Sui Yuesheng shot off one of Wu Xuan’s legs.

With a Desert Eagle 9.1mm caliber, firing at such close range, Wu Xuan would likely be disabled for life.

The excruciating pain rendered Wu Xuan incapable of thought or speech. Yet Sui Yuesheng’s face remained as calm as a still well, as if casually remarking, “Do you know what will happen when you hand over the contents of your USB drive to the Red Gang? How many lives will be lost because of it?”

Wu Xuan had no idea. He only wanted the money.

Unable to speak, he could only clutch his wound and howl in agony. Sui Yuesheng stared at him fixedly for a moment before suddenly saying, “I said I’d spare your life, so I will. I keep my word.”

Happiness came too suddenly.

Wu Xuan was overwhelmed with joy, but before Sui Yuesheng could finish speaking, he turned aside and instructed his assistant Zhou, “Take him and the others, dump them near the Red Gang’s territory.”

“You!”

Finally recovering from the piercing pain, Wu Xuan lifted his head abruptly, eyes bloodshot with venom: “Sui Yuesheng! As fellow betas, why go to such extremes?!”

With a leg severed, he could still survive. The Red Gang had given him a down payment—small, but combined with his savings, enough to flee to the Western Continent, disappear into some remote place, and live out his days in anonymity. But if he were dumped near Red Gang territory like this, they would definitely know something had happened…

Then he truly wouldn’t survive.

Sui Yuesheng chuckled dismissively, offering no reply.

When he chose betrayal, Wu Xuan should have foreseen this outcome. It was just desserts.

At this moment, Sui Yuesheng was preoccupied with another matter.

He glanced down at his clothes, frowning irritably. The gunshot had been too close; blood from Wu Xuan’s wound inevitably splattered onto him, staining his pristine white shirt with a few spots, which was exceedingly annoying.

“Mr. Sui, you should go back and change. I’ll handle things here,” Assistant Zhou hurriedly suggested.

Sui Yuesheng did not refuse. “Make sure it’s clean.”

They were currently at a secret stall in Jingpu’s black market. As long as the price was right, no one would question what happened inside this room. Still, it wasn’t their own territory, so caution was necessary.

When Jiang Ning called early that morning, Sui Yuesheng’s initial reaction had been to think of the Tao Family’s underground cellar. It was well-equipped, highly secure, and bore the marks of years of interrogation, which was intimidating enough for most people upon entering.

But now, Tao Fengche was still at home… Sui Yuesheng pondered and decided it wasn’t appropriate.

He also considered other territories belonging to Tao’s subordinates, but with Tao Zhixing’s death, many were restless. Since he had just returned to the country and hadn’t had time to reorganize, he ultimately settled on the black market.

Just thinking about the complicated work that lay ahead made Sui Yuesheng very annoyed. Moreover, his clothes were now stained with blood, and he felt out of sorts all over; he just wanted to rush to the bathroom, strip down, and take a hot shower.

“I’ll handle it, you can rest assured,” Assistant Zhou said, bowing his head.

···

Early on May 31st, after finishing breakfast, Tao Fengche sat in the living room watching the morning news and stumbled upon a series of missing persons cases being reported.

With tens of millions of permanent residents in Jingpu, the disappearance of one or two people hardly made a splash, but this case received widespread attention and made it onto the news program for its unique features: Initially, someone reported to the police that someone in their home was missing, but when the police routinely asked what the missing person did for a living, the reporter suddenly couldn’t answer.

They only knew that the missing people were like everyone else, going to work normally, getting paid at the end of the month, and being asked about their work a couple of times, but they were always evasive. Only now, under police interrogation, did they realize that they knew nothing about the people around them.

These missing persons varied in age and gender, and besides “not knowing specific work details,” there were no other commonalities.

Tao Fengche raised an eyebrow and refreshed his social media app on his phone, finding it a hot topic lately. Compared to the straightforward news reports, public speculation was rather sensational, with talk of dismemberment cases, the reporter’s mental illness, and even haunting…

If this trend continued, Jingpu was on the verge of entering a new phase of urban legends.

Tao Fengche glanced over them cursorily, not particularly interested in these diverse speculations.

But if it came down to “not knowing what work those around you did,” it did seem to have some similarities with Tao Family’s research. Some research projects at Tao Family’s Institute had high confidentiality levels or leaned toward clandestine business, with researchers bound by nondisclosure agreements, including clauses about “not revealing workplace or work content to anyone.”

However, Tao Fengche was certain—it couldn’t possibly involve an issue at Tao Family’s research institute. If something had happened to a researcher, Jiang Ning would definitely have called this side of the main residence.

Although Director Jiang was always self-assured, Tao Fengche never doubted his loyalty—after all, besides the Tao Family, there was no other place that could unconditionally support his various whims and give him large sums of money.

The Tao Family’s research institute had been calm recently, with nothing happening. Apart from Jiang Ning sending a message two days ago, saying their current research was reaching a critical stage, allowing him to skip teaching next month, everything was normal.

Implicitly, it meant: We’re busy lately and have no time to teach students; brats, stay in school and study well, don’t come here to cause trouble.

Tao Fengche didn’t think much about it. He had no intention of returning to the research institute now, and he didn’t even want to go to school.

After Tao Zhixing’s incident, Xu Song had submitted a leave of absence until June to the school. Tao Fengche had planned to return, but he changed his mind after releasing the mother and son two days ago.

He hadn’t gone anywhere these days, focusing solely on observing Sui Yuesheng at home and pondering the identity of the traitor.

Yet Sui Yuesheng hadn’t returned. Two days ago, he only sent an alpha assistant to deliver some daily clothes to his own room, not even showing his face.

As for the traitor… if the person who had deceived Tao Zhixing and caused his death could be identified so quickly by a high school student like Tao Fengche, that would be strange.

Tao Fengche couldn’t decide whether he was more annoyed that Sui Yuesheng had returned to Jingpu but hadn’t shown up, or that the traitor remained hidden. Under the combination of these two annoying things, his mood worsened day by day, successfully evolving into an increasingly irritable version of himself.

He stood up and chose to vent his anger through violence, once again instructing Xu Song, “Find a bodyguard to wait for me at the martial arts field.”

The bruises on his arms had not yet faded, and he was already about to find someone to accompany him to practice… Xu Song sighed inwardly, nodded on the surface, and decided in his heart to find a relatively weaker bodyguard for him this time.

A morning’s time quickly passed in sparring, and Tao Fengche wasn’t very clear about the martial prowess ranking of the household bodyguards. He thought he had made significant progress in recent sparring, so he happily swept back his sweaty hair and returned to the main residence to shower. Halfway through showering, he suddenly received a call from Xu Song.

“Master Zhao is here.”

“Ah?” Tao Fengche turned off the showerhead, wiped the water droplets off his face with his hand, feeling somewhat surprised. “Uncle Zhao is here? Please invite him in. Did he say why he came again?”

“Master Zhao didn’t say,” Xu Song paused for a moment, then suddenly said, “but this time, he brought someone with him.”

“Oh?” Tao Fengche was completely stunned.