Monster - Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Xu Siqian's Request
Because her outfit was far too eye-catching, and she was accompanied by an old woman who clashed completely with her image, the Inspectorate would have no trouble tracking them down. So, after confirming that Xu Siqian didn't need to go to the hospital, Lou immediately took her to a shopping mall for a complete makeover.
During this time, Lou noticed something strange. Xu Siqian, who had been brave enough to smack a criminal like her with a slipper, became timid in a crowd. She followed behind Lou with her head down, trailing her into the mall, not at all as composed as she had been when they first met.
Lou glanced around and saw that everything was normal. There were many people, and many mutated monsters were mixed in, pretending to be human, with their eye-covered arms and terrifying faces.
"This old woman can probably see the monsters' true forms, just like Lin Sandie," said Miu the crow.
"Can you see the monsters too?" Lou leaned down to Xu Siqian's ear, who was a full head shorter than her.
Xu Siqian looked up at Lou abruptly.
"I can see them too," Lou said with a smile, pointing to herself. She then turned into a clothing store she had her eye on, and Xu Siqian, quickly recovering, immediately followed.
"You can see them too?" Xu Siqian asked. Lou was already picking out clothes, holding a black, round-necked knit shirt up to Xu Siqian's frame.
"Yeah, it's no big deal." With an expression that said, you're not the chosen one, Lou hung the knit shirt back and picked up a white one of the same style to size up against Xu Siqian.
"Ma'am, do you need any help? Are you buying clothes for your grandmother?" a sales assistant asked, walking over. She was probably a bit suspicious, seeing that Xu Siqian was only wearing one slipper.
"I can style her myself, I don't need your help," Lou said, pulling the white knit shirt off its hanger.
"Aren't you afraid?" Xu Siqian asked Lou in a low voice.
"Nope!" Lou, brimming with cosmic-level confidence, picked out a pair of comfortable black trousers and gave a very firm answer.
Xu Siqian wanted to ask how she could not see the monsters, but looking at Lou's fearless demeanor, she felt that asking this crazy girl would likely yield no answers, which left her feeling agitated.
"Here, go change. Our time is limited." Lou stuffed the clothes she had just selected into Xu Siqian's arms and pushed her toward the fitting room.
"What are we doing? I want to go home!"
"We're exchanging information! You can ask me questions, and I'll ask you questions. Aren't you curious how I knew your code name?" Lou said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. After pushing Xu Siqian into the fitting room, she walked over to the shoe display and picked out a pair of black leather boots and a rather fashionable pair of sunglasses for her.
It had to be said, although her actions lacked any semblance of order or logic, her words easily piqued Xu Siqian's curiosity, so she obediently went into the fitting room.
"When she comes out, help her put these on." Lou instructed the dumbfounded sales assistant, shoving the items into her arms.
"But... but ma'am, don't you need to see if these boots fit your grandmother?" After all, the boots didn't look like something a woman approaching seventy would wear.
"When she hit me with her slipper just now, I already saw her shoe size." Lou, thinking she was asking about the size, answered earnestly, "Size 36, that's right."
After handing the items to the sales assistant, she began to pick out her own clothes. She grabbed a pair of black trousers, a gray long-sleeved T-shirt, and a gray denim baseball cap. She went into a fitting room, changed out of the pink fairy dress as quickly as possible, then coiled her hair up and tucked it into the cap. When she came out, she had a completely androgynous look.
Just as Lou went to grab a black lightweight trench coat she'd had her eye on, a stylish Xu Siqian emerged timidly from the fitting room.
"Perfect!" Lou gave Xu Siqian a thumbs-up. Seeing her punchable expression, the originally timid and uneasy Xu Siqian really wanted to use her slipper to let Lou get a closer look at the size on the sole.
Lou put the long, black trench coat on Xu Siqian. The sales assistant, sensing their urgency, knelt down and helped Xu Siqian put on the low-heeled leather boots.
Lou put on a matching trench coat, slid behind Xu Siqian, and tousled her shoulder-length, silver-white hair with her hands, transforming it from dowdy to chic. Then she placed the sunglasses she had just picked out onto the bridge of her nose.
"Ma'am, you have excellent taste." The sales assistant, having watched Xu Siqian's complete transformation in such a short time, offered a sincere compliment. She hadn't expected this unremarkable-looking old woman to be able to pull off such an outfit so effortlessly.
Lou proudly handed her bank card to the sales assistant.
Xu Siqian took off the sunglasses and looked down at herself, unsure how to react. It had all happened too fast.
"Let's go." After swiping the card and paying, Lou immediately helped Xu Siqian walk out.
"We're still not safe," Lou said seriously to Xu Siqian.
"You're not safe. The old lady is perfectly safe," Miu couldn't help but retort.
Although Lou didn't seem to have much of a brain, she knew that the people monitoring Xu Siqian wouldn't give up so easily. So, she took the newly-dressed Xu Siqian and hailed a cab to another mall, changing their outfits three times before finally finding a restaurant, ready for a good meal.
"Are you very rich?" Xu Siqian asked, looking down at her own stylish yet dignified attire, then questioningly at Lou, who was cutting a steak across from her.
"If you tell me the whereabouts of the Code Name ΞΎ brooch, I'll support you in your old age." Lou's cheeks were puffed out as she chewed on the juicy steak, pointing her fork at Xu Siqian.
