Chapter 54: Shen Yunji “Don’t be too obsessed, little brother”…
The two stumbled out of the sea of fire. Behind them, the warehouse exploded with a loud bang, the blast wave blowing the two peeling iron doors two meters away.
His body felt terrifyingly hot. Amidst the billowing smoke, Lu Xunye had long been in a semi-comatose state.
The other person, though prepared in advance, wasn’t faring well either. Exhausted, he laid Lu Xunye flat on the gravel path surrounding the warehouse.
With one hand, he pulled off one side of his water-soaked mask to gasp for air.
Taking out the prepared mineral water, he poured it all over Lu Xunye’s face and body to cool him down.
He looked back at the warehouse roof engulfed by raging flames, his mind unsettled. Hidden under the brim of his hat, a pair of black eyes brewed complex emotions as he suddenly clenched his fist.
Hurried footsteps approached from behind and stopped at his back. The man’s heart sank. He subtly lowered the brim of his hat, pulled the mask back up, put strength into his legs to stand up, and took a step to leave.
“Stop.” Behind him came panting breaths, trying hard to disguise the uneven rhythm after a rapid run.
The man didn’t look back; instead, he lowered his voice. “Just passing by. No need to take it to heart.”
With that, he made a move to leave, but two people suddenly blocked his front, barring his way.
Withdrawing his hand from the steadying breath of the person on the ground, Shen Yunqian stood up and unhurriedly walked around to face the person unwilling to turn around.
His cold eyelids lifted, sizing up the person wrapped up tightly before him.
“It seems you are very sure I came for him.”
He took a step forward, forcing the person to step back. His voice was surprisingly calm. “You know me.”
It wasn’t a question but a certainty.
“Who is the person behind you?”
His gaze withdrew from the ice packs and empty mineral water bottles on the ground—obviously premeditated.
Shen Yunqian added slowly, “Or perhaps… you set this fire.”
The man leisurely patted the dust off the corner of his clothes.
He gave a noncommittal response to the interrogation, merely smiling as he answered, “This is a desolate mountain ridge with no inhabitants. Isn’t your purpose for coming here easy to guess?”
“Could it be you didn’t come to find this person,” he mimicked Shen Yunqian’s tone, speaking faintly, “but came to kill and dump the body?”
The deliberately suppressed voice was coarse as if containing sand and gravel. Though not obvious, it sounded like his vocal cords had been injured before.
Seeing him frown silently, the man understood. “Seems you know each other.”
His fingertips pointed at the people in front of him one by one. “It’s good enough that I’m not asking you for a reward. What kind of logic is blocking the savior’s path? Do you want to blackmail me?”
Shen Yunqian’s gaze swept over a scar on the finger knuckle that flashed by. His eyes narrowed halfway. Before the man could retract his finger, he grabbed his wrist.
The sudden movement startled everyone else.
The hat, its brim curled from the heat of the fire, was knocked off by Shen Yunqian’s hand, revealing a pair of deep, black, long eyes.
Meeting those smiling, curved eyes, Shen Yunqian’s whole body shook. His grip loosened slightly unconsciously. The person broke free, yet Shen Yunqian’s hand maintained the grasping posture.
The long, ear-piercing sound of fire alarms approached. Birds in the forest startled, flying up into the blue sky.
The two bodyguards looked at each other and coincidentally took a step back, turning to walk toward the warehouse billowing with smoke.
The man rubbed his hair, which had been flattened by the hat.
He also heard the sirens. “I don’t want to be taken away for education, so I won’t tangle with you. Being seen is unspeakable, ah.”
This sentence pulled the wandering Shen Yunqian back to reality. The figure was retreating rapidly. The pent-up anger suddenly rushed out uncontrollably, fiercer than the fire behind him.
He rushed forward and grabbed the person’s back, gritting his teeth. “Shen Yunji, you still want to run?”
The airwave tearing through the air by his ear went straight for the mask on his face. The man’s lips hooked. He grabbed the hand on his shoulder with a backhand.
The moment the mask was pulled off, he bent down and turned sideways, raising his other hand to chop down.
Amidst Shen Yunqian’s disbelief and reflexive terrified squinting and shrinking of his neck, the wrist turned and flicked a finger against his forehead.
“Some things, don’t be too obsessed, little brother.”
Distant memories revived. The similar force… Shen Yunqian was stunned for a long while. When he opened his eyes, not a shadow was left.
He tightened his grip on the mask in his hand and threw it to the ground as if venting. “Fuck!“
The two bodyguards were astonished that their usually unsmiling boss was teased like a child and even swore.
But maintaining their professionalism, they handed Shen Yunqian something found in the adjacent building that hadn’t burned down and a phone picked up on the way.
It was a very inconspicuous wooden box, mostly scorched and emitting a strong burnt smell. Since it wasn’t hot, it must have been burned in a previous fire.
When opened, the corners of the document bag inside were also burnt, but fortunately, the contents weren’t severely damaged.
This dilapidated warehouse, several stories high, was where the Shen family researched and processed products when they first started. Many defective products were piled up, and it was later abandoned.
Ever since the Shen Group was exposed for passing off shoddy goods as high-quality since its inception, false advertising, defrauding consumers, and negative news about their tech products frequently exploding causing injury and property damage…
Plus someone threw out an official machine inspection certificate and purchase records.
