Chapter 17: The Benefactor

“Nüwa Seventeen, retract the content,” Chu Zhu whispered softly after confirming he had memorized it. Watching the holographic screen dissipate, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Now, all that’s left is to wait for three days!” Chu Zhu stepped out of the women’s restroom, casting a peculiar glance at the sign. Even now, he still found it strange why the device had to be installed in the women’s restroom.

Moreover, he had been thinking just now—what if someone was inside when he came out? That would be truly awkward. And how could he possibly explain it?

“Next time, I should ask Uncle Li! But, does this underground base have any other exits?”

Lost in these thoughts, Chu Zhu left the police station. After a moment’s reflection, he made a decision and suddenly surged forward with incredible speed toward the bank.

...

“Sure enough, they got caught!” Chu Zhu stood thoughtfully at the tattered entrance of the bank. In the distance, an ambulance was parked. A very familiar figure was being carried out on a stretcher by doctors and nurses and loaded into the vehicle.

It was Lu Moxue! She looked to be in terrible condition.

Watching the ambulance drive away, Chu Zhu turned his gaze back to the other injured inside the bank. Several doctors were treating them on the spot—mainly administering painkillers and antibiotics. Beyond that, the rest was left to the body’s resilience. Going to a hospital? Such expenses were beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Lu Moxue was being taken away precisely because of her distinguished status and substantial family wealth.

After all, in the Dream World, even an ambulance was considered an ancient relic, and every deployment cost an unimaginably high price. The vast array of medical equipment inside hospitals was similarly exorbitant...

“Ah Zhu?” Li Kang’s puzzled voice sounded.

Chu Zhu turned to see Li Kang stepping down from a steam-powered vehicle. It bore no police insignia and looked quite ordinary.

“Why are you—oh!” Li Kang suddenly slapped his forehead. “It must be because you asked someone inside the station to find out... No, wait, they probably wouldn’t tell you!”

“I do have some connections,” Chu Zhu said calmly, evading the question. Li Kang caught on quickly and said, “True, after all, it’s you.”

...

“What about those bank robbers this time?”

“Our memories of the event have been completely wiped and handed over to the police,” Li Kang replied calmly. “That’s no longer our concern.”

After a short pause, his tone grew serious. “By the way, Ah Zhu, you might not know this well, but I have to emphasize: you can’t show any extraordinary content to ordinary people. Otherwise, our side will detect it, and... the workload will be overwhelming! Plus, it violates the Extraordinary Management Act, and the consequences are severe.”

“Even if it’s an act of bravery?” Chu Zhu raised an eyebrow. Although he had suspected as much, he wanted to learn more.

“Even then!” Li Kang’s expression grew grave, but he quickly shifted tone. “Of course, if it’s just using a bit of power beyond normal humans, nothing too far-fetched from common sense... then it’s fine! After all, isn’t kung fu popular in society these days?”

Chu Zhu pondered this. So all those rumors about kung fu circulating in society were related to the extraordinary?

“Captain, I wanted to ask earlier... who is this?” A slender woman in a suit and long socks, exuding a spirited aura, stepped down from the nearby vehicle, her face full of curiosity.

“He is—”

“Hello, Miss Ning Linglong!” Chu Zhu approached confidently, extending his hand and respectfully touching her fingertips. “I’m Chu Zhu, but you can call me Ah Zhu or Bamboo. You should know me! Ning Yu must have mentioned me to you. We probably met before. About a week ago, Ning Yu invited me out for dinner!”

“Uh... huh?!” Ning Linglong looked puzzled at first, then suddenly shivered. “Wait, you’re the child who saved my father eight years ago?”

Ning Linglong was stunned, instinctively reaching down to the area below her waist—matching Chu Zhu’s height from their last meeting. No, that was eight years ago... how did she recognize him so quickly?

Then the flood of inexplicable memories came rushing back...

Eight years ago, Chu Zhu was still a little kid, yet somehow had saved a drunken Ning Yu after his steam car fell into the river, even managing to find them through the police station.

Ning Linglong still remembered clearly how, upon hearing of her father’s accident, she was completely stunned. She couldn’t recall how she got to the hospital. The most vivid image was her mother kneeling before Chu Zhu with a “thud” after learning the details—the doctors said if Ning Yu had arrived twenty minutes later, he would have died.

“Zhu, Uncle Zhu!” Ning Linglong’s expression stiffened as she uttered the title, then finally snapped back to reality and bowed deeply to Chu Zhu. Although she was five or six years older, she could not forget that he was her family’s savior.

...

“...Ah?!” Li Kang was dumbfounded, overwhelmed by the torrent of information.

“How did you... I actually! This kind of thing.” Li Kang stammered, struggling to gather his thoughts. After a while, he managed to say with difficulty, “That’s really quite a coincidence!”

Chu Zhu raised an eyebrow. Coincidence? Not really! If it hadn’t been Ning Linglong stepping down, but the other senior officers who were extraordinary, Chu Zhu could still connect with them... just whether the connection was close or distant!

Don’t underestimate him—he had built up connections from countless missions!

“So, so, so, sorry!” Ning Linglong lost her previous boldness and became extremely reserved. “No, no, no, it’s not that our family is ungrateful! It’s just that I’m simply not very familiar with you... Oh no, how about I invite you to dinner in a few days to apologize? I don’t know what I’m saying...”

“It’s nothing. Ning Yu and I are sworn brothers! Just relax,” Chu Zhu waved his hand generously and smiled. “Great niece.”

Ning Linglong’s expression brightened but she could only nod stiffly, stammering, “...Okay, uncle!”

Li Kang covered his face, utterly at a loss. Even after understanding the situation, he felt the clash of this scene was intense.

“You really are something!” Li Kang chuckled bitterly. “Deputy Captain Ning is truly gifted with limitless potential. Ah Zhu, you should... communicate more with her in the future!”

“Oh.” Chu Zhu feigned surprise but knew well that Ning Linglong held a very high rank in the Special Operations Unit—essentially second-in-command. Of course, this referred to her official police position, but her extraordinary counterpart rank was likely equivalent.