"Don't tell me you named it… Lam Ching-Ying?"
Seven fell silent for a moment…
… At last, he nodded and said:
"Yes."
"F*ck!" Su Bai picked up the wine pot and poured the wine on to the table in front of Seven, "Monk, I should propose a toast to you for that."
Seven didn't mind what Su Bai did. Normal people would think that as a curse[1], but Seven was not one of the normal people. He had always known that Su Bai would react a little abnormally, because the process and outcome were too astonishing. He himself was shocked. He had no idea that a random name he picked would cause such an amazing change in the story world. He just named the kid Lam Ching-Ying for the occasion since the story world was Mr. Zombie.
Seven stared at Su Bai and continued, "Just when I handed over the jade piece to the fox, MT 1 was issued. It's really a joke, isn't it?"
Su Bai dropped the pot, and it broke into pieces.
Seven was sitting still, caring little about Su Bai's actions.
"Are you sure MT 1 was issued after you named the baby?" Su Bai asked.
"Pretty sure. MT 1 was issued on the very second when the fox took over that jade piece with the name."
Su Bai closed his eyes and started to recall what he was doing when MT 1 was issued.
In Su Bai's mind, a picture showed up: he had just climbed out of that coffin, knocked off Liang and Miss Chen, put on Liang's clothes, sneaked out to the lobby, peeked through a hole on the window and realized that the guy look exactly like the hero Lam Ching-Ying in the Hong Kong Zombie movies he had watched when he was a kid. Then, MT 1 was issued. It seemed to be the right timing.
But on a second thought…
There was a problem:
He had already met "Lam" when he climbed out of the demon nest and had a fight with him. If MT 1 was to be issued when he met "Lam" in the state of consciousness, it should already be issued when he got engaged with Lam Chin-Ying right after he left the nest, although he didn't saw the man's face or recognize him because he was injured and exhausted and was soon blowed up by the Taoist's mirror in the midday sunlight.
But that couldn't be the requirements for MT 1, because people like Gyatso had never seen any of those Hong Kong zombie movies, and there was no way he could recognize Lam Ching- Ying. Dreadful Radio wouldn't set up a main task that required the recognition of the famous movie star in the real world, because at least one of its players had never seen him before!
Due to such an analysis, it must be the same time that he peeked into the window and Seven handed over the jade piece with "Lam Ching-Ying" carved on it.
Turned out the Taoist they were protecting with their lives was just a copycat, while the kid that Seven named jokingly had became the target they should protect in MT 1.
That was ridiculous. A huge joke indeed.
"Where's the fox? In the backyard of the county government?"
Su Bai took a deep breath and rubbed his face with his hands. He would really like to know Gyatso and Fatty's response when they learned about this. Of course, they had to get out of the cave first. Since Seven didn't want to share and was determined to get rid of them, it couldn't be an easy trap. Even if they could survive, it must be a hard and close escape, at least they wouldn't be able to compete for contribution in this story world any more.
"Yep." Seeing Su Bai finally calm down, Seven nodded.
"What danger will she be facing?"
"Nothing for now. But on the day of delivery, her scent won't be under control. Beside, she was badly injured when she got out with me, and only ten percent of her power was left. So, on the day of delivery, her scent will be detected from far away, and may attract a lot of evil stuff, or even so-called Taoists. That's the fatal moment."
Su Bai licked his lips. "You asked for my help. Are you worried that you can't defeat all of them by yourself?"
Seven sat up a bit and said seriously: "In fact, even with your help, I still can't."
"You don't have to be so honest." Su Bai stood up and looked outside the window. The county government was there.
"I'm planning to set up a matrix. I can be in the key points, but I need another person to host it. I think you can do that."
"Why should I trust you? What if it's another trap?"
Seven shook his head, "There's no need for that. This is just MT 1, and there will be other tasks following up. If Fatty and Gyatso and other audiences were all killed or injured, I'll be fighting alone. All by myself. Do I look that stupid?"
