"Damn it, one hundred thousand yuan! Old Mu, have you lost your mind?"
Yang Kai urgently called out, while friends around them also cast puzzled, bewildered, and questioning looks.
Xiao Feng stared at you and asked, "You better not tell me you’re doing this to experience the ’Order Barrier’."
You grabbed Xiao Feng’s shoulder and prepared to plant a kiss on him with a mischievous grin, "You really are my childhood buddy, getting right to the heart of what I’m thinking. Come on, give us a kiss as an encouragement."
"Get lost, I don’t roll that way!"
Xiao Feng pushed your head away with a look of disgust.
Wei Shuxian pushed his glasses up, "Old Mu, this decision of yours is a bit too hasty. Little Kai got played just for putting up a two-hundred-yuan red envelope. With your one hundred thousand yuan, who knows what will happen."
You scanned the crowd and said with a smile, "It’s fine, I... believe in Brother Chun."
After a few seconds of silence, all the guys raised their thumbs up to you simultaneously.
"Cut the crap, let’s see the content of that task first." Nie Ying’s words quickly refocused everyone’s scattered thoughts.
Yang Kai hurried over to read the message on your phone screen, "Within one hour, strangle to death the person you hate the most, or the person you love the most."
Everyone was startled!
This short piece of text made everyone feel a chill down their spine for no apparent reason.
"Damn!" Yang Kai immediately cursed, "Which bastard sent out this red envelope task? We have to find him and kill him!"
"Little Kai, stay calm," Wei Shuxian intervened, then turned to you and asked in a serious tone, "Now I understand why Old Mu opened the one hundred thousand yuan red envelope task. You wanted to confirm whether the deaths of those three people are really related to this."
"Exactly." You nodded, smiling, "This red envelope task is actually a trap. It exploits humans’ innate reverence for money. Anyone with a strong desire for money is naturally lured in. Among those three victims, aside from the child who might have done it for fun, the other two were surely after more money. They would have started with smaller red envelope tasks."
You paused, picked up the Guan Yin tea Nie Ying had brewed from the coffee table, opened the lid and sniffed, smiling, "Delicious, your tea brewing skills have improved again, Nie Ying."
"Stop digressing. Your time is running out, hurry up and clarify things to everyone," Xiao Feng urged anxiously.
After downing the tea in your cup, you continued in a very calm tone, "On my way here, after talking with Xian Qianling, I learned that both adult victims had received several transfers over the past month. The amounts started small and grew, matching the red envelope tasks perfectly. The largest amount was fifty thousand, meaning that person completed a task with a fifty thousand yuan reward."
Wei Shuxian nodded, "Human nature is always greedy. That person thought that since they could complete the fifty thousand yuan task, the one hundred thousand yuan task would certainly be manageable."
"Yes, that man opened the one hundred thousand yuan task, needless to say, its content was the same as the one I just opened—to kill the person he hated most or loved most." You opened the tea lid again, poured more hot water into the cup, and soon the distinct fragrance of Guan Yin filled the air, "According to Xian Qianling, the police found a thick hemp rope in the man’s wardrobe. Initially, they thought it was used for the man’s suicide by hanging, but later, they discovered high concentrations of sleep medication smeared on the edge of his girlfriend’s teacup. She said she drank a cup of tea every evening after getting off work to relax her nerves and that it was always her boyfriend who brewed it for her. But that day, he didn’t."
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this.
Tao Wenwen, who had been like a wallflower, finally spoke up softly, "Unable to think of the person he hated the most, he targeted the one he loved. He prepared everything and then gave up due to guilt. Face to face with money, it’s love and humanity that is truly great, right?"
Nie Ying and a few other girls nodded in agreement.
"It’s not as noble as you think. According to the woman’s usual off-work timing, she would arrive at her rented apartment around 6:30 PM, but that night she was delayed because her best friend got sick and was rushed to the emergency room. During that time, the man called her over a dozen times, but her phone was left in her office, so she didn’t answer."
"Hmph! Men like that deserve to die!" Wang Xiaohan cursed fiercely.
You laughed again, "However, in the end, the man did send a message to his girlfriend. I won’t go into the details of the message, but it was along the lines of reminiscing about the past."
"What’s the point of that? If his girlfriend had come back on time, she would have definitely been the one to die," Wang Xiaohan said coldly.
Wei Shuxian glanced at Wang Xiaohan, then told everyone, "In fact, even if the man had strangled his girlfriend, he wouldn’t have received the one hundred thousand yuan reward; he would have ended up being strangled himself."
"Why?" Wang Xiaohan asked.
"If she were truly the most beloved, he could never bring himself to hurt her, so the girlfriend definitely wasn’t his most loved; and if she were the most hated, he wouldn’t have sent her that message, so this person was doomed."
You nodded, "Indeed, including everyone here, we may not really know who our most loved person is, and as for the most hated—who could make us hate them to the bone? So, this red envelope task itself is a huge trap. Its aim isn’t to let people get the reward, but to take the lives of those who open it!"
"Brother Mu Yun, you won’t be in trouble, right?" Lin Panxia asked worriedly, hugging Little Hei’s thick neck and looking up at you.
"Me? Who knows, let’s wait for that hemp rope to arrive and see," you said with a smile, still wearing a nonchalant smile on your face.
"Old Mu, with that confident look on your face, you must have a plan in mind. Share it with us," they said.
"Can’t say, it won’t work if I do," you replied with a cheeky smile.
Dai Zhenan checked his watch and said to everyone, "Fifteen minutes left."
"Damn, how has time passed so quickly!"
You also checked your digital watch, then told everyone, "So, no matter what expressions or actions I have later, don’t intervene. Just think of it as watching a reality show."
The crowd exchanged glances, completely baffled by what you were suggesting.
"Three minutes left."