The Master’s Mask Unveiled Again
Chapter 691 - Chapter 691 Chapter 690 Only One Can Live

Chapter 691: Chapter 690: Only One Can Live Chapter 691: Chapter 690: Only One Can Live Lu Mian emerged from Hua Ying’s room by the time it was already after 8 pm.

Her phone buzzed, and she opened the message.

Although it was unsigned, Lu Mian knew who had sent it, releasing a soft sigh as she walked composedly toward the back garden.

The conversation that needed to happen was inevitable.

She just hoped Director Qi wouldn’t be angry.

There was only one stout phoenix tree in the back garden, so thick that not one person could wrap their arms around it.

Relying on the yard’s street lights, Lu Mian saw a tall man in a trench coat standing under the tree.

The trunk hid most of his body, but that didn’t prevent Lu Mian from recognizing who he was.

She walked straight towards him.

“Sikong.”

Lu Mian called out gently, and the man straightened up and turned around, a flash of satisfaction passing through his phoenix eyes.

“You came,” he smiled.

Lu Mian stopped a meter away from him; this was the first time the two of them were speaking alone at the office.

The young woman asked, “The road closure in Shencheng this afternoon was your doing, wasn’t it?

Did you see me then?”

“Yeah, I had intended to come discretely, but who knew they would make such a big scene.

I just happened to see you at the roadside, so I took the opportunity to bring you the gift,” he explained.

“…” Lu Mian shook her head, “You shouldn’t have come.”

The man was silent for a moment, then suddenly chuckled.

“Don’t overthink it, the President sent me here,” said Sikong Jian casually.

Why he had come here, others didn’t know, but he was well aware.

However, he wouldn’t say; one, he didn’t want to put so much pressure on Lu Mian, and two, it gave him an excuse to stay.

A touch of melancholy in his gaze, he sighed, “Do you still remember that life-and-death game we played in the laboratory?”

Life-and-death games were all too common in the laboratory.

Those villains always had various pretexts for setting up such games.

A bunch of “experimental subjects” engaged in the same project, but in the end, only one person was allowed to survive.

A shadow crossed the depths of Lu Mian’s eyes.

Sikong Jian chuckled: “Facing those endless death-bound soldiers from the laboratory, I fought until the end, thinking I had won, only to find you standing opposite me.

They said, between you and me, only one could survive.

That day, the sky was filled with the leaves of ginkgo trees, tragic and desolate.”

Lu Mian rarely reminisced about the days she was kidnapped to the laboratory.

No freedom, no light, just one challenge after another.

She and her four companions experienced these things every day, and they were all euphemistically termed “scientific training” by the laboratory’s people.

The five of them persevered for a month, and this life-and-death game with Sikong Jian became a turning point.

Lu Mian spoke faintly, “I remember you picked up a dagger and wanted to end yourself.

You said you were fed up with that life and didn’t want to continue.”

Sikong Jian gazed at Lu Mian in silence, smiling.

But Lu Mian knew, Sikong Jian simply couldn’t bear to hurt her; this man was always the opposite of what he said.

The wicked man laughed boldly, extending an arm to rest on the tree trunk, “At that time, I just didn’t want to live, but what struck me most was what you said.

You said if there was only one path left, then you would choose to kill them all.”

Such a frail and delicate girl, her face smeared with dark red blood, uttered those words calmly.

She aimed to overthrow the entire laboratory.

And she did just that, carving a bloody path with them, her four companions.

She could endure all sorts of brutal training, but she wouldn’t tolerate harm coming to her companions, even though they had only known each other for a month.

And the result was…

Sikong Jian took a deep breath; she unexpectedly fell into the magnetic field tunnel, without any protective measures, vanishing right in front of the four of them.

On the ground, only a pool of her blood remained.

The laboratory’s people coldly announced: “Experimental subject Lu Mian, dead.”

That scene left an indelible trauma on all four of them, especially on Sui Yuan…

That was Lu Mian.

