Monster Cub Live Stream – CH36

Chapter 36

The thin, tall man let out a startled cry and instinctively raised a hand to wipe the cake off his face.

While he couldn’t see, and while everyone’s attention around them was focused on him, Lin An’an swiftly switched the positions of the two glasses of fruit wine.

Feng Wu noticed the little cub’s movement, and one of his brows lifted slightly, as though he had realized something.

A server noticed the disturbance and hurried over with tissues for the thin man.

After wiping the cream off his face, the man turned toward the little black cub on the tea table with anger in his expression. “You—”

“Sorry,” Feng Wu cut in before he could finish. “The cub didn’t do it on purpose. I’ll apologize on his behalf.”

That single sentence shoved all the man’s words right back down his throat.

He took two deep breaths and silently recited to himself, He’s just a child who doesn’t know better; as an adult, I should be magnanimous and not stoop to his level. Then, as though venting his frustration, he grabbed the glass in front of him and gulped it down in one go.

Lin An’an blinked.

Oh my.

He actually drank it.

Seeing that no argument broke out, the surrounding people gradually withdrew their attention from them again.

The thin man was still suppressing his pent-up anger. He carefully controlled his strength as he set the empty glass back on the table. “Since Marshal Feng…”

But before he could finish even one sentence, his eyes suddenly went unfocused, and an abnormal flush spread across his face at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He looked as though he had gotten drunk.

But how could a single glass of fruit wine with almost no alcohol in it possibly make someone drunk so easily?

Lin An’an was almost certain that the man’s current state was caused by the very pill he had secretly slipped into the drink.

A sedative? Poison? An aphrodisiac?

Naturally, Feng Wu also noticed the man’s abnormal condition. His golden eyes narrowed slightly, and he called over a nearby server.

“He’s drunk.” Feng Wu tilted his chin slightly, indicating the man.

The server respectfully acknowledged the order, helped the “drunk” man up, and led him toward the lounge at the back of the venue.

The little cub blinked in confusion. “Yingji?”

Are we just letting him go like that?

Feng Wu turned his head toward where Xiong Yingjun was. The man was holding the roasted leg of some unknown exotic beast and gnawing on it so enthusiastically that his mouth was shiny with grease.

Even so, Xiong Yingjun caught the signal from his boss. His brows immediately drew together, and still holding the roast leg, he pushed his way through the crowd.

“Boss?” He glanced around warily. “What’s wrong?”

Although Xiong Yingjun was usually slow to react, years of battlefield cooperation with Feng Wu had forged a tacit understanding between them. He could tell the meaning of his boss’s gaze.

For example, right now it meant that something around them was off, and he needed to be on guard.

Feng Wu used his mental power to transmit a sentence quietly to him.

Lin An’an did not catch it, but he saw Xiong Yingjun shove the last of the roasted leg into his mouth in three quick bites, then turn around and “accidentally” bump into the person behind him. The drink in that person’s hand splashed all over Xiong Yingjun.

The one who got bumped had initially wanted to get angry, but the moment he saw how huge and imposing Xiong Yingjun was, he immediately lost a lot of nerve. Since the spilled drink had not landed on himself, the man muttered a few curses under his breath and then walked off.

Xiong Yingjun found a server, pointed at his stained clothing, and had the man lead him to the lounge as well.

The whole sequence of movements looked completely natural, as if he had rehearsed it many times before. There was not the slightest flaw in it, leaving Lin An’an utterly dumbfounded.

Was this really that silly oversized Xiong Third Fool—no, Xiong Third Brother—who usually could not hide a single thing?

Perhaps the little cub’s look of shock was too obvious, because Feng Wu quietly explained, “He’s familiar with this kind of thing.”

Lin An’an suddenly understood.

No wonder.

Apparently Brother Xiong had done similar things more than once in the past.

No wonder, back when he helped him stage that collision with Tong Qiuxia, Brother Xiong’s acting had been so outstanding. It turned out to be his old trade.

To avoid arousing suspicion from others, Feng Wu had originally planned to sit there a while longer and only later find an excuse to head to the lounge.

Lin An’an looked up at him, then picked up a piece of cream cake with his little tentacles. A spark of eagerness flashed in his bean-like eyes.

Then he glanced at the expensive-looking formalwear on Brother Wolf’s body.

…Forget it, forget it.

