The engagement banquet that had been going so well suddenly descended into chaos.
Since most of the manpower had gathered in the banquet hall by evening, the fire on the second floor was discovered late. It wasn’t until the smoke detector in the hallway ceiling was triggered that people realized what was happening.
The guests in the banquet hall looked at each other in confusion as they were urgently evacuated to the open garden.
Night had fallen. The mansion was brightly lit, while black smoke poured continuously from the second-floor windows. Red flames flickered wildly, like a fiery red beast devouring everything in its path.
Medical personnel treated Pei Guangji and Xi Zhengqing for their wounds separately. The wound on the back of Pei Guangji’s head was rather serious. After removing the glass shards and disinfecting the area, they discovered that his wound was healing at a speed a hundred times faster than a normal person. Therefore, even though such an injury would typically require surgical stitching, the medical staff could skip that step and simply bandage it to prevent infection.
Fire trucks and military firefighting robots arrived at the fastest speed possible.
“Drip! Drip! Drip!”
Clear droplets of water landed on the lines of his palm, quickly pooling into a small puddle.
It had started to rain.
Xin Hexue looked up, and another drop hit his face, leaving transparent trails of water trickling down.
Someone opened an umbrella for him from behind.
Xi Zhengqing’s expression was eerily gentle. “Ah Xue, the aircraft is over there. We’re heading to the seaside castle now. The people there are already prepared. Tonight’s schedule will be completed smoothly.”
He was unnaturally calm, giving orders for the servants to transport the guests to the seaside castle using aircraft.
To transport the guests, the Xi family had booked one hundred private aircrafts. The relevant regulatory departments had also issued early notices and taken control measures, so the air routes had already been cleared for their engagement ceremony.
Madam Xi stepped forward to end this farce. “Enough!”
She asked Xi Zhengqing in disbelief, “What happened to you tonight? If there’s a misunderstanding between you and that Pei family child, couldn’t it be resolved privately? Did you really have to make such a scene? What do you think everyone sees when they look at our two families now?”
“This isn’t like you.”
While scolding her son in a lowered voice, Madam Xi also instructed the butler to tidy things up and announce that the engagement ceremony was temporarily suspended and would be postponed. She made sure the frightened guests were sent safely back to their homes, and the Xi family would send apology gifts tomorrow.
She also ordered that all the media present block the news.
As a media giant in the Federation, Zuo Yongyan reassured her, “Auntie, don’t worry. The live broadcast signal was cut in time. We’ll have the staff keep a close watch on public opinion to prevent the incident from spreading further.”
The night rain gradually stopped.
Xin Hexue suddenly broke away from Xi Zhengqing’s side and headed toward the villa.
Xi Zhengqing quickly grabbed his wrist, asking nervously, “Where are you going?”
Xin Hexue glanced back at him, looking anxious. “Zhengqing, the necklace you gave me is still in the bedroom, do you remember? I took it off last night and put it in the drawer of the bedside table.”
He had to confirm whether the mutant had burned everything to ashes.
After all, without physical evidence, relying solely on Pei Guangji’s testimony wouldn’t be enough to deal a strong blow.
Xin Hexue twisted skillfully and slipped free from Xi Zhengqing’s hand.
“Don’t go! It’s too dangerous!”
Xi Zhengqing failed to stop him and had no choice but to follow closely behind.
The firefighting work was already done. The fire brigade and firefighting robots had left the scene, and now the Xi family’s servants were dealing with the aftermath.
When Xin Hexue returned to the second floor, this half of the master bedroom had already been charred black. The white walls had been stained with so much smoke they were unrecognizable.
He crossed the warning tape.
The place was a complete mess, and the further he went, the worse the damage.
Step by step, the floorboards creaked.
He walked straight through the bedroom and headed toward the study in the back.
The night breeze, damp with moisture, blew in through the wide-open window.
Above his head, the crystal chandelier swayed and, with a sharp creak, suddenly dropped straight down!
In a split second, Xi Zhengqing lunged forward, wrapped his arms around Xin Hexue and rolled across the floor with him.
The crystal chandelier smashed into the ground with a crash and shattered into countless shards.
Xi Zhengqing’s hands trembled uncontrollably as he held onto Xin Hexue. He immediately propped himself up and checked him for injuries.
His hands shook as he brushed aside the hair at Xin Hexue’s temples and fringe.
Fortunately, Xin Hexue only looked a little pale.
Xi Zhengqing didn’t notice that his palm had grazed the soot-covered floor, leaving one or two gray smudges on the young man’s snow-white cheeks.
He helped Xin Hexue up, but his body stiffened for a brief moment.
During the tumble to dodge the falling chandelier, they had already rolled into the study. Behind Xin Hexue, the vase had shattered on the floor, and the hidden bookshelf door stood wide open.
The electrical system had malfunctioned, and the light inside was flickering.
Xi Zhengqing saw that everything on the wall of the dark room had been burned clean. Only some ashes of photo laminates remained at the base of the wall.
Fortunately, fortunately…
Xi Zhengqing let out a breath of relief. He regained his composure and calmly asked Xin Hexue, “Did you find the necklace?”
Xin Hexue pursed his lips. To avoid raising suspicion, he could only say, “I might have remembered the location wrong.”
Xi Zhengqing placed a hand on his shoulder, comforting him. “It’s okay. When the servants come to clean up later, we’ll have them keep an eye out. If it really can’t be found, I’ll get someone to design a new one, still using moonstone. With the same material, it’s easy to recreate a similar look.”
