As for the third leg of lamb, it naturally belonged to Lu Pei himself.
He happily took a bite.
Yuan Que was left feeling utterly speechless and bewildered.
Everyone else felt the same way.
The underlings stared at Lu Pei in stunned silence, all wondering what sort of background this pretty little white haired man had. Ren Yao, meanwhile, kept stammering, “You… you… you…” His lips twitched for quite some time, his expression full of displeasure. However, with Lu Pei praising him so enthusiastically, he found it difficult to say anything too harsh in response.
Lu Pei seized the opportunity to start peeling the garlic butter shrimp.
He might be dead in a few days, so he absolutely had to enjoy a decent meal while he still could.
The ingredients weren’t particularly fresh and the seasoning was heavy handed. Whoever had prepared the food had handled the flavors rather crudely but Lu Pei had been eating bland food for over a month. At this point, practically anything tasted delicious to him.
He was so hungry that he ate like a domestic pig that had gotten lost in the mountains for seven days. He devoured the food enthusiastically yet the table manners ingrained in him since childhood remained intact. Even as he ate in large mouthfuls, he maintained an air of refinement, making sure not to let the sauce stain any part of his face beyond the corners of his mouth.
Compared with Yuan Que sitting opposite him, who devoured his leg of lamb in just two or three bites, Lu Pei’s eating habits could only be described as elegant.
Even the way he ate was attractive and it completely ruined Ren Yao’s appetite.
He threw his chopsticks into his plate with a sharp clack.
“Are you starving to death or something?” Ren Yao asked.
Lu Pei discarded a shrimp shell and nodded enthusiastically. “Mm hmm! I’m already halfway to becoming a ghost but Sister in law saved me. Thank you, Sister in law!”
Ren Yao: “…”
Ren Yao scrutinized him for several seconds before leaning back against his chair and asking in a tone of absolute certainty, “You came from the surface.”
There was an inherent conflict between the residents of the base layer and those of the sunlit layer. The former considered the latter a bunch of ignorant country bumpkins, while the latter viewed the former as shameless parasites who had monopolized all the advantages.
It was a question that required a cautious answer.
“I used to live on the surface,” Lu Pei admitted.
What he meant was that he was a local who had gone up there to make a living.
Yuan Que silently exposed the lie in his mind.
There’s absolutely no way he merely lived there.
From their very first meeting, Yuan Que had sensed something about Lu Pei that he found deeply unpleasant.
This man came from the surface. His body carried the traces and scent of someone who had spent years living beneath natural sunlight. Every expression, every smile, every movement he made seemed to emphasize that fact.
Ren Yao asked, “What did you do to end up here?”
“I offended someone and they drove me back.”
“Heh.” Ren Yao seemed to have encountered this sort of situation countless times before. He warned Lu Pei, “Listen carefully. The people up there can make it impossible for you to survive on the surface and there are plenty of ways for people underground to make you wish you were dead, too.”
“As long as you keep your head down and live quietly here, nobody will give you trouble.”
“But if you have any other ideas about Brother Mammoth, I’ll make sure you regret it.”
Lu Pei was speechless.
Could you please stop bringing up this kind of disgusting topic while we’re eating?
However, the man sitting in front of him was practically a ticket to an all you can eat buffet. Lu Pei chewed and swallowed the food in his mouth before answering honestly, “Sister in law, I like women.”
Ren Yao shot him a glare, pushed his tray aside and swayed away in the direction of Brother Mammoth.
The moment he got up and left, the spoiler voice sounded in Lu Pei’s mind.
【Thanks to his astonishingly sharp instincts, Lu Pei has identified the key to avoiding death and successfully evaded Ren Yao’s probing.】
【But can he truly escape the shadow of death?】
【The probability is exceedingly slim.】
Lu Pei: “?!!”
The probability is slim.. but that means there’s still a chance, doesn’t it?
So this isn’t a guaranteed death scene after all?!!
