Chapter 204: Letting Go

The basement.

Ling Wu opened the door and saw Yin Huaiyu sitting on the floor beneath the bed, cradling that desk lamp in both hands; he shuffled over in his slippers to stand before Yin Huaiyu, hearing him mutter something, looking somewhat delirious.

"Have you been played into stupidity?" He tugged at the chain on Yin Huaiyu's neck, revealing those peach-blossom eyes, the pupils somewhat unfocused.

Ling Wu loosened the chain: "That's perfect, I need you to do me a favor."

Yin Huaiyu's attention couldn't focus at all; it was hard to hear clearly what he had said.

But what he could be certain of was that Ling Wu had come back to find him.

Immediately, Ling Wu took a newly developed device for capturing iris recordings out of a cabinet, aimed it at Yin Huaiyu, and said: "Come on, look at the lens."

With a "beep," the collection was successful.

Yin Huaiyu passed out completely.

Ling Wu helped him onto the bed, covered his body with the quilt, then sat at the desk, uploaded the newly collected data to the cloud for backup, and sent it to Shi Yu and Xi Huaizhi.

I don't know how much time passed.

Yin Huaiyu woke up to the sound of familiar keyboard clicking; his body trembled slightly, and he instantly threw off the quilt and sat up, his chest feeling as if it were being crushed by a giant rock, unable to breathe.

His mind was still in a dazed state.

This situation only improved when he turned his head and saw Ling Wu.

It was just like waking up from a nightmare.

"Ling Wu."

"Ling Wu..."

Ling Wu, hearing the voice, turned his head; seeing that he was awake, he pointed casually at the nightstand and said: "There's water beside you, drink it yourself."

Yin Huaiyu: "Mm."

Where had he gone?

Why had he only come back now?

Ling Wu saw the successful reply from Xi Huaizhi, slid his toes, and the swivel chair turned with him; he faced Yin Huaiyu, a hint of a smile appearing on his cold, pale face, and asked him: "Do you want to go home?"

Go home?

Yin Huaiyu thought he was still testing him, so he subconsciously said: "No, I don't want to!"

He said eagerly: "Are you throwing me away?"

"Didn't you say that if I was obedient and listened to you, you would stay with me forever?"

"Don't be afraid, I'm just sending you home." Ling Wu looked at Yin Huaiyu's haggard face and squatted down before him; the hypnotic pocket watch swung slowly, reflecting in his pupils: "You've played enough, it's time to go home."

"I couldn't possibly keep you for a lifetime, could I?"

Yin Huaiyu was hypnotized and said nothing.

When Yin Huaiyu woke up again, he was at Jinghe Manor; during the days he had been unconscious, Yin Shuyi had found the best doctors to treat his leg, and after putting on a cast, they were waiting for it to recover.

Yin Shuyi sat on a chair in the room, and seeing him wake up, his expression remained serious and cold, with no sign of concern in his eyes: "Who was it?"

Who was it?

Yin Huaiyu hadn't seen sunlight for a long time and felt as if he were in another world; his thinking was very sluggish, like a phone that had become laggy from long-term use...

Wasn't he with Ling Wu?

When that sunlight hit his arms, it felt like a stinging poison; Yin Huaiyu let out a painful cry and pulled the quilt over his head to cover his entire body.

Yin Shuyi frowned and asked the doctor: "What is going on?"

The doctor said tremblingly: "Head of the family, the abrasions on the young master's neck and the wounds on his left leg were all caused by iron implements... he was likely kidnapped and imprisoned by some means, and he is showing a stress response; for specifics, we may need to ask a psychiatrist to intervene..."

A psychiatrist?

Yin Shuyi found it pretentious: "He's a grown man, perfectly fine, he was only missing for less than ten days, and it's gotten to the point where he needs to see a psychiatrist?"

The doctor dared not speak.

Yin Shuyi pulled back the quilt, his eyes behind his lenses cold, and asked from his high position: "I'm asking you, who did it?"

Yin Huaiyu did not make a sound.

He closed his eyes, his body trembling slightly.

He knew it; it was exactly as Ling Wu had said—even though he had been missing for so long, this man who was his father in name only didn't show a shred of concern on his face; he was so cold-blooded and heartless!

Since that was the case, and no one in the outside world cared about him, why shouldn't he stay in that basement forever?

Yin Shuyi's time was precious; he didn't have the patience to waste it here. He rubbed his brow and said to the person standing nearby: "Go find a psychiatrist."

The two parted on bad terms.

Yin Huaiyu lay on the bed, as numb as a machine.

At night, when everyone had gone out, Yin Huaiyu found that he couldn't fall asleep alone at all; he crawled off the bed, pulled the curtains shut to mimic a dark environment, and then sat under the bed and called Ling Wu.

Soon, a cell phone ringtone rang out in the room.

