Chapter 42: I’m a Deity

Lin Jiangye suddenly remembered something Gu Jiu’an had said before.

“In our circle, whose family doesn’t have problems?”

Indeed. Wealthy-family secrets deliberately buried deep in time were far too common in the extravagant, pleasure-soaked A City. Every household hid its own secret records.

If Lin Jiangye had not inexplicably understood the sound of the piano, perhaps no one would have been able to pry this secret from Du Ning’s mouth.

Of course, at present, all of this was still speculation. It was also possible that Du Ning’s mental illness had worsened, that she had imagined a nonexistent child on her own and was wholeheartedly acting out this personality by herself.

“I’ll ask Director Li and arrange another consultation for Du Ning. He can find Du Ning’s early medical records. As long as she had prenatal checkups, there would be files. The traces in A City should all be gone, but North City might not be the same. And there’s also her family.”

Yu Wangxiao did not care about the expression Yu Lin had put on. He was more interested in Du Ning before him and immediately arranged for a group of people to go on a business trip and investigate.

Lin Jiangye also stopped looking at him. He squatted down and focused on trying to communicate with Du Ning. As they chatted, he was able to confirm one fact.

Her current mental age was only five or six. No more than that.

She could write her own name, as well as some crooked pinyin and English words, but she did not know any other complicated Chinese characters. Lin Jiangye tried teaching her to use her legs and learn to walk by herself. She could understand what he meant.

After clumsily struggling against her own limbs for quite a while, Du Ning actually managed to stand up successfully, swaying as she walked around. She seemed a little surprised by the strength and length of her limbs, kicking little stones everywhere as she walked, until Lin Jiangye spoke to stop her. Only then did she reluctantly stop.

“Can she eat with us?” Lin Jiangye secretly asked.

Yu Wangxiao slightly curved his lips. This time, he did not hide his mood of wanting to watch a good show. “As long as you’re not worried about Yu Lin being pelted with stones by her, of course.”

Lin Jiangye could not help laughing too. “So bad. Alright, I actually kind of want to see Yu Lin get pelted with stones by her.”

Although Lin Jingyao being kidnapped, in a place like A City where kidnappings happened everywhere, really could not be considered a major matter… a dignified eldest young master of the Yu family had actively participated in it and left traces, even being personally taken back by the police and locked up for one night. This was truly too improper.

If the news got out, it would probably occupy the front-page headlines of every city in the harbor district for a whole week and be gossiped about by wealthy ladies at tea parties for several months, discussing the Yu family’s upbringing.

Lin Jiangye could not understand his motive. He felt this person now only knew how to cause trouble everywhere and was truly annoying.

Without Yu Wangxiao’s funeral, without the trial of Yu Corporation swaying in a storm, Yu Lin seemed to have lost the golden opportunity to be forced to grow quickly. Humans were very complicated beings. They could commit every evil deed while still being full of charm, but only if they were strong enough, dangerous enough, and difficult enough to read.

The current Yu Lin had none of the aura described in the original work. What remained were only useless negative emotions and bizarre behavior that caused trouble for normal people…

It was hard to say how things had developed to this point.

At six-thirty, dinner started on time.

The sky darkened very quickly. The thin first snow had already vanished without a trace, leaving only damp soil and cold that quietly seeped into the bones. Outside the window was darkness. Indoors, the lights were bright, but unfortunately, they could not illuminate some people’s repressed moods.

The caregiver, who had composed herself, returned. She supported Du Ning into a seat beside the dining table and softly asked what dishes she wanted to eat, her movements swift and practiced as she picked up food for her.

This scene often happened in the Yu family. As long as Du Ning did not actively reveal aggression, even if she sat at the dining table and grabbed food with her hands, Yu Wangxiao would not mind at all.

Yu Lin was expressionlessly called downstairs by the butler. His gaze swept somewhat complicatedly over Du Ning, paused, then casually hung his cane on the armrest of the chair.

It was as if he could not read the atmosphere, nor remember what he had done the last time they met. He directly sat down on Lin Jiangye’s other side.

Looking at the dark red wine in the decanter, Yu Lin lazily said, “Uncle hasn’t come home for dinner in a long time, right? What wine are we drinking tonight? Red, too. So secretly showy?”

Lin Jiangye glanced at him, completely unwilling to maintain this inexplicable small talk, and went straight to the point. “Why did you kidnap Lin Jingyao?”

