Chapter 108: The Cannon Fodder in a Dogblood Novel (108)
The next day, Shen Tangqing booked a car online as usual.
He first went to a flower shop and picked out a bouquet. Then, he brought the flowers to Zhou Shuli’s grave.
In the photo on the tombstone, Zhou Shuli’s features remained just as he remembered—cold, distant, and restrained. Shen Tangqing stared for a moment before slowly bending down to carefully place the flowers before the grave.
He didn’t know how to describe his current mood; he only felt a heavy tightness in his chest.
After an unknown amount of time, a touch of icy coldness landed on his cheek. When he looked up, fine snowflakes were fluttering down from the leaden sky.
Shen Tangqing reached out his hand to catch them. The moment a snowflake touched the warmth of his palm, it instantly melted into a shallow trace of water.
His thick eyelashes trembled, concealing the emotions in his eyes.
“It’s snowing,” he whispered softly.
The first snow of Jing City had finally arrived.
He raised his eyes, his gaze falling once more on the photo on the tombstone. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he said in a low voice, “Winter is here… spring shouldn’t be far off either.”
Shen Tangqing caught a cold after he returned.
At first, it was just a dry throat, and he didn’t take it seriously. But in the middle of the night, he suddenly developed a high fever.
In the end, it was Jiang Qingyan who couldn’t get a hold of him and came to the apartment. By the time he was rushed to the hospital, Shen Tangqing was already delirious from the fever.
105.8°F (41°C).
The fever nearly turned his brain to mush.
After staying in the hospital for two days, Jiang Qingyan brought him back to the Jiang residence.
As the saying goes, “Illness comes like a mountain collapsing, but leaves like silk being unraveled.” By the time Shen Tangqing’s body had fully recovered, half a month had already passed. The welcome-back banquet Jiang Qingyan had originally planned for him was also delayed because of this illness.
…
In a dimly lit private lounge, Lu Yanli leaned back on the sofa, a half-burnt cigarette held between his fingers.
Amidst the swirling smoke, his expression revealed an indescribable weariness, and his eyes were dark and somber.
Fu Sizhao sat to the side with his legs crossed, holding an empty wine glass. His thumb unconsciously traced the rim of the glass. A ring of brown wine residue remained at the bottom, clearly showing he had just finished a drink.
Sitting on the sofa opposite him, Jiang Qingyan kept his eyes lowered, his jawline clenched tight. His face looked worse than if he were mourning a dead wife, and his entire body radiated a thick, chilling aura.
A file lay on the table in front of the three of them.
Since Shen Tangqing’s return, the three of them had begun reinvestigating the “car accident.” However, that matter had been handled far too discreetly. Coupled with the fact that a year had passed, it was originally impossible to find any leads.
In the end, it was Lu Yanli who used some rather unsavory methods to crack open a tiny corner of the truth. After that, following the trail became much easier.
Looking at the stack of investigative materials, Lu Yanli had sat alone in his study for an entire night.
Li Qiulan. The crown prince of the Li family.
So it turned out… Shen Tangqing hadn’t been in a car accident. He had been intentionally lured into a trap.
It was just that the Li family’s background in Jing City was too immense—so immense that they could cover up a meticulously planned “accident” without a single flaw.
He desperately wanted to ask Shen Tangqing what had happened during those days of imprisonment, but he didn’t dare.
What could a man possibly do after going to such lengths to imprison another man?
Lu Yanli could guess, but he didn’t dare think deeply about it, nor was he willing to.
…
And now, that file appeared on the table in the lounge.
Lu Yanli knew how Fu Sizhao and Jiang Qingyan felt about Shen Tangqing, just as they were clearly aware of his own feelings. Even if he didn’t speak of this matter, they would have eventually found out.
The silence in the lounge was deathly.
Finally, Lu Yanli was the first to break the stagnation. He raised his hand and took a drag of the cigarette. The smoke curled upward from his fingertips, blurring the weariness in his eyes.
His Adam’s apple rolled as he exhaled, his voice raspy and laced with the scent of tobacco. “You’ve seen it. The accident was fake. It was a trap set by Li Qiulan.”
The sentence crashed into the dead silence of the room.
Fu Sizhao’s finger tracing the rim of the glass suddenly jerked to a halt. After a few seconds, he placed the glass on the table with a soft clink.
Jiang Qingyan’s lowered eyelashes trembled. He finally looked up, the gloom in his eyes nearly swallowing his already grim face whole.
Lu Yanli didn’t look at them. His gaze remained fixed on the documents. A length of ash had formed on the cigarette between his fingers; just as it was about to fall, he slowly reached out and crushed the cigarette into the ashtray.
The movement carried a hint of suppressed ferocity. “I only found out that Tangtang was imprisoned by Li Qiulan…”
He paused, his Adam’s apple moving again as if he were stifling something. “You know the Li family’s background better than I do. This trap was flawless. Aside from finding out the Li family was involved, we know… nothing else.”
As his voice faded, the air in the room grew even heavier.
All three of them knew exactly what was implied. Why else would Li Qiulan go to such trouble to imprison Shen Tangqing? The implications were self-evident.
Jiang Qingyan closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a flash of pure hatred flickered within. He hated his own helplessness. He hated that he couldn’t protect Shen Tangqing.
He looked at Lu Yanli, then glanced at Fu Sizhao, his voice trembling slightly. “Tangtang must have suffered so much. Let’s let this matter rot in our stomachs. None of us are to mention it in front of him. Act as if we don’t know.”
He took a deep breath, his eyes darkening. “Though I don’t know how Tangtang escaped, if the Li family dares to lay a hand on him again, I won’t let him go, even if it means gambling the entire Jiang family.”
Fu Sizhao let out a cold sneer, his expression filled with self-deprecation and powerlessness. “You won’t let him go? Unless Li Jing steps down, who would dare touch the Li family? Who could touch the Li family?”
Fu Sizhao’s words plunged the lounge back into silence.
Lu Yanli leaned back into the sofa again. He pulled out another cigarette but didn’t light it. He just gripped it tightly between his fingers, his knuckles turning white.
After a long time, his Adam’s apple rolled, and he spoke in a low voice that was eerily calm. “If there is a next time, I will kill him.”
Jiang Qingyan and Fu Sizhao both jerked their heads to look at Lu Yanli.
Both of them wore expressions that asked: Big Brother, are you serious?
That was the heir to the Li family…
Lu Yanli didn’t care about their shocked gazes. He calmly tossed the cigarette aside and picked up the Buddhist prayer beads on his wrist, clutching them in his palm.
If the Buddha couldn’t protect Shen Tangqing, then he would do it himself.
For Shen Tangqing’s sake, he could live as a devout vegetarian praying to the Buddha, or he could become a vengeful Rakshasa.
[Translator’s Note: Poor Tangqing’s “accidental” death was actually a kidnapping! The three gongs are finally forming a united front, but Lu Yanli is definitely the scariest one here. “Rakshasa” (罗刹) refers to a type of demonic being in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, often depicted as powerful and terrifying. Stay tuned to see how they handle the Li family!]
Recommended Reads
![Those Years When the Son of Destiny Was Severely Scammed [Quick Transmigration]](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/QUICK-TRANSMIGRATION1-214x300.jpg)
