Chapter 25 - 1#
Chongxi#
After Huang Yiyue left the lounge, her first move was to find Xie Yan. Upon receiving her hint, Xie Yan quickly left his seat and went to the garden with Huang Yiyue.
In the quiet place under the flower trellis, the shadows of vines danced, and silence reigned.
Huang Yiyue said sourly, “I asked, there’s nothing between the two of them. Ye Sheng is lucky to meet a noble person even on a train. But with that freak’s personality, he can’t grasp the opportunity even if it’s placed in front of him.”
Xie Yan nodded, unsure whether he felt more disappointed or relieved. “Old Master Qin told me that if the person is confirmed, bring him over tonight for him to see. He is on the fifth floor now.” He asked again, “Are you sure Ye Sheng was born in a yin year, yin month, and yin day?”
Huang Yiyue was certain: “I’m sure. I’m his biological mother, of course I’m sure.”
Xie Yan revealed a slight smile and nodded, “Okay, thank you for your hard work. Sorry to trouble you for Wenci’s sake.”
Huang Yiyue smiled, full of tenderness: “Not at all. Wenci is so young, how can he be locked in the Qin family for the rest of his life? Ye Sheng came from Yinshan, marrying into the Qin family is actually an opportunity for him to change his destiny. This decision is good for both of them.”
Xie Yan nodded, gave her an elevator card, and said, “Take Ye Sheng to the fifth floor via the private elevator. Someone will take you to see Old Master Qin. Tell him to speak less if he doesn’t know how to talk.”
Huang Yiyue took the elevator card and nodded, “Okay.”
She wasn’t afraid that Ye Sheng would run away. A seventeen-year-old boy with no power or influence, being targeted by the Qin family who could cover the sky with one hand in Huaicheng, was like a fish on a chopping board, with no escape.
Huang Yiyue was out for a long time. In the lounge, Ye Sheng’s phone had charged to thirty percent.
After unplugging the charging cable, Ye Sheng searched for information on the Xie family again, focusing on the physical data of each member of the Xie family to see if anyone had a bad heart, liver, kidney, or eyes and needed an organ transplant or a cornea transplant.
He guessed a lot of reasons on the train and felt that the most realistic one was that Huang Yiyue needed to use his organs to save someone’s life.
He even speculated whether his half-brother had leukemia. Huang Yiyue tricked him into coming here, wanting him to be a “mobile blood bank” and donate some bone marrow by the way.
He was poor and blank, and the only valuable things on him were his organs. But the information showed that Xie family’s three sons and one daughter were all very healthy.
Xie Wenci didn’t need a heart transplant.
——But maybe he needed a brain transplant.
Ye Sheng went back and searched for information on the Qin family to see if any of the younger generation of the Qin family had any terminal illnesses. Huang Yiyue tried every means to trick him into coming to the banquet held at the Qin family’s main residence. There was a high probability that the person who needed his organs was not from the Xie family but from the Qin family.
Thinking about it this way made sense.
Selling a son for glory was not surprising given Huang Yiyue’s character.
The person Huang Yiyue was going to take him to see later was probably the “buyer” from the Qin family.
Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth and accepted all this without surprise. When he left the western-style building, he picked up a piece of broken mirror and hid it in his pocket.
At Qin Liushuang’s birthday banquet, the Qin family had all kinds of concerns, so tonight should just be a simple “inspection of goods”. However, just in case, Ye Sheng still put this mirror, which was as thin as a knife, into his pocket.
The door of the lounge was pushed open.
Huang Yiyue brought up a plate of cake and urged with a smile, “Sheng Sheng, eat something, and then let’s go meet someone.”
Ye Sheng hadn’t eaten all night and was indeed a little hungry.
He didn’t refuse and ate the cake slowly under Huang Yiyue’s gaze. The cake entered his stomach, awakening the abundant and vigorous energy in the young man’s body.
Ye Sheng couldn’t help thinking that for a strong young man like him, Huang Yiyue had good vision to sell his organs for money. Her calculations were quite good.
Huang Yiyue said with obvious anxiety, “Let’s go to the fifth floor after eating.”
Ye Sheng picked up his phone and stood up from the sofa: “Mm.”
The layout of this building in the Qin residence was complex with many restrictions. There were eight elevators. Huang Yiyue took a card, went to the elevator at the end of the corridor, swiped the card, and went directly to the fifth floor.
Ye Sheng’s expression was calm, but Huang Yiyue was not. The matter was already set in stone. Huang Yiyue, full of malice in her heart, took the initiative to say, “Sheng Sheng, do you know who I’m taking you to see?”
Ye Sheng asked knowingly: “Who?”
Huang Yiyue said meaningfully: “A person who will change your destiny. You will thank me.”
Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth, noncommittal. Following behind Huang Yiyue, led by a steward, they walked into a room with retro decoration.
Right next to the entrance was a rosewood multi-treasure shelf standing against the wall, filled with various expensive antiques and collectibles. Directly in front hung a landscape painting. The sofa, tables, and chairs were backed by green mountains and rivers, majestic and magnificent.
There was an old man in the room.
The old man sat in a wheelchair, with gray hair, wearing a Tang suit, thin to the bone. The whole person showed an abnormal nervousness, as if he had been tortured by something for a long time, and his spirit was listless. Now he was still holding a string of Buddhist beads in his hand, sliding them one by one.
As soon as Ye Sheng came in, he smelled a strange scent of Buddhist incense.
There were two people beside the old man, one was his grandson, and the other was a servant.
Seeing Ye Sheng and Huang Yiyue coming over, the servant whispered: “Sir, Mrs. Xie and Young Master Xie are here.”
Old Master Qin slowly raised his head, glanced at Huang Yiyue, and then his gaze fell on Ye Sheng, slightly stunned.
He was tortured by monsters to the point of mental trance. He treated Chongxi (marrying to counteract bad luck) as the last straw to save his life. He was completely desperate and didn’t care who the person for Chongxi was.
Old Master Qin didn’t like men and wasn’t interested in men. He just wanted to find someone to transfer the disaster on him. But the moment he saw the young man’s appearance, having seen countless people, he was still amazed.
He was looking at Ye Sheng, and Ye Sheng was also looking at him. Seeing that senile old man, Ye Sheng’s pitch-black pupils revealed extreme shock and speechlessness.
He thought Huang Yiyue only wanted some of his organs. Now seeing the “buyer”, he felt that Huang Yiyue really wanted his life——looking at this half-dead appearance, all the internal organs probably needed to be replaced, right?
However, Old Master Qin was not interested in men. No matter how good-looking a man was, it was the same. He looked away after just one glance and then said, “Sit.”
Instead, the Second Young Master of the Qin family, Qin Bei, spoke up: “Are the date of birth and the eight characters correct?”
Huang Yiyue squeezed out a smile: “They are correct.”
Qin Bei’s gaze towards Ye Sheng suddenly had many layers of meaning, contemptuous and presumptuous, and even vaguely with a trace of expectation. He and Qin Shengyan and Qin Heyu were half-brothers. Although he was an illegitimate son of the Qin family, he was called the Second Young Master because he was favored by the Old Master. Tonight, from beginning to end, he had been accompanying the Old Master here with full filial piety and hadn’t gone down.
Qin Bei instructed the maid: “You go check his body.”
The maid agreed, came to Ye Sheng, and asked him to extend his hand.
Hearing about the physical examination, Ye Sheng was completely sure of tonight’s dirty deal. He didn’t resist at all and extended his hand.
The maid took his pulse. As Old Master Qin’s personal maid in his later years, she certainly couldn’t be an ordinary nurse. After probing for a while, she turned back and said to Qin Bei: “Second Young Master, very healthy.”
Ye Sheng kept looking at the old man in the wheelchair. He probably guessed who this person was. The former owner of the western-style building across the lake, the seventy-year-old Old Master of the Qin family who had long retired, and also the… father of those ghost children.
At this time, Qin Bei looked straight at Ye Sheng and said, “Take off your clothes.”
Ye Sheng: “?”
All the analysis in Ye Sheng’s head was stunned by these words. He looked up at Qin Bei.
Qin Bei made no secret of his interest in his eyes and said: “Whether you are healthy or not, I can’t tell when you are wearing clothes.”
Ye Sheng: “???”
In a backward place like Yinshan, Ye Sheng rarely encountered homosexuals. After all, his appearance didn’t attract homosexuals either.
But in the outside world, same-sex marriage had long been legal. There were even rich people who spent heavily on artificial wombs to let their spouses have children. The rich second generations in Huaicheng were basically open to everything, men and women alike. A big reason why Qin Bei could get Old Master Qin’s favor was that Old Master Qin felt he was like him when he was young.
Qin Bei was indeed very interested in Ye Sheng’s face. Just like Wang Gaoyang’s evaluation of Ye Sheng, it was exciting. If he met Ye Sheng on the street normally, he might only think that this was a ruthless person not to be trifled with. After being amazed, he wouldn’t have any ideas. But when terms like “Chongxi” and “male wife” were attached to Ye Sheng, that frost-like indifference seemed to have a layer of ambiguous meaning, bringing a fatal attraction.
Old Master Qin frowned: “Xiao Bei, what are you doing?”
Qin Bei said hypocritically: “Grandpa, the master said it’s best if he doesn’t have any hidden diseases or scars on his body. Grandson just wants to help you check.”
Old Master Qin relaxed his brows, waved his hand, and let him be.
