“You brat, is this somewhere you should be?”
Qin You Wei froze where he stood, staring at the son who had somehow appeared out of the smoke. For a moment, he could hardly believe his eyes.
But the shock lasted only an instant. He immediately grabbed Qin Shu by the collar and tried to shove him toward the exit, straining as he spoke. “Out, out! Give me the gun!”
He pushed for ages and failed to move him. Qin Shu remained planted exactly where he was, face dark as he crushed the crude hunting shotgun in one hand, stripped out the gunpowder, and tossed it all out the window.
He had crushed an iron gun barrel with one hand.
That completely unreasonable sight replayed again and again inside Qin You Wei’s head, yet no matter how he tried, he could not come up with a rational explanation for it.
“You know Pei Zhao, right? He’s outside. Go find him now. He definitely knows you’re my dad.” Qin Shu discarded the ruined gun, turned, and pushed Qin You Wei back out through the narrow staff passage. The force was neither heavy nor light, yet impossible to evade. “Don’t run around. I’ll be right back.”
“No, Qin Shu, you…”
Before he could finish, an invisible chill suddenly came from behind Qin You Wei, his instincts screaming that something was extremely dangerous.
He immediately shut his mouth and stopped trying to look for Qin Shu’s vanished figure. His body tensed on instinct, one hand quietly settling near his waist as he slowly turned around…
And saw a beautiful, pale face.
The boy looked seventeen or eighteen, wrapped in a soft, fluffy khaki scarf and wearing light winter clothes. His eyes were a pool of golden amber impossible to forget once seen. He looked almost like someone who had walked straight out of a painting.
Of course Qin You Wei knew Pei Zhao. He did not even need to keep a close watch on Qin Shu’s life. Whenever he had a spare moment and secretly checked on his son, he invariably saw this beautiful classmate who did not quite look real.
Compared with the last time he had secretly looked in, Qin Shu seemed to have changed considerably. He had grown up a little, grown taller, and there was something new in his brows and eyes that Qin You Wei no longer found completely familiar… But Pei Zhao had not changed at all.
For some reason, that actually relaxed Qin You Wei a little. This strange classmate probably was not some dangerous criminal.
“Hello, Uncle,” Pei Zhao said softly. “There’s no need to worry about Qin Shu. Come with me.”
He turned and walked toward the residential compound belonging to the television station. That was the safe zone. Police were guarding the outside of the compound in case members of the criminal gang fled into civilian homes.
Although Qin You Wei was technically a member of that criminal gang himself right now… After a brief hesitation, he silently followed Pei Zhao, keeping his peripheral vision alert to the surrounding movement while fixing his gaze on Pei Zhao’s back and rapidly analyzing him.
No weapons. No traces of specialized training. Nothing abnormal. That was how it should have been.
But the very abnormality he was guarding against appeared almost immediately. A squad of reinforcements hurried past the two of them, pagers sounding continuously while commanders urged them onward.
Pei Zhao calmly walked right past them, yet these people, the most highly trained and vigilant reinforcements on the scene, seemed not to see either him or Qin You Wei at all. They completely ignored the pair and continued straight through the residential compound toward the temporary command post outside the abandoned auditorium.
Qin You Wei had heard certain stories before. Street rumors. Casual gossip from inside the police force. Stories about ghosts and gods. It was not only the ordinary residents of Anping Town. Even the criminal organization he had infiltrated held elaborate, solemn ceremonies to worship the Dragon King during festivals. Hardened men who normally lived with blades at their throats were all terrified of violating some taboo.
Qin You Wei had always been the one least afraid of taboos. Only now did he suddenly realize that when his superior had told him to worship the Dragon King before dangerous operations several years ago, perhaps it had not been simple superstition after all.
Every muscle in his body remained tense as he followed Pei Zhao onward until they reached the quiet old banyan tree.