His appetite increased even further. He turned to look at Yuan Que.
“Are you still eating? I can’t finish all of this by myself.”
Yuan Que’s usually cold expression revealed a hint of internal conflict.
An oily tongued surface dweller he disliked.
Delicious, glistening food he wanted to eat.
Lu Pei took advantage of his hesitation and promptly scooped all the shrimp into Yuan Que’s tray.
The shrimp had been overcooked and were unpleasantly tough.
They tasted terrible.
That afternoon, Lu Pei continued working while pondering how he could stay alive.
He needed to gather more information about Yuan Que and Brother Mammoth, particularly the former. As someone who had appeared in the spoilers as a “killer,” Yuan Que was generally the most important person to investigate.
Although the labor reform center was technically a government institution, its actual boss was a local criminal gang. The supervisors rarely bothered enforcing discipline and once the designated working hours began, everyone simply wandered over to the mine and idled around, pretending to work.
Amid the crowd of black haired and brown haired people, Lu Pei quickly spotted a head of blue hair belonging to You Rulan.
“Do you sell mattresses and pillows?” Lu Pei asked.
You Rulan replied readily, “Of course. Pillows cost sixty coins and mattresses cost one hundred and forty.”
“That’s so expensive!”
“A little pricey but they’re very durable.”
Lu Pei immediately launched into an epic round of haggling with him, going back and forth hundreds of times.
At first, they negotiated like normal people, discussing prices and trying to reach an agreement. Eventually, however, the conversation devolved into a competition over who had the more tragic life story.
Lu Pei claimed he had an intellectually disabled older brother who couldn’t take care of himself, while You Rulan countered that he didn’t have any parents.
In the end, Lu Pei suggested that he would buy the set for his roommate as well and You Rulan finally agreed to give him a sixty percent discount.
“Your roommates are really lucky to have you,” You Rulan remarked with a sigh.
“We’re sharing a room, so it’s best to establish a good relationship first.” Lu Pei spoke with a slightly troubled expression. “However, Yuan Que seems to dislike me quite a bit. Let me make one thing clear in advance: if he refuses to use the mattress I bought him, I’m coming to you for a refund.”
You Rulan reassured him, “Yuan Que looks at everyone as though they owe him money. It’s not that he dislikes you, so don’t worry.”
Lu Pei asked, “Really?”
“He’s never even pleasant to Brother Mammoth.”
“Why? Isn’t he one of Brother Mammoth’s underlings?”
Having successfully made a sale, the unscrupulous peddler You Rulan proved to be an inexhaustible source of information. He chattered away, telling Lu Pei everything he knew about Yuan Que.
Yuan Que was a minor thug who had been making an ordinary living by following his honest adoptive father around and helping him sell goods at a street stall.
Then, one day, an influential big shot from the surface came down to conduct an inspection. After a petty dispute broke out, the big shot ordered his bodyguards to beat Yuan Que’s honest adoptive father. The bodyguards went too far and accidentally beat the man to death.
Half an hour later, Yuan Que learned what had happened. He immediately chased after the culprit and killed the big shot and all six of his bodyguards in broad daylight. He even chopped off the big shot’s head and swaggered all the way home with it in his hand.
Lu Pei was taken aback. “The Watermelon Street Incident?”
A year ago, Tong Di, a Golden Member of the Upper House, had been killed by a mob while conducting an inspection underground. His head had been chopped off in public.
The extraordinarily brutal incident had caused an enormous uproar in the political circles of the sunlit layer. The news media had portrayed Tong Di as a tragic hero, turning his death into a sensational story.
Lu Pei had heard some of the inside details. He knew that Tong Di had committed countless atrocities and had ultimately suffered retaliation for his own misdeeds. However, he had never expected to encounter the very person responsible for the incident here.
Playing dumb, Lu Pei asked, “Then why didn’t Yuan Que go to prison? Wasn’t he supposed to be sentenced?”
