Chapter 13: Handling
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
The lobby was dead silent. Even the hotel security guards looked completely baffled, frozen in place, not daring to move. Just moments ago, when Shi Wenze stepped in front of the minotaur to stop him, everyone had expected an intense showdown between two powerhouses. Phones had come out immediately—people eager to film and go viral. Some had even queued up their background music in anticipation, picking Contra: Jungle Battle as the perfect BGM. But no one had expected what happened next. The towering bull-headed man didn’t throw a punch—he just laid down flat on the ground.
The whole scene had instantly shifted from CCTV-5 sports coverage to CCTV-12 legal programming. The transition was so swift that even Sa Beining would’ve needed an oxygen mask to keep up. That said, Shi Wenze really couldn’t lay hands on this kind of professional “fake injury” player without cause.
The surrounding guests began to voice their outrage. A young woman shouted, “There are cameras everywhere! We all saw it—he didn’t even touch the guy!”
“Exactly!”
As soon as one person stepped forward, others joined in. Voices rose in unison, condemning the minotaur’s blatant attempt at extortion and urging him to get up already. But here was the real problem: did the minotaur not want to get up? Of course not. If he had a choice, no one would want to lie on the floor half-naked. He wanted to pull up his pants and walk away with some dignity. But he didn’t dare. Last time, when Shi Wenze had thrown three yakshas into the wall at a bar, the minotaur had been sitting directly across from the action. He had witnessed everything.
And when people said “thrown into the wall,” they meant it literally. The ambulance had screamed to the scene that night. Doctors and nurses had spent a good chunk of time digging those poor bastards out of the wall and into the ER. Back then, the minotaur had been stunned. Those yakshas didn’t even do anything that bad, he’d thought.
He never imagined that karma would boomerang back at him so quickly. Lying flat wasn’t about extortion—it was pure self-preservation. Shi Wenze’s lightning-fast, thunder-fueled enforcement style had left an impression so deep that the minotaur was convinced: if he so much as stood up, whether to apologize or resist, the end result would be him skewered on Poseidon’s trident in the center of the lobby.
Meanwhile, near the back exit, another man was inching his way along the wall, trying to sneak out unnoticed. He was just one step away from escape when a cloud of black mist suddenly descended from above, laced with crackling blue-violet lightning. He dropped to the ground with a startled yelp. “Ah!”
The minotaur, still lying face-down and unable to see a thing, panicked. What the hell are you “ah”-ing about? Did he already skewer you?!
“You. Over here,” Shi Wenze said coolly, pointing toward the back door.
“…”
The other half of the altercation—the man who had so enthusiastically recommended the Brazilian barbecue earlier—had tried to flee the scene. Not only had he failed, but the younger guy’s lightning had zapped him into a puffy 80s-style afro. Pale with fear, he now stood obediently in the corner, his head looking like he was about to break into disco.
Maybe it was because both instigators didn’t seem especially bright, but Lin Su wasn’t actually nervous about the incident itself. While the rest of the crowd was focused on the drama, he stood there in full-blown heart-eyes mode, recording Shi Wenze with his phone and marveling, How can someone look this elegant and stunning in a bathrobe and plastic slippers? Out of everyone in the room, who could possibly be lucky enough to have this man? Oh. Right. Me.
Because the minotaur was still groaning on the ground, Shi Wenze ignored him for the moment and turned his attention to the barbecue bro, asking for his ID. The man complied, handing over his monster license and offering a full confession.
It all boiled down to the classic “What are you looking at?” / “Looking at you, so what?” regional conflict. All the hard work the hotel owner had done to promote cross-cultural unity had been undone in an instant. “We didn’t even know each other before this,” the barbecue guy said.
“That doesn’t matter. You still need to come with me,” Shi Wenze replied. “The patrol unit is on its way. Your ID will be held for now. Do you have any other questions?”
The man hesitated. “But I have a really important business event tomorrow…”
“Then you’ll need to reschedule,” Shi Wenze said, gesturing at the chaos behind him. “Until the hotel finishes assessing the damages, you’ll be staying in Emergency Incident Processing.”
The monster patrol unit arrived quickly—alongside an ambulance from Què Mountain Hospital. The minotaur acted like he’d just spotted his long-lost family. Without anyone helping him up, he scrambled onto the stretcher himself, murmuring, “Thank you, thank you all. Be careful, careful—I got it, I got it,” like a construction site manager guiding a site inspection.
A nurse asked nervously, “Dr. Wang, you don’t think Brother Shi broke this guy’s brain, do you?”
Even the paramedic looked uncertain. “Drive faster,” he muttered to the driver. “Maybe we can still save him.”
The patrol team backed up the surveillance footage on-site and collected contact info from a few monsters willing to testify. Shi Wenze, too, needed to return to the station.
“I’ll come with you,” Lin Su said.
Shi Wenze warned, “Humans need prior approval to enter Kunlun Tower.”
“Aren’t I a witness?” Lin Su shot back. Shi Wenze didn’t respond. Lin Su actually hadn’t been forced to go, but once he left the Mist Realm, there was a real chance that Shi Wenze would get hold of his phone—and that meant tracking him from Jin A66688 all the way to Jin A88866.
The unspoken, mutually understood flirtation was one thing, but a blatant, calculated move was something else entirely. Neither of them wanted to be the first to clear the air. Even though the “window paper” was so thin it could have blown apart in a gust of wind, they had to cling to their shabby, patched-up arrangement.
