Chapter 265: Chapter 169: Xia Pingzhou: A Woman Who Could Be My Mother
Xia Pingzhou tossed the apple into the trash can, glanced at the clothes on the hanger, and curiously asked, "You’ve bought so many outfits, why do you only try them on in the hotel? Why don’t you try wearing them out once?"
Ayase Origami did not respond.
Moments later, she passed by him, whispering, "It’s meaningless to wear them outside."
Ayase Origami was indeed such a puzzling person.
Xia Pingzhou nonchalantly lowered his head, continued typing on his phone, and sent the message.
[Xia Pingzhou: Speaking of which, what’s the newcomer’s name?]
[Hacker: Oh, speaking of this, I just found out that Su Ying is a pseudonym, her real name is actually Tong Zizhu.]
[Xia Pingzhou: Tong Zizhu, huh?]
[Hacker: Let me tell you, I also saw a particularly weird scene. Yesterday at the bank, Black Cocoon called her mom.]
[Xia Pingzhou: So weird? I’ll go and probe what her relationship is with Black Cocoon later.]
After Xia Pingzhou sent this message, he and Ayase Origami left the hotel. After a short walk, the two arrived at a nearby bar and directly found the corresponding private room.
Opening the private room door, except for Bai Tanlang and Bernardo who weren’t there, the others were still present. But Xia Pingzhou didn’t see the newcomer, probably because she hadn’t arrived yet after getting off the plane.
"There’s a new piece of news," Bloodline took a sip of her drink, and said mysteriously, "One of our exorcists advanced to the third rank last night, guess who?"
"Jack the Ripper?" Xia Pingzhou asked.
"Who else?" Jack the Ripper said as she pushed the door open and walked in. Today, she was still wearing a black and white school uniform, with her collar crookedly tied, and her long black straight hair hanging behind her.
Casually closing the room door, she summoned the Celestial Driver, and the dark red short knife suddenly transformed into a giant scythe.
"Want to try me?" she said, raising her eyes to look at Xia Pingzhou.
"Not now, there will be opportunities later." Xia Pingzhou looked at the scythe.
"Oh."
Jack the Ripper put the scythe away.
Her Celestial Driver first transformed into a katana when heavily injured, and now it’s a scythe after leveling up? Xia Pingzhou wondered.
"What’s your strength now?" Xia Pingzhou asked.
"Actually, I’m quite curious about what my current strength is..." Jack the Ripper said casually.
"What do you think your strength is?" Bloodline said, holding her cheeks and smiling at him.
"If I meet that Ghost Bell again, I should be able to cut him in half," Jack the Ripper thought.
Bloodline said, "Hard to say... That guy is a noble Time Series power user, even if he killed a Catastrophe Level power user, I wouldn’t be surprised." She paused, "Although our Jack the Ripper isn’t weak either."
Everyone here was aware that if it hadn’t been for the leader arranging for Oda Takashige to set an ambush and threatened Ghost Bell with Blue Arc, the outcome of the battle at the auction could have been very different.
Of course, they would ultimately win, but escaping unscathed would be impossible.
Jack the Ripper shrugged indifferently, "Didn’t the leader say? Ghost Bell can only use ’Time Suspension’ when the clock tower’s hands point to 12 o’clock, and that probability is only one in twelve."
She paused, "Which means I have eleven out of twelve chances to defeat him."
"But others will also progress," Xia Pingzhou said, "Maybe Ghost Bell has already advanced to Catastrophe Level, and you’ll go looking for him only to get beaten again."
"When will our little kitten progress?" Jack the Ripper was silent for a moment, coldly asked, her eyes like a pitch-black night turning to look at Xia Pingzhou.
"Soon, in a month I’ll come challenge you one-on-one." Xia Pingzhou calmly said.
"If you dare provoke me, don’t run when the time comes." Jack the Ripper said.
Andrew eagerly downed a large bottle of wine, then put down the glass with a "ha" and wiped the corner of his mouth with his hand, leisurely teasing:
"Yo, I suggest recording a video then, upload it to the cat abuse section, and let new recruits enjoy it!"
"Agreed." Bloodline raised her hand in approval while drinking.
Suddenly, sheets of paper in the private room floated towards the sky, and the air suddenly turned cold.
"Forgot, hitting a cat requires looking at its owner." Bloodline turned, smiling, looking at Ayase Origami’s expressionless face.
As they chatted, suddenly someone knocked on the private room door.
Jack the Ripper stood up, walked to the door, and upon opening it, a girl with a ponytail and a baseball cap came into view. She wore a white casual jacket over jeans.
The private room was shrouded in silence, everyone curiously scrutinizing this newcomer.
Looking at the girl with the baseball cap, one person in the room broke the silence.
"Mom." Xia Pingzhou suddenly said.
The room fell silent for a moment, then everyone fixed their gaze on Xia Pingzhou, gasping in shock.
After a pause, Xia Pingzhou expressionlessly added, "I heard from the hacker... that Black Cocoon called you ’Mom’."
Hearing this, the surprised expressions on their faces slowly faded, but their eyes still carried a hint of disbelief.
"Hahaha, our Xia boy’s performance is as stable as ever!" Andrew laughed, slapping the table.
"Little cat, you’re yawning." Ayase Origami said.
"Warning you, half-spoken words can be fatal." Jack the Ripper said.
"I thought you had developed a habit of recognizing moms in addition to recognizing owners by now..."
Bloodline laughed, bending forward and back.
Clearly, the most shocked was Tong Zizhu. It was like a new job where the first time meeting colleagues they blurt out "Mom," who could withstand that?
She stood at the door for a while, not daring to step inside, then gradually regained her composure.
"Really... you’re the second person to call me Mom straight away, caught me off guard." Tong Zizhu sighed, rubbing her heart, slowly walking in.
"I speak slowly, I’m sorry." Xia Pingzhou nodded apologetically.
Tong Zizhu folded her arms in annoyance, "Let me introduce myself, I’m the new number four, named ’Su Ying,’ an Exorcist, currently at rank two, specializing in infiltration work."
Xia Pingzhou said, "I heard from the hacker, your real name is ’Tong Zizhu’."
Tong Zizhu’s eye twitched slightly, tilting her head with a sigh, "That guy really stripped me bare, are all your tour group members this perverted?"
"You seem to have a good relationship with the hacker recently?" Bloodline smirked, asking Xia Pingzhou.
"Cats like kids," Ayase Origami said, paging through a haiku collection, "It’s normal."
"So... what’s your relationship with Black Cocoon?" Xia Pingzhou looked sharply at Tong Zizhu.
"Not certain of his identity yet, but his mom might be my adoptive mother, more correctly my savior," Tong Zizhu said, "That savior is named ’Su Ying,’ so I used this name to join the group."
"Looks like we’ve got one more person searching," Bloodline held her cheeks with both hands, smiling, "If Bai Tanlang was here, we’d be complete."
Xia Pingzhou secretly thought, "Can I say all three of you are finding people related to me?"