Game

"..."

Lu Feng punched his own forehead hard to ensure this wasn't a hallucination. Still finding it hard to believe, he looked at the people on the ground: "What is going on here?"

"I don't know."

Lu Ling sobbed, shaking her head, her eyes rimmed with red: "They rushed up and tried to grab me, trying to pull me into the car. I ran, but they kept chasing me."

"Then what about this..." Lu Feng pointed at the Little Cow and Horse, which was panting wildly with its tongue lolling out, struggling to discern: "Is... is this our car?"

"I don't know."

Seeing Lu Feng pull out his gun, Lu Ling hurriedly hugged its 'dog head' to her chest: "It's quite good, don't scare it!"

Lu Feng was dumbfounded.

He couldn't make a sound.

After a long while, the snapped strings in his brain seemed to finally reconnect. The instinct for slaughter retreated from the high ground of his mind, and he managed to recover at least a little ability to think.

"I'll take you home first. Clean yourself up, and don't tell Mom, or she'll just worry and get scared."

He reached out and hugged the girl before him, moving carefully for fear of touching her wounds. When he saw the patch on her forehead where hair had been ripped away, his gaze lost focus and color for a fleeting moment.

Soon, under Lu Ling's gaze, he squeezed out a smile.

"Don't be afraid." He rubbed Lu Ling's cheek: "A bunch of low-life scum, your brother will handle it. If Eldest Brother can't handle it, there's still Second Brother, right?"

"Mm."

Lu Ling held his hand, no longer afraid.

Ten minutes later, at dusk, Ji Jue, who was eating takeout, heard his phone vibrating frantically in his pocket. He answered subconsciously: "Hello, Feng Ge..."

Then, the smile vanished from his face.

"I understand. Mm, okay, I'm coming right now."

He hung up the phone and set down his chopsticks.

"What's wrong?" Ye Chun looked up: "What happened?"

"My family needs me for something. I probably can't work overtime tonight or tomorrow." He gave an awkward smile: "Senior, can I take some time off?"

"Forget it, you're already panicked to this extent, what are you pretending for?" Ye Chun couldn't help but roll her eyes: "Get lost, get lost. Do you need money urgently?"

"Ah, no, I'm heading out."

Before the words fell, Ji Jue had already packed his things. He hesitated for a moment, then grabbed another Portable Probe from the toolbox and stuffed it into his pocket: "I'm borrowing a tool."

"Don't you dare steal it, you have to return it!"

Ye Chun's voice came from behind, but after he closed the door, it was barely audible.

He sprinted, rushing toward the factory gate.

On the road outside, the Mainland Auto Repair Shop's delivery van was already parked across the way. Through the lowered window, he could see Lu Feng smoking in the driver's seat.

He pulled the door open and sat in the passenger seat: "Is Little Sister okay?"

"She scraped some skin off her forehead, put some iodine on it and she'll be fine. Mostly she was just scared."

Lu Feng flicked the ash from his cigarette, turned his head, and pointed toward the dog-shaped motorcycle in the back, which was panting happily, his expression complex: "In every sense."

"..."

Ji Jue's expression also turned awkward: "I can't explain this one for the time being. Haven't you been riding it for two or three years? Anyway, it's something we raised ourselves."

What kind of family raises a Little Lamb that's so bizarre? It eats chicken legs, fights, and can even use a 'five-fold lightning whip' to completely wipe out the opposition.

It wasn't that Lu Feng looked down on himself, but he suspected that if he faced it bare-handed, he would be flattened by this thing instantly.

After all, everyone is made of flesh and blood; no one can beat composite steel. Besides, this thing is made of iron from head to toe; sliding tackles are useless, you'd just be serving yourself up on a platter.

"Where are the people?"

After putting his bag away, Ji Jue asked directly.

Lu Feng reached out and pointed again, toward the pile behind the Little Cow and Horse, covered by a tarp and still wriggling and bulging. Ji Jue nodded, reached out and patted the steering wheel, and the car started on its own, following Ji Jue's navigation.

"Hey, it can do that too."

Lu Feng clicked his tongue in wonder, followed him, and climbed into the back of the van.

After lifting the tarp, they saw those few people, their faces covered in blood to the point of being unrecognizable, bound by their own ropes, struggling constantly and making muffled noises.

Their expressions were fierce.

They seemed to be saying something threatening.

"Have you asked them yet?" Ji Jue asked.

"Haven't had the chance." Lu Feng reached out, inspecting their arms and legs, and glanced at their tattoos, saying knowingly: "These guys have probably been inside a few times. If we don't use something professional, they probably won't talk."

"It's fine, we don't need them to."

Ji Jue reached out and rummaged through their pockets, finding three phones before long.

Then, the screens lit up.

No passwords, no facial recognition required.

The phones unlocked faster than an old patron dropping his trousers.

Right before the eyes of those three men, the phone screens flickered incessantly, cycling through call logs, messages, social apps, and various clients, even including deleted messages.

"Scarface Ming? Qi Qin? And... Jiang Jin?"

As Ji Jue muttered to himself, the call logs and numbers appeared on the screens, and through an instantaneous insight, he glimpsed everything that had transpired.

Had they already been targeted back when Wen Jie came to visit him in the hospital room?

"So that's how it is..."

He set the phones down and sighed. "Feng Ge, my fault. This was aimed at me."

Lu Feng was stunned for a moment, then retorted with a huff, slapping the back of Ji Jue's head. "Isn't that the same as it being aimed at our family? What are you rambling about?"

Ji Jue was about to say something, but his words suddenly stalled as his gaze was drawn to the stream of photos on the screens.

Lu Feng looked over curiously, then froze.

