“Three days ago, when I heard you had been attacked, I immediately dispatched a medical team to fly to Shenhai in emergency response.” Director-General Nielsen glanced at Shen Zhuo, then turned to Bai Sheng with a smile. “But from the look of things, that won’t be necessary.”
In front of his fellow S-Class, Bai Sheng was unexpectedly proper and courteous. “It was nothing.”
Nielsen nodded. His tone was steady and mild. “Trafficking evolution sources is an extremely serious crime, almost no different from smuggling arms. So after receiving Supervisor Shen’s request for assistance, I immediately had people conduct a detailed screening of the global evolutionist database. Unfortunately, there are no clues whatsoever regarding that mysterious supplier, ‘Mr. Rong.’ However—”
He paused, then changed direction. “As for the male and female accomplices, I can provide quite a bit of information.”
Shen Zhuo leaned sideways in a broad armchair across from the desk and gestured for him to continue.
“They are siblings. The older brother is Noda Shunsuke, a Class A evolutionist with a rare spatial ability. The younger sister is Noda Yoko, a Class B plant-type evolutionist. Both of them are extremely radical evolution-protectionists, and they harbor severe discrimination and hatred toward ordinary humans.”
At that point, Nielsen paused and turned to Bai Sheng with a smile. “Mr. Bai has lived in North America for many years. Have you heard of the Round Table?”
Bai Sheng looked surprised and propped his chin on one hand. “The Round Table?”
The other two men’s gazes both fell on the two-million-plus Roger Dubuis Knights of the Round Table watch on his wrist.
Nielsen was silent for a moment. “...I don’t mean the watch.”
“Oh—” Bai Sheng realized, lowered his hand, and sat up politely.
Nielsen looked as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself. Judging from his expression, he very likely wanted to ask whether Bai Sheng had hit his head as a child. Fortunately, thanks to excellent upbringing, he forcibly held it in.
“The siblings were both once members of the Round Table,” Nielsen explained. “The Round Table is a European evolution-protection organization. Its founder is known as the Bishop. He once put forward the famous head wolf philosophy—calling upon young, high-class evolutionists to act like head wolves and protect their lower-class peers from human persecution.”
“The Bishop,” Bai Sheng repeated with interest. “Never heard of that organization before, ha ha.”
Nielsen did not mind. “That’s a good thing. Radical organizations usually come with some hatred doctrine. They discriminate against ordinary humans who cannot evolve and claim humans are ants destined for extinction... but that’s beside the point. Compared with those more radical organizations, the Round Table is relatively compromising and rational. It has always emphasized that war must not be waged against humans.”
Bai Sheng crossed his long legs and knowingly asked, “Since the Noda siblings were Round Table members, does last night’s assassination attempt on Supervisor Shen have something to do with the Round Table?”
“Probably not,” Nielsen said. “Because the Noda siblings were too extreme in their hatred of humans and did not conform to the Bishop’s ideal of seeking compromise and coexistence, they were expelled from the Round Table as early as three years ago.”
Bai Sheng drew out a long “Oh—” and nodded.
Shen Zhuo asked, “Where did the siblings go after they were expelled?”
“Unclear in detail. Mainly Asia.” Nielsen lifted his chin toward the full-touchscreen desk. “I’ve already retrieved all sighting records of the siblings from the past three years and sent them to you by email. Take a look when you get back.”
Shen Zhuo gave a distracted hum and did not respond.
Bai Sheng glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
Outside the office window, daylight passed over the snowy peaks, making Shen Zhuo’s side profile look like ice and snow. His lowered lashes cast a clear, slender arc. Arms crossed, he leaned sideways in the armchair. Because of that posture, his shoulders and back seemed relaxed—or rather, too relaxed.
The Supervisor of Shenhai City had never shown the outside world such a casual seated posture before. It was so casual that it seemed almost deliberate.
That was unusual. Nielsen was, after all, his direct superior, and everyone knew that “Odin’s Wolf” was not an easy man to deal with.
Following Shen Zhuo’s gaze, Nielsen looked toward an open pen case on his desk.
Inside that double-layered rosewood pen case were more than twenty fountain pens of varying styles, carefully stored. Among them were quite a few expensive limited-edition artist models, and some caps were engraved with different initials.
“My secretary just took them out to send them for maintenance.” Nielsen smiled and explained to Bai Sheng, “I personally enjoy collecting writing instruments, so I often receive fountain pens as gifts. Please excuse the display.”
“...”
Bai Sheng’s gaze fell on the center of the first row of the pen case, the most important and eye-catching position. It was a Montblanc fountain pen in Damascus steel inlaid with lapis lazuli. On the sword-shaped clip was engraved a thin, elegant Chinese character—
Shen.
