Case Files Chapter 84: Fright Aboard the Cruise Ship (18)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Guan Jin was sitting on the floor of the library, concentrating on the book in his hands.

“When I heard Elena say that you were in the library, I thought that she was joking.” Lu YunYang pushed open the door and walked in. “Why are you reading?”

Guan Jin closed the book and stood up. “Nothing, I was just looking something up. I’m going to go eat now.” Then, he put the book back on the shelf.

“You don’t look too well, you should rest after you finish eating.”

“You already ate?”

“Mn, I’ll just stay here for a while since I’m a little bored.”

Guan Jin didn’t say anything else and left the library.

Lu YunYang walked to the shelf where Guan Jin had placed the book and picked up the book he had just put there.

Encyclopedia of Nature?

Lu YunYang flipped through the practically brand-new pages of the book and stopped at the part where he remembered Guan Jin had been looking at.

Suddenly, a heading popped out: The alien in the spider world, the tarantula. The edge of the page was a little crinkled; this must be it.

Lu YunYang skimmed over it and suddenly realized something. He’s worthy of being the person I fancy, he really is very smart.

*****

Instead of going to eat, Guan Jin knocked on Fang Sen’s door, ignored his surprised expression, walked in, and closed the door.

“I have a question for you. If you don’t want everyone on this ship to be buried at sea, then answer me truthfully.”

Around ten minutes later, when he returned to the small dining hall with a continuous supply of food, Guan Jin finally felt hungry. As he ate, he looked at the deck outside the window.

That person was uncharacteristically sitting by himself near the ship’s side, leisurely and content. He looked very satisfied and seemed to be enjoying himself.

Guan Jin squeezed the cup in his hand, and his heart sank. Had that person also already found his target, which was why he was already starting to enjoy the prelude to the kill? In that case, should Guan Jin assist him, watch from the sidelines, or——stop him?”

*****

Guan Jin used the excuse that he hadn’t slept well to firmly drive Lu YunYang back to his own room. He laid on his bed with his eyes closed until midnight, and then his eyes abruptly flew open in the darkness. His eyes weren’t sleepy at all, but clear and alert.

Guan Jin slowly got out of his bed, assembled the gun in his pillow, and quietly walked outside. As he hid behind the staircase, it was just like he was carrying out a mission like in the past, secretly lying in wait in the darkness, waiting for the “rat” he wanted to catch to come into view.

Not long afterwards, someone quickly and silently moved closer from the other end of the corridor. Sure enough, he was already too eager and couldn’t wait any longer. Guan Jin gripped his gun and slipped closer to that person.

The person paused outside Lu YunChi’s room and bent down, tinkering with something.

Guan Jin hesitated briefly, but he still took sight of the person.

With a thud, the bullet whizzed past the person’s arm and lodged itself into the wall. Guan Jin was taken aback; that person was more alert than he had expected and had subconsciously dodged.

Fang Mo’s familiar yet cold face contained the hint of enjoyment, and he turned to face Guan Jin’s hiding position, at the same time firing a shot towards him.

Guan Jin ducked and ran down the stairs. Fang Mo chased after him.

Guan Jin ran into the empty dining hall and waited next to a window. When Fang Mo appeared, he shot at him. Unfortunately, Fang Mo dodged backwards and took cover in a corner. Guan Jin was a sniper, so he wasn’t good at such close-ranged attacks. It was clear that Fang Mo was more experienced in this area. He had exposed his hiding spot, so they could only continue to play this cat-and-mouse chase. 

Thus, the two of them hid and dodged all over the ship, attacking each other, yet none of them succeeded. Guan Jin rejoiced in the fact that they had both hidden carefully, but from start to finish, Fang Mo hadn’t been able to see his face.

Assassins had to succeed in one go, and once something unexpected happened, they wouldn’t be able to continue with their assassination. Since Guan Jin had interrupted his operation, he wouldn’t continue; since Guan Jin had already achieved his goal, the most important thing for him was to return to his room, or else Fang Mo would gain the upper hand at this rate. Guan Jin looked at the sharp dining knife that had embedded itself into the wall next to his ear and complained inwardly, Spider is so fucking unpredictable, he’ll use anything as a weapon.

