Have you ever heard of Lingchi execution? It's commonly known by the common folk as 'thousand cuts,' but it's not quite like that, not slicing flesh piece by piece. It's a method of dismemberment while alive.
After the body was cut open, the head was placed on top, for all to see.
Ke Yingying was also not having an easy time. Upon emerging, she confronted her subordinate, "In this situation, why didn't you warn us?"
The young subordinate looked wronged. "I said it was a gruesome sight, but you didn't take it seriously!"
...
I vomited for a while, and finally felt a bit better.
"What exactly happened? Who killed Lu Yao?"
"It should be Ye Qingcheng."
"Didn't The Schemers not kill people? How could she be so cruel?"
Ke Yingying sighed. "Isn't this related to Teacher Li Jiu? After so many years, we've finally found some clues. The methods are indeed a bit ruthless. However, I can understand. Without doing this, it would be impossible to make Lu Yao tell the truth."
"What's going on with Li Jiu?"
Ke Yingying wasn't too clear herself, so she could only roughly explain what she knew. Regarding The Schemers' training classes, there wasn't just Li Jiu's lineage. There was another training class in Yunnan, which started in '88.
Later, to differentiate, the people from Li Jiu's training class referred to those from the Yunnan training class as the Southern Faction. The Northern Faction inherited the philosophy of the elder Mr. Wende: teach without discrimination, and anyone could become a Schemer. But the Southern Faction was different; they were rigid and followed ancient methods of cultivation. Legend had it that every time the Southern Faction held a class, they would gather forty-nine exceptionally intelligent individuals, have them sign a life-and-death pact, and the sect leader would let them compete and kill each other. Those who were eliminated were buried if they died, and those who survived were made to swear a poisonous oath to leave the sect and never speak of matters related to The Schemers again.
When Li Jiu learned of this news, he traveled to Yunnan at the end of '97. After returning, Li Jiu fell gravely ill, as if he had been poisoned by a蛊.
With modern medical treatment, Li Jiu finally recovered. However, he was also diagnosed with cancer. It was also because of that illness that Li Jiu launched the long-planned economic crisis the following year, elevating Gao Ji, an extremist, to the status of a hero.
...
Birth, aging, sickness, and death are not actions that humans can control. At the time, Ke Yingying and his companions lamented that fate was too cruel to such a talented person, but Ye Qingcheng did not think so. Ye Qingcheng believed that Teacher Li Jiu's illness was due to his trip to Yunnan. She even defied Teacher Li Jiu's orders and went to Yunnan to investigate. However, the Southern Faction seemed to have vanished. Their sect leader, "Shen Po," had also left the place they had been stationed in. Moreover, due to the Southern Faction's peculiar rules, Ye Qingcheng didn't even know who the Southern Faction's Schemers were.
...
Ye Qingcheng harbored resentment about this matter.
After her agent died, Ke Yingying, following Li Jiu's arrangements from back then, took over the underground enterprises managed by the agent as a backup force. Due to the agent's sudden death, many of the schemes he was responsible for became leaderless and collapsed in multiple places. Ke Yingying, who was fully occupied with damage control, had no energy to manage other matters.
Lin Zhijun's betrayal and the "lizard shedding its tail" maneuver that completely severed the Lin family's ties with "Logical Paradox" cost "Logical Paradox" two major figures simultaneously. For "Logical Paradox," which had always prided itself on its stringent organizational structure, this was a severe blow. At that time, Li Jiu had assigned Ye Qingcheng to take over Lin Zhijun's work, but Ye Qingcheng found a lead regarding the Southern Faction at this very moment and impulsively went to Yunnan.
...
The movements of the Southern Faction had always been extremely secretive. Ye Qingcheng spent a long time in Yunnan. By the time she returned, Teacher Li Jiu, already in the throes of a terminal illness, had gone to Hohhot.
No one expected that Teacher Li Jiu's departure would be a final farewell...
Later, "Logical Paradox" underwent changes. Ye Qingcheng and Xiao Zian both left "Logical Paradox." Ke Yingying also did not want to become Cao Qian's subordinate and looked for a new path. He then contacted Ye Qingcheng and Xiao Zian, who had returned from abroad, and prepared for the three of them to seek refuge with the organization "Zheng Qi."
Ye Qingcheng did not agree. Ke Yingying learned that Ye Qingcheng was still in contact with Lu Yao and thus began to scheme with the authorities. Because Ke Yingying was the only one truly involved in the work within "Logical Paradox" at the time, Ke Yingying knew that Li Jiu had actually made two peculiar arrangements. One was to send Ning Caichen, who had been loafing around the training classes and living on welfare, to Sichuan. The other was to send Lu Yao, a perpetually unqualified student from the training classes, to Yunnan.
