Chapter 105: Who Is Qinglin?

“I’m talking about Qinglin! That Qinglin!” Guan’er slapped the table, making it crack-crack. The cups the two clerks had set before her wobbled.

She was covered in bandages, gauze on her face, a bandage stuck across the bridge of her nose. She looked half-dead from serious injuries, yet her expression was lively and glowing.

This girl had been covered in blood when brought in, cuts of all sizes crisscrossing her skin. But after Lu Qingyu examined her, they were all superficial wounds. With some medicine and her own spiritual power, she’d be factory-new in less than two days.

“You’re saying you thought Qinglin might be in danger, so you rushed out?” Xu Zhi raised a hand to stop this grandma’s violent behavior. If she kept slapping, even the bulletproof table would break.

“Yes. After she went out, the bronze bell started ringing like crazy.” Maybe her mouth was dry from talking so long. Guan’er finally picked up the cup and took a sip. “It was the first time I learned that thing could ring so loud. Then I rushed out.”

“And then?” Xu Zhi motioned for her to continue.

“Then I saw someone on the lighting rig beam. I figured anyone crouching that high up couldn’t be a good person. Probably one of those demons. So I climbed up.”

“You mean you saw them only after the live demo started?” Xu Zhi suddenly asked.

“Yeah.”

“After the live demo started, only a few stage lights were still on. How did you see someone on a lighting rig twenty meters up in that darkness?”

“With these!” Guan’er pointed at her eyes. “I was born with great eyesight. I can see clearly at night too. Master said it’s called Night…”

She stammered there, unable to remember the word.

“Night Eye.” One clerk prompted.

“Yes, yes, Night Eye!” Guan’er clapped her hands to show they were right.

“All right, continue.”

“After I climbed up, I saw three people. Two men and one woman. The two men were one tall and one short. The tall one looked like a young man in his twenties. The short one looked sleazy.” Guan’er seemed to be carefully recalling their features. “The woman was very pretty, but her vibe felt cold.”

When she said that, Xu Zhi was already certain the woman was Snake Pearl, the third-ranking member of the Netherworld Society.

“Mm. Then?”

“Then the woman and the young man left. The short one threw a bronze box into the crowd…”

She described what happened afterward in detail, including her inner struggle and the dangerous back-and-forth when she fought the short one, all the way to her brave, fearless selfie-stick beating.

“And after that?”

“After that I don’t remember anything. It seems someone saved me, but I can’t remember who.” Guan’er looked a little confused. That was normal.

When she was brought in, she had been under a sleep suggestion. Although it was an advanced suggestion that could alter memories, it still made people forget the period before they fell asleep.

Just like no one can remember exactly how they fell asleep. People naturally forget the process of falling asleep. How much memory is lost varies from person to person.

And this Guan’er, her spiritual power was too low. She had forgotten almost three to five minutes.

Unfortunately, those three to five minutes were the most important, including why Snake Pearl had left and then come back, and why Xuan Shuang had appeared there for no reason.

Of course, Xu Zhi already had some unpleasant guesses about why Xuan Shuang appeared at the venue, but he still didn’t want to believe them.

Unless there was solid evidence before his eyes, he would rather deceive himself.

“Okay. Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Jiang.” Xu Zhi extended his right hand to Guan’er.

Miss Jiang was Guan’er. The girl’s real name was Jiang Ling. Guan’er was her online name.

“Oh, oh.” Guan’er shook his hand. “By the way, I didn’t do anything wrong or cause trouble for you, right?”

“No, no. Miss Jiang, you saved over three hundred lives,” Xu Zhi said.

Guan’er didn’t know what was in that bronze box, but Xu Zhi did. It contained a resentful demon heart, a pure crystallization of demonic power. If it had been thrown into a crowd, it would have been like throwing a poison gas bomb.

The Netherworld Society had clever methods too. That bronze box could perfectly conceal demonic aura. Neither customs nor the Hetu all-weather monitoring system had seen through it.

“That’s good, that’s good…” Guan’er patted her chest, as if relieved.

“Oh, right. One last question.” Just as Guan’er was about to step out of the interview room, Xu Zhi spoke again. “Who is Qinglin?”

“Huh?”

Three pairs of eyes fixed on Xu Zhi, two from the clerks and one from Guan’er. They looked at him like he was a caveman.

It wasn’t their fault. Xu Zhi hardly watched videos or followed new trends in subculture circles. His social apps were only for contacting colleagues and friends. And Qinglin, plainly speaking, was an artist who drew doujinshi… Besides meme-loving group chats, who would constantly bring him drama and lewd art from everywhere?

So he had completely missed Bai Ling’s first coser debut at the comic convention half a month ago. He had also missed the subculture circle’s celebration this morning when she was captured in Guan’er’s livestream.

“Um, Demon Suppressor Xu, when you have time, search online.”

A clerk suddenly leaned over and whispered, “It’s not convenient for me to say with a girl here.”

“Remember to find somewhere with no one around.” His deliberately lowered voice sounded like he was committing a crime.

A few minutes later, after confirming the office was empty, Xu Zhi deliberately turned off the lights and hid in a corner. Following the clerk’s advice, he typed Qinglin into the search bar.

The first webpage that popped up was Bai Ling’s performance at the comic convention half a month ago, in ultimate 4K quality.

Then came this morning, when she was watched by two hundred thousand people in Guan’er’s livestream, nibbling a small bun like an adorable hamster.

So Qinglin was Ah Ling.

Xu Zhi suddenly remembered that Bai Ling’s game ID seemed to be Qinglin. He hadn’t thought much about it at the time. So she was this Qinglin.

He scrolled down a few times and clicked into a forum.

They had been apart for six years. He really didn’t know what she had been doing during that time. Might as well learn a little.

Someone in the forum had posted a collection of Qinglin’s works. Xu Zhi clicked in and found it was a compressed file.

Mm. Download. Extract…

“Holy shit…”

Then he opened a new world.

The compressed file contained over a thousand images sorted into many folders. Each folder represented one of Qinglin’s works. Some were random drawings she did for fun.

This guy had collected them very carefully, from Qinglin’s first debut work to the last drawing she posted, without missing a single one.

Then the more Xu Zhi looked, the redder his face became.

What position was this? What kind of play was that?

So Ah Ling knew how to play like this?!

Xu Zhi didn’t even notice that the corners of his mouth were about to split to his ears.

“Smack!”

The office lights suddenly turned on, followed by Lu Qingtian’s voice, always full of youthful energy: “Hey, boss, what are you doing here alone? Smiling like a villain…”

Without waiting for an answer, he walked toward Xu Zhi. After two steps, he saw the familiar cover image on Xu Zhi’s screen. He immediately made an expression that said he understood: “Ah, Teacher Qinglin. I also often…”

“Kids aren’t allowed to look!” Xu Zhi’s big hand suddenly covered Lu Qingtian’s face.

By the time Lu Qingtian regained his sight, Xu Zhi had already sprinted out into the hallway. That posture, upper body leaning forward. Put nicely, like a cheetah. Put bluntly, he was hiding a physiological reaction.

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