The ultimate blue sea

Chapter 11 - Chen Lin

Su Qing at last saw all the blue seals. There were six of them in all, five male and one female. The woman was that tigress Jiang Lan. Of the men, he had seen three: one was the smiling tiger Chen Lin, one was the square-faced Shi Huizhang, and the third was the "underworld element" who had come to kidnap him, reported to be named Li Gu—Professor Cheng was his little grey.

He hadn't seen the other two. One had very long hair and a gloomy look. Cheng Weizhi told him that this was Luo Xiaofeng, a Type 4 Blue Seal like Shi Huizhang. The little greys he used were Type 3s, the fear type. The last one had something wrong with him. He stood in the crowd of blue seals self-consciously occupying a footman's position. He was short, around a meter sixty-five at a visual estimate, skinny as a monkey and flinching. When he stood next to the stalwart Shi Huizhang, they looked just like Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King—this was the Gui Song whom Chen Lin had mentioned.

Cheng Weizhi looked up and found at once that Chen Lin was staring at Su Qing with a meaningful smile on his face, so he surreptitiously pulled Su Qing behind himself, struggling to straighten his body and put on an expression of stern righteousness, fearlessly returning the villain Chen Lin's gaze.

Each blue seal would choose one little grey to take along. All the grey seals had been herded into the main hall by the armed guards and stood there panicked and uneasy. The blue seals scrutinized them loftily, like butchers choosing an animal fattened and ready for the slaughter.

Su Qing for the first time in his life felt the power of the food chain—the endless pillaging of one species by another and no way to resist, a cruel and eternal jungle law running from beginning to end, like a brand on every spirit.

Without any suspense, Chen Lin chose Su Qing. Tian Feng was unluckily chosen by Luo Xiaofeng. Su Qing looked at his expression, despairing and on the point of collapse, and thought he would faint again. Luckily, Luo Xiaofeng glared at him fiercely just then, and Tian Feng took strength from that menacing and disgusted gaze, managing to keep upright and walk towards Luo Xiaofeng.

Jiang Lan also chose one of her Type 4s, who still had a bruise left over from where Su Qing had hit him with a frying pan. This fiendish person, hearing Jiang Lan pick him out, put on a panicked and helpless expression, instantly shrinking and bleaching from a big tiger to a little sheep. He shuffled over to Jiang Lan's side like a virtuous girl forced into prostitution.

Of course, the reason Su Qing was looking all over the place and inwardly mocking everyone in turn was that he was in fact also nervous, so nervous his hands were covered in sweat. His legs shook as he stood. He could only pinch his thigh with a hand in his pocket and shift his attention, attempting to hold back the urge to piss.

The lucky thing was, Cheng Weizhi wasn't chosen this time. When they were taken away, Su Qing saw Cheng Weizhi desperately squeeze out of the crowd and stretch out his neck, looking at him, struggling to mouth some words to him as though eager to convey something.

Chen Lin dropped his hand on Su Qing's shoulder and practically pushed him forward. Su Qing desperately turned his head and saw Cheng Weizhi, red-faced, finally vanish from his line of sight. He guessed that Cheng Weizhi had been saying "don't get confused."

This was Su Qing's first time leaving the grey house in over a month. The weather was rotten. It was grey, and the sun seemed to have only one bar of power left, occasionally struggling at death's door only to stick its head out of the dark clouds. Any moment, it was going to rain. A breeze blew through the thick woods. A row of blue-uniformed people stood in front of them like flagpoles. Su Qing noticed that their sleeves also had "Utopia" printed on them.

Chen Lin released the hand holding Su Qing's shoulder and took something like a pen out of his pocket. He pressed down on the "pen cap," and Su Qing felt as if a steel wire had been strapped around his neck. He couldn't help reaching up to grab it. A faint crackling came from his fingertips, as if he had been shocked by static electricity.