Invasion - Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Ni Ji followed a sentinel into a private elevator.
The sentinel leading him had delicate features, almost more feminine than a woman's. But his build was lean and strong, his movements concealing strength. Ni Ji could tell at a glance that he was a powerful warrior.
Ni Ji guessed that his mental body was probably a cold-blooded animal like a snake, python, or lizard. When he looked at people, even when his eyes were smiling, there was always a coldness in his gaze.
He introduced himself to Ni Ji, saying his name was Le Ruo, and that he was Minister of Military Affairs Jiang Yimei’s chief bodyguard.
The private elevator they were riding in started moving upwards.
"You’re very lucky. Having caught the Minister's attention, you're about to rise to the top," inside the elevator, Le Ruo looked Ni Ji up and down, his eyes smiling, his gaze very uninhibited. "Perform well, maybe you'll soon surpass your teacher."
The way he looked at Ni Ji was very presumptuous, like he was looking at a fish that had been skinned and placed on a chopping block.
Ni Ji was very familiar with this kind of look, and knew what it meant.
Since attending these endless banquets, he had often seen this kind of person, this kind of look.
They just held a little bit of power, and thought they could trample on other people's dignity, even their lives, at will, abusing and humiliating them freely.
Le Ruo led Ni Ji to the top floor of the tallest building in the center of the residence.
It was a bedroom, with a soft, large bed, and various chairs of different heights. Mirrors decorated the walls, and a sweet incense burned in the censer.
The roof was completely transparent, with large floor-to-ceiling windows. The view was excellent, they could see the beautiful garden scenery below and the starry sky above.
Le Ruo only let Ni Ji sit on a designated sofa.
"You have to adapt to the rules here, learn to obey," Le Ruo said. "Behave yourself later, you’re not allowed to disobey a single word she says, not even a little bit."
Ni Ji nodded. "Okay."
His voice was very gentle, sounding like a tamed lamb.
Le Ruo thought Ni Ji wasn't bad, he liked guys who knew their place, it made things much easier for everyone. He might suffer a bit, but he would also be rewarded. He, Le Ruo, wouldn’t have to do anything and could enjoy himself.
Sometimes, the Minister would take a liking to some unreasonable people, making him have to expend a lot of effort, even making things very ugly, cleaning up the mess was also a troublesome task.
The Minister, of course, only cared about her own pleasure, wasn’t it up to them, the underlings, to do the dirty work?
"That Minister doesn't like others prying into her private life. Don’t tell anyone about you coming here, including your teacher," Le Ruo said. "When I brought you up here, I deliberately took the private passage, just so no one else would see."
"Okay, I won't tell anyone," Ni Ji replied obediently, his voice even sounding a little happy.
Le Ruo left, satisfied.
It was very late, the banquet had reached its latter half, most people no longer interested in drinking, all seeking their own pleasures. The lights in the shadows of the trees, the flower bushes, and all the rooms were very dim. In those dimly lit corners, all sorts of obscene scenes were unfolding.
Ni Ji sat on the designated sofa, looking at the garden, and at the starry sky above.
He suddenly thought of another starry sky, of the scene of him and another person running hand in hand under that brilliant, canvas-like starry sky.
Running like that, facing the wind, on the road, swimming in the ocean.
He shook his head, forcing himself to erase those images from his mind.
In such a filthy place, he really shouldn't think about her, shouldn't think about such a pure person.
Even just thinking about it felt like a desecration.
Le Ruo brought some equipment, first carefully searching Ni Ji from head to toe, then using a metal detector to thoroughly scan his entire body.
"Have to be cautious," he said. "You know, we have to be wary of assassins, who knows when we might encounter some lunatic who wants to get close and do something reckless."
As he spoke, he took out a syringe, held Ni Ji's shoulder, and injected it into his neck.
Ni Ji sat there, glanced at him, and didn't resist at all.
He knew what these people wanted to do, it was incredibly dirty and disgusting. They casually preyed on others, wantonly ruining them, while cherishing their own lives, cautious at every step, afraid of being assassinated or getting revenge.
Le Ruo was very satisfied with Ni Ji’s obedience.
