Chapter 2586

Ye Chen drank with Ito Yuhiko and Tanaka Koichi, while Nanako guarded the side, constantly adding wine for him.

Interestingly, Nanako only added wine for Ye Chen, Ito Emi only added wine for Ito Yuhiko, and Tanaka Koichi could only add wine for himself.

In Ye Chen's opinion, the so-called "Dragon Roaring Nine Heavens" didn't taste good. Apart from the pure rice fragrance, this thing was really lackluster. If he wanted to feel slightly tipsy, it would have to be at least 40-degree alcohol. This kind of sake was no different from drinking tap water to him.

However, since it was the national quintessence brought by Ito Yuhiko from far away, Ye Chen naturally gave enough face.

Including the top-tier seafood sashimi prepared by Ito Emi, Ye Chen also praised it endlessly.

But in fact, what he thought in his heart was that raw fish itself had no taste. What he ate was just the texture of different fish meat. After dipping in soy sauce and wasabi, the overall taste was actually not much different.

This point is very similar to hot pot. Eating back and forth, what you eat is just the taste of the soup base and the dipping sauce.

After eating lunch at Ito's new home, Ye Chen chatted with Ito Yuhiko for a while, then got up to say goodbye and left.

He had told Su Zhiyu before that he would visit Du Haiqing's home, so he naturally couldn't break his promise.

Although he had drunk quite a bit of sake with the two, fortunately, he had spiritual energy in his body. Before setting off, he used spiritual energy to clear away all the alcohol, and only then did he drive to the old house where he lived when he was young.

At this time, Du Haiqing, as well as the Su siblings, Su Zhifei and Su Zhiyu, had already finished lunch. Su Zhifei had changed into clean clothes, shaved his beard, and tied up his shoulder-length hair. The whole person also looked much quieter and neater.

Su Zhiyu sat on the sofa, paying attention to the movement outside the courtyard, wanting to see Ye Chen the first moment he arrived.

And when the BMW car driven by Ye Chen slowly stopped at the gate of the courtyard, Su Zhiyu was suddenly overjoyed and hurriedly said to her mother and brother, "Mr. Ye is here!"

After saying that, she had already stood up and ran toward the door.

Du Haiqing and Su Zhifei also hurriedly stood up and followed behind to greet him.

When Ye Chen got out of the car, the three of them had already walked to the door one after another.

Su Zhiyu opened the retro iron fence gate, somewhat shyly, but not forgetting to say respectfully, "Mr. Ye, you're here!"

Su Zhifei also said very respectfully, "Mr. Ye..."

Du Haiqing was not as restrained as the two. She said kindly, as if she had seen a friend's child, "Ye Chen is here. Come in quickly!"

Ye Chen nodded slightly and said respectfully, "Hello, Auntie Du. It's been a while since I came to see you. How have you been lately?"

Du Haiqing said with a smile, "I'm doing very well. The environment in Jin Ling is getting more and more comfortable for me to live in, and there aren't as many annoying things as before, so I'm still very free."

Ye Chen nodded, "That's good! I haven't been in Jin Ling for a while, but I shouldn't be going out for a while recently. If you need any help in Jin Ling, just contact me at any time."

"Alright!" Du Haiqing didn't exchange too many polite words, agreed with a smile, and then invited Ye Chen into the house.

Entering this old house, Ye Chen couldn't help but have a feeling of being in another world.

When his parents rented this old house back then, they also carefully restored it, just like now. Although it looked so simple, it could give people a feeling of being brand new.

After twenty years of being left idle, this old house had also been dilapidated, but after Du Haiqing's careful restoration, everything seemed to have returned to the state of twenty years ago.

For a moment, Ye Chen even felt as if he had returned to the time when he was seven or eight years old. His parents had just settled down in Jin Ling, and the family of three lived a plain but happy life here.

Seeing Ye Chen looking around, his whole person already a bit lost, Du Haiqing intentionally didn't speak, but let Ye Chen look and recall carefully.

After a long time, Ye Chen withdrew his thoughts before he was about to shed tears, held back his tears, and said to Du Haiqing with a smile, "Auntie Du must have put a lot of effort into tidying up this house..."

Du Haiqing nodded and smiled, "I put in a lot of effort, but I also enjoyed it."

As she spoke, Du Haiqing pointed to the simple old-fashioned leather sofa and said to Ye Chen, "Sit down and rest for a while!"

"Alright!" Ye Chen nodded. After sitting down, he couldn't help but sigh, "Auntie Du, this sofa is basically no different from the kind of sofa I had when I was a child... Can you still buy this style of sofa now?"

Du Haiqing smiled, "When we were young, leather sofas basically looked like this, unless those imported from Europe and America looked a bit more flamboyant. However, you can't buy this kind of sofa now. I specially asked someone to make it by hand."

Ye Chen nodded slightly, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "Auntie Du is really careful, and she really understands Dad very well. Her eye for many places is very similar to Dad's..."

After sighing, Ye Chen intentionally changed the subject, looked at Su Zhifei on the side, and asked, "Young Master Su, it must have been very hard for you this past half year, right?"