A white dragon poked its enormous head out from the branches. Sitting among the leaves was also a striking middle-aged woman. The deep, shadowed light in her eyes did not match her apparent age at all, while faint worry and a younger-looking trace of curiosity rested on her face.
Qin You Wei’s entire worldview collapsed on the spot. Damn it, he had seen a dragon!
＊
Meanwhile, Qin Shu was proving extremely efficient at clearing people out.
His method for driving the two battling groups from the auditorium was remarkably simple. He ignored the bullets, tear gas, and smoke bombs, knocked unconscious everyone he encountered, stacked them neatly in groups of five, then carried the piles over and threw them out the windows directly in front of the police command post. The officers there stared dumbfounded and did not dare act rashly.
Once Qin Shu spread out his divine sense, the three-story auditorium became as clear to him as a transparent 3D model. Nobody could hide from his sight.
But there was a problem. Nearly everyone inside had already been thrown out, yet he still could not find anything resembling the world fracture.
“Senior Yuxu, could you come in and take a look yourself?” Qin Shu touched the wooden bead around his wrist. “There’s nothing wrong with any of the three floors. The fracture must be inside a hidden basement. I’m near the entrance… There’s a concealed door in the northeast corner. Looks like stairs lead down.”
He had barely finished speaking when his father’s voice unexpectedly came through the wooden bead, sounding rather fierce. “Qin Shu, don’t run around! Stand still! The basement is where they manufacture drugs. It’s full of flammable and explosive chemicals. One spark down there and the whole place could go up! Let the police go in first and collect evidence!”
“All right, all right, I won’t go in. But we have safety concerns on our side too. Senior Yuxu needs to go with them so none of your colleagues accidentally touch something they shouldn’t. That would be the real disaster.”
Yuxu’s voice followed. “I’ll come now. Fellow Daoist Qin, thank you for your work.”
The next instant, Yuxu appeared beside Qin Shu. Her divine sense rapidly filled the space beneath the concealed door as she began a careful preliminary inspection.
She looked thoughtful. “Your father is right. There are large quantities of dangerous materials in the basement. It isn’t suitable for people to enter carelessly. If an explosion occurs, the fracture will become unstable and even more dangerous. Before the bomb squad enters, I can quickly set up some reinforcing formations. They won’t damage the criminal evidence.”
“All right, Senior. Do whatever you need. If there’s anything I can provide, just say so.” Qin Shu stepped back several paces to give her room. “So the fracture really is in the basement. Why can’t I see it…?”
“I can’t see it either. If fractures were so easy for us to detect, they wouldn’t qualify as one of the greatest secrets in this world.” Yuxu smiled faintly, her gaze dimming. “But I can sense Ao Run’s aura. Clear. Fresh.”
“…I see.”
Qin Shu did not waste any more words. After confirming Yuxu did not need additional artifacts or spirit stones, he personally contacted the stunned tactical police surrounding the auditorium and gave them a simple explanation.
Proving his identity was easy. Qin Shu only had to video-call Captain Wu and let the two commanders speak directly. Neither person in charge was stupid. Both had already heard enough about ghosts, gods, and cultivators to know there was a separate set of special procedures that could be activated whenever the right signal came through.
The funny part was that Qin Shu had long grown used to walking freely among police officers. His father, on the other hand, absolutely could not show himself. Not even his face.
Old Qin was, after all, publicly a criminal right now. His carefully constructed identity could not be exposed yet. Even revealing himself to fellow officers carried the risk of a leak.
So Qin You Wei could only obediently climb the old banyan tree and sit on one of its thick branches, craning his neck in an attempt to overhear what Qin Shu was saying or awkwardly exchanging irritated stares with the white dragon beside him.
The white dragon’s patience was far worse than Qin You Wei’s. Qin Shu had barely exchanged a few sentences with the officers before the dragon started complaining. “Pei Zhao, how long are those people going to mess around in the basement? When can I go in and look?”
