Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 163: Chain of Events
“This is the current situation.” Wu Sheng transmitted all the known clues to Chi Yingxue at the fastest speed, listing them one after another like a massive database.
After listening, Chi Yingxue blinked and said, “Oh.”
Wu Sheng said, “I know it’s a lot of information, but you don’t actually have to remember all this. Just keep an eye on Ying Jiu. He deliberately sent the body back and insisted on not leaving. There must be a reason.”
“No need to remember, yet you tell me…” Chi Yingxue complained.
Wu Sheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Then pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“It’s too late.” Chi Yingxue took out the remaining four and a half oranges from the fruit plate, mumbling to himself—
The first orange: “Old Master Cheng survives a fall but dies from poison.”
The second orange: “Cheng Jiming gets kidnapped and dies, but the Fushou Gang refuses responsibility.”
The third orange: “Du Jinnian comes for tea and vanishes from the face of the earth.”
The fourth orange: “Cheng Xiaonan gets poisoned by alcohol and can’t get out of bed.”
The last half-orange was split into three segments: “Now both the Hai Gang and the Fushou Gang are refusing to leave. You should hurry up and look for the badge while searching the Cheng residence.”
Four oranges and three segments, neatly lined up by size, meticulously arranged by Chi Yingxue.
“All remembered, can’t be erased,” he said with a serious and distressed face, like a user unfortunate enough to have redundant information taking up memory that couldn’t be deleted.
Wu Sheng didn’t know whether to be astonished or delighted. “When did you awaken this skill?”
Chi Yingxue skeptically raised an eyebrow. “This counts as a skill?”
“Of course,” Wu Sheng said. “Although I am well-rounded in intelligence, martial skills, agility, and defense, most of the time, it’s ‘intelligence’ that decides the outcome.”
Chi Yingxue thought for a moment. “What about looks?”
“……” For a long time after sending off his teammate, Wu Sheng couldn’t figure out whether the question “What about looks?” was simply asking “Don’t looks matter?” or had a deeper meaning of “Can’t you have some shame?”
……
The Cheng family arranged four rooms in the guest house for the Fushou Gang. Ying Jiu and Xiao Wu each had their own room, with the remaining two rooms allocated to other brothers.
As soon as Chi Yingxue entered the room, he felt something was off. Someone was inside.
In the unlit room, only a faint, barely visible frost was illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the window, with Ying Jiu sitting behind it, his face obscured.
“I didn’t know you knew Mr. Bai.”
“He’s my… friend.” Chi Yingxue didn’t think it was a big deal, but when he said the last word, he couldn’t help but curl his lips, feeling proud and haughty.
“What kind of friend?” Ying Jiu’s voice was calm and steady yet unfathomable, like a deep river with a smooth surface but turbulent currents underneath.
Unfortunately, Chi Yingxue didn’t catch any of this, as he was fiddling with an oil lamp with interest. “One I clear levels with.”
“What levels?” Ying Jiu frowned in the darkness.
“You wouldn’t understand if I told you.” Chi Yingxue unilaterally ended the conversation and then shook the exquisite oil lamp at Ying Jiu. “Do you know how to light this?”
Ying Jiu lit the oil lamp for his subordinate, and when the room was illuminated, his face was completely dark, unwilling to admit what he had just done.
Chi Yingxue was still engrossed in planning for the Cheng family. “We should pull the electric wires over to the small building. Using electricity is so much more convenient…”
Master Ying Jiu didn’t want to stay a second longer, smoothing out the wrinkles on his long robe and walking towards the door.
Seeing Ying Jiu about to leave, Chi Yingxue quickly put down the oil lamp and asked, “Was the ransom provided by the Cheng family not enough? Why kill Cheng Jiming?”
Ying Jiu stopped in his tracks. He was silent for a moment, then turned around. His eyes, for the first time, revealed undisguised defiance and murderous intent. “Kid, no one has dared to talk to me like that.”
Chi Yingxue looked at him worriedly, not quite satisfied with the response—was Cheng Jiming killed or not?
Seeing this little brother drifting off again, Ying Jiu felt exhausted both in body and mind.
