Free Web NovelChapter 118: Chapter 118: Couple’s Night
Bai Wu had a rough idea in his mind, an absurd concept that nevertheless had a certain logic, but he needed to verify it.
"Cain must have left me some clues; otherwise, does he really expect the captain to play the role of an old father forever?"
"It’s just the twenty-second floor; I need to figure out which floor the clue is on."
In the floor information index, some levels weren’t actually marked with their purpose, and those that were, Bai Wu felt were unlikely.
He returned to the elevator and pressed the number twenty-one; the twenty-first floor was where the board of directors’ offices were located.
When the elevator reached the twenty-second floor, the electronic screen inside began to freeze, and the words "wolf culture" started repeating continuously, with the first word omitted.
This floor, like the sixteenth, was covered in dust and was the most likely place to gather intelligence in plain sight. Normally, Bai Wu would search the areas likely to have the most information last, but he was in a hurry now.
The machinery room on the twenty-second floor was the same as usual, but the reception had changed slightly:
[Although every floor of this building has a reception, the twenty-second floor’s is definitely the most beautiful. Do you think a reception that only serves a dozen people would have a high workload? She’s idle most days but occasionally very tired, and not just mentally.]
The twenty-second floor’s reception is beautiful?
Bai Wu believed his aesthetic judgment should be as discerning as his own.
"Considering the number of seats in the meeting room earlier, there are only eleven board members. They mostly have their own private secretaries and don’t need to ask the reception for anything, so the reception is essentially for decoration, occasionally responsible for running errands. But this floor has a low workload because the reception’s role is too insignificant, and the work involved on this floor tends to be quite important."
"So it seems... this receptionist is very tired; she must be kept by someone. Her main job is to sleep with a certain board member."
Bai Wu thought of a possibility; maybe the chairman’s secretary is also very beautiful, but his relationship with her is quite normal because being competent enough to be a secretary for such a major conglomerate, it wouldn’t be good to slip up any handles.
So the secretary is just a facade, while the reception in the most visible spot of his office area is the real affair.
"I’ll put aside assumptions about other board members for now; if the person having the affair is the role I’m playing..."
It’s normal for rich people to seek pleasure outside, practically impossible to prove, and they can still pretend to be loving with their families at home. Although it’s just a facade, in the eyes of the wealthy, appearance is more important than substance.
"This at least shows... love is not the most important thing in this man’s eyes. In other words, the loving family in the manor is just a facade."
Bai Wu started observing the offices of the board members one by one:
[You have come to The First Room of Sin; after seven hundred years, does it still reek of marijuana?]
A drug addict... not this one, Bai Wu felt that the role he was playing might be inherently violent, but not a drug addict.
[The Second Room of Sin, every Wednesday at six fifty in the evening, there’s a card game held here, playing blackjack. The stakes are high, and many leave this building only to suffer accidents.]
A gambler... then this room shouldn’t belong to just one person but should be used cooperatively.
Bai Wu looked at the third room.
[The Third Room of Sin, there’s an album hidden in the office desk cabinet with many clever compositions. The owner of this room loves escape room games, spending a fortune to create many ingeniously designed escape rooms. If one cannot get out, the intruder will die. Of course, there’s none here. When doomsday came, everyone tried to flee, some by boat, some by plane, but he chose to hide in his own designed escape room. Guess what? He lived for seven hundred years! Maybe you’ll meet him someday.]
"Escape room puzzles, huh... It seems it’s not this room either. Was there a rich person among the board members back then who was fond of escape room puzzles, someone who became an Evil Fallen in an escape room?"
Bai Wu wasn’t interested in the preview of the next episode, but he still entered the room and took out that album—[Something you might use in the future.]
In the time that followed, Bai Wu looked through the rooms one by one, entering those rumored to hide some kind of document and examining what was inside.
But after making the rounds, he hadn’t found any valuable intelligence in any room, except for the last one.
And the last room, which was also the largest office, had a note like this.
[This room hides a safe with many gifts received by the owner inside. You must be curious why someone would keep these things in their office—because they’re all liquids, contained in small bottles with various numbers; the smallest number is nine, and the largest is forty.] ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
After analyzing the note, Bai Wu suddenly had some clues.
