PTM 93

Extra 2 Shen Jing’s perspective Part 1

He was caught.

The man in black pulled the cloth covering Shen Jing’s head, and the blinding white light made him reflexively turn his face away. Once his pupils adjusted to the light, he could see that he was in a dilapidated warehouse. There were no windows, and the air was saturated with the smell of dust and rust.

“Tap–tap–”

The sound of a cane tapping on the concrete floor came from the doorway, the rhythm neither too fast nor too slow.

A tall, slender figure walked in from outside the door.

Shen Jing blinked as his gaze gradually focused.

Silver, lustrous hair, deep-set features, smooth, flawless skin, and most importantly, those heterochromatic blue-green eyes.

Shen Jing immediately recognized the person as the noble child that he and his three brothers had kidnapped many years ago.

It was a failed kidnapping. The four of them were completely outmaneuvered by those brats. Not only they gained nothing but also exposed their whereabouts, making their situation in Penglai even more difficult afterward.

“Zong… Yanlei?” Shen Jing tried hard to recall the name from his memory.

Zong Yanlei slowly walked up to him, stopped, tapped his cane on the ground, and looked down at him.

“What’s the name of that person in your group who’s really good with a triangular dagger?”

Shen Jing stared at him coldly without saying a word.

Zong Yanlei tilted his head and thought for a moment: “Xu Fang?”

Shen Jing’s eye twitched slightly.

During the large-scale manhunt three years ago, his eldest and third brothers were captured while trying to protect him and his second brother. One was captured by the Penglai people, and the other was tortured and sentenced to death. This was his eternal pain, and he would not tolerate this Penglai brat joking about it.

“What exactly are you trying to say?” he asked in a deep voice.

Zong Yanlei stared at him for a long time, so long that Shen Jing almost thought the other was deliberately testing his patience, which, as it turned out, was indeed the case.

“I know you didn’t kill Bishop Yi; you’re just taking the blame for someone else,” Zong Yanlei said. He no longer beat around the bush. “I have a way to avenge you. The price is that you work for me.”

He switched the cane to the other hand, his tone as casual as if he were discussing a small business deal: “What?”

Shen Jing’s hands, which were tied behind his back, tightened suddenly.

He didn’t nod hastily, but instead snorted derisively: “I am a Wo. I kidnapped you, and I’m a wanted criminal in Penglai. Do you know who my enemies are? Yet you say you want to avenge me?”

“I know.”

Without any hesitation or doubt, Zong Yanlei looked directly into his eyes and said two words with resounding force.

Shen Jing was slightly taken aback by those two words and sized up the person in front of him again.

He was ridiculously young. He was only twenty, somewhere between adolescence and youth. In a normal family, he’d probably still be in college.

But Shen Jing remembered. Six years ago, when they kidnapped this man, he was already different from ordinary noblemen from Penglai. He never begged for mercy, never panicked. Every time Shen Jing opened the door of the small dark room where he was imprisoned, he would be startled by the pair of eyes in the darkness.

Those were the eyes of a wolf. Not a wolf locked in a cage waiting to die, but a wolf lurking, calculating, ready to pounce without hesitation and bite through your throat the moment it sees the slightest chance.

“Why?” Shen Jing asked.

He couldn’t understand why a nobleman from Penglai would help him, a “terrorist.”

Zong Yanlei didn’t answer immediately. He leaned on his cane, the tip of which was inlaid with a red gemstone, and strolled around Shen Jing at a leisurely pace. His Read onleather shoes pounded on the cement floor. It created a rhythmic interplay between the heavy and light steps of his cane.

“You think this country is terrible. Coincidentally, I think so too. I need some people to do things for me behind the scenes. You are perfect.” After saying that, he walked around to Shen Jing and stopped. He rested his cane in front of him while stroking the dazzling ruby at the top with his fingertips.

“Choose. Join me, pledge your allegiance to me…”

He deliberately dragged out the words, and revealed the first smile he had shown since entering the warehouse.

Arrogant, cocky, and treacherous.

“Or die.”

Shen Jing was not frightened by the smile. Having lived in the underground of Penglai for so many years, he had seen far more sinister faces than this.

He pondered for a moment and said, “I have one condition.”

Zong Yanlei slightly raised his chin as a signal for him to speak.

“I will not persecute Wo people on your behalf.”

Zong Yanlei’s smile widened, and he gently tapped his cane on the ground as if he had heard an amusing joke.

“Don’t worry, my target is not the Wo people.”

Shen Jing chose to submit.

