DTTM 42

Chapter 42: A Pervert Did It

“Why did you come in person?” The effects of the medicine seemed not to have completely worn off. I had just stood up when I felt a wave of dizziness, and the blanket on my body fell to the ground.

“Chu Shengcheng isn’t in Penglai, so I don’t need to serve him. I came here when I had time.” Yu Xuan’s gaze passed over me and landed on the pure white building behind me. “When I arrived, a helicopter landed on the roof.”

“It’s the Wo Republic Army.” I walked to the table, grabbed some snacks, and swallowed them in two gulps. Then I picked up the teapot and drank the warm tea in one go. Only when the hunger and cold in my body were dispelled did I feel like I had finally come back to life: “The Crown Prince’s family isn’t in Penglai? Didn’t you say that the little prince couldn’t sleep without you to comfort him?”

Upon hearing this, Yu Xuan paused slightly, a hint of disgust appeared in his eyes: “Just give him a sleeping pill.”

It was strange. Yu Xuan harbored deep hatred for the Penglai royal family due to his childhood experiences. Yet, Chu Shengcheng’s son was not close to either his father or mother, but only to him. For the first three years after his birth, Yu Xuan practically raised him.

However, the closer they were, the more he loathed him. Seeing the Penglai royal family “continue” while the Yu clan could only “disappear” was the cruelest mockery of fate for Yu Xuan. In recent years, whenever that young prince was mentioned in front of him, his expression had never been pleasant.

I briefly recounted the events that occurred in the mansion. In the cold air, the warm, rich woody scent emanating from Yu Xuan wafted towards me.

As far as I could remember, he never seemed to change his perfume; it was always the same scent.

I picked up the blanket from the floor and draped it over myself. I stared at him for a long time before asking, “Is the scent on you unique to you?”

Yu Xuan raised an eyebrow: “No, this is a scent that Chu Shengcheng likes. It has a calming effect, and his servants usually have it on their clothes. What, have you smelled it somewhere else?”

“No, just curious.” He was indeed very perceptive, but I didn’t intend to tell him about the strange WRA soldier. In my opinion, he wasn’t entirely trustworthy either.

“Did you bring the corpse of a Penglai man as I instructed?” I asked again.

Wuxi Chen remained at large because, while the human hunt was cruel, those who died were the “lowly people” who were insignificant to Penglai. People never know the pain until they are punished themselves. Only by making the people of Penglai understand that they were no different from the Wo, merely playthings for the nobles’ hunts, could the attention of the entire society be truly awakened.

“I brought it.” Yu Xuan clapped his hands. Not far away, two Wo men dressed in black, who had been standing with their backs to us, moved at the sound and went in one direction. After about four or five minutes, they came back dragging a bag.

The bag was opened, revealing a handsome young man from Penglai. If it weren’t for his bluish lips and the signs of rigor mortis on his body, one might mistake him for being fast asleep.

“Did you kill him?” I opened the sack a little further and found a dark purple rope mark on the young man’s neck, indicating that he had been strangled.

“No. This is Zhong Xiaoshan’s son.” Yu Xuan tucked his hands into the wide sleeves of his cloak and said calmly, “He overestimated himself and got into a fight over a minor celebrity, and ended up dying on the spot. I just happened to be there and decided to make use of this waste.”

I was somewhat surprised when I heard the name “Zhong Xiaoshan”.

Zhong Xiaoshan was the Minister of Defense of Penglai, and enjoyed great prestige in the military. He and his wife had only one son. This son was notorious for his lack of ambition and was a blemish on Zhong Xiaoshan’s illustrious resume. He was also known for his extravagant spending and had accumulated a lot of debts. He was constantly being harassed by creditors and was a notorious disappointment.

Everyone knew that Zhong Xiaoshan was disappointed in this son, but he still had to clean up his messes from time to time for the sake of his reputation. But as disappointing as he was, this was still Zhong Xiaoshan’s own son. His sudden and inexplicable death would likely cause a uproar, given Zhong Xiaoshan’s fiery temper.

In particular, in the past two years, he and Wuxi Kunpeng had repeatedly disagreed on political views. The two gradually changed from good partners who worked together to bitter rivals who were now on equal footing, almost to the point of irreconcilable differences.