Yin Huaiyu then remembered that Ling Wu's phone had been confiscated by him; he had no way to contact Ling Wu now.

He called Jin Shaoyu: "Hello?"

"Shao Yu."

Jin Shaoyu's voice was languid: "What is it? You haven't been in touch for so long, I thought you'd gone off to be debauched somewhere again."

"Why are you calling in the middle of the night?"

Yin Huaiyu's fingernails dug into his arms, scratching out lines of wounds: "I'm looking for Ling Wu, his... his phone won't go through, is he at home?"

His voice carried heavy, ragged gasps.

"Damn it!" Jin Shaoyu listened to his gasping, and his face instantly darkened: "Fuck, are you in heat in the middle of the night and looking for my brother?"

"Are you crazy?"

Yin Huaiyu let out a muffled groan in his throat, as if he had gone mad: "Yes, I am crazy!"

"Shao Yu, I'm looking for Ling Wu, I'm looking for him! Let him answer the phone! Let him answer the phone! I'm going to go crazy if I can't hear his voice, I beg you..."

Jin Shaoyu was so startled he did a kip-up from his bed to a sitting position; he looked at his phone screen, feeling very strange, and his tone softened a little: "Are you alright?"

"Yin Huaiyu, have you been taking drugs?"

Yin Huaiyu's brain was like it had a faulty part; his eyes were red-rimmed as he slammed his head against the nightstand.

The phone fell to the floor, knocked under the bed by his movements.

Jin Shaoyu's voice came through—

"What on earth are you doing?"

"Hello?"

"Yin Huaiyu, speak!"

"Are you okay? Did your brain short-circuit?"

Jin Shaoyu listened to the sound of things being smashed over the phone and felt it was truly fucked up; he suppressed the anger in his heart, ran a hand through his hair in frustration, and roared into the phone: "What the hell, I'm calling your father right now!"

When Yin Shuyi received Jin Shaoyu's call, he climbed off his mistress in a rage, put on his clothes, and rushed back home; he brought people with him and opened the door with a key.

He saw a mess all over the floor.

Yin Huaiyu had smashed his head until it was covered in blood.

He looked utterly wretched.

He kept repeating in his mouth: "Don't abandon me."

"Don't abandon me..."

Yin Shuyi stepped over the mess on the floor, his voice imposing without anger: "It's the middle of the night and you aren't sleeping, what are you doing?"

"Are you trying to smash up the house?"

"The doctor assigned to you was also driven away by you; are you happy only if you manage to anger me to death?"

"Anger you to death? Then go die!" Yin Huaiyu's brain suddenly rebooted; provoked to the extreme, he raised his head and pointed at him angrily: "It's all you, you forced my mother to her death, you forced him to his death!"

"You haven't cared about me for so many years, what are you pretending for now?!"

His pupils suddenly constricted: "Aren't you dying to see me dead?!"

"When I was little, didn't you often say you wanted to cripple me? It's a pity that the children of your mistresses were all killed by me; I buried those unformed fetuses under that peach tree you planted, and you even eat the fruit it bears every year!"

Everyone in the room was shocked and pale; Yin Shuyi was furious beyond control, raised his hand and slapped him, his expression gloomy: "Unfilial son!"

"Look at what you look like now!"

Yin Huaiyu wiped the blood from his face, looking somewhat manic: "What do I look like?"

"That's right, what do I look like..."

He gripped his own throat, where there were still abrasions, thinking of every little detail in the basement, the pain and the joy, a life of abandoning his own brain to attach himself to another person.

Yin Shuyi restrained his temper: "I don't have the time to watch you act like a lunatic."

"I've had the police intervene in your kidnapping; whoever grabbed you, you need to provide clues. Whoever touches the heir of the Yin Family must pay the price."

When Yin Huaiyu heard the word "price," he suddenly went quiet.

"There isn't one."

Yin Shuyi didn't hear clearly: "What?"

Yin Huaiyu roared: "No one kidnapped me, it was voluntary!"

Yin Shuyi felt he was truly insane: "Not a kidnapping? Then what is the cause of the wounds on your body?"

"Don't tell me you delivered yourself to be beaten?"

Yin Huaiyu took deep, heavy breaths; he looked up at the ceiling: "That's right, you wouldn't have guessed it, the dignified heir of the Yin Family is just a masochist. I just like being beaten, I can't live without him, goddammit!"

He wailed loudly: "Dad, I can't live without him."

"I like him."

"I really like him..."

Yin Shuyi rubbed his forehead: "Truly insane."

He turned to the side, unwilling to look at his son in this state, and signaled to the butler: "Send the Eldest Young Master to a private hospital for treatment immediately!"

"Seal off the news; no one is allowed to spread what happened today!"

Feeling vexed, he flicked his sleeves and left.