Chapter 27: Take You To Play
Chu Feng laughed. He asked, "Luo ZhouZhou, may I ask if you are free right now?"
Luo ZhouZhou said, "You said in the terminal that you would take me to play in a few days, and now it's already a few days later."
Chu Feng reached out his hand, ruffled his hair, pulled open the passenger door, and said, "Get in."
Getting into the car, Luo ZhouZhou fastened his seat belt, still looking out of the window with no expression. His two stretched feet, alternately kicking up and down gently, showed he was in a cheerful mood.
"Why are you parked here? Didn't all of you guys leave for the military?" Luo ZhouZhou asked, pretending to be unconcerned. But his ears were focused on Chu Feng, and his feet didn't move.
Chu Feng started the car and said, "I was waiting for you.”
Luo ZhouZhou started happily kicking his feet again.
Chu Feng glanced at his legs and gave a small smile.
"Where are we going?" Luo ZhouZhou asked.
Chu Feng drove the car out of the gate of the military headquarters before replying, "I'll take you to dinner."
"To eat that tomato noodle again from last time?"
Chu Feng smiled, "I'll take you somewhere else today."
The cross-country parked in front of a towering building, Chu Feng got out and pulled the passenger side door open. When Luo ZhouZhou got out as well, Chu Feng tossed the keys to the doorman to park the car, turned around and said, "Let's go."
The moment he reached the top floor and stepped out of the elevator, Luo ZhouZhou wondered if he had entered space. Overhead and all around was the starry sky, immense and boundless. There was a full moon, so close that the craters were visible above.
Seeing his eyes wide open and not daring to move, Chu Feng said, "This is a projection.”
Luo ZhouZhou knew it couldn't be real, but he was still shocked and only came back to his senses, after Chu Feng took the time to lead him to their seats.
A waiter in a tight-fitting astronaut suit came over and handed over the menu.
After choosing his food, Chu Feng put his elbows on the table, interlocked his fingers, and said to the bright-eyed Luo ZhouZhou, "This place is a favorite among children.”
Only then did Luo ZhouZhou notice that there were indeed a number of children around, sitting at the table with their parents. There was also a model of a spaceship in one corner of the hall, with a little man in a spacesuit standing up.
Luo ZhouZhou’s mood immediately turned sour. He didn't find this dreamy scene that attractive anymore. Why don't we just go and eat the bowl of tomato noodles from last time?
Chu Feng, who had been watching him intently, saw his face sink and laughed happily himself.
"Not all of them are children, adults like it too." He explained, "In fact, I like to come here when I have nothing else to do." He then gestured to Luo ZhouZhou, "Look, that table is for adults."
Luo ZhouZhou followed his finger, and there were indeed two adults at the side table against the wall. A man and a woman, feeding each other with forks, gazing at each other and smiling sweetly, they looked like a couple.
"Oh, it's fine then," Luo ZhouZhou indifferently said.
He clearly looked a lot better.
When the food was served, they began to eat quietly. The food here was not only beautiful to look at, but also delicious, and Luo ZhouZhou ate every single dish that was brought to him. From time to time he looked over his shoulder at the couple, watching them eating a box of ice cream together, whispering to each other.
Chu Feng followed his gaze and beckoned the waiter, "Can we get some ice cream?"
After the ice cream was served, he pushed it in front of Luo ZhouZhou, "Eat it. You can't eat too much of this. You can only eat it once in a while."
"Then why did you give me some?" Luo ZhouZhou picked up a small spoon and took a bite.
"Because you've been cleaning hard today."
Luo ZhouZhou suddenly became a little smarter and said, "Then you were spying on me this afternoon."
"Oh?" Chu Feng raised his eyebrows with interest.
"How else would you know that I cleaned?"
Chu Feng laughed, leaned back in his chair and said, "You said yourself that you were the cleaning lady."
"…Oh."
After finishing their meal, Chu Feng paid the bill and they walked out of the building.
It was still early and it wasn't dark yet, so Chu Feng took the wheel and asked, "Where would you like to go?"
