Zheng thought.

At least … At least he could still restrain himself.

Maybe He Zheng’s inward prayers worked. At least he was of sound mind at this moment.

They walked out of Rosefinch Lane. Zu Zhichong and some others had some time ago received orders to stand by. At the sight of Li Zong, Zu Zhichong hurriedly waved at them and called, “Chief!”

Then he saw He Zheng and, beaming, greeted him as well.

“Why is your face so white, Cutie?”

“I’ve been using some skin-lightening products, okay?!” He Zheng was taken aback and hastily averted his face in an attempt to keep Li Zong from noticing anything uncharacteristic of him.

But Li Zong’s eyes still rested on He Zheng. The gaze was so unnerving that He Zheng was horrified, fearing that Li Zong would become suspicious. He did not want Li Zong to be worried. What with him, Li Zong had suffered enough lately. He Zheng really did not want to be a burden to Li Zong.

“Ha ha. You’ve been paying more attention to this kind of stuff after marrying our chief. What an exquisite homebody. Chief, should we get going right away? I’ve already booked the plane tickets. The others are in the airport now. We may directly go there,” Zu Zhichong said.

Li Zong inclined his head and was just about to give the order to set off when something suddenly occurred to He Zheng, who interrupted Li Zong, “Can we maybe pay a visit to the hospital before we leave?”

“What business do you have in the hospital?” Zu Zhichong asked, looking bemusedly at He Zheng.

He Zheng explained, “Chen Qianlin and some others are still lying in there, aren’t they? I never visited them since they got hurt.”

A somewhat odd expression appeared on Zu Zhichong’s face at this reply. Li Zong’s lips curved in a smile. It was necessary for them to keep a low profile when performing a task outside. Li Zong, though an “old” man, was still required to wear cosmetic contact lenses to conceal the true colors of his pupils. When looking at He Zheng, his intent gaze still made He Zheng’s heart flutter.

“Chen Qianlin and the others have recovered and left the hospital. Actually, Chen Qianlin and Chen Kai will be performing the task with us.”

“Ha?”

At the sight of the puzzlement on He Zheng’s face, even Li Zong felt as though he had a headache. He gently put a hand on He Zheng’s head and, softly massaging it, asked, “A little while ago Director Zhen made a phone call in your presence. You didn’t hear anything?”

These days He Zheng’s mind had been in a turmoil, and he was too preoccupied to spare a thought for anything like this, so the phone call, naturally, had not registered.

“Let’s go.” Zu Zhichong, a bachelor, found this kind of public display of affection unbearable, hastened to sit himself in the driver’s seat, resigning himself to serving as the driver.

Soon they were in a car ride to the airport.

Zu Zhichong had to stay in the city and continued to supervise the workmen. Zhu Jin might be a powerful exorcist, but it was unlikely that she was too powerful for Li Zong to handle, so this time around, Zhen Ni, Tun Shanhai, Chen Qianlin and Chen Kai were the ones assigned to assist him.

At the sight of Chen Qianlin and the other three in the airport, all of whom appeared energetic, the gloom that had been lingering in He Zheng’s mind recently ebbed somewhat.

Chen Kai chuckled wickedly as he saw He Zheng and Li Zong. “He Zheng, you look a little listless. Supt. Li, I know you’re still virile, but you should give He Zheng a break from time to time.”

Chen Qianlin, presumably suffering from his relationship with Qiu Luo, blushed suspiciously, but his face had returned to normal when he turned to He Zheng. In the past few days, they had all heard a lot about He Zheng. The reason why Chen Kai made that joke was because he believed that He Zheng could use something to cheer him up.

But He Zheng did not let them down. A starved camel is larger than a horse. He Zheng, though the worse for wear, was still He Zheng.

On hearing Chen Kai’s words, He Zheng contemptuously rolled his eyes upwards and said scathingly, “It surprises me you still have the nerve to say this. I heard that you spent over a week lying in bed in the hospital, which was so embarrassing.”

Chen Kai gave him a dirty look. Chen Qianlin asked solicitously, “Are you okay?”

“How can I not be okay?” He Zheng smiled nonchalantly.

Though they bickered on a frequent basis, none of them ever took it personally. After looking He Zheng all over carefully, they confirmed that he was really fine and thus felt relieved.

Next Chen Kai began to retail to He Zheng how Qiu Luo and Chen Qianlin had tortured him, another bachelor, with their romantic relationship.

Zhen Ni was waiting on the side, and her eyes were totally unemotional when looking at Li Zong. She had given up on Li Zong and would never have any fond hope again.

“Chief, we should get going,” said Zhen Ni, shaking a couple of boarding passes in her hand.

Li Zong nodded.

“Let’s go.”

He Zheng, his arm around Chen Kai’s shoulders, poked Chen Qianlin in the ribs with his other elbow. On hearing Li Zong’s words, he twisted his head around and smiled at Li Zong, revealing eight white teeth, looking very happy.

All of them appeared so relaxed as though they were not going to find Zhu Jin, a dangerous woman, but going on a vacation.

“Chief, He Zheng’s in a pretty good mood. There’s no need for you to worry,” Zu Zhichong, having checked in their baggage, said to Li Zong quietly as he noticed that Li Zong’s eyes were fixed on He Zheng.

Zhen Ni also twisted her face aside. Chen Kai and the other two were chatting animatedly, all of them beaming. Zu Zhichong was right – there was no need to worry.

Li Zong did not say anything about it.

After taking the boarding passes from Zu Zhichong’s hand, he said, “You may go back. There’s a lot going on in the bureau. These are trying times. Tell everybody to stay alert.”

Zu Zhichong bobbed his head, glanced at Tun Shanhai who had been crouching on the side all along, roughly gave Tun Shanhai’s butt a kick and said, “You need to pull yourself together as well. I’m counting on you to take good care of Chief.”

Surprisingly, Tun Shanhai was not angered but just gave a listless snort.

Zu Zhichong, after walking them to the boarding gate, left.