Dud

Yuan Qingshan looked at the face on the screen, the face he thought of day and night, the face he could never stop worrying about. Letting go wasn't so easy.

They had agreed not to bother each other.

But Luo Ningsang had broken that agreement first, all for a sworn younger brother who wasn't even related to him by blood.

Yuan Qingshan couldn't understand it. He even wondered if Luo Ningsang had grown so comfortable in Ancheng that his brain had gone soft. How was a worthless high school student worth such a risk?

Yuan Qingshan tilted his head slightly, his clinging gaze like a venomous snake slithering and coiling around its prey. His cold body drew close to Shen Yu, and colors shimmered in his golden pupils, reflecting a figure with blue hair and blue eyes.

But that person was Shen Yu.

Shen Yu, who had pointed a gun at him and spoken to him in an icy tone, as if he could kill him the very next second.

But he hadn't, and he had even agreed to his request.

That innate gentleness intertwined with the brutality that had surfaced only briefly when he suddenly struck, giving Shen Yu an extraordinary quality that was hard to forget.

It was especially, especially... attractive to him and people like him.

"Okay." Shen Yu suddenly leaned close to Yuan Qingshan's ear, bringing himself so near that Yuan Qingshan could even see the fine hairs on his face tremble slightly with his breathing. Shen Yu was almost pressing his entire body against him. Then... he raised a hand and poked him in the chest, adding, "If... you can get out."

With that, he walked away.

Was he... worried about him?

Yuan Qingshan touched his itching ear, his gaze unusually unfocused. He subconsciously looked for something to do, and when he saw He Wen on the big screen, barely breathing, he finally remembered the game. There were five minutes left until the appointed time.

"Is it okay now?"

He asked Yuanxiao.

Yuanxiao stood dumbly to one side. For some reason, he reached up to touch his earlobe and gave no real response. He merely stared at Shen Yu out of the corner of his eye, only to snap his gaze away when he saw Shen Yu look back.

Meeting Yuan Qingshan's questioning gaze, he nodded and gave a quiet "Mm."

Even though he hadn't heard what was said, agreeing couldn't be wrong.

Yuan Qingshan kept his word. He grabbed the microphone beside him and announced the good news, then cheerfully declared that they had only five minutes... oh no, four and a half minutes to escape. He told everyone to run, because he wouldn't be responsible if they died.

The sound of mechanical wheels turning rang out again, but this time it meant hope of survival.

Lu Changfeng seemed to have finally recalled who he was. After Yuan Qingshan removed the iron mesh confining him, he asked in disbelief, "You're... Suyuan?"

With white hair, golden eyes, and hacking skills that bordered on the divine, Yuan Qingshan could be called second to none in the online world.

Yuan Qingshan raised an eyebrow and glanced at him, admitting it. "Oh, someone actually knows me?"

Lu Changfeng found the situation troublesome. He had known that anyone capable of infiltrating the Lu Family's system couldn't be ordinary, but Suyuan... He had to make sure he succeeded in a single strike, or the Lu Family would face the frenzied retaliation of a genius hacker.

"Since you know who I am, you should know how I do things. We'll let this matter drop." Yuan Qingshan settled the matter in a breezy tone, as if he weren't the one who had ruined the family reunion banquet the Lu Family's heir valued, kidnapped all of Ancheng's upper echelon, and threatened them with bombs to make them play a game.

Shen Yu had left the room as soon as the iron mesh was removed. Looking back, he saw only Jiang Qianyu, who followed him everywhere. Remembering Lu Xianchang, he returned and saw the two men confronting each other.

Lu Changfeng stood where he was, his eyelids lowered. The man opposite him was still reclining in his chair, as though nothing could make him get up and tense his body, not even a bomb about to explode.

"I'll remember this."

Lu Changfeng suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Yuan Qingshan with detached indifference, not a trace of emotion in his gaze, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Yuan Qingshan waved a hand dismissively.

Plenty of people remembered him. They could have lined up around France ten times over, so what difference would one more Lu Changfeng make? Even if he was the Lu Family's heir, he wouldn't make Yuan Qingshan feel the slightest pressure.

Shen Yu didn't care what they were talking about. Didn't they know this was a matter of life and death? He grabbed Lu Changfeng's arm and pulled him toward the exit. "Take Lu Xianchang out. I'm going to find my brother."

But he ran straight into Luo Ningsang, who was hurrying over. Luo Ningsang seemed to be heading straight for the surveillance room with a clear purpose, and he collided with Shen Yu just as Shen Yu stepped through the door.

"Xiao Yu!"

A voice filled with delight and lingering fear sounded above his head.

Luo Ningsang turned him all the way around and looked him over from head to toe. His gaze lingered briefly on the bandage on his hand before he asked urgently, "How are you? Are you all right? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

"I'm fine, Brother. I'm really fine." Shen Yu instinctively hid his hand behind his back.

Luo Ningsang saw through him but said nothing. He also noticed Yuan Qingshan in the surveillance room, smiling unusually brightly at his arrival. His eyes curved as he greeted him warmly. "Brother Luo!"

Luo Ningsang's face darkened. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

The smile faded from Yuan Qingshan's lips, and he pouted. "When you needed my help, you kept calling me Xiaoyuan, but now you're treating me like a stranger. Brother Luo, you're really awful like this."

Luo Ningsang sneered. "The moment you came back, you got explosives and sent us running in circles, treated all of Ancheng as your playground, and even used Xiao Yu to threaten me. What kind of welcome do you expect from me?"

"The only reason I haven't put a bullet in you is because you helped me before."

For the first time, Shen Yu experienced the power of the Luo-brand refrigeration unit Xu Shenzheng had mentioned. The chill around Luo Ningsang was almost tangible; if he could control it with his mind, he would probably have run Yuan Qingshan through with it the next second.

But this was hardly the time to talk about that. Shen Yu tugged at Luo Ningsang's sleeve, signaling that they should leave.

Instead, Luo Ningsang pulled out a pair of handcuffs and explained, "You've been fooled. Apart from the explosives hidden in that room upstairs, there aren't any anywhere else. He faked them all."

"He won't stain his own hands with blood. He always has other people do it for him. Since he's here in person, that means the explosives here are fake." Luo Ningsang paused for a second, then added, "No, or rather, there are both real and fake ones. After all, nobody said there couldn't be two bombs in one place."

Shen Yu didn't know anything about real or fake bombs, but he understood what Luo Ningsang meant. "...So the next bomb is a dud?"

"That's right."

Shen Yu looked up. It wasn't Luo Ningsang who had said it, but Yuan Qingshan answering him. He even clapped to encourage him.

"Then, as a reward for being a clever child, I have a little reminder for you."

Yuan Qingshan was still smiling, a playful glint flashing in his eyes. He raised the microphone, and his voice carried throughout the Jinglan Imperial Residence.

"There are more than two bombs, you know~"

"Let's guess whether the next one is real or fake, shall we?"

On the screen, a fully armed Police Bureau squad entered the building. The people inside had already evacuated, and half an hour had passed. The second bomb hadn't gone off; it was a dud.

Yuan Qingshan now revealed the location of the third bomb.

Luo Ningsang thought of it at the same moment. He raised his walkie-talkie and shouted to Xu Shenzheng, who was following behind the squad, "Get out, now!"

"Too late~"