Ye Chen looked at Lu Shixun again.

"No need to use the bathroom."

"Isn’t there a pool outside? Let her wash there."

Lu Shixun paused. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"...At this hour?"

Ye Chen exhaled a thin stream of smoke.

"She’s not useful anymore."

"...Understood." Lu Shixun nodded knowingly.

---

Cold night air.

The pool reflected faint light.

Mimi was thrown into the water.

She gasped, the cold biting into her body.

She tried to swim up.

But a stick pushed her down.

Again and again.

All her efforts were useless.

"Hahaha! She can swim."

"How long can she last?"

"Thirty seconds."

"I say a minute."

"More than that. If I win, I get another turn with the mother."

Laughter echoed above the water.

Mimi struggled to breathe.

As time passed, the water filled her nose. Then her mouth.

Her lungs burned.

Her arms moved weaker and weaker. As she started losing strength.

’Mama...’

’Daddy...’

’Someone... please...’

Her vision blurred.

The world around her grew dark.

Then—

Everything stopped.

***

The memory ended.

Su Mo remained crouched in place.

His hand was still resting lightly on the little girl’s forehead.

His expression was blank. But his breathing had slowed.

Inside his mind, the echoes did not stop.

’Mama... Daddy... Save us...’

The small, trembling voice repeated over and over again in his mind.

A tear slipped quietly from the corner of his eye.

He slowly pulled his hand back.

His gaze fell on the little girl’s face.

For a brief moment, something like guilt appeared in his eyes.

’If I had come earlier...’

"Master... are you crying?"

Leng Shuang’s voice came softly from beside him.

He hadn’t even noticed when she arrived.

Leng Shuang looked at the scene, then at Su Mo. She had seen the bodies and understood why he was angry.

But she hadn’t expected him to be crying.

Su Mo glanced at her.

"Shuang..."

"Yes, Master."

"I want to avenge her."

His voice was calm.

Leng Shuang straightened slightly.

"Understood. Do you want me to kill them?"

She knew her master’s bottom line. He doesn’t kill anyone with his own hands.

However, Su Mo’s reaction was different from what she expected. He shook his head slowly.

"Not so easily."

He stood up.

His eyes turned cold.

"Just killing them... is not enough."

He looked at the two bodies once more before speaking.

"I want them to suffer a hundred times what they did to them."

Leng Shuang felt a chill run down her spine seeing the never-before-seen coldness in her master’s eyes.

"...I understand."

"Gather those bugs," Su Mo said.

"Yes."

Leng Shuang moved immediately. She felt something about her master was very unfamiliar.

At the same time, Su Mo’s spiritual sense spread out once more.

His expression didn’t change.

But his aura was completely different now.

It was cold, heavy, and unforgiving.

One by one, the unconscious criminals began to change under his ability.

Their forms shrank.

Twisted.

Reduced to crawling, writhing insects.

The bug catcher Leng Shuang was online.

She moved through the villa, collecting them one by one without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Su Mo gently lifted the bodies of the mother and child. Then put them inside his storage. He would give them a proper cremation later.

As he walked out of the basement, his gaze shifted toward the upper floor.

Toward the room where Gao Xufan was locked.

His aura was still there. However, he seemed to be unconscious. Su Mo had made sure his spiritual pressure avoided Gao Xufan earlier. Otherwise, he might not be alive, given his weak condition.

After taking him, Su Mo waited for Leng Shuang to collect those criminals, and then they left.

Now the mayor’s villa was empty; what was left were just the traces of tragedy that had occurred here.

***

Back in Yang Qingxi’s villa, both Yang Qingxi and Zhang Xulin had already returned after dealing with Ye Chen’s subordinates.

"Miss, did it work?" Zhang Xulin asked as she sat down, still a little curious about the overall outcome.

"Of course it did," Yang Qingxi replied with a confident smile. "After all, our Sister Xulin is such an amazing actor."

At the same time, a thought crossed her mind.

’It seems Su Mo overestimated them. Until the very end, none of them showed any obvious suspicion toward Ye Chen’s identity or his story.’

She paused slightly.

’Or maybe they did notice something... but just chose not to say it. As Su Mo expected.’

Her smile didn’t fade.

’Either way, it doesn’t matter.’

She had already marked them with her new technique. No matter what they thought, they wouldn’t be able to escape her grasp.

"You’re exaggerating," Zhang Xulin said, scratching her cheek with a faint hint of embarrassment.

Yang Qingxi’s smile widened as she leaned back slightly, her eyes narrowing with playful intent.

"Not at all," she said. "The way your eyes swept over Rose, that greasy flirting, and the obvious disgust toward Jerry... if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought you were Ye Chen himself."

Zhang Xulin’s lips twitched.

"Miss, are you praising me or mocking me?"

"Of course it’s praise," Yang Qingxi replied without hesitation. "You were the perfect Ye Chen."

She paused for a brief moment before adding lightly,

"So perfectly unpleasant."

Zhang Xulin looked at her with a flat expression.

"You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?"

Yang Qingxi tilted her head slightly. "On purpose?"

"Yes," Zhang Xulin said, narrowing her eyes a little. "Is it because I went a bit overboard earlier and ordered you around?"

"Huh? Not at all," Yang Qingxi said with a gentle smile that didn’t quite hide the mischief in her eyes. "This is my genuine admiration for your acting talent."

Zhang Xulin stared at her for a second.

Then she silently concluded—

’I don’t believe you.’

Yang Qingxi was about to tease her further.

However, both of them suddenly turned their heads toward the entrance at the same time.

Su Mo and Leng Shuang had arrived.

"You’re back," Yang Qingxi said with a smile. "How did it go? Everything went well?"

She was even about to bring up Zhang Xulin’s performance and tease her further together.

But the words stopped midway.