As long as the green hills remain, there will always be firewood. He didn’t trust the people of Penglai, but he had to stay alive first. Only by staying alive could he take revenge, only by staying alive could he get justice for his elder brothers.

Zong Yanlei quickly had his bonds removed. When he stepped out of the small warehouse, he found his second brother, Li Muxian, waiting for him outside.

“Second Brother!” Shen Jing quickly stepped forward and looked the other man up and down. “Are you alright?”

Li Muxian was much older than him, the second oldest of the four, and used to be a doctor. During the internal strife in Wo, he lost his entire family; his wife and children did not survive. stolen content From then on, he harbored a deep-seated hatred for the Penglai people, the masterminds behind it all.

“It’s nothing,” Li Muxian shook his head.

His gaze passed over Shen Jing’s shoulder and landed on Zong Yanlei, who followed behind him.

“From now on, we two brothers are just pawns in your game.” He stated without any emotion in his voice. “I hope you won’t forget what you promised us today. Avenge us.”

“Of course.” Zong Yanlei raised his chin slightly with a relaxed expression.

“Let’s take it one at a time, don’t rush.”

Five years.

With Zong Yanlei’s generous financial support, Shen Jing and Li Muxian were able to fully utilize their talents. They became the sharpest blades in his hands, silently slaying many parasites of Penglai.

There were corrupt high-ranking officials who disregarded the lives of the lower classes; there were bishops who raped children and were inhuman; [unauthorized copy]and there were local nobles who disregarded human life and were bloated with greed.

They did it very carefully and cleanly. Usually, Shen Jing would first hack into the target’s security system, disabling the monitoring and alarm devices, and then use Li Muxian’s special agent. One injection, and the heart would stop. When they were discovered the next day, even if an autopsy was performed, the conclusion would only be “sudden death in the middle of the night.”

Over the past five years, as their mutual trust deepened, Zong Yanlei introduced them to more “companions”.

The first one was not surprising, Wuxi Li.

This woman, who resembled a traditional aristocrat even more than Zong Yanlei, had never shown Shen Jing and his companions a single friendly expression since their first meeting. Shen Jing even suspected that she was holding her breath when they were in the same room.

But when it came to important matters, she was never ambiguous.

When she realized that her husband might become an obstacle to their plans, without hesitation or struggle, she went to Li Muxian and asked for a non-lethal drug, which she then put in his coffee.

After that day, Zong Shen’an became a living corpse lying on the bed, unconscious and only breathing.

“Don’t tell Yanlei about this.”

Afterwards, Wuxi Li held up one finger and smiled slightly at them.

Her smile was beautiful. But Shen Jing felt a chill run down his spine.

The second companion was unexpected for Shen Jing, Chu Luo.

This princess, who appeared approachable, easygoing, and unassuming, revealed an ambition and shrewdness that impressed Shen Jing once she sat behind the conference table.

No matter how difficult the situation or how alarming the intelligence, she remained calm and always wore a smile. That smile wasn’t feigned, but the serenity of someone who had already seen the whole picture.

Shen Jing once asked her out of curiosity what Penglai would have to become before she… they would stop? Before they would be satisfied?

“What would it become?” Chu Luo held up an exquisite bone china teacup, the orange-red tea inside steaming gently.

She thought for a while.

“Children will no longer go hungry; women will have a voice; men will no longer have to go to the front lines.”

Shen Jing leaned back in his chair.

“You are a princess. Why don’t you use your status to openly and honestly change this country?” He paused, then tentatively asked, “To hide your strength?”

“Open and honest?”

Chu Luo chuckled softly, her voice melodious, but her eyes were cold.

“Do you know why my mother was driven out of Penglai?”

Shen Jing was taken aback, then shook his head.

He was a hacker with a global information network, but royal gossip wasn’t [stolen content]his focus. He only knew that there were rumors that Princess Chu Luo’s commoner mother had been rejected by the King of Penglai and had divorced and left in heartbreak.

“Because she said those things I just said.” Chu Luo brought the teacup to her lips and blew on it. “My father disliked her for interfering in politics as a woman and trying to teach him how to be a proper ruler. In a fit of anger, he banished her from Penglai forever.”

She took a sip of tea, and as she spoke, there wasn’t a trace of resentment on her face.

“I could live a very comfortable life. I could enjoy endless wealth and boundless honor.” She slammed the cup back onto the saucer, the crisp sound of the porcelain clinking echoing in the quiet room. “But what joy would such a life have?”

If Zong Yanlei reminded Shen Jing of a wolf, then this princess was like a Pallas’s cat. She looked cute and docile, but in reality, she was a carnivore through and through.

