Chapter 375: This Woman Knows Me Too Well

Dragon Eagle had quite a few disciples in the Holy City, and she generally remembered the exceptionally talented ones.

There were a few with the surname Tan, but none of them rang a bell.

Xiao Ya’s smile didn’t change, but her gaze deepened.

She looked at Wan Ze, as if re-evaluating something.

‘This man is definitely no ordinary Dragon Eagle disciple. At the very least, he isn’t someone whose background can be easily investigated.’

‘So what is his relationship to Wan Ze? And speaking of which, if that man is so strong, then what about Wan Ze? Just how powerful must this guy, the one Situ Bai took on as a Closed-door Disciple, be?’

The hall fell silent once more.

Wan Ze had his right hand in his pants pocket, his fingers sliding over the keys of his communicator.

He wasn’t looking at the screen, relying entirely on muscle memory as he typed out a line of text.

[Brother Jia, help me check the warehouses at Xianglong Pier tonight. See if there’s any unusual activity. Don’t alert anyone.]

He hit send.

Recipient: Zhai Jia.

After the message was sent, Wan Ze kept the communicator in his pocket with the screen facing down to prevent any light from leaking out. He left his fingers resting on the device, waiting for a reply.

About half a minute later, a vibration came from his pants pocket.

Wan Ze didn’t take the communicator out. Instead, he touched the screen through the fabric of his pants, feeling the vibration and knowing Zhai Jia had received the message.

He didn’t open it to read, not even letting his finger linger on the screen for more than a second.

Because Xiao Ya was sitting across from him.

But at that very moment, the woman looked his way.

Xiao Ya smiled.

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly as she leaned forward, moving her hands from her knees to the armrests. Her posture seemed a bit more relaxed than before.

Of course, it was also more aggressive.

“I’m right here. Is there something you need to hide from me? If you want to send a message for confirmation, you can just ask me directly. No need to be so sneaky.”

Wan Ze: “…”

He didn’t speak, but he pulled his hand out of his pocket and rested it on the sofa’s armrest.

‘You saw it, I won’t deny it, but I have no intention of explaining.’ The action itself was an answer.

Xiao Ya didn’t press the issue.

She knew where to draw the line.

Leaning back into the sofa, she shifted her gaze from Wan Ze and began to survey the layout of the hall.

The hall’s decor reminded her of some of the high-end hotels she’d stayed in while on missions in various places, entering and exiting under different identities.

But this place, Lingyun Manor, was different. It wasn’t so commercialized.

“Lingyun Manor is quite famous.” Xiao Ya’s eyes swept over the crystal chandelier above. “I’ve always wanted to come and see it. I just never thought it would be by such a strange twist of fate.”

She paused, as if gathering her thoughts, then looked back at Wan Ze and continued, “So, you know Miss Ling of Lingyun Manor?”

Wan Ze looked at her, his eyes under the mask showing no fluctuation of emotion. “What are you trying to say?”

Xiao Ya shook her head. “Nothing.”

She lowered her head, glanced at her hands folded on her lap, then looked up again. Her gaze fell on the calligraphy on the opposite wall that read “Tranquility Reaches Afar,” and she stared at it, transfixed, for a few seconds.

She murmured to herself.

“We’re all alone in this world.”

After saying these six words, she fell silent.

Wan Ze glanced over at her.

Then he looked away.

The hall fell silent once more.

No one knew what he was thinking.

The communicator vibrated again.

Wan Ze shifted his body slightly, his gaze dropping to look at the text on the screen.

[Ten minutes before you contacted me, an explosion went off at Xianglong Pier. Over a dozen bodies were found at the scene… They’re still being identified. Ah Ze, do you know what’s going on?]

Wan Ze stared at the message, his finger pausing on the screen for a second before he typed with both hands: [Secret Palace. Dog-eat-dog.]

Send.

The other end of the communicator went quiet for less than two seconds.

The next second.

[HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!]

A string of exclamation points—eight or nine of them, Wan Ze didn’t count—but the sheer number was enough to convey Zhai Jia’s current emotional state.

Before Wan Ze’s fingers could even leave the screen, a second message arrived, even faster than the first. He could guess that Zhai Jia hadn’t paused at all after typing that string of exclamation points and had immediately started the next sentence: [Damn, you’re going behind my back to do something big again! Ah Ze!!!]

Three exclamation points. Fewer than before, but the tone still seemed just as urgent.

Beneath his mask, Wan Ze didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. His fingers hovered over the screen for half a second before he started typing: [I need you to do something for me. It’s important. Zhao Henian went to the pier tonight. I need to confirm if he’s still alive.]

He didn’t explain why he was looking for Zhao Henian, nor did he explain Zhao Henian’s connection to the explosion at the pier.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Zhai Jia; it was just that now wasn’t the time for explanations.

Besides, Brother Jia was a smart man. He didn’t need many explanations; the conclusion was enough.

Zhai Jia’s reply came quickly: [Wait… so it’s that old geezer. If he’s gone, doesn’t that mean the follow-up to the translated version we talked about is gone too? Shit!]

When Wan Ze saw this message, the corner of his mouth twitched.

Zhai Jia’s reaction was the same as his.

The whole reason Wan Ze had contacted Zhao Henian in the first place was because of the translated version.

Under the pretext of dealing with the translated version, Wan Ze had already squeezed quite a lot of benefits out of the situation. If Zhao Henian was dead, all of that would be gone.

He started typing again: [So, Brother Jia, I need an answer as soon as possible. If you find him, detain him. And be discreet.]

Zhao Henian’s fate was currently unknown. If he was alive, he couldn’t be allowed to escape. If he was dead, the news couldn’t be allowed to spread, at least for now.

Zhai Jia: [Okay! I get it. Leave it to me!]

Zhai Jia understood the importance of the matter. Not another word needed to be said.