"Alright, alright, let's leave the thanks until after we've caught the culprit. Time is critical. I have a few important questions to ask Jing Shu first," Captain Wang said helplessly. This incident had been far too dangerous—nearly thousands of people almost perished. The murderer had to be found.
Su Xiangnan shot Qian Duoduo a sharp look. This old fox always had to outshine him by just a little. Truly, lifelong rivals never stopped clashing. Even though they had both been framed this time, he still gnashed his teeth in hatred. Truth be told, he only viewed Qian Duoduo as an annoying competitor, but when it came to that government smiling tiger, his hatred was bone-deep. Su Mali always assumed their relationship was good, but it was that smiling tiger who really gave he a headache.
"Yes, the culprit must be caught," Qian Duoduo agreed. His traditional robe was in tatters, his face smeared with dust, and the walnut he had been fiddling with for more than ten years was gone.
The tense atmosphere eased somewhat thanks to Jing Shu's success in preventing the castle explosion. As the life-saving hero, everyone treated her with extra kindness and admiration. Even the old doctor carefully tended her wound. Jing Shu hated pain, but she couldn't very well grimace and groan now. Inwardly, though, she was cursing Lin Yi to hell and back.
If she had known earlier that Lin Yi intended to blow up Xishan, she would have just stolen the explosives herself. It would have saved her so much trouble.
Scanning the castle, she didn't see that drama-loving, brainless son of a landlord, nor did she spot Qian Duoduo's daughter, Qian Qianjin, or his wife.
Later, she learned Qian Duoduo had whisked his family away by helicopter the moment he heard the castle might have been rigged with bombs, leaving only himself behind to deal with the mess.
When the only two direct witnesses left, Su Mali and Jing Shu, were finally together, Captain Wang pointed at Fei Zhuzai and said, "Jing Shu, tell us the transaction location, the time, and whether it was really with Fei Zhuzai."
When the man behind Qian Duoduo stepped forward, Jing Shu was stunned, while Su Mali instinctively backed away.
In that instant, Jing Shu pieced together most of the story.
She shook her head. "The deal was at eight this morning, in the underground casino of the abandoned manor. The person then was also called Fei Zhuzai. They do look alike, but the one we dealt with must have been an impostor. And by the afternoon, he was already dead in the underground passage."
The Fei Zhuzai standing before them wore a tight black suit—clearly a self-disciplined fat man. He was nothing like the one who had been bitten by a snake earlier, who had lounged lazily on the sofa.
Su Mali suddenly realized, "I knew something felt off with the one this morning."
Fei Zhuzai also had a revelation. "So the person I chatted with on WeChat was the same culprit. They must have finished the transaction with Su Mali, locked her in the underground casino, then disguised themselves as her, Uncle Gou, and two masked bodyguards to come trade with me. They played the perfect timing trick. That way, the timeline I mentioned and Su Mali's disappearance didn't match, and you'd all think I was lying."
Jing Shu nodded. She was probably the unexpected variable in the plan, the reason both the timelines and the people failed to match up.
Still, with such solid evidence, a furious Su Xiangnan would naturally believe Qian Duoduo had kidnapped his daughter for some hidden agenda.
The brilliance of the scheme lay in the fact that once the bombing began, Su Mali appeared unharmed and revealed the plot to frame them. But since the outside bombardment had not ceased, Qian Duoduo would suspect this was Su Xiangnan's doing.
After all, if the goal was simply to sow chaos, killing Su Mali outright would have been the simplest way. Why let her go? Only a fool would believe a delicate young lady had escaped captivity, uncovered the conspiracy, and then just happened to show up in the heart of his fortress. So he had immediately ordered the castle's defenses to activate—falling right into Lin Yi's trap.
Everything had been staged for one purpose: Lin Yi wanted the castle defenses triggered so he could detonate the mountain and wipe out everyone gathered at Xishan.
This man was utterly insane.
Yang Yang kicked the wall hard. "How did we ever let him escape to come back and retaliate? This entire incident was deliberate. The speed of those rumors spreading outside proves he's behind it. He lured our whole unit here to wipe us out."
Jing Shu nodded. Lin Yi's ambition was vicious and wolf-like.
Once the bombing outside stopped, Captain Wang ordered the others, along with Qian Duoduo's guards, to go handle the aftermath. They had heard that one side of the mountain was hit, causing a landslide, and casualties were still being tallied.
