บท 17: Chapter 17 The Truth
"Hey! Hey! Listen, I'm Adele's fiancé, you can't treat me like this!"
Zhou Ming put on a brave face and forced himself to speak with a tough tone.
Ralph didn't say a word, he just slowly brought the gun closer to Zhou Ming. The silencer at the end of the gun was almost touching Zhou Ming's head, while his finger was on the trigger, slowly tightening it.
To be honest, this kind of action that could lift off your skull in the next moment was indeed very oppressive, especially when Ralph deliberately prolonged the time in slow motion. The psychological torture effect was very significant.
For an ordinary person, they might really be scared and run away.
Zhou Ming was also scared. He trembled and raised his hand, making a gesture to open the car door and get out.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I'll leave now. Don't shoot."
His hand touched the car door but stopped there. Looking at Ralph, who showed no sign of emotion, Zhou Ming suddenly laughed, and the look of panic disappeared.
"Okay, it seems you already know my identity."
"Mr. Zhang, as an excellent bodyguard, I thought when you disguise yourself, you should at least change your appearance and name."
Ralph remained unmoved and spoke in a calm voice.
"Are you underestimating us, thinking we don't even know this information? Or are you too confident in yourself, thinking that there is no need to disguise yourself and using such a lame excuse to fool us with your acting skills?"
"Hehe." Zhou Ming grinned, suddenly made his move, tilted his head to the side, lifted his knee, and hit the hand that Ralph was holding the gun with.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Bullets flew out of the silencer-equipped gun, making several muffled, low noises. One bullet hit the backrest of the car seat, another went through the rear windshield, and the third was embedded in the roof of the car.
The gun fell into Zhou Ming's hand in the next moment, spinning in the air and pointing at Ralph's head.
"What do you think?" Zhou Ming asked with a light laugh.
"It's impossible." Ralph couldn't believe it. "Do bodyguards in your price range have this kind of skill?"
"Have you heard of 'play the pig to eat the tiger'?" Zhou Ming said calmly, "Can we drive now?"
Reluctantly, Ralph stared at Zhou Ming and had no choice but to obey under the threat of the gun. "Drive!"
The car started again and quickly left the alley, returning to the main road.
"Is disguising yourself as a pig and eating a tiger also a saying in your hometown?" Adele whispered.
"Why do kids have so many questions?" Zhou Ming replied casually.
"I'm not a kid! Obviously, you look younger than me!" Adele pouted and showed off her ample assets.
Zhou Ming remained unfazed, keeping his eyes fixed on Ralph, and said, "Turn around."
Ralph obediently turned around. After he turned, his posture was no longer awkward, but he still couldn't see the gun pointed directly at him.
This instead brought him even greater pressure. He didn't know if Zhou Ming had been pointing a gun at him the whole time, he didn't know what the other person was thinking; and he didn't know if the gun would go off in the next moment.
The feeling of being pointed at the forehead is completely different from being pointed at the back of the head.
The three cars did not, as Adele had said, head towards her house. Instead, they continued on the same path, heading towards a place Adele did not know.
Adrian was indeed waiting for Adele at that location, and Ralph had not lied about that.
However, this made Adele's face even paler, and her last bit of fantasy shattered: the mastermind behind everything was indeed Adrian, her biological father, who really wanted to kill her.
Time passed quietly in this oppressive atmosphere, until they arrived at a villa.
"It's here," Zhou Ming looked out at the scenery outside, amused.
"Do you know this place?" Adele was surprised. How could Zhou Ming know a place she didn't even know?
Suddenly, she thought of a possibility, and her face showed a trace of horror. "This place, could it be... the Bronses family's former home where the massacre happened 27 years ago?"
"Right, it's exactly that place," Zhou Ming's smile carried a deep meaning.
"It seems that your father is a very nostalgic person. He must come here every so often to reminisce about the happy times he spent with his father," Zhou Ming said.
"Shut up!" Adele and Ralph both shouted at the same time.
Looking at Ralph's angry face, Zhou Ming sneered, "I didn't expect you to be so loyal to your master. How did you let me scare you with a gun and bring you here so obediently?"
"You damn..." Ralph gritted his teeth, but Zhou Ming's gun was pointed at his head, causing him to swallow the rest of his words.
"Hmph. Anyway, I've brought the Miss here according to the old master's request. One more or one less doesn't matter," Ralph said coldly.
