Chapter 99: Mind Reading, Upgraded!
Building Three, Area A, Qinglin.
Almost all the gossip heard by the residents of Qinglin recently came from this house. However, no one had the courage to try and get close to satisfy their exuberant curiosity and exploration.
Because recently, that area had been heavily guarded, and the atmosphere was depressingly terrifying!
Going out for a cruise wedding should have been a happy occasion. Who would have thought that after returning, the originally fine young couple would end up with one in a coma and the other looking none too good?
The extent of the former’s injuries was unknown, and whether he could wake up… the latter was conscious, but in his extreme grief, his eye ailment had relapsed. With a splitting headache, he had to rely on a wheelchair to move.
Amidst everyone’s conjectures—whether out of pity, amusement, indifference, or schadenfreude—a youth wearing a baseball cap walked leisurely toward Building A3.
He had one hand in his pocket and the other carrying a fruit basket that couldn’t be called exquisite. His steps were steady and unhurried, looking like he was personally visiting someone.
But that fruit basket, that direction… one didn’t know whether to lament the youth’s youthful arrogance or mock his lack of understanding of the situation.
Sure enough, as the youth approached A3, a team of tall, cold-faced bodyguards in black emerged from nowhere and blocked his path.
“The villa is not receiving any guests lately. Please go back if you have business.”
Listening to the cold voice that kept people thousands of miles away, Le Can suddenly thought of the time he had hidden his identity, made up as “her,” and teased Xi Yun at the pier where the cruise ship docked. Yuan Cheng, who hadn’t recognized him then, was just as cold as always.
It seemed not quite the same. The respect for women in his bones had made Yuan Cheng retreat repeatedly under the pressure of the long-haired “Husband-Sister,” but toward a strange male…
Le Can felt resistance on his shoulder.
—A hand pressed against his left shoulder.
Le Can slowly turned his head, his gaze moving up from that hand on his shoulder, past the arm tensed from force, and looked into a pair of sharp eyes containing a clear warning.
Well, you thick-browed, big-eyed guy—you actually treat men and women differently!
Before Yuan Cheng could speak again, Le Can backhandedly grabbed the other’s collar and quickly pulled him toward himself! While pulling, he bent his arm, using his other hand to block the punch swinging from the side, and then stomped the kicking leg under his foot.
“Try hitting me and see—believe it or not, I’ll complain the moment I enter the door?”
The familiar voice rang in his ear, and Yuan Cheng’s fierce, wolf-like gaze suddenly became clear.
He was speechless for a long time, until the chin covered by a disposable medical mask slowly rose, letting him see clearly those… half-smiling peach-blossom eyes under the shadow of the baseball cap’s brim.
The stunned Yuan Cheng: “.”
[Fierce wolf turns into a silly dog in seconds.JPG]
Le Can let out a short, light laugh, raised the fruit basket that had made his hand numb from the long walk, and slammed the item into Yuan Cheng’s arms before letting go.
“Failing to recognize me twice—your eyes still need some cultivation, Da-Chengzi.”
Yuan Cheng held the bottom of the fruit basket with both hands to support it, his gaze dazed, his head in the clouds, and his mind full of confusion.
Seeing the leader had yielded the way, the other bodyguards in the team who knew Yuan Cheng’s personality well exchanged glances and also retreated a step to both sides, slowly disappearing into various hidden corners.
By the time Le Can had walked far away, Yuan Cheng finally reacted and ran to catch up. “What ‘twice’? Where did ‘twice’ come from?”
Le Can stood still in the living room and flatly lifted his eyelids to cast a glance at someone who was still stupidly holding the fruit basket and circling around him both urgently and guiltily.
the youth let out a soft sigh, his hands folded and suspended in front of him, as if leaning on something. He slowly curled his lips, revealing an interested gaze, sizing up the gradually stiffening Yuan Cheng from above.
“It seems you’ve remembered?”
The voice full of mockery rang in his ear, completely different from the cold and hoarse female voice, yet Yuan Cheng had no way to lie to himself that the two were unrelated.
If his hands weren’t still occupied by the fruit basket, Yuan Cheng’s current action and expression would probably be the embodiment of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
Oh, that might not be right—perhaps he would be more like an ostrich, burying his head deep in the dirt…
Hahaha, Le Can couldn’t stop himself from laughing out loud.
He looked around with light, smiling eyes, and not finding the figure he wanted to see, his laughter gradually faded. “Where’s Xi Yun? Still in the study?”
If you asked Le Can, he had never seen such a workaholic in two lifetimes. As a former “social animal” who had been severely ground down by work and stupid clients, Le Can really couldn’t empathize with any workaholic.
Especially someone like Xi Yun, who stayed up while unwell—a self-sacrificing, extremely dedicated workaholic.
A great man once said that the body is the capital of revolution. Le Can respected Xi Yun’s active and serious attitude toward his career, but he couldn’t agree with his overdrawing of his health.
“By the way, what has he been doing lately that his eyes haven’t improved?”
Le Can had asked Xi Yun this question before, but the other had always avoided talking about it. Now, having obtained important evidence to take down Jian Yu from Yuan Yuyan, he had come personally without stopping.
He was both personally bringing the information and personally checking on a certain unsettling guy…
Yuan Cheng, who had opened his mouth to say where Xi Yun was, quietly closed it again upon hearing this.
Le Can sharply knit his brows. “What, some classified information that even I can’t know?”
Faced with the slightly angry rhetorical question, Yuan Cheng shook his head like a rattle. “No, no, no, it’s just that Yun-ge hasn’t told even me the reason.”
“He’s in the bedroom right now. If you have any doubts, Brother-in-Law, go up and ask him yourself!”
