Chapter 124: Rebirth of the Tool Man in a Pampered Protagonist Novel

Sure enough, the next person Moore saw was someone he wished he could tear to pieces—Yan Tong.

“You wretched, miserable wretch!” Moore could no longer control his emotions and finally erupted, standing up and cursing out loud.

At this moment, he realized that there was no escaping his fate this time. The people targeting the James family were clearly well-prepared, with a level of thoroughness that was far from ordinary. However, no matter how well-prepared they were, there had to be a starting point, a breach. And without a doubt, Yan Tong was that breach.

But given Yan Tong’s intelligence, Moore no longer believed that he was a spy like Shi Liangchen. Yan Tong was nothing more than a pretty face with no brains. Even when he tried to play tricks, he was just a third-rate fool. If Moore guessed correctly, Yan Tong had likely been used by others or, even worse, was simply a curse that had dragged him into this disaster!

When Moore first encountered Yan Tong, he had thoroughly investigated his background. At the time, aside from finding Yan Tong fickle, toxic, and foolish, he hadn’t seen any other issues. But now, looking back, Yan Tong seemed to be nothing but bad luck, a harbinger of disaster for anyone who got involved with him!

Fang Qianhao, Fang Yandong, Xie Wenxu, Lu Yan… all of them had met with unfortunate ends after getting close to Yan Tong. Without exception.

It was truly uncanny!

This fool Yan Tong not only fell into someone else’s trap but also managed to drag him down as well. Moore felt as though his luck had been cursed for generations!

“Yan Tong, you’re a walking disaster! A curse! A vile, poisonous fool!”

Moore was so enraged that he lost all reason. If it weren’t for the ridiculous research data Yan Tong had brought him, he and the James family wouldn’t have been caught off guard like this, defeated so thoroughly.

“You’re the disaster! You’re the devil! A beast lower than pigs or dogs! A murderer! A sadist! You’re the one who’s vile and stupid! Ha, it wasn’t me who made you listen to me; it was your own greed. And now you’re blaming me? That’s hilarious!”

Hearing Moore’s furious insults, Yan Tong finally lost his temper as well. For the first time in public, he revealed his true colors and fired back. Moore hated him, but Yan Tong hated Moore just as much.

If he had known Moore would fall apart so quickly, he would have stayed on the Caesar cruise. While it was still suffering, at least there was a glimmer of hope. If he could endure the humiliation and find someone willing to ransom him, he might have had a chance to turn his life around.

But Moore?

After Moore took him off the Caesar cruise, it was as if he treated him like livestock! Not only was he locked up and continuously exploited, but it turns out Moore never even intended to let him live! If he hadn’t already known that Moore was a terrible person and taken precautions by not revealing all of the data from the “golden finger” immediately, he likely wouldn’t have survived this long.

Despite that, once the products from the tech competition began to fail, his days locked up were unbearable. He nearly died from the torment in that villa. Falling into Moore’s hands was even more terrifying than being in the dark abyss of the Caesar cruise.

Remembering the torture he endured, Yan Tong was filled with hatred and decided to go all out.

Walking up to the witness stand, Yan Tong no longer cared about the consequences. In front of everyone, he gagged himself until he vomited up a small bundle. Opening it revealed an unassuming necklace. Then, again in front of everyone, he produced a pile of documents and several USB drives from the space button and confessed,

“Your Honor, I confess. This is the research data I stole from the Fang family, but… it was all under the instructions of Moore James!”

Yan Tong glared at Moore and the others with hatred. He was determined to drag Moore down, to ensure that Moore and the James family would never recover. If they escaped even slightly, Yan Tong’s life would become even more miserable.

Everyone was shocked by the sight of Yan Tong pulling items seemingly out of thin air from the necklace. When they heard his confession, they snapped back to reality. The faces of the James family members twisted with anger.

Moore, realizing what Yan Tong was planning, felt a wave of dizziness from his rage and immediately tried to refute it.

“Your Honor, we never instructed him! We didn’t know the research data was stolen; this wretch came to us with the data and proposed a partnership! I have evidence—before this, we had never even met him! How could we have instructed him to steal anything?”