Especially for Lin Su. He knew that even if Shi Wenze had seen the hot trending topics at that moment, he would have surely pretended not to notice. More than that, Lin Su understood that once their relationship was finally confirmed, this incident would be immortalized as a badge of honor on someone’s path to self-adulation. Whether it was him chasing her or her chasing him—that was the question. Even Shakespeare, if he were here alongside Dumbledore, would have shaken his head, warning the younger generation that if schemes unconnected to the essence of love got involved, then it wasn’t true love at all. But Lin Su was never one to listen to such warnings.
He told Shi Wenze, “I had aced every exam on the Monster Law. Of course I knew how to play by the rules. Meanwhile, you had to retake that test eight times just to upgrade from a C to a B.”
Shi Wenze’s sturdy frame tensed. “You didn’t have to shout that,” he said.
Since they were bound for the Emergency Incident Processing Department, they certainly couldn’t keep wearing their bathrobes. Yet, their own clothes hadn’t dried yet. With no other choice, the hotel provided them with two sets of waiter uniforms—a bizarre combination of tropical floral shirts and baggy shorts that evoked a beach vibe. It seemed every boss from the Northeast harbored a secret dream of Sanya.
The barbecue guy ended up riding in the same van with them, looking utterly dejected—probably because he thought of the business he would miss tomorrow. Lin Su sat across from him and noticed that he kept recording the scene while sighing. At first, Lin Su assumed it was frustration over his perpetually unruly “exploding” hair—a trademark Tony Wen creation. To avoid any complaints of excessive force, Lin Su even offered a word of comfort: “I think it looks pretty stylish, and a high forehead makes your face appear smaller.”
“…”
All the while, Shi Wenze fiddled with his old flip phone, giving a brief report to Zhou Yuansong. The clatter of his keystrokes reached the ears of the patrol officer sitting up front. The officer turned his head, puzzled, and asked, “Shi Ge, why are you using your backup phone? Did your phone break? Here—take mine.”
Lin Su, who had aced every Monster Law exam, shot a glance and replied, “Using someone else’s phone to perform official duties in non-emergency situations—provided no serious consequences result—is punishable by a warning and a fine of $500.”
Before anyone could protest, the patrol officer snatched the phone back as if to say, “Forget I said anything.”
A while later, that same officer stealthily sent a text to Shi Wenze, cautiously asking, “Who is that aloof guy? He can’t be from the inspection team, right? I just committed an unauthorized operation—am I going to get caught and forced to retake the legal codes exam?”
“Ahem.” Shi Wenze touched his nose and replied in a serious tone, “Yes, you’re dead meat. Go back and study up.” A faint cry of distress came from the front row.
The van pulled into Kunlun Tower’s parking lot. The security guards diligently checked each person’s credentials, and Lin Su handed over his ID. After verifying and recording his information, the guard promptly issued him an access pass without any further questions. One of the patrol officers—who had been standing by to watch the commotion—mumbled, “…”
Noticing his confusion, the guard explained, “If a human is the primary witness to an incident and is accompanied by at least three staff members from the Emergency Incident Processing Department, they may enter Kunlun Tower directly without prior reservation or approval.”
The officer couldn’t help but exclaim, “Damn, how is it that every one of you can recite the legal codes by heart?”
Although it was nearly dawn, the tower remained brightly lit—proof that even monsters couldn’t escape the grind of the 996 work schedule.
Xu You, another soldier in the competitive rat race, staggered out of his office. He eyed Shi Wenze and remarked, “Why have you been coming to work in these bizarre outfits lately? And what the hell is with this ridiculous—” He trailed off abruptly as Lin Su, dressed just as flamboyantly, walked in. Xu You quickly swallowed his coarse words. “—I mean, even looking at you, one can’t help but say you’re wonderfully high-end. No wonder, Shi Ge—you really do have taste.”
Lin Su only replied with a quiet, “…”
Shi Wenze then instructed him to take a seat on the sofa while he went over to the water dispenser. Xu You hadn’t expected to run into an old high school classmate in this setting. Just as he was about to greet him, a patrol officer grabbed him and hustled him away.
“Xu Ge, you need to go hide back there,” his junior frantically urged. “That guy is from the inspection team, and you’ve never passed the legal codes exam—be careful he finds out!”
Indeed, if there was someone who studied even less diligently than Shi Wenze, it was Xu You. The two had been perpetual underachievers since high school. Even after joining the Emergency Incident Processing Department, they faced bizarre professional examinations. The fact that they had both managed to survive this long without falling into depression was due entirely to Zhou Yuansong cutting them some slack.
The patrol officer’s intense demeanor was so convincing that Xu You was momentarily stunned. It was true—humans could work in the monster department. The only difference was that the exams were far more complex. Recalling his shockingly mediocre scores of CCCDDC on six tests, Xu You made a rude, almost ancestral, decision and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Shi Wenze, holding a cup of water, walked over and asked, “Where’s Xu You? Why didn’t he say goodbye to you?”
“I don’t know,” Lin Su replied, pointing toward the office, his expression confused. “When he saw me earlier, he panicked and ran. Are you all hiding some secret from me?”
Shi Wenze just stared, at a loss for words.
This Title is available for faster chapter releases through paid Patreon membership. Any proceeds go to keeping the website running. Check it out HERE.