You Rulan lowered his voice and pointed toward the sky. “Brother Mammoth’s boss stepped in.”
Lu Pei immediately became solemn.
Someone capable of shielding the perpetrator from accountability by powerful upper level politicians after an incident of this magnitude must have been one of the most influential figures in the underground district.
“Yuan Que didn’t go to prison. Afterward, he stayed at the mine and worked to repay the favor,” You Rulan explained. “When everyone heard the news, they thought the guy had guts but his personality is too antisocial. He doesn’t know how to get along with people and is always unwilling to play along. He’s offended quite a lot of people because of it.”
“Most of them don’t like him very much.”
Almost as if to prove his point, an angry shout suddenly rang out behind them.
“Yuan Que, are you fucking deaf?!”
“Can’t you understand a single word I’m saying?!”
Both Lu Pei and You Rulan turned around at the same time.
Not far away, several men were standing in front of Yuan Que. The tattooed man leading them raised the beer bottle in his hand, lifted it high and brought it crashing down.
THUD!
The bottle smashed against Yuan Que’s head with a heavy, dull sound.
Glass fragments scattered across the ground. Bright red blood flowed from the top of his head and ran down his face yet he remained completely motionless, simply keeping his head lowered.
Blood trickled past his ear and dripped from his chin.
One drop.
Then another.
Lu Pei was startled.
That’s brutal.
The others immediately turned their eyes away. While Lu Pei was still reeling from the sight, You Rulan grabbed his arm and said, “Stop looking.”
Lu Pei asked, “Do they bully Yuan Que like this all the time?”
“Conflicts… are inevitable, aren’t they?” You Rulan replied. “They’re all Brother Mammoth’s underlings. Even when they get physical, they know their limits.”
“But… Yuan Que doesn’t even fight back?”
“I’ve never seen him do it.” You Rulan paused before adding, “He can’t even get a word in when he’s in front of Brother Mammoth. If he fights back, things might get even worse for him. That’s just my guess, though.”
Lu Pei kept an eye on the situation over there.
With blood covering his head, Yuan Que headed toward a place behind the mine. He returned carrying a crate of beer and handed it to the man who had smashed the bottle against him. Those men were busy playing cards and didn’t bother him any further, so Yuan Que made his way to the washing station on the western side of the mining area.
No wonder the spoilers had mentioned that Yuan Que disliked his superiors and was careless about his work. The workplace bullying here was clearly severe.
In that case… wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to show some concern for him and win him over?
Lu Pei followed Yuan Que.
At the washing station, Yuan Que was washing his face. The dark red blood spread through the clear water, gradually becoming lighter and thinner.
A considerable amount of blood had also gotten into his bangs, so he rinsed those as well.
Lu Pei stood beside him and waited.
Once Yuan Que had washed away the blood, he lifted his face. His long, wet black hair clung to his skin and his cold, dark eyes peered at Lu Pei from between the strands.
Without saying a word, Lu Pei offered him a handkerchief he carried with him, along with a small tube of portable medicinal ointment.
“Apply this. It’ll help you recover quickly.”
He unscrewed the cap of the ointment and rubbed a little onto his own skin to demonstrate its effects.
However, even this deliberate gesture of testing the medicine on himself failed to earn the other man’s trust.
Yuan Que accepted neither the handkerchief nor the ointment.
He merely stared at Lu Pei for a moment before turning off the tap and wiping the water from his face with one hand.
“Keep it for yourself,” he said coldly. “Surface dweller.”
This is bad.
When it came to the legendary man slaying king, Yuan Que, the hostility between people from the surface and those underground was apparently far more serious than the conflicts in his workplace. Even after sharing a meal with him at noon, Yuan Que remained just as resistant to him as before.
Still, Lu Pei could understand it. Yuan Que’s adoptive father had been killed by an influential surface dweller. That was no ordinary grudge. It was a blood feud of the highest order.
Lu Pei sighed.
