The killer was Yan Liben.
Gong Ze sat on the sofa, stroking the man’s head. His pitch-black eyes lowered, reflecting the other’s adoring, fawning expression. He said flatly, “You did well.”
“A Ze… I’ve done everything you wanted. I just want to be with you…”
Even dressed in an expensive suit, Yan Liben still looked like that damp, cold, ill-omened creature.
He curled up his large frame, performing a mix of claiming credit and cuddling up to Gong Ze’s legs, like a fanatical worshipper madly in love with his god.
Even when the god said to kill his own father.
Yan Liben’s face showed no trace of guilt or regret — only anticipation for Gong Ze and their future together. His smile was pale yet fervent.
“A Ze… A Ze…”
“I secretly had the male childbirth surgery. It’s a surprise for you — do you like it?!”
He opened his eyes wide, looking at the silent Gong Ze.
He wrapped his arms around Gong Ze’s waist and pressed against him blissfully, fantasizing dreamily about the future. “A Ze, I want to have your baby…”
Gong Ze’s hand stroked his head.
His gaze was cold and distant.
“I told you — if you want something, you have to trade something for it.”
Yan Liben’s head drooped in disappointment. Even as he felt anger at Gong Ze’s mercilessness, he still agreed. “I understand. I’ll contact Yan Cheng’s former subordinates right away and pin Yan Cheng’s death on the Qin family.”
Watching Yan Liben’s retreating figure, the system found it absurd. [He listens to you so easily? Doesn’t he regret anything? Isn’t he afraid you’re lying to him?]
“He is afraid. But his sunk cost is too high.”
To put it simply, Yan Liben had already killed Yan Cheng in order to keep things going with Gong Ze. If he didn’t do what Gong Ze said now, he would get nothing.
But if he did it, maybe — just maybe — Gong Ze would still fulfill his promise.
Be with him. Have a baby with him.
Have a happy home with him.
Even if deep down Yan Liben was still lucid enough to doubt the possibility, to see how heartless the man he loved truly was — he had no way out. He could only keep going forward.
Like someone trading stocks.
The moment you buy in, you smell the danger. But because you can’t afford the sunk cost, as long as the stock hasn’t hit its limit, you keep convincing yourself that you’re right.
Gong Ze didn’t even need to put in much effort. Yan Liben would obey on his own.
[Sigh… People are terrifying…]
And also so pitiful.
Yan Cheng would never have dreamed that the son he had finally found after all those years would personally send him to hell.
Yan Cheng was always surrounded by underlings. Having done plenty of shady things, even his house was guarded by layers upon layers of security, inside and out.
Even when his own children came to see him, they were watched by his men and searched at the door.
He was so vigilant that, in theory, it should have been nearly impossible for anyone to take his life.
But Yan Cheng was a heavy smoker.
Especially when he was chatting, once he started smoking, he would keep going, one after another.
Yan Liben had tampered with Yan Cheng’s tobacco. A single dose wasn’t fatal. But when Yan Cheng went out to eat and drink with his colleagues on a casual get-together —
Men being men, at a social gathering, they drink and they smoke.
Yan Cheng chatted with his colleagues while smoking. Soon, half a pack was gone. The drug accumulated in his system — and its effects were very similar to alcohol.
By the time Yan Cheng noticed something was wrong, his body was already too paralyzed to breathe on his own.
In just three or four minutes, he was dead.
The people who had eaten with him had also smoked his cigarettes, but because the dose was small, nothing much happened to them. No one suspected Yan Liben. Later, while feigning grief, he helped Yan Cheng up and swapped out the cigarettes.
Flawless.
And all of this was by Gong Ze’s design.
“Actually, I didn’t need to kill him. But as long as Yan Cheng was alive, I couldn’t leave in peace.” Gong Ze toyed with his phone and said flatly. “How could my little young master’s home have a tiger living near it?”
The system scratched its head. [So, Host, you were afraid that Yan Cheng’s existence would threaten Sang You? That possibility seems very small…]
Gong Ze cut her off. “But it’s not impossible.”
The system: …
Now it finally understood what it meant when a master of scheming actually cared about someone.
For Sang You — so that after he was gone, his little young master could live happily as planned — Gong Ze had become a tyrant.
“There are three more people.”
Gong Ze said softly.
