When Huo Ren was descending the stairs, Feng Jin was still at the elevator entrance, massaging Bo Huan’s head.
Bo Huan had just showcased his jazz piano skills on the stage behind Feng Tian. Usually appearing as an innocent, naïve youth, he played with a proficiency comparable to the seasoned African American jazz professionals in America’s underground scenes, impressively shocking both Feng Jin and the entire audience.
Feng Jin, still not over the excitement, stroked Bo Huan’s sleek, shiny long hair and smiled, waving her hand when he saw Huo Ren approaching.
“Remember to save me two tickets for the concert.”
“You flatter me,” Huo Ren chuckled, “I still have much to learn from you.”
Huo Ren, in his mere ten years in the industry, was still considered a junior by veterans like Feng Jin and Mei Heng, who had watched him grow up.
He was always aware of his place, maintaining a degree of reverence.
Quietly, Bo Huan handed him a throat lozenge.
“Brother Ren, you look so cool today!”
After exiting the elevator, Huo Ren followed his memory to find his car but unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure.
He paused for a few seconds, then hastened his steps to meet them.
Only after he approached and confirmed the facial features did he lower his voice and urgently called out.
“Brother Long? What are you doing here?”
It was now midsummer, yet Long Jia still wore a formal, complete suit, with cufflinks and a tie clip perfectly in place.
“I had a word with President Pei, came here early to wait for you.” Long Jia looked somewhat weary, merely touching his face, “It’s been a long while, you’ve been working hard too.”
Although Huo Ren still remembered a grievance from two years ago, he knew it wasn’t the time to express emotions but was more concerned about his brother’s current condition.
“You’ve lost a lot of weight… How come you’re not wearing your wedding ring?”
He looked more closely at Long Jia’s hands before asking again, “Did something happen between you and Brother Jue?”
At that time, Bo Jue had ostentatiously flaunted his wedding ring, surprising both him and Xie Lianyun. However, for a month following, Long Jia did not respond, and the matter eventually faded.
Long Jia stared at him for a while, then gently shook his head.
“I’m about to do something very dangerous, and for now, I can’t involve Xiao Jue in any way.”
Huo Ren was startled, realizing they were preparing to target the Han family’s financial chain.
He was unsure how to respond, unintentionally digging his fingernails into his palm, and after a moment, he said, “We’ve also been collecting information.”
One by one, case by case, all were gathering momentum.
“Just waiting for you to make a move, and then we’ll set off a chain reaction that will push that man into an abyss from which he cannot return.”
Long Jia smiled, pulling Huo Ren into a tight embrace.
“Ren Ren, I’ve missed you,” he said warmly, “and everyone at Corona, and everything about the 17th floor.”
“It’s all in your hands now; I’ll return safely, don’t worry.”
Huo Ren hadn’t been embraced in a long while, and the atmosphere of parting made him a bit nervous.
“The Han family hasn’t noticed anything yet, right?”
“Mainly… this move will gamble a lot of the Long family’s assets,” Long Jia murmured with closed eyes, “Hopefully, it won’t burden my family too much.”
Any large corporation’s total assets might appear formidable as mountains, but internally, they are complex and intertwined, not easily risked in a single venture.
This covert battle had been in preparation for nearly two years, now reaching a critical juncture.
Huo Ren took a deep breath and responded.
“Brother, we all await your return.”
At the private golf club in the western suburbs of the city.
Xu Le looked around at the environment as he got out of the car.
The security was tight, with invisible barriers across the lawns and garden courtyards; almost every five to ten meters, security personnel were patrolling back and forth.
“Is it Mr. Xu?” A svelte receptionist smiled and said, “Mr. Han and your friend have been waiting for a while now. Please, follow me.”
Xu Le nervously glanced again at the two German Shepherds being walked by the security, unconsciously buttoning the second mother-of-pearl button on his shirt.
He adjusted his jacket and followed her inside.
The wealthy always hid their whereabouts deeply.
Ordinary merchants might discuss business directly in busy eateries, drinking and chatting, but the higher the status, the more accustomed people are to concealing themselves, having dozens of strongholds in different cities.
Xu Le, having provided psychological counseling for many years and having encountered several influential figures, knew well that he might have already entered a monitored area.
The midsummer sun was fiercely hot, causing sweat to trickle down the back of his neck.
Indeed, the location was quite remote.
Despite the shuttle car parked beside the green lawn, the receptionist ignored it, leading him on a nearly twenty-minute walk under the scorching sun.
She moved gracefully in her cheongsam, while Xu Le gradually became parched and felt his psychological defenses weakening.
After passing through countless rooms, they finally stopped in front of a villa.
“You’ve had a tough walk,” the lady bowed slightly and turned to leave.
The villa’s door opened promptly.
Xu Le tightened his zipper once more and followed the security inside.
He knew what he was about to face.
The house was in a typical Nordic style, with large bloodstains on the marble tiles, easily cleaned with a mop.
Descending the winding staircase, the signal faded inch by inch.
Xu Le took a deep breath and, as his vision brightened again, heard the sound of billiard balls colliding.
“Long time no see.” A crew-cut man holding a cue paused and greeted perfunctorily: “Xu Le, I’ve told you, there’s no need for you to get involved in some matters.”
Han Qu leaned against the sofa, feinting with the large ring on his right hand.
Two burly men emerged from hiding, pinning Xu Le and starting a thorough body search from top to bottom.
“What are you doing?!”
“Just a simple precaution,” Han Qu laughed. “Getting close to that little beast, and even making efforts to ride in the same car as me, isn’t easy to handle with just a few words.”
