Chapter 169: The Person Behind the Scenes

In the eyes of their classmates, Zhang Tianzhen and Hu Xiaoniu were top level rich and handsome young men.

When everyone went to visit them in the hospital, they had seen a glimpse of the extent of their status.

Both the bodyguards outside the ward and the medical team in charge of their treatment were first-rate experts.

Those were not something ordinary rich families could afford.

And yet, despite having such a high standing, one of these youths left in a huff after being on the receiving end of Yangyang's quiet gaze for three seconds...

While packing his things, Zhang Tianzhen grumbled, "Why are you bullying me? Why don't you bully Xiaoniu? You must think I'm an easy target!"

Yangyang glanced at him, "Are you asking for another beating?"

Zhang Tianzhen immediately shut his mouth and obediently moved to another table.

These three had gone to the same private school since they were kids. Boys at that age were very naughty; they liked to play pranks to attract girls' attention, such as poking their backs with pencils or tugging on their ponytails, making the girls feel very annoyed and angry.

However, Yangyang had never been a target of such pranks, because if anyone dared to pull this kind of thing on her, they would end up writhing on the floor.

After the girl sat down between Qing Chen and Hu Xiaoniu, Hu Xiaoniu asked her in a low voice, "Yangyang, have you heard about Wang Yun?"

"Yeah," Yangyang nodded, "It's become such a big deal in our circle, I'd know about it whether I want to or not. But I don't think anyone should be blamed for this. Everyone should know the risk of playing with fire."

The class bell rang at this moment. Hu Xiaoniu sighed and stopped talking.

Qing Chen and Nan Gengchen looked at each other. It seemed that this Yangyang had a very high status in Hu Xiaoniu's circle.

But Qing Chen couldn't figure out why she would choose to sit next to him.

Did she recognize him?

This girl obviously didn't take any notice of him at first. Her gaze had already swept past, yet it unexpectedly shifted back to him again.

Judging from that action, even if she didn't recognize him, she had to have some kind of suspicion on him.

Throughout their first class, this girl named Yangyang didn't even raise her head once. She kept scribbling on her book, drawing something in it.

Just as the class was about to end, the girl suddenly wrote a note and handed it to Qing Chen.

Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen, who had been silently watching her, were stunned when they saw this. What the heck just happened? Yangyang actually wrote a note to a boy? Did they see right?

If it was the Yangyang that they knew, they wouldn't be surprised if she suddenly put Qing Chen in a chokehold.

But never in their wildest imagination would they picture her doing such a thing like passing a note!

If they relayed this news in the Hai City High School group chat, none of them would believe it!

When the two of them were in the midst of a fervent discussion, Qing Chen silently looked at the note in front of him. It read: 'I know you recognize me.'

He paused before writing a reply: 'Classmate, what are you talking about?'

The girl calmly wrote: 'I recognize you as well.'

His heart skipped a beat.

She really recognized him.

The girl turned to solemnly stare at Qing Chen's profile, waiting for his answer.

Those eyes were piercingly sharp, as if they were taking in every little detail of Qing Chen's face. This kind of scrutiny was like a wave of oppression openly directed at him.

He replied: 'Classmate, did you get the wrong person?'

Yangyang wrote again: 'You're that killer I saw on Laojun Mountain that night. Although you changed your hairstyle, your eyes look the same, I won't get it wrong.'

Qing Chen replied: 'Classmate, you really got the wrong person.'

Yangyang decided to stop wasting her words.

She took out a sheet from under her notebook and put it on Qing Chen's table.

Qing Chen looked at the simple yet realistic pencil sketch in front of him — it turned out that the girl had actually been drawing his portrait!

Only the upper half of his face was drawn in the sketch, yet his eyes were especially lifelike.

Yangyang wrote: 'Was that night the first time you killed a person? If it was, then you're better than me.'

Qing Chen was still staring at the drawing.

His hair was in a mess, and there was dust on his face, but his eyes were resolute and tenacious.

Extremely ferocious.

Qing Chen felt that if he had looked in the mirror that night, his reflection in the mirror would look exactly the same as this drawing.

