Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1277: Sitting at Home, (fill in yourself) Comes from the Sky

Peter Chen stood anxiously at the entrance of the Song Imperial Dynasty hotel.

Originally, someone with a higher position than his should have replaced him—actually, at the Foggy City branch of the Song Imperial Dynasty, even the president himself would have been quite willing to do this doorman-like job.

It was just that Peter Chen had been lucky enough to become the first person to pick up the guests at the airport.

But at this moment, Peter Chen absolutely did not think this was a pleasant assignment. More than an hour earlier, terrifying attacks had occurred simultaneously in several places across Britain. The incident at the stadium in particular was shocking—the injuries reported on television were horrifying.

Although Foggy City was still safe for now… if anything were to happen, Peter Chen truly did not know how furious Miss Ying—who could fire a branch president on a whim—would become.

I should’ve been firmer with them… even if we didn’t use the prepared car, at least two people should have followed them… Peter Chen muttered to himself outside the hotel, growing more and more anxious.

Fortunately, after this agonizing wait, Luo Qiu and Miss Maid slowly walked back from outside. Seeing the relaxed expressions on their faces, Peter Chen finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, Young Master Qiu, I swear by the great god Shiva—next time I absolutely won’t let you go out alone!” Peter Chen hurried over.

He was still wearing the same clothes he’d had on when picking them up at the airport earlier that day. In fact, during the days Luo Qiu was staying here, Peter Chen had no intention of clocking out at all. With plenty of rooms in the hotel, bathing, eating, and sleeping here posed no problem.

“Mr. Chen, are you worried about the attacks?” Luo Qiu smiled slightly. “Don’t worry, we’re fine. This place is quite safe.”“That may be true,” Peter Chen said, “but those attackers have no humanity. Today it’s Edinburgh—who knows, maybe they’ll suddenly show up in Foggy City in the middle of the night! Young Master Qiu, you and your companion would be much safer staying in the hotel. If you feel bored, we have plenty of entertainment facilities here. I guarantee you won’t be bored!”

They had already spent most of the day out, so there wasn’t much left to see anyway. Luo Qiu was also curious whether anything would still happen if he stayed inside the hotel. He planned to stay one more day and then depart for the university the day after.

“Then I’ll trouble you, Mr. Chen,” Luo Qiu replied casually.

“I’ll escort you back to your rooms,” Peter Chen said, still uneasy—he probably wouldn’t relax until he saw them safely inside.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted from the hotel lobby.

A team of security guards rushed out in a hurry, chasing after a person wearing a black overcoat. The person in black was extremely agile, leaping and darting around the lobby, leaving the pursuing guards in a sorry state.

Several guests who were checking in were also caught up in the chaos.

“What’s going on? What exactly is happening?!”

Peter Chen angrily grabbed a security guard and demanded an explanation. Security at the Song Imperial Dynasty was always excellent—incidents like this happened maybe once every few years. If this disturbed a VIP, and the guest casually mentioned to Miss Ying that the security here seemed poor… the Foggy City branch would definitely be shaken to its core.

The guard clearly recognized Peter Chen and quickly explained, “Mr. Chen, someone somehow ran into the back kitchen and started stealing food. He’s not a guest. We tried to drive him out, but he’s incredibly agile… you can see that yourself.”

“Damn it! So many people, and you can’t even catch one person?” Peter Chen roared. But his anger was useless—the incident had already happened.

After throwing the lobby into chaos, the man in the black coat dashed straight out.

“This is… this is really embarrassing,” Peter Chen said awkwardly to Luo Qiu. Just moments ago, he’d been boasting about how good the security was.

Luo Qiu casually glanced in the direction the thief had fled and smiled faintly. “Mr. Chen, if you catch him, don’t be too harsh.”

“But… but he’s a thief,” Peter Chen said in surprise.

When thieves were caught, even if they weren’t handed over to the police, they were usually beaten up—standard practice.

Luo Qiu shook his head slightly. “If he weren’t hungry or desperate, he probably wouldn’t steal food. And although things got messy, he didn’t really hurt anyone, did he?”

“Well… all right then,” Peter Chen nodded. Though he agreed verbally, what would actually happen if the thief were caught was another matter. He forced a smile and said, “Young Master Qiu, you truly are kindhearted. I’ll escort you both back to your rooms.”

Then he turned to the security guard who had been questioned and said sternly, “You heard that. If you catch him, don’t be too harsh. If he’s hungry, give him something to eat and then send him away.”

The guard nodded repeatedly and jogged off.

…

But the thief was not easy to catch. The security personnel were silently complaining to themselves—this guy was like a circus monkey.

“Over here! This way! Someone catch him!”

How large was the security team at this Song Imperial Dynasty hotel in Foggy City?

At this moment, fifty or sixty guards were rushing back and forth across the first floor, with more and more joining the search.

“Damn it! He got away again… over there! He went that way!”

The chaos caused by this thief far exceeded expectations—especially in the hotel’s internal commercial street, which was thrown into complete disorder.

As large numbers of guards flooded into the commercial area and began a carpet search, a small head suddenly appeared upside down outside the hotel’s glass curtain wall, peeking in at the chaos below before quickly retracting.

The thief in the black coat was clinging impossibly to the hotel’s exterior wall, suspended in midair!

Adjusting his body, he looked up toward the upper floors of the hotel. Suddenly exerting force, he began running along the exterior wall like a beast.

He raced all the way up the hotel’s outer wall to the rooftop helipad.

Stopping there, he looked down at the city below. His amber-colored, peculiar eyes were filled with urgency.

“Oga… where are you…”

Curling up, he wrapped his coat tightly around himself. A whole day of fleeing had already left him utterly exhausted. He only wanted to rest for a while.

Suddenly, a long, gentle sound of music drifted through the air…

…

…

Piece: “Tooi Sora e” (Toward the Distant Sky)

Before the magnificent Bechstein “Louis XV,” Luo Qiu was playing this short piece.

On one hand, Miss Maid had recognized the origin of the Bechstein “Louis XV.” It was not the original lost to history, but a later reproduction—still extremely expensive—so he figured there was no reason not to play it.

Boss Luo, who loved supermarket discount days, had an instinctive fondness for free things that even an altar could not erase.

On the other hand… the atmosphere was simply better this way.

You Ye stood beside him, her hair falling softly as she watched her master’s face and hands. Her smile deepened as she listened.

“Tooi Sora e” was a very short piece. A few minutes passed quietly—nothing compared to a full-length composition.

“What a lingering melody… whose masterpiece is it?”

When Luo Qiu’s fingers finally came to rest, the lingering notes drifting like a woman at eternal rest, Miss Maid let out a soft sigh.

Boss Luo smiled slightly. “It’s not really the work of any great master of our age… and as for its origin, there’s no need to know.”

Miss Maid lightly pressed a white key with her finger—an F-sharp. Since her master said it didn’t matter, there was no need to remain curious.

They had plenty of ways to pass the time.

Luo Qiu had no intention of spending the entire night cramming knowledge about the Celtic pantheon, so he shifted a little on the bench and let You Ye sit down.

“Shall we play a duet?” Luo Qiu said gently. “I’m sure you’ll lead me well.”

A four-hands performance.

But Miss Maid seemed to want to be a little mischievous. Her right hand leapt rapidly across the white keys—Flight of the Bumblebee.

As her fingers flew, she turned her head and smiled, her gaze meeting Luo Qiu’s at the same level.

Luo Qiu loved that lively smile. His hands slipped between hers, seamlessly taking over the buzzing flight of the bumblebee.

Their hands crossed again and again, sometimes looking at each other, sometimes closing their eyes to listen. Suddenly, Luo Qiu’s left hand freed itself and moved to the back of Miss Maid’s hand, tapping rapidly there as if playing piano keys—an answer to her earlier playfulness.

Only when the piece ended and the last note faded into the air did Luo Qiu look away from Miss Maid and toward the terrace.

Outside the hotel, the city lights reflected off the sliding glass doors, and within the overlapping light and shadow appeared a slightly childish face.