“Does this guy have some old grudge against Wuxi Chen?”

“They fought over a woman years ago, so you could say they were… rivals in love?”

I nodded: “Okay.”

Although it differed from the corpses of ordinary people from Penglai that I wanted, it was still usable.

Whether Wuxi Chen had the guts to capture Zhong Xiaoshan’s son as prey was irrelevant, nor was it important whether Zhong Xiaoshan believed Wuxi Chen killed his son.

Human nature had never failed to live up to expectations; as long as we stirred up the waters of Penglai even more, it would be beneficial to us in any way.

“Your Highness, we found a hidden compartment in that collection room, and from there we discovered this…” Yu Xuan’s subordinate suddenly walked over with a glass bottle.

Yu Xuan frowned at just one glance, turned his face away, and waved his hand, “Jiang Man, take a look.”

The man held the bottle up to me, and when I looked inside, I saw a pair of blue eyeballs.

The moment I saw those eyes, a thought struck my brain like a thunderbolt.

Professor Yi’s eyes were never found. Even under severe torture, San-ge refused to reveal where the eyes had gone.

When the old lady was placed in her coffin, her body and head were carefully stitched together, and her face was skillfully made up to regain its former radiance. However, she was missing a pair of eyes, which could only be replaced with prosthetics.

Eyes carefully stored in a hidden compartment couldn’t possibly belong to an ordinary person… All these years, they had been hidden right here.

I reached out and, through the glass, gently touched those eyes. Instead of finding peace in the resolution of the old mystery, my heart felt heavier, as if I had fallen into a deeper abyss.

Wuxi Chen was only eighteen years old at the time. Even if he had ten times the courage, he wouldn’t dare to assassinate a bishop. Therefore, the collector of these eyes could only be one person.

I thought Wuxi Chen was such a beast because of genetic mutation and family misfortune. But it turned out… it was a legacy.

Not unexpected, but definitely disgusting.

I told Yu Xuan to have his men put the bottle back in its place, and then I told Yu Xuan that I might know why WRA wanted to take Wuxi Chen away.

“Oh?”

“To clear their name and restore their honor,” I said, pulling the blanket around myself tighter.

Yu Xuan’s men moved quickly and completed the task of throwing Zhong Xiaoshan’s son’s body into the dungeon, finishing off all the hunters’ corpses in the building, and gathering the survivors together.

After they left, I stepped back into the building that was saturated with blood and death. I managed to control my expression at the door before pushing open the door and rushing into the meeting room where A-Qi and the others were gathered.

Sensing someone enter, A-Qi stood up, he was high on alert. When he saw it was me, he was first taken aback, then his features quickly scrunched up.

He rushed over and hugged me tightly, bursting into tears: “Ge, you scared me to death! I thought you were gone!”

“I was slightly injured and passed out. I just woke up.” I glanced at the few shaken children not far away. “Are you alright?”

“Except for one who was seriously injured, the rest were minor injuries,” A-Qi said.

“You did a great job, hang in there a little longer.” I pulled A-Qi over to the children, squatted down to comfort them, and said, “Those people were from the Wo Republic Army, they came specifically to rescue us. But they’ve been labeled as terrorists by Penglai, so they can’t stay long. Now, we have to wait for Penglai’s rescue.”

The children looked at me timidly, and although they seemed to understand only partially, they all nodded.

About half an hour later, the sound of police sirens came from outside, growing louder as they approached, piercing the entire silent mansion.

Because Yu Xuan reported the incident under the name of the Wo Republic Army, the local police assumed that the Wuxi family’s old residence had been attacked by terrorists and dared not take it lightly, mobilizing almost their entire force.

Downstairs, chaos reigned as the media arrived, their cameras flashing blindingly in the night.

As we were escorted, blankets covering our heads, from the gate to the ambulance, reporters crammed outside the cordon strained to hold out their microphones, and words like ” Wo Republic Army,” “terrorist attack,” and “assassination of nobles” came flying in like snowflakes.

