Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1182: Chapter 23: Puppet Strings

In a restroom on one of the upper floors of the teaching building, Zhao Le was standing alone in front of the mirror.

His hair was wet again, hanging down in clumps, and his lips were a bit pale—this was the result of forcing himself to endure the pain… He took a deep breath, both hands trembling as he slowly unbuttoned the front of his shirt.

With his clothes hanging open on both sides, the bruises on his chest and abdomen were visible… Zhao Le ran his fingers over these bruises… every touch brought a burning kind of agony.

Thud—!

Suddenly, Zhao Le slammed a fist down on the sink counter.

Thud—!

He once again used his fist, slowly pounding it against the sink counter—on the exact same spot.

Thud, thud, thud, thud—!!

He struck it again and again, while raising his head, staring unblinkingly at his own reflection in the mirror. Right now, he was silent, utterly silent.

This pounding went on for several minutes before finally stopping. The knuckles of Zhao Le’s fist were bright red, the skin already broken… He drew in a deep breath, slowly fastened his buttons, then his expression returned to normal as he left this place.

In the next moment, one of the stall doors in the restroom slowly opened, and it was actually Chen Mingming… Chen Mingming leaned against the door, looking at the spot where Zhao Le had just been standing, appearing lost in thought.

He hadn’t meant to be here; he’d simply planned to find a quiet, empty spot where he could curiously study the properties of the strange pistol in his hand.

After three rounds of experiments, Chen Mingming had formed a preliminary understanding of the gun’s abilities.

First, the bullet it fired could ignore space and distance—but how far it could actually go was still unknown. Maybe he could find someone on the other side of the ocean to test it on. As for this “ignoring space” trait, the suspect in the detention center had already provided proof: after the suspect died, through this silver pistol, Chen Mingming had naturally received the feedback of the man’s death.

Second: difficulty. The easier the target was to shoot, the lower the difficulty, and the less Life was consumed in forming the bullet; conversely, it should cost more. At the same time, once the bullet was formed, as the one who paid with his Life, he would feel as if something had been drawn out of him.

Next was the condition under which the bullet formed… Besides drawing on Life to create it, it seemed to require something else as well… This wasn’t part of the explanation given by the man who sold him the gun; it was just a vague feeling he had.

Chen Mingming tried to enter that place again, but kept failing… He felt that some condition had to be met before he could once more come into contact with that miraculous place.

“Let’s run another experiment.” Chen Mingming muttered to himself.

After leaving the restroom, in the corridor, Chen Mingming saw Gao Wen standing alone on the open floor, leaning against the railing and gazing into the distance.

Gao Wen seemed to be so lost in thought about something that he’d zoned out.

Light gradually rose in Chen Mingming’s palm as the pistol appeared once more; in his other palm, a half-transparent bullet again began to take shape… He hadn’t yet chosen to inject Life into it, but he already knew how much would be required.

But soon, Chen Mingming dispelled both the pistol and the not-yet-formed bullet.

“The consumption is the same as last time…” Chen Mingming muttered to himself. “So for a fixed person, the cost is a fixed value…?”

He chose to leave by another route, not walking past Gao Wen.

…

…

Not long after Liu Minghao and Wei Zidao left, they arrived at the local office of the Management Bureau. After the few clerical staff here—only logistical personnel—had received them, they settled into the dorms attached to the office.

Because there were no official agents stationed here, the equipment was relatively rudimentary, but it was decent enough for living in.

The two of them began to discuss this assignment.

“Brother Hao, what do we do about this mission?” Wei Zidao lay on the bed, hands pillowing his head. “We went to the scene, we examined the corpse, and we still didn’t find a single clue. The method of killing is already beyond the detection range of our tools… Could it be some Advanced monster, or a Taoist whose Taoist magic art is extremely profound?”

Liu Minghao said nothing. He simply took out the container holding the strange fleshy tumor—he’d stuck a Yellow sigil paper on the vessel, which was constantly emitting a chill, simulating a low-temperature environment for the container. Liu Minghao was currently observing the movement of the tumor.

Wei Zidao didn’t look, just kept muttering, “But since there are no traces at the scene, maybe it’s some kind of curse-killing Magic? And the deceased was just dead, plain and simple—no loss of vital blood, no signs of being Devoured of Life and soul and spirit. Can we rule out that this was a hunting case… So is it a revenge killing? Sigh, Brother Hao, say something at least?”

