Yalan Teahouse,
The elegant private rooms were filled with the faint aroma of tea.
With its streetfront location, the rent wasn't cheap, not to mention the wide variety of high-end teas that were hard to find on the market.
Even the waitresses were dressed in well-fitting cheongsams, with their hair neatly done up in buns, meticulous in every way.
The beautiful waitresses each looked like paintings on their own, but when Su Xiyan walked into the teahouse, all of those lovely women instantly lost their glow.
It was a perfect illustration of the saying "no contrast, no harm done".
When Su Xiyan arrived at Yalan Teahouse, Tang Zhiyuan, the overall supervisor of the Su City Demon Hunters, was already sitting in a corner waiting for her.
"Supervisor Tang," Su Xiyan walked over and greeted him.
Tang Zhiyuan looked Su Xiyan over, "Have a seat! What kind of tea would you like?"
"Jasmine tea," Su Xiyan replied.
The tea arrived swiftly. Tang Zhiyuan didn't ask the servers to prepare it, but started going through the intricate steps himself.
The boss of the Su City Demon Hunters was personally brewing tea?
Su Xiyan got right to the point, "Supervisor Tang, what did you want to see me about?"
Without halting the motions of brewing, Tang Zhiyuan spoke plainly, "Nothing much really, I mainly just wanted to ask if you have a Chen Shuo around you?"
Chen Shuo??
Su Xiyan's heart lurched violently!
Chen Shuo was a vampire! Did Tang Zhiyuan single her out for a private meeting because he already knew Chen Shuo's true identity?
Discipline in the Demon Hunter Organization was extremely strict.
If anyone found out that Su Xiyan, a demon hunter herself, was harboring a baby vampire, it would bring cataclysmic shockwaves through the entire Demon Hunter Organization!
At this point, Su Xiyan could only feign ignorance for the time being: "Yeah, Chen Shuo lives with me."
"What's the matter, Supervisor Tang? Why are you suddenly asking about him?"
On the surface, Su Xiyan acted nonchalant, but her pitch black eyes shone as she closely observed Tang Zhiyuan's microexpressions.
Tang Zhiyuan smiled, "I'm not suspecting that Chen Shuo is the Demon King!"
Su Xiyan: "???"
Tang Zhiyuan: "Little Su, where did your usual cleverness run off to?"
It's said that when a woman falls in love, her IQ drops. Could this be a manifestation of that??
Two red clouds emerged on Su Xiyan's fair and exquisite face.
As a seasoned veteran, Tang Zhiyuan immediately discerned that the relationship between Su Xiyan and Chen Shuo was unusual.
Su Xiyan asked, "Wasn't it you, Supervisor Tang, who said that Chen Shuo just happened to appear near all the spots where the Demon King showed up?"
Tang Zhiyuan replied, "That's right! And that's why I wanted to find you to ask if you could ask Chen Shuo if he's seen anything... abnormal."
"For ordinary humans, the appearance of a vampire should count as abnormal right?"
"We demon hunters always act prudently, never allowing humans to discover our existence. But vampires don't necessarily do the same. To them, humans are delicious food."
"It's very possible they would leave behind some kind of trail or flaw. Since Chen Shuo happened to be nearby, maybe he saw something unusual."
Ordinary humans? A wild delight surged through Su Xiyan's heart!
So Tang Zhiyuan still hadn't discovered Chen Shuo's true identity.
The only reason Tang Zhiyuan specifically sought out Su Xiyan was because demon hunters had a rule to never allow ordinary humans to find out about the existence of vampires and demon hunters. For humans, it would be an earth-shattering revelation!
Therefore, when hunting vampires or tracking their whereabouts, demon hunters would do their utmost to prevent ordinary humans from catching on.
The long and winding path Tang Zhiyuan took was simply to get Su Xiyan to sound out Chen Shuo to see if he had noticed anything unusual.
This wasn't much like Tang Zhiyuan's way of doing things!
As the boss of the Su City Demon Hunters, Tang Zhiyuan had absolute authority.
Su Xiyan sensed Tang Zhiyuan's aberrant behavior. He was a crafty old fox, there must be more to this matter than meets the eye.
For such a simple thing, he could have just sent a message through the demon hunter internal network, or even just made a phone call to explain things clearly in a few sentences.
But instead, Tang Zhiyuan specifically called Su Xiyan out to ask her face-to-face.
All of Tang Zhiyuan's actions were proof enough that this matter wasn't as easy as it appeared on the surface.
After thinking it over, Su Xiyan voiced her own thoughts:
"Chen Shuo is my roommate. Before letting him move into my home, I already conducted a background check."
"He's a Su City native born and raised here. His parents do business elsewhere and he's their only child. His background is clean."
"Su City is his hometown where he grew up. And he's a Nanli University student, which happens to overlap with where the Demon King appeared, nothing too strange about that."
"Supervisor Tang, you know me. I wouldn't let someone who makes me feel unsafe live in my home."
Tang Zhiyuan contemplated briefly, "There's no need for you to be so anxious. I'm not suspecting Chen Shuo's identity."
"I only wanted you to ask Chen Shuo if he noticed anything out of the ordinary."
Su Xiyan nodded, "Okay, when he comes home after class later today, I'll try probing him to see if I can get any useful information for us."
"But Supervisor Tang, I don't think you should place too much expectation on Chen Shuo. He's just an ordinary human. He goes so many places every day, he may not necessarily remember."
From Su Xiyan's expression, Tang Zhiyuan understood he wouldn't get any information out of her.
"Alright, I'll await your message then."
Su Xiyan got up to leave, "Okay. Thank you for the tea, Supervisor Tang. Goodbye."
As he watched Su Xiyan's departing figure, Tang Zhiyuan's expression gradually grew solemn.
After quite some time passed, Tang Zhiyuan called his secretary, "Investigate the young man living with Su Xiyan, called Chen Shuo."
"Be careful."
Though he hadn't even seen Chen Shuo's face before, Tang Zhiyuan's many years of experience told him that this youth who seemed sunny and full of promise had an air of unfathomable depth about him.
In contrast to Tang Zhiyuan's gravity, inside the car after leaving the teahouse, what occupied Su Xiyan's mind more was unease.
Though Tang Zhiyuan's combat ability wasn't high, and he was already quite advanced in years, only at the Gold first-stage.
But he was able to firmly sit in the position of Head Supervisor of the Su City Demon Hunters relying on his insight into human nature and means that exceeded the average person.