“Chief Gu, I… I have something to report!” A beautiful boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen timidly stepped out from the crowd. He wore an excessive amount of makeup, but apparently, he had been so frightened earlier that he had cried until his face was a mess, leaving him looking rather disheveled.
Chief Gu turned his head. It was one of his pets. Already in a foul mood, he had been about to tell the boy to get lost, but then a thought suddenly struck him. He said sternly, “Speak!”
The boy breathed a sigh of relief and swallowed before saying, “Before the monsters came in tonight, I saw Lulian sneaking out of the rear courtyard. She didn’t come back until… until just before you returned!” As he spoke, he pointed at the girl who had deliberately concealed herself in the darkness.
Chief Gu’s expression turned icy.
His residence was heavily guarded. How had those monsters managed to get inside without making a sound? And how had so much time passed without anyone outside noticing anything, right up until Chu Tian and the others finished fighting?
Of course, he had no reason to suspect Chu Tian and his companions. The monsters had clearly been targeting them, and the traces of the fierce battle and the monster corpses were still right there before his eyes.
The deal he had been negotiating with Chu Tian was obviously advantageous to Chu Tian. There was no benefit whatsoever in luring monsters into his own residence.
That meant there was a traitor among them.
Chief Gu had suspected plenty of people, even his steward, but the steward was dead. What he had never expected was that the trouble had originated in the rear courtyard—and from one of the pets he had always treated as nothing more than possessions!
Chief Gu’s gaze swept toward the girl. A member of the guard immediately went over and dragged her out from among the others.
The sudden turn of events surprised Chu Tian and his companions as well. Chu Tian already knew that Su Muxu had a grudge against them and that the attack had been directed at them personally. What he had not expected was that other people in the residence would be implicated too.
He had known there must be an inside accomplice, but he had never imagined it would be this girl. He and Bai Mingxi had seen her earlier that day. At the time, she had just finished an intimate encounter with Chief Gu and had emerged from the meeting room with him.
“Why did you do it? Whose side are you on?” Chief Gu seemed unwilling to waste time questioning her. He simply pronounced her guilty, wanting only to establish who had planted her at his side.
The girl was dragged out and flung hard onto the ground. She slowly raised her head. Surprisingly, she neither cried nor denied the accusation. Instead, she looked up at Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu.
Her eyes were filled with an intensely complicated hatred.
“Heaven really is unfair! Why do you get to live such good lives? We were all in the same situation, so why were you the ones who awakened abilities and became superior to everyone else? We all left together, so why am I the one who has to live like the lowest of the low?”
Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu exchanged bewildered glances. How had they gotten dragged into this?
Chief Gu looked equally surprised. But when he realized the girl was targeting Chu Tian, several thoughts immediately flashed through his mind.
He had been in the wrong tonight, but what if this turned out to be a personal grudge between the girl and Chu Tian’s group? Wouldn’t that make him the one who had suffered collateral damage instead?
Chief Gu’s anger immediately subsided. He said nothing, seemingly content to let the girl continue talking.
“Why didn’t you take me with you? Why didn’t you insist on taking me along back then? If you had insisted, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up like this! Just look at yourselves! You have children with you, you keep pets, you wear the finest clothes and eat the best food. They practically worship you like gods! And what about me? I’m the lowest of the low! The lowest of the low! Anyone can do whatever they want to me! And I still have to smile and pretend I’m happy! Why?! You were the ones who said you wanted to leave in the first place! You were the ones who brought me out!”
The girl screamed until her voice grew hoarse, but only her final few sentences gradually stirred their memories.
Chu Tian studied her and finally remembered the family of three who had left the villa with them before they parted ways at the church.
His memories of them were already rather hazy. They had spent only a few days together, and he had not even learned the girl’s name. He vaguely remembered that she had been very obedient and sensible, but that she had a pair of parents who were extremely selfish while also being fiercely protective of her.
“Didn’t you leave with Lei Shi and the others?” By now, Lei Shi and his companions were probably still living comfortably at Tianze Base. How had this girl ended up in the north?
“So you finally remember!” The girl laughed bitterly. “But what right do you have to forget? What right do you have? You were the ones who brought me out!”
Her face twisted, and she seemed to be on the verge of madness.
But this was exactly what Chief Gu wanted. The more evidence the girl could produce to pin the blame on Chu Tian, the more leverage he would have in future negotiations. He signaled to his guards, and they deliberately made room for her to continue.
Chu Tian said nothing, keeping his expression impassive as he took in Chief Gu’s actions.
Quan Xiaoyu, however, was utterly incredulous. “Leaving the villa was your own choice, wasn’t it? Besides, if you hadn’t left, would anyone have survived the massive explosion? And at the church, you were the ones who chose to leave with Lei Shi and the others…” He trailed off, deeply stunned by the sheer incomprehensibility of her reasoning.