The car stopped at the door, and everyone got out. The bodyguards in front and behind the car saw the gun in Zhou Ming's hand and immediately pulled out their guns, pointing them at Zhou Ming.
"There's no need to be so nervous. Have them put down their guns. I tend to be impulsive when I'm nervous," Zhou Ming said.
Ralph's face was as calm as water, and he ordered, "Put down your guns."
The bodyguards looked at each other and slowly put down their guns.
"Please," Ralph said coldly.
The two of them walked through the door, through the living room, and into the dining room, where they saw Adrian sitting in the main seat, and a scruffy middle-aged man sitting two seats away from Adrian on the left, eating like a pig.
Ralph did not follow them in, but stood at the door and closed it. In the spacious dining room that could accommodate forty people, there were only four people: three men and one woman.
Upon hearing the sound of the door closing, the middle-aged man who was eating like a pig stopped and looked up at Adele in surprise, then glared angrily at Adrian and said, "What the hell do you mean?"
"We have one more, it doesn't matter," Adrian ignored the middle-aged man's words, muttering to himself as he picked up his wine glass and took a sip of the red wine inside...
"Kid, I don't care what your purpose is. Sit down and eat something first. Give me a few minutes, and then you can do whatever you want."
Putting down the wine glass, Adrian said to Zhou Ming.
-----
Zhou Ming smiled and nodded, sitting down at the end of the long dining table and pouring himself a glass of wine. He raised it in a toast to Adrian, but Adrian ignored him, as if he truly believed that Zhou Ming wouldn't do anything just because of a few words, even if he had a gun in his hand.
"Alright, now that everyone's here, it's time for the final act of this play."
Adrian stood up and straightened his suit like an old-fashioned aristocrat, walking over to where Adele was standing dumbly. He took her hand and brought her over to the disheveled middle-aged man sitting across from Zhou Ming, pressing her body into the chair.
"Joya, I gave you time to find the answer, so I ask you now: have you found that answer?"
Adrian stood behind Adele, asking the unkempt middle-aged man.
"You bastard, you said you'd give me a month, but it's only been half that time!"
Joya slammed his fist on the table in anger, nearly knocking over the drinks and scaring Adele.
Adele didn't understand why, even though she had come with the intention of questioning them, she felt a growing sense of foreboding from the moment she entered the room. She felt helpless and scared, like a startled rabbit, with a dark cloud hanging over her head.
Panic made her want to find a sense of security, but the father standing behind her couldn't give her even a shred of it.
She glanced at Zhou Ming, hoping to find some sense of safety from the man who had promised to protect her, but she failed once again.
That damn man was shaking his wine glass in excitement, like he was watching a play about to begin, and he didn't even spare her a glance.
So, Adele's gaze fell back on Joya, the middle-aged man sitting opposite her, with a complex emotion in her eyes.
"Of course, I promised you a month, but plans never keep up with changes."
Adrian lifted Adele's face from behind and gently caressed her delicate cheek.
"When I learned that Adele had boarded the return flight, I knew that nothing was going according to plan. I had to invite you over at the last minute, Joya."
"Do you remember what you did 27 years ago? Do you remember the name?"
"Doris?" Joya cried out in disbelief, suddenly realizing something. He stood up abruptly, pointing at Adrian in shock. "You, you're her..."
"She's my sister, Mr. Joya. Now do you understand why I've imprisoned you for 20 years?"
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Adrian asked, "So that's it, that's it!"
Joya sat back in his chair, distraught, and murmured, "You're getting back at me. You're getting back at me for what I did 27 years ago. You think I caused the death of your family."
"My family, including myself!"
For the first time tonight, Adrian's face showed an emotional response. His face trembled, and his eyes gradually turned red.
"You saw what they were doing, and then you spread it around, you told everyone!"
"That's right." Joya lowered his eyelids and said softly, "I told everyone, my friends, schoolmates, teachers, and even on the internet..."
"Endless insults and humiliation flooded Doris like a tide, you don't know how hard it was for her, for us." Adrian's voice trembled, and the fingers on Adele's shoulder also trembled.
"All of this is because of you, Joya. Everything that we had, the happiness, warmth, and joy, everything disappeared because of you!"
"That's why I've kept you imprisoned for 20 years, Mr. Joya."
"As agreed, if you could know my identity and the reason why I imprisoned you within a month, you would win. Now you know everything, so you win."
After saying all this, Adrian's hands no longer trembled. He exuded a sense of relief as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. After carrying the secret for decades, he finally spoke it out loud, and his expression returned to calmness.
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