Chapter 5: Eating the Melon Only to Become the Center of the Gossip—What Else Can Le Can Say?
Le Can straightened his body, which had been leaning forward.
Tucking away the gossip in his heart, and under the sharp scrutiny of Young Master Xi opposite him, he casually narrowed his eyes to hide the subtle expression within them.
It seemed the spectator had become the spectacle. The scene before him gave him an inexplicable sense of déjà vu… Le Can had a faint feeling he had seen this scene somewhere before.
But that wasn’t the most important thing right now.
In his lowering line of sight, a pair of pampered hands rested on his knees, pressed together.
At a glance, the skin was fair and smooth, the knuckles slender and beautiful, with a healthy pale pink showing at the fingertips.
Le Can suddenly held his breath. Amidst the thumping of his heart growing louder in his ears, he carefully issued a mental command.
Under his intense scrutiny, those beautiful, intact hands—capable of making money as a hand model—moved in response to his thought.
Le Can abruptly relaxed his taut nerves, taking a deep gulp of air.
Then, in the awkward silence filling the room, the young man—who hadn’t yet fully stepped into the role of “Third Young Master Le”—began playing with his new hands in surprise and delight.
He rubbed his thumb and index finger together, digits he had once lost and now regained. Really feeling the existence of his fingers, Le Can, his rationality returning, immediately lowered his head.
Unseen by the other two in the room, the young man blinked rapidly. His face wavered with uncertainty while guesses about his current situation flashed through his mind.
Transmigration? Rebirth? Borrowing a corpse to resurrect the soul?
Xi Yun observed Le Can’s series of reactions with indifference, but he didn’t dwell on them. It wasn’t that he didn’t notice the oddity; he simply lacked the mood to invest any thought into it.
He crudely attributed it to a young man’s inability to save face. Regarding this sudden burst of self-esteem after being exposed for a willful offense, Xi Yun viewed it merely as a joke.
First, he wasn’t a bleeding heart who catered to others’ emotions, especially those who lacked self-awareness.
Second, experience taught Xi Yun that once he decided to be unsparing, he had to be thoroughly ruthless. Unnecessary soft-heartedness would only bring endless trouble.
Therefore, from the start, Xi Yun hadn’t planned to give Le Can much time to adjust. He had already wasted enough time on these two from the Le family today…
He lowered his eyes to check the time on his wristwatch, his right index finger tapping against the dial. A silent declaration that his patience was running on empty.
“What does Third Young Master Le think?”
Xi Yun called Le Can out directly.
From the previous exchange, Xi Yun had already seen through them. With the Le family’s bankruptcy imminent, the old fellow had completely thrown his dignity on the ground, but the younger one didn’t have that level of cultivation yet.
Since the path with the former was blocked, he might as well make the latter retreat in the face of difficulty.
Being named directly made it hard for Le Can to deceive himself. He squeezed out an awkward smile, though inside, he had already been “dead while alive” for a good while.
What else could Le Can say?
Remaining silent, he thought:
If I weren’t the person involved, I’d jump up and applaud you!
The unexpected “restoration” of his right hand had indeed made Le Can’s psychological state more buoyant. He let his mind run wild without restraint, while on the surface, he maintained a watertight appearance of being overcome with shame.
After all, aside from this unequal marriage proposal, he didn’t know anything about the situation…
People generally want to live, not die. Moreover, Le Can had just experienced the sensation of death; in the short term, he still wanted to continue living. Mn, preferably earning back the money he lost!
No one knew if Xi Yun bought Le Can’s disguise. But clearly, the man beside him—suspected to be his cheap dad—bought it completely.
Le Wenxin hastily waved aside the useless junior. “Xi Yun, when the Old Master was alive, he looked after our Le family greatly. How could you…”
“Enough!”
Xi Yun shouted, cutting off the rest of the sentence.
The man, radiating authority even while seated, furrowed his brows tightly. He raised a hand to press against the bridge of his nose, suppressing a momentary stabbing pain in his eyes.
“But, but, but…”
Le Wenxin knew he had lost his composure, but he was truly too anxious and afraid.
The Le family, once on par with the Xi family, was long ruined. Seeing the crushing debt about to land on his head, he, having lived freely for half his life, was not only about to lose everything but would be burdened with heavy debts.
Facing doom, the selfish old man refused to divorce his wife to help her escape the debt. Only when his wife and daughter reminded him out of desperation did he suddenly remember a joking promise of marriage made before the two grandfathers passed away.
This was because the grandmothers of both families had been close friends. When the elders were still alive, the relationship between the Xi and Le families was quite intimate. At that time, the children of the younger generation were already settled, so the joke of a marriage alliance fell upon the generation after that.
So far, Le Wenxin had two legitimate children. His eldest daughter had married and had children the year before last, and his youngest son had to stay home to carry on the family line!
Aside from those unpresentable illegitimate children, the only one in the Le family of similar age to Xi Yun was his younger brother’s son, his nephew Le Can.
He couldn’t bear to part with his own son, but Le Wenxin was quite willing to part with his nephew.
Not caring about him was one thing; on the other hand, aside from grasping at this joking betrothal, Le Wenxin truly had no other options.
He unwillingly observed Xi Yun, whose eyes were closed, for a moment. Not waiting for a second rebuttal, Le Wenxin gritted his teeth and continued:
“Look at our Le Can, what’s not to like? Ever since his parents passed away… Aiyou, the only thing this uncle worries about is his future partner.”
