When Cheng Yiran came home, he was surprised. Fu Hui was actually still there today. Fu Hui was sitting on the sofa while the family doctor crouched in front of him, sweating profusely as he treated… an injury?
“Brother, you’re hurt?” Cheng Yiran asked, but received no response.
Fu Hui was on the phone.
First, President Cui spoke briefly with Fu Hui and explained in detail who had borrowed his car. Then the bodyguard who had remained behind in the mountains gave Fu Hui another report. Fu Hui ended the call and slowly turned the phone back and forth in his palm, his expression dark and unreadable.
Cheng Yiran rarely saw him like this and instinctively felt that Fu Hui was in a bad mood. He didn’t dare say anything more and tactfully got up to leave.
But today, Fu Hui unusually called him back. “That person you had a conflict with…”
“Wen Lan?”
“Mm. He attends the same university as you.”
“Right.”
Fu Hui said nothing more. Cheng Yiran began to feel uneasy. So what exactly happened?
Meanwhile, the Wen brothers held another late-night family meeting.
In the end, they unanimously decided:
Give Lan Xi a bank card with a daily limit of one thousand yuan, along with a phone, so he wouldn’t go robbing people again.
For any major purchases, as long as he had a reasonable justification, the family would pay for them.
They would stop the medicine for now. It didn’t seem to accomplish much besides getting Wen Yue vomited on.
The curfew would remain unchanged. He had to be home before ten every night and could no longer go fooling around at private clubs with those good-for-nothing friends of his.
…
Wen Ming explained the general arrangement to Lan Xi.
Now that Lan Xi understood the value of money, he smacked his lips and said with satisfaction, “One thousand. A lot. I like it.”
Something in Wen Ming’s heart was lightly struck by those words. He sighed softly. “If you’d been able to say things like that earlier, how did we ever end up making such a mess of things?”
Lan Xi hadn’t heard him clearly. He wrapped himself around Wen Ming’s arm so tightly that Wen Ming broke out in a sweat. Lan Xi praised him, “You’re good to me.” Then added, “Better than Wen Yue.”
Wen Ming stiffened and smacked him lightly on the head. “That’s Big Brother. Why are you calling him Wen Yue? And stop saying things like that.” After speaking, Wen Ming remembered the things Wen Lan’s good-for-nothing friends had been whispering in his ear. He still couldn’t resist lecturing him. “You don’t actually believe what those friends of yours told you, do you? Are you trying to turn Big Brother and me against each other?”
Lan Xi curled his lip. “Wen Yue is… not good. Cut my hair. Made me drink medicine.”
Wen Ming relaxed. So that was all he meant… He reached up and pinched a few strands of Lan Xi’s hair between his fingers, catching the faintest glimpse of purple again. Had they not dyed it properly before? Why is the purple already showing through? And his hair seems to grow unusually fast…
“You like long hair that much?”
“Pretty.”
Wen Ming was helpless.
Wen Lan had never had this fixation before. When had he become so obsessed with growing his hair long?
“Boys should have short hair,” Wen Ming tried to persuade him.
Lan Xi gave him a sidelong look and squeezed out an insult he had learned from television. “Bumpkin.”
Wen Ming: “…”
Lan Xi abruptly added, “Wen Yue is the biggest bumpkin.”
Wen Ming had been speechless, but hearing that nearly made him laugh.
Big Brother really was old-fashioned.
After explaining the new rules, Wen Ming took Lan Xi upstairs to sleep. “You’ll keep going to school tomorrow…” At that point, something occurred to him. “What’s going on with Fang Nianqing? That day outside the police station, I saw you… touching his face.”
“His face hurt.” Lan Xi neglected to mention that he was the one who had hit it.
Wen Ming was faintly displeased. “And he just stood there and let you touch him?”
Lan Xi: “Mm.”
Wen Ming thought Fang Nianqing really did seem a little suspicious.
“If you follow him again next time…” Wen Ming was already speaking through gritted teeth.
Lan Xi yawned. “Won’t.”
Too poor.
Wen Ming hadn’t expected Lan Xi to be especially easy to deal with today. A little soothing in the right direction and he behaved, without driving Wen Ming half insane. Wen Ming almost felt flattered by the change.
The moment that thought occurred to him, Wen Ming silently cursed himself for being sick in the head. What, have I gotten addicted to being infuriated by him?
