Chapter 213: Wedding Date

Inside the private room.

Chu Yi learned the news that Ling Wu was to enter into a political marriage with Yu Shixue, which meant their cooperation, where each took what they needed, was nearing its final step. He said, "Ling Wu, after resolving the Empire's affairs, what do you plan to do?"

Ling Wu set down his knife and fork: "Do what?"

His expression was somewhat puzzled.

Chu Yi gave a soft "Hmm": "I mean, what places do you want to go, what people do you want to see, what things do you like."

"Do you have any places or people you particularly like?"

"That, huh..." Although Ling Wu did not know why Chu Yi had suddenly asked him about this topic, he was willing to answer, his tone filled with a touch of longing: "I don't know if you've heard of a place called He Wu Town. The local customs are simple and honest, and it's quite rare to be able to see both snow and the sea at the same time. It's a very free place."

Chu Yi lifted his eyelids: "You want to go to He Wu Town?"

"No," Ling Wu said. "Sometimes, liking something doesn't mean you have to go there, nor does it mean you have to possess it."

He shrugged, his tone relaxed: "Let nature take its course, if there's a chance."

Let nature take its course.

Ling Wu looked out the window: "What about you? After restoring the imperial family, what do you want to do?"

A faint glimmer resided within Chu Yi's deep eyes. He said: "The road is long and the burden is heavy; future matters are hard to say for sure. Perhaps in your heart, you think I want to be a wise monarch?"

"This is a mission I must shoulder. If it were out of selfishness, I would rather..."

Be with the person I like, and never be separated for a lifetime.

Ling Wu probably couldn't guess that his thoughts were so plain and simple.

Seeing him stop abruptly, Ling Wu asked: "Rather what?"

"A secret," Chu Yi said. "I won't tell you yet."

"Ling Wu, what is your next step in the plan?"

Ling Wu slowly lowered his head and picked up the tea placed before him; the taste was so bitter it made the tip of his tongue feel astringent: "There are only 3 days left until the New Year. Once this New Year is over, it will be soon... Chu Yi, don't worry, I will arrange everything in advance to ensure there are no mistakes. Have your people ready; I will assist you all. Let's make our move on the day of my wedding."

The guillotine was about to fall.

Every minute and every second was an ordeal.

He didn't want to drag this out any longer.

Ling Wu left the private room midway to go to the restroom. Seeing him walk out, a tall man in the hallway wearing a black hat, his hands lazily tucked into his pockets, followed him.

"Bang!"

Ling Wu was pressed against the wall by someone. That person cushioned his back with their hand, clearly afraid of bumping him painfully, and then he collided into a warm embrace.

Yin Huaiyu took off his hat, revealing that beautiful red hair and those amorous peach-blossom eyes. Wearing a casual jacket, the surging veins on the back of his hand were outlined by the light and shadow, exuding wildness and a sense of power: "Don't be afraid, it's me."

Ling Wu was clearly not afraid: "..."

"Yin Huaiyu, what are you here to do?"

Although Yin Huaiyu had only been receiving treatment for less than a month, the Yin Family had provided the best care, and his condition had gradually stabilized. He had quickly emerged from that nightmare, realizing that during those times, Ling Wu had lied to him; he hadn't been imprisoned for half a month at all.

Even if he knew, so what?

Just as Yin Huaiyu himself had said, he had liked Ling Wu before he was imprisoned, so whether it was Stockholm Syndrome didn't hold much meaning for him.

He still felt Ling Wu was very good.

He still liked him.

If Yin Huaiyu's inner thoughts were known by Yin Shuyi, he would surely be dragged back to the hospital for deep treatment again...

The servants who knew the inside story only found it unbelievable that someone as arrogant as the Eldest Young Master would actually, for the sake of the kidnapper who had tortured him, repeatedly slam his head against the nightstand while still claiming he liked them.

After all, how could a person truly like someone who had tortured them?

If this wasn't madness, what was it?

But the servants were of low status and dared not ask, yet subtle changes occurred in their hearts; usually, one couldn't even tell Yin Huaiyu was a "sick" person.

If not for the occasional sound of things being smashed and angry roars heard from his room in the middle of the night, he would truly be as restrained as usual.

"What am I here to do?"

Yin Huaiyu's eyes were as scarlet as a wild beast's: "Ling Wu, you tell me what I'm here to do, what else could I be here for? I returned everything to you, I sent you messages, and you ignored me!"

"You've tortured me until I'm almost crazy, unable to sleep for whole nights, and then you cast me to the back of your mind to eat with some wild man here!"