Another shot forced Fang Mo to retreat, and Guan Jin took the opportunity to run to the second floor. However, he was too far from his own room, and before he ran very far, he sensed Fang Mo run up from the other flight of stairs. Guan Jin could only crouch down and listen intently. However, a moment later, Fang Mo was silent.

Dammit, he had hid in an empty room. Guan Jin didn’t know which room it was, and once he passed by it, he would be ambushed. Should he walk forwards or turn around and take the longer route? Guan Jin felt cold beads of sweat form on his back…

He stood up and changed directions, choosing to take the longer route. Fang Mo must be hiding in a room far from the occupied guest rooms, and this direction was closer to the occupied rooms, which bought him a little more time.

Guan Jin carefully walked past room after room, and after walking past one, there was suddenly a light knock from the inside of it. Guan Jin pointed his gun towards the door, yet he discovered that this seemed to be Min Yan’s room.

Guan Jin pushed open the door; sure enough, it was unlocked. He quickly slipped in and closed the door silently.

Min Yan was crossing his arms and leaning against the sofa. He looked at him and said, “It’s already dark, how come you’re still moving about?”

Guan Jin stared at him for a few seconds before sitting down across from him and pointing his gun at him. “So it’s you.”

Min Yan poured a glass of wine for himself. “You put me in a hostile position and found many ways to dislike me, which was why you kept overlooking my concern and true feelings.”

“True feelings?”

“I indeed like you. I even said that I boarded this ship despite being easily seasick because of you, but you didn’t believe me.” Min Yan spread his hands helplessly.

Guan Jin humphed coldly and put away his gun.

“How did you figure it out?”

“Because you stayed in your room most of the time under the excuse that you were seasick. Since you couldn’t enjoy the journey or participate in any activities besides occasionally showing up in front of me and saying some sappy things. I don’t think you would be bored to the point that you came here only to suffer, which means that you had to come. You’re definitely not an assassin, and you can’t be Hermes, who often goes abroad, let alone a minion of one of them, so you can only be an ally. Moreover, you’re rich. You’re practically an ATM, no?” Guan Jin tilted his head and examined him. “You didn’t come up with that ridiculous codename because you’re in the show business, did you?”

Min Yan smiled. “This tasteless name clearly doesn’t match my aesthetic, and it also has nothing to do with my career. Moreover, I’m rather young compared to those people. Actually, ‘Street Artist’ is my uncle, and he got too old so he didn’t want to play anymore, which is why he wanted to find a successor. I was too bored and he recognized that I would be interested, so he told me about this intriguing network, and I happily accepted. Actually, I’ve only taken over for him for half a year. When ‘Margaret’ contacted me, I knew that I had made the right decision. I didn’t expect that you were also one of us.”

“Your uncle didn’t travel the world with his new wife too, did he?” Guan Jin couldn’t help but shudder when he recalled Margaret.

“That’s right, his new wife is the previous Margaret.”

…Guan Jin already didn’t know how to process this.

“Anyway, you have a deep hatred for Hermes, which is why you want our help, right? But just now, you stopped Spider from taking action.”

Guan Jin looked down. “I can’t let Spider kill Lu YunChi.”

“Don’t you know, your feelings for Lu YunYang are a lot deeper than his for you.”

Guan Jin glared at him. “Are you kidding?!”

Min Yan raised an eyebrow. “Kidding? You disclosed your goal to Lu YunYang, right? You already trust him completely. You think that Lu YunChi is Hermes, but because of Lu YunYang, you hesitate and refuse to make a move, and when Spider was going to do it, you even stopped him. In your heart, Lu YunYang is already more important than your revenge, right?”

Guan Jin laughed coldly. “Min Yan, it is impossible for anything to come out of me and Lu YunYang. I stopped Spider because I want to end this matter myself.”

