Lin Lan rode Lu Shi’s electric scooter, rushing all the way here.
The abandoned factory was large, with only one place lit. Lin Lan followed the light and indeed saw Xie Zilu. He also vaguely heard some private grievances between Jiang Xi and him.
It was probably that Jiang Xi recorded a video detrimental to Xie Zilu, offended him, and then lied that Tai Zhen took it, but the truth was revealed, completely infuriating Xie Zilu.
Lin Lan didn’t know what was in the video to make Xie Zilu go crazy like this. He instinctively felt it would be better not to know.
He took out his phone to help Jiang Xi make an emergency call. Halfway through, he heard Jiang Xi’s crying from inside, and Xie Zilu was holding a knife. This situation couldn’t wait for him to call the police first.
Lin Lan slowly emerged from the darkness. Jiang Xi desperately shouted his name as if seeing a lifesaving straw: “Lin Lan, save me!”
Xie Zilu, holding the knife, instantly turned his head to look at him. His tall and thin figure stood against the backlight, giving off a chilling aura.
He stared at Lin Lan for a while, then suddenly smiled, as relaxed as if seeing an old friend, “You’re here? Come on in, enjoy the show.”
Xie Zilu put down the knife in his hand. He casually grabbed a chair, wiped it clean, and placed it in the center. He gestured with his eyes for Lin Lan to sit down.
Lin Lan calmly took two steps forward, glanced at Jiang Xi, then looked at Xie Zilu. “You asked me to come, and I’m here. Can you tell me the truth now?”
Xie Zilu, breathing heavily, scratched the red rash on his neck vigorously. He impatiently tugged at his tie, “Fine, let’s deal with your matter first.”
He took out his phone, flipped through a few photos, and turned them to show Lin Lan. “See, the manager who replaced the rotating lights at the coffee shop meeting with Jiang Xi. The safety performance of these lights is not up to standard. Why do you think he replaced them? And coincidentally, the screw above your head just happened to be loose… Why do you think that is?”
The photos flipped past Lin Lan’s eyes one by one, indeed showing Jiang Xi, including her signature on the final contract.
He looked mockingly at Jiang Xi, then at Lin Lan. “I’ve said it before. She wrote you love letters because she lost a game of truth or dare. Did you really think she liked you? This woman may seem gentle, but she’s actually cunning. I’ve seen her methods, Lin Lan. Don’t let her fool you again.”
Lin Lan was momentarily unsure whose words to believe. His gaze shifted past Xie Zilu to Jiang Xi. She kept shaking her head, tears streaming down her face, wanting to explain something to him. Her eyes were filled with pain.
In his mind, memories of the original host kept surfacing. In the original host’s heart, Jiang Xi was a generous and kind girl and consistent. She was completely different from what Xie Zilu described.
Lin Lan remained silent for a moment before finally speaking, “Jiang Xi, why did you do this?”
Why, in two worlds, whether they intersected or not, did Jiang Xi have to orchestrate this accident? What was her motive?
Jiang Xi continued to shake her head. She dared not speak, but said, “Lin Lan, please believe me. I didn’t want to harm you, and I won’t. I adjusted the size of that light, and I also moved the position of the light frame. It was just a warning, it wouldn’t hurt you…”
The lights in the two worlds did indeed have differences.
In the original world, the lights were almost impossible to avoid, but the light that fell in this world wasn’t that big, giving Lin Lan some buffering time.
But the fact remained that the light fell, and it always hit him.
The similarities between the two worlds gradually connected, and Lin Lan felt he was on the verge of touching the truth. His breathing became uneven. “Who instructed you?”
Jiang Xi’s body stiffened for a moment, then she shook her head frantically.
This blatant attempt to cover up the truth completely exhausted Xie Zilu’s patience. He couldn’t be bothered to waste words with her. He directly picked up the knife from the ground and swiftly approached Jiang Xi. In her screams, he viciously struck the steel pipe behind her.
With a clang, the steel pipe was slashed, nearly knocking Jiang Xi unconscious. Even Lin Lan was startled, his heart tightening. “Xie Zilu!”
Xie Zilu scratched his neck forcefully, his expression fierce, giving her one last ultimatum: “This is your final chance.”
Though his actions were violent, they were particularly effective on Jiang Xi.