Every decision had been their own. Chu Tian and his companions had never forced anyone to leave, nor had they abandoned anyone.
“I didn’t want to! I didn’t want to leave! You knew perfectly well that I didn’t want to go! So why didn’t you make me stay? Why?!”
Quan Xiaoyu was so dumbfounded that he could not even speak. He had just witnessed a perfect example of what it meant to be utterly unreasonable and completely devoid of logic.
Seeing his expression, Chu Tian noticed the small wounds on his face left by the black mist earlier. His heart ached, and he gently rubbed Quan Xiaoyu’s cheek with his fingers.
His eyes remained fixed on Quan Xiaoyu’s face as he calmly replied, “You didn’t even dare to stand by your own wishes and insist on staying. What right did we have to make you stay? What right?”
When he repeated the words what right, his tone was almost identical to the girl’s earlier.
“Did you have extraordinary abilities? Extraordinary intelligence? Extraordinary courage? Oh, no. You couldn’t even bring yourself to say no to your own parents.”
The girl froze for a moment before retorting, “Because they love me! They would never hurt me!”
“Exactly. They’re your parents, so they love you and want to protect you. But what are we to you? What right do we have to protect you? To take care of you? To concern ourselves with whether you live or die? What right? Just because you followed us when you wanted to get away from the other people in the villa?”
As Chu Tian spoke, he actually laughed at the absurdity of it all.
From beginning to end, he did not look at the girl again. Instead, he carefully cleaned the wounds on Quan Xiaoyu’s face, then smiled at Chief Gu.
“This person escaped from S City with us back then, but she left of her own accord along the way. I have no idea how she ended up here, Chief Gu. You can’t pin this on me.”
Chu Tian gave him a meaningful smile.
Realizing that Chu Tian had seen right through his intentions, Chief Gu looked somewhat embarrassed. He let out a couple of dry laughs but could not find anything to say.
Chu Tian could not be bothered with him any longer. He turned and was about to leave with Quan Xiaoyu, leaving this mess for Chief Gu to handle. The man would undoubtedly get to the bottom of things himself.
“That man surnamed Su said he had a grudge against you and wanted me to help him kill you!”
Though the girl was somewhat deranged, she was not stupid. She had been with Chief Gu for some time, and she immediately spotted the underlying tension in their conversation.
She had come here tonight fully prepared to die.
She envied them! She envied them so desperately that it drove her mad! She had suffered so much, yet she had survived. But living such a filthy, degrading life was worse than being dead.
So, before she died, she might as well drag a few others down with her!
“Little Friend Chu, this…” At her words, Chief Gu’s spirits lifted again.
Chu Tian sighed softly and turned back once more.
“Chief Gu.” There was a distinctly mocking note in the way he addressed him. “Please take a moment to examine the logic of what she said earlier. Then ask yourself how much of what she says is actually credible.”
Chief Gu let out another awkward, dry laugh.
Chu Tian did not stop there.
“Rather than waste your time on this, why don’t you question her properly? Find out which faction the people who came tonight belong to, how those monsters got here, and why you, as the executive chief of Dawn Base, had absolutely no idea they were here. They couldn’t have appeared out of thin air, could they? You might also want to ask how she managed to kill every guard in your residence, including your steward, without making a sound.”
Chu Tian was growing impatient. His words came in a rapid-fire stream.
“If all you want is to squeeze a little more profit out of our secret deal, let me tell you something. You really don’t need to overthink it. From the moment that idiot deputy chief died this afternoon, we’ve been in the same boat. Instead of worrying about me, you’d be better off figuring out how to rip a good chunk of flesh off your political rivals. That would serve your interests much better.”
This time, when he finished speaking, he did not even bother saying goodbye. He simply took Quan Xiaoyu by the hand and left.
They had just been through a major battle and were exhausted. Who had the energy to waste time dealing with a bunch of lunatics?
“That child is a rare healing-type ability user! Is he dead? Did the monsters eat him? Who’s going to heal you from now on? Hahahahahaha!”
The girl continued screaming hysterically behind them, trying to provoke them into turning around.
Unfortunately for her, Chu Tian merely frowned in disgust. He stopped Quan Xiaoyu, who was furious enough to turn back at her words, and shook his head at him. Then he led him away without another glance.
They did not leave Chief Gu’s residence. Instead, they simply chose a building that looked relatively intact and walked inside.
By now, Chief Gu also understood that there was no longer any use in keeping the girl alive. In an instant, a vicious expression spread across his face.
Chu Tian was right. There were things he needed to find out, and he was going to get answers.
The girl had been fully prepared to die, but when she saw the expression on Chief Gu’s face, she still instinctively shuddered.