Chapter 170: Xia Pingzhou: That is a Woman Who Could Become My Mother |
July 24th, 6:00 PM, Venice Hotel.
"Kitten, wake up." The young woman's lukewarm voice entered his ears.
Xia Pingzhou woke at the sound, opening his eyes from the plain white bed to the sight of a familiar ceiling. He had been sleeping in this hotel for several days.
"Kitten, move." The young woman's tone sounded just like she was commanding a Voice-Controlled Intelligent Robot.
Xia Pingzhou stared blankly for a moment, then sat up from the bed. Leaning against the headboard, he slowly turned his head to look at Ayase Origami, who was sitting on the windowsill.
She wore a simple, cool-toned Dress that made her pale skin look almost transparent.
"Why did you wake me up?" he asked casually, stifling a yawn.
"The Newcomer," she replied.
The dusk deepened outside the window, the sky's backdrop transitioning between a crab-shell gray-blue and blood-red. A kite wobbled as it rose into the sky. The evening breeze poured in, causing the cool-toned hem of her Dress to flutter in the wind.
Xia Pingzhou muttered, fishing out his Mobile Phone from beside his pillow. He turned on the screen and glanced at the text messages he had received.
[Hacker: The new Number 4 has headed over to your side.]
'Tong Zizhu?' Xia Pingzhou thought. 'Although I really want to get close to her and ask about her relationship with Unit 1's Mother, I have to go to London tomorrow to stake out early and look for Red Traffic Light's movements.'
[Hacker: You must be thinking right now that it's time to get close to her and find another sugar mommy in the brigade to live off.]
[Hacker: Oh my, is this our Pretty Boy? Every female Member except Jack the Ripper takes exceptionally good care of you.]
'Then you can guess why Jack the Ripper isn't included,' Xia Pingzhou thought.
If he wasn't afraid of feeling guilty about killing her later, he would have clung to her thighs long ago.
Suddenly, he raised his hand quite naturally, accepting the apple that Ayase Origami passed to him using a floating newspaper. The apple had been peeled with a paper knife, and a continuous spiral of peel still rested inside the newspaper.
Taking a bite of the apple, he continued typing and tapped send.
[Xia Pingzhou: That's just a Stereotype. I am an independent 21st Century Youth who never lives off women.]
[Hacker: Anyway, if you get Lovey-dovey with anyone else, I will tattle to the Young Mistress.]
[Xia Pingzhou: Then why didn't you tattle when I went out with Blood Progenitor?]
[Hacker: Because that one is an absolute heavyweight. Her reputation as a long-lived, love-chasing old hag isn't fake. You don't actually think she might be interested in you, do you?]
Xia Pingzhou took a crisp bite, cleaning off the side of the apple with a loud crunch.
[Xia Pingzhou: It's a pity, but the Young Mistress doesn't use a Mobile Phone. She's a Primitive Man; she only pays with paper bills.]
[Hacker: Is it possible she only uses paper bills because her Supernatural Ability makes them convenient to control, so she doesn't need to reach out and scan a code?]
[Xia Pingzhou: Regardless, she doesn't have a Mobile Phone.]
[Hacker: Useless. I can hack into the hotel TV and broadcast footage of you and the Newcomer getting Lovey-dovey on it.]
[Xia Pingzhou: That assumes I would even do that.]
[Hacker: Someone practically has "I've learned my lesson, please let me go" written all over their face.]
[Xia Pingzhou: Little Brat.]
'Tong Zizhu is a woman who could become my mother,' Ji Minghuan rolled his eyes in his mind. 'Even if she's just changing her face into my mom's, that's already terrifying enough for me, okay?'
Thinking of this, he silently put away his Mobile Phone and turned to look at Ayase Origami instead.
The young woman rested her head to the side, quietly gazing at the beautiful waterways outside the window. The afterglow of the setting sun chased after the coming and going cruise boats and pedestrians. Although she really wanted to wake Xia Pingzhou up so he could accompany her shopping, he had been sleeping constantly lately. Sometimes, he looked as if he were dead... making one wonder if he would just sleep like this and never open his eyes again.
Sometimes she would look up from her Haiku Collection and silently watch Xia Pingzhou's profile, thinking to herself how she had told him so much about her past, yet knew absolutely nothing about his.
She did not even know if the name "Xia Pingzhou" was real or a Pseudonym.
'If he suddenly disappears one day, how am I supposed to find him?'
She could not help but think this way.
"When are we going to London?" Ayase Origami lowered her eyes and asked softly.
"The 25th, which is tomorrow," Xia Pingzhou replied. "I'll have Hacker arrange a flight for us. Tonight, I'll first ask Jack the Ripper if she wants to join us. Otherwise, it will just be the two of us going."
