Thud. Thud. Thud.
Shen Zhuo’s leather shoes stepped onto each cement stair, each footfall ringing with a steady echo.
Outside the building, cars braked sharply one after another. A team of Supervision Office officers filed in, all fully armed, their faces solemn as they followed behind him.
Hostile whispers from the evolutionists drifted in from all directions. “The Chief Supervisor of Shenhai City…” “What is he here for? To encircle and suppress us?” “Doesn’t look like it…”
Shen Zhuo ignored everything around him.
Although this was his first time here, he seemed to already know the interior layout of the Unfinished Building like the back of his hand. He did not need anyone to lead the way. He went straight up the stairs to the top floor and pushed the door open.
Chen Miao wept thick noodle tears. “Supervisor!”
Bai Sheng looked moved and pleasantly surprised. “Supervisor!”
“On what grounds did you blow up a vehicle belonging to our country’s Foreign Ministry embassy, Supervisor Shen Zhuo?!” Kingston bristled like an exploded cat, grinding his teeth. “As New York State Supervisor, I lodge a solemn protest and a strong condemnation against this conduct. I’m going to report this to the International Supervision General Administration—”
Shen Zhuo stopped and looked down at the little foreign devil from above.
“During the year I taught at Pritchett, you got so high on drugs that I personally failed you. Now that we’ve met again, shouldn’t you call me Professor Shen?”
Silence instantly fell around them.
Everyone’s mouth fell open into a shocked O.
“…Professor. Shen.” Kingston practically forced the three syllables out from his throat. If he had a tail, every hair on it would have puffed into a ball. “Do I need to remind you that you and I are both Supervisors now? I have the right to invite Mr. Bai, as a free person, to join the New York Supervision Office—”
Shen Zhuo pointed at Kingston and said concisely,
“Arrest him.”
The wolfish Supervision Office officers did not need him to give the order a second time. They instantly pounced and pinned down the two white bodyguards. Poor Kingston nearly died of rage on the spot. “Shen Zhuo, on what grounds are you arresting me? This is abuse of power! I’m going to report you to the International Supervision General Administration! I’m going to—”
Without stopping, Shen Zhuo brushed past Bai Sheng, who had come forward with an attentively solicitous face, and went straight to Kingston as he retreated in horror. Like lightning, he seized the boy’s thin neck and slammed him against the edge of the windowsill with a bang.
Under everyone’s eyes, the wall cracked with a rumble. Kingston’s legs dangled in the air, kicking desperately. “Let me go! Let me go!!”
Behind them, Bai Sheng, who had not even been glanced at: “…”
“I am one of the United Nations’ ten permanent Supervisors. I have veto power over any evolutionist-related matter anywhere in the world, including the appointment and removal of ordinary jurisdiction Supervisors like you.”
Shen Zhuo bent slightly. His beautifully shaped lips were close to Kingston’s ear as he said softly, word by word, “If you make another move against one of my people, I will strip you naked and hang you in Times Square, just like when you got high, broke into my office, stripped naked, and tried to seduce me by force. I personally hung you outside the academic building window.”
Kingston: “………………”
“S-Supervisor Shen—no, Professor Shen!” The older bodyguard almost lost his mind on the spot and hurriedly begged for mercy. “Our chief knows he was wrong. Please show mercy. We’ll leave Shenhai right—”
Before he could finish, Shen Zhuo grabbed Kingston by the neck and exerted force, dragging him fully out over the windowsill and suspending him in midair.
Amid the bodyguard’s frantic cry of “We’ll get out of Shenhai right now!” and Kingston’s furious scream of “Shen Zhuo, you can’t do this to me!” Shen Zhuo cleanly released his hand.
“Aaaaaah—”
Kingston dropped in a straight line. Three seconds later, from downstairs came:
BANG!!
Shen Zhuo patted the cuff of his suit jacket and turned around with a cold expression.
The entire room was silent with fear.
“…He’s… he’s not dead, right?” Chen Miao looked weakly out the window. “He’s not dead, right? From this height, he wouldn’t necessarily die, right…”
Shen Zhuo said, “Only a broken leg. Call 120.”
Everyone instantly felt as if a weight had been lifted. The two white bodyguards nearly burst into tears. Chen Miao hurriedly rattled off orders to organize first aid and call 120 for an ambulance.
