CH 33.2

After Old Coyote has left, Black Glove does not speak, but walks to the door and locks the cell, walks around the room checking every corner, before returning to Jian Si.

Finally, he asks.

“Who sent you? For what reason?” He asks Jian Si, who is all bruised and swollen, “why did you say Old Coyote and Redcloud are traitors?”

What? Old Coyote is a traitor? But wait, who is Redcloud?

Jian Si is confused. Deeply confused.

Black Glove uses his hand to once more grab Jian Si by the throat.

“Again. Who sent you?”

The familiar touch of death is on Jian Si once more. Pain, and a replaying of that day in exact fashion, save for his apathy——Death can no longer elicit fear, nor can pain deter him. These evoke no emotional response.

“No one.” Jian Si’s throat gurgles slightly while he answers with difficulty.

Black Glove chuckles, “then what is your purpose here?”

“I’ve no…” Jian Si pauses, as Doctor’s face emerges in his mind and he immediately corrects his answer, “what does Doctor want?”

Black Glove lets go, and Jian Si’s neck is slowly deepening in colour——This is barely noticeable while he is covered in bruises.

“Doctor?” Black Glove is in thought, “you work for Doctor… no, you are here for Doctor?”

If Jian Si works for Doctor, he did not need to ask Black Glove what Doctor wanted; he must only ask if he does not work for him.

“Can’t believe someone is actually not here for me right now.” Black Glove lifts Jian Si’s face up a little to observe, “you work for Captain?”

“Captain?”

Who now? Jian Si is confused once more.

Black Glove is dismissive of the performance——This guy knows exactly who the traitors by his side are. He cannot possibly be unaware of what he is saying.

The fact that he told him about the traitors, though, is proof that he must either be neutral or friendly in stance.

Black Glove considers who could fit the description so far, and has been forced to conclude that there is only one person he will not doubt right now.

Nianluo’s leader, his good brother, who sent him here himself, and asked him to die as soon as possible.

“No need to pretend.” Black Glove lets go and smirks coldly, “what did he send you here to do?”

Jian Si falls back onto the stretcher, takes a deep breath, recovering from his near-suffocation, before looking at Black Glove with confusion, “I really do not know this ‘Captain’ you speak of…”

Black Glove then lifts a brow, asking, “who do you work for, then?”

How in the world can he get through to him?

With no recourse, Jian Si repeats his answer with emphasis, “I work for no one.” He pauses, and adds hesitantly, “if you must ask, then I might say that I work for Doctor.”

Although it was a passing, one-sided demand from Doctor——Can he even refuse?

Jian Si does not even want to entertain the notion of that.

Black Glove merely watches him with a poker face. If Jian Si simply does admit his role when asked, he’d be quite suspicious of him being another undercover agent here after him. Yet Jian Si’s refusal, and even dragging unrelated people down with his denial, means he has earned more trustworthy points——Not enough for him to trust him just yet, in any case.

These are all necessary precaution for him, when he is in an environment where even his most ‘loyal’ underling for many years has betrayed him. He can believe no one but himself right here.

“Working for the Doctor…” Black Glove says, and then just rolls with it, “let’s go with that, then. So, what were you looking to achieve by telling me the information?”

He is closely examining Jian Si’s emotional responses, as best as he can from the patchwork of colours, anyway.

Jian Si furrows his brows a little, trying to work out the logic of the conversation thus far and then distances himself.

“I’ve said, I do not remember what I said.”

A vein pops on Black Glove’s face, twitching the scar, “so you want nothing?” He lowers his voice, and his tone becomes more alluring, “even though I’m not doing that well, but as you can see, I still have my influences. If you say so, and if I can do it…”

He looks at Jian Si, and gives him concrete promises.

“Whether it’s money, power, or even freedom, I can give to you.”

If Black Glove said this to Jian Si a day earlier, he might be receiving an enthusiastic reply.

Now, though…

Jian Si finds himself unmoved. Unamused.

Is Black Glove scary? Yes.

And the Doctor? Yes.

Black Glove vs. Doctor…

There is no comparison.

Black Glove himself is barely hanging on in a hostile land, while the Doctor… Jian Si cannot even picture him being in a disadvantageous position.

Black Glove cannot give him what he wants, and thus can draw no emotional response from him.

Jian Si even finds this hilarious——He could really laugh at this.

Even beings that were once so strong, undefeated, overpowering and controlling his life, are but nothing to him.

“I want nothing.” Jian Si sees Black Glove return to his stoic, disinterested look, and adds after a few hesitant seconds, “just leave me alone.”

Even if Jian Si still knows next to nothing, he’s at least noticed the terrible state of affairs surrounding Black Glove. The vortex of chaos is terrifying.

Black Glove returns to calm. What he has masked himself in has peeled off, leaving only a distant, unfamiliar Black Glove behind.

“So, all you can give me, is that sentence?”

“I’ve told you, I do not remember what I said.”

“I heard you loud and clear, and as I have found out, you were right.”

Jian Si sighs, and merely nods, “then, that’s all I have. I can give you nothing more.” So just let him go.

“I can trust no one around me.”

The end of the road of a legendary figure is quite the sombre occasion indeed.

Black Glove appears just that little bit more sullen after he said that; a shell of the more glorious times he’s experienced, that one can almost glimpse from his current appearance.

Jian Si turns his neck a little towards the door, and merely goes ‘uh huh.’

So what? When can he go?

Jian Si is thinking, when the man speaks once more.

“I deserve the death that is coming to me.” Black Glove can see his little acts. He smiles, and merely continues, “but before I do, there are things I must first finish.”

Jian Si stops looking at the door and back at Black Glove. He is baffled by this sudden confession——What is he even trying to do?

Black Glove can see that.

“Do me a favour.”

“I refuse.”

Jian Si refuses as soon as Black Glove speaks.

“You have no option but to accept.” Black Glove reminds him, “you will have to help me.”

“And why is that?”

“Because…” Black Glove sits up straight, “I can help you with your mission.”

His mission…? Jian Si wonders what mission he has.

“Earn the Doctor’s trust.”

A lightbulb lights up above Jian Si’s head. He’s persuaded——Not because of the vague possibility of being trusted somehow by the Doctor, but merely, because of the potential information he can learn about Doctor.

Black Glove is not surprised by the reaction at all.

“Now, we can finally talk about what to do next.”