CH 43

Outside the shower area of the villa, Laura, who had been busy all this while, finally found the time to neaten herself up. She looked into the mirror and peeled down her eyelid to take out the contact lens specially used for diving. As she did so, she happened to see from the reflection Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan entering.

She didn’t let go of her lower eyelid. With eyeliner and dark eyeshadow dripping down her face, she turned her head to say to them, “You were too cool just now! Good thing you’re here, if not we’d be on our way to salvage Jason’s body from the sea now.” 

Met with this image of his former student as soon as he entered the room, Yan Suizhi instantly got a shock.

He coughed and unconsciously took a step back, stepping onto Gu Yan’s foot.

Gu Yan, “…”

Luckily, diving didn’t require them to wear shoes. Otherwise, with the heel nailed onto gentlemen’s leather footwear… 

Ho ho.

“Why did you step back?” Gu Yan held his shoulders to prevent himself from getting stomped on a second time.

“He probably saw my face.” Laura held the glazed counter and bent over laughing. “Gu Yan, this intern of yours is so amusing. Loan him to me for a few days?”

“…”

Gu Yan arched his eyebrows, in his head thinking that she must have forgotten the experience of crying to a certain dean after the research assessment results came out.

Using her few years of seniority, Laura still didn’t let up on teasing the ‘young’ intern. “You’d just gotten a shock from me earlier, so why have you started winking and flirting with me now?”

Yan Suizhi, squinting his left eye, was caught between laughter and tears. Now he knew this was actually how these ‘model students’ were really like behind his back. He explained, “The left contact lens slipped in.”

“Hehe alright. I’ll stop teasing you,” Laura laughed and turned away to continue cleaning her face. 

Gu Yan angled his head away silently. If one day Laura found out who this intern was…

She would probably regret why she’d grown a tongue that could talk.

Standing before the washing basins by the side of the men’s changing rooms, Yan Suizhi managed to retrieve one of the contact lenses. The other one was being more finicky; he might have accidentally pushed it further in.

These lenses were specially provided by Yaba Island for use when diving. They allowed people to clearly see all sorts of things in the sea regardless of the water depth, and even came with a mild magnifying effect. 

But it wasn’t as comfortable to wear when back onshore. It could give a misconception of the proximity of objects.

Yan Suizhi fiddled around for a while, but he still wasn’t able to get that contact lens out.

His left eye had turned red and misted over with a thin film of physiologically induced moisture. He closed his eyes and rolled his eyes about, trying to use his fingers to rub the lens out.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw that Gu Yan was already standing next to him. 

“Why?” Gu Yan asked, “You still can’t get them out?”

“This lens is a little disobedient. I might have accidentally rubbed it further in.” Yan Suizhi shrugged, unhurried.

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When Yan Suizhi lifted his face, that disobedient contact lens just happened to return to its proper position.

The lens with the magnifying effect instantly pulled Gu Yan a lot closer.

Yan Suizhi, “…” 

The visual impact was a tad strong. Inexplicably, Professor Yan felt a trace of awkwardness and unease.

Gu Yan’s expression was very light, but the hand that was reaching out to him paused gently, as if perceiving that subtle awkwardness.

The thumb, hanging in the air, hooked minutely like he was going to withdraw his hand. Yet, there was also a slight, indescribable hesitation.

In reality, Gu Yan’s finger was still a distance away from Yan Suizhi. But to Yan Suizhi, the effect of the diving contact lenses caused it to appear as if it was about to brush the corner of his eye before falling down. 

Immediately, he slanted his head to the side and looked at Gu Yan in the mirror, smiling. “This contact lens listens to you quite well. You said you wanted to find it and it came running out obediently.”

Saying this, he lowered his head and with a single touch, managed to retrieve the contact lens.

“I’m going to change.” The timbre of Gu Yan’s voice rang lowly by his ear.

When Yan Suizhi looked up again, Gu Yan had already taken his things and entered the changing room. 

The ambulance centre of Yaba Island was also a branch of Spring Ivy Hospital. As such, the standard of treatment was first-rate, and correspondingly, the equipment was correspondingly very high-end. Since the doctors recommended for Jason Charles not to be needlessly moved about, he was settled in there.

Before Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan fished him out, he had risen so fast on his own that he had damaged his lungs and needed to lie in the treatment bay for another few days before undergoing minor surgery.

Thankfully, he was found quickly enough. A brain injury would otherwise have been much more troublesome to deal with.

As for Zhao Zemu and that instructor… 

The bites of the sea snakes native to Yaba Island were tiny and hard to detect. At the same time, they were also extremely venomous. The symptoms could take anywhere from an hour to two days to two days to onset, with barely any warning beforehand. Therefore, it would be an exceptionally unfortunate and dangerous situation if someone encountered a sea snake without being able to acquire the serum in time.

Those two sea snakes had left several bites on Zhao Zemu and the instructor when they coiled themselves around them, injecting them with enough venom for it to be fatal. Fortunately, they had been injected with the anti-venom less than a year ago, thus still had some resistance to the toxin. The ambulance also had sufficient first-aid serum.

Or else, the result that awaited them would have been a white cloth over their heads.

Their wounds were treated by the doctor. However, still in a state of shock, the two men remained unconscious. 

The care afforded by the ambulance centre could not match up to the care provided by specialised caretakers. So, Joe arranged for the two of them to be sent back to the villa for further care, which was also regarded as a courtesy extended by the host.

Less than an hour after the chaos subsided, the police stationed on the island came over.

