Pushing open the door, Bo Xiting stepped out. The attendant was shouting in the corridor for the guests to evacuate. Soon, the others had all gathered together because of the attendant’s cries.
“What’s going on?” Jiang Mu had just come upstairs. “Did you find Jiang Xiao… Is the fourth floor on fire?”
Jiang Mu was the only one among them staying on the fourth floor. Hearing this news, his expression changed slightly.
Bo Xiting didn’t speak. Instead, Ying Weizhu looked towards the stairs leading to the fourth floor, where thick smoke was spreading downwards, the air thick with a burning smell. Without a second thought, he strode upwards.
“S-Sir!” The attendant, recently threatened by Ying Weizhu, dared not approach him, only stammering, “The fire up there is huge, you shouldn’t go up!”
“I bet you’re the reason this fire started.” Ying Weizhu’s lips curved into a smile, as cruel and sinister as a devil’s. His contemptuous gaze fell on the attendant. “You must know where Jiang Xiao is. Speak, is he up there?”
The attendant mumbled, “I… I don’t know.”
“Still lying…” Ying Weizhu’s golden eyes fixed on the attendant, a faint blood-red hue surfacing in their depths. His fingers tightened slightly, veins bulging as if rehearsing snapping the man’s neck. His voice ground out from between clenched teeth, “I really should kill you first.”
Bo Xiting was the calmest among them: “Why did the fire suddenly start? Why wasn’t it put out?”
Attendant: “It’s… the electrical control room on the fifth floor malfunctioned. Short-circuited wires caused the fire. By the time we noticed, it was almost reaching the fourth floor. A fire that big can’t be extinguished, and besides…”
Jiang Mu frowned slightly: “Besides what?”
Attendant: “And the fire extinguishers in the hotel are expired. We haven’t had a chance to buy new ones yet! We can’t put out the fire!”
Everyone: “…”
Broken surveillance, snapped wires, expired extinguishers… was this a shady hotel?
It had to be said, the timing of this fire was eerily precise, coinciding perfectly with Jiang Xiao’s disappearance. Being told only after the blaze was already out of control forced one to think the worst.
“A fire on the fifth floor… that’s the management area, off-limits to outsiders.” Jiang Mu’s expression grew darker. “Could Jiang Xiao be up there?”
The air, originally cold and damp, seemed to warp with heat from the inferno above. The tense atmosphere clung together like thick glue, then plummeted into an icy chill at Jiang Mu’s words.
His face dark, Ying Weizhu headed upstairs without another word, ignoring the sparks and debris raining from the ceiling and the increasingly loud crackling of the flames nearby.
One hand in his pocket, Bo Xiting watched Ying Weizhu about to vanish up the stairs before finally speaking:
“I found Jiang Xiao.”
Ying Weizhu whirled around, meeting Bo Xiting’s equally expressionless gaze for a few seconds.
“…”
No one spoke. No one questioned why Bo Xiting had waited until now to say anything.
Because they each knew perfectly well: if they themselves had found Jiang Xiao, they wouldn’t have told the others either.
In this hotel, everyone was an enemy, each with their own schemes. No one wanted to lose this game.
Jiang Mu: “Where is he?”
Bo Xiting replied, “My room.”
Bo Xiting’s room wasn’t far. The group immediately headed there. Jiang Mu said, “Where did you find Xiaoxiao?”
Bo Xiting said, “Don’t call him that. You two have nothing to do with each other anymore.”
Jiang Mu paused, then his lips curled into a mocking smile. “Still jealous of me, even now? Don’t you think you’ve picked the wrong target?”
Bo Xiting frowned slightly: “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Jiang Mu looked at Bo Xiting, “don’t you think his relationship with Wen Xu seems a little too intimate?”
As if struggling to understand Jiang Mu’s words, Bo Xiting quickly replied, “I know their relationship. It’s perfectly normal.”
“You think it’s normal?” Jiang Mu chuckled. “When I was dating Jiang Xiao, I was often jealous of Wen Xu. But Jiang Xiao always said he and Wen Xu were just good buddies, nothing more.”
“But sometimes, I suspected… he liked Wen Xu too.”
Bo Xiting immediately retorted, “That’s impossible.”
“You think it’s impossible?” Jiang Mu smiled faintly. “Wen Xu also calls him ‘Xiaoxiao.’ I only found that out later. Every time I call him that, his heartbeat speeds up a little…”
“Why exactly is that?”
Bo Xiting said coldly, “Just a form of address doesn’t prove anything.”
“Of course, I have concrete evidence.” Jiang Mu walked to the door of Bo Xiting’s room. An increasingly impatient Ying Weizhu had already barged inside. Before Bo Xiting entered, Jiang Mu whispered, “What if, after breaking up with you, Jiang Xiao got together with Wen Xu?”
Those words detonated like a nuclear bomb in Bo Xiting’s ears. His gaze turned razor-sharp.
His face icy cold, he bit out each word:
“Impossible.”
“Hard to understand? I suppose so. After all, when I first learned this, I was even more surprised than you.” Jiang Mu said calmly, “The Wen family would never allow Wen Xu to be a homosexual. That’s precisely why Wen Xu tolerated it for so long. Even if he dated someone, he wouldn’t broadcast it, otherwise, he’d be exposing his weakness.”
“But if he didn’t like Xiaoxiao, how could he have kept taking care of him? Living and eating together, looking after him attentively… if he didn’t like him, that’d be hard to manage.”
“And being childhood friends was just Wen Xu’s way of hiding his true feelings. See, weren’t we all fooled?” Jiang Mu’s smile didn’t reach his cold eyes. “In Wen Xu’s view, we’re probably all thorns in his side. That’s why he faked his death to frame you.”
