Chapter 2005 — Someone Came?

"Wei Zhao, thank you!" Xu Shilan looked at him and said, solemn and utterly sincere, "I don't know how to thank you. But all I can say—a thousand words, ten thousand—comes down to just these two: thank you!"

Every word came from the bottom of her heart. A moment ago, she had thought of Wei Zhao only as a rather good friend; but in this moment, he had become the kind of friend to whom one can open one's heart—even entrust one's life. The debt for saving a life can never be repaid.

Money, favors—none of it weighs as much as life itself. Xu Shilan believed that if Wei Zhao had asked her, at that very moment, to give herself to him, she would have agreed without the slightest hesitation. The tale of the hero saving the beauty was a little hackneyed, but since ancient times beauties have loved heroes; Xu Shilan could not say she had fallen in love with Wei Zhao in that instant, but deep in her heart a strong fondness for him had taken root.

So even if she were asked to give herself to him, she would not resist. Of course, that was only a joke she allowed herself in passing—Wei Zhao already had a girlfriend, and two of them at that. Even Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had something ambiguous going with him. One more, Xu Shilan, would hardly make a difference.

"You're welcome." Wei Zhao rose to his feet and said to Xu Shilan, light as could be.

"Uh…" Xu Shilan had not expected him to answer so casually, and was a little taken aback. "I don't know how to repay you, but whatever you say—from now on, I'll do it with all my strength, and never decline…"

Feng Sanhuang glanced at Xu Shilan, hesitated, but in the end said nothing more.

For a star like Xu Shilan to make such a promise—if Wei Zhao were a lecher, one could well imagine the request he might make. Feng Sanhuang wanted to remind her of this, yet felt it unnecessary; if Wei Zhao truly were that sort of man, then Feng Sanhuang had badly misjudged him.

"Ha, good, then. Yaoyao and Xiaoshu are both your fans—when they miss you, just come by anytime." Wei Zhao smiled faintly and spoke as though it hardly mattered, as if he had not taken Xu Shilan's promise seriously at all.

"Of course, no problem—that's nothing. We're good friends to begin with, aren't we? It doesn't count as a request at all." Naturally, Xu Shilan did not take that as the condition for repaying Wei Zhao.

"Right—shouldn't we hurry and see the masked man's face, find out who he is?" Wei Zhao suddenly remembered the masked man in black. Since he had covered his face, he must have feared being recognized—which made it all the more likely that Xu Shilan and Feng Sanhuang would know him.

"Right, that's the real business!" Feng Sanhuang nodded too, and hurried over to the man in black, meaning to tear off his mask. But his hand stopped halfway, and he said with some alarm, "Corpse-Dissolving Powder!"

"Corpse-Dissolving Powder?" Wei Zhao was briefly puzzled, not understanding what Feng Sanhuang meant, and walked over after him. But when he saw the state of the man's face, he knitted his brows. "So it is… Corpse-Dissolving Powder!"

Wei Zhao's former work had made him no stranger to Corpse-Dissolving Powder. It was a medicinal powder that rapidly rotted flesh and bone; sprinkled on a body, it would instantly corrode that spot away. Of course, this was not the most potent kind—the stronger sort needed only a tiny pinch to dissolve an entire corpse.

At this moment, that was exactly the state of the man's face: it had been completely corroded away, even the bone more than half eaten. Under the black mask, a viscous fluid oozed and gave off a putrid stench—thoroughly disgusting.

Xu Shilan and Cheng Yiyi had but one look before they were sick with nausea, nearly retching.

"What's going on here? While I was healing and breaking through, did someone come this way?" Wei Zhao frowned. But though he asked, in his heart he was almost certain that, apart from the four of them, no one else had come into this alley.

Otherwise, an unfamiliar presence would surely have registered on him—and it had not.

"There shouldn't have been anyone…" Feng Sanhuang frowned, then shook his head in denial. "While you were sitting cross-legged on the ground, it should have been just the four of us in the alley…"

"The four of us? Then no one should have been here to scatter Corpse-Dissolving Powder. Which means this Earth-Rank man in black must have bitten open a capsule in his mouth, or some mechanism on his mask, before he died…" Wei Zhao thought back to that vicious late-peak Profound-Rank expert on the airport expressway, who had blasted apart his own head. If a man could do that to himself, it was hardly surprising that this Earth-Rank man in black could destroy his own face.

"That must be it!" Feng Sanhuang nodded. Earlier, though Xu Shilan and Cheng Yiyi had been frantic, no one else should have entered the alley.

"Let's look at the other one!" Wei Zhao pointed at the other man in black not far off. But his eyes were sharp; one look and he shook his head in disappointment. "He's finished too—no need to look…"

Feng Sanhuang, unwilling to give up, went over and looked again, and indeed found that the other Profound-Rank man in black was also unrecognizable beyond all recognition.

"No good—these people are devilishly cunning!" Feng Sanhuang said bitterly. "We don't even know who they are now. How infuriating!"

"Never mind. I'll notify someone to deal with the bodies, then we'll go identify the earlier corpses." Wei Zhao said.

"Oh? You have connections?" Feng Sanhuang brightened at once at his words.

"Yang Huaijun at the police bureau is a good brother of mine." Wei Zhao said.

"But… as far as I know, those bodies have already been taken to the Mystery Investigation Bureau…" Feng Sanhuang said with a bitter smile. "We'll have to find someone at the Mystery Investigation Bureau…"

"Ha, my father-in-law is one of them…" Wei Zhao shrugged and laughed.

"Father-in-law?" Feng Sanhuang was stunned.

"Feng Xiaoxiao's father, Feng Tianlong." Xu Shilan knew, and explained to Feng Sanhuang.

"Feng Tianlong… hiss…" Feng Sanhuang was startled and drew a sharp breath.

"What is it?" Wei Zhao and Xu Shilan both found his expression strange.

"Nothing… I'm just surprised that Brother Lin's father-in-law turns out to be someone from the Mystery Investigation Bureau." Feng Sanhuang said with a bitter smile.

"Oh, I'll call him right now." With that, Wei Zhao phoned Feng Tianlong directly and told him what had happened here. Sure enough, the bodies had all been taken to the Mystery Investigation Bureau—only, to this moment, no faction had come forward to claim them or acknowledge any connection to these men.

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