After hesitating for a moment, Wen Ming decided to take advantage of the fact that Lan Xi was actually listening to him. He simply sat down beside the bed. “Do you still like him?”
Lan Xi: “No.”
His eyelids were already about to close, but something suddenly occurred to him. He opened his eyes again, looked at Wen Ming, and said, “Not as good as you.”
Wen Ming shot to his feet, his lips pressed tightly together. “How can you compare him to me? I’m different. I’m… your brother.”
Lan Xi: “So?”
Wen Ming met his gaze.
Lan Xi took absolutely everything for granted and did whatever he pleased. Compared with the old Wen Lan, he was even worse in that regard, and he still didn’t think he had done anything wrong. Yet perhaps precisely because he was so completely open about it, Wen Ming could somehow glimpse a trace of innocence in his eyes.
Wen Ming’s first instinct was to jump up and lecture him for saying things like that so casually.
But Lan Xi yawned again, rolled over, and said, “Brother, good night.”
Wen Ming later couldn’t even remember how he had walked out of the room.
When Wen Lan was little, there had been a period when he was relatively normal. Perhaps because he was still young, he had liked playing with his brothers. But gradually, as the elder Mr. Wen began taking him to more and more social functions, Wen Lan started returning home with a faint hostility toward his two brothers.
Wen Lan’s mother had thought there was something wrong with that and privately tried to correct him several times, but it had only provoked even deeper resentment from Wen Lan.
One could say Wen Ming and Wen Lan had never been this close… Never close enough for Wen Lan to cling to his arm and refuse to let go, and certainly never close enough for him to call Wen Ming “Brother.”
Wen Ming had been driven half mad by Lan Xi during this period, tormented until he was ready to lose his mind. So seeing Wen Lan like this today somehow felt like rain finally falling after a long drought.
Wen Ming’s footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Lan Xi rolled over again in bed. He hadn’t fallen asleep at all. He had noticed that Wen Ming’s body temperature had risen extremely quickly just now.
For a succubus, body temperature was the most accurate indicator of emotional fluctuations.
So he likes hearing that. Lan Xi licked his lips. These angels are so strange. Wouldn’t it be easier to just sleep together? They insist on hearing sweet talk.
Thanks to the contribution made by the name Liang Yuecheng, Lan Xi’s relationship with the Wen brothers temporarily eased.
Lan Xi went to university as usual.
Now that he had money, he could buy textbooks for himself. Struggling his way through them, he finally caught up through Grade 6 Chinese, Volume 2. But beyond that, he hit a wall.
The language of Heaven was strange too…
Something that required an entire long string of words in demon language could be summed up with only a few characters in Heaven’s language.
Lan Xi shook the junior-high textbook in his hands.
And the material in this book was even stranger. An entire sentence in Heaven’s language could somehow be compressed into only one or two characters.
Elio’s Notes: Junior-high Chinese begins introducing Classical Chinese (文言文), whose grammar and vocabulary are often much more compressed than modern written Chinese. This is why Lan Xi suddenly feels as though entire sentences are being reduced to only a few characters.
Unable to understand it no matter how hard he tried, Lan Xi tossed the book aside and walked out, just in time to encounter the Wen brothers heading to the company.
Lan Xi felt that he had discovered a useful trick.
“Brother.”
Both men turned around.
Lan Xi accurately fixed his gaze on Wen Ming and pointed at him. “Today… take me.”
Wen Ming froze, then turned his head and met Wen Yue’s strange look.
There’s nothing strange about this. Nothing strange at all. Wen Ming repeated the words silently before answering, “Mm.”
Lan Xi came downstairs, grabbed onto his arm, and followed him into the car.
Wen Ming’s temperature rose again.
So did Wen Yue’s.
Through skin contact, Lan Xi could force another person’s body temperature to rise, creating the illusion of intense emotional fluctuations.
But these angels hardly ever required him to touch them. Every time they saw him, their temperatures shot upward all on their own.
Of course, most of the time they were probably just angry.
Only Fu Hui was different… Lan Xi had sensed Fu Hui’s temperature spike sharply only once.
It had been when Fu Hui asked him, “Did you deliberately wait by the roadside for someone to pick you up and take you home?”
Before that, Fu Hui’s temperature had barely fluctuated at all.
Lan Xi thought this might be worth recording and comparing. Perhaps he could use the differences to find a way to subdue them…
Thinking of this, Lan Xi angrily ground his teeth again.
