Flashback to the night of the police’s visit to Heping Nursing Home.

Chen Youzhi was in the middle of taking off his shoes when he abruptly sensed that something was off.

Almost by reflex, he stretched out a hand to grab the steel bat he had placed on the side of the front door, only for his hand to touch nothing but air. His heart abruptly sank. In the next second, a soft chuckle sounded within the dark house – to be exact, in front of the window – as if mocking his futile attempt to resist.

Chen Youzhi’s house was a studio apartment. Once someone entered through the front door, then the layout of the whole bedroom and pantry would be revealed in front of them. Usually, a faint ray of light would seep in through the gap of curtains and illuminated the room in a soft glow. At least, it would not be so dark to the point where he could make out nothing... just like now. He realized that the person who had broken into his house must have pulled the curtain close to block the only source of light.

And hearing that soft laughter, he already knew who the culprit was.

Chen Youzhi shut his eyes and berated himself. He had gotten too careless!

Today, the police had come to him to inquire about the Master Manipulator and he should have anticipated that the man would come to him sooner or later – no, judging from what the Interpol Agent said earlier, the Master Manipulator had already approached him since a few months ago, but he had never realized anything at all! Seven years of ordinary life and he had naïvely lowered his guard down. How foolish!

Straightening up, he squinted his eyes to force them to adjust to the dark, barely making out the silhouette standing in front of the window with the steel bat in his hands. "What do you want?" Chen Youzhi asked tersely.

"I should be the one to ask you that..." Ku Jin clicked his tongue in mock anger. "What do you want to achieve by saying so many useless things to the police?"

Chen Youzhi’s body went rigid when he heard this. The police officers he had talked to today were only two: Kang Guanyu and Tak Jung-Hwa. However, he had only talked about Mr. Qin’s health condition with the former. As for the latter...

Chen Youzhi’s face abruptly changed as realization dawned on him. Ignoring Ku Jin, he patted his body all over and did not find the thing he was looking for. He switched to the nurse uniform hanging on his arm and there it was – a tiny bugging device deep inside his front pocket. Chen Youzhi grimaced and cursed under his breath.

— How could this thing get into his pocket?! When...?!

He had always washed his uniform every single day, so there was no way he wouldn’t discover this tiny treacherous device. So the only possibility was... it had only been placed on him today and the other person must have gotten close enough to him to do something like this unnoticed. He began to recount the events that had happened today. He had always tried to put some distance from other people, not only due to old habits but also because he wanted to prevent something like this from happening. However, today was obviously the exception due to the police’s visit.

The only time he could think of was when he was talking to the officers in the lawn. At that time, he was surrounded by quite a lot of people, plus he was distracted by the talk of the imposter, so that was the perfect opportunity if someone wanted to slip a listening bug on him.

And the people who were close enough to him to attempt that were... the Admin, the young female nurse, and the Director—

Whoever it was, he had really gotten too careless this time!

He suddenly recalled the warning he had given Tak Jung-Hwa – "The person you should truly be cautious of is not XIU. If you’re investigating Xuanlong, be careful not to bump into them or else... you won’t even know how you die."

Chen Youzhi chided himself inwardly. Stupid! You should have heeded your own advice first! Now you have kicked the iron plate and you will die without your corpse intact!

Chen Youzhi’s knuckles cracked. He dared not take his gaze off Ku Jin for fear that the man would make a sudden move. "So?" He gritted out, "Are you going to punish me now?"

Outsiders had no idea about this, but Ku Jin actually had another title to his name – The Punisher. He was responsible for testing the member’s loyalty and rooting out any traces of rebellion in Xuanlong before it could even bud. And no one was more suitable than Ku Jin for this kind of task because this man was a literal cold-blooded monster who couldn’t care less for camaraderie. On the contrary, Boss XIU would never scheme against his brothers. That’s the distinctive line that separated the two of them.

"Punish? No, why should I punish you? You have done the right thing by warning those foolish people..." Ku Jin swung around the bat in his hand while letting out a low laugh.

