After Xiao Jingfeng’s words, Xiao Zhenyun indeed did not continue wearing the mask—he turned around without saying a word and ran. Xiao Zhenyun, who had been disabled for so many years, had never felt so light and agile before, swiftly disappearing into the kitchen like a flying dragon. Xiao Nian, unusually cooperative, stood behind him, blocking Xiao Jingfeng. Innocently, he pretended not to know anything and said, “Uncle, what are you doing here?”
“Move aside.” Xiao Jingfeng lifted Xiao Nian effortlessly like a chicken and moved him aside. True to his name, he was like a gust of wind passing through, while Xiao Zhenyun had barely taken half a step out of the kitchen before his uncle grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back to the stove.
“Explain.” Xiao Jingfeng wiped the soot off his cheekbone with the back of his hand. “You…”
“Yes, explain,” Xiao Zhenyun interrupted, pointing at Xiao Jingfeng’s hair, which was now a different shade. He turned to look at Li Jialiang, “What’s with his hair… and the style?”
Innocent and pure, Li Jialiang blinked from the corner. “I never said he was the person you were looking for…”
“Don’t bully the new bride. I sensed your spiritual power and had her bring you here to see me.” Xiao Jingfeng held Xiao Zhenyun’s shoulder, forcing him to look directly at him. “Where have you been all these years? Why are you here, causing trouble with Nian Nian?”
“…It’s a long story, not something that can be explained briefly.” Xiao Zhenyun silently signaled to Xiao Nian, whose emotions were stable but eyes vacant, perhaps already mentally checked out.
Maybe he would spend the rest of his life pondering a serious question: why was the chairman of a union squatting in the back kitchen, stoking the stove?
“After the matters in this town are settled, come back with me and explain everything slowly, word by word, without missing a detail.” Xiao Jingfeng laid down the ultimatum coldly, then softened his tone, patting Xiao Zhenyun’s thigh gently. “The escape just now was quite agile. Prosthesis?”
In front of Xiao Jingfeng, Xiao Zhenyun was like a recruit trained by an instructor, obediently replying, “Yes.”
“It seems you’ve been living quite comfortably these years, not kidnapped for forced labor or organ harvesting, right?” Xiao Jingfeng chuckled, lifting his gaze to him. “You hid yourself voluntarily, didn’t you? I always felt something was off, including your disappearance, Si Di’s reaction, everything seemed out of place.”
Xiao Zhenyun hadn’t come up with a good lie yet, so he just smiled and changed the subject, “Uncle, let’s talk about the situation in the town first. Nian Nian said you lost contact as soon as you entered the town, it’s been over ten days now. What happened?”
If Si Di’s experiences these days were a typical case of ‘a ship capsizing in a ditch,’ then Xiao Jingfeng’s story was the epitome of ‘fame brings trouble.’
A few days ago, when Xiao Nian sent a distress call, he happened to be attending a meeting in a city near Yao Town, just an hour’s drive away. Normally, Xiao Jingfeng wouldn’t need to personally intervene, but as he was about to delegate the task to a subordinate, he suddenly realized that ever since he became the chairman, he’d mostly been doing paperwork and giving speeches, with little time for exercise. His abs were almost gone, and his spiritual whip wasn’t as sharp as it used to be.
The outside world might only remember him as the chairman of the Special Agents Guild, forgetting that he was also a top-notch S-rank shining guide.
He had once ridden into danger on horseback, fought alongside his teammates in bloody battles during dire situations, and faced imminent peril.
Considering he had no important engagements for the next few days, Xiao Jingfeng made a spur-of-the-moment decision to drive to the remote town, intending to personally rescue the useless young sentinels of the guild and boost his reputation as a chairman skilled in both literary and martial arts.
Xiao Nian reminded him that the communication signal in the remote town was controlled, so Xiao Jingfeng prepared accordingly, cutting off communication in advance and deleting any information that could expose his identity. He even disguised himself slightly, and halfway through the journey, switched to a different guild vehicle, trying not to leave any traces…
But he forgot, he was the chairman of the Special Agents Guild. Even if he grew a beard and wore sunglasses, the professor who despised special individuals could still recognize him. After all, who knows if he throws darts at his picture in his bedroom every day…
So, the moment Xiao Jingfeng arrived in the remote town, he was exposed. He was the fastest among all the special individuals in the town to have his identity exposed, without a doubt.