“I didn’t plan to kidnap him at first. It just happened conveniently.” Yu Lin shrugged slightly, the corner of his lips lifting. “Who has the ability to quietly snatch away a living person under surveillance? I only wanted to go see the island my uncle developed, but Lin Jingyao wanted to see it too, so I brought him along. Mutual consent.”

“…Mm?”

“Lin Jingyao willingly came with me. You didn’t know? Haha. He overheard me making a phone call, heard about the property changing owners, then acted spoiled and asked me to take him. I couldn’t refuse.”

Yu Lin narrowed his eyes and smiled. His cold gaze swept over Yu Wangxiao, then fell back onto Lin Jiangye. “No way, Uncle, why didn’t you help clear my name? If I really kidnapped him and was caught on the spot, with both witness and physical evidence, the police wouldn’t have released me today.”

Lin Jiangye also narrowed his eyes. “Then why did you go to the island? Is it yours, so you can just go?”

Yu Lin picked up the goblet before him, pinching the thin neck and twirling it. He answered frankly, “To investigate. To see exactly what mysterious thing you’re messing with. Jiangye, you don’t understand what kind of person Yu Wangxiao is. He spent ten years and a fortune building an island, then suddenly transferred it under your name. What is he after? Spending a fortune just to make a beauty smile?”

“Yes. To make me happy.” Lin Jiangye blurted it out with a completely ordinary attitude, even more frank than him.

Yu Wangxiao, who had remained silent, nodded slightly and gently curved his lips. Unhurriedly, he filled a bowl of soup for Lin Jiangye.

He did not need to rush to explain at all, because there were only a few people present. Yu Lin was the isolated and helpless one.

“…I need the truth. Is that so hard to understand?” Lin Jiangye’s response made Yu Lin fall silent for a moment, and his voice also lowered a little, as though he were working hard to suppress his temper. “Jiangye, look at my mom. You chatted with her for an afternoon. How did it feel? She doesn’t look like schizophrenia. I researched it. She looks like she’s possessed by a ghost.”

Lin Jiangye scooped up a bit of soup with his spoon and carefully tasted it. There was the scent of lily bulb and lotus seeds, stewed finely and softly enough that even someone who disliked the bitterness of lotus seeds would not taste it.

It seemed the old residence’s chef had put a lot of effort into dietary therapy as well. Drinking more of this could calm the mind and help sleep, which was very necessary for Du Ning.

He enjoyed another sip before tentatively answering, “Mm, you’re right. Her current behavior indeed doesn’t look like schizophrenia. But what does that have to do with my island? Do you think there are ghosts on the island?”

Yu Lin lowered his eyes and laughed softly, picking up his phone. “Of course there are ghosts. Without absolute certainty, I wouldn’t easily make conclusions. Otherwise, that lunatic Yu Wangxiao would definitely be able to twist the problem back onto me and label me a true madman.”

He lit up the screen, scrolled through his photo album, and showed Lin Jiangye three photos. The shooting time was not too long ago, just within the few days Yu Wangxiao had been on a business trip in North City.

The photos were taken from a drone’s overhead view and captured an ordinary-looking cargo ship. The Yu Corporation logo was printed on its hull, making its owner obvious.

The deep-night sea surface was extremely dark, almost pitch-black. Only faint moonlight mixed with the cargo ship’s lights spilled somewhat abruptly onto the deck.

And on the cargo ship’s deck lay two identical Old Madam Gus. They wore different-colored clothes, seemingly for distinction.

The three photos captured a coherent before and after. The Old Madam Gus were stimulated by strong light, rushed out of the cabin, crawled desperately toward the most dazzling light source, and were then surrounded by fully armed escorts and forcibly brought back into the cabin.

Of course, there was not a trace of the island in the photos. They had been taken in the middle of the calm sea.

The Old Madam Gus had been transported out of the island and sent to a strictly regulated research institute for containment. Lin Jiangye also knew about this. It was probably around the time after he had complained about whether Yu Wangxiao wanted to starve a god of death into fainting… Indeed, many things had happened during that period.

Coming back to the old residence this time was truly the right decision. Lin Jiangye could immediately read a great deal of information from Yu Lin’s attitude.

