Chapter 40

“Click.”

No bullets were fired from the revolver. At the moment the trigger was pulled, the cylinder had just turned to the empty chamber.

“Ah—!!!”

A heart-wrenching scream echoed throughout the house.

Bai Wei leaped off the bed, slammed open the bedroom door, and began sprinting down the hallway. His mind was shaking, and what he saw in front of him went beyond his understanding, triggering his instincts directly.

Bai Wei knocked over the spade-wood shelf in the hallway, sending the porcelain items he and Lu Sen bought crashing to the floor. He took down the wall art and used it to block the way down the stairs. Then, he rushed to the kitchen, where he had already turned on the gas, preparing to set off an explosion and escape the house when—

“Ding dong!”

A pleasant bell rang at the door.

Bai Wei couldn’t believe his ears.

“Ding dong!”

Again, the doorbell rang. Though it was poorly timed, it was indeed the sound of the doorbell.

What kind of unlucky soul would intrude on this house at this moment…? As Bai Wei held his gun and approached the front door step by step, a familiar voice came from outside.

“…Not home? Oh! You’re here! I found the spare key!”

The crisp sound of a door unlocking echoed through the silent house. Appearing behind the door was a handsome, expectant face.

“Dear!” He smiled broadly, extending his hands to Bai Wei. “I’m back!”

“…”

“Are you here to welcome me? Why do you have a gun in your hand?”

Bai Wei, holding the gun, kept his gaze fixed on the man in front of him. Lu Sen’s expression shifted from excitement to confusion, then to vague fear and wariness. Finally, Lu Sen raised both hands and said, “Dear… put the gun down, don’t let it go off by mistake. What happened? Please don’t scare me…”

He even glanced behind him, lowering his voice, “Is someone following me?”

Bai Wei slightly shifted the barrel of the gun, but he still stared coldly at Lu Sen, carefully observing his clothes.

Each piece of clothing was the same as what Lu Sen wore when he left the house yesterday.

“You just came back from outside?”

“Yes… the bag I was carrying had a lot of dangerous items, so I went a bit farther to dispose of them. I also circled the harbor to shake off any potential pursuers.” Lu Sen explained. “Then I planned to buy some seafood at the harbor, but the security told me there was special cargo arriving today, and there was nothing fresh. No matter how I asked, they wouldn’t tell me what the cargo was. So, I just made a couple of laps and came back. But on the way, I realized I lost my house keys, so I came back to look for them…”

As he spoke, he peered into the house. “What’s going on? Is there an intruder trying to break in?”

Bai Wei continued scanning him up and down. If his eyes could shoot daggers, Lu Sen would have been cut into pieces by now. “Is this everything you want to say? Is this everything you encountered yesterday?”

“Uh… actually.” Lu Sen suddenly reached out to touch Bai Wei’s shoulder. “Let’s go inside and talk.”

Bai Wei stood coldly at the door, unmoving.

“Listen to me, this is important!” Lu Sen lowered his voice, his tone becoming urgent and slightly angry. Finally, he exhaled heavily. “Alright, I feel like if I don’t tell you the truth, you won’t cooperate with me today.”

“In the past, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to scare you… but actually.” Lu Sen glanced back at the street, confirming there was no one around, then lowered his voice even more. “When I was studying in France, I was recruited to become a spy.”

—-

Bai Wei’s finger moved back to the trigger. He looked at Lu Sen as if asking, “Do you believe I’m Qin Shi Huang?”

“It’s true. These people got hold of my photo and threatened me. They even locked me up and brainwashed me with a few dozen words. This caused me to lose some of my memory, even forgetting basic life knowledge.” Lu Sen explained again, his tone desperate.

Bai Wei: “What did they call you? Summer Soldier? Why would France want to train you as a spy? What’s the point?”

“No! Not France, but… Germany. Under Hitler’s command.” Lu Sen racked his brain, recalling the little historical knowledge he had. “You know the power of the imperial state machine. Even after all these years, they are still looking for a chance to restore their power. And since I was studying in France, there were remnants of Hitler’s influence there… Vichy France left some forces behind. It makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, at the start of World War II, France was already under Germany’s control!”

Bai Wei’s hand tremblingly gripped the gun. He was in shock—not because he thought Lu Sen was making things up, but because Lu Sen even knew about Vichy France. What a rare and valuable knowledge for a person who seemed like an illiterate.

But soon, he tightened his grip on the gun and snapped, “And how does that relate to what you did today?”

If he kept dealing with Lu Sen, he’d become a fool!

“Don’t! Don’t keep your finger on the trigger! Darling, revolvers don’t have a safety!”

“You better have safety! Don’t think of me as an idiot who doesn’t even know how guns work!” Bai Wei shouted, his nerves starting to unravel.

“I, I’ll confess! At the harbor today, besides trying to buy fish, I ran into an old enemy of mine. We talked for a bit, and then I left. Afterward, I realized the keys were gone, and I thought he stole them, so I came back to look for them!” Lu Sen again made the French gesture. “This person has had a grudge against me for a long time. I was afraid he’d follow me home and do something to my family…”

“Was he the one who left the traces in the house?” Bai Wei asked.

“Hey!!”

