Chapter 641: The Phantom Thief Alliance 2 - Premiere in Progress! |
“So, from the very beginning, the perfume was never your main objective.”
Lu Xiaokong stared at the butler before him, his tone calm, but his eyes filled with deep vigilance.
At this moment, both sides were inside a long-abandoned spice manufacturing factory. Surrounding them were mostly discarded fermentation barrels and unidentified sheets of peeling metal. The copper pipes overhead were rusted and stained, and the ground was littered with shattered glass distillation jars. Darkened filter paper and withered flower petals lay amid uneven, deep brown stains. It all looked desolate and barren—entirely eroded by time.
Earlier, Lu Xiaokong hadn’t understood why these people would choose this place for a transaction. But now, seeing all this, he finally grasped the malicious intent of the client behind the scenes.
Though many things had decayed and been abandoned, the basic tools still retained their original functions.
For instance, the massive pools originally used to hold waste materials, or the chemical instruments once used to mix fragrances.
If this place had once been a historic stage where spices were created and the art of perfumery was pushed to the pinnacle of its era, then now it had become a scene for certain people to eliminate all traces of evidence.
Given enough opportunities, they would vanish completely from here.
“From the start, you wanted to use my uncle and me to help you flesh out a more legendary antique story. To you, that ethereal, intangible Black Marie wasn’t important—what mattered was who could ultimately exploit its final value.”
Standing on the high platform, the butler’s smile remained genial. But now, that smile carried the mask of hypocrisy.
He looked down from his lofty height at the people below, while the two bodyguards behind him lifted Shi Ji and dangled him over the waste pool.
Though abandoned for years, the pool hadn’t dried up. Instead, it was filled with a strange, thick black liquid that radiated an ominous and dangerous aura.
Shi Ji was tied up and suspended in the air. He glanced down at the pool below, took a deep breath, and then, like a fish unable to flip over, began writhing frantically: “Big nephew, save me! This stuff definitely isn’t anything good!”
“Wait—”
Lu Xiaokong urgently reached out a hand to stop him. “I have one last question!”
“Does Black Marie actually exist?”
That mysterious perfume they had spent days searching for, that fountainhead that was about to cost both him and his uncle their lives—did it really exist?
Was it just a gimmick the family used to sell their perfumes, or was there another secret behind it?
“Since things have come to this, shouldn’t you at least let us die knowing the truth?”
But the butler only let out a cold sneer. Firmly believing that villains die from talking too much, he aimed directly at Shi Ji and prepared to pull the trigger.
“Bang!”
With the sound of a gunshot, Shi Ji plunged into the waste pool, sending up a massive splash of black water. The next moment, several more gunshots rang out—Lu Xiaokong’s backup had arrived! It was the opponent of the family behind this employer.
Both sides had been entrenched in this small town for years, each establishing ties with local gangs. Now that such a major event had occurred, they naturally wouldn’t miss it!
But clearly, they didn’t care about the safety of Lu Xiaokong and Shi Ji either. The moment they charged in, they clashed fiercely with the butler’s men.
So, braving a hail of bullets, Lu Xiaokong dug Shi Ji out of the water, and the two of them fled in disarray.
Shi Ji was now covered in black sludge. When he climbed out, he wiped his face a couple of times, then started sneezing violently.
“Ah-choo—ah-choo—Big nephew, where did you get this cheap fragrance from? I already—ah-choo—told you, I’m allergic to cheap stuff—ah-choo—”
The contents of that waste pool had been replaced by Lu Xiaokong beforehand. But Shi Ji had no idea what his big nephew had swapped in. It was both fragrant and stinky, clinging to his skin like it was marinating him, making Shi Ji—who already had a sensitive nose—sneeze uncontrollably.
But Lu Xiaokong’s mind suddenly lit up. He grabbed Shi Ji. “That’s right! Your nose is acting up, you keep sneezing!”