Many “victims” popped up, verbalizing their attacks in the comments section and pushing the matter to a climax. The trending searches soared and couldn’t be suppressed.
The news was almost set in stone. No one questioned why no victims showed up to report with real names for compensation, or why those comments led to private accounts.
They had actually suspected someone did this deliberately.
But at that time, no one expected a sudden fire in this long-abandoned warehouse would burn everything on the second, third, and fourth floors to ashes.
After this incident, those partners who already disagreed with Father Shen took the opportunity to cut ties and even rake back.
Old customers dumped good products at the company entrance, livestreaming themselves smashing them, hanging banners to boycott and demand compensation.
The popularity was unprecedentedly high. Various marketing accounts reposted it, and passersby watching the drama believed 80-90% of it.
Reporters and TV stations blocked the company building and villa entrance until water couldn’t trickle through.
Deals that had been settled also fell through because no one wanted to get involved with their problems, demanding sky-high breach of contract fees from Father Shen.
This incident caught everyone off guard. Shen Qizhao, as the branch manager and company shareholder, spoke ambiguous words in front of Father Shen every day, guiding him to mortgage real estate and securities to pay off debts.
The day before the mortgage was due, Father Shen and Mother Shen were still hiding it from the two children while busy running around, holding a slim hope in a lawsuit.
It was also on this day they died in a car accident. The police called Shen Yunji, who was far away abroad.
Later that same day, that flight crashed with no survivors.
Shen Yunqian murmured: Don’t be obsessed?
How is that possible.
“Cough, cough, cough.”
A fit of coughing came from not far away.
Shen Yunqian startled awake. His fingers, which were gripping the box fiercely, loosened. He pushed the box back into the bodyguard’s arms and said coldly, “Take the things and leave first.”
“Boss, should we investigate the person who ran away just now?”
Shen Yunqian pondered for a moment. “Not for now.”
…
Lu Xunye opened his eyes to meet Shen Yunqian’s worried gaze above him.
Having inhaled thick smoke and held his breath for too long, his body hammered his chest and coughed wildly before even realizing his surroundings.
Shen Yunqian unscrewed a bottle of water for him. Before he could hand it over, it was snatched away. Lu Xunye drank a mouthful and immediately coughed it up again.
He scooped the person into his arms to smooth his breath.
Applying an ice pack to Lu Xunye’s flushed cheek, he kissed the tip of his ear lightly like a chicken pecking at rice, repeating over and over, “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Only after Lu Xunye poured the remaining cold water over his head and felt the cold wind blow did he recover from the sensation of being roasted.
Even with only 10% pain, he felt like he was about to be cooked.
He stared blankly at his hands. After clenching and unclenching them smoothly, he touched his face with trembling hands.
Just then, a hand appeared in front of him holding a phone with the selfie camera on.
Almost without thinking, he reached out and snatched the phone. Only after confirming that just the ends of his hair were burnt and curled did he relax.
The phone screen tilted, illuminating the person behind him. Their gazes collided on the screen. Lu Xunye froze, only then realizing where the phone came from.
[Detected Host is out of danger. Pain Shield deactivated.]
Ding.
[Love Points +30,000. Current Love Points: 780,000.]
Memories of these days played frame by frame in his mind, intertwined. Lu Xunye had mixed feelings.
He could have totally avoided that wine bottle that day. He had intended to play the victim to add fuel to the capture progress bar, but he didn’t expect to lose control and do many things he shouldn’t have.
How could he leave with a clear conscience after succeeding in the capture now!
He was so upset that he didn’t notice Shen Yunqian staring down at him for a while before letting go and distancing himself.
Hearing the approaching sirens.
He let out a long sigh and tried to pat the other person’s arm as if nothing happened, but touched nothing. Turning back, there was no one there.
He raised his head, looking blankly at the person who stood up, his lips moving. But the other person spoke his unfinished words first: “Let’s leave first.”
Balcony
Lu Xunye sat cross-legged in the hanging chair, swinging listlessly, occasionally screaming silently in regret, sometimes letting out a sound.
He still couldn’t figure it out. Before he could react, his legs had obediently returned to the opposite door. He sighed deeply, slumped back, and slapped the phone onto his face, pretending he was dead.
Just as he moved the phone and unlocked it, a message popped up.
[Fire in abandoned warehouse. Firefighters found a male corpse missing a right arm after extinguishing the fire.]
DNA comparison confirmed it was the same Pang Mou who almost got sentenced before. This fire was also started by him carrying kindling inside.
Someone in the comments guessed his arm was broken by a falling roof beam. Pure nonsense, yet this comment had quite a few likes.
Lu Xunye was silent. He remembered it seemed to be a concrete building.
Surrounded by gravel paths acting as a firebreak, if there was no strong wind, the fire would slowly die down after the combustibles inside burned out.
He vaguely felt like he had forgotten something. Scratching his head, he poked his head out to peek at the living room. No one.
He was a bit puzzled. That was exactly why he dared to step into this room. No one was in the kitchen or obvious places in the living room, and Lu Xunye naturally wouldn’t go looking specifically.
He walked toward the door, uncontrollably rubbing his hot ear. It hurt and tickled. He picked off the scab, and blood seeped out.
Through the peephole, he saw someone acting sneakingly in front of his door. He immediately pushed the door open. “What do you want?”
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