CH 31

Ch 31 - Second Generation Ancestor x Illegitimate Child: After Nightfall

A wilted flower regains a bit of its colour with warmth and nurture.

To Lin Sui this was not a good thing, but rather a slow and chronic torture.

He’d already begun to miss the previous Yan Qin, just like he missed the original Yan Qin from the last world.

That kind of youth and inexperience was easy to deceive, he would even take teasing seriously, but as Yan Qin progressed rapidly, he became his vexation.

Yan Qin, as a Qidian1 protagonist, had energy that was hard for an ordinary person to endure, even if he was a CP-less male lead who stubbornly pursued the Dao.

The limited fullness was not the same as yesterday, but the trace of numb, tingling pain like the prick of a needle reminded him that, if it continued like this, he would really have to go to the hospital.

Lin Sui liked doing things when he knew he shouldn’t, but at this moment he was particularly annoyed at this alternate approach.

Neatly clipped, rounded fingernails scratched at the bedpost, making not an ear-piercing sound, but one that strained the nerves. The person making the subtle sounds was equally agitated.

Sweat rolled down from the tip of the nose to the dark red lips, which, contrasted against the white skin and black hair, made one’s heart palpitate.

Yan Qin finally let Lin Sui know the answer, playing a recording from his phone as he grabbed Lin Sui’s ankle and carefully caressed it with his fingertips.

——I’m out, if I see something interesting I’ll bring it back for you as a souvenir.

——Has grandfather been alright recently? Didn’t he have a kidney problem last time he got checked? Tell him to watch his diet more and not eat too much. I ordered a table of those dishes from the Cantonese chef he kept talking about, but don’t let him eat too much, he’s also got a weak stomach.

——I heard Qingqing got into trouble recently and reported my name? Why, does he want to eat bitter melons again?

………

There was more than one recording, and it could be heard that they’d been sent to different people.

That voice was not only exactly the same as Lin Sui’s, but the scariest thing was that those conversations contained details that only those in the Lin family knew about, even that last joking threat involved something Lin Sui had done.

Lin Sui’s nephew, Qingqing, was originally a brat, but Lin Sui didn’t spoil him. He forced him to eat an entire plate of the bitter melons he hated most, watching him retch and cry as he ate, and since then every time Qingqing saw him it was like he’d seen a ghost, and he would run faster than a rabbit.

Everyone in the Lin family knew that Lin Sui was not fond of videocalls, so it was enough to get in contact through a phone call or a social networking app. It was not surprising that the Lin family hadn’t noticed anything this week, since they knew he had a reputation for loving to go out to have fun, and it was normal for them to not even see his shadow for ages.

Lin Sui was silent. Compared to those tricks he’d discovered before, Yan Qin had really come a long way.

Yan Qin took Lin Sui’s silence as gloominess and anger, so he kissed his toes and tenderly watched as the young man’s chest quietly moved up and down.

He offered Lin Sui his loyalty and love, while at the same time dragging him down into the abyss and devouring him.

Yan Qin had imagined every kind of reaction Lin Sui could have had, perhaps he would be enraged, or curse him out, or maybe even panic, but Lin Sui didn’t do anything.

He only gave him a deep look which hid emotions he couldn’t decipher.

In that moment, Yan Qin felt a sense of loss. He was still very far from Lin Sui, so far that even if he embraced him, he wouldn’t even be able to touch the edge of his thoughts.

After that night, Yan Qin didn’t show up much in front of Lin Sui.

It was only through the food that was placed in the hotbox every day and that occasional feeling of a warm body at night that Lin Sui could tell that Yan Qin was always there.

In a flash, half a month had passed like this.

Lin Sui sat on the hanging basket chair as he watched the night fall, and let out a cold laugh.

Alright, Yan Qin was actually playing this game with him. He previously never thought Yan Qin would have this kind of integrity.

Did he want to use this method to control and destroy his psyche and have him develop an almost Stockholm-esque, twisted dependency?

Lin Sui personally thought that this wasn’t something Yan Qin would do, he was Yan Qin after all. But the present circumstances were like so, and he was sensitive and mistrustful, and he’d never shied away from speculating about others based on his own way of doing things.

Lin Sui stroked the weaved pattern of the rattan chair, a dark light flashing past his slightly downcast eyes.

The System sensed that Lin Sui’s mood wasn’t good, but didn’t say anything.

