Chapter 12

After seeing Dong Xue'er off, the room fell briefly silent.

"I never expected something like this to happen," Xiao Zhan said. "In that case, we'll have to be extra careful these next few days. Luckily, I developed this device to deal with emergencies."

"What's that?" Glasses asked curiously.

"Just put it on and press this button." As he spoke, Xiao Zhan put on the device and pressed the button. A blast of high-energy music rang out. "Now you can become a man with his own BGM."

"So it's just a portable music player?" Glasses said. "What's the point of that thing?"

"Glasses, you're still too young," Lin Jie said from the side. "Haven't you heard the old saying? 'In my BGM, I'm invincible.' And this device lets you start your BGM whenever you want. In a way, that makes it a divine artifact."

"Divine artifact my ass! You two have obviously been brainwashed by anime!" Glasses roared.

Just then, Little Girl came over and tugged on Glasses's pant leg. "Hey, what about the delicious food you promised?"

"I'll take you to get some in a bit." After saying that, Glasses looked up at the two men in front of him. "What should we do about this girl?"

"I was going to ask Miss Dong to look after her, but Miss Dong said she'd pretend to leave H City. She's already under suspicion, after all," Xiao Zhan said. "Looks like the only option is for us to protect her."

"Come to think of it, Thirteen spent two years investigating this," Lin Jie said suddenly.

"I heard him say he grew up in an orphanage that carried out illegal biological modifications, too," Glasses said. "Looks like she and Thirteen had similar experiences, but she wasn't as lucky as he was."

"Similar experiences?" Xiao Zhan said thoughtfully. "Looks like Thirteen had already anticipated this. That scumbag went off on vacation himself and left us to clean up the mess. So that's why he left in such a hurry yesterday."

"I don't think that's it. Thirteen was probably afraid his bad luck would affect us, so he went away to let us do our best," Lin Jie said. "I understand why he did it. Hopefully, he'll bring us blessings from Paradise Island."

"It's Paradise Island, okay?" Glasses said.

"Same difference," Lin Jie said. "What we need to do now is simple: first, take this girl to get something to eat, then ask my sister to pick out a few new outfits for her."

"Are you sure? If we leave Xiao's Building, we might be putting ourselves in danger," Glasses said.

"What are you panicking for? They wouldn't dare snatch someone in broad daylight, would they?" Lin Jie said. "Besides, we can't keep letting this girl eat spicy strips. I just noticed that she zones out whenever she eats them."

"All right."

"So, what was so important that you called me away from work?" Lin Wan said. "If it isn't anything serious, you'd better watch out, or I'll beat you up."

"Come and see for yourself." Lin Jie led Lin Wan into a fast-food restaurant, then pointed to Little Girl, who was eating a kids' meal. Xiao Zhan and Glasses sat beside her.

"Who's this little girl?" Lin Wan asked as she and Lin Jie came over and sat down beside Little Girl.

"Well..." Lin Jie thought for a moment. "She's actually my biological daughter."

"What?" Lin Wan said in surprise. "That little girl looks at least seven. You were still in high school back then!"

"You remember I was a delinquent when I was in school, right? Well, I met a girl back then. She was attracted to the delinquent I was, and before long, we fell in love. Later, we broke up because we had different ideals. It wasn't until this girl came to me a few days ago that I found out I was a father. I also learned that her mother left me because she had a terminal illness. She chose to give up treatment so she could have the baby. So now I've decided to devote myself wholeheartedly to being a father," Lin Jie said sadly.

"Oh, nice story. Now tell me what really happened," Lin Wan said flatly.

"Damn, I told it so movingly, and you still don't believe me? How can you be so heartless?" Lin Jie said.

Just then, Lin Wan took out a mirror and tossed it to Lin Jie. "Take a look at yourself. With that virgin face of yours, no girl would be attracted to you unless she was blind."

Xiao Zhan and Glasses nodded furiously beside them.

Lin Jie held up the mirror and looked at himself. "I still look dashing and heroic. What makes me look like a virgin?"

"Enough. Get to the point. And why is this girl dressed like that?" Lin Wan looked at Little Girl, who was still wearing Xiao Zhan's coat.

"The truth is, this girl is being targeted by an organization," Glasses said, pushing up his glasses. "We rescued her from a human experimentation group, but another organization is still after her. They're planning to capture her and use her for experiments."