Luo ZhouZhou couldn’t come up with anything, so he shook his head, "I don't know."
While waiting at a red light, Chu Feng made an annoyed face and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, "I can't take you to a bar, nor can I take you to a fight. Let's see, where do little Omegas like to go?"
Luo ZhouZhou suddenly became nervous, afraid that he would say, ‘I'll take you home’, so he replied, "I can go to the bar, or I can go to the fights.”
"Oh?" Chu Feng looked at him and said, "Then I'd like to go back to work in the office and look at the files and stuff."
Luo ZhouZhou hesitantly agreed, "That's fine with me too."
Chu Feng suddenly stopped talking and just looked at him silently. His eyes were attentive, and his dark brown eyes were tumbling with complicated emotions that Luo ZhouZhou could not understand.
Luo ZhouZhou was uncomfortable with his gaze, his eyes drifted to other places, and his fingers subconsciously tugged at his pants leg.
It was only when the light turned green and the car behind him honked its horn that Chu Feng turned around, stepped on the gas pedal, and continued on his way.
Luo ZhouZhou sat in the car and looked out the window, feeling the scenery getting stranger and stranger on both sides, and was not the way to the military headquarters.
"Didn't you say you were going back to work at the military headquarters?" He asked.
Chu Feng took a hand to rub his head and said, "How can I bear to let such a good little vampire work with me? Of course I'm taking you to play."
Luo ZhouZhou slapped his hand away with a stern face, but his heart rejoiced.
"I'll take you to—" Before Chu Feng could finish his sentence, the terminal on his wrist rang sharply, with an urgent and somewhat harsh tone, different from the usual sound of calls.
Chu Feng's face sank as he answered the call.
"Mn… Where? Is the site secured? I'll come over." He hung up the communication, turned the car around, and said, "Zhou Zhou, I have something I need to do, I'll take you home first."
When the terminal rang out again, he looked at the number that was calling back and with a "Don't rush. Be right over.”, he hung up.
Luo ZhouZhou turned toward Chu Feng several times, trying to say something, but then shut his mouth.
When he turned around again, Chu Feng helplessly sighed, "If you have something to say, just say it."
"I want to go with you," Luo ZhouZhou whispered.
Without turning his head, Chu Feng said, "I'm going to see the scene, what are you going for?"
"I'm not going to bother you or get out of the car, so I'll just wait for you in the car, okay?"
"No," Chu Feng cut him off.
Luo ZhouZhou stopped talking and turned his back to Chu Feng, pressing his face against the car window.
Chu Feng turned his eyes and asked, "Are you angry?"
Luo ZhouZhou didn't turn around, but just sulked, "Not angry."
Indeed, he was not angry, but he was frustrated. It was obvious that Chu Feng was going to take him out to play, and then he had to send him back before he even left. Luo ZhouZhou looked out of the window without moving, and soon he saw the familiar street and the Star Villa area.
Why is this road so short?, he thought listlessly.
Seeing the villa area approaching and then disappearing behind him, Chu Feng neither stopped nor slowed down the cross-country vehicle. Luo ZhouZhou turned around suddenly and looked at Chu Feng with bright eyes.
Chu Feng looked ahead, his lips curled at the corners. After driving for some distance, he spoke up and explained, "Another Omega has been killed, in a similar way as the previous ones. At present we’re more than sure that the murderer is the same.”
Luo ZhouZhou couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you say the killer was from the Olin Truth Church and hadn't been caught yet?"
Chu Feng shook his head slowly, specifying, "We have checked all the remnants of the congregation we know, and none of them are there."
The vehicle passed through the checkpoint to Bayard and headed out of the city. As the sky darkened, all the cars on the road turned their lights on.
After ten more kilometers, Chu Feng pulled off the road at a fork in the road. This road was not the main road, and the road surface was not very good and was a bit bumpy.
"Zhou Zhou, are you okay?" Chu Feng turned to look at Luo ZhouZhou.
Luo ZhouZhou had been very quiet the whole time, not talking, which made Chu Feng suspect several times that he was asleep. When he looked at him, he was sitting in his seat with his eyes open, not looking like he was dozing off at all.