“And the next step…”
“Is, naturally, to get rid of all of us.”
Just then, Ying Weizhu stormed out of Bo Xiting’s room, voice laced with fury.
“Where did you hide Jiang Xiao? He’s not in this room at all.”
A flash of shock crossed Bo Xiting’s eyes. He strode into the room. It was completely empty, not a soul in sight.
Bo Xiting’s expression grew darker.
“Wen Xu took him away.”
Just moments ago, they’d all been busy questioning the attendant about the fire. No one had watched to see if anyone entered Bo Xiting’s room.
Ying Weizhu: “Wen Xu isn’t dead?”
“Not only is he not dead, he took Jiang Xiao.” Jiang Mu remained remarkably calm. He stood still, scanning Bo Xiting’s room. “If I’m guessing correctly, he’s behind everything. For now, let’s go down to the first floor and find the butler. He might know something.”
“Then it’s every man for himself.” A cold sneer on his lips, Ying Weizhu showed no intention of cooperating further. He turned and left Bo Xiting’s room.
Clearly intending to go his own way.
Jiang Mu wasn’t surprised. He asked Bo Xiting, “Together?”
Bo Xiting snatched his coat off the sofa and said coldly, “No need.”
Jiang Mu offered a helpless smile, watching Bo Xiting leave, murmuring to himself, “Not so easily fooled after all.”
The fire was gradually spreading downwards, thick, choking smoke filling the air. The corridor walls were lined with lit candles, and the carpets were highly flammable. Once ignited, the blaze roared to life like a wildfire spreading through linked camps. The fourth floor was clearly inaccessible now, and the fire threatened to reach the third floor. After a moment’s thought, Jiang Mu pulled out his phone.
He tapped into an unnamed app and looked at the small red dot on the screen, raising an eyebrow slightly:
“So it wasn’t… taken by Wen Xu?”
Calmly, Jiang Mu went downstairs, following the red dot’s signal. A thin room keycard appeared between his fingers, and he swiped it at the door of a guest room.
“Beep—”
The door clicked open.
Jiang Xiao was standing before a clock, head tilted slightly, studying the internal mechanism of its pendulum.
Hearing the door open, Jiang Xiao showed no surprise. He didn’t turn around, continuing to figure out how to detach the pendulum. He then said, “You’re a bit slow.”
“Am I late? Are you angry, Xiaoxiao?” Jiang Mu scanned the room, finding no trace of anyone else. “The building’s on fire upstairs.”
As if he hadn’t heard, Jiang Xiao continued fiddling with the pendulum, but couldn’t get it off no matter what. Jiang Mu laughed, as if watching a mischievous child, and said casually, “You need tools to remove that.”
“You know a lot about it.” Jiang Xiao stopped his efforts. The pendulum, released from his grip, began swinging again under gravity. “So, why don’t you tell me how you knew I was here?”
“It’s because of that tracker in my pocket, isn’t it?”
Jiang Xiao pulled the pendulum from his pocket and gave it a little spin.
“That whole nonsense about the blackout being your chance to give me a gift—your goal wasn’t to make me believe your story. Your real goal was to make me wonder what exactly you were trying to do.”
Jiang Xiao had thought about it for a very long time.
Jiang Mu’s story was riddled with holes. Although he used the stolen kiss as an alibi, Jiang Xiao would eventually know who really kissed him that night, and then start questioning the true reason Jiang Mu entered the room.
“I didn’t suspect you at first. I thought the attendant was your eyes and knew everything that happened. But later, you deliberately let me discover those photos, leading me to suspect you’d installed surveillance in our room—”
“So, naturally, I’d have to re-enter your room. Not by accident, but guided by your design.”
“I had Bo Xiting stall you, yet you chatted with him for over an hour without any guard. Isn’t that a bit strange? As far as I know, you and Bo Xiting aren’t close.”
“The reason you played along was probably… to make me find what was under your bed. This pendulum.”
Jiang Xiao had initially found it odd—how could someone like Jiang Mu carelessly drop something on the floor, much less under the bed? But the confusion was fleeting.
“What you really wanted me to take was the tracker inside it.” Jiang Xiao said coldly. “You knew I would disappear. You also knew Wen Xu was likely not dead and would probably take me away. When that happened, all you needed was the tracker to know my whereabouts at any time.”
“Xiaoxiao, although your deduction sounds very convincing, I’m sorry to say, I didn’t find you using a tracker.” Jiang Mu raised his hand, showing the master keycard. “Because you were missing, I asked the butler for keycards and tried them one by one.”
“Besides, I did suspect Wen Xu wasn’t dead, but I didn’t witness it. Logically, a fall from that height would kill or cripple a normal person. Even if he survived, he might not have been able to take you away.”
“Also, while Bo Xiting and I aren’t close, we are still brothers. Chatting for a while isn’t strange at all.” Jiang Mu answered smoothly, then paused for a few seconds. “Now, can I take you away from here?”
“The fire outside is huge and will reach this place soon.”
Dressed simply in a shirt, trousers, and a light brown waistcoat, Jiang Mu had chiseled features, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. He looked every bit the polite, refined business elite. His unhurried tone added to his persuasiveness.
Yet Jiang Xiao remained unmoved.
“What really made me suspect you wasn’t the pendulum. It was how Wen Xu knew I would enter your room at that specific time.”
Jiang Mu’s deep green eyes fixed on Jiang Xiao. His lips twitched slightly upward, as if amused. “Xiaoxiao, you know my relationship with Wen Xu. Why would I choose to cooperate with him?”
