Chapter 482.1: The Road Ahead and the Way Home (1)

In the bridal chamber, Li Banfeng had Lightbulb sit on the bed. Lightbulb was very nervous. He wanted to lift his red bridal veil, but Li Banfeng wouldn't let him.

It was good to keep the veil on. Beneath it, Lightbulb was extremely nervous, and the more nervous he became, the more cooperative he would be later.

Sure enough, after they sat in silence for a while, Lightbulb spoke before Li Banfeng even had a chance to question him.

"Are you Li Qi? If you are, say something so I know it's you."

Li Banfeng remained silent.

Lightbulb let out a couple of sobs. "Master Qi, I was wrong. I didn't know my place, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I went to Freewind Wharf without even telling you. I swear I only wanted to see Jiang Mengting's song gala, but I didn't have a ticket, so I had to stand outside. I had absolutely no other intentions!"

Li Banfeng smiled. "Since you enjoy listening to songs so much, why don't I find you a job at Freewind Wharf? You could listen to songs every night without even needing a ticket."

Lightbulb cried, "You are too kind, Master Qi! Freewind Wharf wouldn't have any use for someone like me. Everything that went wrong before was entirely my fault. I have suffered so much already, so I will consider that my punishment. Master Qi, if you are still angry, go ahead and hit me a couple more times. If that's not enough, keep hitting me until you have vented all your anger. I only beg you to spare my life!"

Li Banfeng was a little surprised. He remembered that when he first met Lightbulb at school, the fellow had been rather clumsy with words. He had been so nervous while speaking that Li Banfeng had found an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

When Li Banfeng encountered Lightbulb again at Freewind Wharf, he could tell that Lightbulb had matured somewhat, but he still wasn't very good with words.

Now, after some time apart, Lightbulb had changed quite a bit. He spoke much more fluently, and Li Banfeng rather liked what he was hearing.

Lightbulb had no choice but to learn how to speak properly. At the hunter camp, although Shen Xueyong looked out for him, he still had to make himself clear when speaking to others. Otherwise, he risked causing unnecessary misunderstandings. These were lessons he had learned through blood and tears.

Li Banfeng said, "I am sending you to Freewind Wharf for your own good. You have got a fair complexion and alluring eyes. With a few days of practice, you might even become a singing star."

"Master Qi, I am not cut out for that!"

"How do you know you can't do it if you don't try? You would earn a lot more as a singing star than you would at the Dark Star Bureau."

If Li Qi had only mentioned the Border Control Office, Lightbulb could have continued making excuses for a while longer. But now that Li Qi had even brought up the Dark Star Bureau, it wouldn't be much fun to keep trying to talk his way out of it now.

Lightbulb fell silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "You already know everything about my background, so there's no point in hiding anything from you. I am from the Dark Star Bureau. My superiors sent me to Puluo Province for further training. I didn't know anything. When my superiors ordered me to go to Freewind Wharf to keep an eye on you, I simply did as I was told. In the end, I fell into your hands. I am just a lowly lackey at the Dark Star Bureau, and I am still just a lackey at the Border Control Office. I do whatever people tell me to do. Master Qi, please spare my life!"

Li Banfeng lit a cigarette. "I can spare your life, but I am offering you a job at Freewind Wharf. Are you going to accept it or not?"

"Master Qi, stop joking around! I really can't be a singing star!"

"You don't have to be a singing star. You can be my man on the inside from now on."

"Uh..." Lightbulb was stunned for a long while. Can he really say something like that out loud? And so bluntly too?

"What do you mean by 'man on the inside'?"

"What else could I mean? Whether you are at the Dark Star Bureau or the Border Control Office, if you learn anything about me, you need to let me know in advance. Can you do that?"

Lightbulb shook his head repeatedly. "Master Qi, aren't you asking me to become a spy? I don't have the nerve for that! If you insist on forcing me into this, you might as well just kill me!"

"Killing you won't do. There are still plenty of people outside waiting to spend their wedding night with you," Li Banfeng said and got up to leave.

Lightbulb shouted, "Master Qi, don't go! I agree! I will agree, all right?"

Li Banfeng stopped in his tracks. "What are you agreeing to? I didn't quite hear you."

"Whatever you say, I will agree to it!"

"All those people outside are my brothers. I want you to spend your wedding night with them. Do you agree?"

"I can't agree to that! I was agreeing to be your inside man!"

Li Banfeng smiled and asked, "Then be more specific. What exactly are you agreeing to do as my inside man?"

Lightbulb spoke slowly, enunciating each word. "I will be your inside man. Whether it's at the Dark Star Bureau or the Border Control Office, if I hear anything about you, I will let you know right away."

Li Banfeng fetched a sheet of contract paper, wrote up a contract, and had Lightbulb put his fingerprint on it.

Lightbulb said, "I have already put my fingerprint on it. At least let me see what's written in the contract."

"There's no rush. You will have plenty of time to read it later." Li Banfeng lifted Lightbulb's red bridal veil. "From now on, you are mine."

Lightbulb was trembling all over. "Master Qi, what are you going to do?"

Li Banfeng responded, "I am going to teach you a few things to say. You must remember this. If you remember the wrong thing, you will die."

***

At the Border Control Office, Xia Shumin arrived at Liao Zihui's office with a document in hand. "Commissioner, we can't keep this under wraps much longer. The Dark Star Bureau knows Lightbulb has gone missing, and they are demanding an explanation from us."

Liao Zihui didn't even look up. "I know about it now. Just leave the document here."

