Chapter 247

Chapter 247: Reward

Yu Sheng stared while Bai Li Qing and the Hunter exchanged greetings. The silence stretched for a couple of seconds before he could not help himself: “Hold on, I’ve got a question!”

Bai Li Qing turned her head toward him.

“The Hunter called you Director?” Yu Sheng looked at the woman who did not look much older than him and was the Director: “Their squad disappeared in the Fairy Tale seventy years ago, and you were their Director?”

Bai Li Qing blinked. Maybe it was his imagination, but Yu Sheng thought the corner of her mouth held the shadow of a smile, a hint of triumph on that ice-cold face. She spoke with a calm voice touched by teasing: “Yes. I’ve been in this position for a hundred years.”

“How old are you?!” Yu Sheng blurted.

Bai Li Qing only looked at him with that maybe-smile and did not answer.

At last Yu Sheng caught up. He realized neither of the Bai Li sisters counted as “normal.” As one of the five councilors of the Borderland who controlled the entire Special Affairs Bureau, the woman in front of him might not be a purely Human being anymore.

[Special ability? Some kind of influence? Bloodline? A “change” that happened through dealing with the Otherworld and Entities?] The possibilities were many. Five or six plotlines sprang to mind at once, at least forty episodes plus two specials. But it was obvious that asking outright would get nowhere.

So he did not press. He spread his hands and, at the same time, suddenly understood a small detail that had nagged him.

Back at the Special Affairs Bureau, Bai Li Qing had always called the captain of the Second Unit, Song Cheng, “Little Song.” It was not how a superior addressed a subordinate. It was more like an elder calling a junior, the kind of junior you trained by hand. Yet by looks alone the forty-something Song Cheng seemed nearly a decade older than Bai Li Qing.

“I really didn’t see this coming,” Yu Sheng sighed: “No wonder when you told me about the Orphanage and the ‘coming of age’ plan back then, you sounded like you were there.”

“You didn’t ask,” Bai Li Qing said mildly, a touch wistful in her tone: “Yes. That was many years ago.”

She turned to look at the Hunter standing in the night.

After a long moment, she lowered her head and seemed to search her clothes for something. Then she stepped forward and stood face to face with the Hunter.

“When I sent you off back then, I said I would present your award at the celebration after the Cursed Children were safe,” she said slowly: “It’s late by many years, but today truly is a day for celebration. Do you mind if it’s only one medal?”

The Hunter said nothing and suddenly stood at attention. Though it was only a ragged Hunter’s Garb floating in the air, it was straight and proud like a soldier.

No stage, no flowers or applause, no officers or comrades to witness. It was perhaps the simplest award ceremony in the history of the Special Affairs Bureau. To Yu Sheng, it felt a little too simple. Whether as the heroic Deep Dive Squad from seventy years ago or as the Hunter who fought the Evil Wolf in the Black Forest to protect Little Red Riding Hood, today’s honoree deserved something more formal and solemn.

Yet this plain ceremony seemed to be the tacit choice of the two figures on the Open Ground.

A slight smile appeared on Bai Li Qing’s face. She carefully pinned a medal engraved with a short sword and a laurel wreath to the Hunter’s chest.

Fireworks lifted off with sharp, joyful whistles and thumped in the sky, just like the Hunter’s gunshots.

Great, radiant rings burst in the night and spread a coronet of fire across the heavens.

The light shone on Bai Li Qing’s face, on the Hunter, and for a moment lit the whole Open Ground.

The Squirrel flinched at the booming overhead, then craned up at the gorgeous light, squeaking in delight: “Wow! So grand. This one is even grander than the earlier fireworks!”

Yu Sheng looked up too and muttered: “Of course it’s grand. That’s a cruise missile.”

More fireworks went up, with a sneaky fox tail mixed among them. The crashes were so loud the clouds quivered. Luckily the cloud cover was under Yu Sheng’s control. Otherwise, with the Nine Tailed Fox this hyped up, two Fox Radish Missiles might have blown the daytime right back out.

Irene’s voice sounded in Yu Sheng’s head: “Hey, Yu Sheng, where are you? The silly fox is going wild. She’s firing tails one by one into the sky, and a bunch of Human kids are cheering her on!”