He could not bear to ruin Brother Wolf’s clothes.

The little cub set the cake back down and carefully edged toward the side of the table. His eyes, wide just moments ago, gradually narrowed, and his soft squishy body began to sway drowsily.

Just when he seemed about to topple off the edge of the table, a broad palm caught him with perfect timing.

Feng Wu asked, “Sleepy?”

The little cub listlessly rubbed himself against Feng Wu’s finger. “Yingji……”

The server who had been standing nearby the whole time immediately stepped forward very attentively. “There are still vacant lounges in the back. Allow me to take you there.”

Feng Wu did not refuse. He held the cub in one hand while the other hand hovered above him slightly, shielding the little one from the overly bright lights and the noisy bustle around them.

The server led them to the lounge and then quietly withdrew.

The moment the door closed, the droopy, sleepy little cub instantly perked up. He pawed at Feng Wu’s hand with his tentacles and squeezed his head out through the gap.

“Yingji!”

Let’s go, let’s go! Hurry and find Brother Xiong!

Feng Wu paused slightly. “Weren’t you sleepy?”

Lin An’an puffed himself up, righteous and even a little proud. “Yingji!”

Pretending!

Learned it from Brother Xiong!

A hint of amusement seeped into Feng Wu’s golden eyes.

Xiong Yingjun had found the lounge where the thin man had been taken before they did. When Feng Wu slipped in with Lin An’an, the man was already tied to a chair.

“Boss, this guy’s all groggy and muddled. Can’t get a thing out of him!” Xiong Yingjun said, sounding troubled.

“Did you search him?” Feng Wu asked. “Find anything useful?”

Xiong Yingjun answered honestly, “I did. Checked his terminal space too. It’s all kinds of random junk. Can’t tell who he works for.”

The table in the lounge was piled full of things—everything they had found on the man and in his terminal space.

Lin An’an bounced onto the table with a soft poof and rummaged through it with his little tentacles.

Room keycards, all sorts of flavored nutrient solutions, messy daily-use items…

Lin An’an even found a pink box of condoms among the pile—new and unopened.

The little cub twitched at the corner of his mouth and smacked the pink box aside with a tentacle. His attention was abruptly caught by several clear bottles.

Inside were pills of all different shapes and appearances. Lin An’an recognized one of the bottles at a glance—it contained the very same pills the thin man had tried to make Feng Wu drink.

He opened it and sniffed. There was almost no scent, so he could not identify it that way. But from what they had seen so far, the effect of the pill was to make the person who took it look drunk. As for whether it would damage the body…

Who knew?

The little cub coldly muttered inwardly. A green light lit at the tip of his tentacle, and he began rapidly examining the pill’s contents.

One of the benefits of his powers improving was that situations like this no longer required him to be overly cautious when using them. He did not need to worry that a few uses would immediately push him into exhaustion.

The result came quickly. The pill contained an ingredient from a herb that could damage the brain. A small dose would not do much harm, but if someone took too much, they could very easily turn into an idiot.

Lin An’an told the other two the result, then capped the bottle and handed it to Feng Wu for safekeeping.

There were still three other medicine bottles left. One of them had a very strong smell. The instant Lin An’an lifted the lid, he sneezed three times in a row—“Ah-puh!” “Ah-puh!” “Ah-puh!”

He slammed the lid shut immediately, only narrowly preventing a disaster of ten consecutive sneezes.

Feng Wu took the bottle. “What is this?”

[An aphrodisiac.] Lin An’an rubbed his nose. [Such a cheap, crude smell.]

The person who had made these tablets had embarrassingly poor technique, he could not help grumbling inwardly.

Feng Wu’s hand paused. “Do you want to keep it for study?”

The little cub waved a tentacle to refuse. Seeing that, Feng Wu crushed the pills to powder with his mental power without the slightest hesitation and flushed them away in the bathroom.

Of the remaining two bottles, one contained a low-grade sleeping drug, which Feng Wu destroyed in the same way.

The very last bottle had almost no scent either. After checking it, Lin An’an frowned lightly. [This was made from Bewilderment Grass.]

Feng Wu did not understand such things, but from the name alone he could tell it was not anything good.

Lin An’an explained, [Bewilderment Grass can muddle the mind. Its effect is quite interesting. I prefer to call it Truth Grass.]

Feng Wu took the bottle. “Truth Grass?”

