Second Young Master

In front of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, the city below was laid bare. However, the daytime scenery was far inferior to the night, and more importantly, the people gathered here were in no mood to admire the view.

Two burly men in black suits were propping up a man who had been beaten black and blue. His shirt and trousers had been stripped away, leaving him in only his boxers, his body covered in lacerations.

The architect of this scene was a young man sitting on a nearby sofa, guzzling red wine.

The youth looked to be around twenty-six or twenty-seven. His exquisite suit jacket had been tossed aside, and the top buttons of his white dress shirt were undone; flecks of blood were visible on the snow-white fabric, though clearly not his own.

Holding a wine glass in one hand and a cowhide whip in the other, he took several deep gulps. Suddenly, spurred by some dark thought, he lunged forward, smashing the glass and the wine against the kneeling man. The victim shrieked in agony.

“Second Young Master, I was wrong! I truly was! Please let me go, next time… next time I’ll…”

“Next time? You think you actually have a damn next time!”

The man’s plea only fueled the youth’s rage. His face flushed a violent red as he lashed out with the barbed cowhide whip. With a sharp crack, another bloody welt opened on the man’s skin.

“AAAAAH!!”

The victim’s vision went dark from the pain as his body went into spasms. Held firmly by the two giants, he couldn’t move; he could only look at the youth with tearful, pleading eyes. “Forgive me just this once, Second Master! I beg you! I promise there won’t be a next time! Aaaargh!”

The youth remained unmoved. He delivered over a dozen lashes in one breath, flaying the man’s skin until even he was gasping for air.

Feeling unsatisfied, he stepped forward and kicked the man. The two black-clad guards released their grip, letting the victim collapse heavily onto the floor. Despite the thick carpet, the man twisted miserably, lacking even the strength to crawl.

The youth, addressed as “Second Young Master,” slicked his hair back and crouched beside him. He was handsome, but his eyes were filled with extreme malice.

“Damn it. How did I not realize you were this ‘capable’ before? Huh? I sent you to steal something, and you actually committed a murder for me! Even I don’t dare to just kill people randomly!”

He poked the man’s bloody, tear-stained face with the whip handle, his voice turning cold. “The Old Man finally thought of me and gave me this task. I trusted you with it, and this is how you handle it?! Do you have any idea how badly he chewed me out this morning?”

“F*ck!”

The thought reignited his fury. He kicked the man in the head, nearly sending him into unconsciousness.

The man didn’t dare resist or even cry out in pain. Trembling, he stammered, “I was… I was framed… I really only told A-Shu (Mouse) to go there… to steal the item. But he didn’t expect the person to return halfway… and so soon.”

“So he killed him?”

“No, no!” Hearing the Master’s voice turn icy, the man shook his head frantically. “A-Shu said he didn’t know what happened. His mind went blank, and by the time he snapped out of it, the man was already dead. It was… inexplicable…”

“Inexplicable?”

The youth let out a scoffing laugh. Perhaps exhausted from the exertion, he didn’t strike again but returned to the sofa. He poured another glass of wine and asked expressionlessly, “Where is A-Shu?”

“He’s been… ‘handled’…”

Upon hearing the weak reply, the youth finally nodded. Then he asked, “And the item?”

“The item… the item was intercepted by the Eldest Young Master halfway.”

“WHAT!?”

The man who had just calmed down instantly exploded. He hurled the undrunk wine at the victim’s head. Crimson liquid flowed through matted hair, staining the expensive carpet a hue indistinguishable from blood.

Livid, he grabbed the man by the hair and yanked his head up, his face contorted. “Say that again!”

“The item… was personally taken by the Eldest Young Master on the road. I… I only came here to tell you this, I…”

“So you’re blaming me?”

“No… I wouldn’t dare…”

The youth threw him aside. He stood there for a moment, his expression shifting unreadably, before grabbing his suit jacket to leave.

“No, I have to go back!”

He walked toward the elevator entrance with his two guards. Only then did he notice the bloodstains on his shirt and frowned. “Where is Amy? How long does it take to buy a damn shirt!”

Right at that moment.

Several figures emerged from the corner ahead. The “long-awaited” Amy was among them.

His anger flared instantly.

“You’re finally back? Why don’t you just die! You’re fired, get the hell out! As for you two, come with—”

He stopped mid-sentence, sensing something was wrong. He noticed someone following behind them, but the two guards were standing like pillars, obscuring his view.

He halted and asked suspiciously, “Who is behind you? Wait, you actually let a stranger in! Do you want to lose your jobs too?”

But no one answered him.

The luxury presidential suite fell into an eerie silence.

The youth realized something was off. Amy and the two guards were stiff-faced, their eyes vacant and devoid of color. They stared at him silently like ghosts. In the middle of the day, it was a terrifying sight.

Behind the youth, his other two bodyguards reacted immediately. They stepped in front of their employer and reached into their jackets, pulling out two black handguns!

It was then that the three “zombies” blocking their view stepped aside, revealing the tall figure behind them.

In the next second, everyone in the room caught a whiff of a blissful, cloyingly sweet fragrance.

Clatter!

Two handguns hit the floor simultaneously. Though they didn’t misfire, no one cared anymore.