"What? Those bastards!" Lin Wan said angrily. "So what exactly do you need me to do?"

"You can see that she's an orphan, with no one to rely on—not even a decent set of clothes. We want you to help pick some out. You know us three guys aren't good at that," Lin Jie said.

"That's easy," Lin Wan said. "Once you've finished eating, come with big sis. I promise I'll make you look beautiful."

"Okay, big sis." Little Girl looked up at Lin Wan with a sweet smile. Lin Wan was instantly smitten with her cuteness.

"So cute! Big sis will take you to buy some pretty clothes in a bit." As she spoke, Lin Wan hugged Little Girl.

"Boss, they've gone into the mall. There's also a woman with them we've never seen before." A man watched Lin Jie and the others from a distance.

"Really? We'll go talk to them in a bit. If they cooperate, fine. If not, we'll teach those guys a good lesson in how to behave," another man said.

"Boss, I heard Godly Ghost is on their team, too."

"Don't worry. That guy's stuck on Paradise Island. For all we know, he's already gone to heaven," the man called boss said.

If Lin Jie and the others had been there, they would have recognized the three men as the H City Golden Horn Trio, who had bullied Glasses at the Hero Association before.

Meanwhile, Lin Wan happily took Little Girl around the clothing store to try on different outfits.

The three men—Lin Jie, Xiao Zhan, and Glasses—could only wait outside the store. Quite a few women out shopping pointed at Xiao Zhan as he stood there.

"Isn't that the Decontamination Warrior?"

"Yeah! It really is him! I heard he can easily handle any kind of dirty stuff."

"Right! A friend told me that when he helped her with decontamination, it felt like she was flying up to heaven."

"Really? Maybe we should ask him to dust us off, too?"

"Honestly! I'd only go to him alone when my husband was away on a business trip."

"Hah, by then, it'll be too late for you."

"My hero name is Zhan Chen, all right?" Xiao Zhan said helplessly as he stood there.

"Impressive! You've won the hearts of so many married women already," Lin Jie said, giving Xiao Zhan a thumbs-up. "Maybe you should change your name to Old Wang next and specialize in helping lonely married women."

"You're surprisingly talented at one very strange thing," Glasses said from the side. But the next moment, his expression darkened, because he saw three people he didn't want to see.

Following his gaze, Lin Jie and Xiao Zhan saw the newcomers, too.

"Come with us." The Golden Triangle Boss pointed to an empty alley beside the mall.

"Bastards! What are you trying to do?" Glasses asked, glaring at them.

"This is an order from the president." The Golden Triangle Boss took out a written order. "You'd better come with us."

"All right, let's go," Lin Jie said, speaking up before Glasses could.

The six of them went to a quieter alley.

"I'll get straight to the point. We want you to come back to the Hero Association with us for questioning," the Golden Triangle Boss said.

"Why are you questioning us?" Xiao Zhan asked.

"The Association is currently hunting the Winter Witch. You were in contact with this dangerous criminal before she left H City, so we have reason to suspect you're working with her," the Golden Triangle Boss said. "Also, the child you rescued a few days ago is a potential threat, so we want you to hand her over to the Association."

"What are you going to do to that girl?" Glasses asked.

"This has nothing to do with you, loser," one of the lackeys said. "Whatever we do with her is none of your business."

"You're not getting her unless you tell us what you plan to do with her," Glasses said, showing an uncharacteristic bit of backbone.

"He's right. This girl is one of the leads in an investigation into a criminal organization, so we can't hand her over yet," Xiao Zhan said from the side.

"Exactly!" Glasses stepped forward.

"You'd better worry about yourselves first!" The lackey who had spoken earlier clenched his fists, and golden light burst from them as he swung at Glasses's face. "If you won't cooperate, don't blame me for making you suffer!"

Just as his fist was about to reach the man in front of him, a huge Wolf Fang Club swung in from the side. The next second, the man was embedded in the wall.

"Trying to steal our little girl?" Lin Jie planted the Wolf Fang Club on the ground. "Go ahead and try."

"Looks like you're pretty confident in your strength," the Golden Triangle Boss said mockingly. "Today, I'll show you the difference between a top hundred D-Class fighter and an E-Class nobody ranked over ten thousand."