Futile Devices Scans

Jiang Shao wore nothing but a pair of black underwear, his upper body bare and water dripping from his soaked skin. His eyes were dark and his jaw tightly set as he walked toward Qi Mu one slow step at a time, barefoot, leaving clear wet footprints behind while droplets fell and spread into dark marks across the carpet.

He was like a cold-blooded demon that had just broken free of its seal and crawled out from the depths of the sea, approaching him soundlessly.

A chill crawled up Qi Mu’s spine. He felt as though he had been dropped into the middle of a horror movie, and his body began trembling uncontrollably again.

Did I bet wrong?

Has Jiang Shao still not regained his senses?

Why does he look even scarier than before?

Every nerve in Qi Mu’s body was screaming, Run—

But his fallen trousers tangled around his feet, and his hands were still bound behind his back. Sitting on the edge of the bed, chilled all over, he realized his situation was somehow even worse than before.

Am I really destined not to escape this?

Qi Mu gave a bitter laugh and closed his eyes.

He felt Jiang Shao’s footsteps stop in front of him. The man stood there without moving for a while, then bent closer. Burning breath brushed Qi Mu’s neck while cold drops of water fell onto his skin as Jiang Shao reached behind him and undid the jacket binding his hands.

His hands were free again.

Jiang Shao’s presence immediately withdrew.

Qi Mu opened his eyes in astonishment.

Jiang Shao had already turned away. Without saying a word, he strode to the door and pulled the handle. With a soft click, the door that had refused to budge before opened effortlessly this time.

Jiang Shao’s cold, silent back disappeared from sight.

Only Qi Mu remained in the room.

He did not come back to himself for a long time.

Jiang Shao really just… left?

And the door that wouldn’t open no matter what before opened that easily this time? When exactly was it unlocked?

Qi Mu was so speechless he almost wanted to laugh.

I really am just that unlucky, huh?

As his irritation gradually passed, Qi Mu slowly calmed down. For now, it seemed he had made the right bet. Jiang Shao appeared to have returned to normal, and he certainly would not want to stay in the same room with Qi Mu any longer, so he probably would not come back.

Qi Mu stood and switched on the light. At last he found his glasses in a corner of the room. The fall had bent them slightly, so he twisted the warped frame back into shape as best he could until they were wearable again.

Having his vision clear again steadied him considerably.

After standing there in silence for a long time, Qi Mu finally put on an expression as though he were marching heroically to his execution and walked into the bathroom.

Water covered the bathroom floor, as though a flood had swept through it. His smashed phone had been soaked for so long that there was no need to wonder whether it was completely ruined.

Qi Mu ignored the phone, drew a deep breath, and walked to the mirror.

At last, he saw what he looked like.

The first thing he noticed were the finger marks on his face. Five pale-red prints covered the lower half, making it obvious how hard Jiang Shao had clamped his hand over him. His damp hair stuck messily to his forehead, his ears were bright red, and lower down, bite marks and kiss marks covered the side of his neck. “A complete mess” hardly seemed strong enough to describe it.

Beneath his half-open shirt were more traces left behind, especially one small conspicuous spot where the color had darkened as though it had been roughly bruised.

Qi Mu did not dare keep looking. He hurriedly pulled his shirt closed to cover himself.

He looked far too disheveled now, as though a dog had gnawed all over him. He could not even find one intact piece of clothing. How was he supposed to go out and face anyone looking like this?

Just as Qi Mu was worrying over what to do…

a knock suddenly sounded at the door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Qi Mu’s heart instantly leapt into his throat. Terrified someone might open the door and walk in, he was so startled that his brain nearly stopped working.

But no one entered. The steady knocking sounded three times, then fell silent.

As though it had never happened at all.

His heart still pounding, Qi Mu stood frozen for a while before cautiously walking to the door and looking through the peephole.

There was no one outside.

Qi Mu frowned slightly. Who knocked just now?

He watched without moving for a long while. Once he was certain no one was coming, he found the hallway silent; the crowd from earlier had long since dispersed, and almost everyone had returned to their rooms to rest.