"Yes, you do." Su Bai didn't hesitate at all. "How many days do we have before the childbirth?"
"The baby's due in three days from now. That's two full days after tonight."
"Monk, are you sure you won't fail?"
"Amitabh, fortune comes with risks."
"Alright, I'm in." Su Bai looked at Seven. "I'm in."
Seven didn't care whether Su Bai was really supportive or just pretending to cooperate, or if Su Bai had his own plan, because it was just a human nature. Besides, he didn't believe he could change anything.
However, he had some faith in Su Bai. Not because he believed Su Bai wouldn't stab him in the back as he had done, but because he knew Su Bai was smarter than stabbing him at the wrong time.
And that was all he needed to know.
"Come and see her with me." Seven offered.
"Ha. No. She stinks." Su Bai replied.
"…" Seven fell silent for a moment, then tried to find the right words, "Actually, she had turned into a human form, and looks… pretty… good."
Su Bai touched his chin and noticed Seven's rather embarrassed look. "Is that so? Alright, I'll go see her."
They left the pub and got into the county government by climbing over its wall.
The county governor and his wife had been deeply enchanted by the fox. They offered their best room to the fox and moved to the side room. But Seven didn't want to waste the time calling for servant to open the gate for them. It was faster for them to go over the walls.
The woman was sitting by a stone table in the yard and eating grapes. Her legs were slightly swinging. Then she moved her lips and spit out a grape seed.
Right now, the woman had seen Seven and Su Bai, but she totally ignored them and continued eating grapes on her chair. She looked so surprisingly innocent.
Su Bai had seen the real appearance of this fox, and it was indescribably terrible. But now, this woman was extremely delicate and well-shaped enough to tempt any man. Besides, she had a kind of foxy charm to the marrow, as if she could melt a man's bones at the first sight.
Su Bai was thinking whether he could resist her if he had seen her like this in that nest.
Maybe it wouldn't feel so bad to be her toy boy then.
"Yo ho, you've been living a great life here," Su Bai joked.
"Oh, you came. Monk, we had a deal, you can have one leg, but he can't be after the other leg." Fox said bluntly.
Seven shook his head, smiling.
"Oh, why can't I get a leg?" Su Bai had no idea what leg they were talking about, but he would not refuse a chance to share the benefits.
"He doesn't know." Seven replied.
"Oh." The woman narrowed her eyes. "And you tried to get the secret out of me."
The fox was not stupid. She just didn't want to waste her wit on Su Bai or Seven. If it wasn't for her baby, she wouldn't have come here with Seven or needed their protection.
"That's unfair." Su Bai sat on the opposite, "Tell me, what leg?"
"You'll know what you need to know. You don't deserve more information. Now my Exorciser, give it back. My teeth are itching."
The woman crooked her fingers, the dagger by Su Bai's waist immediately flew over to the woman. It had been used for grinding the fox's teeth, but it impressed Su Bai a lot when it played an important role in the fight against the Zombie King and went through the evil energy defense.
Of course, Su Bai wouldn't give away such a great weapon. With this dagger, he wouldn't have to experience a war of attrition against every enemy he met.
Su Bai reached out and grabbed the dagger in the air.
The woman was mad: "How dare you!"
She strengthened her pulling on the dagger.
Su Bai's eyes flashed with pale green lights, a zombie's scent burst out and filthy evil black smoke started rising from under his feet.
"Zoom!"
The woman suddenly leaned forward while Su Bai took over the dagger.
At the same time, Su Bai stepped forward and came to the woman.
"Clap!"
A loud slap landed on the woman's face.
She was totally shocked.
Seven bowed his head and murmured "Amitabh".
Su Bai put Exorciser against the woman's chest:
"You're incredibly weak now. So, don't try to play any game with me. And tell me what leg. Otherwise…
"… the worst case, I'll give up on the leg and…
"… cut down one of your boobs for fun."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] To pour wine onto the ground is usually considered as pouring wine for dead people in traditional Chinese culture.