For her companions, she could be selflessly determined, paying any price.

“Mianmian, go back to school,” Sikong Jian urged, “I’m also a victim, not much different from you, and I’m capable of handling the case.”

“But you’re not Number Thirteen.”

Lu Mian was candid, “Besides, your father would never allow you to do that.”

Sikong Jian was the only one who returned to his family, but his father explicitly demanded that Sikong not reveal his identity as a victim.

The reason was simple: family disgrace should not be publicized.

“I don’t need to look at his face anymore…”

Lu Mian raised her hand, cutting off Sikong Jian’s words, “Sikong, I have my own plans.

Besides, Director Qimo will help me.”

“Him?”

The man’s lips curled into a mocking smile.

Seeing that Lu Mian was resolute, he suppressed his emotions and words, digesting them internally.

“Alright, let’s not talk about this.” He blinked somewhat pitifully, as if coquettishly saying, “Do you know how much I’ve missed you…”

Lu Mian rubbed her forehead.

Here we go again.

At that moment, Wang Xintong caught a glimpse of Lu Mian standing by the phoenix tree, talking to someone.

She looked suspiciously for a few more moments, but the phoenix tree blocked her view, and she could not see who Lu Mian was talking to.

A suspicion stirred in her heart; Lu Mian was really strange…

aEUR”aEUR”

After bidding farewell to Sikong Jian, when Lu Mian returned to her room, she instantly sensed that someone had been there.

A sweep through the room, and she saw a scholarly man lying on his side on her bed.

Dressed in pajamas, he casually flipped through the book by her pillow.

The pajamas had only one button done up, and when he leaned over, a large expanse of cold, pale skin and the outline of his muscles were faintly visible.

Lu Mian quickly closed the door, feeling quite guilty.

“Director Qimo, you…”

“You’re back?” The man called out tenderly, without a hint of anger, patting the spot next to him on the bed, “I missed you.

Came to see you.”

As the air shifted, Xiao Qimo’s nostrils flared slightly, detecting the distinctive scent of Broadleaf Houttuynia that was unique to Sikong Jian.

Tch, always with such a conspicuous scent, as if afraid others wouldn’t notice?

The man ground his teeth secretly.

Lu Mian asked cautiously, “How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long.” Xiao Qimo smiled elegantly, straightening his silk pajama collar, airy, “Just around the time you were chatting with Sikong Jian.”

“…Director Qimo, please don’t do this.” Lu Mian felt a little hot.

“Hmm?

.Co

What’s wrong with me?” The man was completely calm, even comfortably shifting to another lying position.

The view under the pajamas was incredibly enticing.

Lu Mian’s mind was now filled with the image of his skin, her gaze unsure where to settle.

She almost immediately realized, Xiao Qimo seemed to be…

cough.

This kind of scene, she hadn’t come across in novels.

But it was described in encyclopedias of animals: the male peacock displays its plumage and performs beautiful dance moves, all in the act of courtship.

emmm…

Lu Mian briskly walked over and promptly did up all the buttons on Xiao Qimo’s pajamas.

Now that was much better; at least she could think straight again.

Xiao Qimo looked down at his pajamas: …the hell…

“I only talked with him for a bit.” Lu Mian confessed truthfully.

“What did you talk about?

Your relationship with him doesn’t connect anywhere, how did you know each other?”

Xiao Qimo realized waiting for Lu Mian, the straightforward heroine, to confess on her own was probably in vain.

A strong sense of crisis made him cast aside subtlety and ask bluntly.

“…It involves his privacy, not quite appropriate to say.”

The scholarly man’s gold-rimmed glasses reflected a glint of cold light.

How private was it?

He looked up at Lu Mian, fingers carelessly playing with a pajama button, and after a moment, he smiled faintly, “Does my special privilege still count?”

“It does.” He could ask any question, and she would tell the truth.

The girl met the man’s intense gaze, asking very seriously, “Do you want to use it now?”

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