Chapter 224: Responsible for a Lifetime

Jin Family, study.

Seeing Ling Wu open the door and enter, Jin Liangjin slowly raised his head; he closed the book, which was not particularly thick, and pushed it into the bookshelf behind him: "Ah Wu is here."

"I have been waiting for you for a long time."

Ling Wu was cold: "What do you want to say to me?"

He really had nothing to say to Jin Liangjin; in Ling Wu's view, Jin Liangjin was an unkind father, indifferent and neglectful toward Jin Shaoyu, and cold-blooded and heartless toward Ling Tingwan—no one's heart could be as hard as his.

Whether it was his wife or his son, they were merely bargaining chips for Jin Liangjin to seize power and influence.

Jin Liangjin was impeccably dressed, the double-layered cufflinks on his sleeves inlaid with beautiful emeralds, fully displaying his nobility; when his gaze swept over, he appeared troubled: "Still so distant; you're almost starting your own family, yet you still refuse to call me Father?"

"It's been 10 years; do you still hate me for that matter at the Research Institute?"

Hearing Jin Liangjin bring up the past, the shadows cast by Ling Wu's eyelashes suddenly tightened; his whole body was trembling, and the hatred surging in the depths of his eyes was like a poisoned blade, nailed firmly into him, the cold gaze almost freezing cracks into the very air.

"What do you mean?"

Jin Liangjin: "Ah Wu, don't misunderstand; I was very sorry about what happened back then, but it is hard to have the best of both worlds..."

"Shut up!" Ling Wu suddenly raised his eyes, his overflowing hatred like dark clouds before a rainstorm, carrying a terrifying sense of oppression; he roared: "I told you to shut up!"

"What right do you have to bring these things up! What right do you have to pretend to care about me here!"

Ling Wu dug his fingernails deep into his palms, blood flowing out along the skin and flesh, his breathing even carrying a metallic, fishy sweetness: "This family of ours is all because of you... it's all because of you, damn it, that it fell apart!"

"Why did you do that?!"

"Why?!"

"You are just a beast!"

Looking at his eldest son's face, which appeared somewhat ferocious from his desperate shouting, Jin Liangjin inexplicably felt that it could no longer be reconciled with the face he had seen many years ago, when Ling Wu was just born—that face, carved from pink jade, innocent and carefree...

It was rare for him to feel a sense of melancholy from the bottom of his heart, as if the past were but smoke.

Ling Wu's hatred and anger, accumulated over ten years, erupted all at once, nearly tearing one's heart and lungs apart; on the verge of collapse, he said with full mockery and sarcasm: "I still remember when I was little, right in this place, you once lifted me above your head and held me while reading storybooks; thinking about it now, it feels like a lifetime ago, just like having a dream."

"Ah Wu."

It was rare for Jin Liangjin to see this vulnerable side of him; although he felt in his heart that this emotional agitation was unnecessary, he still asked coldly: "... Are you reminiscing about your childhood?"

"If you like that way of getting along, Father can treat you the same as before."

Seeing him like this, Ling Wu found Jin Liangjin hateful, pitiful, sad, and infuriating... A person like him could not comprehend human warmth; those left by his side were all fake, it was lonely at the top, and he lived year-round like a cold, flawless machine executing the supreme directive of "seizing power," numb and tragic.

"Let it be."

Everything had to come to an end.

Ling Wu's emotions gradually stabilized, controlled very well.

Jin Liangjin still acted according to his own will, indifferent to others; his tone was as relaxed as usual, as if the argument just now had never happened: "Ah Wu, why are you willing to enter into a marriage alliance with that child from the Yu Family?"

"This is the point I haven't figured out."

"Have you set your sights on him?"

Ling Wu fobbed him off: "Maybe I just want to give myself a home? And not have to look at your disgusting face."

"Hahaha." Jin Liangjin laughed instead of getting angry, not caring at all: "Fine, the child has grown up, and as a father, I can't interfere too much; as long as you like it."

"Just don't forget what you are supposed to do."

Ling Wu understood that Jin Liangjin was warning him not to forget about the research; perhaps in his eyes, this son of his only had this much use left.

Thinking this, his heart had long since become calm to the point of numbness.

Let it be.

Just like this...

Ling Wu didn't even tell Jin Liangjin how he had pulled the rug out from under him, changing the research project halfway, and how he had hidden the "killing weapon" inside the Research Institute, attempting to take action and conquer the city before him.

He smiled with a hidden knife: "I understand everything; after all, with Shao Yu in your hands, you can be fearless."