[Yes.] Lin An’an nodded. [After taking Bewilderment Grass, for a certain period of time, people answer whatever you ask.]

A small amount of Bewilderment Grass had no real side effects. In the world where Lin An’an had once lived, potions or pills made from it were usually used during interrogations of suspects. Ask once, and you would get the truth.

With this drug being carried on the thin man’s person, and with the fact that he had tried to give Feng Wu that “drunk pill,” it was difficult not to suspect that this one had been meant for Feng Wu too.

Feng Wu held the bottle of truth pills, rubbing it lightly between his fingers. “How long does one pill stay effective?”

[There isn’t much Bewilderment Grass in these.] Lin An’an answered. [One pill should work for about five minutes.]

Xiong Yingjun smacked his lips. “Only five minutes…”

[If the person has especially strong willpower, the effect may last even less.]

Feng Wu gave a quiet hum, walked over to the thin man—whose eyes were open but whose face was blank and muddled—and shoved four truth pills into his mouth.

The medicine took effect quickly, and the interrogation went much more smoothly after that.

It did not take long before Xiong Yingjun got the truth out of the man. He learned that the man worked for Jia Yan, the city lord of C City, and that drugging Feng Wu had also been Jia Yan’s order.

Jia Yan had been extremely dissatisfied with how their earlier conversation had gone. Having his subordinate drug Feng Wu was meant to draw out some compromising information from Feng Wu’s own mouth, so that he could use it as leverage to force Feng Wu to agree to his unreasonable demands.

“Can you believe he kept smiling the whole time?” Xiong Yingjun said in shock. “His thoughts are that vicious? These methods are too damn dirty.”

Dirty, yes. But not especially clever.

Feng Wu was a marshal. He never casually ate or drank anything that had passed through someone else’s hands. How could he possibly accept a drink from a stranger?

Of course, food given to him by those on his trusted list was another matter entirely.

Xiong Yingjun was furious. “Boss, we can’t just let them off like this!”

The truth drug was already close to wearing off. After a brief moment of thought, Feng Wu took out several more truth pills and shoved them into the man’s mouth.

Since C City’s city lord wanted to dig blackmail material out of Feng Wu’s mouth, then why not pay him back in kind?

The man was one of Jia Yan’s close confidants. Naturally, he knew many things that Jia Yan absolutely did not want others to know and that could never be exposed publicly.

For example… the underground auction house that had stood in C City’s inner district all along and had still not completely fallen even after being set ablaze.

Sure enough, the underground auction house really was tied to Jia Yan. He had even invested quite a bit of money into it and had made a fortune in black-hearted profits through that dark industry chain.

Before, the information floating around had only been speculation. But now, hearing the exact truth from Jia Yan’s trusted subordinate, Lin An’an was so angry he wanted to swat Jia Yan flying with one tentacle.

Although Xiong Yingjun had not personally taken part in the underground auction house incident, he had already heard the full account from Feng Wu and Lin An’an, and he had seen the tragic condition of Bai Yang and Bai Yue. Naturally, he had no favorable impression of the place.

His face darkened. “How the hell did a scumbag like that end up sitting in the city lord’s chair—”

The little cub nodded in fierce agreement.

“There’s someone behind him,” Feng Wu said in a grave tone. “The cities on Sin Star are divided among the Empire, the Federation, and the Star Pirates. C City’s lord is an Imperial man. The ones standing behind him can only be His Majesty, the Eldest Prince, or the Second Prince.”

“Over the past two years, His Majesty has distributed many matters to the princes to handle,” Feng Wu analyzed with a frown. “The Eldest Prince has never had good health. As for the Second Prince…”

His words halted. Thinking of all the chaos Second Prince Xia Yuanhan had caused recently, everyone present knew that C City’s city lord was, nine times out of ten, one of the Second Prince’s chess pieces.

Jia Yan was smooth and slippery, greedy, and had a bit of a brain—but not much. A person like that was the easiest to control.

After a short moment of thought, Xiong Yingjun suddenly blurted out, “Then why not the Third Prince?”

At that, Feng Wu paused ever so slightly.

Lin An’an glanced at Xiong Yingjun and thought inwardly, Of course not the Third Prince, because the Third Prince himself has already personally arrived on Sin Star!

For now, only Feng Wu knew his true identity. The few times he had appeared in human form, he had been wearing a disguise mask.

