Chapter 5: Miss Misfortune.

Another groan escaped Liwu’s mouth when she walked into the 12th precinct of the Bureau and realized that everyone was watching her mother’s press conference!

It had been thirty minutes, what exactly was her mother still rumbling on about?

The chief of the Bureau police Abby Chung was half standing-half sitting on a desk near the entrance, sipping coffee from a thermos cup and giggling like a villain whose evil laugh got stuck on fast forward.

It was hard to escape a room of trained detectives, all system hosts. And yet, Liwu still intended to try.

“Liwu,” Chief Abby called her name boisterously, “You did not tell me that you that when you fought the suspect with a magic system, you had to defeat a ten-foot-tall rubber duck that swallowed you before spitting you out. Did you really defeat it by tickling it?”

All eyes turned on her.

Liwu groaned and stopped the tiny tip toeing movements she was just starting to make. With a less than pleased look on her face, she looked at the Chief and said, “I did what was necessary to save my life. There were six officers at the scene. With my bad luck, I was the one that was swallowed. I paid off everyone to keep that story a secret. Who blurted?”

Chief Abby pointed at the television.

“My daughter Liwu is the perfect example of resilience.” Her mother said, with dramatic flair. “One city’s master would be lucky to have her for a wife. In fact, he would be honored. How many people do you know of that can keep going when afflicted by the occasional bad luck?

Do you know how many disasters she has survived? Falling elevators, lightning strikes, turned over vehicles, banana peels, guns, knives, bee stings, one very determined wasp. Even an explosion at a gas station. Everything there turned to ashes, but she survived. That is not bad luck, that is destiny!”

Liwu buried her head in her hands and groaned.

“What’s the story with the wasp?” Chief Abby asked her.

She raised her head and made a gesture that declared her lips firmly zipped shut.

The TV cut to a clip of her great grandfather, old Tai, who was standing next to her mother, holding up her baby pictures. “My Liwu has always been special.” The old man with a head full of white hair and a white beard reaching to his knees declared solemnly. “When she was four years old, I took her to the sea for the first time in her life and she accidentally discovered a new species of goldfish. What some people call bad luck; we call divine favor.”

Liwu muttered, “The fish died a minute later.” It struggled in her small hands, fell on a rock and died. It died trying to get away from her. That was not divine favor!

Her mother continued, “And let’s not forget her courage. She once chased a thief across three blocks, only to lose her shoes and end up splashed with stinking old soup halfway. Did she stop? No! She just kept running barefoot, offending every nostril on the streets of Beijing and she caught the thief. She proved that nothing could stop her.”

Her colleagues laughed. Some clapped.

Liwu groaned again. “Mom, please stop.”

“She is unlucky, but unstoppable.” Old master Tai chimed in.

Chief Abby shook his head. “Unlucky but unstoppable. That will be the headline of every news article written about you from now on.”

“And it will probably be my epitaph.” Liwu muttered. She could picture it on her urn or tombstone. People would tell their children stories about her at bedtime!

Her mother’s press conference was not doing her any favors. It was like Liwu was campaigning for Miss Misfortune 2049.

“So, are you getting married?” The chief asked her.

Liwu rolled her eyes and answered, “If one more person mentions marriage to me today, I will sue them for harassment or break their jaws.” She raised her voice. “And it would be great if we actually do our real jobs here instead of watching television.”

As she walked to her office, her colleagues turned their attention to the television again. As system hosts, how could they not watch when their president was addressing the world?

***

The Shen villa was a spectacle to behold. It was a blend of old-world grandeur and future innovations that the Bureau would frown upon. The ceilings soared high, painted with images of the stars, and in those images were more drawings that depicted the fall of systems.

Walls of holographic portraits that flickered to life whenever they sensed a shadow. Some even spoke in hushed tones, a thing that amused those who visited. All the portraits were of family members, dead and alive.

The chandeliers were not chandeliers at all, but clusters of levitating crystals, silver and gold, reflecting a beautiful light that bounced off the walls. Chandeliers like these were pretty common in the homes of the wealthy as they could be found in any branch of the Alix malls.

It was one of the few system host innovations sold by the Bureau that Shen Weijun allowed in the manor.

In the center of the opulent living room of this planned manor was one thing that seemed out of place. A green sofa with soft dragon horns that stood tall. It seemed to have been plucked from a children’s furniture store. This was stamped by the cushions which were patterned with cartoonish drawings. The sofa did not match any of the others in the living room. They were white.

This sofa was the kind that demanded attention and indeed, it had been chosen by Shen Ronge’r his aunt that had a flair for the whimsical and always liked to be the center of attention.

She often said that if she woke up as the host of a system, the whole world would remember her name. No matter how useful or useless the system was.

Weijun hated the quirky sofa, but he still chose it whenever he needed to sit down in the living room. As he lowered himself onto it this morning, it was with the absence of the usual bemusement.

His brothers who had been summoned arranged themselves around him. They chose futuristic recliners that adjusted automatically to posture.

The air smelled of faintly of coffee, vanilla and pink flowers. The scent was released from vents hidden in the walls and it lasted all day and all night.

A few servants loitered around, offering drinks like tea or various wines in crystal glasses.

“Isn’t too early to bring out the wine?” Shen Mingxuan, the eighteen-year-old asked.

“Not when you hear what I have to say. One of you is getting married.” Shen Weijun declared to his four brothers. His gaze shifted toward Shen Weifeng, seated opposite him.

At home, he had no need to keep on his lion’s mask. It was plain to see that the resemblance between the two was uncanny. So much so that people could easily mistake them for identical twins but in truth, only one owned the original face.

This was a secret that the family guarded closely.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep