He was part of the Justice League now. Liu A'dou never dreamed things would go this smoothly—he actually woke up laughing every day.
Ada was almost fed up. "It's just the Justice League. Do you really have to be this happy?"
No one could really understand Liu A'dou. Before he crossed over, he was a Justice League fan. In his words, the Avengers were just government henchmen, but the Justice League was the real hero team. Now he'd actually become one of them. It felt amazing.
"Ada-jie, you don't get it. I've joined the best team on Earth! That means from now on I'll be involved in all sorts of big events and witness history."
Ada thought men really were childish. "I'm heading back tomorrow, but today you're coming shopping with me."
"Yes, ma'am." He had no problem doing that. Today was for his wife.
On the way downtown, Ada talked about the Avengers, saying they were all going their separate ways. Captain America was leaving New York for Washington. Black Widow and Hawkeye were leaving too. "Maybe I'll get transferred to Washington too," she said.
Ada's words caught A'dou off guard, but he quickly replied, "Ada-jie, distance isn't a problem for us. I'll support you."
Working at S.H.I.E.L.D. was pretty great. Ada even had ambitions to be Director someday, and seeing her husband's support made her smile. She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Anyway, Wonder Woman is in Washington too, so you two can look out for each other." Ada was doing great in her career, and Liu A'dou was all for it. His imagination even went wild: in a few years, once he'd supported her with enough funding, maybe Ada could run for President. Sounded totally doable.
They went shopping, then to the best restaurant in New York for a candlelight dinner, and didn't make it home until late after a night full of love. But when they got back, they found someone in their house—someone injured.
Chu Yuxuan had collapsed in the entryway, blood everywhere.
That was going to be tough to clean. Liu A'dou wasn't happy about it, but he quickly moved to help. He used Ripple energy to heal the wound on Chu Yuxuan's shoulder.
"Looks like a blade wound," Ada said.
Liu A'dou had seen all kinds of wounds and recognized right away this was a sword cut. That was rare. How could Chu Yuxuan, an underground agent, end up hurt like this by a cold weapon?
"I'll move him inside first." Liu A'dou used the Force to bring Chu Yuxuan into the living room.
Ada went to the kitchen to get water and clean up the blood at the door.
"He didn't even work for me that long and already got himself into this mess. That's two months of salary gone," Liu A'dou grumbled. Not just the salary, but a lot of tech too—he'd already packed up and given him a pile of info, enough for the homeland to get ahead in early space development. But even with the tech, it would still take time to digest everything, so the next few years would be crucial.
The Ripple's effect was great, but Chu Yuxuan had lost too much blood. Even with the wound healed, he still hadn't woken up.
"Still not awake?"
"He won't be up tonight. Look at how pale he is—he'll need at least twelve hours before he can recover," Liu A'dou said. "Ada-jie, go get some rest. You've got work tomorrow. Leave this to me."
Ada trusted her husband. After cleaning up, she brought down a set of A'dou's biggest clothes. "Change him into these. It's the largest size you have."
Liu A'dou silently praised his wife's thoughtfulness.
After changing Chu Yuxuan out of his bloody clothes, Liu A'dou crashed on the couch in the living room and fell asleep. The next morning, after seeing Ada off, he called the assistant director to handle the filming. He waited until noon, when Chu Yuxuan finally woke up.
He'd kept the porridge warm all morning. Liu A'dou fed Chu Yuxuan half a bowl, let him rest a bit, and only then asked, "What happened to you? How did you get so badly hurt?"
Chu Yuxuan's head was still fuzzy, but he could speak. "It was Liangshan Outlaw."
Them again?
"I thought they mostly operated back in China?"
"Yeah, but this time they smuggled a batch of cultural relics into the US. I got a tip, so I went to investigate."
"So you were attacked by someone from Liangshan Outlaw?" Trafficking relics, that organization really would do anything. But Chu Yuxuan shook his head, making A'dou impatient. "Then what happened, really?"
Turns out, the smuggling ship was supposed to land in the US, but changed course and docked in Peru. After getting word, Chu Yuxuan sent people to Peru, but heard nothing back, so he had to go himself.
He found the abandoned ship on the beach but no relics. While searching the shore, he was suddenly ambushed by a swordsman—someone wearing stone armor and wielding a bronze sword.
Chu Yuxuan escaped, but was chased the whole way back, never having time to treat his wounds. He made it to New York and finally hid out at Liu A'dou's place.
"So you were attacked by a Terracotta Warrior?" Liu A'dou said with a strange look after hearing his description.
"Yeah, it really looked like a Terracotta Warrior. And it might be the newest one found in China," Chu Yuxuan said. "I need to contact the folks back home and report."
Liu A'dou thought, 'Aren't I already here?' "If it's really a Terracotta Warrior, I want to see for myself. Don't be in a rush to report—let me get those relics back first. You just stay here and wait for good news."
"That thing is dangerous. Be careful," Chu Yuxuan warned, still shaken from being chased by the Terracotta Warrior.
"Yeah, I know."
From Chu Yuxuan, Liu A'dou learned the ship had sunk near a small town on the west coast of Peru. It wouldn't be hard to find. He flew straight there in his ship.
It was quiet. What should have been a beautiful seaside town was now a ghost town. At sunset, the city was silent.
When Liu A'dou arrived, he immediately noticed something was off. All the townspeople were gone. It was like everyone had vanished in an instant, leaving their afternoon tea untouched. There was no sign of panic—like they'd all dropped what they were doing and walked out in perfect order.
Liu A'dou changed into his Kaitou Kid outfit and moved cautiously through the town. The smuggling ship was stranded just offshore. The crew and relics were gone, now the townspeople too—what had happened here?
He figured he had to check out the ancient ruins, since that's where Chu Yuxuan was attacked. But he had a bad feeling about it. The closer he got to the ruins, the stronger that feeling became.
By the time he reached the edge of the site, he could finally see what was making him uneasy. Scattered through the staggered remains of the ancient city, filling the stone foundations, stood row after row of Terracotta Warriors.
He couldn't see the end of them—there were at least two or three thousand. Each one held a weapon, ready for battle, with a brightly colored warrior in front, holding a bronze sword that gleamed coldly.
Liu A'dou swallowed hard, thinking, 'Is this the resurrection of the First Emperor?' Right in front of him was the fiercest Qin army, crossing two thousand years to appear on the other side of the world.