Chapter 128.1: Peaceful Days? Part 1
For several days in a row, nothing happened.
The storm Chen Yubo had expected never came. Aside from being held at gunpoint at the very beginning, the following days of his life in the villa were almost peaceful. As he fed the cats and basked in the sun, he nearly thought he’d been forgotten.
Looking at the sunset outside the window, Chen Yubo sighed in relief. “Feels kind of relaxing, actually. Could it be that no one even remembers me anymore?”
Ji Jue nodded helplessly. “Yeah, sure, totally.”
The blond kid looked like he wanted to say something but held it back. A Yi lowered his head and pretended not to hear. As for An Ran, he hadn’t been gaming at all lately. Instead, he’d gotten hooked on reality shows, using Chen Yubo’s premium account to binge variety programs on the TV with intense focus. Whenever a good-looking idol showed up, he’d pause the show, turn around, and compare them with Ji Jue. Something about that just felt... off.
Ji Jue scratched his head. Those looks were getting weirder and weirder!
Chen Yubo finally seemed to notice something was wrong. “Where’s Tom? Haven’t seen him much these past couple days.”
The blond kid stiffened. “Uh... Out for a walk, maybe?”
“Yeah, yeah!” A Yi nodded frantically. “He ate too much, now he needs to digest.”
Chen Yubo looked confused. “Should we buy him some digestive tablets?”
The blond kid gradually got the hang of it. “No need, no need. He said he’s constipated. A few more trips to the bathroom and he’ll be fine!”
Chen Yubo gasped, and he instinctively looked at Ji Jue, stunned.
You Chosen Ones are so weird!
For a brief moment, Ji Jue almost opened his mouth, then stopped himself. The others could only pretend to stay busy, shifting their gaze away. Watching the deepening dusk, they couldn’t help but sigh helplessly.
There was a saying that went, “when you think life is peaceful, it just means someone else is carrying the burden for you.” What “calm and quiet” was there? The constant harassment and attacks hadn’t stopped at all!
The main issue was that Chen Yubo overreacted to everything, screaming at the slightest thing he saw. Eventually, they just stopped telling him anything. Letting him feed the cats and watch short videos every day was enough, and at least it made things easier.
As for physical labor...
Ji Jue, busy secretly trying to outdo Ye Chun, obviously wasn’t going to do any labor. An Ran was disabled, so running around was out of the question.
A Yi and the blond kid were the most dedicated bodyguards, sticking to Chen Yubo at all times. Even when he went to the bathroom, they’d stand outside the door, leaving it slightly ajar. At night, they just laid bedding on the floor right beside the cats’ nest.
Thus, all the dirty and exhausting work got dumped onto the new guy, Tom. After all, he was always bragging that he was good at everything. The capable ones should do more work, right?
In the sweltering afternoon, the light of dusk slowly trickled in. In the dense shade of the woods near the hilltop, the sound of a shovel scraping against dirt rang out nonstop, mixed with grumbling complaints.
“Damn it, I’m underpaid, seriously underpaid...” Tom dug hard into the sandy soil, wiping sweat from his forehead as he muttered, “Digging pits wasn’t in the contract, alright? Landscaping fees and funeral fees gotta be charged separately!”
Thud!
A heavy corpse was tossed into the pit, then gradually buried until it became a mound of earth. Tom took out a handful of sand from his pocket, muttered a couple of lines of eulogy, and casually scattered it over the grave, performing a sloppy, makeshift local rite as a token send-off.
Before him, within the dense forest, mound after mound rose up, stretching into the dimness.
“Finally done...” He let out a breath, tossed aside the shovel, and turned to leave.
Just then, Ji Jue’s voice came through the walkie-talkie. “Tom, we’ve got company. About a dozen. There’s a Chosen One among them. Mind making another trip?”
Tom flew into a rage. “How many waves has this been already? Will this ever end? What is this place, a damn tourist attraction?”
“It’s not that bad,” Ji Jue replied calmly. “So far only one Chosen One has shown up. That’s already pretty decent.”
Tom glared at the walkie-talkie. “No way, why am I the only one doing all the work? Contractors are people too, you know. We’ve got tempers. Keep pushing me like this and I might just quit!”
“Alright, alright, I’ll handle this one, okay?” Ji Jue said helplessly.
Tom nodded in satisfaction. “That’s more like it.”
“Anyway, you’re still digging the pits.”
“You bastard, you—”
The transmission cut off.
Not far from the villa, at a fork in the road, a convoy of mud-splattered off-road vehicles slowly came to a stop. In the dimming light, a group of people wearing sunglasses and face coverings gathered, their exposed skin dark and weathered from the sun.
The man in the lead raised a pair of binoculars, gazing toward the estate by the cliff in the distance. He let out the exact same kind of envy-laced sigh as Ji Jue did when he first got here. “Damn, they’re living this well? Aren’t they afraid it’ll cost them their lifespan?”