“Carefully preserving gifts from others is an excellent quality.” After a three-second pause, Bai Sheng answered with a smile.
Nielsen was just about to say something else when the door was suddenly knocked twice. Then the secretary’s respectful voice came from outside.
“Mr. Nielsen, are you there? The impeachment meeting has sent someone to urge you back.”
Shen Zhuo came back to himself. “Impeachment meeting?”
Nielsen could not help laughing. “They’re impeaching me.”
“...”
“The humans on the United Nations Security Council have always believed evolutionists must be supervised by humans, and that the International Supervision General Administration cannot remain in evolutionists’ own hands. Otherwise, it will severely oppress human rights and interests... and so on and so forth. Same old thing.” Nielsen stood, smoothing the hem of his suit, and mocked himself. “I’ve been trapped in that meeting for three whole days listening to a group of old men chant scriptures. It was so boring I nearly fell asleep several times. Just now, when my secretary said you had come by, I used the bathroom as an excuse to come out and see you, and catch my breath while I was at it.”
He said it lightly, but Shen Zhuo still stood along with him. “Impeachment isn’t a minor matter. You should go back quickly. Mr. Bai and I won’t disturb you further.”
Nielsen nodded, but he still did not look as if he took that impeachment meeting very seriously. He walked around the desk and firmly shook Bai Sheng’s hand again.
“If you had not intervened that day, Supervisor Shen would certainly have been in danger. Please accept my highest personal gratitude!”
Bai Sheng answered with a smile, “You flatter me. It was what I should do. My duty.”
The two S-Class met each other’s gazes only briefly before looking away. Nielsen smiled and released his hand, taking half a step back.
Shen Zhuo pretended not to see it and was just about to turn and log off when the director-general suddenly seemed to remember something.
“Supervisor Shen!”
Shen Zhuo stopped.
Immediately after, right in front of Bai Sheng, Nielsen reached out and pressed a hand to Shen Zhuo’s shoulder, taking the opportunity to give him a tight embrace.
“Regarding last night’s assassination attempt, I grant you full freedom of disposal.” Ignoring anyone else present, Nielsen switched to German and said in a low voice, “Three years ago, when you took office, I said this road would be full of danger, but I would always protect you. Those words remain in effect to this day.”
Shen Zhuo seemed a little surprised. From over Nielsen’s shoulder, he glanced at Bai Sheng.
Their eyes met. Bai Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly and saw an extremely rich, indescribable look in Shen Zhuo’s eyes.
The atmosphere froze for an instant.
Immediately after, Shen Zhuo smiled.
That smile was practically diplomatic. Even under a microscope, not the slightest flaw could have been found in it. His beautiful face thawed like melting ice and snow in an instant; even the curve at the corner of his lips was perfect. Then he reached out, patted Nielsen’s back, stepped back half a pace, and looked at the Nordic man with sincerity.
“I understand, Director-General. I will also always stand on your side. Go to the impeachment meeting.”
He stepped back again and met Nielsen’s gaze with a smile as his figure gradually faded.
He logged off on the spot.
The office returned to silence. Nielsen alone remained where he was, motionless, watching Shen Zhuo disappear completely into the air.
With a click, the door was pushed open.
“Director-General, Cameron’s people have come to urge you several times. The hearing is about to begin...” The secretary looked unable to hide his anxiety. Then he suddenly saw the open pen case on the desk and froze.
Why had he taken it out? Had the situation already become this critical?
Nielsen slowly turned back. His ice-blue eyes looked heavily toward the Damascus steel fountain pen, his gaze fixed on the character “Shen.”
A thank-you gift Shen Zhuo had given him three years ago, when he took office.
Nielsen drew out that pen, gripped it tightly in his palm, and strode out of the office.
He passed through the building corridor. The elevator rose to the top floor. Two evolutionist guards respectfully pushed open the brass doors for him. Behind them was an enormous conference room enclosed by metal walls and bulletproof glass. On both sides of the long table sat people from the United Nations Security Council.
All of them were human. Every face was a frequent presence in the newspapers of various countries.
The gazes that fell on Nielsen from every direction carried clear hostility. Even the air was filled with sinister killing intent.
“At such a critical moment in the vote, you still had the leisure to spend that long in the bathroom. Such blind confidence is truly admirable.” A short, stout Italian official looked at his watch, his tone full of sarcasm. “It seems you don’t care at all that you’re about to be dismissed.”
Nielsen pulled out the chair at the head of the long table and smiled. “No matter how you intend to kick me out of the director-general’s seat, until the voting result comes out, I remain an existence none of you can shake. Don’t I?”