Qin Chuan’s father, the protagonist gong Qin Chuan — who in the original plot would deceive and hurt Sang You — and…
·
The Qin family residence.
Upon learning of Yan Cheng’s sudden death, Qin Chuan’s father gripped the phone tightly, his expression momentarily out of control.
“What did you say?! Who died? Are you sure—”
After the person on the other end finished speaking, Qin Chuan’s father hung up.
“Dad, what’s wrong? Who died?” Amid Qin Chuan’s puzzled questioning, Qin Chuan’s father’s features gradually twisted. Overwhelming excitement seemed to spread a layer of fierce redness over his refined face.
“Hahaha — this is fate. This is all fate.”
“Heaven favors our Qin family. I am the winner!”
The more Qin Chuan’s father laughed, the happier he became. He jumped up and paced back and forth excitedly.
Qin Chuan was startled, thinking his old father had gone mad — when suddenly his father stopped, both hands gripping his son’s shoulders tightly.
“Son, Yan Cheng is dead!”
Qin Chuan’s brain buzzed. It took him a long, stupid moment to process it, asking instinctively, “Who?”
Qin Chuan’s father: “Yan Cheng!”
“He was out entertaining guests when he suddenly collapsed midway through the meal. My old classmate was there at the scene and secretly tipped me off right away — he said the hospital staff came, checked his eyes, and declared him dead.”
After hearing the story, Qin Chuan was beside himself with joy, not knowing what to do with himself. Laughing one moment, trembling with excitement the next.
“This is truly, truly a wonderful surprise!”
“Yes.”
Qin Chuan’s father had been worried about how to fight Yan Cheng. Who could have expected that this vicious old tiger would go down to the underworld all on his own?
It was like a pie falling from the sky for Qin Chuan and his father.
“Now that Yan Cheng is dead, our family won’t have to waste any more effort fighting him! Heaven has opened its eyes! We win without even having to fight. From now on, there’ll be no damned Yan Cheng to shit on our heads.”
“That’s wonderful, Father.”
The triumphant father and son were still celebrating at home.
Later, they went through the motions of attending Yan Cheng’s funeral.
At the funeral, the only one who cried her heart out was Yan Zhenzhen.
Yan Liben was still his usual gloomy self, like a venomous snake hiding in a dark corner — his eyes unpleasant.
Having been beaten up by him before, Qin Chuan was a bit intimidated and didn’t go too far in provoking him.
Yan Zhenzhen, locked up for so long, hadn’t seen the man she still liked in ages. She missed him and was also grieving. Wanting someone to lean on, she called him to the backyard.
“Brother Qin.”
When Qin Chuan arrived, Yan Zhenzhen couldn’t hold back her tears and threw her arms around him.
But she never expected Qin Chuan to take all his frustrations out on her.
“Get away from me!”
Qin Chuan pushed her away, pointed at the dumbstruck Yan Zhenzhen, and tore off his sunny, cheerful mask — revealing his true face.
“What do you want by calling me here? Are you annoying or what?”
“Who do you think you are, some fairy? If it weren’t for your father being the mayor, do you think I’d want anything to do with a woman as willful as you? What can you do besides cause me trouble, yell at me, and throw your spoiled little princess tantrums?”
“Now that your father is dead, you’re nothing!”
Qin Chuan leaned in cruelly, venomously spewing all his pent-up resentment in a rapid-fire tirade.
Yan Zhenzhen broke down. “How could you do this to me — Qin Chuan! You bastard! So this is what you’re really like?!”
“Heh.”
Qin Chuan laughed coldly and brushed off his clothes. “Fine. I’m no good — but you’re no better. Back in the day, you used your father’s position as mayor to bully the pretty girls in school who got better grades than you. You sent thugs to corner them until they tried to kill themselves. You even messed with kids from slightly less well-off families in your social circle.”
He pointed at himself and sneered. “Yeah, I’m bad. But you? You’re bad and stupid — as dumb as a pig!”
“You— you—” Yan Zhenzhen was so angry she couldn’t even speak. Her fury turned to shame. She raised her hand to slap him —
But Qin Chuan dodged. His face darkened, and he slapped her back instead.
“Slap.”
Yan Zhenzhen’s face was swollen high. Dizzy, she fell to the ground.
“Hmph. You wanted to hit me?”
