Several days later.
Shenhai City.
The pounding beat was deafening. Moving lights swept back and forth across the dance floor, and the intoxicated crowd screamed along with the DJ.
Ace of Spades champagne spilled down the tiers of a champagne tower like a fountain, glittering with the glow of obscene luxury. Clusters of bottle-service girls burst into screams and applause, nearly blowing the roof off the entire nightclub.
“You’re amazing!”
“Brother Zhao, you’re a fucking legend!”
...
With a heavy thunk, Zhao Jun slammed the empty bottle down and hooked an arm around the clean-cut host boy beside him. He crossed his legs and laughed.
“I heard that ever since that Shen guy came to Shenhai from B City, he’s got every evolutionist here locked up like birds in a cage. Is it really that pathetic?”
A group of sharply dressed rich-kid hangers-on crowded around the booth. One of them gave a bitter laugh.
“Look, Brother Zhao, your family’s in B City, so of course you can do whatever you want there. But in Shenhai, you’d better be careful. You haven’t seen what Shen Zhuo can do...”
The others all nodded with lingering fear.
Zhao Jun clicked his tongue. “You people have no spine. Shen wasn’t nearly this arrogant back in B City. How did he come to Shenhai and get all of you under control?”
They looked at one another.
The one who had spoken earlier grew curious. “Brother Zhao, you know his background?”
They really were all drunk. Under normal circumstances, this crowd would never have dared gossip about Shen Zhuo behind his back.
Zhao Jun roared with laughter and waved a hand. “What’s there not to know? Shen came from academia. In the old days, he was a director at the Central Research Institute, specializing in human experiments on evolutionists. There wasn’t an evolutionist alive who didn’t hate him. If Fu Chen hadn’t protected him, he would’ve been killed ten thousand times over...”
“Fu Chen?” someone reacted blearily. “Wasn’t he the head of the Central Supervision Office back then? Why would he protect Shen?”
Zhao Jun let out a snort of laughter. His eyes were openly mocking, crude and suggestive. He leaned forward and lowered his voice.
“Why do you think?”
Everyone in the booth knew exactly how to play. They fell silent for two seconds, then burst into knowing laughter one after another.
The little host boy in Zhao Jun’s arms shifted uneasily. He lifted one hand to prop up his chin, trying to cover the earring-shaped monitoring mic as if by accident, but another hostess secretly pressed his hand down.
Under cover of pouring drinks, the two exchanged a glance.
Both of their faces had gone visibly pale.
“Brother Zhao.” The girl was clearly the sharper of the two. She forced out a seductive smile. “Why talk about something so boring? Come on, help me roll the dice...”
“Wait,” someone on the other side of the booth leaned in curiously. “Didn’t Fu Chen die a long time ago? I vaguely heard Shen Zhuo killed him himself.”
The “hostess” jerked, nearly snapping off one of her manicured nails.
Zhao Jun sat with one leg crossed over the other, swirling his whiskey glass. “Come on. You really think Shen is normal? He hates evolutionists. He’s a psycho who likes training people into dogs. Anyone he can’t train, he finds a way to put down. Once that happens, you can crawl on your knees and lick his boots, and it still won’t save you.”
He started laughing himself as he spoke.
“I just don’t get it—what the hell does Shen look like, to make Fu Chen hang himself alive on that poisonous tree?”
The booth erupted in laughter.
Shen Zhuo kept an extremely low profile and rarely appeared in public. No one present had seen him in person, but there were rumors in upper-class circles about that beautiful face of his. After the stories passed from mouth to mouth enough times, everyone was half convinced and half skeptical.
“Maybe Shen is really good in bed?”
“Obviously!”
“Who knows what happens behind closed doors? Hahaha...”
The host boy’s face was white as paper. Looking closely, even his pupils were trembling. One hand clamped hard over the earring, but it was useless.
The filth pouring from their mouths was coming through the monitoring mic perfectly clear, all the way to a command vehicle parked in the corner of a lot not far outside the nightclub.
Shen Zhuo sat in front of the receiver. The glow from the screen reflected against the hard, cold line of his profile. No anger showed on his face. No emotion at all.
Every team member inside the vehicle held their breath, each of them wishing desperately to become invisible.
“Considering his age back then, how do you think he climbed to the position of top director at the Central Research Institute? Who’d believe there wasn’t something dirty going on...”
Shen Zhuo finally pressed down on the mic. His voice was calm, clear, and utterly without fluctuation, as if the person currently being dragged through a group of men’s fantasies in the nightclub were not him.