Did this girl also have a super memory?

Qing Chen wasn't the only one who felt this way. When Nan Gengchen secretly glanced at the drawing, he instantly recalled everything that happened that night.

The fearsome thugs, the soaring flames, the screaming crowd.

As well as Qing Chen who saved him from his doom.

Many days had passed, and Nan Gengchen had almost forgotten the scene at that time.

But this sketch was so magical it brought him back to that very night.

Since Qing Chen stopped replying, Yangyang wrote another note: 'I've been drawing for 12 years, capturing the details of the face is what I'm best at. Thomas Lawrence is one of my favorite painters. Even if I've only seen it once, I'd never forget such special eyes and expression.'

After a pause, Qing Chen wrote on the note: 'Classmate, you've got the wrong person.'

Yangyang glanced at him and said nothing.

Actually, Qing Chen knew she had already confirmed that it was him, but he couldn't just admit it.

He slipped the sketch into his book, and then carefully tore the note into tiny pieces to make sure no one would be able to piece it back together.

Hu Xiaoniu caught a glimpse of this. Although he couldn't see what was written on the note, he could tell that it was filled with dense letters.

Shortly after, hurried footsteps echoed in the corridor.

A teacher from the academic affairs stopped by the door of their classroom to inform them, "Everyone go to assemble on the sports ground after class. Recently, there's been a spread of hepatitis B virus, so the school decided to organize a compulsory physical examination today. The next classes will be temporarily suspended. Please make sure to get there on time."

Nan Gengchen was taken aback. He wanted to look at Qing Chen, but managed to hold back the impulse.

He subconsciously felt that there was another purpose to this physical examination!

Hepatitis B was classified by the country as a Class B infectious disease, so it made sense that they would take action to prevent the spread.

But the problem was, he had ever come across such a hasty physical examination before. There was no notice, and nobody even told them not to eat breakfast this morning.

Everything was done without prior arrangement.

The class broke into a commotion — no matter the reason, students would always be happy as long as they could skip class.

Taking advantage of the noise, Yang Yang looked at Qing Chen and said, "I'm pretty sure they're doing this to search for you. Among everything they've investigated, you're the only one who left behind your bloodstains on Laojun Mountain. Don't take the risk, I suggest you find an excuse to evade this."

What Yangyang meant was that among all the people involved in the Laojun Mountain incident, Qing Chen was the only person outside of Kun Lun's register who had left behind his DNA.

Qing Chen glanced at the girl in surprise, he didn't expect that she would persuade him to hide.

But he still insisted on saying, "Classmate, you've really got the wrong person."

When the bell indicating the end of the class rang, Qing Chen patted Nan Gengchen on the shoulder. The two went downstairs towards the sports ground together.

There was no trace of worry nor hesitation in his steps.

Now, it was Yangyang's turn to be surprised. Did this boy already have the means and confidence not to be discovered?

...

Hu Xiaoniu glanced at Qing Chen's back before looking at Yangyang,"Is there any problem with him?"

Yangyang glanced at him. "You don't need to know this yet. Just make sure not to mess with him."

Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen looked at each other in astonishment, did they miss something important?

Why did Yangyang warn them not to mess with Qing Chen? Was he another untouchable monster like Yangyang?

In fact, Yangyang had already arrived at Laojun Mountain when the inns started to burn one after another that night.

She had been lying in wait at that time, looking for a chance to kill the thug. But before she could make her move, a young man had already closed in on the thug from behind.

Yangyang witnessed with her own eyes as Qing Chen expressionlessly stabbed his dagger into the thug's spleen.

She also remembered how perplexing his marksmanship was. His stance was obviously amateurish, and his first shot was a miss, yet by the second shot, he could already accurately calculate the trajectory!

Blood, gunfire, and a youth.

It was like a magnificent painting.

At that moment, she noticed that the boy was actually a little panicked and flustered, but he decisively shut off all his complicated emotions in the chaos and turned into a cold killing machine.

And then, she saw how he burst out with astonishing courage and tenacity.

