Chapter 22: Special Circumstances, Special Treatment
Lu Zheng stood in front of the tightly shut door, feeling a bit helpless. He had no choice but to shamelessly press the doorbell again.
“I haven’t done anything yet! If you keep bothering me, I’ll report you for sexual harassment and plaster it all over the internet!”
Yi Ning impatiently opened the door again, showing Lu Zheng a thoroughly unpleasant expression.
“Uh... I’m not...”
Faced with this all-too-familiar threat, Lu Zheng couldn’t defend himself no matter how he tried.
“I don’t care what you are. Just don’t bother me before I carry out my evil plan! That’s not part of my job description!”
Before Lu Zheng could say another word, Yi Ning flipped him off and grabbed the door handle, intending to shut the door again.
Fortunately, Lu Zheng was quick and managed to wedge his foot into the doorway in time.
Yi Ning stomped hard on Lu Zheng’s foot several times, trying to knock it away from the threshold, but to no avail.
She puffed up her cheeks and glared at Lu Zheng with fierce eyes.
But the situation was urgent. Lu Zheng could only pretend not to feel the weight of that glare and opened his mouth to explain.
“Alright!”
Yi Ning placed her hands on her hips and looked at Lu Zheng, annoyed: “What exactly do you want?”
“I want to ask you for a favor.”
Lu Zheng put his hands together and bowed toward Yi Ning. The pixel screen on his helmet also displayed a pleading expression.
Yi Ning sighed.
She leaned against the door, placing one foot on the other door to block the entrance with her leg.
“Just say it here. But let me make it clear first—I’m not buying anything. Though, if you’re selling insurance for houses damaged in battles between heroes and villains, I might be willing to support you a little.”
“I’m not so broke I need to moonlight as a salesperson. My salary at the Hero Association is still pretty decent.”
Seeing that Yi Ning was willing to listen, Lu Zheng relaxed a bit and started explaining the reason he had come to her.
“So you’re saying one of your hero colleagues has been made into a human bomb, and now you’re asking if I know how to turn her back?”
Upon hearing Lu Zheng’s request, Yi Ning curled her lips into a smile.
This was practically fantastic news for her.
Her real goal was never to conquer D-City, but to create the illusion that she was diligently trying to do so. That way, she could conveniently milk funding from the organization—or more precisely, help the whole organization milk evil funds provided by her dad, the boss.
And the Hero Association was the biggest obstacle to her long-term presence in D-City.
If she could use this opportunity to make the Hero Association owe her a big favor, then she wouldn’t have to be so cautious in her future activities around D-City.
Yi Ning moved her leg away from the door and made way for Lu Zheng.
“Let’s talk inside.”
She pointed her thumb toward the interior.
Seeing Yi Ning step aside, Lu Zheng also breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as she was willing to talk.
He took a few steps forward, about to step through the doorway.
But to his surprise, Yi Ning suddenly blocked the entrance with her leg again.
“Hold on a sec.”
Yi Ning pulled a remote out of her pocket and pressed a button toward the inside. Then she poked her head in for a look. After making sure everything was fine, she finally lowered her leg.
“Let’s go.”
Yi Ning waved at Lu Zheng and led the way into her evil research base.
Inside the base, Lu Zheng looked around.
The same familiar scenery, same familiar decor.
Except for the machine in the center of the base, completely covered with a white cloth.
“What’s that thing?”
Lu Zheng pointed at the machine.
“Heh heh~”
But Yi Ning didn’t answer him directly. Instead, she gave him a once-over, smiled mischievously, and covered her mouth with her hand as if sharing a secret.
“That’s the Evil Wondrous Invention I’m going to use this afternoon.”
Before Lu Zheng could respond, Yi Ning turned and walked over to the table meant for entertaining guests. She thoughtfully pulled out a chair for Lu Zheng, brought over a kettle of hot water, then walked to a cupboard by the wall and opened its door.
“Only red tea okay?”
“Huh?”
Lu Zheng didn’t catch on.
“Just kidding.”
Yi Ning gave him a wicked look, then pulled out a box of instant coffee and a tin of tea leaves from the cupboard.
“No red tea. Just coffee, green tea, or plain water.”
She walked to the table, shook the two boxes in front of Lu Zheng, the packets of instant coffee and tea leaves rustling inside.
“I still have some energy drinks left.”
Yi Ning scooped a bit of tea into her own cup from the tea tin, then placed both boxes in front of Lu Zheng.
“But for you, it’s just these two. Make your own pick.”
She poured hot water into her cup, then glanced sideways at Lu Zheng’s helmet: “By the way, can you even drink tea with that helmet on?”
Lu Zheng thought for a moment, then took off his helmet and poured himself a cup of plain water.
Anyway, his identity had already been exposed to Yi Ning. When he wasn’t doing hero work, there was no need to keep the helmet on all the time.
He sat in the chair, holding his cup, staring intently at Yi Ning, and asked the question that mattered most to him right now: “Although it might be a bit inappropriate to ask now, do you really have a way to turn Ye Qin back?”
Yi Ning didn’t mind how directly Lu Zheng asked.
She just gave him a somewhat helpless look.
“I graduated from Evil University as the top student. Although I only came in second in the Human Body Modification practicum, solving your little problem is a piece of cake for me.”
“And don’t tell me you forgot?”
Yi Ning stood up from her seat, leaned over the table, and brought her face close to Lu Zheng’s to ask:
“Forgot what?”
Lu Zheng couldn’t quite follow her rhythm.
“You really are forgetful~”
Yi Ning looked a little disappointed.
She stood up, pulled a remote from her pocket, and pressed a button.
A machine rose up from beneath the floor.
Lu Zheng examined the machine closely. It looked a bit familiar.
It was probably one of Dr. Alien’s evil inventions, though he couldn’t recall which one exactly.
After all, Yi Ning made a new one nearly every workday, and he smashed a new one every workday. His memory was fuzzy.
Seeing that Lu Zheng genuinely couldn’t recall, Yi Ning had no choice but to explain it to him again, albeit regretfully.
“Normally I wouldn’t explain one of my inventions twice to the same person, but today’s a special case, so I’ll be magnanimous and give you a second intro.”
Yi Ning walked up to the machine and struck her usual pose for presenting evil inventions.
“Ta-da-da-da! SD-114, my Super Invincible Separator! It can separate one item intact from a pile of mixed things!”
Hearing that familiar explanation, Lu Zheng’s memory gradually began to return.
He remembered now—it was because Dr. Alien had one day discovered that the ingredients list of her favorite snack contained green peppers, which she hated. So she invented this thing to shoot at the snack factory and separate the green peppers out.
Lu Zheng still didn’t quite understand why Dr. Alien had to shoot the snack factory. If she didn’t want to eat green peppers, why not just shoot the snack she had already bought?
It was like she didn’t know what to do that day and just found something random to busy herself with.
And if he remembered correctly, he had destroyed this machine before. So had she built another one?
Lu Zheng buried this question deep in his heart.
He was the one asking for help right now—it was best not to bring up anything unwise.
He nodded along with Yi Ning, indicating that he now remembered the thing.
Seeing Lu Zheng catch on, Yi Ning nodded with satisfaction.
She looked proud of herself.
“Got it now? Even if I can’t do anything about the bomb, I can use this baby to separate the bomb out from your friend’s belly!”