Chapter 711: The Brother Who Was Good at Scheming
"Hero brother... you..."
"I don’t know if I’m thinking right, but if big brother and big sister don’t have my help... you’ll have a hard time taming that beast called 'Jade City.' After all, those people need me." I continued smiling. "You don’t have to treat me like a child anymore. If there’s anything you need me to do, just tell me."
When Sister Siwei and Brother Guyu heard what I said, they exchanged glances, and a scent of "guilt" emanated from both of them.
"But..."
"Now isn’t the time for playing around," I said again. "I don’t want to hold everyone back. If I can help all the people in this city... then let me become a true 'hero.'"
"He’s right." Brother Guyu nodded. "Now is the perfect time to make him a real 'hero.' Let him see Uncle Wan off on his final journey. And as for the 'jade' in those safes... I’ve already thought of a better place for it."
That day, the scents on Sister Siwei and Brother Guyu were both very sad. They led me to the square downstairs and made me witness with my own eyes as Uncle Wan died under the very rules he had designed himself.
Uncle Wan struggled the whole time, refusing to say "bet your life" to Sister Minotaur. So everyone started beating him, but not fatally—they just made him crawl on the ground, covered in blood, as they constantly stomped on his fingers.
When he saw us three approaching, he incredulously lifted his head to look at Brother Guyu, and in an instant, it seemed like he understood something.
"Fuck... Guyu...?"
"Long time no see, Brother Wan." Brother Guyu smiled. "How have you been lately? Anything missing that you need my help finding?"
"You motherfucker..." He crawled on the ground with effort, slowly dragging himself toward Brother Guyu. "It was you, Guyu! You stole my 'jade'!! It was you!!"
"What are you saying, Brother Wan?" Brother Guyu shook his head. "Only you knew the password to that safe. Now that something’s gone wrong, you want to frame me?"
Uncle Wan thought carefully for a moment, his body exuding an aura of confusion. It seemed he really didn’t know what was going on.
Even though he suspected Brother Guyu, he had no evidence at all.
So he could only turn his head with difficulty on the ground, looking toward Sister Siwei beside me.
I saw blood between Uncle Wan’s teeth, but not only was I not afraid, I felt no sympathy either.
Why was that...? Every time I returned to the real world, whether I saw my parents or Xu Jiahua die, I would cry bitterly from grief. But I had lived with Uncle Wan as family for four years, and I felt nothing.
"Xiao Li... save me!" Uncle Wan said to Sister Siwei. "You know I’m innocent! You know that 'jade' is useful to me—I wouldn’t hide it at a critical moment like this!!"
Sister Siwei walked forward, slowly crouched down, brought her face close to Uncle Wan, and whispered very softly, "Wan Cai, I love everyone in this world, but unfortunately, you don’t even count as human. You’ve committed too many sins. It’s time to pay with your life for those victims whose families were destroyed."
Then she stood up and asked, "Hero, now that Brother Wan has lost everyone’s 'jade,' what should we do?"
I let out a deep sigh and said, "Let’s handle it according to the 'family rules' that Uncle Wan himself set."
That day, Uncle Wan vanished from our big family.
I never saw him again after that.
My sister said he would become a "wanderer" roaming freely here, possibly starving to death one day, but that had nothing to do with us anymore.
"Everyone." Brother Guyu suddenly spoke up, addressing the crowd. "You’ve all seen that even someone as respected as Brother Wan meets the same end when he breaks the family rules."
Most of the people present didn’t know Brother Guyu, and a scent of confusion spread through the crowd.
"You... aren’t you that little Guyu from a few years ago?" an auntie asked.
That auntie happened to be from the room where I stayed—she remembered Brother Guyu.
"That’s right, it’s me." Brother Guyu said. "To be honest, this time I was invited back by Hero."
"Hero...?" The crowd began to murmur.
"He sent someone to find me and told me about Wan Cai’s conspiracy." Brother Guyu spoke loudly to the crowd. "He had already discovered that Wan Cai wanted to embezzle all that 'jade,' so he specially asked me to come back and deal with him. But he didn’t expect Wan Cai to move so fast—by the time I got back, he had already transferred all the 'jade' away."
Soon, someone in the crowd noticed the flaw in this story.
"Wait... why did Hero have to go to someone outside the 'family' to handle this? Why didn’t he tell us?"
Sister Siwei smelled nervous. She seemed unsure how to answer that question either.
Brother Guyu smiled slightly and continued, "That’s because you trusted Wan Cai too much. You wouldn’t have believed he could do something like this."
Hearing this, the crowd fell silent.
"If Hero had told you a day earlier that Wan Cai was going to transfer that 'jade,' how many of you here would have believed him?" Brother Guyu asked again.
With a few consecutive questions, everyone’s expressions changed, and the scents around them became complicated.
"So don’t be foolish. Who should you really be trusting?" Brother Guyu said in a deep voice. "Is it a 'family member' who suddenly appeared one day ready to rule over you... or the true 'hero' of this city?"
At that moment, over a thousand people were gathered nearby, yet not a single sound was made.
"But... but Brother Wan had always led us before..." an auntie said. "If it weren’t for him..."
"Led you to do what?" Brother Guyu asked. "To earn 'jade' for himself so he could use it to escape?"
The auntie fell silent again.
"Let me repeat myself." Brother Guyu raised his voice. "In this city, you can choose not to trust me, and you can choose not to trust Li Siwei, but you must trust 'Hero.' He is the only one who always has your best interests at heart. Don’t follow the wrong person."
I could smell it... I could smell that they were just one step away from believing what Brother Guyu said.
But how should that step be taken?
"I still feel something’s off..." an uncle said. "Even if the situation is as you say... our 'jade' is still gone... There’s no point in us staying here now..."
"Hero already thought of that!!" Brother Guyu smiled, his expression full of confidence.
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