CH 33

Ch 33 - Second Generation Ancestor x Illegitimate Child: Revere Him as Master

It was winter in Jingzhou, and the cold, dry weather outside made people feel like there were granules of sand on their face.

Lin Sui had disappeared ever since that day, for a full 25 days.

Of course, this disappearance was only in front of Yan Qin, both the Lin family and Gao Jing knew Lin Sui was safe. Only Yan Qin went around in circles looking for him but coming up empty-handed.

“Did you two have a falling out?”

Lin Min gave Lin Sui a cup of hot tea, watching the indolent young man leaning against the green rattan chair.

The sky outside the window was as grey as lead, and dried up vines stuck to the neat wall with a slightly sullen, emaciated air.

It was early morning at the moment, there was an ashy mist outside, and the natural incoming light was also drab, interweaving with it lifelessly. Only he was the vivid and sudden colour of cinnabar.

Lin Min had wanted to ask since earlier, and had been stopping herself from doing so until now, but seeing Yan Qin’s depressed appearance as he wasted away every day made her feel a little unable to contain herself.

Part of it was gossip and curiosity, and part of it was being unable to bear her collaboration partner. After all, based on her understanding of Yan Qin and his attitude, Yan Qin should have been extremely obedient to Lin Sui, so how could they have had a fight like this?

She wished Lin Sui could live a smooth life, so it would naturally be better if his partner loved him dearly, after all he was the child raised by the Lin family, and they would not accept to see him wronged.

“He did something, I’m punishing him.”

Lin Sui thought about the inquiries that he’d blocked during these few days and leisurely sipped his tea.

Before leaving, he’d left Yan Qin with a few things to think about so that the doggie wouldn’t really think he’d become an ownerless dog, since he reckoned he would be truly unseemly and crazy by then.

Lin Min let out a breath, her mood brightening a little, and said: “It seems like it wasn’t anything major that touched your bottom line.”

Lin Sui curiously spoke: “Why do you say that?”

“In light of your temper, you wouldn’t be going so easy on him if he’d really made you angry.”

Lin Min joked, but she was also telling the truth.

If Lin Sui had really gotten angry, he would do far more than this based on his vindictive character, not giving up until the torment made the person he was getting revenge on live a life worse than death.

Now, the way Lin Min saw it, this kind of disappearing game seemed to be nothing more than something interesting to do, after all, Lin Sui knew Yan Qin cared about him and used this point to punish him.

Lin Sui was a little stunned, and covered up his slightly inexplicable expression by drinking tea.

What Yan Qin did could be big or small. If it was another person, their grave in the cultivation world would already be three metres deep, and they would be behind bars in the current world with nothing left but tears and Lin Sui would never give them a chance to meet him. But Yan Qin was not the same as other people.

“I’m not going easy, the fun part is yet to come.”

Lin Sui put down his cup and adjusted the pillows behind him and leaned back, a slight smile at the corners of his lips.

Lin Min spoke softly: “I don’t always understand the things you do, but remember that I’m always on your side. Tell us whatever it is you want to do.”

Before, Lin Min though that her younger brother’s business skills were far above hers, but later she realised that whether it was in scheming or strategising, Lin Sui was simply superior, but hid it for some reason. Even she could only catch a few glimpses of it, so she might as well not look too deeply into it.

“Rest assured, it’s not going to affect the family. If it does, don’t worry, I’ll find a way.”

Lin Sui assessed the current situation and told Lin Min, but then thought again and added that last sentence.

Nowadays, Yan Qin was working very closely with the Lin family, and if Yan Qin decided to withdraw from the project they were collaborating on and dispose of the Lin family, the Lin family would surely suffer some serious losses. Lin Sui had originally expected Yan Qin to take action, but he hadn’t expected that Yan Qin would do nothing during the time he ‘disappeared’, as if he never had any bad intentions.

But this was not important, it was like he had said, the best scenario was that the Lin family wouldn’t be involved in the matter between the two of them, but there was no need to worry if they were involved.

“I know you have a sense of propriety, if you need my cooperation, just say so, like before.”

Lin Min was referring to a few things she lend her hand to Lin Sui for in the early days, she trusted him unconditionally.

Lin Sui nodded, and had someone help Lin Min leave in secret.

In the courtyard, dried branches swayed with the wind, new leaves would sprout on them in the coming year.

