Chapter 25: Has No One Ever Held a Girl’s Hand Before?
Looking at the ever-greedy Yi Ning in front of him, Lu Zheng sighed helplessly.
“Then I’ll give you two weeks’ worth.”
Lu Zheng wasn’t that stingy about such things anyway. After all, if Yi Ning wasn’t working, it would significantly reduce the number of superpower-related incidents in D-City, and he’d have less work too.
But these kinds of documents had to be issued and stamped by Miss Qiu Yu, the deputy director of the D-City Hero Association. He couldn’t interfere, so it wasn’t ideal to make such blank promises so casually.
Unfortunately, Yi Ning was still not satisfied.
“One month.”
She held up one finger.
“Thirty-one separate Certificates of Evil Deeds. Issued individually, no dates filled in.”
“Alright.”
Lu Zheng sighed.
For Ye Qin’s sake, Miss Qiu Yu would probably agree to issue Dr. Alien thirty-one of those certificates.
“I’ll convince Qiu Yu to give you thirty-one of them. So let’s hurry and go now.”
He reached out his hand to Yi Ning again.
“What’s the rush?”
Unfortunately, Yi Ning still had that leisurely attitude.
She walked to the Super Invincible Separator, pulled out a few unfamiliar gadgets from her pocket, and fiddled with the machine for a bit.
The machine, originally twice Yi Ning’s height, suddenly shrunk and disappeared into her hand.
“At least let me bring my tools. Even the best cook can’t do her job without the right ingredients.”
She turned to Lu Zheng, then ran off to her workshop. She came back out only after quite a while.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Yi Ning extended her hand to Lu Zheng.
“Mhm.”
Lu Zheng nodded and held Yi Ning’s small hand.
He had been so worried about Ye Qin before that he had no time to think about anything else, but now that he had Dr. Alien’s assurance, his previously anxious heart was suddenly at ease.
Even he couldn’t quite understand why he trusted her so much.
But that wasn’t the point.
The point was that now his brain had the bandwidth to think about other things.
Lu Zheng subconsciously squeezed Yi Ning’s soft, boneless little hand.
Come to think of it, wasn’t this the first time he had held a girl’s hand since elementary school?
But could someone like Dr. Alien really be considered a “girl”?
Even though that’s what he thought, the soft, smooth feeling in his hand still made Lu Zheng feel a bit flustered and dreamy.
Hopefully, he didn’t have sweaty palms.
Because of this unnecessary nervousness, Lu Zheng unwittingly applied a bit too much force.
“Hiss—”
Yi Ning sucked in a breath from the pain.
She quickly kicked Lu Zheng, snapping him out of his daze.
“Why’d you squeeze me like that?”
Yi Ning scolded Lu Zheng, clearly annoyed.
“Uh…”
Lu Zheng looked flustered, unable to come up with a good excuse.
Luckily, Yi Ning had once been a man and instantly figured out what he was thinking.
“Heh~”
Yi Ning scoffed.
“First time holding a girl’s hand, huh? Look how nervous you are.”
Despite her composed expression, the atmosphere made her feel a little awkward too.
Come to think of it—she was a girl now.
Although it had already been three days since she transformed, and Yi Ning didn’t particularly dislike her new identity, she was essentially a shut-in. Besides a few fellow troublemakers from her organization and her arch-nemesis Lu Zheng, she had little social interaction.
And since her physical strength hadn’t changed, her life remained more or less the same. Except when addressing biological needs or showering, she rarely registered the fact that she was now a girl.
But Lu Zheng’s reaction made her suddenly realize—she was a girl now.
Recalling her previous attitude toward Lu Zheng and the “service” she had demanded of him, she realized she had unknowingly given him quite a few “benefits.”
Yi Ning lowered her head slightly, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.
Fortunately, she recovered quickly and put her usual expression back on before raising her head, allowing her to resume mocking Lu Zheng.
“No way, right? No way? No one’s actually never held a girl’s hand before, right?”
Lu Zheng’s face turned livid. He could only pretend not to hear and, still holding Yi Ning’s hand, activated his spatial teleportation. The two of them appeared inside the Hero Association.
Miss Qiu Yu was sitting beside Ye Qin, carefully looking after her.
Upon seeing Lu Zheng and Yi Ning, she subtly glanced at their linked hands, then stood up from beside Ye Qin.
Just for teleportation. Just for teleportation.
Qiu Yu comforted herself with that thought.
She walked over to Yi Ning and looked at her: “Dr. Alien, are you confident you can turn Ye Qin back?”
“Wouldn’t dare say a hundred percent.” Yi Ning pulled her small hand out of Lu Zheng’s grasp, brushed past Miss Qiu Yu, and walked to Ye Qin. “But ninety-nine point nine percent should be no problem.”
“By the way, just call me Yi Ning. Off the clock, I prefer people to use my name.”
Yi Ning sat next to Ye Qin and pulled out a pile of unfamiliar objects from the pocket of her white lab coat.
“What are these?”
“Shh, don’t disturb the doctor at work.”
Yi Ning wagged her finger, refusing to answer Lu Zheng’s question.
She picked up a device with a display screen and began inspecting Ye Qin’s body.
As the inspection progressed, Yi Ning showed a surprised expression.
“Oh my, this human bomb... the modification is truly perfect—better than my boss’s work.”
The multicolored wires were perfectly integrated with the body. Even the top surgeons probably wouldn’t be able to separate them from the muscle tissue.
The detonator and explosives were seamlessly connected to the heart—making it absurdly difficult for anyone to try disarming the bomb physically.
Any physical approach could very likely harm Ye Qin’s heart.
If someone brought this as an exam project for Human Body Modification, Yi Ning was sure they’d score 150 out of 100.
“Stop praising the bomb’s craftsmanship and just separate it already!”
Seeing Yi Ning inspecting so leisurely—while the countdown on Ye Qin’s chest kept ticking—Miss Qiu Yu and Lu Zheng were about to lose their minds.
But they didn’t dare approach, afraid of disrupting Yi Ning during the bomb disarming process.
All they could do was nag from a distance.
“What’s the rush? Can’t you see there’s still plenty of time left on this thing?”
Yi Ning pointed at the numbers on Ye Qin’s chest, rolled her eyes at the two of them, packed away her tools, and stood up from the chair.
“What is it?”
Lu Zheng immediately asked.
“For a normal human bomb, these tools would suffice. But for a bomb of this caliber—using them would likely send the person and the bomb to the afterlife together.”
“Then what do we do? Miss Yi Ning, p-please think of something!”
Miss Qiu Yu grabbed Yi Ning’s hands tightly, shaking them while looking at her with pleading eyes.
“Relax, we’ll do our best.”
Yi Ning was thoroughly enjoying this moment.
She nodded, forcefully pulled her hands out of Miss Qiu Yu’s grasp, then waved at them both to stand even farther back.
Once she had enough space, she pulled out the shrunken Super Invincible Separator from her pocket, placed it on the ground, and fiddled with it again using a few gadgets.
Soon, the machine returned to its original size, standing firmly in the cleared space.
Looking at the strange device, Miss Qiu Yu felt a bit uneasy. She quietly moved closer to Lu Zheng and whispered, “Are you sure this thing really works?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve seen it work with my own eyes.”
But even with Lu Zheng’s reassurance, she still wasn’t fully at ease and secretly prepared some spells to ensure she could save Ye Qin in case something went wrong.
Yi Ning sat down at the control panel, aimed at the reclining Ye Qin, then turned her head toward Lu Zheng.
“By the way, where’s your power outlet?”