Chapter 111

Tongues of fire spread along the oil that had been spilled everywhere, scorching the walls of the hallway, sending an astonishing heat through a thick layer of walls.

Feet on the floor of the cabin on the first floor can feel warm even through the soles of your shoes.

Sweat kept dripping down his forehead, and he couldn't tell whether it was because of the heat wave or fear, Tian Juying clenched the cold injection in his hand and ran towards the temporary backstage used to place circus props, the cruise ship warehouse.

See you later......

In the hall just now, the words that the black-haired man said to him kept lingering in his ears, like an ultimatum.

As a researcher, he had always been the most prepared, and even though his plan to kill Columbeth in the chaos of the halls seemed safe, he still carried an injection with him for later remedy.

As it turns out, it's a good idea to leave a few more options on hand.

The thoughts in his mind kept flipping, Tian Juying hurriedly arrived at his destination and pushed open the unlocked door.

The clothes, props, and decorations used to set up the stage for the next few days are scattered in the warehouse.

A clearing was made in the middle of the piles of miscellaneous items, and several vanity mirrors with lights on around them were placed, and not long ago, acrobats painted themselves with exaggerated makeup.

The researcher, who had been in the lab for many years, soon lost his strength and began to pant low as he propped up his dressing table.

The rising temperature in the cabin made the beast trapped in the cage move uneasily, and among the stacked cargo, only the pupils of the beast hidden in the corner shone dimly.

"Don't worry, you'll have food ......"

He whispered, placing the syringe in his pocket.

The huge vanity mirror in front of him was illuminated by a circle of lights around him, and the man looked up at the mirror, the bright mirror clearly illuminated every line on his face.

The man, who had long since ceased to be young, had a face full of furrows, gray hair, and only lingering tiredness at the moment.

He looked down and sighed, but when he looked up again, he saw a figure behind him in the mirror.

The man stood at the entrance to the warehouse, wearing a pair of glasses with metal rimmed, his hair tied back in his head, and it was impossible to tell whether he was ponytail or cross-haired.

Even the broken hair on the forehead is meticulous, because the backlit blurred face and outline are dyed with a bit of déjà vu coldness because of the metal glasses.

Tian Juying's heart skipped a heavy beat.

A familiar shadow, a shadow that is still familiar after more than 20 years, comes with a memory that should have been forgotten a long time ago.

This is my wife. For the first time, the colleague who worked at the institute showed a somewhat embarrassed look on his face, and he reached out and gently hugged the woman in a lab coat next to him, and introduced.

The picture in his memory changed, and the man who looked extremely haggard closed his eyes and whispered, "The only person I can trust now is you...... Please, be sure to hand over this USB flash drive to the police. If you're afraid of getting into trouble, it's okay to ruin it, but don't tell anyone else...... Nanami she ......"

His haggard face flickered into the face of a woman curled up in the cabin with her eyes closed, blood dripping from the bullet-piercing hole in the center of her forehead, dripping onto the child she was holding in her arms.

Tian Juying saw that she reached out to grab it, but the woman's still warm corpse burst out with tremendous strength, as if she had stiffened to protect the child in her arms.

He was forced to hurry, exerted his strength, and the child, who had been looking at him dimly, felt the pain, let out a faint cry, and the tears and the blood dripping from his mother's face on the side of his face melted together, and fell on the hand he was holding the other man.

With all his strength, he should have pulled the broken woman's hand as he remembered, but when he pulled the child out with all his might, the picture of his memories was in line with the scene in the nightmare.

At the moment when he was about to take the child away, the woman, who had long been dead, suddenly raised her head, blood was accumulating in her bright green eyes, and the next second the ship and the body were gone, and she stood back beside her husband, changing back to the way she had been when they first met.

'Hello, Mr. Taju. The cold-tempered woman held out her hand to shake him, "When Archer told me, I didn't believe that this rigid guy could make friends in the lab. ”

"Hello, Tian Ju...... Mr? ”

The voice came from the door, overlapping with the greetings in his memory, and Tian Juying gasped violently and broke free from the memory.

