Lure the Snake from Its Lair

After leaving An Shi's room, Bo Xi walked unhurriedly to someone else's door.

He knocked.

"Are An Shi and Star all right now?" Cheng Yu opened the door and stepped aside to let him in.

Qi Sijing lounged on the sofa, wreathed in cigarette smoke.

Bo Xi stopped as soon as he entered, then turned and switched on the air purification system by the door. His tone was level. "I don't mind you smoking, but Star will turn his nose up at me if he smells it."

He surveyed the room as he spoke, quietly moving farther away from Qi Sijing. "What's wrong with him?"

Qi Sijing propped up his head and settled into a more comfortable position. "Never mind me. Business first."

"There are several groups on board. One belongs to that monster Qin Ke, and another is after William. We need to flush them out."

Qi Sijing's gaze was sinister. Right now, his mood was truly like-never mind. No swearing.

It was bad enough that his little sister had refused to help and left him to entertain all those guests alone. Then he'd returned to his room in the middle of the night to find-Where was my whole-ass wife?!

My whole-ass wife had just vanished!

After finally finishing his drinking session with those drunks, he'd slept until broad daylight. Before he'd even seen his wife, his wife had fallen into the water.

The good news: his wife had been rescued.

The bad news: another man had rescued him.

Not only had he been no fucking help, his little sister had made things even worse afterward.

He'd thrown this celebration solely to enjoy a lovely two-day trip at sea with his wife, not to help other people get their happily-ever-after!

Next time, he would definitely sneak his wife away for a trip.

"William will handle his own business. We don't need to worry about that. What we need to do is invite those people out." Bo Xi's expression was grave, his gaze dark. "I have an idea."

"Huang Kai is already a discarded pawn. The problem is, his sudden self-exposure was definitely no coincidence. I don't know if you noticed that."

Bo Xi gave a cold laugh and pointedly brought up a certain someone. "I believe Comrade Cheng has something to say about that."

Cheng Yu: ...

Are you going to hold one mistake against me for the rest of my life?

Cheng Yu explained with a sour expression, "That time I argued with my baby..."

"What do you mean, your baby? He's my baby!"

The moment Qi Sijing heard that endearment, jealousy flared. There was simply no shutting that damned mouth of his.

"Shut up! We're discussing business!" Cheng Yu glared at him through gritted teeth. "I'll call him that if I want! If I say he's mine, he's mine!"

That smug look on Cheng Yu's face infuriated Qi Sijing. "You've got some nerve! Who stole Star away yesterday? You did!"

Standing to one side, Bo Xi silently pressed a hand to his forehead and watched the two bicker back and forth like elementary school kids.

"Enough. Keep arguing and you can both get out." These two had loved arguing since childhood. Bo Xi was long used to it.

Qi Sijing gave a disgruntled snort, but obediently quieted down.

"My head was completely muddled at the time. To put it plainly, I had no idea what I was doing." Cheng Yu tried hard to recall what had happened. "It was like my whole world revolved around Qin Ke."

Bo Xi said, "Like he became the sun and you were the earth?"

Qi Sijing said, "Like he was the king of idiots and you were his fool."

Cheng Yu: ...

The pot calling the kettle black!

"The point is, Star grabbed me and gave me... well, that, and I snapped out of it instantly." Cheng Yu wasn't particularly keen to bring up the humiliating experience of Star cracking his head open with a liquor bottle.

"Then it seems to work like the law of conservation of all things," Bo Xi speculated. "Let's suppose that since Qin Ke has the ability to make people lose their reason..."

"And he's targeting Star, then naturally, Star also has the ability to restore people's reason."

At that thought, delight spread across Cheng Yu's face. "Wouldn't that make finding them much easier?"

Bo Xi frowned and shook his head. "No. I don't agree. That would only put Star in danger."

"But they're only going to target Star," Qi Sijing countered. "We can think of another way."

"Lure the tiger away from the mountain."

