Chapter 13 Getting Involved

When Sheriff Doister uttered the words "Feel free to investigate," Feng Bujue received the completion notification for the quest objective [Intervene in the Investigation of the "John Herbert Murder Case"].

Although he didn't know exactly how the system defined it, it was clear that Jue-ge's one-sided involvement in the investigation hadn't been recognized.

The appearance of Zuo Yan, or rather, the debut of Zuo Yan and Victor, these two "opponents," officially started the detective showdown, and advanced the script's quest to the next stage.

As for what to do in this "next stage"... the system didn't give any further instructions. The chain of sub-tasks under the main quest ended there.

In other words, the focus of Feng Bujue's actions returned to the objective of [Completing this script within thirty-three chapters]; in the next fifteen chapters, how to stop Zuo Yan and Victor from quickly solving the case and announcing the truth became the main problem facing Jue-ge...

...

Early morning, three minutes past three AM, in a room on the first floor of the Herbert mansion.

Only two people were sitting inside.

"Hmm... this wine is quite good." Feng Bujue took a sip of the red liquid in his wine glass and gave a very pertinent evaluation.

At this moment, he was sitting with his legs crossed on a sofa chair, leisurely shaking the wine glass in his hand. On the coffee table in front of him was a bottle of red wine that had already been opened.

"Heh... yes, this bottle, I originally intended to give to the Pope this Easter..." In contrast, John Herbert's face wore a "are you kidding me" expression. He was sitting on another sofa chair opposite Jue-ge, responding to Jue-ge's completely insincere compliment with a somewhat bitter tone.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue raised an eyebrow and smiled when he heard this. "Is that so... then I must solemnly thank Mr. Herbert for your hospitality."

"You're welcome..." John said in a deep voice, "My manor hasn't entertained guests in a long time. It's rare for Mr. Feng to be a connoisseur of wine... I suppose this bottle of my collection can be put to good use."

That's what he said, but in reality, John's heart was bleeding at this moment...

More than ten minutes ago, when Feng Bujue asked John if he could "grab a bottle of wine from the cellar to try," John responded with a disdainful smile, thinking to himself, "I thought this kid was some kind of big shot, but it turns out he just wants to mooch off a rich family. Hmph... whatever, I'll let him pick."

At the time, John believed that people like Feng Bujue were basically in the same league as Doister. With such people's courage and knowledge, at most, he would swindle him out of one or two bottles of wine worth around a thousand pounds.

Unexpectedly... after Jue-ge was given permission, he took a turn around the wine cellar and picked out the most expensive bottle in the entire cellar, and perhaps even in all of Wales.

This bottle of wine was brewed and bottled exactly ten years ago by a famous French winery. That year, the climate, soil, grape harvest, and all other factors affecting the quality of the brewing were perfect, a once-in-a-century occurrence, resulting in many good wines. And this bottle of red wine, called "Fleur," was the best of the best...

A few years ago, at an auction, John spent hundreds of thousands of pounds to purchase this bottle of "Fleur." Of course, he didn't buy it to drink himself. He bought it to use on certain special occasions.

Many people have a misunderstanding about wine, namely that "the older the red wine, the better." In fact, that's not the case. Wine that's been sitting for a hundred or two years has long gone bad. Buying it is only good for displaying it. If you actually open it and drink it, even if it doesn't kill you... the taste won't be very good.

The best drinking period for bottled red wine is usually no more than fifteen years, mostly in the four to ten-year range, and this year just happens to be the best year to drink this bottle of "Fleur." It was precisely for this reason that John planned to give this wine as a gift to the Pope this Easter.

However, what he didn't expect was... tonight, this "investment" of hundreds of thousands of pounds was actually picked up for free by an unknown guy like Feng Bujue. This was simply highway robbery... but the promise of "choose whatever you want" was given by John himself, and he couldn't get angry.

"Heh... that's enough joking around..." Feng Bujue, who was shaking his wine glass, gradually stopped smiling and continued, "I know you're hurting, I'd be hurting too if I were you."

His words tore off the last layer of disguise on John's face, revealing a rather gloomy expression on the host's face.

"Before I entered the wine cellar, you thought I had neither the knowledge to find that bottle of wine nor the courage to take it out," Feng Bujue continued, "And after I took the wine out and opened it as if nothing had happened, you suppressed your anger and resigned yourself to bad luck, while deceiving yourself by saying... 'This kid is just lucky, he doesn't actually know the value of this bottle of wine'."

At this point, Jue-ge paused. "Heh... how can there be so many coincidences and luck in this world? Even if there is... it probably doesn't belong to me." He picked up his wine glass triumphantly and took another sip. "Mr. Herbert, I can tell you clearly... today, when I entered your wine cellar, I was looking for the most expensive bottle. The moment you agreed that I 'could choose whatever I wanted,' you had already given away hundreds of thousands... hmm... if I'm not mistaken, that's about the price... you had already given away a bottle of red wine worth hundreds of thousands of pounds."

"Of course, I'm not doing this just to swindle you out of this bottle of incredibly expensive wine. I just want to use this thing... this thing that can be measured by the values you're familiar with, to convey some information to you."

"—Things you think I can't do, things you think I wouldn't dare to do, I can actually do without any pressure at all; a few minutes ago, your opinion, prejudice, and judgment of me were just as worthless as my 'gratitude' and 'compliments' to you just now..."

"It seems... I'm paying the price for my 'underestimation' of you." John stared at Jue-ge and said each word carefully.

"Hmph..." Feng Bujue snorted coldly and replied, "You should be glad that I even gave you this opportunity to 'pay tuition'..." He shrugged and spoke slowly, "Each of us learns and grows by making mistakes, and these 'mistakes' are bound to be accompanied by a certain cost... This time, the price you paid was money, a trivial amount of money for you. But next time, if you make a mistake again, what you have to pay... may not just be money."

"What you said..." John had already regained his composure. He even listened very carefully to what Feng Bujue said, "I will remember it well..."

As the two were talking, there was a knock on the door. Without even having to open their mouths, Jue-ge already knew who it was.