Evolution - Chapter 130
Chapter 130
If Nankong knew what he was thinking right now, he’d probably puke. Giving up a perfectly good officer’s commission to be his canary? Was he out of his mind?
What did it feel like to have your bones systematically shattered and then regenerated? He didn’t know if the Klopp Family Head could endure it. But since the drug would take half an hour to fully kick in, he had no reason to wait around. With time to kill, he might as well indulge in a bit of violent aesthetics.
Although the Klopp Family Head had been living a life of luxury for years, he was once an outstanding soldier who had undergone rigorous training.
The stabbing, he endured. He even needed Nankong to stop the bleeding so he wouldn’t die too soon.
The whipping and soaking in saltwater—though he trembled in pain, he endured it and didn’t talk.
Nankong tried flaying a section of his calf and soaking it in saltwater. He looked on the verge of collapse, but still, his lips remained sealed.
Before Nankong could try a fourth position, the full power of the drug took effect.
If the Klopp Family Head had been trembling in pain before, now he was in too much pain to even tremble. His body went rigid, veins bulging, tears and snot streaming down his face. He was like a fish out of water, mouth agape, letting out silent screams.
“This is just the beginning,” Nankong told him with a smile. “It will get more and more painful. Hmm, for how many days was it? Five or seven, I think.”
Klopp stared at him, a rattling sound coming from his throat. If looks could kill, Nankong would have already been sliced into a thousand pieces.
“Don’t expect anyone to save you. All your men have been taken care of.” Seeing that Klopp was about to break but was still holding on to a sliver of hope, trying to buy time, Nankong delivered the final blow with a light tone.
He had just received Jixin’s report that the cleanup was complete.
Klopp’s eyes lost focus. He couldn’t comprehend how he had ended up in this state.
Nankong was still droning on, standing before the bed and looking down at the wretched Klopp Family Head, warming to his topic. “What are you worried about? I’m doing this for your own good. If I didn’t like you, you’d already be a dead man. Just give me the item, and you can still be an earl of the Empire, with all the honor that entails. I really don’t understand what you’re being so melodramatic about.”
For my own good? Melodramatic? What kind of beast was spouting this nonsense? The Klopp Family Head was incredulous, so filled with hatred that his eyes looked ready to bleed. Ah, you want to take the very thing my life and security depend on, and you say it’s for my own good?
“Hmm. Your reaction is quite strange. Weren’t these the very words you used to persuade me back then? What, does it sound wrong now that you’re the one hearing it?” Nankong said coldly. “You’d better think carefully. Give it to me, and you can live a good life as an Imperial earl. Don’t, and you won’t need it when you’re dead.”
At his words, the Klopp Family Head had to search hard in the corners of his memory to recall the incident. At the time, he had been riding high. Nankong’s anger, Nankong’s resistance—he had found it all annoying, genuinely believing his lover was being utterly ungrateful.
He had been so considerate, doting on him, protecting him. Why couldn’t he just accept it with grace?
Now, he could probably understand how the person being “persuaded” felt.
Nankong began to slowly bleed Klopp, his movements gentle, his tone as soft as a lover’s whisper. “I’ll give you one more minute. If you don’t hand it over, I’ll let you slowly bleed to death. Don’t worry, I’ll control the time. You’ll be free in just an hour.”
The pain made the Klopp Family Head feel more clear-headed than ever. He truly felt that Nankong hated him, hated him enough to want him to die a miserable death. This wasn’t some game of playing hard to get, nor was it a spoiled tantrum that could be soothed with a little coaxing.
Because he, too, wanted Nankong to die a miserable death, preferably by his own hand, sliced into a thousand pieces.
But the will to survive made him think, Even if he takes what’s in the storage sphere, I’ll still be an earl of the Empire.
He would only lose the profits from that particular chain of interests.
But he had already lost fifty or sixty percent of his assets after defecting from the Alliance. Losing a little more seemed acceptable. Most importantly, if he really died, the Klopp family would instantly plummet to the bottom of society.
I’m enduring this humiliation for the sake of the family. As long as he was alive, he could eventually carve out a place for himself in the Empire.
With these thoughts, the Klopp Family Head managed to convince himself. With great difficulty, he indicated: You can have it, you can have it all!
Nankong was extremely cautious, fully aware of the Klopp Family Head’s shamelessness.
The Klopp Family Head claimed the storage sphere was located through the study on the left, hoping Nankong would restore his ability to move.
Nankong’s response was to calmly and unhesitatingly slice off one of his toes. If he hadn’t been worried about needing fingerprints or the like, he would have gone for a hand. After cutting it off, he dragged him to the living quarters and gestured toward the spot they had deduced. “Open it.”