Ye Sheng didn’t come here to be disgusted by homosexuals. Staring at Old Master Qin, he spoke calmly and indifferently: “But I think, choosing a young body with suitable eight characters can’t cure the illness on your body either.”
“?!” Huang Yiyue looked up in astonishment. She looked at Ye Sheng with unconcealed shock, her pupils dilating.
Ye Sheng knew about Chongxi? When did he know?
Qin Bei was not as shocked as she was. After all, for a poor ghost from Yinshan like Ye Sheng to be able to marry into the Qin family was a great fortune. He assumed he was voluntary.
“What do you want to say?”
Ye Sheng took out the mirror he had picked up from the toilet from his pocket.
This mirror had stayed in the dark and damp western-style building crawling with ghost children for a long time, and it already carried a strange aura. Especially since those anomalies were all “liquid”, the broken edges of the mirror seemed to be stained with something black.
Old Master Qin was originally listless. The moment Ye Sheng took out that mirror, he sensed the aura and looked over. Thud! The Buddhist beads in his hand were instantly crushed by him, falling all over the floor with a crackling sound!
Old Master Qin’s body convulsed, his eyes rolled back, as if he was about to faint from fright.
“Sir? Sir!”
The maid noticed something was wrong with him, shouted immediately, and threw herself on him to shake his body.
Qin Bei was also frightened and turned his head: “Grandpa!”
The maid quickly fed Old Master Qin a few pills.
Old Master Qin came back to his senses. His hands were still trembling wildly. His skinny hands clutched the wheelchair armrests tightly. The moment he saw Ye Sheng, he screamed crazily again, terrified, and incoherent: “Get out! Get out, get out! Get out, stay away from me, get out!”
Ye Sheng was not surprised. His cold white fingers played with that mirror.
He took a step forward, and Old Master Qin screamed.
Qin Bei also noticed the abnormality. He stood in front of Old Master Qin, spread his arms, and roared with rage: “Stop! What are you doing?!”
Ye Sheng stopped, held the mirror in his palm, and said indifferently: “Do you understand now? What your grandfather needs to cure is not his body, but his brain.”
Qin Bei’s face was dark: “Where did you get the thing in your hand?”
Ye Sheng said: “Took it from across the lake.”
Qin Bei gritted his teeth and said: “You went to the other side of the lake?!”
“Mm.” Ye Sheng nodded lightly. He spread his hands, and the cold arc light of the chandelier reflected by the edge of the broken mirror was like a murderous line.
“I probably also got some evil things on me. Your grandfather looks at me like he’s seeing a ghost now. I advise you to find someone else.”
Several people’s faces turned pale.
Huang Yiyue was completely confused by what was happening in front of her. But seeing Ye Sheng leaving mercilessly, she was horrified in her heart. She quickly grabbed Ye Sheng’s wrist and widened her eyes: “No! Ye Sheng! Don’t go!”
The name shouted from his biological mother’s mouth was like a curse to him.
Only this time, Ye Sheng turned his head to look at her. His black and white eyes were clear and cold, and there seemed to be a layer of faint blue mist at the junction of his pupils, strangely beautiful to the extreme.
Ye Sheng wanted to laugh a little.
But he wasn’t used to laughing, so he didn’t bother to laugh. He pried open Huang Yiyue’s fingers bit by bit. Ye Sheng lowered his eyes and gently placed that mirror in Huang Yiyue’s hand. He stood straight, his thin waist like a bamboo in the snow, his voice light and faint: “Huang Yiyue, the banquet is over. Happy cooperation.”
Huang Yiyue listened to Ye Sheng’s bland tone, and her blood ran cold.
The mirror surface was cold and sharp. It was as if Ye Sheng had placed a blade in her hand. If she wasn’t careful, she would be cut bloody.
“Sheng Sheng…” Huang Yiyue opened her mouth with trembling lips.
Ye Sheng ignored her again and walked towards the door. Since he was very young, his parents had been the source of all the hostility and hatred in his heart.
On the 1444 train carriage, every time he turned his head to look at the mountains gradually fading away outside the window, his memory seemed to rewind with time and space to every rainy night of hunger, cold, and torture by poverty. When he was just born, he was almost strangled to death by his mother and almost buried alive in the back mountain by his father.
Grandma told him that the grace of birth was heavy, and told him about the helplessness of adults. But after abandonment, insult, abuse, and deception, Huang Yiyue finally tore off the last layer of illusion with threats and lies. He believed that Grandma’s spirit in heaven would no longer say words like “forgive”.
Huang Yiyue’s worry was right; he was a freak.
Let’s start with that mirror and let her see what kind of freak she gave birth to.
“Sheng Sheng!”
