Edited by Qiuxue and Noks
Chongming lay limp and feeble on the floor, just like a mass of mud, devoid of any strength. The little ghost sat on his stomach, suppressing his every move.
Standing in front of him, Fan Jialuo carefully scrutinized the grey-black object that was the size of a rice grain in the palm of his hand under the light of an incandescent lamp.
The little ghost was also curious about it. As he continued to suppress Chongming, he went ahead to stand on his tiptoes and then craned his neck as far as possible to try to identify the tiny object.
After a while, Fan Jialuo realized that the object was most likely a jade pendant. Although it was only the size of a rice grain, its workmanship was very exquisite.
The unknown craftsman and its creator had vividly carved the mouth of the fish, fish scales, and the tail of the fish, all of this done to show that the fish was jumping and twisting. The details were so intricate— there was even a tiny hole had been drilled through the mouth of the fish. A thin string could be threaded through this hole, so logically, the jade should have been worn on the neck or wrist.
But it had somehow managed to integrate into Chongming’s body and had even provided him with such a weird ability.
Chongming had obviously ignored this detail, deeming it insignificant as long as he was able to obtain benefits and power from it.
It was exactly like the current him, who was currently begging in vain, again and again, “Fan Jialuo, return it to me, okay? I can give you whatever you want! Don’t you want to go back to Fan Family? I can help you deal with Fan Kaixuan! If I get my ability back, I can deal with anyone easily. Fan Jialuo, don’t go, Fan Jialuo…”
Fan Jialuo turned around and walked away. He pressed the tiny fish-shaped jade pendant to his glabella. Slowly, little by little, it entered the space that was his divine consciousness, before finally disappearing.
During this, the little ghost had obediently been sitting on Chongming’s stomach. He stopped suppressing Chongming only after his older brother was no longer in sight, and then he also vanished.
The flickering lights returned to normal, and the corridor returned to its usual state.
Several staff members approached the corner, and could be heard talking among themselves anxiously, “Strange, I clearly wanted to go to the lounge just now, but I ended up turning around at the stairway several times and couldn’t find the way!”
“Me too! Did we just experience the phenomenon of a ghost hitting the wall?” One of them looked ahead, and spotted someone. “Ah, Taoist Chongming, what’s wrong with you? Are you injured? Quick, call an ambulance!”
The crew once again fell into a state of chaos.
***
Fan Jialuo finished recording the final scenes for the episode and then rejoined Zhao Wenyan and Cao Xiaofeng, who had been waiting in the lounge for a long time.
Cao Xiaofeng felt aggrieved. “Damn, did that Song Wennuan take the wrong medicine? In the middle of recording, someone suddenly dragged me to the director’s room, where she started scolding me, saying that I was helping you in cheating! I scolded them right back on the spot! With your ability, do you even need to cheat?”
He added triumphantly, “Then, she brought the whole crew out later and apologized to me with a humble look! Ha ha ha! It’s a pity you didn’t get to see it, the scene was so damn funny! I never once expected that one day, the high and mighty Miss Song would lower her head to me!”
Zhao Wenyan said coldly, “I only needed to bribe one of her staff a little and managed to get the original clip of the personality test. Jialuo, if you are dissatisfied with their arrangement, I can make it public. The Zhao Family can’t be compared to the Song Family, but still, when it concerns such a major issue regarding principles, we have the upper hand. Song Wennuan is condoning a criminal’s continued existence.”
Fan Jialuo pressed a hand to his shoulder and shook his head. “Don’t bother. Just forget about it.”
“How can we forget…” Cao Xiaofeng hurriedly started to speak, hoping to give his boss a helping hand, but his sentence was cut by Fan Jialuo’s next words.
“Do you have photos of all staff members involved in the show? Send them to my phone.”
“There does seem to be a staff group photo, wait a minute.” Cao Xiaofeng sent the photo as soon as he found it in his phone gallery.
Fan Jialuo stared at these familiar and unfamiliar faces for a long time, before finally circling a person’s face. He sent it to Song Wennuan, with the warning —【Pay attention to this person.】
Zhao Wenyan craned his neck to look at the phone screen. He was surprised. “Hey, he’s the one who sold me the original clip just now. Why did you report him to Song Wennuan? I think he’ll continue to be useful to us in the future.”
“He’s one of the people who first slandered me for cheating.” This sentence completely silenced Zhao Wenyan.
As the three of them walked towards the parking lot, they suddenly heard Song Wennuan’s voice coming from behind them.
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.
“Mr. Fan, wait! Mr. Fan, I have something for you!” Holding a beautifully packaged gift box, she hurried to catch up with him.