This was going in the right direction for forced love. Seeing that Lin Sui was developing negative emotions towards Yan Qin, the System was especially pleased.

Pale blue rays encircled it as it thought of Lin Sui with the intact soul and Yan Qin with the shattered one.

Everyone had to pay the price for breaking established rules, there were no exceptions.

As the sun sunk into the horizon, the entire room turned pitch-black with the lack of light.

Yan Qin turned on the lamp, and saw the back figure of the young man asleep on the bed.

Only a small portion of the food on the table had been touched, which was far less than the amount Lin Sui usually ate.

It might be because Lin Sui didn’t particularly like eating, or perhaps he wasn’t in a great mood, Yan Qin knew it was hard for people to avoid feeling fretful under these circumstances, especially a proud and arrogant person like Lin Sui.

This was why he’d been deliberately avoiding Lin Sui these past few days, so as not to annoy him even more. In addition, his recent workload had truly been very intense recently, and the time he took to make Lin Sui’s meals every day was all he could squeeze out.

Yan Qin stroked the slightly protruding bones on Lin Sui’s back and became a little upset as he thought that it seemed like he’d lost weight.

The young man seemed to have sensed his warmth and embedded himself into his arms.

This kind of intimate and voluntary action made Yan Qin ecstatic, but soon after this joy he felt that something was wrong, however Lin Sui’s actions left him in no mood to think about other things.

That night, Lin Sui was particularly gentle and submissive, as if he were a different person.

Yan Qin thought that perhaps this was one of Lin Sui’s new tricks, but he didn’t care.

Lin Sui himself was honey candy wrapped in poison, and he had made all kinds of preparations to obtain him.

But soon Yan Qin had other thoughts.

The young man on the screen stared at the ground in a daze, he’d already been in this state for too long. He’d been in the same position practically since he woke up, and he didn’t even seem to be hungry. His depression was clearly visible to the untrained eye.

This was not the Lin Sui Yan Qin knew. He was aware that Lin Sui was crafty and cold, and for a moment he thought that this was all a pretence by Lin Sui, but this thought was quickly tossed to the back of his mind by a feeling of worry and anxiety.

“A-Sui, do you want to go out? Let’s go to that island I told you about last time, it’s beautiful there.”

Looking at the cautiously inquiring man in front of him, the young man’s black eyes turned as he nodded non-committally, seemingly disinterested at this idea of going out.

Yan Qin kissed the side of Lin Sui’s neck and coaxed him to drink a bowl of soup. There was calming medicine inside the soup to let Lin Sui relax.

Lin Sui drank the soup as he covered the light in his eyes.

Yan Qin was still not ruthless enough, and didn’t even understand him well enough, but that was also normal. This world’s Yan Qin only knew a little about his nature.

Yan Qin wanted to lock him up yet he didn’t want to harm him, but where in the world was there a method that satisfied both desires?

Yan Qin didn’t keep the matter of him leaving the country for a time from his friends in the team, and both Tao Ting and Chu Feng felt that him leaving at this time was too risky.

Chu Feng advised him: “Can it really not wait a bit? We just need a little less than a month, this is what you’ve been striving for all along…”

Yan Qin shook his head at him, indicating that he shouldn’t say more, and spoke: “I’ve been working hard for him, he is more important to me than anything else. If anything were to happen to him, then everything I’ve done would be meaningless.”

“It hasn’t just been for him, more than that, it’s for your dream. The dream you persevered with before you met him. Old Yan, we’ve been friends for so many years, I know you’re a stubborn person so I won’t try to persuade you this time, but I hope you won’t put all your obsessions on him. It’s not good for you or him.”

Tao Ting spoke with concern. She actually didn’t really approve of Yan Qin’s actions, but in the end they were friends, and she knew about Yan Qin’s obsession.

Tao Ting recalled the face of the person she met a few times in high school and sighed inwardly, wanting to obtain that kind of person would surely leave you scarred.

As the saying went, life is the easiest to lose, being too smart will get you hurt, and deep love is not lifelong2.

“I understand, please help me keep an eye out for this period of time, and remember to let me know if there is any movement over on Si Fang’s side.”

Yan Qin was thinking about his other important collaboration partner, although Si Fang Technology had never been made known to the public, he had a faint hunch that even if this kind of technology was ahead of its time, once it succeeded, the return profits would be incalculable.

