"Lungmen Guard Department! Open up!"
Hearing the officers from the Lungmen Guard Department shouting outside the shop, Chen Zhaoming's first thought was:
They found out!
But he quickly came back to himself. Looking at Chen Zhaoqian in his arms—who had run out halfway through her bath, her hair still damp—he had not done anything yet, so how could this possibly count as being "found out"?
Chen Zhaoqian might be short, but she would be an adult tomorrow!
"Zhaoqian, go finish your bath and get dressed first. I'll go see what's happened."
Giving her a reassuring look, Chen Zhaoming shut the back door and strode quickly toward the front of the shop.
"Officers, what's going on so late at night?"
He remembered that the Lungmen Guard Department at this point was still only in its infancy. It had nowhere near the authority or prestige it would wield in the future, when it would stand just one rank below the very top in Lungmen. Quite a few outside companies and gangs simply did not give the Guard Department any face at all.
But in the end, those arrogant companies and gangs would all become the chickens slaughtered to warn the monkeys.
When Chen Zhaoming opened the door, the people standing outside were several unfamiliar officers. Leading them was an ordinary-looking policewoman who, at a glance, clearly was not anyone especially important.
"Lungmen Guard Department." The policewoman flashed her badge first. "I'd like to ask whether, about half an hour ago, you saw four little girls pass by here."
"Four little girls?"
Chen Zhaoming froze for a moment, as though something had just occurred to him.
"When we came back from buying things tonight, my wife did seem to notice a few children..."
"Really?"
The moment he said that, the officers all became visibly excited.
"May I ask where your wife is?"
"She's bathing. Officers, please wait a moment. Would you like to come in and have some tea?"
"No, no need."
The policewoman hurriedly shook her head.
"This matter is important. Please ask your wife to come quickly!"
"All right."
Very soon, under Chen Zhaoming's call, Chen Zhaoqian came hurrying over after hastily finishing her bath. Already dressed, she came toward the door in slippers, wiping the moisture from her hair as she walked.
"Brother~"
The instant she spoke, several sharp gazes landed squarely on Chen Zhaoming.
"She's your wife?"
"She doesn't even look old enough for secondary school."
"She just called you 'Brother,' didn't she?"
"Mr. Chen, do you realize you're breaking the law?"
"..."
The policewoman stared at Chen Zhaoming in disbelief. She had thought he looked dignified and upright, like a decent man. Who would have guessed that he was all surface and no substance, the sort who could bring himself to lay hands on a child this young?
What she had not expected even more was that the man before her seemed utterly shameless about it.
"Allow me to introduce her."
Chen Zhaoming wore a blissful smile on his face.
"This is my wife, Chen Zhaoqian. She's eighteen this year. We've known each other since childhood, and we just privately pledged ourselves to one another. Tomorrow we're planning to go to your Guard Department to register our marriage."
"B-Brother~"
Hearing Chen Zhaoming introduce her to the officers in the tone one used for a wife, Chen Zhaoqian's face flushed bright red. Her five round little toes curled against the floor, and she wished she could dig a hole and crawl into it.
But mixed in with the embarrassment was a thread of sweetness and happiness.
Brother just acknowledged our relationship in front of outsiders?
Even though Chen Zhaoming had said he would marry her, Chen Zhaoqian had still been uneasy inside. In her eyes, he had only agreed because she had cornered him with a bit of scheming. Maybe he did not actually like her at all.
But now, hearing him openly acknowledge her as his wife, and seeing the smile on his face with no attempt to hide it, Chen Zhaoqian's heart finally settled.
So Brother likes me too!
Catching the thick, cloying smell of romance hanging in the air, the officers at the door were momentarily dumbfounded.
Eighteen? Known each other since childhood? Just pledged themselves to each other?
Every word made sense individually—but then they looked at Chen Zhaoming, who stood close to six foot three, and then at Chen Zhaoqian, who barely reached five feet.
Well.
As long as the two of you are happy.
Since the woman was already eighteen, and both sides were willing, then even if the height difference was a bit dramatic, there was nothing illegal about it. As adults, it was hardly the place of a bunch of cops to object.