His resentment was not small; those emotions controlled by medication began to fluctuate violently again.

Yin Huaiyu accused him: "Ling Wu, you can't rely on the fact that I like you to play with me like this... You are too untrustworthy. It was you who said you would be with me for a lifetime."

"I believed it..."

Ling Wu caught a glimpse of a comment on the barrage saying "You believe a man's words?", and when he wanted to borrow it, he felt he might be labeled a "scumbag" who discards people after using them... although he and Yin Huaiyu didn't have a so-called beginning.

After weighing his words for a long time, Ling Wu half-praised and half-scolded, invisibly pushing the sarcasm to its peak: "Yin Huaiyu, you are a bit naive."

The hand Yin Huaiyu had on his shoulder tightened: "I can't be bothered to talk to you, I can't out-talk you! Anyway, you, Ling Wu, always have so many reasons! You come and go as you please with me, by what right?!"

"Why are you acting so aggrieved?" Ling Wu communicated with him very calmly, asking coldly: "Is this still my problem?"

"Yin Huaiyu, don't you think you're just bringing this on yourself? I've warned you many times; it was you who insisted on provoking me."

Yin Huaiyu was choked up: "Yes!"

"It's my damn self-inflicted suffering, okay?"

"So I don't blame you! I don't blame you! I, Yin Huaiyu, am like a damn idiot; not only do I not blame you, but I'm also willing to help you cover it up. I guess I've bought into your clever schemes; I can't outplay you, who could outplay you?"

He took out his phone, which displayed a marriage announcement jointly released by the Jin Family and the Yu Family on a public platform 10 minutes ago.

Yin Huaiyu turned the phone screen toward Ling Wu: "Why?"

"I want an explanation."

"Why would you rather enter a political marriage with Yu Shixue than choose me?"

Ling Wu was a bit angry: "Who are you to me? By what right should I give you an explanation?"

He shook the person off and wanted to leave.

Yin Huaiyu's arms wrapped tightly around his waist like iron pincers, his lips pressed against his ear, rubbing restlessly: "Don't go, I was wrong... I shouldn't have yelled at you just now. Yu Shixue doesn't know anything; wouldn't it be better if you entered into a marriage alliance with me?"

"I really can't sleep if I can't see you..."

"I beg you, look at me."

"Good brother, what happened before was my fault, you're a big person with a big heart, won't you let it go?"

Ling Wu pried his fingers open one by one, those eyes cold to the extreme, cutting toward him like sharp knives, his tone mocking: "Young Master Yin, do you want to be the third party?"

For a noble young master like Yin Huaiyu, words like these were simply the ultimate humiliation, not to mention that his self-esteem was too strong.

Ling Wu lifted his leg and walked away.

"Ling Wu, are you serious?" Yin Huaiyu still reluctantly stepped forward to grab his wrist, having already planned it out for him, his thought process quite abnormal: "Then you can sleep with him on 1, 3, 5, sleep with me on 2, 4, 6, and Sunday belongs to me too!"

Bah!

Damn it!

Don't even think about it!

He would definitely ruin this marriage alliance!

Ling Wu's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 all belong to him!

【9】

【666...】

【I'm stunned, is this something a carbon-based lifeform can say?】

【Ah??!】

【Young Master Yin, your moral bottom line is truly very low.】

Ling Wu felt his brain had short-circuited: "You're a lunatic."

Seeing that soft tactics wouldn't work, Yin Huaiyu immediately decided to get tough: "Ling Wu, if you dare to marry him, damn it, I'll smash your wedding venue, throw all the guests into the water, and make your lives a living hell, believe it or not?"

"I believe it." Ling Wu remembered his value: "Are you very free?"

"Then, could you please do me a favor?"

Yin Huaiyu was displeased: "Damn, what do you take me for?"

"When you have a need, you wave me over, and when you don't, you kick me away, is that it?"

"Are you unwilling?" Ling Wu touched the cuff of his sleeve, his fingernails scraping against the pattern on it, his expression very flat as he withdrew his gaze: "Then I'll go find someone else."

A few seconds later, a low voice came from behind—

"Stop!"

There was no way Yin Huaiyu would give up this chance to establish a connection with him; he felt very irritable in his heart, pulled a cigarette from his Cigarette Case, lit it with a lighter, the white smoke blurring his brows and eyes by a degree, making him look even more reckless and detached: "Speak, I'll help you."

Ling Wu: "Help me find someone."

Yin Huaiyu was a bit gritting his teeth: "A man? A woman?"

