**Chapter 18: Pursuit (End)**
Joa sat there in a daze, seemingly having forgotten who he was, where he was, and what he was supposed to do.
Fortunately, he hadn't truly forgotten. After a moment of absentmindedness, Joa forcibly pulled his consciousness back and asked, "Where is my daughter?"
"Of course I will tell you. After all, that is the stake of our wager, Mr. Joa."
Adrian walked back to his seat, pulled out a black briefcase from under the table, and opened it.
"Before that, I want to ask you a question, Mr. Joa. What were you thinking the moment you entered Adele's body?"
Taking a stack of documents from the briefcase, Adrian glanced at the speechless Joa and continued unhurriedly:
"You escaped from a dark, sunless prison, and by chance, you met a kind-hearted rich young miss. It wasn't even three days from when you two met to when you went to bed, was it?"
"And then, when I told you she was my daughter, what were you thinking?"
"It must have been complicated. I am your enemy who imprisoned you for twenty years, and yet you found that you seemed to have truly fallen in love with my daughter."
"Don't be so quick to deny it, Mr. Joa. If you hadn't fallen in love with her, why would you, after knowing her identity, not use her to threaten me, but instead voluntarily distance yourself from her?"
"Then what about you, Adele? Do you love him?"
Adrian's gaze turned to Adele, watching her face gradually turn pale.
Adrian looked around and saw Joa slowly stand up, and even Zhou Ming put down his wine glass.
"It seems you all guessed it." Adrian chuckled a few times, divided the stack of documents into two parts, and pushed them in front of Joa and Adele respectively.
"After I woke up in the hospital, I began to plan my revenge. I inherited a huge family fortune and sent people to monitor you twenty-four hours a day. I watched you fall in love, watched you get married, watched your wife give birth to a child. I knew it was time to make my move against you."
"I kidnapped you, shot your wife and made it look like you did it. I stole your newborn daughter and brought her home, raising her as my own daughter, and named her Adele Bronses."
"Shut up, you bastard." Joa lunged at Adrian like a madman, pinning him to the ground and punching him hard in the face.
"You lied to me, you bastard. You showed me Erica's growth videos, have you forgotten? In that damn prison, a new videotape every week, recording Erica's growth—that was my motivation to live. Do you remember? Do you remember."
As he spoke, he continued to rain fierce punches on Adrian's face.
"Haha, hahahaha, Mr. Joa, haha, don't you understand yet?"
Adrian's eyes were split, blood overflowed from the corners of his mouth, his face was bruised, and he was being choked by Joa, yet he couldn't hide his joy, constantly letting out mocking laughter.
"It was all fake. Everything you saw these past twenty years, those videotapes, were all filmed by actors I hired. This was a TV series that ran for twenty years, but you were the only audience."
"Now I ask you, Mr. Joa, why did I let you leave that place?"
"Shut up. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you." Joa excitedly grabbed a dinner knife that had fallen from the table during the struggle and held it against Adrian's neck.
Adrian paid no attention to the dinner knife that had already pierced his skin and continued to say what he wanted to say.
"At that time, Adele, at one year old, was a blank slate, which I could write and edit as I pleased. I spent twenty years transforming her into my most suitable tool for revenge."
"Her heart-nature is gentle. She is extremely compassionate, helpful, simple-minded, and very easily trusts others. On the other hand, she is also very promiscuous—available to anyone, indulged in carnal desires, unable to extricate herself."
"Did you think you escaped from there by your own ability? Did you think meeting Adele was a coincidence? Why did you get involved with Adele so easily?"
"I orchestrated all of it. I added things to your food, and when necessary, I could even control your every move."
Adrian burst into laughter, laughing heartily, laughing like a madman.
Joa let go weakly, as if all his strength had been drained, and slumped to the ground like a pile of mud.
He looked up, staring blankly at Adele. Adele also looked at him, tears streaming down her cheeks, her expression numb, devoid of any life qi or vitality.
The immense blow had completely crushed her mind.
Joa's hand reached for the dinner knife again, gripping it tightly, and slowly raised it toward Adrian.
"Yes, that's it."
Adrian spread his arms, completely abandoning any resistance, his expression of anticipation and excitement even somewhat distorted.
"Stab it down. Let us share this moment. My pain—what you took from me—let you truly experience how I feel."
"Come, Joa. As you wish, complete this final step of revenge. Our revenge."
"Ah."
Joa shrieked, raising the sharp knife high, and amidst Adele's heartbreaking screams, plunged it fiercely toward Adrian's throat.
