Warning: There is a brief (3-4 sentences) graphic depiction of gore in this chapter.
When I arrived at Sheng Min Ou’s rented room, he told me to first take a seat. The room’s signal was bad, so he could only call my mother by stepping out to the balcony.
Sheng Min Ou rented a place that was within two kilometres of the school and was in quite an old neighbourhood. The size of his room was around twenty square metres and aside from his bed, the thing that occupied the most space here would be the bookshelf.
An impressive amount of books were crammed into the bookshelves, and a sizeable portion of them had been stacked on the floor, categorised by their width and size.
It was clean, tidy, and there was a bit of… I sniffed the air, recognising the smell of disinfectant.
I scanned the room, taking the entirety of it in with ease due to its small size, and sat down on the only chair in the room.
Sheng Min Ou’s desk was also tidy and organised, on it was a laptop that wasn’t very new, a pen without a lid, and a few books in a foreign language that were stacked neatly.
I stole a glance at Sheng Min Ou who was outside the room still on the call, and out of boredom, I decided to randomly look through a few books which were placed on the desk. It was a complete accident when I knocked over a thick, delicately wrapped hardcover book, and its contents spilled all over the floor.
I hurried to pick it up, afraid that if I even hesitated for a second Sheng Min Ou would find out what I had done and get angry again.
If he got angry, he wouldn’t be the type to reprimand me for it, but instead next time he would just not let me in his room.
When I gathered the few photos which had scattered, I should have just stuffed them back within the pages of the book, but my gaze accidentally lingered.
My vision was suddenly filled with bloodied flesh that was bruised and blistering, starkly juxtaposed by the masses of white, severed limbs. There were the twisted expressions of the corpses, their faces warped in agony, and creamy layers of human fat which oozed out along with mangled, bloodied organs. Bones protruded out of the corpses at sickening odd angles, caught up and tangled in sinews, as large pieces of skin were still attached. From a glance, it looked like in the depths of hell, atop a mountain of corpses, there was a flag waving through the bloody haze.
Seeing such extreme graphic content disturbed me, as I felt cold sweat prick down my back, and my stomach began to become queasy.
Moreso than the fear I felt, I was more astonished.
Why would Sheng Min Ou look at pictures like these? Did he need it for homework? He studied Law, so he would have to look at crime scene files, but these pictures… was there some kind of purpose behind it?
From the balcony came the sound of a door opening, and I immediately stuffed the photos back into the book and placed it back to where it was on the desk, as well as organising all the other books that seemed out of place.
“What are you doing?” Sheng Min Ou caught my actions immediately and walked over with a hand outstretched towards me.
As I saw the slender fingers encroach towards me, my heartbeat became frantic and I couldn’t help but hold my breath. However, his hand simply passed me to where the books behind me were.
“I was just – helping you organise your desk…” I said awkwardly, giving him a smile to try and win some favour back.
He held the book in his hands and looked at me with slanted eyes, “Don’t touch my possessions again.”
All the hairs on my back stood up, as I hesitantly nodded my head.
Sheng Min Ou placed the book on the very highest bookshelf, at a height that was hard for me to reach. Then he randomly chose a book, and laid by the bedside as he read it.
I sat backwards on the chair, my arms crossed where the backrest was and asked, “Ge, why did you move out of dorms? Isn’t it so expensive to rent a place outside, it’s probably more worth it to move back home.”
He turned over a page, his attention completely focused on the book as he replied to me at a nonchalant pace, “Dorms are inconvenient, home is too far away, being here works well.”
“Do you have money?”
“Yeah.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Where does your money come from?”
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The disagreement between the two was easily overheard through the thin walls in the house and the contents carried over easily into the ears of Sheng Min Ou and myself. Back then, Sheng Min Ou always appeared very detached from it all, and I was always more anxious. Now it appeared that despite seeming apathetic and unbothered by the whole situation, he had listened attentively the whole time and remembered every word that was said.
“If you don’t want to answer the question then don’t, not as if I care.” I was used to his mocking remarks and had developed some sort of semi-immunity to it now. Seeing that he didn’t reply to me, I faced away from him and propped my chin on my hands, spacing out as I looked at the wall in front me.
I never asked what the purpose behind those photos were, and why he would have them. Was it because it was necessary for his courses? Perhaps deep within my subconscious, I had already realised that this would not be a good question to ask.
I abandoned the opportunity to take a peek at the truth, but Qi Yang did not.
He understood way before me, where Sheng Min Ou’s desires really lie.