"Ahem."
The policewoman cleared her throat and pulled everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.
"Ma'am, your husband said that when you came home tonight, you saw several children playing in the street."
"Yes."
"Do you remember what they looked like?"
"They were a bit far away, so I couldn't see clearly. But there was one blonde child, one Zalak child, and two others with horns and tails like ours. I'd guess they were dragonkin too..."
At first she had not paid much attention, but now that the policewoman brought it up, Chen Zhaoqian suddenly realized something was wrong.
"B-Brother, those two dragonkin children... could they be Hui-chieh and Little Talulah? I heard the elders mention before that, besides the two of them, there shouldn't be any other dragonkin children in Lungmen."
"Wait—who did you say?"
He had already forced it down into the bottom of his heart, prepared to forget it. Between Lungmen's upper city and lower city stretched a divide as vast as a chasm. If nothing unexpected happened, Chen Zhaoming likely would not see Ch'en Hui-chieh and Talulah again for a very long time.
Perhaps when they met again ten or twenty years from now, he would be able to treat it calmly by then.
"The children of our cousin and that woman!"
In front of outsiders, the Yan princess's name was taboo to the entire Chen family. But Chen Zhaoqian knew Chen Zhaoming would understand. She simply had not expected his reaction to be more intense than she had imagined.
"Officer, please tell me—what happened to them?"
"Sir, you're hurting me!"
"Ah—my apologies!"
Chen Zhaoming hurriedly let go. He had not expected that, in less than a month, Ch'en Hui-chieh and Talulah would already be in trouble. And from the look of things, Swire and Lin Yuhsia had been dragged into it too?
The four little girls had grown up together. With just that hint from Chen Zhaoqian, Chen Zhaoming immediately knew who the other two were.
"It's all right, sir. You're just worried and not thinking clearly."
The policewoman rubbed the shoulder he had grabbed. If not for the fact that Chen Zhaoming and Chen Zhaoqian seemed to know two of the girls, and that the pair did bear some resemblance to them, suggesting they might be relatives—and, admittedly, because Chen Zhaoming was handsome—she would not have been nearly so polite.
"I can't disclose the full details, but a few hours ago, four children snuck out together and still haven't returned home. Their families asked the Guard Department to search this area for them."
The policewoman handed Chen Zhaoming a phone number.
"If you happen to see them, please contact me immediately. Their families are very worried."
"I understand."
Chen Zhaoming's brows drew into a deep frown.
In his memory, the only ones who had ever truly run into danger in childhood were Talulah and Swire. Talulah had been abducted by Wei Yenwu's mortal enemy, Koschei, and groomed into a vessel for him. Swire, meanwhile, had been kidnapped once when she was little.
Logically speaking, there should never have been a situation where all four girls ended up in danger together.
The families behind those four little girls accounted for half of Lungmen's power structure. Whether openly or in secret, there had to be guards assigned by their families watching over them.
Even if he added together all the hidden bodyguards from those three households, not even he could kill them all silently.
He had not been chosen to become the princess's consort in this timeline. He had not been dragged down by all those rotten entanglements. So Chen Zhaoming had never stopped practicing the swordsmanship passed down by his family.
Fishball Chen could beat ten Prince-Consort Chens.
If even he could not do it, then there were only a handful of people in all of Lungmen who could. Unless Wei Yenwu had sent out elites like the black-clad agents under him—two or three of those men together really could eliminate the guards behind the girls without making a sound.
And among Wei Yenwu's enemies, there was only one person with that kind of capital.
"Was it that old black snake?"
Chen Zhaoming's expression darkened. Even though he was far stronger now than he had been back when he was Ch'en Hui-chieh's father, if he had to face an immortal black snake, the odds would still heavily favor defeat.
No.
Chen Zhaoming, Chen Zhaoming—what exactly are you to Ch'en Hui-chieh now?
Nothing more than a distant relative by thin blood ties. You are not her father, and you are not Talulah's father either.
Whether they live or die has nothing to do with you.
