Chapter 7 1/2

Lin Lu, dehydrated, collapsed on the bed.

Lin’s mother, unable to bear to watch her son, glared at him. She couldn’t endure this any longer.

Feeling Lin’s mother’s reproach, Lin Lu felt resentful. He had never wanted to take care of Cen Lang in the first place. His parents had said he could find a substitute, but in the end, whether they found one or not, he was the one suffering!

In this world, those who deceive Cen Lang either haven’t been born yet or need to be reborn.

He could have comfortably relied on selling pheromones and lived worry-free!

Lin Lu’s fingertips were still trembling. “The substitute was hired by the steward. I don’t know the details, only that it cost two million.”

The bodyguard had already subdued the sneaky steward early on and brought him before Cen Lang.

Cen Lang found a chair to sit in, his expression cool.

The head of the bodyguards was well-versed in the interrogation process; Cen Lang had encountered too many spies. “Where did you find the substitute? Under what pretext? Where is he now?”

The steward looked at Lin’s father and mother, then at Cen Lang. The wailing of the young master from earlier still echoed in his ears, and fear of Cen Lang overwhelmed him. “The substitute, I found him on the old internet. I posted a reward, saying I needed a caretaker for a volatile Alpha. He completed the task and left without any further contact.”

After the construction of the interstellar communication network, the old internet on Earth became obsolete, but some people retained servers and sites for illicit activities.

The bodyguard said, “Check his phone for records; bring it out.”

The steward glanced at Lin’s mother, then shakily handed over his phone.

The bodyguard opened a website, revealing a new reward: this time, they were seeking a hacker to trace the address and determine if the substitute was dead or alive.

“Are you trying to cover up?” The head of the bodyguards thundered.

The steward stammered, “Madam Lin instructed me! Because we lost track of him, Madam wanted to know if he’s alive!”

Lin’s mother took a step back, accusing.

The bodyguard exited the reward interface and checked the steward’s history of postings. “Found it. He posted a job three days ago, looking for a caretaker to attend to an out-of-control, aggressive top-tier Alpha for two days and nights. There’s a high probability of life-threatening situations. The price was… one million?”

Lin’s father interjected, “No, I did offer two million!”

As if the higher the bid, the lighter their guilt. Lin’s mother, too, shook with anger. She kicked the steward’s back with her high heels. “You’ve been with the Lin family for ten years. Haven’t we treated you well? Yet, you dare embezzle a million!”

The steward, kicked to the ground, became the scapegoat. Lin’s mother hysterically lectured him, showing Cen Lang that if it weren’t for him exposing the accounts, she wouldn’t have cared much about the steward embezzling a million.

“You’re very noisy,” Cen Lang remarked.

Being able to scream here even after hiring someone to silence, his temperament had become unusually good after recovering from his illness.

“I—” Lin’s mother’s face suddenly changed. Her lips, painted crimson, accentuated her pallor. The pain made her forget everything, but she suppressed the scream, looking at Cen Lang in fear.

Lin Lu anxiously watched his mother, but inwardly thought, She finally understands me.

The bodyguard used the steward’s phone to contact the next person in line. “Sir, the target might not be online.”

Cen Lang said, “Lock the Lin family in the adjacent room and bring Zhou Qing over.”

There are two possibilities for being offline: either hiding after making money or in critical condition.

The bodyguard whispered, “The caretaker should be fine.”

After all, he had been polite both times they met.

Cen Lang said, “…”

Polite enough to make them not realize it wasn’t Lin Lu, right?

This caretaker was quite clever.

Zhou Qing came over directly with her tools. She was a network technician at the interstellar rehabilitation center, dealing with many big shots’ medical records. The firewall requirements were extremely high. Just by herself, she had repelled countless malicious attacks.

She swiftly connected the steward’s phone to the computer, logged into his account, and traced the location of the next person in line.

Lines of code flashed on the screen. Zhou Qing checked and reported, “The next person’s ID is Wild Grass. Probably offline. I’ve accessed his account.”

“From his posting history, male Omega, around 35 years old, is orphaned.”

“I found his contact number. Should I call?”

Cen Lang nodded.

The bodyguard dialed the number, but no one answered for a long time. Cen Lang suddenly said, “Hang up.”

“Yes,” the bodyguard paused, then realized that the middleman wasn’t important. If the master wasn’t interested, they could handle it themselves later.

Zhou Qing said, “Hmm… the next person’s account is easier to crack.”

This time, she learned her lesson. Instead of reporting information directly, she first looked through Fire Cloud’s recent records along the network line.

“I found a timed will he wrote three days ago. He claimed to be a failure, an unmarried man in his thirties who only played games. His parents were disappointed, and now that his father was sick, he couldn’t afford medical expenses. So, he took a desperate measure. If he didn’t return, he asked his father to forget him, an unfilial son.”

The bodyguard felt a twinge of heartache. It was too miserable, sacrificing so much for his parents. After the $50,000 was paid for his parents’ treatment, the caretaker, injured in the pheromone storm, definitely couldn’t afford medical care and had to pretend everything was fine for his parents.

For some reason, Cen Lang maintained a strange silence.

“You don’t need to say much, sir. Sister Qing, find his address quickly. He must be at the hospital taking care of his father now.”

Zhou Qing said, “Uh, wait a moment. He just posted a status update.