“Stop the meaningless discussion. Shift the topic to the evolution source transaction.”
Inside the nightclub booth, the host boy swallowed with difficulty.
Zhao Jun was completely unaware. He still had one leg crossed over the other. “It was exactly because Fu Chen died that everyone at the Central Supervision Office wanted to kill Shen Zhuo to vent their anger. He got demoted and kicked out of the research institute...”
“Ah!”
With a startled cry, the boy fumbled and knocked over a glass. Champagne splashed across Zhao Jun’s clothes.
“Brother Zhao, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’ll wipe it off right now!”
Zhao Jun’s tastes were apparently specific. He had more patience for pretty young bar hosts. Not only was he not angry, he laughed and reached for the boy’s hand.
Just then, the “hostess” leaned over in perfect coordination. Quick-eyed and quick-handed, she hooked something out from Zhao Jun’s collar.
“Hm? Brother Zhao, what’s this?”
Zhao Jun wore a leather cord around his neck, from which hung a metal case shaped like a pocket watch. But when it opened, there was no watch inside.
There was a stone the size of a bottle cap, glowing with a faint, eerie blue light.
Zhao Jun’s expression changed instantly. He snatched the stone back and shoved the hostess away with one hand.
“What are you touching? Get out!”
With a crash, the hostess fell to the floor, frightened on the spot until all color drained from her face. Several people around them stood up, all of their expressions changing.
“What are you doing?”
“Drag her out!”
“Who trained the staff here? Do you people know any rules?!”
Someone hurried to placate him. “It’s fine, Brother Zhao. The genes that can evolve are one in ten thousand. Even if she touched the stone, nothing would happen...”
The nightclub was loud and chaotic. Amid the uproar, the hostess took the chance to stare hard at the stone, but in the next second Zhao Jun stuffed it back under his collar and it disappeared from sight.
At the same time, the image was transmitted through her transparent contact lens onto the surveillance screen inside the command vehicle.
With a sharp click, Shen Zhuo hit pause and stared at the glowing blue stone on the screen.
“Can we identify whether it’s a real evolution source?” After a long moment, he frowned and asked Chen Miao.
Chen Miao leaned closer and studied the screen carefully. After a while, he shook his head with difficulty.
“Senior, you specialized in this. If even you can’t tell, then I’m even less...”
Privately possessing an evolution source was a serious crime, but because of the enormous profits on the black market, counterfeit evolution sources had already become an emerging industry chain.
In the early years, counterfeiters used cheap fluorescent iron ore. A real evolutionist could recognize it as knockoff trash at a glance. But later, as the technology advanced to radioactive materials and purified biological carbon sources, even a top expert like Shen Zhuo could no longer distinguish real from fake with the naked eye.
“The Zhao family has power, influence, and money. I’m inclined to think he wouldn’t use a fake evolution source to make a profit. But it would be best to bring it back to the Supervision Office and run it through the equipment.” Chen Miao’s brow locked tight. “The problem is, we still haven’t identified his buyer. It would be safer to wait until Zhao Jun meets the buyer, then take them all at once.”
Unexpectedly, noisy voices from the booth came through the monitoring mic at that moment.
They sounded like people trying to stop someone.
“Brother Zhao, don’t leave!”
“It’s not even ten yet!”
But Zhao Jun’s mood was clearly already ruined. “I have business with someone. I’m leaving. You all keep playing.”
“Why is he leaving? The intel said Zhao Jun’s transaction with the buyer was scheduled for eleven!” Chen Miao looked down at his watch and immediately grew anxious. “No good. The surveillance team responsible for tailing him isn’t in position yet!”
No one had expected Zhao Jun to leave early just because his mood had been spoiled. The change came too suddenly. Everyone in the command vehicle tensed.
Shen Zhuo ordered in a low voice, “Contact the surveillance team. The plan has changed. Arrange personnel to prepare for immediate tailing.”
Then he pressed the headset connected to the field team.
“1002, find a way to keep the target on-site or move with him. Now.”
The “host boy” with the operation number 1002 was a fresh graduate who had only just entered the Supervision Office. Being dressed up as a rent boy already made him want to cry, but what scared him even more than playing one was Supervisor Shen.
He could only force down his discomfort, put on the delicate act of a helpless little white flower, and pitifully reach out to tug Zhao Jun’s clothes.
“Brother Zhao, why are you leaving already? Stay with me a little longer. Tonight, I won’t take anyone but you...”
Under normal circumstances, Zhao Jun would not have been able to resist such a soft, pretty young boy. But right now, his interest was gone. All he could think about was the coming transaction. He waved the boy off perfunctorily.