Qi Mu finally opened the door a crack.

There, neatly folded on the floor outside, was a complete set of clothes.

Qi Mu froze.

But he did not stay dazed for long. He quickly pulled the clothes inside and shut the door tightly again.

They were clean.

A cruise-ship server’s uniform.

And for Qi Mu right now, they were like a lifeline.

He stared at the stack of clothes for a long time, his expression complicated…

Now was not the time to be stubborn with Jiang Shao.

Qi Mu quickly removed his ruined clothes and changed into the clean set. They did not fit particularly well, but he had no other choice. He straightened the collar in the mirror. Aside from the marks on his face and neck, there was now little else visibly wrong with him.

Calmly and rationally, he went through the clothes he had taken off and removed his ID, cards, and anything else that could prove his identity, then threw the torn clothing directly into the trash.

Then he went into the bathroom, picked up the smashed phone from the floor, wiped away the water, and put it in his trouser pocket.

This can’t be left here.

After doing all of that, Qi Mu checked the room once more to make sure he had not overlooked anything, then sat quietly and waited for dawn.

＊

The sun slowly rose from the sea.

The enormous cruise ship docked at the harbor.

Yu Yue Ning walked onto the deck yawning, bleary-eyed and half asleep. What kind of person got up at eight in the morning?

Xu Wei Ran saw him and waved.

Yu Yue Ning’s expression stiffened.

Xu Wei Ran walked over with a bright smile and asked, “Have you seen Qi Mu and Jiang Shao?”

Yu Yue Ning said gloomily, “No.”

Xu Wei Ran asked again, “Has Qi Mu contacted you?”

Yu Yue Ning: “No.”

Xu Wei Ran hummed thoughtfully, resting her chin on one hand.

Yu Yue Ning found her questions baffling, but as his head gradually cleared, he finally remembered what had happened last night. Qi Mu and Jiang Shao had disappeared for an entire night. Yu Yue Ning had lied to him, and Qi Mu had not even come to question him about it. That wasn’t right. Had something happened to Qi Mu?

Worried, Yu Yue Ning blurted urgently, “I’m going to find him right now!”

He had barely taken a step when Xu Wei Ran grabbed him. She looked at him helplessly. “Find him now? Can you be any more tactless?”

Yu Yue Ning: ?

After the banquet ended last night, Xu Wei Ran had quietly had someone unlock the door, so there was no possibility that Qi Mu was trapped inside.

Yet the two of them had stayed there for the entire night.

And Qi Mu had not contacted either of them.

That meant…

it meant she had guessed right!

They must have opened their hearts to each other and spent one passionate night together on the cruise ship, right?

Xu Wei Ran dragged Yu Yue Ning off the ship. “Go, go, go. Don’t be a third wheel.”

＊

Qi Mu waited until the sky was fully light.

Only after everyone on the cruise ship had left did he sneak off like a thief.

Fortunately, he did not run into a single person he knew.

He did not feel as though he had truly escaped alive until he finally made it home and shut the door behind him. Although… there might be something even worse waiting for him later, Qi Mu did not have the energy to think that far ahead right now.

He kept spare glasses and a spare phone at home. Qi Mu showered, changed, and cleaned himself up, but the marks on his face and neck remained. It looked like he would not be able to go out for the next few days.

From home, Qi Mu messaged his subordinates to say that something had come up and he would not be going into the office for several days; if anything happened, they could call him.

In a daze, he felt as though this situation had happened before.

The last time was because Jiang Shao had nearly strangled him to death.

Jiang Shao…

After a while, Qi Mu gave a bitter laugh.

Nothing good ever came from getting tangled up with that formidable ancestor.

Although he stayed home over the next few days, Qi Mu remained buried in work, with endless messages to answer and endless online meetings to attend.

He never contacted Jiang Shao.

Jiang Shao did not contact him either.

Qi Mu did his best not to think about what had happened that night.

Until that afternoon, amid countless unread WeChat messages, he saw one from Zhan Xiao Hui: “President Qi, Jiang Shao hasn’t come to the office for three days. Did he ask you for leave?”