She curled up in fear, swallowing saliva incessantly, tears crashing to the ground. Her rationality was completely eroded at this moment. “It… It was Tai Zhen.”
Jiang Xi spoke with fear, closing her eyes, devoid of any strength. Her voice trembled intermittently. “He said… he said he could help me replace the charges in the video, only he could do it. He also said I just needed to do him a small favor and help him contact a manager… He said he had already arranged everything and just needed me to sign… I… I noticed something was wrong with that light. I was afraid someone would get hurt, so I secretly adjusted the size of the light and moved the light frame forward by half a meter…”
Moved forward half a meter, which means that the light was originally aimed at his head…
Lin Lan’s heart sank at the thought.
What could possibly prompt Tai Zhen to make an attempt on his life in two different worlds? Clearly, there was no connection in the original world…
When Xie Zilu heard that Tai Zhen wanted Lin Lan dead, he became even more irritable than Lin Lan himself. He tapped the steel pipe with the knife in his hand again, startling Jiang Xi into a scream.
“Jiang Xi,” he shouted her name fiercely, “do you realize you’ve been made a scapegoat by him? Don’t you know?”
“I didn’t know, I really didn’t know… He said as long as we both cooperate, there would be no motive for anyone to trace it back to us…”
Xie Zilu didn’t hesitate to berate her, “Idiot! Tai Zhen claimed he’d help you take the blame, but in reality, he’s been implying to me all along, even including modeling and reconstructing the scene on the day!”
Jiang Xi was dumbfounded, staring at him blankly. “What do you mean?”
“What do you mean? It means you’ve been deceived by him. He never intended to help you conceal the video. He did everything he could to provoke me, just to make you die by my hands! This way, no one would know that he was the one who made you do the light replacement! Ha, now I understand why he dared to provoke me like that as if he wasn’t afraid of death. Turns out, he really isn’t afraid of death…”
Xie Zilu viciously kicked the chair. If he hadn’t sensed that something was off with Tai Zhen, he might have fallen for Tai Zhen’s scheme and killed Jiang Xi.
Jiang Xi hadn’t snapped out of it yet. Her eyes were unfocused as she kept murmuring, “It can’t be true. He said he liked me, he wouldn’t harm me. He didn’t seem like he was lying…”
Lin Lan finally understood everything after hearing this. Tai Zhen used the tactic of ‘borrowing a knife to kill someone’ twice: first by using Jiang Xi’s hand to kill himself, and then by using Xie Zilu’s hand to kill Jiang Xi. Once Jiang Xi was dead, everything would be pinned on the grudge between Xie Zilu and Jiang Xi, leaving Tai Zhen clean throughout… What a cunning tactic.
Fortunately, Xie Zilu still had some rationality left, or else the consequences would have been unimaginable.
The three of them calmed down. Lin Lan sighed and saw how pitiful Jiang Xi looked. He took the initiative to step forward and help her untie the ropes.
Xie Zilu glanced at him, his gaze somewhat cold, but he didn’t say anything.
As Lin Lan helped Jiang Xi sit down and prepared to take off his jacket to cover her, Xie Zilu suddenly stood up as if he were insane, grabbing hold of Lin Lan’s clothes. “Don’t take it off for her.”
Lin Lan: ?
Lin Lan: “Her clothes are torn. I’ll cover her up.”
Xie Zilu glanced at Jiang Xi, who was crying, then irritably scratched his neck and threw off his own suit jacket to Jiang Xi. “Put it on yourself!”
Jiang Xi was frightened and sobbing. She didn’t dare to put it on.
While she was afraid, Lin Lan wasn’t. He picked up the clothes and handed them to her. “Put it on. It’s cold at night.”
In Jiang Xi’s eyes, Lin Lan was like a talisman. She had lost the ability to think and only knew to listen to him, nodding repeatedly.
In the abandoned factory, the three of them each sat in a corner, unified for the first time.
Their common target was Tai Zhen, and they all saw themselves as victims.
Jiang Xi revealed everything she knew. She knew too little about Tai Zhen; what she knew were only the parts Tai Zhen intentionally showed her, while he concealed the rest, making it impossible for Jiang Xi to perceive.