Ling Wu looked up and crashed into those aggressive eyes of his, knowing what he was thinking: "Throw those strange thoughts in your head away."

"I'll send you the information on your phone in a moment."

"Oh." Yin Huaiyu pushed his shoulder as they walked out: "So you did have my contact information, you were just pretending not to see it."

"Don't wait for a moment, time waits for no one, if there's something to do, do it quickly, don't act like you have procrastination, Ling Wu, you wouldn't still be thinking about going back to the private room to eat with that man, would you?"

Ling Wu was silent: "..."

Business comes first.

Yin Huaiyu dragged him out: "Stop eating, other than the nice decor and high privacy, the food at this restaurant tastes terrible."

"I don't understand what's so good about a place like this."

Ling Wu was silent: "..."

【Sour grapes because he can't eat them!】

【Whether it's delicious or not, you know in your heart.】

【Red-haired kid, let go of my male supporting character baby.】

【So are you going to abandon the villain?】

Ling Wu sent a message to Chu Yi saying something had come up and he had to leave first.

Yin Huaiyu had driven over, and Ling Wu sat in the passenger seat of his sports car, head down, fiddling with his phone, when he heard the man in the driver's seat say: "What kind of person is it, with such great ability, that it even requires our Magician to go to such lengths to find them."

Ling Wu said to himself: "I've sent the information to you."

"This person is like a rat, hiding in your jurisdiction; my people have been looking for him for a long time and found nothing."

Yin Huaiyu rested one hand on the steering wheel and glanced at the information: "Yangming Grocery Store, He Chen, he has no father, no mother, no wife, and no children?"

People like this are hard to find because they have no weak points.

Back then, when Fang Kai was talking to Ling Wu from a phone booth, he had once asked his wife to go to the Yangming Grocery Store in the Lower City District to find a person named He Chen.

Ling Wu hadn't paid attention at first; Fang Kai was under his surveillance and had not made any contact with this person named He Chen, nor had he truly spoken to his wife.

In their eyes, this person Fang Kai should have vanished into thin air.

But some time ago, Davis found new clues from Fang Kai's computer; that video had other backups, and Ling Wu reasonably suspected that the backup was in the hands of this man named He Chen.

This ticking time bomb had to be defused.

Hearing him say this, Yin Huaiyu felt inexplicably cheerful and raised an eyebrow: "That means this favor is something only I can help with, right?"

"Mm," Ling Wu replied.

"Don't worry, let me see where this place is." Yin Huaiyu slid his finger down, and the information on the phone screen turned the page: "Qian Town? Tsk... this is a bit troublesome, no wonder your people couldn't find him; although that place is nominally under the jurisdiction of our Yin Family, it's actually a black zone where all kinds of heinous criminals and fugitives flee to."

"Many of them don't even have ID cards."

Ling Wu didn't care about that and went straight to the point: "Can you find him?"

"I can, but it might take some time..." Yin Huaiyu shoved his phone into his pocket and started the car: "As long as your intelligence isn't wrong, no matter where in the underground of Qian Town this person is hiding, I can pull him out."

Ling Wu felt relieved: "Thanks."

"Such cold and heartless words." Yin Huaiyu parked the car on the side of the road, leaned his body over, brought his superior, handsome face toward his direction, pointed at his cheek, and said: "If you really want to thank me, you can kiss me."

Ling Wu leaned back, dodging him, his black and white eyes quietly fixed on him, saying nothing; the air pressure was low for a moment.

"Ding ding..."

The cell phone rang.

Yin Huaiyu saw the name Yu Shixue appear on his screen, opened his mouth, and said: "Shixue is calling you, are you sure you won't answer?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he took the liberty of pressing the answer button.

"Hello?"

Yu Shixue's voice came from the phone, calling out very familiarly.

"A-Wu, where are you?"

Yu Shixue's magnetic voice sounded: "Shao Yu said you went out. I am at your house now, discussing the wedding date. I want to marry you sooner; can we set the time for January 15th?"

Yin Huaiyu bit the soft tissue inside his cheek, suppressing his restless emotions, and pinched his palm hard, his eyes darkening slightly.

January 15th?

So soon?

He felt very displeased in his heart, and when he turned his head to look at Ling Wu's profile, his eyes were full of malice.

Yin Huaiyu unbuckled his seatbelt, almost pressing his entire body onto Ling Wu, staring at the phone screen with an ambiguous gaze, then blew air into his ear: "Good brother, do you think if Shixue knew I was by your side, he would think the two of us are having an affair out here?"