The Klopp Family Head’s expression faltered for a moment, his shock confirming that this was indeed another entrance.
“I told you, hand over the item and I’ll spare your life. Try any more tricks, and I’ll cut you.” He pressed the tip of his knife between the Klopp Family Head’s legs, the threat unmistakable.
The drug’s effect—an hour of high energy followed by several hours of weakness—was still running its course. The high-energy period had long passed, and Klopp was now in a weakened state. If he tried anything, Nankong could crush him with one hand.
The entrance here was very close to the storage device. The Klopp Family Head, with trembling hands, disarmed layer after layer of security measures and obediently retrieved the storage sphere, handing it to Nankong.
Nankong didn’t take it. He had him hold it and backed away.
The Klopp Family Head was tied back to the bed, forced to watch as Nankong took out an inconspicuous little gadget, opened it, and found that it had indeed automatically copied new files.
He would read a file name, and Klopp would provide the password.
The Klopp Family Head couldn’t remember that many, so he had to explain where the password book was and how to retrieve it.
Nankong sent Jixin to get it.
While tirelessly opening each file with its password, he threatened Klopp, “If any of these files self-destruct upon opening, you’re dead, understand?”
The Klopp Family Head indicated that he understood, but he still hadn’t given up, wanting to know who was behind all this.
After trying each one and confirming they were all correct, Nankong made several more copies. Only then did he open the storage sphere to verify that all the files matched.
Jixin didn’t show his face. After fetching the password book, he stood guard outside, feeling time pass with excruciating slowness, afraid that any delay would lead to complications.
In his mind, once they had the item, they should have left immediately. They would have plenty of time to sort through it later. Why go through it all now?
The only thing that gave him a sliver of reassurance was that Saiweiyala, who had been monitoring everything and providing precise locations, had not issued any warnings. This meant they were safe for the time being. Her contribution had been indispensable in allowing him to lead his men to take down, bind, and lock up the Klopp Family Head’s people so smoothly.
Nankong clearly had a different idea. Not only did he check each file, but he also asked questions as he went.
He couldn’t ask about every single detail, of course. He was selective, focusing on the planetary rebellion from years ago.
To Jixin, for whom every second felt like an eternity, it seemed each moment brought him closer to death. The Klopp Family Head felt the same.
He could feel the blood draining from his body. The intense pain caused his muscles to twitch, and under such conditions, his wounds couldn’t possibly begin to heal and stop bleeding.
Finally, Nankong stood up and told the men outside to prepare a vehicle. He hastily stopped the bleeding and applied some medicine. At last, he leaned down and whispered, “How can you be so stupid, always asking which family it was? Did it never occur to you that they were all in on it? Wealth corrupts the heart. Good luck.”
With that, he quietly closed the door and left.
Certain that his life had been spared, that Nankong truly wasn’t going to kill him, Klopp was filled with complex emotions. Staring at the gently closed door, he let his head hang limply, his thoughts a blur.
The faint sound of a car starting reached him. He knew Nankong was about to escape his grasp, and he might never be able to avenge this humiliation in his lifetime. Yet he was powerless, left to gasp for breath and struggle in vain like a fish out of water.
He heard someone ask a quiet question, and another person reply. He could only make out the faint sounds, not the words. Gradually, the world fell silent once more.
They sped along, quickly reaching Flower Alley. It was nearly midnight, the time when Flower Alley was at its most lively. Nankong had already disguised himself in the car. He now had a plain, unremarkable face with a sallow complexion, making him even less conspicuous. They parked the car randomly on the roadside, opened the doors, and stepped into the crowd. Like fish returning to the sea, they vanished in an instant.
The two of them casually followed the flow of people through the streets and alleys, turning left and right until they reached the designated meeting point, where Ji Changqing and Saiweiyala were already waiting.
The four of them were all a little excited as they successfully regrouped. They exchanged glances and broke into smiles. Escaping the cage was truly exhilarating!
Ji Changqing pulled out a stack of items and handed three completely different sets to each person. “I’ve prepared credentials for three different routes. If we get separated by accident, you can choose which one to take depending on the situation.”
She quietly explained the rendezvous points, code words, and scheduled times for each set of credentials.
Her words brought everyone’s soaring spirits back down to earth. The last ten percent of a journey is the hardest part. This was only the beginning. They would only be sixty or seventy percent safe once they successfully returned to the Alliance, found the right people, and handed over the evidence.
The remaining thirty or forty percent of their safety would depend on the uprooting of everyone implicated by the data.
Every step they took from now on would be more difficult than everything they had done tonight.
Nankong looked at the others. “Let’s go. Keep your spirits up. We’ve got it easy compared to some.”
The one with it harder was He Qingzhi.