"How's that, is it good-looking? I see you haven't reacted for a long time......" The man at the door walked in unhurriedly and stood by his makeup mirror.

The light illuminated the eyebrows that had been blurred by the backlight just now, and the outline similar to Nanami Shiraishi slowly became clear.

Ikekawa Na took off the frame of her glasses on her face and said casually: "I found this in the corridor when I came, maybe someone else accidentally dropped it." Looking at your expression, it doesn't seem like you like glasses frames very much? ”

"Young Master Columbai." Tian Juying stiffly smiled, maintaining the appearance of living in the organization as a researcher, "Now shouldn't be the time for idle talk?" ”

As he spoke, he carefully put his hand in his pocket and squeezed the injection in his pocket.

"It's not a good time for small talk. Instead of retreating to the lifeboat with the police now, you run to this kind of place......" Ikekawa Nai turned her head to look around, and the smile in her eyes deepened a little when she saw several huge animal cages in the corner, "The so-called water and fire are ruthless, aren't you afraid that if you are not careful, you will become new fuel?" ”

"Young master, don't pretend to be confused." The other party looked nervous, and didn't have any intention of continuing to chat, "I know that I am the target of the organization, and you are here to kill me this time, how can you run to the lifeboat again." ”

"'You're here to kill me'. I'm afraid I'll have to say that, right? Playing with the frames of his glasses, he added, "Ah, yes, and the task of leading me to the cabin, how about it, is the adult behind him happy with the result?" ”

“……”

Tian Juying opened his mouth, and his voice seemed to be stuck in his throat, "So you...... Remembered? ”

"What comes to mind?" Ikekawa Na asked rhetorically, "Expecting me to remember things before I was three years old is a bit too high-minded." Trying to revisit the old place to stimulate me to recall what he needs is also stupid. ”

The man across from him looked relieved.

A cold light flashed in his eyes, and the man in the kimono smiled and took out the mobile phone in his pocket, "Speaking of which, I do remember that there is something I didn't do." ”

Tian Juying took a step back, but found that the other party's gaze did not fall on him at all.

He dialed the phone, and someone answered quickly, but he didn't know who it was called, and neither party spoke first after the call.

“…… Ha, let me think about how to speak. Ikekawa closed her eyes for a moment, with a shallow smile on her face.

"Push me the task of the guy who was supposed to be Gin, force the target onto the ship, and have Rum contact him, and take me to the bottom of the cabin, where I can see the skeleton. Is what my mother is hiding in my head so desperate for you to know? Mr. ”

Tian Juying on the side shuddered for a moment, he could imagine that the other party called Rum to confront him, or called his subordinates to ask for support, but he didn't expect that Columbeth would call the gentleman directly, and put everything on the stage to say.

Halfway through, there was a response that didn't sound emotional: "Is this your attitude towards your adoptive father?" It seems that after so many years, I have indeed spoiled you. ”

"Poof......" I don't know what laughter is hidden in this sentence, Ikekawa Nai propped up the table next to him, lowered his head and laughed for a long time before relieving himself, "I'm sorry, this sentence is so funny." It's disgusting. ”

Tian Juying slowly took a few steps back.

He hid in the darkness behind him, watching as he watched as he still stood next to the brightly lit mirror, his heterochromatic eyes almost shining with another light.

The blood that had been splashed on his face had dried up and turned into a dark black and red tone, and he didn't care at all about people who were usually picky about his clothes, and still stood up on the table and laughed.

When he finally had enough laughter, he raised his head, and the outline of the side of his face cut through the light, "What you want to know, I have long remembered it, if you want to hear it, try your best to get me back." Like when I was seventeen. ”

After that, without waiting for a reply from the other side, the black-haired man hung up the phone, and his eyes fell on Tian Juying again.

The researcher, who had retreated to the rear, swallowed with difficulty, "I—I just listened to the boss's orders and fled to this ship, and then Master Rum asked me to take the opportunity to do something to you, saying that this would release me alive......"

