Chapter 18
Every second after the encrypted call was hung up felt as long as a slow slicing of flesh and blood.
Gu Jing knelt on the cold, dirty ground, his hands pressed firmly against the wound on Qin Yu's left abdomen. Warm blood continued to flow from between his fingers, soaking the thin fabric, sticky and cold. Qin Yu's breath grew weaker and weaker, his face as pale as paper, his lips cyanotic. Only the furrowed brow and the occasional subtle twitch of pain gave him some sign of life.
In the darkness, there were only the heavy or weak breathing sounds of the two people and the whistling wind outside the window.
Gu Jing's mind went blank, leaving only the mechanical movement of pressing on the wound and the frantic pounding of his heart. He looked at Qin Yu's face, still cold and painful in his coma. The hatred, fear, and calculation in it all seemed pale and distant at this moment.
This person... this madman... was protecting him...
The roar of an engine could be heard faintly in the distance, approaching at an extremely fast speed.
Gu Jing suddenly raised his head and looked out the window vigilantly.
Several glaring headlights pierced the darkness, stopping precisely outside the sanatorium's dilapidated gates. With a dull, swift click, several nimble figures in black combat uniforms silently crept into the building like ghosts, spreading out in a disciplined manner to take up positions at key points.
The footsteps approached the room they were in quickly and orderly.
Gu Jing subconsciously held Qin Yu tighter, his body tense.
"Mr. Gu?" A low voice sounded at the door, with a hint of confirmation.
It's the person on the other end of the phone.
Gu Jing's tense nerves relaxed a little: "Here!"
Two figures quickly entered the room, one of them was guarding the door with a gun, and the other was carrying a large metal box with a red cross printed on it and walked quickly to Gu Jing.
The man moved professionally and efficiently. He checked Qin Yu's condition and injuries with a serious expression.
"Excessive blood loss. Immediate surgery is necessary." He spoke quickly, opening the medical kit and pulling out a tourniquet and emergency supplies. "Why is Brother Yu so badly injured?"
His tone was natural and familiar, obviously he was one of us.
"Treat the wound first!" Gu Jing's voice was hoarse and he did not answer his question.
The man didn't ask any more questions. He worked with his companions to quickly stop the bleeding and administer an IV. His movements were so skillful that it was frightening. Then, two other people came in carrying a folding stretcher and carefully transferred Qin Yu onto it.
The whole process was fast and silent, and incredibly efficient.
Gu Jing wanted to follow, but was stopped by the leader.
"Mr. Gu," the man said in a respectful but unquestionable tone, "You're covered in blood and need to be treated. We'll clean up outside. Please take another car and leave later. The driver will take you to a safe place."
Gu Jing watched Qin Yu being quickly carried out, and his heart felt empty. He knew that his appearance at the moment was indeed eye-catching, and he would be exposed later.
He forced himself to calm down and nodded.
The medical team, along with Qin Yu, quickly disappeared into the darkness. The two remaining men began to expertly clean up the blood and all traces of the scene, their movements professional and calm, as if they had done this countless times.
Gu Jing leaned against the cold wall, watching them busy themselves, watching the glaring bloodstain on the ground gradually disappear, as if the thrilling events just now had never happened. Only the bloodstains on his hands and clothes that had not yet dried, and the faint smell of blood in the air, proved that it was not an illusion.
Another black car slid silently in front of him.
Gu Jing got into the car numbly. The driver silently handed him a clean black coat and a wet towel.
He mechanically wiped the blood off his hands, put on his coat, and rolled up his bloodstained clothes and stuffed them into the bag under the seat.
The car drove out of the desolate land and merged into the city road.
Gu Jing leaned back in his chair, watching the rapidly receding light outside the window. Fatigue and a vast sense of emptiness washed over him like a tide. His hands were still trembling slightly, and his fingertips seemed to still retain the touch of warm blood and the cold temperature of Qin Yu's body.
Will Qin Yu... die?
As soon as this thought came to his mind, it brought a sharp pain that made it almost impossible for him to breathe.
He hated Qin Yu, hated his paranoia, hated his control, and hated him for dragging him into this endless darkness and humiliation.
But when that person might really disappear completely, it doesn't bring relief, but... deeper fear and confusion.
If Qin Yu died, Qin Zhengfeng would tear him and the Gu family apart immediately. Those enemies hiding in the shadows would rush forward. The agreement he had just signed would become his death warrant.
More importantly...
