The barbecue restaurant's door slammed shut behind them. The owner braced both hands against the doorframe, watching the two figures disappear around the corner. An extraordinarily complicated expression hung on his face. He struggled to pull the corners of his mouth upward, but his eyes brimmed with tears.
"Please come again..."
A server edged over cautiously. "Boss, they ate for three whole hours..."
"I know."
"All the meat the kitchen prepped for the next three days is gone."
"I know."
"And when that gentleman left, he cut up half the fruit we'd set aside for the staff and took it with-"
"I know!" The owner closed his eyes, two trails of tears rolling down his cheeks. "Stop talking. Let me have some time alone."
The server wisely shut up and retreated into the kitchen. The owner stood alone by the entrance for a very, very long time before taking a sign from behind the door and hanging it up with trembling hands: "Sold out."
Under the streetlights, Lin Xiao tossed the rind from his last bite of watermelon into a roadside trash can, wiped his hands with a wet wipe, and let out a satisfied burp.
"Could you keep it down...? You've burped seven or eight times already." Natasha finally spoke, her voice very low, as though she were using every ounce of self-control to hold back something on the verge of bursting.
"No." Lin Xiao tossed the wet wipe into the trash, his tone outrageously matter-of-fact. "A burp is a sign of sincerity. Not performing an entire burping symphony for the owner was already an act of courtesy on my part."
"So you ate every bit of meat in his restaurant and forced him to close early today, and you call that courtesy?"
"How could you think that?" Lin Xiao raised a finger, his expression suddenly turning very serious. "First, he was the one who said, 'Eat as much as you like.' I was simply honoring the spirit of the agreement he proposed. Second, eating all his meat shows that it was fresh and that he's a good cook. That's recognition. And finally, it wasn't a total loss for him. Didn't I order four beers? Beer has a great profit margin."
Natasha stopped responding to Lin Xiao. As they passed the third intersection, Lin Xiao felt that the atmosphere was a little stifling and chose a topic from among postpartum care for sows, have you ever had barbecue, and I really enjoyed spending today with you.
"Have you ever had barbecue?"
Natasha said nothing, looking at Lin Xiao as though he were an idiot.
"I mean the kind from a roadside stall, with an old guy setting up a charcoal grill and a few little folding stools beside it. There's a huge variety: lamb skewers, pork skewers, beef skewers, grilled slices of steamed bun, chicken wings, squid, stuffed eggplant fritters, and all kinds of delicious stuff. After ten on a summer night, you sit on the curb with a few buddies, get a mouthful of cumin powder, and take a swig of beer. You wouldn't believe how good life feels. Thinking about it now, here in America, that kind of life has actually become a luxury."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly through the quiet night.
Natasha's stride didn't change, nor did her expression, but as she walked on, the outline of her profile seemed to soften just a fraction beneath the streetlights.
"Are the grilled skewers in Dragon Country really as good as you say?" she asked suddenly, her tone light, as though it were an offhand question.
"Of course, ma'am. Let me explain in detail, and you'll understand. Grilled meat skewers are mainly lamb." Lin Xiao gestured as he spoke. "Leg meat with alternating fat and lean, cut into cubes this big and threaded onto iron skewers this long. You sprinkle on cumin, chili powder, and salt as they cook. Sometimes they brush on a layer of secret sauce, too. That flavor-let me put it this way. The last time I had lamb skewers was before I trans- ahem, anyway, it was a long time ago. My mouth still waters when I think about it."
He had nearly let something slip and hurriedly covered it with a couple of dry coughs.
Natasha glanced at him without pressing. As a top agent with years of experience, she had naturally noticed Lin Xiao's abrupt pause and change of direction, but she said nothing. Everyone had secrets. She understood that better than anyone.
"And hot pot." Seeing that she hadn't pressed him, Lin Xiao grew bold again and launched into an endless discussion of Dragon Country's cuisine. "What you Americans think of as hot pot is just boiling things in water and dipping them in sauce. That's vegetables blanched in plain water, not hot pot. With real hot pot, the broth is the soul. Beef-tallow red broth, sour tomato broth, clear mushroom broth-there are over a dozen kinds of broth alone. And the ingredients take even more care-beef tripe gets seven dips down and eight lifts up, beef aorta gets thirty seconds, duck intestines-"
"Duck intestines?" A subtle change finally crossed Natasha's face, her brows furrowing slightly.