Moros Manor was still watertight. All key information that needed to remain secret had not been leaked. At least Yu Lin knew nothing.

But during the large-scale, long-distance transport process, there had been a gap in maritime security measures, and they had even been secretly photographed by a drone late at night… A rare troublesome matter.

In the end, it was still the employees on that cargo ship who were a bit too unlucky. In the middle of the boundless sea at midnight, if someone with ulterior motives tried to follow and spy, even if they wanted to guard against it, they could not guard against everything.

Lin Jiangye’s thoughtful expression was fully taken in by Yu Lin, and it was very meaningful.

So he took back his phone, and his attitude immediately sharpened, filled with aggression. “Mm, do you understand now? So, Yu Wangxiao, fighting for power all these years wasn’t enough, killing my dad and imprisoning my mom wasn’t enough, what exactly are you secretly doing?

“Let’s not talk about ghosts and gods first. Fine, even if you want to mess with human cloning technology, there’s no need to commit such heartless acts and persecute an old grandmother, right? Ha, the old grandmother had only been dead for less than half a day, and you already moved her coffin back to our place, burning paper and incense. What, afraid she’ll come back on the seventh day to claim your life? Feeling guilty?”

Yu Wangxiao put down his wine glass and raised his brows. “Calm down. Speaking loudly while eating is very rude. Yu Lin, do you really want to know the truth?”

“Come on, let me hear what explanation you have. Stop making excuses. Even if my mom was mad before, at least she could still walk and talk properly, right?” Yu Lin gritted his teeth as he spoke. When his anger accumulated to its peak, he could no longer suppress it and kicked Lin Jiangye’s chair. “Now she’s also crawling all over the floor. How do you expect me to calm down? Can I calm down?!”

With a bang, Lin Jiangye remained seated steadily in place, biting a soft slice of fish belly and carefully tasting it. The one sitting there was fine, but Yu Lin almost kicked himself away. This sort of unlucky thing happened too frequently, so even Yu Lin himself was used to it.

But Du Ning was not used to it.

She suddenly stood up unsteadily and violently, overturning the bowl in front of her with one slap. Then she grabbed the food scraps on the table and frantically threw them at Yu Lin’s face. The caregiver’s cry of alarm followed, and soup and dishes spilled all over the ground.

Lin Jiangye put down his chopsticks in shock and quietly moved a little farther away. Under the table, he secretly touched Yu Wangxiao’s hand and whispered, “Did you bring the gun? Try shooting her once? The one you used at the Gu family…”

This was not alarmist. Lin Jiangye’s vigilance toward danger was becoming more and more acute, so he felt something was not right. When Du Ning had lain in the attic staring at him, she had not been this frightening. It was as if she truly hated Yu Lin to the extreme.

Her expression had been reasonable at first, only instinctive panic after being startled. But seeing Yu Lin sitting in his chair without dodging, his face dark and lips pressed tight as he looked back at her, Du Ning’s expression gradually changed.

It became pure malice, pleasure, and ferocity. Her teeth ground against each other in her mouth with a clicking sound, but her vocal cords did not make the slightest sound. He could not even hear her breathing. She was so quiet it could only be called eerie.

After throwing all the leftover soup, bones, and scraps on the table, she immediately picked up a heavy wooden chopstick without thinking. Unsteadily pushing aside the chair, she raised the chopstick high and pointed it at Yu Lin. Then she suddenly accelerated, charging toward him with an unbelievable, terrifying speed.

Bang!

Yu Wangxiao reacted very quickly. Before Lin Jiangye even finished speaking, he had already pulled the trigger. He had experienced this kind of scene before, and more than once.

Of course, that was not the sound of the gun. It was the sound of Du Ning falling to the ground.

She maintained the posture of madly sprinting and froze stiffly for several seconds. Then, like a system crashing, her expression froze, all support vanished from her limbs, and she fell straight down with a crash.

Yu Lin stared tightly at her, his lips trembling lightly. Only now did he reveal a trace of vulnerability. He did not care about his clothing, now covered in filth. Half-kneeling, he took the nearly snapped wooden chopstick from Du Ning’s hand.

“Such strength… She really wanted to kill me. Why?” Yu Lin muttered blankly, then looked at Lin Jiangye again. “You’re not surprised at all. Why?”

“Xiao Li, take Madam to rest. Give her a bath and let her sleep properly tonight.”

