Chapter 86 The Final Feast of Revelry (Part Six) Those who deceive feelings must swallow a bitter pill...
To Du Yu's disappointment, the bloodshed she had anticipated did not materialize. After getting out of the car, Director Fisher only glanced at the tense Bu Manyin with slight surprise, then turned his gaze to the depths of the mine. After pondering for a moment, he did not speak to anyone and walked forward on his own.
"this……"
Faced with her icy eyes and razor-sharp aura, none of the Gentlemen's Guild members following Hu Tiankui, despite being A-level ability users who had fought their way up in the lower city, dared to step forward and stop her.
Hu Tiankui's smile remained unchanged. He merely glanced at the few burly men cowering behind him, picked out the most presentable one, and said in a gentle voice, "Director Fisher has graced us with his presence. Why aren't you leading the way for him? Such disrespect is not the way of our Gentlemen's Club."
After Hu Tiankui finished his flowery speech, the bald men rushed after Christina as if they had been granted a pardon. This time, he turned to look at Bu Manyin, his gentle smile turning into a forced one, but it actually seemed much more genuine.
"I recall that this wasn't part of our cooperation agreement. What, does your company not trust the Gentlemen's Club's capabilities?"
"Not at all, Manager Hu, I think you understand the principle that there is strength in numbers."
The two of them chatted aimlessly at the door for ages, and finally, Bu Manyin pursed her lips slightly and said something that made Hu Tiankui raise an eyebrow:
"The Quark board of directors has also agreed to this, as the progress of the mine is too slow."
"oh?"
Hu Tiankui raised one of his broken eyebrows, his surprise seemingly genuine. Bu Manyin didn't waste any more words, turning her head to glance at her side. The pink pearl swayed by her ear, a faint light flickering in the gray mist before quickly fading away.
The person next to him immediately understood, stood next to the last car in the convoy, and knocked on the window. The thick bulletproof glass reluctantly lowered by a small section.
The man from Lan Ge gestured for Hu Tiankui to enter. Hu Tiankui glanced at Bu Manyin, who was standing there smiling, and then suspiciously stood by the car. He only glanced at her through the glass, but Du Yu saw the muscles on her face tense up instantly, one circle after another, like the irregular lines of a candle after it had melted and solidified.
Hu Tiankui quickly recovered from his shock, as if struck by lightning. He took a deep breath, his tone unreadable: "Because of her, Quark agreed?"
Bu Manyin's voice was equally ethereal, like the lingering gray mist around her: "This is Lange's sincerity."
"Oh."
Hu Tiankui gave a cold laugh that was hard to decipher, "Lan Ge is so generous, it makes us look stingy. Hu Da, you go and entertain them!"
After Hu Tiankui finished speaking, he actually planned to turn around and leave. However, when he caught a glimpse of Du Yu watching the show from the side, his eyebrows suddenly dropped: "By the way, Xiao Dong, this outstanding employee of LanGe, has helped us a lot. If Manager Bu has anything he wants to know, he can ask Xiao Dong directly."
Hu Tiankui turned and left without waiting for Bu Manyin's reaction. Du Yu, who had been watching from the sidelines, found this confrontation inexplicable.
Logically speaking, Hu Tiankui, who had benefited from the deal, looked as if he had lost his entire fortune overnight, which angered his negotiating opponent so much that he left immediately. Bu Manyin, who had the upper hand in the exchange, didn't seem to be happy at all.
It's not just a matter of lacking joy.
The last time Du Yu saw her was when he used Dong Shiwu's identity to take her on a business trip to the Furensa docks. At that time, although Bu Manyin's eyes showed guilt, unspoken frustration, and powerless shame, they were still lively.
Unlike now, Bu Manyin still wore a gentle smile on her face, but her once lustrous pink eyes, like aged pearls, were now dull and indistinguishable from the surrounding dim mist.
"Thank you for your hard work during this time."
Bu Manyin seemed to notice Dong Shiwu's scrutiny, but she didn't explain anything. The car window behind her quietly rolled up, and she gestured for her companions to follow the gentlemen's association's staff inside. She then seemed to be in high spirits and strolled into the mine with Dong Shiwu's hand in hers.