As soon as work ended, You Rulan hurriedly carried several large woven plastic sacks into Lu Pei’s dormitory, delivering the four new mattresses he had ordered.
The moment Lu Pei saw the matching bedding, he understood what was going on. These supplies were probably purchased centrally by the labor reform center. Through his connections with Brother Mammoth, You Rulan had managed to withhold most of the bedding that should have been distributed free of charge to ordinary inmates, then sold it to them separately.
Using public funds to line his own pockets. His greed was truly something else.
“Ruby bought mattresses for all of you,” You Rulan announced cheerfully to Lu Pei’s roommates. “Since he’s being so generous, I can’t afford to be stingy either. I’ll throw in new sheets and duvet covers for you as well.”
Old Wu exclaimed, “Holy shit! There’s really such a good thing?!”
Anthony declared, “Young Master Ruby! You’re so generous!”
The two roommates thanked Lu Pei profusely. They quickly cleared some space and helped arrange the mattresses and spread out the new bedding.
Neither of them was particularly calculating or suspicious by nature. Once they had accepted Lu Pei’s gifts, they immediately treated him as one of their own. As soon as they started talking, they told him practically everything.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lu Pei asked about Yuan Que. The information they shared was more or less the same as what You Rulan had told him.
“That guy once killed a politician from the surface. It caused a huge sensation back then.”
“Now he specializes in doing Brother Mammoth’s dirty work.”
“He comes back to the dormitory really late every night. He’s probably going out to handle some jobs.”
“He doesn’t like talking, so nobody really knows him.”
“I see,” Lu Pei said.
Night fell.
The lights went out at eleven o’clock. By midnight, his two roommates had taken turns starting up their thunderous snores yet even at one in the morning, Lu Pei, now equipped with a soft mattress and a brand new bedding set, still couldn’t fall asleep.
He was going to be killed in a few days. How could anyone possibly sleep under those circumstances?
The so called plot points were simply an unreasonable torrent of fate. No matter how cautiously he lived, he could still end up being killed by Yuan Que through some other inexplicable chain of events.
Lu Pei reached into his pocket and touched the button he carried there. It was something his older brother, Lu Xun, had deliberately left for him before going to prison. It was a classified item currently under development by the military.
Disguised as an ordinary button, it was actually an enhancement injection. Once administered, it could rapidly increase the user’s physical capabilities for a short period, much like the spinach that gave Popeye his incredible strength.
“You’d better never have to use it,” Lu Xun had told him at the time.
His older brother really had a talent for making ominous predictions. His words had come true all too accurately.
If the inevitable death scene truly couldn’t be avoided and Yuan Que couldn’t be won over, then Lu Pei would have no choice but to inject himself with the enhancement serum and fight Yuan Que head on.
Lu Pei lay there imagining various scenarios in which he and Yuan Que fought each other. Afterward, he went to the second floor window and stood there, letting the night breeze blow over him for quite some time.
He had no idea how much time had passed when he faintly heard the sounds of an argument coming from downstairs.
Following the direction of the noise, he made his way to the far eastern end of the building, toward the end of the second floor corridor.
Beneath a streetlamp, a group of tattooed men had surrounded a young man.
“Spit!” The tattooed man spat on the ground. “You little bastard, you really don’t know how to appreciate a good thing when it’s offered to you.”
They were definitely going to fight!
Lu Pei immediately crouched down.
He secretly peered over the railing, keeping most of his body hidden and exposing only his eyes as he looked down. The streetlamp provided plenty of light, allowing him to quickly recognize the people below.
The tattooed man who had smashed a beer bottle against Yuan Que that afternoon, his underlings and Yuan Que himself, who was now surrounded by them.
…Was it really them again?
It seemed their conflict ran exceptionally deep.
Yuan Que said, “I’ve already finished the work you assigned me.”
“You still fucking dare to talk back?” the tattooed man barked. “Why the hell do you walk around with that stinking face every single day? Who are you trying to show it to?!”
