MG - Chapter 386: Ethan Yang's Challenge (2) (Patreon)

"Hey. Your dinner."

Danny Qiang tossed a thin pancake to Julian Ziliang in the corner.

Julian Ziliang caught it. A flicker of confusion crossed his eyes, and he instinctively looked up at Danny Qiang.

"What are you looking at?" Danny Qiang sneered, waving a fist in his face. "That's all you're getting. Keep staring and I'll fucking kill you!"

With that, he spat a thick glob of phlegm onto Julian Ziliang's pants.

Then he hummed a tune as he turned and headed into the living room to watch TV.

"Looks like Ethan Yang's been released." Julian Ziliang fell silent for a moment, then pulled over a tissue and calmly wiped the phlegm from his pants.

During the months Ethan Yang had been in solitary confinement, Danny Qiang hadn't laid a hand on him. Their food had still been split seventy-thirty, with meat and vegetables included.

Although Danny Qiang's attitude had remained awful, it was obvious he had reservations and no longer dared to push the abuse too far.

But today, his attitude had done a complete 180.

Even the food had been reduced to a thin pancake that was barely enough to take the edge off his hunger.

Considering how long Ethan Yang had been in confinement, the conclusion was obvious.

Ethan Yang might have lost the influence he once had after being released, but Danny Qiang wanted money, and more importantly, a chance to own a Mecha Girl and join the Crown Club someday. Ethan Yang might no longer own the Crown Club, but he could still come up with money and a few useful connections.

"What an opportunist."

Julian Ziliang gave a cold laugh. Any last hesitation he had about Danny Qiang disappeared.

Crimson had been rescued, and Ethan Yang was backed into a corner.

His next move would inevitably be to order Danny Qiang to act.

All Julian Ziliang had to do now was wait for an opportunity.

If he had recognized the prison guard he saw last time correctly, the man was one of his old friend's people.

But the guard had barely shown up lately, so Julian Ziliang had no idea whether the opportunity had arrived yet.

Who would choose death if they could stay alive?

Julian Ziliang clenched his fist.

If nothing changed, he'd have no choice but to break out by force.

But no matter what, he needed to fill his stomach first. If the chance came and he didn't have the strength to seize it, none of it would matter.

He had endured far too much hardship to care about food anymore. Whether it was a meat patty or a dry, thin pancake, it was all the same to him. His mouth was nothing more than a passageway.

"Crunch—"

He bit down.

Julian Ziliang immediately knew something was wrong.

There was something in his mouth that he couldn't chew through.

He quickly glanced toward the living room. Loud snores filled the air. Danny Qiang was already asleep against the sofa. In the past, Danny Qiang had always been on guard, afraid Julian Ziliang might suddenly attack him. But after nearly half a year of Julian Ziliang keeping his head down and enduring everything, Danny Qiang had long since written him off as a coward.

Now, even if Julian Ziliang walked right up to him, Danny Qiang would still sleep like a dead pig, completely oblivious to the world around him.

And that was exactly what Julian Ziliang wanted.

He quietly slipped into the corner of the room and listened for movement outside. He waited until Danny Qiang's snores grew louder and more rhythmic before spitting out whatever was in his mouth.

It was a tiny piece of cardboard dyed almost exactly the same color as the pancake, only thicker and much harder.

The piece was no bigger than his little finger. If he hadn't been in the habit of chewing slowly and thoroughly, he might have swallowed it without noticing.

A crooked little message was written on it:

By the window.

Window?

Only the storage room he was in had a window.

He moved beneath it and, suppressing his excitement, tapped lightly on the concrete wall.

After a while, two taps came from the other side.

Then the sound changed.

It was as if a thin piece of metal was scraping against the wall, producing a sharper sound that was easier to distinguish.

One tap was a dot. One scrape was a dash.

Julian Ziliang immediately realized it was Morse code and pressed his ear to the wall to listen.

·-··

·--··-···-··

-····-··-····-·

A dot served as the basic unit. A dash lasted three times as long as a dot, the gap between letters lasted three dots, and the gap between words lasted seven.

Put together, the message was: "Wait. Changeover. Breakout."

Break out during the changeover?

This was a signal!

Julian Ziliang narrowed his eyes.

His old friend hadn't let him down after all.

His old friend had probably used Ethan Yang's fall from power to pull some strings and was now close to being transferred back to the prison. That left only two obstacles in Julian Ziliang's way: Danny Qiang and the prison guard. Danny Qiang was no longer worth worrying about, and his old friend would soon take care of the guard as well.

Everything was ready. All he needed was the right moment.

Ethan Yang had once been the owner of the Crown Club, with power and influence behind him. Now he was nothing more than an ordinary Techmaster. Once Julian Ziliang got out, he would have far more room to maneuver against him. And if his old friend was telling him to break out, that meant he had a way to bury the consequences afterward.

Julian Ziliang took a deep breath. There was no sound from the other side of the wall anymore. The messenger had already left.

Leaning against the cold wall, he shoved the scrap of paper into his mouth and slowly chewed it to pieces, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

Derek Su. Crimson. Just wait until I get out.

He screamed the words inside his head.

And Ethan Yang...

"You killed my son and tortured my Mecha Girl. Just wait. You're going to hell."

...

The snoring in the living room stopped abruptly.

Half of Danny Qiang's face suddenly appeared around the storage room doorway.

His cold, sinister eyes swept around the room. When he saw Julian Ziliang still huddled in the corner, he pulled back out of sight.

He had just been sleeping on the sofa when he had a dream.

In the dream, a sickly wild wolf suddenly lunged forward, knocked a powerful lion to the ground, and crushed its throat with a single bite.