Liquids...
Stored in bottles, the smallest numbered nine, the largest forty. What if it corresponds to a person’s age?
An image of a pervert suddenly constructed itself within Bai Wu’s mind. He now had an answer to what the liquid could be.
Descending to this level, there were still no clues.
But if the description in one of the so-called "Rooms of Sin" corresponded to the role of a father, then at least some characteristics of this father could be discerned.
And intuition told Bai Wu... the last room was where his father’s office was located.
Just as Bai Wu was preparing to delve deeper, a voice came to his mind.
"Daddy is coming home, I miss Daddy."
There was no more time.
Bai Wu shook his head silently.
"It seems that I’ll have to spend another night. Last night, I stayed as a guest; I wonder what changes there will be tonight, staying as the host."
...
...
The lunch was sumptuous.
Yin Shuang was extremely beautiful, and when the ice queen smiled, it was more lethal than any other woman of equal beauty but a different style.
Bai Wu couldn’t feel the beauty.
Because Yin Shuang was not happy.
On his return from the hotel-style building, Bai Wu tried to visit Dwarf, but the voice in his head warned, "Daddy is never late" and "It’s not time for afternoon tea yet."
Given the morning’s visitors, Bai Wu surmised that the times for afternoon and morning tea were the acceptable times for social calls.
However, the clues that could be gathered were surely limited.
At the dining table, Bai Wu looked at all the dishes with some confusion.
"Try them. It took me a long time to prepare them," Yin Shuang said with a smile.
Yet, Bai Wu could hear the helplessness in her voice.
"Is it memory manipulation? This morning, Yin Shuang couldn’t even recall the names of the ingredients, and now she can create sophisticated cuisine from them? Because she consistently failed to cook the correct dishes, they directly altered her memory?"
"Could it be that the child Lin Wurou is playing is a prodigious little chef?"
"Something is not right."
While chatting and laughing, occasionally serving dishes to Lin Wurou and Yin Shuang, Bai Wu mulled over the problems that troubled him.
Yin Shuang also said subtly,
"I miss my family. You need to finish your work quickly so you can come back with me to see them."
Lin Wurou had yet to detect the hidden message in her words. His memory had been greatly altered, and at that moment, his insides were churning with revulsion as he clung to Bai Wu’s arm, pleading,
"Daddy, Daddy, I want to eat this."
Bai Wu understood; Yin Shuang was very clever.
For now, she didn’t know what could be said and what couldn’t, but being cautious was always the right move, especially since the agony of being pricked with a needle was torturous.
Family referred to High Tower, and work meant the current area of investigation.
Yin Shuang must be terrified inside to make such a request.
Bai Wu nodded and said,
"Soon. I won’t make you wait too long."
After these words, Yin Shuang looked at Bai Wu with gratitude.
Perhaps it was only this look that coincided with her true feelings.
...
...
After lunch, Bai Wu was forced to engage in some parent-child interaction with Lin Wurou, which roughly meant hugging, kissing, and playing the game where the little child rides on their old father’s shoulders.
Only Lin Wurou was just a tad shorter than Bai Wu, making the scene rather awkward.
Afterward, Lin Wurou, Bai Wu, and Yin Shuang all rested, taking about an hour’s nap. Then the three went out to the yard to prepare for afternoon tea.
Whoever invited whom was according to the voice inside their head; today, Bai Wu would invite Dwarf’s family and the residents of the third house.
Around four o’clock, the group appeared cheerful as they sat together in the villa’s yard, enjoying their afternoon tea.
Upon seeing Bai Wu, Wu Jiu also subtly conveyed the message that he "wanted to return to High Tower and get on with solving the case."
Bai Wu could tell that Dwarf was quite frustrated by Bai Xiaoyu and Qin Lin.
Especially the image of Bai Xiaoyu, being 1.7 meters tall, and Dwarf at 1.59 meters, attempting their high-high lift...
Bai Wu thought it over. Tomorrow, definitely tomorrow, he need to crack the case, otherwise once they returned to High Tower, everyone would socially "die".
"How’s work been recently?" Bai Wu asked Dwarf, trying to see if Dwarf had any clues.
Wu Jiu shook his head and said:
"Same old, same old."