His uncharacteristic ease immediately ignited the anger many people in the conference room had been forcibly suppressing.
“Stop struggling on your deathbed, Fritsch Nielsen! You know very well how biased you are toward those evolutionist peers of yours. We’ve endured you for a full five years!”
“The Supervision Office is an institution that supervises evolutionists. How can it fall into the hands of evolutionists themselves?!”
“The Security Council will not continue tolerating you!”
On both sides of the long table, everyone was furious. Nielsen, however, ignored them all and looked straight toward the other end of the table. In the shadows, a silent figure sat there.
“Someone will indeed be kicked out of this door today. But that person will not be me.” Nielsen looked directly at that figure and asked with a smile, “Care to make a bet, Cameron?”
The person in the shadows remained unmoved and did not answer.
With a heavy bang, the Italian official from earlier slammed his documents down. “Nielsen, we haven’t even settled the score with you for forcibly interfering with my country’s evolutionist armament proposal! You—”
Nielsen abruptly stood and pulled out the fountain pen.
A cold flash gleamed. The Italian official’s palm was pierced straight through and pinned to the tabletop.
“Ah—!”
A scream tore through the room. Blood splashed outward. Everyone around them instantly changed color.
“What are you doing?”
“Stop!”
The Italian man kicked and screamed desperately. Nielsen licked the blood from the back of his hand like a white wolf from the Nordic ice fields, gorgeous-furred and brutal, wearing a clear, cruel smile.
“Settle the score with me?”
He casually tossed the pen cap onto the conference table. Damascus steel struck the tabletop with a clear clang, plainly revealing the character “Shen” engraved on the clip.
At the other end of the long table, in the shadows, the person named Cameron finally moved slightly and stared at the pen cap in surprise.
“My apologies for keeping everyone waiting. When I went out just now, a close friend suddenly came to visit me and gave me this pen. All of you present must have heard his name before.”
Nielsen looked down at everyone from above, revealing a smile edged with blood.
“He is the former leader of the Human Regeneration Plan, also known as the HRG Plan—Shen Zhuo.”
The air went silent at once.
It was as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped without warning. Most people had not reacted yet, but the faces of the few high-ranking officials shook violently, and some nearly stood up on the spot.
“...How did you do it?” Cameron finally spoke in a low voice.
“How did I manage to summon and dismiss Shen Zhuo at will?” Nielsen completed the second half of the sentence Cameron had not said, looking at that figure mockingly. “What do you think, Cameron?”
“Three years ago, after the Qinghai accident, Shen Zhuo was tortured by private execution. Nineteen bones in his body were broken. Even on the brink of death, he refused to admit he was the one who killed Fu Chen. I sent people to rescue him from that mob. Without me, he would already be dead. From that moment on, Shen Zhuo became my closest and most steadfast ally.”
“And the irony is that only today, three years later, after the HRG Plan has completely reached a dead end, has humanity finally realized Shen Zhuo’s value.”
The enormous conference room was deathly silent.
Everyone’s expression was hideous. Only the Italian official still had one hand pinned to the tabletop by the fountain pen and kept making pained, terrified sobs.
“You can kick me out of the International Supervision General Administration. You can throw me into prison. You can even devour evolutionists like swarms of carnivorous ants until only bones are left. But don’t forget—Shen Zhuo, the final hope of the HRG Plan, is in my hands.”
“If I do not allow him to return to the research institute, then you can only be like desperate rats in the sewer, forever dreaming of glimpsing that illusory ray of light from the Human Regeneration Plan.”
Nielsen raised a hand in a “please” gesture.
If one ignored the blood running in crisscrossing streams across the table before him, his smile truly could have been called perfectly mannered and graceful.
“Now, gentlemen, please cast your votes. You had best start praying right now that you can produce a result that satisfies me.”
No one raised a hand. No one spoke.
The officials, who ordinarily could summon wind and rain, looked nearly suffocated. One after another, they glanced furtively and pleadingly toward the other end of the long table.
Cameron, who had sat in the shadows from beginning to end, finally stood. In the light, his face was revealed. He raised a hand to straighten the front of his suit and calmly summarized:
“Three full days of impeachment... Truly, one careless move, and the entire board is lost.”
Cameron appeared to be around forty, or perhaps older, but it was difficult to tell. He had very distinct mixed Eastern and Western features. His hair was black, but his eyes were a cool gray-green. When he spoke, he had a smoothness that suggested everything was under control, and a tone that made everything sound casual.
Nielsen stared at his greatest natural enemy and gave a faint cold laugh. “Thank you for conceding, Cameron.”