Which meant that Xiong Yingjun, Si Youlin, and the others only knew that Lin An’an was already an adult. They had no idea that the very person they affectionately called “An Cub” was actually the Empire’s Third Prince—the one with such low presence that rumors even claimed he had already croaked.

Xiong Yingjun muttered another line and added, “Though I guess that makes sense. The Third Prince has never shown his face. Maybe he’s already—ow!”

He caught the tomato that bounced off his face, then looked at Lin An’an with a mix of shock and grievance. “An Cub, why’d you hit me with a tomato again?!”

The moment the words came out, he paused. Why had he said again?

Had An Cub hit him with a tomato before?

When? Why?

Xiong Yingjun’s mind briefly stalled as he tried to recall the last time he had been beaned by a tomato, but no matter how hard he thought, he could not remember.

…Forget it. It probably was not anything important.

Lin An’an huffed inwardly. If that tomato had not gone flying in time, he was afraid he would have “died” again in Xiong Yingjun’s mouth.

Thick-nerved Xiong Yingjun quickly abandoned that train of thought. He pointed in disgust at the tied-up, half-conscious man. “So what if Jia Yan’s got someone behind him? Are we really just letting them off?”

“Let them off?” Feng Wu gave him a look. “What exactly are you thinking?”

Xiong Yingjun scratched his head and said bluntly, “I wanna beat them up.”

The little cub: “…Pujii!”

Hahahaha!

That really is such a Brother Xiong thing to say!

[Jia Yan is the Second Prince’s man. If we get rid of Jia Yan, then yes, the Second Prince can push another person into the city lord position—but if one of his obedient pieces is suddenly taken out, he’ll definitely be furious.]

[A chance to make the Second Prince suffer doesn’t come along often. Brother Wolf definitely won’t pass it up.]

After typing that, Lin An’an lifted his head toward Feng Wu as though fishing for praise. [Brother Wolf, I got that right, didn’t I?]

A faint curve appeared at Feng Wu’s lips. “Exactly.”

Xiong Yingjun’s face lit up. “Did we record what this bastard just said? Let’s just release the recording!”

Lin An’an answered with some helplessness, [A recording alone isn’t enough.]

Xiong Yingjun looked shocked. “Even a recording isn’t enough?”

[A recording isn’t persuasive enough. It’s too easy for people to spin it and wash it clean.] Lin An’an explained. [If we’re going to hammer him, we have to hammer him dead for good. We need hard proof—things like contact records between Jia Yan and the underground auction house, transaction records, and so on.]

“…That’s too damn complicated,” Xiong Yingjun said miserably, his whole face looking bitter. “This kind of scheming and plotting—I really can’t do it.”

The little cub looked at him with fond pity and patted him comfortingly with a tentacle.

No big problem.

With Brother Wolf, Snake Brother, and himself around, there was no need for Brother Xiong to use his brain anyway.

All he needed to do was be a quiet auspicious mascot and combat machine.

They were already right there inside the city lord’s residence. With the capable, sharp-minded Feng Wu around, getting evidence was naturally no difficult matter.

Xiong Yingjun and Lin An’an stayed behind in the room so that the thin man would not make noise once the drug wore off.

Searching for the evidence was left entirely to Feng Wu.

Feng Wu’s operation went even more smoothly than they had imagined. In less than a quarter of an hour, he had already found evidence in Jia Yan’s bedroom that would completely nail him.

“All the evidence was inside the safe,” Feng Wu said.

The safe was made of metal, and when metal objects encountered Feng Wu, it was no different from opening their doors to him directly.

The little cub immediately clapped like a seal. “Yingji!”

When Brother Wolf makes a move, one person does the work of two!

Lin An’an thought to himself that, with all the evidence hidden in a safe, Jia Yan clearly knew perfectly well that these things were not meant to see the light of day.

The thin man’s drug had still not worn off, and he was still red-faced and woozy.

Xiong Yingjun kicked him and asked, “What do we do with this guy?”

Feng Wu said, “Untie him and dump him on the floor.”

Once the man woke up, he would only think that he had accidentally taken the wrong fruit wine, then been helped into a lounge to rest by a server. He would have no memory at all of being “interrogated.”

Xiong Yingjun did as told. Before leaving, he vented his anger with two more kicks and muttered, “If you got drunk and busted your leg, that’s got nothing to do with me.”

