Kuroko was startled by Cui Zuojing’s sudden attack, but the excellent reflexes trained in countless boxes saved his life. He awkwardly dodged against the side of a container, causing Cui Zuojing’s fist to brush his shoulder instead and landed on the container. Although most of his strength had been deflected, it still caused Kuroko’s shoulder to suffer a lot of pain. He couldn’t even lift his hand for a while.
Kuroko knew that the young man in front of him must have come to snatch his secret letters. His opponent’s face was still somewhat childish, looking only 18 to 19 years old, but the cunning expression in his eyes made Kuroko’s heart freeze.
Kuroko gritted his teeth. He didn’t intend to confront Cui Zuojing head on and so he dashed to the side.
The containers were placed haphazardly, the tall boxes forming a series of paths. By using his ability, Kuroko might be able to avoid the young man.
Kuroko’s feet pounded on the ground as he ran, and then he leaned back desperately. A steel sheet narrowly flew past the tip of his nose and embedded into the side of a container, making a crisp sound.
Kuroko instantly felt a cold sweat.
Cui Zuojing jumped off the container and stood ten meters in front of him. He stretched out his hand. “Give me the secret letters, and I’ll let you live.”
By now, Kuroko knew that this young man was different from the pilgrims he’d encountered before. Whether it was a melee attack or a long-ranged attack, the young man was still able to act so aggressively.
But even so, he won’t catch him!
Kuroko turned around and ran to the other side. He bent his waist, and disappeared from Cui Zuojing’s field of vision in the blink of an eye. The loud mechanical noises swallowed his footsteps, and even his breath was hidden.
Want to run? Where can you run to under my nose?
Cui Zuojing snorted and let out an amused smile. He leaped up, grabbed the edge of a bin with one hand, and directly climbed up. Standing on top of the nearly three-meter-high box, he searched for the figure of the young man.
He quickly swept his gaze around and found no trace of Kuroko. Knowing that his opponent’s ability would make him subconsciously disregard any clues of his presence, Cui Zuojing touched his waist and untied the belt that “hand” had been tethered to.
Rabbit finally got rid of its restraint. Before it could celebrate, it heard Cui Zuojing ordered in a low voice, “Go catch him.”
It stood still and tried to express the dissatisfaction in its heart, but Cui Zuojing only glanced at it. Rabbit noticed the warning in that single glance and shivered. Remembering the cruel treatment it had received from this demon boy, it hurriedly left.
Cui Zuojing snapped his fingers, and the conveyor belt that was running at a constant speed suddenly slowed down. The exhaust fan rotating in circles on the high wall also decelerated, and the dust mites floating in the bright beams of light hung suspended.
He jumped onto another container and finally saw the figure of the young man who’d already ran out from the groups of bins. Kuroko was still running wildly. Because time was delayed, both feet were still in the air, looking somewhat laughable.
Cui Zuojing ran across the top of the containers and slowly jumped three meters in front of him.
Swish―
Like cancelling a video that had been slowed down times 30, time began running as usual. Kuroko’s feet fit the ground, and he was just about to leave behind the group of bins. He never heard his opponent chasing after him. But suddenly, a figure flashed in front of him without warning, and a fist slammed into his nose.
Kuroko cried out in pain and rolled to the ground.
“It’s useless even if you run to the Oriental Pearl Tower,” Cui Zuojing shook Kuroko’s blood from his fist and said, “I didn’t want to hurt you. Just give me a few secret letters and I will leave immediately.”
“Do you think I’ll believe that?!” Kuroko covered his nose, staring at Cui Zuojing with clenched teeth. Cui Zuojing smiled in amusement and glanced quickly at Rabbit. He was about to urge Rabbit to hold down Kuroko, when he suddenly realized that there was no longer anyone in front of him. There was only a trail of spotted blood.
He got tricked.
It was indeed a good ability, one that Kuroko already seemed to be able to actively control, which prevented triggering too many variables.
Cui Zuojing wasn’t upset. He touched his nose and chased after Rabbit, who had already given chase.
