Chapter 602 Extras
Knowing they were no match for these men, the bunch of ruffians gave themselves up right away without putting up a fight. Soon, the dozens of them were marched in front of Elise, kneeling in a row.
Elise stepped forward and questioned their leader, “Who sent you here? Spill it!”
“Um… I beg your pardon, miss, but there are rules in the underworld. We’re not supposed to betray information about our employer!” the man replied with a cringe.
“Understood.” Elise nodded before turning to Devan. Her eyes narrowed before she wore a thin, fake smile to ask, “I heard you guys came this time on a task to cripple my classmate’s leg. Is that true?”
Devan took a glance at his leader. Seeing that the man remained silent, he quickly replied in a servile manner, “It’s all a misunderstanding! Miss, please have mercy on us! We’re just trying to make a living, so please let us off!”
“Trying to make a living using other people’s lives and bodies, huh? Since you guys dare to be in this trade, you should’ve expected the consequences.” The smile on Elise’s face vanished all at once and was replaced by a frosty expression. Then, she ordered sternly, “Break one of his legs.”
“No! Please don’t do that! I’m sorry, miss! I was wrong…” Devan hurriedly gave a kowtow and apologized in fright.
Elise looked cool and unsympathetic, though. After all, had Moses’ men not arrived in the nick of time today, Sheldon and Elliot probably would have been ruined for the rest of their lives. It isn’t worth it to go soft on people who have no regard for human lives like them.
Moses’ men were gangsters, so they showed no mercy toward Devan. After pinning Devan to the ground and covering his mouth, they swung their clubs and bashed his left leg again and again with sheer brute force.
With that, Devan’s leg was broken, and so were the clubs, and Devan passed out as a result.
Elise glanced sideways at Devan. Shaking her head in resignation, she then walked up to the ruffians’ leader again. “Can you spill it now?”
“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you now!” The leader knew full well that Elise had just punished Devan as a warning to him, and that if he still refused to cooperate, he would be the next to suffer. He hurriedly made a clean breast of everything, saying, “In reality, I don’t know who hired us either, but I know their user account on Bloodthirsty Manor. If you check them out on the website, you can probably find out who that person is!”
“Bloodthirsty Manor?” Elise hadn’t heard of the name before.
The man explained, “It’s an underground website set up several years ago where you can post any request or take up jobs. Jobs to murder people are common on the website, but we dare not commit murder, so we only accept jobs to get revenge or hurt someone. Even if we get caught for that, the punishment won’t be severe—”
“And the website’s address is?” Elise asked, getting straight to the point.
“It’s on my phone!” The man frantically fumbled for his phone. After some tapping and swiping, he offered up his phone with both hands. “This is Bloodthirsty Manor’s interface where you can see the order history here. It really wasn’t me who wanted to reckon with you guys!”
Elise took the man’s phone and glanced at its screen, only to find that what the man had said was true. The user account that had hired the ruffians was very special; it had only logged onto the website once and placed only one order. Presumably, it was an alt account set up expressly to hide the user’s identity.
After pondering for a moment, Elise jotted down the website’s address and tossed the man’s phone back to him. “You hurt my classmates, and I broke the leg of one of your lackeys, so we’re even. Now, get lost with your men.”
Having his life spared, the man put his palms together and repeatedly kowtowed to Elise. “Thank you, miss! Thank you, boss! Thanks a bunch!”
“Hmm?” Elise cocked her left eyebrow. Why do I feel that the last sentence he says sounds rather offensive?
The frightened man shuddered before running away on all fours with his men, dragging the unconscious Devan with him.
Seeing that they had run out of sight, Elise turned around and dismissed Moses’ men. “Alright, you guys may leave now. Tell your boss when you go back that it’s not necessary to send so many people here for such displays of power next time.”
One of the men replied, “Hehe, it’s nothing! Like Boss said, you’re his madam, so it’s our duty to be at your service!” With that, the group of men let out a chuckle and left in all directions in groups of two or more.
Clamping his hand over his wound, Sheldon stood next to Elise, his jaw dropping in astonishment at the sight of Moses’ men, all of whom looked even stronger than a bear. “Boss, aren’t you a bit too well connected? Are you friends with gangsters too?”
“Huh? Nope, these guys are all extras,” Elise lied with a straight face.
Sheldon raised his eyebrow. “Boss, do you think I look like an idiot?” Are there extras who are all 180 centimeters in height and very muscular? Well, their uniform attire does make it sound plausible that they’re extras, though.
“Um…” Elise rubbed her chin with a thoughtful expression. After thinking about it for a moment, she replied with a straight face, “No, you don’t look like an idiot. You are an idiot.” Who else is the idiot here if not him? He nearly spoiled my plan just now, after all. With that, she turned to examine Elliot’s injury.
Elliot regained consciousness after Elise did a quick checkup on him and pressed his philtrum. “Oh, my gosh! You actually came?!” When he opened his eyes and saw Elise, he immediately sat up with a start. Then, he took her hand and ran, saying, “Run!”
Elise felt like crying. “Open your eyes and look around you! They’re gone!”
He stopped after running a few steps. After looking around him, he let go of Elise and scratched the back of his head. “Hehe, you’re right. Where did they go?”
Sheldon was just about to speak, but Elise beat him to it, saying, “Sheldon fought them off.”
“Huh?” Elliot’s eyes widened in astonishment. After a moment’s pause, he jumped with excitement, saying, “Holy cow! Sheldon, you’re terrific! Turns out you’ve got a few cards hidden up your sleeve, eh? I declare that you’re my idol as of today!”
Sheldon turned his face away with a slight frown without answering.
On their way to escort Elise back to her dorm, Elliot pestered her with questions about the details of how Sheldon had fought off the gangsters, to which Elise responded by spontaneously making up a story about a rare martial arts genius who fought off an overwhelming number of opponents on his own.
Elliot was so totally engrossed in her story that he didn’t find any holes in it at all, but Sheldon felt bad while listening to it, so he merely followed behind them without saying a word along the way.
Soon, they arrived at the dorm’s entrance. Noticing that Sheldon was unhappy, Elise took him aside and asked, “What’s wrong with you? Why are you unhappy now that we’ve beaten them?”
“It wasn’t me who beat them. Why let me take credit for it instead?” Sheldon was upright and honest, so he wouldn’t covet things that he hadn’t earned.
Seeing the young man’s spoiled demeanor, Elise let out a sigh. “Just think of it as a favor to me. I don’t want to draw too much attention. Could you understand that?”
He nodded with half-comprehension. Jamie said that the more capable a person is, the more low-key they are; that’s probably the case with Elise, he thought. “Don’t worry, Boss. Your secret will be safe with me.” All of a sudden, he felt as though his blood was boiling again.
“Thank you, but it’s really getting late now. You two should quickly go back.”
Elise then returned to her dorm.
When Elise returned to her dorm room, Mica was already asleep. Creeping quietly into bed, Elise logged onto Bloodthirsty Manor and got a brief understanding of how the website worked before falling asleep. As a consequence, she succeeded in getting up late the next morning.
She didn’t get up until Mica woke her quite a few times, and by the time they arrived at the classroom, Martin was already giving his lecture on the platform. Even Mica was reprimanded for this, and it wasn’t until they gently apologized that he let them in.
The instant Elise entered the classroom, she acutely sensed the hint of surprise that flashed visibly across Sophie’s eyes when she saw her. She seemed surprised that Elise would turn up today.