Looking out at the azure sky, he walked slowly to the window. "We need to take the initiative."

"Okay, what do you want to eat? The same as last time? All right, I'll get it for you." Xu Chen was on the phone with Lin Xingmo.

His stomach was still bothering him, so he could only ask Xu Chen to bring him something tasty. At least it would cheer him up a little. Good food cured everything!

Once he had the food, Xu Chen headed back. Despite staying up late the night before, the young people were still full of energy today and had already started organizing games themselves.

Dinner had just ended, and the activities were about to begin. Both the first and second floors were bustling, and Xu Chen bumped into quite a few people on his way back.

For that very reason, the third and fourth floors were practically deserted, with barely anyone in sight.

On his way back, Xu Chen passed a corner that was a blind spot, somewhere the cameras could barely capture. He'd nearly collided with someone there last time.

This time, he was much more cautious, listening for footsteps before going around it.

He heard no footsteps, but he did hear voices.

He had no habit of eavesdropping on other people's conversations. Not wanting to cause a misunderstanding, he had intended to walk straight out, only to hear a familiar name.

"What the hell was that useless Huang Dao doing?"

"Who knows? Coward that he is, I reckon he couldn't keep his story straight and just gave up."

"Good thing he didn't drag us down with him!"

"What a shame. Why couldn't Lin Xingye have drowned?"

Xu Chen: !

He quietly hid behind the corner and started recording.

"What do we do next? We're heading back tomorrow afternoon. If we can't get rid of him out at sea, things will get troublesome afterward."

"We have to help... get this done. If we fail, we're in for it!"

"We still have tonight. Don't rush."

"There are more people patrolling now. Pushing him overboard again isn't ideal!"

"Then we'll..."

Ring, ring~

Xu Chen: !

Shit. Seeing that he still hadn't returned, Lin Xingmo had called him.

Without hesitation, Xu Chen took off toward the second floor without looking back.

The people behind him shouted urgently, "Stop!"

Xu Chen had intended to head straight down the stairs, but the men split up to cut him off. "Stay away from me!"

Every face was unfamiliar. None of them belonged to their social circle. Presumably, they could only have sneaked aboard disguised as staff.

Xu Chen was nervous. These men were clearly bad news. One of them seemed to be holding something behind his back as he stared viciously at him.

He was starting to panic, too, and could only force himself to look calm. "I'm warning you, there are people downstairs, and there are cameras here. Whatever you try to do, the cameras will catch it."

The man suddenly doubled over laughing. "Cameras? The control room is staffed by our people, too! Grab him!"

Outnumbered, Xu Chen was just about to struggle free and run for help when a heavy blow struck his head. An instant later, he crumpled limply to the floor.

The men scanned their surroundings warily, then carefully lifted Xu Chen and carried him onto the third floor.

All that remained was the spilled soup from his overturned food container, a mess across the floor.

"Wow. Spectacular~"

Standing in the surveillance room, William looked at Qi Sijing with a bright smile. "Looks like we had the same idea~"

The original surveillance operator, tied up behind them by William's men, didn't dare say a word.

Qi Sijing hadn't expected to find William already inside when he opened the surveillance room door. Even less had he expected to witness those men committing their assault.

As though he had seen through his thoughts, William said, "Qi, let's work together again."

Qi Sijing didn't answer him. Instead, he called Bo Xi first. "Bo Xi, something's happened to Xu Chen. Just now..."

"Work with him."

Bo Xi hung up, the chill in his eyes deepening. "Looks like we'll have to move the plan forward."

Instead of a call from Xu Chen, Lin Xingmo received an emergency distress alert from him. "What's going on?"

After seeing the final video and message sent by the emergency alert system, he hurriedly climbed out of bed and stumbled to the corner, only to find a mess across the floor.

It matched the final image in the video exactly.

"Xu Chen..." Without hesitation, Lin Xingmo turned and rushed toward the fourth floor.