Chapter 80
“Mr. Gu, have you truly pleaded guilty to all charges?”
“Councilman Gu Yan has yet to make a statement. Does this represent the Gu family’s attitude?”
“Rumors say you are taking the fall for someone else. Do you accept today’s verdict? Will you appeal later?”
Stepping out of the Central District High Court, the sunlight was a bit blinding.
Gu Lanzhu instinctively closed his eyes.
The media followed him like a shadow, clogging the path to the prisoner transport vehicle. Staff members wore grim expressions as they dispersed the crowd, while lawyers blocked cameras and microphones, stating that Mr. Gu would not be accepting interviews.
“Get in, sit in the very back!” For the first time in his life, Gu Lanzhu was shoved into a vehicle under the flashing lights of the media.
Countless cameras recorded his silence.
His face showed obvious devastation.
The once favored son of heaven, the arrogant young master of a business empire, had now become a scapegoat and a prisoner. From head to toe, he was shackled with cuffs and restraining devices that symbolized his crimes.
His gaze swept over a microphone near him; the logo of the Zhaoxi Agency was particularly conspicuous. Gu Lanzhu was stunned.
The Zhaoxi Agency was the most secretive partner media outlet his father had single-handedly supported. Now, even they were getting involved? In Gu Lanzhu’s eyes, it looked exactly like kicking a man when he was down.
Was this on his father’s orders? To clear his own name and completely cut ties with him?
His destitution and despair reached their peak. The moment he sat down, rage and resentment erupted. He clenched his hands, trying to activate his pheromones.
Suddenly, a jolt of electricity shot into the back of his neck!
Gu Lanzhu’s pupils constricted, his muscles twitched, and his face went sheet white.
“Violence is prohibited.”
The accompanying prison guard sat down beside him, offering a cold warning: “The shackles aren’t just for show. If you attempt to resist more than three times, the current will amplify enough to directly destroy your gland.”
Gu Lanzhu closed his eyes, pressed his lips together tightly, and slowly relaxed his shoulders.
He vaguely remembered that this type of equipment had been developed by the Gu Corporation during the internal unrest in District 7, specifically for those Alphas who stood on the wrong side and refused to cooperate.
He never expected that the improved, reinforced version would ultimately be worn by him—the first felon from the Gu family’s century-old business empire to be caught in the net of the law.
Gu Lanzhu turned his gaze out the car window, his expression dark.
The special super-max prison for felons was located in the northernmost part of the Central District. It was at least a two-hour drive from the Central District High Court.
He stared out the window for the entire duration of the drive.
The rolling mountains grew closer. Three cylinder-shaped prisons pierced straight into the clouds, standing upright before the mountains. The cold brick walls emitted an oppressive, dark hue. Heavily armed guards stood sternly at various high and low points.
The northwestern mountain range behind them was also one of the garrisons for the First District of the Capital Guard, adding a layer of security to the already heavily guarded special prison.
When the transport vehicle drove in, the prison’s internal information network had already become active.
Whether they were working, resting on shifts, or attending classes, inmates began whispering to one another.
“They say he’s coming today, that only son of the Gu family.”
“The scum from the news these past few days?”
“Haha, dying of laughter. Who in here isn’t scum? You have the nerve to talk about others.”
“Who says? That guy who was in Z01 before wasn’t.”
“Wasn’t that guy a scapegoat who got framed? I don’t know if his case was secretly overturned, but I haven’t seen him in a long time. Kind of miss him.”
“Speaking of which, I heard from Boss Wang that the Gu kid is being assigned to Z01 this time.”
“F*ck, there’s going to be a show to watch.”
“The people in there are vicious perverts. Except for the Scapegoat, I’ve never seen anyone go into Z01 without getting flayed alive.”
Gu Lanzhu listened to these fragmented whispers as he walked into his assigned room, Z01, and looked around.
A middle-aged man with full-arm tattoos, a fierce-looking elder, and a young man with a long scar across his face were all staring at him covetously.
Everyone wore the highest level of restraints. The cell was clean, devoid of any pheromones, yet permeated with a dangerous aura.
President Gu, who had dominated the business world, was used to playing with refined, ruthless methods. Even his bodyguards practiced courtesy before force. He usually contacted thugs of this caliber through subordinates, never dealing with them directly.
This was his first time facing such raw, crude, and ferocious malice.
He looked away, giving up on a direct confrontation. Hugging his prison uniform, he walked in, pulled back the bedding, and sat down.
“Did I say you could sit?” A bizarre voice came from the corner; it was a cellmate who had just woken up.
The middle-aged Alpha raised his hand: “Change your clothes first.”
“Ah, right. Hurry up and take off that expensive shirt of yours.”
Gu Lanzhu glanced out the window. The two cylinder-shaped prison buildings opposite cut the sky into three segments. Dark clouds had begun to roll in unnoticed.
He grabbed the hem of his shirt. The moment he lifted it over his head, a streak of silver-white light flashed across the wall.
Unsure if it was an illusion, Gu Lanzhu lowered his arms and looked again.
“What are you dawdling for!” The person beside him walked over and slapped the back of his head. “Come here, stand in the middle to change.”
Gu Lanzhu walked to the center of the cell in a trance, his gaze fixed on the wall.
The silver-white light on the wall flowed and shifted into various shapes. His pupils constricted as he quickly realized that it seemed only he could see it.