“Let her play. I’ll be back soon,” Yu Sheng said cheerfully: “The Special Affairs Bureau is covering food tonight. She can eat and shoot all she wants.”

“You’re so chill. She went to the grill, and two people can’t cook fast enough for her alone. She just bit through two iron skewers,” Irene squawked: “She’s eating coal too. She poured chili oil on glowing coals and wrapped them with pork belly to eat-”

Yu Sheng: “[Foxy is that hyped?]”

He brushed Irene off with a couple of words, then glanced at the Hunter: “Want to come with us to the Plaza? Little Red Riding Hood and the others are waiting to see you.”

The Hunter hesitated: “The way we look now might scare the younger children who haven’t seen the Black Forest.”

Yu Sheng laughed: “Now you’re overthinking it. And think again, are they ordinary kids? They’ve seen everything. A six-year-old dared hang onto a cruise missile. Come on.”

The Hunter hesitated a moment more, then stepped toward Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng turned back to Bai Li Qing.

“Fine,” Bai Li Qing lifted a hand helplessly: “But if it kills the mood, that’s not on me.”

They returned to the Plaza. As the Bonfire burned at its hottest, Little Red Riding Hood saw the familiar figures of the Hunter and the Squirrel.

It might have been her happiest moment of the night.

A big crowd of kids-older, younger, in-between-ran over at once to greet the Hunter, asking all sorts of wild questions, or simply hugging the floating, empty clothes. Many were just curious, wondering if anything was “holding up” the clothes, but either way, there was no rejection or fear around the Hunter.

That tall figure, upheld by twelve noble souls, even looked a bit at a loss.

The Squirrel hopped from head to shoulder to head again, thrilled out of her mind.

Clearly, she would soon be friends with everyone here.

Yu Sheng smiled at the scene, then turned and saw a pocket of Clear Tranquility right by the lively Bonfire.

Within ten meters around Bai Li Qing it was quiet. Only a few people from the Special Affairs Bureau stood near her, faces tight like they were ready to deliver a report at any time.

“I told you,” Bai Li Qing said, expressionless, when she saw Yu Sheng walk over: “You didn’t believe me.”

Yu Sheng glanced around and spread his hands, half laughing: “Okay, I’m convinced. How do you even do this?”

“My work style must have some effect,” Bai Li Qing sighed: “But that’s not the main issue.”

“Oh?” Yu Sheng raised a brow.

“Imagine an old leader who has sat at the helm for a full century. She knows every department and every person, knows every single thing you’ve done and every mistake you’ve made since the day you walked through the door. Your strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, and talents are all watched and recorded by one pair of eyes. You work like this until retirement. The next newcomer goes through the same thing at a hundred percent. Soon everyone treats it as one of the countless weirdnesses in the Special Affairs Bureau building, a rule-like tale they review every night before bed. Then they pass that experience down like a tradition to the next generation and the next…” Bai Li Qing pointed to herself: “This is what you get.”

Yu Sheng had no words.

Bai Li Qing did not seem to mind. She dragged over a chair from the Open Ground nearby-it looked like it had come from a Castle’s Banquet Hall-sat down, and waved at the tense Bureau staff around her: “All right. Back to whatever you were doing. No reports here.”

Those people fled like they had been pardoned.

“You’re pretty laid back,” Yu Sheng said, a little impressed.

“I don’t mind, because this actually boosts the Bureau’s efficiency. I have no plan to change it,” Bai Li Qing said casually: “The Special Affairs Bureau is a special place. I need it running with precision at all times. If they weren’t a little afraid of me, many of them would have to face something far scarier.”

Yu Sheng said nothing more. He pulled a chair over and sat next to her. They watched the great Bonfire burn.

The three Irenes were setting off small fireworks on the Open Ground by the Bonfire, fireworks they had bummed off some kid.

Foxy had grabbed a massive meat skewer from the grill and was chomping with oil all over her mouth.

The Squirrel was telling Rapunzel how bravely she fought the shadow of Anka Aila in the Black Forest. One dared to tell it, and one dared to listen.

The Mermaid kept doing background music. Her mouth could make almost any sound. Now it was a rousing orchestra. No one knew what exactly had fired her up, only that she was fired up.

[Nice.]