“No, the Wo Republic Army are not bad guys, they saved us!” A-Qi pulled the blanket off his head and mustered up the courage to face the reporter’s questions.

Immediately, the reporters who had caught wind of a headline went even crazier.

“What happened inside? How many people died?”

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

“You said that the Wo Republic Army saved you. May I ask how they saved you?”

Seeing that A-Qi was turning pale from the questions and was about to give up, I quickly pulled the blanket off my head and covered him with it.

“Hey? Isn’t that Jiang Man?”

“Jiang Man?”

“Yes, it’s Jiang Man! He’s a navigator of the Sun God Racing Team!”

Someone recognized me, and the flashbulbs went off like it was daytime.

“We were kidnapped here, and I hope the police can find out the truth and tell me what really happened.” I raised my arm to shield my eyes from the blinding flashes. “Those people were armed and kept chasing us… There was a collection room full of Wo people’s eyes… Several people died, both Wo and Penglai people…”

Several police officers rushed me into the ambulance as if my pants were on fire. A-Qi and several other survivors were also taken to the hospital in different ambulances for treatment.

I only suffered minor injuries, but perhaps because of my special status, the hospital bandaged me up and took me directly to a private room to rest, with armed police officers standing at the door.

It was dawn when I finished the interrogation. Perhaps it was because my tense nerves were finally able to relax, or the drug had not yet completely metabolized, but I was overcome by drowsiness and fell asleep.

When I woke up again, it was bright outside the window. Zong Yanlei had arrived at some point and was sitting quietly by my bedside.

“…Why didn’t you wake me up when you came?” I carefully supported my injured arm and sat down on the headboard.

“I’m not an alarm clock, I don’t have a habit of waking people up.” His voice was low, and his face was expressionless, looking rather unhappy. “If you’re awake, explain why someone who should have returned to Baiyujing yesterday suddenly appeared at Qunyu Mountain?”

He came to interrogate me early in the morning.

I cleared my throat and began to explain, “This really isn’t my fault, it’s like this…”

I repeated exactly what I had told the police officer.

From the moment I received A-Qi call, I went to the slums to find him, only to be electrocuted as soon as I entered the house. When I woke up, I was already in a prison cell… We were chased like prey. I managed to kill one of the hunters, encountered a man who claimed to be a member of the WRA, and then it was a matter of running away and hiding… Suddenly, the door was smashed open, and more members of the Wo Republic Army barged in. They took control of the clown servants in the wing, gathered the surviving children together, and then took Wuxi Chen away.

Apart from replacing Yu Xuan’s men with the WRA, everything else was true. It wasn’t entirely a lie.

Zong Yanlei lowered his eyelids, concealing his emotions. His right hand tapped the armrest of the seat, as if he was listening attentively to what I was saying, or as if he was lost in thought.

There was a faint smell of disinfectant in the air, but his body odor was not obvious.

I quietly lifted the covers, sat on the edge of the bed, stared at his hand for a while, and then, without warning, grabbed it and pressed it against my face.

“Young Master, I’m sorry to have worried you. It’s all my fault. I will definitely be more careful in the future and promise never to go into danger alone again.” A warm hand covered my cheek, and on his wrist, there was the same fragrance as the man from last night. The difference was that Zong Yanlei’s was stronger.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while now, young master, is your perfume branded? Or was it custom-made by a perfumer? It smells wonderful.”

Zong Yanlei’s fingertips twitched slightly, and his heterochromatic eyes stared at me without a trace of guilt: “This is a perfume I endorse, called ‘Tyrant’. If you like it, I’ll give you a bottle another day.”

After he mentioned it, I remembered that there was indeed a time when his perfume advertisements were everywhere.

“Are you done talking?” He slowly withdrew his hand.

“That’s all.”

“Nothing else to add?”

“That’s all.” I smiled at him and lowered my hand, which had nothing left to grasp.

His fingertips traced my jawline, and then he flicked my Adam’s apple.

It wasn’t very strong, but I still reflexively covered that spot and coughed lightly.

“Then why is it purple here?”

“I…” I wanted to say that I was accidentally injured during the chase, but because I still had doubts, I changed my words at the last minute, “A pervert did it.”