One of his underlings grinned as he produced a switchblade.
“Boss, let me carve a smile onto his face.”
“If you do that,” Yuan Que replied calmly, “I’ll fight back.”
“Oh?” The tattooed man sneered. “You think you’re capable of anything?”
The remaining six or seven men held crowbars or knives in their hands, their malicious gazes fixed on Yuan Que.
So the men had actually shown restraint during the day.
Lu Pei’s first instinct was to sneak off and report the incident to a supervisor, just in case something really happened to Yuan Que.
But he quickly came to his senses.
No, wait. This guy was his enemy.
If Yuan Que got injured by these men, his own chances of escaping the predetermined death scene would increase.
He might as well sit back and watch.
“Beat him up!” the tattooed man ordered.
Six or seven men immediately swarmed forward. Crowbars and fists rained down on Yuan Que, each blow landing solidly against his body with dull, heavy thuds.
After unleashing a savage beating on him as though venting all their anger, they finally subdued Yuan Que. They pinned down his shoulders and arms, forcing him to kneel on the ground.
The tattooed man took the switchblade from one of his underlings and waved it beside Yuan Que’s face.
“Ah Fu said he wanted to carve a smile onto your face. I don’t think that’s enough,” the tattooed man said with a grin. “How about I give you a new eye as well?”
He suddenly raised his hand and thrust the tip of the blade directly toward Yuan Que’s eyeball.
Lu Pei was so startled that he jumped to his feet!
At that very moment, a sudden change occurred below.
Despite being restrained by several men, Yuan Que wrenched one arm free and turned his head, narrowly evading the blade.
His movements were unbelievably fast.
“How the hell did he break free?!”
“What the fuck were you doing while you were supposed to be holding him down?!”
“That guy’s so damn strong…”
The men who had been restraining Yuan Que immediately began blaming one another but before they could continue arguing, all of them were rendered speechless.
Yuan Que swung his fist backward and punched the man on his left. The man’s back and the back of his head slammed into the wall with a loud BANG and he immediately passed out.
The man on Yuan Que’s right had his arm snapped with a single hand. A crisp crack echoed through the air as the bone broke, followed by an agonized scream of “AHHH!!”
The next man had his head stomped on. His nasal bridge broke and he didn’t even have time to let out a proper scream.
…
Everything happened far too quickly. In less than five seconds, Yuan Que had taken down three men. His figure flickered like a phantom, moving so fast that Lu Pei’s eyes couldn’t keep up with his movements at all.
By the time Lu Pei managed to make sense of what was happening, all he could see was Yuan Que driving his fist straight into the tattooed man’s abdomen.
“UWAH!”
The tattooed man immediately vomited a large mouthful of blood before collapsing to the ground, unable to remain standing.
Lu Pei stood rooted to the spot, his eyes wide with utter astonishment.
Yuan Que loosened his five fingers, flexing his hand slightly. Then, in the direction of the second floor windowsill, he slowly raised his head and directed his gaze toward the spot where Lu Pei was standing.
Perhaps it was because of the lighting and the angle but when Yuan Que first lifted his face, the black of his eyes seemed to occupy three quarters of each eyeball, resembling a dense mass of dark, icy mist.
However, when his face tilted into the overhead light, his pitch black pupils gradually contracted and grew lighter, narrowing until only a thin slit remained.
Lu Pei’s reflection was captured within that narrow slit.
…
A few seconds later, Lu Pei shuddered.
He abruptly turned around, took off running and fled as fast as his legs could carry him!
The idea of injecting himself with the enhancement serum and fighting Yuan Que head on if all else failed was immediately wiped clean from his mind.
“He’s practically a fucking ghost!”
Lu Pei cursed furiously as he ran.
“How the hell am I supposed to fight someone like that?! Just go ahead and issue me a death certificate already!!”
_______________
Author’s Note:
Ruby: 666, this guy is a total cinnamon roll [hug] (It’s a chokehold, not a hug.)