When Song Liang woke, his chest felt heavy, as though a large stone were pressing down on it.
Pain came from every part of his body. His throat was dry and raw, carrying a faint, sweet metallic taste of blood.
Electrical static crackled through his mind. Amid his muddled thoughts came system alarms and 3085’s anxious voice.
【You’re finally awake. How do you feel?】
Song Liang: 【Not too bad. My chest feels a little tight.】
【…Try looking down.】
Song Liang lowered his eyes.
He was tied to a chair, ropes wrapped from his chest to his lower abdomen. Even his bandaged right arm had been bound against him.
Thumb-thick hemp rope encircled him several times, firmly secured. He might break his bones before managing to struggle free.
Professional work.
He didn’t need to think to recognize whose handiwork it was.
Swallowing against his stinging throat, he said hoarsely, “My arm’s already out of commission, man. Isn’t this a little excessive for someone with a disability?”
He looked up and met the gaze of the man on the sofa.
Wheat-colored skin. Hard, striking features. A black pistol being polished in his hands.
The man watched him coldly, his eyes dark and vicious.
Liang Ziyu—the man he had met at Songlan Mansion and subsequently taken for quite a ride.
Liang Ziyu gave him a sinister smile.
“Ever braised a pork hock?”
Song Liang shook his head.
When would he have braised pork? At the Xiao house, people even fed him his meals.
Someone as precious as him had no business braising pork hocks.
“You tie string around it before putting it in the pot, so the meat doesn’t fall apart. Same principle. Bind you tightly, and when I start slicing, you won’t come apart so easily.”
“…”
Song Liang paused, then looked around.
At last, he spotted his bodyguard in a corner, covered in blood, his condition unknown.
“Could you let my bodyguard go first?”
“How kind. You can’t even save yourself, and you’re worried about someone else?”
“If you wanted me dead, you could’ve run me over.”
“…”
Silence fell.
Several Xinglong Society men glanced at him.
They had kidnapped plenty of people, but never anyone like this. He looked college-aged, yet somehow sounded more unsettling than they did.
Liang Ziyu’s expression darkened.
He did want to chop this man into mincemeat. But he couldn’t kill him.
He still needed Liang Long’s gun back.
Song Liang had evidently realized that too, which was why he was certain he wouldn’t be killed immediately.
Anger flared inside Liang Ziyu.
He put the gun aside and picked up a fruit knife from the table.
“I told Xiao Yi to bring the gun in exchange for you. He has another hour. For every minute he’s late, I cut off a finger. How many do you think you’ll lose?”
“I’d say you’ll get through my toes too.”
“…Doesn’t he like you?”
“Which one? Xiao Yi or Xiao Ji?”
“Don’t they both?”
Liang Ziyu looked him over and scoffed.
“You’re quite something.”
Song Liang sighed inwardly.
A reputation had its advantages and disadvantages. He hadn’t landed either of them yet, but people were already imagining some scandalous three-way affair with uncle and nephew.
“The gun is in a bank safe-deposit box. Nobody knows about it except me.”
He smoothly recited a string of numbers and the bank’s name.
“Go get it. It’s in there. I haven’t even used it.”
Liang Ziyu sneered, plainly unconvinced.
With no better option, Song Liang said, “Then send Xiao Yi the code. Have him collect it.”
Liang Ziyu gave a contemptuous laugh.
“So you really are sleeping with Xiao Yi.”
Song Liang: “…”
Upon receiving the message, Xiao Yi had the driver turn toward the bank.
He opened the safe-deposit box Liang Ziyu had specified.
Two things lay inside.
One was wrapped in a black velvet pouch. The other was a black jewelry box the size of his palm.
Xiao Yi opened the jewelry box.
Inside lay a vintage brooch covered in diamonds, its central stone an imperial-green jadeite the size of a pigeon’s egg.
The jade had a warm luster and a clear, vivid color.
Every pattern and worn spot on the brooch was familiar.
He studied it for a moment, then returned it to the safe.
Taking only the black velvet pouch beside it, he closed the box.
“What is it?”
Yang Xuan knew only that the men who had abducted Song Liang and his bodyguard had instructed his boss to collect something from Song Liang’s safe-deposit box.
He didn’t know what.
Seeing the palm-sized object Xiao Yi had retrieved, he couldn’t help asking.
Xiao Yi made no attempt to hide it.
He opened the velvet pouch, revealing a black handgun.
Before Yang Xuan could ask where it had come from, his boss said calmly, “This is the gun Liang Long used at Yalong Bay.”
Yang Xuan startled, then remembered something.
“But wasn’t that gun taken by the person who stole your coat? How did it end up with Young Master Song—”
He stopped mid-sentence.
His eyes widened.
“The person who took your coat that night was Song Liang?!”
“Yes.”
“…”
Yang Xuan’s mouth stayed open.
His thoughts raced from the abandoned dock to Songlan Mansion, then to his boss’s treatment of Song Liang.
Every clue fell into place.
He stared at Xiao Yi in shock.
“So… you knew all along?”
Xiao Yi said nothing, tacitly confirming it.
Yang Xuan drew in a sharp breath.
He didn’t dare consider why his boss had recognized Song Liang as the man who took the Emperor’s Tear that night, yet kept silent.
Instead, he suddenly realized something else.
The Yalong Bay attack had clearly been a plot by Xiao Guangjin and his son against his boss.
But without sufficient evidence, the robber named Liang Long could only be charged with robbery.
Even sending him to prison wouldn’t implicate Xiao Guangjin and Xiao Wenyu.
Now, with this gun as evidence, the robbers’ actions could be treated as attempted murder. Following that trail could lead to father and son.
An excellent opportunity.
Thinking of that, he felt almost sorry for Song Liang.
Everyone had always known his boss cared about only one nephew: Xiao Ji.
Anyone seeking leverage against him would abduct Xiao Ji. An outsider like Song Liang would never have been a target.
Except his boss had fallen for someone for the first time and had no idea how to hide it.
He had even carried the man openly at the Xiao estate—
Yang Xuan’s thoughts stopped.
A chill spread down his back.
No.
His boss had done it deliberately.
He had deliberately attended a birthday banquet he normally avoided.
Deliberately carried Song Liang in front of everyone.
Deliberately taken only Song Liang away.
All to make the people lurking in the shadows believe he liked him.
This was a trap planned well in advance.
Song Liang was the bait.
Even this trip to the bank wasn’t really about collecting an item to save him.
His boss only wanted the gun.
From beginning to end, Song Liang had been his intended sacrifice.
Meanwhile, back in the room, Liang Ziyu tapped the time on his phone screen with the tip of his knife.
“Three minutes left.”
Song Liang sighed.
“You should’ve collected it yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“Xiao Yi won’t give it to you, and he won’t come. This was a setup from the start.”
Liang Ziyu’s expression shifted.
An ominous feeling rose inside him.
“That night at Yalong Bay, someone wanted the Emperor’s Tear, and someone wanted Xiao Yi dead. Liang Long appeared to be following Xiao Wenyu’s orders, but he was really answering to someone else.”
“Even your decision to kidnap me today in exchange for that gun is part of it. Whoever laid this trap isn’t only after the gun. They want something else.”
Song Liang lifted his eyes slightly.
Blood marked his features, lending his beauty a vivid, eerie edge.
“They want you, Young Master Liang. You matter far more than Liang Long.”
Liang Ziyu’s pupils contracted.
He sprang to his feet and drove the knife straight toward the space between Song Liang’s brows.
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