Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 432: Be Careful With Your Words
"That mutated Alpha was only twelve or thirteen years old. He was practically still a child, yet he managed to kill two special forces soldiers before the sniper took him down... or so I’ve been told," Mo Feng added the last few words in a haste upon sensing the temperature in the room plummeted all of a sudden.
Marius’ immediate reaction was to shoot a concerned glance at Ye Qiu, silently asking if she would prefer to wait for them somewhere else instead, as he did not want her to be bothered by this unsettling conversation.
But Ye Qiu reassured him firmly, "I’m fine." She lowered her gaze, her fists clenching by her side. "It might be a little difficult to bear, but... it’s not like I haven’t gotten used to it. After all, that’s how my life was before I met you guys. Otherwise, the next person to be shot down could have been me or the children."
Even with Marius and He Juan’s protection, her life could not be considered safe either. She still had to be wary of forces that sought to eradicate her kind from the world. However, at least now she and the children had a solid roof above their heads and three warm meals a day. They could sleep soundly at night without worrying that a bullet would go through their heads. And for that, they were immensely satisfied.
"So," He Juan sighed and continued with his questions. "You learned about the experiment from your stepfather, correct? What about the facility in Yuyang? Did he also tell you about that?"
Mo Feng nodded with his head hung low, not daring to meet He Juan’s eyes. "Even though my stepfather has retired, I suppose he couldn’t rest easy knowing that the targets of his mission were all children and young teenagers. Since then, he started gathering information about the mutated Alphas through his connections. It hadn’t been easy, and there was not much he could do. But if he came across one, he would ensure they have shelter and help them escape..."
He poured himself another glass of wine and downed it in a gulp, quietly gathering his courage for what he was going to say next. "I’m sure you know it already; they were not given names. Instead, they were referred to as numbers. Test subject F–818, he was the last person my stepfather helped before he passed away. And the place where he escaped from was—
"—the facility in Yuyang," He Juan connected the dots together, earning him a nod from Mo Feng.
"Code F..." Ye Qiu let out a shaky breath. "That’s the code for failures, as they were unsuccessful in manifesting as Alphas."
Mo Feng affirmed with a nod, "You’re right. When my stepfather and I met him, he was already sixteen and still showed no signs of manifestation."
He proceeded to share what he had learned from Test Subject 818. "That year, when AX-03 was officially banned in multiple countries, the secret experiment stopped, but not the observation process. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of test subjects who were reaching the age of manifestation, and it would be a waste to abandon them just like that. Little Eight — oh, that’s what my stepfather called him. He was deemed a failure at the age of fourteen, and on the day he was supposed to be disposed of, he seized the opportunity to escape and happened to cross paths with us."
"Where is that person now?" He Juan asked.
"I don’t know, Bo—" Mo Feng choked when that word almost slipped out of his mouth, and he coughed for a bit before adding, "I don’t know either. My stepfather gave him a sum of money and helped him get a ride to Qingxi. After that, we lost all contact and I never heard from him again. The last thing my stepfather did before illness took him was investigating the facility in Yuyang where Little Eight escaped from, which is how I came to know about it."
He Juan let out an intrigued hum and drummed his fingers on his lap, his scrutinizing gaze fixed on the young man before him.
Seconds ticked by in this agonizing silence. Mo Feng, who could not bear the pressure anymore, blurted out, "I–If you don’t believe me, I have all the related documents in the safe. I’m really not lying, Boss! I know it’s shameless of me to—"
"I know you’re not lying," He Juan interrupted, causing Mo Feng to raise his head in surprise. A flicker of light emerged from the depth of his eyes, only to be extinguished once he heard He Juan say,
"I just can’t figure it out. In my eyes, you’re not the kind of person who would go to such lengths to help people who don’t concern you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have set up those bombs that killed 18 innocent civilians and injured many more just to spite me, would you?"
Mo Feng’s face flushed in the mixture of shame and frustration. In the heat of the moment, he let slip, "I–I really have my own reasons for doing so! You don’t know about this, do you, Boss? The secret experiment was supposed to have stopped that year, but these past few years, it has started again... because a bigshot injected a substantial amount of funds into it! The facility I had been investigating is one, but there is actually another newly built facility in Yuyang, where important documents and ledgers are kept! I’ve been investigating this for so long, and the clues finally led me to Xuanlong—"
CRASH!
The wine bottle and glasses fell and shattered into pieces as He Juan roughly seized Mo Feng’s neck and pinned him down to the table. Though the smile on his face was ever gentle and pleasant, the same could not be said to his silver eyes which gleamed with murderous intent.
Ye Qiu was shocked, as she had not seen He Juan move at all. "XIU!" She intended to stop him, but Marius raised a hand and gestured for her to watch and observe.
"Be careful with your words, Mo Feng." Seething in fury, He Juan’s fingers dug into the young man’s fragile neck, causing his face to turn red from the lack of oxygen. "What are you trying to imply? That there’s an investor in Xuanlong who has been sponsoring the experiment? Or..."
He narrowed his eyes and suddenly remarked, "You think it’s me." It was not a question.
Yet Mo Feng showed no signs of cowering under this imminent peril. Perhaps the effect of the alcohol finally rushed to his head and numbed his senses, he hollered in a hoarse voice,
"You’re right! I did suspect you at first, because you’re the only person capable of pulling off such a stunt in Xuanlong, especially with how you have been hunting Blue Lotus down! That’s why I lured you into that bar, because I planned to kill you! I planned to kill you alone, but... who knew that..."
Droplets of tears slid from the corner of his eyes to disappear into his hairline. He forced himself to say through his constricted throat, choking with emotions. "Who knew that Old Liu would be closest to the bomb? Who knew that Ma Ping would choose to protect you with his own body at the last moment?! I didn’t... I didn’t want to kill them either...!"
"It’s my fault...!" He finally broke down and poured out all of his remorse, guilt and self-blame in the form of unending tears. "T–The two of them were nothing but good to me... but I killed them!!"
