Chapter 29
Zhang Yang paced back and forth in front of a five-star hotel, unsure of what to do. Although she suspected Ke Yao was planning to escape, would tracking him be useful? The safest option was to reset Ke Yao as soon as possible and eliminate his autonomy.
Zhang Yang decided to send a message to Yuan Fei, asking her to keep a close eye on Ke Yao and not let him act alone.
Before she could send the message, an unknown caller interrupted her. She didn’t plan to answer the call since only Yuan Fei knew her new number, but the phone kept ringing after she hung up.
“Hello?”
“Zhang Yang, right?”
Zhang Yang froze. It was a strange male voice, devoid of any noticeable fluctuations, but it sent shivers down her spine.
“Who is this?”
“You’re currently living at Xinjing Road, No. 2, Changmao Community, right?”
Zhang Yang felt a chill run through her body. The person on the other end of the line mentioned her new address, where she had moved less than a week ago! She trembled and asked in a trembling voice, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“I’m giving you a few days. It’s not for you to move and escape. Your actions have angered my boss.”
Sister Bei!
Zhang Yang looked around in a panic. This phone call posed a great threat to her, making her feel terrified even while standing on a busy street. She shivered and asked, “I… What do you want to do?”
“I want to ask Miss Zhang, what do you want to do?” the man said coldly. “Do you really think changing your phone and address will allow you to hide? We can find you anytime. Due to your lack of cooperation, our previous agreement is now void.”
“Do you think you can just rob me?” Zhang Yang shouted.
“Hehe,” the man sneered. “We are capable of things beyond your imagination.”
Zhang Yang’s body swayed, and her legs felt weak.
“Miss Zhang, let me give you a personal piece of advice. I’m just doing this for the money, and I have no grievances with you. I have no interest in bullying young girls either. Now, your best option with the least consequences is to voluntarily hand him over to me. That way, no one will get hurt. Otherwise, you will not only pay a price that you will regret for the rest of your life, but the outcome will be the same.”
The caller hung up.
Zhang Yang listened to the busy signal, her whole body stiff like a statue. Her eyes were filled with despair, and sweat streamed down her cheeks. It was a scorching fire of fear, evaporating her sanity.
She couldn’t give Ke Yao to Sister Bei; otherwise, she would be left with nothing, which might be even more unbearable than death. But she couldn’t withstand such a threat. She was terrified. The reason she was hiding was that she didn’t have the courage to face this situation directly.
Run, yes, she had to run.
She couldn’t keep the newly rented house, and the new phone number obtained with her ID was also useless. She knew where she could buy stolen IDs in emergencies.
Having made up her mind, Zhang Yang withdrew 20,000 yuan in cash from an ATM. Since the banks had closed, it was the maximum amount she could withdraw from the self-service machine. Then she went home and packed some important belongings. She knew she was being watched. Even moving a box would be immediately discovered, so she had to temporarily abandon the house. She had rented it for three months, and maybe she could come back for her things after the danger had passed. But now she had to run.
She hadn’t received a reply from Yuan Fei on WeChat, and she didn’t dare to call and ask. Amidst all the commotion, she momentarily forgot about Ke Yao and what he might be doing at that moment, which only made her nauseous and disgusted.
Her only option now was to stay in small hotels that had lax identification checks and would turn a blind eye for some money. However, this wasn’t a long-term solution. She had to leave Beijing as soon as possible, preferably…
Wait, Zhang Yang suddenly remembered something. She never discussed with Yuan Fei how long she could rent Ke Yao. Once or twice might be fine, but how long could she keep him for 500,000 yuan? If it was calculated on a daily basis, she wouldn’t be able to leave this month. But she couldn’t wait that long. Every day she stayed in the city, there was a possibility of being found by Sister Bei’s people.
While hesitating whether to call Yuan Fei or not, she unintentionally opened the tracking app and discovered that Ke Yao was no longer at the hotel. He was heading east and about to leave the city. Zhang Yang felt uneasy and immediately dialed the phone.
It took a long time for the call to connect, and she heard heavy panting from the other end, as if someone was being chased by a wild beast, hurried and flustered. Before Zhang Yang could say anything, Yuan Fei’s voice came through, low and shouting, devoid of the initial grace and elegance.
