Chapter 32: Flying like a Bug
Translator: Vicky_ Editor: Vicky_
Without a word, Hans jumped in his seat, started the truck up, shifted and furiously gassed the pedal. The truck rocketed ahead like some raging beast.
In her car, the elegant cop was flustered for a moment. She apparently did not know what had given her away; she had been trying to sneak up on them. She reacted quickly, however, flooring the gas until she eventually caught up to them.
Seeing the cop car catching up from his rear-view mirror, Hans grew angry and frustrated at their bad luck. "F*ck this damned bloodhound cop! Why is she chasing us? Has she fallen for me?"
"Are we in deep trouble this time? How about we call a lawyer? Let’s not run anymore. American cops have permission to shoot in this situation, right?" Li Du asked nervously.
Hans skilfully steered and switched gears, and the car drifted, entering a side road. After hearing Li Du’s words, he scoffed. "Chill. With the cars going so fast, how do you expect her to shoot? This is under my control, you just relax. I know their rules. So long as we’re not caught red-handed, cops don’t care about these small matters."
Li Du felt slightly calmer. "Then drive faster, don’t get us caught."
"Sit tight," Hans replied confidently. "Let me show you the power of Flagstaff’s God of the Streets!" At the end of his sentence a powerful force pushed them back. Li Du watched the trees at the side of the road rapidly disappear from his vision as the truck furiously accelerated. He didn’t have the chance to put on his seatbelt because he needed to hold onto Ah Meow, who crashed into his chest once they started speeding up.
Hans accelerated even more. "What a lady! Her skills are pretty good if she can catch up with my Ford. But the best is yet to come. Let’s see what else you can do!"
Li Du clutched Ah Meow in his lap and exclaimed worriedly, "Are you sure you can do this? Let’s just stop running. It’s a Toyota Prado behind us, and ours is just a pickup. We’re not on the same level!"
"Ha! What determines the speed of the car was never the car itself, but the driver’s determination and courage! Hallelujah!" After this strange cry, Hans furiously steered and braked. Ah Meow, who had just managed to stand without Li Du’s help, was once again flung forward. The cat collided with the windshield, hissing in pain.
Li Du hastily tried to grab Ah Meow back. Ever since starting the chase he had been distracted with fear and excitement, and did not make the bug burrow into his skin. When trying to grab Ah Meow, the bug fell onto Ah Meow’s head.
Poor Ah Meow was shocked! With the vehicle jolting, speeding, and braking, it was tossed around so terribly that it could not stop crying in pain. It looked out of the window for a moment. Seeing the trees and garbage cans flying past so quickly, the ocelot got even more fearful, crying and meowing uncontrollably.
Li Du felt heartbroken. He hugged and held Ah Meow’s head in an embrace, softly consoling the cat. "It’s alright, it’s alright. Ah Meow is very brave, you are safe in Daddy’s arms, you don’t have to fear anything." Ah Meow nuzzled into his embrace, seemingly trying to burrow into his body.
At this moment, the bug that had been quietly sitting on Ah Meow’s head suddenly twitched, looked down as if it was about to burrow into his palm, and borrowed into Ah Meow’s skull.
At this sight, Li Du was stunned!
He always considered himself the sole host for the bug, as it had only burrowed into his palm. He never expected it to be able to enter the head of a cat! What was going on?
Soon the bug came out of Ah Meow’s head, and for a second it appeared to look differently to Li Du. The bug then quickly jumped onto his palm and once again burrowed in.
Li Du had a strange feeling once it was in his palm, almost as if he seemed to have some connection with Ah Meow. It was an odd feeling, leaving him in a daze. He unconsciously looked down at Ah Meow, and the ocelot also raised its head to stare at Li Du. In that crystal-clear pair of eyes, some kind of powerful recognition seemed to be growing.
As the truck was still darting in the streets, Li Du could not understand what this feeling was. But he faintly remembered that the bug had some sort of change after coming out of Ah Meow’s head. He called out the bug to take another look. What he saw surprised him; it had grown a pair of translucent wings!
The wings were as thin as a cicada’s, and the shape was similar, but strange lines were on it. Li Du tried to study these lines but could not make anything useful out of them. They were not symmetrical, and he felt that they could be two Chinese characters. Unfortunately, he did not know what they were, but they seemed familiar.
After some thought, he understood what appeared to be going on. There were lines on the legs of the bug as well. He studied closely and confirmed this; the lines were the same for both the legs and the wings!
By focusing his consciousness on the bug, Li Du obtained the vision of the small creature. Swallowing his saliva, he tried to give a command to move its wings and fly.
Very successfully, the pair of wings vibrated, and the bug hovered up.
Just when he wanted to test how fast the bug could fly, the pickup truck braked abruptly. As his consciousness was still in the bug, his body did not react properly, and he crashed onto the windshield while hugging Ah Meow.
Konk! A dull noise was heard when he hit the glass and Li Du cussed at the sharp pain he felt.
With his consciousness back, he saw that the bug was still hovering in the air, its pair of eyes shining a curious light as it stared at Li Du.
He waved his hand and recalled the bug. It transformed into a phantom-like state and returned onto his palm with a buzz sound. With a twist of its body, it tunnelled back into his skin like it always had before.
All of this seemed to Li Du a dream, and he could make no sense of what had happened. The bug seemed to have evolved, growing a pair of wings that could let it fly. This must have been connected to when it burrowed into Ah Meow’s head. But in the past, when the both of them had been together, the bug hadn’t burrowed into the cat—so why did it choose to do it now? And why did it grow a pair of wings after doing this?
All of these questions swirled in his mind, but he could think of no answers.
This at least seemed to be a good thing. The bug would not have to crawl around the storage units anymore. With flight, scanning for valuable items would take much less time.
While Li Du was lost in his thoughts, Hans looked over at him worryingly, asking, "Hey, buddy, did you hit your head?"
"Why did you brake so suddenly?" Li Du asked angrily. "Why aren’t we running?"
Hans gleefully pointed to the rear window. "The Battle of Dunkirk has already ended. Look! That damn bitch was dragged to hell by the Big Fox!"
He had to admit that Hans’s driving skills were truly amazing. Looking back, there was really no sight of the cop car anymore.
Between taking care of the trash, escaping the cops, and even obtaining real silverware and a set of brand new vintage furniture, this auction trip had been extremely successful. Besides this, profiting from his misfortune under the chase of the police, his bug for some mysterious reason had evolved. This was an unexpected bonus.