Although the James family had already been found guilty of illegally imprisoning researchers, that didn’t mean they were willing to accept further guilt so easily. Moore still had hopes of shifting most of the blame onto other family members. After all, he was only the heir, not the family’s actual decision-maker, so at worst, he would be charged as an accomplice.

But if Yan Tong succeeded in pinning the crime of stealing research data on him, there would be no escape.

“Heh, Mr. Moore, is it not a bit too much to try to pin everything on me now that you’re in trouble?”

Yan Tong, having decided to drag Moore down with him, wasn’t about to let him weasel out so easily. With a sneer, Yan Tong turned to the judge and continued,

“Your Honor, the James family is the epitome of cunning. Of course, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to leave a paper trail with their contacts. Just like the case of illegally imprisoning researchers, they had long prepared a way out, but fortunately, there was other evidence to prove it.”

“Although I don’t have direct evidence of contact, my logical chain is entirely consistent. I’m just an ordinary person. If Mr. Moore hadn’t instructed me, how would I have known that the Lu family had so much advanced research data? How would I have even thought that the data was hidden in this technological product with a space button?”

“Your Honor, after I stole the Lu family’s research data on Mr. Moore’s orders, I was terrified that he would kill me to cover his tracks once he got what he wanted. So, I tried to escape his control and sought help from my ex-boyfriend, the Xie family, to collaborate on developing the data for profit… There are witnesses and evidence for all of this.”

“…After being captured by him, I had no choice but to hand over the data bit by bit to survive…”

Yan Tong was in his element when it came to lying, and he spouted these fabrications effortlessly.

Especially since he was a transmigrator who knew many secrets about the James family from the plot, his half-truths and half-lies in his testimony were airtight and impossible to debunk.

Fang Yandong, Fang Qianhao, and Xie Wenxu all stepped forward one by one to corroborate Yan Tong’s claims about seeking their help during this time.

On the hearing stand, a few representatives from Huaguo couldn’t help but be secretly astonished as they listened.

If they hadn’t already known the truth—that all of this was purely Yan Tong’s doing—they might have been convinced by his lies.

Though Yan Tong was indeed foolish in many ways, he was equally vicious.

“I may not have the previous evidence, but these USB drives contain many recordings. Based on the content of these recordings, you can find substantial evidence of Mr. Moore’s hidden crimes.”

While he was imprisoned, Yan Tong had secretly used a voice recorder that he had hidden in the space button to record many things.

He originally intended to use this as leverage if Moore tried to eliminate him, but now it had become the evidence that would seal Moore’s fate.

Although unauthorized recordings cannot be directly used as evidence in court, the content within them can guide the legal authorities to find incriminating evidence.

Moore, in his arrogance and conceit, believed he had everything under control, so he never held back when speaking in front of Yan Tong.

Especially when he was venting his anger—people in a rage say all sorts of things.

Yan Tong’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction. If he was going down, everyone was going down with him. No one would escape!

Shi Liangchen and Yan Tong both stepped forward to testify, providing irrefutable evidence.

The James family, caught completely off guard, was left with no room to resist.

Under normal circumstances, Moore’s abilities would have made it impossible to bring him down so easily. But when someone with foresight sets a trap, many things become uncertain.

Just like in the previous life.

Yan Tong was never particularly intelligent, but with the advantage of foresight and deliberate scheming, even someone as sharp as Fang Ziyang struggled immensely after being blindsided at the beginning, leading to a difficult road ahead.

No matter how formidable Moore was in the original plot, he was now nothing more than a defeated stray dog.

The James family and Moore were filled with anger, hatred, and deep despair.

This was truly a case of “when the wall falls, everyone pushes.” Even their closest ally, the M Alliance, was now more eager to add insult to injury than to help them out of this mess.

The reason was simple.

The stolen design materials for the research products meant that the M Alliance would also be heavily implicated!

With all the evidence and testimonies in place, combined with external pressure and the scrutiny of the entire world, the International Court dared not provoke public outrage.

At this point in the trial, there was no need for further debate.

The presiding judge made the decision without hesitation:

“The court is now adjourned for two hours. We will reconvene in two hours to continue the session.”

After the break, the court would reconvene to announce the verdict.