“Something’s wrong! Fucking hell, something’s wrong!” Yuan Fei’s voice was filled with anger and panic.
Zhang Yang’s entire body turned cold. She heard herself ask dully, “What happened?”
“Check the news, the thing you’re keeping… that thing!” Yuan Fei clenched her teeth and spoke with bitterness and hysteria. “He will kill everyone!”
Yuan Fei hung up the phone.
Zhang Yang remained stunned for a while, then reinstalled Weibo, which she had previously uninstalled. She searched for the name of the hotel and indeed found many posts from passersby: “XX Hotel has a casualty.”
Zhang Yang collapsed on the couch, trembling as she scrolled down the screen.
Based on the fragmented and partially true information, she pieced together the general story. Someone had fallen to their death on the 8th floor of the XX Hotel, a middle-aged man suspected of being drunk. Ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars had arrived, with a crowd of onlookers gathering around.
Was the dead person their leader? Did Ke Yao do it? Combining Yuan Fei’s words, the answer was self-evident. How could things have escalated to this point? How could Ke Yao have lost control to such an extent…
Tracking the red dot on the map, which was clearly Ke Yao running in the outskirts of the city, it seemed that Yuan Fei was sending Ke Yao away. But where was she taking him? What would the police investigate, and would they trace it back to them? Would running away be of any use?
Zhang Yang felt like she was going insane. She suddenly realized that ever since she sold her house to buy back Ke Yao, everything she did went wrong. It was as if she was a living proof of Murphy’s Law, where everything would always develop in the worst and most terrifying direction. It felt like she was cursed, dragged deeper into a malicious hell with no hope left.
She had lost all hope.
But she no longer questioned why. Numbly, she packed her bag, walked to the subway station, knowing that public transportation was her only chance to shake off the pursuers.
She didn’t know who was following her, but after seeing the same man during two transfers, she was certain of her target. Guided by her familiarity with the subway and bus systems, she managed to narrowly escape the pursuer. Following the tracking device’s location, she had to meet Ke Yao and Yuan Fei as soon as possible. She had to know what had happened!
During this time, she constantly checked Weibo. As time went on, more and more information about the case was being revealed by various people. For example, the deceased was the head of XX TV Content Center, responsible for purchasing film and television projects. The suspected cause of death was falling from a building after alcohol and drug intoxication, but there was another person in the room, and homicide couldn’t be ruled out. The police were currently investigating.
At the moment, there was no news connecting Shengshi to the case, but high-end establishments were filled with surveillance cameras. Ke Yao couldn’t have gone unnoticed, even if he had disguised his face. As long as the investigation followed the trail of the deceased, Yuan Fei couldn’t escape suspicion. Sooner or later, they would trace it back to Shengshi.
Zhang Yang was in a panic, feeling like she wanted to knock herself unconscious. But she couldn’t escape. Her instinct for survival drove her forward.
Zhang Yang arrived at an area with small villages, remote and sparsely populated. The tracking device couldn’t narrow down the location any further, so she had to call Yuan Fei.
The phone rang for a long time, and when it finally connected, Yuan Fei’s voice had returned to a calm tone. “Hello.”
“Fei Jie, what happened? Did he do it?”
“Who else would it be?”
Zhang Yang took a deep breath. “I… I really didn’t expect that… Where are you guys? Let’s talk.”
“What is there to talk about?” Yuan Fei’s tone was strange.
“We can discuss it when we meet. I’m near you.”
“You’re nearby?”
“Yes.”
Yuan Fei was silent for a moment, then gave her an address.
The driver followed the navigation and brought Zhang Yang to the designated location. She got out of the car and hesitated as she looked at the entrance. Suddenly, someone covered her mouth from behind, and she widened her eyes in terror. Before she could struggle, the person’s strong arm restrained her and pushed her through the door.
It was a square courtyard with only one room lit up. Zhang Yang was taken inside, thrown to the ground roughly.
Trembling, she looked up and first saw a pair of familiar shoes. Following her gaze upwards, she saw long legs perched on a high chair, still able to touch the ground when bent. And above that was the face praised by countless people for its beauty—the face of Ke Yao.