"It’s nothing, just some little something to help set the mood," Le Ruo said happily. "Just to make you a little more… compliant, and lose your ability to resist excessively. You’ll get used to it soon. You’ll find that this is much better than risking your life on the battlefield, and you’ll soon get everything you want."
He thought for a moment, and took out a second syringe from the tray.
Ni Ji suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist.
"I have to do this, for the Minister's safety," Le Ruo said.
"There was once a sentinel, a girl, I gave her one dose, and I didn’t expect her to still have the strength to suddenly attack at a critical moment. She almost killed Minister Jiang," he gestured at his throat. "Completely severed, it was thanks to timely rescue, and the highest level treatment pod, that she was saved."
"Fortunately, I was there at the time, and managed to subdue the female assassin," he smiled at Ni Ji. "Do you want to know what happened to her in the end?"
Ni Ji didn't speak, just held his hand, looking at him coldly.
"That's more like it, that’s the look a sentinel should have, the look a sentinel who’s spent a few years at an outpost should have," Le Ruo’s smile never left his face. "I always felt you were too docile, it made me a little uneasy. But it doesn’t matter, two doses, and it won’t matter how strong you are.”
"If you disagree," his expression turned cold, "the Minister won't come out to see you. And you won’t have a good time."
Ni Ji looked at him for a long time, let go of his hand, sat up straight, and stopped speaking.
Le Ruo smiled again, his eyes crinkling, the sharp syringe against Ni Ji's neck. "It's okay, don’t be afraid, you'll just have to lie in the treatment pod for a while, at most. I guarantee you won't die."
The cold liquid was injected into Ni Ji’s veins. He leaned close to Ni Ji's ear and said, "Soon you won't be able to move at all, completely at the mercy of others. But it’s okay, I’ll be with you throughout."
The sound of the door opening came, and Ni Ji could no longer sit still, his straight back sliding down, completely limp on the sofa.
His eyes were open, he could only look at the sky above. His vision was clear, he could still speak, but his limbs were weak, unable to move.
The person who came in was holding a wine glass, her fingers painted with bright red nail polish. She stood there, looking him over for a while.
"Not bad looking, what’s his mental body?" The person's voice was arrogant, her expression cold.
As if what lay before her wasn’t a living person, but just a toy at her disposal.
"I don’t know," Le Ruo stood aside, smiling. "He can’t release his mental body now, we can let him release it later for you to see."
Ni Ji heard that voice ask him, "How old are you, what's your name? Are you doing this willingly? I don’t like forcing people.”
Ni Ji, lying there, asked something completely unrelated to the question. "Do you remember the No. 32 Contaminated Zone?"
His voice was very calm, without any obvious emotion, not like someone drugged.
"Contaminated zone? I don’t remember," the voice opposite him was a little impatient, probably because she thought he was being tactless, bringing up contaminated zones at a time like this.
Ni Ji continued, "It was you who signed the deployment order, sending the entire sentinel outpost in the northern border there, to retrieve a living worm jade."
The person opposite him sat down on a chair, crossing her legs, revealing a pair of exquisite high heels made of crocodile skin.
"Oh, I remember now. No. 32 Contaminated Zone, a living worm jade appeared there," the voice became even colder. "Living worm jades are rare, but it's nothing to me. Only, those sentinels from the northern border couldn’t even bring back a single worm jade, they're a bunch of trash. Making me, the Minister of Military Affairs, lose face. Such an unpleasant incident."
"Why are you asking about this?"
Ni Ji made a soft sound of acknowledgement. "I just wanted to confirm."
The high-ranking imperial official sitting across from him gestured to Le Ruo with her red-nailed hand.
"He’s okay, but his mouth doesn’t know how to speak, how boring.”
Le Ruo, respectfully standing by the side, stood up and walked towards Ni Ji. He had a slightly troubled look on his face, holding a gag.
"He seems quite smart, how come he suddenly doesn't know how to speak anymore?"
He bent down, his face presumptuously close to Ni Ji, looking at Ni Ji’s indifferent eyes, the hairs on his back suddenly stood on end.
It was a high-level sentinel’s intuition for danger.
Le Ruo quickly leaned back.