Only then did Liu Minghao slowly speak. “When we encounter this kind of situation, generally, based on past practice, we treat it as an unsolved case for the time being.”

“Unsolved? What do you mean?” Wei Zidao’s mouth fell open as he sat up, curiosity clear on his face—he was actually an entry level guy as well.

He’d only been out on assignment a few times. But after the incident at Mount Tai, Management Bureau staff had grown tight, so he’d gotten this chance to go out on duty.

Liu Minghao said calmly, “Besides us handling Dao Monsters, there are always going to be some Taoists walking in the mortal world. Most of their purpose in walking the red dust is to temper themselves. Among them, there are some who truly uphold justice and dedicate themselves to slaying monsters and Evil Demons. The more famous ones include the Taoist Master of Dragon Tiger Mountain, the Maoshan Sect, and so on.”

“And then?”

“They can’t bear to see certain injustices in the world, and many times they follow the old ways—eradicating evil down to the roots… If they run into monsters doing evil, they just cut them down, and that makes our job easier. But when it’s a human, that’s a different situation.”

Wei Zidao understood, “Brother Hao, you mean… this deceased might have been… handled… by some righteous man of the jianghu?”

He made a throat-slitting gesture.

Liu Minghao gave a wry smile. “This guy had previously committed rape and murder. What do you think?”

Wei Zidao frowned. “But he’d already confessed, and he probably wouldn’t have escaped the death penalty, right? If that’s the case, there’s no need to make a move…”

Liu Minghao shook his head. “You don’t understand how those people think… A lot of them believe that someone like this doesn’t deserve to live even one extra day. Under normal procedures, from handing him over for questioning, to trial, to final execution, there’s still a long way to go. And if his family runs around pulling strings on the outside, it’s not impossible he might avoid execution and get life instead.”

“So that’s how it is…” Wei Zidao sighed.

Liu Minghao waved a hand. “Those Taoists roaming the jianghu act a lot according to their own preferences and have their own standards of judgment. Also, the ones they kill are villains. So most of the time, we can only turn a blind eye… You can’t really start arguing with them over a guy who deserved to die, can you? Besides, scum like this—I want to kill them too. But we’re public servants after all; there are things we simply cannot do. If we do them, we’re crossing the line.”

“So… we’re just going to decide it was the act of those chivalrous types?”

Liu Minghao shook his head. “It’s hard to say. It’s just that this is Dragon Consultant’s personal turf, and similar incidents have happened quite a few times before. For example, a couple of years ago, there was a huge powerful monsters here called Sun Xiaosheng, who literally skinned alive a junkie that shoved his elderly mother down the stairs to steal money from home, then hung the body up… and that ended up going nowhere too. We can’t really start a fight with a huge powerful monsters just for a guy like that.”

“All right then…” Wei Zidao sighed again, his face now helpless.

“We’ll investigate a few more days. If there’s still nothing, we just report it as is. There’s a specialized review up top.” Liu Minghao said casually, then lifted the container in his hand. “What I’m more concerned about now is what exactly this thing inside is. It looks… really unusual. Go put in a request and get some testing equipment sent over. I’ll do some preliminary study first, see what this thing might be.”

“Got it.”

…

…

At night, under the neon lights, the alcohol was dragging more of people’s true nature out into the open.

In the back alley of a bar, a man’s hands were being pinned behind him—while a burly guy with a thick gold chain was pounding his fists into the man’s stomach, punch after punch… beating him until blood spurted from his mouth.

He’d already had too much to drink, was half out of it to begin with; now, after that brutal beating, something inside must’ve gone wrong. Even the bile he spat up was streaked with blood.

“You got balls, Qian Er. Got money to pick up chicks here, but no money to pay up, huh? Real tough, aren’t you?”

“N-no… that’s not it, Xiao Ge… give me a chance, just one chance… three days, just three days, I swear I’ll pay it back!” Qian Er begged miserably, “You… you beat me to death now, you still won’t get your money… give me three days, my family’s got it! We really do! My boss has a pension…”

“Trash.” The one called Xiao Ge laid into him again, another flurry of savage blows. Only after he’d beaten Qian Er to the ground, unable to get up, did he spit on him and say, “Three days. If you don’t pay in three days, I’ll break your damn legs. Let’s go!”

Xiao Ge walked off with his buddies just like that.

Qian Er lay sprawled on the ground, clutching his stomach, too weak to even stand… He was still drunk, and in agony. “Fuck… smiling tiger… one day, I’ll gut you myself… who… who’s there?”