Ke Yao, looking down on Zhang Yang with contempt in his eyes, was the man she saw. The room had at least seven or eight people, some she didn’t recognize, some she did. But the so-called recognition was merely because their faces often appeared in the public eye. Yes, these people were all customized, including Yue Chenguang’s customized people that Zhang Yang had seen at the Chiyoda residence.
In the corner, Yuan Fei sat tied to a chair, wearing a desolate expression.
Zhang Yang propped herself up, looking at these people in a daze, and they were also looking at her with various expressions—curiosity, disdain, disgust, coldness, hatred, and more.
Struggling to regain her ability to speak, Zhang Yang said, “Ke Yao, Fei Jie, what is going on?”
Yuan Fei stared at Zhang Yang with bloodshot eyes. “You stupid fool, can’t you understand?”
Zhang Yang looked at Ke Yao. “What’s happening? What are you doing? Did you… kill that person?” As she said the word “kill,” her pronunciation was barely audible, a weak breath.
“You…” Zhang Yang pointed at Ke Yao, pointing at those people. “Are all of you clones? What exactly…” She suddenly remembered the person who pushed her in, still standing behind her. She turned her head abruptly and saw a face identical to Shengshi’s and Ke Yao’s—a face that belonged to Ke Shun.
Ke Shun stared at her with a cold, hateful gaze.
Zhang Yang seemed to understand. This was a cliché script of a clone uprising, a storyline that had been done to death. Unfortunately, she wasn’t an audience member with godlike vision, but a participant, a supporting role who had been kept in the dark from beginning to end.
She should have realized it long ago. Ke Yao’s disguise wasn’t clever at all. She had simply underestimated Ke Yao’s intelligence, or rather, she had no power to stop Ke Yao’s evolution. Therefore, she could only deceive herself. And now, everything was laid out before her. She thought that losing all her wealth was her rock bottom, but she didn’t expect that even her personal safety was at stake.
She suddenly burst into laughter. She laughed because everything was so absurd, so ridiculous, so surreal, so theatrical, and she happened to be a character in this play.
She was finished. She knew she was completely finished. She thought that in her chaotic life, Ke Yao was the only thing she could control, but she was completely wrong.
The room full of people stared at her without any expression on their faces, as if she had gone mad.
“What’s the matter? Have all of you suddenly become normal people? You’re not the mentally challenged ones who couldn’t even boil water anymore? You were all pretending before, right? You’ve planned it all along, haven’t you?” Zhang Yang laughed uncontrollably. “What do you want to do? Kill us, replace the originals, and become real humans?”
Ke Yao said calmly, “We weren’t pretending before. It’s just that the brainwashing methods used by the company have fatal flaws. The knowledge and memories we accumulate can be reset in the short term, but they slowly recover over time. The company knows about this loophole but doesn’t dare to tell the customers, so they require us to reset regularly.”
“So now you have the intelligence level of adults,” Zhang Yang stared at Ke Yao. “When did you recover? When you secretly went out?”
Ke Yao silently confirmed her suspicion.
“Then what do you want to do now? Silence us by killing?”
“Not for now. You still have some use.” Ke Yao’s cold gaze swept over the two of them.
Zhang Yang suddenly became excited. “Ke Yao, I sold everything to buy you from the company. I brought you home. I raised you. Don’t you have any feelings…”
Ke Yao’s eyes suddenly turned fierce, and it wasn’t just Ke Yao. All the customized people’s expressions became eerie. He dangerously narrowed his eyes. “You dare speak such words. Do you want to die right now?”
Ke Shun said grimly, “You treated us like animals, like sex slaves, like playthings, like organ donors. But you never treated us as human beings. What we hate the most is people like you, so-called ‘masters’.”
Zhang Yang tried to defend herself, “I didn’t! At least I didn’t! I really liked Ke Yu, and I have feelings for you too…”
“Shut up!” Ke Yao suddenly stood up, his expression fierce like a wild beast. “How dare you mention Ke Yu! You killed Ke Yu, you killed my little brother!”
