DTTM 76

Chapter 76: This is war, not playing house.

I forced myself to hold back the nausea, and slowly raised my head.

The face of the King of Penglai, covered with wrinkles and age spots, came into view. The loose skin and flesh hung down along his bone structure, perfectly matching the appearance of a man in his seventies.

His clothes were excessively thick, layered, complicated and cumbersome, with all but his hands and head hidden under the robes.

Chu Shengcheng looked very much like him, but one was in his prime, speaking and acting like a blazing flame; the other was approaching old age, his every move exuding an aura of decay.

“Look at this young man…” the old emperor said with a smile as he turned my head to the side.

With this movement, the stench of decay assaulted my senses once more, a sweet and putrid mix that seeped into my nostrils. At the same time, a mechanical whirring sound brushed past my ears, as if some hidden gears were tucked beneath the old emperor’s flesh.

“…Youth, health, and vitality.”

Beside the throne, an elderly man wearing a white robe with gold patterns and an oxygen mask sat in a slightly lower seat. His gaze met mine.

His face was more wrinkled, his hands were withered and almost brittle, and there were IV drips on the back of his hands. A thin mist swirled inside his oxygen mask, and his breathing was intermittent and labored.

No one who saw this would doubt that he was nearing the end of his life. The news saying the Pope was “not in good health” was too mild. This wasn’t an illness; he was dying.

The Pope didn’t speak, but stared at me. It wasn’t a gaze of admiration, but one of…desire.

Cold sweat trickled down my temples, and the cramps in my stomach became more and more frequent. I endured the pain until I was covered in sweat, and I was extremely grateful that I hadn’t eaten anything else today except for that glass of tequila, otherwise I really would have vomited in front of those two old men.

“This Wo is quite good too. ” The old king was still smiling, but his gaze returned to my face, and he suddenly frowned. “Hmm? Why are you sweating so much? Are you feeling unwell?”

I forced a smile and said, “Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. It’s an old ailment. I drank a glass of strong liquor on my way here due to nervousness, which triggered my chronic condition and caused a stomachache. It’s nothing serious.”

“Stomach problems?”

The old king withdrew his hand like he had been burned, as if I had not a stomach ailment but some kind of dangerous infectious disease.

“You should maintain your health; you’re still so young.”

He used the word “maintain”.

Nobles were extremely particular about their words. Knowing which words to use with which objects and what wording to use in public was as natural to them as breathing; it was an instinct that would never lead to mistakes.

The word “maintain” was not used to describe the human body; it was more like… describing inanimate machinery.

“Your Majesty is right.”

“Alright, alright, stand back a bit.” The old king made no attempt to hide his disdain, waving his hand and saying, “Don’t pass your illness on to the Pope.”

I lowered my head and slowly backed down the steps, returning to behind the screen.

“Yanlei, how have you been feeling lately?” The old king’s voice rang out again, this time directed at Zong Yanlei beside me.

“Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I’ve been doing well lately,” Zong Yanlei replied.

“It’s good that you’re alright. You must never end up like your father, dying so suddenly.” The old king spoke as if he were discussing a broken ornament. “I’ve given your clan too much time, and you’ve disappointed me time and time again, which is unacceptable. I hope you can fulfill my wish soon, and not be like your father, after all… your child is still too young.”

Was this a warning to Zong Yanlei not to meet the same untimely end as Zong Shen’an? How cruel.

I quietly turned my head to observe Zong Yanlei’s reaction. I saw that his back was straight, and his gaze was neither humble nor arrogant as he looked at the figure behind the screen. There was neither fear nor anger on his face.

“I will, Your Majesty. I will do everything in my power to fulfill your wishes.” After saying the last few words, he glanced to the side slowly, a gesture he always made when he was impatient.

The figure behind the screen moved slightly. Soon, two servants approached us, one of them carrying a lacquered gold tray bearing a golden sash.

“This honor was bestowed upon you at the suggestion of the Crown Prince,” the old king said slowly. “Thank the Crown Prince properly. If it weren’t for him, you would never have had the chance to step into this hall in your entire live.”

Chu Shengcheng? This summons was actually arranged by him?

