About ten minutes later, Zhang Hanshan returned to the assembly point with four cups of milk tea. Tang Jingjing and He Danrui were sitting on the stone steps of the flowerbed, while Mo Chuan stood under a tree not far from the two girls, looking at his phone.
"Tang Jingjing, your Yang Zhi Gan Lu; Sister He, your iced green lime... Brother Chuan, your coconut milk."
The three took their respective drinks, each lost in their own thoughts.
Mo Chuan's mind was filled with how to share information about the Five Officials King with his teammates, ensuring they received crucial intel while preventing the Five Officials King from further escalating his influence. He Danrui's situation didn't affect Mo Chuan much.
Tang Jingjing, on the other hand, looked at Mo Chuan and He Danrui with a puzzled expression. After learning they were cousins, Tang Jingjing found it strange. According to her knowledge, although He Danrui's family was not the main branch of the He family, as a collateral branch of a top family in Jibei, their living conditions shouldn't be too poor. Yet, she had also visited Mo Chuan's home, so why was Mo Chuan, as a relative, living in such hardship, even poverty?
He Danrui, at heart, was still a bit childish. She had little resistance to Mo Chuan's looks, which could turn the crooked into straight. She was currently immersed in her thoughts, jumping back and forth between whether her missions with Mo Chuan were dates and if Mo Chuan was too babyish.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Mo Chuan broke the ice first.
"Old Zhang, do you know who our leader is?"
Zhang Hanshan thought for a moment, then looked at his phone again. Finally, he shook his head and said to Mo Chuan, "Third Brother didn't tell me."
Just as Mo Chuan frowned, contemplating whether to call Zhang Henshui again to rush him, a little girl in a pink Lolita dress approached Mo Chuan without anyone noticing and gently tugged at the hem of his clothes from behind.
Feeling it, Mo Chuan turned around and saw the chubby, pink baby face and a pair of large, pink, blinking eyes looking at him.
Mo Chuan was slightly taken aback. He looked around but couldn't find anyone who seemed to be the child's parents. He turned back, bent down slightly, and gently ruffled the little girl's head, offering a gentle smile. "Little sister, what can I do for you?"
Tang Jingjing and the other two heard Mo Chuan's voice and also turned to look. Upon seeing the little girl, they too felt an affection for her.
However, what the little girl said next made the four of them, including Mo Chuan, dumbfounded.
"You're the investigation team Zhang Henshui mentioned, right? Is everyone here?"
"???"
Her voice was fine, a soft, sweet loli voice that made one's ears tingle with sweetness. There were no issues with that, but her tone and content... how could it sound like an experienced, senior investigator?
Seeing their stunned expressions, the little girl patted Mo Chuan's thigh in dissatisfaction and continued in her milky voice, "Let me introduce myself. I am Taotu, a member of the Earthly Branches. I've been assigned to lead you to Huzhou to investigate this incident. You can ask me any questions you have. Now, please introduce yourselves so I can hear about your abilities."
"Huh?!!!!—"
...
Finally, after an embarrassing misunderstanding, Taotu confirmed that the team had assembled. After giving a few instructions, she led the four into Jibei Airport for security checks.
The group still couldn't accept that this little girl, who looked no older than ten, was their leader. While going through security, Taotu couldn't lift her luggage and asked Mo Chuan for help. Later, her appearance caused the staff to mistake her for a child, leading to an awkward situation when Taotu presented her ID.
Amidst the strange atmosphere, Mo Chuan and the other four safely boarded the plane to Huzhou.
Before turning off his phone, Mo Chuan gritted his teeth and sent a final message to Zhang Henshui: "You've given me a HUGE surprise!"
...
On the plane, because Mo Chuan needed to hand over the organized information to Taotu, he had to sit next to her. The remaining three sat together in the connected seats in the middle. (From left to right: Window - Taotu - Mo Chuan - Aisle - Zhang Hanshan - Tang Jingjing - He Danrui - Aisle - Jia - Yi - Window)
"Moving haunted house... statue... frequent disappearances within a period... Yingkou dragon falling... Guo Dahai..."
Taotu flipped through the intelligence on the Five Officials King, taking notes and trying to establish connections between these old, scattered pieces of information.
Beside her, Mo Chuan drank the beverage provided by the flight attendant while watching Taotu organize the data.
When she was serious, she did look more like an adult...
Although he didn't know what Taotu had experienced or why she appeared as a legal loli, one shouldn't ask a woman about her age, so the joke about the loli captain was just for amusement and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Taotu looked up and rubbed her temples. She seemed to feel Mo Chuan's gaze and turned to look at him.
The two made eye contact.
But Taotu quickly turned her head back to look out the window – did this kid have the ability of a Western succubus?! Why was he so handsome? No, not just handsome, but he also had a captivating aura. Damn it, even though he was wearing sunglasses, just seeing half his face, I couldn't hold back!
So Taotu patted her flushed cheeks, lowered her head to read the data again, but her eyes kept darting in Mo Chuan's direction.
After a while, seeing that Taotu hadn't finished reading, Mo Chuan put on his mask, closed his eyes, and leaned back, planning to take a nap. From going to the Ghost Market in Sili Mountain, to Mo Fei's incident, and then taking Mo Fei out to play for a few days, Mo Chuan hadn't had a good rest and was already feeling listless.
Taotu's eyes lit up at this, but she showed no other reaction. She just quietly slowed down her writing speed, focusing on Mo Chuan's voice.
As expected, it wasn't long before faint snores and steady breathing could be heard from Mo Chuan's side.
But Taotu became restless.
At this moment, it was as if two little people were fighting in Taotu's mind. One said, "Taotu, you're not some perverted girl. Even if he's handsome and to your liking, you can't be getting handsy with him as soon as you meet! The situation with the Five Officials King is so serious right now, shouldn't you be trying to solve the current problem first?"
The other snorted coldly and said, "The Five Officials King's situation can't be solved in a short while, but this kid won't be sleeping the whole way. It's rare to find someone to your taste, and he's not exactly young. Wouldn't it be nice to touch him a bit to satisfy your cravings?"
The two little people were arguing fiercely in Taotu's mind, so Taotu put down her pen, planning to put the data in the handbag by Mo Chuan's feet and close her eyes to rest for a while.
Suddenly, the plane jolted.
Not having her seatbelt fastened, Taotu fell into Mo Chuan's arms. She frantically tried to get up and return to her seat, intending to explain to Mo Chuan that she wasn't a pervert, but she found herself still holding Mo Chuan's hand.
Taotu looked up at Mo Chuan with a look of shame.
Huh?
He didn't wake up?