TYMIMA Chapter 61.2

Si Hongche said nothing, only hugged Oliver’s scent tighter.

 

The aide looked at Si Hongche’s hands, which hadn’t healed but had worsened, and could only remain silent.

 

He remembered what he’d said to Oliver when leaving today—

 

“Just eat obediently, keep living, and don’t cause me trouble.”

 

But Oliver had said sorry to him.

 

At the time, he couldn’t understand what there was to apologize for.

 

Now he understood.

 

That person had long known he would disappear, because he wouldn’t continue living, so he could only cause trouble.

 

The aide suddenly felt somewhat desolate.

 

A person had just completely disappeared like that. Before leaving, he hadn’t even drunk that last nutritional fluid mixed with apple juice.

 

He had specifically ordered the nutritionist to add a lot—it should have been rarely sweet. But that person never tasted the only sweetness.

 

If, as Director Si suspected, the Star University principal had tampered with the autopsy report, then the once-perfect closed loop of evidence would no longer exist.

 

Those in investigation knew that when one doubt existed, the entire incident, no matter how much ironclad evidence, was worth questioning.

 

But what meaning was there now?

 

The aide desperately hoped Yan Qili was innocent, that the autopsy report had no problems, that the past events were exactly as they appeared.

 

Because Si Hongche no longer had a chance to turn back.

 

The wheels rolled over speed bumps, the huge jolt making the off-road vehicle briefly airborne. Surveillance cameras clicked instant photos, then automatically deleted tickets upon detecting Blue Pivot internal license plates.

 

Si Hongche had no reaction, just staring straight ahead into the fog-shrouded distance.

 

Waves overturned the thick night. Harbor Tan City began its first early winter rain.

 

Si Hongmei slowly lowered her arms, eyes downcast, expression somewhat lost.

 

Though inappropriate, Abaddon still reminded in his muffled voice: “Sorry, spirits can’t stay long outside the spirit realm. We don’t have much time.”

 

But Oliver didn’t rush Si Hongmei. Instead, he comforted: “It’s… okay.”

 

He wasn’t obsessed with consoling anything. If remembering was too painful for Sui Sui, then forget it.

 

His brother had a free-spirited personality, spending his life using his pen as a spear, fighting injustice. He didn’t need this world’s understanding—he had a clear conscience.

 

And he himself no longer needed anyone to know his innocence. Reputation and honor were merely spiritual burdens.

 

But Si Hongmei looked up and shook her head: “But Oliver wants to know, right?”

 

“Sui Sui…”

 

“Oliver, that day… it was almost your birthday. An auntie said night-blooming cereus flowers were beautiful. I snuck out at night to pick them, wanting to give them as your birthday gift. You said you liked flowers, that brother should give you flowers on every good day.”

 

Oliver’s heart felt like it was being cut by knives. Old pain surged up, unbearable.

 

He seemed to have said such things, probably while acting spoiled with Si Hongche, but Sui Sui had heard, remembered, and taken it seriously.

 

“I picked three flowers and wanted to go back, but I saw Brother Uriel.” Sui Sui’s voice gradually grew quieter.

 

Oliver’s nerves tightened accordingly.

 

“I greeted him, but he ignored me. He was so strange that night—he didn’t smile or hug me. When I asked if he was also preparing a gift for Oliver, he didn’t answer.”

 

“I wanted to go back first and say goodbye to him, but he grabbed my neck. Oliver, I couldn’t breathe. I felt terrible and scared. For a long, long time, I had no strength left. I couldn’t see anything clearly.” Si Hongmei helplessly crouched down.

 

Oliver felt he couldn’t breathe either. He seemed to become Sui Sui in that moment, throat gripped, dying in despair and pain in the rainforest ecological zone.

 

“I used… [Heart Questioning]… to ask brother. He said… he didn’t kill… Sui Sui. I guess… perhaps… someone controlled him.” Oliver murmured.

 

Uriel’s level was lower than his own, so [Heart Questioning] wouldn’t lie. Then in Uriel’s consciousness, he definitely hadn’t killed Sui Sui.

 

But he couldn’t explain his whereabouts that night, and surveillance cameras captured his face.

 

Perhaps brother had no self-consciousness at the time—someone borrowed his body to kill Sui Sui.

 

But regardless, Sui Sui really died at brother’s hands.

 

Oliver’s gaze dimmed.

 

Just then, Lance suddenly stood up and walked over. He crouched before Si Hongmei, showing a harmless smile: “Sui Sui, you said Oliver’s brother was strange—he didn’t smile or hug you?”

 

Si Hongmei looked at the red-haired young man before her, feeling that someone with such beautiful eyes must be a good person.

 

She nodded gently.

 

Lance narrowed his eyes. From Si Hongmei’s description, Uriel’s behavior was completely contradictory. If his intention was to molest a little girl, he couldn’t possibly not use Oliver’s brother’s identity to hug and touch Si Hongmei.

 

But his behavior could be called cold. His purpose seemed very clear—to kill Si Hongmei.

