The Great Worm Lich

When Zhang Lisheng heard the girl’s words, a terrible premonition rose in his heart. He turned around to glance at Maddie before asking, “You booked two tickets? Who else is going to New Mexico?”

“Me, of course. As the secretary of the LS board, I should be present at the critical moment of the group’s soon-to-be most important industry.” Maddie batted her eyelashes as she replied.

“Girl, don’t fancy yourself clever. You won’t get anything by doing this.” The young man looked into the girl’s eyes and said expressionlessly.

“But, I have gotten everything that I want by being able to see you more and stay beside you for a little while longer.” Looking back into Zhang Lisheng’s eyes, Maddie replied with a soothing and gentle voice.

“Maddie, you’re a paranoid case! You should go get therapy.” After staring into each other eyes’ for a while, the young man remarked with a blank expression, turned his head, and continued to browse the news online.

After spending nearly an hour reading all the information he was interested in, he finally blurted, “It has only been half a year. Still, Earth has become different from before. This is really beyond my imagination…”

“Lisheng, actually, there’s not that many changes in the lives of ordinary people. At this time, human endurance can be greater than your imagination.” Maddie, who had been waiting patiently by the side while listening to Zhang Lisheng, rambled on endlessly. She then suddenly said in a gentle voice, “Shall I bring you to see what ordinary New Yorkers are like now? Or should I say, the lives of the ordinary US citizens?”

“There’s no need for that, I want to go… go…” Zhang Lisheng initially thought about refusing Maddie. However, he suddenly realized that his mother and his girlfriend were far away in the Noah World. Other than both of them, there was nowhere else for him to go, so he could not help but close his mouth.

“Baby, out of the three people on this planet who really love you, two of them have already left. What else can you do besides leaving with me?” When Maddie saw the young man stuttering in his words, she smiled and said.

“This is really f*cked up! Just a few hours ago, I was still feeling proud that I was going to own a ‘world’ of my own. Now I feel that I am really pitiful,” Zhang Lisheng pondered over it and stood up with a slightly unhappy expression as he mumbled, “Alright, Maddie. I really don’t want to stay alone in the office, making my own steak in such a mood. You drive and let’s have a good meal in the city, shall we? We’ll also take a look at the life of the so-called ordinary US citizens in passing. I suddenly feel like, after I left high school, I have cut myself away from the word ‘ordinary.’ I indeed need to understand the real life of the general public now, so I can make some judgments.”

“Great!” The girl answered with delight. She casually took the young man’s arm and left the office building.

It was already night time. Whistling sea breeze was blowing outdoors, seemingly lightening the dust in the darkness, allowing the stars on the sky to peek out in blurry shadows.

Even so, Zhang Lisheng breathed in a few mouthfuls dirty salty air as he followed Maddie across half of the factory with an exasperated expression. Afterward, they finally entered a mid-ancient small blue Ford Fiesta.

Theoretically, even though the Ford Fiesta was not notable, it was big enough for the skinny Zhang Lisheng to fit inside.

However, after coming to the US, the young man had always used limousine or CRV when traveling. He did so whether he was driving by his own or being driven by somebody. For this reason, he unfamiliarly studied the narrow space inside the car and could not help but remark, “Maddie, your salary and your dividend must have totaled up to at least 10 million dollars per year. Why is your car as bad as an unemployed third-rate restaurant hostess?”

“It’s because I’m living in a shabby neighborhood, so a brand new Ferrari would be too eye-catching.” The girl replied as she started the car.

“Shabby neighborhood? Oh, don’t tell me that you’re still staying at West 57th Street, Jasmine Avenue?” Zhang Lisheng asked in surprise.

“Why can’t I live there? I’m a 23-year-old single girl who has just graduated from college, so isn’t it very reasonable to pay my parents and live in their house? At the very least, I’d have a warm dinner waiting for me no matter how late I have to work overtime and a new bed sheet to sleep in every week.”

“Even so, you can always buy a new apartment in a better community for your parents! I remember that not all lights on the streets outside your home will be lit at night, and the howling from the dogs and cats sound more miserable than other places as well!” Sitting on the passenger seat, the young man watched the scenery began to change outside the window and said with a purse of his lips.

“It’s not as bad as you think. In New York, a pet-friendly neighborhood is always safe enough to reside.”

“Is that so? Then, other than being afraid of your car being stolen, I guess you must be pleased living at the West Jasmine Avenue, huh?” Zhang Lisheng shrugged. “I really don’t understand what Americans like you think. Anyway, this is your life, so you can do whatever you want as long as you’re happy.”

“Thank you!” The girl drove while turning around to smile and nod at the young man. “Don’t worry! Even though the dishes my mum can make are limited and ordinary, her cooking skill is in no way worse than a Michelin restaurant’s chef. I’m sure you’ll be satisfied in the evening.”

