Ning Zhuo’s lower back suddenly flared up with a burning pain again.
The humiliation and anger from the distant past surged through him, making Ning Zhuo suddenly jerk upright and leap out of bed.
He found himself covered by a warm blanket.
And Shan Feibai was sprawled next to him, completely unbothered by the unfamiliar bed. He had taken off his outer pants, leaving only a pair of black athletic boxer shorts.
After removing his headband, his hair fell messily on the bed sheets since he had no pillow, and he looked like he was sleeping soundly.
His two long legs straddled the corner of Ning Zhuo’s blanket. His muscle lines were lean and well-defined, giving them a weighty appearance.
…Perhaps because the light was too dim, none of the old scars were visible.
Ning Zhuo quietly watched Shan Feibai for a while, momentarily confused about where he was. The only thing he could feel clearly was the fresh, burning anger in his heart.
He thought, Shan Feibai just stabbed him, so where did he get the guts to climb into his bed?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Without warning, he grabbed the pillow he had been sleeping on and slammed it onto Shan Feibai’s face!
Groggy from sleep and feeling irritable, Ning Zhuo only used about seventy percent of his strength.
To his surprise, Shan Feibai didn’t move at all, letting the pillow sink deeper into his face as if he were nothing more than a figment of Ning Zhuo’s imagination.
Like that, more than half a minute passed.
Ning Zhuo began to wonder if he had lost his mind again, so he loosened his grip on the edge of the pillow just a bit.
The moment he relaxed, Shan Feibai, who had been as still as a corpse, finally reacted.
He lifted both hands and clamped onto Ning Zhuo’s wrists. Taking advantage of the brief moment when Ning Zhuo loosened his hold, Shan Feibai kicked Ning Zhuo’s legs apart with one knee, flipped him over, and pinned him down. His foot pressed against Ning Zhuo’s joints, locking him tightly in place.
Shan Feibai had been sleeping peacefully, but suddenly being deprived of air, he knew something was wrong, although he couldn’t figure out what Ning Zhuo was trying to do.
He didn’t think Ning Zhuo was actually trying to kill him.
But he knew he couldn’t go against Ning Zhuo.
After five years of longing and five years of fighting, he knew Ning Zhuo’s personality all too well.
He had already lost the upper hand, and if he flailed wildly in resistance, and Ning Zhuo tightened his grip further, he’d truly have no chance of winning or surviving.
It wasn’t until Ning Zhuo loosened his hold that Shan Feibai, who had been holding his breath, finally found a sliver of hope.
Now pinning Ning Zhuo beneath him, Shan Feibai’s tense muscles and nerves finally relaxed a little.
With that relaxation came a wave of suffocating dizziness.
Having narrowly escaped some inexplicable ordeal, Shan Feibai wrapped Ning Zhuo in his arms, gasping for air, and softly muttered, “Oh my god.”
Ning Zhuo: “…”
He stared at the ceiling, his memories of reality before his long dream slowly returning.
He knew he had suddenly gone mad and was in the wrong, so he didn’t take any further action.
But before long, Ning Zhuo grew impatient.
He had never liked being close to Shan Feibai, and now his entire body felt strange, like it had been electrified.
Ning Zhuo thought for a moment, deciding it was because Shan Feibai’s body temperature was too high.
In a cold tone, he said, “Get off.”
Shan Feibai, completely unbothered, rested his chin on Ning Zhuo’s shoulder, rubbing against him a few times as if to wake himself up.
Unsurprisingly, he rubbed against some cold sweat that had a faint scent of mint.
Shan Feibai understood. “Did you have a dream, Ning-ge?”
Ning Zhuo easily slipped out from under his joint restraint and kicked him in the thigh. “Don’t understand words? Get down.”
The feedback from his toes was of firm, springy flesh.
But in such close proximity, Ning Zhuo also brushed against a noticeable scar on Shan Feibai’s shin.
Shan Feibai obediently got off, but he didn’t get off the bed.
He tugged the fallen blanket back up, mostly covering Ning Zhuo, leaving only a corner for himself as usual.
