Chapter 145 - Zero

The moment breakfast was over, Qing Chen was out of his seat and was following Master to his office. He was about three paces behind and he took smaller steps. When Master walked, it was as if he had all the time in the world. But the slow pace did not help calm Qing Chen's raging heart.

He knows. There's no way that he does not know, Qing Chen thought. It would be impossible to not get caught with the stunt they pulled last night. They must have left something out of place. Or did not replace an object in its EXACT location.

There were a thousand ways they could've left evidences in that room last night. Did they lock the door? Wuming was last one out so he probably did, he wouldn't be able to make a small mistake like th—

"In you go," said Master and held the door open for Qing Chen. 

He stepped in and his eyes immediately darted all over the place, trying to remember if everything was where it should be. But it was hard as they did not really have a lot of light last night. He heard the door shut.

"Sit down, Qing Chen."

He sat down on the small wooden seat. It creaked under his weight. Master got behind the desk and pulled open a drawer. And out of all things, there was a long brown envelope.

Qing Chen noticed the logo of The Kingly Empire.

"It had been sent here this morning," began Master. "May I know the contents of this package?"

Qing Chen didn't miss a beat. "Of course. It was probably reports about the hotels. A problem must've come up."

Master studied him. "You don't mind if I open this?" 

"Help yourself."

It was excruciating to watch Master open the envelope. He was expecting something and it was NOT financial reports about the company. But when Master pulled out the papers, there were graphs in different colors and their analyses were written in paragraphs. The numbers, even when they were separated by commas, seemed hard to count.

He closely examined everything. Looking for a clue. He had been in this business long enough to know when something was up. He shamelessly held the paper against the light for disappearing inks. But the papers were clean. 

He slid everything back in the folder, feeling disappointed. Master handed it to Qing Chen. "I'll see you at afternoon training."

Qing Chen only nodded and left. When the door closed, it was as if he could not walk fast enough to get to his room.

**

Qing Lok read the message from the reports and gave a summary. It contained a profile of every student in the assassin school. However, it was not as extensive as they hoped it would be. Even though the basic information was there, a lot were concealed—including how they were recruited.

"Here's what we know with Ma Min. Her father died in an accident in a factory. A year later, her mother died from a hit and run. She was sent to her mother's sister's house and had been long there before getting in this school." Qing Lok turned the page. "Shao Fang…"

Qing Lok turned the pages over and over that it made an annoying rustling sound. Wuming snatched the paper and looked at the bottom of the paragraph.

"Zero," he said.

"What?!" Qing Chen took the paper and then saw it. Zero.

"What do they mean zero?!" Qing Lok's eyebrows were furrowed together and he was looking at the other pages. But no there was nothing else. That was the last paper and they were numbered. "They didn't get anything from Shao Fang?"

Qing Chen ran a hand through his hair. "He had a history—not unless it was made up."

"This is impossible," Wuming said.

Qing Lok was biting on his thumb. "Well, it was not like they had plenty of time to look. I just hope they would send something useful soon."

"Or maybe…" Wuming began. "He's like me. If you go looking for something about me nothing would appear. If you were to ask other assassins and organizations they would only give you a list of the men I've killed."

"Then it only meant Shao Fang had someone powerful behind him that he would be untraceable," Qing Chen said.

Feng Xuan who had been trying to keep up with everything was studying the papers. How the hell did they read this? All she could read about were things about the company and numbers. She was too shy to ask how to read it.

"We have to follow him out there, Chen," said Wuming.

Qing Chen nodded. "We'll take turns in watching the forest. Both times, he left between twelve and one in the morning."

"I will take first watch," said Wuming. "I'll let you know if I see anything."

The two brothers said their good nights and retired in their rooms. Feng Xuan was still trying to figure out how to read the papers. Qing Chen sat down and pointed at the first word.

"Count five words starting from this one and you get the first word. Count four, and that's your second word. Count three, that's the third and so on. Go back to five words after the fifth word." He took another paper and pointed at the numbers. "Z is 1, Y is 2, X is 3. Do you get it?"

Feng Xuan's mouth dropped. "And Qing Lok read it that fast?"

Qing Chen smiled. "He liked dealing with codes. It's his language. He had gotten us around ten codes in reading secret doc.u.ments. This is the simplest one."

It took Feng Xuan half an hour before she finished the first few pages. "I think I have to go back to my room."

"No worries," Qing Chen said. "I will be there and I'll bring these with me."

"Don't. I want to do something else."

"What?"

She grinned. "It is a secret."