Xu Le had never been treated this way and immediately shouted angrily, “What does it have to do with you! Let me go!”
Before he could break free from the restraint, a bodyguard had already retrieved something from his pants pocket and tossed it onto the billiard table.
It was a voice recorder that had been running for twenty-five minutes.
Han Qu scoffed, lounging back, “Continue the search.”
Xu Le’s face suddenly paled, pinned down in an extremely humiliating pose, and kicked several times.
“I brought the voice recorder—because—you insisted I come to this place—it’s suspicious—”
“Ah, people being cautious is very normal.”
Han Qu allowed his subordinates to light a cigarette for him, looking down at him and slowly saying, “I’m puzzled. You refuse the money I offer and still show up. What do you expect to gain from me?”
Xu Le stumbled a few steps after being kicked, collapsing onto the carpet in disarray and saying, “Lu Cheng said, he said that the patient, the one with depression, he died—”
Han Qu didn’t expect him to admit it so quickly, and instead, he laughed as if he was looking at a kindergartener.
Really no cunning at all, how boring.
Han Qu slowly stood up, cigarette in mouth, towering over him, picked up the found voice recorder, then let it go.
The black recorder rolled with a thud onto the wooden floor, was stepped on, and then slowly crushed.
“So you’re a good Samaritan, huh?” He said in a low, smooth voice with a slight sneer, “Is it a common trait for you doctors to be quite narcissistic?”
“Thinking you can save everyone, even those you’ve never met, feeling responsible for them.”
Xu Le’s pupils narrowed, his voice rising with anger: “What did you do to that patient?!”
“You can hardly bear your own burdens, yet you still worry about the patient, probably not even knowing their name,” Han Qu clicked his tongue. “Your hospital really should give you an award.”
“Listen carefully,” he squatted down, grabbing Xu Le’s hair, forcing him to look up: “The person you ‘killed,’ his name was Chi Ji, a dead transgender.”
“I—I didn’t kill anyone!! I’ve never killed anyone!!! I am a doctor!!”
“Weren’t you the one who taught me how to properly take care of him?” Han Qu spoke softly: “Thanks to you, Corona was reduced to a mess, and that rich second-generation had to go back to relying on his parents, I could wake up from a dream laughing about it.”
Xu Le, twisted to the extreme, let out a long hiss: “Chi Ji… it was Chi Ji… you…”
“Let me clarify it even further, so you understand how ‘kind’ you are.” Han Qu, as if recounting a hunting trophy, continued twisting his hair and scalp, slowly saying: “Chi Ji, my men messed with him several times.”
“He just followed the trend and cursed for a few months, couldn’t handle it, got depression.”
“Once he got depression, his brothers, naive as they were, protected him, shielded everything from him, not letting him know what was happening outside.”
Han Qu, knowing Xu Le wouldn’t survive the night, spoke of his exploits without reservation.
He chuckled again, taking a pleasurable drag of his cigarette: “I asked you once, just a few words and I had it all, sent that poor little thing some ‘gifts.'”
Xu Le suddenly shook violently, forcibly breaking free from the restraint, and roared: “You are murdering him!! Han Qu!!! You are committing murder!!!”
The two burly men quickly pressed him back onto the carpet, kicking him twice to force him to continue crawling in humiliation.
“Murder?” Han Qu curiously said: “He received the package himself, he jumped off the building himself, what does that have to do with me?”
“Just got stimulated a bit, and couldn’t handle it… I had prepared a dozen more packages like that.”
He ignored Xu Le’s painful screams, speaking as if still unsatisfied: “Ah, there were really some good things in those packages, all the dirt from over the years.”
“Some said Chi Ji had been serving rich old men since he was young, there were many explicit photos and death photos released.”
“Lots of haters hoped he’d die soon so he wouldn’t trouble the other members, some even followed the trend to expel his gender, to cut off his—”
“Enough!! Don’t say anymore—”
“Enough? I don’t think so.” Han Qu said regretfully: “I had a three-step plan, wanted this kid to know how much he was hated and despised, what kind of filthy thing he had become.”
“Such a pity.” He said lightly: “He only saw about a dozen photos before jumping down.”
Xu Le screamed in pain, a bodyguard punched him, dazing him nearly to the point of unconsciousness.
“It’s also a pity.” Han Qu turned around: “I wasn’t planning to touch you, but you came to me on your own.”
Thought you could stir up a big splash, but foolishly brought a recorder and delivered yourself to death.
Well, once this is cleaned up, it’s over.
He twisted the doorknob, stepping away.
“Remember to clean the blood thoroughly, change the carpets to new ones.”
“Yes.”
The moment the door opened, blinding light poured in.
Countless flashlights vied to capture his current state.
Outside, police sirens approached from near to far, and a horde of media emerged from nowhere, loudly questioning him.
“Mr. Han—Xie Lianyun publicly claimed his friend was illegally detained by you, is this true—”
“Is your acquisition of such property in the suburbs related to money laundering—”
“Look inside the house!! There’s really someone in there!! Kneeling!!”
More people crowded towards the basement, pushing and shoving.
“Mr. Han, is this your torture chamber??”
“Are these actions directed by Han Gaozhi—”
“Quick, film inside!!! Damn, no signal!!!”
Han Qu’s mind exploded, completely unable to grasp what was happening.
He moved his lips, seeing his bodyguards pinned against the wall, hands tied behind their backs.
Xie Lianyun stood at the newly illuminated entrance, silently watching him.
Author’s note:
This is just the beginning, there’s a long revenge story yet to write.
I’ll probably update around 8 p.m. tomorrow night.
the show is finally reaching its conclusion, just a bit more