Chapter 300: The Massacre Of An Entire Family (1/2)

It was already two in the morning and I had an early day tomorrow. I suggested we spend the night at a nearby hotel to facilitate the investigation.

Having missed most of the events tonight, Dali and Bingxin were almost too excited to go to sleep. At the hotel, they made me stay up with them for a chat. After all that had happened today, I wasn’t in much of a mood for idle talk and replied perfunctorily when spoken to.

“Dude, would you like to take a ‘couple’s’ bath together?” Dali teased when the tub in the bathroom was filled with warm water. “Or should I say a gay couple’s bath...”

”You’re disgusting,” I rebuked. “You should quickly come out of the closet so you can get together with Lao Yao!”

I was lying on the bed when I noticed Dali's cell phone casually placed on the sheets. I unlocked it and found the novel he was currently reading–”The Underworld Merchant” which he mentioned last time. There were two names repeated throughout the text–Zhang Jiulin and Pockmark Li.

I was astonished! Was this novel really a narration of Zhang Jiulin's life experience?

But on second thought, there were people who wrote novels about their experiences all over the world. Of course, I regarded such narcissists with contempt.

In truth, I did a lot of reading but the only genre I couldn’t stand was fiction. Finishing a forensic science book as thick as a dictionary would take me a few nights at most, but a novel took me forever. I hadn’t even read any of the classic Chinese novels!

The knowledge and information I could gain from a novel were too fragmented. Besides, many of them were either partially made up or fabricated without a sliver of truth. I honestly couldn’t fathom why anyone liked to read them.

A while later, Dali came out of the bathroom and noticed my interest in his novel. ”Oh my God! Has the sun risen from the west?!” he shouted. “You’re actually reading this novel? Would you like to know how to download the Mars Novels app?”

I threw his cell phone at him and disdained, ”I’m just flipped through. I wouldn’t want to spend any time reading this nonsense!”

”Really?” I scoffed. “Why don’t you tell me all about it then.”

Dali opened the e-book, ”Spoilers ruin the story! Read it yourself!”

”I don't have the time,” I argued. “So please just tell me!”

Thus, Dali explained the plot and the characters of the novel which was an opportunity to garner more information about the enemy, though I had no way of ascertaining if the contents were anywhere close to the truth.

Thirsty from all the talk, Dali grabbed two bottles of Coke, one for me and the other for himself. ”Dude, what’s up with you today?” asked Dali. “Why did you suddenly bring this up?”

I thought it rather unfair to hide the matter from him so I solemnly said, ”Put down your drink first. I have something to tell you.”

”What is it?” Dali stared in curiosity. “Are you Li Ka-shing’s illegitimate child?”

“Fuck off!” I retorted. ”So here’s the thing, I actually met two people today–one of them is Pockmark Li and the other calls himself Zhang Jiulin.”

Dali wordlessly blinked his shock-filled eyes at me. ”Do you mean cosplayers?”

”They’re Yin object dealers from Wuhan.”

”Oh my God!!!” he exclaimed.

Dali's ear-piercing screams were almost loud enough to topple the ceiling. He jumped up and down like a monkey, excitedly pulling my arm. ”Is it true? Is it really true?”

I quickly broke free. ”Geez, put on your clothes first!”

Throughout the rest of the night, I was bombarded by Dali’s endless questions. He begged me for Pockmark Li’s number, and as soon as I relented, he assaulted my ears with his enthusiastic plans to visit his idol tomorrow.