The faces of the James family members and Moore turned ashen; they never imagined they would be struck down so suddenly, without even a chance to resist.

The collapse of a giant can happen in an instant.

Two hours later, the presiding judge and all personnel returned. Without wasting time, the judge directly pronounced the verdict:

“The court now announces: Based on the crimes, nature, circumstances, and social harm of the 156 members of the James family involved in this case… the following sentences are issued according to the ‘International Research Protection Act’: 32 members, including Cross and Abby, are sentenced to immediate execution by firing squad. The remaining 124 members, including Simi and Sim, are sentenced to life imprisonment without parole… The James family is also ordered to pay compensation…”

“…Yan Tong, as an accomplice, will be deported back to China as per the request of the Chinese authorities, where he will serve a life sentence under their supervision…”

“The M Alliance’s research team, although unaware of the full extent, will be disqualified from this competition. All team members are banned from participating in any research projects or competitions for the next ten years… This concludes the trial!”

With a bang of the gavel, everything was settled.

Bang!

The members of the James family, unable to bear the weight of the verdict, collapsed to the ground.

Yan Tong, hearing the verdict, felt a wave of dizziness and weakness wash over him, and he couldn’t help but cry.

He had done so many things, schemed for so long, only for it all to amount to nothing.

No, it was worse than nothing.

Not only did he gain nothing, but he also lost everything he had.

He had thought he was the chosen one, favored by fate. Heaven had blessed him with so much, and he hadn’t needed to steal from Fang Ziyang—he could have had so many of the things he had once dreamed of.

But in the end, one wrong step led to another.

Covering his tear-streaked face, Yan Tong was consumed by regret as he thought of the dark and hopeless future that awaited him.

The downfall of the James family was swift and decisive.

When the court verdict was announced, many people were still in disbelief.

It felt surreal that such a colossal entity like the James family could just… disappear like that. It seemed unreal.

But despite the disbelief, the facts were undeniable.

On the night following the conclusion of the trial, various countries and forces, long prepared, swiftly moved in and divided the assets of the James family.

Indeed, the James family was enormous, but they were not invincible. When all their enemies converged at once, catching them off guard, the fate of the James family was sealed.

Due to this unexpected event, the current technology competition naturally ended abruptly.

However, the topic of China and the Lu family’s research became unexpectedly and unsurprisingly popular.

“So it turns out that the research products used by the M team were indeed based on data and materials from China. No wonder the high-tech products from the two teams felt so coincidentally similar during the competition…”

“I don’t care about anything else, but these research results are truly amazing. They are simply beyond belief, absolutely ahead of their time.”

“The Lu family is a well-known research family in China that has made significant contributions to the country’s technology. The data and materials left behind by generations of the Lu family were not perfect, which is why they had not been released until now. Fortunately, this generation produced Fang Ziyang and Tang Xun, two descendants who turned those materials into reality…”

–

“The James family is truly disgusting, committing such heinous acts as illegally imprisoning researchers, completely disregarding human life, and causing the deaths of so many talented professors.”

“These people truly deserve no mercy!”

“While everyone is focused on the James family, am I the only one curious about that whistleblower named Yan Tong? I suggest you ask your Chinese friends about him or search his name on Chinese social media; you’ll find a surprise~”

“What kind of surprise? What’s wrong with this whistleblower?”

“Holy crap! I just asked my Chinese friend, and it turns out that Yan Tong really is as bad as Moore said—both stupid and vicious. I’m disgusted by what he did…”

“I just looked into it, and wow, it’s really something I can’t even begin to describe. I bet Fang Ziyang must have wronged his entire family in a previous life for him to torment Fang like this in this life.”

“Ah, you’re talking about Yan Tong again? Every time I see you discussing him, I can’t help but mention that Yan Tong looks like a little blessing on the surface. But it’s strange that he turned out like this… A reflection from someone with a long tradition in metaphysics.”

As the trial concluded, online discussions became heated, with opinions and jokes pouring in from all over the world.

…

Fang Ziyang only briefly skimmed through the online discussions before losing interest.

When the trial ended, and everything was finally settled, he felt as if a heavy burden had suddenly lifted from his shoulders.

He felt light and at ease.

