Chapter 165 – I Don’t Care What You Think-I’m Calling the Shots

Qin Ling drove over to pick up Lin Xi shortly before midnight.

Thinking about it, Lin Xi realized this might be the first time the two of them had gone out alone.

Qin Ling wore light athletic clothes and a baseball cap, her cherry-pink hair tucked neatly beneath it.

“Do I look strange dressed like this?” Qin Ling had noticed Lin Xi watching her from the passenger seat.

“Not at all,” Lin Xi said. “You look adorable.”

“Eep-” Qin Ling let out a startled squeak. “Don’t say things like that out of nowhere! You’re going to distract me while I’m driving!”

“What’s wrong with calling you adorable?” Lin Xi honestly didn’t think she’d said anything strange. “You are adorable.”

“Spoken like the Blazing Flame Succubus. Lin Xi, your skill at seducing girls truly is first-rate.”

“Huh? I don’t know how to seduce girls.”

“Heh.”

Qin Ling had weathered Lin Xi’s “attack.” Now it was time to turn defense into offense.

“Remember, we aren’t going shopping.”

“Mm, I know. We’re solving a case. With a genius girl like you and an experienced assistant like me, we’ll be fine.”

“Experienced? Where did you get any investigative experience?”

“Mystery movies, detective novels, Werewolf…” Lin Xi listed them one by one.

Qin Ling: “…”

“Well, I suppose that’s not entirely useless. If you understand the basics, then you must understand how important it is to conceal our identities during a secret investigation.”

“Of course. We’re undercover detectives.”

“Good. Then we need to agree on cover identities. For example, if someone asks what kind of relationship you and I have-“

“Easy,” Lin Xi answered at once. “I’m the older sister, and you’re the younger one.”

“Huh?! Why am I the little sister?”

“Because you’re small and adorable, Qin Ling. You give off a cute-little-sister sort of feeling…”

“No. That cover relationship isn’t convincing enough.”

“What relationship do you want us to pretend to have, then?”

“Girlfriends…”

“What? You were too quiet. I didn’t hear you.”

“Girlfriends! Did you hear me this time?” Qin Ling shouted, staring rigidly at the road as heat rapidly flooded her cheeks.

“Girlfriends?!” Lin Xi was astonished. “You and me? Pretending to date? That’s even less convincing than pretending to be sisters.”

The heat vanished from Qin Ling’s face at once. “What’s that supposed to mean? Why can’t you and I pass as a couple? Do you think I’m not good enough for you?”

“No, no,” Lin Xi said. “I just think pretending to be a couple would be stranger.”

“I don’t care what you think. What matters is what I think,” Qin Ling declared like an overbearing CEO. “Lin Xi, answer me this: which one of us is smarter?”

“You are, obviously. You’re the genius girl.”

“Exactly. So you’ll follow my lead. From now on, you’re my… girlfriend…”

“Yes, darling!” Lin Xi cried.

Lin Xi slipped into character so fast that Qin Ling had no idea how to respond. “That came out far too naturally! Tell me the truth-have you been secretly in love with me?”

Lin Xi: “…”

“Weren’t you the one who told me to get into character immediately?”

“I…” Qin Ling couldn’t produce another word for a long while.

Lin Xi had her completely cornered…

…

Once they entered the underground Black Market, Lin Xi walked along holding Qin Ling’s hand.

Qin Ling had insisted on it.

She said the Black Market was a confusing maze of twists and turns, and holding hands would keep Lin Xi from getting lost.

Lin Xi thought that made perfect sense.

Qin Ling’s hand was small, warm, and soft. Lin Xi found that every girl’s hand felt different.

“Are you thinking something weird and perverted while you hold my hand?” Qin Ling had keenly detected the change in her expression.

“No,” Lin Xi said. “I was only thinking that different girls’ hands really do feel different.”

Qin Ling flared up. “Haki Xi, you King of Ten Thousand Females1! How many girls’ hands have you held?!”

“I am not the King of Ten Thousand Females,” Lin Xi said, defending her good name. “Those were all innocent hand-holding moments between friends, exactly like this one.”

“Tsk. All that desire and none of the nerve to act on it…”

Lin Xi truly hadn’t been entertaining any improper thoughts, and Qin Ling seemed almost disappointed by that.

Lin Xi wanted to tell her that she possessed neither lustful nerve nor lustful thoughts.

She was a perfect, upright lady.

As they walked, Lin Xi found the Black Market dim and deserted. “This place isn’t lively at all.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Qin Ling said. “It only gets lively when the Countermeasures Bureau raids the place and everyone starts running for their lives.”

Lin Xi: “…”

“Don’t worry, though,” Qin Ling explained. “The Black Market has its own administrators-the Order Bureau. They preserve stability and maintain order here. As long as no one causes a major disturbance, the Countermeasures Bureau generally won’t intervene.”

“By the way, the Order Bureau is still searching for whoever wiped out the Shock Shark Gang.”

“Huh?! They’re looking for me?” Lin Xi blurted.

“Yes. The Shock Shark Gang may have been scum, but annihilating the entire gang disrupted the market’s stability and order. Naturally, the Order Bureau wants to know who did it.”

“I didn’t have a choice at the time. The Shock Shark Gang was too vile. They tried to attack me, then set their sights on Xinning and falsely accused her of murder and arson. If they hadn’t been wiped out, there would be no justice in the world.”

“Well,” Qin Ling said, having no objection to Lin Xi’s destruction of the Shock Shark Gang, “they’re all dead, so no one will ever know you did it.”

“Oh.” An idea immediately occurred to Lin Xi. “Do you think our murdered colleague was killed by some gang? There must be plenty of garbage gangs around here like the Shock Shark Gang, right?”

“Maybe. We’ll know more once we reach the crime scene.”

Qin Ling and Lin Xi continued along the route leading there.

“Our murdered colleague had a stall at the Black Market. On the surface, he sold grilled meat.”

“Grilled meat? That’s almost too ordinary.”

“Ordinary? He grilled meat from Dark Realm monsters. Do you still think it’s ordinary?”

“Oh. Wow… Why didn’t you tell me sooner that our organization had a grill master like that?”

Lin Xi told Qin Ling that she had eaten roasted Mingwing Clan meat before.

“Grilled Bird is insanely delicious. I’ve actually wanted to try some other grilled monster meats…”

“You’re into that too?” Qin Ling asked.

“What, have you tried it?” Lin Xi countered.

Qin Ling shook her head. “When I ate with Lu Yi before, we got to talking about food. She told me she’d eaten monsters.”

“Wow,” Lin Xi marveled. “Lu Yi and I truly are kindred spirits.”

“Save the sentiment. See the shop up ahead on the left? We’re here.”

“Oh, finally.”

“Don’t go in yet,” Qin Ling warned. “Circle around once.”

“Why?”

“To make sure no one’s following us.”

“Huh? Someone is following us?”

“I said we’re making sure no one is following us. Understand?”

“Oh. Oh! As expected of Qin Ling. You’re so meticulous.”

Footnote:

• King of Ten Thousand Females(万雌王): A Chinese homophone parody of Magneto’s Chinese name, “King of Magnetism.” The word for “magnetism” is replaced by a same-sounding word meaning “female.”