Chapter 754: Good Judge of Character

Chapter 754: Good Judge of Character

Secret room in the underground sewage, Li City, the next evening.

Gregor, dressed in a yellowed white wifebeater and loose gray shorts, slumped on the sofa with the ceiling light shining on his face, highlighting his oily skin and acne scars.

He was in a complicated mood.

Sitting across from him were four people. Gao Yang was the only one he recognized. With him was an intimidating-looking high school girl, a brooding little girl, and a beautiful lady with a numb look in a wheelchair.

Gregor knew that they were all members of the Nine Scions.

“Gao Yang, oh, Gao Yang, I never expected this from you.” Gregor looked at the little girl sitting on the sofa with pity. It was Wang Weiyan. “She’s just a kid. How can you exploit a child as labor?!”

“Seeing isn’t believing.” Gao Yang was unfazed. “Her father passed away last spring. Then a few days back, on the night of New Year, her mother passed away, too.”

Gregor choked. He did have a conscience as a human, and looking at the orphaned girl, he didn’t know what to say, but he felt sympathy for her.

He scratched his face awkwardly and changed the subject. “What about the wheelchaired woman?”

“Her brain was formatted by Qilin. Or it could be something else. You may consider her in a vegetative state. There’s no way to cure her at the moment.”

“Bastard!” Gregor slapped his thigh. His stance toward the Qilin Guild immediately shifted from neutral to abhorrence. “The girl’s beautiful like a flower. How could he do that to her?”

Gregor sighed and turned to Gao Xinxin. “This girl can’t also be...”

“I’m fine.” Gao Xinxin pursed her lips. “Just lost my grandmother, father, and mother in the last six months.”

Gregor was speechless. He was better off not talking.

“Ah.” Gao Yang’s expression was impassive as if what Gao Xinxin said had nothing to do with him. “Lithe Snake died. I’ll be taking over his job.”

“What?!” Gregor shot to his feet. “How, how did he die?”

“Simply put, he died from the Qilin Guild’s ambush,” Gao Yang said calmly.

“Fuck!”

Gregor cursed out loud, enraged. He paced around barefooted. “The Qilin Guild is a fucking den of bastards!”

He was betting that the man wouldn’t recklessly take off the bracelet.

“I’ll swing by every two days to bring you supplies and to reinforce the curse.”

“Ha, you’ve thought it all out.” Gregor was displeased, but putting himself in Gao Yang’s shoes, he would be worried about leaving his family with a male stranger, too.

He wouldn’t lose anything by putting on the bracelet anyway, so he did. “Happy?”

“Thank you.” Gao Yang nodded. “And outside of the study room, toilets, bathrooms, and bedrooms, I’ve installed surveillance cameras in every other place. If you do anything untoward, I can’t ensure the integrity of your manuscript on your computer.”

“You...” Gregor jumped to his feet. “You’ve gone too far! You may as well kill me! Now I think you’re as shameless as Qilin!”

“Yes, I’m shameless.” Gao Yang looked at him openly. “But I believe that none of the unpleasant things will happen given Mr. Gregor’s integrity.”

“Stop talking me up.” Gregor scowled.

“That’s not it.” Gao Yang smiled slightly. “I trust you enough to leave them with you not because of these safety measures, but because Lithe Snake told me you’re trustworthy.”

Gregor paused before breaking into a resigned smile. “Fine. Stop blabbering. Remember to install a ventilator in the study room the next time you visit. They won’t like the secondhand smoke.”

Gao Yang’s heart stuttered. Dear Lithe Snake, you sure are a good judge of character. I’m probably your only mistake.

...

Room 509, third boys’ dorm, Li City University. Two o’clock in the morning.

The dorm room’s light was off. The only light source was the computer screen, which illuminated Lin Dajian’s oily face.

He was paying full attention to the newly released horror game, Evil Resident 4 Remastered[1]. He had used a mod on the protagonist to replace him with the lead of Devil Cry[2]. And with his skillful control, he turned the horror game into a crowd brawler.

After slaughtering all the zombies in a village, he encountered a small boss, and he got killed in a moment of distraction.

Before, he would’ve made a sarcastic exclamation and kept challenging the boss until he figured out the pattern and killed it. Tonight, though, he deflated and suddenly found the endeavor meaningless. He quit the game and picked up the pack of cigarettes on the table, taking one cigarette to light it.

He had gotten int smoking recently.

1. A reference to Resident Evil. ☜

2. A reference to Devil May Cry. ☜