When He Qingzhi learned that Ji Changqing’s cover had been blown, he was nearly scared out of his wits. If they could trace the vine back to its source, could he really expect to remain unscathed?
Of course not. He had no choice but to join their group.
He had performed quite well over the past year. Coupled with the fact that he was currently the only Omega in the He family’s direct line, the others were counting on using him in a marriage alliance to gain benefits.
Due to the He family’s maverick style back in the Alliance, all the family members who defected with them were surnamed He, and all were Alphas. Everyone else was either abandoned or would rather die than associate with them.
Moreover, they had risked everything to rush toward their imagined Alpha paradise—the Empire, where Alphas could do as they pleased and enjoy countless privileges.
But after throwing themselves into the Empire’s embrace, they were stunned to find that the gap between reality and imagination was a bit too wide.
True, thanks to their great contributions from diligently selling out the Alliance’s interests, and the considerable number of people they brought with them, the Empire had grudgingly granted them a title and a fief to appease them.
In reality, however, the Imperial nobles didn’t give them the time of day. If the Klopp family could still get a few friendly looks by virtue of their ongoing chain of interests in the Alliance, the He family—a low-spec version of the same product—was beneath their notice. After all, when you have the high-quality original, who would bother with the knock-off?
That’s right. The Empire the He family had dreamed of treated them like a cheap add-on.
If even the Klopp Family Head had to swallow his pride and bide his time, it went without saying for the He Family Head.
He was incredibly frustrated but couldn’t voice it. If you asked him how he felt now, it was regret. Deep regret.
Yes, Alphas in the Empire had many privileges, but these privileges were built upon stripping other genders of their due rights. In practice, they were useless.
Ninety-nine percent of these so-called privileges were things they already had back in the Alliance.
Their current feeling was probably akin to a chauvinist finally getting his wish and arriving in a country where he could legally have three wives and four concubines, only to find himself not only at the bottom of society but also unable to get it up. The clinical term was impotence.
Without the aphrodisiac of power, the once-powerful He Family Head was deeply troubled.
How much sorrow can one man have? As much as a troop of eunuchs visiting a brothel.
It was truly tragic.
Under these circumstances, given their disposition, their first choice was naturally a marriage alliance. The problem was that the Omegas from the families they wanted to connect with were all sharp and clear-eyed. Not a single one was blind enough to spare the He family’s Alphas even a sideways glance.
And so, He Qingzhi became the hope of the entire village. He was lectured daily about putting the family first, told that no matter what happened to him in the future, the family would always be his staunch supporter.
In the past year, he had been fed more brainwashing in an attempt to turn him into an idiot than in the previous twenty-plus years of his life combined.
He remained noncommittal. Who the hell would want a “staunch supporter” that might stab him in the back at any moment? The only thing he wanted was the data on their chain of interests—the one that sold out the Alliance to fund the Empire—so he could watch them all go up in fireworks.
This situation wasn’t entirely bad for him. At the very least, to feed him sweet talk and brainwashing, they had to put on a show, right? This allowed him to frequently enter the main residence and gain access, to varying degrees, to some core secrets.
Unfortunately, it was a double-edged sword. Because the He family was unpopular, he received the special treatment of being “the hope of the entire village,” which made it easier for him to take action and locate the storage sphere.
But it was also because they couldn’t break into the nobles’ social circles that they were snubbed at last year’s New Year’s banquet. This year was even worse. Last year, they had received a few invitations from people curious to see if they were worth associating with. Now that it was clear they weren’t, they hadn’t received a single invitation this year.
Unable to bear the shame, the He Family Head returned to Hading Planet early to avoid major embarrassment. I didn’t attend any New Year’s banquets because I wasn’t there. Flawless logic, at least for saving face.
But it made things miserable for He Qingzhi.
The plan was for both sides to act simultaneously. With Jixin helping Nankong, Ji Changqing would be free to work with He Qingzhi.
Everything had been planned perfectly, and then—bam—the He Family Head left early, taking with him the storage sphere He Qingzhi had been dreaming of day and night.
The original plan was completely ruined!
The problem was, they had to act at the same time. If they weren’t synchronized and one side ran into trouble, wouldn’t the other side be alerted? The resulting paranoia and heightened security would make it extremely difficult for the other party to succeed.
He Qingzhi had no choice but to follow them back to Hading Planet and fight alone. This made his situation more than ten times harder than Ji Changqing’s group. After all, Hading Planet was their home base, where they could even mobilize troops.
Ji Changqing thought to herself that while He Qingzhi’s situation was tragic, Nankong’s was the beautiful, strong, and tragic script. He Qingzhi, on the other hand, had been handed the hell-level lone hero script.
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