Why is dealing with other angels never this troublesome? …Fine. I suppose seraphs really are different.
He decided to buy a notebook and write all of this down.
“Your university is holding its anniversary celebration today?” Wen Ming’s voice sounded beside him.
Lan Xi raised his eyelids. “Mm?” Through the car window, he saw the banners outside.
One look told Wen Ming that Lan Xi probably hadn’t paid any attention to the event. “Didn’t they specify what you were supposed to wear? If I’d known, I would’ve had you change into a suit before leaving home.”
Lan Xi had no interest in changing into a suit. He pointed at a cake shop outside. “Want to eat.”
Then, with practiced ease, he added, “Brother.”
Wen Ming’s temperature rose again. He cursed under his breath. “The way you break up your sentences…”
Lan Xi: ?
Seraphs are always inexplicably sensitive!
“Wait in the car.” Wen Ming got out anyway.
Only after buying the cake and coming back did Wen Ming suddenly realize he could have just sent his assistant to do it.
Lan Xi couldn’t have cared less what internal struggle Wen Ming was going through. He accepted the cake with great satisfaction.
Wen Ming couldn’t resist calling after him. “Aren’t you going to say bye-bye?”
Carrying the cake, Lan Xi responded somewhat perfunctorily. “Mm-hm. Bye-bye.”
Watching Lan Xi walk through the university gates, Wen Ming actually felt a little disappointed that he hadn’t called him “Brother” one more time.
He drew in a deep breath, then exhaled.
“To the company,” Wen Ming instructed the driver.
The Bentley turned around and passed a black car fitted with bulletproof glass. Wen Ming couldn’t help looking at it twice.
It looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t remember from where.
It wasn’t until he arrived at the company that Wen Ming suddenly remembered… He seemed to have seen that car before at the Fu family estate!
But the previous matter had more or less been resolved already.
There probably wouldn’t be any problem.
None of the television shows Lan Xi had watched had ever featured a university anniversary celebration, so he didn’t really understand what one was. He merely looked at the lively scenes all around him, found them too noisy, and casually chose somewhere to sit and eat his cake.
At the same time, he took out the notebook he had just bought on the way and began making records.
“May 17. Wen Ming’s temperature rose. Triggering event: …”
Lan Xi paused.
Ah. Will I ever have a chance to return to Hell?
If I accomplish some enormous merit for Hell but never make it back, wouldn’t all of it go to waste?
Hell needs to know how difficult all of this has been for me too—how many hardships and dangers I had to overcome!
Lan Xi excitedly rubbed himself against the chair.
What if… what if my achievements are so great that everyone chooses me to become the new Demon King?
Lan Xi lowered his head, tore out the page, and began again from the beginning.
“This is how it happened. I am a succubus from Hell…”
He grew tired after writing for a while.
Sigh.
Such a short sentence took so, so much writing in demon language.
If he became the Demon King someday, he would promote Heaven’s language throughout Hell.
Lan Xi was happily dreaming when he suddenly sensed someone watching him. The gaze was so intense that it was impossible to ignore.
Lan Xi abruptly turned around and met Fu Hui’s eyes.
Fu Hui was walking among a crowd of people clustered around him like stars around the moon, clearly in the middle of speaking to someone.
Yet his eyes remained fixed on Lan Xi without the slightest intention of moving away.
It was as though he wanted to cut Lan Xi open and see exactly what was inside.
That day, President Cui had said over the phone, “The person using the car wasn’t from the Cui family. Second Young Master Wen borrowed it temporarily. He was afraid that if the person he was picking up saw a Wen family car, he’d run.”
The bodyguard stationed in the mountains had reported, “I figured it out. The Wen family were the ones who took Miss A-Lan away. The hotel staff are very afraid to talk about it. Sir, this whole thing is really strange.”
There was nothing strange about it.
A mute girl could be a boy.
And A-Lan, of course, could also be…
“Wen Lan probably stayed at that hotel for more than half a month,” Fu Hui had said.
The bodyguard was shocked. “Has the Wen family lost their minds? How did they dare put him right under your nose?”
“It isn’t hard to guess. The Wen brothers probably wanted to send him somewhere far away and hide him from me.”
No one could have expected that they would send him directly into Fu Hui’s path instead.
Next
Leave a Reply