Confirming that he had indeed left an indelible mark on Shan Feibai, Ning Zhuo’s mood eased a little, and he no longer insisted on kicking him out of bed.
Ning Zhuo had always been the type to wake up and consider his sleep done. He had never been in the habit of going back to sleep.
But with a living, breathing person suddenly next to him, Ning Zhuo had to figure out how to deal with him, so he didn’t rush to leave.
He asked, “How long did I sleep?”
Shan Feibai looked back at the clock, which was shrouded in darkness, and accurately reported, “Four hours.”
Ning Zhuo looked at him and asked, “Where are your glasses?”
Shan Feibai turned his head back, his mouth drooping in mock grievance. “Someone broke them.”
He shamelessly added, “Ge, buy me another pair.”
Ning Zhuo was so angry he laughed, knowing that Shan Feibai had the thickest skin. Even slapping him wouldn’t faze him, so he reached out and patted his face. “Rogue.”
Shan Feibai replied proudly and confidently, “Your family’s rogue.”
The atmosphere subtly eased.
Shan Feibai lay on the bed, one leg dangling in the air, swinging back and forth, trying to pick up the conversation they had been having before bed. “Ge, who exactly is that person?”
Ning Zhuo didn’t take the bait. “After all these years, have you forgotten the rules?”
The rules of mercenaries were always based on an eye for an eye, an equal exchange.
No information was given away for free.
Shan Feibai asked, “What does Ning-ge want to know?”
Ning Zhuo replied, “Who did you offend?”
Shan Feibai pursed his lips and fell silent again.
When Ning Zhuo thought Shan Feibai was about to dodge the question and play dumb, Shan Feibai slowly said, “White Shield, Ruiteng, Interest, Weiwei, United Health… I may have offended them all, but I can’t say for sure which one made a move.”
Ning Zhuo: “…”
He stayed silent for a long time.
He couldn’t quite understand what Shan Feibai had done to offend so many people at once.
Did the ancestors of all these company presidents’ graves get disturbed?
But if what Shan Feibai said was true, would Ning Zhuo’s sheltering of him and “Panqiao” cause him to offend all these companies?
After careful consideration, Ning Zhuo came to a conclusion: Not yet.
But he needed to do something to make this “not yet” last as long as possible.
He had already pulled Shan Feibai out of the fire, and now it would be difficult to sever ties.
Unless he was willing to risk a life-or-death struggle with “Panqiao,” throw Shan Feibai out, and burn him at the stake.
Ning Zhuo glanced at Shan Feibai and thought, even though he frequently deserved to die, no amount of dirty tricks from those big companies could weigh as much as half of Shan Feibai’s bones.
After a brief, restless sleep that barely cleared his mind, Ning Zhuo decided to go over things from the beginning.
According to Shan Feibai, he had been knocked down elsewhere and then dragged to the Chang’an District.
The people behind this clearly wanted to divert trouble onto him, pinning the blame on his long-time enemy.
However, Ning Zhuo didn’t act according to their plan, and by accident, avoided a life-or-death confrontation with “Panqiao.”
As Ning Zhuo pondered this, he glanced at Shan Feibai and felt that his act of kindness was justified, nodding to himself in approval.
The fire had occurred in the Chang’an District, and the district was under the control of “Haina.” So, it was perfectly reasonable for him to investigate the fire scene.
To the people behind the scenes, his actions had indeed disrupted their plans, but they were also logical, not unexpected.
By rescuing Shan Feibai, he had essentially given him a new backbone, controlling his fate.
In the world of underground forces, the hierarchy was as brutal and primitive as a food chain, where the strong devoured the weak.
For mercenaries, profit was the guiding principle.
If “Haina” were to humbly nurse Shan Feibai back to health, treat him well, and then obediently return him to “Panqiao” without expecting anything in return, that would be the real anomaly in the eyes of outsiders.
While they had the chance, it made more sense to swallow “Panqiao” whole, forcing their former enemies to bow beneath them.
But “Panqiao” wasn’t an easy bone to chew.
If they couldn’t swallow it, it would choke them; if they did, it would cause indigestion.
In the eyes of the mastermind, “Haina” would be dragged into a battle with “Panqiao,” exhausting their resources and planting a ticking time bomb within their organization.