His transformation was so fascinating that she almost forgot to take action, rooted in her spot as she quietly admired his art of killing.

When Yangyang was sailing across the Indian Ocean, she actually had no choice but to kill. The pirates were continuously approaching; if she didn't kill them, they would have killed her.

And even if she was captured instead of murdered, what awaited her would be a fate worse than death.

Ever since that time, she had actually never taken another life again. In that parking lot, she only crushed the thug's knees instead of killing him.

But Qing Chen was different from her. On that night, Qing Chen was a hunter who was actively searching for his prey.

She recalled the bloody footprints he left on the ground, recalled the persistence and callousness with which he chased after the thug leader through the darkness.

Yangyang's instinctual impression was telling her that this boy was very dangerous.

When they were going downstairs, Nan Gengchen whispered to Qing Chen, "Brother Chen, I saw the sketch the transfer student drew, did she find out about you? Was she there at that time? Why didn't I see her?"

Qing Chen glanced at him. "We'll talk about this next time."

"Okay," Nan Gengchen nodded. "Brother Chen, can you give me that sketch? I want to put it up as a commemoration of you. Speaking of which, that girl is really good at drawing. When I look at her sketch, I instantly remember everything that happened that night."

Qing Chen helplessly asked, "After you put it up, are you going to make an offering and burn some incense for me as well?"

"Ahem, that's not what I meant," Nan Gengchen coughed. "Brother Chen, I think that girl is quite pretty. Do you think she sat next to you because she's interested in you? You two..."

Qing Chen turned towards his deskmate with a serious look and interrupted him, "It's not a good habit to make this kind of joke about girls behind their backs."

"I know, I know," Nan Gengchen graciously admitted his mistake, "But Brother Chen, is it really fine for you to get your blood drawn? I'm sorry for implicating you, it's all because you went to save me."

"Nobody's implicating anyone." Qing Chen recalled what happened that night. "I initially did go over to save you, but later on it wasn't just because of that."

"Then why?"

"Because there are some things that simply must be done."

On the sports ground, numerous white tents had already been set up.

When Qing Chen looked around, he spotted Eagle, the Kun Lun member who had also participated in the raid in Xingshu Road. He was wearing a white coat and a white mask, mingling in disguise...

In this area, the most conspicuous thing was not the white tents, but Liu Dezhu.

He was surrounded by more than thirty rich kids who were giggling and laughing as they looked at the students around them, looking like they were on a field trip to the countryside.

A short distance away, Yangyang quietly watched as everyone lined up for the check-up. Qing Chen and Nan Gengchen were also calmly standing in line.

When Qing Chen's turn came, she saw the boy sit down and stretch out his arm without the least hesitation, as if he wasn't worried at all.

"Is he that confident because his DNA has been altered after getting a genetic injection?" Yangyang thought to herself. "I thought he might be Li Shutong's student, but perhaps I was wrong."

Nobody noticed that after Qing Chen left, Eagle went into the tent he just walked out of.

The nurse who was in charge of collecting Qing Chen's blood silently handed him a tube. The two of them only brushed past each other for a moment, but in the next second, the blood collection tube was already in Eagle's hands.

After casually checking his surroundings, he swiftly went into an emergency ambulance.

Taking off his white coat, he told Zheng Yuandong who was sitting beside him, "Boss, I got it."

Zheng Yuandong nodded and said, "Go to the forensic examination center, I want to know the result as soon as possible."

Eagle asked, "Boss, do we need to be so cautious? I understand organizing a school wide physical check-up as a cover up so that we won't alarm the students and their parents, but we're only going to transfer his blood sample now. Is it really necessary to be so cautious and secretive?"

Zheng Yuandong looked at Eagle and calmly explained, "There are too many people who are searching for him. Although we want to confirm his identity, we also need to ensure his safety."

"Someone other than us is also searching for him? Is it Jiu Zhou?" Eagle was curious.

Zheng Yuandong shook his head: "It's not just Jiu Zhou. I'm afraid there are many more than we imagined."

...

5 o'clock in the evening.

