Gong Ze accompanied Sang You to the police station.
Outside the autopsy room, the police officer spoke to them in a heavy tone:
“We found knife wounds on the deceased, and ligature marks on their necks. It appears the victims may have been tortured before death. Therefore, we suspect this was not an ordinary accidental drowning — but homicide.”
Sang You looked like a drowned ghost just crawled out of the water. A chilling coldness clung to his pale face.
He turned stiffly and asked hoarsely, “So my parents were killed by someone, weren’t they?”
“Yes.” The officer sighed. “We do have that suspicion, and we’ve gathered some evidence. The specific details will have to wait for the autopsy results. It would be very helpful if you agree to the autopsy.”
“…”
Sang You was silent.
When he heard the officer ask to have his parents’ bodies autopsied, it felt as if splinters of ice were growing inside his bones, piercing his body from the inside out. No blood was drawn, so why did it hurt so much?
It hurt so much…
It hurt so much that he couldn’t breathe, his mouth open.
His eyes were wide, but no tears came.
For a moment, Sang You thought he had already died. He wanted to run away from this cold, dark hallway, to disappear from in front of the autopsy room door that held his parents’ deformed bodies.
So my parents were murdered…
Sang You thought, his mind blank.
He looked at Gong Ze, who had his arm around him with a natural expression. His bloodless lips parted and trembled.
His gaze was like an abyss — just one step away from collapse. After a moment, Sang You squeezed a few words from his throat.
“Gong Ze…”
“It wasn’t me.”
Gong Ze shook his head.
This was the work of the villain ‘Gong Ze’ — it wasn’t him. He hadn’t yet transmigrated at that time. So Gong Ze didn’t feel guilty saying this.
“…” The hint of death and destruction in Sang You’s eyes faded with his denial, finally turning into overwhelming grief.
Tears rolled down his face like beads from a broken string.
“Ahhh!!!”
A mournful, helpless scream echoed through the iron-gray corridor.
Gong Ze held the young man tightly as he let out those piercing cries. He didn’t find it ridiculous.
Those who have never experienced it will never understand the heartache of losing loved ones, losing parents.
It was grief so extreme that no scream could ease it — a helpless, bewildering agony.
Even though the body bore no scars, the soul was riddled with wounds — excruciating torture.
Thinking that today, Sang You had just lost his parents, and soon, he would also face the tragedy of losing his lover — Gong Ze had never felt such a strong reluctance to leave.
Even if he could stay with Sang You for just one more year —
No — even half a year!
Sang You had just lost his parents. If he left too, then in this world, his little young master would be completely alone.
The most direct way to leave a world was through death.
Gong Ze imagined the scene after he died — Sang You seeing his corpse…
At that moment, there would be no one left to comfort him.
And in the prime of his youth — having lost his father and mother, and then his fiancé —
How could his little young master bear it?
Just imagining Sang You miserable and alone made Gong Ze’s heart ache.
Wasn’t there any way? …If he yielded to the Main God…
Damn it!
A deep, unprecedented sense of powerlessness made Gong Ze clench his fists, his eyes dark.
Listening to Sang You choke out his name, clutching him like a final lifeline,
He wrapped the young man in his own clothes, as if sheltering a baby bird whose skin was burned raw, its flesh exposed. His tightly furrowed brow suppressed his own pain and pity as he infused his scent into Sang You.
“Cry it out. You’ll be okay after you cry. Sang You… I’ll be with you…”
“Ahhhh— Father, Mother—”
Sang You’s face was flushed red as he clutched the clothes over his chest and cried, his thin body trembling pitifully, as if he were about to cry blood and tears.
Gong Ze pressed Sang You’s face against his shoulder and kissed every bit of exposed skin.
“I will find the killer, Sang You, Xiao You, baby… I will find the killer. The police will get to the bottom of it too. You have to be strong. You can’t break down.”
“Sob…”
It was all going according to plan.
It was he, for the sake of the mission, who had ordered the bodies of Sang You’s parents to be unearthed. It was he who had called the police.
But seeing Sang You in such agony, for a moment, Gong Ze’s resolve began to waver.
After the discovery of his parents’ bodies, the last shred of hope that they were still alive vanished. Sang You collapsed, falling ill.
Gong Ze dared not leave his side. He stayed with him constantly.
Gong Ze went to identify the bodies; he didn’t let Sang You go.
The bodies of Sang You’s parents had bloated grotesquely in the water — a sight so horrifying that even the forensic examiner found it nauseating. It was impossible to recognize their faces by sight alone. They had to rely on DNA to confirm the remains’ identities.
“Gong Ze, you have to help me…”
Sang You’s eyes were red and swollen from crying. He looked up at Gong Ze, pleading, from the hospital bed. Once so pure, his gaze was now stained with hatred.
“I want revenge for my parents! I want to know who the killer is!”
…Everything was moving forward according to his precise, meticulous plan.
Down to every line of dialogue, every word had been crafted in Gong Ze’s brilliant, calculating mind.
But Gong Ze felt none of the joy he used to take in treating everyone as pawns, treating the mission like a gamble or a game — none of that pride in being the master strategist.
He wasn’t happy.
He had won, but he couldn’t bring himself to rejoice.
After a long silence, Gong Ze said, “Alright. I promise you will know the ‘truth.’”
Late that night.
Gong Ze went to the study, retrieved from the safe the ‘evidence’ he had prepared — proof that everything was the Qin family’s doing. He leaned back in his chair with a lit cigarette between his lips and rested his eyes.
Silence spread through the air.
The system looked at Gong Ze and sighed. [Host, I know what you’re thinking… You want to delay handing this evidence over to Sang You for as long as possible. As long as the truth about Sang You’s parents’ death isn’t revealed and the killer isn’t brought to justice, Sang You’s Forgiveness Value will never reach 100%.]
[Unsatisfied, the mission won’t end. And if the mission doesn’t end, you can stay here longer.]
[But Host, it’s not like you can’t complete it. You’re just one step away from success. If you deliberately delay, given how strict the Main God is, it might invalidate the mission.]
The truth of Sang You’s parents’ death was the world’s most difficult hurdle.
But at this moment — with success so close — Gong Ze hesitated because he didn’t want Sang You to suffer…
[Host, you must not waver!]
System Ni Hao Da flapped its wings anxiously, afraid that Gong Ze’s softness would undo all their progress. [The Main God is everywhere! We’re about to succeed. If you pull any tricks now, it definitely won’t work!]
Gong Ze smoked on, noncommittal.
The system’s voice pleading in his ear.
Time passed, one minute after another. The system grew more and more frantic. Then Gong Ze spoke:
“I have my own judgment.”
The system was shocked. [Host!]
“Mute.”
[No — Host, what are you doing?! The Main God won’t—]
“Force mute.”
[Host!]
The system lunged at him desperately. But the next second, a [Ding] sounded in Gong Ze’s mind.
[Mute successful.]
The little golden ball that had been flapping its wings before his eyes instantly turned into a stream of data particles and vanished.
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