DTTM 77

Chapter 77: The Eyes of the Wo People

Against the flow of screaming, fleeing people, I struggled to squeeze into the concert hall.

I had no idea which hall Zong Yanlei and his son were in, so I grabbed passersby to help ask.

“Which hall exploded?”

“Has anyone seen Zong Yanlei?”

“Where are the children? Where is the children’s choir?”

Guided by the chaos, I finally found the correct side hall, and from afar I could see a blood-stained patch on the stage.

My feet felt sticky. At that moment, everything in sight seemed to slow down. Heavy breathing filled my entire auditory system, while the screams and cries around me receded into the background.

Children lay on the ground, and adults screamed in panic. The bomb must have been hidden inside the piano; the explosion tore the pianist apart instantly, and the flames sent the children singing in the chorus flying. Shattered glass dome pieces rained down, mixed with the piano’s metal parts, becoming the most insidious weapon, wantonly slashing skin and piercing fragile limbs.

Amidst the chaos, I finally spotted that familiar figure in a corner of a stage.

Zong Yanlei knelt there, his exquisite white suit stained with dust and bright red blood. He held a small, thin body tightly in his arms, and his eyes, which were usually confident, deep, and seemingly fearless, were now filled with confusion and panic.

My visual and auditory systems returned to normal in an instant, and amidst the noise, I ran onto the stage.

Bodyguards tried to stop me, but upon recognizing me, one of them exclaimed in astonishment, “Mr. Jiang?”

I ignored him and rushed to the father and son to check their injuries.

Zong Yanlei’s forehead was cut by flying glass, leaving a gash about two centimeters long. Blood trickled down his brow bone and clung to his eyelashes. It looked serious, but it was just a superficial wound.

Zong Yinzhuo’s situation was even worse.

His right calf was twisted unnaturally, as if it had been crushed by a piano or some heavy object. Blood dripped down his fair skin, eventually soaking into Zong Yanlei’s clothes and turning that white fabric into a terrifying dark red.

“Young Master, I’m administering first aid to Xiao Mitang. It’ll be alright, it’ll be alright…” I quickly undid my tie, looped it around Zong Yinzhuo’s thigh, and made a makeshift tourniquet.

Zong Yinzhuo, still unconscious, let out a weak whimper from the pain. Zong Yanlei, in a state of severe stress, suddenly gripped my wrist with incredible force, as if he wanted to break my bones.

I winced in pain, but I still forced a smile to reassure him: “Don’t be nervous, I’m saving him…”

Zong Yanlei looked like he couldn’t understand what I was saying.

“Boss, the car is ready!” the bodyguard shouted into his earpiece.

“Lead the way!” I grabbed Zong Yanlei’s hand and pulled him up from the ground. Then, led by the bodyguards, we quickly left the chaotic concert hall.

The Holy Church Concert Hall was located in Shangcheng District, just a few kilometers from Bazel.

In the car, Zong Yanlei remained quiet. He laid Zong Yinzhuo’s head on his lap. One hand constantly stroking the child’s pale face, while the other hand unconsciously gripped my wrist tightly.

I directed the bodyguards to avoid peak-hour congestion routes. The car weave through streets and alleys, managing to cut the time by half to get to the hospital.

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Outside the emergency room, Zong Yanlei slumped on a bench with his hands clasped together, half-dried blood seeping between his fingers. He stared motionless at the carpet pattern, transforming in an instant into a breathing stone statue.

“Find a doctor to treat Mr. Zong’s wounds,” I said to the bodyguard.

A short while later, medical staff rushed over with a first-aid kit. But when they tried to approach, Zong Yanlei, like a wounded wild beast, sensitively rejected any touch from strangers.

“Don’t touch me!” He roughly brushed away the disinfectant cotton ball that was being offered to him.

The hemostat fell to the ground, and the medical staff looked at each other in an awkward situation.

“I’ll do it.”

I stepped forward and took the first-aid kit from them. I put on medical gloves before sitting down next to Zong Yanlei, and carefully treating his wounds.

This time he didn’t resist. He lowered his eyes and obediently let me do as I pleased.

I pressed a sterile cotton ball against the wound and gently blew on it to try and relieve his pain.

“Jiang Man, why were you there?” He seemed to finally come to his senses, and as I was putting on the adhesive bandage for him, he called out my name.

I paused slightly and replied calmly, “I happened to be giving a speech nearby.”

After pulling the edges of the wound together with an adhesive bandage, I returned the first-aid kit to the waiting medical staff.

“You called me just to tell me there was a bomb?” Zong Yanlei’s gaze shifted to the closed door of the emergency room. His tone abruptly changed, “Did you do it?”

I was stunned for a moment. Because of the dangerous tone in his words, I unconsciously stood up and slowly backed away.

“I…” This matter was too complicated to explain in a few words, so I could only weakly say four words, “It wasn’t me.”

“Not you?” Zong Yanlei turned gaze towards my face, and he sarcastically laughed. “Yes, not you, it’s ‘you and your associates’.”

This was a classic “boy who cried wolf” case. I’d lied to him too many times before, so now he refused to believe anything I said. But it wasn’t his fault; I had brought this upon myself.

“I was indeed too soft-hearted, you’re right. Because of my repeated leniency towards you, my child ended up like this. How could someone like you ever know love?” Zong Yanlei said expressionlessly. He raised his blood-stained hand and slightly hooked his fingertips. “Seize him.”