In the office room of the forensic examination center, Eagle came to report the examination result to Zheng Yuandong. He hesitated before telling him, "Boss, it's not him."

Zheng Yuandong had a rare solemn look on his face. He took the test report and inspected it again and again. The irrefutable fact was that the DNA of the boy named Qing Chen did not match what they had collected from Laojun Mountain.

In the quiet office, Zheng Yuandong silently closed his eyes.

He reviewed all of the clues he had gathered, tracing the boy's footsteps in his memory.

He had gotten close to the truth after painstaking investigation.

However, the dots that had seemingly been connected was dismantled by a single test report.

As if someone had ruthlessly cut off all the threads.

"Boss?" Eagle couldn't help asking, "What should we do now?"

Zheng Yuandong stood up, "He might not be the person behind the scenes, but the one who killed those thugs on Laojun Mountain must be him. I trust my own judgement."

Zheng Yuandong was thinking.

If all of his leads so far were correct yet the test report proved that his speculation was wrong, then there must be a crucial lead he hadn't discovered that could explain this mistake.

"He's changed his DNA," Zheng Yuandong said as he looked at Eagle.

Including the time spent in both worlds, more than twenty days had passed since the Laojun Mountain incident. Before his blood was collected today, Qing Chen had already changed his DNA!

This was the most reasonable explanation.

That boy certainly also knew that the blood sample he left behind was a very important clue, so he deliberately changed his DNA within the past twenty days.

The only method to do this was to take a genetic injection.

But here came the question, "If he was the other time traveler in Prison 18, if he was Li Shutong's student, if he truly was the person behind Liu Dezhu, then why would he choose to inject himself with genetic medicine?"

Everyone in the Inner World had a clear understanding of the side effect of genetic medicine.

In the new era, the first successful genetic medicine was produced by the Taboo Tribunal.

Through the use of medicine, they extracted the gene fragments of 'god' and imparted it into human genes.

Later on, the variety of genetic medicines gradually increased. The corporations discovered the genes of evolved humans from the Forbidden Land, and then extracted them to make their own genetic medicines.

But there was a side effect to this: those injected with genetic medicine would lose their fertility.

Where there was gain, there was bound to be loss.

Everything had its price.

Would Li Shutong's student pay such a hefty price in order to hide his identity? Certainly not.

People from the lower class regarded genetic medicine as a holy grail because they needed it in order to survive, protect their families, make a living, and gain enough standing.

In this era where human lives were worth the weight of paper, they could only live a little better if they became useful and valuable!

However, people from the upper class looked down on genetic medicine!

Thinking of this, Zheng Yuandong suddenly looked at Eagle. "You... do you blame me for injecting you with genetic medicine?"

Eagle scratched his head and chuckled, "Boss, what are you talking about? We all know about the side effect and chose to take it by ourselves."

"But you guys are still too young, you probably don't fully realize the gravity of this matter yet. Even if you don't mind, your wife will probably do."

Eagle laughed, "That's impossible, I won't be able to find a wife at all."

Feeling Zheng Yuandong's heavy gaze, he hurriedly added, "Boss, I'm just joking. Also... there are always some things that need to be done, right? Don't worry about this, we've all made our pledge. We have no regrets."

...

Zheng Yuandong remained quiet, and the office sank into silence.

Eagle changed the subject and asked, "Boss, do you think there's another person behind Qing Chen?"

Zheng Yuandong pondered, "I've also thought about this possibility, and right now, it seems that this is the only viable conclusion. The person behind the scenes has always been very cautious, so there's no way they would suddenly step up onto the stage."

Just like He Jinqiu. Very few people had seen him personally make his move because he was a person who controlled everything with his strategies.

Going with this assumption, both Qing Chen and Liu Dezhu were the pawns on the chessboard of the person behind the scenes.

The killer in Laojun Mountain was extremely hot-blooded. His actions didn't seem like what a person who liked hiding behind the scenes would do.

"I've got to check further."

Zheng Yuandong instructed through a phone call, "Help me get Nan Gengchen and Qing Chen's chat record. Send me everything from the start of transmigration to the present."

