Artifact Report

Chapter 355 The Death of Chai Si Han Liuyue

Chai Si stood at the first-floor window, where he could see the driveway of the Kai family mansion.

After he woke up, he naturally no longer needed bodyguards. Every hunter staying at the mansion had already gotten into their car; in the thin, warm morning sunlight, one car after another started their engines, filed out of the driveway, and gradually disappeared from sight.

Kaironan was the first to leave, and Chess didn't see him off—this was something the two had agreed upon. Chess waited for a while, and when he walked to the window, Kaironan's car was already out of sight.

Just now, Chess has done his best to give Kaironan an answer.

It was as if he hadn't slept a wink for the past few days, constantly thinking about how to act and how to eliminate his opponents; it was as if he knew that as soon as he woke up, he would face Uncle Kai's questioning, so he was constantly planning even in his dreams, and the answer just came out of his mouth.

After Chai Si finished explaining everything, he still felt uneasy for a moment, wondering if Uncle Kai was satisfied with him—he stared intently at Uncle Kai, searching for praise and approval, like a dog waiting for a bone.

In Blackmore City, there were quite a few people who had called Chess a lackey of Kaironan, but he was never offended by that. He even felt that there was a hidden permission or envy for Uncle Kaironan in those words. Besides, a dog would never want to leave home just because it is a dog.

Caronan finally nodded.

“Let’s do it that way,” he said. “Your plan is good.”

...At that moment, it seemed as if Chai Si's life had been given the right to be extended a little longer.

After all the hunters had gone home, all that was left was to wait.

Chai Si was very uncomfortable with being idle and alone.

He carefully put away the notes of Jason Lan that he had shown to Uncle Kai, cleaned the dining table, whiled away some time in the combat training room, and then took a shower and washed up... By constantly finding things to do, he didn't have to think.

Chai Si finally made it past 11 p.m.; by then, a day had passed since the Kai family hunters had all gone home.

Throughout the day, he called Tianxi, Maiminghe, and Jin Xueli several times, but still couldn't reach any of them.

What happened?

The other two were fine, since it wasn't his responsibility after all; but if Tianxi continued to go missing, Chai Si would have to suspend the operation again and go to search for him—but Chai Si had already wasted too much time.

He did not receive any messages from the "Nest Domination Game" during his coma, indicating that the game was still at a stalemate and no one had made any new progress.

If the game was at a stalemate, what caused all three of them to disappear at once?

Filled with questions and frustration, Chai Si picked up his phone for what felt like the umpteenth time today—and coincidentally, the moment he picked it up, a call came in.

"Brother Chai!"

The person on the phone was a hunter from a family, almost shouting, "Come to the hospital quickly, Han Liuyue is critically ill!"

"What's going on?" He jumped up from the sofa.

"The doctors didn't know what happened either. His vital signs suddenly dropped, and shortly after he was admitted to the emergency room, he was given a critical condition notice..."

The drive from the Kai family mansion to the hospital where Han Liuyue was was originally a full two hours, but Chai Si managed to pull into an empty parking space from the side after just over an hour. As he slammed the car door shut, the car behind him, the one whose parking space he had taken and which he had almost crashed into, was honking its horn several times.

"Are you crazy?" the driver leaned out and shouted angrily, "Are you risking your life just to get a parking space?"

Chai Si glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, then turned and left.

The male driver became even angrier and pressed the horn firmly, refusing to let go; accompanied by a long, sharp honking sound, the driver strode into the hospital.

He arrived a step too late.

The hunter from the family, registered as Han Liuyue's emergency contact, came to greet him from the other end of the corridor; the smells of the hospital, the lights, the sound of the wheelchair rolling across the floor, the nurses calling out his name, the occasional swishing of his shoes... all the trembling, buzzing sounds propelled him forward until he reached the hunter.

“She’s dead,” the hunter said.

"...How long will it take you to kill all the Kai family hunters?"

This morning, during my conversation with Uncle Kai, the question that Uncle Kai suddenly asked me resurfaced in my mind once again, uncontrollably, now that I'm in the hospital and facing the Kai family hunters.

"What?" Chai Si was startled and subconsciously doubted that he had misheard.

The morning sunlight streamed through the window and fell at Kaironan's feet, blurring his vision. Uncle Kaironan looked at him as if he were simply asking a routine question: "What are your plans for the weekend?"