Chen Youzhi immediately went on alert and prepared to fight back. But Ku Jin did not seem like he intended to attack at all. Instead, he leisurely walked toward Chen Youzhi, causing the latter to jump to the side and put some distance between them. Yet apparently Ku Jin’s target was not him at all, but the door.

He stood in front of the door and tilted sideways to cast Chen Youzhi a glance, smiling. "I’m just here as a news bearer. Be prepared... Xuanlong will once again enter its era of glory." Not giving Chen Youzhi any time to react, he glanced at the watch and exclaimed in surprise, "Look at the time! Sadly, I can’t enjoy your tea because someone is still waiting for me downstairs. See ya!"

With a wave, Ku Jin returned the bat to its original spot, opened the door and sauntered out, leaving behind Chen Youzhi who was frozen on the spot.

Xuanlong would be rebuilt? No, wait a moment... this person was only here to drop him this news? How was it possible?!

As soon as he confirmed that Ku Jin had indeed gone away, Chen Youzhi immediately turned on all the lights in the house and did a massive sweeping. He dug into every crook and cranny to see if Ku Jin had planted something in the house while he was away. But aside from his collection of imported candy that was missing from the cabinet... he found no wiretaps, no pinhole cameras, no listening device. Nothing at all.

Chen Youzhi stood in the middle of the room, dumbfounded. This man had really come to relay him the news? Did he have nothing better to do?!

"Crazy bastard..." he cursed under his breath. However, a nagging doubt still lingered on the back of his mind. He knew that Ku Jin would not do anything without a goal. Whatever the man did, he always had a greater scheme in mind and that’s the reason why he was dubbed as the Master Manipulator. But now, Chen Youzhi could not even begin to guess what the man was trying to achieve here...

Skeptical, he decided to shelve the doubt for the time being. If Xuanlong were to be rebuilt, then the Big Boss would definitely need XIU. But right now, XIU was just an ordinary man who had lost his memory...

Chen Youzhi furrowed his brows. After mulling over his choices, he finally walked to his bed, lifted the mattress and opened the wooden compartment where he kept his burner phones. He had placed a few strands of hair on the compartment and saw that they were still intact, proving that Ku Jin really did not ransack his room. He chose a phone and dialed a number he had known by heart. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The other person answered soon after the first ring.

"Hello, Little Guo? I know, I have promised not to contact you again unless necessary, but... it’s different now." He listened to the other person’s reply and gave a light hum. "They’re going to force Boss XIU to the corner. I don’t expect you to involve yourself but..." Chen Youzhi’s words were cut off mid-sentence and his eyes widened. "You... You want to go? Alright," he heaved out a helpless sigh, knowing that he would not be able to change the other person’s mind. "Then I will count on you."

Chen Youzhi hummed with a grave look on his face. "Mn, it’s time to call back our brothers."

***

Meanwhile, in Mingguang Temple.

Little Guo’s expression was extremely complicated as he hung up on the call. Still gripping the phone in his hand, he reached out to the memorial tablet he had placed on the head of his bed and caressed the name engraved on it.

"Brother..." He murmured in a quiet voice, his blue eyes quivering in unshed tears. "It’s time. I can finally avenge you."

He took a few deep breaths to calm his turbulent emotions. By then, his eyes had completely dried up, swirling in nothing but coldness and ironclad determination. Next, he rose to his feet, draped a coat over himself and went to the travel agency next door.

"Old Yang," he knocked on the front door, surprising the man that was dozing off inside.

"O–Oh!" Old Yang jumped up from his seat and opened the door for him. "Come in, come in, Little Guo! What brings you here at this late hour?"

"Do you remember the big order I placed a few months ago?"

"Of course, how can I forget?!" Old Yang exclaimed loudly. The business in his travel agency had always been desolate, and it was not until a few months ago when Master Cui corrected the feng shui in his place that he suddenly received a big order! And surprisingly, the order came from the young man in front of him and he had even completed the full payment on the spot! Alas, Little Guo forbade him from saying anything or else he would have boasted it to the entire neighborhood. Old Yang finally realized what the young man had come here for. "Do you have any changes to the arrangement?"

"Yes." A hint of smile appeared on Little Guo’s eyes. "I’d like to trouble you to move up the schedule and bring all of them back."