Bastard

The moment the gunshot cracked through the air— At the very end of the line of bodyguards, Tong Shan, wearing dark sunglasses, let out a soft sigh and flicked his fingers. Instantly, the steel nail that had just left the muzzle lost its target, veering wildly off into the sky. The attacker screamed in fury and pulled the trigger again. Still in vain. After firing both rounds of steel-nail ammunition, the man stared through the thinning smoke at Xu Chaoxian, who stood completely unharmed. He froze for a split second, then instinctively raised the hammer-like modified firearm in his grip and charged toward the podium. Unfortunately, he had no chance left. No, there had never been a chance from the start. The security guards and bodyguards along the perimeter had already lunged, tackling him to the floor. Under the crushing weight of several men pinning him down, the attacker's mask slipped from his face, revealing horrific, acid-etched scars—ugly, wretched, and raw. He forced his head up with everything he had, glaring at Xu Chaoxian shielded in the center of his subordinates, his eyes thoroughly bloodshot. He roared again and again, thrashing wildly. "Running dogs!" His voice was a ragged, choked shriek, as if weeping blood. "You bunch of running dogs...! Xu Chaoxian, you'll die without a place to be buried sooner or later! You motherfucking—" His mouth was stuffed shut. He was dragged away. The corner of Tong Shan's eye twitched slightly, and his gaze dropped. A silent sigh. *Running dogs, huh...* Inside the arena, the brief commotion quickly settled. It seemed this was far from the first time such an incident had occurred; from Xu Chaoxian down to his staff, none of them found it the least bit surprising. "It seems the passion of our friends in the audience is indeed a bit excessive. Let's keep the sportsmanship off the spectators, shall we? Otherwise, you'll get a red card..." Not a single hair out of place, the governor still stood at the podium. Carrying on with his speech with effortless poise, he quipped about what had just transpired, prompting a wave of canned laughter from the crowd. Among those enthusiastic or indifferent faces, quite a few still wore undisguised looks of regret. *What a pity.* *Why didn't you just die?* Ji Jue lowered his eyes to his phone screen. Isis reported: [Sir, anomalous communication detected.] His eyebrows twitched, then drew together again. He stood up and reached out to Mother Lu, who was still in shock. "Let's go. It's too chaotic here. Once it wraps up, it'll be hard to get out." He scooped up his third sister, took Mother Lu by the hand, and led them toward the exits. Before his eyes, Isis displayed the decrypted text messages intercepted from two burner numbers: [That useless piece of trash failed!] [It has to be you, Ajram. Everyone will remember your sacrifice.] [Don't forget what you promised me.] [Rest assured. The White King is eternal, my brother. We shall reunite in paradise.] [The White King is eternal!] In less than a minute, those few brief messages flashed across Ji Jue's vision. The signal lock was complete. Stepping into the walkway, Ji Jue whipped his head around, looking toward the stands across the arena. Amid that churning crowd. A bearded man gripping a phone hesitated, gritted his teeth, his expression shifting rapidly. Suddenly, he rose to his feet and threw open his coat, revealing dense bundles of wiring and explosives. He screamed toward the live broadcast camera— "Long live the White Nation!" He slammed down the detonator! *Snap!* At that exact instant, a thunderous roar boomed out. It came from above everyone's heads. The second the man stood up shouting, Tong Shan had sharply turned his head. His telekinesis, which blanketed the entire venue, had already caught the abnormal anomaly. With a flick of his finger, his telekinetic power stirred the air mid-arena, setting off a crack of thunder out of thin air. It instantly drew everyone's eyes. Meanwhile, the man strapped with explosives had frozen in place, paralyzed, unable to move an inch—even blinking was beyond his control. Layers of telekinesis enveloped him, constructing an invisible, hermetic barrier. The hand clutching the detonator severed cleanly in midair, suspended, frozen precisely at the depth of the press. Immediately following that, from bottom to top, it rapidly disassembled. "It's useless," Ji Jue murmured. With just a glance, he had deciphered the exact mechanism. "Aside from the manual trigger, there's a countdown and a remote control..." The faint words were barely a whisper, yet he knew Tong Shan could hear them. Sure enough, the glance cast in his direction grew even more