Just as he finished speaking, his Mobile Phone suddenly let out a chime. He took a bite of his apple and looked at the message that had just come in.
[Hacker: It will cost money.]
[Xia Pingzhou: From the Auction remuneration, isn't there a sum you haven't given me yet? Just deduct it from there.]
[Hacker: Good point.]
"I want to change clothes," Ayase Origami said suddenly.
"Go ahead." Xia Pingzhou continued eating his apple while playing Snake on his Mobile Phone. Right then, a flurry of paper formed a curtain that flew over and covered his face, blocking his eyes.
He sighed, grumbling internally, 'I'm a Darkened Elementary Student, not a perverted elementary student.' He turned his head to face the wall, and a moment later, the curtain of paper draped behind him disappeared.
Turning back, he saw that Ayase Origami had already changed into an ochre-red Kimono. The simple Dress she wore moments ago was resting on the floor, before being carried by fluttering pages toward the room's coat rack and hung up.
Truthfully, Xia Pingzhou did not completely understand the Young Mistress's thought process.
Ayase Origami had clearly bought so many clothes with him at the clothing store a few days ago, yet she was only willing to wear them inside the hotel room. The moment it was time to go out, she always wore that eternally unchanging ochre-red Kimono.
He only knew that back when he was at the Orphanage, those girls would be incredibly happy just to own one or two little skirts of their own. Especially Kong Youling; she had worn that white Dress for a very long time, patching and mending it over and over.
Xia Pingzhou tossed his apple core into the trash can. Lowering his eyes to glance at the outfits on the rack, he asked curiously, "You bought so many clothes. Why do you only try them on inside the hotel? Won't you try wearing them out just once?"
Ayase Origami did not answer.
A moment later, she brushed past him and whispered, "There is no meaning in wearing them outside."
Ayase Origami was simply that kind of elusive, unpredictable person.
Xia Pingzhou indifferently lowered his head, continued typing on his Mobile Phone, and hit send.
[Xia Pingzhou: Speaking of which, what is the Newcomer's name?]
[Hacker: Oh, speaking of that, I just found out. Su Ying is a Pseudonym. Her True Name is actually Tong Zizhu.]
[Xia Pingzhou: Tong Zizhu, huh?]
[Hacker: Let me tell you, I also saw a really bizarre scene. Yesterday at the bank, Black Cocoon called her "Mom".]
[Xia Pingzhou: That bizarre? Later, I'll go probe and see what her relationship with Black Cocoon is.]
After Xia Pingzhou sent this message, he left the hotel together with Ayase Origami. Walking for a short time, the two arrived at a nearby bar and headed straight for the corresponding Private Room. Pushing open the Private Room door, aside from White Wolf and Bernardo who were absent, the room was occupied by the usual few people. However, Xia Pingzhou did not see any sign of the Newcomer. He guessed she had just gotten off the plane and had not arrived yet.
"I have breaking news," Blood Progenitor said mysteriously, taking a sip of her Alcohol. "A certain Exorcist among us advanced to Tier 3 last night. Guess who it is?"
"Jack the Ripper?" Xia Pingzhou asked.
"Who else could it be?" Jack the Ripper said as she pushed open the door and walked in. She was still wearing a black-and-white School Uniform today, the collar sitting askew, with her long, straight black hair draped behind her head.
Closing the door behind her, she summoned her Celestial Drive. The dark red Short Blade abruptly transformed into a Great Scythe.
"Want to test it out with me?" she said, raising her head to glance at Xia Pingzhou.
"I'll pass for now, there will be opportunities later." Xia Pingzhou looked at the scythe.
"Oh."
Jack the Ripper retracted the scythe.
'Her Celestial Drive had previously turned into a Katana when she was severely injured. Now that she's advanced, it has become a scythe?' Xia Pingzhou thought.
"What is your power level now?" Xia Pingzhou asked.
"Actually, I'm quite curious myself about what my current level is..." Jack the Ripper said absentmindedly.
"What level do you feel you are at?" Blood Progenitor cupped her cheeks in her hands, looking at him with a smile.
"If I encounter that Ghost Bell again, I should be able to chop him in half," Jack the Ripper said after some thought.
Blood Progenitor said, "Hard to say... He is a noble Time-Element Ability User, after all. Even if he fought above his level and killed a Calamity-Tier Ability User, I wouldn't be surprised." She paused. "Though our little sister Jack the Ripper isn't weak, either."
Everyone sitting here knew full well that if the Leader hadn't had Oda Takikage set up an ambush in advance that day, taking Blue Arc hostage to threaten Ghost Bell, the outcome of the battle in the Auction House would have been hard to say.