Jin Liangjin felt that this sounded like he was being despicable: "I heard from that child of the Yu Family that the wedding process was handled by you personally?"

"What time is the ceremony set for?"

Jin Liangjin was confident, and at the same time, conceited.

He did not believe that a young, hot-blooded youth like Ling Wu could truly make waves under his hand; besides, he had held the trump card of controlling Jin Shaoyu for ten years, a method that had never failed.

He didn't even realize that, in the shadows, Ling Wu's thoughts were so audacious, to the point of throwing an egg against a rock, a mutual destruction.

This eldest son of his was just like him, mad to the core.

Ling Wu was very cold: "Six o'clock in the evening."

"Oh." Jin Liangjin was indifferent.

He didn't care about this in the first place.

Jin Liangjin: "It's getting late, go back to your room and rest early."

This pair of father and son had a big fight and parted on bad terms.

The marriage alliance between the Jin and Yu families was unprecedentedly grand; the nobles who received invitations all understood this tacitly. Such alliances were often large-scale, public diplomatic activities between prominent families and naturally could not be refused, and the procedures were exceptionally rigorous.

The wedding ceremony began at six in the evening; the guests boarded the cruise ship in the morning and were escorted to their rooms, free to enjoy themselves in the entertainment venues on the ship before the ceremony officially began.

Balloons and ribbons floated on the deck, white roses and lilies decorated every part of the cruise ship, seagulls circled endlessly, and pearl curtains trembled with the sea breeze; young ladies in gorgeous gowns held champagne.

Elegant and dignified.

This cruise ship belonged to the Yu Family and served as the venue for the wedding.

In order not to attract attention, Ling Wu could only secretly replace some of Yu Shixue's people on the ship with his own.

Yu Shixue was coaxed by him into being very happy, only concerned with flirting and drowning in the joy of marriage, never expecting that the lover he was about to walk down the aisle with would mercilessly stab him in the back.

There were thousands of staff members on the cruise ship; Yu Shixue couldn't possibly remember if a few disappeared or a few extra appeared.

Ling Wu and Chu Yi and the others planned to make their move at six o'clock, when the wedding ceremony began, catching everyone off guard.

"Ding!"

Ling Wu answered the phone inside the room.

Chu Yi's concerned voice came through: "Ling Wu, are you okay?"

Ling Wu leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window: "I'm fine, and you? Actually, there's no need to worry about me."

The two of them chatted back and forth like that for a long time; they were all very insubstantial topics, yet they made one feel relaxed and entirely at ease.

Perhaps it was because Ling Wu didn't have to hide anything in front of Chu Yi and could open up a part of his heart, so the congestion in his mind wasn't as heavy.

The storage room.

The sounds of the argument were isolated inside the door.

Yin Huaiyu looked at Ling Wu, who was wearing a white tailcoat before him; the ruby adorned on his chest made his skin appear even fairer, and after his face had been slightly touched up, it was so exquisite and beautiful that it was impossible to ignore. When he looked over coldly, he was like a flower on a branch—pure white, flawless, resilient, and tenacious.

This marriage, it seemed, was to everyone's satisfaction.

But Yin Huaiyu found it an eyesore; he wanted to strip the formal wear off Ling Wu, put his own clothes on him, smash the wedding venue to pieces, and carry him away dashingly.

At the very least, snatching the bride would also work.

Yin Huaiyu pinned him against the wall: "Ling Wu, I gave you the chance to choose, but you didn't choose me. I'm so jealous I'm going crazy."

The emotions in his eyes were too complex to distinguish; he suddenly broke into a smile, and the sunlight crashed down from the glass window, making the lower half of his face increasingly clear, yet there was an indescribable sense of eeriness...

"You know I'm lawless, right?" Yin Huaiyu said perversely: "I brought people onto the ship. When the wedding ceremony happens, if you really dare to appear hand-in-hand with Yu Shixue, I dare to have them kill people and throw the corpses in front of you!"

"Let's see if you two can still finish this fucking wedding, and see if you don't find it ominous."

Ling Wu remained unmoved: "The ceremony officially begins at six o'clock in the evening."

"Do you think it's meaningful to come and threaten me now? Do you think it's still possible to cancel it? Yin Huaiyu, can you stop being so childish? Not everything has to go your way."

"I'm childish?"

Yin Huaiyu found it incredible: "Yes! I'm not just fucking childish! I'm also not ruthless enough!"

"I should have just sent people to grab Yu Shixue yesterday, drugged you and tied you up, and then when the ceremony officially started, I would have taken his place as your groom. The expressions on those guests' faces would definitely be especially strange—they wouldn't know whether to laugh or not."

