After saying that, Tao Yuhan remained silent for a long while.
He tapped the table twice with the tip of his chopsticks, as if encouraging himself. Lin Xiao didn't urge him, but leaned back in his chair, one hand on his stomach and the other holding a teacup.
" Heartfire, do you still remember him?" Tao Yuhan finally spoke.
Lin Xiao's finger paused for a moment on the rim of the glass.
"Is that the Mutants you chased after in New York last time? The one you took with you?"
Tao Yuhan nodded. He pulled something else from his pocket—a photograph, the same size as Wu Zhengkai's, but much coarser. The photograph showed a hospital bed, the person on it wrapped in bandages, only a small part of their face and head visible. Above their head, a steel bar pierced through the side of the skull, the severed end protruding and secured with gauze, like a nail head nailed to a wooden board. The electrocardiogram monitor beside the bed was lit, the curve relatively stable, but the yellow warning label on it was more glaring than any number.
Lin Xiao stared at the steel bar for several seconds, remaining silent for a long time. He remembered Heartfire, that kid with terrible self-control, who couldn't control himself when his temper flared up, his hands spitting fire everywhere. Back then, Lin Xiao dragged him out of an alley in New York and handed him over to Tao Yuhan, thinking that the matter was over.
"He joined S.P.E.A.R..?"
"Hmm." Tao Yuhan's voice lowered a bit. "It was his own request, and Director Zheng personally approved it. He trained for half a year, passed the assessment, and started going out on field duty three months ago. Last month, a chemical plant in H City caught fire, and he went with his team to provide support. Although he was able to control the fire, the fire was ultimately too big. When the factory collapsed, he pushed three workers out, but he himself was impaled on the head by a steel bar from a main beam."
Tao Yuhan paused here, picked up his teacup, and took a big gulp.
" Doctor Li is a surgeon here. After looking at the scans, he said that this thing is absolutely too dangerous to touch. If it's moved incorrectly, the person will die. He mentioned that he has a senior colleague named Wu Zhengkai, who is most experienced in this kind of surgery. But Dr. Wu went to New York many years ago, and his whereabouts have been very scattered ever since. I had someone check, and Dr. Wu's last public appearance was half a year ago. After that, he changed residences three times, lost two connections, and we couldn't keep track of him anymore."
"So you came to find me." Lin Xiao put the photo down.
Tao Yuhan sighed softly, nodded, and continued.
" Director Zheng has some connections with the Ancient One. The people stationed at Kamar-Taj reported that a strange man, over two meters tall, came up the mountain wearing pajamas yesterday. I checked, and it was you, so I thought I'd ask you for help..."
Lin Xiao remained silent for a moment. He glanced down at the steel bar in the photo, then at the bandaged man on the bed. The image of his fight with Heartfire in the New York alley flashed through his mind. Back then, the kid couldn't control his abilities and was pinned to the ground by Lin Xiao's slap, yet he still argued, his eyes wide like saucers. Now, he lay motionless in a hospital bed, needing a machine to help him breathe. Lin Xiao felt a deep sense of melancholy.
Lin Xiao sat up straight and looked at Tao Yuhan with a complicated expression, asking...
"How did he become like this?"
Tao Yuhan's eyes reddened slightly as he turned his head and said:
"A worker at the chemical plant said that he was the first to rush into the workshop after arriving at the scene. The fire was too big, and the sprinkler system malfunctioned. He used his own strength to create a path through the fire, pushing three workers out. He didn't have time to escape himself and was..."
Lin Xiao flipped the photo over and looked at it for several seconds.
"Okay, I'll help you, but you need to understand, I won't work for free."
Tao Yuhan's expression relaxed and he smiled, "Then, name your terms."
"Two," Lin Xiao held up one finger. "First, I'll help you find Wu Zhengkai, but whether he'll be willing to have the surgery after we find him, I can't guarantee. I have no connection with him; at most, I can bring him to you."
"OK."
"Secondly, if there's anything I can do to help the S.P.E.A.R. in the future, you'll owe me a favor."
Tao Yuhan didn't nod immediately, he hesitated for two seconds. "Private or official?"
"Your favor," Lin Xiao pointed at him, "Has nothing to do with the S.P.E.A.R. contact you when I need something."
Tao Yuhan looked at him, remained silent for a few seconds, and then nodded. "Okay."