The bodyguards moved at the sound of his voice. I was prepared, and before they could pounce, I used my familiarity with the terrain of Bazel to overturn a cart as a barrier and slipped into the security passage.

Instead of descending the stairs step by step, I gripped the metal handrail with both hands, used it as a fulcrum, and lifted myself into the air, skipping the landing platform. I then flipped and fell horizontally from the outside of the handrail to the next step.

The sound of my footsteps faded into the distance as I reached the second floor. I jumped out of the open window, stepped onto the narrow edge of the brick wall before climbing onto a black drainpipe, and quickly landing on the ground.

Before those burly men rushed toward the window, I had already disappeared into the dark bushes.

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Back in the cabin, I threw my blood-stained coat to the ground and teared off the gloves that were sticking to my wounds. I didn’t even wait to treat the abrasions on my palms before sending Yu Xuan a private message saying “Meeting” and then lying down in the neuro-navigation pod.

I immediately bought a brand new space. The door was a basic gray, and the interior still had the original white background with black grid lines. It wasn’t big, but it was enough.

Two hours later, Yu Xuan came online, and I teleported him into my newly purchased space.

“Why the sudden meeting?”

The moment he stepped through the door, I raised my hand and hurled a javelin at him. The sharp tip pierced his thigh. He cried out in pain and collapsed to his knees with a pale face.

“Didn’t I say that I would handle Zong Yanlei and that no one was allowed to interfere?” I stood up from the black chair and approached step by step.

Fine beads of cold sweat quickly appeared on Yu Xuan’s forehead and face. He didn’t defend himself, but instead laughed and said, “He’s not dead. His son isn’t dead either, he’s just a little injured. That’s not your child, why are you so worried?”

“You knew it was a child?” I squatted down in front of him, and twisted the javelin. “You went too far this time.”

Yu Xuan gritted his teeth in pain, refusing to make a single sound of weakness: “I…” A complex emotion seemed to flash in his eyes. But he closed them briefly, then replaced that emotion with a bone-chilling coldness. “Have you forgotten how the people of Penglai treated us, how they treated you? My own sister was executed by the rebels; she was only eight years old when she died! And you, you were only five when you fled to Penglai with your parents! Did those people of Penglai ever show us any pity?”

“You and Ye Shuer… how could you two brothers possibly overthrow tyranny without shedding a single drop of innocent blood?”

“I did this only to make it clear to you and all the people of Wo that the people of Penglai have never been one of us.”

The bombing targeting children was unforgivable. Once the people of Penglai realized that this was all the work of a Wo organization, they will definitely launch a frenzied revenge.

The conflict between the Penglai people and the Wo people would grow more violent. The moderate Wo people who were previously observing the situation would be forced to their doom and would have no choice but to join the resistance against Penglai.

War was about to break out.

And that’s exactly what Yu Xuan wanted.

“Don’t be naive, Jiang Man.” Yu Xuan said, his breath trembling. “To be honest, my target wasn’t those children, but I don’t regret it either. They will grow up to be the next exploiters, the next Wuxi Chen. Killing the children now is saving the future of the Wo people.” As he spoke, his figure slowly faded, and he was ejected from the metaverse.

Staring at the slender javelin lying on the ground, I clenched my jaw. After a moment, I slowly exhaled and left the neuro-navigation pod.

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In the days that followed, before any news of retaliation from the Penglai people could be heard, Zong Yanlei’s purge began.

All spaces or items in the metaverse related to “Free Will” were sealed upon sight. Even the Wan Shu Church could not escape his clutches. This was probably the result of Zong Yanlei using the key to manipulate the mainframe “Balaka”.

Ye Shuer simply abandoned the virtual space of the metaverse and turned to the traditional internet. The new “Wan Shu Church” was reborn on the dark web in an extremely retro, anonymous forum-like format. However, Shen Jing’s hacking attacks still followed him relentlessly, leaving him exhausted and driven to the brink of madness.

In that concert hall bombing, only the pianist died. The other children were injured to varying degrees, but fortunately, none of them died, which was a stroke of luck amidst the misfortune.

I inquired about Zong Yinzhuo’s condition from various sources and learned that his injuries were extremely severe, and his right leg would most likely be permanently disabled. In that instant, I felt as if I had fallen into an ice cave, and only one thought occupied my mind—this time, Zong Yanlei would never forgive me for the rest of his life.

Regardless, I wanted to see Zong Yinzhuo again in person and see how he was doing. So, three nights later, I sneaked into Bazel before curfew. I knocked out a Daiyu doctor, put on his clothes, and changed into brown contact lenses before sneaking into Zong Yinzhuo’s ward.

The VIP ward was divided into two parts, with a family rest area outside. Two bodyguards were sitting on the sofa; one was yawning, and the other glanced at my name tag, he looked at my face before letting me in without saying a word.

The area inside was the main ward, and Aunt Chun was dozing off in a sofa chair. I covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief smeared with sedative, and after a while, she slumped down.

Zong Yinzhuo lay on the hospital bed with his eyes closed, his right foot, which had just undergone surgery was dangling in mid-air. Whether it was from the intense pain or from having a nightmare, he did not sleep soundly and occasionally let out a soft, kitten-like whimper.

I pulled down my mask, gently stroked his cheek with the back of my hand, and whispered, “Xiao Mitang…”

Zong Yinzhuo heard the call, his long eyelashes fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes.

“……Uncle?”

I stood there, staring at him, not for any other reason than the color of his eyes.

The irises, originally brown, had now become as clear as rubies, more vibrant than flames. They were… like the eyes of the Wo people.