 

Lance suddenly had a theory.

 

“Do you know what he did after strangling your neck?” Lance asked.

 

Si Hongmei shook her head. From when Uriel coldly gripped her neck, she had no more awareness.

 

Lance looked thoughtful.

 

Molesters who liked touching dead bodies were extremely rare in this world. Most were timid, weak, and cowering—seeing corpses would scare them half to death, let alone killing someone.

 

Even if Uriel feared Si Hongmei’s screams would attract others, as an adult with absolute physical dominance, he had countless ways to make Si Hongmei shut up.

 

No matter what, killing Si Hongche’s sister in the restricted zone, in the surveillance-dense rainforest ecological zone, was too absurd.

 

Lance virtually held Si Hongmei’s small hand, his tone gentle, expression innocent: “Last question—that night, do you think Brother Uriel had been drinking?”

 

His flowing long hair and student-like glasses concealed all his oppressive presence, adding a filter of affability and kindness.

 

Si Hongmei unconsciously let him guide her memories.

 

Breaking through layers of fear, ignoring the pain of suffocation, Si Hongmei finally remembered what she’d overlooked.

 

She shook her head. She was familiar with alcohol’s scent because brother’s pheromones smelled like alcohol, but she hadn’t smelled that on Uriel. However—

 

“Oliver, I think I smelled perfume—vanilla scented.”

 

“…Perfume?” Oliver was stunned. “My brother never wears perfume.”

 

Lance stood up, his gaze falling on his fingers: “Vanilla-scented perfume, astringent-sweet and lingering, uniquely charming, can greatly increase attention rates. Most suitable for sexy, sweet women just entering the workplace.”

 

Dream Witch, as a pleasure-seeking Alpha who had sampled countless men and women’s fragrances, clearly disagreed: “Who says—”

 

Lance said seriously: “Duma, check if perfume ads from eighteen years ago marketed it this way.”

 

“Oh!” Duma quickly invaded the network, searching through the vast internet for perfume advertisements released eighteen years ago.

 

“Lance, there is.” Duma honestly read through the old advertising copy: “Charming Vanilla, pure astringent temptation. Women, be good to yourself. Every you entering the workplace deserves to have it.”

 

Dream Witch: “…”

 

So the fragrance market was once so disorderly. Hatefully, she wasn’t old enough to wear perfume then.

 

Lance tightened his fingers, looked away, and said casually: “That chameleon-form Awakened one I shot in the head should have… just started working back then.”

 

This time Duma didn’t need to answer. When planning the assassination, Mad Clown had already memorized Kluova and Boras’s information thoroughly.

 

Mad Clown sneered coldly: “Kluova, animal system A-level Awakened one, first-tier ability [Absolute Concealment]. Eighteen years ago, she was exactly twenty-three.”

 

Thunder rumbled, the air filled with lingering fishy rain scent. Strong winds blew intermittently, repeatedly slamming window frames against walls.

 

Glass trembled lightly, window gauze fluttered. Muscles twitched on Yan Qili’s aged face, his already sparse hair looking even more desolate by the window.

 

He forced a smile, looking puzzled: “What does Guild Master Zhan mean? I don’t understand.”

 

Zhan Qinghe had no time for verbal sparring with Yan Qili. He glanced at the time on the watch his wife bought him, then stingily hid the watch back in his sleeve before sighing and standing up.

 

Yan Qili smiled foolishly: “Look at me, so disheveled. How about I change clothes and we talk in the living room? There must be some misunderstanding, Guild Master Zhan. When Ms. Chu visited Star University last time, we had such a pleasant conversation.”

 

As soon as Yan Qili finished speaking, his face suddenly turned rigid and pale. His shoulders seemed pressed by an invisible mountain, making him unable to breathe. He fell to his knees with a “thud.”

 

The night sweat that had been dried by night wind now poured from his pores again—but while it was hot sweat before, now it was cold sweat.

 

Yan Qili gasped rapidly, his trembling arms supporting him on the ground. His legs also shook uncontrollably, his internal organs seeming disordered and twisted together.

 

Zhan Qinghe looked down at him condescendingly, his tone extremely impatient: “I said I don’t like beating around the bush.”

 

He slowly closed his five fingers. A surging, powerful S-level pheromone instantly swept through the entire room. The hanging chandelier, decorative art on walls, bedside lamp, and flower vase by the window all trembled like Yan Qili’s limbs.

 

Animal system S-level Awakened one second-tier ability [Intimidation]!

 

The unique ability of the king of beasts, capable of making people repeatedly fall into near-death fear until mental collapse.

 

Yan Qili struggled to raise his head, cold sweat rolling down his jaw in embarrassment. His teeth chattered as he endured fear from inside out: “You… will bring… deadly disaster!”

 

Zhan Qinghe laughed, yet his body still carried heart-shaking kingly aura.

 

Yan Qili tremblingly reached for Zhan Qinghe’s pant leg, suffering unbearably, speaking unclearly: “Guild Master Zhan… I beg you… Ghost Eye Guild… can’t get involved… in this matter!”