Saying that, Yuan Cheng raised the fruit basket in his hand with a slightly exaggerated expression. “Oh my, these tomatoes are so red! The cucumbers are so green! I, I’ll go to the kitchen to help wash them right now!”
Sigh, better a dead fellow-disciple than a dead me.
Yuan Cheng ran off in a flash.
Regarding things between this couple, Aunt Liang had told him to meddle less!
Le Can watched Yuan Cheng as if he were being chased by a mad dog, then looked toward the bedroom and frowned slightly.
What was it that had to be hidden not only from him, but even from the inseparable Yuan Cheng?
Knock, knock, knock. A rhythmic knocking sounded.
Inside the room, Xi Yun supported his splitting headache with one hand and tightly gripped a new batch of jade with the other, frantically absorbing the cool energy from it.
Days of absorption had made the veins in Xi Yun’s arm ache faintly, but he couldn’t stop.
The continuous absorption of mysterious energy over these past few days should have, as Le Can thought, long since eliminated the various side effects caused by the overdrawing of Xi Yun’s X-ray vision.
But halfway through, something unexpected happened to Xi Yun’s ability…
His mind-reading ability had upgraded!
Originally, he could only passively hear Le Can’s heart, but at some unknown point, all kinds of sounds from the entire world began to pour into Xi Yun’s mind.
At first, Xi Yun could only passively accept everything. If his willpower hadn’t been firm, he would have turned stupid or gone crazy when he was first hit by the massive influx of heart-voices!
With great difficulty, he had distanced himself from the crowd and endured the most painful moments. The mind-reading, which seemed to only have an “on” button, frantically consumed the surplus energy Xi Yun had gained during this period.
He had to keep jade in his hand at all times and keep everyone ten meters away. Even so, it was difficult for Xi Yun to return to his usual peace, let alone get a good night’s sleep…
The knocking didn’t sound again; instead, the sound of the doorknob turning took its place.
Xi Yun frowned deeply, his eyes—which were red from days of staying up late—looked up and saw the youth who had taken off his hat and was rushing toward him.
His youth.
“Xi Yun, what exactly is going on?!”
Le Can roughly tore off his hat and mask, quickly pounced by the wheelchair, and pressed both hands against the sides of the man’s face, lowering his head to press his brow against the other’s forehead and chin.
[The temperature isn’t high, it’s actually a bit low. No fever.]
After confirming it wasn’t a fever, Le Can let go and pinched the chin of the man before him, who seemed even thinner. He narrowed his eyes and looked into those silver-grey double pupils that were filled with fatigue.
The tips of their noses lightly touched, and their warm breaths inevitably intertwined.
Feeling the pressure on his chin and the presence of the person before him, Xi Yun’s heart instantly became quiet.
No, it wasn’t just the peace of seemingly finding a home for his soul. In his head, the sounds that were as small as the vibration of a mosquito’s wings yet impossible to ignore suddenly became silent.
“Don’t play dead for me—did you hear me? Answer my question honestly!”
[Confess and be treated with leniency; resist and be treated with severity!]
Xi Yun’s brow, which had been knit for several days and left deep marks, suddenly smoothed out. Looking at the youth who was so close—who seemed to be commanding but was actually full of care—a light smile suddenly broke out on his face.
Le Can looked at the person who was staring at him as if in a trance and only smiling lightly. He retreated a step in alarm, his whole face wrinkling up.
[It’s over, what the hell is this? Why does he seem to have turned stupid?]
Listening to the heart-voice that was deliberately spoken for him to hear, Xi Yun chased after him.
A light kiss fell on the lips, like a petal falling from a branch; before Le Can could even chase it, it was gone.
“What are you doing…” What?
Before he could finish, someone pressed down on him overwhelmingly.
Le Can instantly stopped talking. His half-squatting posture turned into kneeling on one knee. He supported himself with his knee and used both hands and his entire upper body as a barrier to barely catch Xi Yun, who looked like he had fainted from hypoglycemia.
But someone having a hypoglycemic episode would wake up quickly. Le Can, who was holding a posture and letting someone’s head rest on his shoulder, didn’t see any movement from the person on him even after his knee went numb.
Instead, Xi Yun’s breathing was low and very rhythmic.
Like… he had fallen asleep?
With great difficulty, he dragged and pulled the man into the bed, then found the family doctor to check him over, only to be told the man had indeed fallen asleep.
Le Can, his head covered in sweat: “…”
The youth sitting by the bed gritted his teeth and cursed silently, his hands fiercely pinching the man’s tranquil and refined handsome face in his sleep.
“I truly owe you!”
Even a scolding had to be done in a low voice.
But there was no way around it. Having just learned from the doctor that Xi Yun had suffered from insomnia for several days and his nerves were strained to the limit, Le Can was anxious, worried, and frustrated.
He wished he could shake Xi Yun awake to ask for a reason, but he was afraid of actually waking the man from his hard-won rest…
He truly didn’t know which lifetime he had owed the man in!
He nimbly stripped the man clean and then washed away the smell of sweat from himself. Le Can familiarly tucked himself into Xi Yun’s quilt, and listening to the light breathing by his ear, his consciousness also gradually began to drift…
When he woke up, he would definitely force out exactly what had happened…
And… Yuan Yuyan, Jian Yu, and A-Yu… and… the fake, tsk…
T/N: “Confess and be treated with leniency” (坦白從寬，抗拒從嚴) is a common legal/police slogan in China. “Social animal” (社畜) is slang for a corporate slave. “Scream” refers to the famous painting by Edvard Munch. “Building 600” is a recurring joke referencing the mental health center mentioned in the previous chapter.
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