Chapter 78: The Unfathomable Peace Hotel

Peace Hotel!

It was already past noon, a little after twelve. The PMC team led by Tiger and the eight members, including Xiao Long Xing, had been back for over two hours. Tiger and the other PMC members had already gone to collect the mission commission, while Xiao Long Xing returned alone to the suite arranged by Lucas. After taking a shower and changing into clean clothes, he sat at the dining table in the living room, eating the meal delivered by the hotel.

Lobster, fine spirits, steak, caviar...

The table was full of expensive dishes, all specially ordered for Xiao Long Xing by Tiger before he went to the front desk to collect the commission. It was a small gesture of gratitude for having his life saved earlier.

Unfortunately, despite the exquisite food, and despite being very hungry, Xiao Long Xing's mind was elsewhere. No matter how delicately prepared the meal, it all tasted like wax in his mouth.

What truly occupied his thoughts was whether Madame Su had regained consciousness, whether she had received proper care, and whether someone was tending to her at the hospital.

These were the things Xiao Long Xing cared about most!

Originally, he had wanted to go to the hospital with the others, worried about Madame Su's injuries. But the convoy never even entered the city, stopping instead on the outskirts, where they were met and taken over by people sent by the hotel.

The hostages were uniformly transported to the hospital for treatment by professionals from the Peace Hotel.

As for Xiao Long Xing and the others, they were split into two black-tinted business vehicles and discreetly brought back to the Peace Hotel by two men in suits, also sent by the hotel.

At the time, Xiao Long Xing had resisted this arrangement, wanting to follow Madame Su to the hospital. But James, the liaison sent by the Peace Hotel, had pointedly addressed the most critical points, leaving Xiao Long Xing with no choice but to give up his idea and return to the hotel with Tiger and the others.

James, the reception coordinator, was right. Xiao Long Xing was just a foreign national, unable to explain the presence of weapons or the bullet holes in the car, nor the bloodstains on his own body. If the city’s police or military took an interest, not even an embassy could save him.

But as long as he followed the hotel’s instructions, everything would be arranged smoothly, and by tomorrow afternoon, Xiao Long Xing would be entirely in the clear.

After that, he could go wherever he wished.

As for what kind of deep background the hotel had, that it could easily take care of everything and erase all traces of what had happened to him, Xiao Long Xing had neither the mind nor the qualification to find out.

This was an establishment where weapons could appear at any moment, where killing someone was not an issue, and even Captain Tiger was unwilling to reveal the truth behind it. The Peace Hotel's connections ran unfathomably deep—only a fool would think it was ordinary.

Xiao Long Xing clearly understood his own place in the world.

...

He tossed and turned in the hotel, desperate for news of Madame Su, but the hotel insisted it would take a day to handle things, so all he could do was force himself to wait.

Unknowingly, night fell.

As he ate his dinner, Xiao Long Xing felt more composed than at noon. Given the scale of the incident with the Kaso tribe—nearly the entire tribe had been massacred—he figured there would be some coverage on television.

Now that he was no longer just an observer, but had been present at the scene, he couldn't help but turn on the hotel's television.

As luck would have it, the TV was broadcasting related news.

“Anti-government rebel forces attacked the Kaso tribe, brutally slaughtering all civilians in the village. Although government troops arrived as quickly as possible, no one could avert this tragedy.

“However, thanks to the brave fight of our army, at the cost of only 58 soldiers killed and 35 wounded, over 400 anti-government rebels were annihilated.

“Furthermore, seven survivors of the plane crash, who had been taken hostage, were safely rescued and have now been sent to the best hospital in the capital. We will provide the finest medical resources for their treatment...”

It appeared to be a press conference, with many journalists from around the world in attendance. The person speaking was the press officer for the government of the Hippopotamus River Country.

The spokesperson's words were ornate, attributing all the credit to the government troops—a perfect heroic image.

But as someone who had actually lived through the events, Xiao Long Xing wanted nothing more than to curse. He was awed, in a twisted way, by the spokesperson's ability to whitewash the facts.

To begin with, there hadn't even been 400 rebels; how could the government troops have killed so many? It also ignored the fact that it was the government troops themselves who had ruthlessly massacred the entire Kaso tribe, sparing neither women nor children, and yet they pinned the blame on rebel forces.

And as for the seven rescued hostages, the government troops had no part in their rescue whatsoever.

It was Xiao Long Xing and his companions who had brought them out!

Had the hostages truly been rescued by the government, they likely wouldn't be in a hospital right now—they would have simply escaped one den of wolves only to fall into another.

They would have become nothing more than pawns in a political game!

No matter how charitable one tried to be, knowing the glacial pace of international affairs, there was no way the hostages could have appeared so quickly in the public eye.

The government of Hippopotamus River Country would certainly use the plane crash survivors to leverage benefits from the relevant countries.

Yet, even though Xiao Long Xing knew the entire truth, he had no way of coming forward to expose the government’s monumental lies to the world.

Because all three parties involved in this event had secrets they could not reveal.

No one could keep their hands clean!

“Perhaps this is so-called international politics, so-called truth, ha.”

Through his own experiences, Xiao Long Xing had gained a clearer understanding of this world, and a deeper sense of its treachery.

And this...

This was life experience—this was the reward of maturity.

“All the news is complete nonsense. Watching it just makes me even more frustrated. Ugh—”

“Ding dong! Ding dong!”

The more Xiao Long Xing watched the faces on TV, the more disgusted he became. No sooner had he switched it off with the remote than the doorbell to his suite rang from outside.

...

—

Thank you to “Madman with a Taste for Madness” for a 6,000 reward, instantly rising to second place on the leaderboard—truly impressive.

Thank you for your support!

Thanks also to everyone who has recommended and bookmarked this book. Thank you for your support, and I hope you’ll keep voting every day—it really matters.

A thousand thanks, from the heart!

A big hug to you all!