Shi Ji rubbed his eyes. His pitch-black face only showed his eyes and gleaming white teeth. “What the hell?”
“I’ve got it! Black Marie really does exist!”
Lu Xiaokong pulled Shi Ji along as they ran for their lives. “It’s Blank! He stole Black Marie!”
…
As the story entered its latter half, twists and turns kept piling up. Lu Xiaokong had long noticed that Shi Ji wasn’t allergic to cheap fragrances—he was allergic to a certain type of pollen!
His mind kept replaying the scenes: earlier, when they first entered the employer’s villa, Shi Ji had sneezed, and it was right after contact with the employer! Then later, during the perfume festival while they were searching for Blank, and now, this time—
And this pile of waste had been transported by Lu Xiaokong from the abandoned factory temporarily borrowed by the hacker, Blank!
He had been wondering how Blank could be so incredible, creating a perfume that smelled almost exactly like Black Marie from scratch, with no reference scent. It turned out he already had an impression of it!
No wonder the butler, after catching a whiff of the scent, had immediately decided to silence them. He had smelled an identical aroma and suspected they were in cahoots with Blank!
Damn it, that guy had been deceiving them from the very start!
Black Marie did exist, but it seemed that as time passed, the amount inside had dwindled to almost nothing. So, the employer’s family had decided to use the remaining dregs of the original scent to develop a formula, creating a massive marketing push for the batch of antique perfumes they were about to launch!
And the first step was to invite Blank, ranked third on the Master Thief Ranking, to steal Black Marie.
But they probably never expected that Blank had been a thief sent by their opponent from the beginning. In the end, the fake act became real. Blank utterly screwed them over. Not only did they lose Black Marie, but their carefully prepared “god-making” plan was aborted.
Fortunately for them, the news hadn’t leaked yet, and their plan could still proceed. As long as they had the formula for Black Marie, then whatever they claimed was “Black Marie” would definitely be “Black Marie”!
So, under the hacker’s subtle guidance, they recruited the ordinary-looking Phantom Thief duo—who seemed to have only gotten this far by sheer luck—to continue executing the plan.
…Unfortunately, everything still spiraled out of control.
Blank had secretly intervened, tipping off the Phantom Thief Alliance duo about the employer family’s scheme in advance, steering the outcome in a completely different direction.
So, all of this had been within Blank’s expectations!
He was the ultimate mastermind behind the scenes!
If the early part of the story leaned more toward comedy, the latter half clearly started layering twist upon twist.
The first layer revealed the truth behind the employer hiring them to find Black Marie. The second layer showed that Blank, the white-haired hacker, was ostensibly cooperating with the Phantom Thief duo, but was actually using them as pawns.
But fortunately, the reason the main team could become the protagonists was that Lu Xiaokong had enough brains to analyze the situation. And as for Shi Ji, when it really mattered, he was surprisingly reliable—especially with his inexplicable talent for making friends.
For instance, Lu Xiaokong still couldn’t understand how a guy like Shi Ji, who couldn’t even speak English properly, had managed to get chummy with several local gang leaders in France in just a few days—to the point where they were practically calling each other brothers!
So, as the two renowned perfume families clashed over the formula for mass-producing Black Marie, Blank—ranked third on the Master Thief Ranking—and the Phantom Thief duo—ranked beyond fiftieth—engaged in a back-and-forth battle of wits.
And in the end, it was a stalemate.
Blank had indeed stolen Black Marie, but he had also been outsmarted by Lu Xiaokong, ending up being hunted down by several French gangs.
On the plane, Lu Xiaokong flipped through Blank’s passport, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
Shi Ji leaned in to take a look and let out a confused sound: “Hey? Big nephew, you stole Little Third’s documents. How’s he going to get back now?”
Lu Xiaokong put the item away, looking completely innocent. “No big deal, right? His documents were forged anyway. Let him just forge a new set.”
Back in the small town, the white-haired hacker being frantically chased by the gangs—
“Lu Xiaokong, you mother*%#!”