Chapter 84

Chapter 84

With Wu Er and the others all accounted for, Qin Ying finally relaxed completely.

She had considered sending Han Lie back into the Box.

Wu Er and the others were the same size as him, so it should have been easier for them to take care of him.

But every time they came and went, they had to climb up and down, taking one dangerous step after another.

Aman, who had the worst agility among them, slipped several times and looked as if he was about to fall into the lava.

Qin Ying simply gave up on the idea. The last thing she wanted was to send a seriously injured man in there and make trouble for both sides.

Wu Er and the others left, disappearing from Qin Ying’s sight.

There wasn’t much to look at in the Divine Shrine half-buried in lava, so Qin Ying closed the Box’s lid.

She went to check on Han Lie, only to hear him letting out faint, broken moans in his sleep.

He must have been in terrible pain.

Qin Ying took the dust cover that had come with the Dollhouse and placed it over the bowl Han Lie was lying in. At his current size, a single mosquito could suck him dry.

Completely unaware that mosquitoes and insects had not appeared in her home for some time, Qin Ying went to the kitchen.

She planned to stew some ribs or something, so when Han Lie woke up, she could give him some protein to help with his recovery.

After going down to the first floor, Qin Ying washed vegetables by the window facing the backyard.

Suddenly, her hand paused for the briefest instant.

There it was again-that feeling of being watched from the shadows.

Qin Ying snapped her head up to look, but there was nothing on the wall.

With a cold expression, she dried the water from her hands and took the phone out of her apron.

She dialed the number Zong Li had left her.

It took a long while for the call to connect. When she heard a drowsy hello from the other end, Qin Ying was momentarily speechless.

“What happened to the protection you promised?”

Had he gone off to sleep?

Zong Li’s voice over the phone was thick with a stuffy nose. “Don’t worry. Zhang Lang is over there.”

When it rained last night, Zong Li had been the one keeping watch downstairs at Qin Ying’s house, and he had accidentally caught a bit of a cold.

During the day, Zhang Lang went to relieve him, and only then had Zong Li found time to return to the Cultural Preservation Institute for a nap.

But his explanation did not reassure Qin Ying.

That guy called Zhang Lang really did not look dependable.

Qin Ying was polite and did not say that out loud, but Zong Li on the other end of the line seemed to read her mind. “Zhang Lang just has a bit of a wimpy personality. In terms of combat ability, he’s the strongest in our team.”

Since he had put it that way, Qin Ying felt there was no need to keep dwelling on it. She told Zong Li about the feeling that someone was watching her.

Zong Li took it very seriously and said he would have Zhang Lang go check immediately.

After hanging up, Qin Ying tossed two slices of ginger into the clay pot for the soup, set it to stew, and returned to the second floor.

Before she could check on Han Lie, a one-sided argument rose from the street outside.

The neighborhood aunties’ familiar loud voices started shouting.

Qin Ying walked to the window and froze at the sight.

Aunt Xu from the end of the street was holding a long-limbed man in one hand as if she were carrying a little chick.

Aunt Xu was only one and a half meters tall, but her presence was two meters tall, and she had somehow intimidated that tall man so thoroughly that he did not even dare breathe too loudly.

A closer look at that Black Trench Coat-who else could it be but Zhang Lang?

A man over one meter eighty was being held by Aunt Xu by the back of his neck in the most pathetic way possible, his hands crossed in front of his face with an expression that practically screamed, Don’t hit my face.

Even Qin Ying could not help being astonished. How could a person be this spineless?

Aunt Xu’s temper was considered famously fierce even in the Old City District, where eccentrics were everywhere. If someone was strong, she was stronger. If someone was weak… she was even stronger.

Once you fell into her hands, she would roll up her sleeves and take on even the King of Heaven himself.

Never mind Zhang Lang, who looked like a useless coward at first glance.
Qin Ying had no idea how Zhang Lang had managed to provoke her. She stopped in front of the window and listened closely.