At that moment, with a sentinel’s dynamic vision, he clearly saw the scar on Ni Ji’s wrist split open. He had actually, with his fingers, pulled out a thin, long silver needle that had been buried in the muscles of his arm.
He didn’t know what material the silver needle was made of. Stained with his blood, held in his hand, it stabbed towards Le Ruo’s throat.
I can dodge this.
Le Ruo made this judgment in that instant.
As long as he avoided the vital points, as long as he could dodge the fatal blow, even if he was seriously injured, he could save his life with a treatment pod afterwards.
Although he didn't understand why Ni Ji could still attack, all he had to do now was avoid the vital areas.
Even if he had to take this attack, he could at least restrain Ni Ji's wrist for a while.
By then, Jiang Yimei would react and press the emergency button on her personal terminal.
This damned assassin would then be caught.
The next moment, his pupils constricted.
He saw the long needle in Ni Ji’s hand, that silver, blood-stained needle, glow with an eerie red light. The thin, long needle suddenly extended in mid-air, turning into a long, blood-red blade.
That bright red color, like the flames of revenge burning from hell, stung his eyes.
Le Ruo felt a hot stream on his neck.
The world started to spin, his vision became very high, he saw a headless body standing in front of him.
Strange, who was that? Why were they wearing his clothes?
Only when his vision lowered, his head rolling on the carpet, did he hear the sharp scream from the Minister of Military Affairs he had always served.
His headless body fell to the ground almost at the same time as Jiang Yimei.
The usually high and mighty imperial official’s screams before death were no different from an ordinary person’s.
Sharp, panicked, unwilling to accept her fate. Just like most ordinary people, she died ugly and miserably, not a bit elegant or noble.
The blood flowing from the two of them covered the carpet.
Le Ruo stared at the blood-red world before him and suddenly remembered that day, it had also been like this, the carpet covered in blood. He had held the female sentinel who had tried to assassinate the Minister by the neck, pressing her face against this carpet.
“You’ll get your retribution, one day.”
That girl had had beautiful eyes, even when she was tortured to death by him, the spark in those eyes hadn’t been completely extinguished.
You’ll get your retribution.
At that time, he hadn’t taken those words to heart.
He had tortured that assassin, chuckling, mocking such fools in the world.
He had heard such words too many times, but had never seen anyone get their true retribution.
So she had actually been right.
Retribution.
The head on the carpet closed its eyes.
…
Ni Ji stood in the messy room. He had to erase all traces he had left here, fingerprints, footprints, even the way he used the blade.
The scene had become a bloody mess.
Jiang Yimei’s status was high, this incident would definitely cause a huge commotion. He had to be more careful and thorough when cleaning up the mess.
No one had seen him on his way up here. The only one who knew, Le Ruo, was now a corpse.
The surveillance in the elevator and on the road had been completely erased. He still needed to deal with the fingerprints and some biological traces.
It wasn’t too difficult, he basically hadn’t touched anything after entering this room.
Ni Ji stood up, feeling a wave of dizziness in his head.
He knew the drugs were taking effect.
Before doing this, he had conducted a thorough investigation, and knew about all of these people’s methods and habits.
So, when Le Ruo had come to the pond to call him, he had quietly injected himself with the diluted antidote hidden in his pocket.
That was why the drug took effect much later than those people had anticipated.
Only, that smiling guy had been too ruthless, he had actually injected him with double the dose.
Ni Ji pinched the bridge of his nose, realizing his hands were covered in blood. He stood up, glanced at the mirror on the wall, this room was full of smooth, mirror-like surfaces.
The person in the mirror radiated killing intent, his face and body covered in large patches of blood, he looked like a vengeful ghost crawling out from hell.
“That person is back, I wonder if she’s received the things I sent.”
This thought inexplicably appeared in his mind at this moment.
He shook his dizzy head, trying to get rid of this thought.
Why would he think of that person at a time like this, when his hands were covered in blood?
Only, once that thought appeared, it couldn’t be shaken off, surging like waves, layer after layer.
"Does she like the blade I sent? Will she carry it with her?"
"That person has been back for so many days, what has she been busy with?"
"Where is she now? What is she doing?"
