Chapter 216: Do you really like me that much?

Not until the moment he crossed the finish line did Yu Tingyun snap back to reality; the way Ling Wu had overtaken everyone with such clean, decisive driving, leaving them all in the dust—that wild, irrepressible energy bursting through his skin was strangely addictive.

Opening the car door, Yu Tingyun took out a scarf and then grabbed a hat to put on Ling Wu: "Sister-in-law, the wind is strong on the mountain, don't catch a cold."

"Screech—"

The McLaren came to a steady stop, the wind it kicked up instantly flipping the hems of their clothes.

Yin Huaiyu unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out with a stride of his long legs, his brows and eyes seemingly filled with the mountain mist as he spoke with practiced familiarity: "Your driving is still as crazy as it used to be."

Ling Wu had a tall, slender build, and his lowered gaze was full of cold detachment: "Just a habitual trick for winning, not really crazy."

Used to be?

Yu Tingyun caught the useful information in Yin Huaiyu's words, then looked toward Ling Wu... had someone else already seen him like this before?

"Brother Huaiyu, it seems you and my sister-in-law are very close?"

As Yin Huaiyu was talking to Ling Wu, he heard Yu Tingyun suddenly drop this ambiguous remark; he deliberately turned his body, leaned in close to him, and said in a suggestive tone: "That's right, my relationship with Ling Wu is much closer than your brother's relationship with him, and by the way, it's more than just the relationship."

After his lazy provocation, he turned back and flashed a brilliant smile at Ling Wu: "Don't you think so... A-Wu."

Yu Tingyun's face sank abruptly.

Who in their circle didn't know what kind of person Yin Huaiyu was? But there were very few people he actually cared about; his tone and attitude could be called flirtatious and ambiguous.

Especially now that Ling Wu was in an arranged marriage with his brother, it was practically the same as slapping a green hat onto Yu Shixue's head.

Ling Wu keenly noticed that Yu Tingyun's expression was poor, and he quickly defused the gunpowder smell spreading in the air: "Your Brother Huaiyu is just joking with you."

Yu Tingyun was, of course, not so easily fooled; he understood a man's intentions, and Yin Huaiyu's attitude clearly showed that something had happened between him and Ling Wu in the past, and he was showing it off as if he couldn't wait to flaunt it...

He felt very unhappy deep down.

Then he heard Ling Wu say: "Tingyun, it's getting late, you go wait for me over there first, I'll come find you once I've finished dealing with things here."

Yu Tingyun was just about to speak, but as he raised his eyes, he bumped into Ling Wu's black-and-white gaze; the tips of the man's hair and his eyelashes seemed soaked in the dampness of the mountain's cold wind, his eyes lowered, calm and translucent, and this quiet observation made him unable to say a word.

He said sullenly: "Okay, I understand..."

After sending Yu Tingyun away, Ling Wu looked back at Yin Huaiyu; he didn't know what kind of scheme this person was plotting again, having assumed that the painful price from last time would make him show some restraint.

But it seemed that hadn't happened.

The true nature of a person like Yin Huaiyu was still that of someone who loved freedom and was unrestrained, like a wild horse that could never be completely tamed; all that was left for him was wariness.

Ling Wu's scarf was blown upward: "Yin Huaiyu, aren't you afraid of causing a misunderstanding by saying things like that in front of Yu Tingyun?"

"Or is it that you've forgotten the pain now that the wound has healed?"

This cold, ruthless attitude instantly dragged Yin Huaiyu back into that enclosed, lightless basement, reminding him of the days when his fate was completely dominated by Ling Wu; his Adam's apple bobbed, and as Ling Wu's voice fell, his knees felt as if they had been struck hard by a hammer, his bones softening a fraction.

"Not at all." Yin Huaiyu fawned: "How could my scars heal so easily? Have some pity on me and stop being angry."

"I just can't stand the way that little brat keeps hovering around you."

Ling Wu: "This is not a matter for you to interfere in."

Yin Huaiyu was unconvinced: "Then tell me, what is a matter I should interfere in?"

"Watching you hold a wedding with Yu Shixue and then grow old together? Bah! If I really did that, I wouldn't be a man!" Blown by the howling cold wind and provoked by Ling Wu's cold expression, Yin Huaiyu's emotions became uncontrollable: "Ling Wu, I'm telling you right now, there's no way you're going to have that arranged marriage with Yu Shixue!"

"Not a chance!"

"I'll be damned if I don't ruin it for you sooner or later!"