Shen Jing gradually lowered his guard against these people. They were intelligent, ambitious, and their interests were deeply intertwined, forming a very stable alliance.

Under Zong Yanlei’s coordination, the plan progressed steadily. It aimed to undermine the Penglai King’s trust in Wuxi Kunpeng, sow discord between Zhong Xiaoshan and Wuxi Kunpeng, and gather evidence of Wuxi Chen’s crimes. Every step was precise and restrained, like a surgeon drawing lines on a living organism, cutting only what needed to be cut.

Until an unexpected turn of events occurred, an unexpected turn of events that no one had anticipated.

That Wo bastard who had them all fooled was back.

Shen Jing was unaware of the entanglement between the other party and Zong Yanlei. He only learned one secret through Li Muxian: Zong Yanlei’s son, Zong Yinzhuo, the child nominally born to Chu Luo, had a pair of red eyes. A pair of Wo people’s eyes.

All of this, coupled with Jiang Man’s return, made Zong Yanlei’s temper unstable, causing his thoughts to wander.

“Second brother, you’re talking about Zong Yanlei’s son…”

He thought of Han Zhe, the bodyguard who always silently followed behind Chu Luo. Even a fool could see that he and Chu Luo had a close relationship.

If the father wasn’t really the father, then what about the mother?

“Could his mother be a Wo?”

Li Muxian was preparing medicine when he heard this. Without even looking up, he simply said, “Don’t pry into things that have nothing to do with us. If you’re free, help me put these powders into capsules.”

Shen Jing rubbed his nose. That’s true; whoever ​Read on​the child’s parents were, it had nothing to do with him.

“No, I’m very busy.” His curiosity subsided, and he continued working.

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The “Wo Republic Army” returned to the stage with the assassination attempt on Zong Yanlei.

This was planned long ago. Even though Chu Luo and Zong Yanlei had acted as if they were detached from worldly affairs and lived a carefree life, Wuxi Kunpeng and Chu Shengcheng would still give them a nudge every now and then to test them.

In order to completely clear himself of suspicion, Zong Yanlei proposed to get involved himself.

Shen Jing fired the shot himself. He deliberately aimed at a non-lethal area. The bullet grazed the outside of his waist and abdomen, and although the wound looked bloody and man[stolen content]gled, it was actually just a superficial injury.

After firing the first shot, he picked up his sniper rifle and retreated.

In the week that followed, everything unfolded as expected. The WRA returned to the public eye, and the old story of Bishop Yi’s death was brought up again.

Out of concern for his ally, Shen Jing took advantage of having work to report to and visited Zong Yanlei at Luoying Mountain a few days after he returned to Baiyujing.

“Ten days from now, Wuxi Chen will once again launch a ‘human hunt’ at Qunyu Mountain.” He reported while typing on the keyboard, “I managed to obtain an electronic invitation and have sent it to your encrypted email address. Please check your inbox.”

Zong Yanlei placed one elbow on the sofa armrest. His palm half-clenched, knuckles touching his chin, while his other hand fiddled with his phone, his thumb constantly sliding down. He looked somewhat bored.

“Okay.” He replied after a few seconds, his tone clearly impatient.

Shen Jing’s fingers paused on the keyboard for a moment.

He wondered what he had done to offend the ​stolen content​other person. Could it be that the wound was hurting, causing him to be in a bad mood? Should he ask his second brother to come and take a look?

“Shen Jing”.

As he was thinking, Zong Yanlei suddenly put down his phone.

“Have you ever been in a relationship?”

The typing stopped. Shen Jing looked up from behind the screen and glanced at Zong Yanlei.

The other person’s expression was unusually serious. Not the seriousness one would show when discussing plans, but a different kind of seriousness… one that Shen Jing had never seen on his face before.

“What is it?” he asked calmly.

Zong Yanlei touched the area around his waist and abdomen wrapped in gauze through his shirt and frowned.

“If someone has done things that deeply moved you, unauthorized copyand things that deeply hurt you, and you’ve already decided to forget them, but then they reappear, acting as caring and attentive as before, even risking their own safety for you. That person…”

His voice trailed off, and he didn’t finish his sentence. He lowered his eyes, lost in his own thoughts.

“…Should you forgive him?” Shen Jing guessed.

As soon as he finished speaking, Zong Yanlei clicked his tongue, as if he had heard some stupid nonsense.

“This person…” He lifted his blue-green eyes slightly, filled with dissatisfaction and confusion, “Why hasn’t he messaged me these past few days?”