“What a polite little fellow.”

Luo Qiu pressed one last key. The sound rang out, and at the same moment, the glass door to the terrace automatically slid open. A figure stumbled into the room.

He quickly regained his balance. Though he looked rather disheveled, he didn’t actually fall onto the carpet. A black overcoat wrapped his body.

The coat was really too big and didn’t fit at all, making him look a little ridiculous. Even the fisherman’s hat he wore drooped almost to his eyebrows, loose in several places.

His hands were hidden inside his sleeves.

He stood there uneasily, clearly unsure how to deal with the situation. Then, decisively, he backed away, turned around, rushed out onto the terrace, and jumped onto the railing.

Luo Qiu said calmly, “People outside are probably looking for you. It wouldn’t hurt to leave after things settle down. At least there’d be less trouble.”

Perched on the railing, he pressed down with both hands. At the moment the voice reached him, he was in mid-jump. Startled, his leap didn’t fully complete, and he lost his balance, falling downward.

He really fell.

“Ah—!”

He let out a frightened cry as his body vanished from the railing. But in the next instant, a hand grabbed onto the edge again—then a second hand.

A small head cautiously rose from beyond the railing, peeking into the room. Inside, the young man was already walking toward him step by step.

…

Luo Qiu had given up. Even if he stayed in the room and didn’t go out, something would probably still happen. Now he had adopted a resigned “whatever comes, comes” attitude.

Amber-colored eyes, with peculiar vertical pupils. On the face smeared with dirt and grease, several long, symmetrical whiskers were visible.

“A beastman?” Miss Maid, walking alongside Boss Luo, recognized the thief’s identity at a glance.

It was like flipping a switch. As if stimulated, the amber pupils flashed sharply. He exerted force with both hands, hoisted himself up, leapt high, and lunged down toward Luo Qiu and You Ye.

Such a sudden attack would trigger Boss Luo’s absolute defense from the club. Luo Qiu had no choice but to wave his hand.

Before he could reach them, a gentle force slapped his body aside, sending him crashing into the small pool on the terrace.

Splash—water flew everywhere.

The pool wasn’t very deep. Yet unexpectedly, the thief showed signs of drowning, flailing desperately in the water.

His coat and hat had already come off. After much struggle, he finally crawled to the edge of the pool, lifting his head and gasping for air like a survivor of a disaster.

Two furry ears on his head trembled slightly.

His expression was dark and uncertain, his gaze locked onto the master and servant before him. The intent to attack hadn’t fully faded.

Luo Qiu exchanged a glance with Miss Maid.

Miss Maid said softly, “Beastmen are generally in a poor situation, so they tend to be very wary of anyone who recognizes their identity. In the Middle Ages, beastmen were even slaves or playthings of nobles. Even today, there are still people who hunt and traffic them.”

These were things that happened on the European continent. Luo Qiu, who had grown up far away in the divine land, had never witnessed such things firsthand.

“I see.” Boss Luo nodded, then looked at the small beastman and said in English, “I’m sorry. We mean you no harm.”

The little beastman in the pool let out an angry cry and lunged forward again.

“It’s Turkish,” Miss Maid reminded him.

Luo Qiu had no choice but to purchase proficiency in the language and said again, “We really mean you no harm. We just don’t want you causing more trouble outside. After all, this hotel… has some connection to me.”

He directly restrained the beastman’s next attack. The reason he acted personally was that, compared to Miss Maid, Boss Luo was better at delicate work.

If Miss Maid used black flames to restrain him, even at the lowest level, it would still cause painful burning sensations.

“You see, if we really wanted to harm you, I don’t think you’d have a second chance to attack… hm?” Luo Qiu paused as he looked at the beastman suspended in midair.

The overcoat had been left behind in the pool. All that remained was a very thin, ill-fitting men’s shirt, hanging almost down to the knees.

It was completely soaked.

The faint flush at the chest, and the subtle outline below, made it clear that beneath the initially masculine appearance… she was actually a girl.

“Let… let me go…”

(End of Chapter)