Note: this chapter was translated by Lickymee. Also, he did it as a favor and is not on the project so don’t expect him to take over.
Chapter 17 Murderous Gaze
Green Tea stood frozen on the stage. It was a waste to have opened a 82-years old high quality wine Lafite in the dressing room just now to celebrate her championship.
Crocodile tears started flowing out from her plastic surgery modified eyes.
Dream Jade covered her mouth with both of her hands as tears welled up in her eyes. Even she didn’t expect this kind of outcome.
Yet, she had now created a miracle within the history of 《China’s Wonderful Sound》with this song of hers.
In the control room of the stage, Shen Ming laid on a comfy chair as he enjoyed the rhythmic sound of someone banging on the door, all the while watching Dream Jade being crowned as the champion on the big screen.
What happened next was Quick Mouth Hua, holding Dream Jade’s hand, walked to the front of the stage with tears in his eyes.
“After four years of many ups and downs, this girl, who had entered this competition for the second time, with her song, had transcended space and time to give us humans a direction of what a good song is.”
“I believe, that everyone is the same as me. Not just by her wonderful voice, but also her determination, sincerity, courage and love.”
“Although I do not know which man had invaded into her heart so impolitely, but all I wish to say to that man is: Thank you. Thank you for allowing Dream Jade to transform from a cocoon into a butterfly to become 《China’s Wonderful Sound》’s third ever……”
BANG BANG BANG
The panicking crowd started to flee, even causing the bodyguard who were standing hand-in-hand in front of the stage to be dispersed.
The security department didn’t have an approach for such an emergency in their books as even the fans who were watching far away from the stage started running.
The VIPs who were beside Xiao Yi had also started running even faster than a rabbit. They even used the exit specifically for them before the gas even drifted over here.
She was at a loss at what to do when her phone rang.
“Hey! Are you laying an egg in the toilet or what?! There’s been explosions at the auditorium!” Xiao Yi screamed over the phone.
“Relax, it’s just a normal army-issued smoke grenade. Get to Dream Jade and protect her. I’ll be there soon.” As Shen Ming said that, he was already removing the obstacles in front of the other.
“Quickly!”
Yet, Green Tea, Dream Jade and Quick Mouth Hua were the first ones to retreat through the backstage. Xiao Yi once again spread her long legs and started sprinting.
Was she fated to become his errand girl?
Dream Jade, in a panic, didn’t know what was happening as she followed Quick Mouth Hua’s steps. Halfway, they bumped into Wu Neng.
“Follow me.” Wu Neng stretched his hands towards Dream Jade.
She hesitated a little, but still grabbed onto that familiar hand.
As Wu Neng pulled Dream Jade towards the exit, she nervously asked:
“Uncle, Shen Ming and Sister Xiao Yi aren’t out yet. Why don’t we wait for them?”
“Nope, we’re already running out of time.” Wu Neng said while pushing his golden-rimmed glasses.
“Running out of time? For what?” Dream Jade was completely muddled.
“Of course, for your ‘Celebration Feast’.” Wu Neng said while giving her a cold smile.
Even when the place was in a complete chaos, Wu Neng calmly led Dream Jade towards the back entrance of the car park, and headed towards the Zhao Qian’s taxi.
Seeing Dream Jade and his benefactor appearance, Zhao Qian immediately took down the ‘Not in Service’ sign on his meter, his hands holding the steering wheel while sweating profusely.
How could he not? Within these few days, the Dream Jade herself had rode on his car for the second time already. Was there anything more he could ask?
“Uncle! I want to wait for Shen Ming! Without him, I won’t go anywhere!”
When they reached the car, Dream Jade held onto the open car door while retaliating like this for the first time.
“That’s why I said, bodyguards always like to mess things up.”
Wu Neng sighed as he took off his glasses, and gave Dream Jade a slap.
Dream Jade felt dizzy from that hit. Although the strict Wu Neng had been with her for more than 3 years, he had never done anything physical before. No matter how much nonsense she was into, he had never blamed her before.
“My benefactor! Please don’t hit Miss Dream Jade!” Zhao Qian ran out from the driver seat in a panic.
“Get in! Who told you to come out?!” Wu Neng roared at him.
“Dream Jade?”
Dream Jade, with a red hand mark on her face, stood there frozen. And is that fat driver that Zhao Qian?
“Look who’s here? Is this not our policewoman Xiao Yi?” Wu Neng’s gentleman smile returned as he walked towards Xiao Yi.
“Stop, don’t……” Xiao Yi instinctively reached for her gun.
But before she could take it out, Wu Neng had already darted to her front and pushed the hand holding the gun back into the holster.
“You think you’re something of you’re a police? If we’re to talk about fighting skills, you’re nothing but a brat.”
Before Xiao Yi could even react, she was already flying in mid-air. Wu Neng simply used a hand to hold her belt and throw her as if she was just a fruit.
Xiao Yi who was upside down in the air twisted her body violently to kick at Wu Neng’s neck, though it was blocked by Wu Neng’s raised arm.
“Nice reaction speed, but not enough!” Wu Neng smiled coldly and gave a front kick to Xiao Yi’s stomach, sending her flying two meters backwards and crashing into the taxi’s shotgun seat door.
The car door had bent inwards as she fainted.