"A duck's intestines." Lin Xiao gestured earnestly. "This long, really thin, and crunchy after you swish them through the broth."
The corner of Natasha's mouth twitched.
"I know what they are." Her voice returned to its earlier coolness. "I was just wondering why you thought I'd want to hear about them."
"Because they taste good." Lin Xiao sounded thoroughly justified. "Prejudice is worth less than anything in the face of good food."
Natasha didn't argue. The corners of her lips curved ever so slightly, so quickly that it might never have happened, but Lin Xiao saw it. He broke into a silent grin, looking particularly carefree beneath the streetlights.
The two continued through the New York night, one ahead of the other. Neither spoke again, but the atmosphere had eased considerably.
A blue light screen that only he could see popped up before his eyes.
Ding-four-star mission triggered.
Lin Xiao's steps faltered for an instant. Not because of the mission's star rating-he had farmed four-star missions at least five times in Afghanistan. There was nothing unusual about that. What caught his attention was the line the system added.
Mission target: Mutant "Heartfire." Current status: on the verge of losing control. Mission location: seven hundred meters from the host's current position.
A Mutant. Losing control. On the streets of New York.
Lin Xiao knew all too well what those three things meant together.
He finished adjusting his expression in a fraction of a second. By the time he turned toward Natasha, that harmless smile was already back on his face.
"Natasha."
Natasha stopped and turned back. The streetlight stretched her shadow far across the empty sidewalk.
"You'll be okay heading back alone, right?"
Natasha's brows furrowed slightly. She instantly caught the extremely subtle change in Lin Xiao's tone. On the surface, it sounded like a casual question, but she heard a faint, indescribable distance in it. It was as though this big oaf who had just been telling her about duck intestines had, at some moment, let his mind drift elsewhere.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I just remembered something I need to do." Lin Xiao took his hand out of his pants pocket and scratched his head. "You go ahead. I'll head back on my own later."
Natasha watched him without speaking. Her gray-green eyes narrowed slightly beneath the streetlights. Her stare sent a faint prickle down Lin Xiao's back, and he hurriedly flagged down a taxi that happened to be passing.
The yellow taxi stopped at his call. Lin Xiao opened the door and took his wallet from his suit, his fingers hovering over a stack of bills for quite some time. First, he pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. Then, after some thought, he tucked it back, replaced it with a fifty, and solemnly handed it to the driver.
"Take her to Manhattan's East Side." Lin Xiao slapped the bill into the driver's hand. "She's riding alone. The meter should only come to forty-something. Keep the rest as a tip."
Standing beside the taxi door, Natasha watched the entire process, momentarily unsure which part to criticize first. Lin Xiao went around to the window, bent down, and grinned at Natasha inside.
"Instructor, thanks for all your work training me today. Get some rest when you're back."
Natasha leaned against the taxi's back seat, watching the man beneath the streetlight through the window. He was smiling, and his smile looked particularly sincere.
But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
A shameless man who was clinging to me just a moment ago suddenly isn't coming along. An excuse-it has to be an excuse. He's definitely hiding something from me.
The taxi pulled away. The sound of its engine gradually faded down the quiet street.
Lin Xiao stood at the roadside, watching until the red taillights vanished deep into the night. The smile slowly faded from his face. He turned and headed toward the flashing red marker on the system map.
After walking for an unknown length of time, he reached the vicinity of his destination. He took off his suit jacket, folded it, and placed it on a nearby fire hydrant, loosened his tie, rolled his shoulders, and walked into the alley.
The alley was dark, with only a dim yellow glow spilling in from a streetlight at its far end. A faint burned smell hung in the air.
A small, thin figure crouched in the corner at the end of the alley. Against the light, only a vague outline was visible-messy blond hair, a body as thin as a clothes pole, arms wrapped tightly around his knees, his whole body trembling. A blackened patch marked the wall beside him, and several cracks spread from beneath his feet, forming a small spiderweb pattern across the ground.
Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth curving upward.
"Hey." Lin Xiao's voice was soft, carrying a gentleness completely at odds with the scene. "Are you okay?"
The blond teenager jerked his head up. By the streetlight, Lin Xiao finally saw his face clearly-he was about seventeen or eighteen, with several black smears of soot across his face and bloodshot eyes filled with panic mingled with fear and despair. All ten of his fingers were spread, a faint orange light flickering at their tips.
