Legend Management Bureau Chapter 121

[ … words ]

“My God…” Du Yu suddenly understood everything.

No wonder Jack the Ripper was so difficult to track down. His true identity was actually a woman?!

A deranged killer who exclusively targeted middle-aged prostitutes was, in fact, a middle-aged woman herself?

A chill crept down Du Yu and Shiranui Asuka’s spines as they stared at the gruesome corpse on the ground and the expressionless Lizzie standing over it.

This was a genuine, psychopathic murderer—the first Du Yu had ever seen in person. Yet, Chada and Ramula stood beside him with perfect composure, acting as though this were an everyday occurrence.

Lizzie gripped a scalpel, likely stolen from her husband. She slowly raised the blade and pointed it at the group. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Oh, my dear lady,” Chada said, raising her hands in a mock gesture of surrender. “Don’t get worked up. We just have some business to discuss with you.”

“Business? I don’t understand.” Judging purely by her expression, Lizzie seemed to have completely forgotten that she had just murdered someone.

“This is your first time killing someone. Not only are your methods sloppy, but you’ve also left a considerable amount of evidence at the scene.” Chada scanned their surroundings before continuing, “Give us another fifty pence, and we will help you clean this up. The police won’t find a single trace of your existence.”

“It’s quite simple. For money.” Chada smiled faintly. “You are my client, and I can make a good profit off you. If I were to call the police, they certainly wouldn’t pay me.”

Hearing this, Lizzie visibly lowered her guard. She slowly dropped her arm and said, “So that’s how it is. I’ll give you the money, Miss Detective. In the future, if you discover my husband fooling around with any other women, you must tell me.”

Chada nodded. “Of course. We already agreed on that.”

Lizzie took out her coin purse, fished out a few more coins, and handed them to Chada. Just as she was about to leave, she turned back and said, “Miss Detective, I have spent over a pound on you already. I hope you won’t disappoint me.”

“Naturally,” Chada agreed with a smile, watching as Lizzie walked away.

Du Yu blinked in surprise. ‘I’ve actually learned something from this Chada,’ he thought.

Whenever he entered a legend, people constantly asked him why he was helping them. Every time, he would weave wild, extravagant lies, or even outright reveal his true identity. Yet, despite all his efforts, they always remained skeptical.

The next time he encountered a similar situation, he might as well just tell them straight up, “I’m purely doing it for the money.” It wasn’t just brutally simple; it was also far more believable.

He couldn’t help but feel that the woman standing before him was rather clever to have come up with such an excuse.

“Alright, let’s get to work,” Chada declared.

“Get to work?” Du Yu asked. “Working on what?”

“Cleaning up the crime scene.” Chada bent down and began gathering the fabric scraps Lizzie had just dropped on the floor.

“Uh…” Du Yu felt a wave of apprehension. Cleaning up a murder scene was not for the faint of heart. He merely pretended to search the ground for something, doing his absolute best to avoid looking at the corpse and its blood-soaked wounds. Asuka and Ramula also joined in inspecting the floor.

Asuka, on the other hand, had quite the nerve. After finishing her sweep of the ground, she went straight over to turn the body, counting the wounds. There were exactly thirty-eight stab marks in total.

“Thirty-eight?” Chada raised an eyebrow and quickly went to turn the corpse over to count them herself. Sure enough, there were thirty-eight. “Damn it, we’re short one.”

With that, she pulled out a scalpel identical to Lizzie’s from her coat and viciously stabbed it into the corpse’s thigh. What little blood remained in the body spurted outward.

“Holy shit!”

Du Yu hastily leaped backward. He had never imagined that human blood could spray that far, like a fully pressurized water gun.

“Are you a psychopath?!” Du Yu yelled. “Was that really necessary?!”

“It’s part of the job,” Chada replied expressionlessly. “All the historical records state thirty-nine stab wounds. If it’s short by one, it will definitely cause ripple effects.”

Du Yu let out an exasperated sigh. This woman was constantly boasting about the British Empire, yet everything she did was completely unhinged.

Even though there were four of them, Chada was the only one actually cleaning up the scene. Not only did she gather the shredded clothing from the ground, but she also pried a lock of hair from the deceased’s grasp and wiped away a bloody handprint on the wall.

Even after finishing all of this, she still seemed dissatisfied. She picked up a bottle from the ground and slowly walked toward the corpse.

“Hey!” Du Yu sensed that something was wrong. What kind of cleanup required a bottle? He hurriedly stepped forward and blocked Chada’s path. “What are you doing?!”

“Sir, according to the records, Martha was not only murdered but also ‘violated,'” Chada stated plainly.

“What the fuck!” A nameless fury flared up in Du Yu’s chest. He stared at the filthy bottle in Chada’s hand, covered in grime and crawling with maggots. “Are you seriously out of your mind? And you call yourself a woman! She’s already dead—can’t you show a shred of basic human decency?!”

“Just as you said, sir, she is already dead. It doesn’t matter what I do.”

Chada offered a small smile and tried to shove Du Yu out of the way, but he stood completely motionless, rooted to the spot like a boulder.