Of course, they would definitely have won in the end, but walking away entirely unscathed would have been impossible.
Jack the Ripper was disapproving. "Didn't the Leader say so? Ghost Bell can only use his Time Pause ability when the hands of his Bell Tower point exactly to 12 o'clock, and the probability of that is merely one in twelve."
She paused. "In other words, I have an eleven-in-twelve chance of beating him."
"But others improve as well," Xia Pingzhou said. "Maybe Ghost Bell has also advanced to the Calamity-Tier by now. If you go looking for him, you might just get brutally beaten again."
"Then when is our Kitten going to improve a little?" Jack the Ripper fell silent for a moment before asking coldly, a pair of eyes as pitch-black as the polar night turning to look at Xia Pingzhou.
"Soon. In a month, I'll come find you for a one-on-one duel," Xia Pingzhou said calmly.
"Since you dare to provoke me, you'd better not run away when the time comes," Jack the Ripper said.
Andrew heartily downed a large bottle of Alcohol to his heart's content, then set down his Wine Glass with an exhaled gasp. He wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and teased unhurriedly:
"Yoshi! I recommend recording a video when that happens and uploading it to the Cat Abuse Zone, so all the new Members who join later can enjoy it!"
"Supported." Blood Progenitor raised a hand in agreement while drinking.
Suddenly, pages of paper inside the Private Room floated up into the air, and the atmosphere instantly grew cold.
"I forgot, before you hit a cat, you must consider its owner." Blood Progenitor turned her head, smiling radiantly at the expressionless Ayase Origami.
As the group was chatting, someone suddenly knocked on the Private Room door.
Jack the Ripper stood up, walked over, and opened the door. What met their eyes was a young woman with a ponytail, wearing a Baseball Cap. She wore a casual white jacket on top, paired with Jeans on the bottom.
The Private Room was shrouded in silence as everyone curiously sized up this Newcomer.
Looking at this girl in the Baseball Cap, one person in the Private Room was the first to speak, breaking the silence.
"Mom," Xia Pingzhou suddenly said.
The entire room fell deadly silent for a second. Immediately after, they cast their gazes toward Xia Pingzhou, feeling horrified and involuntarily gasping in chilled air.
After a pause, Xia Pingzhou added expressionlessly, "I heard from Hacker that Black Cocoon calls you 'Mom'."
Hearing this, the astonished expressions on their faces slowly receded, but a hint of disbelief remained in their eyes.
"Ahaha, our little brother Xia's performance is as stable as ever!" Andrew slapped the table, laughing out loud.
"The Kitten is hissing," Ayase Origami said.
"I'm warning you, speaking in half-sentences will get you killed," Jack the Ripper said.
"I thought that on top of acknowledging owners, you had developed a new fetish for acknowledging mothers..."
Blood Progenitor laughed so hard she rocked back and forth, shaking with laughter like a trembling branch.
Obviously, the one who suffered the greatest shock was Tong Zizhu. This was just like getting a new job, walking into the company for the first time, and a colleague walking right up and calling her "Mom." Who could handle that?
She stood blankly at the doorway for quite a while, utterly terrified to step inside. It was only after a moment that she managed to recover her wits.
"Please... You're the second person to just walk up and call me Mom, you startled me," Tong Zizhu said as she rubbed her chest, slowly walking into the room.
"I speak a bit slowly. Apologies," Xia Pingzhou nodded in apology.
Tong Zizhu crossed her arms in exasperation. "Let me introduce myself. I am the new Number Four. My name is 'Su Ying'. An Exorcist, currently at Tier 2. I'm quite skilled at Infiltration Work."
Xia Pingzhou said, "I heard from Hacker that your True Name is 'Tong Zizhu'."
Tong Zizhu's eye twitched slightly. She tilted her head and sighed, "That kid really stripped me bare, didn't he? Are all the people in your brigade this perverted?"
"You seem to be on pretty good terms with Hacker lately?" Blood Progenitor curled her lips into a smile, asking Xia Pingzhou.
"Cats like children," Ayase Origami leafed through her Haiku Collection. "It's very normal."
"So... what is your relationship with Black Cocoon?" Xia Pingzhou raised his eyes and looked at Tong Zizhu.
"I'm not sure of his identity for now, but his mother might be my Adoptive Mother. To be precise, my Savior," Tong Zizhu said. "That Savior is named 'Su Ying'. I am currently looking for her, which is why I used this name to join the brigade."
"It seems our 'searching for someone' faction has gained another member." Blood Progenitor cupped her cheeks in her hands and smiled radiantly. "If White Wolf were here too, our group would be complete."
Xia Pingzhou thought inwardly: 'Could I point out that the people you three are searching for are all related to me?'