"Clapping wouldn't work, and not clapping wouldn't work either."

He became more excited as he spoke: "Then my dad would stand up and curse me as an unfilial son, demanding to know where I put Yu Shixue, but the others would be hindered by my status and wouldn't dare to kill me."

"That man Uncle Jin has a deep friendship with my dad; they are birds of a feather, I know that best. He might even sit on the side and clap for me."

These words were simply rebellious.

The muscles in Yin Huaiyu's face twitched slightly; he instantly deflated and pleaded in a low voice: "But I don't dare to. I'm afraid you'll say I'm forcing you again, that I don't respect you. So what can I do?"

"I've humbled myself to beg you like this, and you won't even look at me."

"Am I, Yin Huaiyu, really that bad?"

By the time he finished speaking, his eye sockets were moist.

A thought flashed through Ling Wu's mind: "Stop crying."

"Yin Huaiyu, you..."

【Are you going to coax him?】

【Second male lead, coax him!】

【Pacify him first, otherwise he'll really smash the wedding.】

【Second male lead, trust me, if you call him 'husband' right now, Young Master Yin will give you his life!】

【Is the person above trolling? Top-tier 'red-eyed' life-giving literature.】

Ling Wu glanced at the bullet comments and really couldn't find any key information. He racked his brains for a long time, only to find that he truly couldn't say those tender, honeyed words.

Yin Huaiyu, however, thought he had changed his mind and stared at him with a face full of hope.

Ling Wu desperately wanted to pacify Yin Huaiyu and make him calm down. He struggled for a long time, as if something were stuck in his throat, before he racked his brains to say: "You're a good person!"

Yin Huaiyu: "........."

"Fuck!"

"Who the fuck wants your 'good person' card!"

Ling Wu rubbed his forehead; it seemed he really wasn't good at coaxing people.

"Are you determined to make a scene?"

Yin Huaiyu was righteous and confident: "Shouldn't I make a scene?!"

Ling Wu's tone turned cold: "I can't explain it clearly to you, and I can't make you understand. Yin Huaiyu, if you really want to kill people at the wedding ceremony, then please go ahead. Kill as many as you want, it has nothing to do with me."

"What do you mean?" Yin Huaiyu grabbed his arm: "Do you really think I wouldn't dare?"

Ling Wu: "Do you think I'm wondering if you dare?"

"Can't you just calm down and listen to me?"

"Fine." Yin Huaiyu took a deep breath and feigned calmness: "I'm calm now. I'm listening to you, I won't interrupt, okay?"

"I'll put my bottom line out in the open: no matter how you want to resolve this, I will never let you marry Yu Shixue. You can give up on that point."

His expression was serious, and his tone was very cold.

Ling Wu had to ensure the wedding ceremony proceeded smoothly; at least at six o'clock, this cruise ship could not have any mishaps, and there could be no casualties.

He had to reduce the risk as much as possible.

Ling Wu deliberately remained silent for a long time. From Yin Huaiyu's perspective, it looked like he was very troubled and weighing the pros and cons.

Thus, Yin Huaiyu heard the person before him say in a pleasant voice: "At 4 o'clock in the evening, I'll wait for you in Room 4033."

The thin light brushed across Ling Wu's cold, pale face. His eyes were like frost on a frozen lake, distant to the point of being heartless, and in his haste, he built an invisible barrier: "Don't act rashly before 4 o'clock, or I'll really kill you."

Yin Huaiyu didn't take it to heart.

He stared at Ling Wu's profile and licked his dry lips: "One second you say I'm a good person, the next second you say you'll kill me."

"Ling Wu, your ability to threaten people is much greater than your ability to fool them."

Yin Huaiyu wasn't easy to fool: "If I go to Room 4033 to find you, and you have people ambushed in advance to knock me out, wouldn't I be losing more than I gain?"

"What do you want to do?" Ling Wu asked.

Yin Huaiyu shook his brand-new mobile phone: "I'll find a room temporarily, then send you a message. I'll use the time you reply as the standard; I will only wait for you until 5:30. If it passes this time, I cannot be sure how many people will die tonight."

"Madman," Ling Wu cursed him.

Yin Huaiyu shrugged indifferently, his expression actually quite pleased: "Aren't I driven mad by you?"

"No one will like a madman, so good brother... you have to be responsible for me for a lifetime."

【You're thinking very beautifully then.】

【Even if Yin Huaiyu doesn't cause trouble, this marriage alliance cannot continue. Red Hair is still too green, without a shred of patience!】