Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 80: Truly a Guest

Inside the Lin residence, the lights blazed brightly, and the servants remained awake, with some occasionally passing through the corridors.

The phantom’s eyes were Li Li’s eyes.

Through the crow phantom perched on ‘Qin Qian’s’ shoulder, Li Li noticed the servants hurrying along, instinctively stepping aside when passing ‘Qin Qian,’ their faces showing fear.

‘Qin Qian’ was controlled by An Heyu.

Seeing this, An Heyu had ‘Qin Qian’ grab a servant’s wrist as they passed, casually asking an innocuous question.

The servant was clearly eager to escape ‘Qin Qian,’ visibly afraid of him.

This wasn’t just one or two people; ‘Qin Qian’ was not well-liked among the servants.

Using ‘Qin Qian’s’ memories, he soon reached the study.

For safety, Li Li shrank her form, becoming a small crow that could fit in a pocket.

Then ‘Qin Qian’ knocked.

“Knock knock.”

After pushing open the door, under the hem of the white uniform, a tiny crow’s head revealed a pair of red eyes from the pocket.

The study was brightly lit.

Lin Ruye sat behind a desk, with documents spread out before him.

As ‘Qin Qian’ entered, Li Li saw they were financial ledgers.

Seeing this, Li Li sighed inwardly.

Staying up late to review his savings—Lin Ruye was thoroughly steeped in his ‘money-loving’ persona.

She needed to learn from this, to give her new identity a bit more of that money-grubbing flavor.

After all, she’d used earning money as an excuse when she first appeared.

‘Qin Qian’ first gave a salute, then said: “Branch Leader, you were right. Those two have nothing to do with the illusionist.”

At this, Lin Ruye set down the documents and leaned back.

“Hah, of course.” His eyes flicked to a corner of the ceiling, then returned. “The old hag may be a nuisance, but she’s still an SS-rank. That illusionist coming to Ranmu City would just be suicide.”

Li Li noted that direction—it was toward the attic she’d seen before entering.

Was Lin Ran there? she wondered.

‘Qin Qian’ didn’t plan to leave after reporting but steered the conversation elsewhere, saying: “Still, I’m a bit uneasy. Lately, those remnants have been getting bolder. The Yue clan and An clan have already fallen to them.”

He added pointedly: “Branch Leader, they have S-rank ability users too, and Qu Yan died at the hands of an illusionist. Are we really safe?”

“The mud-legged Yue clan and the washed-up An clan? Them?” Lin Ruye scoffed. “It was just Qu Yan who flipped the boat.”

He straightened, pointing to the direction he’d glanced at earlier.

“Fair enough, you’ve only been here two years,” he said. “Let me tell you why I’ve tolerated that old hag this long.”

“There are only ten SS-rank ability users in the empire, and the old hag is one of them. Apart from the other nine and that one existence behind the imperial family, no one can escape her ability, Stainless Purity,” Lin Ruye sneered. “These past few years, the days have been peaceful, but six years ago, when the old hag decided to establish Ranmu City, do you know how many people she killed in a single day?”

‘Qin Qian’ shook his head, following Lin Ruye’s lead: “I don’t know.”

Lin Ruye held up five fingers toward ‘Qin Qian.’

“Fifty?” ‘Qin Qian’ guessed cooperatively.

At most five hundred, Li Li thought.

But this time, Li Li was wrong.

Lin Ruye didn’t keep them guessing, calmly revealing the answer: “Five thousand.”

The combined population of Ranmu City was roughly a million, and during that time, Lin Ran killed over five thousand people in a single day.

“The initial violent suppression lasted three days. Just three days, and there were no rebels left in Ranmu City,” Lin Ruye said, as if recalling the scene. “I remember clearly. The butler reported to the old hag how many bodies they processed afterward—a total of thirteen thousand eight hundred forty. The corpses were piled at the old library site, and the blood flowed for hundreds of meters.”

“How many die in Eternal Night now?” He started laughing. “A hundred? Two hundred? Does it even reach that?”

“Unreasonably strict regulations, allowing not a speck of violence or ability misuse. Yet she’s the most violent, the most abusive of her ability.”

“Back then, I truly thought she had no heart, that she wasn’t even human. No human could be like her. But now, I don’t think that way,” Lin Ruye said, pointing to his heart. “This kind of thing is the most unnecessary. She doesn’t need it, and neither do I.”

Perhaps because he’d rarely spoken so openly, Lin Ruye fell silent for a moment before addressing the quiet ‘Qin Qian’ again: “The illusionist won’t come. As long as the old hag’s alive, Ranmu City is their graveyard.”

“Besides, Ranmu City isn’t even the illusionist’s first choice. The remnants saved by the prophet are still clinging to life in the Sang clan’s territory. That’s where the likes of illusionists should go,” Lin Ruye concluded. “You’ve been getting cocky lately, Qin Qian. Your job is to focus on making money, not worrying about whether an illusionist will come to Ranmu City.”

‘Qin Qian’ obediently lowered his head, saying: “The Branch Leader’s words make sense. I was just feeling uneasy.”

“Whatever,” Lin Ruye said dismissively. “No one in Ranmu City will defy the Ability Guild. Go play by yourself.”

Lin Ruye had no more to say.

He waved ‘Qin Qian’ off to continue reviewing his ledgers.