It was unknown who he made the call to, but it didn't take long before the chat record was sent over.

Zheng Yuandong carefully read through it and unexpectedly found that before the previous transmigration, Nan Gengchen didn't even know that Qing Chen was a time traveler.

He focused on this part:

'Brother, r u there? U there u there u there?'

'Brother, listen to my explanation!'

'No, brother, me and Li Yinuo are just ordinary friends!'

Zheng Yuandong found it strange. "They abruptly ran across each other in the Inner World, and then something happened that made Nan Gengchen scramble to give Qing Chen an explanation. Li Yinuo... I've heard of this name before, she should be the eldest daughter among the younger generation of the Li Family. Before this, I saw in the news that she was the one who led the Autumn Hunting team to the wilderness this year..."

From what he could gather, it seemed that Nan Gengchen tagged along with the Autumn Hunting team, and then met Qing Chen in the middle of his journey.

But Nan Gengchen said that he and Li Yinuo were just ordinary friends, so why did Qing Chen tell him to 'nourish himself well' when he returned to the Outer World?

Eagle clucked his tongue. "Boss, I got it, doesn't it look like Nan Gengchen is Li Yinuo's—a rich woman's—kept man?!"

Zheng Yuandong was momentarily stupefied. Now that Eagle said that, it really did seem to be that way.

He scrolled down and saw Nan Gengchen offering Qing Chen to join him, but Qing Chen said that he preferred to eat the food earned by himself.

Well, that basically confirmed it...

Eagle felt a little envious, "It'd be nice if I can also become a rich woman's kept man. I already took genetic medicine, not only is my stamina great, I don't even need to get a vasectomy..."

When Zheng Yuandong gazed at him, Eagle immediately shut his mouth.

Zheng Yuandong spoke, "Qing Chen is a wilderness hunter, and Nan Gengchen is close to Li Yinuo. He told Qing Chen a lot of things about the Li Family."

This explained the source of information — it was Nan Gengchen who learned about the eradication plan from Li Yinuo and reported it to Qing Chen!

Eagle asked, "Boss, could Nan Gengchen be the person behind the scenes? He's involved in basically all of the key incidents, you see."

Zheng Yuandong slowly stared at him as if he was looking at a fool...

He still felt it a pity that even after mobilizing Kun Lun to carry out such a large-scale move, they only ended up confirming Qing Chen's identity as a wilderness hunter.

According to the current clues, both Qing Chen and Liu Dezhu were injected with genetic medicine, so neither of them should be the most important key figure.

Furthermore, Qing Chen was not even in Prison 18.

What Zheng Yuandong and Eagle didn't know was that this apparent identity of a wilderness hunter was actually irrelevant.

Qing Chen purposely left this chat record to prove that he wasn't in Prison 18.

Since he stayed in the wilderness, then it was impossible for him to be that hidden time traveler in Prison 18.

Who would have thought that he could actually come in and out of the prison freely?

This was his second layer of firewall.

Facing the continuous dangers and challenges, Qing Chen realized it was impossible for him to remain completely hidden.

So he settled for the next best thing: to present himself as another pawn of the real key figure.

However, Zheng Yuandong felt that although Qing Chen and Liu Dezhu were both considered pawns, Qing Chen's position was definitely not under Liu Dezhu.

Regarding this matter, they shouldn't take Liu Dezhu's words at face value because in this kind of situation, the less conspicuous were in fact the ones with higher standing.

...

Eagle asked, "Boss, to be honest, all of us still don't understand why you're so sure that Qing Chen is the killer on Laojun Mountain? You even specially organized today's blood collection to verify it."

Zheng Yuandong replied, "Many things led me to this conclusion."

"When the transmigration first happened, Lu Yuan discovered a suspicious young man outside the gate of the community Huang Jixian lived in. Huang Jixian is that first-year student from Luo City Foreign Language School who went crazy."

"Lu Yuan and Calabash then proceeded to tail the boy from different directions. At first, they were still not sure if the boy showed up there by coincidence. It wasn't until the boy shook them off that Lu Yuan became certain that he was also a time traveler."

