Chapter 321: The Discovered Underground Air-Raid Shelter

Chapter 321: Chapter 176: The Discovered Underground Air-Raid Shelter

The little figure of Morality said: The little figure of Desire is right!

Xu Huo snapped out of it, mentally shattering both little figures with a single punch.

“Ermmm, Xiao Xi, do you know how babies are made?”

Xu Huo explained in a grave and heartfelt tone.

‘Right now,’ he thought.

‘Chu Linhai really ought to get on his knees and thank me!’

‘That old fossil thinks he was both father and mother? I’m the one who’s been both!’

‘Besides, I’ve had to play doctor and all sorts of other roles. I’ve put way more into raising Chu Xi than Chu Linhai ever did.’

“I know.”

Chu Xi nodded.

“You know?” Xu Huo was stunned.

“Yes, didn’t the biology teacher in school talk about it?”

Chu Xi began to explain.

“A sperm and an egg combine to become a fertilized egg, which develops inside the mother. After ten months, it’s fully developed, and then the baby is born.”

Xu Huo: ?

To be honest, if he were talking about this with a friend, Xu Huo might have laughed out loud.

But seeing her completely serious expression,

Xu Huo fell silent, his smile fading.

“Where’s the egg?”

“Usually, it meets the sperm in the fallopian tube.” Chu Xi showed off her basic knowledge of biology.

“And the sperm?”

“It’s stored in the male’s epididymis,” Chu Xi replied again.

“Yes, so here’s the problem. One is with me, and one is with you.”

“How do you think those two things are supposed to meet?”

Xu Huo explained tactfully.

He felt like he was tricking a child right now, but at the same time, it felt like he wasn’t.

Sure enough,

Hearing this, Chu Xi immediately sank into deep thought.

‘This… this…’

‘I don’t think the teacher ever covered this part.’

Chu Xi’s brain crashed. Her thoughts kept freezing and rebooting, freezing and rebooting, occasionally even hitting a blue screen of death.

Seeing this, Xu Huo finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“See? You haven’t even figured out the most important part of marriage—having a baby. How can we get married?”

“Besides, just living in the same house doesn’t make you a married couple. It’s sleeping in the same bed, cuddling together, that counts.”

Xu Huo clarified the logic he hadn’t fully explained before.

Chu Xi nodded thoughtfully.

After thinking for a moment, she asked again:

“So, how *are* babies made?”

“That’s not important. As long as you understand we can’t get our marriage license yet.”

“If not now, does that mean we can later?”

“It’s not a matter of now or later, it’s…”

Xu Huo was at a loss for words. He looked at the curious Chu Xi before him, fell silent for a moment, and said:

“Who told you all this stuff about getting married?”

“Oh, it was an old lady who came to the bakery last time.”

“She asked if I was married because she wanted to introduce me to her son,” Chu Xi explained. “I figured we were already married, so I just turned her down.”

“Next time you see her, call her a fucking idiot.”

“Okay.” Chu Xi nodded her head.

She lowered her head and continued eating. A moment later, she looked up again.

“So we really can’t get our license?”

Xu Huo stuck to his principle of not deceiving the simple-minded.

“No, at least not for now.”

“Okay then.”

Chu Xi nodded, went back to eating with her head down, then after a moment’s thought, added:

“Is it because of the baby thing?”

“You could say that.”

Xu Huo nodded again.

“Oh.”

Chu Xi held her bowl with both hands, eating thoughtfully.

‘That should settle it for now,’ Xu Huo thought.

He let out a long breath of relief.

At this moment, his little figure of Morality and little figure of Desire appeared again.

The little figure of Desire said: You’re a real piece of work!

The little figure of Morality said: Yeah, yeah, you’re a real piece of work.

Xu Huo mentally slapped the little figures into oblivion.

He got up, grumbling, and then got dressed.

Ever since he got those Skills, his mental state had become increasingly precarious. Luckily, he had ‘Stable Consciousness’ to suppress it; otherwise, the little figures probably would have multiplied.

‘But the problem is… why are my inner voices so cynical!?’

‘I’m obviously a good person.’

“I’m heading out. The city bureau’s busy today.”

“And don’t save dinner for me. I might be back very late,”

Xu Huo said, then hurried out.

Chu Xi nodded absently.

After she finished eating, she washed the dishes.

Then she deadbolted the door, and after a moment’s thought, returned to her bedroom.

She lifted her shirt slightly.

