CH 29

Ch 29 - Second Generation Ancestor x Illegitimate Child: Really Learnt

A few grey clouds hung on the horizon, resembling the burnt ash residue of a cigarette, lifeless.

The room, which was blocked from the light by buildings, was like a blackout box, there wasn’t even the light of a single street lamp, let alone that of the gloomy, pale moonlight.

It was as if Lin Sui was trapped in the middle of the sea, surrounded by vast darkness on all sides.

When one’s sight was useless like this, the other senses became infinitely amplified.

The ice-cold chain slid along with the movement of his arm, and Lin Sui discovered that the imprisonment he was experiencing was not at all like how he’d imagined it when he first woke up.

He had thought he was wearing a collar, but in fact that cold touch extended down from the sides of his neck, it was actually crossed chains in the shape of an ‘X’.

Yan Qin was softer than him, even if he’d acted like this and gotten to this point, he was surprisingly still unwilling to restrain him by the neck.

“You’re skilled.”

Lin Sui leaned back, tilting his head in Yan Qin’s direction, his tone complex and hard to make out.

“It was the young master who taught me.”

Yan Qin approached Lin Sui and grabbed the golden chain on Lin Sui’s body, flattening it against him neither gently nor heavily.

That, to European natural theologians of the 18th century1, was the existence of God’s useless design on man, sending feedback to the subject according to its neurological perception, and also receiving the corresponding reaction.

Like a plant breaking through the ground, and like a flower blooming at the top of a branch.

Yan Qin’s voice was reverent and humble, yet conveying a hint of brazenness and arrogance.

Carrying an unclear and unspoken anger, as cold as if it were being used to bind the dead.

Yan Qin expected that Lin Sui would not be too flustered or angry, he was far more cunning than people imagined, and his soul, hidden underneath his arrogant skin, had a certain kind of calmness and confidence of one who could see through everything.

The more he was like this, the more he wanted to make him fall.

To see the arrogant weep, and the dominant beg for forgiveness.

“What is the young master thinking about? How you got here, and how to escape?”

Yan Qin’s voice was low, like the night breeze passing through the vast sea, intimately whispering into the ear of the young man laying on the same bed as him.

His fingers with clearly defined knuckles deftly dug into the young man’s soft black hair, and he carelessly stroked and rubbed it.

“It seems like you have some sort of certainty that the Lin family won’t find me?”

Lin Sui found his movements a little difficult to bear, and his brows creased tightly.

“I hate dogs that bite people.”

That thin layer of skin seemed to have been rubbed raw by the chain, causing a slight sting of pain.

Lin Sui didn’t like pain, so the cold and hatred in his tone was a bit real.

“A feral dog naturally can’t be placed on par with an obedient house dog, otherwise you wouldn’t have any other thoughts in your mind.”

“Why did you suddenly get tired of playing? Is it because someone showed up who was more to your liking?”

Yan Qin’s speech was not fast, it was not a hysterical interrogation, but rather a repressed calm, like the quiet flow of a dangerous underground river.

“Young master really treats him with exceeding generosity, even going as far as hiding him so well.”

Yan Qin’s eyes were gloomy, and a smile grew in his great anger, making him feel all the more dangerous.

“The car I sent to follow them was surprisingly shaken off, young master is really unwilling to let others know even a little about his identity, it really makes one quite envious.”

Yan Qin intimately pressed the place above Lin Sui’s heart, exerting force with his fingers, feeling Lin Sui’s light trembling, not pitying his miserable state at all.

This precious and hidden thing was exactly what was destroying Yan Qin.

He thought he was special.

But now that someone seemingly more special than him had appeared, how could he keep himself calm?

Even now, even at this point, he couldn’t even justify his questions.

He didn’t dare to turn on the light, didn’t dare to appear in the light, for fear of seeing the cold sneer on Lin Sui’s face, and for fear his own wretchedness would make Lin Sui despise him even more.

This affection of his had long since broken down in tatters, he didn’t want this shattered, irreparable thing, anxiously holding it out with both hands in front of the person again, letting the person grind it into powder with his feet.