He sounded high-sounding and dignified as he continued: “But after picking and choosing, it’s still our family’s Old Master who had the best eye.”
As Le Wenxin spoke, he pushed his nephew—whom he claimed to cherish so dearly—towards Xi Yun like he was hawking merchandise.
“They say filial piety comes first. We, as sons and grandsons, must fulfill the elderly’s last wishes properly.”
“Don’t you think I’m right, Xi Yun?”
Le Can, who was being offered up like a tribute beauty, felt numb. He couldn’t hold back and frantically roasted him in his heart:
Give it a rest, you old geezer!
Is it best if I also conveniently fill in the financial hole for you, you old fogey?
As for what the questioned subject, Xi Yun, was doing at this moment?
Before he could digest the “jump up and applaud” that appeared in his mind out of nowhere, an earth-shattering “Give it a rest, you old geezer!” crashed into his brain, leaving it buzzing.
The sarcasm originally on the tip of his tongue was forced back down his throat.
The subsequent unceremonious rebuttal clearly came from the cowardly looking young man who seemed to lack any opinion of his own—Le Can.
Roast complete. The moment he processed Xi Yun’s name, Le Can finally had an epiphany.
He knew why the scene before him felt both strange and familiar.
Xi Yun, Xi Yun… wasn’t this the name of the male lead in that no-CP, big male-led power fantasy novel that Little Wu from the office had passionately recommended to him?!
An urban male lead, the epitome of the solitary king!
Relying on his X-Ray vision ability, he sparked lightning all the way to the top, eventually turning the only auction house in his hands into the largest in Yanjing and even the world.
According to Little Wu, the author spoiled that in the later stages, the protagonist becomes a renowned collector, gathering all sorts of jewelry, jade, and antiques. Mastering endless wealth, standing at the pinnacle of power!
Le Can didn’t care if it was satisfying or not; he had read similar power fantasies before. But speaking of jewelry, jade, and money… Damn it! He was sold.
Only after falling into the pit did Le Can tragically discover the book was still being serialized, with a grand total of just over 100,000 words updated.
Ten thousand words isn’t enough to make you give up immediately; one million words is enough to keep you full. But precisely 100,000 words is just enough to hook you so hard you can’t stop!
Yes, Le Can swallowed those 100,000 words whole. Before reading, his mindset was that if the title didn’t live up to the content, he would just drop it. After reading, he only wanted to hammer Little Wu and his mischievous grin.
He was definitely, absolutely doing it on purpose!
Le Can swore on his savings.
Everyone knows that even a male lead in a no-CP novel—like the King of Loners, Xi Yun—cannot avoid men and women throwing themselves at him like moths to a flame.
Unfortunately, these 100,000 words were no exception. Among them appeared a cannon fodder male suitor who left a deep impression on Le Can because they shared the same name.
A little bitter gourd whose biological parents died early, whose inheritance was taken over by his eldest uncle, and who lived a miserable life akin to a transparent person.
Xi Yun was essentially the original Le Can’s last straw to escape his sea of bitterness. Since the child was raised to be submissive, the only way to escape Le Wenxin’s family’s control was to be actively sent away.
However, since it was “No-CP,” the protagonist not only lacked certain worldly desires but was also a person of firm will and strong opinions.
This laughable marriage alliance was doomed to fail from the start.
The current Le Can didn’t really want to marry a man randomly either.
Since he knew the ending, he decided to go with the flow, maintain the original Le Can’s character persona, and wait to be swept out the door.
Once out, he would carefully plan how to completely break away from the Le family…
Le Can was not that person in the novel. Independent since childhood, he had learned to rely on himself to fight for the results he wanted.
Thinking this, Le Can spared a glance at Le Wenxin, who had exhausted all his good and bad words without getting a single response and was now turning green with anger.
Mm, good thing I didn’t open my mouth and call him ‘Dad’.
The face-conscious Le shook his head. Even if he switched worlds, he wouldn’t have a pot-bellied, greasy, middle-aged, shabby old dad…
On the other side, for some unknown reason, Xi Yun had unlocked the mind-reading function that was supposed to appear in the later stages early.
Perhaps because it was too early, the mind-reading was like a bad signal, only catching two extremely short fragments.
Having had X-Ray vision first, Xi Yun quickly accepted the appearance of a new ability. However, the sudden onset intensified the occasional stinging in his eyes, which gave Le Wenxin an opening to spout nonsense.
When the pain subsided and Xi Yun opened his eyes again, those silver-gray eyes were as cold as a sharpened blade.
“Are you finished? If you’re finished, Mr. Le, please take the Third Young Master and leave.”
Without waiting for Le Wenxin to speak again, Xi Yun reached out and pressed the call bell under the table.
The bell was connected to the bodyguard lounge outside. Soon, someone would come to “invite” the people before him to leave.
Being so slighted by a junior, Le Wenxin, who prided himself on being an elder, nearly fainted from anger.
Le Can slowly stood up from the sofa, a round of applause echoing in his heart.
His gaze swept over the scumbag uncle’s hands, which were shaking like he had Parkinson’s, and finally glanced at the cold and sharp Xi Yun.
See, I told you this bizarre marriage alliance wouldn’t work…
“Wait!”
Le Can’s footsteps paused, and he met the eyes of Xi Yun, who had suddenly spoken up to stop them: …?
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