He put the photo away, stood up, and called out to the owner behind the counter, "Check, please." The owner poked his head out from the kitchen and waved his hand, saying it wasn't necessary. Tao Yuhan still put the money on the table, under an empty bowl.
The two walked out of the restaurant. The mountain wind blew down from the snow-capped peaks, making the prayer flags at the village entrance flutter loudly. Tao Yuhan stretched on the steps and glanced at Lin Xiao.
"Oh, right, there's one more person. I'll have her come over to meet you. She has special abilities and might be able to help you."
Lin Xiao had just finished nodding when Tao Yuhan clapped his hands.
A woman stepped out of a purple portal.
She had long, straight black hair, skin so pale it was almost bloodless, and features so delicate they looked as if they had been carved with a knife stroke by stroke. She wore a dark gray windbreaker, zipped all the way up, paired with black trousers. Standing in the doorway, she resembled a newly drawn sword, radiating an unsettling chill.
Lin Xiao's eyes widened.
He stared at that face for a full three seconds. For those three seconds, his mind went blank, and then it was as if someone had pressed the rewind button, and the images rewound frame by frame—the period dramas he had watched on TV as a child, the posters he had secretly saved, the magazine covers he had passed around under his desk. They all came back. He opened his mouth, and squeezed out a sentence from his throat.
"Wow, you're Lord Fan?"
The woman glanced at him. Her gaze swept from his face to his body, then back to his face. Her brow furrowed, and the corners of her mouth turned down slightly; her entire expression screamed, "What kind of jerk is this?"
She ignored Lin Xiao, turned to Tao Yuhan, and said in a detached tone, as if reading a report, "Is it him?"
A distinct hint of embarrassment flashed across Tao Yuhan's face. He cleared his throat, quickly walked to Lin Xiao's side, and lowered his voice, saying, "Don't talk nonsense. Her name is Clarice Ferguson, codename Blink, and she has spatial teleportation abilities. She'll be with you when you go back this time."
Lin Xiao then realized what had happened. He cleared his throat, trying to appear as serious as possible, and nodded to Shan Shan. "Sorry, I mistook you for someone else. Hello, my name is Lin Xiao."
She nodded slightly in return. She turned her head and glanced at the two agents at the street corner who were pretending to eat noodles but were actually keeping watch, as if confirming something. After confirming, she turned to Tao Yuhan and asked, "When do we leave?" After receiving a reply, she walked straight towards the village entrance with crisp and neat steps.
Lin Xiao watched her walk away until her dark gray figure disappeared around the corner of the dirt road before turning his head to look at Tao Yuhan.
"Has she always been like this?"
"She's like that with everyone." Tao Yuhan's tone carried a hint of helplessness. "She was abducted by aliens in New York and imprisoned for three years. She almost died trying to save her companions. My quintuplets, Yusun, rescued her and brought her back to the S.P.E.A.R.. Ever since then, she's been hard to trust."
"I understand." Lin Xiao turned his gaze away.
Tao Yuhan patted his arm and said, "If you're done with your business in Kamar-Taj, meet at the village entrance at eight o'clock tomorrow morning." Then he walked in another direction. Lin Xiao stood under the crooked tree at the village entrance, watching the prayer flags flutter in the wind, and took a deep breath.
" Heartfire, you've really impressed me."
Meanwhile, inside the cabin of a military transport plane, the roar of the engines drowned out all other sounds. A sealed compartment, temperature-controlled and covered with a pale blue membrane, was fixed in the center of the cabin. A label on one side read, "Biological Sample, Temperature-Controlled Transport, Number 1943-SR-01".
Two women were sitting on folding chairs at the front of the cabin. The one with black hair was holding a newly printed scanned image, while the one with blonde hair leaned over to take a look.
"Look at these proportions," the black-haired woman traced an arc on the graph with her finger, "The ratio of shoulders to waist, and the curve of the hips—the scan data doesn't lie. Lin Xiao was right, it really is..."
The redhead stared at the picture for two seconds, then nodded. "It's definitely perky."
The two exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly. Then, they simultaneously turned their gaze to the sealed pod, their expressions shifting from playful to something more complex.
"It's been frozen for seventy years," the black-haired woman said.
"Yes, seventy years," the red-haired woman repeated.
They remained silent. The engine roared continuously in the cabin, and the blue membrane inside the sealed compartment shimmered faintly under the lights.