Killing someone with a gunshot meant nothing to Ying Jiu, but he could foresee that even if he did kill the other party, it wouldn’t resolve the frustration in his heart.
Moreover, he didn’t really want to make the move.
“Do you know why I let you follow me?” Ying Jiu rarely shared his feelings, but tonight was an exception.
Chi Yingxue: “Because I’m skilled?”
Ying Jiu glanced at him disdainfully. “You think too highly of yourself.”
Chi Yingxue frowned. “Then why?”
Ying Jiu quietly looked at him, as if seeing through him to the past. “Because you remind me of myself when I was young.”
“Impossible,” Chi Yingxue said without hesitation. “You’re not as good-looking as I am.”
“……”
When Ying Jiu left Young Master Wu’s room, he felt that not going on a rampage tonight must have been the work of a ghost—the kind that endures, made of steel.
……
Wu Sheng used stationery to make him invisible to search the entire Cheng mansion thoroughly, not sparing even the Western-style small building.
In the end, he found the [Chaos Badge] underneath the “stove” as indicated by the badge handbook and discovered the following clues in three other locations—
- Cheng Jiming’s study was left as it was. In a book on the lowest shelf, there was a note with different handwriting than his own. The note featured the verse, “These stars are not those of last night, for whom do the wind and dew stand deep into the night?” It had no name, only a crescent moon-shaped red mark.
- In Old Master Cheng’s residence, a letter was found with the signature of Mr. Bai, whom Wu Sheng had transmigrated into. The letter stated that the matter Old Master Cheng asked him to investigate had made progress and needed a face-to-face discussion.
- In the study of Cheng Xiaonan in the Western-style building, Wu Sheng found a cylindrical seal under the carpet beneath the bookshelf, likely rolled there accidentally. The seal, adorned with a finely carved little lion with a hint of black resembling blood, was inscribed with “Yu Sheng”—Du Jinnian’s courtesy name.
The badge wasn’t difficult to find, but the clues were terrifying upon closer inspection.
Wu Sheng tucked the note, badge, and letter into his arms and slipped out of Cheng Xiaonan’s room, which was the last spot that he searched. He planned to return to the Bai Mansion under the cover of night—Old Master Cheng’s commission for Mr. Bai to investigate was likely related to Cheng Jiming’s kidnapping, and there might be more information and clues in Bai Mansion.
As soon as he stepped out of the study, he smelled a strange odor coming from Cheng Xiaonan’s bedroom.
In front of the bedroom, brothers from the Fushou Gang and the Hai Gang stared with eagle-like vigilance that not even a fly could enter. However, two of them seemed unsettled by the smell, cursing quietly. “Damn, it’s making my cravings kick in.”
Wu Sheng quietly returned to the study, leaping from balcony to balcony towards the bedroom, moving like a chess piece, eventually landing on the bedroom balcony.
The curtains weren’t fully closed, leaving a narrow gap that let out light.
Peering through the gap, he could see everything in the brightly lit room—a maid sat by the bed, skillfully delivering an opium pipe to Cheng Xiaonan’s lips. Her movements were practiced; clearly, this wasn’t her first time serving. Amid the swirling smoke, with an IV drip hanging, the bedridden master of the Cheng family struggled to turn his head, lazily and contentedly inhaling.
Even though he was poisoned, it didn’t deter him from smoking opium. Wu Sheng suddenly felt that the act of poisoning was superfluous—someone like Cheng Xiaonan could bring about his own downfall. If there was a grudge, one only needed to wait.
Upon returning to Bai Mansion, Wu Sheng glanced at the clock and was shocked to find that five hours had passed since his transmigration!
He had spent the entire night dealing with various people and searching for clues in the Cheng family residence without realizing how much time had elapsed! He had planned to search the Bai Mansion next and then think about the save point issue.
However, it seemed that time here didn’t flow at a 1:1 ratio with reality, a situation that had occurred both in the ancient castle in 7/23 and in the inner hell in 9/23. Often, more than five hours had passed in-game, but not in real time.
When it slowed, he could be at ease.