“Yuxu is already building the formation. We need to stabilize the underground space first before we can enter,” Pei Zhao explained unhurriedly. “Even without the gunfight or the police, the procedure would be the same. Finishing everything overnight will already be fast enough.”
“So all we can do right now is sit here and stare?” The white dragon snorted out a cloud of mist. “No. I can’t sit still. I’m going to fly around for a while.”
His words had hardly faded before the snow-white dragon shot straight into the sky and merged with the heavy clouds overhead.
Pei Zhao could not be bothered with him. He tilted his head toward Qin You Wei. “Uncle, are there any good local dishes you recommend? Qin Shu should be hungry already. In a while, let’s go eat together first.”
Qin You Wei fell silent for a moment, completely caught off guard by such an ordinary question.
He had rehearsed countless possible conversations in his head. Questions about supernatural secrets, doubts about his hidden identity, the homemade hunting shotgun he had been carrying earlier, the gunfight inside the auditorium…
He had never imagined that Pei Zhao would be more concerned about Qin Shu getting hungry.
“…If you don’t have any dietary restrictions, I’ll take you to the little stir-fry place I eat at regularly.” Qin You Wei thought for a moment and forced himself to speak naturally. “The owner’s local and knows how to keep his mouth shut. The freshly cooked home-style food is all Anping-style too. It’s pretty good.”
“All right.”
After that, Pei Zhao stopped talking. He leaned against the banyan tree, took out an ancient-looking bamboo manuscript, and quietly lowered his head to read. He should have been an extremely conspicuous presence, yet the scattered police officers hurrying back and forth completely ignored him.
Qin You Wei benefited from that strange effect of being completely overlooked as well. Finally able to relax a little, he jumped down from the branches, stretched his limbs, and quickly treated the minor injuries on his body.
He watched Qin Shu’s figure appear again, walking ahead of a fully armed bomb-disposal squad without the slightest tension. Qin Shu was even smiling as he chatted with the captain, and after only a few words they exchanged WeChat contacts.
Not just one person. The entire squad added Qin Shu.
“That brat. Same damn habit…”
Qin You Wei took a deep breath, then abruptly noticed Pei Zhao looking quietly in his direction. For some inexplicable reason, the back of his neck turned cold.
After a brief hesitation, he sat down against the thick banyan trunk too, carefully maintaining a safe distance from Pei Zhao.
Perhaps instinctively trying to explain his reaction, he chose a safer topic. “When Qin Shu was little, on his first day of kindergarten, he invited his entire class… and all their mothers… to our house. Every single one of them came.”
Pei Zhao froze. “Every single one?”
“A massive army. I set up two barbecue grills in the yard and worked from three in the afternoon until dark. Even special training never exhausted me that badly. I’ll never forget that terrifying scene in my life… chattering everywhere, the whole house packed with little brats about his size, like a field of stinky radishes.” Qin You Wei closed his eyes in pain. “And their mothers.”
The corners of Pei Zhao’s lips curved slightly, thoughtful. “I see. Then your career planning was very wise, because I live at Qin Shu’s house now too.”
“…What?!”
“We’re dating. Auntie already knows.” Pei Zhao looked at him, his tone light and calm.
“Oh, you scared me.” Qin You Wei exhaled heavily. “So you’re just dating. I thought something else had happened. Good. I haven’t been around him for so many years anyway. Honestly, I don’t have much right to interfere in his life. Xiao Pei, thank you for not minding that our family is… how should I put it… unusually lacking in parental company.”
Pei Zhao blinked, slightly startled. Somehow, Qin You Wei’s personality felt a little like Qin Shu’s. They were not biologically related, yet there was still a faint similarity in the way they moved and carried themselves.
One glance was enough to tell they were father and son.
Pei Zhao put down the bamboo manuscript. “Uncle, I’d like to hear more stories about Qin Shu when he was little.”