Huang Yiyue thought of Xie Yan’s instructions and became anxious all of a sudden, chasing out on her high heels. But Ye Sheng didn’t go too far because a group of people walked slowly from the opposite side of the corridor and blocked him. The head of the Qin family, Qin Siyuan, a bunch of black-clothed bodyguards, and Luo Xingyan.
Luo Xingyan held a tablet in his hand, standing in the corridor with a head of arrogant red hair, smiling to reveal two sharp little tiger teeth, looking at Ye Sheng provocatively: “Ouch, we meet again?”
Qin Siyuan followed behind Luo Xingyan, his expression a bit stiff and at a loss.
Ye Sheng raised his eyebrows, with a cold face saying “Am I familiar with you?”.
Luo Xingyan said: “Why are you in a hurry to leave? Go back, let’s have a good chat.”
Ye Sheng was unmoved.
Luo Xingyan pulled a long face seriously: “Ye Sheng, I am speaking to you now as an S-class executive officer of the Non-Natural Bureau.”
“Your native place, your school, your relatives, and your friends, I have contacted the government and pulled them all out. If we don’t chat now, we will still have to chat when we go to Huaian University.” Luo Xingyan was in a good mood. Two shallow dimples appeared on his wheat-colored skin as he smiled. He teased maliciously: “Crown Princess, please cooperate with the investigation. Don’t make it difficult for us.”
He had no relatives or friends, but his native place and school were there.
Ye Sheng was shocked by his “Crown Princess” address, his scalp tingling.
He thought to himself, he really had a grudge against the Non-Natural Bureau.
Luo Xingyan said: “Let’s go in and talk. Old Master Qin happens to be inside too. I can figure out two things together.”
Ye Sheng was a lone star of heavenly evil. Seeing Luo Xingyan’s attitude, what he wanted to investigate thoroughly was probably mostly about the western-style building. He was at most an eyewitness.
Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth, didn’t say much, and followed in. Just take it as seeking justice for those wives who died in vain on the operating table.
Inside the room, Qin Bei and the maid were surrounding Old Master Qin, whose eyes were rolling back, constantly feeding him medicine and water. After a few pills and a few cups of hot water, Old Master Qin’s condition finally improved slowly.
As soon as his vision cleared, he saw Ye Sheng returning at the door, followed by a group of people.
Old Master Qin was stunned.
Luo Xingyan almost immediately saw the abnormality on the old man in the wheelchair.
He was an executive officer. Before leaving that western-style building, he casually cleaned up the ghost children that popped out, but those ghost children seemed to be endless and uncleanable, occupying the entire building.
And the culprit who caused everything was this old man.
Luo Xingyan held the tablet and sat directly over, sat on the sofa and said: “You are Qin Wenrui?”
Old Master Qin knew his identity. After the great shock, he was trembling with fear. He nodded and trembled: “Yes. Does the officer have anything to do with me?”
Luo Xingyan didn’t bother to talk nonsense with him: “Ask you something about the western-style building across the lake.”
Old Master Qin’s face changed, and he looked at Qin Siyuan for help, but Qin Siyuan could only give a bitter smile to his father helplessly.
Luo Xingyan went straight to the point: “Just tell me directly, what was the thing you locked with a rope in the room at the end of the corridor on the right on the first floor forty years ago?”
Old Master Qin’s face turned pale, and he almost fainted again. But Luo Xingyan’s tiger-and-leopard-like eyes stared at him coldly. This oppression made him know that even if he fainted, the Non-Natural Bureau had ways to force him to spit out the truth. Old Master Qin was sweating coldly, clutching the wheelchair wheels, his throat dry and lips parched, not knowing how to speak.
Luo Xingyan continued: “There are iron chains and hemp ropes on the four corners of the bed, and there is dried blood on them. Qin Wenrui, tell me, what exactly was locked in there?!”
His suddenly raised voice pierced into Old Master Qin’s mind like a needle, forcing him to recall those bloody pasts filled with madness and grotesqueness. His heart throbbed with pain. Old Master Qin finally collapsed and said hoarsely: “Inside… inside was locked my third wife.”
Luo Xingyan frowned: “Locked your third wife?”
Old Master Qin nodded, his tone dejected: “Yes, she suddenly suffered from madness when she was pregnant and often self-harmed. I was afraid she would hurt herself and the child in her belly, so I locked her in that room and tied her limbs.”
Luo Xingyan: “What madness?”
Old Master Qin: “I don’t know. Just talking nonsense, liking to bite herself, and occasionally stabbing her stomach with sharp objects.”
Luo Xingyan: “What happened later? Where did she go?”
Old Master Qin was silent for a long time and said hoarsely: “She… she died on the delivery table during childbirth, at Cheng’en Gynecological Hospital.”
Luo Xingyan typed the six words “Cheng’en Gynecological Hospital” on the computer.