On the screens of the three phones, photos flashed by—dim, ambiguous lighting, or single beds in dilapidated dormitories, sheets stained with filth, and even more... bodies.

Some wore tattered rags, others were stark naked.

Some smiled with a numb, indifferent expression while smoking; others were curled up, bruised and disheveled, trying to cover their faces but unable to hide the needle marks on their wrists or the purple bruises on their arms...

Some were locked in cages, others were hung up.

There were even faint cries and sobs coming from the videos.

Lu Feng's pupils gradually turned hollow.

When he looked at those men, only a slowly spreading, beastly ferocity remained on his face.

"You guys have quite the rich entertainment life, huh."

He bowed his head to examine those terrified faces that were making muffled noises, then suddenly asked, "What were you planning to do with my sister?"

In the front, the man with the mangled face struggled to wriggle, spitting out the cardboard gag in his mouth, and choked out, "Brother, Brother, don't, I was wrong! It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding! I was just joking, I..."

"Is that so?"

Lu Feng laughed. "That's hilarious."

Ji Jue's expression shifted slightly. "Feng Ge, wait—"

Bang!

He had already pulled the trigger. The gunshot erupted, and that face exploded into a spray of blood plasma.

Hilarious to death.

Then, the muzzle pointed toward another, but Lu Feng's hand was grabbed, coming to an abrupt halt. Beneath the muzzle, that broken face showed relief and ecstasy.

"What are you doing?"

Lu Feng looked back at Ji Jue, making no effort to hide the ferocity in his eyes.

"Are you insane!"

Ji Jue glared back, wishing he could land a few punches on him. "Is Lu Ma not going to drive this car anymore? Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean up murder traces in a car?

Couldn't you have waited until I drove the car to the seaside!"

"Huh?" Lu Feng's expression stalled.

"Huh what? You need to consider your Eldest Brother more when you do things!"

Ji Jue forcibly snatched the gun from his hand, looking at the sticky blood plasma on it, his anger flaring. "Great, now on top of bodywork and welding, we need a full-car deep clean, and this pool of blood... what if someone uses a UV light on it later? Are you going to say you were hauling livestock? Buy the reagents later, you're scrubbing it yourself!"

"...Oh."

Lu Feng nodded blankly. Once his temper cooled, he started to get a headache over how to explain the extra hole in the car to his mother.

But when he looked to the side, he couldn't help but ask, "What about these two?"

Ji Jue looked down at the gun in his hand and sighed, ultimately ejecting the chambered round and tucking it back into his pocket.

"Forget it. Everyone's just trying to make a living out here; there's no need for such a life-and-death struggle."

He patted one of them on the shoulder. "How does that saying go? In the world of men, one is... one is forced by circumstances, right? I'm not the type to hold a grudge. If possible, I don't want to kill anyone either."

"Mmph! Mmm-mmph-mmph!!!!"

The two who could still breathe nodded frantically, wriggling in the blood, tears almost streaming down their faces.

Even the speeding van gradually came to a halt. Outside the window, the sound of waves rose, and the sea surface reflected a shimmering light, as if there were thousands of tiny, leaping suns.

Ji Jue reached out and opened the door for them, revealing the overly dazzling light outside.

Bound as they were, they nodded hurriedly, trying their best to show a grateful smile, but their gazes were involuntarily drawn to something in that light that could not be melted away...

Those eyes, which resembled an abyss.

Pitch black.

Gazing down from the cliff at the vast, boundless ocean below.

Just like that, a faithful plea.

"Since you're already used to having no say in your own affairs, why not force yourself one last time?"

He said, "Could I trouble you to... jump down yourselves?"

In the afternoon Sea Breeze, the sound of the tide surged.

Lu Feng, who had finally managed to wipe away the bloodstains from the back, jumped out of the carriage. Still clutching the filthy headrest cover, he didn't know where to start. "Ji Jue, how do you wash this? The color doesn't seem to be coming out."

"Just throw it away."

Ji Jue sat on the railing, letting the wind blow through his hair as he gazed at the scenery. "Be a filial son for once and buy Lu Ma a new one!"

"Damn it, why is it that every time you make a suggestion, I'm the one paying, and you're the one who ends up earning all of Lu Ma's favor?" Lu Feng complained, leaning over to peer downward.

In the Sea Breeze, a person was still struggling to cling to a branch on a lone pine tree below the cliff, crying out loudly about something, but the wind was too strong to hear clearly.

A gust of Sea Breeze blew, and the person tied up began to sway helplessly, dragging along the two companions hanging from the same rope below him.

The surviving companion's lips kept moving, as if cheering him on, telling him not to give up and to pull himself up quickly.

Grasshoppers on the same string, struggling in a sorry state.

"Wow, they're still hanging there? I'm actually a little impressed." Lu Feng pulled out a cigarette and lit it, watching with interest. "How long do you think he can hold on?"

"Don't know."

"I bet twenty bucks, ten minutes!"

"No bet."

"Hey, live a little, you have no sense of fun... be careful, you won't find a girlfriend in the future."

"Fine, I'll bet. Fifty."

"Fifty it is!"

No sooner had Lu Feng finished speaking than he saw Ji Jue stand up from the railing, pick up a stone from the ground, and toss it downward. He immediately grew indignant. "Hey, that counts as cheating!"

"You didn't say I couldn't."

Ji Jue retorted matter-of-factly, "Besides, couldn't you have stopped me?"

"..."

Lu Feng seemed to curse under his breath, but resigned, he pulled fifty from his pocket and slapped it into Ji Jue's lap, then took the remaining stones from his hand.

Just like that, under the setting sun, the joyful stones were scattered toward the Waves.

One after another.

Just like the most pleasant game from a childhood summer vacation.