How he wanted to clutch Lin Sui by the neck and madly beg him to love him, but he also didn’t want to let himself appear like a loser who had nothing other than a miserable ending.

Love was something that couldn’t be begged for, he was well aware of that.

He wished he could cut open his heart and give it to that callous, mistrustful man to look at, and to present his loyalty and love, but he was afraid of being dismissed as not being worth even a glance.

How he wanted to tell Lin Sui: six years ago I picked up your discarded cigarette, and whenever I missed you I would cautiously take a drag, because I would even be saddened by the speed at which it burned.

But he wouldn’t tell him, at least not now. If Lin Sui could love him, perhaps one day he would use it to jokingly express the adoration he had for him at the time, but if Lin Sui didn’t love him, then it would just be a worthless secret.

Every time Yan Qin’s mood sank, his fingertips dropped another inch.

“I thought A-Sui’s heart was very narrow, only able to hold one person when remembering grudges or favours, but now it seems that I misunderstood.”

Yan Qin’s hand grabbed the white of the full moon, pulling at that lively blue butterfly swaying above, fluttering unstably, as if it were about to fall.

His fingerprints floated on the soft white satin, like sparse, slanting shadows.

Lin Sui’s mood went through numerous changes, and he bit down on Yan Qin’s shoulder, which was the only place he could touch in his current state.

“Idiot!”

His teeth ground against the shoulder with a faint sense of anger.

Only an idiot would think too much, only an idiot would be fooled.

Lin Sui hoped Yan Qin would hate him, that would be better than Yan Qin’s current idiotic state of begging.

Yan Qin only thought that Lin Sui was disdainful of him because of his words, so he concealed his sense of loss as he stroked Lin Sui’s hair and said: “The young master’s bite is soft, I’ll teach you.”

Now that the game had changed, the instructor should naturally be replaced as well.

Yan Qin touched Lin Sui’s teeth, and touched his soft, satiny skin with the fingers of his other hand.

Yan Qin finally captured that butterfly and tore off its wings, coveting his weakness with despicable pleasure.

“Yan Qin.”

Lin Sui called Yan Qin’s name out loud, spurred on by the pain.

His lips were deathly pale and his expression was cold, the words he spat out were like sharp arrows tempered with ice, as if he wanted to crush the man in front of him.

How could Yan Qin be willing to hurt Lin Sui? But Yan Qin also wanted to hurt him more, to become firmly engraved into his heart.

His love was not pure and bright, it was like a flower blooming in the dark and damp soil, and others normally dismissed it without a glance.

But even so, he still hoped Lin Sui would look at him more, even if it was just a glance, even if it was through unbearable means.

His desire to destroy and his desire to treasure were clearly not aligned with each other, but right now they were actually not mutually opposed.

The golden chains were dull in the long dark night, coldly intertwining as they imprisoned the dispirited butterfly.

Right now, Lin Sui really wanted to kill Yan Qin with a knife, he’d never seen anything so outrageous.

Lin Sui was so used to some things that he had a deep-rooted impression of them, and he’d actually forgotten he’d long since changed to a new world.

There was no such thing as a human cauldron constitution, let alone qi running through the meridians to keep the body safe.

Lin Sui took in a few deep breaths, struggling at the end of his endurance.

This was true resistance, in much the manner of fighting to his last breath.

Yan Qin was a bit at a loss, he didn’t understand how Lin Sui was having an attack in the middle of it. He was afraid he’d really hurt Lin Sui seriously, so he drew him into his arms and carried him as he went to turn on the lights.

The sudden glare made Lin Sui narrow his eyes.

His eyes were sore and watery, combining with the pain from just now.

“I should have sent you to learn those things back then, you haven’t made any progress in six or seven years. If you want to take your revenge against me, you don’t need to be this soft.”

Yan Qin looked at the anger growing on the beauty’s face, and pursed his lips as he muttered: “I studied, I paid attention.”

He was a little hurt and aggrieved, clearly nothing had happened, he had been paying attention.