Likewise, the mastermind wouldn’t underestimate Shan Feibai.
Having barely escaped death, there was no way he wouldn’t hold a grudge.
Since A-Fan’s lead hadn’t turned up anything, and Shan Feibai himself had no concrete evidence, unable to pinpoint who betrayed him, all he could do was broadly suspect everyone.
If Ning Zhuo were the mastermind, he’d be eager to see “Haina” in action.
For one, “Haina” had been keeping a low profile ever since Shan Feibai set them up five years ago, so they hadn’t done anything to provoke the suspicion of large corporations.
Secondly, Ning Zhuo had just made a connection with “White Shield” and had done a job for them.
—Though the job had ended in failure, no amount of blame could be shifted onto him.
Thirdly, once the landmine had been planted, someone would eventually have to step on it.
The big companies had wronged Shan Feibai, and now as Ning Zhuo’s new subordinate, he would have to follow Ning Zhuo to take on jobs for those very companies.
With all that back and forth, could Shan Feibai avoid resenting Ning Zhuo?
They were essentially holding a fuse that could ignite chaos within “Haina” from the inside. When they wanted it to explode, all they needed was to fan the flames a little.
At this point, Ning Zhuo basically came to a conclusion:
Taking in “Panqiao” was a risky move, but it was worth making.
However, all of this was based on the assumption that Shan Feibai was telling the truth.
Ning Zhuo’s thoughts flowed smoothly up to this point, but then he hit a snag on this issue.
…Did he trust Shan Feibai?
Ning Zhuo quickly found the answer in his heart: No, he didn’t.
…But would Shan Feibai hate him?
With the same speed, Ning Zhuo answered: No, he wouldn’t.
These two answers were contradictory.
As to which was true and which was false, Ning Zhuo couldn’t quite figure out for the moment.
When he couldn’t understand something, Ning Zhuo’s brows would slightly furrow.
At this moment, Shan Feibai was also staring at him steadily, his fingers gently rubbing the bedsheet as if mimicking the motion of smoothing out Ning Zhuo’s furrowed brows.
After thinking for a while, Ning Zhuo suddenly had a moment of clarity as he looked at Shan Feibai’s face.
It wouldn’t be difficult to verify how much truth there was in Shan Feibai’s words.
With that, Ning Zhuo finally determined his next course of action.
He swung his leg off the bed and nimbly stood up.
Shan Feibai called out, “Ning-ge, where are you going?”
Ning Zhuo, in a good mood, didn’t show it on his face. He bent down, patted Shan Feibai’s face, and said, “I’m cutting off your escape route.”
Ning Zhuo casually put on an old but decent double-breasted suit, slipped into some suit pants, and, for once, dressed himself up a bit as he walked out. He locked the door behind him and placed the collar controller in the storage box outside, cutting off any chance for the little wolf pup inside to jump around anymore.
He hadn’t walked far when he ran into Jin Xueshen, who was rushing in, looking weathered and worn.
As soon as they met, Jin Xueshen immediately asked, “Did you bring Shan Feibai back?”
Jin Xueshen, who also managed finances, had been out collecting debts for the past two days. When he returned and reached the foot of the mountain, he sensed something was off. As soon as he got to the top, he saw a line of people camped outside “Haina.”
Upon closer inspection, they were all familiar faces.
Unlike most people in “Haina,” Jin Xueshen had a real grudge against “Panqiao.”
Just as Jin Xueshen was feeling puzzled, “Panqiao’s” white-haired, purple-eyed second-in-command, Yu Shifei, saw him and politely greeted him, “Hello, ‘Raven.’”
“Raven” was Jin Xueshen’s nickname.
He liked birds and wore raven-shaped black earrings. Most of his tattoos in “Haina” were bird-shaped too.
But when Yu Shifei called him by that nickname, it sounded like an insult in his ears.
Jin Xueshen replied, “Don’t call me that. What are you doing here?”
Yu Shifei searched his knowledge database for relevant information about ravens and honestly changed his form of address: “Because our boss is here. Fathead.”
Without saying a word, Jin Xueshen grabbed his weapon.
