Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Answering to the highest levels? Yang Lanxu's heart tightened. This obscure little agency he'd never heard of was formidable indeed. Yet it did not intimidate Yang Ce. Yang Yongjin was confident Xia Yan would not do anything to him—if Xia Yan truly meant him harm, with his authority he could simply have had Yang Ce seized and interrogated; he would not be sitting here talking face to face.

Yang Yuting nodded and returned the credentials to Xia Yan. "All right, I've looked them over. For now I'll believe your identities are genuine. Ask whatever you want to ask."

But unexpectedly, after putting the credentials away, Xia Yan smiled at Yang Yanzhou and said: "Fine credentials, aren't they?"

"What do you mean?" Yang Ce was baffled by the question.

"Would you like one?" Xia Yan pressed on.

"Want—want what? For you to give me your credentials?" Yang Wenru furrowed his brow. He had a vague sense of what was coming, but his face still wore a look of puzzlement. "What would I want with your credentials?"

"Yang Ce, I don't believe you fail to understand me." Rather than pursue the previous topic, Xia Yan shook his head. "If I'm not mistaken, you must be an esper."

"An esper?" Yang Ce would not move without seeing the prize; until Xia Yan laid all his cards on the table, he would say nothing. "What do you mean, I'm an esper—Ultraman? The Terminator? Doraemon?"

"..." Xia Yan rolled his eyes. This Yang Ce was truly a handful. He'd assumed that at his age, a carrot and a stick would be enough to make him spill the truth.

To be continued.

936. A Display of Ability

936 A Display of Ability

"Yang Ce, I don't want to beat around the bush with you—there's no point." Xia Yan said, somewhat helplessly: "Since you're unwilling to speak, fine. I'll speak for you, and you tell me whether I'm right."

Yang Ce gave a slight nod, signaling Xia Yan to continue.

"If I'm not mistaken, you should possess clairvoyance, shouldn't you?" Though Xia Yan was only probing, his tone was utterly certain—at the very least, he meant to put pressure on Yang Juehuan's mind.

"Go on." Yang Ce neither confirmed nor denied, but made a gesture to continue. Because Yang Shuoxuan knew that if he denied it vehemently, the conversation would return to where it began, into an endless loop, circling without end—and that would accomplish nothing.

So Yang Ce gave Xia Yan the chance to finish, to see just what his intent and attitude were, so that Yang Shuoxuan could make his choice.

"All right. First, that time at the East Sea Airport, you accurately stated that a passenger's bag contained a knife. On that point alone, you had already come to our attention," Xia Yan said.

"Oh?" Yang Xutang merely smiled faintly. "And if I told you that earlier, outside, I had overheard the two of them talking? That sort of thing is common enough—nothing remarkable."

"Heh, yes. Indeed, one such instance is nothing." Xia Yan smiled and continued: "Which is why I said you had merely come to our attention, and no more. What put you under our watch was your stone-gambling in Yunnan. But you were clever and kept a low profile—you didn't take only the rough stones with good jade inside; you mixed them in. Even so, don't you think your success rate was just a little too high?"

"Maybe I'm just lucky," Yang Ce said naturally.

"Fine, let's say you're lucky." Xia Yan did not press the point. "Then what about your gambling in Macau? Don't tell me you're truly the God of Gamblers—even the God of Gamblers isn't as good as you."

This time, Yang Ce did not argue back, because that time he had indeed played a little too boldly, shown off a little too much. He'd assumed no one would pay attention to him in a Macau casino, never imagining that Xia Yan and his people wielded such enormous power.

"The crucial point is this: Xia Xue is my sister. What happened between her and you yesterday, I know very well. Don't imagine that a line about having memorized the road can fool Xia Xue—and it certainly can't fool me." Xia Yan spoke with the air of one who had grasped Yang Juehuan's weak point, rather smugly, his eyes full of confidence.

Yang Ce laughed inwardly. Yesterday—the events of yesterday actually had nothing to do with his ability, he thought; it must have been the heart gu Lan Ling had planted in him that did the work. Still, there was no chance Yang Yongjin would tell Xia Yan about the heart gu.

"What are you trying to do?" Yang Yongjin said, neither confirming nor denying. "If you want to ask me where my ability comes from, then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, because I don't know either."

"Of course that's not what I'm asking." Xia Yan had never once thought of asking Yang Juehuan how his ability had come about, because many people's powers were innate, while others acquired them through some bizarre stroke of fortune. Such things could not be deliberately replicated even if one tried, so knowing the answer would do no good. Past experience had taught Xia Yan that even if some accident granted one person a power, sending another person to do the very same thing would never produce that power again.

"Actually, you ought to be able to sense that I bear you no ill will—otherwise I wouldn't be able to sit here so calmly and talk with you." Xia Yan went on: "We simply feel that a man with an ability like yours is wasted if he doesn't join our Mysterious Events Investigation Bureau."

Yang Xutang laughed at his words. "Wasted for you, or wasted for me?"

Xia Yan gave a dry laugh. "Of course, you're free to refuse."

"Can I really refuse?" Yang Duoran did not believe him. "I'm afraid that once I refuse, someone will be watching me twenty-four hours a day."

Yang Ce had seen the film Next, in which the protagonist was put under round-the-clock surveillance, making his daily life a misery.

"Not surveillance—protection." Xia Yan corrected him with perfect seriousness.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Yang Jincong gave a small laugh. For all his scheming, Yang Jiyan had never imagined that such an institution existed; now it seemed he had no choice but to accept Xia Yan's offer.

"Different in nature, much the same in practice." Xia Yan nodded.

"But I'm still a student. I have to attend school, and I have my own dreams and my own career. I don't want to be any sort of investigator." Yang Ce shrugged.

"I never said you couldn't attend school. Going to university is everyone's right—how could we take that away?" Xia Yan smiled. "Besides, we're not some feudal dictatorship. We won't make you give up your dreams."

"Then what do you—" This time it was Yang Ce's turn to be astonished. If that was how it was, why had Xia Yan come looking for him at all?

"Actually, our unit is not what you imagine. Once you join us, you won't need to report to work every day." Xia Yan explained: "Do you think mysterious incidents or major events happen every single day? Of course not—that would turn the world into a science fiction novel. Sometimes a whole year passes and we have nothing to do at all."

"Moreover, once you join the Bureau, your status will differ from ours. We are resident investigators; you will be a special investigator. So-called special investigators are all people like you, possessing some extraordinary ability in one field or another. Several of the masters at Shaolin Temple are our special investigators as well."

"In other words, we'll only call on you when we need you. The rest of the time, you do whatever you like. No one will disturb you."

"I see. That doesn't sound too bad." Yang Yuting nodded. If that was all there was to it, joining would do no harm.

Seeing Yang Juehuan's tone soften, Xia Yan hurried to press his advantage: "And you're a businessman—you're bound to offend petty people sooner or later. With our status behind you, you can save yourself a great deal of trouble. Of course, while you're working for us, if you use our status to handle your own affairs, we won't interfere."