·41｜Exclusive to Jinjiang·41
Revenge from a heartless cat.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan followed Ji Tsuguya Jun all the way to a research building. She looked down at her phone and received a message from Furuya Rei saying that he was temporarily unable to get away and would probably be able to leave in another half hour.
"Administrator, I'm going in now."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan bypassed the wall and climbed into the building through a wide-open window. She carried her small leather shoes, which were prone to making noise, and crouched down, following barefoot at a distance from Jigu Jun.
After Gu Chun returned to his office, he took a glass bottle containing half a bottle of liquid to the laboratory. The man's actions of deliberately taking out his key to lock the door and repeatedly checking that it was locked when he left the office caught Lai Chuan Huang Quan's attention. She frowned, thought for a moment, and decided to sneak into the office after the man left, rather than continue to follow him.
With the help of the Time and Space Administration's high technology, the complicated door lock was easily pried open. Lai Chuan Huang Quan pushed open the door and was greeted by a scene of utter chaos.
She closed the door, placed her dusty leather shoes by the door, and stepped onto the soft carpet in the room to look through the documents scattered on the floor.
The complex chemical formulas were far beyond Lai Chuan Huang Quan's capabilities. She frowned as she scanned the document from beginning to end, as if reading a wordless book. Among the documents piled high with tables and equations, she only understood the phrase "reversing life and death."
"Administrator, what's written on this?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan chose to seek help from the administrator, whom she believed to be omniscient, but this time, the administrator, unusually, also chose to remain silent.
Quietly marveling that even the administrator couldn't understand some of the documents, Lai Chuan Huang Quan pulled out his phone and took pictures of each page.
Just as she finished taking pictures and was about to go to the lab to check on things, a series of chaotic footsteps approached the office from a distance.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan subconsciously turned his head to look at the door, then picked up the small leather shoes by the door and crawled into the row of metal cabinets that stood against the wall.
The space at the bottom of the metal cabinet wasn't large. Lai Chuan Huang Quan laboriously curled himself into a ball and asked in a low voice, "Administrator, is the cooldown for space jump ready yet?"
If she could, she would like to use spatial jump to leave this place.
— "Sorry, it will take another day before you can apply to use it."
"Tsk."
As they spoke, Lai Chuan Huang Quan, hidden in the darkness, heard the sound of the door lock being turned. She quickly lowered her breathing and pressed her ear against the metal sheet to listen carefully to what was happening outside.
The door opened, and leather shoes clicked silently on the soft carpet. Lai Chuan Huang Quan heard someone hurriedly picking up the papers scattered on the floor, making a rustling sound.
"Qin, Qin Jiu, weren't you supposed to be here the day after tomorrow? What brings you here early today?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan had never heard the voice of the poisoning suspect before, and she couldn't tell who was speaking. But judging from the content, there should be more than just Ji Gu Jun in the room now.
The chair creaked as it turned, and someone sat down in the executive chair behind the desk. Then came the sound of a match being lit and a sigh as smoke rings were exhaled.
Another male voice rang out in the room: "Ricard, a month has passed since the deadline for reporting your research findings to the organization, and the new reporting date is the day after tomorrow. What about your research findings? They've been delayed for over a month, haven't they?"
The man called Ricard by the other man remained silent, and the room fell silent for a moment.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan huddled in the closet, struggling to lift his phone from beside his feet, and began searching online for "Gin" and "Richard," but the search results were all about alcoholic beverages.
The man called Gin snorted and continued, "Useless bastard, the organization doesn't need trash like you."
“But, but Gin,” the man who spoke first finally spoke up, “the documents left behind by the Miyano couple are largely incomplete, and it took me a lot of time just to restore them.”
Gin chuckled and pulled a pistol from under his trench coat: "I've given you plenty of time, and the boss isn't going to have the patience to wait any longer."
He spoke slowly, with a drawn-out tone, conveying a sense of arrogance that he had everything under control, like a proud, elegant, and extremely lethal cheetah.
“And I heard you’ve caused quite a stir in Tokyo recently,” Gin continued. “The organization can’t afford to be dragged down by trash like you.”
"Wait, wait a minute, Gin!" Ricard, or rather, Jigu Jun, completely panicked. He took two steps back, his thighs trembling. "Aside from the first three victims, I already stopped. The Metropolitan Police Department didn't find any useful clues, did they?"
Ji Gu Chun showed no signs of stopping, and was unaware of the Metropolitan Police Department's investigation progress. But now, even his survival was in question, so why would he care about the facts?