Lin Sui looked at them as he thought about his mission, the darkness in his eyes deepening.

Actually, when the System had first given him his mission it hadn’t been all that vague, but it hadn’t been detailed either.

Yan Qin’s remnant souls had entered into every world and become the Son of Fortune. Originally, he would have been able to stand at the top without assistance, so even if the System wanted him to atone for his crimes, it didn’t need to choose this method, but the problem was that, because it had been Yan Qin’s remnant soul that had entered, his fortune wouldn’t be enough and he might ultimately not be able to reach the top.

That’s why the System had Lin Sui atone for his crime by revering the Son of Fortune as master and helping him achieve great things.

It was almost done, if all went as planned.

At this point, Lin Sui didn’t hide his thoughts so the System could get a good feel of what he was thinking.

System: [?]

[When I sent out this question mark, it’s not that I have a problem, it’s that you have a problem.jpg]

[How is it almost done? Isn’t this just the beginning?]

The System truly didn’t understand, if Lin Sui was going to willingly hand over the things he had to the other person, why would he go around in such a big circle?

It had clearly been following by Lin Sui’s side, but it still couldn’t fathom this person’s strange mind.

Lin Sui didn’t answer, letting the System make a guess.

The System didn’t understand and became restless, thinking about what Lin Sui had let it hear before, it couldn’t help but snort: [When did you serve him as your master?]

It had blocked him for several days, since every time it removed the block the scene in front of it would make it feel like vomiting blood.

But even if Lin Sui had been imprisoned during that time, he still acted like a young master, even clipping his fingernails had been carefully done by Yan Qin in such an unreasonable way one would even think the nail clippers might hurt that vixen if they didn’t know better. Anyway, it was very annoying to watch.

Lin Sui spoke innocently: [I already screamed, is that still not serving him as master?]

Even if it had just been once, he had done it, not to mention that he had ridden for such a long time his body couldn’t take it.

System:

[Put some clothes on.jpg]

Blocked, bye bye.

Seeing the System suffering again, Lin Sui grabbed his computer and looked at some documents in a good mood.

A thumping sound came from the staircase as Wu Qiu ran and leapt in front of Lin Sui.

“That was close, I almost got caught.”

Lin Sui tilted his eyes up to look at him and said: “Did you go provoke Yan Qin again?”

“Aren’t I just educating him about the law?”

Wu Qiu muttered to himself. He had been doing this unrelentingly for the past 25 days, and Yan Qin’s speed at catching him kept getting faster and faster. He wouldn’t be able to go again tomorrow or he’d definitely get caught.

Lin Sui pinched the space between his brows, feeling like he might have over-corrected.

When he’d brought Wu Qiu back a few years ago he’d only been 15 years old, and his awareness of the law had been very sparse, plus there were those things he had done in the original book. Which is why he’d reinforced Wu Qiu’s education in law, politics, and moral character.

Now Wu Qiu was almost 18, and even though he still didn’t abide that much by the law—otherwise he wouldn’t have hacked Tian Qi’s systems—he was very commited to using laws and ethics to torment people.

Gao Jing had once complained to Lin Sui about his troubles. Wu Qiu had gone online after studying to help people with their problems, and ended up handing all the scammers over to the internet police, reporting those with hidden private photos of young girls and boys for improper use, giving people a lot of ideologically educational stuff, and he even got a few paedophiles arrested by not only hacking their computers but also broadcasting articles of the law and curses calling them beasts on a loop.

Doing good was all well and good, but he’d been too flashy, and Gao Jing was invited to tea several times.

When Lin Sui found out about this, he sorted Wu Qiu out. He didn’t tell him he’d done bad, rather, he told him he’d left too many traces behind and hadn’t been subtle enough, and that he couldn’t become famous now so as to not bring him trouble.

Wu Qiu admired Lin Sui the most, so he learnt most of his boss’ way of doing things which was full of twists and turns and grew his clean-up skills quite a lot. If not for this, he would have been caught by Yan Qin long ago.

But young people still possessed the innocence of childhood, and after Lin Sui found out that Wu Qiu had left a terrible mess in the bungalow that day, he was amused for a while.

At this moment, Lin Sui caught sight of Wu Qiu closing his computer and speaking with a shifty expression: “Boss, how about we move to a different place? He seems to have found out about this one.”