“Welcome~”
My body shook slightly, as the magazine on my face fell to the floor and I was woken from a light nap.
I rubbed my face and took a look at who came in and when I made out the persons appearance I was slightly shocked.
Fang Lei had come again, this was his third time he had visited us in a month.
This time he brought with him a brooch that was dotted with diamonds and glittered like a sky full of stars. While he was waiting for the appraisal, he started boasting about the female client who had gifted him the present.
“She’s really head over heels over me, it’s actually a little bit frustrating, because it’s not like we’ll be able to go into a real relationship.” He gently bit the ends of his sunglasses, and it was only when one took a closer look at him that they could see the very light makeup around his eyes and his eyebrows. “Her fiancé apparently is someone her father approved and he forcefully made a match out of them two. I’m quoting her words here but she said apart from his degree and his looks there’s nothing else good about him. Disregarding the fact that he’s a lowborn, he doesn’t treat her well at all. Of course, he also…seems to be quite unenthused when it comes to bedroom activities.” When he spoke of the last part, Fang Lei had let out a small chuckle.
A person who could use the term ‘lowborn’ to describe someone else in the 21st century had to be someone who was self centred, arrogant, and thought very highly of herself, so how did she find this kind of floral guy attractive?
“Ge, all of this was gifted to you by her alone?” Shen Xiao Shi was someone who spoke sweetly, so he would call everyone he met ‘Ge’.
He slouched over the counter, looking at Fang Lei with an abundance of interest, his features clearly displaying his keenness on what he thought was going to be big gossip.
“Yes, all of it was from her. In a few days she said she would gift me a car, do you guys accept cars here?”
“Jeez, if you add all of this together that would be like a million renminbi already?” Shen Xiao Shi clicked his tongue, “Cars are a bit harder to get rid of, so I guess it depends on how much you’re willing to pawn it off for.”
After using a magnifying glass and a thermal conductivity meter to intricately examine the brooch, I confirmed that all of the diamonds were real and searched up two identification codes for the two biggest diamonds.
Both diamonds were above two carats, and were very high quality in terms of purity and colouring. It was a rare exquisite grade brooch.
“Two hundred thousand.” I said, interrupting their conversation and staking my price.
Fang Lei had already gotten used to the way I announced the price so after a tsk, he asked if I could raise the price a bit.
“These two bigger diamonds could sell for a hundred thousand renminbi alone, so if you’re offering only two hundred thousand for this whole brooch then you’re being too much of a miser, aren’t you?”
I furrowed my brows to appear deep in thought, as if I was having a hard time deciding. I bargained with him back and forth, keeping up the facade, and in the end we settled on adding an additional eight thousand renminbi.
Liu Yue placed the brooch in the safe and then proceeded to authorise the transaction to Fang Lei’s bank account.
“Honestly, you should come to the club and check it out. We have a bunch of handsome guys and beautiful girls there, whatever you’re looking for you’ll find it, and we don’t have any of those nasty hidden fees.”
I could see that Liu Yue had almost reached her limit after being incessantly pestered by him to the point where her smile began to look forced, so I had to help her out.
“Then that really does sound like a tempting offer, we’ll make sure to go when we have time.”
“Then we’ve agreed~” Fang Lei said, putting on his sunglasses again and as he walked away coolly. While he was leaving through the door however, he almost walked straight into three tall and burly men.
He jumped at the sudden appearance of them and looked bewilderedly at the three men, continuing to turn his head to look back every so often as he left the store.
The three men entered the store, and the leader did not utter a single word as the two followers behind him swiftly moved towards the door and closed it.
The chill had already started settling in, and the weather was getting increasingly cold, yet they all wore T-shirts and singlets, exposing the tattoos that snaked all throughout their arms as they came at us with an air of hostility.
“What are you all doing! We keep the door open when we’re conducting business, it’s not like we’re some black market store, so why are you closing the door?”
Shen Xiao Shi moved to open the door again, but midway he was slammed to the wall by one of the men.
“Don’t move, did we ever say you could move?”
I stood up from the chair and looked Liu Yue in the eye, sending her a silent signal. She understood, and quietly hid under the counter.
“What is the reason behind this visit here today?” I asked, looking at the towering bald man who was their leader.
The bald man shot me a grin, exposing a golden tooth that shone brightly and said he was known as “Tiger Ge” in the Jianghu. He had always been in this part of town and had heard that the business I was running was doing pretty well, so came by to just take a look, and to borrow some money. In return, if I had any favours to ask for in the future, I could reach out to him.
