Chapter 351: Unless He Dies

Xia Qingzhi's parents must have thought I was out of my mind. Even the usually rational Father Xia frowned and quietly moved the fruit knife away from the fruit platter.

"You're saying there's another person living in our house? How is that possible?" Father Xia held back his impulsive wife and pulled out his phone, looking ready to call the police at a moment's notice.

"I've felt something was off about this place since the first time I visited." I looked at the cups on the coffee table. "There are only three people in your family, so why do you habitually set out four teacups? Who is the extra one for?"

Xia Qingzhi's parents had clearly expected me to drop some earth-shattering revelation, only to hear me point out the number of cups. "Ridiculous!" Father Xia said. "We can set out as many cups as we want. That doesn't prove anything."

"The cups are just one of your many daily habits." I stood up and pointed at the bedroom they used as a storage space. "Can you show me that room?"

"Suit yourself."

I knew perfectly well that this storage room used to be Xia Chi's bedroom. Aside from a pile of clutter, it held a bed, books, a basketball, and toys. The only things missing were his name and his photographs.

"A boy definitely used to live in this room, and he was here for a long time."

"That's right. We have a relative whose son boarded with us to be closer to school. He went abroad later on, so the room was emptied out." Xia Qingzhi's parents' memories seemed to have been altered—or perhaps, after receiving some intense stimulus, their brains had automatically fabricated false memories to protect them, providing a rational explanation for all of this.

"A relative's son? Went abroad? Since he lived in your house for so long, you must know his name, hobbies, and what he looked like, right? Can you tell me about him?" It was nearly impossible to make a person vanish into thin air without leaving behind a single flaw.

"The boy's name was Zhang Chi. He went to Xinhu High School, and for university he went to..."

A completely unfamiliar name came out of her parents' mouths, backed by incredible detail. It was clearly a fabricated persona, yet it sounded as though this person had actually existed. The logic was flawless. For a brief moment, even my own certainty wavered.

Someone tugged at my shirt. I turned around and met Xia Qingzhi's wide eyes. She leaned in close and whispered in my ear, "The person my parents are talking about is my brother. They just think he's a relative's kid now, and they've even made up this story about him going abroad to explain why he's gone."

Before she even finished speaking, Mother Xia, who had been lost in her memories, suddenly cried out. She clutched her temples and collapsed backward.

Xia Qingzhi and Father Xia rushed to help her onto the sofa. We were already well into autumn and the weather was growing chilly, yet Mother Xia's face was drenched in sweat and deathly pale. "My head hurts so much... it feels like it's being pricked by needles."

"Can you let me take a look?" I asked. But the moment I stepped forward, Father Xia barked at me to back off. He had been reasonably polite to me earlier, but now he seemed like a completely different person.

I backed away thoughtfully. Unoffended, I offered a brief apology and turned to leave.

Standing by the stairwell, I lit a cigarette and replayed the scene that had just unfolded inside the apartment.

"I'm sorry for the trouble." A short while later, Xia Qingzhi came running down the stairs.

I exhaled a puff of smoke. "How is your mother doing? Has she ever experienced something like this before?"

"Never. Her health has always been great."

"It wasn't heatstroke, high blood pressure, or any other medical condition, yet she suddenly felt a pain in her brain as if she were being pricked by needles. It looks like the Underworld Live Show is behind this. To hide its secrets, it really will use any means necessary." I hadn't dared to press the issue upstairs, afraid that learning things they shouldn't know would only inflict greater agony on Xia Qingzhi's parents. "Don't run around blindly during this time. I'll investigate your brother's situation. He probably isn't dead; I just don't know where he's hiding."

Xia Qingzhi nodded obediently. "By the way, hearing my mom mention Xinhu High School just now reminded me of something. I think my brother actually got that recruitment ad card for the Live Show from a classmate of his."

"A classmate?" I perked up instantly. That was a crucial lead.

"Yeah. It was his desk mate back when he went to Xinhu High School. I don't know his exact name or what he looks like, but this person definitely exists."

'Xia Chi's desk mate? A classmate of a man who vanished into thin air? The person who brought Xia Chi into the Underworld Live Show.' A line of reasoning gradually became clear in my mind. 'Jiangcheng must have seen three Underworld Live Show Streamers in the past five years. The first was from five years ago—the exact man the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends told me about in the Dream Realm. He had tried to stop the Two-Faced Buddha's scheme back then, but he failed his mission. Fortunately, through a bizarre twist of fate, I was able to help him out.'