There's not much to see at a construction site to begin with, and it's even less interesting at one located in an abandoned area. As the two strolled around and chatted, they would occasionally encounter enthusiastic miners who, despite being extremely thin, would still work and even risk clashing with members of the Gentlemen's Guild.
Bu Manyin was not a talkative person to begin with. After exchanging pleasantries, she noticed her surroundings and became even quieter. The two of them walked around the mine for ten minutes without saying a word.
Bu Manyin was a woman of few words; her expression practically screamed "I have something on my mind," shrouded in an increasingly heavy silence, a single thought constantly swirling in her mind:
Bu Manyin didn't wear her usual perfume; instead of the lingering scent of red wine, her perfume had a slightly bitter aftertaste.
It wasn't that Du Yu was particularly observant; in Dong Shiwu's memory, she and Bu Manyin were from two different worlds and didn't interact much. But for some reason, Dong Shiwu had a vivid memory of the perfume Bu Manyin wore, to the point that she suffered a mental breakdown and contemplated suicide, even choosing to swallow a sample of that perfume mixed with an overdose of hallucinogens.
Du Yu accepted this body. In some fragments of past memories, he could occasionally catch glimpses of the emotions of the memory's owner, Dong Shiwu. However, in the memory of swallowing bitter perfume mixed with sticky hallucinogens, Dong Shiwu's emotions were a rare blank for a machine, a blank like that of a walking corpse.
Her obsession with perfume was so strong that even though her soul was dead, the lingering spirit within this body still swirled in her mind, constantly influencing Du Yu's thoughts. So much so that when the other person spoke again, she uncontrollably blurted out:
Why aren't you wearing perfume?
"You seem to have changed a lot?"
The two questions, uttered simultaneously, collided. Bu Manyin paused for a moment, then pinched her earlobe and said to herself, "Look at the question I asked... You've been here for so long, it must have been hard for you."
The question about "Dong Shi Wu" seemed to have made her decide something; something seemed to have changed in her dim pink eyes, and the hand gripping her earlobe tightened slightly—
"I'm not in the mood, so I won't waste the perfume."
"you……"
The warm pearl fell into my palm, rolled around a few times, leaving faint bloodstains, like a kitten lightly leaping across a snowy day, pressing down rows of plum blossom prints.
The emotions surging within her were not her own, and Du Yu was a beat slower in her movements, watching helplessly as Bu Manyin forcefully ripped off the pearl earring and placed the blood-stained pearl in her palm.
The moment the pearl landed in his palm, all his turbulent emotions subsided instantly, and Du Yu regained control of the body—even more completely.
Du Yu even had a feeling that if she wanted, she could even transform this body into her original form, and Dong Shiwu's body would belong to her completely from then on.
But at that very moment, as the last trace of her aura left this body that originally belonged to Dong Shiwu, Du Yu inexplicably felt a sense of enlightenment. Just as death can only be delayed but not reversed, this physical body was also in the process of its lower part returning to dust and its upper part drifting into the gray mist.
—Before this, this body completely belonged to her.
For Du Yu, this feeling was both comfortable and incredibly awkward, as if he had suddenly grown a third hand and gained an extra body.
"I've always believed that I was forced into this situation, but I've also done many wrong things. I don't expect forgiveness; I just want to do what I can in the end."
"Tell Nie Xiu that the task she received was incomplete and there was no need for her to do it. She should not go out until... The Gentlemen's Guild will not force them, and will even help them cover it up. The most dangerous place is the safest place."
Gongyang Niexiu, among the 17 employees sent to the dock by Lange, is the highest-ranking besides Bu Manyin. Just now, she was standing behind Bu Manyin, showing Hu Tiankui the things loaded in the car.
It's fine to pass on a message for her, but why doesn't Bu Manyin go and say it herself?
Du Yu shifted his focus from his new body and looked at Bu Manyin with suspicion in his eyes.
