Chapter 53
Chapter 53
The smile at the corners of Huang Jinsheng’s mouth stiffened. He stared at the bead with an unreadable expression and scoffed, “It’s just a lousy bead. If you like it…”
The little girl’s smile vanished. There was no childish innocence in those black eyes, only an incongruous calm.
He didn’t look at Huang Jinsheng, but kept gazing at the bead.
There was no way to tell from the child’s appearance whether there was any emotion at all. The girl was as empty as a puppet.
Yet Huang Jinsheng immediately shut his mouth, not daring to say another word about the bead.
He hid it well on the surface, smiling with fatherly affection. “Take it if you like it.”
The Tianding Society’s Incense Master was puzzled. Since when did Huang Jinsheng have a daughter?
Didn’t Huang Jinsheng like men? Who was this girl?
But Huang Jinsheng’s nervousness after the child came in didn’t seem feigned.
And the bodyguards behind Huang Jinsheng couldn’t hide their surprise. That made him all the more certain that the little girl and Huang Jinsheng had a significant connection. At the very least, they knew each other.
The Longhu Society’s Incense Master was curious too, but he was observant and hadn’t missed Huang Jinsheng’s faint unease.
After looking him up and down several times, he curled his lip. “Huang Jinsheng, you really don’t take us seriously, do you?”
“Bringing a child to a meeting this important? Do you think we won’t lay a hand on you?”
The Tianding Society’s Incense Master followed up, playing the peacemaker. “There’s a child here. Let’s not start killing one another.”
“Huang Jinsheng, I don’t know what this child is to you, but you seem to care about the little one quite a bit.”
Then, deliberately putting on a deceptively friendly smile, he coaxed in a soft voice, “Come here, little girl. Come to Uncle.”
“Uncle will show you something fun.”
The little girl didn’t react. Instead, the child tipped back his head and swallowed the bead in front of everyone from the gangs.
“Hey!” the Tianding Society’s Incense Master called in warning. “You can’t eat that! Come to Uncle. Let me see whether you’ve swallowed it.”
The Longhu Society’s Incense Master spoke with ill intent. “What are you panicking for?”
“It’s not your child. Huang Jinsheng isn’t worried, so why should you be?”
“I think there’s something wrong with that kid’s intelligence.”
The Longhu Society’s Incense Master held out his hand to a subordinate, who immediately placed a gun in his boss’s palm.
“There’s already a round in the chamber.” The Longhu Society’s Incense Master pointed the gun at Huang Jinsheng.
Seeing Huang Jinsheng’s anxious expression, as though he wanted to speak but hesitated, the Longhu Society’s Incense Master laughed. “Ha! You’re finally scared.”
“That’s better. Fear suits you. My guess is… you’re so confident because you think we’re wary of Zhao Xiuming behind you.”
“You think we wouldn’t dare kill you now, for fear of Zhao Xiuming holding a grudge.”
“But sparing you won’t do us any good either. You’ve already fallen out with Zhao Xiuming. Doesn’t that mean we can strike first?”
Huang Jinsheng coughed, covering his mouth with his handkerchief. He still refused to back down. “Go ahead, strike first. Come on, shoot me here.”
He pointed at his forehead and taunted, “Well? Too scared? You’re trying to test me? Forget it. Even when I tell you to try, you don’t dare! Hahahaha!”
The test had indeed yielded nothing. The Longhu Society’s Incense Master wasn’t angry. Instead, he aimed the gun at the little girl, who appeared unaware of everything. “What about this little girl, then?”
“Surely you care about your own daughter?”
“I don’t know whether to call you arrogant or say you’ve overlooked one crucial detail.”
Huang Jinsheng stopped laughing. Holding the handkerchief to the corner of his mouth, he stared in shock at the Longhu Society’s Incense Master. “What did you say? My daughter…”
“What are you going to do to him?”
The Longhu Society’s Incense Master approached the girl. Huang Jinsheng’s bodyguards tried to stop him, but couldn’t stand against the gangs’ superior numbers.
He reached the little girl’s side and lowered his hand, pointing the gun at the top of the child’s head.
None of the gang members present thought much of the little girl. Even when they noticed the child neither cried nor made a fuss, remaining calm and empty-faced with a gun pointed at him, they dismissed it.
They still saw nothing wrong. They merely thought the child really might have some condition, autism or something like that. Otherwise, why would the kid act like a piece of wood and put a bead in his mouth?
The players watching the tea room couldn’t make sense of it. Their male captain, Number One, sensed something wrong. “Their dispute shouldn’t be serious enough to draw a gun, let alone threaten a child…”
Number Two, a female player, laid out the information. “The two gang bosses want Huang Jinsheng to explain why Zhao Xiuming did this. They want to know whether Huang Jinsheng deliberately brought it about, what he’s plotting.”
“But Huang Jinsheng won’t come clean. He won’t admit anything.”
“The gangs don’t have definite evidence. They wanted to resolve the crisis through talks, and now the talks have broken down.”
Something still felt wrong. Number Three spoke from Huang Jinsheng’s perspective. “If I were Huang Jinsheng, and I’d fallen out with Zhao Xiuming, who’d been helping me, why would I drag the two gangs into it?”
“As the Longhu Society’s Incense Master said, if the gangs came after me and Zhao Xiuming came after me too, wouldn’t I be deliberately making more enemies for myself?”
Number One frowned. “Zhao Xiuming has acted twice. The first time, he intervened in a gang conflict, helping a Tianding Society member kill a minor Longhu Society leader.”
“The second time, he discovered we weren’t merchandise for human trafficking, but masters brought in to deal with him, so he killed Liu Wenhe.”
It still didn’t fit. After considering it, Number One spoke again. “Huang Jinsheng probably ordered Zhao Xiuming’s abduction so he could have someone else carry out a killing to keep the truth from getting out. He didn’t want the gangs to learn through Liu Wenhe that he and Zhao Xiuming were at odds.”
“He didn’t expect Zhao Xiuming to find out the truth. But judging from Huang Jinsheng’s behavior, it seems he hasn’t completely broken with Zhao Xiuming yet.”
Beside him, Number Four muttered, “Then why did Zhao Xiuming take Dahu away? If they haven’t fallen out, why take away Huang Jinsheng’s enemy?”
The players were at their wits’ end, unable to untangle the information they had just collected.
Number One concluded, “We can’t rule out Huang Jinsheng trying to stir up conflict between the gangs for his own benefit.”
“The three of them control Zimu City. Their interests clash.”
“If something goes wrong between Huang Jinsheng and Zhao Xiuming, the other two will certainly seize the chance to make trouble.”
Number One leaned toward the view that Zhao Xiuming had learned about “Huang Jinsheng looking for masters” by accident. After all, these “masters” were players, outsiders.
Had Grotesque Game not placed them here, perhaps Zhao Xiuming wouldn’t have come to pick them up himself. Had the players failed to take their NPC roles seriously and let something slip?
At last, Number One gave his orders. “We don’t know what Huang Jinsheng is thinking. Maybe he wants to provoke internal strife between the two gangs. Or maybe, just as their bosses fear, he’s begun moving against them for profit.”
“So we’ll focus on the outcome. At present, Zhao Xiuming is the most likely instance boss.”
“Next, we need to… establish whether Zhao Xiuming is the target we’re looking for.”
That made their next steps much simpler: test Zhao Xiuming.
They could attack Zhao Xiuming directly, or assassinate Huang Jinsheng and watch Zhao Xiuming’s reaction.