He Zheng tossed a glance at the wall clock, the style of which was of simplicity, and the hour hand of which was pointing at eleven. The night before, he and Li Zong had a very long talk and drifted off to sleep at the end of it. He remembered that he awoke once at around five in the morning, and Li Zong was still in bed at that time. Shortly after that, Li Zong had coaxed him into sleep.

Judging by the temperature of the area of the bed where Li Zong had been lying, He Zheng believed that Li Zong probably had left right after cajoling him into sleep.

"He slept late but rose early. Is he having dark circles under his eyes like common people do?" A strange thought struck He Zheng.

He gave a languid yawn, got out of bed and his eye fell on a 20-inch black suitcase outside the living room, on which there was also a note.

He Zheng tore the note off and saw Li Zong"s words on it, which read "Packing is done. Breakfast is in the microwave oven. Wait for Zu Zhichong if you don"t know how to use it."

"Pooh," He Zheng mumbled in a disapproving tone, "you think I"m a moron who doesn"t even know how to use a microwave oven?"

With that, he walked towards the kitchen with the intention to prove that he was more than able to handle a microwave oven.

However, what he did manage to prove was that his confidence was ungrounded, and that Supt. Li was rather visionary –Childe He, who barely had any acquaintance with household ch.o.r.es, fumbled around the kitchen for quite some time but failed to identify which piece of equipment was a microwave oven...

In embarra.s.sment, He Zheng returned to the living room, gave a snort and muttered to himself, "Never mind. Zu Zhichong will be here soon."

Planning to wait for Zu Zhichong to come, he sat down on the sofa hungry but found that there were bags of bread on the teapoy. He Zheng"s heart fluttered and he suddenly felt annoyed. "Why didn"t we start having s.e.x on the first day I moved in? I have such a nice guy around me yet all I"d been doing was watching. It"s such a reckless waste!"

"I seem to have just grown even fonder of him," He Zheng murmured, opened a bag of bread and started gnawing at it.

Right at this moment, the doorbell rang. Zu Zhichong"s voice came from the other side of the door. "Cutie, open the door."

"He"s pretty quick." He Zheng pulled the door open and saw Zu Zhichong standing at the doorway. He had a typical Taoist bun on top of his head and was wearing a red short-sleeved T-shirt, looking very festive.

"Have you finished packing? We"re good to go."

He Zheng inclined his head and replied, "I need you to go find the microwave oven and heat the breakfast in it for me first."

Zu Zhichong fell speechless with astonishment.

Facts proved that Zu Zhichong had more common sense than He Zheng did. He easily found the microwave oven, heated the sandwich and milk in it and proffered them to He Zheng.

Zu Zhichong was somewhat curious about how He Zheng"s plan of having Li Zong pull strings for him was going. While He Zheng was having breakfast, he couldn"t help but ask, "Cutie, Chief rejected your request, didn"t he?"

He even specially patted He Zheng on the shoulder and consoled him, "Alas, it"s no big deal that Chief refused to help you. Although there are a lot of places available on the Special Talents Training Program (STTP), it"ll take some doing to get one –but that"s not the point, of course. The point is, our Chief will never, ever help anybody get into the bureau by the back door."

He started telling a fairly long story.

"That was around the year before last, if memory serves me correctly, Chief went on a mission and rescued a young nine-tailed fox. That young fox, who had managed to gain the ability to transform into a human after many years" cultivation, was the youngest son of the patriarch of the white-fox family, which was the most famous family outside Shanhaiguan Pa.s.s. He was obsessed with our Chief, but his power fell short of the entrance requirement of the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB), so he had no alternative but to seek to have someone pull strings for him and get him into STTP.

His family excelled at doing business and was very wealthy. His parents made a nine-figure donation to SMB as our operation fund, but he still failed to get in through the back door." After saying this, Zu Zhichong heaved a sigh of compa.s.sion. "I feel so sorry for him. Chief not only took the money but also made a few remarks that deeply moved the little nine-tailed fox reducing him to tears."

"Everybody in this world judges people by outward appearance!" Zu Zhichong observed in indignation.

He Zheng was amused and slapped himself on the lap, a big smile on his face. "It never crossed my mind that Li Zong is such a shameless guy."

"Tell me about it." Zu Zhichong flicked a cautious glance at him. "Everybody thinks that our Chief is an honorable and righteous man, when actually he"s shrewd and deep. Alas. I"m by no means a match for him at this."

Then he added, "Speaking of which, Cutie, Chief"s refusal of your request is justifiable. Don"t over-think it."

He Zheng gracefully finished the sandwich, wiped the corners of his mouth with his napkin and successfully shut Zu Zhichong"s nagging mouth with a single remark.

"Li Zong agreed."

Zu Zhichong was like: excuse me???

The smile on his face faded away.

He Zheng grabbed the handle of the suitcase, changed his shoes and walked out of the door.

"It"s time to go."

However, Zu Zhichong was still sitting there in lamentation, that pop song called "We Are Different" reverberating in his mind.