Translator: CinderTL
"Are you alright?" Wang Qi stood up, seemingly wanting to check on him, but Jiang Cheng waved him off.
"I'm going to see Wang Fugui," Jiang Cheng said, rising to leave.
In the hallway, Jiang Cheng stood for a long time, trying to steady his emotions. His shadow on the wall loomed far taller than him, looking utterly incongruous.
A line of blood-red words appeared crookedly on the wall, still trembling: "I told you, you're just like me."
"She was just using you."
"Women's words are never trustworthy; they'll always betray you in the end."
"I am, and you will be too."
Similar blood-red words crawled across the entire wall, while the shadow swayed mockingly, its surface rippling with an eerie black wave.
A pair of blood-red eyes, hidden deep within the waves, stared at Jiang Cheng, as if trying to pierce through his body and see something beyond.
Jiang Cheng leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. Lin Wan'er's face shattered in his mind, then reassembled.
The face was covered in cracks.
It could never be the same again.
He could accept being deceived by anyone—Fatty, Pi Ruan, even Crimson—it wouldn't have mattered. But Lin Wan'er... was different.
He couldn't accept that the person who had once brought him light had been deceiving him all along.
"When the heart holds no woman, the blade becomes divine."
Blood-red characters appeared on the wall, perfectly placed, like a challenge and a seduction.
"Don't try to manipulate me. I make my own judgments." Jiang Cheng stared at the shadow on the wall, then strode forward and pushed open the door to the next room.
The shadow remained on the wall. The instant Jiang Cheng's back disappeared, the blood-red characters vanished, leaving behind only a dilapidated, mold-stained wall.
Everything that had happened before seemed like an illusion.
Gazing at the closed door, a strange emotion filled the Shadow's eyes—a sense that it was one step closer to what it desired.
"Brother Jiang," Huai Yi said, quickly standing up as Jiang Cheng entered. "You should talk to Brother Fugui. He seems..."
Realizing he'd said too much, Huai Yi lowered his voice, speaking only loud enough for Jiang Cheng to hear. "Brother Fugui seems to be having some sort of mental breakdown. Ever since I came in, he hasn't acknowledged me at all. He just sits there muttering to himself."
"When I got closer, I overheard a bit," Huai Yi said, glancing nervously at Fatty. "He was saying something like, 'Impossible! How could I be Crimson Number 10?' It was just those few lines over and over."
"Brother Jiang, do you think Wang Qi did something to Brother Fugui that triggered him, or..." Huai Yi paused, swallowing hard. "Does Crimson have an internal reward and punishment system? Like, if you perform poorly this month, your ranking drops?"
"Could it be that Brother Fugui dropped from Old Six to Old Ten, and the sudden drop was too much for him to handle? Did his mental state just snap?"
"You should talk to him," Huai Yi pleaded earnestly. "If he didn't make it this month, he can just try again next month. There's no need to be so hard on himself."
"You go back first. I'll talk to him," Jiang Cheng said, patting Huai Yi on the shoulder.
"Go back..." Huai Yi shuddered at the thought of sharing a room with Wang Qi, that freak. But then he remembered that if anything happened, he could just shout for help. Brother Jiang and Brother Fugui were right next door and wouldn't just stand by.
With that thought, Huai Yi regained his confidence. He assured Jiang Cheng that he would keep an eye on Wang Qi.
Just before leaving, Huai Yi seemed to notice something. He stared at Jiang Cheng's eyes, frowning as he asked, "Brother Jiang, what happened to your eyes?"
Moments ago, as Jiang Cheng tilted his head, Huai Yi had glimpsed a black shadow in Jiang Cheng's pupils.
The shadow was even darker than Jiang Cheng's pupils, but it vanished the instant Huai Yi tried to focus on it.
After Huai Yi left, Jiang Cheng sat beside Fatty. "Fatty," he began, his voice unexpectedly hoarse.
Hearing Jiang Cheng's voice draw near, Fatty seemed to perk up slightly. "Doctor, that Wang Qi said he knew me and gave me this."
Fatty raised his wrist, revealing a black safety buckle.
It looked like the kind worn around the neck, and its poor quality was obvious at a glance—a cheap trinket suitable for fooling children.
Gazing at the safety buckle on his wrist, Fatty's expression softened, as if recalling a memory. "I... I don't know Wang Qi. I have no recollection of him. But I remember this safety buckle! This is it, without a doubt!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I bought it a long time ago to give to my younger brother!"
Jiang Cheng tried to reassure him. "This safety buckle is very common. Could you be mistaken?"
"Impossible! Doctor, this is it! There's no mistake!" Fatty grabbed Jiang Cheng's hand, thrusting the jade pendant before his eyes. "Did you see it, Doctor? Look here." Fatty used the tip of his finger to point at a specific spot on the pendant.
Jiang Cheng noticed a few minor flaws there, barely noticeable.
"When I bought it, the Boss told me this pattern was rare—seven stars, just like the Big Dipper!" Fatty seemed obsessed with this detail, pulling Jiang Cheng's hand so hard it turned red.
"It symbolizes good fortune in the future, blessing him with safety and peace." Fatty muttered to himself, lost in a trance. Jiang Cheng hadn't said a word.
"Fatty," Jiang Cheng patted his shoulder, "calm down. We haven't figured everything out yet."
"It's already clear, Doctor," Fatty said. "We shouldn't deceive ourselves anymore."
A tear, hot as fire, landed on the back of Jiang Cheng's hand.
"Doctor," Fatty's voice trembled. Jiang Cheng instinctively stopped.
"Actually, whether it's Crimson or not doesn't matter. I don't care. But you know, my younger siblings... they're gone."
"I can't wait for them anymore. They'll never come back."
Fatty clutched the jade pendant on his wrist, tears falling to the ground with a plop. From behind, his broad shoulders shook with sobs.
After a moment, Jiang Cheng spoke. "Do you remember Lin Wan'er?"
"Boss Lin?" Fatty wailed, tears streaming down his face. "How could I possibly know anything about her?"
He paused, then Jiang Cheng continued, "She's also connected to Crimson. Wang Qi said she was the one who built Crimson from the ground up. It's all related to her."
Slowly, Fatty's tear-swollen eyes changed. A strange emotion flickered in his gaze as he looked at Jiang Cheng. "So everything she's shown us all this time has been fake? A complete act?"
The words had barely left his lips when Fatty abruptly stopped. He realized the light in Jiang Cheng's eyes had already gone out.
(End of the Chapter)
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