“Next time. I’ll come find you next time. Be good.”
There won’t be a next time! If I don’t stop you today, tomorrow Supervisor Shen will really castrate me and send me here as a rent boy!
The boy lunged forward and grabbed Zhao Jun’s thigh. Even his teeth were chattering.
“Brother Zhao, Brother Zhao, don’t go! Take me with you! I don’t want to let you go!”
Laughter rose around them—“This kid is so clingy”—mixed with voices taking the chance to urge Zhao Jun to stay.
Zhao Jun glanced at his watch. There was still more than an hour before the agreed transaction time.
But at this point, that little incident really had ruined his appetite. He waved, bored and uninterested.
“Be good. I have real business tonight. I’ll take you out tomorrow night, all right?”
Zhao Jun lifted his foot and headed out.
The boy was practically frantic. “Take me with you, Brother Zhao! I don’t want anything, I just want to follow you! Don’t go! Don’t go!”
“Oh, why are you clinging like this?” Zhao Jun grew impatient too and kicked him away. “Let go!”
At the same time, inside the command vehicle.
“No good, Team Leader. There isn’t enough time!” A Supervision Office team member looked up anxiously with a phone in hand. “The local police are preparing to send reinforcements, but it’ll still take half an hour before they’re in position!”
Chen Miao almost blurted out a curse, then forced it back down.
“Senior, what do we do now—Senior?!”
Shen Zhuo had already removed the command headset with one hand and quickly shrugged off his suit jacket.
Underneath, he wore a white shirt. Its cut outlined his straight shoulders and back, narrowing at his lean waist where it tucked into black suit pants.
“All personnel remain on standby. Tech team, prepare to track my location.”
Everyone in the vehicle: “?”
Shen Zhuo rose, pulled open the vehicle door, tugged his tie loose with one hand, and strode toward the nightclub roaring with people in the distance.
Behind him, every team member stared, dumbstruck.
“Su-Supervisor!”
The nightclub door opened. A blast of sound slammed into him, nearly swallowing him whole in an instant.
Men and women danced wildly, young faces flashing under colored lights with a dazed, intoxicated sheen. Shen Zhuo’s face was as still as deep water. He crossed the dance floor in long strides. Passing an abandoned table, he casually picked up a whiskey bottle with a little left in the bottom, tipped his head back, took a hard swallow straight from the bottle, and poured the rest all over himself.
Strong liquor ran down his open collar and soaked through his white dress shirt, plastering it against his chest, waist, and back, even tracing the thin lines of his abdominal muscles.
“Handsome, want to make friends?”
“Handsome, want a drink?”
The carnival atmosphere surged at him from every direction. Shen Zhuo pushed aside a few drunken young people, slipped into a corridor, and directly ahead of him Zhao Jun was walking out with a dark expression, preparing to leave.
Bang!
The two collided head-on. Zhao Jun stumbled, caught off guard, and his already foul mood turned worse.
“Do you have eyes or not? You—”
Shen Zhuo did not even lift his head. He seemed so drunk he was swaying. In his haste, he grabbed Zhao Jun’s hand before he barely managed to steady himself.
Half of Shen Zhuo’s upper body was wet. His lowered lashes cast a long, fine shadow. The nightclub’s chaotic lights fell across the side of his face, and in that instant, there was a tension to him so startling it crashed straight into Zhao Jun’s vision without warning.
Zhao Jun felt his heart stop for half a beat.
But it lasted only the blink of an eye.
Shen Zhuo released his hand without the slightest reluctance and stumbled past him.
Zhao Jun could not help turning after him. “Are you...”
Just then, the “host boy” chased over, throwing himself into it as if his life depended on it. He had not even managed to call out “Brother Zhao” before he saw the scene head-on and was struck as if by lightning.
“Sup—”
The brave and resourceful “hostess” pounced on him like she had a death wish, clamping a hand over the boy’s mouth with so much force she nearly strangled her idiot colleague unconscious on the spot.
Zhao Jun’s eyes had gone straight.
He could not see anyone else. He could not hear anything else.
He could only watch as Shen Zhuo pushed open the restroom door. Perhaps because he was dizzy with drink, he looked back and gave Zhao Jun a faint smile. The corner of his mouth, moistened by alcohol, curved upward.
Then he pushed the door open and went inside.
The host boy: “...”
The hostess: “...”
A bolt of thunder seemed to crash directly down onto the two agents’ heads, leaving them frozen in place.
