The Great Worm Lich

“Bob, you’ve been the Minister of Defense for too long. Too many conspiracies have already sunken deep in your heart. Even a primary student who had just learned biology would know that a 596 meter long, 79-meter wide monster that flies in the sky like a plane is impossible to be a living weapon that a human lab cultivated..”

“It’s impossible that humans made it? Do you mean…”

“I mean America’s still young. We’ve been noticing the existence of aliens but we ignore them. It seems like we can no longer do that in the future. Luckily, the study in Area 51…”

“Don’t ever mention that over the phone, you can’t do that even if this is an encrypted phone. We all know that’s the iron rule!”

“Everyone in the world knows the existence of Area 51 but you’re always in denial…”

“Henry T. Grace!”

“Alright, I’ll shut my mouth.”

After a long time of silence on the phone, the voice spoke. “Henry, where are you now?”

“I’m breathing in the fresh air near the river in Arlington. I’ve also just shared my lunch with a water bird…”

“You’re in Arlington? What the hell, stop your nonsense old man. Come see me now, right now!”

“But it’s my lunch break right now…”

“The president is waiting for my ministry for a written report. Come here at this instant!” The voice on the phone was almost screaming.

“Alright, alright. The reason I came to Arlington is to see you anyway. Wouldn’t kill me to go there earlier, wait for me.” The old man hung his up as he pouted. He picked up his old briefcase and faced the street slowly by the riverside. He got into an old, small Ford car and drove towards a pentagon-shaped building covered in trees after turning the engine on.

At the same time the America chief defense consultant was driving to see the Minister of Defense, Zhang Lisheng was looking around, standing on Lowbige Junior High’s open-style school compound field. There was a military vehicle and a siren-less police car with the emergency light flickering on and off less than 50 meters away from him. They were doing rounds back and forth.

Meanwhile, the students around him were discussing loudly. “Did you guys hear? The USS Eagle is doing rounds around the New York sea. There are also a few destroyers and frigates, seems like the monster that attacked Queens Harbor is in big trouble.”

“Nuclear submarines as well. My brother works in the navy, he secretly told me that at least three nuclear submarines are deep within the New York sea but he said they’re looking for the fallen alien’s UFO instead of fighting some monster.”

“Oh damn, you mean the giant beast with the huge mouth was the alien’s UFO?! Are you insane?”

“Have you seen how UFOs look like? All the photos on the internet are so blurred, some of them are obviously photoshopped…”

Zhang Lisheng forced a smile while mumbling to himself, hearing and witnessing the radical reaction the United States sent its machines to do. “Destroyers, large frigates, and nuclear submarines… seems like attacking Queens Harbor was too hasty. After all, America isn’t Tatetutu, it’s better that I behave myself for these few days…”

He saw a familiar SUV all of a sudden while he was mumbling to himself. It was parked outside Lowbige Junior High. A young, gorgeous blonde haired lady wearing a pair of nude heels while carrying a handbag opened the door and got out of the car while on her phone. At the same time, the phone in Zhang Lisheng’s pocket went ‘chirp chirp chirp…’.

He ignored his phone and welcomed the lady while stepping on the green grass. The lady was going to call him again since he did not pick up after so many rings, but then she saw Zhang Lisheng walking towards her and sprinted towards him in surprise. She gave him a hug afterward. “Lisheng, I can finally see you..”

“Long time no see Tina, seems like you’re sober today.”

“Don’t be so mean right after we meet, Zhang Lisheng. I got a big gift for you.” Tina took out a paper document from her bag like she was claiming the credit. It was a loan guarantee contract, the amount was three million dollars. The guarantor had signed his name, it had Dolby Douglin’s name on it.

Dolby Douglin was Tina’s father, she spent great effort and persistence to finally get his father to repay Zhang Lisheng when she was grounded. After making the contract which was a repay, Mr. Douglin who was genuinely grateful thought it was the young man’s instigation that his daughter was being so persistent which actually had never happened. He despised the young man that he had never seen before to the bones right now.

However, the Old Douglin’s opinion on Zhang Lisheng was unimportant at all. Since it was just a guarantee instead of a gift while LS Slaughterhouse’s profit was enough to pay for the loan interest, he did not reject Tina’s surprise since he thought it was absolutely worth what he did for her. He accepted everything with ease.

“I happen to need money to expand my slaughterhouse business, thanks. Oh yeah Tina, didn’t you write me a proposal before we went to the Amazon? Give me that.” Zhang Lisheng folded the loan guarantee contract and put it inside his backpack while he spoke.

