Mission: Kill Xiong Er

"Roasted Bear Paw??"

Qi Liang's mouth twitched slightly. He had no objection to those three words, but looking at the blackened paws, he really could not bring himself to take a bite.

But Zhao Ke did not care about that. He was genuinely hungry. After all that running around, he was not made of iron; his stomach had long since been pressed against his back.

"But... isn't there meat in the pot? I think it tastes pretty good."

Seeing Zhao Ke carrying two bloody bear paws, Qi Liang got goosebumps all over at the thought of Zhao Ke eating those things.

He hurriedly pointed to the large pot on the stove. The chunks of meat stewing inside were still giving off a rich aroma.

"Blegh!!"

Instead of gaining any appetite from Qi Liang's words, Chen Jing's face darkened. She had no time to explain and rushed to the doorway to vomit again.

Zhao Ke rolled his eyes. He truly did not know whether Qi Liang was stupid or merely naïve.

Zhao Ke picked out a few pieces of firewood from the woodpile outside, lit a fire, and sat alone in the courtyard to deal with the two bear paws in his hands.

Bear paws were not easy to prepare. If handled poorly, their fishy stench could make them impossible to swallow.

But that was nothing to Zhao Ke.

He skillfully used his knife to remove the connective tissue, skin them, and pull out the bones. His movements were as practiced as if he had done it hundreds or thousands of times.

"You knew all along?"

Chen Jing came out as well. The cold wind eased much of her nausea. Seeing Zhao Ke sitting before the bonfire, her face turned cold as she stepped forward and confronted him.

Zhao Ke said nothing. He simply placed the prepared bear paws onto a rack over the fire.

"I'm talking to you!"

Seeing Zhao Ke ignore her, Chen Jing immediately grew angry. At that moment, Zhao Ke set the bear paws beside the bonfire and brushed nonexistent dust from his hands.

When Chen Jing saw Zhao Ke put down the bear paws, she impatiently waited for him to apologize. But then Zhao Ke raised his hand.

Slap!

The resounding slap caught Chen Jing completely off guard. The burning pain on her face left her mind entirely blank.

"Idiot."

Zhao Ke stared at Chen Jing and spat out the word coldly, unable to keep himself from feeling disappointed by this psychologist's lack of vigilance.

Yes, he had chosen to travel with them, but that did not mean they were his companions. It certainly did not mean he had to look after them like a babysitter.

On the contrary, what Zhao Ke valued was their usefulness. If they had no value—or worse, became a burden—then she would become the next female office worker left in the bushes.

"You call yourself a psychologist. Since you accepted what the scar-faced man said earlier, you should have known this place could never be some countryside guesthouse.

"This is the middle of nowhere. There are no vegetable gardens around, no pigsties either. She cooked such a huge pot of meat; even an idiot could tell there was something wrong. Don't ask why I didn't warn you. If you don't even care about your own life, what right do you have to blame someone else? I'm not your father."

Zhao Ke had been suspicious from the moment they entered. Half of that was because of his sharp sense of smell, which had picked up the concealed scent of blood.

But even without relying on his sense of smell, as a chef, he could tell at a glance what ingredients were being used, what they smelled like, and exactly what kind of meat was in the bowl.

"You!"

First she had been slapped for no reason, then Zhao Ke had berated her so bluntly. Chen Jing felt as though a stone were lodged in her chest.

But when she looked up and saw the disappointment in Zhao Ke's eyes, her heart suddenly clenched. Something quickly came to mind, and a chill washed over her like ice water poured from above. Chen Jing shuddered instinctively.

"Blegh!"

At that moment, Qi Liang stumbled and crawled out of the house. Seeing the blackened bear paws over the bonfire, their fur burned to a crisp and giving off a pungent burnt smell, his stomach began churning again.

But before long, that burnt smell was replaced by another fragrance. Zhao Ke took down the charred bear paws,

found some seasonings in the kitchen and rubbed them on, then continued roasting them over the fire. Golden oil soon began dripping onto the coals, filling the air with a rich aroma.

Even though neither Qi Liang nor Chen Jing had much appetite, they could not help staring longingly at the pair of roasted bear paws in Zhao Ke's hands.

"Whew..."

