Chapter 238: Having a Meal

"This thing..." Zhang Wenda frowned, looking at the dagger in his chest. It didn’t hurt at all, so he’d almost forgotten about it.

Back when I was fighting Qianxi, I used this trump card without holding anything back.

The thought of its side effects made Zhang Wenda’s head ache.

’It’s powerful, sure, but dealing with the aftermath is a real pain.’

"Sigh, I should make a call and ask." Zhang Wenda pulled out his phone, then looked awkwardly at its sliced-open casing. Without any hands, everything was incredibly inconvenient.

"Here, let me help." Hu Maomao reached out and took the phone. "Who are you calling? What’s the name?"

"The fifth contact. Mayan."

As soon as the call connected, he heard that very stilted Mandarin again. Zhang Wenda immediately spoke with forced enthusiasm, "Hey, is that Ahava? Long time no see! How have you been?"

"Yeah, it’s me. Hey, do me a favor. Is your Moon God nearby? Hand her the phone for a sec, I need to talk to her about something."

"It’s nothing else, just have her take the call. What do you mean she can’t? Just put the phone on her altar and pray a little. She’ll get the message, won’t she?"

However, while Zhang Wenda was waiting, a translucent arm formed of pure moonlight snaked out of his phone’s earpiece. It forcefully snatched the phone away, quickly found the contacts, and deleted Ahava’s number.

Then, it grabbed Zhang Wenda’s phone and smashed it violently on the ground. Having expressed the Moon God’s fury, it retreated back into the phone’s earpiece and vanished.

For a moment, the room was dead silent. Zhang Wenda and Hu Maomao stared at each other.

After a few seconds, Hu Maomao spoke. "Looks like she doesn’t want to help you."

"If she won’t help, she won’t help. What’s with smashing the phone?" Zhang Wenda grumbled, bending down to pick the phone back up. He turned to Hu Maomao. "So, America’s a no-go. Who should I look for to deal with this thing? Any ideas?"

Hu Maomao cupped her chin and thought for a moment before saying, "For this, I think you could ask Old Tan for help."

Hearing this, Zhang Wenda was struck with inspiration. "You’re right! Since he’s planning to use me as bait, my problem is his problem. Why should I be the one stressing out?"

’If Kopan captures my soul, he’ll be the one in a real panic.’ Since the guy wanted to use me, I should definitely collect some payment in advance.

The thought of getting something for free out of Tan Yougen made Zhang Wenda eager. He was about to turn and head for the office to find him.

Hu Maomao’s words stopped him in his tracks. "Don’t be hasty. He’s still in Thought Wave Six and hasn’t returned yet. Wait until tomorrow."

"Then I’ll just have to wait." Zhang Wenda sat down on a stool, a bit disappointed. He’d almost forgotten that when he came back, he had just missed Old Tan. He’d even punched him.

With that topic concluded, the room fell silent again. Seeing that Zhang Wenda had no intention of moving, Hu Maomao looked at him in surprise. "Are you planning to wait here, in my house?"

"Well, I’m worried Kopan might come for me. You’re the only one who can stop him, and besides..."

As he spoke, Zhang Wenda glanced up at the cat clock on the wall. "It’s already six o’clock? Time really flies."

Hu Maomao immediately understood his subtext: it was time for dinner. "Don’t you have food at your place? Why do you always have to come here to mooch a meal?"

"When Jianguo and I eat by ourselves, we just throw something together. It’s either noodles with tomato and egg or some store-bought marinated meats. Nothing smells as good as your cooking. Besides, I’m sick of takeout every day."

Hu Maomao was defeated by Zhang Wenda’s shamelessness. She opened the refrigerator and took out some vegetables.

Because she was short, Hu Maomao had to stand on a small stool to chop vegetables and cook. Seeing that Zhang Wenda wasn’t moving, she issued a direct order, "Get over here and chop. You’re washing the pots and bowls when we’re done."

Washing the vegetables was a bit difficult, but Zhang Wenda’s sharp scythe was surprisingly good for chopping them. At least he wasn’t a complete freeloader.

Dinner tonight was big plate chicken, stir-fried bean curd skin with Shanghai bok choy, and a tomato egg drop soup.

Since Zhang Wenda didn’t have hands, eating was very inconvenient. He had to use a large iron ladle, piling all the food into a big bowl to scoop it up. Even so, it was much better than going home and just boiling some plain noodles.

Having a friend at work who could cook was great for this reason: he could come over for a good meal every now and then.

"By the way, Maomao, has there been any recent news from Bureau 507 about the Big Circle?" Zhang Wenda asked while chewing loudly, not even bothering to spit out the chicken bones.

"Why are you asking me about that?" Hu Maomao picked up her chopsticks and began meticulously picking out the onion slices from the big plate chicken. The dish called for onions, but she disliked their pungent taste.

"Don’t you have Mind Control? Your power lets you hear people’s thoughts, right? If something big were really going to happen at the Bureau, you’d definitely be the first to know."

"There’s not much. I just heard from some intel passed on by undercover agents that the Big Circle seems to be secretly planning something big again."

"When are they *not* planning something big? Anything else?"

"Bureau 507 has been in frequent contact with the other two bureaus. Ten of the fifteen masters in the bureau who have their own Thought Waves have left. As for where they went, don’t ask me. I don’t know either."

"Sounds like something big is happening again. I just hope not too many people die this time."

"After the huge mess the Big Circle made last time, there’s no way the Bureau wouldn’t retaliate. I just don’t know how Director Tan plans to make his move."

The dinner ended amidst their casual conversation. In the end, Zhang Wenda didn’t do the dishes—not after he broke two of the bowls.

After Zhang Wenda left with an apologetic look on his face, Hu Maomao slammed the door shut and began to clean up the mess.

Thought Wave Two didn’t bring much joy, but as she listened to music and washed the dishes, humming along to a song, her mood began to lift.

She was used to being alone; most of her friends were long dead. But having a junior suddenly barge into her life and stir things up... it didn’t feel so bad.

Zhang Wenda was like a stone tossed into the still pond of her unchanging life, sending ripples through it.

When Zhang Wenda got back to his place, he tossed the hamburger combo he was carrying to a hungry Song Jianguo. Amidst her cheers, he sat down on the sofa.

’Is the Third Line finally making a move on the Big Circle? Is that related to Old Tan telling me to come to his office tomorrow?’

After a moment of contemplation, Zhang Wenda realized he couldn’t influence these matters anyway, so he stopped wasting energy on them.

Instead, he began to review the events of his search for "Red."