*Bang.*
A gunshot.
The bullet accurately hit the dinner knife, and the powerful force sent the knife flying.
"Gentlemen, this tragic drama should come to an end here, shouldn't it? Now it's my turn."
Zhou Ming said with a smile, feigning a blow to the muzzle of his gun.
"Mr. Adrian, were you the one who hired the killer to kill Adele?"
Zhou Ming walked over, pressed the muzzle of the gun against Adele's head, signaling Joa not to act rashly—otherwise, he would blow Adele's brains out.
Adrian said indifferently, "Is there still any meaning in asking this question?"
Zhou Ming frowned. "Mr. Adrian, I advise you not to refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit. Telling me what I want to know will benefit you. Although you are bent on dying, you are not without any attachments in this world, are you? How about I send Carl and Dover down to accompany you?"
Adrian slowly sat up, staring intently at Zhou Ming.
"Mr. Zhang, who do you work for? Why must you ask this question?"
Zhou Ming chuckled. "My mission is to ensure young miss Adele's safety. Having taken the money, I naturally have to work diligently."
"I didn't expect Mr. Zhang to be such a dedicated person." Adrian's tone was sarcastic.
"Mr. Adrian, this should be our first meeting. How much could you know about me?"
Adrian no longer engaged in verbal sparring, pulled out a phone from his person, and made a call.
Soon, the call connected.
"I want to cancel the mission I posted."
A female voice came from the phone. "Alright, sir. Before the mission is canceled, we need to remind you that the mission has not yet reached its deadline, and our staff are still working diligently. For a mission cancellation initiated unilaterally by you, fifty percent of the total bounty amount will be deducted—"
"I have no objection."
"Alright, the mission has been canceled. This bounty mission is concluded. Wish you a pleasant life. Goodbye."
*Beep... beep... beep...*
Only a busy signal remained on the phone.
Adrian dropped the phone and looked at Zhou Ming.
"So you were the one who posted the mission? But that doesn't make logical sense." Zhou Ming didn't let the question go.
"Since you wanted to put on this grand revenge drama, why would you eliminate Adele beforehand? Without her, wouldn't it be like missing an important character on stage?"
"I won't tell you." Adrian suddenly pulled a pistol from his person and was about to put the muzzle into his mouth.
*Bang.*
Another gunshot, also fired by Zhou Ming. This time it hit Adrian's right hand holding the gun, making his bleeding right hand unable to hold the weapon any longer, letting it fall to the ground.
"It doesn't matter. Even if you don't say it, I can guess. It's either Carl or Dover anyway. But as you said, asking this question really has no meaning. However, you can't die yet. If you die, your subordinates might do who knows what. Wait... eighteen more hours." Zhou Ming said, looking at the watch on his wrist.
"Haha, hahahaha." Adrian suddenly laughed somewhat hysterically. "Eighteen hours, it doesn't matter. For me, dying sooner or later makes no difference. But can this lovely father and daughter still be together?"
"If Mr. Joa is unwilling, I will kill young miss Adele, since my employment relationship with her has already terminated anyway." Zhou Ming said indifferently.
"So, sit down, both of you. For the remaining time, the three of us can chat."
...
Aside from the few individuals involved, no one knew how they spent those last eighteen hours.
Ralph and the other bodyguards who had been waiting outside had never been granted permission to enter the room, even when they first heard gunshots. They strictly obeyed Adrian's orders and dared not step half a foot past the doorway.
Until eighteen hours later, there were two more gunshots.
This time, the door of the room slowly opened, and a distraught Adele walked out.
Ralph hurried forward, calling out "young miss" twice but received no response. Adele walked out like a zombie.
Ralph had no choice but to assign a few people to protect Adele, while he and the others rushed into the room.
What they saw were only two corpses lying on the table, each holding a pistol. Judging by their postures, they had both committed suicide.
As for the fourth person in the room, no matter how Ralph searched the entire place—digging three feet deep—he found no trace of Zhou Ming's departure. It was as if he had vanished into thin air from that room.
Adele walked out of the villa's main gate, gazing at the clear blue sky. In her muddled mind, it was as if many memories had been lost. A figure that was once very clear quickly became blurred, and in a short time, was almost completely forgotten.
Only one sentence kept echoing in her mind.
*"This world has the existence of extraordinary items, and the path of life sublimation exists."*
*"Go find them. Find those extraordinary items, and try every means to obtain them."*
*"I will come back for them."*
**This world has ended.**