Chapter 343

Fen Wu took a sip of the gin in his glass, looking at Ning Zhe, who failed to catch up with Mei Lin by the railing of the viewing stand, with great interest.

The young man looked like he was only 17 or 18 years old. His fair and delicate face was still somewhat immature, and he was still in puberty. The faint scholarly air revealed in his demeanor confirmed his identity as a student. However, it was such a weak and delicate young student who captured the wandering ghost named Tai Yi, took away Zhao You, killed Yu Zi Qian, and escaped from his pursuit again and again.

"Ning Zhe... is it?" Fen Wu narrowed his eyes and whispered to himself.

After Zhao You was taken away by an unknown person, he immediately thoroughly investigated all missing persons and accidental death cases in the Gubeizhen area during that period. The information of the survivors after Te Rang slaughtered the Bishushanzhuang was also in his grasp. Fen Wu had long noticed this high school student named Ning Zhe.

An ordinary high school senior who could survive the first contact with an eerie event and successfully harnessed both Tai Yi and Zhao You. He killed Yu Zi Qian in one encounter and had fought against him, an old man who had embarked on the path of ascension decades ago, many times, and never fell behind.

Is this really the quality that a young boy who has not entered society can possess?

Or is the 'true identity' named Ning Zhe that he is exposing now actually a mask?

"Ning Zhe, oh Ning Zhe, are you really a genius born knowing how to walk on the path of ascension? Or some old immortal crawling out of a dark grave?"

While such doubts troubled Fen Wu, hurried footsteps sounded in the backstage corridor of the opera house.

Mei Lin walked quickly through the empty corridor, turned around several times, arrived in front of a room door, and kicked the door open. A wall-mounted monitor divided into multiple display areas came into view. This was the monitoring room of the Saint Golia Opera House.

In the monitoring room, there was a square small wooden table, and a square chessboard was placed on the table. Black and red chess pieces were placed on both sides of the Chu River and Han Boundary. A clear and pretty girl's back was sitting quietly in front of the table, making Mei Lin, who saw this scene, feel happy in her heart: "Young Lady!"

"Are you okay?" Mei Lin walked quickly into the monitoring room to the girl's side and asked: "Did you encounter anything suspicious here?"

One second, two seconds, three seconds, the smile that had just appeared froze on Mei Lin's face. She didn't hear an answer.

Pulu Meiliya sat motionless at the table, her long, fluffy, soft hair like seaweed draped over her thin shoulders, a pair of ink-black eyes staring blankly at the chessboard in front of her. She mechanically raised her hand, pushed a chess piece on the chessboard forward one square, and turned a deaf ear to Mei Lin's arrival.

"..." Mei Lin carefully pushed her shoulder, but there was still no response, as if pushing a tumbler.

Mei Lin's face gradually turned pale. She carefully walked to the opposite side of the chessboard, leaned over to stare at the girl's pitch-black eyes, trying to find some emotions belonging to a living person in them, but failed in the end.

Pulu Meiliya sat motionless in front of the table like a puppet without a soul. There were no emotions or gazes that could be interpreted in her hollow eyes, just staring blankly at the chessboard in front of her.

"How could this be..." Mei Lin's eyes turned red, she covered her mouth with trembling hands, and tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes: "No, it shouldn't be like this... Young Lady, I..."

However, the sadness in Mei Lin's heart only lasted for a few seconds before it came to an abrupt end. The rolling tears crawled up her cheeks to the corners of her eyes and returned to her eye sockets. Pulu Meiliya's eyes were still hollow and lifeless, only a slender and fair arm was quietly raised like a machine that received instructions, moving the chess piece she had just pushed forward one square back.

She 'took back her move'.

At the same time, in the room filled with the fragrance of gin and the stench of corpses, the cloth curtain lifted by Ning Zhe fell back in a posture that defied gravity. The time of the entire opera house was pressed with the reverse button, his footsteps began to retreat, stepping back to his seat step by step.

Ning Zhe sat on the sofa and looked up, seeing a smiling face covered in blood.

"There won't be a next time." Fen Wu said: "You are quite good, really quite good. I have rarely failed in the same person so many times, so, there won't be a next time."

The cat-and-mouse game of chasing and fleeing ends here, there won't be a next time. Ning Zhe was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted, understanding what kind of situation he was in now—the Gambler's 'no leaving' rule blocked the space, Pulu Meiliya's chessboard blocked the time, time and space solidified here, and fate ended here.

He had nowhere to run.

Fen Wu's goal was not Zhao You from the beginning, or rather, not just Zhao You, but him.

"It's over." Fen Wu held the foot of the glass and raised it to this side from afar: "It was a pleasure playing hide-and-seek with you."

"Then I'm really sorry, I couldn't let Lord Fen Wu use all his strength." Ning Zhe suddenly smiled, laughing somewhat crazily: "But I don't know if you have heard of an idiom called 'a trapped beast's fight'?"

Fen Wu also smiled and said: "The beast that falls into the hunter's trap will try its best to make the final fight when it is on the verge of death. This is the most dangerous time for a hunt."

After speaking, he pointed to his temple with his finger and smiled: "You can try."

He was already prepared to 'take back his move'.

"Let's try it." Ning Zhe raised his right hand to make a pistol gesture, with his index finger and middle finger together as the gun barrel pointing at his temple.

His lips opened slightly, making a soft sound:

"Bang—"

Fen Wu frowned, somewhat puzzled.

What does this mean? Pretending to be mysterious with a fluke mentality? Or... really having some backhand he doesn't know about?

Fen Wu's confusion did not last long, because the next moment, he lost the ability to think.

On the seat next to Ning Zhe, Betang, who had been observing the two of them silently, opened his eyes wide. He saw:

Fen Wu, who had been sitting there lazily drinking with his legs crossed just now, suddenly fell softly on the sofa with a *poof* sound, without any warning. His originally spirited eyes became hollow and dull, without any emotions and thoughts of a living person, just like an empty shell with its soul drained.

In a sense, Betang's intuition was very accurate. 'This' Fen Wu in front of him had indeed been drained of his soul.

"Did you do it?" Betang frowned, looking at Ning Zhe with vigilance: "What did you do?"

"Just deleted his memory." Ning Zhe said lightly: "Relax, you are next."

His voice was flat, his tone was stiff and cold, and under the young man's scattered hair, he had changed his face at some point.

——

Happy Dragon Boat Festival! I took a day off yesterday for the holiday.

Did anyone understand Ning Zhe's operation?

(End of chapter)