Chapter 50: Serial Killer Kills Serial Killer

Zheng Fan teleported right next to Jiang Si and slapped the back of her head. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"I was not!"

"Still dare to quibble! The silhouette, the silhouette, and again the silhouette!"

"What is with you and silhouettes all the time? Mister Demon, you should reflect on yourself first!"

"Little brat, you actually dare to talk back?"

After some playful bickering, Zheng Fan finally invited Jiang Si into the room.

"Is this guy lying here really going to be fine? He looks like he's still breathing, but he's practically a corpse... Do you need me to help clean up the mess?" Jiang Si glanced sideways at Cheng Fei on the floor. Upon closer inspection, her instincts as a serial killer seemed to finally notice something was amiss, and she looked at Zheng Fan with an eager, itching-to-try expression.

Zheng Fan was long past surprised by the reactions of girls from the Metropolis when encountering such scenes; this level of gore was far too minor to trigger any desire in him to make snarky remarks.

"A half-dead guy, my spare body, though I don't really want to use it anytime soon." Zheng Fan gave Cheng Fei a kick as he walked past, then fetched a guest teacup to brew a cup of coffee for Jiang Si.

"It smells so good, high-quality coffee beans!" Jiang Si immediately threw Cheng Fei to the back of her mind and curiously trailed behind Zheng Fan.

"Oh? You actually know your stuff. As expected of a mafia princess."

"Mm-hmm, the hint of gunpowder smoke hidden beneath these coffee beans is just like the aged aroma of fine old wine, paired with the inherent intent of lethal danger lurking inside the coffee machine itself—it's simply intoxicating~." Jiang Si cupped her cheeks in both hands with a rapturous expression, looking just like a professional food critic.

Though what she was appreciating didn't sound much like food at all.

"You really are a professional..." Zheng Fan patted the coffee machine to soothe its emotions.

After spending seventy thousand on a coffee machine, it couldn't even fool two young girls. If it weren't for the non-refundable policy, Zheng Fan might have already taken action.

Of course, that was probably not the coffee machine's fault.

Carrying the coffee, he sat down on the reception sofa. Watching Jiang Si pick up the cup and take a large gulp without even minding the heat, Zheng Fan asked, "So when did you get back? I thought you wouldn't be coming back for quite a while."

"I got back yesterday. I've been operating around Cameron Street for the past few days. Although it's not far away, the pace over there is much more relaxed than in Xixikeqi," Jiang Si chattered away.

"Since it's so nice, why didn't you just stay there? Or did the Mellon family lift the bounty on you and the storm has passed?" Zheng Fan asked.

Though he figured things wouldn't be that convenient; after all, if something like that had happened, Lin Yilin definitely would have told him.

That girl was meticulous about everything. Knowing that Jiang Si was Zheng Fan's secondary unit, she always intentionally or unintentionally kept track of Jiang Si's news and casually dropped it into their daily small talk.

Sensible to the point of heartache.

"Not at all. It's just that someone I want to kill ran back to Xixikeqi, so I chased him all the way back," Jiang Si replied with a sweet smile.

"What?"

"The person I want to kill, a guy named Felqi. He's also a serial killer. When I was in Cameron Street, he targeted me first. Since he didn't manage to kill me, I'm going to turn the tables and kill him. We played cat and mouse for a while, but then he suddenly fled to Xixikeqi, so I followed him back," Jiang Si said, finishing her coffee in one gulp.

"Such a simple reason, then. Do you have any intelligence on him?"

"Nope. I'm baffled too. With such a distinct feature as a tall, spikey up-do hairstyle, he seemed to have completely vanished the moment he arrived in Xixikeqi. Back in Cameron Street, I could get answers just by asking around." Jiang Si swung her legs back and forth, her little leather shoes gleaming brightly.

"Spikey hair... Is it really okay for you serial killers to leave such obvious identifying traits on yourselves?" Zheng Fan said speechlessly.

Jiang Si herself was the same way, dressing like a cosplay girl every day—truly a serial killer's Dress-Up darling. Every time Zheng Fan went to find her, the clothes she wore were bound to be different, yet they were all equally youthful, vibrant, and attention-grabbing.

Combined with the fact that she didn't bother to conceal her face, her whereabouts ought to have been glaringly obvious. Yet even while being hunted and having a bounty placed on her by interested parties, she could still come and go as she pleased without being discovered.