“AHH!!!!!!!!!” Dream Jade screamed in shock.
On the other side, the door of the stage control room, along with two other guards, were also sent flying with a kick.
“Bastard! You’re going to make us have a pay cut!”
Ten over security guards, armed with police batons, walked towards Shen Ming who was walking out of the room as if they were hooligans.
“I lost contact with my employer, so I’m quite in a rush now. Therefore……it may hurt a little now.” Shen Ming advised them with a cold voice.
5 minutes later, Shen Ming reached the back door of the carpark. He was without a scratch, other than some other people’s bloodstains on his cuffs.
There wasn’t a single soul here, with only some pieces of car paint on the ground to be seen.
Shen Ming turned on the GPS tracker in Xiao Yi’s phone on his own, and started heading towards the source of the signal on a jeep. On the way, he took some time to call an encrypted number.
“What’s up, Slippery Mouse?” asked Shen Ming casually.
[TLN:滑鼠(Huá shǔ) means the mouse for computer. Decided to split the word up as 滑for slippery and 鼠 for mouse.]
“Spit it out already. I’m having fun hacking into Washington Street’s computer system.” A young lad’s voice came from the other side of the phone.
“Remember the last time where you helped me check on Dream Jade’s manager’s location? Help me dig deeper. I want all of his past information, including which hospital he was born in.”
“Wait, you didn’t pay up for that time. Even though we’re close, can you not keep taking advantage of me?”
As the world’s strongest hacker, the internet gave him the power of a God to collect intelligence.
“I have no time to talk about the past with you. It’s either you help me, or I’ll go have a chat with you with my gun. To still not have complete the orders from above to assassinate you is my life’s only regret.” Shen Ming threatened him with a cold tone.
“Damn, even though you know I have a congenital heart disease, you still gonna frighten me everytime. It’s done, I’ve sent it to your email. Go look through yourself. And pay up next time already, you bastard!” Slippery Mouse hung up immediately after saying that.
Shen Ming followed the signal all the way back to the area where Dream Jade’s villa was. Parked in front of it was Zhao Qian’s taxi with a bent-in car door.
The front door of the house was ajar, a faint light emitting from behind it.
Taking off his suit, Shen Ming walked into the villa and closed the door. With a kachik, the electrical lock activated automatically.
Reaching the living room, the fainted Xiao Yi was tied up and was halfway being dragged by Zhao Qian to the kitchen.
On the sofa in the living room was Wu Neng drinking red wine with the villa’s remote control in his hands, and Dream Jade sitting beside him in a daze.
“Shen Ming?!”
When she finally saw her bodyguard, Dream Jade wanted to rush forward excitedly, but had her wrist twisted by Wu Neng, causing her to be held captured facing front. It was just like the first time she was held captured by Shen Ming on the beach.
“You came earlier than I expected.” Wu Neng held Dream Jade with one hand while still sipping red wine on the other.
“I told you, I’m the best bodyguard ever.” Shen Ming walked casually to the center of the living room, with a distance of a coffee table between them.
“Thanks to your nonsense actions, my master plan had almost been ruined by you!” Wu Neng gulped down the wine in the glass in one breath and threw it hard on the floor.
“Release Dream Jade and Xiao Yi, then disappear from here and I won’t probe further. I told you I owed you one, so just take this as me paying you back.” Shen Ming replied with an abnormally calm tone.
“Pay me back? As if you can afford it! I got 500M from Green Tea’s boss in exchange for allowing her to win, then used it all to bet on Green Tea winning. You had to goddamn let Dream Jade be the winner, so how are you going to pay me back? It’s goddamn 1000M! Even if you died 10 times, it wouldn’t even be enough!”
Her boss had already sent him a message: Return the money, or die! Can you go die in my place?” Wu Neng smiled coldly.
“Dream Jade now is quite the popular star. So if you just obediently be her manager, you’ll still earn quite the sum.” Shen Ming said in a regretful tone.
“It’s too little, with only 10% of the earnings. How many years must I slave on to get that 1000M back? Life is so short, so in order to enjoy it, who’s going to complain about having too much money?”
Wu Neng never had such an ugly smile before.
“So you fabricated a death threat, and leaked Dream Jade’s location to a die-hard fan such as this Zhao Qian in order to create the role of a murderer. You then made a letter of oath about ‘dying together’ in his home he never went back to, so that if anything arises, there is someone to be your scapegoat for the murder of Dream Jade……”
Shen Ming connected the dots together with the information. He wasn’t a detective, but he still had quite the comprehensive head on his shoulders.
“My benefactor……is whatever he said is true? You really wanted to kill Dream Jade?”
Walking up to Wu Neng’s side, he could never believe that his benefactor in front of him would do such a thing, even though he had already brought two cans of petroleum as ordered by him.
“Shut up, you ugly pig!” Wu Neng sent a punch into Zhao Qian’s face, instantly knocking the fatty out.
“So what if you knew? Can you even stop me? Let me tell you what the headlines for tomorrow’s news will be. ‘Die-hard fan kidnaps Dream Jade and commits arson; Green Tea champion of《China’s Wonderful Sound》’. Oh, and two other bodyguards was caught in the fire and was burned to death together.’
This was what the murderous gaze of Wu Neng told of.
Translator: Lickymee
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