The Creatures that We Are

After the evening self-study, Gao Yang went back home without delay and chatted with his family in the living room for a while. Then they each washed up and retired to bed.

Gao Yang went to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. As usual, he spent more than half an hour doing strength training before taking a shower.

Then lying on his bed, he pondered the matter with Ghost Horse.

Weighing the pros and cons and picturing the different scenarios, including the worst of them, he finally came to a decision.

The next day, Gao Yang went to school.

Qing Ling didn’t come. The day went by uneventfully.

He didn’t have school tomorrow, and thus he didn’t have to attend evening self-study today.

Once school ended in the evening, Gao Yang made it to the Black Tortoise branch in the Walled City of Ten Dragons and took some basic equipment that didn’t require application, putting them in his backpack.

Then he hailed a taxi and left for Wang Zikai’s place.

He vaulted over the wall of the villa and opened the door. Fat Jun was there, lifting two buckets of water in a squatting position, his hip raised and his body drenched in sweat.

“Brother Kai, Brother Kai, I can’t hold on longer! I’m beat…”

“Keep going!”

Somehow, Wang Zikai had a whip in his hand, and he cracked it at the floor. “To perform a minute onstage requires ten years of practicing offstage. You get me?”

“Yes!” Fat Jun shouted, the fat under his chin shaking.

Gao Yang stifled a laugh. What were they up to now?

It turned out that Fat Jun had become a jobless man after the love hotel he owned got burned down. Since he had some savings to support himself with, he gave up on working altogether.

Most importantly, he now saw his life differently.

He had become part of the world of awakeners, and he was a trainee for the Twelve Zodiac Signs. With his gaze on the stars, he dreamed of taking part in saving the world, and thus the material gains in the mundane side of his life lost their appeal to him.

Recently, White Rabbit would sometimes assign simple tasks to him, including fetching or transporting things, as well as exchanging codewords and intel with informants.

Fat Jun always put in his full effort to complete the tasks, making sure nothing went wrong. Then he would ask White Rabbit when he could become an official member, sometimes directly, other times by insinuating his question.

White Rabbit always said that it would have to wait until Fat Jun became better at using his mutated arm.

That made Fat Jun anxious. He wanted to train it too, but he didn’t know how.

In truth, he couldn’t really control his mutated arm. And it sometimes lost control without obvious reason, like the time the hand slapped Wang Zikai twice at the night market held by the Hundred Rivers Union.

After some thinking, Fat Jun sought Wang Zikai out.

After all, Wang Zikai had an arm similar to his, and he had been making rapid progress.

Not only was he incredibly strong and was almost impervious to cold weapons, he could also make bone claws come out of the back of his hands, like Caniverine from Y-Men.

When Fat Jun told Wang Zikai about his need, Wang Zikai agreed to help immediately.

The reason was simple: he was bored.

His ego was now out of this world. He truly believed himself to be God incarnate with the mission of saving humanity.

Although he had to lay low at the moment for the greater good, he was going to be the leader of humanity. Thus, he didn’t mind saving the rookie Fat Jun before the time came for him to be the savior of all.

First, he taught Fat Jun the ‘cultivation method’ Gao Yang told him.

Fat Jun, being quite uneducated, didn’t realize that the method was simply a revised version of Tao Te Ching. He followed it for a few days, but saw no progress.

Then Wang Zikai had Fat Jun do physical training in ways that he had learned from kung fu movies.

Fat Jun obediently trained for two days. Although he hadn’t become noticeably stronger, he did lose two kilograms, which reignited Fat Jun’s passion in training.

That was when Gao Yang came visiting.

“Bro! What brought you here today?” Wang Zikai was overjoyed to see Gao Yang.

“Brother Yang!” Fat Jun was glad to see him too, but then he remembered to be wary. “You, you’re a member of the Qilin Guild now. Is it alright for you to be here?”

Gao Yang smiled. “You have a point. So Fat Jun, you should go now. Otherwise White Rabbit will go after your hind when she hears.”

“Oh, right.” Fat Jun put down the buckets of water and went up to Gao Yang while wiping off sweat. Then he asked in a hesitant tone, “Brother Yang, have you really joined the Qilin Guild?”

Only War Tiger, Qing Ling, and Officer Huang knew that Gao Yang had joined the Guild as their eyes and ears.