 

Zhan Qinghe shook off Yan Qili’s hand, mercilessly increasing his ability’s pressure. He said coldly: “I’ll ask once more—what did you tamper with in Si Hongmei’s autopsy report?”

 

Yan Qili simply couldn’t withstand such powerful [Intimidation]. He finally had a mental breakdown, collapsing on the ground, shaking like a sieve while muttering in a daze: “I didn’t… tamper with anything! I just… I… found no bodily fluids or saliva on the deceased, couldn’t compare with… Uriel’s DNA. I… was about to question superiors when my soul was… forcibly pulled from my body!”

 

After speaking, Yan Qili frantically tore at his clothes. With a ripping sound, his pajamas burst open, revealing his chest skin.

 

That loose, thick chest actually had two patches of purplish death spots!

 

Zhan Qinghe frowned deeply. Even having seen many strange things over the years, he still found this incredible.

 

Soul pulled from the body while alive, yet the body began dying.

 

He knew people could tear off soul fragments as anchor points for abilities, but that required ensuring the body’s survival.

 

He had never seen an example of life and death coexisting.

 

“Who was that person?”

 

Yan Qili smiled bitterly and shook his head: “Don’t… know. I’m just a small… small person. If I don’t obey, I… I die. But Guild Master Zhan… my report was indeed… written truthfully. Otherwise… Director Si wouldn’t have… believed all these years. But… I didn’t tell him that the wounds on his sister’s body… were pinched and kneaded with the right hand, and I once… once treated Uriel’s tenosynovitis in the restricted zone. He’s… he’s left-handed!”

 

Everything Yan Qili said was transmitted to Ghost Eye Guild through the earpiece, and the truth from back then gradually became clear.

 

The killer wasn’t Uriel at all. Someone had taken on Uriel’s appearance but made a fatal error by not knowing Uriel was left-handed.

 

Because Yan Qili found no bodily fluids or saliva on Si Hongmei’s corpse, he doubted the molestation claim. However, just as he was about to report upward, he received a warning.

 

Fearing the schemer’s power, he chose to conceal it. He even cooperated with the schemer to complete a flawless autopsy report.

 

As for the secret that Si Hongmei’s wounds were made with the right hand, he also kept that hidden.

 

Probably due to good performance, he was rewarded by becoming Star University’s principal four years later.

 

He wasn’t completely trusted—Erdiff was that person’s eyes. They established the Student Care Office at Star University to monitor his every word and action.

 

He dozed and slacked off daily, flattering superiors, acting like an easily manipulated, stupid, dull waste.

 

He thought he was just a small person.

 

He had been an ordinary doctor for over twenty years. The worst consequence he caused was cutting a patient’s fascia incorrectly, costing the hospital quite a bit of money.

 

Unable to stay at the hospital, he applied to the restricted zone medical center to continue being a small person.

 

There, his only mistake was not raising more questions about autopsy results.

 

This matter was deeply rooted and widely implicated. He was just an insignificant link. Even if he said one or two sentences less, what did it matter?

 

He always felt small people couldn’t change the times. They were like insignificant waves in the ocean—whether achievements or sins had nothing to do with them.

 

But he was wrong.

 

Over the years, he watched Si Hongche pursue the killer across thousands of miles, gradually going mad. He watched him mistake his lover for an enemy, cruelly torturing him. He watched the academically devoted He Jing’en become dispirited and unable to express his anguish, trampled underfoot by Erdiff.

 

He also watched the originally brilliant Star University gradually dragged into a filthy abyss by him.

 

The consequences he caused were irreversible, painful, absurd, and too numerous to record.

 

But besides surviving, he was powerless to do anything.

 

Zhan Qinghe withdrew his ability.

 

Yan Qili’s near-death fear instantly disappeared. He collapsed exhaustedly on the carpet.

 

He struggled to open his weary eyelids. Knowing it was beyond salvation, his heart became calm as still water.

 

He asked: “Guild Master Zhan, I want to know—what’s your relationship with the Black Lantern Society?”

 

“No relationship.” Zhan Qinghe answered impatiently, then grabbed Yan Qili’s shirt front, easily pulling up his bloated body.

 

Yan Qili said urgently: “Where are you taking me? Only if I stay here won’t they discover anything amiss!”

 

Once he left, the schemer would definitely know the matter was exposed, and then he would surely die.

 

Zhan Qinghe sneered coldly: “Unfortunately, I want Si Hongche to discover something amiss.”

 

Yan Qili desperately gripped the window frame: “Aren’t you afraid!”

 

“Afraid of what.”

 

With that, Zhan Qinghe unhesitatingly dragged Yan Qili and jumped from the window.

 

While still in mid-air, he didn’t forget to switch communications to Chu Fu. Zhan Qinghe’s tone was enthusiastic, full of emotional value: “Hey wife, I’m preparing to come home. Just letting you know.”

 

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