To put it in mystical terms, it was as if his soul had been elevated…

Okay, that might be an exaggeration.

But he genuinely felt an unprecedented sense of relief and happiness. The world no longer seemed heavy and monochromatic but had become vibrant and full of color.

When he heard that Shi Liangchen had requested to see him one last time after the trial, his emotions were no longer clouded by past shadows; instead, he felt nothing at all.

“Alright, I’ll see him again. There are some things I’d like to ask him.”

Without hesitation, Fang Ziyang decided to meet Shi Liangchen one last time.

It wasn’t because he had any unresolved feelings.

He was simply curious about what had happened after his death in his previous life.

When they met again, Shi Liangchen looked even more haggard, but compared to the pain and sadness he had once carried, he now seemed much calmer, as if he had found some form of release.

“You look well.”

Fang Ziyang smiled faintly, his heart at peace.

From today onwards, he and Shi Liangchen were no longer friends or enemies; they were simply strangers who had nothing to do with each other.

“Yes, the feeling of avenging yourself is good. But in the end, I still owe you, and I’ll never be able to repay that debt. However… I like it this way.” This way, in his next life or the life after that, he might still get to see this person again and find a way to stay by his side.

Shi Liangchen smiled, a genuine, joyful smile.

This time, he had indeed helped Ziyang, but more importantly, he had helped himself. Only by seeing Ziyang exact his revenge could he find some relief and free himself from the endless torment of guilt and regret.

Fang Ziyang looked at him for a long moment before speaking in a calm voice, “I don’t need you to repay anything. I just hope that you and the others will no longer appear in my world.”

He didn’t want to see these people again, and he certainly didn’t want them to have any involvement in his life anymore.

Hearing this, Shi Liangchen’s smile turned bitter.

“I understand… Don’t worry, I won’t appear before you again. I’ve already agreed to the government’s invitation to enter a long-term secluded research program.”

Even though he felt some relief, he still found it difficult to escape the shadow of his past life. He wanted to enter a secluded research base, to complete the dreams and ideas they once shared. It would be as if they were still the best of friends, working side by side toward their shared goals, and he could keep holding on to the unspoken feelings he had never dared to reveal.

To remain forever in that world, where they were friends striving together for a dream, was the best future he could imagine.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Shi Liangchen’s gaze fell on the ring on Fang Ziyang’s hand. After a long pause, he asked hoarsely, “Is he good to you?”

Fang Ziyang didn’t answer immediately. His eyes rested on the ring, and his previously calm expression softened involuntarily.

Good? How could that single word possibly convey the depth of his feelings?

In two lifetimes, he had met many people and experienced many things, but only this one person had been pure in his love for him.

“The person you mentioned who avenged me in my previous life… that was Xie Zheng. In both lifetimes, he’s the one who loved me the most purely. I’m so happy to have met him…”

“Now that our grievances are settled, Shi Liangchen, from this moment on, we are strangers. Let’s each live well.”

With those words, Fang Ziyang slowly stood up and left, without any trace of resentment or lingering attachment.

If those things had never happened, perhaps they could have remained friends, partners who moved forward together toward their dreams.

But life offers no “what ifs.”

Even though they had been reborn, carrying the memories of the past, altering the future, they could never erase those memories.

Regret is something that truly doesn’t exist in this world.

“So that’s how it is… It was Xie Zheng all along…”

Shi Liangchen sat on the bench, murmuring to himself, his voice wavering between laughter and tears.

Fate, indeed, had played a cruel joke on him.

If there is a next life, he would rather be the most ordinary, the most unremarkable person in the world, trading all that he had for the ability to hold on, to avoid being swayed by anyone else ever again.

…

Outside the meeting room.

Xie Zheng stood tall, like an unshakable mountain, a source of eternal support.

Seeing his beloved step out, Xie Zheng’s stern face softened instantly. He strode forward and firmly took his lover’s hand, his voice steady and gentle.

“Is it over? Let’s go home.”

“Yes, let’s go home.”

Fang Ziyang’s eyes curved into a smile, feeling the warmth and strength in Xie Zheng’s hand, a sense of deep affection and happiness filling him.

This was his love.

The one who had stood by him in both lifetimes.

How wonderful.

(End of Main Story).

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