helpless. "Lend a hand," Tong Shan sighed. "Count it as a favor." "Brother Shan, don't be like that." Ji Jue shook his head in resignation. Instantly, Deus Ex Machina took effect. The bundles of intricate wiring and taped explosives wrapped around the attacker dissolved and came apart in thin air, detonators dropping free, entirely inert. Not only that, the phone tucked in the attacker's coat lit up on its own, tracing back call records. Very quickly, Tong Shan's phone screen lit up, displaying two distinct seat numbers, photos of a man and a woman who seemed completely unrelated, two mobile coordinates outside the arena, and a vehicle parked on the street outside Tianmen— Huh, it was actually a new product from Haian: the classic reissue minivan. *Thanks for the business!* Ji Jue tapped his phone twice, killing the engine remotely. Putting the phone away, he felt a wave of disgust, finally understanding the persistent frustration Tong the Vegetable had long grown used to: the utter helplessness of loathing a certain bastard, yet being forced by circumstances and relations to keep him from dropping dead in the street. There was no helping it. Xu Chaoxian couldn't die just yet. At the very least, he couldn't be blown to bits right here. Otherwise, at least half the stadium would end up buried alongside that bastard, and this damn tournament was sponsored by his own company! *You bastards really don't give a damn about the venue, do you?* With Ji Jue providing a full-map reveal and wallhack, the Security Bureau acted with blistering efficiency, rounding up most of the accomplices before any widespread panic could break out. Yet unexpected snags were inevitable. The Security Bureau Celestial Chosen dispatched to apprehend the target in the front-row stands returned looking ashamed, head hung low. "Captain Tong, one got away." "What happened?" Tong Shan frowned. "I... I don't know—" the Celestial Chosen stammered. "I just... spaced out for a second, and he—no, she—anyway, the person was just gone!" He couldn't even say whether the person in that seat had been a man or a woman, young or old, let alone what features or appearance they had. And it wasn't just him; even Tong Shan, who was supposed to oversee the entire situation, had completely overlooked that individual, failing to notice them at all. "Heart Pivot?" Tong Shan frowned. "A Heart Pivot, huh," Ji Jue remarked in quiet realization from the shadows near the exit tunnel not far off. There was truly nothing more infuriating than trying to pick a Heart Pivot out of a crowd. It was even more tedious than plucking a sliver of ginger from a plate of shredded potatoes. At least with shredded potatoes, you could just devour the entire plate, but you couldn't very well slaughter everyone here, could you? Worse still, that sliver of 'ginger' sometimes disguised its texture to mimic shredded potato, tricking you so that your conscience twinged and you couldn't bring yourself to bite down... Nothing could be done about it; those bastards had their stealth skills maxed out, and they all carried blessing sequences that granted invisibility or dampened their presence, making them insidious to the extreme. Until they were willing to reveal their true colors, they appeared more ordinary than any ordinary person. In fact, the person might not have even shown up in the flesh; the one here could have been nothing more than a puppet. The thought alone gave Ji Jue a headache. *What a hassle...* If he had known, he wouldn't have come. What did that piece of shit Xu Chaoxian's life or death have to do with him anyway? And yet, the piece of shit possessed zero self-awareness, shamelessly clinging right to him. The moment they rounded the corner near the exit, Xu Chaoxian strode forward with a warm, booming laugh, hands outstretched in an eager greeting: "This must be Mr. Ji, correct? Ah, our first time meeting! Truly young and promising, young and promising indeed!" "Heh." Ji Jue glanced at the outstretched hands, offering only a polite, hollow smile. "Glad you know." He pulled his gaze away, turned, and walked off. He didn't give him a shred of face. Xu Chaoxian froze for a second, then laughed it off without a care, shrugging self-deprecatingly. "Seems I'm truly not a very popular governor." Behind him, Tong Shan remained silent, acting as though he had heard nothing. He only shot a cold glare at the back of Xu's head. *You fucking know it too?!