Yu Wangxiao gave instructions to the anxious caregiver, put away the gun that looked like a magic prop, and only then calmly looked at Yu Lin. “You think I am your enemy. You think the pain, injustice, and persecution you experienced growing up, and the misfortunes of the family you witnessed, are all connected to me.”

Yu Lin did not speak. He only coldly helped Du Ning up and handed her to the caregiver, glancing back with an expression that said this was only natural.

“So I also want to ask you, why? Why investigate only me? Why disturb me dating? Why not think carefully—if I wanted to kill your whole family…” Yu Wangxiao slightly curved his lips, his expression still gentle. “Yu Lin, would you have lived to adulthood? If I had wanted to, you would have died ten years ago.”

He sat in the main seat, dignified and calm, looking down at Yu Lin, whose clothes were covered in soup, as if speaking to a noisy, still-ignorant little child.

Yu Lin hated this good-tempered elder attitude of his the most. Looking again at Lin Jiangye, who had suddenly lowered his head and started eating again, he was so angry his voice became even more unstable. “Fuck, who exactly is disturbing whose dating?!”

“Can you stop bringing up this ancient history? We broke up eight hundred years ago, and you still keep mentioning it. I already said I don’t like you. I don’t go after someone else’s partner. So annoying.” Lin Jiangye disliked hearing this and was forced to stop the process of replenishing delicious energy, rarely feeling irritated.

Before Yu Lin could react, he put down his chopsticks and continued attacking. “Are you so bored? If you’re really bored, then go to school. Try skipping fewer classes, why don’t you? The house is already haunted, and you’re still thinking about that trivial matter… I’ll tell you the truth. Moros Manor was built for me. Yu Wangxiao has never told a single lie, and these matters have absolutely nothing to do with you.

“I am a deity. Yu Wangxiao loved me deeply in his previous life, so in this life, he specially built a temple and carefully maintained it for ten years just to worship me. So I was deeply moved, drawn by his affection, and descended to the mortal world to be with him. This is called a destined love across two lives. You’re just a passerby. It really has nothing to do with you.”

Yu Lin: “…”

“If this world is haunted, then it’s my fault. Can you understand? You don’t actually think there’s some expert guiding your Yu family from behind the scenes, do you? What wishful thinking. How could humans produce this kind of thing out of nowhere? It’s all my fault. Last night, I even ate Gu Jiu’an’s dad. I’m laying my cards on the table. Are you satisfied?”

“Lin Jiangye, you…” Yu Lin froze in place and truly did not know what to say. He was speechless, even subconsciously looking at Yu Wangxiao, trying to figure out whether this string of strange confessions was true or false.

Actually, Yu Wangxiao rather wanted to laugh, but after thinking carefully, he felt there was nothing wrong with it. Lin Jiangye’s words were quite reasonable. It seemed that was indeed how it was.

“Alright, alright, everyone say a little less. Tuantuan’s suggestion is good. Yu Lin, starting tomorrow, you must attend class on time. Unless you are sick, you are not allowed to be absent. If you deliberately skip class, I will have Chen Ming tie you up and take you to the classroom.”

“Yu Wangxiao, you’re not my dad. What right do you have to control me?!”

Yu Wangxiao calmly asked back, “Your dad has been dead for half a month. Why haven’t you gone to the funeral home to see him? Why haven’t you thought of holding a funeral for him? Why have you not worn mourning clothes for even one day, not burned a single piece of paper for him, not simply stabbed me once for revenge?”

“Who had time to…”

Yu Lin could not finish, because Yu Wangxiao rarely chose to be impolite. Suddenly expressionless, he faintly interrupted his defense.

“When Yu Chaoyuan had just died, what were you busy doing? Spreading rumors everywhere that I murdered him on purpose, climbing over walls to go drink and race cars, beating lawyers, overturning the barbecue stall at A University’s gate without paying compensation, and volunteering to be Lin Jiangye’s third party.”

“Cough.” Lin Jiangye was trying hard not to laugh and almost failed.

“You’re in pain, but you don’t care about your father. You don’t love him. Your feelings for him might not even be as strong as your feelings for me. Why? Was he really your good father?”

Yu Lin choked. He tried hard to open his mouth, desperately wanting to say yes, yes, of course he loved him.

But he could not say it.

He discovered that he simply could not say it.