“You heard me,” said Caronan. “Answer me.”

Chai Si opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

Keronan waited for him quietly.

"Why—why? I—I can't..."

His hands hung limply from the chair, tightly clenched together, veins and blood vessels bulging beneath his pale skin like the veins of white marble. "I don't understand. Why did I kill my own brothers?"

"This is a hypothesis."

Kaironan looked at him and said, "Suppose I ordered you to kill every single Core Hunter—Tianxi, Shaxue, Suobeihua, Qibaili, and so on… oh, Han Liuyue. How long would that take?"

Chai Si still could not answer.

Just imagining it in my mind is like being squeezed between a wall of steel weighing millions of pounds, wanting only to escape, unable to breathe.

"how long?"

He didn't understand the point of Uncle Kai's question, but Chai Si knew that if he argued that there was no good reason for everyone to die, he would be committing a mistake.

"If... if neither side uses illusions, then even after the first person dies, they will start fighting back... half a day at most."

As Chai Si pushed open the ward door, he seemed to hear his own voice again.

If it was Uncle Kai's final order, then Uncle Kai must have had his reasons. Moreover, he didn't have the right to refuse.

Caronan was satisfied.

He nodded and said, "That's about what I expected"—as if he had already thought about using the chais in this way one day.

However, now in this hospital room where only he and Han Liuyue are, Chai Si vaguely realizes that Uncle Kai may just want to see his reaction; especially after he desperately saved Han Liuyue.

Uncle Kai has long been semi-retired. Over the years, all the affairs of the Kai family, big and small, have been handled by Chai Si, who has entrusted the family's hunters with life and death. Perhaps he wanted to know if Chai Si could still distinguish which was more important and which was less important—is that right?
In this world, once you start thinking about "how to do it," you've already passed the hurdle of "whether to do it or not."

He slowly sat down in front of the hospital bed, all he could see was white.

Snow-white hair pressed against his retina, while pinkish-silver hair, scattered haphazardly from the end of the snow-white sheets, pierced his vision like sharp thorns.

“Brother Chais…” the family hunter named David called out softly.

“You can leave now,” Chais said. “Tell the hospital not to bother me. I need some time.”

Even after the door was closed, the ward was not quiet.

The ventilation fan and air conditioner were humming, and the machines emitted a faint heat from their operation. This VIP ward was expensive and located in a corner of the hospital; yet, one could still hear occasional footsteps and voices in the corridor outside.

Han Liuyue was wrapped in a thick blanket, as if she were even more sensitive to the cold now. At the foot of the bed lay one of her bags, the zipper half-open, revealing the edge of a plastic bag.

Chai Si sat there blankly for an unknown amount of time until he heard someone gently knock on the door.

"Who?"

“Brother Chais,” the door opened, and David poked his head in. “I’m sorry, the hospital means we should proceed with the next steps as soon as possible…”

He carefully closed the door, looked at Chai Si, and then at the undulating white blankets on the bed. "Brother Chai Si, I know you're sad. But she can't stay here forever."

“Yes,” Chai Si said, but did not move.

He was still leaning towards Han Liuyueban, his arms resting on his legs and his hands hanging between his knees.

David stood at the door, seemingly in distress, and raised his hand to cover his mouth.

Chai Si didn't even realize he had spoken until the next second when he heard his lips, teeth, and throat work together to form a sentence: "I have a rumor to tell you."

In that instant, David suddenly lowered his hand and smiled—he seemed to be holding something in his hand, which then disappeared into his pocket in a flash.

“I heard a rumor,” David said.

At that moment, Chai Si had fully realized what was happening. He leaped up from his chair and lunged towards the ward door; "David" dodged backward, nimbly taking several steps back, and when he raised his arm toward Chai Si, he already had a gun in his hand.

"Don't move," he said in a muffled, soft voice, which now sounded nothing like David.

Chai Si was even slightly surprised at himself—how come he hadn't noticed anything at all?

The sound of a safety latch being pulled rang out in the ward.

“You’re the one who shouldn’t be touching this,” a woman’s voice said lightly.

Han Liuyue had silently sat up from between the snow-white sheets, holding a gun in her hand and pointing it at the back of "David's" head.

(End of this chapter)