You might think he was the strongest knight in shining armor in the team, but in fact, he was the weakest one, unable to even protect himself.
…And then Xiao Jingfeng was chased by the professor’s henchmen, then he was rescued by Li Jialiang, then he hid in the boiler room of the kitchen and avoided the search, then he really became a helper stoking the stove. The basic process was exactly the same as the plot in the original novel where Ye Feiran escaped, was chased, then rescued by Li Jialiang, and hid in the same hiding spot.
Xiao Nian’s face stiffened as he began to worry. Since Xiao Jingfeng followed Ye Feiran’s storyline, would the later events where Ye Feiran gets chased still unfold the same way? Would Li Jialiang refuse to rescue him because there were too many guides in her house? Meanwhile, Xiao Zhenyun’s focus seemed peculiar as he glanced suspiciously at the bride helping out in the kitchen and asked loudly, “Is your name really Li Jialiang?”
The bride energetically flipped the spatula and nodded, “Yes.”
“And what about your husband?” Xiao Zhenyun furrowed his brows, “Li Jialang?”
Li Jialiang smiled brightly, “Yes, our names are quite similar, aren’t they? Our names might have played a role in how we’ve come this far together.”
Xiao Zhenyun: “…”
He silently withdrew his head.
“Uncle, I’m going to find Si Di next. I know where he is.” He paused before adding as a statement, “If you don’t have any other plans, you should come with me. He has a sentinel there, and I might not be able to handle it alone.”
Mentioning the sentinel got Xiao Jingfeng excited. He might not be able to handle a dozen ordinary people armed with guns chasing him under the professor’s command, but facing a dozen sentinels was a different story. “Okay.”
The three members of the Xiao family, grateful for the Li family’s kindness, worked hard to finish all the cooking for the wedding banquet and quietly left through the back door. Xiao Jingfeng even tried to persuade Xiao Nian to stay at the Li family’s house for safety until things settled down, but Xiao Nian thought the storyline was already chaotic enough, and if he left Xiao Zhenyun, it would only make things worse. So, he quickly resorted to crying, throwing a tantrum, and threatening to hang himself until he managed to climb into Xiao Zhenyun’s car.
It wasn’t surprising that Xiao Jingfeng’s disguise with the beard and sunglasses didn’t last long. It was barely better than cross-dressing in a TV drama. Xiao Zhenyun couldn’t help but comment from the driver’s seat, “Your disguise skills are seriously lacking. Once we find Hedgehog, ask him to give you a makeover.”
“Hedgehog?” Xiao Jingfeng chuckled. “The brown-haired snappy guy?”
Xiao Zhenyun laughed too, nodding, “Exactly, the brown-haired snappy guy.”
“You guys entered the remote town after me, how did you manage to contact Si Di?” Xiao Jingfeng suddenly asked.
“…,” Xiao Zhenyun choked on the question, regretting why he impulsively brought Xiao Jingfeng along. He stayed silent for a few seconds, adopting a heavy tone as if he had been through a lot over the years. “I naturally have my ways, you don’t need to ask. I’ll explain everything to you in detail once the professor is detained.”
“Are you sure?” Xiao Jingfeng was skeptical. “Usually, people who say such things are just buying time. They disappear when the criminals are caught.”
“I won’t disappear,” Xiao Zhenyun said firmly and sincerely. “On the contrary, I’ll make a grand appearance after the professor is arrested, telling the whole world that Xiao Zhenyun is back!”
Xiao Jingfeng: “…”
“But Uncle, please help me keep this secret until then, don’t tell anyone about my whereabouts,” Xiao Zhenyun urged. “Externally, it should still be announced that I’m missing.”
“Okay, when you say externally…” Xiao Jingfeng pondered for a moment. “Does Si Di know?”