Gu Jing closed his eyes. The words Qin Yu said to him in the rain, the paranoid look in his eyes on the terrace, and the weak strength with which he had held his wrist tightly in the ruins even when he was dying, asking him to "don't go"... Scenes replayed uncontrollably in his mind.
This madman... used this extreme and cruel method to carve an indelible mark on his heart.
The car finally stopped at the foot of an unfamiliar high-end apartment building.
"Mr. Gu, we're here. This is Brother Yu's property, so it's perfectly safe," the driver whispered. "We've prepared a change of clothes and necessities for you upstairs. If you need anything, just press the call bell in the living room."
Gu Jing nodded woodenly, got out of the car and went upstairs.
The apartment is extremely large and decorated in a cold modern style with black, white and grey as the main colours. It is luxurious yet uninspiring, like a carefully crafted model room, or rather... a cage.
He walked into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and the warm water rushed down. He scrubbed the blood off his hands vigorously, his skin turning red, but the sticky feeling seemed to still remain.
After taking a shower and changing into the prepared pajamas, he walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window in the living room without any sleepiness.
The city is still brightly lit, but beneath the prosperity, there are countless dirty deals and bloody fights hidden.
He stood like this all night.
It wasn't until the sky turned pale that the encrypted phone finally vibrated.
Just three short words.
The operation was successful.
Gu Jing's tense body suddenly relaxed, almost collapsing. He held onto the glass and slowly slid down onto the carpet, burying his face in his knees, his shoulders trembling slightly.
I don’t know if it’s relief or something else.
The next few days were calm.
The audit storm at Gu's Group continued, but the pace seemed to have slowed. No one was forcing him to sign those harsh documents anymore. Qin Yu's people still controlled the company, but they seemed to have an inexplicable... respect for him?
He still went to the company every day, handled daily affairs, and played the role of president. But his mind was completely unable to concentrate, and he would always subconsciously look at the encrypted phone or the office door.
Qin Yu did not appear again, and there was no news.
It was as if the life-and-death shock that night was just a bizarre dream.
But he knew it wasn't the case. The news of Qin Yu's injury was strictly suppressed, and Qin Zhengfeng seemed to be holding back for the time being, as if he was evaluating something, or perhaps brewing a bigger storm.
This calm before the storm is even more suffocating.
That afternoon, Gu Jing was reading a project book when the internal phone rang.
It was his new assistant, and his voice was a little nervous: "Mr. Gu, there's a Mr. Lin at the front desk who wants to see you. He says he's an old acquaintance of yours, but he doesn't have an appointment..."
Forest?
Gu Jing's heart skipped a beat: "Please ask him to come up!"
A few minutes later, the office door was pushed open.
Uncle Lin was wearing a slightly loose casual suit and his face was a little pale, but he looked in good spirits. He walked in "accompanied" by a man in a black suit and with an expressionless face.
"Xiao Jing!" Uncle Lin's eyes instantly turned red when he saw Gu Jing. He quickly stepped forward, excitedly grabbed his arm, and looked him up and down. "Are you okay? I heard a lot of things happened in the company. That beast Zhou Liguang..."
"Uncle Lin!" Gu Jing hurriedly interrupted him, helped him sit down, and glanced vigilantly at the man in black guarding the door.
The man nodded slightly, stepped out and closed the door, but Gu Jing knew that he must be guarding outside the door.
"Uncle Lin, how is your health? Why were you discharged from the hospital?" Gu Jing suppressed the excitement and doubts in his heart and asked in a low voice.
"I'm much better now. They're just superficial injuries. They'll be fine after some rest." Uncle Lin held onto Gu Jing's hand tightly, tears streaming down his face. "But you... I heard you were in danger. You almost... It was all my fault. I couldn't protect you..."
"I'm fine, it's all over." Gu Jing comforted him, but his heart was full of doubts. Why did Uncle Lin come here suddenly? And was he "allowed" to see him by such a coincidence?
"Mr. Qin's people sent me here." Uncle Lin seemed to see his confusion. He wiped his tears and said in a complicated tone, "He said...you wanted to see me, so he asked me to come and see you."
Qin Yu?
He woke up? And allowed Uncle Lin to see him? What did he want to do?
Gu Jing's heart was lifted.
Uncle Lin looked at Gu Jing's expression, sighed, and lowered his voice to say, "Xiao Jing, tell Uncle Zhou the truth. What's going on between you and Mr. Qin? There are rumors outside, saying that you... that the Gu family is now..."