The other person didn't offer any explanation, but just smiled slightly. The smile wasn't relaxed, but it conveyed a sense of relief: "I still have some things to do by myself, please."
Du Yu unconsciously clutched the blood-stained pearl. Even though the inexplicable emotion within her had dissipated, she still had an inexplicable premonition. Her gaze fell on the gruesome wound near her ear, caused by the violent dragging, and her tone deepened:
"You've really changed so much..."
Bu Manyin sighed, raised her hand to touch the wound on her earlobe, stared at "Dong Shiwu" with a complicated look for a while, then suddenly laughed out loud. Without giving the other party a chance to refuse, she waved her hand and walked in one direction.
"You really haven't changed at all—there was a proverb before the Great Cataclysm: 'Those who betray sincerity will swallow ten thousand needles, and those who deceive feelings will swallow a thousand and one pearls.'"
"I quite like pearls."
The gray fog is always stifling; there is never any wind.
But perhaps it was because Bu Manyin's turning around was so resolute that her hair fell lightly with the movement, giving Du Yu a feeling of a refreshing breeze.
The pearl in his hand gleamed slightly. Du Yu lowered his head, and that inexplicable feeling vanished like the wind without a trace.
Is this Bu Manyin's ability?
She is, after all, an A-level ability user. Although we don't know what her special abilities are, if she really wants to prevent others from keeping up, she naturally has her methods.
Having done everything he could, and since his appointment with Wang Erqi was for the evening, Du Yu held the pearl in his hand for a while and decided to go and deliver a message to Gongyang Niexiu.
Dong Shiwu and Gongyang Niexiu were not familiar with each other, and Du Yu had even less to say to her. After relaying Bu Manyin's few nonsensical words, Du Yu glanced at the bewildered face opposite him and was about to leave when he suddenly felt a heat in his chest.
The pearl that had been placed inside felt like a burning star, searing the small patch of skin with a sharp pain. Du Yu pinched out the pink pearl, and the intense heat instantly cooled. The bloodstains on its surface had long since cooled, covering the surface like a scar left after a burn.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Lan Ge and his group were making similar movements. One after another, similar pink pearls lit up and then quickly dimmed. His temples throbbed, and his uneasy premonition suddenly reached its maximum.
This feeling didn't dissipate even after she was imprisoned by the shocked and angry Hu Tiankui. Instead, it remained heavy in her heart, like a rapidly expanding stubborn rock. Only when she saw Bu Manyin's body did it seem to finally find an outlet, disappearing abruptly and leaving behind a chest full of melancholy.
Yes.
Corpse.
The person who had been seen just an hour ago was now contorted in an unbelievable way, curled up in the fish tank. No one knew why there was a fish tank there, nor how she managed to squeeze herself into that small pink crystal fish tank.
In the fish tank, the corpse's black hair was squeezed out of place and swam restlessly in the water, like a school of frightened fish.
Ignoring the scrutinizing gazes of the gentlemen's group, Du Yu frowned as he examined the corpse in the fish tank. Suddenly, he took a few steps forward, his eyes fixed on Bu Manyin's slightly puffed-out lips, where a glimmer of light suddenly flashed.
Bu Manyin's corpse had a pink pearl between its half-open lips and half-swallowing mouth.
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The author says: "Those who betray sincerity will swallow ten thousand needles, and those who deceive feelings will swallow a thousand and one pearls." The first half is indeed a popular internet saying, the author couldn't find its source, but the second half is something the author made up.
No prize quiz: What is the trait of Bu, who is about to die? Hint (not a clue): It's related to pearls.
——
Sorry I'm late, I'm so sorry again. I originally wanted to write something while slacking off at work, but there were four earthquakes today, I was constantly running around at work, and I even took the wrong bus on my way home. My friends all said I looked like I was in an infinite flow game, lol... Anyway, this stupid author overestimated my energy. 2025 has started with a ton of problems, making it difficult to even maintain daily updates. Of course, I will still update as promised, but I'll choose a more relaxed approach, like before, writing a little more each day. I'm really sorry TT, I'll send you all some small red envelopes.
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