Lin An’an gave him a huge thumbs-up. Beautifully done!

Feng Wu and Xiong Yingjun slipped back to their respective lounges, then returned to the banquet hall separately with a time gap between them.

The banquet did not end until evening. Feng Wu claimed the farthest corner all to himself, while Xiong Yingjun kept roaming from one food table to another, never letting his mouth rest. He really did get his money’s worth out of the meal.

Throughout the event, there were constantly people trying to strike up conversation with Feng Wu. Eventually he got annoyed enough that he directly formed a ring of mental power around himself, cutting off anyone who tried to get close.

The banquet finally ended. Feng Wu did not want to stay even a second longer and got up to leave immediately.

Jia Yan stood by the door, smiling as he saw him out. “Marshal Feng, come visit often in the future!”

There was not the slightest hint of anything unusual in his tone, as though those people who had constantly tried to bother Feng Wu had not been sent by him at all.

“As for the matter we mentioned before,” Jia Yan said with a smile, “don’t forget to discuss it with the mysterious man. The gates of the city lord’s residence will always be open to you.”

Once Feng Wu and the others had gone, Jia Yan let the smile drop from his face and asked the trusted subordinate beside him, “Did it work?”

The subordinate did not even dare raise his head. “…No.”

“Not even one?”

“Not even one.” The man lowered his head even farther. “His guard is too strong. He didn’t touch a single bit of food or drink anyone handed him.”

“…Forget it.” A vicious light flashed through Jia Yan’s eyes. “Does he think this is still the capital star? This is C City. My turf.”

So what if he was an Imperial Marshal? On this tiny corner of Sin Star, C City, he was still under Jia Yan’s thumb.

Jia Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, his fingers unconsciously brushing the terminal at his wrist.

The Second Prince had once rewarded him with a bottle of special pills. He had never found a chance to use them. Perhaps…

Jia Yan gave a cold laugh. His trusted aide beside him shivered and did not dare lift his eyes.

Feng Wu and the others had no idea what Jia Yan was planning, but they did not leave him any chance to carry out any plan.

The very first thing Feng Wu did after returning to the inner city was organize all the relevant evidence, have his men post it on both SinNet and StarNet, and then immediately buy a trending spot for it.

A trending topic only on SinNet was not enough. Xia Yuanhan’s people had been monitoring SinNet all along and seemed to have a degree of control over it, making it very easy for them to delete threads or set forbidden keywords.

But StarNet was different. No matter how long the Second Prince’s arm might be, he could not directly set forbidden keywords there. At most, he could only spend money to take the trending topic down.

Yet StarNet had massive traffic. As long as the topic made it onto the trending list and heated up quickly, by the time Xia Yuanhan realized what was happening and tried to remove it, the buzz would already have spread.

And by then, would it be better to spend enormous effort protecting a city lord who had already lost the trust of the city’s residents, or simply support a new city lord instead…

Anyone with a functioning brain would not choose the first option.

After returning home, Lin An’an told Bai Yang and Bai Yue what had happened.

Bai Yue was still too young and listened with only vague understanding. Bai Yang, on the other hand, clearly grasped the whole matter.

The little cub lay sprawled between the two white cats, his back leaning against Bai Yang’s soft fur. [Once this gets enough attention, Jia Yan will definitely be stripped of his city lord position.]

[Once he’s gone, the underground auction house in the inner city won’t be able to survive either. Just sit back and enjoy the show!]

Bai Yang stared at the words on the screen. After quite a while, he let out a tiny little meow.

His feelings were complicated right now. Part of him felt wonderfully vindicated that his great grudge was being avenged. Another part of him was deeply moved that Lin An’an had remembered their matter all this time.

A moment later, the little white cat could no longer hold himself back. He pounced onto the little black blob, and the two of them rolled into a ball together across the sofa.

Bai Yue watched from the side, eager to join in, and very soon she too joined the rolling army.

But in the middle of all that rolling, Bai Yang suddenly froze. He looked around blankly.

Strange?

Where was An Cub?

Why was he gone?

A weak voice came from below. “Yingji……”

Feng Wu reached down and fished out the flattened little cub from the gap between two sofa cushions.

Lin An’an: “……”

People probably would not believe it if he said so.

But he had really, truly almost been murdered by a sofa crack.

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