Hu Angli POV
One week before exams
White clouds and grassy fields streaked across his vision. It had been a while since he had seen any sign of civilization. Though that didn't come as a surprise to him considering his destination.
One of his closest friends, Jiexu, was at the wheel, he sped down the empty road, way beyond the speed limit.
His other best friend, Jian Nu, sat in the back, chilling on his phone. Occasionally the sounds of the game he was played sounded, interrupting the peaceful silence minus the sound of the car speeding down the road.
It had taken them both a great deal of effort to pry their other friend from his girlfriend's, Song Gebao's side. But still, they somehow succeeded.
His friend had reverted his hair back to his natural black hair colour to match Song Gebao's. He wore a pair of sweats and a hoodie with half a heart on it.
Jian Nu wore basketball shorts, a white t-shirt and a jersey on top, his recently purchased glasses perched on his nose.
Out of his him and his friends, he was the most single of all. While his friends had lovers or someone to openly love and dote upon, he was not so lucky.
His love interest was most likely cuddling with another man in his arms while wearing matching clothes and going on dates.
Why must his luck be so poor~!
There were many occasions when he was whining and crying on the inside as he watched his friends show off their affection.
During these moments, he always made a note to ask: What did he do wrong in his past lives~!?
Though they were his best friends, these moments made him question his choices.
They were currently heading towards his family's mafia base, aka the headquarters.
The base was literally in the middle of nowhere.
They made sure of that.
The ocean could be seen up ahead. Its blue waves crashed along the shore.
The road was no longer beneath the tires of the car, now there were smoothened out rocks that rolled and tumbled as the wheels drove over top of them.
Ran Jiexu took a sharp left and drove the car right into the rocky cliff shielding the smooth pebbles.
Now, most people would cry and scream if they were experiencing this for the first time. He should know, he had that very reaction when he was a kid when his father decided it would be fun to prank your son and drive the car right into a giant rock.
Thanks a lot dad!
(Note the sarcasm please)
As he was saying, it was a pretty terrifying secret. But here's the truth.
The truth is, is that this giant cliff had a section of it removed to form a cave or giant hole. The entrance wasn't a hologram, it was part of an experiment that proved it's worth. It was a selectively permeable wall, it was an idea, his grandfather had thought of when he was a child in school learning about the type of cell membranes.
Together with his grandmother, they were able to create an object that could shake the world. That is if it was ever discovered.
Sensory lights lit up the dark cave at the car continued down a downward slope deep underground.
It took them ten minutes to finally reach the bottom of the long slope and an extra five to reach the 20-foot metal door. Two people stood at each side stoic and still.
After getting their eyes, faces, fingerprints, voices, and DNA checked, they were finally allowed to enter the parking garage where they spent thirty minutes looking for a parking spot among the other hundreds of cars, planes, jets, helicopters, tanks trailers, trucks etc.
They took an elevator down to the Investigation and Evidence level where Angli would be collecting the data he had asked for.
While they waited for the elevator to arrive at their destination, the other various floors zipped passed them, allowing them a glimpse at the happenings of the bass.
He saw some new recruits being trained, the shooting range, chefs preparing lunch, the dining room, escape rooms, VR scenarios level, those people looked crazy doing their flips and randomly slashing their hands, but you'd understand if you saw what they were experiencing in the VR world.
A glimpse of the prison cells and a few other floors whizzed passed their eyes right before they arrive at their destination.
As they all stepped off, they were greeted by a woman his mother's age. She had her hair cut short and wore a black lab coat with their family's mafia insignia on the back.
"Greetings, young master, all the information we have collected are in this file, this way please," The woman handed him a thick file containing many papers and gestured for him to follow behind her.
As he flipped through the pile, he listened to the woman's explanations on the evidence as well as her personal thoughts on the case he had assigned.
Evidence for what?
Well, it's for nothing other than the infamous Japenese mafia clan and their long time arch-enemies, the Ando family. This family is the very clan that Samuel had descended from and his key to Yaorui's utmost safety.
I bet you're asking, aren't both of you from mafia families? How is this going to assist you?
Contrary to the Ando family, they take in orphans from around the world and give them a proper home and family.
When they turn eighteen, they are allowed to chose between staying in the mafia or leave.
Most chose to stay at first, but there are a lot of occasions where one of them falls in love with an outsider and leaves to protect their beloved (though sometimes they ended up returning).
Most often, he'd find members of the mafia falling for each other and form a relationship within.
There seemed to be a new couple every day.
Due to that fact, there were a lot of both big and small legacies running around. Some of which descended from the original mafia members.
While they took care of and nurtured their members and followers, the Ando family used them as test subjects and slaves.
They were renowned for their activities in the science field. Each invention is more dangerous than the last. Their shipping business is just a cover-up for when they're shipping over new test subjects who were most often children below the age of twenty and pregnant women.
Their people's loyalty was gained through a complex process of brainwashing and selective memory procedure. He liked to call them "zombies,"
Then there were the ones that were loyal of their own will, mostly children of the brainwashed or the original members of the Ando mafia. Those were referred to as true believers.
The woman currently explaining to them was a captured slave from the Ando mafia clan up until the point when she was saved by them while they raided the base she was in. That was forty years ago, according to his father, she was seven at the time and was being brainwashed into becoming a zombie at the time they found her.
Now, she was one of the highest-ranking people in the mafia clan, married, and a grandmother.
Looking through the file once more, he noted the HD photos that were clear as day.
The first image was a photo of Samuel making an exchange with a convenience storeman, it looked like he was buying a whipped cream can. But, if you looked closely, you'll be able to make out the formula for nitrogen(N2).
The second one pictured Samuel in the furnace room, spraying, the very same nitrogen can's contents into the ventilation system. The date perfectly matched the day they had fallen into a short coma.
The third picture of a shadow and the room where Yaorui resided while in the hospital. The shadow was seen entering the room and perfectly matched Samuel's height and frame, carrying the same N2 bottle he bought from the convenience store.
Other photos were showcasing the other crimes his rival had committed and when.
"Young master we have arrived," the woman politely bowed and allowed him and his friends to enter first.
Their labs were extremely updated and the equipment the best of the best, from the incubators to the tweezers.
For the next few hours, they spent the time going over all the evidence, discovering new evidence and manipulating anything that needed it.
His plan was to expose everything to Yaorui after the exams were over. He did not want to pile any more things onto her plate.
Hu Angli prayed that Samuel wouldn't make his move before then.