Chapter 259 - My Father and Master Six (1/2)
I lighted a cigarette. But deep inside, I was grimacing quietly. Huang Li looked utterly ignorant about the woman in black. I jabbed a finger at the black plastic bag on the floor. “That is the souvenir left by a mysterious guest who came calling last night after we solved the problem at your house. Don’t you want it back?”
Huang Li’s face convulsed into a disdainful moue. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered firmly and that made Lin Feng and I looked at each other again. “Oh yeah,” I went on, “That guest has a stare that resembled both you and Cao Xuedong. So I wondered if you might know each other.” Looking rather pale now, Huang Li hissed, “I don’t know who you’re referring to. And what have you done to Xuedong!?”
Huang Li’s apparent ignorance rather bothered me but it did not prevent me from keeping up my smile. “Well, since you insist that you don’t know our mysterious guest. I guess we’d better just leave it at that. As to Cao Xuedong, I’m sure you know what happened to him. You guys employed the Bamen Dunjia so you tell me what happened to him. You must know.”
Huang Li’s eyes flared with rage as their edges twitched irritably intensely. She said nothing, reaching only into her purse for a checkbook. She wrote the cheque and stormed off, carrying the glass bottle that contained Cao Xuedong’s ghost with her. As she reached the landing of the stairs, I gave a final jab, “Neighbors should contact each other more often! Come find me just opposite! I’m in Unit 105!” Refusing to deign to even reply to me as she drifted down the stairs, all we heard was her slamming the door on her way out.
“She doesn’t seem to be our mystery hitwoman,” Lin Feng uttered, “You saw how she wrote the cheque. She was writing it with her right hand.” I nodded. We were still making no headway with the enigma surrounding the identity of our guest last night.
“Judging her behavior just now, it looks like she doesn’t know about me or the possibility that she could be a daughter of Tribe Nine Li. Maybe she’s not at all, but who knows? Still, were we wrong, I wonder?” I said as I rubbed my chin. Lin Feng and Chongxi nodded quietly, all quiet in ponderous contemplation.
A few beats of silence ensued until a sudden shriek from Lu Shengnan shattered the peace, “LOOK AT YOU! ARE YOU ALL NOT EVEN BOTHERED BY SOMETHING BLOODY JUST LYING ON THE FLOOR! COME ON! DEAL WITH IT, ANYONE!? I DON’T WANT TO BE A SUSPECT IN A MURDER CASE!”
After disposing of the broken arm, albeit in a sanguinary manner, Chongxi said, “What I am certain of, is that something is not right with all of them – Huang Li, Cao Xuedong, with the woman in black included. At least, this I can say because I can’t seem to read their fortune through their faces. Let’s just leave out those who have taken an active part against us – Cao Xuedong and the woman in black – and just look at Huang Li, even I don’t know what role is she playing in all these.” I nodded, my gaze was drawn by the sight of my Spirit Wolves feasting ravenously at the broken arm. “Well, it’s not just you. My wolves can’t seem to track the woman either, even with her scent. We have no leads at all for now. Whoever these people are, they are not simple folk, that’s for sure. Compared to the enemies we’ve dealt with before, I dare say they’re definitely a cut above the rest.”
In the past, my Spirit Eagle and Spirit Wolves have always been able to track enemies using their scent. But this time, none of them could do anything with the broken arm left by our woman in black. Between that and Huang Li’s unreadable face, my instincts were ringing madly, informing that we were no longer dealing with foes that were of a similar class to the Creed of the Eight Trigrams. These were enemies with abilities and powers we could not afford to underestimate.
“Shiyan!” Lu Shengnan squealed again through her pursed lips as she gagged, trying to hold back the urge to puke. “I had never taken you for a cruel savage! You allowed your wolves to EAT THAT ARM!” I tossed her a careless glance. “And now you know why I’m against you joining us?” Lu Shengnan bobbed her head like a bobble-headed doll.
Then again, I had my reasons for allowing my wolves to gnaw on the broken arm. It was a show of threat in case Lu Shengnan was an enemy in disguise. Her true allegiances were still unknown and the sight of the flesh being ripped and torn by my wolves would create a lasting impression on her. She stared at the gory scene with all colors leaving her face. “Things like these are common to people like us,” I muttered nonchalantly, “In fact, Lin Feng is the worst. There was this time where we were lured into a village and we nearly died. Lin Feng swung his whip with so much anger and it split the head of an enemy like a watermelon with grey and white matter flowing out from the man’s skull…”
“ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT! THAT’S ENOUGH! URRGGHH!” Her brain was filled with the recollections of the doufunao she had in the morning and she rushed off to vomit, looking green and purple.