He suddenly tensed up in fear. Someone was walking up to him. He was terrified Xiao Ge had come back… The alley was too dark, and from where he lay he couldn’t see who it was.

The newcomer suddenly crouched down, a bottle of baijiu in his hand… Qian Er didn’t have the strength to resist as the guy forced the liquor straight down his throat, and all he could do was swallow in pain.

His stomach was already sloshing with beer, and he’d just taken a beating; now with the baijiu poured in on top, the discomfort was unbearable. In just a few moments, stars were bursting in front of his eyes, everything blurred into double. “Who… who… who’s messing with me! I-I-I’ll fucking kill you!”

“Do you want to kill the guy who just beat you?” The person’s voice was quiet and calm as he asked, slowly.

“Who… kill who?” Qian Er’s head lolled as he swayed, slowly crawling to lean back against the wall and struggle upright into a sitting position.

“Xiao Ge.”

The voice sounded very young.

Qian Er retched painfully, resting his head against the wall, shaking it back and forth. “Kill… yeah, kill… kill that bastard… heh… haha…”

“Take it.”

Qian Er felt something being shoved into his hand… seemed like a gun… He hiccuped, then slowly raised what he was holding.

That young voice sounded almost like it had Magic Power as it whispered by his ear, slowly, “You got no money. Next time he’ll still come for you, maybe beat you into a cripple. Then you might never stand up again in this life. People around you will laugh at you, you’ll have a hard time ever finding another job, your family won’t care if you live or die. And just like that… you’re finished.”

Qian Er’s gaze gradually twisted into something feral, a surge of pure killing intent bursting through his skull. “Kill!! Kill!! Kill!!”

A bullet, right then, slowly took form in front of Qian Er’s eyes.

Bang—!

The pistol thundered, the bullet shot out in an instant and then vanished… After that, Qian Er just sat there grinning stupidly.

Six days.

That was the information the young man received in his head—but at the same time, those six days had not been docked from his own lifespan… The young man quietly watched Qian Er.

Qian Er was hugging the pistol, then slumped back down again, and in no time was snoring away, dead to the world.

Strangely, the silver pistol in Qian Er’s arms slowly faded away bit by bit, then appeared again… in the hand of the owner of that young voice.

“It needs killing intent… That kid earlier didn’t have it. So that’s how it is…”

He walked out of the alley unhurriedly.

Up ahead on the street, there’d just been a car accident—a private car suddenly lost control and crashed into a fire hydrant by the curb, drawing a big crowd around it.

From the car, two men were frantically hauling another man with a big gold chain out of the driver’s seat, shouting in panic, “Xiao Ge! Xiao Ge!! Xiao Ge!”

The one called Xiao Ge had a tiny bullet hole in his forehead… His eyes would never open again.

Chen Mingming calmly put on his headphones, then walked slowly through the crowd.

…

…

Almost ten at night, Officer Ma, who was planning to go home, bumped into Zhou Yusheng, who had no intention of going home, in the stairwell at the station.

Officer Ma was about to shoot the breeze a bit, but before he could open his mouth, his phone rang—it was Lin Feng calling back.

Gesturing for Zhou Yusheng to wait a moment, Officer Ma took the call—and within just a few seconds, his expression changed drastically. “What?!”

“What happened?” Zhou Yusheng’s brows shot up.

Officer Ma stared at Zhou Yusheng, stunned for a few seconds, then said gravely, “Wu Rong is dead too… They just found the body, and it’s… dismembered, exactly the same as Wang Liang!”

…

In the morning, after making breakfast for his sister and watching her finish eating, Zhao Le packed his things and got ready to head to class.

But not long after he left home, at the security booth by the entrance of the apartment complex, the security guard uncle called out to him.

“Xiao Le, there’s a delivery for you.”

“A delivery?”

Zhao Le froze… He didn’t remember buying anything.

“Yeah, someone dropped it off here first thing this morning. No idea who, but your name’s on it.” The old guard lifted out the package; it was about the size of a shoebox.

“Thank you, sir.” Zhao Le accepted it with a polite smile… then hurried toward the bus stop with the package in hand.

He opened the package as he walked, tearing off the wrapping paper and tossing it into a trash bin before opening the box on the way—it really was a shoebox.

He lifted the lid and looked inside, and his pupils shrank sharply.

Inside, sitting there, was… a silver pistol!