CH 35.1

Fourth Floor (13)

Is It Not Their Honour to Be Able to Die for Nianluo’s Future?

What Ye Wang said makes the surrounding murmurs die down.

Fatty, with his hand on the wound, can only speak in gasps and whimpers, “Ye… Ye Wang, the Doctor… he’s also on…” he pauses to get his breath again, “the list?”

“He’s not.” Ye Wang is delicately wiping away imaginary blood from his hands with a handkerchief.

“Then why…” Fatty’s voice is growing weaker from loss of blood, “protect him?”

“Protect him?” Ye Wang repeats, bemused.

He lets go, allowing the handkerchief to fall into the puddle of blood.

“I’m not doing this to protect him.” Ye Wang gestures for the onlooking prison officers to go forth and put Fatty onto a stretcher.

Fatty is covering the activation button of the stretcher though, needing to get an answer out of Ye Wang no matter what.

“Quite the opposite. I’m doing this, to protect the rest of the prisoners here.” Ye Wang’s gaze shifts from Fatty to Black Glove, “if you don’t want to die, don’t provoke the Doctor.”

The prison officers have pried Fatty’s hand away, allowing them to rush the stretcher towards the clinic.

Ye Wang then turns his eyes to Lin Yi, who has kept his mouth shut this entire time.

“I almost forget. You’d know better than anyone else.” Looking at Lin Yi’s calm behaviour, he asks aloud, “well? You wanted Black Glove dead that badly?”

Lin Yi stares back at Ye Wang, then puts on a fake smile, unfazed, “Ye Wang, you are really blowing Doctor’s abilities out of proportion. Even the Doctor is only…” he stops, resuming after some seconds, “another human.”

This seriously amuses Ye Wang, who applauds, “what a great point you make. Such logic! Even the Doctor is only another human…”

The mood appears to lighten a little thanks to Ye Wang’s attitude.

Yet, the next second, Ye Wang’s smile disappears, and it is frigid once more.

“Lin Yi, don’t try to test me.” He points a finger towards his direction, “if you want to kill someone, go ahead, but do it by your own two hands.”

“If you drag the Doctor into this…” Ye Wang’s tone turns sharp and threatening, “you ought to know, that prison officers dying isn’t that big of a deal either in Stargaol.”

Lin Yi is not too sure if he should smile or worry at this thinly-veiled threat——Regardless, knowing someone is even warier of Doctor is reassuring for him.

He must be the one who wishes Doctor’s involvement the least out of everyone here.

Because he knows too well just what Doctor can achieve.

It is far more than death.

Lin Yi recalls the incident with Lunatic——The enemy, Lone Wolf, committed suicide; the important main character, Lunatic, follows Doctor around like some loyal hound; the power behind Lone Wolf, that had remained hidden this entire time, the Grove, was toppled overnight by Starfleet. Hundreds of years of an institution just went up in smoke.

Whenever Doctor is involved is anything, the initiative falls only to him. His will becomes the only result that happens.

This is not a good thing for any of the numerous factions with their numerous goals in mind here; this is certainly a worse thing for his actual mission here.

“I know that.” While Lin Yi thought for a long time, his expression remained unchanged, and he merely mods, “the Doctor has nothing to do with this.”

Ye Wang has observed his reaction this entire time. Hearing that, he turns to return where he stood before, quietly keeping an eye on everyone else.

They glance at each other uneasily. Fatty’s lackeys are the first to make a move. They stop looking at the puddle of blood to head to the clinic.

Black Glove, with furrowed brows, turns to look at Lin Yi.

“Seems like we can expect no other factions jumping in.” Lin Yi sounds disappointed, “if so, why not search those turfs directly, Vice-Captain? I don’t think what was on Coyote could have disappeared into thin air, no?”

Ye Wang raises his brow standing off to one side——He is wondering who the hell wrote the file on Lin Yi.

It’s atrocious.

Easy to read? Jaunty and careless? Also, compassionate? What in the world do those adjectives have to do with him?

In the short minutes that just passed, he only saw the agent being unemotional, scheming, and… heartless.

Still, that is expected of a professional spy. Ye Wang would seriously doubt Nianluo and FedCom’s screening process otherwise.

Black Glove appears unwilling, knitting his brows, “right now, we’re already at the front and centre of everything. It’d be meaningless to push further,” he explains to Lin Yi, “if we really did that, and they escalated in the heat of things, rather than a brawl, it’d be an all-out firefight.”

“It’d be sending our men to their deaths.”

Lin Yi appears shocked at Black Glove’s hesitation, “Vice-Captain, you were also a legend who did not let life and death stop you from your goals. You should know best that there is no victory without sacrifice.”

“Is it not the men’s honour to be able to die for Nianluo’s future?”

Ye Wang glances at the prison officer standing next to him.

That officer has a smile on. He’s clearly enjoying the spectacle; he then turns to Ye Wang, tilting his head at the gaze.

Then he shakes his head a little, giving Ye Wang a brilliant smile.

Ye Wang stops looking, and continues observing Lin Yi.

Black Glove, though his brows twitch slightly, refuses Lin Yi’s suggestion outright, “no. It’s too dangerous. Without gains in sight, have them return.”

“They say people mellow out when near death. The last hours of a legend is one without courage. A shame.” Lin Yi sounds quite saddened with his lengthened vowels.

Though he then extends a hand to Black Glove, patting his shoulder, “don’t you think, though… it’s a bit late to be recalling them now?”

Black Glove’s vein pops visibly; he immediately looks to a lackey nearby.

His men hurriedly run ahead.

“What do you mean?” Black Glove stares at Lin Yi.

“Nothing, really, simply…” Lin Yi smiles at the people running, “a heartfelt comment.”

“Hello? Ye Wang…” Ye Wang’s radio is patched through. Everyone’s eyes are on him now.

Ye Wang has an inkling of the communication to follow, looking at Lin Yi with a business smile. He lets the call through.

“What’s wrong?”

“They’re fighting.” It’s rowdy wherever the speaker is. Fists, kicks and yelps can be heard. It is clear a large-scale fight has broken out.

“The situation is growing out of control. Should we move in?”

Ye Wang stops looking at Lin Yi to handle the business with full attention, “where is the fighting?”

“At both Vulture’s and Lion’s.”

“Lion? Weren’t they all hunkered down?”

“They were, but Nianluo’s men were jeering and goading them into a fight. Then they fought.” The one speaking checks the mayhem around him, and asks Ye Wang once more, “it’s complete chaos here. Should we move in?”

Ye Wang glances to his side. The prison officer pushes down his imaginary cap once more.

“No need.” Ye Wang says calmly, “let them fight.”

The officer on the other end sounds shocked, “but…” he glances at the scene once more, “there are already prisoners knocked out cold.”

“Keep an eye on the list of people to be protected. Don’t let any of them die.”

Then Ye Wang cuts off the call, and walks forth from his corner to stop in front of Lin Yi.

He is casting his gaze downwards towards Lin Yi’s strange smile, and asks, “what are you trying to do in this chaos?”

“Hey, it was nothing to do with me.” Lin Yi raises his hands in the air to show his harmlessness, “I simply made an educated guess. Ye Wang, you cannot just accuse me of orchestrating this simply because I guessed correctly, don’t you think?”

Ye Wang does not smile, however, and his tone grows cold, “Old Coyote is dead. You should know who is next?”

“Looks like I’ll have to survive longer to live up to your reminder.”

Ye Wang faintly smiles, then turns to leave.

As he does, the rest of the prison officers follow suit.