Shen Zhuo fastened the button of his suit jacket with one hand, passed through the crowd of people who did not dare make a sound, and went straight down the cement stairs. Luo Zhen was respectfully waiting beside the official car at the construction site entrance and was just about to open the door for him when a hand reached out from behind Shen Zhuo in time and pressed against the car door with no room for refusal.
“Sir,” Bai Sheng asked, unable to hold back a laugh, “you came all this way and you’re leaving without even saying hello?”
“You followed me down anyway, didn’t you?” Shen Zhuo said without a ripple.
Luo Zhen bowed slightly and silently slipped away at once.
This was their first meeting in seven days. Ever since that late night at the hospital, Shen Zhuo had been busy handling the aftermath of the attack at Quanshan County Health Center and had not paid any attention to this S-Class corner coveted by the world’s major Supervision Offices.
But that corner knew very well how to seize an opportunity and show off his own advantages. In the brief time spent setting bait to fish, he had already tidied himself up extremely neatly. His lean, powerful muscle lines were hidden under his shirt; judging by appearance alone, he looked handsome, fresh, and almost like a young university student.
“I didn’t expect you to have been a teacher…” Bai Sheng looked Shen Zhuo up and down with a smiling expression for a long while before saying with great interest.
Shen Zhuo said, “I went to do research. While I was there, I also selected talent for HRG. What about it?”
Bai Sheng gave an absent-minded hum and looked him up and down for a moment, as if trying to make up for not seeing him all week. His meaningful gaze stopped on those thin, beautiful lips.
Clearly nothing had been done, yet the warm, entangled breath behind the hospital-room door that night once again brushed over them, as though even the corners of his lips could feel that instant of electric biting.
Shen Zhuo’s back was against the car door, and he leaned back an imperceptible inch.
Bai Sheng’s Adam’s apple slid up and down. He moved a little closer and said softly, “You really had the heart to ignore me for an entire week.”
“…”
Shen Zhuo lifted a hand and used two fingers to press against Bai Sheng’s chest, pushing him back several inches. Immediately after that, however, Bai Sheng grabbed his wrist.
“Luckily, that kid Kingston delivered himself to the door. Otherwise, I would have gone to the entrance of the Shenhai City Supervision Office to beat a drum and cry grievance.” Bai Sheng could almost trap Shen Zhuo completely in his arms. His lips brushed Shen Zhuo’s thin ear as he asked with a smile, “Were you really planning to use me without paying and then deny everything?”
Shen Zhuo’s throat slid lightly up and down. Still maintaining that posture of leaning back with his head raised, he said, “I came here today for you. Not for Kingston.”
“Mm?”
Bai Sheng was stunned by that straight ball. Then he saw Shen Zhuo reach back, open the car door behind him, and take half a step aside.
Immediately afterward, a familiar figure poked her head out from inside the car. The left half of her face was bewitching and alluring, while the right half was like a skull. It was none other than the Witch of Italdo.
“I’m taking her to the central district for business. We leave this afternoon.” Shen Zhuo calmly straightened his lapel. “I came to ask you to go with us.”
Bai Sheng’s “Sure, sure” was already on the tip of his tongue, but his thoughts spun, and he swallowed it back. He stood in place with his arms crossed and gave a soft snort of laughter. “I’m just a private-sector volunteer with no official post and no salary. I don’t even have anywhere to reimburse travel expenses. Why should I go?”
Shen Zhuo made a gesture to the Witch of Italdo. It meant: go on.
Bai Sheng: “?”
The Witch of Italdo raised a phone and pressed the audio playback button. Immediately afterward, Bai Sheng heard his own voice come from inside:
“If it weren’t for the fact that a daily salary of 2.08 million is too low, I would have thrown myself into show business long ago. At the very least, I’d have won the motherland an Oscar statuette… Beauty, it’s just the two of us here. Leak me a little background-check info on my romantic rivals, and I’ll buy you Chanel afterward. Deal?”
The Witch opened Baidu Encyclopedia, typed in “Chanel,” lit up the phone, pointed at the enormous double-C logo on the screen, and asked curiously, “Is this what you were talking about?”
CRACK!
A bolt of memory lightning split the sky. The wealthy second-generation heir was enlightened on the spot, abruptly remembering this enormous debt that crossed species and the universe itself.
“To spend that much for a bit of stale gossip from the trash can, I assume you also look down on an official salary.” Shen Zhuo curved the corner of his mouth, opened the car door, and made a gesture. “Get in. Bring your bank card.”
Bai Sheng: “…………”