He didn't finish his words, but his meaning was clear. Rumors were circulating that Gu Jing had given herself to Qin Yu in order to save the company.
Gu Jing's face turned pale and his lips tightened.
"Uncle Lin, things are complicated," he said with difficulty, "but the company is now... temporarily stable."
"What did you exchange it for?" Uncle Lin's eyes were as sharp as a torch, filled with the worry and heartache of an elder. "Xiao Jing, don't lie to me. That Mr. Qin... he's not an ordinary person. I've lived for most of my life and I'm very good at judging people, but the way he looked at you... wasn't right!"
Gu Jing's heart felt like it was being tugged at. Did even Uncle Lin see that?
"Uncle Lin, please don't ask." He lowered his eyelashes. "I know what's going on."
"What do you think!" Uncle Lin was anxious and angry, but he didn't dare to speak loudly. "That's a wolf! You're courting disaster by being with him! If the master knew..."
"If my father knew, he would also hope that Gu's could survive." Gu Jing interrupted him, with a hint of fatigue and numbness in his voice that he himself was not aware of.
Uncle Lin looked at him, opened his mouth, and finally let out a long sigh, his eyes full of helplessness and heartache.
The two chatted for a while, mostly Uncle Lin urging him to be safe and take care of himself. During this time, the man in black at the door came in and served tea. It seemed respectful, but in reality, it was clearly a sign of surveillance.
Half an hour later, the meeting ended. The man in black came in and prepared to escort Uncle Lin away.
Before leaving, Uncle Lin held Gu Jing's hand tightly, squeezed it hard, and said quickly in a very low voice: "Xiao Jing, no matter what happens, staying alive is the most important thing... Don't forget, the things the master left for you... are in the old place..."
After saying that, he let go of his hand and left with the man in black.
Gu Jing stood there, his palm still seeming to retain the rough and warm touch of Uncle Lin and his meaningful words.
Something his father left him? The old place?
Are you referring to... the secret compartment in the study of the old house where he hid secrets when he was a child?
What did his father leave there? Why did Uncle Lin remind him in this way at this time?
Countless questions swirled in Gu Jing's mind.
And what was Qin Yu's purpose in arranging this meeting? A test? A warning? Or... something else?
He found that he could no longer understand the man.
That night, Gu Jing returned to the cold apartment, unable to sleep.
Uncle Lin's words were like a stone thrown into stagnant water, causing ripples in his heart.
What could it be that my father left behind?
He hesitated for a long time, but in the end he couldn't suppress his strong curiosity and premonition. He had to go back.
It wasn't easy to avoid Qin Yu's eyes. But he had been observing the surveillance and security arrangements of this apartment for a few days and had a rough idea of the pattern.
At two o'clock in the morning, he changed into dark clothes, took advantage of the blind spot of the fire escape, left the apartment quietly, called an online taxi, and went straight to the old house.
The old house was still empty, with only the maid coming to clean it regularly. He opened the door with his own key, and a dusty smell hit him in the face.
Without turning on the lights, he walked up to the study on the second floor in the moonlight as if he knew the way there.
Everything in the study remained the same as it had been when his father was alive. He walked to the huge mahogany bookcase, groped for an inconspicuous bulge behind the third row of bookshelves, and gently pressed it.
With a slight "click", a baffle slid open, revealing a small secret compartment inside.
There wasn't much in the secret compartment, just an old notebook and a small, black USB drive.
Gu Jing's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
He pulled out the notebook and flipped through the yellowed pages. In his father's familiar handwriting, it was filled with seemingly scattered numbers, codes, and abbreviations, along with several overseas bank account numbers and passwords. It looked like some kind of... private account book.
And that USB drive...
He walked over to the old but still usable desktop computer in the study and plugged in the USB drive.
The hard drive light flashed a few times, and a window popped up requiring a password.
Gu Jing tried entering his father's birthday, his own birthday, and the founding date of Gu's company... but none of them were correct.
He frowned, his eyes falling on the old notebook. He flipped through it carefully, and suddenly, on the back of the last page, he saw a line of very small and faint handwriting. It seemed that his father had engraved it with a pen without ink, and he had to look carefully to see it clearly.
[To Jing'er. The password is the day you won the first chess game.]
Gu Jing's pupils suddenly contracted!
The first time he won a chess game... When he was ten years old, he played chess with his father and won for the first time by relying on his own calculations. His father was very happy and even took him out for ice cream.
That day was...
With trembling fingers, he entered the distant date.
