Petty

Translator: CinderTL

Great Capital City.

Suburbs.

The gate of a villa hidden deep within a dense forest slowly opened. Ten seconds later, a car approached from a distance. The black-suited guards immediately removed the camouflage netting covering the road barrier.

It was an ordinary black sedan, but the roar of its engine suggested it was anything but.

The car didn't slow down at all, only screeching to a halt after entering the villa grounds.

The driver's seat was occupied by a stern-faced middle-aged man who stepped out without a glance and strode toward the villa.

Before he reached the door, a young man in a white suit and gold-rimmed glasses hurried out, as if he had been waiting for him.

"Are they still inside?" Gong Zhe asked, his face grim.

"Yes," the young man, who appeared to be the butler, replied in a hushed tone. "They have an order issued by the Night Watch Executive Department. We tried to stop them, but we couldn't."

"This is the Xia Family's property. They have no right to give orders here," Gong Zhe said, shoving the door open and striding inside.

"That's what I said too. After all, we withdrew from the Night Watcher long ago," Gong Zhe replied. "But they insisted that since the Xia Family had recently participated in the Night Watcher Executive Department's Supreme Council and voted, we still acknowledged the Nightwatch Declaration. That means we're bound by its twelve iron laws."

"The Night Watcher Executive Department has the authority to investigate any member family," the young man said quickly, adjusting his glasses as he followed Gong Zhe.

This villa served as a secret base for the Xia Family, used to detain important or highly valuable individuals. More accurately, it was an airtight prison. The surrounding security measures were all designed to protect this prison, with elite guards handpicked for the task.

"I've seen their warrant. They suspect we're holding a highly dangerous individual on the verge of losing control."

"Supernatural events have been surging across the region recently," the young man added. "They're worried that one of our prisoners might be on the verge of going berserk."

"They're demanding we open the detention cells and inspect every prisoner," the young man said, lowering his voice cautiously. "It's strange. They seem very familiar with this place. The moment they entered, they headed straight for our underground secret chamber and even found the hidden mechanism."

"Nothing strange about that," Gong Zhe said, frowning. "They must have a complete layout of the entire villa. They wouldn't come here without such information. And before they arrived, they lured me away."

The young man was stunned. "Are you saying someone deliberately orchestrated this Supernatural event in Ye City?"

One day earlier, a Xia Family base in Ye City had been attacked. Everyone vanished overnight, leaving no trace of the living or the dead.

Simultaneously, rumors of a Supernatural event began circulating in the area. The team compiling the incident report concluded that a Gate had gone out of control.

Code Name: Ye City Bouncing Head Incident

Supernatural Incident Level: Class B

Threat Level: ☆☆☆

Because the incident involved a portion of the Xia Family's operations in Ye City, it was ultimately decided that Gong Zhe should handle the matter.

Just as Gong Zhe arrived in Ye City and began to address the situation, an investigation team from the Executive Department arrived. Even the Xia Family's hidden mole within the Night Watchers had received no prior warning.

This was... too convenient.

Pausing by the staircase, Gong Zhe turned to the young man. "How is that person doing?"

The young man blinked, then quickly replied as if suddenly remembering something. "Rest assured, I've followed your instructions and placed him in the Forest Ranger's Cabin on the mountain. We have people watching him around the clock."

"You mean they came for that person?" The young man's voice was filled with disbelief.

The person had been delivered three days earlier. He looked both fat and cowardly. When his blindfold was removed, he immediately dropped to his knees, startling the guards escorting him. They'd thought it was some new fighting technique.

He kept his head bowed, eyes squeezed shut, and shouted, "Don't kill me! I didn't see your faces! My parents raised me to be this big and strong..."

Hearing that Fatty was unharmed, Gong Zhe's expression relaxed considerably. He'd agreed to take Fatty in partly because of his deal with Jiang Cheng, but he also had his own reasons.

"How's the interrogation going?" Gong Zhe asked. "Is it proceeding smoothly?"

The young man forced a wry smile. "To be honest, in all my time doing this job, I've never met anyone as cooperative as him."

"Hmm?" Gong Zhe seemed surprised.

"It's true. He's been completely forthcoming about everything he knows about Jiang Cheng. We started by giving him a few sheets of paper to write down everything he knew, but later, he actually asked us for more, saying the first few sheets weren't enough because he had so much information to report."

"Bring me what he wrote down," Gong Zhe ordered.

The young man quickly had someone fetch an ink-screen electronic tablet. After a few taps, a page of messy handwriting appeared on the screen.

Gong Zhe swiped his finger across the screen, randomly stopping on a page.

"How do I describe Jiang Cheng? He's incredibly petty. If you screw him over once, he won't be able to sleep until he's screwed you over ten times in return. He'll lie awake all night, obsessing over how to get his revenge."

"He's also incredibly meticulous, like, OCD-level meticulous. You know how it is."

"One time I was wiping the table, and he started fussing. I was using toilet paper—the kind we keep in the bathroom. I figured it's cheap, we have tons of it, and it'll just go bad if we don't use it. Might as well put it to good use."

"But he wouldn't let me. 'Hey, I'm not one to be pushed around. I'm not going to indulge his quirks!' So I slammed the toilet paper down and asked him what he wanted."

"He probably got scared. After all this time, he knows my temper pretty well. He got a little frightened and told me to use a rag instead, saying toilet paper was wasteful. But I was already in a mood. 'No way! If you won't let me use it, I'll use it anyway!' So I did. Then he tried to stop me. 'Hey, I'll use it even more!'"

Gong Zhe flipped through several more pages, each depicting Fatty and Jiang Cheng arguing. Their quarrel over a roll of toilet paper had dragged on for over twenty pages.

"So this is what you meant by 'tell all, hold nothing back'?" Gong Zhe asked the young man, veins throbbing in his forehead.

This is clearly nonsense!

"Don't get agitated, Mr. Gong," the young man said, seemingly anticipating this reaction. He gestured for Gong Zhe to look at the following pages. "This section contains Fatty's account of what happened with Jiang Cheng in the Nightmare. We've analyzed it and believe it's highly credible—he's not lying."

(End of the Chapter)

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