“Yes, thank you, Your Majesty, thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince,” I said.

Just as we were about to leave, a middle-aged official hurriedly entered from outside the door and announced that Prime Minister Wuxi Kunpeng had arrived.

The previously weak old emperor suddenly seemed to have been injected with a powerful stimulant, and his voice became loud and clear: “Quickly, invite him in! Now!”

As Zong Yanlei and I stepped out of the main hall, Wuxi Kunpeng was leading a group of people towards us. He glanced at the sash on my chest, then coldly looked away. Behind him were five or six tall and robust Penglai young men.

Those people were dressed in the same cheap clothes, and their builds were similar. Judging from their dull and rough hair, they were just ordinary people from the bottom of society.

Why did Wuxi Kunpeng bring so many commoners into the palace?

As I walked past those people, I felt my sash being gently tugged. Looking in the direction of the tug, I saw that it belonged to a young man in his early thirties.

The man’s eyes were full of curiosity and envy. When he saw me looking at him, he raised his hand to rub the tip of his nose, and smiled shyly. I saw a purplish-red birthmark on the back of his hand that looked like a flower.

I quickly looked away and continued towards the door.

Following the attendants, we arrived at the palace gate, where the car that was to take Zong Yanlei and me out of the Zhongyang District was already waiting.

Once in the car, Zong Yanlei remained silent the entire way, keeping his eyes closed. He radiated an icy aura that kept people at a distance.

Because of the persistent burning sensation in my stomach and out of caution about the vehicle I was in, I was too weak to speak and break the deathly silence.

After leaving Zhongyang District, the vehicle slowly came to a stop. Zong Yanlei didn’t even glance at me before opening the door and getting out.

I hurriedly chased after him, and grabbed his arm: “Wait!”

He stopped, glanced down at my hand holding his sleeve, his long eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes revealed annoyance. He then simply raised his hand and pulled away.

I quickly raised my hands to indicate that I would not touch him again.

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”

I glanced meaningfully back towards the Zhongyang District and lowered my voice, saying, “Those two are acting strangely. Do you know anything about it?”

He followed my gaze, a mocking smile playing on his lips. He then leaned close to my ear, his voice soft yet cold: “So what if I know? Did you think I would tell you?”

After saying that, without waiting for me to say anything more, he turned around and got into the car that had come to pick him up.

He didn’t even care about my stomachache. It seemed he had learned not to be soft-hearted towards me this time.

As I watched his car drive away, I couldn’t help but click my tongue.

‎

‎

The season ended, and so did my contract with the Sun God team. I went back to my dorm, packed my things, and left quietly without disturbing anyone.

I returned to the cabin with my luggage, and as soon as I entered, I couldn’t help but rush to the bathroom to vomit.

After vomiting up all the gastric juices in my stomach, I knelt on the ground, feeling awful, and rested for a long time.

I took a long, hot shower, washing myself thoroughly from head to toe until I could no longer smell that stench on my body, before I finally stepped out of the shower.

Late at night, Ye Shuer, Yu Xuan, and I held another meeting. We chose the same location in the metaverse, the same meeting room that reacted to our emotions.

During the meeting, I recounted what I had seen and heard after entering the palace, and shared my speculations with the two of them.

“You mean, the King of Penglai and the Pope might be using some kind of technology to gain immortality by stealing other people’s bodies?” Ye Shuer was so shocked he almost slipped off his chair. “That’s too perverted!”

“Now that you mention it, it clears up some of my doubts. Chu Shengcheng has been visiting the old emperor for the past few years, and every time he comes back, his expression is not good. And his attitude toward his uncle was always… peculiar.” Yu Xuan was not frightened by this news. Instead, he immediately began to analyze, “If the old king never dies, the one who most wants him to die is not us, but his crown prince.”

Human nature being what it is, that was indeed the case.

Did Chu Shengcheng arrange for me and Zong Yanlei to meet the Emperor because he sensed that my relationship with Yu Xuan was not simple and wanted me to do something? Or… did he want Zong Yanlei to do something?

I massaged my throbbing temples, my mind a jumbled mess of thoughts.

