Extra Story: Tales of the Vanished Capital - The Fox's Lament

The leader of the team seemed to know something in advance.

He hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Li Hongji picked up the phone.

He did not call any lawyer, or any of his past contacts.

He dialed a number that no one would have ever expected.

The call was answered quickly.

A strange smile appeared on Li Hongji's face.

"It's me."

"I know you can't protect me. And I don't need you to."

"I'm just telling you one thing."

"Those things I have."

"If I die, I'll make sure they disappear forever."

"My son must live."

With that, Li Hongji hung up.

Then, he looked at the team leader and smiled.

"I'm feeling a bit unwell. I need to use the restroom."

The team leader didn't seem suspicious.

A few minutes later.

"Bang!"

A gunshot shattered the tranquility of the dusk.

The generation's tycoon, Li Hongji, ended his life of sin by his own hand.

It also drew a bloody full stop to this siege against the Li family.

...

The news of the Li family's collapse swept through Jingzhou like a hurricane.

Some cheered, some sighed, and some felt a sense of shared sorrow.

Lu Mingye learned about it that evening while watching the news.

He watched the footage on TV of the Li family estate being sealed.

He watched the sorry sight of Li Xiujian being handcuffed and escorted into a police van.

What he felt was an unprecedented, immense pleasure.

"He's dead! Good! Hahaha, good riddance!"

He jumped up excitedly from the sofa.

The humiliation suffered at the racetrack, the grievance endured at the nightclub.

At this moment, they were all avenged in the most thorough way.

He felt this was the heavens helping him vent his anger.

In the news, Li Hongji's death was defined as a suicide to escape punishment.

A business tycoon with a long list of sins, at the end of his road, used the most extreme method to put a full stop to his own life.

This was a satisfying, crowd-pleasing ending that fit the public's imagination.

Lu Mingye thought so too.

He raised his glass towards the TV in a distant toast.

"Cheers."

He smiled and drank the wine.

The liquid slid down his throat with a hint of sweetness.

This was the taste of victory.

He even had an absurd illusion.

That he had played a part in the Li family's downfall.

If he hadn't thrown that humiliating punch at Li Xiujian in the nightclub, perhaps all this wouldn't have happened so quickly.

He was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Carrying this inexplicable excitement, he went upstairs.

He wanted to share the good news with his father.

He wanted to see his father's approving look.

He wanted to tell his father that he, Lu Mingye, was not just a troublemaking waste.

He could also contribute to the family's victory.

The door to Lu Chengsi's study was slightly ajar.

Lu Chengsi was standing by the window, seemingly deep in thought.

His back, under the dim lamplight, appeared exceptionally upright, yet also exceptionally distant.

Lu Mingye didn't knock; he pushed the door open and entered directly.

"Dad! Did you see the news? The Li family is finished! That bastard Li Xiujian has been arrested!"

His voice was full of the excitement of someone seeking credit.

Lu Chengsi slowly turned around.

His face did not hold the joy Lu Mingye had anticipated.

There was only a deep, unfathomable calm.

And a trace of weariness he couldn't quite conceal.

"I saw it."

He said flatly.

"Good riddance! Truly satisfying!"

Lu Mingye waved his fist,

"Their family deserved this ending! Dad, now, our Lu family..."

"Our Lu family, what about it?"

Lu Chengsi interrupted him, his voice still even.

Lu Mingye's excitement suddenly cooled by half.

"We... we've become number one in Jingzhou."

He stammered.

Lu Chengsi looked at him.

That gaze was no longer one of disappointment.

It was a kind of scrutiny, almost akin to pity.

As if looking at a child, naive to the point of being laughable.

"Do you think this was a street brawl?"

"You win, so you're number one?"

"Do you think Li Hongji's death, the Li family's collapse, happened because you threw a drink at his son in a nightclub?"

Lu Chengsi seemed to have guessed his son's thoughts instantly.

His tone grew even colder.

Each of his questions, even each word, was like a slap, striking Lu Mingye's face hard.

The color rapidly drained from Lu Mingye's face.

"Dad... I... I didn't mean that..."

"Then what did you mean?"

Lu Chengsi continued to look at him with a calm expression,

"Tell me, what did you do in this matter?"

"What did you see?"

"What did you think about?"

"I..."

Lu Mingye's throat felt choked by an invisible hand; he couldn't utter a word.

He had done nothing.

He had seen nothing.

The only thing he had thought about was his own gratification.

"You only saw Li Xiujian's disgrace, you only felt your pitiful sense of victorious pleasure."

Lu Chengsi's voice was not loud, but every word struck at the heart.

"You have no idea how many people have put in how much effort behind the scenes for this day."

"You also don't know what price we paid to make the Li family fall."

"You know even less about what Li Hongji's final gunshot meant."

A complex emotion flashed in Lu Chengsi's eyes.

There was resolve, ruthlessness, and also a trace of the bleak sorrow one feels at the death of a kindred spirit.

When the hare dies, the fox mourns...

"Get out."

Lu Chengsi waved his hand, as if looking at his son for another moment was a drain.

"Don't come to see me again until you learn to think with your brain."

Lu Mingye stood rigidly in place like a statue.

Immense humiliation and fear completely overwhelmed him.

For the first time, he realized that his father's world and the world he inhabited were two entirely different dimensions.

The victory he was so proud of was, in his father's eyes, nothing but a laughable trifle.

He staggered out of the study.

In the shadows of the corridor, Lu Mingshi leaned against the wall, having witnessed everything.

He watched his elder brother's utterly dejected appearance.

The corner of his mouth lifted into a cold smile.

Lu Chengsi stood alone in the empty study for a long time.

The night outside the window was thick and impenetrable.

Just then, the encrypted phone on the desk rang abruptly.

Lu Chengsi walked over and answered the call.

"Chengsi."

A steady male voice came from the other end of the line.

It was his old friend "Old Wang," the one who had warned him before.

"It's me."