Jiang Shao had of course never asked him for leave, but Qi Mu still replied calmly, “Yes. He asked me for leave. You don’t need to worry about him.”

Zhan Xiao Hui quickly replied, “All right. Understood.”

There were no more messages after that.

Qi Mu switched off the screen and set the phone beside him. He closed his eyes, helplessness crossing his face.

Although he had kept himself constantly busy, working without a moment’s pause and trying to cram his mind full of other things so he could forget the absurdity of that night, all it took was one tiny, unremarkable message to drag him straight back there and make him think of Jiang Shao against his will.

Jiang Shao had not gone to work.

Of course. What reason did he have to go there anymore?

He had been schemed against, drugged, and locked in a room with Qi Mu. Once he sobered up, he must have been furious, right?

Given Long Aotian’s vindictive personality, he was probably already planning how to give Qi Mu a “cold weather, time to bankrupt you” ending.

He knew danger was closing in.

He ought to be doing something about it.

But he seemed to be doing nothing at all. Instead, he threw himself into work as desperately as ever and tried to forget everything. How was that any different from accepting his fate and waiting to die?

Yet suddenly, he felt exhausted. He had done so much and fought with everything he had to change things—so why had it still ended up like this?

All it took was one small accident to make every effort come to nothing, to return everything to its starting point. Before the gears of fate, everything he had fought for could be crushed into dust with ease.

Irritated, Qi Mu turned off his phone and threw it into the bedside drawer.

He opened his laptop and began reading reports.

Dense rows of numbers swam before his eyes.

But Qi Mu could not focus at all. His head was full of tangled thoughts. He forced himself to stare at the computer screen and had no idea how long he remained there, until his eyes ached and his head felt heavy. Qi Mu pinched himself, but without realizing it, he still ended up falling asleep over the desk.

He had a nightmare.

In the dream, his hands and feet were bound and he had been thrown into a rocking little boat drifting on the sea.

Sea spray splashed over his face and body, salty, damp, and cold.

In the dim night, a tall man stood in front of him, his face hidden by the backlight.

At last, under Qi Mu’s terrified gaze, the man walked into view.

It was Jiang Shao.

Jiang Shao was dressed entirely in black and wore black leather gloves. He looked down at Qi Mu coldly and advanced one step at a time through his fear and panic.

Qi Mu was so frightened that even his voice trembled. Like a machine, he repeated the same words over and over.

It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me…

But Jiang Shao ignored his pleas. One gloved hand gripped Qi Mu’s chin while the other produced a dagger and lightly tapped its blade against his cheek.

He said, Should I take one of your hands, one foot, or one eye to feed the fish?

Or should I cut them all off? There are so many fish here. One hand or foot probably wouldn’t be enough to fill them.

Jiang Shao’s grip held his chin tightly. The cold leather brushed Qi Mu’s skin with a faint sting, while the chill from the sharp dagger seemed to penetrate through his skin and freeze his blood. All of it was driving him nearly insane.

He might as well just give me a quick death!

The dagger slowly traveled downward from his cheek. Cold metal touched his skin, raising wave after wave of goosebumps, as though Jiang Shao were considering where to begin cutting.

The little boat rocked over the sea like a leaf. All Jiang Shao had to do was lose his grip once, and Qi Mu would be cut into pieces and become food for the fish in the endless dark waters beneath them.

Qi Mu looked increasingly desperate.

He watched the dagger slowly descend to his feet. Jiang Shao curved his lips faintly, and with a soft slicing sound, the ropes around Qi Mu’s ankles were severed.

Qi Mu stared at Jiang Shao in confusion.

Jiang Shao gave him a dark, inscrutable look, then bent down and spoke beside his ear.

But President Qi still has another choice.

You only have to let me eat my fill, and then I won’t need to feed you to the fish.

Qi Mu did not understand what Jiang Shao meant.

Not until he was forcefully pressed down against the deck, his clothes torn open, the icy seawater and cold wind kissing his skin, while the demon-like man loomed over him like a shadow, hot breath and cool, thin lips settling against the back of his neck, did he finally realize what Jiang Shao wanted to do.