“Yes.”
“Han Bang knows?”
“Yes.”
“Han Bang too? Who are you closer to, Han Bang or your uncle? I’ve been raising you for nothing.”
Xiao Zhenyun: “…Of course, I’m closer to Uncle. Han Bang is nothing. I only told him out of necessity.”
Xiao Jingfeng was pleased with Xiao Zhenyun’s loyalty and continued probing, “Nian Nian knows too.”
“Yes.”
The old uncle frowned tightly, “It seems like everyone in the world knows, who exactly are you hiding it from?”
Xiao Zhenyun: “…”
It did seem to make sense?
Even Duan Fei and Duan Pei, the Duan brothers, knew. In fact, practically everyone knew.
“Si Chu and Ye Feiran don’t know,” Xiao Zhenyun said bluntly. “It’s crucial to keep it from them.”
“Why?”
“Don’t ask. It’s complicated.”
Xiao Jingfeng suddenly sat up from the back seat, grabbed Xiao Zhenyun’s cheek, and pulled it outward, threatening, “Who are you trying to boss around? Showing off to who?”
“…,”
Half a minute later, the vehicle arrived near the destination.
From afar, Xiao Zhenyun saw the sentinel Xiao Hui squatting alone by the roadside, contemplatively chewing on a piece of grass. Sentinels preferred peace and quiet, and since there was no separate soundproof room for sentinels in the town, he and Xiao Bai lived in the most remote area, which was convenient for the three members of the Xiao family.
Xiao Zhenyun turned to Xiao Jingfeng and explained the man’s identity and background: a C- grade sentinel, and he also had a foster sister, Xiao Bai, a C grade guide with intellectual issues.
Xiao Jingfeng, being the chairman of the guild, had a different perspective: “The situation with Xiao Hui and Xiao Bai is definitely not unique. We’ve been continuously monitoring the issue of violence among special individuals, but it keeps happening. The main reason is that the hierarchical order among special individuals is more pronounced and important than among ordinary people. The difference in rank is innate and difficult to change through effort. For example, if someone awakens as a C- grade sentinel, they’ll likely remain a C- grade for life, and the gap between them and an S grade is like a chasm.”
“Is there a way to change it?” Xiao Zhenyun asked.
“We’re trying, but it’s really difficult. Currently, we can only work on the psychological level,” Xiao Jingfeng said, patting Xiao Zhenyun’s head. “In simple terms, it’s about convincing C- grade special individuals to be more open-minded, just like you.”
Xiao Zhenyun: “…”
Although Xiao Nian really enjoyed seeing his father choking on his words under uncle’s pressure, they needed to focus on the task at hand. Before Xiao Jingfeng got out of the car, Xiao Nian quickly said, “Uncle, this sentinel is very cunning and good at passing information.”
In the original text, the protagonists’ whereabouts were discovered several times by Xiao Hui, who then reported to the professor, causing trouble for the protagonists.
“…,” Xiao Jingfeng glanced at Xiao Nian, not asking anything, then pushed the door and got out of the car, slowly approaching Xiao Hui by the roadside. Even though he was only a C- grade sentinel, he was still a sentinel. The moment Xiao Hui saw Xiao Jingfeng, he keenly sensed something amiss and swiftly stood up, his bat-like ears perking up.
Xiao Hui clearly didn’t like his sentinel identity. He fidgeted with his bat-like ears while remaining vigilant. “Who are you?”
In response, Xiao Jingfeng swiftly used a spiritual whip, showing no sign of unnecessary chatter and giving him no chance to pass on any information. In the original text, the minor villain, who had some back-and-forth with Si Chu, rolled his eyes and collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Xiao Zhenyun and Xiao Nian, feeling emboldened by Xiao Jingfeng’s presence, immediately approached, watching as Xiao Jingfeng quickly searched Xiao Hui, not leaving out even his socks, confiscating everything regardless of whether it was a communication device or not. Then, he hoisted Xiao Hui onto his shoulders, gave him a shake, and turned to ask, “Where is Si Di being held?”
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
