In front of the Consul mansion
Lorraine requested to meet Consul. Anda seemed to have known that she would come. Without asking much, he let her in straightforward, "Consul is in the reading room."
The vast and serene hall was strangely quiet. Lorraine could clearly hear her each footsteps.
Although it was broad daylight, the light in the room was dim. She didn't know whether the air-conditioning was too excessive or because of imagination figment, Lorraine was frightened and got goose bumps on her arms.
What was she afraid of?
Lorraine remembered that at the beginning, she was indeed a little afraid of Consul. But later she found that Consul was very courteous to her, so she was not that afraid anymore. After that, because of Qian Xu's death, she almost shot Consul with a gun, her heart was full of hatred, and the last few traces of fear had disappeared.
Lorraine stood in front of the heavy antique carved wooden door. For some reason, she dared not knock on the door. Her heart was beating more and more rapidly and started to ache.
She pressed her hand to her heart. Didn't you already know that it's just a dream? Didn't you already contact orphanage and military school to verify Qian Xu's information?
What was she nervous and afraid of?
Qian Xu and Consul, their position, status, power, ability, character... from head to toe, from inside to outside, were as different as sky and abyss, completely different. She actually linked two completely unrelated people together, practically as mad as a marched hare!
"Please come in."
Consul's voice suddenly came through. The door slowly opened.
Lorraine calmed down and walked in expressionless.
Blackout curtain was hanging down, only a few wall lamps were on. The light in the room was a bit dim.
Consul was in black robe and silver mask, sitting on a carved wooden chair beside long table.
Lorraine unconsciously glanced at his neck that was so tightly covered by the robe and could not see anything. To be precise, from top to bottom there was not an inch of skin exposed on his whole body.
Consul stretched out his hand and made an inviting gesture, indicating her to sit.
Lorraine sat down and said dully: "Chen Sha said you saved me, thank you."
"No need." Consul pushed perfect temperature cup of tea in front of her.
"Chen Sha said that you ordered to not investigate the paradise park accident anymore, but my sister said that you don't permit them to leave and demand the case to be investigated clearly and you have to wait for the matter to be investigated. I'm not quite sure what exactly does your Excellency mean? To investigate or not to investigate at last?"
Shao Han had been anxiously contacted Lorraine several times about this matter. By the meaning of her words, if there was no clear conclusion, she would regard it as detention and notified her father. Lorraine originally didn't want to mind about it, but she was also curious about Consul's odd approach on this matter.
Consul said, "I have a few questions."
"Please ask."
"Ye Jie activated the simulated ecosystem god-level difficulty."
"Yes, he was not B level and should be 2A level."
"Ye Jie's left shoulder had a penetrate wound through his scapula and his right arm had a penetrate wound through his elbow joint."
"I did it."
"You want to kill him?"
"We brother sister had some disagreement and accidentally injured. That's all."
"Accidental injury? Accidentally injured till both arms were unusable?"
"Ye Jie is level 2A. If it was not an accidental injury, let alone stabbing him twice, just stabbed him once would he let me stab him?" Lorraine bet that no one would have thought that Ye Jie would let her stab him without any resistance.
"There were five six-edge metal blades on the Rockwind Beast's corpse. Was it your weapon or Ye Jie's weapon?"
"Ye Jie"
Consul's eyes quietly drooped down as if thinking about something.
Lorraine slowly clenched her fists. She had used similar weapons in the rock forest, as Ye Jie's sister, it was normal to use similar weapons. But if it was Qian Xu who knew that she was a fake princess, he would definitely comprehend about the weapon in different meanings.
Could this sit up on high, cold, and detached man who held the power of life and death in front of her be Qian Xu? Although his eyes color and speaking voice were different from Qian Xu, but these divergence could be transformed with a few drops of drugs.
However, could one's heart changed at will?
Impossible! Qian Xu loved her and would not do this to her!
Lorraine relaxed her fists. She picked the tea cup on the table and drank it all in one go, "Does your excellency still have any questions?"
"You can go back now." Consul said without temperature.
Lorraine got up and was about to leave but her pace became slower and slower, and finally stopped.
Her rational though kept telling her over and over again that it was impossible, definitely impossible. But her body was out of control.
She gritted her teeth and turned around. Lorraine summoned up courage and said, "I heard that your Excellency had to cover the whole body because the body was decayed. Is it true?"
