Chapter 126.2: Everything But Not That One Thing Part 2
“You don’t seem that worried about the boss ending up in the hospital, though.” Xu Jun[1] raised an eyebrow. “On the contrary, you’ve been running around quite happily, keeping close contact with all the uncles and elders. A brother saw someone having morning tea with Lei Yaoxing’s men at Everblessed today. Was that you?”
“Xu, don’t you dare slander me!”
“I’m not sure it’s slander,” someone else said coldly from the side. “Anyway, Mr. Fu, you’ve always been two-faced. You always sell out your brothers, always chasing the highest bidder. That’s your style, isn’t it?”
Fu Yuanqing flew into a rage. “Ha! And you’ve got the nerve to say that? Who doesn’t know you are playing both sides? Your goddaughter just rolled out of Golden-Tooth Leopard’s bed and climbed straight into Buck-Toothed Kun’s crotch. You think nobody knows?!”
“Motherfucker! I’ve been loyal to the boss since day one. I’ve been guarding him in the hospital since last night. Where the hell were you?!”
“I actually think Xu Jun has a point.”
“You think that idiotic ass has a point?!”
“At a time like this, with the society in this state, you’re still arguing...”
“The boss isn’t even dead yet, and you’re already picking a new leader?”
“Hey, everyone calm down a bit.”
Amid the arguing and shouting, Chen Yubo sat in the main seat, head lowered, not daring to say a single word. He curled further and further into himself, terrified that people would notice him.
From behind him, someone coughed quietly. It was Mr. Lin.
The room immediately fell into complete silence. Only the annoying sound of the tide outside the window remained. With his hands behind his back, he addressed the people at the meeting, speaking slowly.
“The boss once said, in this line of work, there are only two paths: either kill or be killed, or stick together and weather the storm. Minor flaws among one’s own brothers don’t matter. You have to be alive first before you’re qualified to talk about loyalty and brotherhood. Now that the boss is on his last legs, if some of you want to switch sides or pull out in time, I have no reason to stop you.
“The accountant is downstairs. If anyone wants to leave, settle your accounts and hand over your business. You can go anytime. But think carefully.” His voice turned cold. “Once you walk out that door, we will have nothing to do with each other ever again. Whether you become Lei Yaoxing’s loyal dog or leave Cliff City entirely, it will have nothing to do with the boss anymore.”
At this critical moment, when everything was unstable and on the brink of collapse, Mr. Lin showed no intention of soothing or reassuring anyone, nor did he waver at all. Under the pressure brought by Lei Yaoxing, such a forceful tone instead carried a faint sense of bravado masking weakness. Its persuasive power could not be said to be absent, but rather had a strangely discouraging effect, causing even Ji Jue, who was watching the drama from the side, to pause slightly.
In the long silence that followed, everyone exchanged glances. Several times, someone looked like they wanted to speak up and persuade otherwise, but under Mr. Lin’s indifferent gaze, they found themselves unable to say a word.
They scowled with a dark look in their gazes. It was truly a spectacle.
At moments like this, those who looked angry and gloomy weren’t necessarily the ones with ulterior motives, and those who seemed open and upright weren’t necessarily loyal. More often, people’s true positions were revealed in hesitation and wavering.
The first to break the silence was a scruffy middle-aged man sitting at the edge of the table, one of the Chosen Ones. After some hesitation, he finally said, “Sorry, Mr. Lin. If the boss were still here, I’d go through anything for him without a second thought. But...”
“No need to say more. I understand.” Mr. Lin waved him off, his expression turning unexpectedly gentle. He patted the man on the shoulder. “At a time like this, the fact that you’re willing to step forward and say you’re leaving without stabbing us in the back is already more than enough. Now that the boss isn’t here, I’m just an assistant. I have no right to ask anyone to risk their lives. After all these years of hard work, let’s part ways peacefully. If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”
The man froze for a long moment. Then he nodded. Without looking back, he lowered his head and left in a hurry.
Once one spoke up, a second, and a third followed...
Soon, six of the Chosen Ones had left. Only three remained seated where they were. Among the other business managers, some also hesitated before standing up and going downstairs to settle accounts and leave.
In less than ten minutes, the once noisy dining hall had turned desolate. Less than a third of the original people remained.
When a tree fell, the monkeys scattered. Everyone in this line of work was ultimately here for money. Talking about loyalty to the White Deer group was already a joke. The fact that they could openly cut ties without stabbing anyone in the back was already considered decent behavior.
Even among those who stayed, their stance might not be firm. They could simply be waiting to see the best price. The meal hadn’t even been finished, and yet they had dispersed.
After a long pause, with no one else standing up, Mr. Lin asked, “No one else is leaving? A Yi, Seventeen, Blondie?”
“What do you mean by that, Mr. Lin?!” Blondie had clearly been holding it in for a long time. His face flushed red. “Being in this line of work is all about loyalty! A true man keeps his word! The boss’s younger brother is my bro... ahem, my family! I’m not afraid of that Lei Yaoxing bastard!”
His words were impactful and strident. Unfortunately, it would have been even better if his voice wasn’t trembling.
Mr. Lin glanced around the room. “Does everyone else think the same?”
The man called Seventeen calmly took a drag of his cigarette and said indifferently, “The boss paid, so I sold my life. If it weren’t for him helping me deal with my loan sharks, I’d probably have already sold a kidney.”
“Uh... Me too...” The young man called A Yi stood up nervously to respond. Halfway through his sentence, he didn’t know what else to say and awkwardly sat back down.