"Oh?" Gin chuckled softly. "But your assistant didn't say that."
"Wait, wait! Listen to me! I've made new progress in my drug research. If you kill me now, no one will be able to take over, and the progress will come to a complete standstill!"
The sound of a pistol being cocked echoed in the room, indicating that Jun had failed to persuade Gin to endure it.
"Wait a minute, Gin! ... Damn it, this drug is completely against physiology, it's impossible for it to work!"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan heard a cold laugh. The sound of gunfire masked the sound of gunshots, followed by the dull thud of a heavy object hitting the ground. Through the narrow ventilation hole, Lai Chuan Huang Quan could only see fingers that twitched twice before going completely still, and the snow-white stains spreading on the carpet.
Her mind was a complete mess, and Lai Chuan Huang Quan stared wide-eyed, unable to even blink. She had originally thought that this poisoning case was just a random killing aimed at retaliating against society or venting emotions, a disaster caused by the criminal's repeated crimes of passion. Little did she know that a huge dark secret was lurking behind the man.
"Big brother," a third voice appeared, "is it alright if we kill him? What about the drug research?"
"The organization has already sent someone to the United States to pick up that chemical genius from the Miyano family. The BOSS plans to hand over the follow-up research to her."
"What should we do with this man's body?"
"Go and bring over the diesel fuel, burn this place down."
"yes."
Then came the sounds of doors opening and closing, and footsteps gradually fading into the distance.
But Lai Chuan Huang Quan did not immediately climb out of the cabinet, even though her calves were starting to go numb and lose sensation due to poor blood circulation.
She only heard the sound of footsteps leaving; the man called "Big Brother" must still be in the room.
Every second squeezed into the cramped space was torture. Lai Chuan Huang Quan dared not move, afraid that any noise would attract the man with the gun outside the cabinet. Clutching her phone, she was forced into a strange and muscle-tightening posture to start texting Furuya Rei—she was afraid that Furuya Rei would arrive at the wrong time and run into the man outside who called Gin.
But as Gin stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, he noticed something amiss. He got up, picked up a long hair from the carpet, and then a sinister smile crept across his face.
The pistol, already secured with a safety catch, was chambered again, the soft click sending chills down Lai Chuan and Huang Quan's spine. She nervously curled her toes, gripping her phone tightly and desperately trying to send a distress signal to the administrator.
"Administrator, help! Help! Help!"
Outside the cabinet, Gin surveyed the room, opening each cabinet door one by one, starting from the left.
The administrator quickly reflected on the situation and immediately provided an escape plan:
—"I can arrange one space jump for you in advance."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan:
"What will be the consequences?"
—"It will consume two of your skill time slots, meaning you won't be able to apply for space jumps for the next two weeks. Also, since you're already a C-rank with low privileges, using this pre-paid method for teleportation will make it impossible for me to accurately control your landing location."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan didn't even think twice before choosing to overdraw his funds.
The sound of the cabinet door being opened drew closer, and the administrator abandoned the countdown, forcibly activating the spatial jump.
The ten numbers during the countdown may seem useless, but they dramatically increase the accuracy of the deployment by the Time and Space Administration's central system. Their function is similar to calibrating a sniper scope before a shot, or determining parameters before a machine starts operating.
— "Initiating teleportation."
As soon as the words left his mouth, a dizzying sensation washed over him. The uncalibrated and unloaded spatial jump exacerbated the weightlessness and vertigo. Before his eyes were iridescent lines, and the next second, Lai Chuan Huang Quan fell into warm water with a splash.
If someone were to fall into a white porcelain bathtub filled with hot water, the impact would send water splashing more than a meter high. Lai Chuan Huang Quan choked on several mouthfuls of water before struggling to sit up, holding onto the edge of the bathtub.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan was soaked from head to toe. She coughed incessantly, raised her hand to wipe the water off her face, and turned her head to meet a pair of familiar blue cat eyes.
Morofushi Kagemitsu had already unbuttoned all his shirt buttons. He was holding his belt, which was half-unbuttoned, and stared wide-eyed at Raikawa Yomi, who had suddenly appeared in his bathtub.
Morofushi Kagemitsu's lips were slightly parted, and his blank and terrified expression seemed to be silently questioning what kind of trouble Yorikawa Yomi was up to now.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan slowly lowered his head, his gaze sweeping over Morofushi Kagemitsu's full chest muscles and narrow waist, and crawling over his dark gray underwear, which was already half a finger's width exposed.