Her peculiar train of thought led her to automatically use the fact that she was rich and could provide for Xu Siqian's retirement as a bargaining chip.
"I don't know. Yao Yao lent it to me, and I returned it to her a long time ago."
"Why did she lend it to you? What can an old woman like you do?" Lou's eyes widened.
Xu Siqian resisted the urge to slap Lou across the face. After all the running around, she realized she was hungry. She lowered her head and began to eat her cod fillet, which the restaurant had recommended for an elderly person with poor teeth.
Seeing that Xu Siqian wasn't answering, Lou asked again, but Xu Siqian continued to ignore her, eating her fish on her own.
"I can tell you how to stop seeing these monsters, you know~~" Lou leaned forward and whispered, which successfully caught Xu Siqian's attention.
"How?" Xu Siqian asked immediately.
"If you don't tell me, I won't tell you," Lou said cheekily, sitting up straight and continuing to eat her steak.
Xu Siqian snorted coldly and ignored Lou.
Lou pretended everything was under her control, but her restless, lively eyes quickly betrayed her. She cut a small piece of steak from her plate and glanced at Xu Siqian. She put the steak in her mouth and glanced at Xu Siqian. She took a sip of red wine and glanced at Xu Siqian...
She wanted Xu Siqian to take the initiative and ask, but the other woman was very good at suppressing her curiosity.
Xu Siqian remained impassive. She had originally looked like a simple old woman, but now she wore the fashionable clothes with no problem at all, as if she had once enjoyed such expensive garments. And Lou, upon their first meeting, had somehow easily seen that she could pull off such an outfit.
"What's your name? Who are your parents?" Xu Siqian finished her fish fillet slowly and deliberately, wiping her hands as she asked Lou.
The latter was currently tackling a colorful and delicious-looking ice cream decorated with fruit.
To an outsider, they now looked like a wealthy, fashionably dressed, and elegant grandmother and granddaughter.
"You can call me Lou. I don't have parents," Lou said, scooping a pitted cherry into her mouth.
"Nonsense. How can someone not have parents?" Xu Siqian shot Lou a glare as she began to eat the small bowl of oatmeal the waiter had just brought.
"I don't," Lou glared back, not shying away from a topic that could potentially hurt someone's feelings.
"Then what's your objective?"
"Complete the mission, get the reward."
"What mission, what reward?"
"The mission is to kill all the monsters. I haven't decided on the reward yet..." Lou stared ahead with an unfocused gaze, putting a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.
"I have my doubts."
"I have my doubts too," Miu, who had nothing to eat, chimed in viciously.
"Don't get so cocky just because I'm respecting my elders."
Xu Siqian ate the last bite of oatmeal and elegantly wiped her mouth before saying with a touch of melancholy, "I don't have much time left."
"I'm not paying your medical bills either," Lou, who completely missed the hidden meaning in Xu Siqian's words, immediately replied. This successfully shattered the mood Xu Siqian had just cultivated, making her want to smack this stunningly beautiful but terribly-behaved crazy girl with her slipper again.
"My family was originally quite well-off, but then some things happened, and they all died. Xu Yao, who was a lawyer at the time, helped me a lot."
"For someone your age, you need to work on your storytelling skills."
A vein bulged on Xu Siqian's temple. She closed her eyes tightly, her hands on the table clenched into fists. After a long moment, she slowly unclenched them and opened her eyes.
"Before she died, Xu Yao was investigating some things. She might have sensed something bad was about to happen, so she lent me her brooch and had me keep it for a month. After that, I started seeing that some people were actually monsters. Not long after I returned the brooch to Xu Yao, something happened to her." Xu Siqian quickly and concisely explained how she came to see monsters. Then she grabbed the glass of water on the table and tilted her head back to take a gulp, trying to prevent herself from having a heart attack out of anger at Lou.
"So it doesn't matter if you're the chosen Ruler or not. Anyone who has been in contact with the brooch for a period of time can see the hidden monsters," Miu said upon hearing Xu Siqian's words.
"Xu Yao let you see the truth. Was there something she wanted to entrust to you?" At that moment, Lou was surprisingly sharp. She caught the detail in Xu Siqian's words and asked directly.
"I'm not telling you." Xu Siqian clasped her fingers together, refusing to answer Lou's question.
Just as Lou was about to make her next move, Xu Siqian quickly added, "You seem to enjoy using crazy methods to find answers. I think I'll learn from you and cut the crap."
"Xu Yao did give me something, but unless I tell you, you'll never find it. Heh... and those people watching me like tigers won't find it either. Did you think kidnapping me would only get the Inspectorate's attention? Silly girl."
Lou shrugged. Of course, she knew other people were watching Xu Siqian.
"Those people are very dangerous," Xu Siqian said sternly.
"Then what do I have to do for you to hand over what Xu Yao gave you?" Lou didn't dwell on the issue, instead asking with a smile.
"..." Xu Siqian looked at Lou like this and cursed inwardly: Where did this crazy girl come from?
"Help me investigate the true cause of Xu Yao's death."
"I was already looking into it."
"The last piece of information I got from Yao Yao was that she was going to the Salai Building, the tallest and most prosperous skyscraper in Center City. Perhaps you could take a look there."
"Alright."
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