Something Even More Ridiculous Than Bullshit (3)

Su Bai got out of the car and gently shut the door.

The man in sunglasses spoke at an inopportune moment. "You don't seem to realize what you've just turned down."

Su Bai glanced at the man in sunglasses, then looked away.

The man shook his head. "Hard to imagine a stray dog passing up a meaty bone right in front of it."

His words were full of mockery and derision.

Su Bai suddenly smiled and walked up to the man. "Do you know why I can't be bothered with you?"

The man in sunglasses frowned deeply.

Su Bai's smile faded. He patted the man on the shoulder. "You'll find out."

"Putting on airs."

The man in sunglasses tossed out those words coldly, then drove off into the night.

Just then, Shen Fei came out of the hotel. Seeing Su Bai standing alone by the roadside, he jogged over and frowned. "What's with you? Didn't Lin Xue agree? Why didn't you talk to her some more and get closer instead of running out here alone? You didn't even tell me you were leaving. I spent ages looking for you in there."

Su Bai stared at Shen Fei's face in silence for a long moment, then suddenly asked, "Take a walk with me?"

Shen Fei looked a little taken aback. "What's wrong? You seem to be in a bad mood. Did something... happen just now?"

"Nothing happened. I just... suddenly remembered there's a park nearby and wanted to sit on the grass for a while. Want to come?"

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine."

"All right, then. Is the park far? Do we need to drive?"

"It's just a couple of steps away."

A cold wind blew, and the moonlight was cool.

The two walked one behind the other for about ten minutes before arriving at an open-air park, though it would have been more accurate to call it an abandoned square.

The recreational equipment for the elderly and children had long since fallen apart, and large stretches of the tiled ground were cracked. Not only were there no lights, but even the small lawn, the only thing that could be called scenery, was filthy and untidy.

"Three years ago, when I first started at Star Sea Middle School, I was terribly withdrawn. Hardly anyone was willing to talk to me, but there was this naturally excitable guy who kept talking in my ear all day like a fucking idiot. Later, I don't know how it happened, but I became just as much of a fucking idiot as him. Maybe that sort of thing is contagious?"

Su Bai didn't mind the dirt. He casually brushed the grass aside and sat down, then continued:

"My grades were good, and his were bad. I let him copy my tests and homework, and he took me over the wall to play games. After a while, his grades hadn't improved at all, but I'd become an expert gamer. Later, he got another whim and wanted to take me on an adventure. You know how it is with kids' adventures-they're just trips to pitch-dark, deserted places to prove how brave you are.

"This was the first place he brought me. I remember he was so scared he pissed his pants and cried, begging me to find him another pair. So I ran off to the Fanghua Hotel like a fucking idiot and stole him a pair of pants. Thinking back... that was probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever done in my life."

Shen Fei listened intently and laughed. "Who's this guy? He sounds fun. Do I know him?"

Su Bai turned and looked Shen Fei in the eye. He spoke each word distinctly. "He is Shen Fei."

Shen Fei's pupils contracted sharply.

Su Bai pulled a blade of grass from the ground and rubbed it gently in his palm. "Jiang Long, I have to admit, your disguise really is convincing. Your expressions, personality, tone of voice, even Shen Fei's fucking idiot aura-you got them eighty or ninety percent right. Unfortunately, you overlooked a few of the simplest details."

Shen Fei's gaze suddenly turned cold. "A few?"

Su Bai nodded and said unhurriedly:

"The first detail: when we ate this afternoon, I asked you about studying abroad, and you said you'd follow your father's arrangements. But Shen Fei's father isn't just the richest man in Suzhou; he's also a member of the CPPCC. Given his position, his CPPCC membership would be affected if his son studied abroad, so he's never allowed Shen Fei to do it. Even when Shen Fei travels abroad, his father has to report it to the organization in advance."

"The second detail: Boss has always loved joining in the fun. Wherever there's a gathering, he's there. But he didn't come today, and you didn't even explain why. You didn't mention his name to me once in all those hours, either. I had reason to believe you'd gotten your hands on Boss too."

"The third detail..."

Shen Fei suddenly interrupted Su Bai. "So you knew I wasn't Shen Fei from the time we ate?"

"No," Su Bai said slowly. "Two hours before that."