Xie Zilu, who had not been part of the discussion, was already having someone investigate the matter. He received a message and immediately revealed a shocking secret: “Tai Zhen and Tai Yuan are not actually Tai Songshan’s biological sons.”
“Hmm?” Lin Lan suddenly raised his head.
“Tai Songshan had an accident in his early years and lost his ability to conceive. Both brothers were adopted from outside.”
Lin Lan gasped at this revelation. No wonder there was never any mention of a “mother” in the Tai family.
“After adopting Tai Zhen and his brother, Tai Songshan also adopted other children one after another, but they were all sent back to the orphanage for disobedience. You were an accident.”
Lin Lan snorted. It was probably not that those children were disobedient but that Tai Zhen and Tai Yuan maliciously framed them, causing them all to be sent away. Lin Lan had witnessed the cunning nature of those brothers; they appeared harmless in public, but in private, they were true demons.
But…
Lin Lan: “I’m already an adult and have long severed ties with the Tai family. Why would they still want to kill me?”
This was also a reason that Xie Zilu couldn’t understand. “Unless you reaching adulthood is the biggest threat to them.”
In a flash of insight, Lin Lan seemed to realize something.
In the original world, he was not adopted by the Tai family, but the accident still found him…
Unless…
Xie Zilu suddenly received a message, providing another crucial clue: “Tai Songshan had a child in his early years, but the child was taken away by the mother without his knowledge. Their fate remains unknown. This incident has been a sore point for Tai Songshan, and later, the children he adopted were mostly born in that same year.”
Lin Lan’s face turned pale in an instant. He recalled the feeling the original host had when first meeting Tai Songshan, like seeing the image of his own father from his memories…
Not only the original host but even Lin Lan himself felt this way when seeing Tai Songshan as if he had truly seen his picture somewhere before.
With a pale face, Lin Lan voiced his speculation, “Unless it’s for inheritance.”
Jiang Xi was stunned.
Xie Zilu’s gaze at Lin Lan changed as well. “Do you want to do a paternity test?”
Lin Lan’s immediate response was a nod. If he truly was Tai Songshan’s biological son, then everything made sense, and Tai Zhen had a motive to kill him…
The three of them sat together and discussed many things. Lin Lan wanted to send Tai Zhen to prison, but just the signed document wasn’t enough to convict him. Jiang Xi could serve as a witness, but they still needed evidence linking Lin Lan’s suicide attempt to Tai Zhen.
Before convicting Tai Zhen, there was one more thing Xie Zilu had to do. He looked at Jiang Xi with an unpleasant expression. “Go and steal a backup of the video for me.”
Jiang Xi shrunk back. “I-I dare not…”
“What are you afraid of? He thinks you’re on his side. Isn’t it easy for you to act?” Xie Zilu grew increasingly irritated as he spoke. He liked clever people like Lin Lan and disliked fools like Jiang Xi. Talking to her felt like wasting his life. “Just pretend you haven’t been exposed, pretend I haven’t tied you up tightly. You can run away and hide in his house.”
Jiang Xi still shook her head, too scared to comply.
Xie Zilu’s gaze turned fierce in an instant. “Without you, does he have that video? Jiang Xi, are you forcing me to chop off your hand?”
Jiang Xi cowered behind Lin Lan, nodding repeatedly. “I-I understand…”
With the situation resolved to this point, everything was settled.
Lin Lan checked his phone and saw that it was already two in the morning. He stood up immediately. “It’s late. I need to go back.”
Xie Zilu seemed somewhat surprised at how quickly he wanted to leave. He stared at Lin Lan blankly. “Didn’t you already win the championship?”
“Yeah, that’s why there’s a meeting tomorrow and a celebration banquet to prepare for. There’s still quite a lot to do.” Lin Lan checked his messages, some of which required his immediate response. He started typing away on his phone.
Lin Lan was quite slender, and even when standing up straight in his team uniform, he didn’t look short. Despite some dirt on his clothes, he still exuded a sense of elegance and resilience.
Xie Zilu kept staring at him, feeling an itch in his mind as if something was about to emerge.
He scratched his neck hard, leaving many red marks. Even the black butterfly tattooed behind his neck was scratched, but he still couldn’t scratch the itch in his heart.
“Lin Lan,” he called out to him, not knowing what to say, so he just glared fiercely at Jiang Xi. “Aren’t you leaving yet?”