Wu Sheng stopped pondering these things and dove into Mr. Bai’s study, filled with documents, starting his massive search.
He searched until dawn, to no avail.
In the entire sea of documents—murders, robberies, adulteries, stolen cows, lost dogs—all kinds of cases were documented, except for anything related to the Cheng family; not even a single word.
This was very strange.
Even if Old Master Cheng’s commission wasn’t related to Cheng Jiming’s kidnapping but to something else, there should have been a record. The only explanation for such a void was that the records had been taken or destroyed.
It could have been done by Mr. Bai himself or by someone who didn’t want him to continue the investigation…
Because Wu Sheng found a note sandwiched in an inconspicuous poetry notebook that was probably Mr. Bai’s original work.
Luckily, the characters were large and few, so he could barely make them out—Meddlers, die.
The note was signed—Half-fallen plum blossoms in the pond have faded away.
Half-fallen plum blossoms…
Wu Sheng stared at the signature, slowly deciphering a word. “…Hai.”
……
All the clues connected because of this word that surfaced.
The mysteries shrouding the two deaths were gradually clearing, revealing a coherent trail, but—
Wu Sheng pulled out the seal found in Cheng Xiaonan’s study, suspected of being stained with blood, and frowned deeply.
Where exactly was Du Jinnian?
After rushing back to the Cheng family residence, day had broken. The courtyard was already set up for funeral rites, with monks taking their places and servants bustling about.
The news of Old Master Cheng’s resurrection had spread throughout the Cheng family residence overnight; on the way back, Wu Sheng even heard the nearby neighbors discussing it. For outsiders, it was merely a spectacle, but for those within the Cheng mansion, it was a real fear—whether servants or guards, strong or weak—everyone looked frightened, trying to stay as far from the memorial hall as possible. The elder was still lying in there, soon to be buried in his coffin.
Watching the atmosphere, Wu Sheng quietly formed a plan.
He didn’t know where Du Jinnian was, but after investigating this far, he at least needed to shake out the truth—for the unjustly deceased Cheng Jiming—to provide an explanation.
“Mr. Bai, I’ve finally found you—” Accompanied by a loud voice, his teammate walked over openly.
Wu Sheng stood still, watching Qian Ai, dressed in a simple short jacket, approach. “What, your lord is looking for me?”
Qian Ai came up and whispered, “I’m looking for you.”
The courtyard’s noise drowned out their conversation. To bystanders, it looked like a servant speaking with Mr. Bai, but in reality, Lao Qian was passing on the gossip gathered overnight about Cheng Jiming’s second marriage history.
Cheng Jiming’s first wife, Zhou Lanxin, died in childbirth. The daughter survived, but the mother didn’t. Afterwards, Cheng Jiming swore never to remarry, rejecting all matchmakers, until one day, after becoming intoxicated at a social event, he woke up to find Hai Huiping beside him.
Cheng Jiming, a gentle and mannered man, would have taken responsibility for Hai Huiping even without the pressure from the Hai Gang. Thus, Hai Huiping entered the Cheng family. Officially, it was a drunken mistake by Cheng Jiming, but rumors suggested it was a trap set by Hai Huiping. After all, the Hai Gang had attempted to make marriage arrangements several times—clearly Hai Huiping had set her sights on Cheng Jiming first.
Wu Sheng had already pieced together the main story, and Qian Ai’s information added more details.
As Qian Ai blended back into the crowd, Wu Sheng scanned the many monks in the courtyard, locking onto the most agreeable one.
With a look, the young monk approached; with the ongoing chaos, no one paid attention to their movements.
“What do you need me to do?” Xu Wang asked upon arrival.
Wu Sheng smiled. “Aren’t you going to ask about the progress of the mission first?”
Xu Wang lifted his shaved head. “As long as you can eventually submit the paper, the process is illusory.”
[If you like him, then just tackle him and get down to business.]
The inappropriate mantra from a teammate last night flashed through his mind.
Wu Sheng quickly focused, saying, “Indeed, I have a plan and need you to play a key role.”
Xu Wang nodded. “What do I need to do?”
Wu Sheng said, “Become possessed by the spirit of acting.”
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