Chapter 4404 — Central Express

"Which courier service is this from?" Wu Chengtian asked with a frown.

"The address is right here—Villa No. 8, Seaview Bay Villa District, to be received by Qiu Lingshan or Wu Chengtian. May I ask which of those two you are?" the courier replied evenly.

"Hm?" Wu Chengtian grew even more suspicious at once, and demanded sharply, "Who exactly are you?"

If the name on it had been someone else's, it might genuinely have been that they had ordered something and, to save trouble, put down this address. But for his own name to be written there as well—that made no sense at all. He had not bought a single thing!

After what had happened last time, Wu Chengtian did not believe anyone could be so beyond saving as to dare come knocking again looking for trouble. Still, out of caution, his first reaction now was that this man was a spy sent by some petty villain to sound out the situation!

"Ah?" The courier started at his tone, then gave him the look one gives a madman and muttered, "I'm just a courier. What else would I be...?"

"Let me see that package." Wu Chengtian studied the man's expression carefully, and only once he was sure there was nothing amiss did he take the parcel from his hands.

He was, after all, a peak Heaven-rank master—in this mortal world, an existence akin to a landborne atomic bomb. Even if the other man truly meant ill, there was nothing to fear; it was merely instinctive wariness.

Only after taking the parcel did Wu Chengtian lower his eyes for a first glance—and he froze on the spot. The handwriting on the waybill looked oddly familiar at first sight, and on closer thought—wasn't this damn well the handwriting of Chief Wei Zhao?!

That was not all. The crucial thing was the great big stamp of the sender's location, which stunned Wu Chengtian so badly that his jaw hung open for a long while; he nearly keeled over.

For what was written there was: Cloud Terrace Island Central Express Service Company!

Good god almighty! In all the years since he had come into his power, this was the first time Wu Chengtian had ever felt his brain starved of oxygen; his mind went blank for a moment.

What in the world kind of courier company was this? It had actually produced Cloud Terrace Island out of nowhere—could it be that Chief Wei Zhao had mailed this from Cloud Terrace Island? That would be far too uncanny!

With something so absurd, any normal person's first reaction would certainly be that it was a trick, and Wu Chengtian was no exception. His face full of doubt, he looked the self-proclaimed courier up and down. Who had sent this man? The setup was really quite convincingly staged!

"Are you the recipient or not? Do you want to sign for it? If not, I'll take it back!" The courier was thoroughly unnerved by his stare. Anyone with a weaker constitution would likely have yelped and fled on the spot—there was no help for it. These days everyone feared running into a lunatic.

At this point Wu Chengtian finally stopped second-guessing. After all, everything else might be faked, but Chief Wei Zhao's handwriting on it could hardly be false; and by any measure, this courier really did seem to be nothing but an ordinary man, betraying no sign of any ulterior motive.

"I'll sign. Of course I'll sign!" Wu Chengtian said hurriedly. Whether this parcel was a conspiracy or not, he meant to accept it and have a good look.

In this mortal world, a peak Heaven-rank master who was all but invincible could afford to ignore any and every scheme and trick; and besides, unlikely as it seemed—what if this parcel really had come from Chief Wei Zhao?

"Here, sign right here. Within thirty days you may send one reply. This is my card—once you've written your reply, give me a call and I'll come to collect it." As he spoke, the courier handed his card to Wu Chengtian.

Wu Chengtian's mouth twitched despite himself. What had the world come to, when even couriers had started handing out business cards...

"Please write your reply as soon as you can and give me a call. I'll be off." The courier nodded to Wu Chengtian and at once turned to leave.

"Wait a moment!" Startled, Wu Chengtian hurriedly caught hold of him.

"Is there something else?" The courier's manner was plainly wary now, and he had even instinctively shifted into a defensive stance. Clearly he had indeed taken Wu Chengtian for the sort of lunatic who might bite at any moment.

"Uh..." Wu Chengtian scratched his head, somewhat embarrassed, and asked, "Your company—what exactly is it, that you can send a parcel here all the way from Cloud Terrace Island?"

"We're Central Express. Haven't you heard of us?" The courier gave him a rather puzzled look.

"No, never heard of it," Wu Chengtian said, shaking his head. He had never shopped online, and no one would ever send him anything out of the blue, so naturally he had not.

But just because he had not heard of it did not mean others hadn't. In fact, Central Express was a courier service that had risen recently, and a formidable one at that.

Not only were its logistics channels swift and smooth, its delivery times far faster than other couriers, but its prices were exceedingly reasonable as well. Thus, in the space of a few short months since its founding, Central Express had swiftly captured the market; among the online-shopping crowd, there was scarcely a soul who had not heard of it.

"Well, Central Express hasn't been around long, but our market scale today is second to no top-tier courier. Our logistics network spans the world, and we handle a great deal of mail coming back from overseas—from plenty of small islands too, Hawaii and the like. This Cloud Terrace Island of yours I've never heard of, but I'd guess it's some little island somewhere too," the courier explained.

"Huh? Hawaii? What does that have to do with Cloud Terrace Island?" Wu Chengtian was left blinking in bewilderment, and it took him a good while to work it out: the courier had no idea at all what Cloud Terrace Island represented, and took it for some little island overseas.

"Sorry, I've never been to this Cloud Terrace Island of yours. But I'd imagine that's about the size of it," the courier said awkwardly.

"Does your company handle a lot of this kind of delivery? Are you in contact with Cloud Terrace Island?" Wu Chengtian probed, still unwilling to give up.

"That I couldn't say. I'm only a senior courier with Central Express. Normally I handle international mail and the delivery of some reply receipts—yours is a reply receipt," the courier said.

"Reply receipt?" Wu Chengtian paused a moment before recalling that, by the man's own account, a reply could indeed be sent within a month. He could not help asking, "Then this reply receipt you mention—where do you send it? Surely not back to the sender's address?" (To be continued...)