Jiang Xi was frightened and quickly stood up. As she walked halfway, she turned back, trembling, and neatly folded Xie Zilu’s coat, placing it on the chair.
Before leaving, she glanced at Lin Lan with a mixture of fear, worry, and reluctance, which irritated Xie Zilu. He immediately grabbed an iron rod nearby and swung it at her. “Get out quickly.”
Jiang Xi, holding up her skirt, ran off without looking back, scared.
Lin Lan put away his phone and glanced at Jiang Xi’s departing figure before turning to Xie Zilu calmly. “I’ll leave first.”
“Don’t go yet,” Xie Zilu signaled for him to sit down. “I have something to ask you.”
Lin Lan hesitated to sit down. “What is it?”
Xie Zilu: “I’m asking you, if you were really Tai Songshan’s biological son and he left all his inheritance to you, would you go back to inherit the Tai family’s estate?”
Lin Lan didn’t hesitate to shake his head, his gaze sincere. “I have no interest in the Tai family. I just want to uncover the truth and send scum like them to prison. Xie Zilu, if you’re also guilty, I’ll send you in as well. So you better abide by the law. Let the law punish them; don’t resort to violence here. It’s undignified.”
The phrase “undignified” hit Xie Zilu’s heart directly.
He suddenly chuckled, feeling a sense of reality that he hadn’t felt in a long time. “Lin Lan, I really enjoy being with you. You always make me realize that I’m still alive.”
Lin Lan glanced at him, the look in his eyes resembling that of someone observing a lunatic. Before leaving, he reminded him, “You have an allergy. Remember to apply medication.”
Xie Zilu chuckled, but then the laughter faded. He looked up at Lin Lan’s departing figure as if he was looking up at the deity upon which he relied for survival, unable to take his eyes off even for a moment.
He had crawled back from hell, and he didn’t mind crawling back again. But he hadn’t expected Lin Lan to extend a hand to him at the gates of hell.
—If you’re also guilty, I’ll send you in.
—Don’t resort to violence here. It’s undignified.
“Hehe… Lin Lan, I really like you.”
…
Lin Lan went back and fell asleep immediately. His teammates were all excited and woke up earlier than usual, each one coming to knock on his door.
“Lin Lan, still not up?”
“Lin Lan, it’s ten o’clock already. Why aren’t you up yet?”
“Lin Lan, come see where the trophy is placed.”
“Lin Lan, Coach Zhang said we only have half a month off. Can you talk to him?”
“Lin Lan, we’re getting new team uniforms. Come out and help with the measurements.”
“Lin Lan, it’s my first day of live streaming. Can you come out and watch?”
“Lin Lan, can I eat the breakfast the captain bought for you?”
Each of them was as excited as a bunch of screaming roosters, and the relentless knocking on the door every five minutes eventually roused Lin Lan from his sleep. He groggily got up, with the incessant knocking and calls of “Lin Lan, Lin Lan” echoing in his ears like a death knell, a cacophony that seemed to echo through his skull.
With his mind as mushy as porridge, he could only get up, take a shower, and calm down. But just as he was halfway through his shower, Lu Shi came knocking on his door again with a loud “thud, thud, thud.”
Lu Shi: “Lin Lan, why haven’t you gotten up yet?”
Lin Lan: “I’m up.”
Lu Shi: “Why are you only getting up now? Hurry up, there’s an interview.”
Lin Lan: “I’m taking a shower.”
Lu Shi: “Why are you still showering? The sun’s already shining.”
Lin Lan: ???
What does this have to do with me taking a shower?
After finishing his shower and getting dressed in slippers, Lin Lan hurriedly made his way to the training room, intending to give those excited roosters a piece of his mind. However, he suddenly realized that today’s training room was different from usual.
In addition to his teammates and staff, there were also a bunch of unfamiliar interviewers and journalists, crowding the training room, constantly taking photos and shooting training vlogs.
Lin Lan was rushed too quickly, to the point where he was still wearing slippers and hadn’t put on his team uniform. He just threw on a T-shirt and beach shorts and came out…
The people in the training room were stunned on the spot, with Lu Shi shocked, “Didn’t I remind you about the interview?”
Lin Lan: ??? Was there one?
