"Your factory got burned down too."
Le Yuxin glanced a couple of times toward the Central District and nodded, "Yeah, it really did. Every single one of our family’s factories has gone up in flames. Sigh, what a tragic day for the Jing Family."
"So are we just gonna sit here?" Quan Xin spun his pen as he asked, "Do nothing at all? I swear my dad’s gonna rip me a new one..."
"We’re doing stuff though." Luo Zhen tossed the dice, "Didn’t we send someone to get everybody at the patrol barracks to move out, and told the squad captain to take his team and chase the arsonists? How can you say we’re not doing anything? Your turn, Young Master Qin."
Qin Leyin took the dice and said, "We get where Young Master Quan is coming from, but us leading teams down there wouldn’t do much good. We don’t even know how many arsonists have slipped into Half City—what if we get jumped? ’A body worth gold doesn’t leave the hall,’ you know? Trouble at the factory district is everyone’s problem, but if something happens to us, then it’s our own damn problem."
"After all, who the hell knows which side these attackers are even fighting for."
Ting Zhaozao asked in confusion, "Aren’t they the Backlight Particles?"
Qin Leyin just smiled and shook his head, "In barely five minutes, these two groups of ’Backlight Particles’ demolished almost half the factories—and the patrol squads never even had a chance to react. The way they moved—like elite soldiers—and their total read on the patrol’s routines... Instead of calling them ’Backlight Particles,’ I’d much rather believe..."
Qin Leyin glanced over at Le Yuxin, "...that these were actually ’Backlight Particles’ under someone in the Silver Blood Association."
Le Yuxin’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly took a gulp of his iced honey five-flower tea, trying to cool down.
Lan Jianbo said, "So you’re saying, someone used the ’Backlight Particle’ name to attack Half City? But what do they even gain from that?"
Qin Leyin laughed and said, "Look, all of Half City gets hit, so the patrol squads are called away. Normally, we squad leads and deputies would be scattered all over, and meanwhile, Half City’s in chaos—anything could happen..."
Ting Zhaozao’s face changed, "Their real targets... are us!? They’re just using the ’Backlight Particle’ story so they can take us out in broad daylight during the chaos?"
"No, no, not you, Ting the Second. Under usual circumstances, you and Young Master Lan would’ve already left." Qin Leyin swept his gaze over Le Yuxin, Quan Xin, Luo Zhen, "I’d like to think I’ve got a pretty good relationship with my siblings—they wouldn’t go full murder mode over inheritance... What do you all think?"
Quan Xin’s pen flew out of his hand, but he didn’t bother picking it up—just stared at Qin Leyin, face clouded and ugly.
Luo Zhen didn’t look any different, he just squeezed the orange in his hand until it burst.
Le Yuxin was the calmest of them all. He looked at Qin Leyin, and silently sensed something, then probed, "You’re saying... the ones colluding with the Backlight Particles to attack Half City might actually be some of our enemies."
"That’s a real possibility, isn’t it?" Qin Leyin gave a little laugh.
At that point, Luo Zhen and Quan Xin snapped out of it too.
They finally registered what Qin Leyin was implying—
Whether anyone really colluded with those ’Backlight Particles’ didn’t matter—the point was, they needed someone else to shoulder the blame!
Don’t be fooled by their poker faces right now—they all knew that after such a colossal fuck-up, the Silver Blood Association was definitely going to come down hard on them later. Not that this could be avoided—plus, with family backing, whatever happened, it wouldn’t be too bad. That’s why they could all sit there peacefully playing Monopoly.
But being the scapegoat is one thing—dumping the blame on someone else is a whole other level!
If you get a shot to pass the buck, who wouldn’t take it?
And going off Qin Leyin’s theory, tonight’s ’Backlight Particle’ attack could very well have been an inside job. As long as the four of them stuck to the same story and pointed fingers at their own enemies, at least they wouldn’t have to take the whole fall!
If luck was on their side, maybe they could even frame someone perfectly!
Except for Qin Leyin, the other three all had enemies who’d love to see them dead. Don’t even mention Le Yuxin’s brothers—Quan Xin and Luo Zhen had their share of haters too. Being heirs to the Five Major Guilds, they had more relatives who wanted them dead than alive, that’s for sure.
With that realization, they all turned to look straight at Ting Zhaozao and Lan Jianbo.
Ting Zhaozao froze for a second, immediately understood what they meant, and said with a wry smile, "I’m such an idiot—why the hell did I hang around? Fine, I’ll be your goddamn witness."
Lan Jianbo said, "Second Young Master Ting’s my big bro. Whatever he says goes. Something goes down, talk to my big bro—he’s the best there is!"
Ting Zhaozao cursed with a grin, "Now you admit I’m your big brother, huh?"
Out of the six at the table, now four were set to stick with the same cover story. Naturally, that meant Ting Zhaozao and Lan Jianbo had to come along for the ride. Plus, Ting Zhaozao was the son of the Silver Blood Association president—his word alone would almost guarantee the blame could be offloaded smoothly.
Through all their banter and bullshitting, they’d actually managed to "solve" the entire Half City attack, and everyone relaxed, already starting to feel sorry for themselves about what they lost.
"Just like that, I lost three factories..." Quan Xin kept sighing, "Guess I won’t be hanging out at Xiangxue Sea that often anymore."
Qin Leyin shrugged, "You see that factory with the biggest fire? Yeah, that one’s mine."
"Eight. All eight of my factories in Half City—every last one, gone!" Luo Zhen roared, "If I catch those damn Backlight Particles, I’ll show them just how much you can actually fit up your own damn ass!"
Lan Jianbo said, "And I had so many brand-new cars just ready to ship from my factory..."
Le Yuxin droned, entirely unsympathetic, "I’m just as screwed—lost every single factory, broke as hell."
Then they all turned to Ting Zhaozao, and Luo Zhen said sourly, "Little Two, all your weapons factories are outside the county, right? Hell, you can’t even call them factories—they’re like weapon factory fortresses. Those walls are bulletproof, loaded with cannons and guns—hell, an entire army would get shredded by your family’s fortress. The factories in Half City, those are just side hustles for you—losing them doesn’t even count."
"I..." Ting Zhaozao squeezed his eyes shut and choked up, "I just moved a whole shipment of firearms into the Half City factory..."
Everyone couldn’t help but look at Ting Zhaozao with honest admiration—for all their misery, he really did have it the worst.
That shipment of firearms he brought in wasn’t for the Heyang Army, either—it was for the Ting Family’s own use. Now that the firearms got torched, who even knows what’ll be left? When Ting Zhaozao went home, he was definitely going to get his ass handed to him.
As Le Yuxin listened to their long-winded moans about their own losses, for some reason, "he felt a very peculiar sense of satisfaction."
"He felt like the ginger cat listening to a bitter fool complain about his cheating wife; like Kid the thief in disguise, hearing Conan whine about losing another gemstone; like Yinyin Yin eavesdropping as Qian Yuliu promised to help steal the Saint’s Relic..."
"The thrill of backstabbing someone to their face and the joy of pulling off a perfect crime tangled together inside him."
"All in all, it just felt amazing."
"Exactly the expressions I wanted to see!"