Chapter 57: Marcie’s Return!
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
“Septimus, I just went to see Executive Chen…”
Lifting the curtains, Voley stuck his head into a cubicle. His expression was a little odd.
“Didn’t I tell you to call me Marcie!” Septimus lectured in annoyance as he looked up from his thoughts. He was in “Marcie” form and was sitting on her bed. Then, he immediately asked, “What does he want?”
“Right… right!” Voley entered the cubicle and replied carefully with a smile, “Well, he drank quite a lot beer, his face was red… I am not sure if he’d seen you somewhere. He suddenly pulled me just now and asked persistently if I had seen Marcie. Well, I think he is somewhat interested.”
Any man would know the underlying meaning behind Voley’s words. Septimus looked up in shock. “So, that was his intention that day,” he mumbled to himself. On the day that Septimus looked for Chen Jinfeng, he tried to sound out Chen Jinfeng with his words. He had a vague idea that Chen Jinfeng did something, but Chen Jinfeng naturally wouldn’t expose such a deed.
Due to Marcie’s disappearance and the specific way he could get her back, Septimus did not say anything to anyone. This was the exact reason he carefully avoided Chen Jinfeng after he and Voley changed their appearances. He was afraid that it would raise more troublesome issues. But now that this had happened, he couldn’t help feeling that it would be something difficult to deal with.
“Forget it. Just ignore him,” Septimus replied only after he thought for a long time.
Voley showed him an uneasy expression. Before he left the infirmary, Lin Sanjiu snapped his fingers, and the praying mantis on his shoulder became invisible. Though he could no longer see the praying mantis, it was almost as if he could still feel those cold scythe-like front legs, one above his Adam’s apple and the other below. Furthermore, Lin Sanjiu made herself very clear. She told him that since he was so full of ideas and schemes, he should be the one to think up of a method to get Septimus to call out the real Marcie. If he failed to do so, Lin Sanjiu would give up on the visa and hand him over to Hei Zeji.
“No, we can’t do that! Executive Chen drank quite a lot. He mentioned Marcie continuously, and he even said that he would come over to look for her! It took me some effort to distract him, but you have to come up with something better!” Voley said anxiously.
“F*ck it!” Septimus cursed as he felt a sudden headache. This was not the time to offend Chen Jinfeng… It did cross his mind to meet Chen Jinfeng himself; unfortunately, he knew nothing about the liaisons between men and women so he was worried that Chen Jinfeng might discover that something was wrong. After he thought about it, he suddenly gritted his teeth, “Forget it, I will just coax Marcie to go! Anyway, he can’t do anything to her…”
Before Voley could understand what he meant, Septimus stood up and made a gesture. Both returned to their original appearance. After Voley regained his own appearance, he looked at his short, stubby hands and finally gave a sigh of relief. Septimus eyed him coldly for a second and said with his usual stoic voice, “I will call Marcie out right now. During this time, you better keep a close eye on Lin Sanjiu. Don’t let Lin Sanjiu anywhere near her. Understand?” Voley nodded his head repeatedly.
“She recognizes you, it’ll be bad if she sees you. You should go out now!”
When Septimus said that, as if he had been pardoned for a crime, Voley parroted those words and left the cubicle quickly. His actions made Septimus look at him for a second longer, but in the end, Septimus did not say a word. After the curtains returned to their original position and Voley’s footsteps were much farther, Septimus closed his eyes. After a while, a few veins started appeared on his forehead. His body started to flicker like an old television image. Following which, a figure fell out of his body. He steadied himself and confirmed that it was Marcie.
Marcie retained the appearance of that fated day: her red hair was a mess, her clothes were in disarray, and even her face was still flushed from exertion during her struggle. When she realized that the person in front of her was Septimus, her eyes glowed, and she cried out in surprise: “You’re back? Why did you go so far that you couldn’t even maintain the ability!”
