As Matthew's car neared Yige Villa, his phone suddenly rang.
"Matthew, where are you going?" a voice said from the phone, deep and laced with anger.
"Please, old sir, save me." Matthew, spitting blood, could barely speak clearly. He tried to enunciate each word, fearing the other party wouldn't understand.
The old man's voice, aged and stern, said lightly, "Save you?"
"Don't come closer, or you'll die even faster."
Matthew's face turned ashen. Though he knew the old man had a peculiar temper, he thought that after spending a few months together, the old man must have developed some feelings for him.
Why was he now keeping him at arm's length?
"Old sir!" Matthew, agitated, coughed up a large amount of blood, fumbling with tissues to wipe it away.
Oblivious, Matthew felt his life force draining away. "Old sir, please, save me! I've been stabbed, and there's poison!"
The old man remained unyielding. "If you lead people here, I will make you suffer a worse death."
Before Matthew could say more, the old man hung up.
Yige Villa was now within sight.
Matthew's subordinate asked, "Boss, are we still going?"
They were all afraid of the old man, and now that he had so strongly refused, how dare they go?
"Boss, why don't we go to a nearby hospital..."
Matthew nodded in near despair. It was their only option. Rejected by the old man, if he forced his way to his house for help, he might truly die.
"To the hospital! Quickly, to the hospital!" He wanted to live!
Matthew roared, and the driver tremblingly accelerated.
Yige Villa gradually receded in their rearview mirror. Matthew's eyes held not only urgency but also disappointment and frustration.
Now, only the hospital could save him.
Just as he saw the glimmer of the hospital, their car was surrounded.
"Who's got a death wish?" a subordinate cursed.
Matthew's heart gave a jolt.
Since the virus outbreak in Yizhou, apart from the initial days, the streets had been deserted. It was difficult to gather so many people and cars at such a time.
Their pursuers had clearly gone to great lengths.
The people who surrounded their vehicles alighted. They were perfectly wrapped from head to toe.
"Matthew?" the other party's eyes narrowed. He rubbed his hands and spoke Matthew's name.
Matthew coughed up another mouthful of blood.
Simultaneously, Huo Rou and Qin Ningyi were on their way to Yige Villa.
Qin Ningyi's phone suddenly rang. "Take it for me."
Huo Rou took the phone and turned on the speaker.
"Young Master Qin, we've found a trace of Walkerbit!" the voice on the other end was excited.
Ever since they started investigating Walkerbit, they had scoured the globe for any sign of him, but found nothing unusual. They had rarely experienced such humiliation and had been subtly monitoring news of Walkerbit, hoping for a chance to redeem themselves and hold their heads high.
Upon hearing the name, Huo Rou instantly sat up straight. "Who? Walkerbit?"
Hearing Huo Rou's voice, the person on the other end, though surprised, began to report.
Qin Ningyi listened to Guyan's intel while glancing at his destination.
"Is it really at Yige Villa?" he asked calmly.
"Yes!" the person on the phone replied. "It's eighty percent likely to be the real Walkerbit."
They had investigated for a long time. The Yizhou virus had given them an incredible, yet plausible, idea. Therefore, they had shifted their investigation direction and indeed found some clues.
Long after the call ended, Huo Rou could sense An'an's gaze and Qin Ningyi's unspoken thoughts. She could no longer consider anyone else. Her mind was filled with the image of her emaciated mother in the laboratory that year. The strange epidemic that year, the virus mixed with drugs that year... and that year... Walkerbit, that American who aided and abetted evil.
Huo Rou's gaze turned exceptionally murderous. She finally had this opportunity. When she left the army, she thought she had only a few years left to live and never imagined she would live to see the day she could find Walkerbit.
"Mom!" An'an, startled by Huo Rou's terrifying expression, called out to her anxiously. "What's wrong?"
An'an had seen this look before when he was very young. On stormy nights, his mother would wake up beside him with this look of incomprehensible emotion in her eyes.