Those journalists swarmed Lin Lan like he was a golden goose, cameras clicking away at him. Lu Shi and Jiang Jin quickly shielded him from the cameras, “No, no, no, Lin Lan has camera phobia. This can’t be filmed, really can’t be filmed. Stop filming, stop filming. Lin Lan, run away quickly…”
Lin Lan reacted and turned to run.
Xiao Shengjing, coming out of the office, saw him, “No running.”
“Inside is full of people taking photos!”
Lin Lan didn’t even have time to respond to him, running so fast that he almost flew. When he was near the corner, he lost one of his slippers and had to turn back to pick it up.
Xiao Shengjing couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
But can Lin Lan’s camera phobia really not be cured?
He pondered as he opened the door to the training room. The journalists poured out, snapping photos of him, even startling the usually composed Xiao Shengjing.
It looked quite terrifying from this perspective.
Afterward, he solemnly sent a message to the team leader.
Some people left the training room, but many were still waiting for Lin Lan.
DT winning the championship was already a hot topic, especially after they consecutively defeated three top LPL teams to claim victory. The spotlight was particularly intense on their core teammate, Lin Lan.
Every journalist from every esports club wanted to get an explosive story. They arrived early in the morning, but by now, they had only glanced at Lin Lan and hadn’t captured anything. They were then informed by the team leader on the spot, “Everyone, you can interview and take photos of other members, but Lin Lan doesn’t accept any unofficial interviews or photos. Thank you for your understanding.”
The journalists felt it was a pity. If they could interview him, it would surely be explosive.
“Can I ask why Lin Lan refuses interviews?” the journalist asked Lu Shi.
After carefully considering for a moment, Lu Shi replied, “I think he’s afraid of online harassment. I remember him saying that. Actually, Lin Lan is a very sensitive player. He just wants to quietly play the game and avoid getting involved in controversies.”
This statement struck a chord with the journalist, who conveyed it in written form online and appealed to esports fans to show more kindness to players.
As soon as the report came out, it spread like wildfire. Countless people expressed their opinions on the issue of online harassment in esports.
[So that’s why Lin Lan avoids the internet…]
[Oh my, I feel so sorry for him!]
[Probably scared by the online comments.]
[These days, whether you win or lose, there’s always criticism. Players really have it tough.]
[Staying away from the internet is actually a good idea. Just focus on esports.]
[I support Lin Lan.]
[Some fans are indeed too extreme. I believe winning and losing are part of the game and should be accepted calmly.]
[That’s right, we shouldn’t be too extreme.]
[…]
Under this wave, players from YTF, FO, and ENG who had previously lost matches received a lot of goodwill, while IB, who looked down on others, was mocked mercilessly. It’s like losing the game and losing respect, even a god can’t save them.
Just as this passage was being circulated wildly, a certain Lin “sensitive” Lan saw the online comments about himself and looked speechlessly at Lu Shi. “Where am I sensitive?”
Lu Shi knew he had said the wrong thing, but he stubbornly refused to admit it. He stood up defiantly, “Look at you, making such a big deal out of this little thing. And you say you’re not sensitive? If you were generous, you would forget about this, and we could continue being brothers…”
Lin Lan, with a stern expression, looked at his phone like an iron-willed old man, then immediately rolled up his sleeves, ready to give Lu Shi a beating. Lu Shi sensed the danger and quickly ran away, but Lin Lan wasn’t planning to let him off that easily; he chased after him.
Jiang Jin, holding two cups of freshly brewed coffee, came specifically to find Lin Lan. “Huh, where’s Lin Lan? Wasn’t he just here?”
“He went to beat up Lu Shi,” Xu Shengwei replied, glancing at the coffee in Jiang Jin’s hands. “Did you add sugar to the coffee?”
“Uh…” Jiang Jin wanted to say it was for Lin Lan, but considering Lin Lan had mentioned he wanted him to be lovey-dovey with Xu Shengwei, he decided to give the coffee to him instead. “Yes, I did. Here, have it.”
Xu Shengwei smiled at him. “Thanks, buddy.”
Jiang Jin was pleased to hear the term “buddy.”
It had to be said, Xu Shengwei was quite adorable when he listened obediently.
But…
He looked at Feifei’s empty spot. Had he left the team so soon?