“That’s easy. That brat has enough stories to fill a book. There wasn’t a single day he let anyone relax. Shame I can’t keep photos of him and his mother on my phone. Let me think…”
…
Half an hour later, Qin Shu left the abandoned auditorium feeling slightly worried about how Pei Zhao and his father were getting along. Instead, he found the two of them sitting beneath the banyan tree, somehow chatting happily.
Of course, his father did most of the talking, but Pei Zhao was extraordinarily attentive and occasionally asked a question, triggering Qin You Wei’s talkative genes all over again.
Qin Shu raised an eyebrow and silently moved closer. Then he heard Pei Zhao asking, “How many people gave him chocolate in elementary school?”
Danger. Extremely dangerous topic!
“Cough, cough!” Qin Shu immediately made a huge amount of noise and did not dare keep eavesdropping, lest Old Qin say something that should never be said.
Qin You Wei stopped mid-sentence. Watching Qin Shu approach, he abruptly fell silent.
When they had collided in the dim, smoke-filled passage earlier, and when Qin You Wei had watched his son from a distance afterward, it had honestly felt fine. There had been a faint unfamiliarity, but Qin Shu was still extremely familiar. One glance and he knew that was his son.
But now, under the evening sunlight, Qin Shu appeared clearly before him for the first time, and Qin You Wei suddenly felt as though he barely recognized him.
“You’ve grown up.”
After a long silence, that was the only answer he could give.
His words had suddenly become clumsy, but fortunately his movements did not hesitate. He slapped Qin Shu hard on the shoulder. Qin Shu stood steady. So Qin You Wei squeezed his son’s arm to check the muscle, then repeatedly compared their heights, growing more satisfied the more he inspected him.
Qin Shu was extremely used to this soldier-inspection style of greeting. He obediently let his father turn him back and forth by the shoulders and took the chance to tilt his head and change the subject.
“I’m starving. Senior Yuxu said they’ll need to prepare until midnight before they can start. The cave dwelling Ao Run opened before has completely collapsed, so they have to rebuild the safe zone… How about we find somewhere to eat first? We can pack something good for her too.”
Pei Zhao gave Qin Shu a meaningful look. He knew perfectly well Qin Shu was deliberately changing the subject, but did not expose him. “Uncle said he’d take us for stir-fry.”
After all, it was only the elementary-school chocolate incident. There was no need to dig it back up deliberately. Qin Shu back then had not possessed the mental circuitry required to recognize “romantic interest” in the first place.
“Perfect, perfect. Let’s go. What’s the restaurant called? I’ll book a ride.” Qin Shu secretly relaxed and immediately pulled out his phone.
“Where are you going to find a ride-hailing car in a little town like this? Qin Shu, you’ve spent too long in the city.” Qin You Wei laughed, gradually recovering from that sense of distance. “We’ll go out to the road and find a vehicle. A motorized tricycle is easiest.”
“A tricycle? The kind people drive like they have a death wish?” Qin Shu raised an eyebrow. “Interesting.”
Ever since he grew used to using the white dragon as transportation, Qin Shu had not voluntarily taken another vehicle in quite a while. Somehow, he even found himself missing the sensation of getting carsick.
They followed behind Qin You Wei and watched the tall man, instantly radiating the aura of a hardened outlaw, plant himself at the roadside and expertly wave down a passenger tricycle. Qin You Wei hooked an arm around the skinny driver’s shoulders and started bargaining hard, even his voice changing into something rough and fierce… It was a remarkable sight.
It was genuinely astonishing how completely Qin You Wei’s entire bearing changed. He no longer looked remotely respectable, more like someone who might pull a knife from his pocket and rob you at any moment. By sheer force of presence, he made the driver give him a twenty-percent discount. Brutally simple and effective.
Of course, the skinny driver did not look particularly respectable either. He had opened with a price close to highway robbery specifically so Qin You Wei could haggle with him, and the shifty little performance, including the supposed fear, was obviously fake.
