CH 34.1

Fourth Floor (12)

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

The Last Raindrop Heralding the Coming Storm Drops, in the Form of Old Coyote’s Death

The waves lash with the eye of the maelstrom in place. The moment the first raindrop falls, a storm will engulf the entire fourth floor.

In Black Glove’s cell are Lin Yi and Old Coyote.

It’s quiet. The air nearly still.

Black Glove is steadily writing something on the table, until his final stroke lands. He puts his pen down, and watches the nearly identical pieces of paper in front of him.

Old Coyote looks up slightly; he cannot see the contents of the paper clearly, but he can see that Black Glove has stopped. He takes a step, but before he can say anything, Lin Yi has already moved forward to stand together.

Old Coyote turns to look at Lin Yi.

Lin Yi smiles, and asks, “Vice-Captain, you are finished reciting the info?”

Black Glove closes his eyes, coughs a few times, and sits back in his chair. He looks a little worse for wear, “yes. That is the entire code, the rest is up to Captain’s decoding.”

“Then…” Lin Yi takes a step, followed by Old Coyote. They are both at the table.

Lin Yi pauses his hand noting the nearly identical codes in front of him, and asks Black Glove.

“Vice-Captain, which one is real? Which one is fake?”

“The one on the left is genuine.”

Lin Yi then moves his hand over to take the one on the left. He then smiles at Old Coyote, “it will be up to Coyote to spread this fake one out, then?”

Old Coyote has a stoic look on his face as he retrieves the other code, and slowly speaks, “the file is of paramount importance. Make sure it reaches Captain’s hands.”

“Naturally.” Lin Yi’s smile is unchanging, “but with so many people having designs on it, if you can’t get enough eyes on you, Coyote, I’ll be in trouble.”

“So please do make sure to finish your part without failure…” Lin Yi pleads, “it’d be one thing if I simply failed, but putting Vice-Captain’s efforts to waste is a whole other thing, isn’t it, Coyote?”

Old Coyote harrumphs, “you can rest assured I will not be the one to screw anything up.”

Lin Yi makes a show of sighing in relief, then turns to Black Glove, “so Vice-Captain, about that dying as soon as possible thing…”

“I know.” Black Glove interrupts and stresses, “worry not. I have it all arranged already.”

“That’s a relief.” Lin Yi takes a few steps towards the door, then turns to Old Coyote who is still standing in place, “well, Coyote? Are you not going?”

“I need a few more words with him. You can go first.” Black Glove shoos him away.

Lin Yi’s smile looks a little brighter as he leaves the room with hurried footsteps.

As soon as he’s gone, Old Coyote says, “Vice-Cap, I’ll make sure Redcloud doesn’t leave Stargaol in one piece.”

“No need to hurry. He’s already exposed, so he won’t be able to do a thing.” Black Glove says with concern, “the most important thing right now is that you deliver this real info in your hands to the Captain.”

“I swear on my life.” Old Coyote is filled with determination, “I’ve confirmed the steps countless times. As soon as Lin Yi makes his move, we will do it.”

Black Glove nods and then waves him closer. Old Coyote approaches, and hears Black Glove whispering, “the order of the code is…”

He speaks slowly, then coughs a couple more times before raising his voice up once more, “if anything goes wrong with the plan, decipher it yourself and spread it out to the world.”

He is dead serious, “remember, no matter what happens, Captain must receive the info!”

“I will not let you down!” Old Coyote bows before turning to leave.

A few minutes later, the cell door shifts ajar and Lin Yi slinks back in.

He does not speak yet, but closes the door behind him, checks the lock, and finally turns to face Black Glove.

“A great performance by Vice-Captain indeed.” Lin Yi claps, “Old Coyote is probably fooled without a single doubt in mind.”

He pauses, “makes sense, he followed you with utmost loyalty after all these years. I suppose he couldn’t even imagine his Vice-Cap suspecting him to be the traitor at all.”

Black Glove has his poker face back on as he pours himself a glass of water, drinks it in one gulp, before talking to Lin Yi, “Redcloud, there is only one person I would trust in my entire life.”

“The Captain.” Lin Yi answers.

He sits opposite Black Glove, and drops something onto the table before him casually.

Black Glove looks at the cufflinks in front of him, and picks them up to observe under the light.

“I suppose Vice-Captain would not be unfamiliar?” Lin Yi is watching Black Glove’s expression, “Captain’s cufflinks.”

Black Glove has finished his examination, and puts them back down to ask Lin Yi with an unchanging tone, “why didn’t you show them earlier?”

“If I didn’t give Old Coyote the chance, how would he have taken the bait?” Replies Lin Yi, “if he does not, then how was I to convince you of his betrayal?”

Black Glove says nothing, but rolls the topic back, “I only trust my brother, as for others…”

He says while having eyes fixed on the cufflinks, “loyal or not, what’s it to us?”

“As expected, Vice-Captain.” Lin Yi claps again, commenting, “just as merciless as Captain.”

“Skip the pleasantries.” Black Glove asks Lin Yi, “how are your preparations coming along?”

“As long as Old Coyote does his part, all is in place.”

Lin Yi puts his piece of code back down in front of Black Glove.

The man stands up and writes another code down on another piece of paper, handing both back to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi observes them both closely, before storing them away, “though with the situation being how it is, there are no guarantees what those people might do in pursuit of this info…”

There is a sudden knock on the cell door.

Lin Yi moves and slinks under the bed.

When Lin Yi is hidden, Black Glove rises to open the door, “what’s…”

His question ends abruptly as Black Glove sees his conversation partner is Ye Wang; he realises something, and looks behind himself.

Lin Yi is back out from under the bed already. In fact, he is standing right behind him without a single sign of hastiness. He could be convinced he’s been standing there all along.

“Lin Yi, you are here too?” Ye Wang asks offhandedly, and says nothing more, but breaks the news to Black Glove, “Old Coyote is dead.”

Although he suspected this when seeing Ye Wang, the news still sends Black Glove reeling a little——Lin Yi supports him.

“What happened?” Lin Yi asks, looking a little troubled.

While Old Coyote is already a dead man in his eyes, but he shouldn’t be dead right now.

There are still things Old Coyote should have done. His sudden passing has thrown a wrench into Lin Yi’s entire plan.