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“That’s very kind of you,” said Fan Jialuo, but he didn’t accept her gift. Instead, he looked her in the eyes and asked, “Miss Song, there are now two choices before you, which one will you choose?”
“What?” Song Wennuan was confused.
“The first choice is to save your own child, the second one is to save all the children in the world. Which option will you choose?” Fan Jialuo inquired in a very serious manner.
“What does it mean to save my own child or all the children in the world? I-I don’t understand.” Song Wennuan’s voice had become smaller and her tone had become weaker as she said this.
She seemed to be fully aware of the meaning behind this question. Unconsciously, she retreated backwards, and even felt the impulse to escape from this place.
However, Song Rui was standing ready by her side. A broad palm pressed against her back, blocking her path of retreat.
“Listen,” Fan Jialuo whispered solemnly.
He stepped forward and lowered his head. “Hide this thing, treat it as if nothing happened, and your child will grow up safely and happily. But you have to know that people like Yu Yuntian will never repent. He will keep looking for new targets.
“After this lesson, he will become more cautious when choosing targets. He will skip those children with a prominent family background and will instead look for ones from ordinary or poor families. This is because he knows that with a little economic benefit as bait, he can easily obtain them.
“Even if they are treated cruelly, they won’t be able to fight against him. Success after success will nourish this evil further, it will strengthen his ambition and intensify his crimes. From then on, more vulnerable and innocent children will keep falling into his hands.
“These consequences can be ended by your hands even before they happen. So, which path will you choose?”
Once again, Fan Jialuo asked, “Will you save your own child, or all the children in the world? Miss Song, I hope you will consider this matter seriously.”
He withdrew his sharp gaze and brushed at the hair that shadowed his forehead. Then, he said politely, “I should go now. I look forward to our next meeting.”
Zhao Wenyan opened the car door behind him and waited for Fan Jialuo to climb in.
The loud bang of the car door closing was just like a fierce slap being thrown across Song Wennuan’s already swollen and red cheeks.
She could only watch silently with red eyes as the car drove away while she was left behind clutching her aching cheeks.
In the end, she still failed to press down the bubbling guilt and uncertainty in her heart. She panicked. “Cousin, if it was you, how would you choose?”
Song Rui raised his eyebrows, inwardly thinking that her question was ridiculous. “What I would do, have you forgotten?”
Right, her cousin was a consultant for the police, how could he let a criminal go?
How could she choose between her own child and other people’s children? Should she be a normal person with sound moral principles or a person who has no bottom line?
Answers to such questions actually didn’t require much thought.
However, as the person involved in this matter, Song Wennuan knew that if the events gained traction, the all-pervasive media would sooner or later dig out the identities of all the children Yu Yuntian had harmed.
Nini wouldn’t be an exception. At that point, her story would be known to others as well.
By no means was something like this the best solution!
It wouldn’t save all the children! It would ruin their lives! Their wounds would be torn open and exposed to the public, then left to fester and rot under people’s mockery.
Song Wennuan shook her head frantically, but then she froze on the spot. An idea that she hadn’t paid attention to previously suddenly emerged to the surface of her mind.
If the truth was revealed, these children would indeed experience the pain of facing such exposure as they were the victims, but henceforth, no more children would fall into Yu Yuntian’s hands. His evil would end, once and for all.
The pain they suffered would eventually come to pass as time went by, and the best comfort to them would probably be to witness the culprit’s ‘death ending’.
Now, returning to the beginning, would she choose to save the children of the future or let the evil breed on while she continued to be a sober accomplice to it?
After gaining a thorough understanding of Fan Jialuo’s question, Song Wennuan finally found her answer.
She wanted to save all of these children. She wanted to save these children’s futures and extinguish this sin with her own hands!
She kicked off her high-heeled shoes and frantically chased after the car, shouting, “Mr. Fan, I know what to choose! Please wait! Mr. Fan, Mr Fan…!”
Her disheveled hair and appearance made her look like a lunatic, but her image was the last thing she could even think of paying attention to right now. The only thing in her mind was — The children’s futures are the most important! For all of the children, I must do the right thing!
The car slowed down and came to a stop. Fan Jialuo poked his head out from the window, with a bright and clear smile on his face.
“Miss Song, come in. Let’s talk while we travel.”
Song Wennuan almost started crying when she saw his approving smile. She knew that she had made the right choice!
***
Inside the car.
Fan Jialuo pulled out his tablet from a concealed compartment in the armrest while placing his phone inside it instead.
He slowly asked, “Dr. Song, you should know that for people like Yu Yuntain, once they taste the pleasure of crime, they will never stop, isn’t that so?”
