Fate Trading System – Chapter 230

Plan A

Mist Map 3

Noodles

Nighttime.

The bar pulsed with clamorous sound, the vibrating music making eardrums ache. It felt like another world of revelry—alcohol, writhing crowds, abandon.

Here, one could forget many things: forget who they were, forget their job, forget the troubles and pressures brought by life. Here, all that mattered was cutting loose completely.

Zou Wanwan¹ liked to come to places like this on Saturday nights to relax, without bringing anyone she knew well, letting herself go completely², shedding the mask.

She wore a scorching hot³ short skirt and alluring black stockings⁴, wildly twisting her body on the dance floor.

The sky gradually darkened.

Zou Wanwan felt it was about time. She put on her jacket and walked out of the bar. She had drunk one glass of alcohol today, and her face was slightly flushed.

As the cool evening breeze of June blew past, Zou Wanwan clutched her jacket tighter, waiting for a taxi.

Zou Wanwan knew it was dangerous for a woman alone to take a taxi too late, so she had already slipped away from the bar at 10:30 PM [22:30]. Plus, she had some ability to protect herself. It had been like this every week in the past, and nothing had ever happened.

“Shifu⁵, Xinyuan⁶.”

Zou Wanwan waited until a taxi arrived, waved, and once it stopped, opened the back door and got in with her small crossbody bag.

The driver in the front nodded, and the taxi drove steadily towards the distance.

Zou Wanwan lowered her head to play on her phone for a few minutes, occasionally lifting her head to look at the scenery outside. Seeing it was a familiar road, she lowered her head again.

Ten or twenty minutes later, the car stopped.

“How much?”

Zou Wanwan put down her phone and prepared to find change in her bag, but she didn’t hear the driver’s voice. Puzzled, she looked forward, just as a mist-like substance sprayed towards her face.

In the instant before she collapsed, she saw the smile curling at the corner of the driver’s lips.

The weather tonight was very good; at least it wasn’t drizzling like the past few days.

A strange, sharp voice, impossible to tell if male or female, hummed an unknown, eerie tune.

“Maria’s not home today, playing with dolls by the bridge lake bay, dolly’s body soft and sway, arms and legs and head went away, hee hee hee hee hee hee hee…”

Zou Wanwan felt with horror that she was being tied up with ropes. Her eyes were blindfolded, and her mouth was gagged. Unable to see or speak, she could only listen to the sounds outside, feel the terror of her body being bound, hear that bizarre tune, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Her summer skirt offered hardly any cover. When a gust of wind blew, her legs felt chillingly cold, and the sensation of the ropes binding her became even clearer.

Zou Wanwan had a very bad feeling. She might meet her end here today. She wanted to struggle forcefully, but her whole body felt limp, completely devoid of strength.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

The voice sounded pinched, high-pitched and thin, making one very uncomfortable to hear.

Before Zou Wanwan even had time to think, she heard the voice speak again.

“You don’t need to recall what you did. Your life is about to end anyway. Go and atone in your next life.”

The severed head still held the terror from before death.

The sound of splashing water echoed in the silent night.

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Su Xin was looking at the unfamiliar woman at her doorstep. Beside the woman stood a not-quite-stranger, the captain of the criminal investigation team responsible for several cases related to her. They had spoken more than once before.

“Miss Bai, this is Liao Qingjie⁷. She will be responsible for protecting you for a period of time.”

“Police?”

“No, I’m considered non-staff personnel⁸, you could also say off-site support⁹. I’ll be providing close protection for Miss Bai’s safety in the coming period. I think you should be very much in need of my existence, given that the killer could strike you at any time.”

“You can do it?”

Su Xin thought inwardly, What a hassle, but outwardly, it was really difficult to refuse. After all, given her current situation, she should desperately need to find protection.

“There’s no one more capable than me.”

Su Xin stared at the criminal investigation team captain beside her. The captain nodded.

“Please rest assured, Miss Bai. Her skills are absolutely top-notch.”

It wasn’t that the bureau didn’t have female colleagues¹⁰, but compared to Liao Qingjie, they really weren’t up to par. For something like protecting a key witness, remote surveillance might not be enough; close protection was safer.

“Okay.”

Su Xin felt helpless. She had originally planned to investigate these matters alone, as acting alone offered more freedom, even though someone was monitoring her. Now, someone had arrived for close monitoring, meaning much less freedom. It would be very inconvenient to proceed unless she reached some kind of agreement with the person before her.

The main door closed, and Su Xin invited the woman to sit on the sofa.

“No need to be so formal, just call me by my name directly. Bai Yan. I assume you’ve already seen my file.”

“Liao Qingjie. The qing from qingqing wowo¹¹, the jie from jiebai (pure white).”

“A very nice name.”

“Thanks.”

