Chapter 174: Ghost Assistant (VI)

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Chapter 174: Ghost Assistant (VI)

Shang Ke actually thought hiring several bodyguards was a good idea. The problem was that Mu Zhen should not be the one employing them—Shao Feidu himself should. Before that could happen, however, Shao Feidu needed to regain control over his own finances.

Under the pretext of managing his finances, Mu Zhen controlled almost all of Shao Feidu’s income. If transferring large sums had not required Shao Feidu’s identity verification, seal, and fingerprints, Mu Zhen might simply have emptied the accounts into his own. Even with those restrictions, he had siphoned away enormous amounts over the years, tens of millions at a time. He spent extravagantly, invested in numerous projects, and made real profits from very few of them. Most of the money ultimately went toward his own pleasures.

Mu Zhen was not worried because Shao Feidu was his long-term golden goose. The royalties from Shao Feidu’s compositions alone generated a considerable annual income. If his fingers had never been injured, the revenue from a single performance—plus endorsement fees and related income—would have been astronomical.

A few days earlier, Shang Ke had taken Shao Feidu to the bank to report his card lost and reset the account password. When they checked the balance afterward, only a little over one hundred million remained. Yet Shao Feidu’s cumulative income over the years should have exceeded four billion. Mu Zhen had transferred the rest out piecemeal, usually tens of millions at a time.

No wonder Mu Zhen had failed to notice when Shao Feidu changed his password and began using his card to make purchases: Mu Zhen had long since been spending from accounts under his own control.

A situation like this could be investigated through ordinary legal channels, but Shao Feidu was not yet capable of complicated communication. If the police came now, he might not even be able to give a coherent statement. The best solution was to hire an attorney to represent him.

That evening, Shang Ke explained his plan. To make sure Shao Feidu understood, he patiently illustrated every point with examples.

Shao Feidu sat upright on the sofa, staring intently at Shang Ke. He offered no opinions throughout the explanation and listened as seriously as an obedient child.

“Dudu, did you understand?” Shang Ke asked when he finished.

Shao Feidu lifted his gaze slightly and nodded.

“Good. Then tell me what you should say when the attorney comes tomorrow.”

“Please sit. Sign contract. Represent lawsuit,” Shao Feidu answered concisely.

“Let’s rehearse. Pretend I’m the attorney.”

Shang Ke floated outside and knocked on the door.

Shao Feidu strode over and opened it. The moment he saw Shang Ke outside, his face broke into a bright smile.

Do you really have to smile that brilliantly?

“Hello. I’m Shang Ke from XX Law Firm.” Shang Ke extended a hand.

Shao Feidu grabbed it and pulled him into the room.

“Please sit.” Then he tugged Shang Ke down beside him on the sofa and casually wrapped an arm around his waist.

Shang Ke: …Are you seriously planning to greet the attorney like this tomorrow? Holding hands and hugging his waist?

Forget it. He understood the general idea. They could ignore the details for now and keep rehearsing.

“Mr. Shao, could you explain the specific matter you wish to entrust to me?” Shang Ke composed himself and slipped back into character.

Without another word, Shao Feidu pulled a data chip from his personal terminal, handed it over, and coolly said, “Contract.”

Shang Ke worked hard to keep his expression serious. He accepted the chip and carefully reviewed the agreement he himself had drafted. Once he confirmed nothing was missing, he looked up to continue the rehearsal—only for Shao Feidu to lean over and lightly lick his lips.

Shang Ke froze and stared at the man in front of him.

Shao Feidu met his eyes with a clear, guileless gaze, like an enormous warm dog.

“…Stay in character. Don’t add scenes whenever you feel like it.” Shang Ke corrected him softly. Faced with this version of Shao Feidu, he simply could not sound stern.

A smile touched the corners of Shao Feidu’s eyes. He sat up straight with an obedient expression that said, Whatever Keke says.

Shang Ke looked at him several more times. Once he was sure there would be no more improvisation, he returned to his lawyer role.

Shao Feidu spoke in short phrases, but he answered every question appropriately. After several rounds of practice, he passed the test surprisingly smoothly. As long as nothing unexpected happened, retaining an attorney should be no problem. And if a question arose that he truly could not handle, Shang Ke could still prompt him from the side.

The only thing Shang Ke disliked was Shao Feidu’s complete lack of focus. Throughout the rehearsal, the man was either touching his hand, holding his waist, or occasionally leaning over to lick him. Shang Ke was not actually worried that he would behave this intimately with the attorney; he was worried about whether Shao Feidu could perform this normally in front of a stranger.

They practiced several other communication scenarios afterward, all with good results.

Once Shao Feidu fell asleep, Shang Ke finally had time to pay Mu Zhen a visit.

Mu Zhen was staying overnight at the villa. When Shang Ke floated into his room, he had just finished showering and was sitting in bed with a computer, opening the surveillance files Gibbs had sent him.

There were more than a hundred recordings from different angles and areas. Mu Zhen naturally had no patience to inspect them one by one, so he opened today’s footage first, intending to find out how Shao Feidu had left the villa.

The recording began at seven. Shao Feidu came out of his room, walked into the dining area, and began eating a hot breakfast.

Wait—breakfast? Mu Zhen opened the dining-room feed. The footage played smoothly until 6:45, abruptly jumped to 6:55, and then showed a complete breakfast mysteriously sitting on a table that had been empty moments earlier.