But of course, Gao Yang wasn’t going to tell Fat Jun the truth, or he would be getting Fat Jun in danger.

“Yes, I’m working for the Qilin Guild now.”

Fat Jun felt a little down. He wiped his face and smiled bitterly. “I thought we…”

“Fat Jun.” Gao Yang patted him on his thick shoulder. “There is no permanent teammate, only permanent friend. One shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket. Get it?”

Fat Jun paused and came to a realization. “Brother Yang, I get it now!”

How, when I was just talking out of my ass?

“You’re still the Brother Yang I knew! You have a broad perspective and great foresight, a real visionary!” Fat Jun was excited. Finally, he had resolved the concern that had been bothering him.

“Of course! My brother is the awesomest!” Wang Zikai felt proud by association.

“Alright, go.” Gao Yang gave Fat Jun a pointed look. “Remember, we never saw or talked to each other today, and don’t mention me to the organization.”

“Yes, yes. You have my word! I’m going now!” Fat Jun sorted out his clothes and left.

Once the door was shut, Wang Zikai turned to Gao Yang excitedly, “What is it? You need my help?”

“Yes.” Gao Yang put down his heavy backpack, speaking plainly. “There’s a mission.”

“From whom? The Twelve Zodiac Signs, or the Qilin Guild?”

“Neither.”

Gao Yang cleared his throat and started bullshitting. “The two organizations are merely our springboards, nothing more. Today, we’re going on a mission for ourselves, paving the way for your future as the world’s savior.”

“Shit!” Wang Zikai slapped his thigh with unbridled anticipation. “I’ve been waiting for this day, Bro!”

“Yeah.”

Gao Yang knelt down and unzipped his backpack. Inside were a gun with silencer, a small dagger, two shots of Medicine C, two sleep gas grenades, adrenaline shots for awakeners, binoculars, and miniature radios with headpieces.

“We’re setting out tonight.” Gao Yang took out the gun and put on the silencer before tucking it behind his back.

“No problem!” Wang Zikai turned to leave.

Gao Yang stopped him. “Where are you going?”

“I’m putting on better clothes and setting up my hair!” Wang Zikai said like it was obvious.

Gao Yang tugged at his lips. “Well…whatever makes you happy.”

Just when Wang Zikai was going to enter the walk-in closet, he turned around and exclaimed, “We need a name for the two of us! And it has to be cool!”

Gao Yang didn’t mind. He asked, “Any idea?”

“Hm, let me think. What about the Getbackers?”

“Well, it’s not bad, but are you sure you didn’t get the name from a certain manga series?” Gao Yang politely exposed him.

“Haha, you caught me!” Wang Zikai stroked his chin. “Hm, what about something more epic-sounding? The Word-saving Duo!”

That’s not epic, but stupid. We’re gonna sound nuts.

Gao Yang didn’t want to rain on Wang Zikai’s parade, so he came to a middleground. “What about the 94 Duo? It’s best not to reveal our grand plan just yet, or we may attract unwanted attention.”

“The 94 Duo?” Wang Zikai’s eyes lit up. “Sure. It’s decided then!”

…

Three o’clock in the morning.

The flower shop Let Life be Beautiful like Summer Flowers, Xiangyang Road, Daxu District.

Songstress had long closed down shop and lowered the rolling door, and the potted flowers outside had all been moved indoors, leaving only empty wooden stands.

Across from the flower shop to the side was a business hotel. Inside one of the rooms on a higher floor, Gao Yang was looking through the crack between the curtains with a pair of binoculars, scouting and mapping out the area.

In the beginning, Wang Zikai had been excited, feeling like a special agent from movies. However, Gao Yang had been standing by the window and looking out of the binoculars since they entered the hotel room, not saying a word, let alone what their mission entailed.

Wang Zikai quickly lost patience and watched TV for a while with the remote control in hand. Then he took a shower in the bathroom.

When he walked out topless with a towel covering his wet hair, he saw to his shock that Gao Yang still hadn’t moved away from the window.

“Bro, you’re still on that? What exactly are you looking at?”

“I’m about done.”

Gao Yang lowered the binoculars. He had a rough plan in mind.

Houseau3's Thoughts

And now the pair has a name!

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