She was a woman with delicate features, but her aura was incredibly strong. Su Xin observed her posture while standing and sitting, as well as the way she held the water glass—it all resembled… a soldier.

“Were you in the military before?”

“Sharp observation.”

“After all, the posture of military personnel is different from ordinary people. But you still look very young. If you were in the military, you shouldn’t have reached retirement age yet.”

“Just special forces. Suffered a gunshot wound, so I bid farewell to my comrades-in-arms.”

Liao Qingjie took a sip of water, looked Su Xin up and down, then scanned the surrounding environment.

“You seem to be in good spirits, quite different from a few days ago. Did something happen that put your mind at ease?”

A sudden change in a person’s attitude and appearance must have a reason.

“I just figured some things out. If you’re non-staff personnel, I wonder if you have the authority to participate in those cases?”

“Of course.”

“Can I participate as well?”

“Oh?”

“I want to understand some things.”

“We’ll see how it goes.”

Liao Qingjie didn’t seem as quiet and elegant as her name might suggest. Due to having been in the special forces, she came across as having a bit of a roguish¹² air.

“Starting tomorrow, I need to go back to work at the museum. Are you going to follow me too?”

“Of course. I said it’s close protection. What if you get killed on your way to or from work? Never underestimate the mind of a psychopathic killer.”

“Okay.”

“On my end, there’s something I need to handle.”

“What?”

“An ancient artifact I was responsible for restoring has been stolen.”

“That kind of thing should be reported to the police.”

“But the artifact hadn’t been successfully restored yet. It currently has no research value, its dynasty and creator are unknown, and it’s not an authentic work or imitation by any famous artist. The museum has already given up pursuing this item, and the police probably won’t take the case either.”

To put it simply and crudely, it was just an unrestored, unknown scrap of paper with absolutely no value for sale or collection, not worth spending significant manpower, material resources, and finances to find.

“So you plan to find it yourself? How?”

“I… don’t know either.”

Thinking about this, Su Xin felt quite dejected. How was she supposed to search within this vast sea of people? Maybe she should go check the scene first for any clues.

“Which room can be mine?”

“I don’t think there is one.”

This was a simple three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment. One room served as her bedroom, another had been converted into a study by the original owner, filled with various books and a large workbench.

The other room was a storage room, piled high with all sorts of messy things. Tidying it up wouldn’t be easy, and there was no bed.

“I can sleep on the sofa.”

“I’ll remember to get you a thin blanket. It’s just that the weather is quite hot now, there’s no air conditioning in the living room, and there will be mosquitoes.”

It was late June now, and the weather had been hot for a while. The high temperatures would likely last until mid-September.

And the most heart-piercing¹³ thing about summer wasn’t just the stuffy heat, but also the ubiquitous mosquitoes.

Getting a few bites on the skin was truly unbearable.

“It’s fine, I can endure this.”

After all, she had survived the poisonous insects in tropical jungles before; was she supposed to be afraid of summer heat and mosquitoes?

It was already time for dinner. Su Xin remembered the vegetables she had bought at noon. She planned to cook noodles; there were still noodles in the kitchen.

“Would you like to have dinner together?”

Su Xin waved the noodles in her hand.

“Sure.”

Su Xin closed the kitchen door, looking at the pot, cooking oil, eggs, vegetables, and noodles in front of her.

Lord Fourteen, honestly, I’m not feeling confident. It’s been a long time since I last cooked, and this body’s owner doesn’t have any real cooking foundation either.

Bai Yan was a takeout person¹⁴. She either spent all her time at the museum or stayed cooped up at home, basically eating out or ordering delivery. She rarely cooked at home, only occasionally making some noodles or frozen dumplings herself when she couldn’t stand the hunger anymore.

Su Xin looked at the noodles in her hand with some regret. Why hadn’t she bought dumplings at the supermarket? Those were so convenient to cook, the taste definitely wouldn’t kill anyone, and might even turn out quite decent.

【I haven’t unlocked the culinary skill either, so I’m afraid I can’t help. However, I can find some recipes for your reference.】

Okay.

A short video clip began playing in Su Xin’s mind—a tutorial on how to simply cook noodles.

After watching it, Su Xin felt she could do it.

Liao Qingjie wandered around the apartment, looking at the balcony, then the bedroom, and finally the study. After waiting like this for half an hour, the kitchen door finally opened.

Liao Qingjie was somewhat expectant about what delicious dinner awaited. After all, spending half an hour in there should be enough time to stir-fry several dishes, right?

Then, Liao Qingjie saw the two bowls of noodles Su Xin brought out.

Just… just this?

The noodles looked passable in appearance, about average.

Maybe they tasted pretty good?

Liao Qingjie washed her hands, picked up her chopsticks, lifted a few strands of noodles to her mouth, and her expression immediately changed.

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LP: I, at least, can cook noodles

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