Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 396: Born With Deadly Weapon
For one suspended moment, they measured each other carefully.
Now face to face, she looked even younger than He Juan expected. Her hair was cropped short below her ear, just barely enough to frame her youthful features. She had a pair of thin and sharp eyebrows that matched her unyielding temperament and a lanky stature that would definitely continue to grow thanks to her secondary gender as an Alpha.
However, it was her eyes that drew He Juan’s attention the most.
They were the eyes that had seen and endured too much. They were too cold, wary and worn out, as if she had expended all of her energy to fight against the whole world and was barely hanging on the last thread.
She simultaneously reminded him of the omegas he had rescued from the traffickers... and also the foreigner boy whose profile he had read through the confidential report Marius had shown him.
As soon as the girl recognized him, she immediately withdrew her pheromones and took a step back to show that she meant no harm, but traces of it still lingered in the air, making He Juan’s Alpha feel restless and agitated, though he promptly suppressed it to the bottom of his heart and forced himself to focus on the matter at hand. Now was not the time to succumb to his instinct.
So many questions were swirling in his mind. Why are you here? How are you related to Blue Lotus? What were you doing that day in the Queen of Spades and why would you kill Blue Lotus’ men? Why couldn’t A-Mu discover anything about you? Are you really a mutated Alpha? What kind of help do you need from me?
But even more important than all of those questions was—
"How do you recognize me?"
The girl looked taken aback, as if she had not expected that it was the first thing He Juan would ask.
"How do you recognize me?" He Juan asked again, this time with a tone that demanded an answer. "Even my enemies don’t know what XIU looks like, so how can you?"
He had always been careful in keeping his identity a secret. Those who had seen him and knew who he was were either his trusted subordinates, Xuanlong’s elite members, or people whom he had buried three feet underground. But lately, not only was Blue Lotus smart enough to use Fang Yazhu to track him down, there was also this girl who had approached him out of nowhere. It irked him, making him feel as if something was slowly spiraling out of his control.
"Ah..." she blinked. "A-Yu told me. He said that he has talked to you once before."
A-Yu? Who was that? He Juan was certain he did not know anyone who went by that name, but before he could inquire further about who that person was, he heard the girl ask,
"Are you here... because of the note?"
He Juan couldn’t help but scoff when he heard that and a little mocking smile curved on the corner of his lips. "Excuse me, little missy. How do you expect me to find you when you suddenly vanished without a trace after getting on a train to Yuyang? Your note sounded so urgent, but you didn’t even give me a chance to locate you. Tell me, what am I supposed to do?"
She lowered her gaze, her fists clenched tight by her side. "Sorry... I didn’t think that..."
Looking at her despondent figure, He Juan could only rake his fingers through his hair and let out a heavy sigh. At the end of the day, she was but a minor. It did not sit well with him to treat her like any other enemies he had.
He Juan deliberated over his questions before he decided to ask, "So, why are you stealing things from the store? Are you so short on money? Is that why you’re seeking me out?"
In an instant, the girl’s whole demeanor changed.
She stared at He Juan with vigilance, clutching the jacket tighter to herself as though afraid that He Juan would forcibly take it away from her. Pheromones began to ooze out of her body, smelling like heavy frost in a dense bamboo forest, sharp and suffocating in its intensity. As if a single breeze was enough to make someone vomit blood.
When He Juan recalled the corpses in Queen of Spades whose brains were crushed to mush, he felt a strange oncoming headache.
This girl did not know how to control her pheromones well, did she? Or was it because she had always protected herself this way and thus she would bring her pheromones out at the slightest confrontation?
Before the deadly scent could fill the air and cause some potential damage, He Juan hastily brought his hands up and tried to stop her, "There’s no need to act so defensive. I am merely asking, okay? Take back your pheromones first. If someone smells it and reports you, you and I both will get into trouble."
The girl was still staring at him with a distrustful gaze, but seeing how He Juan seemed like he really meant no harm, she slowly calmed herself down and withdrew her pheromones again.
Somehow, He Juan had the urge to laugh, and thus he did.
"What are you laughing at?" She gritted out with a glare, ashamed and angered in equal measure.
"My bad, I am not laughing at you..." He Juan cleared his throat to suppress the laughter. Who could have guessed that the day would come when he would be threatened over some packages of marshmallows, candies and lollipops? It just served to remind him all the more that the one standing in front of him was truly a child.
A child born with a deadly weapon in her body.
He Juan couldn’t help but nag at her a bit, "You do know that shoplifting is bad, right? If there’s an error in the account balance, the one who will be blamed is the cashier. I don’t know what’s your reason for stealing, but try not to do it too often, okay?" The more he said, the more her shoulders slumped until the end, He Juan felt his heart soften. Had he been too hard on her, after all?
"Come, let’s go back and pay for everything," he beckoned to her. "Don’t worry, I will treat you this time. If you need money, I will lend you some too." He did not say how he could just give her money, for he knew very well how troublesome Alpha and their pride was.
He Juan reached into his pocket, only to recall that he had left his wallet with Mu Yuze earlier. He palmed his forehead and sighed. Leaving the girl alone here was not an option because He Juan had no idea whether she would disappear on him again. Who knew when and where he would be able to track her down if it happened?
"Let’s go inside first. I need to take my wallet from the car," was the excuse he gave in the end.
However, when He Juan pulled open the door and gestured for her to enter, she stayed rooted in place with a deep frown marring her forehead.
"Little missy?"
Snapping out of her trance, she glanced at him before taking a step back. "A–Are you going to take me away... now that you’ve found me? I can’t... I can’t go with you. Everyone needs me. If they don’t have me, then they will..."
He Juan let his hand fall to his side as he slowly turned to her. "Everyone?" His face turned grim. "Who is this ’everyone’ you are talking about?"
Her entire body grew tense and when He Juan looked closer, he could see that her shoulders were trembling faintly too. "A-Yu told me that... if it’s you, then you will definitely be willing to help us. He said that you are different from other Alphas..." She finally raised her head and stared at him right in the eye, this time with a flicker of hope. "C–Can you swear on your name and honor that you will keep our secret... that you will never harm us no matter what you see and hear?"
