Free Web NovelChapter 1106: Chapter 1077: A Guest Pays a Visit
Through the transparent skin you could clearly see the capillaries and textures under the surface. At first glance it was eerie yet beautiful, like those people who love to cover themselves in body paint or tattoos. But once you got closer, you’d realize those lifelike patterns were so disgusting they made you want to throw up. They weren’t tattoos or paint, they were real human tissue.
Fourth Master’s hands hung at her sides. She was furious now, her eyes empty of emotion—if you had to call it something, it was killing intent. She wanted to kill someone, badly. But in front of her master she didn’t dare let even the slightest emotion leak out. Not at all.
Those angry, beautiful pupils were fixed on that nauseating skin. Blood was flowing in the vessels, the meridians were pulsing. If the parts you could see through the skin were like this, then under the clothes—were all those organs just as clearly visible? The large and small intestines? Fat? Muscle? The stomach? Or even more and more of the body’s organs on display? Standing off to the side, Hong Lian was thinking the same thing. Mu Rongyun was even harder to understand than he’d been over ten years ago when he first saw him. A dead man? A living man? Half-dead?
The man under the mask slowly stood up from a specially made bamboo rattan chair. He was very tall, tall enough to be a little shocking. The delicate, thin mask only covered down to his nose bridge. His nose was high and straight, the tip slightly upturned. His pink lips made it impossible to tell if that was their true color or also faded somehow. Many times Hong Lian would keep guessing back and forth like this.
"You can all go." After a long silence Mu Rongyun finally spoke, his tone flat. He didn’t even want to say one extra word, and you couldn’t see his expression at all beneath that mask.
Fourth Master and Hong Lian left the room. As she turned to walk away from Mu Rongyun, she vented all her anger on the decorations in the hallway. With hatred burning in her eyes, she left under Hong Lian’s slightly sympathetic gaze.
The police would be knocking on the door soon. Hong Lian went back to his room on the first floor. Fourth Master’s room was on the second floor, and of course Mu Rongyun’s was on the third. There were no live-in servants, just an hourly cleaning aunt who came twice a week. Aside from the rooms on the second and third floors, she was free to go anywhere. So the person she saw the most was Hong Lian. You could say she had no idea there were other people living in this house at all. That aunt was also the one who’d managed to stay alive the longest.
He toyed with a knife in his right hand. He had his own workshop here. One whole wall was covered with internal design diagrams of the Rose Staff. Mu Rongyun seemed to have forgotten all about that matter. He didn’t care in the slightest about where the real Rose Staff had ended up. After Wang Zhantian died, Wang Zhanting had become unusually smart. Even during deals or negotiations he acted like nothing was wrong. Hong Lian couldn’t see into the mind of this former municipal Party leader, but that had nothing to do with him. It was that man named Shao Weihua who seemed annoyingly loud.
The doorbell rang right on time. It was ten in the morning. For office workers it was already an hour into the workday. Hong Lian thought whoever was coming to visit must be a considerate person.
It was just that the person who appeared in front of him was a bit hard to accept. Luckily, he hadn’t come alone.
"Hello, I’m Chief Rochester. This is Mr. Xiao." Rochester looked nervously at the man who’d opened the door. Behind him, Xiao Lin pressed his right hand lightly into Rochester’s lower back so he wouldn’t shrink away in fear.
"What’s the matter?" When Rochester introduced Xiao Lin, Hong Lian instinctively lifted his eyes. They were standing at the doorway. Up on the straight window ledge, someone was pressed to the glass, looking down at the scene below.
"We arrested two criminals yesterday. Based on their statements, the mastermind behind them is the owner of this place. May I ask what you are to this house?" Rochester could feel his lips trembling. He had no idea how much effort it took just to get that sentence out smoothly. He really regretted being so nosy. If he hadn’t kept pressing Xiao Lin about their destination beforehand, maybe he wouldn’t be this scared now. Oh right, wasn’t this guy supposed to never reveal anything? Why was he being so generous this time?
"I’m the owner here." Seeing the casual smile flash across Xiao Lin’s face, Hong Lian shrank back a little.
"This is the search warrant." As if he were reminding Rochester, Xiao Lin spoke aloud in a voice all three of them could hear clearly.
"Oh, right."
"Is there something inside we’re not supposed to see?" Xiao Lin saw that Hong Lian was blocking the doorway without the slightest intention of moving and asked with a hint of provocation.
Hong Lian shifted aside to let Rochester in. Nice house; this actually looked like a place people lived in. "Rochester, look around and see if there’s anything useful. I have a few questions for this gentleman."
It should have been Rochester doing that, but Xiao Lin’s last-minute change of plan fit exactly what Rochester wanted. He nodded and headed straight up the stairs. "You can’t go up there!" Seeing this, Hong Lian immediately spoke up to stop him.
"Are you trying to obstruct official business, Mr. Hong? You and I need to have a proper talk." Xiao Lin smiled at his nervousness. "You should know, if something happens to our chief here, neither you nor your people will be able to walk away from it. Mu Rongyun isn’t stupid enough to bury himself in the pit he dug, is he?"
"What the hell do you want?" Hong Lian asked through gritted teeth.
"I’d like to know that too—what the hell are you trying to do?" Seizing the moment when Rochester turned and disappeared into the corridor on the second floor, Xiao Lin grabbed Hong Lian by the collar and slammed him against the wall. Right then he looked more like a man-eating Lion. "Back in Yanjing, I let you off once. Why? Hm? Does your Fourth Master only know how to use women as human shields? Hm?"
"Young Master Xiao." Hong Lian turned his head away; he didn’t dare meet those pitch-black eyes. Xiao Lin’s boldness was beyond what he’d expected. Maybe because this wasn’t in the country, his style had become more direct—no wonder Fourth Master was furious.
Throwing the woman assigned to the deal straight into a police station—Xiao Lin would never have done something like that back home. Anything that involved Mu Rongyun, Xiao Lin would handle in the open. This time he’d gone beyond Fourth Master’s expectations, so she was enraged. Hong Lian had no idea what Mu Rongyun thought about it, but angering Fourth Master was no small thing either.
"What does ’Chapter Six D7S15Q504’ mean? Who were you trying to tell it to?" Hong Liang stared at Xiao Lin in shock. His eyes seemed to be saying, how could this be possible? "Surprised? Yeah, that’s the expression you should have."
"Chief! Mr. Xiao!" Rochester’s startled shout suddenly came from the third floor. Xiao Lin had no choice but to let go of Hong Lian and sprint up the stairs toward the source of the cry. Hong Lian froze for a second, then hurried after him. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