'The second streamer was likely Xia Chi. His predecessor might have saved up ten thousand points, or perhaps he found a way to substitute a life. Either way, he lured Xia Chi into becoming the new Underworld Live Show Streamer and quietly disappeared. As for Xia Chi, he is the hardest to read out of the three Underworld Live Show Streamers. He went missing before he even finished his evaluation task, suspected of being wiped out.'

'And then I inexplicably ended up as Jiangcheng's third Underworld Live Show Streamer.'

'I must have met Xia Chi before.' I had a powerful premonition about this, even though I couldn't explain exactly why.

Xia Chi had gone missing a week after becoming an Underworld Live Show Streamer. What exactly had he encountered in such a short amount of time? And was he dead or alive right now?

The Underworld Live Show was a colossal entity, far more terrifying than the Two-Faced Buddha. I had no intention of clashing with it head-on.

"You should head back," I said. "Don't come looking for me again. It's far too dangerous to be around me. Once I make some progress, I'll reach out to you."

With that settled, I headed back to Ting Tang Road. I tucked all the pill recipes into my jacket and brought Bai Qi and Wang Yu with me to Ganding Pharmaceuticals.

I gave Secretary Zhang a call, and he personally came downstairs to escort us to the company's conference room. Along the way, our bizarre group drew the stares of countless employees. Walking in the lead in his sharp suit and leather shoes, Secretary Zhang looked every bit the corporate elite. Trailing behind him while carrying Wang Yu and leading Bai Qi, I looked completely out of place.

"Director Huang is inside. Please wait a moment."

I stood outside the conference room doors. A fierce argument was raging inside, dominated by the voices of a man and a woman.

A moment later, the doors swung open. Several board members marched out, their faces flushed red from the shouting. When they spotted us waiting in the hall, they let out awkward coughs, loosened their ties, and hurried away uncomfortably.

I rapped lightly on the door. Leaving Bai Qi to wait out in the hall, I carried Wang Yu into the room.

In the cavernous conference room, a father and daughter were still engaged in a heated debate. The man was Huang Boyuan, and the woman was Huang Lan.

"Excuse me for interrupting, you two!" I pressed one of the pill recipes onto the table. Only then did the two stop arguing and notice me.

"Gao Jian? When did you get here?"

"Congratulations on being cleared of all charges. Thanks to you, Jiangjin Real Estate's market value is shrinking, and our Qian Ding Pharmaceutical Company is showing faint signs of overtaking it!"

The father and daughter had been at each other's throats just seconds ago, but they shifted their demeanors entirely in the blink of an eye. The speed of their transformation was nothing short of staggering.

I set Wang Yu down and held his hand. "I came here today because I want to discuss a few things regarding the Jiang family with both of you."

"Regarding the Jiang family?"

"What is there to discuss?"

I swept my gaze over Huang Boyuan and Huang Lan, noting the naked ambition burning in both their eyes. "Two tigers cannot share one mountain. Jiangcheng is a single pie, and if your two massive conglomerates keep splitting it, your slices are only going to get smaller. Have you ever considered destroying the Jiangjin Group entirely? You could become the undisputed leaders of Jiangcheng yourselves!"

A man who refuses to avenge himself is no gentleman, and I didn't have a shred of goodwill toward the Jiang family. Right now, they were at their absolute weakest. I fully intended to seize the opportunity and beat them while they were down.

Huang Lan's expression flickered with obvious temptation, but Huang Boyuan only shook his head. "Taking on the Jiang family is far too difficult. You young people have no idea how terrifying the Jiang family really is. You don't know what kind of methods Jiang Detao is capable of."

Director Huang had also climbed his way up from the bottom twenty years ago. He knew better than anyone the drastic changes that had swept through Jiangcheng over the last two decades. "I'm not trying to put Jiang Detao on a pedestal, but the man is truly extraordinary. If I hadn't been working in the pharmaceutical industry, completely removed from his sphere of interest, he probably would have crushed me in the cradle years ago. I fully support taking on the Jiang family, but if you want to actually succeed, it'll only happen if he dies."