In those blood-stained mirrors, even that person’s smiling face appeared.
Was he crazy?
He must be crazy.
How could he, with his hands covered in blood, like a vengeful ghost, dare to think of that person who was like the moon?
The dizziness in his head gradually intensified, his heart rate and pulse accelerating.
Messy thoughts, one smiling face after another, kept appearing.
Ni Ji ripped off his blood-stained white shirt, wiped his hands and face, and cut the bloody shirt into pieces, flushing them down the sewer.
He opened the closet, which took up an entire wall, his upper body bare, and found rows of brand new men’s clothing neatly arranged inside.
Ni Ji picked out a most ordinary white shirt, put it on, and attached his original cufflinks, tie clip, and those inexplicable accessories.
He smoothed his hair, seeing himself in the mirror return to the way he had looked when he first arrived, frivolous and dissolute.
His steps already unsteady, Ni Ji put on his gloves, took one last look at the bloody scene, and opened the door to leave.
…
The lights in the corridor were dim, and Ni Ji walked quickly. His vision was already blurry, and the floor seemed to be twisting.
He knew what kind of dirty stuff Le Ruo had injected him with.
He had to move faster, find an empty room, lock himself inside, and get through this period.
Occasionally, a few luxuriously dressed figures, their faces unclear, would walk past him, giggling.
He heard licentious sounds coming from various corners.
Several people from who knew where grabbed him.
"Hee hee, look, a guy who’s high," those people said, pushing and shoving him, giggling.
What they meant by "high" wasn’t from alcohol.
At this moment, Ni Ji's eyes were red, his body temperature high, his steps unsteady, everyone knew what had happened.
This kind of thing was very common on a night like this. In this luxurious residence, almost every room had a large amount of “spices” and “candies” for pleasure.
Ni Ji wanted to push them away, but his arms were too weak to exert any force.
Those arms that had once killed several monsters in a contaminated zone, were now too weak to push away an ordinary dandy.
No one took his resistance seriously. He was quickly pushed against the wall by these people who were out looking for fun.
"Not bad looking, can't find a partner? Why not play with us?"
"Just a little too tall, pull him down a bit."
"Wow, this face is amazing."
Those people kept talking, giggling, Ni Ji couldn't see their faces clearly, disgusting faces overlapping before his eyes, their mouths opening and closing, constantly moving.
Ni Ji waved his hand, pushing away an arm trying to touch him.
Only eliciting a burst of laughter.
"He’s still unwilling."
"Can't even stand properly, still putting on an act."
"I like this kind of thorny rose.”
A small dagger slid out from his sleeve, Ni Ji gripping it tightly between his fingers.
Now, this blade was his only reliance. He had no strength left, his fingers trembling, his legs and waist weakening.
But he could still kill. At least kill one person.
He tried to open his eyes wide, to look at the people coming towards him.
Just one strike, one slash across someone's throat, and all of this would be over.
He knew these people, they seemed boisterous and arrogant, but if one of them died, the rest would immediately scatter like flies.
Only, he would be dying alongside this trash, with no chance of escape.
Ni Ji, his eyes red, his trembling, weak fingers reaching for the bloodthirsty blade,
At this moment, he saw a familiar face.
It was the moonlight that peeked into the seabed, it was the person he constantly thought about, yet never dared to touch.
It must be an illusion, he thought.
These drugs had made him go crazy.
Everything around him was distorted and chaotic. Only that face, suddenly appearing in the distance, was exceptionally clear.
In a daze, he saw that face look over, and the last bit of ruthlessness in his heart disappeared.
It was that person.
She was walking towards him.
If there was anyone in this world Ni Ji could trust with everything, it was only this person before him, a Guide.
A Guide so powerful that she was reassuring.
Ni Ji, looking at the Guide approaching him through the crowd, suddenly felt a sense of relief.
The turbulent anger in his heart dissipated, replaced by a feeling of grievance he refused to admit.
His tightly tensed body completely relaxed, his sweat-soaked back sliding down against the wall.
An arm reached out, supporting his body in time, preventing him from collapsing.
"Get lost, he’s mine," he heard a familiar voice next to his ear.
Wife is here to save her hubby~
ReplyDelete