"..."
After a brief silence, Lai Chuan Huang Quan, still blowing bubbles, lay back down in the bathtub.
The act of burying one's head in the sand, much like an ostrich burying its head, is an act of escapism, as if it can pretend that nothing happened. Lai Chuan Huang Quan stared wide-eyed at the bright ceiling through the ripples of water, but her brain had already stopped functioning due to the overwhelming shock.
Yomi Laichuan had considered the possibility of falling into strange places, but she never imagined that she would fall into someone else's bathtub full of water and stare at Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was half-undressed.
As for Morofushi Kagemitsu, he only belatedly snapped out of his shock after lying back down at the bottom of the bathtub in Yorikawa Yomi, and blushed as he silently buckled his belt back up.
Morofushi Kagemitsu tapped twice on the edge of the bathtub with his fingers, the sound traveling through the liquid to Raikawa Yomi's ears. She met Morofushi Kagemitsu's gaze through the warm water. After recognizing Morofushi Kagemitsu's lip-reading signal for her to get out, Raikawa Yomi hesitated for a long time before reluctantly sitting up again from the bathtub. Water droplets rolled off her body with a splashing sound, and a fine curtain of water blocked her vision.
“I said…” Morifushi Kagemitsu smiled helplessly, “Why are you here?”
Lai Chuan Huang Quan kept her head down, avoiding eye contact with Morofushi Kagemitsu. She shrugged, wishing she could disappear on the spot: "If I said this was really just an accident, would you believe me...?"
Zhu Fujingguang simply smiled and remained silent.
...
Half an hour later, Kenji Hagiwara, who had been busy at the Metropolitan Police Department all day, received a call from Yomi Raikawa. His beloved girlfriend, in a soft voice, timidly begged him to do her a favor.
Kenji Hagiwara's heart skipped a beat. He put down the report in his hand and asked anxiously, "What's wrong? Have you run into some trouble? Where are you? I'm coming right now."
"It's...it's nothing serious," the woman on the other end of the phone hesitated for a long time before stammering, "I'm in Mr. Morofushi's bedroom right now. Kenji, could you go home and bring me a clean new dress, and some shoes too?"
"Huh? What are you doing at his place?" Kenji Hagiwara was taken aback for a moment, but didn't think much of it. "I'm going back now. Wait for me, I'll be there in about an hour."
“Oh right,” Raikawa Yomi said, then fell silent. The sound of her swallowing was clearly heard by Hagiwara Kenji through the phone: “Th-that…”
"What?"
"...My underwear is in the middle drawer of the wardrobe. Remember to bring a set with you when you come."
Hagiwara Kenji:...?
"Why do you need to bring a change of underwear? Where are the ones you're wearing?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan swallowed again and whispered in a voice barely above a buzz, "It's wet."
Hagihara Kenji:? ? ?
Lai Chuan Huang Quan, naked except for a clean T-shirt belonging to Morofushi Kagemitsu, sat on the small bed wrapped tightly in a blanket. Just seconds after she hung up her call with Hagiwara Kenji, Morofushi Kagemitsu's phone rang, as he sat alone in the living room.
It was Kenji Hagiwara who made the call.
As soon as Morofushi Hiromitsu pressed the answer button, Hagiwara Kenji's heart-wrenching screams came through the receiver, causing a sharp pain in Morofushi Hiromitsu's eardrums, forcing him to silently move the phone away.
Kenji Hagiwara: "What exactly did you do to my soft bread?!"
Zhu Fujingguang: ? ?
I didn't do anything! It was clearly your soft bread that did something to me!
Morofushi Kagemitsu was about to explain something, but he suddenly remembered that he had already firmly established himself as "Green Light" at the bar. He swallowed his words of explanation and instead gave a gentle, wicked smile: "I just did what I was supposed to do."
On this day, Kenji Hagiwara easily completed the one-hour journey from the Metropolitan Police Department back to his apartment and then to Kagemitsu Morofushi's residence in just twenty minutes.
[Author's Note]
The "things the black-hearted cat should do" are: provide the soft bread with clean clothes, let her go to the bedroom and wrap herself in a small blanket, while he sits in the living room and never lets her feel offended.
The "things I should do" that I realized in my second year of graduate school: creating a harmonious scene.
Black-hearted cat: Yes, I did it on purpose.
-
The second update will be very late, so please don't wait for me.
-
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