Furthermore, he was a time traveler who was very adept at escaping surveillance.

Eagle was surprised — this was the first time he had heard of this. Team Leader Lu may seem careless, but he was a veteran criminal investigator.

Team Leader Lu and Calabash tailed him from two different spots, but they still lost track of a mere high school student?

Zheng Yuandong continued, "Lu Yuan didn't tell you about it because he was ashamed. After that, he secretly spent a few days checking the CCTV footages and finally found a figure that matched the boy disappearing around Xingshu Road near Luo City Foreign Language School."

This was the first clue.

"Later, a time traveler named Jiang Xue was attacked at home. One of the two thugs fell down the stairs and fainted on the spot. The other ran away, but during his escape, someone beat and broke his leg with a blunt object. The weirdest thing was that the thug didn't even see the person who intercepted him."

That person was extremely cautious and quickly made himself scarce after successfully stopping the thug. When the neighbors opened their windows to see what the ruckus was all about, they only saw the thug with a broken leg.

It was as if that thug broke his own leg.

"I know about this," said Eagle.

Zheng Yuandong told him, "Qing Chen is Jiang Xue's neighbor, he lives downstairs from her house. One of their neighbors said that he has a good relationship with Jiang Xue's daughter."

This was the second clue.

"When Hu Xiaoniu, Zhang Tianzhen and other students were kidnapped at Jiang Xue's house, Liu Dezhu led you to go to Xingshu Road. It was this incident that made me and Lu Yuan realize that there was a person hiding behind the scenes who was pulling the strings, as if directing a puppet show."

In fact, it was only then that Zheng Yuandong noticed a certain someone who kept appearing in these clues: Qing Chen.

This name was constantly being brought up, but it seemed as though he had no direct correlation to the incidents.

This was the third clue.

"During the Laojun Mountain incident, more than a dozen inns were burned down in the fire. Their ledgers were burned as well, and because there was no internet connection, we couldn't find any check-in records."

Eagle nodded, "Yes, Team Leader Lu personally went to dig through the ruins, but he found nothing."

Zheng Yuandong said, "You've all overlooked one thing. Nowadays, people often do their bookings through applications. I found the reservation Jiang Xue made on Meituan."

"Jiang Xue doesn't have a car, so I searched the passenger records of the bus terminal to Laojun Mountain and found that Qing Chen took the same bus as Jiang Xue and her daughter."

Therefore, Qing Chen was also present at Laojun Mountain on that night.

This was the fourth clue.

Later on, Zheng Yuandong learned that Qing Chen and Nan Gengchen were close friends.

This could explain why Qing Chen immediately went up to the second floor to save Nan Gengchen after breaking into the inn where the students were kept hostage.

It could also explain the polarizing statements from Wang Yun, who said that the killer should be very young, and Nan Gengchen, who said that the killer was a man in his thirties.

When checking the bus passenger records, Zheng Yuandong found that Jiang Xue, Qing Chen, and Li Tongyun only left Laojun Mountain on October 8, a week after the kidnapping incident took place.

During that period, Qing Chen was most likely staying back to recuperate from his wounds.

Not long after, Zheng Yuandong discovered that Qing Chen's father had been detained by the police two times — the first was right before the transmigration started, and the latest just recently. Both times were the result of someone reporting him for illegal gambling.

Zheng Yuandong went to check the police reports, and in one of the files, it was written that the tip-off came from 'Enthusiastic citizen Mr. Qing'.

Through this finding, he could finally get a clear assessment of Qing Chen: decisive and merciless...

This was the fifth clue.

When these five clues were put together, no matter how astonished Zheng Yuandong was, he would come to the right conclusion — that high school student named Qing Chen had been hiding his identity and played a huge role in everything that had happened so far.

He might not be the real person behind the scenes, but at the very least, Zheng Yuandong was sure that he was the killer on Laojun Mountain.

The gape of Eagle's mouth grew increasingly wider. "Boss, he's just a high school student..."

In his view, although all the clues expounded by the boss were very convincing, he still found it hard to believe that a high school student could be so fearsome.