Aunt Xu had one hand fisted in Zhang Lang’s collar. After yanking him down until he was level with her, she used her other hand to tear at his hair as deftly as plucking feathers from a chicken.

All the while, she cursed him out. “I heard a stranger had shown up on this street. You’re the one who stood under the streetlamp all night yesterday, aren’t you?”

“Talk. What are you here to look at?”

After a whole night in the rain, Zhang Lang’s trench coat looked like a wrinkled bundle of dried mustard greens. He shielded his face and covered his head with both hands, muttering, “I’m sorry.”

“I…”

He stammered over that “I” for ages without managing to explain anything.

That only made Aunt Xu even more suspicious. She grabbed him and insisted on dragging him to the police.

Few people on this street disliked a good spectacle. The moment Aunt Xu raised her booming voice, five or six heads shot out from the mahjong parlor at the end of the street.

Judging by their dark circles and greasy hair, they had been battling all night.

When the neighbors saw it was Aunt Xu making a ruckus, they thought something serious had happened and quickly gathered around.

Fortunately, Zhang Lang looked so pathetic that no one actually hit him.

Granny Shi, who had gone out early that morning to get a perm, still had curlers on her head. Very aware of the law, she narrowed her eyes, tapped around on her phone, and called the police.

Qin Ying did not go outside the entire time, not even when Zhang Lang was hauled away.

She stood quietly upstairs and observed, her gaze fixed on Aunt Xu.

The crowd downstairs was loud and chaotic, but none of them were lying.

Still, Aunt Xu’s appearance had been far too coincidental. Qin Ying had only just discovered someone was watching her, and not long after, Zhang Lang’s work had been disrupted.

Especially that one thing Aunt Xu had said-she had heard a stranger had come to the street.

Heard it from whom?

Qin Ying watched Aunt Xu’s back, then took out her phone and called Zong Li. “That partner of yours just got hauled to the police by some enthusiastic neighbors.”

Zong Li, with a fever patch stuck to his forehead, sat bolt upright like a corpse jolting back to life. “Huh?”

After Qin Ying repeated it, she said, “Go bail him out.”

Zong Li’s head hurt as if it had been split open by a blade. “Miss Qin, stay at home and don’t go anywhere. I’ll handle this very quickly.”

He did not complain about why Qin Ying had not gone down to help clear things up.

There was no reason, at any time, to make the person under protection leave home to deal with this nonsense.

Only, just before hanging up, he muttered under his breath, “Talk about rotten luck.”

Three hours later, the whole house was filled with the aroma of pork rib soup.

Han Lie was still unconscious. Qin Ying placed him and the Box in the wardrobe to hide them.

Then she filled a large soup bowl with pork rib soup and went straight to Aunt Xu’s home.

Aunt Xu’s grandson was in primary school, so she would definitely be home cooking lunch. When Qin Ying arrived, Aunt Xu was still picking through vegetables.

“Aunt Xu.” Qin Ying set the bowl of soup on the table and first offered her excuse for visiting. “The Ghost Festival is coming soon. When my grandmother was alive, she loved the cold dishes you made most. I wanted to ask if you could help me make some that day.”

The Old City District was full of neighborly warmth. It was perfectly normal for neighbors to invite one another over for meals or send each other dishes.

Aunt Xu agreed without even thinking and accepted Qin Ying’s pork rib soup as well.

At that moment, Qin Ying brought it up as if they were only chatting. “Oh, right, Aunt Xu. I heard you hauled someone to the police station today? What happened?”

The moment her great achievement was mentioned, Aunt Xu grew smug. She took Qin Ying’s hand and started prattling away. “Oh, it was just some guy who looked like a little punk from a TV drama.”

“No matter how you looked at him, he was suspicious.” Aunt Xu slapped her thigh. “On a blazing hot day, wearing a whole Black Trench Coat-if he wasn’t a bad guy, then there was something wrong with his head.”

Qin Ying sat quietly to the side, smiling without a sound.