Su Zhifei stood up subconsciously and said respectfully, "Back to Mr. Ye, it wasn't hard... I also want to thank you for your guidance. If it weren't for you, I might still be that ignorant playboy..."

Ye Chen asked him, "I made you kneel and walk on a pilgrimage. Don't you hate me at all in your heart?"

Su Zhifei said truthfully, "Back to Mr. Ye, for the first month, I hated you to the bone every moment, and even fantasized in my heart that if one day I could be stronger than you, I would definitely make you pay back ten times, a hundred times. But... after a month, I gradually understood your good intentions..."

Ye Chen asked curiously, "My good intentions? In the eyes of many people, I am a person with strange tastes, often coming up with some strange ways to punish others. They are probably wishing they could kill me. Why do you alone say I have good intentions?"

Su Zhifei said sincerely, "Actually, you had many ways to punish me. Even if you wanted my life, no one could do anything to you. What's more, my life was saved by you in Japan back then. But you still gave me a way out and gave me a chance to turn over a new leaf..."

As he spoke, Su Zhifei pursed his lips and was silent for a moment, then added, "Moreover, I know that actually, you have always sent people to protect me secretly. I encountered life-threatening danger several times in the past half year, and being able to turn danger into safety in the end must be because you helped behind the scenes."

Ye Chen didn't speak, but Su Zhiyu on the side asked in surprise, "Brother, what life-threatening danger did you encounter? Why didn't I hear you mention it?"

Su Zhifei said, "In the second month of the journey, I began to treat this pilgrimage sincerely, so I dismissed the accompanying personnel that Mr. Ye had specially approved for me to bring, intending to truly rely on myself to reach the finish line..."

"I got sick after getting caught in the rain, so I stayed at a farmer's house. After all, many pilgrims stay along the way, so I didn't feel there was anything inappropriate..."

"As a result, the couple took advantage of the time when I was almost unconscious from a high fever and wanted to sell me to a kiln owner of a local black brick kiln;"

"I heard the two of them say that a healthy adult could be sold for 20,000 yuan, and to recruit a normal worker for the kiln, it would cost at least 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a month. The kiln owner would buy the person back, and as long as he exploited him for more than half a year, he would break even, and the rest would be pure profit;"

"At that time, the kiln owner had already driven over, and because I looked unconscious, he bargained with the other party and lowered the price by 5,000..."

Su Zhiyu widened her eyes and asked hurriedly, "And then?"

Su Zhifei said, "Later, I was carried into an SUV by the kiln owner and his three thugs. At that time, I wanted to call for help, but because of the high fever, I didn't even have the ability to open my eyes completely, let alone resist..."

"After getting in the car, I thought my life was definitely over, but I didn't expect that the kiln owner's SUV was rear-ended by a car not long after driving out. He took the thugs to get out of the car to argue with the other party, and all four of them were shot down by the other party..."

Su Zhiyu asked impatiently, "And then?!"

Su Zhifei said in a low voice, "The two people who fired the shots threw their four corpses into the ditch on the side of the road, then lifted me out of the SUV, and sent me back to that farmer's house..."

"Ah?!" Su Zhiyu was even more puzzled, "Why send you back again?"

Su Zhifei said, "They thought I was unconscious the whole time and didn't know anything, so they discussed in the car that they should send me back to that farmer's house, and then use guns to force the couple to take good care of me until I recovered, and then deal with the couple after I left. However, they didn't know that I heard all these conversations."

As he spoke, Su Zhifei looked at Ye Chen and said gratefully, "Mr. Ye, those two discussed in the car whether to report this matter to Manager Chen of Buckingham Palace, but the two felt that I might encounter such small things often in the future, and as long as my safety could be guaranteed, there was no need to report it every time. So I knew at that time that it was you who had always arranged for people to protect me secretly..."

Immediately after, Su Zhifei suddenly knelt on the ground, kowtowed heavily and respectfully, and said with incomparable gratitude, "Thank you, Mr. Ye, for saving my life time and time again. I will never forget it!"

Ye Chen reached out to help him up and said indifferently, "For this matter, you don't have to thank me. You are Auntie Du's son and Miss Su's brother, and you haven't committed any heinous crimes. So, reasonably and legally, I cannot take your life. Precisely because of this, I let you go on a pilgrimage. The original intention was actually to let you go through bitter cultivation;"

"Although I have never knelt and walked on a pilgrimage, from the age of eight to twenty-seven, for nearly twenty years, I have been experiencing all kinds of hardships. In my opinion, these hardships are also a kind of bitter cultivation;"

"Bitter cultivation can temper a person's character, hone a person's will, and reshape a person's soul. Regardless of whether you were pampered and arrogant before, or starving and self-deprecating, you can find a rebirth-like change in bitter cultivation;"

"If you can do these things, then it is a good thing for both you and your family;"

"If you can't do it, at least you will have lingering fears and scruples because of the punishment of this arduous journey, and you will definitely restrain yourself in the future;"

Speaking of this, Ye Chen changed the subject and said firmly, "But I definitely cannot let you lose your life on the road of bitter cultivation because of natural or man-made disasters! If that were the case, all of this would not only deviate from my original intention, but I would also be unable to explain it to Auntie Du and Miss Su."