Bai Wu felt a little disappointed. The captain wasn’t stupid, but in this Manor, finding clues was extremely difficult.
The neighbors from the third house formed a family of three; the father was played by a 29-year-old, the mother by a 30-year-old, and in a stroke of relative luck, the child was played by a 42-year-old.
Initially, they were uncomfortable with it, but now this family truly felt that this was their child.
This family was surprised because people like Bai Wu adjusted very quickly. Their appearance at the afternoon tea was to tell Bai Wu and Wu Jiu that leaving this place required following the order.
Their turn was next, and they hoped that when new guests arrived outside the Manor, Wu Jiu and Bai Wu would abide by the rules.
They stated this not too cryptically, but still, it was said with pain.
Bai Wu said:
"Why can’t everyone just go out on a trip together? Why must someone stay at the company? Haven’t you thought about giving everyone a long holiday?"
Bai Wu was more subtle in his approach; he wanted to take everyone away from here.
But the other party took Bai Wu’s words as nonsense:
"The company’s rules... must come first."
"The company is mine, I have the final say."
After leaving these words, Bai Wu said no more, and the family from the third house seemed somewhat displeased.
Still, everyone continued to part amicably, with smiles and farewells.
Bai Wu could understand that these people had lived here for many years. Faced with the rule-like existence of the "Manor," they were all warriors with skills, yet they didn’t even know what their enemy looked like.
The thought of taking everyone and uncovering the secrets of the Manor had long been shattered. Now, what they could do was to conform to the rules.
But God only knew when there would be new visitors outside the gates of the Manor.
...
...
Nighttime.
After dinner, Bai Wu returned to his study. Everything was as he expected; as a wealthy tycoon, his work time was limited to just one hour in the morning.
Although in reality, work often permeated life, and though others might see him as idle, he never stopped thinking about how to make money.
But Bai Wu was performing for the "child" in his mind.
The child didn’t understand work.
He only knew when daddy would work and when he would come back.
By 9 p.m., Bai Wu and the others began preparing for bed as instructed.
But this night was different from the rest.
When Lin Wurou found Bai Wu, Bai Wu could clearly see the pain and distortion on Lin Wurou’s face.
But it quickly returned to normal, and Lin Babao said expectantly:
"Daddy, I want to sleep with you and mommy!"
Lin Wurou’s true personality was one that hated being touched by others, and he found most women rather unattractive; although Yin Shuang was one of the fair-looking, he had no desire for excessive contact.
He thought eating together was already the limit, but now to sleep together...
Yin Shuang was also in despair.
She had guessed that if this was a game of house, there might be instances of mom and dad sleeping together.
But being tormented by one man was hard enough, what was it like with two men?
This time...
On the other hand, Wu Jiu, Qin Lin, and Bai Xiaoyu’s situation was relatively easier to imagine.
When Wu Jiu escaped Ghost Grinding and joined the Investigation Corps, because of a lack of rooms, he ended up rooming with Liu Mu, and the two became bunkmates. Although they did not share a bed, both beds were in the same room.
As a result, they communicated a lot during their rookie period and became close friends.
Even after Liu Mu became the captain of Squad Thirteen and Wu Jiu the captain of Squad Seven, they remained best friends.
Men didn’t have so much fuss; Bai Xiaoyu slept between Wu Jiu and Qin Lin.
...
...
Around ten o’clock, Yin Shuang’s voice trembled slightly as she recalled the horrors of the previous night; the indignity of sleeping in the same bed with two men seemed somewhat lessened.
She was clearly trying to suppress her emotions, but thinking about the future, she still spoke with a sobbing tone:
"If... if something happens here, could you forget it once we go home?"
Bai Wu knew that by "something," she probably meant things men and women do at night, things a husband and wife would do.
Yin Shuang perhaps sensed that this was only the first night, and if they could not leave here long-term, maybe tomorrow or someday, she and Bai Wu would share marital intimacy.
If it really came to that, Bai Wu thought that the captain and Qin Lin would probably have it worse.
He didn’t joke about it, as he, too, realized the gravity of the situation:
"Give me some time, just this night and tomorrow’s daytime, maybe that’ll be enough."
(More to come later, still updating)