Zhao Ke blew on them, then tore one apart with his hands. The thick joints and sinew split open, and with one bite, rich fat spurted out from both sides.

Perhaps because the bear paw was old, the meat was somewhat tough. But to Zhao Ke, who was already starving, it was still delicious.

"Not bad. The meat's just a little old."

Zhao Ke nodded. If the meat of this bear paw had not been so old, it would have tasted even better.

Watching Zhao Ke eat with such enjoyment, Qi Liang and Chen Jing could only stare helplessly. They had vomited up almost everything they ate earlier, and now their stomachs had begun rebelling.

But even if they were asked to eat, they could not have done it. Forget about the meat they had eaten before—even if they had not eaten it, merely witnessing the whole process was enough to make them unable to stomach food. If they could still eat at a time like this, that would be truly unbelievable.

"Pervert!"

Watching Zhao Ke finish both bear paws in no time, Chen Jing could not help conducting a psychological assessment of him. Her final conclusion was that the man before her was either a fool or a pervert. Naturally, she leaned toward the latter.

"Damn it, how are we supposed to leave this place? Didn't the scar-faced man say that as long as we found the key, we could get out?"

Qi Liang sat on the ground, scratching his messy hair with both hands. They had struggled from day until night, yet they still had not found the so-called mission. He was so anxious he was nearly losing his mind.

"I'll go take a look."

Chen Jing could no longer remain calm either. She stood up, forced herself to endure the nauseating scent of meat, and walked into the room. The moment she entered, she instinctively lowered her head to glance at the old woman's corpse. What she saw made her heart tighten sharply.

"Ah!"

Hearing Chen Jing scream, Qi Liang froze for a moment before immediately scrambling to his feet and rushing inside. But he was clearly a step too slow; before he could even get up, Zhao Ke had already rushed into the room ahead of him.

Zhao Ke gripped a gleaming fruit knife in one hand. After striding into the room, he saw Chen Jing standing there, pointing at the old woman's corpse on the floor.

"When I came in, I... I saw that line of blood writing on the floor."

Following Chen Jing's finger, Zhao Ke's expression stiffened. In front of the old woman's corpse, a line of bloody words had appeared at some point.

Mission: Kill Xiong Er!

Mission Hint: Xiong Er is like his mother, but Xiong Er, in the prime of his life, is stronger than her. Kill him, or... be killed by him.

No one knew when those words had appeared, but one thing was certain: this was the mission they had been searching for.

"Xiong Er? Who is Xiong Er?"

Qi Liang entered at that moment. Seeing the line of bloody writing on the floor, he could not help asking in confusion.

"He's her son. Did you forget? She said earlier that she had a son. The mission is most likely referring to her son," Zhao Ke reminded him.

"But... we have to kill someone again?"

At the thought of killing again, Chen Jing and Qi Liang looked uneasy. Under normal circumstances, they would not even dare kill a cat or dog, much less a person. Qi Liang had only smashed the old woman with a stool earlier because he had been forced into it. Now that they truly had to kill someone, they felt extremely conflicted.

"They're not human! Have you ever seen a person who could turn into a bear? They're more like monsters."

Although the old woman was far from the monsters in his imagination that could summon wind and rain, one thing was certain: she was not human.

Then Zhao Ke pointed to Li Hongbing in the pickle jar nearby. "If you don't want to end up keeping him company, you'd better not hold onto even the slightest illusion."

"We understand that, but what are we supposed to do? Don't forget, that old thing nearly killed us just now. If her son comes, with just the three of us, can we kill him?"

Qi Liang asked worriedly. He had hit the old woman so hard earlier that the stool had shattered, yet it had only dazed her for a moment. If her son came, the three of them probably would not even be enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

Zhao Ke glanced at the large teapot on the table. He walked over, picked it up, and carefully sniffed it. Then he looked at the old woman's corpse, and his eyes lit up. "Then we gamble."

"Gamble?"

Qi Liang stepped forward, wanting Zhao Ke to explain himself more clearly. He reached out and patted Zhao Ke on the shoulder. "Explain it. How... Pfft!"

Before he could finish, Qi Liang's eyes widened. The gleaming fruit knife in Zhao Ke's hand was buried in his thigh.