Song Rui agreed. “Yes, and it often manifests at a very young age. Yu Yuntian is 30 years old this year. He has definitely had a lot of ‘prey’, but he has always concealed them very well and not once has he been caught. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be bold enough to target a child from the Song Family.
“Another point is that it’s hard for him to restrain his desire. He tends to leave some mementos once he succeeds. There should be a lot of those kinds of paintings hidden beneath his ‘normal’ paintings. These are all conclusive evidence.”
Fan Jialuo nodded. “Dr. Song’s analysis is correct. So what we are going to look for are these kinds of paintings.”
He turned to Song Wennuan and asked, “Miss Song, can you find all of Yu Yuntian’s works and show them to me? They don’t need to be the original versions, just the photos will do.”
“Yes. I have a lot of them on my phone!” Song Wennuan quickly rummaged through her phone’s photo gallery.
“This one, and this one.” The longer Fan Jialuo looked at the photos, the tighter his frown became. “This one, this, this one…”
Song Wennuan’s hands began to tremble. There were too many ‘problematic’ paintings that were being pointed out by Fan Jialuo.
Some of them had even won international awards, and many of them had been exhibited in prestigious art galleries, where they had accepted the appreciation and praise of the world.
When she recalled those cruel and shameless fragments, as well as the fact that those paintings had been guilelessly viewed by the public, Song Wennuan felt nauseous.
How could there exist such a low and nasty person in the world? He simply was not worthy of being called a human being!
In the end, there were more than 30 paintings that Fan Jialuo selected, but that wasn’t the end.
Song Wennuan’s forehead was wet, with a layer of cold sweat that threatened to drip. She was so grateful to herself for making the choice that she had.
If she had instead chosen to turn a blind eye to this matter, there would undoubtedly have been many more children suffering from such things in the future.
She had unknowingly nearly become an accomplice of this weighty crime. She decided that she would absolutely go all out and bring Yu Yuntian down to hell!
Song Rui calmly analyzed, “In these 30-odd paintings, there may be a few children who haven’t been harmed physically, just like Nini. They were only the objects of Yu Yuntian’s fantasy, so you must make sure to investigate it all clearly beforehand.
“There is another thing you should pay attention to. In our country, this matter is a scandal, a shameful matter. Most parents will choose to solve it privately instead of reporting it to the police. In such a way, Yu Yuntian can solve all of these troubles perfectly just by paying a sum of money.
“My advice is, proceed with everything and every step carefully. Otherwise, it will result in pain being caused for many children, as well as their parents.”
“It’s enough if you can get this one.” Fan Jialuo pointed at one particular photo.
“What?” Song Wennuan and Song Rui asked simultaneously.
“This will be his deadly arrow.” Fan Jialuo returned the phone to Song Wennuan and instructed the driver, “Go to the Municipal People’s Hospital.”
“Why are you going to the hospital?” Song Wennuan couldn’t follow his train of thought.
“To visit that girl, Xia Xia.”
“Ah, that’s right! There’s something wrong with Xia Xia, I should visit her too! This painting is one of Yu Yuntian’s early works. I don’t know where it is now. I may need more time to locate it,” Song Wennuan held her phone and muttered silently.
So many things had happened during the day that her brain couldn’t catch up.
On the other side, Song Rui and Zhao Wenyan had already begun dialing a number on their phones at the same time, they were liaising with their own contacts to find this painting.
When the car arrived at the hospital, a man in a leather jacket was already waiting at the entrance of the parking lot, holding a flat package in his arms.
He greeted Zhao Wenyen respectfully and handed over the package through the car window.
The man explained, “I found this painting in the Kimberley Art Gallery. It’s not for sale. I borrowed it from their boss.”
“Good, I’ll return it in a few days.”
When Zhao Wenyan handed the painting to Fan Jialuo, he intentionally or otherwise shot a glance at Song Rui, with a trace of triumph flashing in his eyes. In terms of connections in the art circle, he was even better than the other!
Song Rui put his phone away and smiled indifferently.
Song Wennuan had spoken about visiting Xia Xia, but in the end, she only took a glance at her from the threshold of the ward door. She had to quickly deal with the painting.
First, she needed to call a professional to find the actual painting hidden under the layers of oil paint. Then, they would need to check for the identity of the child based on the appearance in the painting, then find their name and address, before approaching the parents to discuss further solutions.
She didn’t know what the child’s parents would choose to do. Whether they would go for a private settlement or would seek to have the criminal pay for his crimes with the help of the police; all she could do now was to try her best to facilitate the process.