What had happened during the missing ten minutes? Had someone edited the footage? Mu Zhen replayed the segment repeatedly and got the same result every time.

Frowning, he continued watching. After breakfast, Shao Feidu did not enter the piano room as usual. Instead, he changed his shoes, opened the door, and went outside.

Mu Zhen switched to the exterior cameras and stared in disbelief as Shao Feidu began jogging around the villa. He went out to exercise—and alone.

Mu Zhen finally realized something was seriously wrong. His expression darkened. He had been away for barely ten days. How could Shao Feidu have changed this much?

As he thought, the lights in the room flickered strangely, and his computer screen suddenly went black without warning.

Mu Zhen cursed under his breath and reached to restart it, only for his fingers to freeze in midair. His own reflection appeared on the black screen. Behind it, pressed close to his right side, was a blurred human face with two empty black sockets and a lifeless expression.

There was a wall directly behind him. Where had this “person” come from?

Mu Zhen’s scalp prickled. He held his neck rigid and did not dare move.

Ding. The computer turned itself back on and returned to the image from before the blackout. The video resumed. This time, Mu Zhen watched in horror as a “person” clung to Shao Feidu’s back. When Shao Feidu passed through the living room, the figure suddenly turned its head and gave the camera a grotesque smile. Wasn’t that the same face he had just seen reflected in the black screen?

“Ah!” Mu Zhen screamed and sprang out of bed. When he spun around, there was nothing at the head of the bed except a decorative painting.

He looked around in panic. Then a ringtone suddenly broke the silence, so shrill in the quiet room that it nearly stopped his heart.

With shaking hands, he grabbed his phone. Seeing Gibbs’s name on the screen made him breathe a sigh of relief, followed immediately by anger. He answered roughly, “It’s this late. What do you want?”

【It’s this late. What do you want?】 But the voice on the other end was his own.

It’s this late. What do you want? It’s this late. What do you want? It’s this late. What do you want…

The words repeated again and again, changing from the original angry shout into a long, trembling drawl that sounded increasingly inhuman.

“Ah!” Mu Zhen threw away the phone and bolted desperately out of the room. He clearly crossed the doorway—yet the next instant, he found himself standing inside the same room again.

He ran again and again, back and forth, repeating the escape endlessly without ever managing to leave.

He was on the verge of breaking down. His legs shook uncontrollably. His gaze landed on the nearby window, and without thinking, he yanked it open and jumped. A shrill scream followed.

Enduring the pain, Mu Zhen looked back toward the second floor and saw a white figure standing perfectly still in the window.

He screamed, then dragged his injured leg and crawled desperately away from the villa. The instant he finally made it beyond the grounds, his strength gave out, his vision went black, and he blissfully fainted.

Upstairs, Shang Ke picked up Mu Zhen’s phone and called emergency services. Mimicking Mu Zhen’s voice, he wailed dramatically, “Hello? Emergency services? Please save me! I was sitting on the windowsill looking at the stars and accidentally fell from the second floor. Please send an ambulance to XX Road as soon as possible…”

After the call, Shang Ke returned to Shao Feidu’s room and found him awake at some unknown point, hugging a pillow and staring toward the door.

“Did the noise wake you?” Shang Ke walked to the bed. Shao Feidu immediately lifted the blanket beside him, waited for Shang Ke to lie down, and then wrapped it around them again.

“It’s fine. Go back to sleep.” Shang Ke nestled into his arms and rubbed against him comfortably.

Emergency personnel would probably collect Mu Zhen from outside without daring to wander up and knock on the villa door.

This was the consequence of isolating Shao Feidu so completely: Mu Zhen could collapse outside his own villa and no one would even know.

“Keke,” Shao Feidu suddenly called.

“Mm?” Shang Ke idly played with his fingers as he answered.

“Keke,” Shao Feidu called again.

Shang Ke looked up into a pair of bright, intent eyes. A moment later, he felt something rub several times against the inside of his thigh.

“Do you want to?” His materialized body was almost indistinguishable from that of a living person, but Shang Ke had no idea whether he could actually have sex in this form.

Shao Feidu did not entirely understand what he wanted, but whatever it was, he definitely wanted it. He nodded with honest eagerness.

“All right. Let’s try.” Shang Ke lifted a leg over Shao Feidu’s waist, straddled him, wrapped both arms around his neck, and kissed him.

He slipped his tongue between Shao Feidu’s lips and coaxed him into the kiss.

Shao Feidu caught Shang Ke’s tongue in his mouth and, following his guidance, sucked on it repeatedly.

A moment later, Shao Feidu abruptly rolled them over and pressed Shang Ke beneath him, deepening the kiss and taking control.

The heat pouring from Shao Feidu’s body nearly melted Shang Ke. Dense yang energy seeped into him little by little, making his entire spirit tremble.

“Wait—wait.” Shang Ke had only just tried to stop him when Shao Feidu, acting entirely on instinct, pushed his erection into Shang Ke’s body.

The violent rush of yang energy struck Shang Ke so hard that his spirit literally scattered.

Shao Feidu suddenly felt the body beneath him vanish. The person in his arms disappeared like a burst bubble.

Shao Feidu (〒Д〒): I poked Keke out of existence…

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