Revealing her smooth, jade-like stomach, which was completely flat.

Looking in the mirror, Chu Xi’s fingertip gently probed a certain spot on her lower abdomen, her eyes filled with confusion.

She puzzled over it for a long time but couldn’t find a solution to the problem.

Finally, after racking her brains…

She decided to solve the other problem first.

Chu Xi gathered her bedding, slipped into Xu Huo’s bedroom, and made a pallet on the floor.

She tried lying on it and found it was hard and uncomfortable.

She thought for a moment.

Her gaze fell upon Xu Huo’s large bed.

A thoughtful look gradually appeared in her eyes.

…

…

“Hm? Say that again.”

Meanwhile,

at the city bureau, Xu Huo, still unaware his home had been invaded, stared at the person in front of him, a stunned look on his face.

“Bro, I’m begging you, just give me some kind of status. As long as it comes with a certificate!”

After collecting his reward money at the bureau, Wang Chao, who still looked miserable, pleaded with Xu Huo the moment he saw him.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You’re turning down a twenty-thousand-yuan bonus for a piece of paper?” Xu Huo asked in astonishment.

“I can’t go home without a certificate.”

“You know what my family is like.”

“My whole family is full of snobs. I tell them I’m a store manager, but they don’t believe me. Besides, in their eyes, a manager is just another wage slave.”

“I need an official certificate.”

Wang Chao sighed, his expression bleak.

“You’re not a government employee, where the hell am I supposed to get you a certificate!?”

Xu Huo grumbled.

“It doesn’t have to be totally legit, and it doesn’t need any important-looking stamps.”

Wang Chao tried to press his case.

“Just a regular certificate is fine, as long as it’s enough to fool people.”

“Seriously, as long as it can fool them, it’s good enough!”

“They’re ignorant, really ignorant…”

Xu Huo was left speechless.

‘A consultant certificate?’

‘That could work.’

‘But the problem is, I don’t have the authority to make him a consultant!’

He wasn’t part of the system; he’d traded his merits and influence for that cash bonus. Otherwise, there’s no way it would’ve been that much.

Besides…

The place he had the most authority was the tri-party joint task force.

‘If I really had to give him something…’

“You don’t expect me to award you an ‘Honorary Police K-9’ certificate, do you?”

Xu Huo said helplessly.

‘I can’t just make him a consultant for the task force.’

‘That’s too high-profile. Giving it to him would cause a major incident. All the top brass are watching.’

There was nothing lower-level he could give either.

‘After all, a position means real work, and I don’t know if he could handle the pressure.’

But if it was just an honorary title, there were only a few options.

“Honorary Police K-9!?”

“That works too! I can say I’m a K-9 trainer.”

Wang Chao’s eyes lit up.

Xu Huo: ?

Xu Huo froze. He stared at Wang Chao, his face a mask of disbelief.

“If that’s too much, how about I use your past achievements to get you a ‘Good Samaritan’ award?”

“No, no, ‘Good Samaritan’ is too common. It’s not impressive enough to fool anyone,”

Wang Chao rejected the idea.

“Honorary Police K-9!”

“Let’s go with Honorary Police K-9!”

Xu Huo: …

Xu Huo fell silent. ‘This kid… maybe he’s actually a genius!’

But before he could respond to the matter,

a moment later, Zhang Liang appeared before Xu Huo, fully armed and wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Seeing this, Xu Huo’s expression turned serious.

He was here on official business!

“We shifted the focus of our investigation from ships and overseas to inland, specifically the coastal area of Jiangsan City.”

“After five days of a grid search, we finally discovered…”

“A modified air-raid shelter.”

“If we’re not mistaken, that… is where Zhou Hou and the others are being held!”

Zhang Liang looked at Xu Huo, his expression extremely grim as he explained the intelligence gathered over the past few days.

Previously, Xu Huo had made some counter-intuitive deductions about Zhou Hou.

Zhou Hou…

Might never have left the country!

The culprit had merely created the illusion that he had.

Xu Huo paused, then took the pistol and bulletproof vest that Zhang Liang tossed to him.

“Do you have exact coordinates?”

“We do.”

“Let’s go!”

“I’d like to see…”

“Just which sons of bitches would dare pull something like this on Eastern Country soil!”

Xu Huo spoke coldly, shrugging on the bulletproof vest. With a sharp tug, he racked the slide of his pistol.

The crisp sound of a round being chambered echoed in his ears.

CLICK!

“Let’s go!”