And besides, didn't they both turn out fine in the end? There is no need for you to face an enemy you can't defeat for their sake.
Just then, Chen Zhaoming saw Chen Zhaoqian. His soon-to-be wife had already dried her hair, gotten dressed, and picked up the staff she kept in the corner.
"Zhaoqian, you..."
"Brother, what are you standing there for? Let's go."
"But we don't have any connection to them—"
"Brother, since when do acts of chivalry depend on who the person is? When we first left the capital, weren't you the one who kept saying that if you couldn't become an official, you'd be like the ancient heroes and wander the world righting wrongs? Don't tell me you forgot."
Forgotten?
How could he forget?
When he was a child, he had aspired to become an official and bring good to the people. His parents had asked him what he would do if he failed the imperial examinations.
And he had answered at the time:
Then I'll become a hero who roams the world and helps others.
So he studied literature and trained his martial arts, all so that even if he could not become an official, he would still have the ability to save people and aid the world.
In that other life, he had become the princess's consort. He could neither serve as an official nor become a hero.
But in this moment, hearing Chen Zhaoqian's words, Chen Zhaoming realized that the heart that had lain quiet inside him was starting to stir again.
That's right.
Since when did helping others require checking who they were first?
What relationship Ch'en Hui-chieh had to him—did that really matter?
Several children had gone missing, and they had gone missing near his shop.
Then he had to go help find them.
At last he found a reason that satisfied even himself. Chen Zhaoming burst out laughing.
"Zhaoqian really is worthy of being my good wife. Your husband here has gone dull selling fishballs all day, to the point that I was actually getting hung up on something like that."
"No matter what relationship those girls have to us—"
"Under the clear heavens and the bright sun, how can we allow demons and monsters to run rampant? Zhaoqian, let's go!"
As he spoke, Chen Zhaoming picked up his sword.
Its name was Chengyi, a fitting name for a family of hereditary historians like the Chens.
The Chen family may have declined, but Chen Zhaoming refused to live long enough to one day draw Chengyi and feel nothing but pain and regret in the memories attached to it.
He did not ask to be one of those true heroes who stood like a pillar holding up heaven and earth.
He only asked to have a clear conscience.
Chen Zhaoqian had gotten one thing wrong.
He, Chen Zhaoming, admired the great heroes of old—but now he knew he could never become one of them.
Because he could not sacrifice himself for others.
All he could do was help those who needed it, as much as he was able, within his own limits.
Ch'en Hui-chieh had once been his daughter.
But that was only once.
In this life, he no longer had anything to do with her. Compared to Ch'en Hui-chieh, there was someone far more worthy of his protection.
Chen Zhaoming glanced at Chen Zhaoqian beside him.
To put it bluntly, the immortal black snake was Wei Yenwu's mortal enemy. Why should he, some passerby, risk his life for Wei Yenwu's sake? Lungmen was Wei Yenwu's Lungmen, not his.
If the sky fell, Wei Yenwu could be the first one to hold it up.
At most, he and Chen Zhaoqian would go over, probe the situation, and take advantage where they could. If things looked bad, they would run immediately.
He might not be able to fight the old black snake head-on.
But protecting Chen Zhaoqian from the black snake was more than manageable.
After all, he was not the one burdened with defending all of Lungmen.
Chen Zhaoming had firmed up his resolve. But when Chen Zhaoqian heard him call her his good wife and refer to himself as her husband, her face instantly turned as red as an apple.
Brother is so sly. He's always saying things that make my heart race.
Her small hand was clasped in Chen Zhaoming's. Though she was curious why his reaction to Ch'en Hui-chieh and Talulah's disappearance was so intense, she carefully buried that curiosity in her heart.
If Brother didn't want to say it, then she simply wouldn't ask.
What Chen Zhaoming didn't know was that the situation was nowhere near as dire as he imagined. The little girls were in danger, but compared to what he was picturing, it was laughably minor.
The real reason they had lost contact was—
"Bloody hell, why is there no signal again?!"
Several guards, following close behind the little girls, groaned in frustration.
...
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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