Chapter 9: Are You Free Tonight?
“Huh?”
Yellow Hair looked completely dumbfounded.
Qi En quietly peeked up, only to realize that what Yellow Hair was cradling in his arms was actually a gun.
At this moment, the pitch-black muzzle was pointed right at Qi En’s head.
Terrified that it might go off accidentally, Qi En scooted to the side before speaking again.
“…Do you have time tonight?”
Kai Xingwen turned his entire body to follow Qi En’s movement, and the muzzle followed right along with him.
Qi En had no choice but to crouch down, using the desk as a shield.
It was then that Kai Xingwen noticed the extra milk tea bag sitting on the desk.
He felt even more baffled.
What the hell? I didn’t order milk tea.
Kai Xingwen sized up the little dummy who had accidentally wandered into B3. “You delivered to the wrong place. I didn’t order this.”
The little dummy didn’t answer.
Those sparkling eyes looked out through his messy hair, filled with anticipation.
Such beautiful eyes… why cover them up?
The little dummy remained silent, simply furrowing his brows.
He looked like he couldn’t figure something out.
Kai Xingwen couldn’t figure it out either—how did this little dummy manage to deliver takeout all the way down here?
The little dummy pressed his nose against the edge of the desk. As he opened his mouth to speak, his nose wrinkled briefly. “Are you free tonight?”
His voice was soft and sticky, like glutinous rice.
Kai Xingwen finally heard him clearly.
“What does me having time tonight have to do with you?”
He swore he wasn’t being fierce; it was just his normal speaking tone.
But the little dummy just froze for a moment, maintaining his expression from the previous second, only looking even dumber because he was spaced out.
He had turned into a big dummy.
Realizing he had just had such a mushy thought, Kai Xingwen was shocked.
He barely recognized himself anymore.
So gross.
Watching Kai Xingwen’s expression change rapidly, Qi En began to doubt himself.
Did I recognize the wrong person? Is this Yellow Hair not the person in charge?
It makes sense. LMA is such a powerful hitman organization; how could the station manager be such a slacker?
Qi En grabbed the bag from the desk. “Never mind, I got the wrong person.”
He planned to leave and go back to the elevator to see if he had pressed the wrong floor.
“Wait.”
Kai Xingwen stopped looking at his phone and called out to Qi En.
Qi En looked back instinctively. Realizing he had almost exposed his face, he hurriedly lowered his head and shook his hair forward to cover it.
“What’s wrong?” Qi En asked.
“Isn’t the milk tea for me?”
“?”
“Didn’t someone send you here to give me something?”
“?”
“That thing right there. The milk tea. Isn’t it mine?”
“?”
Kai Xingwen suddenly reached out.
Qi En reacted quickly, hugging the bag deathly tight and turning his body sideways, attempting to block the yellow-haired kid.
How can there be people like this?
This Yellow Hair kid ignored me at first, and now he’s eyeing the money in my bag.
“No. This isn’t milk tea, and it’s not for you.”
Before he even finished speaking, Qi En was desperate to leave.
But the yellow-haired kid wasn’t letting him go that easily. “Wait, let me look at you—”
Qi En felt this person didn’t seem like a good guy.
The code word didn’t match either.
He had to run.
Qi En didn’t stop. Hearing the harsh sound of the sofa chair scraping against the floor behind him, he ran even faster.
Kai Xingwen stood frozen in place, watching the fleeing figure. His mind was filled with the glimpse of the little dummy’s face from just a moment ago.
He really looks like him…
But how could that little dummy be En-En-chan?
I must be working too hard lately. Watching recordings during the day and livestreams at night… I’m seeing hallucinations.
Kai Xingwen rubbed his eyes and collapsed back onto the sofa.
Only then did he pick up the other phone stored in the drawer.
The screen displayed several unread messages, and all the app icons were a uniform, solid black.
Qi En made it into the elevator smoothly.
Fortunately, the yellow-haired kid didn’t chase after him.
It proved that although the kid was crazy for milk tea, he still had some reason left.
Qi En looked at the current floor indicator and paused.
Is this really B3?
Suddenly, a hand shot in, grabbing the elevator doors just as they were about to close.
The elevator doors jammed, emitting a malfunctioning sound as they tried to close but failed.
It was an excessively thin hand, the skin on the knuckles scraped off, smearing blood on the door.
Qi En’s eyes went wide, and he didn’t dare blink.
He couldn’t get out. He could only watch helplessly as another hand squeezed into the crack.
The arm muscles were taut, bulging like iron.
Pressing against both sides, the hands forced the doors open.
The door shaft let out an overwhelmed clack, and the smell of rust and engine oil poured in from the depths of the shaft.
The elevator shook violently, and a bone-chilling creak echoed from somewhere.
The elevator broke down completely. The doors stopped moving, frozen at the width they had been forced open to.
Kai Xingwen was panting heavily, his breathing filling the entire elevator car. “I, I…!”
A bead of sweat rolled down his temple and crashed to the floor.
“Fuck! Goddammit!”
Kai Xingwen’s voice exploded inside the elevator.
Qi En trembled.
“Hahahaha! En-En-chan, it really is you! I’m your fan!”
“Oh my god, hahahahaha! Fuck!!!!!!”
“En-En-chan!!!!!”
After tilting his head back and roaring, Kai Xingwen looked forward with anticipation, only to find Qi En gone from his line of sight.