Wu Qiu couldn’t hide his guilty conscience and picked at his palms.

That guy was a little bit stronger than him, which he hadn’t expected. He thought that he’d been slipping away properly for the better part of the month, but who would have thought that Yan Qin had deliberately let him go? He’d realised it just now and immediately cut off the network, but Yan Qin should have already found the place.

Lin Sui softly clicked his tongue, but he wasn’t angry. He looked out into the scenery of the courtyard with an inexplicable expression.

Not everything in this world could be accounted for, and even if he planned for everything, there would still be surprises.

He didn’t plan on seeing Yan Qin at the moment, but it wasn’t entirely to punish him like he’d told Lin Min. There were other factors at play here, and the time had not arrived.

“There’s no need to move, we’re fine staying here. Don’t go out these two days and stay at home and behave.”

Lin Sui remembered Yan Qin’s jealous appearance. The man thought he had someone by his side, and if the two of them met, it would likely provoke him.

Yan Qin actually had a very broad mind, but when it came to the matter of his relationships with other people, Yan Qin’s heart was as small as a pinprick, and he couldn’t tolerate other touching him even a little.

Wu Qiu nodded sincerely, he naturally listened to Lin Sui’s words, even more so now that he’d just gotten in trouble.

By the side of the road, a black car came to a quiet stop.

Yan Qin’s eyes watched the nearby small building attentively, and his fingers caressed the cover of a black notebook as he looked pensive.

Even though he’d been tracking the hacker, that hacker was the person who let Lin Sui leave that day, and Yan Qin had a feeling that Lin Sui was inside.

He even though that the person who’d continuously hacked him to tell him about the law was probably that young man that had once been hidden away by Lin Sui.

If it really was him, Yan Qin had to reconsider his previous assumption.

That was because his tricks really didn’t seem like something a love rival would do, it was so childish… it seemed to have been done by a child.

If that was the case, it meant that Lin Sui didn’t have anyone by his side. Yan Qin’s eyes shone slightly, but quickly dimmed again.

He didn’t know what to do to make Lin Sui calm down, so he had been working hard these past few days to boost the collaboration with the Lin family and winning them over by having them obtain even higher returns.

Lin Sui was a cold-hearted man who didn’t care about anything, but if others were good to him, although he wouldn’t show it on his face, he would remember it in his heart. So now that he couldn’t see him, Lin Sui would be able to observe how good he was to the Lin family.

Aside from this method, Yan Qin was somewhat helplessly at a loss.

The Lin family’s reputation aside, he had many fair-weather friends, but not sincerely close ones.

There were only a few people who had followed him over the years, and he could forget about the one called Song Yunqing. At first glance, it seemed like he had intentions towards Lin Sui but was trying to cover it up, but the times he would look for Lin Sui had decreased ever since that business on the cruise.

Yan Qin felt that he had a little bit of sense and understood Lin Sui’s temper, because Song Yunqing didn’t go looking for Lin Sui again after that.

As for the one called Yu Xiang, there was even less need to mention him. Yan Qin felt like he was one-sidedly bothering Lin Sui to hang out with him, and Lin Sui didn’t see him often.

Lin Sui seemed to drift outside of the world, making him hard to catch.

These days, Yan Qin’s thoughts were about that necklace he’d yet to wear around his neck.

He gazed at the nearby building, his eyes gloomy and quiet.

The next day, when Lin Sui woke up, he found snow swirling outside.

The snow had started falling at midnight, and hadn’t stopped by morning, covering the courtyard in a layer of white.

A servant came to tell him someone had left something at the door.

Wu Qiu excitedly tore open the box for Lin Sui, and found a cellphone and a scarf inside.

Lin Sui recognised the cellphone, it was the one that had been previously taken by Yan Qin. Lin Sui’s eyes swept past and he uninterestedly put it to the side, then picked up that scarf.

The scarf was dark red, and the needlework was not too fine, so it looked to be hand-knit.

If it was Yan Qin who sent it, he certainly wouldn’t have faked it by having someone else do it.

Yan Qin had always been virtuous and kind. He would refine magical tools for him in the cultivation world, and in the modern one he didn’t forget to knit him a scarf either.

Lin Sui’s mood got a bit better, and the corners of his eyes and brows softened a bit as he stroked the scarf’s soft wool.