Someone beside him clicked his tongue. “This is nothing. With that huge inheritance in hand, forget living here, he could be lying in the governor’s bed while keeping the governor’s wife company and still have money to spare.”
“That guy, what’s his name... Chen... Chen Yubo. Is he really in there?” Zhong Naohai turned his head, pulling down his face covering. A shrewd look appeared on his scruffy, unshaven face. “You think Yu Mazi would kindly leak something this big? A job this lucrative and he’s not taking it himself? Don’t tell me after latching onto Lei Yaoxing, he suddenly washed his hands of everything and turned over a new leaf?”
“H-he... he said he’s now doing... doing cl-client-side work!” a tall, skinny man with a bad stutter squeezed forward to answer. “If-if-if we pull this off, he’ll s-s-split the money with us!”
“Split the money?” Zhong Naohai laughed. “I do the job, grab the hostage, and then I hand him over so he can ‘split’ the money with us? What am I, begging on my knees for money?!”
“Boss, you mean...?” someone beside him asked.
“Who cares about Yu Mazi? Whoever we grab is ours!” Zhong Naohai spat. “We’ve suffered in the wilderness between city-states long enough. Pull this off, split the cash, and from then on we’re all city folks! Just look at this place, the facade, the decor. Even if that Chen guy isn’t inside, we can still make a killing and walk away! Hell, maybe even snag a couple of mistresses to enjoy!”
Hearing that, the others’ eyes immediately lit up.
“Boss is right!”
“Let’s do it!”
“I-I-I’m in too!”
They’d spent too long looting and running through the wastelands between city-states. Who wouldn’t want to score big once, then head somewhere where no one knew them and live as a rich man?
“Then it’s settled!” Zhong Naohai grabbed the gun beside him and pulled the bolt. “Let’s score something big!”
Amid the cheers, the convoy engines roared to life again, belching thick clouds of smoke. But just as Zhong Naohai sat down in the passenger seat, he felt a vibration in his chest. His phone buzzed. Annoyed, he hung up, but the screen lit up again.
Only when he impatiently answered, ready to curse, did he hear a gentle piano melody from the other end, followed by a pre-recorded electronic voice. “Dear visitor, we regret to inform you that due to facility maintenance, we are temporarily suspending operations. For your safety, please return immediately—”
“Return my ass!” Zhong Naohai exploded in anger. The moment he hung up, a deafening blast came from the front.
With a booming rumble, thick smoke billowed, and flames surged from the very first armored off-road vehicle at the head of the convoy. The instant it crossed the boundary marker, a massive hole tore through the modified bulletproof vehicle, punching straight through the driver’s seat. Blood sprayed everywhere as the shot pierced the car and slammed into the fuel tank, igniting it.
The speeding vehicle came to an abrupt halt, swallowed by vicious flames. Smoke churned upward into the sky, forcing the entire convoy to stop in their tracks.
Only then did the thunderous explosion from the distant villa slowly echo in the distance.
The formation plunged into chaos. Every vehicle began reversing, backing away, retreating into the shadows of the trees.
“Shit, there’s a sniper!” Zhong Naohai’s pupils shrank as cold sweat dripped down his skin. Good thing he’d been a second late and hadn’t taken the lead because he needed to take a leak. Otherwise, he’d have been dispatched on the spot.
After the initial shock came fury.
“The hell, you think you’re the only ones with long guns? I’ve got them too! Diaomao, get your ass out there and snipe him!”
Urged on over the radio, a gaunt, skinny man from the rear vehicle hoisted his rifle and climbed onto the roof. Using the cover of the trees, he cautiously extended just the tip of his barrel.
Lightning cracked. A spray of blood burst abruptly across the roof, trickling down along the windows. In the dead silence that followed, the faces behind the glass turned even paler.
“B-b-boss...” The stuttering driver felt like he had never spoken this fluently in his life. He almost broke into tears. “Diaomao’s g-g-gone!”
Zhong Naohai said nothing. His phone began vibrating again, the screen lighting up. Then a second ringtone came, followed by a third. Throughout the entire convoy, everyone’s phones started ringing at the same time.
In the suffocating atmosphere, the overlapping tones sounded like ghostly wails, unbearably chaotic. Everyone was too paralyzed with fear to dare to answer.
Until, as if given a command from hell, the calls connected on their own. Through the speakers came that same gentle music. “Dear visitor, we regret to inform you that due to equipment mainte—”
“Maintain my ass!” Zhong Naohai’s face turned ashen as he roared into the phone. “Trying to play tricks in front of me?!”
People who survived by looting the wastelands lacked many things, but they never ran out of foul language. His curses poured out endlessly, yet amid the angry tirade, he made a signal with his fingers.
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