The password box disappeared, and the contents of the USB flash drive appeared in front of him.
There was only one audio file in it. The file name was - [Be careful of Qin Zhengfeng, believe...?]
The writing on the back is unclear.
Gu Jing's heart was beating wildly, almost jumping out of his chest. He took a deep breath and clicked on the audio file.
First there was a crackling sound of electricity, and then my father's familiar and tired voice sounded, with an unprecedented heaviness and... urgency?
"Xiao Jing, if you're hearing this, it means I'm no longer with you, and the Gu family... I'm afraid they're in great trouble. There's something I must tell you... about the Qin family, about Qin Zhengfeng..."
My father's voice was intermittent and seemed to have been recorded under extremely difficult circumstances.
[…Qin Zhengfeng is far more than he seems… His business… is stained with blood… He’s got a hold of some of our Gu Corporation’s early overseas projects… He’s been threatening me, forcing me to cooperate in money laundering… I… I have no choice…]
[…Zhou Liguang…He was bribed by Qin Zhengfeng a long time ago…I misjudged him…I let a wolf into the house…You have to be careful of him…]
[…The marriage…is Qin Zhengfeng's conspiracy…He wants to completely swallow up the Gu family and launder his assets…But…but his son Qin Yu…that child…is a little different…I've investigated him…it seems…he's been secretly collecting evidence of his father's crimes…]
Gu Jing's breathing suddenly stopped! Qin Yu?!
[…I don’t know what he’s trying to do… Maybe he wants to bring down his father… Maybe he has a bigger plan… But he’s the only variable… If… If you’re really desperate… Maybe… You can try…]
The audio stops here.
Like it was forcibly interrupted, or the person recording encountered some emergency.
Gu Jing froze in front of the computer, his whole body cold and his blood seemed to have frozen.
His father's words were like thunder, exploding in his mind!
Qin Zhengfeng's crimes, Zhou Liguang's betrayal... he already knew all of this.
But Qin Yu...
That paranoid, crazy man who regarded him as his property... had actually been secretly collecting evidence of his father's crimes?
Why did he do all this, to deal with Zhou Liguang, to force himself to sign the agreement, and even... to protect himself?
Just to get him?
Or... is there a more complex and surprising purpose?
"Believe..." What was the last sentence that my father left unfinished?
Who should I trust? Qin Yu?
The huge amount of information and subversive truths shocked Gu Jing, making him dizzy and almost unable to think.
Just then—
The door handle of the study suddenly turned silently.
Gu Jing's hair stood on end and he turned around suddenly!
The door was gently pushed open.
A slender, cold figure leaned against the door frame, watching him quietly. The moonlight shone in from behind him, stretching his shadow very long.
It’s Qin Yu.
His face was still pale, and he wore a black silk nightgown with the collar slightly open, revealing the edge of his bandages. His eyes were deep and emotionless, like a pool of cold water that had been silent for a thousand years.
He didn't know how long he stood there or how much he heard.
Gu Jing's heart stopped beating instantly, and his hands and feet were cold. He subconsciously wanted to turn off the computer screen, but found that he couldn't move at all.
Qin Yu's eyes slowly swept across the interface of the audio file on the computer screen, and then fell on Gu Jing's pale and bewildered face.
He walked slowly into the study, his footsteps were light, but it felt like he was stepping on Gu Jing's heart.
He walked to the computer, bent down, and touched the audio progress bar on the screen with his finger.
My father's intermittent voice rang out again in the silent study room.
[…His son, Qin Yu…that child…is a little different…I've investigated him…and it seems…he's been secretly collecting evidence of his father's crimes…]
Qin Yu paused.
He maintained his bent posture, turned his head and looked at Gu Jing. The distance between them was so close that they could hear each other's breathing.
His eyes were extremely complicated, with dark fluctuations, a strange understanding, and deep pain, and in the end... all of them settled into a heart-pounding, crazy calm.
"So..." he began, his voice terribly hoarse, with a sense of sudden realization and... indescribable meaning, "Your father... knows everything..."
He slowly stood up and looked down at Gu Jing, who was stiff and felt like he was falling into an icy cave.
Then, he smiled very lightly, a smile filled with endless mockery and an almost tragic madness.
"Now then," he stretched out his hand, and gently lifted Gu Jing's chin with his cold fingertips, forcing him to look into his bottomless eyes. Every word he spoke was like a devil's whisper.
"My dear 'partner'...are you ready...to join me...in patricide?"
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