Wu Qiu was a simple-minded person, so he commented: “Who sent this? It’s too tacky and not high quality at all, but it seems quite warm.”

Although Wu Qiu had still been a person who couldn’t even afford a meal a few years ago, Lin Sui had fed him well over the years and he’d seen a lot of the market, so he felt that this kind of thing was not fit for his boss.

“You can give it to me if you don’t want it, boss, I’ll buy you something even better.”

Wu Qiu was entirely unaware of Lin Sui’s change in expression, he was calculating what kind of scarf he could buy for Lin Sui with the money he had.

“Have you finished your homework?”

Lin Sui stared at him, his face even colder than the heavy snow outside.

Wu Qiu remembered his English and Physics assignments, and spoke sheepishly: “I still have a little.”

“Then add ten more test papers.”

“Ten???!!!”

Wu Qiu begged him with a bitter face: “No, boss!”

Lin Sui’s expression didn’t change, and the corner of his lips moved slightly: “Twenty.”

“I’m going right now!”

Wu Qiu grabbed his computer and rushed upstairs, and Lin Sui raised his chin at a servant off to the side.

“Go prepare thirty test papers for him, and serve him some food. He can only come out once he’s completed everything.”

The servant nodded while holding in a smile and immediately went to grab the test papers.

Wu Qiu’s heart died when he saw the test papers that were delivered. He didn’t understand why the boss was so angry today, when he’d accidentally played too much and exposed their coordinates the boss didn’t punish him, but now he’d just spoken a sentence and the boss punished him with 30 test papers. Could it be that the boss’ anger had been delayed? Or had the snow today put the boss in a bad mood?

Wu Qiu couldn’t make a guess, he could only tearfully do his homework.

Downstairs, Lin Sui sat on a soft couch and worked on a document, that dark red scarf had been placed on his lap, and the thin golden chain on his wrist rested above it, shining with a bit of warm winter joy.

At Yan Qin’s house, Tao Ting was helping him tidy up the knitting wool scattered all over the place, rolling up those defective goods and planning to wait a bit before throwing them away with the rest.

She had received a call from Yan Qin that morning and thought something major had happened, but in the end Yan Qin had asked her if she could knit wool.

Tao Ting could, she had knitted new things for her family and herself for winter this year, and hearing Yan Qin’s request, she hurried to his house.

Once she entered the house, she saw all kinds of discarded knitwear and Yan Qin holding two crochet needles looking quite serious, but only if she didn’t look at how much material he had wasted.

Tao Ting coached him for half a day before he got going, and although what he knitted wasn’t very refined, it was still presentable, but what Tao Ting didn’t really understand was……

“Old Yan, you’re such a stubbornly perfectionist person, and this is a gift for Lin Sui, so why not make a better-looking one?”

A few of the stitches could have really been handled better, and Tao Ting had told Yan Qin, but Yan Qin had not corrected them.

“He won’t know I knit it myself if it’s too nice.”

Yan Qin answered calmly. He had practised stitching for the whole night, plus he hadn’t stopped to rest and knitted the whole morning, so his fingers were already red and swollen.

What kind of scarf did the young master lack? The most important thing was the intention, and even though he didn’t know if it would be valued or not, as far as Yan Qin was concerned, just delivering it was enough.

Tao Ting looked at her friend who was scheming in a deadpan, righteously confident manner: ……ok, she was the one that was too low-end, although Yan Qin wasn’t much better.

Tao Ting did not want to be involved in her friend’s relationship. To her, it seemed like the two people were both a little crazy, Lin Sui treated Yan Qin like a dog, and Yan Qin treated Lin Sui like a caged bird. The two of them could harass each other if they wanted, besides, she felt that they were a bit of a natural couple.

“You’re in such a state, take a break for a while before you go back to the office.”

Yan Qin shook his head: “Let’s go.”

He had no intention of resting. He feared that he would remember Lin Sui if he had the time, so it was better to stay busy.

“How’s the progress on Si Fang’s side? Have they reached the testing stage with their connection technology?”

Tao Ting answered: “It’s still being perfected, they’re very cautious regarding that aspect.”

Yan Qin nodded: “It’s only right to be cautious. That man behind the scenes is not a simple person, he’s taken many steps to avoid future troubles, and his theory is very sophisticated, it’s just a pity that the current technology has no way to quickly implement his vision.”