…

A hundred meters away, An Heyu controlled ‘Qin Qian’ to leave the study, preparing to depart.

“It’s over,” he said, exhaling in relief.

Beside him, Li Li sat on a tree branch, her long skirt swaying as her slender legs dangled casually.

“Not over,” Li Li said, glancing down at An Heyu’s red hood. “Linger there for a bit.”

An Heyu: “…”

He had a bad and ominous premonition, though this kind of premonition seemed to have become a daily check-in item.

And his premonition was indeed true.

At the Lin clan’s residence, the phantom that had been in ‘Qin Qian’s’ pocket left the pocket at some point, flying toward the attic.

Meanwhile, ‘Qin Qian’ naturally started talking with the butler.

The phantom soared through the air, stirring a wisp of wind, unnoticed by the servants below.

This adventure had yielded a lot of information from Lin Ruye’s mouth, but the matter Li Li was most concerned about still had no resolution.

The person who recommended travelogues to her and was saved by her one night—was that really Lin Ran?

In Lin Ruye’s description, Lin Ran was like an aloof stone statue, cold and merciless, ruthlessly carving her self-imposed laws into this land.

Would such a person disguise themselves as an ordinary person at night and get caught by ability users involved in human trafficking?

Lin Ruye’s words couldn’t be fully trusted.

Since she was already here, she might as well take a look at Lin Ran’s side before leaving.

Li Li arrived at the one place in the Lin clan’s residence where the lights were turned off.

Unlike the other attics, the staircase here didn’t lead directly to the attic’s interior.

The attic was surrounded by a wall, with cement slabs encasing it, and from the outside, it looked like a disguised cement wall.

To enter the attic, one had to go through the mansion’s internal staircase, which led to a passageway between the wall and the attic.

But the attic’s doors and windows were sealed with wooden boards, seemingly impossible to open.

An invisible black crow flapped its wings and landed in the passageway.

Li Li felt this place was like a prison, cut off from the world, a place where even sunlight couldn’t reach.

Was Lin Ran here? She took a few steps forward, and the crow she had transformed into hopped on the ground, making no sound.

The other party was an SS-rank ability user, and as Lin Ruye had said, Lin Ran was very strong.

At her current A-rank, Li Li had no means of resistance.

The gap between mid-rank and high-rank was immense.

Li Li could attempt to challenge an A-rank while at B-rank and win, but when facing the S-rank Yue Qing, she had outsmarted him by exploiting his psychological defenses.

As for the S-rank Qu Yan, it was the S-rank An Heyu who killed him—she had merely talked.

The last time she faced Dan, she had only stalled, never entertaining the idea that she could directly kill her opponent.

For the current Li Li, an SS-rank would only be stronger and more troublesome.

A long-forgotten sense of tension enveloped her, faintly reminiscent of when she was still an ordinary person facing the mid-rank ability user Qing Yu Chen.

Silently, the crow hopped around the square passageway.

Li Li found a door that could be opened.

The black crow tilted its head, looking at the tightly closed door.

Li Li prepared to shrink the phantom and slip through the door’s crack.

Just then.

“Creak”

The door actually opened!

A hundred meters away, Li Li’s real body froze, while the phantom crow flapped its wings and flew up, putting some distance between itself and the room behind the opened door.

The crow’s red eyes reflected a flicker of candlelight.

In this darkness, the faint candlelight trembled slightly with the breeze from the opening door.

Inside the door was a simple tea room, with a lamp placed on a low tea table.

Behind the table, a woman who appeared to be in her twenties sat on the floor, her eyes lowered.

It was unclear whether it was the candlelight’s hue or her natural color, but her orange hair spilled across the floor, extending into the darkness beyond the candle’s reach.

As the candlelight flickered, she raised her eyes, looking toward what should have been empty space.

Her ghostly purple pupils seemed to see the black crow hidden in the air.

It was Lin Ran!

She wasn’t asleep but had opened the door to the intruder.

A hundred meters away, Li Li’s real body leapt down from a tree branch in alertness, placing a hand on An Heyu’s shoulder.

Ready to flee at any moment!

Inside the Lin clan’s residence, the butler talking to ‘Qin Qian’ advised, “Don’t make the young master angry again.”

“With the clan leader here, if those remnants dare to come, they’ll never leave.”

At the same time, the remnant and the Lin clan leader faced each other across a door, as if locking eyes.

Li Li was waiting, waiting for Lin Ran’s reaction.

In the silent air, in the dim candlelight, the orange-haired woman opened her mouth.

“We’re clearly on good terms, and you’re even willing to come to my house to find me,” she said toward the black crow.

Li Li: …?

A hundred meters away, Li Li’s real body removed her hand from An Heyu’s shoulder.

What had Lin Ruye said? That Lin Ran would kill the remnants or something?

Was this the kind of ‘killing’ that involved inviting the remnant into her home?

Wasn’t this a bit like “Your vassals are ready to fight to the death, so why does Your Majesty surrender first”?

One minute later, Li Li sat on the floor, separated from Lin Ran by a tea table with tea utensils.

In the candlelight, Lin Ran looked over with her vacant eyes and asked, “Do you like drinking tea?”

Li Li maintained her usual cheerful smile and said bluntly, “Got any milk tea?”

In any case, becoming a guest of the investigation target was also a kind of investigative success.