Hide-and-Seek
"Lichun asked whether you really had a job to offer her," Gu Yu said, holding the painted woman's phone and sounding rather helpless.
The Special Defense Department and the national security agency had both contacted the painted woman before. They had tried every possible way to persuade her, but she refused to leave the hotel where she worked—even though the hotel didn't actually have any work for her.
Yet when Xu Huo sent her an unimportant message asking if she wanted to take on a part-time job, the painted woman immediately called him. He didn't answer, and she kept urging him, insisting that she had to get through to him.
"Yes, a proper job," Xu Huo said with a smile. "The pay is a Medal of the Gentleman of Light. Interested?"
"Yes! Yes!" the painted woman answered in an electronic voice.
Xu Huo had Gu Yu pull up a map, then asked, "Do you see the map? Notice anything different?"
"My house! My land!" The electronic voice conveyed no emotion, but Xu Huo could hear the painted woman happily spinning around on the other end.
"All right, come over now." Xu Huo rummaged through the ashes and retrieved C's Swallow prop, a pair of thin blades shaped like swallows. C had detonated the explosives and died with his two companions. Since Xu Huo couldn't really be said to have killed the three of them, the only prop he could claim was the Swallow that had dropped.
It was better than nothing. He put it away, and just then Team Leader Wu called again.
"Thank goodness. I thought you were dead!" Team Leader Wu said with relief. "How are you? Are you all right? The Special Defense Department has already taken over. They may deploy heavy weapons to bombard Wenshan