Several strongmen from the Gu family’s collateral branches immediately closed in.
Qin Hongyi’s gaze sharpened.
Her hand was already reaching for the gun at her waist.
Gu Chen pressed her hand down.
He elegantly removed his glove, revealing fair fingers.
Between his fingertips he pinched a ghost money bill he had casually lifted from the offering table.
“Third Granduncle.”
Gu Chen advanced toward Gu Zhen step by step.
He was clearly a delicate woman, yet the instant Gu Zhen met those eyes, a chill crawled straight up his spine.
That look was exactly like the still-living Gu Chen.
Gu Chen leaned close to Gu Zhen’s ear and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. “Swiss Bank, account 6227. Password is your first love’s birthday. Has the thirty million in public funds transferred from the Ao Island casino last month been laundered yet?”
Clang.
Gu Zhen’s dragon-head cane slammed into the puddle, splashing mud.
The old man’s eyes bulged like he had seen a ghost.
He stared at Gu Chen, lips trembling, unable to squeeze out a single word for a long time.
How could this woman know?!
“What are you shaking for?” Gu Chen smiled innocently and reached out to straighten Gu Zhen’s crooked tie.
“You’re getting on in years—you should take care of your health. Don’t end up like Young Master Gu, dying so miserably.”
With that, he stepped back, looking perfectly respectful.
The people around them couldn’t understand the silent exchange.
They only saw the usually dignified Third Granduncle suddenly look like he had suffered a stroke, scared stiff by just a few words from this seductive woman.
“Does any other elder want to teach me the rules?”
Gu Chen swept his gaze around.
Wherever his eyes landed, several Gu family higher-ups with guilty consciences quickly looked away, suddenly feeling a chill on the back of their necks.
Qin Hongyi stood to the side, watching Gu Chen single-handedly dominate the scene and scare the usually arrogant old fossils into quails.
The corner of her mouth couldn’t help but curve upward.
This ability to talk the sky to death and drive people insane was damn familiar.
If it weren’t for this face, she would have truly thought Gu Chen had risen from the dead.
“That’s enough.” Qin Hongyi stepped forward, linking arms with Gu Chen again, and said coldly to Gu Zhen, “Since the Gu family doesn’t welcome us, we won’t stay any longer. After all, the living still have scores to settle.”
Her meaningful glance swept over a few of Qin Mu’s remaining allies in the crowd.
Gu Chen shrugged and took one last look at his own tombstone.
It felt surreal.
He used to think he would live to a hundred, a scourge that would last a thousand years.
He never expected to already be reduced to a line of text on a stone.
“Let’s go.”
Gu Chen turned around.
The two of them walked through the crowd.
Just as they were about to leave the cemetery, a black Mercedes S-Class slowly drove in and stopped by the roadside.
The car door opened.
A man in a gray suit and gold-rimmed glasses stepped out under an umbrella.
He held a bouquet of white lilies, his expression sorrowful, looking refined and gentle.
Gu Chen’s footsteps froze in place.
That face.
He would recognize it even if it turned to ash.
Gu Mingzhe.
The Gu Mingzhe whose head he had blown off with a gunshot at the auction, whose heart he had personally cut open to extract blood.
Right now, this dead man was standing there alive and well. He even bowed slightly to Gu Chen and Qin Hongyi, flashing a perfect, flawless smile.
“President Qin, Miss Gu.”
Gu Mingzhe’s voice was warm and smooth like jade. “Leaving so soon? The funeral has only just begun.”
The rain suddenly grew heavier.
It drummed against the umbrella, pattering loudly.
Qin Hongyi felt the arm linked with hers stiffen instantly. A sharp killing intent leaked out.
Gu Chen stared fixedly at that face.
Thermal imaging vision activated.
There was a heartbeat.
Body temperature.
Normal blood flow.
This wasn’t an illusion or a projection.
Gu Chen’s gaze slowly moved downward to Gu Mingzhe’s chest.
There should have been a gaping hole from being cut open.
“Who is this?” Qin Hongyi asked in a low voice, her hand already on the gun grip.
She also remembered—this man who had been shot in the head, his corpse should have been dragged away and disposed of by Su Rou.
Gu Chen took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to mutate in his pupils.
“A man who should have rotted in hell.”
Gu Mingzhe seemed unaware of their abnormality. He adjusted his cuff and smiled.
