Rotting Land: Survive

Chapter 827: Chapter 112: Reinvestigating Yao Ruyi (Part 2)

With a father’s gentleness, Liu Fugui lightly shook Liu Yunpeng, who was still in a dazed state. Although he was dissatisfied with his son’s decadent look at this moment—falling apart over a woman like Li Huiru, who in his eyes wasn’t worth his sympathy at all—he was furious at his son’s lack of backbone.

But after so many years of being used to doting on his son, he really couldn’t bring himself to scold him for being spineless at a time like this.

The atmosphere in the room was quite strange. Huang Yong felt extremely uncomfortable sitting in it, so he simply spoke up to take his leave: "Boss Liu, I think Young Master’s tired and needs some rest. If there’s nothing else, I’ll stop bothering you and take Xiao Yao with me."

Liu Fugui nodded silently. "Go on."

Back in his room, Yao Ruyi let out a long, rough breath. The moment he thought of the glare Huang Yong had thrown him just now, he felt a jolt of fear. "Seriously weird. I just asked how Li Huiru was doing, what’s with that damn face of his! Damn!"

"Xiao Yao, the hell are you muttering about over there?" His underling roughly kicked off his shoes, then lunged forward and flopped onto the bed.

"Holy shit, your feet are way too damn smelly, man, they’re basically a Big Killer!" Yao Ruyi pinched his nose and quickly got up to open the window by the desk to let some air in.

His underling didn’t care about his embarrassment at all; instead he smugly swung both feet in the air twice and drawled, "Guess you’ve got a good eye. These feet of mine really are a Big Killer. Zombies scary, huh? But I’m telling you, as long as I just prop my feet up on their nose like this..."

"There won’t even be bones left!"

"Smack!" Yao Ruyi casually picked up a desk calendar from the table and smashed it against the underling’s feet, which were still kicking around in the air and reeking to high heaven. "Stop polluting the air. Get your ass to the bathroom and wash them."

"Knock knock knock!" Someone was at the door.

"Nima! Don’t tell me it’s Brother Huang!" The underling didn’t dare slack off. With a sudden kip-up off the bed, he scrambled to grab a random pair of shoes and shove his feet in, not even caring left from right. He ran to the door while shouting, "Brother Huang, coming, coming!"

"Mm?"

"Is Yao Ruyi here?" Lei Tong stood at the door with a serious face, his height a full half head taller than the underling.

"Ah! You! He... he’s here!" Snapping back to his senses, the underling twisted around and called into the room, "Xiao Yao, someone’s looking for you."

"Looking for me?"

"No shit!"

Bewildered, Yao Ruyi dragged his feet out: "Who? Who’s looking for me?"

The underling had only been at the villa for a few hours. Although everyone had introduced themselves during dinner earlier, to be honest, aside from being able to recognize Old Xu, Old Zhao and the other four, he couldn’t match the rest of the villa guys to their names at all. So Yao Ruyi’s question was basically playing a lute to a cow.

The fact that the underling and Yao Ruyi didn’t know Lei Tong didn’t mean Lei Tong didn’t know them. As the one Old Xu had assigned to monitor Liu Fugui’s movements, anything and anyone related to Liu Fugui was something he needed to keep a close eye on.

So the moment Yao Ruyi appeared, Lei Tong recognized him at a glance. "Yao Ruyi, please come with me. Our squad leader wants to talk to you about something."

Now Yao Ruyi was really getting more confused. "Looking for me?"

In his view, if Old Xu had any instructions, in terms of both reason and rank, he should be going to Liu Fugui, who was in charge on their side, or to Huang Yong. Why specifically look for him? With this question in mind, he pressed, "Oh, do you know what it’s about?"

"You’ll know when you get there."

"Is Boss Liu going to be there?"

"You’ll know when you get there."

Lei Tong was like an auto-reply recorder, not wasting a single extra word, just repeating himself. Yao Ruyi helplessly slapped his underling on the shoulder. "Wash those stinky feet clean before I get back!"

"Damn! Screw you."

Watching Yao Ruyi disappear at the end of the corridor, the underling rubbed his left shoulder. The smack from earlier had actually been pretty heavy. He cursed under his breath, "Nima, I’m not a damn idiot, do you really have to signal me like that. Damn!"

Griping aside, the underling knew this was a serious matter. No matter what, they were in someone else’s base camp; a slight misstep and they could capsize.

This time, the villa guys bypassed Boss Liu and went straight to Yao Ruyi—definitely not a good sign. The underling figured it was eight or nine times out of ten about that last shooting incident, so this couldn’t be delayed; he had to hurry up and report it to Brother Huang.

"Lieutenant, I’ve brought Yao Ruyi."

"Mm." Old Xu nodded, then gestured to Yao Ruyi. "Sit down, Xiao Yao."

"Oh, okay!" Yao Ruyi pulled out a stool and slowly sat down. His eyes casually swept over the people at the table—they were all folks he knew. "So, what do you all need me for?"

"Yao Ruyi, remember what we talked about the last time we met?" Tang Xiaoquan’s tone was stiff, no different from interrogating a suspect.

"Juli Sports Arena!" Old Xu went straight to the point and named the topic outright.

Yao Ruyi’s pupils widened instantly. He himself had almost forgotten about that matter, yet these people remembered it so clearly.

Not good—that was his first reaction. He knew perfectly well he’d lied back then. Now that they’d singled him out at this moment to talk about it, they clearly had some sort of agenda.

"What’s wrong, Xiao Yao, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?" Old Xu’s face suddenly darkened.

"No, no, no!" Yao Ruyi waved his hands quickly. "No, I... I haven’t forgotten, I’m just a bit surprised you guys suddenly remembered to ask about it, haha!"

His attempt to cover up only made Tang Xiaoquan more certain that there was a problem with what he’d said during their previous contact. Raising his voice slightly, Tang gave a cold laugh. "Heh, sounds like, Xiao Yao, you’d rather we didn’t bring it up, huh?"

Having his thoughts exposed, Yao Ruyi’s eyes flickered. He deliberately avoided their gazes and looked down at his palms. "How could that be? I remember last time I already told you everything I knew about that, so..."

"So we’re not allowed to question your lies?" Old Xu slammed a booklet onto the table in front of him. "Open it and take a look."

Now Yao Ruyi was truly panicking. This little stunt they pulled came out of nowhere, leaving him no time to prepare mentally. "I told the truth. There’s got to be some misunderstanding here. For something like that, I had no reason to lie to you all..."

"Why’d you stop? Didn’t you say you never lied to me? Then, Xiao Yao, please explain a few of the questionable points listed in that booklet in your hand, all right?"

Yao Ruyi was completely stunned. There were ten lines listed in the booklet, and every single one of the doubts mentioned left him at a loss for words. His heart was in turmoil. These people were too sharp—what he’d thought was a flawless account had actually let them hear so many holes. Facing opponents like this, what was the point in resisting anymore?

"Fine." Yao Ruyi closed the booklet with a blank look and met Tang Xiaoquan’s gaze. "I admit it. I did lie to you last time. The problems you listed there are the proof."

"Hoo..." Hearing him admit it, the stone that had been hanging in Tang Xiaoquan’s heart finally dropped. What surged up next was his yearning to know his parents’ whereabouts. "Then can you tell the truth now?"

"Xiao Yao, don’t get the wrong idea. We called you in and questioned you about this not to embarrass you. It’s because Tang’s parents very likely lived in that shelter you mentioned. We don’t know why you lied to him last time, but I believe you must have had some reason you couldn’t talk about. But now we’re all one family, so I hope this time you can honestly tell us the truth." (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)