Chapter Eleven

"Winter Witch!" Xiao Zhan exclaimed when he saw her. "Please, come in! Come in!"

Glasses, standing nearby, straightened up too. The girl before them had climbed to No. 78 among B-Class heroes in just two years. More importantly, she was a stunning beauty, easily one of the three most popular superheroes in H City.

Miss Dong sat down in an office chair. "You don't have to be so formal. Just call me Dong, or Dong Xue'er."

"Of course. It's an honor!" Xiao Zhan and Glasses said in unison.

"Sorry for the poor hospitality. I'll get you something to drink." Xiao Zhan hurriedly added, "Glasses, go buy some snacks! All we have at home is spicy strips."

"No problem. I left a spare pair of glasses at the store I usually go to." With that, Glasses vanished, leaving only a pair of glasses on the floor.

"That's an interesting ability." Dong Xue'er glanced at the glasses on the floor. "You've got quite an interesting place here."

Dong Xue'er gave a meaningful look to the Little Girl, who was peeking at her from behind the sofa.

"Um... please don't get the wrong idea. We're not perverts," Xiao Zhan said hastily. "Those things people say about us aren't true."

"Don't worry. I'm not interested in whether you're a pervert or not." Dong Xue'er pointed at Lin Jie, who was standing off to the side. "I came here to see him."

"Me?"

"That's right." Dong Xue'er placed a hand on Lin Jie's cheek. "I need your strength. I want you to help me. We'll be launching a major operation soon, and your destructive power is indispensable."

"Hey, hey." Lin Jie dodged backward. "I'm not interested. Aren't there plenty of strong people in the Hero Association? Why would you need someone like me, an E-Class hero?"

"E-Class? You've taken down B-Class heroes in a single hit twice," Dong Xue'er said, looking at Lin Jie. "You should know, only one other person in all of H City could pull off something like that."

"Then I don't plan on helping you." Lin Jie looked at the woman before him. "I can see the word 'trouble' written all over your face."

"What are you talking about? Of course we should help Miss Dong." Xiao Zhan brought over a cup of coffee. "This is a great chance for our team to make a name for ourselves. We'd get to work with Miss Dong."

"But..." Lin Jie said, "my gut tells me getting involved with her will be a huge hassle."

"How can you talk about Miss Dong like that?" Glasses appeared before them, carrying a bag of snacks. "Besides, no matter how much trouble Miss Dong's in, we should help her!"

Watching the two men wag their tails in front of the woman like a pair of lapdogs, Lin Jie couldn't help thinking once again that this really was a world where looks mattered. The moment a beauty spoke, those two would rush right over.

"Why are you two getting so worked up? She's looking for me, not you," Lin Jie said.

"Aren't we a team?" Xiao Zhan replied.

"Exactly. Your business is my business. Brothers stick together," Glasses added.

"Damn it! Now we're brothers, are we? I'm telling you, selling out your friend might feel good for a moment, but your whole family ends up cremated!" Lin Jie shouted in protest.

"Heh heh. Your two teammates are much more adorable than you are." Miss Dong turned to look at Lin Jie. "But I expected you to respond like this. With your abilities, it should be easy for you to rise through the ranks if you wanted to. But this time, you'll definitely help me, because we have a common enemy."

"What?" Lin Jie asked in surprise.

"Because of her." Miss Dong pointed at the Little Girl. "After you destroyed that deal, you got yourselves into trouble."

"What?" Xiao Zhan exclaimed. "But that biotech company has already collapsed, hasn't it?"

"They're finished, all right. But aren't you curious who the people they were dealing with were? This was a massive underground organization that Godly Ghost spent two whole years investigating," Dong Xue'er said.

"You mean they're powerful?" Glasses asked in surprise.

"Let me put it this way. Not long after you sent the buyers to the Hero Association, they were secretly transferred away." Dong Xue'er took a sip of coffee. "But according to our intelligence, they've already been rescued by unknown people."

"What!" Xiao Zhan exclaimed.

"Do you know what their company is called?" Dong Xue'er asked.

"No." All three shook their heads.

"Truly ignorant and fearless." Dong Xue'er looked at them. "Their company is called the Evolution Company."

"What?!" Xiao Zhan and Glasses cried out at the same time.

"The Evolution Company? Are they really that powerful?" Lin Jie asked, looking at his two companions, who had started trembling all over.

"It's not just a matter of being powerful!" Glasses said. "They're a world-class criminal organization!"

