Chapter 83
Chapter 83
Three-card poker, mahjong, Fight the Landlord, dice…
Gao Weimin had played practically every game available. The chips beside him were piled high, while Yun Jianyue and the others had almost none left.
“Boring.”
After winning yet another round, Gao Weimin shoved the cards across the table and leaned back in his chair irritably. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and stuck it between his lips.
Quick on the uptake, Yun Jianyue lit it for him. “What else would you like to play, Boss? How about I find you a couple of pretty girls?”
Lin Sicheng, who had been nodding off nearby, yawned. When he checked his phone and saw that it was already five in the morning, he walked over and said wearily, “Brother Weimin, how about letting Cuihua keep you company? I can’t stay awake any longer, so I’m going to bed. That all right with you?”
“Whatever.” Gao Weimin had always treated Lin Sicheng with lukewarm indifference.
Lin Sicheng gave a foolish chuckle, patted Gao Weimin on the shoulder, and left.
Sister Hong and the others could barely think straight by now. They were all middle-aged, and after climbing to their current positions, they rarely had to pull all-nighters anymore.
Aside from Si Wuming, everyone present was yawning nonstop.
“Useless bunch.” Gao Weimin glanced at Brother Wolf and the others and delivered his merciless verdict.
Yun Jianyue hurriedly smiled obsequiously. “I’m not tired. I’ll stay and keep playing with you, Boss. It’s just that we still have work tomorrow. Why don’t we let Sister Hong and the others go get some rest first? What do you think?”
Sister Hong: !!!
Who knew Yun Cuihua could be so considerate? Suddenly, having Yun Cuihua take over as boss didn’t sound half bad.
Gao Weimin gave a noncommittal grunt. Yun Jianyue immediately gestured frantically at the others, signaling for them to make their escape.
Before long, only Yun Jianyue, Lu Changxue, Si Wuming, and Gao Weimin remained in the room: three people and one ghost.
Yun Jianyue peered into the hallway from the doorway. Once she was sure no one was around, she dropped her exaggerated smile, leaned against the door, and asked, “Comrade Gao, care to explain what’s going on with you?”
Lu Changxue was horrified. She lunged forward and clapped a hand over Yun Jianyue’s mouth. “Are you crazy? Gao Weimin has already been assimilated by the criminal organization! How can you expose our identities like that?”
Si Wuming: …
Their identities might not have been exposed before, but that sentence had certainly done the job.
“If he’d really been assimilated, he wouldn’t have specifically demanded that I replace Brother Dao. And he wouldn’t have dragged things out until now just to speak with us alone.” Yun Jianyue pulled Lu Changxue’s hand away and explained.
Lu Changxue stared at her, dumbfounded. So that was what had happened?
She turned to Si Wuming, then to Gao Weimin. Both of them looked perfectly calm.
Damn it. So she was the only naive fool here? She had genuinely believed her Darling had become the boss through her own hard work!
Sitting in his chair, Gao Weimin looked at Yun Jianyue. “Which bureau are you with?”
“The Paranormal Bureau. Ever heard of it?” Yun Jianyue casually yanked Lu Changxue’s ghost out of her body, opened the door, and tossed her into the hallway. “Keep watch. Let us know if anyone comes.”
Lu Changxue was thrown out before she even knew what was happening. She even heard her own body hit the floor with a thud.
Gao Weimin nodded. “My father mentioned it before. Your bureau is very mysterious.”
“Not nearly as mysterious as you, Comrade Gao. Everyone back home thinks you were scammed into coming here and that no one knows whether you’re dead or alive. Meanwhile, you’ve been living it up here, calling the members of a criminal organization your brothers,” Yun Jianyue retorted.
“Three months ago, I received a scam call. While the scammer was trying to deceive me, he tapped Morse code against the receiver with his finger. The message translated to: ‘I’m a retired soldier. I was tricked into coming to Dongwu. Please, whoever hears this, help me call the police.'”
“A month after I called the police for him, I received another call from the same scammers. This time, it was Brother Dao. He told me that saving the man wasn’t impossible, but I’d have to come to Dongwu in person.”
“All my life, I’ve been proud of my father and grandfather’s generations. Due to certain health issues, I couldn’t join the military or enroll in a police academy, but I still wanted to serve my country. After leaving a message for my grandfather, I came to Dongwu with several security guards he assigned to me.”
“But Dongwu was even more lawless than I’d imagined. To be precise, I was placed under constant surveillance from the moment I boarded the international flight. When I landed at Dongwu Airport, Brother Dao abducted me before my bodyguards could even meet up with me.”
“Brother Dao beat me and tried to force me into running scams for them. When I refused, he chopped off my hand. Later, the higher-ups in the organization rescued me and took me away for treatment, but my hand couldn’t be reattached. Lin Sicheng told me he had a way to give me a whole body again. He knew evil arts.”
“I knew I couldn’t escape, so I chose the body of Lin Sicheng, their strongest fighter, and pretended to cooperate with them. Their ambitions are enormous. They don’t just want Huaxia’s secrets; they’ve also been courting numerous regimes across Asia. I still don’t know exactly what they’re planning, but there’s one thing I’m certain of: whoever is behind them may not be human.”
After Gao Weimin finished speaking, his gaze settled on Si Wuming. “Mr. Si, I once saw a photograph of you with my great-grandfather. Seeing you here puts my mind at ease.”
Yun Jianyue raised an eyebrow. Hadn’t Gao Weimin’s great-grandfather been dead for decades?
Yet the Show-Off King had always insisted he was only in his twenties.
“Well, well, aren’t you impressive, Mr. Si? Taking photos with a founding general while still in your twenties?” Yun Jianyue truly had a vicious tongue, and every word dripped with sarcasm.
Si Wuming’s pupils contracted violently. Realizing that he’d been exposed, he whispered, “I’m sorry…”
Yun Jianyue was rendered speechless by his aggrieved apology.
He was the one who had been lying to her this entire time, so why was he acting like the wronged party? He was making her look like the liar!
Gao Weimin stared at Si Wuming and Yun Jianyue in astonishment, his language faculties temporarily short-circuiting.
What was going on? Mr. Si was such a formidable figure that even Gao Weimin’s grandfather had to address him with the utmost respect, yet this young woman had him completely cowed?
Could it be… that this young woman was an even bigger deal than Mr. Si?
He knew his judgment of character couldn’t be wrong! From the moment he’d laid eyes on Comrade Yun, he’d known she was destined for greatness!
“Mr. Si, we’ll settle things between us later. Let’s deal with the matter at hand first.” When Yun Jianyue got serious, she was all business. She asked Gao Weimin, “Why are you so certain there are demons and monsters hiding behind the organization’s higher-ups?”
Gao Weimin replied, “Do you remember Lin Sicheng’s eyes? Those weren’t human eyes.”
Si Wuming added, “It’s an Artificial Eye refined from the eyeballs of ten thousand dead people using a secret art. The person who created the Artificial Eye can see everything its wearer sees.”
“And that’s not all. Aside from Lin Sicheng, the other three are strange in their own ways. The Eldest Lin Brother is impervious to blades and bullets, and his body is covered in scales. The Second Lin Brother can turn invisible and travel freely through any space. The Third Lin Brother looks like a different person every day. I suspect he changes skins, or perhaps swaps bodies like I did.”
Gao Weimin continued, “They all worship the same god, one I’ve never seen before.”
Using tea, Gao Weimin sketched a rough outline of the god’s shrine on the table.
Yun Jianyue and Si Wuming fell into an uncanny silence.
Wasn’t that her Nominal Husband?