Chapter 364: Chapter 363: Our Workers Were Detained
"How’s life in Celestial Xia, cousin?"
Back at home, Erin got a call from her cousin. "I saw the selfies you posted on Instagram. Looks like you’ve gained at least five pounds?"
"Nonsense!" Erin wasn’t flustered at all, even striking a seductive pose in front of the vanity mirror by the door. "I work out every day. My weight hasn’t fluctuated by more than ten ounces."
"That’s a relief. I’d hate to be welcoming a little chubby girl next Christmas," Lawrence laughed.
"I thought you were going to come to Celestial Xia to find me," Erin said faintly.
"You know I can’t," Lawrence sighed. "Otherwise, why would I have asked you for help? Wouldn’t it be better if I pursued Xiao Ya myself?"
Erin raised an eyebrow and smiled, recalling the genuine delight on Xiao Ya’s face when she saw Gu Zhao. "You don’t stand a chance. Xiao Ya has a boyfriend."
Meanwhile, across the ocean, Lawrence was also looking in a mirror. In it was a handsome, blond man in his early thirties, showing off his eight-pack abs and a sunny smile.
"I don’t believe any woman can resist my charm."
Lawrence was quite proud of this fact. After all, no woman he had ever set his sights on had ever rejected him. Even without knowing his identity, they never minded sleeping with him.
Logically, he would most likely marry a woman from another prominent family down the line. However, if the other party could bring a terrifyingly powerful Extraordinary Being into the fold, he wouldn’t mind an international marriage.
An image of Gu Zhao’s equally dashing and carefree handsome face appeared in Erin’s mind. She shook her head with a smile. "You don’t have the advantage."
Lawrence’s eyes flickered. "It seems you’ve become friends with Xiao Ya and the others. You’ve even met her boyfriend."
"We just happened to run into him after work," Erin said coolly.
"You didn’t talk about anything Extraordinary?" Lawrence asked.
"We only talked about music," Erin said. "You promised me. My role is out in the open; I’m not supposed to be deliberately digging for information."
Lawrence sighed. "True, but I’m under a lot of pressure over here. You’re the only one who can stay close to Xiao Ya."
Erin sneered. "Extraordinary incidents are constantly popping up here in Celestial Xia. It’s not like Xiao Ya is the only person involved. Just a few days ago, there was news about some Daoists saving people at West Mountain. Didn’t you send anyone to check it out?"
"We sent people, but they came back with nothing," Lawrence said.
"So you shouldn’t have any expectations for me, either. I’m even less of a professional," Erin said, shrugging.
Lawrence sighed. "So you really don’t have any information for me?"
Erin said nonchalantly, "Or you could investigate Xiao Ya’s boyfriend. Maybe if you make him back off, you can swoop in?"
Lawrence was left speechless.
...
While Erin and Lawrence were talking, Gu Zhao had already taken Xiao Ya and Jiang Shishi out for hot pot.
"I wasn’t even craving it, but after Erin mentioned it, I just had to have some." Jiang Shishi swished a few slices of fatty beef in the broth, a look of pure satisfaction on her face after popping them into her mouth.
"But why would she like spicy rabbit heads?" Xiao Ya wondered aloud.
"Are they not good?" Gu Zhao asked.
Xiao Ya thought for a moment, then nodded slowly and licked her lips. "They’re delicious."
Gu Zhao and Jiang Shishi both laughed. "Then what’s the problem?"
"It just feels a little weird, a foreigner sucking on a rabbit head," Xiao Ya laughed as well.
The group feasted, and Xiao Ya and Jiang Shishi told Gu Zhao about their work at the traditional music orchestra, while also chatting about hot topics online.
"Darling, you’re incredible! We saw the news. You threw all of northern Celestial Xia’s sand right into the capital of Northern Mongolia!" Jiang Shishi exclaimed in admiration.
That day, after Gu Zhao had dropped them off, they saw him leave again and only knew he was probably going to deal with other sandstorms. Later, they saw related news from other cities.
But they never imagined that Gu Zhao hadn’t just cleared all the sandstorms in northern Celestial Xia, but had gone all the way to the capital of Northern Mongolia to give them a warning.
"Later, I saw news reports that Northern Mongolia sent a delegation to discuss cooperation. Was it because of this incident?" Jiang Shishi asked.
"Probably," Gu Zhao nodded. "But I don’t know what happened after that."
"And what about those Daoists who saved people at West Mountain? Do you know anything about that, darling?" Xiao Ya asked another question.
"I do," Gu Zhao replied. "Those Daoists in the video have real skills."
"Whoa!" Jiang Shishi and Xiao Ya gasped in unison.
"Forget the two old Daoists, but there was a young Daoist with them who didn’t notice the drone either." Jiang Shishi popped a beef meatball into her mouth, her eyes shining. "They were accidentally exposed. What happens now?"
Xiao Ya nodded, her face a mask of juicy gossip. "I heard a ton of people went to West Mountain afterward. Do you have any new info?"
"I do!" Gu Zhao raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice.
Xiao Ya and Jiang Shishi’s eyes lit up, and they both leaned in closer.
"The two old Daoists went into seclusion, leaving the other three to deal with everything," Gu Zhao whispered. "After dealing with it for two days, the remaining three also went into seclusion."
Xiao Ya and Jiang Shishi nodded. After waiting a moment and seeing that Gu Zhao had nothing more to say, they couldn’t help but ask, "That’s it?"
Gu Zhao nodded. "That’s it."
"Tch! What kind of gossip is that!" The two women leaned back in unison, looking disdainful.
Just then, they overheard a few young people at the next table also start discussing the topic of the Extraordinary.
"There are definitely Superpowers in this world!" one of the guys declared confidently. "That video from West Mountain is absolutely real!"
A girl next to him shook her head. "It’s definitely fake. What era are we living in? How can you still believe in that feudal superstition?"
Another woman retorted, "But a lot of these things have eyewitnesses. That incident with the passenger jet in Shu Province—my colleague’s older brother was on that plane."
The last guy shook his head. "I don’t think Extraordinary abilities exist. Otherwise, in today’s internet age, how could it possibly be kept a secret?"
"But isn’t it gradually being exposed right now?"
"But the timing is too recent. Smartphones have been widespread for over a decade. Why didn’t we see anything like this before?"
"Then how do you explain the sandstorm in Northern Mongolia?"
"A sudden anticyclonic airflow, what else? You can’t seriously think some Daoist in our country cast a spell to blow all the sand back, can you?"
"And it just so happened to blow it all into the wealthy districts of Northern Mongolia’s capital?"
"Who knows?" The disbeliever remained unconvinced. "If someone in our country were really that powerful, why haven’t they rescued those people being detained in Africa?"
"What people?" one of the girls asked.
"An opposition faction in a small African country," the guy explained. "They probably took money from some other countries, staged a coup, and then detained our country’s workers to demand that we hand over our factories and mines."
"Hm?" Gu Zhao raised an eyebrow and took out his phone.
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