How should he put it? The secrecy of the little zombie's whereabouts was a lot like the Binary Girl's intelligence network—at a glance it seemed to make some sense, but in reality, it was completely metaphysical.

"How are we supposed to survive if a serial killer doesn't leave a few defining features! We are a bunch of people with a very strong desire to perform, you know," Jiang Si straightened up and argued with absolute conviction.

"Then how did you find your way here? And why were you so skilled at picking the lock?" Zheng Fan remembered never having told Jiang Si about Lin Yilin's detective agency.

Although Jiang Si knew Zheng Fan had a primary unit, she didn't know what kind of primary unit it was.

Moreover, Zheng Fan didn't really want Jiang Si to get entangled with Lin Yilin.

Jiang Si possessed a coexistence of petty cleverness and utter stupidity, always giving the impression that she would be played to death by Lin Yilin.

Don't ask why the impression of the Binary Little Sister in Zheng Fan's mind had turned into this.

If you must ask, it was the perfect crime.

"Counter-tracking. It's a basic skill for a serial killer. Mister Demon has spent so much time with me; you surely didn't think I collected zero information, did you?" Jiang Si's eyes narrowed into a wicked woman's expression carrying a unique charm.

Zheng Fan transformed into an animal to run around every night, and he had no idea where he might have exposed himself.

Still, considering she was a genius serial killer, Zheng Fan felt it was within reason.

"You're the kind of partner whose spouse wouldn't dare cheat on them. Is serial murder what comes after the perfect crime?" Zheng Fan muttered to himself in deep thought.

"As for picking the lock, I found out you weren't home when I came looking for you here a while ago, so I took the opportunity to familiarize myself with the door lock while leaving. Doing it a second time made it very easy," Jiang Si continued, the red thread at her fingertips outlining the shape of a key.

"Huh? You've sneaked in here before?"

Zheng Fan caught a startling piece of information.

"Yup."

"Then did you ever have days where you walked down the street and suddenly had a kitty-gun pointed at the back of your head, or received anonymous threat emails on your phone or computer?"

"What's that? None of that happened. How could I be found so easily? Besides, I don't use phones or computers anyway." Jiang Si was extremely confident in this regard.

Zheng Fan gave her a weird look.

He wondered if Lin Yilin truly hadn't noticed or was just pretending not to notice.

"Ah, are you worried about me on behalf of the owner of this agency? To be honest, I'm a bit surprised. When I arrived, I found out that Mister Demon's primary unit is actually a witch."

"A witch?"

"Mhm, it's a sort of urban legend circulating around Xixikeqi—the Scathed Witch of Zero-One Agency~." Jiang Si raised both hands and made playful clawing gestures.

"Ah, so she has a chuunibyou title like that." Zheng Fan's initial reaction was sheer surprise; how come Lin Yilin had never mentioned such a thing?

On second thought, though, hearing a title like that spoken by the person involved herself felt borderline humiliating.

Just imagine: Miss Lin Yilin standing on a podium, clearing her throat, and introducing herself by saying, "Yes, I am the Scathed Witch of Xixikeqi."

A burst of cheers and applause from the audience.

Huh? Sounds kind of nice? Zheng Fan's applause would definitely be among those cheering in the crowd.

Returning to reality, Jiang Si pondered for a moment before saying, "I think it sounds pretty cool. I was actually a bit tempted to meet her, but let's forget it for now. Unless it's an accident, it's better not to cross paths in the future."

"Why do you say that?"

"Two tigers cannot share a mountain... Ahaha, just kidding. How should I put it? I feel like we probably wouldn't get along very well. The combination of a detective and a serial killer is too occult; the moment they share the screen, it feels like something terrible is bound to happen to one of them. It's best to avoid it whenever possible." Jiang Si pressed a single index finger against her lips, making a shushing gesture.

"Utter nonsense."

"Haha, alright, it's almost time for me to go. I still need to track down Felqi's whereabouts—so busy, so busy," Jiang Si said, standing up.

"Any other distinctive features? Make it clear and I'll keep an eye out for you when I have time."

"Hmm..." Jiang Si thought about it. "The last time he showed up in Cameron Street, he seemed to have gotten a bit stronger. He killed quite a few people in the black market, and his movements became faster... I heard it was like he suddenly grew a bunch of extra hands..."

"How is that a feature?"

"No, it's because he snatched a fantastical artifact in the black market and got a boost under its enhancement. That pair of fantastical artifacts should be... a pair of shoes."

Zheng Fan tilted his head.

"Shoes?"