Eagle felt that if he were the one who had to do all this, he would have died a long time ago.

Moreover, not only was the boy skilled enough to shake off Lu Yuan's tracking, he was able to calmly eliminate his enemies even when he had to face many of them by himself.

The most astounding thing was that he was someone who could put justice above familial ties and send his own father to jail.

He was unimaginably tough.

"Then, boss, what are you going to do with this boy?" Eagle said after some thought, "He's actually the type of person we need in Kun Lun."

"Yes," Zheng Yuandong agreed, "Although we haven't been able to find the person behind the scenes, if we can recruit Qing Chen, then it's not a loss."

Eagle happily guffawed, "That's right, thieves shouldn't leave with empty hands!"

Zheng Yuandong, "..."

Eagle restrained his smile, "Sorry boss."

Zheng Yuandong earnestly said to him, "Eagle, you've had to crash your car several times on duty, did you perhaps hit your head too hard? I'll grant you two days off, make sure you go for a thorough check-up."

"No boss, there's no need for that. I'm fine, I just like to joke around," Eagle replied just as earnestly.

...

6 o'clock in the evening.

A forensic investigator casually walked out of the building.

The security guard greeted him with a smile, "Section Chief Qin, are you going home?"

Section Chief Qin smiled back and answered, "Yes. It's good to go back and rest after a day of hard work."

After the small talk, he got onto the bus.

He first went to the market and bought a bunch of green onions, a bunch of celery, one kilogram of beef, and then went to the grocery store to buy a bottle of soy sauce.

Only then did he go home.

In late autumn, the days were short and the sky turned dark earlier than usual.

Even so, after returning home, Section Chief Qin didn't turn on the light in the living room. Instead, he walked towards the media wall in the dark.

He took out a letter from behind the TV and used the light from his phone to write on the sheet: 'The DNA does not match.'

Once he was done, Section Chief Qin grabbed a knife from the kitchen and made a small cut on his arm. This way, his wound could be easily hidden under the cover of his clothes.

He dripped his blood on the envelope and watched as it flowed to form a postmark.

Section Chief Qin burned the letter with a lighter.

The flames quickly grew larger, illuminating the living room.

The next moment, Section Chief Qin turned around and shouted in fright, reflexively backing away!

It wasn't until the fire lit up the room did he realize that his former colleague, Lu Yuan, was sitting on the sofa right in front of him!

Lu Yuan seemed to have no intention on extinguishing the fire, letting it burn down the letter in Section Chief Qin's hand.

The living room turned dim once again.

Lu Yuan heaved a sigh, "Why, Old Qin? When I was still in the criminal investigation unit, you weren't like this. You even taught me to always remain honest and upright."

Section Chief Qin leaned on the wall and weakly said, "Little Lu, I have cancer. They're offering me drug from the Inner World that can cure me. I've already checked the prices for this drug on the dark web, it's not something I can afford at all. Even if I were to sell everything I have, I could only buy a month's dose."

Lu Yuan couldn't speak for a moment. He didn't expect that Old Qin turned traitor because of this.

But another thought quickly replaced his shock — there were countless people who were in the same situation as Old Qin.

In the past, cancer seemed like a rare and distant thing, but nowadays, be it their friends or family, most people know of at least one person suffering from this disease.

The owner of the Devil Post Stamp made use of people's desires to entice them into making a deal with the devil.

But he never threatened them with force.

Just like in myths, the devil would grant your wish in exchange for your soul.

Section Chief Qin's voice quivered, "Spare me, Little Lu. I don't have much time to live well anyway."

On the sofa, Lu Yuan's face was shrouded in shadow, making it hard to see the expression he had on.

After a long stretch of silence, he let out a heavy sigh and said, "Old Qin, I'm sorry."

Section Chief Qin immediately tried to run outside, but Lu Yuan had already moved faster and knocked him out.

Lu Yuan silently stared at his old colleague. For a while now, he had been searching for the mole who leaked their information.

But he truly never thought that it would end up this way.

Translator: Zee