“I have a new plan for your slaughterhouse. I was very bored during the three weeks while I was grounded, I spent every day thinking of ways to expand your business to its full potential. I finally got to a conclusion. Shall we talk about it during lunch?”

“It’s lunch break right now, and I only have less than an hour…”

Tina seemed to have gotten used to Zhang Lisheng’s rational behavior so she grabbed his arm right away. “Let’s go Lisheng, this is something that’s related to your business of life. Think about it, which is more important, this or two classes?”

As expected, Zhang Lisheng did not say anything, allowing Tina to drag him into the car. Tina asked while smiling after starting the SUV’s engine, “What would you like to eat?”

“Anything will do. Oh yea Tina, didn’t you tell me that Sheila’s healed the other night ago? How is she now?”

“Sheila’s alright now. The doctor said she’ll have to do brain recovery training a week later and she will be discharged. Her only concern after that would be finding ways to lose weight to regain her body before.”

“What about Shittu and Walter?”

“Their condition’s much worse than Sheila. According to their attending doctors, men and women have different tolerances, varying even further for specific individuals. The same neurotoxin had very different levels of harm on the three of them. Although Shittu and Walter had regained their conscious, their intelligence was obviously damaged. Especially Walter… he’s stuttering when he talks now. His memory as well…”

“You mean Walter became half a nincompoop while Shittu is now half an idiot.”

“Lisheng, don’t say that… But the truth is, their situation is similar to what you said. Shittu’s still fine, the Morgan family will definitely get the best treatment for him. I heard they’re sending him to Switzerland for intensive care but Walter…”

“Don’t tell me Trish’s not doing anything about his situation?”

“Of course not but Trish has her limits on what she can do. Moreover, her dad Mr. Howick is pissed that Walter brought Trish to risk her life this time.”

“Walter brought Trish to Amazon to risk her life? The truth was twisted?”

“Yes Lisheng, that’s what Mr. Howick deduced from our trip to Amazon. Walter’s an evil snake who has an ulterior motive to lure his daughter into eating the forbidden fruit while Sheila, Shittu and I are the kind, overconfident people who would die for our friend. And you, you’re the savior that god sent us.”

“That sounds pretty fair.” Zhang Lisheng changed his mind.

“Of course it is to you but it’s very unfair for Walter. But life’s never fair, nobody has a say in it.”

“That doesn’t sound like something you would usually say.”

“Oh baby, you saving my life is how we met. You’ve been ‘clean’ with how you treat me all the while so the ‘me’ that you see is slightly different from the usual ‘me’. Now that I think about it, I might be the biggest female slave master if we didn’t lose the Civil War over 100 years ago since I’m part of the Douglin family.”

“Two things. No. 1, don’t call me baby. It’s already too much that my mom calls me that. No.2, you going deep into the jungle back then without knowing what a leopard was makes me want to laugh right now that you’re pretending to be all high and mighty.”

Tina was frozen after hearing what Zhang Lisheng said. She seemed mad but she did not dare to let it out. She then stepped on the accelerator, imagining it was the young man’s head. Since she accelerated out of nowhere, the SUV soon arrived at an artsy restaurant on New York’s 74th Street. There were windows of various shapes, oval, triangular, obliques sides and so on as well as all colors including beige, black and jungle green. Zhang Lisheng looked at the sign with the word ‘Herbivore’ on the wall outside the restaurant from the car window. He then asked, “Tina, is this an avant-garde art gallery or a restaurant?”

“Of course it’s a restaurant, the vegetarian food here is the best. You’ll find out later,” Tina got off the car as she spoke. Zhang Lisheng could only get off the car as well before following her into the restaurant. The restaurant was huge, the tables and chairs in there were of odd shapes as well. It was hard for one to imagine there were so many customers queuing in the hall.

However, Tina did not have to wait. She said something to the attendant lady at the counter and immediately got her and Zhang Lisheng a table for two by the window. The glass looked colorful from the outside but it was crystal clear on the inside. Zhang Lisheng looked at the rushing pedestrians outside the window and then said something casually when the waiter brought the menu, “You’re familiar with this restaurant, you’ll order for me then, Ms. Privilege.”

“It’s a basic treatment for a socialite like me to skip the queue at good restaurants. Me dining at a restaurant would make the restaurant popular, it’s a win-win situation,” Tina said while pouting. “Two truffle risottos, assorted forest mushroom soup, fruit salad platter and yam pies for dessert.”

“Please give us a moment, Ms. Tina.” The waiter nodded and walked away courteously.