"Not only that. Countless heroes have died at their hands over the past few years! They even killed an S-Class hero. They're an S-Class criminal organization in every sense of the word," Xiao Zhan added.

"Exactly. And the girl you brought back is the key to a breakthrough in one of their latest projects," Dong Xue'er said. "Even if you don't help me, they'll come looking for you sooner or later."

"That sounds like a real hassle! So, what do we do?" Lin Jie asked curiously.

"Protect the girl," Dong Xue'er said.

"You're so good at gathering intelligence. Can't you just tell me where the Evolution Company's people are? I'll go chop them all up myself," Lin Jie said. "I hate trouble most of all."

"Heh. I admit you're strong, but you're still nowhere near strong enough to take on the Evolution Company head-on. Besides, if we do find the company's headquarters, plenty of S-Class heroes will be sent in. We might even deploy an SS-Class hero." Dong Xue'er looked at Lin Jie. "And in H City, the Evolution Company isn't our only enemy."

"You mean there are others?" Lin Jie asked.

"That's right," Dong Xue'er said. "The Hero Association's president, Ouyang Rui."

"What?" All three of them looked shocked at her answer.

"You mean President Ouyang Rui and the Evolution Company..." Glasses began, his expression one of surprise.

Dong Xue'er nodded. "I came here today for another reason: to warn you that the Hero Association in H City is rotten to the core. They might try to make you hand over that little girl."

"What! They want to take our little girl too? I'll make them pay for that!" Lin Jie said furiously.

"You're angry about a pretty strange thing," Glasses said.

"Then why should we believe you?" Xiao Zhan asked, his expression serious.

"Take a look at these, and you'll understand."

Dong Xue'er plugged a USB drive into Xiao Zhan's computer. It contained plenty of evidence against the president, including rigged hero rankings and large-scale financial dealings with certain people in H City.

"Now that you've seen this evidence, can you still trust the Hero Association?" Dong Xue'er asked.

"All right. What should we do?" Xiao Zhan asked.

"I told you, I'm about to launch a major operation. Three days from now, I'll lead the righteous members of the H City Hero Association in taking down Ouyang Rui. For that, I'll need a large force of powerful fighters," Dong Xue'er said.

"But what are the charges? The financial dealings will definitely be covered up. We can't exactly arrest him for abusing his position to pursue women," Xiao Zhan said after thinking it over.

"I'm starting to like you." Dong Xue'er tapped his forehead. "I didn't think you'd have such good instincts. In fact, three days from now, he'll be meeting with the Evolution Company."

"You mean we use that chance to take them both down?" Glasses asked.

"Exactly," Dong Xue'er said. "If it weren't for him, the Evolution Company wouldn't be able to come and go freely in H City. I'll need your strength then, Lin Jie."

"All right," Lin Jie said.

"I hope we work well together," Dong Xue'er said.

"Wait, I have a question," Glasses said. "Do you know who she is?"

Glasses pointed at the Little Girl.

"I don't know much either." Dong Xue'er's expression darkened. "I only know she was one of the children at an orphanage run by the organization you destroyed. It seems that hundreds of children at that orphanage died because their experiments failed. She's the only successful experimental subject."

"You knew about their experiments before?" Lin Jie asked. "So they killed hundreds of little girls before, is that it?"

At the look in Lin Jie's eyes, Dong Xue'er nodded.

"Then if you knew all along, why didn't you save those children? Aren't you a hero too?" Lin Jie's expression turned stern. "You investigated the president and the Evolution Company. Why didn't you stop this from happening?"

"I hadn't made up my mind yet." Dong Xue'er looked away uneasily. "And if I'd acted back then, my covert investigation and evidence-gathering would have been exposed, so..."

"So you just ignored those children's lives?" Lin Jie asked.

His expression was grim. Xiao Zhan and Glasses kept tugging at his clothes from beside him, silently urging him not to let the conversation get too heated.

"That's why I don't want this to happen again." Dong Xue'er bowed her head to Lin Jie. "Please. According to our information, in H City, aside from Ouyang Rui's side, you're the only one capable of breaking through his defensive field. I hope you'll help me."

"All right. I'll help you," Lin Jie said. "Anyone who let something like this happen, no matter how noble their position, is scum in my eyes."

At that moment, Lin Jie's presence grew so overwhelming that everyone in the room could hardly breathe. Even Dong Xue'er, who had seen many powerful people since childhood, began to tremble instinctively. She could tell that if Lin Jie unleashed that aura directly at her, she might lose the ability to fight altogether.