The others also chimed in one after another. Compared to the fighters, the more strategic people spoke far more smoothly, their words almost dazzling, full of assurances that were comforting to hear.
Ji Jue couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional. Why wasn’t he a Heart Core user? Was it because his desires weren’t strong or diverse enough? So many Supreme Benevolences had already come knocking, yet the Heart Core didn’t even spare him a glance.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have any talent for Aether. He had never learned anything like micro-expression reading either. After watching the whole scene, he could only conclude that it all seemed plausible, but who was real, who was fake, what was genuine or not, he truly couldn’t tell at all.
Mr. Lin suddenly turned his head and looked at him. With a respectful tone, he asked, “Mr. Ji, could you take a look for us?”
Ji Jue paused mid-snack at the spectacle. “I only said I’d protect Chen Yubo. I never said I’d do work for you guys.”
“Please,” Mr. Lin pleaded. “We can’t afford to leave any hidden dangers.”
If a traitor was left behind, nobody would be able to sleep peacefully. They couldn’t allow a worm to stay hidden under their eyes.
Ji Jue sighed. “Fine.”
Just then, two phone ringtones went off. They were different, yet they overlapped. Under everyone’s stunned gazes, Ji Jue raised his hand and pointed at the two people whose phones were ringing.
“This one, and this one.”
The words had barely left his lips when blood exploded into the air. Burning black smoke and sparks flickered in Mr. Lin’s hand, appearing and vanishing in the blink of an eye. Then, the head of the man called Seventeen detached from his shoulders. Thick blood dripped from the severed neck, triggering a wave of screams and shock. That blank, lifeless face still looked utterly unaware of what had happened, even in death.
“This... U-Um...” Chen Yubo trembled all over, frantically wiping blood from his face. “What the hell is going on?!”
“Yeah. What’s going on?” Ji Jue rested his chin on his hand, eyes lowered. “There are people who speak of loyalty on the surface, while secretly already contacting others to cooperate from within and planning to swallow Chen Xingzhou’s inheritance tonight. After getting the money, they were even planning to use your head, Young Master Chen, as a stepping stone to curry favor with their new boss.”
He paused, then looked at the other person whose phone rang. “Right?”
“You motherfucker!” The man Ji Jue was looking at, Xu Jun, exploded in rage. He slammed his cup onto the ground. “Where the hell did this bastard come from?! Throwing accusations with nothing but empty words! I think you’re the traitor! Mr. Lin, I’ve been working for the boss for so long, and you’re just going to sit there and watch some random nobody slander me?!”
Mr. Lin said nothing, only looked at him coldly. Ji Jue also said nothing. In his hand, his phone screen flickered and rotated, reflecting shifting faces full of panic and suspicion.
He let out a helpless sigh. He hadn’t originally intended to make things this blunt or ]obvious. He had planned to wait until the meeting was over and then casually mention it to Mr. Lin, letting him handle it himself.
Getting involved in the internal chaos of the Wasteland Assembly was the last thing he wanted, let alone playing some kind of werewolf game with the people left behind by Chen Xingzhou. He wasn’t a Heart Core user, so he couldn’t read thoughts like the legendary Empress, nor was he an Aether user, leaving him unable to distinguish truth from lies in people’s words.
But he had Deus Ex Machina. And while Deus Ex Machina wasn’t omnipotent, everything it could do, it did extremely well.
Honestly, being a traitor these days was just too messy. There were no carrier pigeons and no coded messages, just plain text messages. What was he supposed to do about that? He couldn’t even pretend not to know.
This place was so remote and cut off from civilization that there weren’t even many fishermen wearing helmets out here. As a result, even the United Borderless Communications didn’t bother investing in proper infrastructure. Within dozens of li, there was only a signal tower, and it just so happened to be right next to the villa.
Ji Jue didn’t even need to leave the building. He just glanced out from the stairwell window and connected to it casually. Only then did he realize how ridiculously convenient it was.
In this modern age where everyone was glued to their phones and felt physically uncomfortable if the signal dropped even a single bar, it was like suddenly gaining a full-map view. Any phone from nearby automatically connected. He didn’t even need to dig through them one by one.
Unless it was satellite communication or an ultra-high-level encrypted VVVIP channel from United Borderless Communications, all transmitted data was completely exposed to him.
Calls, messages, chat apps, virtual numbers, and even short video browsing history. As long as he said the word, Mr. Tower would immediately deliver every related piece of information right in front of him.
On the day he arrived, he had already checked the signal tower. Then he went down to the basement to inspect the network server. After leaving behind preset commands, he casually ran another sweep that morning.
With Mr. Tower and Mr. Server on his side, secret exchanges between traitors aside, he even knew who couldn’t sleep at night and secretly used the villa’s WiFi to download cat videos or search for which cheap cat food had the best value.
Right, Chen Yubo?
Unfortunately, Chen Yubo could no longer laugh. In fact, he was barely holding back tears.
The moment he sensed Mr. Lin’s cold gaze, Xu Jun already had a gun in his hand. Without any hesitation, he pressed it against Chen Yubo’s forehead. Gone was the warmth and friendliness from when they had first sat down together. The dagger had finally been revealed, leaving only cruelty behind.
1. “徐” is a common surname in China. Refer to translator's thoughts for extra info. “均” means balance, equality, or evenness, giving the name a sense of fairness and composure. To me, the name suggests someone level-headed and practical, not flashy or aggressive, but steady in judgment and behavior. ☜
Comments