Qin Chuan looked at her disdainfully, then turned and left.
Leaving Yan Zhenzhen to crawl back up, her face in her hands, crying. She ran forward, instinctively wanting her father to stand up for her — but halfway there, she remembered that she no longer had a father. Stunned, Yan Zhenzhen broke down into unbridled wailing.
Hearing the commotion, people who had been paying respects at the front rushed over. “What’s wrong?”
And the person who helped her up was that older brother she had looked down on the most: Yan Liben.
“Are you okay?”
Yan Liben asked her.
Realizing at last that this nominal older brother was the only one who could stand up for her in the family now, Yan Zhenzhen sobbed, “Brother! You don’t know what a bastard Qin Chuan really is — he…”
After she finished speaking, Yan Cheng’s former underlings — who had come to pay their respects — were all livid.
Then Yan Liben suddenly spoke up, “Actually, I suspect my father’s death wasn’t from a sudden illness at all. I think the Qin family did it. Before…”
After he finished, the group’s faces darkened.
Behind the scenes, Yan Cheng had been the biggest crime boss in Black City.
Under him were a bunch of vicious, ruthless men who were fiercely loyal.
“This can’t be left like this. We have avenge Brother Yan Cheng.”
Besides, with Yan Cheng dead, without his protection, their days of power were over. They might even be arrested. How could these men not hate that?
It wasn’t just about loyalty — it was about getting justice for themselves.
Seeing their agitated shouts, Yan Liben stoked the fire. “Father was killed unjustly. As his son, I am determined to avenge him. If any of you uncles can help me, I will give you one-tenth of my father’s inheritance as a reward.”
Yan Cheng had been a mayor and a gang boss for so many years — his fortune was immense.
Maybe not billions, but certainly hundreds of millions.
One-tenth was tens of millions!
Instantly, the group of men who had been all talk now had their eyes glinting with murderous greed.
Qin Chuan and his father had no idea that disaster was about to strike.
Now that Yan Cheng was dead, Qin Chuan and his father were overjoyed, planning to quickly reclaim all the ground and markets they had lost.
But then Gong Ze suddenly withdrew his funding. In an instant, their pharmaceutical factory and several key businesses were paralyzed. The secretary kept calling in a panic, asking what to do.
The father and son were dumbstruck.
The losses they had suffered from Yan Cheng’s crackdown had all been compensated by Gong Ze — bringing in money and resources. On the surface, everything looked normal. But in reality, once Gong Ze pulled out, they couldn’t even maintain basic operations.
In theory, Gong Ze shouldn’t have been able to touch their production lines and core projects.
But the damage Yan Cheng had inflicted on them was simply too great, and Gong Ze’s support had come too easily — slowly, the father and son had been consumed by him.
After a long moment of shock, Qin Chuan’s father urged, “Hurry — call Gong Ze.”
Sweating cold, his hands trembling, Qin Chuan dialed Gong Ze’s number. “Gong Ze, why are you pulling your funding? My family’s business is about to collapse!”
“Why?”
The voice on the other end of the line was elegant and lazy.
“That was always my money. I only lent it to you temporarily. I can withdraw it whenever I want.”
With that, he hung up.
Qin Chuan and his father stared at each other, their faces ashen.
“How could this be… He clearly… How could Gong Ze betray me?” Gong Ze had just been with him at the hotel the day before yesterday, sharing a night of passion. How could he turn so cruel?
Qin Chuan’s mind was blank.
But Qin Chuan’s father, having lived a few more years, understood perfectly. “Damn it! Our family has been duped!”
He cursed Gong Ze out loud.
All his life, he had prided himself on being sharp and cunning — only to be used as a pawn by a younger man, and so thoroughly ruined.
“No — I’m going to confront him!”
Refusing to believe the truth, Qin Chuan snapped out of it and charged out the door.
“I’m coming with you.”
Afraid his son would be fooled again, Qin Chuan’s father quickly followed.
The two got into the car and urged the driver to go faster. In the heat of their anger and panic, they didn’t notice the flash of a cold, murderous smirk in the driver’s eyes.
Gong Ze hung up on Qin Chuan.
The next second, he pressed the voice command.
“Do it.”
“And remember — not just Qin Chuan and his father — Yan Liben too… Leave no one alive.”
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