Blood dripped down Kuroko’s chin to his clothes. The severe pain made the veins on his forehead throb. No matter how much he thought, he still couldn’t understand why Cui Zuojing could suddenly appear in front of him. Could it be that his ability was teleportation or something?
Why was he so unlucky? He finally got the hope of entering the circus, and then he encountered such a robber?!
Kuroko was extremely depressed.
But it will end soon.
He hurried past the conveyor belt and the hammering compressor in the center of the factory and rushed toward the open door. The space in this factory was very strange. Even if two people walked through the same door, they may end up entering different factories. As long as he runs out, he’ll be able to escape.
So close, so close!
Just as he was about to rush out of the brick red rust-covered door, something caught the back collar of his clothes.
“Wha—“
Before he could spit out the word, the fingers that were stretched out like rubber, extending more than 20 feet, hung him upside down. He flew backward into the air, his collar nearly strangling him.
Kuroko flew back to Cui Zuojing’s side and hit the ground.
“It’s useless even if you went somewhere.” Cui Zuojing squatted down and stretched his hand out into the panicked man’s black pocket. “I’m a good guy. I’ll leave a little bit for you; I won’t take them all.”
The young man obviously took things for granted. Kuroko nearly cursed at the “good guy.” He stared at Cui Zuojing, as if he wanted to pierce him through with his gaze.
Kuroko clung to his pockets, not allowing Cui Zuojing to put his hands inside. Cui Zuojing clicked his tongue and knelt heavily on his stomach. Kuroko jerked and violently gagged, and Cui Zuojing took this opportunity to check his pockets.
…Empty?
This thought had just flashed through Cui Zuojing’s mind when Kuroko kicked him, just like a bunny trying to kick an eagle. He naturally avoided dexterously, but the other party didn’t intend to fight him head on. Instead, he turned over, crawled to his feet, and tried to escape.
But it was impossible to escape; it was impossible to escape in this life. He managed to run to the nearest conveyer belt, but Rabbit’s fingers stretched out again, reaching for his wrist.
Kuroko barely managed to avoid it; the fact that he’d reached the Top of the Giant Tree meant that he wasn’t a weak pilgrim. However, Cui Zuojing’s attack followed one another another. He grabbed Kuroko’s neck and held him against the machine. Meanwhile, one hand roughly tore open Kuroko’s coat.
The zipper directly tore wide open, revealing the young man’s plain clothes. Under his horrified gaze, Cui Zuojing reached inside his clothes—
“Ahhhhh!” Kuroko pushed away with all his strength and rolled onto the running conveyor belt. He fell amidst countless nuts and bolts and was quickly dragged toward the processor on the other end.
As expected, Cui Zuojing felt a stack of hard cards on the inner pocket of his jacket. Obviously, the number of secret letters were quite considerable. With one hand, he flipped onto the conveyor belt, stepped on a nut, and pounced on Kuroko as soon as he landed.
Cui Zuojing directly fought Kuroko head on.
No matter how much Kuroko resisted, Cui Zuojing firmly squeezed Kuroko under him and took away the entire stack of secret letters hidden inside the pocket of his jacket.
How could that seemingly weak young man have such strength?!
The conveyor was moving quickly. In a few breaths, it sent the two of them from the middle section to the other end, where they would soon be swallowed up by the black processing mouth there. Cui Zuojing dexterously jumped off the machine, and with great satisfaction, counted the “wool” from the little sheep.
Kuroko was more capable than he thought. Based on Cui Zuojing’s observation, he also had an identity card and some secret letters in his other pocket. However, Cui Zuojing didn’t want to directly eliminate him so he didn’t bother taking it.
Cui Zuojing may have easily jumped away, but Kuroko wasn’t so lucky. He struggled to turn over. His nose had stopped bleeding, but the blood loss, combined with the vigorous exertion, had made him a little dizzy. Just as he was about to roll off the conveyor belt, he discovered that his clothes was caught on a nut protruding from the edge!
Kuroko’s pupils dilated.
His adrenaline soared again, and he tried desperately to pull at the clothes that was caught on the nut, but the cloth was extremely tough and won’t easily tear.