Ke Yingying knew that Ning Caichen had orchestrated a counterfeit currency scheme in Sichuan, and his demonstrated ability was sufficient to succeed Lin Zhijun. However, the counterfeit currency scheme was quickly deciphered by their opponent, the greedy "Gluttonous Ghost" Cao Shi, and his disciple Cao Qian.
Therefore, Lu Yao's movements became the only focus of Ke Yingying's attention.
...
Ye Qingcheng refused Ke Yingying's invitation to join "Zheng Qi." Ke Yingying, leveraging Ye Qingcheng's awareness of everything yet her continued contact with Lu Yao, dangled a carrot, saying he would use the organization's power to help Ye Qingcheng find the murderer of Teacher Li Jiu.
With Ye Qingcheng's involvement, Xiao Zian also joined, which led to the formation of the Four-Color Old K. Later, "Zheng Qi" also fell like a shooting star. The four of them discussed seeking refuge with me, which led to the current events.
...
After Ke Yingying finished speaking, I had a general understanding of some of Ye Qingcheng's issues. Ye Qingcheng's continued contact with Lu Yao was not out of any師門 bond, but because of love.
Ye Qingcheng wanted to know if Lu Yao was related to the Southern Faction, but Lu Yao kept it from Ye Qingcheng. It wasn't until Lu Yao unmasked himself to confront me that Ye Qingcheng saw Lu Yao's true face. Thus, Ye Qingcheng acted with the utmost theatricality. Lu Yao believed Ye Qingcheng had defected to me and killed Ye Qingcheng to intimidate me.
But Lu Yao never imagined that Ye Qingcheng wanted to defect to no one; all her actions were aimed at uncovering the truth behind Li Jiu's death. Therefore, Lu Yao not only failed to exploit their trusted relationship to kill Ye Qingcheng, but was instead trapped and captured by Ye Qingcheng. It must have been out of desperation that Ye Qingcheng resorted to such an extreme method to force Lu Yao.
...
After understanding the whole story, I realized that everyone had their own obsession. Lu Yao wanted to be the sect leader, Ye Qingcheng sacrificed everything for her love, Xiao Zian did it for her son, and Ke Yingying was the most pragmatic; everything he did was to survive as a Schemer.
"Mr. Ke, do you think Ye Qingcheng managed to get anything out of him?"
"I guess she did."
"Why do you say that?"
"I know Ye Qingcheng. Teacher Ye is not someone who easily loses her temper. Even using such an ancient and lost form of torture, she would have kept Lu Yao alive if she hadn't gotten anything out of him yet."
"Why would Lu Yao talk then?"
Ke Yingying gave a wry smile, likely recalling the cruel and disturbing scene from earlier. He then sighed deeply and said, "I thought I was the most ruthless among the four members of the Four-Color Old K. Now it seems that's not the case. Teacher Ye is the truly ruthless one. No wonder Madam Xiao dares not defy Teacher Ye's wishes."
The amount of information in today's conversation was immense. After hearing this, I looked at Ke Yingying blankly. Ke Yingying said seriously, "We all know Madam Xiao has a son, but no one knows what Madam Xiao's son looks like, or how old he is. The only person who knows about Madam Xiao's son is Ye Qingcheng."
"Ye Qingcheng threatened Xiao Zian with her child's life?"
"She didn't say it."
I sighed. Indeed, such things didn't need to be spoken aloud.
"What do we do now?" Ke Yingying asked me.
"Call the police!"
"Ah~"
"Only by calling the police can we use the police's resources to find Ye Qingcheng," I said seriously. No matter what, I had to talk to Ye Qingcheng. But finding Ye Qingcheng on my own would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Therefore, calling the police was the best option.
Ke Yingying understood my meaning, but he asked again, "What if we can't find her?"
"Then we'll go to Beijing to look for her."
"Go to Beijing?" This time Ke Yingying couldn't guess my intentions and looked at me with a bewildered expression. I smiled helplessly. "If Teacher Ye really managed to get something out of him, do you think she, with her own strength, would be able to handle that Southern Faction?"
"So, she'll go to Xiao Zian."
"Xiao Zian is a chameleon; she's not easy to find."
Hearing Ke Yingying say this, my eyes lit up. "Since that's the case, why don't we take a gamble? Instead of waiting for the police's search results, let's go directly to Beijing to find Xiao Zian and intercept Ye Qingcheng."
"That's fine too. Then we can catch Ye Qingcheng."
"Catch Ye Qingcheng for what? To get credit at the police station? The reason I want to find Ye Qingcheng is because I believe there must be something wrong with the Southern Faction. We can't let Ye Qingcheng take the risk alone."