Ling Wu saw several people's gazes falling on them and pulled Yin Huaiyu to a secluded spot: "Can you stop acting like you've eaten a firecracker?"

"I wish I had eaten a firecracker, at least then I could hear a bang!" Yin Huaiyu straightened his coat: "Unlike now, where I can only swallow this humiliation, and even talking to you requires hiding and avoiding suspicion!"

"Do you like Yu Shixue?"

Yin Huaiyu had just asked the question before he waved his hand: "Forget it, I know with a single hair on my head that you don't like him, so what exactly is the reason for your arranged marriage with him?"

"Didn't Shao Yu make a scene?"

"Didn't he sweep the person out of your house with a broom?"

Ling Wu shoved him against the wall: "Can you keep your voice down? No one here owes you anything."

Yin Huaiyu gritted his teeth: "No one owes me?"

"Ling Wu, ask yourself, do you owe me or not? Aside from liking you and touching you, what other bastardly things have I done? We're both men, a kiss or a touch won't make you lose a piece of flesh, there's no need to act like a woman."

Under that icy gaze, he continued: "Yes, even if I was a bastard and teamed up with others to bully you, and caught you and brought you to my house, didn't I serve you with the best food and drink? Didn't I let you hit and scold me? Have I ever wronged you in any way?"

"I know you care about your face, so I didn't even dare let those servants come in and see your face."

"You didn't let those servants see me because you were thinking of my reputation?" Ling Wu pierced through him mercilessly: "Yin Huaiyu, stop deceiving yourself. Your base male instincts just flared up; the more you can't get something, the more you want it. Does that despicable, shameless, and lewd mindset of yours even deserve to be called 'liking'?"

"It's true you didn't do anything to me, but that's because I ran! I was locked up by you for a week, and it was me who ran, that's why you didn't have time to do anything to me!"

Ling Wu hated it most when others didn't ask for his opinion and loathed those who were overly dictatorial.

Why should he be treated this way?

Did he really think he had no temper?

Yin Huaiyu let go, his face turning ashen.

As if he had received some fatal blow, he was devastated.

Ling Wu was still not satisfied and vented all his pent-up anger: "I told you not to touch me, told you to get lost, did you listen to me? Did you ever ask for my opinion? You were like a dog, insisting on biting marks onto my neck, you stripped my clothes and pinned me to the ground; if I hadn't had the strength to resist at that time, you'd be a rapist right now!"

A rapist?

Yin Huaiyu hadn't even thought about that level of things; what was the difference between his actions and those of a rapist? Just as Ling Wu said, it was because he had the ability to resist; if that person hadn't been Ling Wu, hadn't been the Magician, they would have been devoured whole on the first day they were locked up.

How could they have remained unscathed until today?

Ling Wu used pale, piercing words to ruthlessly point out the relationship between the two, and only then did Yin Huaiyu realize, as if struck by lightning, the true reason for Ling Wu's anger.

Ling Wu smoothed out the sleeve that had been wrinkled by his grip: "Don't make yourself out to be a victim. You locked me up for a week, and I paid you back for a week; tit for tat, we are even."

Tit for tat, even?

Yin Huaiyu woke up as if from a dream; he wrapped his arms around Ling Wu's waist, his attitude firm: "No! I won't allow it!"

"I'm not interested in anyone else now, I only like you. I can't even get hard for anyone else, I can't sleep without you, and my illness can't be cured now! You're the one who turned me into this, you can't just walk away and leave me behind."

"You can't... you can't be this cruel... Ling Wu, you can't treat me like this..."

He was wrong.

He truly knew he was wrong.

If only he had realized it sooner, if he hadn't used force and had respected Ling Wu's personality and thoughts, would everything have been different?

Yin Huaiyu thought back to that day when he pinned Ling Wu beneath him and stripped his clothes; how desperate he must have felt, his self-esteem as a man almost crushed to pieces.

This area was very remote and quiet, leaving only the sound of the wind passing by his ears.

Ling Wu pried his fingers open one by one: "It's not that I won't do it just because you don't allow it."

Seeing Ling Wu about to leave, Yin Huaiyu truly cast everything aside, just like in that dark, sunless basement where he could only rely on Ling Wu, begging him to take control; that iron chain had never disappeared from start to finish, it had only moved from his neck to somewhere else, locked firmly onto the tip of his heart.

He had developed feelings; he had truly fallen for this person.