“I believe we at Tian Qi won’t disappoint them, and we’ll approach the dawn of a new era when the time comes.”

Tao Ting’s face was filled with anticipation as she daydreamed.

But Tao Ting didn’t expect that her imagination would very quickly be smashed.

“Si Fang wants to stop collaborating? Why?”

Tao Ting couldn’t believe it when she heard the news in the office and immediately hurried to look for Yan Qin, bumping into Chu Feng in the corridor and going together.

The main creative team sat in the meeting room, worriedly and anxiously, looking at Yan Qin sitting at the head of the table.

The R&D team responsible for joining up with Si Fang was even more broken up, they had thrown so much blood, sweat, and tears into it, how could they just stop collaborating when they said they would stop? Holographic online games were a huge, tempting cake that had not yet begun its creation, and they had not expected to be kicked off halfway when they first got on board.

“Keep calm, everyone.”

Yan Qin made a gesture, and the impassioned meeting room calmed down.

“Si Fang indicated that they had already developed a processor that is better suited to their research, so they only want to halt collaboration in that aspect, they still depend on us and other tech companies with regard to the cloud computing and engine aspects. They will pay for the contents of the contract that was signed, and the research will continue, we’ll go visit again to look at the details.”

Although Yan Qin said this, he was not optimistic. Technology was particularly objective, and if they grasped even more core technology, then it would not be uncommon for them to be pushed out of the car halfway, but despite this, Yan Qin did not intend to give up.

Provided that this field really became established, they wouldn’t have to reproduce it again, but would only have to rely on Si Fang’s technology. It was the same as getting on Noah’s Ark and sailing to a new world.

Yan Qin quickly came to a decision and passed orders down to the relevant departments for the project, and the staff carried out the instructions as if they had been reassured.

Yan Qin then brought gifts along as he, Tao Ting, and Chu Feng went to visit Si Fang Technology, planning to investigate.

Si Fang’s building was extremely intelligently automated, similar to Tian Qi’s, but with a more tech trance feel.

Passing through the lobby, a transparent elevator went through every floor.

Yan Qin seemed to catch a black smudge out of the corner of his eyes that looked like the back of a young man, but he didn’t have time to see clearly and the elevator went up another floor.

The parlour and the office were on the top floor, the secretary lead them to sit down and brewed them some coffee.

Gao Jing arrived quickly and shook hands with Yan Qin, then sat down in front of him and conveyed how sorry he was they had to stop the collaboration this time.

Gao Jing actually didn’t really like dealing with Yan Qin, he felt very pressured when coming in contact with him.

Yan Qin was gentle and courteous, he avoided talking about the termination of the share of collaboration while they were chatting, and switched to talking about core technology while extracting some information from the other’s mouth. He watched as Gao Jing became more and more hesitant to answer, and he remained calm.

Compared to doing business, Director Gao was actually more suited to being a researcher. His methods were not cunning or experienced enough, and he seemed slightly declining, which clearly meant that the decision to suspend the collaboration had not been made by him.

Yan Qin had not rushed here for him today, he needed to have a direct talk with his backer, and meet that rumoured, mysterious President Qin.

Gao Jing had no choice but to excuse himself to the toilet halfway through the conversation, and he headed straight for the innermost office and asked about the steps to deal with the situation.

“Boss…”

A monitor screen hung on the office, clearly displaying the scene from the parlour. Gao Jing knew he didn’t have to say more and asked for instructions.

“Invite him to see me.”

Gao Jing returned to the parlour and issued the invitation to Yan Qin.

“President Yan, out President Qin wants to see you, please go over for a chat.”

Yan Qin was a little surprised at the other party’s directness and straightforwardness, but he didn’t hesitate to go to his office.

After knocking and going in, the first thing Yan Qin saw was the boss’ chair with its back facing the door.

He couldn’t fully see the person sitting on it, he could barely see his forearm propped up on the armrest and a small section of his slender, fair wrist that was exposed by the bending of his arm.

There was a thin chain hanging from that wrist, with a pendant on it.

Yan Qin stared fixedly at it, he didn’t need to get closer to know the word engraved on it.

He was extremely familiar with those hands, he’d spent countless nights, both in this life and in his dreams, kissing and licking them, and seeing them tighten up weakly and helplessly.