"Stay back!" The teenager's voice was shrill and broken, like a pane of glass shattering. "I don't want to hurt anyone-but I can't control it-go, or I'll burn you-"
"I'm fine." Lin Xiao stopped, pulled his hands out of his pockets, and held them palms out in a standard "I'm not a threat" gesture. "Look, I don't have any weapons. I was just passing by and saw that you seemed to need help."
"You don't understand... I'm a monster..." He buried his face in his knees, his voice muffled and thick with tears. "I burned the house... burned a lot of things, hurt a lot of people who cared about me, and caused a terrible impact. I really didn't mean to. I can't control myself..."
"I know," Lin Xiao said.
The teenager raised his head, a momentary look of bewilderment appearing on his tear-blurred face.
"You..."
"I know you didn't mean to." Lin Xiao kept his voice very steady, every word as though measured with a ruler, neither rushed nor slow, neither meek nor overbearing. "Your name is Heartfire, right? Or at least, someone calls you that. Your ability has to do with temperature, and you lose control when you get emotional, right?"
The teenager's lips began to tremble, confusion visibly swelling in his eyes. "How do you know about me...? Who exactly are you?"
"Me?" Lin Xiao crouched down, meeting the teenager's eyes at their level, and gave him an earnest, utterly nonthreatening smile. "An ordinary guy with a kind heart."
The teenager stared at his face for a long while, his lips trembling again and again.
"You? Ordinary? You're two meters tall, and you show up in this lousy alley telling me you're an ordinary guy-"
"I'm just a little stronger and a little taller. I really do have a good personality."
"Heartfire, you have two choices now."
Lin Xiao raised one finger.
"One, calm down. Take deep breaths, suppress your ability, and come out with me. I'll help you get in touch with someone who can teach you to control it. I know a bald guy who's also a Mutant. He uses a wheelchair and has a very open-minded attitude toward Mutants."
He raised a second finger. His voice suddenly turned very sincere, as though he were discussing something perfectly reasonable with a friend.
"Two, keep losing control. Then I'll be forced to subdue you. You should know that I'm not very good at comforting people, but I'm very good at making them see reason. If you want the second option, I don't mind giving you a lesson in morality and the rule of law right here."
The teenager's face went white. He lowered his head and held out both hands. Lin Xiao nodded in satisfaction. "Good kid. You made the right choice."
Lin Xiao stepped forward. Suddenly, a fireball hurtled toward his face. He merely blocked it with a casual motion of his hand. The flames hissed and went out.
"Impossible. How... did it just go out? It went out when it touched you. What kind of... monster are you?" Heartfire stared at Lin Xiao in terror, at the extremely faint burn on Lin Xiao's forearm. The mark visibly faded from deep red to light red, then pale pink, before vanishing completely-all in less than three seconds.
"What the fuck are you...?" The teenager's voice was thick with tears.
Lin Xiao lowered his sleeve and brushed the dust off it.
"I told you, an ordinary guy with a kind heart. If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do."
He took another step forward, then suddenly stopped.
Inside his mind, Doupao sounded frantic alerts:
Ding ding ding-ding ding ding-ding ding ding-
It was no longer the usual clear notification chime, but a continuous, piercing blare, as though someone had stepped on a buzzer and refused to take their foot off. One blast followed another so rapidly that Lin Xiao's brain buzzed along with it.
Ding-warning! Warning! Warning! Ding-high-risk target detected approaching! Assessing... assessment complete. Target designation: Tao Yuhan. Combat power rating: B. Threat level: high. Recommendation: retreat immediately.
Lin Xiao's feet were rooted to the spot. Most of his smile vanished, leaving him looking bewildered. Since binding with Doupao, he had heard countless "dings": clear chimes for triggered missions, notifications for rewards, and the sound of its sophistry when it stubbornly refused to admit anything-but never anything like this. These were no longer notifications. They were warnings. Constant, unbroken warnings.
What did you just say? Lin Xiao asked inwardly.
The system didn't answer his question. It was doing something Lin Xiao had never seen before-opening a new interface on its own.
A red light screen unfolded before Lin Xiao's eyes, its edges glowing with an unprecedentedly glaring red light. At its center was a rotating three-dimensional human outline, while the data fields beside it refreshed at a visible rate.
Combat Power Assessment System passively activated.
A note popped up at the bottom, its font one size larger than usual and colored red, as though hammering into his mind at maximum volume: "Host's current combat power: B-. Disparity between parties: vast. Recommendation: evacuate immediately. Repeat, evacuate immediately."