Chapter 245 - Purpose (2/2)
Zheng Shuang nodded wearily. “Well, if that is so, what plans do you have, Shiyan?” I thought for a moment, then I told him. “I need your help. To check on someone.” He straightened up excitedly with interest. “Who?” “His name is Jin Qichen. He’s a Manchurian. He’s working as a deejay, I think.” “Urm…” Zheng Shuang gasped, his brows creasing deeply. “I’ll need more details. It’s too vague. What else can you tell me?” “He should be an Aisin-Gioro, since he told me before he’s from the line of Qing Emperors and he’s from the North-east.”
“Very well,” Zheng Shuang hissed through his cigarette, “I’ll run a check on him. You’d want everything about him, no?” I nodded. He tossed the stub of his cigarette to the floor and grounded it with his boots before he left curtly without any more word.
We decided to head back to my ward where we found Big Sister already there. She was draping her coat over a dozing Edelweiss when we walked through the door and she quickly jabbed a finger to her lips, urging us to be quiet. Chongxi, however, stood at the door, staring blankly at Big Sister’s fluffy tail showing at her back and asked a question that he would later regret. “Urm… Big Sister Lan… I’m curious to know how does your tail come out when you’re wearing pants…”
Big Sister’s face flushed red at that very instant and she lunged at Chongxi like a madwoman, hitting him on the head. I quickly pulled her aside and muttered to Chongxi under my breath, “Well done, mate. Of all questions, you just have to pop this one. I had made a hole on the back of her pants when we bought it.” Chongxi broke into a dawning smile as he stared furtively at Big Sister, who proceeded to give a punch each on our heads. “What does this have to do with me! I did nothing!” Lin Feng, clutching his head, yelled indignantly but Big Sister only pouted her lips and ignored him, still very much miffed.
Clutching his head, Chongxi snickered and remarked, “You two are just upside down. Shiyan’s brand of magic is of the Fire Element but his attitude is as chill as ice. Big Sister Lan’s magic is water-based, but you’re fiery and feisty. Something’s wrong with you two, heh heh heh heh!” I giggled. Another witty joke, I mused, He maybe a maven in the skills of divination, but he clearly failed to see what’s coming for him next. Lo and indeed behold, Big Sister came at him with another blow hammering on his head.
I was discharged from the hospital one week later. Fortunately for me, my magical powers and properties, as well as the shallow depth of the wound, allowed me to heal quickly. Zheng Shuang came not long after, just in time with information about Jin Qichen for me.
I riffled through the dossier he had prepared containing every shred of information he managed to glean about Jin Qichen while lazing on the couch at the Center’s sitting area. At the very top was the heading, “Jin Qichen, male, age 29. Born in Baishan, Jilin.” The next few pages detailed his family. Apparently, his parents were long dead due to an accident, although there was not much detail surrounding the incident. Feeling something amiss, I called Zheng Shuang to asked about the lack of particulars covering the incident that robbed the lives of Jin Qichen’s parents but there was nothing he could do. I was already holding in my hands the entirety of what he could find on the system and that left me wondering if there was more than meets the eye with Jin Qichen’s background.
According to the dossier, his parents were killed when he was five. Since then, he grew up with his neighbor. Jin Qichen would later leave school after finishing junior high to become a local thug. But there was one tiny information that caught my eye. The name of the family that took him in bore the surname Na. The very same Na that Na San shared.
Na San had told me before then his family had been serving Jin Qichen’s family for generations. Therefore it was not hard for me to imagine how the adoption of Jin Qichen came to be. But I was more concerned with how Jin Qichen’s parents met their deaths.
Just when I was in deep concentration, the door of the Center clicked opened suddenly and I heard someone walking in. Giving no bother to look at the guest, I did not even raise my head, my eyes still peeled on the contents of the dossier, uttering only a tedious and uninteresting greeting, “How can I help you? We provide an array of services, ranging from fortune-telling, Feng Shui services for home and premises, astrology, handling of marriage or funeral arrangements, and even exorcism.”
The newcomer, sounding amused, merely replied, “I’m looking for someone.” I looked up, finding the voice oddly familiar and I was utterly shocked when I saw her face and I blurted, “Lu Shengnan?!”