The voice of the supermarket owner came from the fence. He was out of breath, clearly having just run here. He was still in his pajamas, wiping his forehead as he began to scold.

“It’s nighttime! It’s late at night! Do you have to make such a ruckus every night?! My god! Your townhouse is split into two sides. The right side is empty, near the accountant’s wife. They’re far enough away to not be disturbed. But your left side is close to mine! Can you at least have some neighborly awareness! Don’t make such a racket and scream at night!”

Here is the English translation:

“I’m really sorry!” Lu Sen shouted, reaching out to pull Bai Wei back into the house. “We’ll go back and solve our problems!”

“You haven’t answered me! Were those traces in the house left by him?” Bai Wei demanded.

“You two!” The supermarket owner, who was already furious, screamed when he saw what Bai Wei was holding in his hand. “Wait, what are you holding… Oh my God, my dear neighbor! It’s just an affair, just an affair! It’s not a criminal case! Please calm down! If it’s really unbearable, you can bring your lover home to play… Just bring along someone like a fund manager or a doctor, lawyer. Their professions are more respectable. When you get divorced and your husband moves out, they can move in as the new owners, which could even raise the property value…”

“Please, stop making such unfunny jokes! I won’t get a divorce!” Bai Wei’s face twitched as he glared at the supermarket owner. Lu Sen blocked the space between them with his tall body, speaking softly to Bai Wei, “Don’t mind him, let’s go inside.”

But there was clear joy on his face. Bai Wei felt that Lu Sen was inexplicably pleased. If the supermarket owner wasn’t there, he would have shot Lu Sen.

The door finally closed behind them. Lu Sen wiped the sweat from his forehead. “That owner has a foul mouth. Baby, don’t get mad…”

The cold barrel of a gun pressed against Lu Sen’s head.

The gun was in Bai Wei’s slender fingers.

Unknowingly, Bai Wei had already stood behind Lu Sen. His voice was cold as he spoke, “Go upstairs, into the bedroom.”

Lu Sen said, “Baby, are we playing some special role-play? Can you put the gun down? I’m afraid it might misfire inside…”

“This afternoon, a strange thing climbed onto my bed,” Bai Wei said. “That’s why I raised the gun.”

“What!” Lu Sen jumped as if trying to escape the barrel of the gun, but Bai Wei only flicked his wrist, and the gun was pressed firmly against his head again, like it couldn’t slip away. “It must be my enemy!” he said indignantly.

“This person really stole my keys! He sneaked into my house to attack you!”

“He’s still upstairs, probably,” Bai Wei said in a muted voice, his tone as elegant and venomous as a snake. “Hubby, let’s go upstairs and deal with him.”

With a voice as rich as red wine speaking to you, even if it meant going to hell for him, you would be willing to do it!

“Okay, wife, you use one gun, I’ll use one gun. I’ll go get the hunting rifle from the living room.” Lu Sen said, “Wife, can you put the gun down first?”

The gun was not put down. Instead, the barrel tapped against Lu Sen’s head suggestively.

“If you can’t deal with him, I’ll deal with you,” Bai Wei’s voice flowed like liquid on a marble table. “Did you hear me, hubby?”

He emphasized the word “hubby” as if implying that if “he” wasn’t dealt with, it would be Lu Sen’s failure.

“I’ll go get the hunting rifle…”

“You use this.” Bai Wei casually picked up a frying pan from the side and shoved it into Lu Sen’s hands.

The two of them ascended the stairs, one in front and one behind, as if performing a tango.

Soon, Lu Sen saw the messy hallway. He sighed in distress. “Oh no! That person destroyed my carefully chosen antiques…”

Bai Wei replied, “Stop pretending, I knocked them over. You should have heard it.”

Lu Sen said, “I’m not pretending, wife.”

At this moment, words were useless. Bai Wei said to the carved wooden bedroom door, “Open it.”

Lu Sen faced the door, took a deep breath, and said, “Wife, I don’t know what happened, but there’s really no other relationship between me and my enemy. To me, an enemy can never be a wife. Only a wife can be a wife. My relationship with my wife has always been friendly, there’s no hostility…”

Bai Wei smiled coldly, “Oh.”

Lu Sen continued, “And the person who appeared in the basement before should not be him. I don’t know the person who appeared in the basement! I did see a shadow in the garden when I went home to grab something. But after seeing me, he ran away. I guess the person in the basement was a fugitive. We were just dealing with the house and didn’t want to cause trouble, worried he would die outside and blame us…”

Bai Wei asked again, “Are you opening the door or not?”

Lu Sen said, “Wife, what I mean is, since one person escaped from our house, there might be a second one. Maybe during our rambling, the attacker from this afternoon already escaped through the window, and the bedroom is empty…”

At that moment, he heard the sound of a magazine being turned.

“It doesn’t matter,” Bai Wei said gently. “There will definitely be a body in this bedroom today. If he’s not here, I’ll just find something else to replace him.”

Faced with Bai Wei’s determination, Lu Sen could only say, “Okay, wife.”

Bai Wei firmly believed that there could be nothing else on the bed. The indescribable creature he had seen must have been Lu Sen, and no one else.

But when the door opened, he froze when he saw what was on the bed.

“It’s you! You bad person!”

In that instant, Lu Sen grabbed the frying pan and rushed forward.