“Who called the police?” Elena asked.

“Me.” Young Master Joe leaned back against the sofa in the central villa. His expression was unsightly. 

Everyone was actually quite surprised by this. After all, this young master was the one who had organised this party. For something like this to happen while he was sitting in the middle of it all was rather much like a slap in his face.

It was very humiliating that the party turned out this way. If it were anyone else, they would have kept it under wraps. As such, making a direct call to the police like this was a little outside expectations.

“You…” Laura hesitantly opened her mouth.

Joe ran a hand through the short hair brushing his forehead. He said, annoyed, “Before the three of them went underwater for the second time, their diving gear was taken off near where Ke Jin was at.” 

“So what?” Laura said. “It can’t be…”

“I heard some rumours saying that in his deliri—” Joe came to a hard stop midway his sentence, biting certain words back with a grimace. “That he mixed around the several sets of diving gear.”

Even though the words didn’t leave his tongue, everyone present knew what he was about to say. The only word that could be associated with Ke Jin was ‘delirium’.

Yan Suizhi frowned slightly from his seat, nestled on the sofa. Anyone who knew Ke Jin would feel uncomfortable hearing such words. 

Especially those who had seen him in his former glory.

It was a show of extreme restraint and rationality that a friend like Joe, who was unconditionally protective of Ke Jin, didn’t just blow up.

Or perhaps he had already blown up after he’d heard that, and he only sat here now after having already calmed down.

“Many people here have studied law.” Young Master Joe said with an icy look. “So, I’ll use the fairest possible way to prove that Ke Jin isn’t that dull.” 

In actuality, even if it was really Ke Jin who had changed the diving gear, he couldn’t be held responsible as a mentally handicapped person.

But it was apparent that Joe wouldn’t stand for even that type of speculation.

The others could still understand why Joe would choose to do this.

Gu Yan and these few of them were all Ke Jin’s friends and former coursemates. The so-called rumours could never have come from them. 

And apart from them, those present were the ‘childhood friends’ who had family ties with Joe’s family. So as for the source of these rumours, Yan Suizhi and the rest tacitly understood.

The relationship between these young masters was actually very complicated. It was related to the power of the consortium behind them, and couldn’t be merely explained by the degree of closeness of their relationship. Everything was inextricably linked. Joe couldn’t just turn his back on them because of one or two carelessly made sentences.

Not only Joe, but all the lawyers in the room had various connections with those consortiums. Even a criminal lawyer like Yan Suizhi had dealt with a few of them, and had even met some of them face to face in court before.

Where it was inconvenient to nip directly in the bud, Joe intended to shut them up with the police. 

Yan Suizhi watched all these in silence, in his mind thinking that this was probably the most ‘scheming’ method that this little fool could think of.

“Because of the investigation, ladies and gentlemen, everyone here can’t leave the island for the time being until the nature of this incident is confirmed or the suspicion is removed. Other than that, feel free to do as you please.”

This was what Yaba Island’s police chief, Kane, announced as soon as he entered the door.

This police chief had a reputation for being a hard-headed man. He originally worked at De Carma’s police headquarters, but had offended many people due to his bluntness and refusal to play favourites. 

Yan Suizhi had interacted with him for a few of his cases. They could be considered well acquainted, and even were on somewhat friendly terms with each other.

The last time they met, Kane had only been demoted to a lower rank. But he didn’t expect that the next time they met, Kane would already be transferred to Yaba Island.

There were many trivial cases here, and not many were of import. It was a fine place for exile far from the hub. It was also well suited for those playing power games of offering a farce of a promotion, but in fact cutting off authority.

However, Kane always put his best foot forward in everything he did. 

“Sure, alright. I was planning to stay here for a week anyway.”

“Can it wrap up by tomorrow? I still have an important meeting to attend.”

“Can you give me a half day’s grace? I’ll go back and get things sorted before coming back.”

Kane remained unyielding. Once he declared the island sealed, the island was sealed. In any case, he wasn’t afraid of stepping on anyone’s toes; even if it were an emperor chosen by the heavens, they’d still better not think of leaving. 

The plans of the guests present were disrupted. Joe’s formal reception had to be pushed back several days.

Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi, who had originally intended to leave tomorrow, were also temporarily barred from leaving.

However, since this wasn’t a personal affair, all Gu Yan had to do was to submit a request for adjournment of trial for the court where he was to appear.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your cooperation.” Kane’s face was as solemn as before. “Although all of you are illustrious figures, since the matter has been brought to the police, the full procedure should still be strictly followed.” 

He gestured a hand towards the main entrance of the villa compound. “Forgive me for any offence caused, but I have to verify each of your identities.”

Everyone looked over. Where he pointed, stood two extremely familiar machines.

A scant few hours ago, they had almost been mistaken for security scanners.

In fact, they were able to detect many things, including traces of genetic modification. 

“Ever since Yaba Island brought these over from Spring Ivy Hospital, the identity verification process was quickly advanced and synced up. Other places might not be able to do this, but over here at Yaba Island, we require everyone to go through these two gates.”

Yan Suizhi looked at the gates, his expression instantly turning paralysed.

Hadn’t that unlucky bastard Joe said that these two gates needed repairs? Couldn’t they undergo repairs for just a little longer?

Professor Yan suddenly wanted to cut off the tongue of the rich second generation fool. He didn’t care if Joe was trying to show up those young masters who didn’t know how to talk sensibly, but please don’t harm the innocent…