"Report! We've identified the woman who lost her upper body in the blast. Her name was Ling Qi. Tracking her last call, we located the other end's IP address just five minutes ago."
By then, Jing Shu's wound had been bandaged. She had rinsed it with filtered water free of red nematodes. Qian Duoduo even provided her with Qian Qianjin's clothes to change into.
The temperature was dropping rapidly. Soon, it would turn freezing, and she needed to layer up.
"Pursue her! This time we must catch her alive. Where's the location?"
"Banana Community."
"Then move out, now."
Jing Shu's hand trembled, accidentally tearing the leather jacket. It looked like she had just performed a barehanded feat of ripping clothing apart.
Around her, people swallowed hard. How much strength did it take to rip through leather like that?
She ignored their stares and quickly called Grandma Jing.
The beeping tones echoed in her ear, each one dragging her heart further down.
Finally, a familiar voice answered. "Hello?"
Relief washed over her. "Grandma? What are you doing?"
Grandma Jing huffed, "What else? Zijin and I are tidying up the first floor."
Jing Shu relaxed. "Alright. Grandma, don't go out these next few days, no matter what. Oh, has our neighbor Lin Yi come by to see you?"
"Him? We just chatted a while ago."
Her heart thudded wildly again.
"That young man said he's moving away and won't be able to drop by often anymore. What a pity. He said he'd visit again if he had time, then hurried off. Looked like he was in quite a rush."
Jing Shu pressed her lips tight. "Okay, Grandma, just stay home. If anything happens, hold down '1' to call me immediately."
After hanging up, she phoned Zijin to confirm everything, then called the rest of her family one by one. Everyone was safe. Only then did she allow herself to breathe easier.
No, this wouldn't do. As long as Lin Yi was free, she'd feel like she had a bone stuck in her throat. She had to eliminate him. Otherwise, she'd never sleep soundly again.
No, she must!
===
I'm not sure if I've ever said this before, but one of my favorite game genres is MMORPGs.On PC, I play Guild Wars 2, and on Android, I've been playing Gaia Odyssey, A3: Still Alive, and Lineage 2: Revolution. That was back around 2020, I think? So yeah, about five years ago. Oh, and SAO IF too!
I started playing Gaia Odyssey and A3 right when they launched in my country, and I've been playing SAO IF ever since.
My usernames? I use Richark for Gaia and A3, and Rikhi for Lineage and SAO IF. My Richark character's around level 200, while Rikhi is somewhere around 350 (I think? Maybe? I kinda forgot lol).
Anyway, I seriously love Gaia Odyssey. It's just light and fun to play.
And A3? The story and graphics? Damn, they're so good. So pleasing to the eyes.
And SAO IF—I've always loved Sword Art Online, especially versions that let me customize my avatar (I love that I can choose the gender instead of being stuck as a male MC). That's also why I play Fatal Bullet on PC.
These three games, I downloaded and played them all the moment they officially launched here.As for Lineage, honestly... I forgot why and when I started playing it (please don't judge me 😭).
So anyway, I started translating and uploading here about five months ago—around June—and since then, I haven't really touched my mobile games. The last time I played was early August.Then today (Oct 23), I opened my games again on my laptop since my phone storage's full and my laptop still has some space.
And guess what? Out of nowhere, I got a mail notification in A3 saying the server will shut down on 2025/11/18.
I was SHOCKED. Like, what the actual fuck? That's less than a month away!!
God, I'm so stressed about it. I mean, the game's honestly so damn good—the story, the visuals, the characters, everything!
It hurts knowing it's ending.
Then I opened Gaia Odyssey and saw a notice about a big update coming on December 2.At least that one's still alive, but man… my A3 character. I even made a guild there, got it up to level 4, and I was the guild leader, dammit! Now it's been demoted back to level 1—probably because there aren't enough active players anymore. Still, it's such a waste. Seriously, what a shame...
Like... dayummm.
Ugh...
This is actually the second game I've played that's shutting down.
The first one was Uta Macross Sma-Pho De-Culture (歌マクロス スマホDeカルチャー), a Japanese rhythm game for the Macross franchise. That series is legendary—mecha, war, songs, and love triangles all mixed together.
It's kinda like AKB0048—mecha, idols, and space battles.
Honestly, thinking about Macross ending still stings too.
Oh, and I usually play assassin class whenever it's an MMORPG or open-world type of game.Anyone here play those too? Add me, please. (´･ω･`)ノ