Simply put, the local mafia had come to collect rent for operating on his ‘premises’.
Once he made it clear what he was here for, the situation became easy to resolve.
Shen Xiao Shi sneered at them, “We’ve been open here for a little less than half a year, and no one has ever come up to us asking to ‘borrow’ some money from us. Don’t mess with us, we have a line here that connects us to the Police.”
Tiger Ge was especially unfazed, “Sure, tell the police to come, the most they can do to us is throw us in a cell for two days. After we come out we’ll make this place our new home, every day we’ll lounge here for eight hours, whoever comes in we’ll give them a greeting, let’s see if you’re able to still get business like this.”
He clearly was intending to leave with the money one way or the other, and after detailing how dedicated he was willing to be to get that money, I was left with no choice.
“Alright, come over here, I’ll give you the cash now.” I said, walking towards the metal fence that separated half the store, waving my hand as I motioned for Tiger Ge to come closer.
There was no suspicion from the other side at all as he moved in, brimming with confidence, waving an outstretched hand to ask me for money.
“You…” He only had time to speak one word when I gripped onto his arm and exerted all my force to hurl him, sending his whole body crashing into the metal fence.
Immediately, I twisted his arm behind his back, maintaining an iron grip on it and grabbed his T-shirt collar, slamming his head into the fence three times at a furious pace, until blood came spurting out his nose as he elicited painful howls.
Once this happened, the other two men shouted in anger and wanted to move forward so they could rescue Tiger Ge from my hands, but they forgot that there was still Shen Xiao Shi.
Shen Xiao Shi was someone who had pale skin and looked rather gentle, as if he could do no harm, but he was actually someone who had more experience than anyone else in gang fights.
It was precisely because of being in a gang fight that he had accidentally crippled someone for life. The offence sent him to prison for four years – despite himself insisting that he only participated because it seemed like it would be fun, and not because he had anything against the other guy. When he first went into jail, he had only been eighteen, and even now he was just twenty three, so he was younger than me.
Shen Xiao Shi grabbed a folding chair in the corner and without batting an eye smashed it down towards one of the men. The man crumpled immediately at the impact, and without hesitating he moved to hit the one remaining.
The two men were ambushed by him so only took damage without being able to retaliate back, resulting in their ability to fight being reduced drastically.
The man who dropped instantly remained there, but the other one had a scar on his face and was of a bigger build so he appeared to regain his senses faster after the hit. He turned on Shen Xiao Shi and charged, gritting his teeth and ignoring the bleeding from his head wound.
When Shen Xiao Shi first joined the big family that was Qing Wan City’s First Prison, he had only been a child that was in his teens, and due to his skinny frame he appeared rather vulnerable. Coupled with his refreshing looks, it was easy for other people to form ideas about him.
He happened to be in the same cell as Wei Shi and myself, but we didn’t communicate much when we first saw each other. In prison, there were many inmates coming through and leaving each day, so it was impractical to try and be friends with everyone.
We only started talking because one day when I headed towards the showers, I accidentally witnessed an inmate sexually harassing Shen Xiao Shi. Inside the walls there were unspoken rules, once someone became a ‘woman’, they would become the target of all the prisoners, and would never be able to escape that role, carrying a target on their back.
I noticed that he was still young so I couldn’t bear to ignore what was happening, and I helped him despite it being an unnecessary move on my behalf as I was interfering in the matters of others . After I was through, I was locked in a small cell completely devoid of light, my body cuffed down with restraints as I remained there for twenty four hours, but at least I did the right thing.
I loosened my grip on Tiger Ge’s collar and opened the lock, slamming my feet against the metal door and shoving Tiger Ge within the enclosed space between the wall and the fence.
“Shit, you… you’re retaliating? You better fucking watch yourself.” Tiger Ge threatened, his speech mumbled through bloody teeth as he hurled a fist at my face.
I avoided his swing easily and reached him faster, my fist landing heavily right beneath his rib and where his stomach was.
If we wanted to fight based on who was more ruthless, then these people honestly still couldn’t be called my opponents yet.
Liu Yue pressed down on the buzzer to contact the police, and the police quickly rushed towards our store and crashed through the door. Although I couldn’t describe Shen Xiao Shi and myself as having left this fight completely unscathed, this brawl still resulted in an overwhelming victory for us.
The police escorted the fallen men on the ground one by one into the police cars and then called for us to accompany them and give our statements back at the station.
