"I’ve always had a question," He Ao slowly raised his hands, inch by inch, carefully turning his head, and the first thing that came into view was a pair of slender legs wrapped in black tights, then a sexy body shrouded under a red dress. He Ao’s gaze gradually moved upward until that face — incredibly familiar to Roy — appeared in his vision,
"Monica, can you answer it for me?"
"Don’t move; I don’t need to answer you." Monica seemed quite satisfied with her condescending posture at the moment. She glanced at He Ao’s severely injured body and the pained expression on his face when he twisted his body. Then she looked at Qi Ke’s body lying on the ground, her finger on the trigger, "Perhaps you can go ask the Grim Reaper."
At this moment, Christos also turned to look at Monica. He wanted to take action but found even moving to be difficult. He looked at He Ao only to realize He Ao was intently staring at the gun in Monica’s hand.
So he weakly said, "Monica, are you also with the Witch Church? Did the consortium hire you to kill me?"
"Yes," Monica smiled faintly, looking at Christos, "Mr. Kristos, just a moment, I’ll be with you shortly."
But in that instant when her gaze moved away from He Ao, the seemingly very weak He Ao suddenly burst into action. He tilted his head to dodge the pitch-black muzzle and then, with his right hand, he powerfully struck Monica’s wrist with a punch.
Accompanied by an extremely faint sound, Monica’s wrist bone was directly shattered; the gun she held tightly slightly loosened during a brief moment.
He Ao swiftly turned his punch into a palm, twisted and pulled, snatching the gun into his hand and pointing it at Monica’s brow.
In that brief moment, when her gaze shifted, the person at gunpoint was reversed.
"I think now you can answer my question," He Ao slowly stood up, looking down at Monica. Due to the violent movement just before, his abdomen began to ooze fresh blood again, staining the white gauze red.
"I did love you, I have loved you."
Monica, looking at the dark muzzle, said while moving backward.
"I’m not surprised the Nord Consortium could replicate my products, but," He Ao looked at her, ignoring what she said, and asked softly, "how did they manage to precisely find my supplier list and downstream sales list? Why can they always ’guess’ my strategies in advance and target me with precision?"
"It was for our future, your fight with the consortium was bound to fail,"
Monica was now leaning against the wall, her hands nervously tightening and touching her skirt.
"So you sold me for a good price?"
He Ao looked at her calmly.
"No, I still love you. You have to believe me, I just wanted to wait until my life got a little better before coming back to you, so we could have a better life together."
Monica’s eyes brimmed with tears, "Including pointing the gun at you just now, I didn’t actually want to kill you. I just wanted to wound you and then disguise you as dead to fool the Church, I never thought about killing you."
"I even brought special first-aid medicine." She hurriedly flipped through her skirt. A small vial was strapped to a silver steel leg ring sunk into the flesh of her thigh covered in a black stocking. Monica reached out for the vial, "I really didn’t think about killing you. I still love you."
"Don’t move," He Ao lowered the gun barrel, "What is the Witch Church’s plan?"
"They... they want to hold a sacrifice ritual to summon the Witch of Desire’s offspring," Monica’s hand movement paused for a moment, but she still grabbed the vial, "They failed once before, so this time they are determined to succeed."
She raised her head, looking affectionately at He Ao, "Roy, I truly have always loved you. Everything I did was for our future. I’ve learned a lot at the Witch Church, you would definitely like it."
At this moment, a ripple of emotion surged in He Ao’s heart, stemming from Roy’s feelings.
Roy truly loved Monica. For a long time, he sincerely wanted to marry this woman before him, have children, and live a peaceful life.
Monica noticed He Ao’s change of expression, and she slowly pulled the vial from her garter little by little,
"We can sneak away, pretend nothing happened. I’ve saved a lot of money over the years. Although it’s not as much as I once planned to give you for our life together, if you don’t mind working hard with me, we can leave Dawn City for a place where no one can find us and live in peace."
Her voice was unusually soft, like a spring breeze brushing He Ao’s cheek, carrying touches of warmth and sweetness. Meanwhile, she slowly raised the vial in her hand.
"I love you, Roy, I really, really love you."
Behind them, Mr. Kristos urgently shouted.
A crisp gunshot suddenly rang out.
Monica’s eyes widened as she stared blankly at the man in front of her.
The bullet passed through her forehead, shattering the back of her skull, and fresh red blood splattered all over the wall behind her.
In her hand, she tightly clutched the little vial, the bottom of which was not a plastic seal but a dark gun muzzle.
This was a mini firearm disguised as a vial.
Her body slid to one side and fell heavily to the ground.
There was a dull thud.
He Ao tossed the gun in his hand onto Monica’s corpse and whispered.
This was his response to her ’I love you.’
The gun he had just thrown was likely designed to target Transcendents, with a power greater than that of regular pistols.
After the gunfire, there was a brief silence backstage.
He Ao remained silent for a moment, then pulled out a cigarette from beneath his coat, lit it, and put it in his mouth.
Next to Monica’s body was a small ventilation window. Through it, he could vaguely see the silent night sky and the twinkling city below.
The vast Dawn City was now beneath his feet.
He walked to one side and pulled out the short sword that had been flung into the ground.
Christos had recovered enough to stand straight now. He looked at Monica’s corpse and fell silent for a moment.
It was Monica who had invited him to the concert. It was also Monica who had texted him to come backstage. He usually didn’t offend friends in media, so even though he didn’t like these kinds of concerts, he still came.
He walked slowly over to Qi Ke’s corpse and gazed at the beauty who had died.
As Qi Ke’s body underwent the transformation of death, her seductive cheeks subtly tightened, and her brown hair gradually lightened, turning back to a gleaming gold.