【Ding! System notification: Yin Huaiyu's current favorability is 99!】

"I was wrong... I was truly wrong!" Yin Huaiyu could no longer endure it; he didn't want to sleep holding a cold desk lamp, he didn't want to see Ling Wu's hateful gaze, he wanted to smooth over the wounds and start over: "It's all my fault, blame me for not respecting you, for forcing you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to be a rapist, I really didn't mean it that way, I just liked you too much, I used the wrong method."

Yin Huaiyu knelt on the ground, clutching his thigh tightly, tears streaming down his face: "Won't you come back? You can choke me, slap me, it's all fine; let me serve you instead, I'll give you oral, you can even use me as a masturbator, it doesn't matter, I just beg you not to kick me away, give me a chance..."

As long as he could start over.

It didn't matter what he had to do.

Yin Huaiyu hadn't known how to like someone before, and no one had taught him; even if it were a forced melon, he had the means to make it sweet.

But reality had dealt him a heavy blow.

Ling Wu thought he was truly foolish: "Calm down first, we'll talk when you've actually learned how to communicate with others as equals."

Ling Wu shook off Yin Huaiyu and walked out from the corner.

He ran straight into Jing Du, who was leaning against the wall smoking; he was dressed neatly, his standing posture slightly lazy, his brows sharp as blades; hearing the movement, he turned his head calmly, met Ling Wu's gaze, and said in a voice raspy from smoke: "Good tactics."

His expression was his usual indifference, and his standing figure made him look as at ease as if he were in his own backyard, without the slightest bit of guilt for eavesdropping on others.

Ling Wu was more open and unashamed compared to him: "Have you heard enough?"

The cold moonlight plated his skin with a layer of cold white.

"Mm-hm." Jing Du crushed the cigarette butt against the wall and then stepped on it with his sole: "Not only heard enough, but heard it all."

"Very spectacular."

Ling Wu's brows and eyes were clear and handsome, and he didn't care: "Do you intend to tell others?"

"I didn't say that." Jing Du strode forward with his long legs, constantly closing the distance between the two; he put his hands into his trouser pockets, leaned down to Ling Wu's ear, toyed with his stray hair, and curved his lips: "Ling Wu... do you know that the days you disappeared, I looked for you everywhere."

"Listening to your conversation, you really were imprisoned in a private property under Huaiyu's name; how about it, was it the day I showed up that bought you a chance to breathe? Come to think of it, I can be considered your benefactor."

Ling Wu glanced sideways and met a light, playful gaze.

"Jing Du, there should be a limit to pretending to be a good person, right? Didn't I fall into his hands partly because of you?" Ling Wu took off his glasses, not wanting to see those heartless and ungrateful eyes through a lens: "You're just like him; all the good deeds in the world belong to you, and those who don't accept them are ungrateful and bring it upon themselves."

Jing Du looked at the glasses he had taken off: "I really regret not meeting you sooner."

"Otherwise, the others wouldn't be able to outplay me."

Ling Wu knew Jing Du was deep and calculating, a sharp and decisive man, but that didn't stop him from being foolish about certain things: "But you still participated in such a childish and boring game."

Jing Du straightened up: "Yeah, can't help it..."

"The one inside is still crying his heart out; when he asked me to cooperate, his arrogant aura wasn't like this at all."

"I'm very curious, what method did you use to make him become so submissive? It's truly amazing; the times Huaiyu disappeared had something to do with you, right?"

Ling Wu jumped out of his linguistic trap: "Young Master Jing, your situation is only slightly better than Yin Huaiyu's, so why put on the posture of a winner?"

"No matter what method I used to make him like this, I believe you don't want to know."

Jing Du admitted that his appearance of showing his sharp edge was charming: "Is that so?"

Ling Wu retorted: "Isn't it?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he didn't intend to return the low-prescription glasses to Jing Du, and just like that, he carried the trophy and prepared to leave.

Jing Du habitually pushed up his glasses, only to find the frame had long been taken away; he smiled, then turned his body: "If you leave just like this, I'm not sure if I'll tell these secrets to Shi Xue; by then, no matter what your plan or goal is, it will all fall through."

The one point in which he was shrewder than Yin Huaiyu was his ability to see through the purpose of the marriage alliance between the Jin and Yu families at a glance.

Ling Wu: "You won't."

Jing Du said "Oh": "Why?"

Next, Ling Wu told him why with his actions; he took the beautiful silver-framed glasses out of his pocket and put them back on Jing Du: "I heard you broke off your engagement with Wei Ranxu? I thought you were just playing with me; I really couldn't tell, Jing Du... do you like me that much?"