Volume 1 Chapter 77: The Mother of Pearl, Worry-Free

  In City B, under a skyscraper in the city center, a middle-aged man with scars on his face and a young woman wearing sunglasses stopped in their tracks.

  "Third Elder," a gate guard stepped forward and said, "The Master is on the eighteenth floor!"

  "I understand!" Zheng Ze nodded and glanced at the pearl beside him.

  "Let's go up!" Pearl said expressionlessly.

  The elevator reached the 18th floor and Zheng Ze walked towards the left side of the elevator with ease, pushing open the door to the conference room at the end of the corridor.

  "Right on time!" A young man turned his swivel chair around from facing the door, beaming with a smile at the two of them. He was Yuwen Zhuo.

  "Zhenzhu wants to see her mother, so..." Zheng Ze's heart was still a bit uneasy, "You said before that you would let her go..."

  "That's human nature!" Yuwen Zhuo nodded, "I can understand! I said I wouldn't bother her because she isn't a bother to me! But you should know that you're enough to cause me trouble, because you know too much!"

  "Your Majesty, if you spare my father's life, we can guarantee that we will not reveal any information about the original sin to anyone! We promise!" Pearl still held a glimmer of hope.

  "Zhenzhu, you promised me before you came that this time you would only come to see your mother and not interfere with other things!" Zheng Ze grabbed Zhenzhu's arm and shook his head at her, because he knew what the consequences would be if he provoked the seemingly gentle man in front of him.

  "Zhenzhu, you are a beauty, I won't deny that." Yuwen Zhuo smiled and shook his head, "Although it's hard for me to refuse women... This is the rule, rules are meant to be lubricants for the entire organization to run more smoothly, although sometimes some rules do sound unreasonable..."

  "What do you need me to do for you to let go of my father?" Pearl was not about to give up.

  "Jade, don't say anything!" Zheng Ze pulled Jade back. He saw a change in Yuwen Zhuo's expression and knew that Jade might be in danger.

  "Do you think I'm saying this because I have ulterior motives towards you?" Yuwen Zhuo slightly furrowed his brow, "Or is it that I haven't expressed clearly what I want to express? I worry that if you stay here for one more second, I'll have the urge to kill you. So, I suggest that in a short period of time, it's best if you don't appear within my line of sight..."

  Zheng Ze grabbed Zhen Zhu's arm and pulled her out of the door, then re-entered the conference hall and closed the large door.

  Zhenzhu crouched silently by the door, speechless...

  "I'm glad you didn't make a wrong decision!" Yuwen Zhuo's face lit up with a smile again, looking at Zheng Ze.

  Zheng Ze nodded slightly, his face calm and collected, "How are you planning to kill me?"

  "You choose, executioner, location, method, just remember within twenty-four hours!" Yuwen Zhuo said as he turned his chair one hundred and eighty degrees, turning his back on Zheng Ze, no longer making any sound.

  Zheng Ze was taken aback for a moment, glanced at Yuwen Zhuo who had his back to him and remained silent, before turning around and leaving.

  As Zheng Ze pushed open the conference hall's large door, Pearl looked up at her father in some surprise.

  "Did he agree to let you go?" Pearl immediately stood up.

  Zheng Ze smiled and shook his head, "I'll take you to see your mother!"

  Jianzhu's expectations shattered once again, she held back her tears and nodded at Zheng Ze.

  Two people left the building in a taxi under the gaze of many security guards with surprised expressions.

  The taxi stopped in front of a villa and Zheng Ze got out with Pearl.

  "This is one of Li Tianyu's secret laboratories, and there's a very secretive underground room below. Your mother is inside!" Zheng Ze's eyes dimmed, hesitating for a moment before walking towards the villa's entrance.

  Li Tianyu opened the door with his own key and walked straight into the bathroom. Zhenzhu stood in the living room, not following him.

  "The entrance is in the bathroom, come on! At first, it was to avoid suspicion that he put the entrance here." Zheng Ze smiled somewhat awkwardly.

  Zhenzhu followed into the bathroom.

  Zheng Ze crouched down, picked up a seemingly normal ceramic tile from the ground, and inserted the key into it, turning it counterclockwise by ninety degrees.

  A strange noise of bricks rubbing against each other came from the ground, and then the whole bathtub turned over, revealing a staircase leading underground.

  "I'll go down first, there's a light downstairs! Wait for me to turn it on before you come down!" Zheng Ze took out the key and handed it to Pearl, then he went down the stairs alone.

  In less than half a minute, the originally dark and gloomy basement became bright and spacious. "Come down!"

  The pearl also rolled down the stairs into the basement.

  "That's your mother..." Zheng Ze pointed to the woman on the white hospital bed in the center of the basement.

  Pearl hesitated for a moment, but finally took a step forward and walked to the bedside.

  That was a beautiful woman, with a face that looked about 70% similar to Pearl's, only with a few more mature charms. Her complexion was even slightly rosy, making her look as if she were alive. That face also seemed to be around the same age as Pearl's, and in these twenty-odd years, she seemed to have never changed at all...

  The only difference was the slightly bulging belly, like that of a woman several months pregnant, but Pearl knew that inside wasn't a fetus, but a massive grub.

  This was the first time in her life that she saw her own mother, she stood quietly there, stretched out her hand to grasp the left hand which still had body temperature, tears fell down from her cheeks non-stop, "Mom, I've come to see you..."

  Zheng Ze stood beside her, speechless, quietly watching his own daughter and the woman he had forcibly taken for himself...

  It wasn't until much later that Pearl finally reluctantly let go of his hand and nodded at Zheng Ze with a smile, "Alright!"

  "Oh, you go ahead first, I want to be alone with her for a while..." Zheng Ze responded with the same smile.

  "Oh..." Pearl hesitated for a moment, wanting to say something but didn't say it out loud, and instead lowered her head and left down the stairs of the basement...

  Zheng Ze walked to the side of the hospital bed, gently stroking Lin Xiang's face. "I'm sorry, I apologize for what I've done in the past. I know you don't even know I exist, and you also don't know that you have a daughter with me..."

  "To express my apology..." Zheng Ze pulled out the long knife from his waist, placed the handle in Lin Xiang's hand, and then grasped her left hand tightly with both hands. He thrust the long knife into his own abdomen with force. The knife pierced through his back, blood flowing ceaselessly. With a smile all over his face, Zheng Ze looked at the woman before him, "Dying by your hand is the happiest thing in my life... and also the only correct choice I've made this lifetime..."

  Zheng Ze endured the pain, leaning forward to bring his head close to Lin Xiang's face, gently kissing her forehead, and tears fell from his eyes onto her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I love you..."