The words he had already thought of were interrupted by the other party's movements.

"Shhhh......h ”

"What, what's interested......? I was really just afraid of death, so I agreed to Rum's ...... in a moment's confusion."

"It depends on what you know." The man left the vicinity of the dresser and melted into the dim darkness that the warehouse could not dissolve, "I've always been interested in you, since the first time we met. ”

Tian Juying stiffly smiled, "Is it the one who sent eye medicine?" ”

"You should know better than I do." Ikekawa looked at him and raised her left hand, "The first time we met, it wasn't a laboratory, it was a basement. ”

The sleeve of his kimono slid down with gravity, revealing a muscular forearm, and he flipped his wrist over toward the other, the dim light obscuring the old scar on it.

The scars cut by the sharp weapon were lined up on the pale skin one after another, and the hideous shadows of the past could be faintly glimpsed.

The man's pupils constricted.

In the darkness, the pale scars twisted into the hideous appearance of the first formation, oozing blood a little bit outside, and he smelled alcohol and the smell of belonging to the basement, mixed with dust and blood, scattered in the closed room.

The doctor wearing a mask lowered his eyes and wrapped the scar around the gauze, and not far away, the water cup shattered to the ground, and the blood-stained fragments of the murder weapon were still lying on the ground.

‘…… BOSS, it's no big deal. When the bandage was finally done, the doctor whispered to the man next to him, who turned his gaze to the researcher in the corner.

'The last dose was too small, and you use the maximum amount according to his situation. ’

The researcher who had been to this place for the first time was silent, just nodded and turned to get the injection next to him.

On the bed, the man who had lost too much blood was lying on his side, his black hair was scattered to cover most of his face, and he reached for the other man's neck, and was about to stick the needle containing the tranquilizer into it, but the man suddenly opened his eyes and looked at him.

The hair that blocked the face fell down with the movement, revealing a little bit of similar eyebrows, the eye of different colors was still blocked under the hair, but the green eyes were illuminated by the light above the head, and Nanami Shiraishi completely coincided.

The experimenter jerked backwards, the tranquilizer in his hand slamming into the floor, shattering into pieces.

The face in my memory coincided with the person in front of me, losing the immature lines and pale color of seventeen or eighteen.

"You were startled when you saw me, and smashed the reagent on the floor in front of my husband." Ikekawa Nai looked at him with a smile, "Mr. Taju, you haven't done anything wrong, why are you afraid of the old man's face?" ”

"I've read the report of that case, and I've learned a few things, and there are a few particularly strange things that I want to ask you...... You should know, right? ”

The hull of the ship shook in the flames, and even the things piled up all over the warehouse fell down, and a plastic glass ball smashed down from the pile of debris and landed at Ikekawa's feet, and he kicked it into Tian Juying's place.

"For example...... Why did the gentleman know that the two of them had children, why did the police find evidence of his illegal drug smuggling in the father's office after the explosion, and ...... How did he know that my mother had taken me and fled to that ship. ”

"As the only friend my father Toru Shiraishihara could trust at that time, can you tell me why?"

Tian Juying even trembled with the wrinkles on his face, "I...... I'll tell you. ”

He opened his mouth tremblingly, and slowly retreated back again, until he reached the side of the cage covered with cloth, when the man turned his head to look behind him, and a cold light flashed in his eyes.

"I'll tell you now......" he muttered, his hands shaking, but he quickly unlocked the lock that held the cage door with the key.

After doing this, he scrambled down the ladder towards the high place where the goods had been stacked, and stomped a few feet in embarrassment before reaching the top.

He kicked the ladder to the ground, and the heavy cargo ladder could no longer be lifted for a while.

Ikekawa Na stretched out her hand to sweep away the dust on her face, "Do you want to give a speech from a high place?" ”

Tian Juying didn't reply, he took out the injection in his pocket with shaking hands, and squeezed out the dose of half a tube towards the position of the cage below.

The beast's low roar came from the cage.

