Chapter 80: Ruthless Enough to Even Kill Himself

“Master?”

Hearing this title, Lin Qingyou frowned.

“We all used to call him that,” Ming Yu gave a self-deprecating smile. “It just became a habit.”

“Who is he? And now…?”

“I don’t know. He’s dead…”

Ming Yu’s answer was brief, but Lin Qingyou was so shocked that she couldn’t close her mouth.

Don’t know who he is? But he’s dead?

“How did he die?”

Ming Yu fell silent for a moment, then began to recall the past.

“At that time, I had a mission—to kill the heir of the Yin family.”

“But I failed…”

“When you fail a mission, you have to die…”

“In order to save me, Yin Hanyu decided to take up the mission himself—to kill the Yin family heir.”

Lin Qingyou suddenly understood. So this was what Yin Hanyu meant when he said he once wanted to kill Yin Yixuan.

So this was how Ming Yu and Yin Yixuan first met—she was sent to kill him.

Did Yin Yixuan know about this?

And why didn’t Ming Yu go through with it?

Was it because of love?

Then why were she and Yin Yixuan now estranged?

“Something suddenly happened within their group. There was internal conflict…”

“Internal conflict?” Lin Qingyou frowned. “Are you sure? Usually, people like them, who operate in the shadows, tend to be very united.”

Ming Yu looked at Lin Qingyou. “There were three key leaders in the base. The ‘Master’ was the most frequently seen. He tortured us the worst and made us fear him the most.”

“But the second-in-command—the so-called ‘Number Two’—was the one who appeared the least. In my memory, I only ever saw him once or twice.”

“And every time, he was fully armed. At least with the ‘Master,’ we could barely see his eyes, but with the second-in-command, we never even saw that.”

“That mysterious?”

Lin Qingyou was completely puzzled. Who were these people?

What exactly were they trying to do?

“More than that. Even his voice was a highly artificial, mechanical tone. We couldn’t tell if he was male or female.”

“The reason I say there was internal conflict is because the second-in-command suddenly killed the leader.”

“What!?”

Lin Qingyou was completely stunned.

“How could that happen?”

Ming Yu shook her head. “I don’t know either. I just know that after killing the leader, the second-in-command planted explosives and blew up the base, trying to take all of us down with him.”

“Oh my god…” Lin Qingyou’s heart pounded as she listened.

That second-in-command was terrifying—he was even ruthless enough to kill himself!

“At that time, the scene was chaotic beyond imagination. Many, many people died… Yin Hanyu took the opportunity to steal the antidote and escape. He also distributed the antidote to the remaining survivors, telling them to flee.”

“But those people… they had been trained from childhood to fear and obey. They were too afraid to live in the outside world on their own. They couldn’t integrate into normal life.”

Lin Qingyou felt suffocated just thinking about it… Yeah, even people who serve years in prison struggle to adapt after being released.

How could children raised in that hellish place be any different?

“So they made Yin Hanyu their new…”

“Master?” Lin Qingyou interrupted.

Ming Yu shook her head. “Yin Hanyu hated that title. He wouldn’t let them call him that, so now they just call him ‘Boss.’”

Those people had undergone extreme and brutal training since childhood. They were already elites, the best of the best.

And those who survived the explosion? They were the elite of the elite.

With such talent, building an organization was easy. In just a few years, they had grown in strength.

“Now, they take on missions if they’re interested, and if not, they just do whatever they want…” Ming Yu chuckled. “Honestly, they’re all living quite freely.”

—

When Yin Hanyu woke up, it was almost noon.

The moment he opened his eyes, the scent of food filled the air.

“You’re awake. Are you hungry?” Lin Qingyou moved a small table closer so he could eat.

Yin Hanyu looked at her. “You’re not mad at me anymore?”

Lin Qingyou ladled a bowl of soup for him and playfully said, “You’re already in such a miserable state. If I stayed mad at you, wouldn’t I be heartless?”

“Qingyou, that’s not the point. I didn’t handle things well, so you have every right to be upset.”

Was he just trying to placate her?

He wasn’t good at comforting people. He didn’t know how.

Flowers? Designer bags? Jewelry?

Subconsciously, Yin Hanyu reached for his phone to search for ideas—only to realize it wasn’t with him.

“Here,” Lin Qingyou handed him his phone. “You left it on my bed.”

“Oh, by the way…” Lin Qingyou suddenly frowned. “You didn’t even have your phone with you, so how did you contact Ming Yu? And why did you call her out to Yanshan in the middle of the night?”

Yin Hanyu pointed at his watch. “This is our special communication device.”

“A special communication device?” Lin Qingyou pouted. “No way, I’m really jealous this time.”

Yin Hanyu: “…”

He quickly explained, “Everyone in the organization has one. It’s for emergencies.”

After all, carrying a phone on missions was a huge risk.

And unlike phones, which could lose signal, their watches wouldn’t.

“Fine.” Lin Qingyou handed him the chopsticks, though she still looked a little sulky.

Yin Hanyu immediately took off his watch. “If you like it, I’ll give you mine.”

Lin Qingyou: “…”

What a clueless man. What was she supposed to do with his watch?

She wasn’t some life-and-death partner of Ming Yu’s. She didn’t need to stay connected with those people.

“You still haven’t answered my second question. Why did you call Ming Yu over in the middle of the night?”

Yin Hanyu replied, “The base where Ming Yu and I trained was near the border.”

The border was chaotic, full of danger… but also a place where the law was most lenient.

“But I always felt that our base wasn’t the first… and wouldn’t be the last.”

“What do you mean?” Lin Qingyou suddenly realized something. “Are you saying that the land my dad bought was once another underground base like that?”

Yin Hanyu nodded. “Toxic land is usually polluted at a depth of ten or twenty meters, or at most a few dozen meters.”

“But that land… only showed dangerous levels of toxins after digging hundreds of meters deep.”

“And last night, I had people keep digging. Sure enough, we found an underground passage.”

“When Ming Yu and I went inside, we triggered explosives just by getting close to the core…”

So his suspicions were right.

That land used to be another base.

He needed to follow this lead to find the mastermind behind it all.

“But what’s the point of finding them?” Lin Qingyou asked. “Wasn’t their ‘Master’ already dead? And didn’t the second-in-command blow up your old base? He should be dead too.”

“Dead? Why couldn’t it have been faked?”

“Faked?”

“I don’t know why they suddenly turned on each other… But I don’t believe for a second that they just died like that…”