The local customs of Anping Town were apparently rather different from what Qin Shu had imagined. Mm. Pretty fierce.
The three squeezed into the drafty little tricycle. Before they had even found stable seats, the illegally modified engine roared and the vehicle shot straight into traffic, completely ignoring the conspicuous red light.
The little tricycle merged into the sea of vehicles without slowing, smoothly and expertly weaving left and right while horns blared everywhere. Some came from other drivers. Even more came from their own driver, who was honking with complete self-righteousness.
Qin Shu silently took Pei Zhao’s hand and shifted sideways to shield him, lest one sudden brake throw him straight out the window. His uncertain gaze drifted toward Qin You Wei, who sat steady as a rock.
Qin You Wei sat at the very front enjoying the cold wind, half his body leaning outside in blatant violation of traffic-safety principles, head tilted as he chatted enthusiastically with the driver.
A moment ago he had nearly threatened the man while wrapping an arm around his neck to haggle. Now the two were having a wonderful conversation, effortlessly trading stories. Eventually the driver dug into his pocket and even offered him a cigarette, a fifty-yuan pack of Zhenlong.
Qin You Wei accepted it and tucked it behind his ear with a grin. “Got kids with me. I’ll smoke later.”
Meanwhile, Pei Zhao looked thoughtfully at him, then at Qin Shu, and sighed again. “You really are a lot like your father. The more I look, the more alike you seem.”
Qin Shu froze and lowered his voice. “How are we alike?! I don’t look that much like some unemployed street thug, do I? Right now he looks like a delinquent who simply grew older…”
Pei Zhao laughed. “No. But you’re still very alike.”
Before Qin Shu could argue further, the wildly speeding tricycle had already reached an old residential neighborhood. There was no gated community and no property management, only uneven self-built houses of every style, forming the only rises and dips across this flat little town. A few free-range chickens even wandered leisurely between the buildings.
Qin You Wei led them into an alley, the narrow passage filled with the fragrance of food.
Besides the little stir-fry restaurant whose signboard had lost half its characters, there was a breakfast shop and a tofu shop, all run by residents who lived directly behind their storefronts.
“Old Liu! Stir-fried lamb, and kill a chicken too. Pick a tender one. Mm… what fish did you get today? Give me one without too many bones. The kids are eating. Right, my son. Handsome, isn’t he?”
Qin You Wei ordered with easy familiarity while tossing the cigarette from behind his ear to the owner, Old Liu. Then he went straight to the refrigerator and took two bottles of beer. Not for Qin Shu. He wanted them himself.
That slightly unreliable, rich-playboy act lasted a long while. Only when the owner disappeared into the kitchen and the noises of oil hitting the wok and knives chopping vegetables began did it vanish completely.
Qin You Wei sat perfectly upright, his gaze settling on Qin Shu as his voice dropped. “I won’t ask about anything I’m not supposed to ask. But Qin Shu, tell me this. What exactly are you doing in Anping Town? Is it dangerous? Can I help?”
“We came to rescue the Dragon King of the West Sea.” Qin Shu was silent for a moment. “I strongly suggest you stay far away. If everything goes smoothly, Anping Town won’t have nearly as much danger afterward.”
“…”
This time Qin You Wei was the one who fell silent. He stared fixedly at the son who had become unfamiliar to him, trying to find even a trace of joking on Qin Shu’s face, yet there was nothing false there at all.
We came to rescue the Dragon King of the West Sea. Was that something a mentally normal human being said? Qin You Wei listened to his suddenly racing heartbeat. He did not want to believe such an absurd fantasy, yet he could no longer dismiss it as a joke.
Because he had already seen a dragon. A white dragon that could speak, and had simply up and flown away halfway through!
“…Does your mother know? About all these things you’re doing?” He closed his eyes.
Qin Shu coughed. “Not… not really brave enough to tell her.”
“Good. Don’t say a single word until this is over… or she’ll mince both of us into meat stuffing.”