Chu Feng nodded: “Okay, their backer has still not appeared. According to our understanding, we only know his surname is Qin, and he is Gao Jing’s boss, apart from that, we couldn’t find any other clues, so the other party might have a very powerful background.”

Yan Qin spoke calmly: “It doesn’t matter who he is, he’ll have to appear one day.”

Having prepared everything, Yan Qin took Lin Sui to the island. The place had already been bought by him and was considered his private property, so he wasn’t concerned about interference from the Lin family.

Lin Sui yawned, looking out the window disinterestedly.

After more than a week of acting, he was getting a little tired.

But thinking about what was to come brought a look of anticipation to his face.

This look landed on Yan Qin’s eyes, it was that lively expression he hadn’t seen for a long time.

He’d long since known that trapping the butterfly would harm it, but he still couldn’t let go and accept the fact that he would be abandoned.

“A-Sui, there’s lots of interesting things here, you’ll like it.”

“You think I haven’t seen the world?”

Lin Sui gave him a sideways glance with a bit of the vigour from the past.

“A-Sui is naturally experienced and knowledgeable.”

Yan Qin kissed Lin Sui’s fingertips, and the faint uneasiness that had been growing in his heart weakened a little as he watched him return to his previous self.

The private island was very peaceful, and there was a seaside village nearby that they could travel to by boat.

Lin Sui stayed in the island for two days before suggesting going to the village to take a look. Yan Qin hesitated at first, but seeing Lin Sui shift away his gaze, he immediately agreed.

Lin Sui didn’t express any happiness as he sat on a swing, looking at the ocean waves.

Yan Qin stood behind him and pushed the swing, an unknown panic making it hard for him to breathe. He didn’t know where that unease came from, or perhaps he knew, but he wasn’t willing to look into it or to face it.

He carefully went back through every step in his plan, repeatedly confirming that there were no problems, and that no one could find Lin Sui, and only then did the palpitations in his heart ease a little.

There weren’t many people in the village, but most of them were friendly and romantic, and the main language there was not English, but rather some kind of dialect that gave the place an especially foreign feel.

The villagers regarded Lin Sui and Yan Qin as an Asian couple, and interacted with them in oddly-accented English and gestures to wish the handsome lovers blessings and happiness.

Lin Sui smiled and thanked them, he seemed to have been in a good mood since he entered the place. The corners of Yan Qin’s mouth rose and he held hands with Lin Sui as they walked the foreign streets, and he watched Lin Sui’s beautiful side-profile as he got the sudden illusion that the two of them really loved each other.

Lin Sui had fun all afternoon and got a little thirsty. Yan Qin went to buy water, but his eyes never left Lin Sui, fearing that he would disappear silently in the crowd.

A young local girl walked past holding a balloon, and spoke to Lin Sui about something.

Yan Qin listened and roughly understood she was selling balloons. He grabbed the water and walked towards Lin Sui, then bought the girl’s balloon and tied it on Lin Sui’s wrist.

Lin Sui smiled softly: “Childish.”

Yan Qin’s lips rose, but he didn’t answer. He brought the water up to his lips and accompanied him to sit by the side of the street and watch the crowd coming and going.

There was ultimate calmness amidst the hustle and bustle. Lin Sui looked at the bustling crowd, slightly lost in thought.

Yan Qin had worked arduously to look after him for so long, he should give him a little something in return.

Yan Qin watched the side of Lin Sui’s face attentively, and couldn’t help but ask: “Young master, what are you thinking about?”

“Come a little closer, I’ll tell you.”

Lin Sui hooked a finger at Yan Qin, the balloon tied to his wrist swaying up and down with his movements.

He was already back to his old self, a charming smile on his beautiful face that left people guessing, both arrogant and indifferent.

“I was thinking about you.”

Damp breath stuck to his earlobe, and it was as if an essence-devouring spirit was coiling around him, breathing by the side of his ear.

Yan Qin’s train of thought seemed to have been forcefully stopped, and he couldn’t think of anything else apart from Lin Sui.

“Do you want to play with me?”

“Master.” 3

It was a satirical favour, the pouring out of love amidst the roar of the crowd.

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1 Qidian is a novel hosting website popular for its power fantasies and male-leaning target audience. Top.

2 Slightly modified quote from the novel “The Book and the Sword” by Jin Yong, in which a character reminds another character to be prudent and low-key. That last part could also be translated as something like “deep love shortens your life” lol. Top.

3 Last two dialogues were in english in the original. Top.