Three meters, two meters, one meter….He was going to be swallowed by the black processing mouth. Death’s sickle seemed to hover at the top of his head, suffocating him. In desperation, Kuroko instinctively sucked in his breath and yelled, “Help me!”
Cui Zuojing turned his head.
A steel sheet flew through the air and sliced off the section of the clothes that was stuck. Kuroko suddenly fell backward and rolled off the conveyor belt. The steel sheet that Cui Zuojing had just shot out was swallowed into the processing port in an instant, and from the mouth came a crunching sound.
Kuroko laid on the ground in shock, panting heavily. Even now, his hands were still shaking. If…if he really did fall into the mouth, he would definitely become a pulp of meat.
“I already said that I have no plans to hurt you.” Cui Zuojing walked up to him, putting the stack of secret letters in his pocket. Then, he thought for a moment and pulled out two secret letters and tossed them to Kuroko, saying, “Here, for you. I just want enough to get an admission ticket. If you’re lucky, I’ll see you again in the circus.”
Cui Zuojing’s action of throwing a secret letter was like a master throwing a black card (1) in front of his little lover. Kuroko choked on a bellyful of anger, but thinking that this young had saved his life a few seconds ago, he could only paste an unassuming “humble.jpg” all over his face and silently reached out to take the two secret letters that had belonged to him to begin with.
With his goal in hand, Cui Zuojing happily turned and left, leaving a pitiful-looking Kuroko staring after him.
“Wait!” Unexpectedly, he stopped Cui Zuojing.
Cui Zuojing stopped, but didn’t turn back around. He put his hands in his pockets and said, “What?”
“Thank you.” The word of thanks that came out of Kuroko’s mouth sounded perfunctory. He stared at Cui Zuojing’s back and tried hard to suppress the shudder in his voice, “What’s your name?”
“Me?” Cui Zuojing turned around and smiled at him.
“My name is Dong Zheng.”
************
Back on the steel frame, Cui Zuojing stretched his waist and tied a protesting Rabbit back onto his belt. He took out all his identity cards and secret letters to count his spoils.
Counting, Cui Zuojing felt that something was wrong.
Where were the identity cards that he’d previously snatched from others?!
He’d placed the identification cards in the outermost pocket of his clothes, separated from the secret letters. There were a total of five cards, but now they’re all gone except for the one that was left.
Now, he only had his little goldfish and 21 secret letters.
Cui Zuojing remembered that when he’d pressed Kuroko to the conveyor belt to search for secret letters, the other person had seemed to touch his coat for a moment.
Because the other person’s sense of existence was too weak, Cui Zuojing didn’t pay it any mind. If he hadn’t been deliberately thinking about it now, he might have never noticed it.
Cui Zuojing stared blankly at the only tiny goldfish in his hands, and after a long time, a loud and very dirty word came out from between his teeth.
“Fuck!”
—————————
Xixi: Lol. That’s what you get, CZJ.
Translation Notes:
(1) Black card ― a charge card with no limits.
Thank you for the chapter~
XD Cui Zuojing played with someone and got played in the process~ By how much emphasis that goldfish card was given, I kind of expected that he’d have to work with it anyway. I really hope we’ll see Koroko again, maybe even recruit him. I wonder what impact him giving Dong Zheng’s name will have~
IKRRRR
I think he will look for Dong Zheng outside the box and then meet him and get confused why he looks different and then sees Cui Zoujing standing nearby and maybe Cui Zoujing would then tell the truth and recruit him. I guess that’s also Cui’er’s intention? Since if he gave his name and Koroko tries to find him, it would be a bit hard since he’s a prisoner and also a member and alsooooo because not much people know him. But if he looked for the name Dong Zheng, the leader of their team..
Then he will surely find the Wonton Insurgency. Since most people in that situation, when they pay attention to a team or a group that are kinda powerful, they would first remember the leader’s name and face. Some though that are paying too much attention would try to remember the members’ names and sometimes their faces too.
I actually thought he was only teasing him by giving him Dong Zheng’s name, but that could very well be his intention 😀
CAN WE KEEP HIM??? PLEASE???? Let’s add Koroko to the team T T and also let’s not forget rabbit T T