"Impossible. Two hours before we ate, you were still in the interrogation room. When those two Grave Keepers came, they didn't give you any useful information. They took down the surveillance, but we had a bug under the table. We heard everything you said."

Su Bai smiled. "They gave me two photos, one of Jiang Long and one of Lin Yue. There was a line of small writing on the back of each. The first said, 'Walls have ears,' and the second said, 'Shen Fei is out of contact.' Hard to imagine, isn't it? I could hardly imagine it myself-why my two teammates, who are as stupid as pigs, suddenly became so sharp. Later, I figured it out. Someone must have arranged for them to do it."

A deathly silence fell. A pin dropping could have been heard.

Shen Fei-no, Jiang Long-suddenly realized that he seemed to have fallen into an elaborately laid trap.

Since Su Bai had known all along that Shen Fei was out of contact, why had he called him?

Seemingly noticing the confusion in Jiang Long's eyes, Su Bai patiently explained:

"During the two days I was unconscious, you looked into my background and learned that I was withdrawn and didn't have many friends. So I had reason to believe that Shen Fei had gone out of contact because you were after me. Your original plan was probably to exchange hostages for whatever information I might have had.

"That was a good plan, but not good enough, because you didn't know whether I'd made a backup of the information. So I promptly offered you a better one.

"I proposed exchanging the information for money and bloodline resources, showing enough greed that my suggestion would make you realize that recruiting me would be the best way to solve the problem.

"So I called Shen Fei and asked him to come pick me up.

"At that moment, I knew Jiang Long, who possessed the Oracle 'Chameleon,' would approach me as Shen Fei, deceive me, control me, and even, when the time was right, if I refused to cooperate... kill me."

Jiang Long's gaze remained fixed on Su Bai. He suddenly realized just how terrifying the young man before him was.

"Since you knew I wasn't Shen Fei, you should be even more aware that we've had you under surveillance ever since you stepped out of the interrogation room. Your life is entirely in our hands. Revealing the truth now, aren't you afraid..."

"No, no, no." Su Bai waved a hand gently. "You've got it wrong. It isn't me you've been watching. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, from the moment I was taken to the hospital, you were already under our surveillance. And by 'our,' I mean the Grave Keepers'.

"To put it more plainly, everything that happened today wasn't a deal between me and you. It was an operation by the Grave Keepers to arrest your guild members. After all, you people are hidden too deeply. Without me as bait to lure you out, arresting you would take a great deal of effort."

Jiang Long suddenly understood. "The address you gave us... it's fake!"

Su Bai slowly shook his head. "The address is real, and I did hide the information on a computer at the hotel. It's just that the computer has an owner."

Suzhou, Third Criminal Investigation Detachment.

Officer A Cheng got off work as usual, scanned a shared bike as usual, and greeted the elderly guard as usual. But instead of going home as usual, he rode all the way to the Summer Hotel on Guanyin Road.

Using his status as a police officer, he gained the front desk's trust and obtained the key card to room 1307. Humming a tune, he took the elevator to the room, swiped the card, and pushed the door open.

A small table stood in the dimly lit room.

A laptop lay quietly on the table.

A Cheng entered the room in a cheerful mood, then saw a young man in gold-rimmed glasses sitting on the bed, leafing through a book.

When the young man saw A Cheng arrive, he didn't even lift his eyelids. "Lin Acheng, twenty-six years old, an A-rank member of the Hunters' Guild, a seventh-tier Transcendent, Divine Oracle Sequence 129, codename 'Bear'... that's you, isn't it?"

Before A Cheng could answer, the young man continued, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Lin Luo, a Grave Keeper from Suzhou."

Without the slightest hesitation, A Cheng turned and fled.

Suddenly, the light within a radius of more than ten meters vanished in an instant. The surrounding area became pitch-black, so dark he could barely see his hand in front of his face.

A Cheng slammed into the hotel wall, splitting his head open and drawing blood.

In the dense darkness, Lin Luo closed his book, his voice indifferent.

"You have violated the third law of the Grave Keepers, 'flight from justice'; the seventh, 'illegal trade'; and the eleventh, 'organizing and leading the activities of a criminal syndicate.' I hereby declare that you are to be stripped of all civil rights and freedoms. You may remain silent, but I suggest you leave your last words, because I won't let you go."