* *** By the time Ji Jue saw Tong Shan walk out, half an hour had already passed. Sitting in the shade on the steps playing on his phone, Ji Jue heard familiar footsteps behind him. He looked back with a grin. "All wrapped up?" "Just getting started," Tong Shan sighed. "There's a mountain of work waiting, annoying as hell. Have to write reports, and have to hunt down that Heart Pivot... going to be a massive pile of bullshit." "What was the deal back there?" Ji Jue asked curiously. "Those Mid-Continent folks?" Tong Shan loosened his collar, letting out a breath. "A White Nation restoration group, a bunch of fanatics from the Southern Holy Unification League. The Military Department grabbed one of their priests a few days ago, so they figured they'd give the Federation a little traditional Mid-Continent surprise in retaliation." Ji Jue shook his head. "I meant the first guy—" Instantly, Tong Shan fell silent. He instinctively patted his pockets, but reined in the urge to smoke. In the end, he only shook his head helplessly. "A poor bastard backed into a corner." An accident, a chemical leak, a backroom deal, a scapegoat and a wretched soul, an unforeseen catastrophe, a shattered family, a loved one dead from cancer as a result... and an empty shell for whom continuing to live held no meaning. "I'm fucking sick of it," he sighed exhaustedly. Ji Jue said nothing, quietly gazing out at the familiar scenery of the school plaza. Amid the brief silence, Tong Shan's phone vibrated again with a progress update. He glanced down at the screen, then asked just before leaving, "Free tonight? Want to get together?" "Your treat? That's a rare sight." Ji Jue looked surprised, his mouth curling into a teasing grin. "You brought your sister to eat on my dime so many times, and you finally grew a conscience? Not worried someone will report you for lavish extravagance?" "I'm leaving the day after tomorrow. What the hell do I care about reports?" Tong Shan shrugged, grinning as though weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "You coming or not? All the steak and seafood you can eat." "I'm in!" Ji Jue agreed without a second thought. "Count me in, definitely." "I'll text you the address later." Tong Shan walked away without looking back. Leaving Ji Jue sitting on the steps, watching the dimming crimson glow of the sunset, a slow sense of bewilderment washing over him. After a long while, he let out a wistful sigh. He had thought Tong the Vegetable was finally opening his wallet for once and that the future looked bright, but it turned out there was no future at all? It was too sudden. Leaving just like that, packing up so fast people were caught off guard. Yet calculating the timeline, it had actually been quite slow. The transfer order had come down over a month ago. Now that the handover was complete, Tong Shan was due to transfer out of the Yacheng Security Bureau. From here on out, Xu Chaoxian's life or death wasn't his problem anymore. Liberated. Truly something to celebrate! *But who's going to make up for all the meals you owe me? That airhead sister of yours? Don't blame me if I pick on her for fun!* Ji Jue sighed, stood up, dusted off his trousers, and walked down toward Lu Ling and the family as they waved to him from the foot of the steps. He'd go pick up a good bottle of wine later. *** Yet when the wine was bought... Tong the Vegetable didn't get a single drop! The instant Ji Jue set the bottle on the table, before the cold appetizers had even made one round, the Beishan District crew who arrived early had already guzzled it clean. "Rare of you to be so thoughtful, kid!" Wen Wen slammed her hand on the table, hoisted a liquor bottle, and declared with sweeping swagger: "Come on, let me down one for everyone first—" *Snap!* With a flick of her finger, she popped the bottlecap clean off, then chugged it down in a single second before letting out a blissful sigh and sitting back down. "Help yourselves, help yourselves!" Immediately after, an entire crate of hard liquor was hauled up, and each person was handed a full bottle just to "rinse their mouths." A round of applause broke out—mostly from Tong Hua, who had earned an exemption from drinking by sticking an "admission of defeat" sign to her forehead, and the underage Xiao An, who held a glass of juice looking utterly bewildered. "......" Soaking in this dense, rowdy atmosphere, the corner of Ji Jue's eye twitched. He had a distinct feeling he wouldn't be walking out of that door on two feet tonight. Watching her act so utterly unhinged, Ji Jue immediately winked at Lao Zhang across the table, mouthing silently: *How long has she been off the booze?* Lao Zhang flashed a gesture for seven. Ji Jue instantly breathed a sigh of relief—not bad, not bad. But then he saw Lao Zhang flash another seven... And then another twenty-one! Ji Jue's vision went black. *Holy fuck, how catastrophic is this rebound going to be?!*