The animals forgotten by the circus finally rushed out of their cages, and the domesticated wolves roared lowly, their fangs baring as the rapidly spreading potion bared its fangs and claws grinding restlessly against the ground.

The high place where Tian Juying was located was excluded, and several pairs of dark eyes looked at the other person in the warehouse at the same time.

Ikekawa Na turned her head to take a look, and found that the collapsed ladder had just blocked the gate, and it would probably take a lot of effort to move it away.

“…… I'm scared of you, because you should have died twenty years ago, not like you are now...... Became Columbai, and still appeared in front of me all the time. Tian Juying's lips trembled, and an ugly smile appeared on her face.

"So you hired them as helpers?"

The smile on the researcher's face faded, and he tried to look at the other in the dim light, but he didn't find the slightest hint of fear on the man's face that he was surrounded by several beasts.

On the contrary, he crossed his arms and looked at the wolves that were about to rush up and bite his neck, and suddenly asked with a smile: "Do you know the difference between humans and animals?" ”

“…… What. ”

"Only people." Ikekawa Nai looked up at him, "Only then will you betray people." ”

Not wanting to see the smile on the other party's face anymore, Tian Juying squeezed out a wolf-like roar in his throat, and directly smashed the half-left potion on the ground not far from the two.

The potion steamed rapidly, and the wolf on the far right had red eyes, unable to bear it any longer, and pounced on the person in front of him with its mouth full of fangs.

When its body was in the air, and its outstretched claws had not yet touched the surface of the kimono, it suddenly let out a scream.

A huge black shadow leaped out of the shadows and grabbed the wolf's neck with precision, blood gushing out from the junction.

Confirming that the other party had lost the ability to resist, the giant snow leopard roared and threw the attacker, whose mouth was still twitching, towards the remaining wolves.

The corpse slammed to the floor, and the beasts howled and retreated, their short fur exploding vigilantly, their tails hanging down and sweeping to the ground.

"Hey, what are you doing?! Ah——!h Tian Juying shouted at them.

The only thing that responded to him was Na Ikekawa's sneer.

Not paying attention to the roar of the man above, he squatted down and touched the snow leopard who was rubbing his calf affectionately, "Enoch, good boy, has you been hiding here and suffocating, right?" ”

"To be honest, I already knew the answers to these questions, and I don't want to hear you again." He stood up, turned on his phone, and swiped at the recording software, "But maybe the police will be interested in this?" ”

Tian Juying's face twitched heavily: "Are you ...... Threaten me? ”

"You probably haven't been threatened face-to-face much, and it's certainly not a threat."

As soon as the words fell, the big cat that was originally glued to Ikekawa Nai's side jumped up, jumped directly onto the high place that the wolves couldn't climb, bit the experimenter's clothes, and dragged him off from it.

His back slammed into the ground, he curled up and screamed, coughing up blood in his mouth, and before he could recover his senses, he was pulled up by the neckline.

Reaching out and pulling out the spare reagent on his body, Ikekawa Na narrowed her eyes, pinched her chin with one hand and forced him to open her mouth, and with the other hand stuffed the reagent in, and then crushed it directly.

Glass shards, medicines, and blood from the glass cuts on his hands poured into Tian Juying's throat.

Ikekawa Na threw him hard into the position of the wolves.

Falling to the ground again, the man just lowered his head and retched, the half-tube reagent had already run down his throat, and the rest was vomited out, wetting the clothes in front of his chest.

"Damn......" he scolded in a low voice, holding his hands and getting up a little bit, and before he could regain his balance, he felt a hard hair sweep over his body.

Stimulated by the potion, the wolves did not dare to approach Ikekawa Na, because of the snow leopard, but turned their heads and walked towards the researcher lying on the ground.

After Ikekawa Na came over, several wolves retreated to the rear, away from the two of them.

"Most of these potions go into your stomach, and you say they won't gouge out your entrails."

Ikekawa Nai squatted down, looked at the other party's frightened expression, smiled and patted his face with the back of his hand: "This is called a threat." ”

(End of chapter)