"I'm fine," Luo ZhouZhou assured him.
"Then why aren't you talking?" Chu Feng asked.
Luo ZhouZhou replied, "I'm afraid of disturbing you."
Chu Feng's tense look softened and he warmly spoke, "Go ahead, I like to listen."
"Then what should I say?" Luo ZhouZhou was a bit annoyed.
"You can say whatever you want," Chu Feng remarked.
Luo ZhouZhou stared ahead. The headlights were illuminating the trees on both sides of the road. Eventually, he thought for a moment and pondered, "If you don't ask me something, I won't know what to say."
Chu Feng smiled gently, "Then tell me something about your childhood."
Luo ZhouZhou began to reminisce in earnest, looking out of the window at the fields shrouded in darkness. There were fields on both sides, and they were the only car on the straight road. Luo ZhouZhou spoke up a short while later, "When I was a child, there didn't seem to be much to do, just studying every day."
Chu Feng laughed, "So what's your favorite item you had?”
Luo ZhouZhou thought about it a bit before replying, "Ah, I had this little bear." He gestured with his hand, about half his height, "It was given to me by an uncle of mine."
"A Muppet bear?" Chu Feng asked.
"Yes. It was brown, and one of its eyes was going to fall out, so the chief fixed it for me."
"Well, I can tell it was cute."
"No, it wasn’t cute, it was ugly."
"Oh, it was ugly, but you liked it a lot."
"I didn’t really like it," Luo ZhouZhou answered, "but I had to be nice to it."
"Well said." Chu Feng spoke to Luo ZhouZhou seriously, one sentence at a time, "Was this little bear with you all the time?"
"No, it was stolen by a couple of other vampires when I wasn't in my room one day. By the time I found it again, it was all cut up and the cotton was ripped out."
"Do you know who those students – the vampires – were?"
"I know."
"So did you get back at them?" Chu Feng asked.
Luo ZhouZhou looked at him and said, "I couldn't beat them, so why take revenge? I just complained to the clan chief, and the chief took care of them."
"…Makes sense."
The vehicle drove alone on the not-so-wide road, with no cars in front or behind. Luo ZhouZhou lowered the window and lay down on top of it. The evening breeze carried the scent of the fields, blowing back his soft hair on his forehead.
After looking at him several times, Chu Feng handed over two candies and said, "Orange flavored.”
Luo ZhouZhou took the candy, ate one for himself, peeled the other and passed it to Chu Feng.
Chu Feng lowered his head and took the candy into his mouth, his soft lips touching Luo ZhouZhou’s fingers.
Luo ZhouZhou withdrew his fingers and clenched his hand into a fist secretly, before stretching the two pieces of cellophane flat and putting them in his pocket.
"Why do you love candy?" Luo ZhouZhou held a sugar ball on his tongue.
Chu Feng was silent for a long while, but he replied, "It’s a habit I developed when I quit smoking."
"And did you quit?" Luo ZhouZhou had never seen Chu Feng smoke a cigarette.
Chu Feng nodded, "I quit."
"Then why did you suddenly want to quit smoking?" Luo ZhouZhou thought Chu Feng was a smoker, whether it was the candy he carried with him after he quit smoking or the lighter he played with all the time. He was curious about everything regarding Chu Feng and wanted to know everything about him.
It was a simple question, but Chu Feng didn't respond. He just smiled, then turned on the radio and soft music drifted out.
Luo ZhouZhou's attention was easily diverted, and he began to listen to the song, tapping his finger on the window of the car, not pursuing the earlier question.
After another ten minutes or so of driving, a line of police cars with flashing red lights appeared on the road ahead, and more than a dozen police officers were coming and going. It seemed that they had arrived at the scene of the murder.
Chu Feng pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car. With his hand on the roof of the car, he lowered his body and asked Luo ZhouZhou, "Are you going to wait for me here?"
"May I tag along?" Luo ZhouZhou asked in a low voice. He didn't want to be left alone in the car.
Chu Feng, obviously expecting this answer, waved his head toward the outside and conceded, "Get out of the car."