Chapter 55: The Ebony Murder Case

After sending off the little villain, Xie De felt like he had finished a third of his holiday homework a week before school started. The heavy mountain pressing on his heart had shifted slightly, but it still weighed him down, leaving him feeling no sense of relief.

The pursuit from the laboratory, the confusion of being homeless, the pain of his physical injuries, and the urgency to complete the instance task.

With all these things piling up, an unavoidable irritability crept over Xie De's heart. He reached out and used the car's cigarette lighter to light a cigarette. The scent of cedar spread upward, but just as he was about to put it in his mouth, Huang Zhuowang snatched the cigarette away and snuffed it out.

The audacity!

"Brother, you're injured. Even if I'm not a doctor, I know you shouldn't smoke when you're hurt."

Xie De looked at him coldly.

"Give it back."

This glare was extremely lethal. It seemed he was really angry.

Huang Zhuowang quickly revealed a bright, somewhat fawning smile.

"Oh, come on, brother, have a heart. Don't take your body for granted. It's easy to leave behind lingering ailments like this. Hey, I'm driving, so whatever you do, don't get physical! If my hand slips, we'll both be done for. Just take pity on me, okay?"

"Hmph."

Xie De gave a cold snort, his already irritated heart feeling even more annoyed. Deciding that out of sight is out of mind, he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes, trying to recover some more stamina and sanity.

It looked as though Xie De didn't intend to fuss over such a trivial matter.

He was actually quite well-behaved.

Huang Zhuowang sneaked a peek at him, then looked at the location on the map. They were currently heading to the airport. Unable to contain his curiosity, Huang Zhuowang blurted out a question.

"What are we going to the airport for?"

"To go on a mission," Xie De didn't open his eyes, answering him casually.

The car, which had been going very fast, suddenly slowed down. Huang Zhuowang said in disbelief.

"Boss, do you really not care about your own body? I mean, isn't there anyone else in the organization? You just finished a mission and haven't even recovered from your injuries, and you're already planning to do the next one? Why are you pushing yourself so hard?"

Xie De opened his eyes and thought helplessly, Gibberish had really completely fooled this big guy. What organization? What other people?

The reason he was rushing non-stop to complete missions was simply that he lacked money. Losing his home had made his already somewhat impoverished financial situation even worse.

Thinking about how he had a home he couldn't return to. Having worked half his life, only to end up with nothing overnight.

When a person is speechless to the extreme, they really will just laugh.

"Mind your own business." Xie De closed his eyes again. It was obvious he didn't want to talk much about the mission.

"After I get out, park my car at the location given by the system."

"It's not that I..."

"Huang Zhuowang," Xie De said absentmindedly, "Not everyone is as lucky as you."

As soon as the words fell, Huang Zhuowang paused. Xie De leaned against the car door with his eyes closed. His long eyelashes drooped, dissipating much of his cold hardness. The hands gripping the steering wheel tightened, and it was as if his entire slacker demeanor had suddenly been reined in. He spoke quietly.

"...Sorry."

Xie De found it baffling, but Huang Zhuowang finally quieted down, so he didn't want to bother with it either. Besides, what he said wasn't wrong.

Huang Zhuowang was indeed very lucky. He could be considered a second-generation rich kid, able to study abroad. His family could support him in opening an internet cafe, he had his own detached villa, he was somewhat handsome himself, and he was even a genius in the computer science department.

With this life experience and these "stats," if he were placed in a "Domineering CEO Falls in Love with Me" story, he could easily be the second male lead, or at the very least, a background character at the CEO's banquet.

Xie De had seen Huang Zhuowang's profile from Gibberish. At the time, he had even complained: with so many rich second-generation kids in the world, why couldn't he be one of them?

When they arrived at the airport, Huang Zhuowang looked at 39's back and suddenly spoke up.

"I want to help you."

But this time, Xie De didn't look back, nor did he speak. His slender figure was stretched by the sunlight.

Therefore, Huang Zhuowang could only watch helplessly as he walked through the airport gates and into the shadows where the light couldn't reach, looking as though he was bent on having his own way, unable to turn back.

Of course, Xie De simply thought that this rich second-generation kid's chuunibyou was acting up again.

............

Nighttime, H City.

The lights were dazzling, and the traffic flowed endlessly.

Inside the inner hall of a luxurious hotel, a banquet highly sought after by the upper class was being held.

A potbellied man, with a beautiful female companion on his arm, was talking loudly and confidently to another bald man.

The ladies spoke softly, elegant and noble.

Boss Li was happily chatting about business with others. Planning to go get another glass of wine, he turned around and almost bumped into a tall man.

"Hey, watch where you're walk..."

Before the words could leave his mouth, they were swallowed back down his throat. Boss Li looked into the other party's dark green eyes. Countless thoughts raced through his mind, and he finally changed his tone.

"Are you alright?"

The man shook his head and brushed past him coldly.

Boss Li frowned, searching through his memory. He didn't remember inviting this guy to the banquet. Could he be a toy boy kept by some wealthy woman? Heh, maybe not kept by a wealthy woman, but by one of those people with special fetishes.

After all, he knew of quite a few such occurrences.

As he was thinking, a bug suddenly flew into his mouth and shot straight down into his stomach. Boss Li clutched his throat, wanting to cough, but severe pain erupted in his body. His vision went black, he foamed at the mouth, and with a thud, his body crashed to the floor.

Then, fading into the distance, the last sound heard was the screams of the female guests.

"Someone's dead!!"

Xie De pulled down his baseball cap to hide his face and walked faster and faster.

"Thrilling. This is my first time killing someone like this."

"Get used to it early. I have a feeling there will be plenty of this in the future. Besides, there wasn't any difficulty at all. What's so thrilling about it?" Gibberish said listlessly.

"Otherwise, what kind of difficulty did you want?" Xie De was speechless. "Humans are naturally fragile individuals made of flesh and blood. Regardless of my methods, the mission is complete anyway."

Walking to a secluded spot, Xie De rolled up his sleeve. A small house centipede crawled out from his clothes, waving its two antennae as if claiming credit.

Make no mistake, he didn't use a gun this time. They chose a relatively simple method: poison. The little house centipede was the key to this operation.

Relying on its insect army, the little house centipede found some aconitine. Aconitine is highly toxic. Just 3 to 5 milligrams can cause severe cardiac arrhythmias in humans, ultimately leading to death. Xie De only needed to coat a small flying bug with this alkaloid, and then he could sit back and wait for the little bug to fearlessly fly straight into the boss's mouth on its own accord.

This plan was indeed very simple. The only difficult part was that the little house centipede couldn't be controlled remotely, he needed to be a bit closer to the boss.

Fortunately, this banquet was the perfect opportunity.

A murder plan like this... probably no one could trace it, right?

Xie De was already feeling guilty. When he looked up, a pair of large eyes was staring straight at him, nearly giving him a heart attack from the scare.

Hu Songlin curled his lips into a smile and tilted his head.

"I saw the whole process, Mr. 39."

!

No, calm down.

So what if this guy saw it? He's a person from the Inner World anyway, it's not like he can go to the police.

Xie De kept a straight face.

"...Why are you here?"

"Because I was looking for you."

"And so, I found you.”