His expression froze. “Hmm? Where’s En-En-chan…?”
It wasn’t until he heard a tiny whimper that he stiffly looked down.
Qi En had gone limp, slumped in the corner of the elevator.
His body was so soft he looked like he had melted into the corner.
The milk tea bag had fallen by his leg.
He was covering his mouth with both hands, his face bloodless and pale as paper.
His eyes were wide and round, and his eyelashes had even forgotten to tremble.
“Eh…”
“Baobao…?”
Qi En held a thermos the size of a cannon, taking small sips.
It was ice cola.
Kai Xingwen was rambling on, dancing with joy as he spoke:
“I started watching you ages ago, back before you were popular. You only had about twenty thousand fans then, and there were only like twenty people in your livestream every night.”
“My old account had a Level 20 fan badge. But that was my work account, so I couldn’t spend money. That Level 20 was purely from watching streams and tapping likes.”
“That old account joined your earliest fan group. I’m still in it now.”
“I switched to a new account later, but my damn wages are too low. You got popular, and I couldn’t outspend those badass big brothers. Especially your Rank 1 and Rank 2 donors—one is a perennial Mystery Man, and the other is D, who never posts any content. I don’t know why they have so much money.”
“Ah! I’m so jealous!!! En-En-chan, you definitely don’t know me, right! I’m your Rank 99!”
“I accompanied you for so long back in the day! Why don’t you know me now? I’m jealous! I’m envious! I hate it!”
Qi En took an uneasy step back.
What a strange person.
How can someone go crazy like this?
“By the way, my name is Kai Xingwen!”
Under Kai Xingwen’s expectant gaze, Qi En finally spoke.
“…Hello.”
“Yes!”
Qi En: “?”
What was that?
“I know your name is Qi En. Why aren’t you a streamer anymore? Why did you come here to be a hitman?”
“Um…” Qi En lowered his eyes, not knowing how to answer.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, you don’t have to say. The organization has rules against asking this anyway. Just pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“Okay.”
Just one sentence, one word from Qi En could make Kai Xingwen happy for a long time.
Qi En looked at the giggling Kai Xingwen, hesitated for a moment, and said, “I’m still a streamer.”
He told Kai Xingwen, “I’m not doing it full-time anymore, but I’ll continue streaming part-time. I want to be a serious hitman.”
He didn’t say the second half of that sentence: I want to work hard to get that one billion.
Kai Xingwen advised him, “Then Baob—En-En, you have to be careful. I’ve seen a lot of hitmen. I know basically all the hitmen who come to this district for missions.”
“Based on my experience dealing with them, if you want it easy, choose ‘clients’ with weak backing forces; if you want quick money, choose targets who are weak themselves; if you want to reduce follow-up trouble and be safer, choose targets with poor interpersonal relationships.”
“You know the Bounty Ranking List, right? Just avoid anyone on that list. Especially Number One!”
“But Number One has already been taken. I don’t know which guy, ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, chose that thing. But that hitman might actually have some skill. If he succeeds, that one billion goes entirely into his pocket. Tsk tsk tsk.”
Qi En: “…Um, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course, of course! Ask away! Ask me lots of questions, I know everything.”
“Do you know who the person that chose Number One is? Do you know him?” Qi En asked curiously.
Kai Xingwen froze.
The slap to the face came real quick.
“Originally, I could have looked it up, but for some reason, I can’t find a single trace of the hitman who took the bounty. Someone higher up must have encrypted it.”
“I don’t dare investigate further. But, En-En, why do you ask?”
“Because that’s one billion. The hitman who took Number One must be very amazing.”
“True. Otherwise, their handler would have definitely persuaded them out of it.”
Feeling like Kai Xingwen had forgotten why he was there, Qi En reminded him:
“I’m here to pick up my stuff.”
“Oh, right, I know. My phone volume was too loud earlier, so I didn’t hear you.”
As Kai Xingwen turned around, Qi En noticed a door that blended almost perfectly with the wall behind him.
“Where are you going?” Qi En called out to Kai Xingwen. “Don’t we need the code word?”
“No need… Wait, yes, we need it. We have to do it.”
Kai Xingwen grabbed his phone from the table, trotted back to Qi En’s side, and stood at attention.
Qi En looked at Kai Xingwen, then at the phone he was holding up. The camera screen reflected both of their faces.
Qi En whispered, “Start?”
Kai Xingwen: “Yes, yes!”
“Are you free tonight?”
“The moon has waited until it’s sleepy!”
Kai Xingwen was a little overexcited.
Qi En actually liked this code.
He didn’t know who came up with it.
He felt that both he and the person who created the code had great taste and aesthetics.
But Qi En didn’t quite understand why Kai Xingwen had to record it.
Maybe it was for a sense of ritual, or maybe the organization required him to take a video back to report his work.
Thinking of it that way, this job was quite tiring. After all, he had to record a video with every hitman—one recording for every visit.
Qi En accepted the heavy “Newbie Gift Pack.”
The credit cards, phone cards, and such were all packed inside.
It fit perfectly into his milk tea bag.
When Qi En opened the bag, he saw Kai Xingwen curiously craning his neck to peek inside. When Kai saw there was only a wallet inside, his expression was visibly disappointed.
Qi En felt relieved. It seemed Kai Xingwen didn’t want his money.
Unlike that bad scalper.
He still had a whole three hundred yuan. How should he spend it?
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