Chapter 144 : Chapter 144
Although the evil organization threatening D-City—the I Love Savory Tofu Pudding Association—had temporarily ceased their efforts to conquer the city, life at the Hero Association hadn’t changed much.
It was still the same routine: slacking off, sipping tea, and occasionally training on a whim.
Unfortunately, due to the recent surge in responsibilities, they hadn’t quite returned to their pre-Yi Ning semi-retired lifestyle of wolfberries in thermoses and playing mahjong all day.
Among them, Lu Zheng was the busiest.
As the No.1 combatant, he was indispensable whenever hero force was needed—such as helping capture black market smugglers who slipped through the cracks.
Of course, Ye Qin and Miss Qiu Yu weren’t idle either.
They were actively conspiring on how to snatch Lu Zheng back from the clutches of the great villain Yi Ning.
“What’s wrong? Tired?”
Lu Zheng looked up at Miss Qiu Yu, who sat across from him.
Noticing his gaze, Miss Qiu Yu stiffened. She closed her eyes, took a moment to compose herself, then raised her head and looked at him with a beaming smile.
This was the result of their efforts.
Driven by the threat of Yi Ning, Miss Qiu Yu had finally adjusted her attitude, trained hard with Ye Qin, and had now managed to reveal just a sliver of her true feelings in front of Lu Zheng.
Even though it took her several seconds of self-hypnosis, it was progress nonetheless.
But to Lu Zheng, this smile from Miss Qiu Yu was more terrifying—more horrifying—than facing the Super Invincible Girlification Machine that Yi Ning had.
That Qiu Yu—actually smiled sweetly at him!
And she even asked if he was tired!
Lu Zheng couldn’t help recalling how animals behaved abnormally before natural disasters.
Connecting the dots to this oddly-behaving Miss Qiu Yu...
Could it be that the world is ending tomorrow?
“Uh… well… nothing.”
Lu Zheng lowered his head, avoiding her gaze, giving a vague response.
Ever since the day after Yi Ning took her leave, Miss Qiu Yu had been acting like a different person—suddenly all smiles toward him.
Such wildly unusual behavior had Lu Zheng sweating cold bullets, even suspecting he’d somehow upset her again and was about to be harshly punished.
Unfortunately, even after waiting a long time, he still couldn’t bring himself to ask the question directly.
Lu Zheng rested his head on his desk and let out a quiet sigh, feeling a tinge of nostalgia for Yi Ning’s evil schemes.
At least then, he didn’t have to live each day on edge, constantly worried about when the hammer would fall.
Perhaps Lu Zheng’s prayers had been sincere enough.
The clock on the wall ticked to 12, and almost at the same time, an alarm blared.
A red dot appeared on the holographic map in mid-air—right at the location Lu Zheng knew best.
That was Dr. Alien’s evil experimental base.
It looked like Yi Ning’s vacation was over.
“Boom!”
Lu Zheng grinned and slapped his hands on the desk excitedly. He grabbed his helmet and ran out the door.
Behind him, Miss Qiu Yu’s smile finally collapsed.
Her lips turned downward, and her clenched fists trembled as they rested on the table.
Even though she had worked so hard to maintain a smile, she still lost to Yi Ning’s relentless daily evil plans!
Was the gap between them really this big?
She was not willing to accept it!
…
Today might have been Lu Zheng’s lucky day.
Not only did he escape Miss Qiu Yu’s “interrogation,” but he also randomly drew a speed-type superpower, cutting his travel time to the minimum.
Less than three minutes after leaving the Hero Association, Lu Zheng stood outside Yi Ning’s base, reaching out to press the doorbell.
“Come in.”
Before he could press it, Yi Ning had already opened the door, waving him inside.
The timing was so uncanny that Lu Zheng half-suspected she’d been standing behind the door watching him through the peephole.
He glanced at Yi Ning inside, then at the untouched doorbell. After thinking it over, he said nothing and simply followed her inside, sitting on a newly-purchased guest sofa.
“Here, cola.”
Yi Ning casually tossed him a can of iced cola, opened her own, and gulped down a few sips before flopping onto the sofa next to him.
Ever since she became a girl, Yi Ning felt her craving for sweets had grown, so she had stocked her fridge with desserts and drinks.
Naturally, the variety of drinks available for Lu Zheng also increased.
“Ha!”
Yi Ning let out a long breath and slammed her cola bottle onto the coffee table with a thud.
Nothing like the first sip of ice-cold soda on a blazing summer day!
Near the cola bottle lay two letters.
On each envelope were strange symbols Lu Zheng couldn’t understand. Judging by their arrangement, they were some kind of writing.
But they looked completely unfamiliar—unlike any script he knew.
Letters usually involved private matters, so Lu Zheng only glanced at them briefly before shifting his attention to Yi Ning.
“So this is today’s trap?”
He held up the cola she’d given him, shaking it slightly in mid-air before bringing it closer, inspecting it as if trying to figure out how the trap would be triggered.
Unfortunately, this effort was doomed to fail.
“It has nothing to do with today’s trap.”
Yi Ning shook her head, took another swig from her bottle, and set it down even closer to the letters.
Lu Zheng’s gaze followed her hand, sweeping over the letters once more before returning to his cola can.
Clearly, he didn’t believe her.
Yi Ning glanced at him, her eyes rolling slightly.
“Pfft!”
A few seconds later, she put on a look of exaggerated displeasure.
“Fine, you’re lucky this time. You dodged it.”
She rolled her eyes and extended a middle finger in annoyance.
“If you’d shaken the bottle a few times and opened it while pointing it at yourself, you’d have triggered the trap.”
Lu Zheng believed her.
He gripped the can tightly and gave it a vigorous shake. A thick layer of foam quickly formed at the top.
Following the instructions, he was just about to open the can when he suddenly froze.
“Wait a second—won’t this just spray me with soda?”
“Yep.”
Yi Ning didn’t even try to deny it—she admitted bluntly that she was tricking him.
“I saw how obsessed you were with traps, so I whipped up one on the spot. Too bad you figured it out.”
She took another sip of cola and set the bottle beside the envelopes again.
Lu Zheng’s gaze once more drifted toward the letters.