“You studied?” Lin Sui sneered, “I’ve never seen someone as clumsy as you, is this the result?”

“You still come to threaten me after learning like that, can you guess what I think?”

“Rubbish.”

Lin Sui was very annoyed, so annoyed he wished he could throw the System into Yan Qin’s brain to have him recall his memories.

In these circumstances, if someone unfamiliar with the situation was looking in, they would wonder who was actually kidnapping who.

Even if the poor-tempered young master had been reduced to a prisoner, he still arrogantly pointed his chin and issued orders, cold light flashing in his passionate eyes, his soft, white, satiny body like fine rice paper, like a scroll with fallen plum blossoms drawn on it.

Yan Qin looked at him, and the darkness in his eyes was hard to make out.

He felt like he was special again, but then remembered that Lin Sui was better towards another, and his heart became even more bitter.

“I’ll do well.”

Yan Qin traced his fingers over the blue butterfly’s wings, his eyes gloomy, like a traveller looking for directions.

Yan Qin knew that maybe he shouldn’t be like this, he clearly could use stronger, more irrefusable methods to get what he wanted, but he was unable to stay firm when faced with Lin Sui.

From beginning to end, he was afraid of being completely rejected, even if he’d already come to this point like a desperate madman.

He still wanted Lin Sui to love him, to consider him special, but compared to this he was even more afraid that Lin Sui would lose his proud arrogance, afraid he would fall from the clouds.

It was ridiculous, he was trying to lock up and keep an owner.

Love was such a complicated feeling, Yan Qin himself didn’t even understand.

“Really?”

Lin Sui’s expression was blank, to the point that it was faintly distorted with rage.

The System let out a fierce, gleeful laugh at his misfortune. Lin Sui didn’t know what it was happy about, how was this situation something it could find funny? It was also an idiot.

Yan Qin grabbed Lin Sui’s wrist, undoing his restraints, and slowly smiled at Lin Sui: “If young master teaches me, I’ll be able to do well.”

Lin Sui’s eyes wandered, looking at the expensive chain twinkling under the light, and beckoned Yan Qin with his hand.

“I hate dogs that bite people, except in one case.”

As Yan Qin had said, Lin Sui was an unfathomable person.

He was like this before, and he was still so now.

This was clearly a believer’s degeneration, trapping gods in forbidden places, but he’d forgotten that it had never been the external halo that resulted in the gods living high up in the clouds.

The soul with the highly poisonous fragrance, and that gorgeous, poisonous butterfly swaying endlessly.

There were two sides to everything, like tearing text apart to understand the words2, like taking the winding path to the enchanting, secluded spot.

Yan Qin was driven mad by his attitude, and elated by his grace.

The long, dark night was as if being swallowed by the abyss, there was still no light.

Yan Qin learnt, he lovingly pampered his god, while at the same time he tore off his wings and chewed on his pain.

The satisfaction after swallowing that soul was the mad joy passed on from millions of his past selves.

At this moment, he didn’t even care if Lin Sui loved him or not. The elation he got was enough to fill the cracks in his soul, to satisfy his lowly desires, to cover up the suffering in his depths.

He would find the person Lin Sui was hiding, and tell him to never appear before Lin Sui again.

The light of dawn was weak, drowned out by the bright lights of the spacious building.

The surrounding buildings were still asleep, only one remained awake from night until now, witnessing as the moon set and the sun rose.

Lin Sui tiredly leaned back on the soft mattress, the light casting his shadow on the wall, swaying in the absence of wind.

It was a downcast rose, a wilting beauty, like a tired butterfly at dusk, letting out soft whispers in its nest.

The sky completely brightened.

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1 Natural theology tries to argue for things like the existence of God based on reason and cognition. The most famous example of natural theology in the 18th century was the Watchmaker Analogy, which states that intelligent design is proof of an intelligent designer (if there’s a watch, there must be a watchmaker). Top.

2 I think this refers to literally “tearing” cn characters apart into their radicals (smallest components), which often give clues as to the meaning/etymology of the character. Top.