Tensions were rising, but it was Tang Kaichang who pulled him back.
After explaining the situation, Jin Xueshen, seething with anger, came to find Ning Zhuo for a “serious talk.”
Faced with Jin Xueshen’s interrogation, Ning Zhuo didn’t answer, but instead asked, “Do you have money?”
Jin Xueshen was startled and instinctively reached for his utility belt. “How much?…”
But then he quickly remembered why he was there and guarded his belt, wary. “What are you planning?”
In the next second, his world spun.
Ning Zhuo grabbed him with one hand, pulled him over, and used his right hand to unlock his own belt with Jin Xueshen’s fingerprint, dumping out a pile of random items.
A card flew out, and with one nimble kick, Ning Zhuo grabbed it.
He casually tossed Jin Xueshen aside. “Just borrowing something. Is the password still the number of the bird you raised?”
Jin Xueshen nearly slammed into the wall, staggering as he steadied himself, his face turning livid. “Ning Zhuo!”
Ning Zhuo swiftly dashed off.
Jin Xueshen had a notoriously bad temper and never liked being bossed around, so he gave chase. “Ning Zhuo, stop running! Explain yourself!!”
Ning Zhuo pressed his arm to his right ear, activating his internal comms. “Tang Kaichang. Room 632 on the sixth floor. Change the layout.”
Tang Kaichang, oblivious to what was happening, responded, “Got it.”
As his words fell, Ning Zhuo had already entered Room 632 and shut the door behind him.
Jin Xueshen aggressively pulled the door open, only to find that the passage had turned into a solid wall.
No matter how much Jin Xueshen, who nearly crashed into the wall, raged outside, Ning Zhuo had already driven off towards the Dan family.
On the way, he noticed that all the advertisement screens were automatically playing the surveillance footage of “the police captain’s son sneaking in at night to switch medicine.”
He knew this was a sign that Charlemagne was being abandoned by “White Shield” and Interest Corp.
Ning Zhuo had other matters to attend to, so he didn’t stop. He would quietly wait for the situation to continue unfolding.
He parked his car in front of a massive traditional Chinese courtyard.
There were pavilions and water pavilions, classical buildings.
In Silver Hammer City, every wealthy individual decorated their estate according to personal tastes, to distinguish their homes from the densely packed “civilian areas” that resembled hives.
Ning Zhuo rang the doorbell three times, but there was no response from inside.
Well-dressed, he waited at the entrance for a while. Seeing no response, he calmly raised his foot and kicked the intricately carved liquid metal railing, bending it by three inches.
Amid the blaring alarm that erupted, Ning Zhuo spotted a somewhat familiar face from a distance.
It was the Shan family’s butler, looking noticeably older.
He recognized Ning Zhuo too and smiled politely, “Oh, it’s Mr. Ning. It’s been… it’s truly been a long time.”
Ning Zhuo put his leg down, restoring his surface-level politeness. “I’d like to see your master.”
The butler temporarily silenced the alarm but showed no intention of opening the gate for Ning Zhuo.
Holding the alarm control in his hand, he maintained a courteous yet slightly condescending air. “Do you have an appointment?”
Ning Zhuo threw a bloodstained pale yellow hairband over the railing, which hit the butler square in the face.
As the butler recognized whose item it was, his face gradually turned pale. Ning Zhuo responded calmly, “No. Can I come in now?”
Author’s note:
Silver Hammer Daily
Introduction to Key Enterprises in Silver Hammer City:
- Ruiteng Resources Company: Controls liquid metal mining veins, involved in metal extraction industries, with subsidiaries in military industries, robotics, real estate, and construction materials.
- White Shield Security Company: Oversees police and court systems, also manages prisons and traffic, and provides private security services.
- Interest Corperation: A large conglomerate involved in education, film and television, gaming, and various other entertainment industries.
- United Health Medical Company: Manages all healthcare services in Silver Hammer City, frequently partners with “White Shield” for law enforcement to combat illegal medical practices.
- Weiwei Foods Company: Researches and develops various food products and substitutes. Its nutritional liquids, bars, and pastes have long been top sellers.
