Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 457: Is That You?

As soon as He Juan heard those words, any hint of warmth instantly vanished from his eyes, replaced with bone-chilling coldness. Mu Yuze, who was walking out of the kitchen with two plates of cakes in his hand, was startled and almost dropped them. "J–Juan gege?" He called out, his voice barely above a whisper.

He Juan snapped back to reality at the sound of that voice. He swiftly concealed his murderous intent and covered the phone’s speaker, saying softly with an apologetic smile, "I’m sorry, let me answer this one call." It was as if the previous coldness Mu Yuze saw was nothing more than a figment of imagination.

"O–Oh," Mu Yuze managed to say. "Don’t take too long lest the food will get cold."

"Sure," He Juan chuckled and rose to his feet, walking toward his own room. Once inside, his smile faded and his silver eyes were stormy with suppressed anger. He demanded with gritted teeth, "Explain!"

"W–We are very sorry, Boss!" The voice on the other end stammered out in haste. "He had a poison pill in his mouth. It was too late by the time we realized it!"

"Ha..." He Juan ran his fingers through his hair and released a deep sigh, veins throbbing on his forehead. But in the end, he managed to regain his cool and asked calmly, despite already knowing the answer, "How about the car? Did you find anything?"

Sure enough, the man replied, "It’s a rental car with an unregistered license plate. The driver made his payment using cash. Right now, we are verifying his identity and checking the CCTVs in the area to see if we can find something."

"Okay. Update me later." He Juan hung up on the call, and his brow furrowed into deep lines. He couldn’t help but feel that something was amiss. The stalker appeared to have very little experience in this field, resulting in He Juan catching him red-handed. However, he had prepared a poison beforehand, meaning that he was ready to kill himself if things went haywire. It was literally a suicide mission. Pointless, if he had to say.

Exactly who was the mastermind behind this and what was their goal? Moreover, how did they know about He Juan’s whereabouts? Last time, there were Blue Lotus and Dai Zhi colluding with each other to assassinate him, but He Juan had already buried them three feet underground.

Who was it again this time?!

"Damn it..." Frustration surged in his chest. It was such a hassle to have so many enemies; he could not even pinpoint who might be targeting his head. He had made sure to keep XIU’s identity a top secret that was only known to a few, but who could guarantee that there were no leaks, no traitors waiting to strike him down?

He took a few minutes to calm himself down until he was certain that Mu Yuze would not be able to see any cracks in his armor, before going out and joining the boy at the dining table.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Mu Yuze scrutinized his expression closely, and had it not been for He Juan’s strong psychological fortitude, he would have broken out into a cold sweat under the quiet intensity of those dark eyes. His eyes glimmered in a mixture of mirth and helplessness. Heavens, why hadn’t he realized how sharp Mu Yuze’s eyes were? To say that they were capable of piercing into someone’s soul was not even an exaggeration!

Fortunately, He Juan’s skin was very thick and thus he managed to put on a puzzled look and patted his cheek, "What’s wrong? Is there something on my face? Or..." his tone turned playful. "...is Gege just too handsome?"

As expected, Mu Yuze was quickly distracted by his shameless remark. He choked on his breath, coughing. "W–What nonsense are you talking about?"

He Juan let out a carefree laugh and picked up his chopsticks. He made sure to shower Mu Yuze with praises like usual, making the boy flushed in pride and shyness.

Over the next two weeks, He Juan encountered similar accidents four times. The same pattern, the same clumsiness, and inexperience, along with the poison. The cars were rented with cash and investigation revealed that the drivers either had a sick family member or were burdened with a lot of debt. One thing for certain, their situation was quite desperate and they needed a quick sum of money, even if it meant sacrificing their own lives in exchange. No matter how quickly He Juan reacted, the stalkers would immediately swallow the poison in their mouth even before they could be dragged out of the car.

After their death, a huge sum of money was transferred into the account of their family members, but He Juan could never trace back its source. Not only that, it was still unknown what kind of method the mastermind used to contact them.

His investigation hit a dead end again and again, gaining no results whatsoever. As a result, He Juan’s nerves were strung taut for these two weeks and his paranoia skyrocketed, resulting in his gloomy and violent mood.

For fear that Mu Yuze would be implicated, he did not even dare to go home. Instead, he claimed that he was going on a business trip. He suspected that Mu Yuze had an inkling about his lie, but the boy said nothing about it. In some way, this situation worked well for He Juan too, as it gave him the space he needed to contemplate his future with Mu Yuze.

Since that day, Marius’ words kept echoing in his mind and coupled with these repeated bizarre accidents, it made him think that the man’s words made some sense.

One time was already enough. If he were to drag Mu Yuze into danger again for the second time...

He Juan did not even know what he was capable of.

This stalemate lasted until another incident unfolded. Once again, He Juan was confronted with a lifeless body that showed signs of poisoning.

He stood before the burning furnace with the blazing embers reflected in his cold silver eyes, his lips curved into a faint smile. Upon seeing that, the men around him dared not make a sound and kept their eyes fixed on the ground. They did not even dare to breathe too loud, knowing that the slightest spark would trigger an explosive outbursts from He Juan this time.

The only one who had the courage to speak his thoughts was Chen Youzhi. "Boss, don’t you sense something amiss?"

He Juan swept his gaze over, his voice low. "Speak."

"Despite knowing that the mission would fail, they still sent people after you. No doubt you are the target, Boss. But isn’t it rather useless when all of them will end up in failures?" Chen Youzhi questioned. "Or are they hoping to catch you off guard on one rare occasion?"

He Juan felt irritation churning in his chest. He knew. Of course, he knew. Ever since the first accident, he had already figured out that this suicide mission was useless. But why would they still persist in sending people after him? Based on that fact, He Juan could only concur that the mastermind was reckless, childish and only strived to annoy the hell out of—

The train of He Juan’s thought abruptly screeched to a halt.

Wait a moment... what if these repeated failures were intended to play a psychological game with him? If that was the case, then there was only one person he could think of. He Juan instructed his men to handle things there as he exited the building. Taking out the phone, he dialed a number he seldom used before.

As soon as the call connected, He Juan’s gloomy voice cut through, not allowing the other person a chance to speak. "Is that you?"

He was met with a burst of laughter from the other side, which only served to fuel the suppressed anger in his heart. But at the same time, he knew that he had found the culprit.

"Bingo," Ku Jin sing-songed. "Honestly, I expected you to figure it out much sooner, XIU. Tsk, what a disappointment."