“I’ve also encountered some very strange things recently…” Ye Shuer said that some of his inflammatory posts have been repeatedly deleted, and the Wan Shu Church has also been attacked by mysterious hackers. Furthermore, each attack leaves behind a “WRA” mark, as if it were a provocation.

He scratched his head in frustration, his voice filled with resentment and confusion: “It doesn’t make sense, they keep coming after us. We tried to talk to them, but they ignored us. Isn’t the Wo Republic Army supposed to be on our side? What exactly do they want?”

After he said that, I thought of the fourth brother of WRA that I had spotted at the headquarters of the Sun God Group, so I described the man’s appearance to Ye Shuer to see if he knew who this person was.

“Around 175cm tall, early 30s, wears black-rimmed glasses, and has slightly curly hair…”

“Isn’t this Shen Jing?” Ye Shuer immediately recognized him. “He’s the new head of the technical security department that Sun God Group recruited this year. He sent an email to all employees when he first joined the company, and I’ve seen him in meetings a few times since then. He looks just like you described.”

“So, it’s Zong Yanlei who’s sabotaging us? He recruited WRA members to clean up our public opinion front?” Yu Xuan understood.

“Probably.” I tapped the table with my index finger.

“What do you plan to do?” A scarlet crack appeared in the wall behind Yu Xuan, and molten lava inside erupted in bursts.

I leaned back in my chair and smiled at him: “What do you want to do?”

Yu Xuan smiled slowly, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Jiang Man, you can’t always be like this. This is ‘war,’ not ‘playing house.’”

I did not back down: “I will handle it.”

He looked at me for a moment, then lowered his eyes: “Alright, I’ll give you one more chance.”

‎

‎

For the next two weeks, I also started to take action.

At night, I preached in the metaverse as the creator of “Free Will”.

“Do you remember how that young man in Fantong was dragged away?” I didn’t show myself, but used the statue as a medium to amplify my voice to every corner of the church.

Inside the church, the firelight flickered, and thousands of believers sat on rows of pews, each holding a candle and wearing a hood that covered their heads and faces, listening to me speak.

“He did nothing, he just said two sentences, and the Penglai police brutally beat him and detained him. And then what? Then they told us that this is called ‘order’. They made us believe that we were beaten because we were not obedient enough; we were trampled on because we were not humble enough.”

“But have you ever considered that the problem isn’t that we’re not standing low enough? The problem is that they’re standing too high, so high that they can’t see that we’re human beings.”

“They call us outcasts. After a while, we started to believe it ourselves. We began to think that if we just endured it, it would pass; if we backed down, we would be safe; and if we kept quiet, we could get tomorrow.”

“But what have we gained after enduring for twenty years?”

“Our children ridiculed; our jobs taken away; and they chase us away like dogs on the street.”

“We’ve retired our whole lives, but where have we retired to?”

“Into the shadows; into the sewers; to places where we dare not even cry out.”

The crowd began to stir; some looked up, some gritted their teeth, and some had tears welling up in their eyes.

“I don’t ask you to do anything heroic. You don’t need to die; you just need to learn one thing.”

“Learn to say ‘no’!”

“From today onward, stop bowing your head. Stop treating ‘living’ as a gift. You must treat living as a right.”

At the same time, I put on the gentler, more dignified mask of “Jiang Man” and went to schools, welfare homes, and one event after another surrounded by cameras, speaking of love and dreams in the tone of a “champion”.

I stood on the stage, the dazzling lights stinging my eyes. Below me sat children, parents, media, and a group of people who idolized me.

“I come from a very ordinary background. I used to think that I only deserved to stand on the ground, and that the ‘sky’ of this world was far away from me. But look, I am standing here now.”

“It’s not because I was born to win, but because I never considered my ‘origins’ as the end result.”

“I want to share today’s applause and achievements with everyone who is unseen, with everyone who is traveling in the cold wind, and with everyone who is groping in the dark.”

“I am donating all the prize money I won in the GTC League, not as charity, but to tell everyone that the Wo people can also become heroes of Penglai! We should not use violence to fight prejudice, but use education and compassion to eliminate barriers. Please believe that the world will become a better place because of our tolerance.”