“Wait a minute, you mean, we’re not going to a restaurant but your house to eat?”

“Of course! Don’t you want to know the changes in the ordinary US citizens’ lives? There are no other blue-collar families that can be more ordinary than my family,” Maddie said with a smile.

“Oh, it’s indeed very ‘normal’ for a blue-collar family to have a daughter who is a board member in the most abundant livestock slaughter chain in the whole country.” Zhang Lisheng grew silent for a while before remarking awkwardly. “But I think I can also observe the life of ordinary people by just randomly finding a restaurant in Brooklyn or the Bronx.”

“First of all, my parents don’t know that I’m the board secretary of the LS Group, and they can’t imagine this at all. Secondly, I feel that if you really want to observe the life of ordinary people, a family is far more suitable than a restaurant, unless you’re afraid.” Once the girl drove the car out of the factory, she turned into the road leading to New York City.

“Afraid? What should I be afraid of? This is a really poor prodding method, you know…” Zhang Lisheng shrugged awkwardly. “You could even take out more than 500,000 dollars to treat your father’s cancer just a few years after graduating from high school. How come your parents don’t know your actual job? Isn’t this too ridiculous?”

“That time, during the treatment, I lied to them that I was fortunate enough to get help from a charity. Otherwise, my father would not have allowed his daughter, who had just entered adulthood to pay a large sum of money for him so he could go abroad for treatment.”

“Help from a charity, huh?” Astonished, the young man patted the soft seat of the car and said, “And they actually believed such lies. How absurd. Oh, Maddie, the clothes you’re wearing are probably expensive, right? It looks like it is at least more expensive than this car…”

“Lisheng, after tearing the brand logo away, not everyone can just how expensive Chanel is at first glance.” The girl interrupted Zhang Lisheng’s words. “Especially my father, who is just an ordinary construction worker and my mother, who has always been a housewife. The word ‘fashion’ is far away from their reach.”

Maddie’s answer rendered Zhang Lisheng completely speechless and no longer said any word in the car. The girl, who miraculously obtained an opportunity to bring the person she loved back home for dinner, on the other hand, also remained silent in fear of turning the situation worse.

Just like that, the car cruised through the faint sand fog in silence and drove into New York City along the intercity highway.

After turning from one side to another on the street for a while, the car crossed a tunnel. It then crossed an intersection beside a mansion that had a neon sign written with ‘Manhattan Jinling Office’ in English before finally reaching a street filled with Chinese symbols.

“I’ve only been here once, but this place has left a great impression on me.” They both gazed at the bright black signboard with the words ‘Authentic Yunnan Mountain Goods’ written on it through the window. After a while, they saw the houses that had lions playing with rolling stone balls of colored silk strings in front of the door and upturned eaves on both sides of its outer wall. Zhang Lisheng, who was silent for a while, suddenly said, “This is China Town, Maddie. You’re going in the wrong direction.”

“No, I’m not, Lisheng. Even though my mum has a good cooking skill, to let you have a great meal tonight, of course, I have to repurchase a few Chinese dishes,” The girl replied. She familiarly turned into a few intersections and parked the car in front of a white three-story building before smiling as she asked, “Do you still remember this store?”

Zhang Lisheng looked at the three complicated-looking Chinese characters’ Spicy Chicken Restaurant’ on the signboard of the small building, and shrugged as he said, “Of course, Maddie. I’ve spent about 50,000 or 100,000 dollars on the top floor of this restaurant to learn the Shape-Will Fist from the traditional Chinese medicine doctor with the surname Song. I consider that money to be the most worthwhile in my life. Come to think of it, it has been a few years already. I wonder how Dr. Song is doing now.”

“If you want to know how has Dr. Song been doing in the past few years, you can ask him in person later.” Maddie lifted Zhang Lisheng’s chin with her hand and turned his head gently to ask softly, “Before you go, let me put some light makeup on you, though.”

“What?” The young man asked strangely.

“Your face is as pale as a vampire, and your eyes have a tinge of green in it. You look as though you should stay in a hospital bed instead of sitting in a car going around the city. I know that this is the result of the continuous progress of your witchcraft cultivation. Still, other people don’t know about this. You can’t explain this to them either. In that case, you might as well put some light makeup, so your complexion looks better, and you can avoid a lot of unnecessary troubles. What do you think?”

“Is my complexion that bad?” Zhang Lisheng frowned and asked. He pulled the sun visor of the car down. He then looked at his own complexion carefully for the first time after making a breakthrough in his witchcraft. Sighing, he muttered, “Ah my ‘mask’ can’t even cover the death aura now that I’ve reached Rank-10 Wizard. It’s indeed weird that I’m not resting in the hospital’s ICU with such a complexion of mine…”