The silver-white substance flowed from one wall to another. Gu Lanzhu turned dazedly to follow it, only to see it transform into the shape of a mouth, opening and closing on the gray wall.
—Have you not yet realized your mission?
The silver-white lips lowered a whisper that rang in his ears. Gu Lanzhu was so startled he took two steps back.
His cellmate looked at him in confusion and kicked his calf.
Gu Lanzhu turned a deaf ear.
The lips on the wall continued their demonic whisper.
—As long as you can mark him, everything will return to the right track.
“Lu Wanqing, retract your pheromones and stop unbuttoning my shirt! If you have the guts to touch me, have the guts to mark me, damn it!”
Shu Ci was rummaging through the closet, thinking about what would be appropriate to wear for a prison visit. Every time he changed into something, he would be pulled apart by the pheromones quietly sneaking in.
The journey back from Dragon Spine Island had been hard enough to handle. Now that they were about to go out, the man was still causing trouble!
“I don’t have that ability right now.” Lu Wanqing walked in holding tea, handed it to him, and looked completely innocent.
“Hm? This doesn’t seem like the tea Ah-Ti sent.” He took a sip. “Did you buy it?”
Lu Wanqing casually took a top from the closet that matched his own color scheme, helped Shu Ci put it on, and looked at him with satisfaction.
As he buttoned Shu Ci up, he answered, “A birthday gift prepared for you.”
Because he didn’t know the exact date, he hadn’t had the chance to give it to him.
Now, he didn’t want to hide it anymore.
Regardless of whether the 1% compatibility could be salvaged, he wanted Shu Ci to feel the happiness and joy he brought him every single day from now on.
Shu Ci held the teacup, stunned, remembering the time he had let it slip in front of him.
“It’s in September. September 17th.”
He added, “The day the charity cruise set sail.”
“Okay, noted.” Lu Wanqing responded faintly.
He adjusted Shu Ci’s collar and leaned down to peck the corner of his mouth. “I won’t forget next year.”
Over a month had passed. back then, he was on a rescue mission, was attacked, and drifted at sea. He was destined to miss giving the gift in person.
“Lu Wanqing, what about your birthday?” Shu Ci put down the tea cup and put on his coat. “Your file only lists the year.”
Lu Wanqing looked at him and shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“How is that possible?” Shu Ci frowned.
“There were many children on Juqing Road abandoned for various reasons. There were also those whose parents were destitute and desperate, leaving the child alone at home. We never celebrated birthdays; we had no concept of them.”
“Others are others, what about you?”
“My mother died in difficult labor. My father gambled all year round and was mentally unstable. Later, he was beaten senseless by the bookies. No one told me before he died.”
Watching him say these things so calmly made Shu Ci feel very uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to say for a moment, standing there with his hands at his sides.
Lu Wanqing raised his hand and rubbed Shu Ci’s head. “It’s just a day. Every year that passes is another year of age. It doesn’t matter if I have one or not.”
“No.”
Shu Ci raised his hands above his head, grabbed Lu Wanqing’s hand, and pulled it to his side. “I was thinking, is the world we live in, the place I came to, really just a book world created by someone?”
Lu Wanqing checked the time. They needed to leave for the prison.
He extended his long arm, wrapping it around Shu Ci as they went downstairs. “I’ll drive. We can talk on the way.”
Shu Ci crawled into the car and leaned back lazily. “From my student days to my career, I’ve written hundreds of complete scripts and have over six hundred abandoned drafts. I’ve reviewed thousands of scripts during my internship and work. I have never seen anyone capable of creating a world that is detailed down to the finest point.”
“Isn’t that… normal?” Lu Wanqing didn’t quite understand what he was getting at.
“Yes, it’s normal. For creators, stories, plots, and time are a matter of selection and arrangement. Choosing when, from what perspective, and whose story to tell. It’s impossible to be detailed for every person, every second. This means there must be timelines or jumps in the narrative.”
“Like how I suddenly appeared around you and Gu Lanzhu, or instantly appeared at the marriage registration scene?”
“Right, but this is completely different from how I feel after coming here.”
He had read the original novel in detail. The descriptions of scenes and details were always spot-on for those plot points that happened in fixed locations.
But his life after transmigrating obviously contained too much that the author had never mentioned. Urban planning, national structure, the military and the council… these were things that hadn’t even been touched upon.
“I’m wondering, did the plot create the prototype of this world, with all remaining logic filling itself in automatically? Or was a part of a real world extracted to become the plot I saw?”
Lu Wanqing moved his lips but said nothing.
Shu Ci’s line of thinking was from an angle he had never considered. He was born here; he couldn’t view problems from the perspective of an intruder like Shu Ci.
“Maybe it’s not that you don’t have a birthday, but that when the author created you, they just casually wrote a background character and didn’t give you any identity details?”
Shu Ci rested his chin in his hand and looked at him, feeling more and more that this guess was reasonable.
Lu Wanqing was a person who served the plot. He was created to stimulate Gu Lanzhu.
That was why he had no birthday, and even the scent of his pheromones had never been set. He had been transparent in this world from beginning to end.
Lu Wanqing glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “I would prefer the latter.”
He didn’t hope to be created.
He hoped to be real.
The real him met the person who made him real, and met real love.
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