I was like a schizophrenic, proclaiming “love” in the sunlight during the day and “hate” in the darkness at night.

Two weeks later, Ye Shuer breached the archives of Baiyujing Central Hospital, copied the old emperor’s basic medical records, and confirmed the existence of the “body transplant surgery.” For the past two years, the other party had been undergoing a highly secretive surgical procedure every six months. After each surgery, his poor health would improve.

If the King of Penglai did undergo body replacement, what about the Pope?

In that instant, I suddenly understood the “desire” in the Pope’s gaze when he looked at me. It wasn’t admiration, it was covetousness. It was the unconscious assessment one made when seeing a young, healthy body.

In their eyes, humans were probably no longer beings like themselves, but rather “parts” that they can could at will.

“There’s one more thing,” Ye Shuer said. “You asked me to keep an eye on Chu Luo. I found out that she’s been having close contact with Zhong Xiaoshan’s wife lately, and she often brings her daughter to visit Mrs. Zhong.”

Zhong Xiaoshan’s wife?

Chu Luo, Zong Yanlei, Wuxi Kunpeng, Chu Shengcheng… all the loose ends were tangled into a knot in my mind, getting tighter and tighter the more I think about it.

This couldn’t be a coincidence.

In that instant, I felt a very ominous premonition. I thought I was the one playing chess, but perhaps I was just an insignificant piece on the chessboard.

‎

‎

As dusk fell, the setting sun glowed like molten gold.

I had just finished giving a speech on “Charity and the Future” at a university in Baiyujing, and the enthusiastic applause was still echoing in the auditorium. However, the moment I stepped out the door, the spring breeze that greeted me was cold, blowing right through my trench coat and making me shiver.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated; it was Ye Shuer calling.

The moment I answered, he yelled, “Ge! Yu Xuan has gone mad!”

I paused, smiling and waving to the students who were saying goodbye to me, and asked, “What happened?”

“He’s going to blow up the Holy Church Concert Hall!” Ye Shuer exclaimed urgently. “You told me to be careful of him, so I’ve been keeping an eye on him. There’s a children’s choir performance at the concert hall this afternoon, and Zong Yanlei and his son will be there. Yu Xuan… Yu Xuan is going to blow that up!”

My pupils constricted, and under the astonished gazes of passersby, I ran toward the school gate.

I remembered the Holy Church Concert Hall was nearby, about a kilometer away…

“Are you sure?” A metallic taste quickly rose in my throat.

“I’m sure! I’ve intercepted the coordinates from one of Yu Xuan’s radical operatives. Ge, there’s no time left, only five minutes, hurry…”

I could no longer hear Ye Shuer’s next words of advice.

After hanging up the phone, I dialed Zong Yanlei’s number.

The first call rang twice before being hung up.

The second call rang twice before being hung up

The third call was the same.

I could only send a message instead, my fingers were shaking so badly I could barely type.

[Get out of here immediately, leave now, and take Yinzhuo out of the concert hall!]

I stumbled and rushed into the crowd, my shoulders bumping into the backs of pedestrians. Curses and screams exploded in my ears, but I couldn’t hear them.

“Get out of the way! Get out of the way!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

The red light at the intersection was blindingly bright, and I couldn’t wait even a second longer, so I ran into the crisscrossing traffic.

A black hovercar sped towards me, accompanied by a blaring alarm. The evasion system brought it to a stop at the last second. I wasn’t seriously hit, but my leg was grazed, and I lost my balance and fell onto the asphalt.

The rough road surface scraped against my palms like a steel brush, and I felt a burning pain. I didn’t bother to look at my bleeding palms, or even brush the dust off my trench coat, and scrambled to my feet to keep pushing forward.

“Boom!”

Just then, a muffled sound came from the edge of the sky.

It wasn’t fireworks, nor was it celebratory cannon fire.

I saw a dark red flame, accompanied by billowing black smoke, shoot into the sky above the Holy Church Concert Hall, two streets away.

The fragrance of spring flowers in the air was instantly replaced by choking dust and the smell of burning.

My breath hitched for a second.