Chapter 123: Reflections After the Calamity

“Report!”

At the Jiangcheng Command Center, a bloodshot-eyed technical agent suddenly stood up, his voice cracking with excitement as he looked straight at Commander Yan Zheng.

“An unknown signal detected at Jiangcheng Dock!”

“Hurry! Bring the feed up!”

The weariness on Yan Zheng’s square face vanished instantly. His team had been staking out the dock all along.

He refused to believe that Chen Yu, that reckless brat, would be so rash as to leave no backup plan for himself.

Sure enough.

When the dock agent transmitted the live video back to the command center, everyone saw the luxury cruise ship that had vanished into the thick fog.

It was quietly moored in its original spot, as if everything that happened before had been nothing but a nightmare.

“Where’s the captain? Detain everyone on board!” Yan Zheng roared into his radio.

“Reporting, Commander Yan, there’s only one waiter on the ship. He’s been subdued and is being escorted back to the command center!” the agent replied swiftly.

“Good job!”

Yan Zheng slammed his fist hard onto the metal command table, making the thermos beside him jump.

He understood now.

Chen Yu’s backup plan was the miniature tracker he had secretly hidden somewhere on the cruise ship.

However, the ship had sailed into international waters with strong signal interference, rendering the tracker useless on the spot.

Only now, with the ship’s return to the dock, had the signal reconnected.

What shocked him was that this tracker was directly linked to the internal network of the city’s criminal investigation team.

Yan Zheng furrowed his brow deeply.

When had that brat Chen Yu learned such advanced hacking skills?

No, it definitely wasn’t him.

Someone was helping him from behind the scenes!

Lost in rapid thought, Yan Zheng issued an order with an uncompromising tone.

“Qingzhu!”

Su Qingzhu snapped to attention, turning away from the massive electronic screen.

Her delicate face was etched with deep worry and exhaustion.

“Calm yourself. That waiter will be brought straight to the interrogation room. You’ll handle the questioning!”

Yan Zheng’s voice was low but forceful.

“I don’t care what method you use, you must make him talk and reveal the exact location of that island! Do you understand?!”

“Yes, sir!”

For once, Su Qingzhu didn’t call him “Master” but responded crisply.

A flicker of light reignited in her eyes.

It was a light mixed with anger.

She turned and dashed toward the door, her high heels clicking urgently against the floor.

……

Meanwhile, on the isolated island.

Inside a warehouse.

The heavy metal door slammed shut again, cutting off all light and hope from outside.

Fifty survivors, barely alive after the ordeal, were herded back like cattle by the armed men in pink suits to this temporary “home.”

Somewhere along the way, another fifty cots had been removed, leaving a large empty space that made the whole area feel even more desolate.

Everyone was covered in wounds.

Bites from maggots, swollen red marks from carnivorous ants, blackened skin from scorpion stings—all intertwined in a horrifying sight.

Some had already broken mentally, curled up in corners, hugging their knees with vacant eyes, muttering to themselves.

That pervert Shen Feng had even “considerately” tossed a medical kit to each person.

Chen Yu glanced inside and couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

Besides some basic gauze and a small bottle of questionable disinfectant, there was absolutely nothing.

Not even a single band-aid to spare.

Another long and unbearable night stretched ahead.

The warehouse lights were dimmed to the lowest, barely enough to see.

Chen Yu lay rigidly on the hard cot, hands clasped behind his head, his eyes unusually bright in the darkness.

His poisoned palm was still swollen and burning with pain, but that pain sharpened his mind like never before.

“Hey.”

A trembling voice came from beside him.

Li Qing turned over, lying on her side, her beautiful eyes watching him in the dark.

“What are you thinking about?”

“About things that don’t add up,” Chen Yu said without looking at her, his gaze fixed on the ceiling.

“Have you noticed something strange about these people?”

He nodded toward the other survivors in the warehouse.

“And those pink-suited brutes? Even stranger.”

“Oh?” Li Qing’s curiosity was piqued. “What’s so abnormal?”

“Tell me, what kind of motive could make a person willingly die? And die so decisively, so… uniformly?”

Chen Yu recalled the day when, emerging from the scorpion-infested hell, fifty pink-suited bodyguards had stood before them, each raising a gun to their own throat and pulling the trigger in the same way.

No hesitation, no fear—like fifty robots executing a preset program.

That scene chilled him far more than the blue team being overwhelmed by the scorpion sea.

“Also, look at these so-called ‘participants,’” Chen Yu’s voice dropped lower.

“That pervert Shen Feng explained that those brought to this island were fugitives, death row inmates, escort girls, professional swindlers—in short, the worst kind of scum.”

“But look at them.”

His eyes swept over the figures lying or sitting around.

“Besides a few who initially lost their minds, the rest are way too calm after going through such horrors.”

“That’s completely unreasonable.”

“By the logic of scum, shouldn’t they be forming factions, suspecting each other, even fighting brutally over scraps of resources by now?”

“But what are they doing? Nothing but crying and zoning out. Their mental state is nothing like desperate fugitives—more like… a flock of terrified sheep.”

“Are they being mentally controlled by that mysterious person?” Li Qing joked half-heartedly, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere.

Chen Yu suddenly turned his head sharply, staring at her intensely in the dim light.

That gaze made Li Qing’s heart skip a beat, and she instinctively recoiled.

“You…”

“You haven’t answered me yet.”

Chen Yu’s voice was soft.

“How exactly did you get here?”

He asked the question again.

Li Qing’s eyes flickered with avoidance, her lips biting tightly as she turned her head away, still silent.

Her behavior erased the last shred of doubt in Chen Yu’s mind.

This woman was full of secrets.

From her terrifying skills that didn’t fit the “escort girl” label to her extraordinary composure in a life-or-death game, and now her evasion when caught in a lie—

Everything pointed to one conclusion.

“If I’m right,”

“You’re not here for that ten billion.”

“Nor are you some damn undercover agent.”

“You…”

Chen Yu paused, then spoke each word with grave weight, revealing the theory that unsettled him most deeply.

“You were kidnapped by that pervert!”