The room fell into deathly silence.
Lorraine knew she was very crazy, but if she didn't ask clearly, the thoughts in her head would be even crazier.
Consul stood up and walked slowly towards Lorraine like a black panther slowly approaching its prey.
Lorraine was ready to 'be kicked out of the door'.
Consul stood still in front of her, superior and cold.
He handed a hand to Lorraine, "This time, I allow you to examine." implying that there was no next time.
Lorraine held Consul's hand, awkwardly took off Consul's gloves, and untied the bandage around his hand.
A decaying hand had no whole piece of skin, only deformation of ulcerated infected rotting flesh with some area that could even see white bones.
Lorraine was stunned. He indeed had Living Dead disease, not pretending.
For split second, her mood rapidly went up and down and couldn't tell whether she was disappointed or sad or relieved.
Consul retracted his hand and said coldly, "You can leave now."
Lorraine's heart yelled 'Enough! Enough! Leave quickly' but her movement was completely another matter.
She was like bewildered by a demon and staring straight at Consul's face, "Is your face decayed too? Your Excellency just said allowing me to examine."
Lorraine boldly reached out her hand aiming to take off Consul's mask. Consul stood still and did not move.
Her hand touched his mask, and the ice-cold metal sensation made her shiver.
Her fingers were stiff, and unexpectedly felt afraid to take off his mask.
She didn't know what she was afraid of, afraid that he was, or afraid that he was not?
Lorraine stared into Consul's eyes, trying to find the answer in the only place where he still had temperature. However, Consul's icy blue eyes were like an unreachable far-fetched sky, further distant was still distant.
Lorraine's body couldn't help shaking.
She slowly took off the mask. The moment she saw Consul's face clearly, the mask in her hand fell to the floor.
'Thud and Clang' sound clearly echoed. Lorraine's face was deathly white and staggered back several steps.
The face in front of her could not see the apparent facial features. Lumps of decaying black flesh, distorted deformed facial features, and pitted holes everywhere. Nose was not nose. Mouth was not mouth.
The only normal place was the eyes, but eyebrows had already fallen off completely and around eye sockets were infected ulcerated. Each black swollen lumps of flesh seemed to be going to fall off at any time. The pair of normal eyes that were still there on such abnormal face made the whole face looked even more awful and bizarre.
Lorraine had dissected quite many corpses. She thought that she had seen a lot and knew enough, yet she was still disturbed.
Not only because the face in front of her was deformed and terrifying, but also because this face that should belong to a dead person still had a pair of living eyes.
Obviously there was no one inch of intact skin and it hurt like hell, but this person expression didn't show any slightest difference, as calm and undisturbed as if he had used the best effective pain killer and did not feel any pain at all. But Lorraine knew that there was no pain killer in this world that could help him relieve his pain. For a 3A level strongman, he would be awake forever.
"Do you want to examine somewhere else?" Consul took off his robe and prepared to undress as if only Lorraine wanted, he could reveal his covered whole body for her to carefully examine.
"No, no need!" Lorraine's voice trembled.
Consul looked at her, his ulcerated lips curled up as if laughing mockingly, "Really no need? You only have this one chance."
"No need." Lorraine didn't even dare a slightest glance. She bent down picking up the mask and handed it to him tremblingly, "A, apologies!"
Consul took the mask and said coldly, "You can leave now."
Lorraine lowered her head, bowed heavily to him, and rushed out of Consul's mansion as if running away.
Walking in the dazzling sunshine, Lorraine felt that the scenery in front of her was hazy and blurred. Only when she wiped her eyes that she found that her face was full of tears.
That dream was too real that made her fantasize that Qian Xu might still be alive. Her rationality had already told her over and over that it was impossible, but she couldn't control her heart feeling that Consul might be Qian Xu.
He wore mask all year round, no one knew what was hidden under the mask.
If it was him, he could tell how to activate the god-level difficulty of the simulated ecosphere without thinking the matter through.
If it was him, he could seamlessly scheme Zi Yan to be unable to detect Qian Xu's divergence.
If it was him, he could cover the sky with only one hand and replaced Qian Xu's death with rotten timbers...
At this moment, all crazy delusion were shattered.
Consul was Consul! Qian Xu was Qian Xu!
No matter how much she missed Qian Xu, Qian Xu had already left her.