She wanted to save all of the children’s futures, not only Nini’s. This was one of the basic morals of life. And yet she hadn’t arrived at this understanding until Fan Jialuo had asked her to make a choice!
After she left, Song Rui asked him, “What would you have done if she had made the wrong choice?”
Fan Jialuo felt that this question was a bit superfluous. With a faint smile, he replied with a question in turn, “What do you think, police advisor?”
Song Rui covered his slightly curled lips and left. He didn’t care about this Xia Xia at all.
Then, Fan Jialuo made his way to Xia Xia’s bedside and pulled out a fluffy black shadow from her, while she was under the effects of a tranquilizer.
***
Noks: I’m so glad Yu Yuntian is going to get his just desserts. I was hopping mad when the staff decided to delete the video, but this manner of tackling this issue is better.
Frozenmirage: Now now, ZW, are you provoking SR? *smirk
Just how many children did that scum victimized ah?
He deserves it1 Big Time!
Thank you for the chapter!
SW, I’m afraid you wouldn’t stand a chance against SR <(￣︶￣)>
Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️
NO! Don’t you dare!! I chose Song Rui as my ship, and I’m not going to change my mind!
Thanks for the chapter <3
+1 but don’t worry, ZWY for sure isn’t the ML.
whenever SR hides his smile, I grin subconsciously 🤭😂
I am also glad they chose to do something about that disgusting jerk!
thanks for the chapter! <3
Finally they take care about this scum…I was so anxious for the children…
I can’t believe that many children have been impacted…he does not deserve to be called human!!!
Thanks for the chapter~
I’m flabbergasted…Psyhic, STS, TLH is the only 3 novels I am currently reading from countless novels that is the very definition of darkness (for me). It’s scary, provocative, bloody and tear jerking at the same time) （ つ﹏╰）
heeyy, could you tell me the name of these other two novels? (STS and TLH) (＾▽＾)
Hope not violating anything but it’s Time-Limited Hunt & Swallowing The Sea. 😅
How nasty.
Ohhh I’m so glad they brought that back up. I was truly worried it was going to become a bigger problem later!
Thank you for the chapter!!
Thank you for the chapter
Go after him and make him suffer!
Thanks for the chapter
Thank goodness they’re actually trying to take him down. I really thought that they were going to leave it like that. Lmao SR and ZWY. I really wonder if its a battle between two MLs because I only see SR as a ML
Thanks for translating!!
ZW now challenging SR. Meanwhile Bai Mu…😂😂 Where u at bro XD
Thanks for the chapter~
Thank you very much,❤️❤️❤️❤️.
How on earth does the author think up these plots? They are all so fascinating!
Thanks for the chapter
It’s really good! That trash is gonna pay for his crimes! YES!
Thanks for the chapter!
[When Zhao Wenyan handed the painting to Fan Jialuo, he intentionally or otherwise shot a glance at Song Rui, with a trace of triumph flashing in his eyes. In terms of connections in the art circle, he was even better than the other!
Song Rui put his phone away and smiled indifferently. ]
LMAOOO ICANT. ZW provoking and challenging SR—THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE TWO POTENTIAL MLS WOULD NOW BEGIN! 😂 but no one can change my mind! I’m a SR-FJL SHIP~~
LMAO when Zhao Wenyan gave song rui a triumphant smile I couldn’t help but smile as well. The rivalry has already begun and idk who I am rooting for 😭 Bai Mu where are you? Don’t let them swallow you up before you couldn’t even put up a fight
your niece, who you’ve watched grown up and have loved since her birth, or a group of children that you undoubtedly feel sorry for, but ultimately are strangers? of course, these two choices may not be mutually exclusive, but if i were ever to be put in that position, i don’t think i would have made a decision as quickly as song wennuan did, although i do respect her for her choice – it is an incredibly difficult one to make.
one tiny thing that irks me as well was song rui’s response to song wennuan asking him why he didn’t tell her about yu yuntian if he knew something was wrong with him. song rui just responded by saying that it was because she was blinded by her love, and it was her fault for being fooled by him, but how on earth was it her fault? people like yu yuntian are skilled in deception, and while on one hand wennuan could have suspected something, but on the other hand it’s hardly any fault of hers for not jumping to the conclusion that her famous boyfriend is a pedophile and possible serial rapist. and i’ll bet that song rui didn’t even try to tell wennuan about it, yet pushed the blame onto her, which is honestly quite hypocritical.
idk i truly like this premise but i don’t think this arc in particular was very well thought out. sorry for blurting out a whole essay lol but i had some Thoughts. but i greatly appreciate the translation! the translation quality is wonderful.