CHAPTER 118: CHAPTER 118; WHY WAS IT LIKE THIS?

Shen Xiao’s breath caught in his throat. He doesn’t recall seeing these men anywhere, but with their aura they carried authority...

He turned around and gazed at Bai Zhi, who was still being held hostage, as a man moved over and whispered to Jin Zhou.

Jin Zhou didn’t answer right away but let his eyes roam around and then gazed at the stairs.

He reached the center of the sitting area, boots sinking slightly into the expensive rug, and only then did he lift his gaze to meet Shen Xiao’s.

"I think," Jin Zhou said slowly, almost lazily, "you are in no position to give orders here."

The words were soft, but they carried the weight of a hammer.

The room seemed to shrink that even Scarface shifted his stance, his earlier smirk dulling into something more cautious.

Shen Xiao’s jaw immediately flexed. His eyes darted once to Bai Zhi, her trembling had worsened, the gag pressing harshly against her lips.

"What do you want?" he asked, voice tight, each syllable bitten off, you could hear his teeth clanking against each other.

Jin Zhou’s expression didn’t change, but the faintest gleam lit his eyes, like a predator scenting blood.

The commotion in the room immediately stilled without warning.

It wasn’t because Jin Zhou hadn’t spoken again, but it was because someone else had arrived.

A slow, deliberate rhythm of footsteps echoed from the hallway, they were measured, unhurried, as if time itself bent to accommodate the man approaching.

The sound carried an almost unnatural weight, every step cutting through the tense air like a clock striking doom.

The first to appear was not his face, but the gleam of green, carved jade catching the sterile white light of the overhead lamps. A mask, it was smooth, expressionless, yet somehow... watching.

Jin Shuren.

Even Scarface stiffened at the sight, instinctively lowering his weapon by a fraction. Bai Zhi’s breath hitched, though she didn’t know why; her pulse simply told her to fear him.

The man moved into the room without hurry, long black coat trailing over the carpet like liquid shadow. The jade mask obscured everything above his mouth, but the eyes, sharp, cold, and impossibly dark, burned with a kind of restrained cruelty that made lesser men look away.

Shen Xiao’s gaze locked on him instantly, his mind sharpening. He had heard whispers of the name before, a lord who ruled the criminal underworld not through alliances or brute force alone, but through something else. Something unnatural.

The jade mask curled across his face in the sinuous sweep of an S. It began high over his left brow, veiling the temple and left eye, then sloped inward to cut across the bridge of his nose. From there, the curve arched down again, obscuring the right eye and trailing along the cheekbone, leaving his mouth and jaw bare. The polished green stone caught the light with every breath, its winding shape lending him the look of a phantom caught mid-turn.

You could identify this person just from the mask... It was just the only one and very unique...

"I didn’t think," Shen Xiao said slowly, his voice like tempered steel, "that you existed outside the rumor." People could identify him from the mask, but this man has never shown up in public, so people could only hear rumors.

Jin Shuren stopped only a few steps away, tilting his head as if considering whether Shen Xiao’s life was worth the breath it took to answer.

"Rumor," the masked man said at last, his voice smooth and deep, yet threaded with something almost inhuman, "is only the shadow of truth. And shadows... belong to me."

For a moment, the temperature in the room seemed to dip. Bai Zhi’s trembling worsened. Even the little girl stirred uneasily in the operative’s arms.

Jin Zhou glanced sideways at Jin Shuren, this was his boss, the main man who could be your say in what kind of life falls beneath you.

Shen Xiao’s fists tightened. "If you are here for me, then take it up with me. Leave her out of it this! She doesn’t know anything..."

The operative holding the child stepped closer to his boss, Jin Shuren, and without a word, transferred the small bundle into his arms.

The Underworld Lord accepted her with a precision and gentleness so at odds with his reputation that it was almost disarming.

The little girl stirred, her cheek pressing against the cool jade of his mask for a moment before she tucked herself against his chest. His gloved hand came up to steady her, the gesture protective, almost reverent.

Shen Xiao’s eyes narrowed. He had assumed the child was a hostage, leverage. But the way the man held her told a different story.

"She’s yours," Shen Xiao said quietly, almost to himself. Could a man like him be a father?

Jin Shuren’s gaze lifted over the edge of the mask, those black eyes locking with his. "Mine," he confirmed, voice low and final... But Shen Xiao felt a little conflicted, he felt like he was connected to this little girl, but he hadn’t seen her face at all.

The words hung in the air like a blade suspended by a thread.

Bai Zhi, gagged and trembling, stared between the two men, trying to piece together what this meant. What the hell was going on here? Why was it like this?

Jin Zhou stepped back slightly, allowing the masked man more room, his own posture deferential. Even Scarface avoided meeting Jin Shuren’s eyes for a long time.

"I have no quarrel with your child, and haven’t met her..." Shen Xiao said coldly, and then thought of his son Shen Xuan. Could he have done something at school?

"If it’s my son’s fault, we could talk during the day!" He could tell his son had been having a bad mood and it was possible to offend someone.

Jin Shuren’s lips curved, just slightly, just enough for Shen Xiao to feel the mockery behind them. "But you have crossed the threshold!" His free hand flexed once at his side, and for a heartbeat, the lights in the sitting room wildly lit up, shadows stretching unnaturally along the walls.