“Do not misunderstand. I did not lose to you. I lost to my habitually over-high expectations of weak human nature.” The corner of Cameron’s mouth hooked up. It was a diplomat’s smile, false but impeccable. “Stupid blind obedience and sentimental indecision have indeed been part of Shen Zhuo’s character since childhood. I should have anticipated it.”
He nodded politely, then turned and walked toward the conference room door. Behind him, Nielsen sneered, “Next time, I won’t let you walk out of this door on your feet, Cameron!”
Cameron stopped and looked back.
From this angle, the shape of his brows and eyes, even the outline of his profile, bore a terrifying resemblance to Shen Zhuo. Only the mocking smile at the corner of his mouth concealed that fact.
“It is good for people to have dreams, Nielsen.”
He straightened the front of his suit and strode out through the metal door.
Shenhai, a certain upscale residential compound.
The instant the realistic projection vanished, Bai Sheng found himself back on the living-room sofa and exhaled sharply.
The tablet was still open. The interface had only gained one new email, titled Travel Records of Wanted Suspects Noda Siblings. Shen Zhuo frowned and glanced at it. He had just been about to stand from the sofa when a tremendous force suddenly shoved him backward head-on.
“Supervisor. Shen.”
Bai Sheng braced both hands beside Shen Zhuo’s ears, one knee bent on the sofa, trapping him fully beneath him. His tone was so gentle it was practically dripping.
“May I ask whether you have some strange kink, baby? Having an office romance is one thing, but you insist on making me watch from the side. When you two go to Northern Europe later to hold the wedding, are you planning to have me stand in front with a camera to witness that historic moment too? What benefit do you get from blinding these S-Class dog eyes of mine, hm?”
There was less than half an inch between them. Bai Sheng’s arrogant eyelashes were practically about to brush Shen Zhuo’s face.
“...”
Shen Zhuo’s expression was complicated. He looked as though he wanted to speak, then stopped. After a long moment, he used two fingers to push Bai Sheng’s chest back and said sincerely:
“I feel dirty. Lend me the bathroom for a shower. Otherwise, I’ll throw up on you later.”
Bai Sheng: “?”
Shen Zhuo pushed him aside, stood, and walked straight toward the master bedroom bathroom.
Bai Sheng was baffled. He chased after him and was just about to start mocking him when Shen Zhuo suddenly stopped as if remembering something. He turned back to look at Bai Sheng, his tone indescribable.
“Every time I’m about to lose all patience with you, some monster or demon suddenly drops out of the sky and makes you look extraordinarily normal by comparison... Don’t tell me your strongest ability is luck.”
Bai Sheng: “Huh?”
Without looking back, Shen Zhuo walked into the bathroom and shut the door with a bang.
A full half hour later, the rushing water stopped, and the bathroom door opened again.
Bai Sheng and Chen Miao were huddled head-to-head over the tablet, focused intently on studying the Noda siblings’ travel records. Hearing the sound, Bai Sheng looked back.
“Did your germaphobia act up? How many times were you planning to scrub yourself—”
His voice stopped dead.
Shen Zhuo’s collar was open, his hair slightly damp. Water dripped from the tips and ran along the back of his slender neck into his collar. He wiped it casually with a towel, and from the familiar pattern, Bai Sheng recognized it as his own face towel.
“What?” Shen Zhuo asked casually.
Perhaps because he had just taken a shower, his skin looked like translucent porcelain soaked in water, while the corners of his brows and eyes were clear as ink. After the steam, the corner of his lips held a faint trace of red.
“...”
Bai Sheng looked at the towel in silence for a moment, then slowly said, “Nothing. I suddenly feel my humble home has been graced with glory... I’m never selling this place.”
Chen Miao’s gaze darted back and forth between the two of them. Relying on years of experience in the perilous art of serving a tiger-like lord, he keenly sensed that his Senior’s tolerance index toward Brother Bai had suddenly increased geometrically. So he coughed carefully.
“Um... Senior, we were looking through the Noda siblings’ travel records in Asia over the past three years. Brother Bai found a location that seems rather strange.”
Shen Zhuo casually tossed the towel over the back of a chair. “Hm?”
“Quanshan County Health Center. It was burned down in a major fire three years ago.” Chen Miao raised the tablet and pointed at the map. “But right after Noda Yoko was expelled from the Round Table, she came here. After that, she was repeatedly spotted wandering around the fire ruins and the surrounding mountains. Half a year ago, she was last sighted nearby. After that, she never appeared again.”
“This abandoned health center is right on the outskirts of Shenhai City, only a little more than two hundred kilometers from us. A two-hour drive.”