Xin Hexue lowered his eyelashes, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes.
He raised his eyes and said to Xi Zhengqing in a somewhat hesitant and confused manner, “Zhengqing, the Heart Of Eternity is made of aquamarine…”
That was the gift Xi Zhengqing had bought for him at a charity gala auction.
As for the moonstone necklace, it was a make-up birthday present he’d received when they first met, when Xi Zhengqing was pretending to be Pei Guangji.
It seemed tonight’s chaos had truly shaken Xi Zhengqing, causing him to make such a basic mistake.
Xi Zhengqing’s expression froze for a moment, then he quickly recovered. “Is that so? My state tonight is a bit affected. I must’ve remembered wrong. It’s fine. Whether it’s moonstone or aquamarine, they can both be replaced. What’s important is that we remain connected in heart…that’s the most precious thing.”
Xi Zhengqing: “I’ll handle things with Pei Guangji. Let’s choose another day for the engagement ceremony, alright?”
Xin Hexue lowered his gaze and suddenly looked toward the door. “Guangji…”
The tall, black-haired Alpha entered silently.
His wounds were still wrapped in bandages.
Qiu Yuan followed behind him, scanning the room.
Xin Hexue guessed he was checking whether the mutant species had left behind any traces.
Pei Guangji walked forward step by step, and Xi Zhengqing moved to shield Xin Hexue behind him. “President Pei, do you still have something to say?”
Pei Guangji stopped two steps away from them.
“I sent the message to the group chat by mistake, asking you to look after him,” Pei Guangji said quietly. The wound on the back of his head was itchy and painful. “Was that your excuse for impersonating me and taking advantage of him?”
Pei Guangji locked eyes with Xin Hexue. “This person has been lying to you from the beginning. Although I don’t know exactly what he did in the meantime, on that night…”
He paused, regret flickering faintly across his face at the memory.
Pei Guangji continued, “After our argument, I wanted to rush back immediately. But the braking system on my aircraft failed, and I ended up in an accident and was hospitalized. I couldn’t… I’m really sorry for making you wait in the villa for so long.”
“I only saw the messages you sent me this morning.” Pei Guangji ignored Xi Zhengqing’s increasingly ugly expression and focused on explaining to Xin Hexue. “Since October 10, every Pei Guangji you’ve seen was him in disguise. I only got discharged last month and had lost all memory of you. I only recovered them today. Not being able to warn you in time and letting you get hurt…that’s my responsibility too.”
“And you,” Pei Guangji turned to Xi Zhengqing, his expression gloomy. His gaze was like icy blades. “You are a despicable liar.”
That one sentence shattered everything.
[Xi Zhengqing’s heartbreak value +20]
The young man who learned the truth took two steps back.
He seemed not to have fully processed it, but his body instinctively moved away from Xi Zhengqing.
His eyelashes trembled like a dying butterfly, and his voice was trembling, “No wonder you told me back then… that your vocal cords were damaged and you couldn’t speak?”
“So, you even got the necklace wrong.”
“The technician who repaired Number One told me it was arranged by you. I always thought Guangji had ordered it. But that person said Number One’s model never entered the market, it was still an internal test product.”
Now, everything made sense.
Xi Zhengqing’s throat was dry and choked; even his Adam’s apple couldn’t manage to roll.
If you tell a lie, you have to cover it up with a hundred lies.
And there would always be a day when it would get exposed.
A relationship built on lies would collapse the moment the truth came to light, like a castle crumbling in an instant, reduced to rubble and revealing a cruel and ugly truth.
“No, it’s not like that…”
Xi Zhengqing defended himself weakly, blood draining from his face as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
The young man stared at the person beside him as if he were a stranger. He looked at Xi Zhengqing in disbelief. “When you lied to me, what were you thinking? That this Beta was just that stupid? That no matter what you said, this Beta would believe you, so you could toy with him however you liked…”
Without warning, Xin Hexue began coughing violently, pain tearing through his chest and lungs.
His body trembled like a willow in the wind.
[Xi Zhengqing’s heartbreak value +30]
Xi Zhengqing subconsciously reached out and tried to support him, but his bloodshot eyes and the hand he reached out were misjudged by the lurking mutant species as an act of aggression.
A high-speed silenced bullet pierced Xi Zhengqing’s chest with deadly precision and struck directly into his heart.
It came from the long-range weapon provided to the Cutter by the Black Snake organization, mounted on a scorpion claw.
Since Cutters specialized in close combat and might fail to approach the target smoothly, the Black Snake organization had taught him to use ranged weapons to compensate.
Xin Hexue saw Xi Zhengqing fall, blood gushing out and pooling across the floor.
A shadow escaped through the study’s window.
What if the target died?
His entire mission would be disrupted!
Xin Hexue’s vision dimmed rapidly.
He had not been resting well recently and had been under a lot of mental stress, so his body was completely worn out.
White and black dots of fireworks exploded before his eyes, and a metallic taste flooded his throat.
“Ahem, ahem, ahem”
Xin Hexue hunched slightly, and his difficulty in breathing caused a sickly blush to appear on his pale face.
His right hand trembled as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
Blood sprayed across it, soaking the lily embroidery into a dark crimson.
“…”
The Xi residence stayed brightly lit through the night.
The sound of emergency sirens pierced the sky.
Several military helicopters hovered over the core zone, and all entry and exit points in the city were completely sealed off.