“I’ll take my leave slowly. I need to offer incense to my cousin. After all, I’m his only living relative left in this world.”
With that, he walked past them toward the tombstone.
In the curtain of rain, the warm smile on Gu Mingzhe’s face was flawless, yet it felt like a cold corpse was hiding underneath.
Gu Chen felt his blood turn ice-cold inch by inch, then instantly boil.
It was a hunting instinct from the depths of his genes.
Under his skirt, muscles tensed. A faint golden ring appeared at the edge of his pupils.
Qin Hongyi, linked to his arm, immediately sensed the killing intent that was almost overflowing from his soul.
She subtly tightened her arm, using her own body heat and heartbeat like a leash to forcibly restrain this little wild horse about to run wild.
Gu Mingzhe’s gaze paused on Gu Chen’s face for a moment, with just the right amount of puzzlement.
“Miss Gu? Do you… know me?”
Gu Chen didn’t answer.
He simply stared dead at Gu Mingzhe’s chest.
In thermal imaging view, that heart was beating, blood flow and temperature all normal.
Even healthier than a normal person.
This was the most abnormal thing!
He had personally cut open the chest, personally dug out the heart blood, and the corpse had gone completely cold.
And this could still come back to life?
Was Eden Project’s after-sales service this good—complete with on-site resurrection armor?
“I don’t know him.”
Gu Chen finally spoke, his voice returning to that charming, coquettish tone. He even threw Gu Mingzhe a flirtatious wink, red lips curving.
“I just think you’re quite handsome, little brother. You look a bit like my recently deceased ex-husband.”
The words were vicious enough that the surrounding guests all showed looks of disdain.
But Qin Hongyi heard the cold intent behind them.
Gu Mingzhe’s smile didn’t waver in the slightest. He simply bowed slightly, polite and refined.
“Miss Gu is joking.”
With that, he stopped looking at them and turned toward the tombstone, solemnly placing the bouquet of white lilies down like a truly filial grandson.
The moment he brushed past Gu Chen.
His lips moved.
Although no sound came out, thanks to the Eden Project body’s enhanced dynamic vision, Gu Chen clearly read the words.
“When Snowball died, you cried for three days.”
He was talking about the Samoyed Gu Chen had raised at age twelve—the only thing he had ever truly loved in his life.
It had died after eating poisoned food planted by a business rival. He had buried the body himself.
He had cried for three days and three nights over it—the only time in his life he had lost control.
Apart from himself and the already deceased Old Master, no one else in the world knew about this!
How did Gu Mingzhe know?!
“President Qin.”
Gu Chen spun around sharply, linking arms with Qin Hongyi again, a sweet smile on his face. “I’m tired. I want to go back and take a bath first.”
As he spoke, he lightly scratched Qin Hongyi’s palm with his nail—this was their agreed-upon secret signal.
There’s a mole. Terminate the deal.
Qin Hongyi understood immediately.
She affectionately pinched Gu Chen’s cheek, her voice bold and unrestrained. “Sure. If you’re bored, let’s leave. Hanging around with a bunch of dead people is really bad luck.”
The two turned and left, ignoring the shocked or angry gazes behind them, heading straight for the Phantom.
Gu Mingzhe remained with his back to them, bowing three times in front of the tombstone as if nothing had happened earlier.
Only when their figures were about to disappear at the cemetery entrance did he slowly straighten up and smile faintly.
***
Inside the Phantom.
Su Rou was still huddled in the driver’s seat like a transparent person.
Qin Hongyi sat in the back seat, wiping a small silver pistol over and over.
Gu Chen silently toyed with a button he had just pickpocketed from Gu Mingzhe.
A knock sounded on the car window.
Gu Mingzhe stood outside under his umbrella, still wearing that impeccable smile.
“President Qin, Miss Gu, may I take up five minutes of your time?”
“Get lost.”
Qin Hongyi didn’t even lift her eyelids.
“Let him in.” Gu Chen’s voice rang out.
Qin Hongyi’s wiping motion paused. She looked up at him.
Gu Chen offered no explanation, simply meeting her gaze calmly.
Their eyes clashed in the air. In the end, Qin Hongyi snorted and turned her head away.
The car door unlocked.
Gu Mingzhe closed his umbrella and got in, sitting in the passenger seat.
The moment he entered, his refined and gentle demeanor clashed completely with the murderous atmosphere inside the car.
“Speak.” Gu Chen got straight to the point. “Who are you?”