Tiger Ge probably did not anticipate that he would pick on an opponent that could win against him so he stared daggers at me, his eyes filled with murderous intent when we arrived at the police station. Seeing that I was unfazed by his attempts, he suddenly decided to cause a scene, insisting that his nose had been fractured, that he wanted to do a medical examination, and wanted to sue me for assault and battery.
The police who was taking the statement down shot him a glare and pointed the pen at him, “Settle down, do you really think this is a place for you to make a fuss?”
“Aiyou... my liver hurts…”
“My head hurts so much, I feel like it’s splitting apart!”
Tiger Ge and his two followers seemingly all received the same signal as they suddenly all dropped in unison, laying sprawled on the floor, pointing at various body parts as they whined in pain.
“Are you guys made out of porcelain? Just then you were all jumping up and down, swearing like no tomorrow and now you’ve all decided to just fall on the floor. Who are you trying to deceive here?” Liu Yue exclaimed, sighing at their shameless display and put both hands at her hips as she started cursing at them.
At this point, a towering figure walked through the door and once Liu Yue saw the other person, all tension immediately left her face.
“San Ge is here!”
Wei Shi came in with a dominating air surrounding him, and once he entered everyone wearing a uniform greeted him.
“Apologies, apologies, my staff members brought inconvenience to everyone… I truly apologise for this.”
He turned around facing this way and his gaze swept past all of us. After seeing Tiger Ge, his thick, dark brows raised slightly, seemingly surprised.
“Wang Pangzi, how come it’s you?” He asked in a cold tone, his face now completely devoid of emotion.
Tiger Ge who was just domineering and cocky a second ago now he appeared to be like a quail caught in the rain. His face was pale, and his body was trembling.
“San, San Ge??”
Thanks to your warning, I read this chapter before breakfast.
Thank you for your hard work!!
Hahaha 😂 Thank you for leaving a comment and for your support!
Well, I knew there was something off about the brother, I just didn’t think it would be that off. Did he just enjoy seeing those kinds of gory pictures or did he like to partake in creating them?
Thanks for the chapter <3
Yess I didn’t think the brother would be like that too, I was so shocked omg. Thank you for the support 💞
For some reason the plot is extremely familiar. I feel like I’ve read a similar story before and Lu feng’s name as well is so familiar!! Anyway, the story is so interesting! Looking forward for the next chapters and thank you so much for translating this!
Yess it does seem a bit familiar!! Thank you for the support and also love your username 🐷
Thanks for your hard work!
So the ML is a sadist or just fascinated by death and gore?
Also, dang our MC is no pushover! And for some reason I feel like that Fang Lei guy is hooking up with the ML’s/brother’s fiancé… (Just a random thought that popped into my head.)
Thank you for your support! Our ML definitely has some.. interesting tastes. I also love how our MC pretty much can flip a switch and square up to others.
Nice theory! No spoilers from me so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see 🤭
Thank you for the chapter
Thank you for your support~ 😊
Go-gore?! Sheng Min Ou is not a gentleman after all… I Wonder If he left the dormitory because someone else found out about his tastes or he left to avoid precisely that.
Lowborn and cold to her?! Could it be that fiance is Sheng Min Ou? What are the odds!?
Thanks for the chapter!
I was not expecting gore either 😳😳 Interesting guesses on moving out and also the identity of the fiance! Thank you for the support and for leaving a comment 💞
Why did I not see the gore warning?? Did my eyes just skip it?? I was eating popcornn 😭😭
Also, does SMO naturally like looking at gore or did smthg happen to him before (or after?) he was adopted? Is it bad that I’m living for the MC beating ppl up? I’m so used to having weak, can’t-even-truss-a-chicken MCs that this is just chef’s kiss
omg noooo hahaha rip the popcorn 😂 we’ll have to wait and see about SMO but yesss something about the duality of LF literally smashing peoples ribcages on one day and then being all innocent and harmless younger brother the next is just so good to see
Where did he even get those pictures? Is the ML actually a serial killer?! Because… wow 😱
My initial guess was that the ML is actually a closeted torture porn enthusiast but that’d be too obvious
I am still going to reserve my opinion about SMO and those pictures. There could be more to the story there.
Also, LF is badass. I like it !!!
That floral shirt guy, I have a bad feeling about him and the things he brings to the shop.
Thank you for the chapter!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA FLORAL BOY IS MAKING SHENG MIN OU WEAR A GREEN HAT I KNOW IT!!!!!
Thank you for the chapters so far. I really like this novel.