Xia Shumin sensed something was wrong. Why was Liao Zihui so calm? Judging by how anxious he'd been earlier, he should have taken the bait by now. Had something unexpected happened?

"Commissioner, the Dark Star Bureau has been pressing us for an answer. We should at least give them some sort of response. My phone's practically been ringing off the hook!"

"Phone?" Liao Zihui froze in surprise. "You can still make phone calls?"

Xia Shumin had spoken without thinking. Ordinary phone calls didn't work in Puluo Province. To contact the Outer Provinces, they had to use special communication equipment.

He hurriedly tried to cover up his slip. "They contacted me through the communication equipment."

Liao Zihui kept his eyes on Xia Shumin. "Did you use our department's communications equipment, or your own? If you used ours, I should have known about it. If you used your own, then that's not right. It's against our department's regulations to set up private communications equipment."

Xia Shumin looked awkward, but Liao Zihui simply kept his eyes on him without saying another word.

For two whole minutes, neither of them said a word. Then Liao Zihui smiled. "Xia, you really should have given more thought to how you handled the matter with Lightbulb. You didn't handle this well. Of course, your intentions were good. You only wanted to train the newcomer, but because you weren't familiar with the situation in Puluo Province, your good intentions ended up causing more harm than good. It's not entirely your fault, though. I bear some responsibility too. You have been here for quite some time, and I haven't urged you to learn more about Puluo Province.

"From now on, I will be assigning you some basic tasks. This is an important opportunity for you to learn and gain experience, so make the most of it. There are a few thugs around Horned Goat Garden who have been gathering in groups to fight lately. They have already injured quite a few people, and it's having a very negative impact on the area. Find some time to go and deal with them."

He's sending me to deal with a bunch of thugs fighting? Is he trying to put me in my place, or is he deliberately humiliating me?

Xia Shumin thought for a moment before speaking. "Commissioner, I think our most pressing concern should still be Lightbulb. The Dark Star Bureau sent someone here, and now he's vanished without a trace. We really should..."

Before Xia Shumin could finish, Liao Zihui waved his hand and summoned his secretary, Ling Sujun. "Send Deputy Commissioner Xia the information on those thugs around Horned Goat Garden. And tell Lightbulb to come see me."

Xia Shumin was taken aback. "Who did you say?"

Liao Zihui smiled. "Lightbulb, of course!"

"Which Lightbulb?"

"Who else could I mean? Dong Xiaoning, the one sent here from the Dark Star Bureau for further training!"

Before Xia Shumin could even recover from his surprise, Ling Sujun had already brought Lightbulb into the office.

Lightbulb stood with his hands crossed below his belt, his shoulders hunched and his head lowered. He looked very nervous, awkward, and uncomfortable.

Xia Shumin stared at him for a while and realized that this man was indeed Lightbulb.

"How-how... How-"

Liao Zihui smiled. "You mean to ask how come he's not dead yet?"

Xia Shumin hurriedly got to his feet and took Lightbulb's hand. "You have made me worried sick! Where have you been all these days? I haven't heard a word from you."

Lightbulb said, "You told me to go to Freewind Wharf to keep an eye on Li Qi, so I went. But Li Qi was always on the move, going from place to place. I wasn't familiar with some of those places, and after following him for two days, I lost track of him."

"Then you should have come back when you lost him!"

Lightbulb shook his head. "I hadn't completed my mission. How could I dare come back? I went through the information you gave me and searched a few of Li Qi's properties. And sure enough, I actually found him in Blue Poplar Village."

Xia Shumin was astonished. "You found Li Qi?"

"I did. His men were hunting down bandits near Blue Poplar Village, and Li Qi himself went there too."

"And he didn't notice you?"

Lightbulb shook his head. "No."

"He is a level-five Dark Ability User! With his abilities, you are telling me he didn't even notice you?" Xia Shumin found that hard to believe.

Lightbulb froze for a bit before saying, "Deputy Commissioner Xia, you already knew for sure that Li Qi would notice me?"

That was when Xia Shumin realized that he had said something wrong. He hurriedly explained, "That was not a prediction. It was simply a deduction based on the difference in your abilities."

Lightbulb was stunned again. "So you could work out that he was bound to discover me? Then why did you send me to spy on him in the first place?"

Xia Shumin was at a loss for words. There was simply no way to talk his way out of this one.

Just because Xia Shumin was at that level did not mean that he wouldn't say the wrong thing. In fact, people of his rank never said the wrong thing. They did it quite often. The difference was that nobody dared point it out.

Today, however, Lightbulb had not only dared to point it out, but had also left Xia Shumin in a thoroughly embarrassing position.

The reason was simple enough. Liao Zihui was sitting right there, watching, and his presence gave Lightbulb the courage to speak his mind.

Liao Zihui smiled. "Xia, I told Sujun to leave the documents on your desk. Why don't you take a look at those thugs around Horned Goat Garden first? Try to come up with a preliminary plan by tomorrow."

Liao Zihui had given Xia Shumin a way out of this situation, and Xia Shumin was quick to take it. He accepted the assignment and hurried out of Liao Zihui's office.

Back in his own office, Xia Shumin sat with his brow deeply furrowed and a displeased look on his face.

He had handled things very poorly today. From the very beginning, he had been on the back foot, and the reason was simple. He had been working with far too little information. He hadn't known that Lightbulb was still alive, much less that Lightbulb had returned to the Border Control Office.

The incident had also taught him a lesson.

The Border Control Office was Liao Zihui's territory. As long as Liao Zihui remained here, anyone else would have a hard time stirring up trouble.