“What’s the matter, sir? Are you trying to obstruct the progression of our nation’s legend?”

“I’ve had enough of this,” Du Yu snarled through gritted teeth. “I absolutely refuse to let you hurt this woman any further. If you have a problem with that, we can settle it right here and now.”

Grief gnawed at Du Yu’s heart. He was the one who had helped sell the “information” earlier. In other words, he was indirectly responsible for Martha’s death. Now, to subject her corpse to such filthy acts… it was a line he could never allow to be crossed.

“Oh?” Chada raised a brow. “Sir, are you implying that ‘the Chinese Operator is deliberately obstructing the progression of a British legend, causing massive financial losses to British interests’?”

“No,” Du Yu said, shaking his head. “I’m saying that ‘the brutal brawl that is about to occur represents the sole stance of Du Yu as an individual, and has absolutely nothing to do with China.'”

“Hmph.” Chada finally dropped her polite facade, sneering disdainfully. “How could you possibly bear such a massive responsibility on your own? Are you truly going to engage in a ‘brutal brawl’ with me?”

Chada reached out, pulling a slender rapier out of thin air. In response, Du Yu immediately rested his hand on his brush.

Meanwhile, the broadcast chat within the Legends Administration was practically exploding with scrolling comments. For these immortals, the teachings they had followed since ancient times had never been “profit first.” Instead, they valued loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust.

“As the saying goes, respect the dead above all else,” the Queen Mother of the West sighed softly. “The boy is doing the right thing. If he really ends up injuring that British Operator, I’ll shoulder the blame for him.”

The myriad immortals were already quite displeased with the British Operator’s methods. Hearing the Queen Mother of the West state her support, the chat erupted into a chaotic frenzy of agreements.

The numerous immortals, who usually all had their own separate agendas, were now completely united by a foreign legend.

Seeing the two of them at each other’s throats, Shiranui Asuka meekly spoke up from the sidelines. “Seniors, please don’t fight… I… I just thought of something…”

Both of them turned their heads toward her, unsure of what she was getting at.

“Um…” Asuka pondered for a moment before continuing, “If I remember correctly… Dr. John went to visit Martha not too long ago… So…”

“Oh?” Du Yu paused, immediately grasping the girl’s meaning. He turned back to Chada. “Asuka is right. Martha was already ‘open for business’ today. If the police investigate, they’ll definitely find traces of violation. There’s no need for you to go out of your way to do it yourself, right?”

Upon hearing this, Chada deliberated for a moment before slowly lowering her rapier. “Ladies and gentlemen, in the future, please get this straight. This is my territory. The one who decides what gets done here is me, not you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Du Yu retorted coldly. “If you were back in your own country, I wouldn’t care how you corrected your legends. But since you’ve stepped into our territory, constantly preaching about ‘friendly exchanges,’ we have every right to interfere with your actions.”

Chada didn’t say another word. She sheathed her rapier, turned around, and walked away. Ramula followed closely behind her.

“Senior Du Yu…” Asuka murmured, watching the pair gradually disappear into the distance. “What do we do now?”

“As much as I loathe following that woman, it’s an undeniable fact that she can push the legend forward. We have no choice but to stick with her.” Du Yu couldn’t help but feel his opinion of Shiranui Asuka shifting. Even though she often said shocking things, she still had a solid moral compass and knew right from wrong.

The group followed Chada to an inn. For some unknown reason, the four of them only booked a single room.

Sitting inside the room, they exchanged glances. After all, none of them were ordinary mortals; they didn’t require sleep at night.

In the cramped space, Chada lit a cigarette and smoked it in absolute silence.

The room quickly filled with smoke, the haze slightly choking.

“Senior Chada, why did you become a ‘Time Master’?” Asuka asked.

Chada exhaled a plume of smoke and looked at Asuka. “In our country, I am not called a ‘Time Master.’ I am a ‘Controller.’ As for why… it’s for the money.”

“For money?” Du Yu was utterly baffled. “Wait, you extorted Lizzie multiple times—that wasn’t just some method to correct the legend? You were genuinely just trying to make a buck?”

“Of course.” Chada nodded. “Money is crucial. Those were my tips.”

Du Yu scratched his head, reeling from the massive cultural gap. Just moments ago, he had been praising her brilliance for coming up with the “money” excuse. Now, she was outright admitting she was just greedy.

“Sir, you probably aren’t aware,” Chada said, taking another drag from her cigarette. “If one weren’t truly desperate for cash, who would ever willingly become a ‘Controller’?”

“You can’t be serious…” Du Yu was stunned. “I didn’t become an ‘Operator’ for the money.”

He turned back to Asuka and asked, “Are you doing this for money?”

“No, I’m not…” Asuka shook her head. “I became a ‘Time Master’ for my ‘cultivation.'”

“Then I am quite envious of you both,” Chada sighed. “If I fail to extract more money from legends than the other ‘Controllers,’ I could very well be laid off.”

“Wait, laid off?!” Du Yu exclaimed. ‘As expected of a capitalist nation,’ he thought. “Is your ‘Legends Administration’ privately owned?!”