“End it yourself? How would you end it, by killing Lu YunChi and then going from lovers to enemies with Lu YunYang? Or giving up on your revenge and going far away?”

Guan Jin’s expression became somber, and he fell silent. Min Yan shook his head. “I came here to help you, don’t despair. Perhaps there is still a way to turn things around. I advise you not to act too hastily, just wait and see what happens.”

“I thought you didn’t want me to know your identity?”

“Of course I don’t, but you were too rash and directly faced off against Spider. He’s an assassin, and a top-notch assassin at that. If it weren’t for me going outside to get some fresh air and hearing the commotion downstairs, wouldn’t you have——”

“Are you really here to help me?” Guan Jin interrupted him.

“Of course. Listen to me, Hermes can’t just be killed by anyone. You know a lot, but he might not necessarily know less than you. It wouldn’t have been easy for Spider to kill him, either. Psychologist and I will do our best to help you, but you need to act less rashly.”

“Who is Psychologist?”

“You still don’t know? That’s okay, who it is is not important, they’ve already done what they need to do. Say, how did you find out Fang Mo is Spider?”

“Because someone told me something about Spider. He said that most spiders spin webs to catch their prey, which is why I suspected Tao Yu, who is so low-profile. Later, I suddenly realized that it was supposed to imply the opposite. Most spiders are like this, but a few are not, and the type I need to pay attention to is the minority. I researched it and found that there is a spider called the tarantula, and it’s known as the grim killer in the insect world. They dig burrows in the ground and live in them, yet they never spin webs. Instead, they take the initiative to attack their prey. Only then did I realize that I had been looking in the wrong direction. Spider definitely isn’t low-profile, he pries everywhere and makes the first move. On this ship, after eliminating people whose identities and backgrounds are clear and the people who can’t be assassins, only Fang Mo kept prying everywhere. He seems to be merely socializing, but he never pays attention to the women. He only cares about the men in their family, and since he was sure that one of them is Hermes, he kept trying to figure out which one. Moreover, I asked Fang Sen, and he told me he barely knows his distant cousin. Besides seeing him in their childhood, after he came back to Country C last year, they’ve only seen each other twice at parties. A month ago, Fang Mo suddenly became enthusiastic and insisted on joining this cruise. He also thought Fang Mo wanted to fawn over someone and was too lazy to reject him.”

“You suspect that this Fang Mo isn’t the real one?”

“It’s very likely. Spider came to this country only a month ago, and he might have done something to dismiss the real Fang Mo and changed his appearance to look like him. If they looked similar in the first place, he would only have to get a little plastic surgery. Fang Sen never paid much attention to his cousin, so he definitely wouldn’t be able to tell any differences after only seeing him twice before.”

Min Yan thought for a moment. “We can just let Lu YunChi deal with Spider, so we don’t need to do anything else. However, with Lu YunYang still in the picture, I reckon he’s trying to do everything possible to resolve the grudge between you and his brother. Right now, he’s not much better off than you, and since he’s so sincere, I also hope there’s a better way to resolve this.”

Guan Jin laughed in self-ridicule. “A better way? Min Yan, don’t be so naive. I won’t give up on my revenge, and Lu YunYang won’t cut ties with his family because of me. There is no better way.”

*****

“This was our mistake. We should’ve gotten Azrael to come instead of Hephaestus. He’s too weak, and he isn’t of any use at all,” complained Morpheus as he combed his hair.

“If Azrael came, we’d have to resolve my problems and then his. Isn’t this already very burdensome?” The person on the other end said indifferently.

Morpheus frowned. “Then what do we do?”

“I already said that someone would deal with that Spider. As for the other two people in the way, I’ll leave the woman to you. The other is going to be a little harder, I’ll have to think about it some more.”

“Boss, your final goal is very simple, why do you have to use such a complicated process?”

“Simple? I’ve never encountered something more troublesome. If I’m even just a little careless, I won’t even have enough time to cry. Right, did you send the message?”

“Even if it was outer space, I could still do it, much less across a mere ocean. Relax.”