“At that time, we were in grave danger.“ Septimus smiled at her. “Look, I called you out once I came back. Why are you like this? What happened?”
“Don’t bring it up.” Marcie face turned ashen when she thought of Chen Jinfeng, “I will not let that b*stard get away with this.” She patted the dust off her face and body in revulsion, as if she was trying to wipe herself clean. Thereafter, she sat on the floor looking a little tired. Septimus nodded his head and was just about to say something. Suddenly, he noticed Marcie with an opened mouth and a stunned expression. She was looking at his head. He was about to turn and find out for himself, but he only heard a sharp whistling sound and felt a heavy blow to his head. He immediately lost consciousness.
Marcie — the real deal — was stupefied. Lin Sanjiu appeared from nowhere and delivered a strong blow with her police baton, rendering Septimus unconscious.
“What… what are you doing?” Marcie wiped her face, somewhat unable to quite believe what she saw. She looked up at the top of the narrow thin wall and then at Lin Sanjiu. “Why did you hit him? That’s Luther’s body.”
Lin Sanjiu shot her a glance. As if a huge boulder was removed from her chest, she gave a long sigh and walked toward Marcie to take a closer look. There was an almost indiscernible smile on Lin Sanjiu face when she said, “I finally got you out...”
Marcie did not understand anything that was happening. She patted Lin Sanjiu’s shoulder while her face with filled with perplexity when she saw Hu Changzai gingerly entering the cubicle. Hu Changzai greeted her and quickly tied up the unconscious Septimus. It took almost half an hour for Lin Sanjiu to explained to Marcie what had happened over the few days. When she finished, Marcie was in a daze for quite some time. Marcie’s eyes never left Septimus during this time. After some time, she sighed, “So, that was what happened… it has already been five days.”
“I know… All twelve of you have been together in the past. You must feel terrible after knowing what Septimus have done…” Lin Sanjiu quickly consoled afraid that Marcie would be upset.
“No, I’m alright. You don’t have to console me.” Marcie gave her an unexpected smile, though it was mostly to placate Lin Sanjiu, Marcie did not look dejected. “Xiao Jiu, I remembered something, and I will verify it now. Leave Septimus with me. I will look for you later, okay?”
Lin Sanjiu looked back at her a little hesitantly. There was a gentle watery glow in Marcie’s pair of green eyes, “When I returned to Luther’s original body, my ability leveled up. You don’t have to be worried for me. And, thank you,” she said this very sincerely.
Lin Sanjiu gave it some consideration and nodded, “Okay, I’ll leave him with you but please be careful,” after she said that, she signaled to Hu Changzai, and both left the cubicle quietly, leaving Marcie alone with Septimus inside. Most of the people in Basement One had already left for their duties, so it was almost empty. Their footsteps echoed through the empty basement and could be heard from afar. Just as they stepped into the first floor, a nervous face appeared before them. “Sister Lin, how’s everything? Can you please keep that thing now?” It was Voley.
He shifted his neck stiffly to one side as if he could dodge the large praying mantis on his right shoulder. Lin Sanjiu gave him an evil eye. That praying mantis was just an effect created by her Pygmalion Choker, and it dissipated after five minutes, that was why she made it invisible. This time round, the mental construct that Hu Changzai described was “the ability to summon monstrous insects which can become invisible”. It actually had no real combative value. If Voley was just a little braver, or just tried to resist a little, he would have realized that the praying mantis was just a paper tiger.
“You care too much about your survival.” She sighed and said, “Just to keep living, you can ignore anything…” as she said this, she stretched her hand toward Voley’s shoulder. Voley approached her gratefully and before he could say “Than…”, Lin Sanjiu gave him a vicious knifehand strike. This was the second person she had made unconscious that day.
“What do you plan to do with him?” Shocked, Hu Changzai pushed his spectacles upwards.
“I’ll tie him up. When I have more time, I will squeeze a few visas from him.” Lin Sanjiu chuckled coldly.