After a long moment, the young boy raised a trembling hand and pinched himself as hard as he could.
If Zhao Jun’s heart had only stopped for half a beat just now, then now it was pounding wildly. Before he had even fully reacted, his body was already moving. He chased after Shen Zhuo and followed him straight into the restroom.
Shen Zhuo was splashing his face under the rush of cold water. The black marble sink made his fingers look shockingly pale. His water-soaked profile seemed to carry some indescribable glow that made it impossible to look away.
Zhao Jun reflexively straightened his collar, grabbed a few tissues, and without realizing it adjusted his voice into the gentlest, most magnetic tone he could manage—though even he could hear the unsteady tail end caused by excitement.
“Hi... hello. Did you come with friends? Let me help you wipe that off?”
Shen Zhuo braced one hand on the sink and looked deeply disoriented.
Zhao Jun stammered, “Hey, gorgeous. Add me on WeChat? My car’s right outside. How about I take you for a drive...”
There was a splash.
Shen Zhuo seemed to try to straighten, but lost his balance and fell. Zhao Jun caught him at once.
The scent of alcohol rushed over him, and Zhao Jun was instantly drunk on it. His breathing quickened from excessive excitement.
Then he heard the “beauty” press one hand against his shoulder and ask softly beside his ear, voice tinged with intoxication,
“Where are you going to take me, hm?”
The restroom door opened.
The two agents stiffened at the same time.
Zhao Jun emerged, supporting Shen Zhuo with extreme attentiveness. Shen Zhuo appeared completely unconscious, as if he had lost all awareness.
Lightning and thunder flashed through both agents’ minds.
The little boy nearly tripped over his own feet. He scrambled forward in a panic.
“Oh! Isn’t this our floor manager? Let me, let me—”
Zhao Jun immediately snapped, “What are you doing? Get out of the way!”
“Brother Zhao, Brother Zhao, our floor manager can’t leave.” In her desperation, the hostess found a thread of wit and pretended to make a call. “I’ll call our boss over right now to apologize to you...”
Zhao Jun said angrily, “Your boss and I have been buddies for years. Who needs you meddling here? Someone drag her away!”
He shoved the female agent. Her phone fell to the floor with a clack.
The commotion drew attention from not far off. Several nightclub security guards looked over.
In the chaos, there was nothing the two agents could do. They could only watch helplessly as Zhao Jun supported the unconscious Supervisor Shen, crossed the dance floor, and swaggered out, heading straight through the nightclub doors.
The music on the dance floor was explosive.
But this tiny patch of space was shrouded in a terrifying, deathly silence.
Both agents saw their own horrified faces reflected in each other’s trembling pupils. After a long while, the little boy pressed his earpiece with shaking fingers, his voice already carrying a sob.
“...T-Team Leader Chen, something’s wrong...”
In the command vehicle, every team member snapped to attention.
Chen Miao said urgently, “Report the field situation immediately! Where is the target now?!”
“The target, the target...” The little boy sounded like he had lost his entire family.
“The target took the drunk Supervisor out to book a room!”
Pfft!
Chen Miao spat a mouthful of water across the entire screen.
Everyone’s expression went blank.
They stared at the nightclub in the distance as the whole command vehicle went dead silent.
“Mr. Zhao, why did you come out early?” Outside the nightclub, beside the door of a black Bentley Bentayga, the driver hurried out to open the door. Seeing Zhao Jun attentively supporting a deeply drunk, unconscious person, he could not help taking a couple more looks. Sensibly, he asked, “Are we going straight to the transaction site, or...?”
The driver was a trusted subordinate Zhao Jun had brought to Shenhai specifically for this transaction, so Zhao Jun did not hide anything. As he helped Shen Zhuo into the car, he ordered, “Straight to the transaction site. The buyer’s meeting me at a hotel anyway. Use the time to get me a room too.”
“Got it!”
Zhao Jun was delighted. The driver smiled along with him as he started the car and set the destination in the GPS.
In the dim back seat, where no one noticed, Shen Zhuo opened his eyes and glanced at the navigation.
Baifu Jinjiang Grand Hotel.
A newly opened ultra-luxury hotel nearby, less than twenty minutes away by car.
Shen Zhuo closed his eyes.
Suddenly, something stirred faintly in his mind. For some reason, the hotel’s name felt familiar, as if he had skimmed past it recently in some work report.
...Baifu Jinjiang?
Shen Zhuo frowned.
The location system in his trouser pocket was running silently, sending a signal to the Supervision Office command vehicle, merging into the glittering, wine-soaked nightscape of Shenhai City.