Chapter 14: Lin Jiangye, Are You Human?

The smell of blood grew stronger.

The wound torn open by the blunt impact of metal could not heal quickly for the moment. Thick blood slowly flowed down and spread along his shirt and skin, producing a delicate sound only Lin Jiangye could hear.

And Yu Wangxiao looked like he really was a little sad.

His brow bones were high, and when he lowered his head, the deep shadows between his features became even more distinct. His side profile carried a faint melancholy. His beautiful lips were also lightly pressed together, without even the slightest upward curve.

How should one comfort a human? Kiss him forcefully like in romance movies, or give him a very strong hug?

But Yu Wangxiao was injured. Rash physical contact would only cause more harm.

Lin Jiangye was still fighting against the strange appetite in his heart, and now he felt even more helpless. He could only speak stiffly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be fierce…”

Before he could finish, Yu Lin interrupted him, accompanied by an almost contemptuous cold laugh.

“Heh, hilarious.”

“Stop acting, Yu Wangxiao. Is it fun playing house while wearing sheep’s skin? Do you think everyone is as senile as Grandpa and Grandma, able to be deceived by you for a lifetime?”

“Yu Lin, you still don’t understand. My relationship with Jiangye…” Yu Wangxiao paused. His attitude remained gentle and calm. “Is official, and also equal. Unlike you.”

Although his tone was gentle, Yu Lin heard the blatant mockery in that last part perfectly clearly. The irritation in his heart seemed to be splashed with sour, inferior wine, inexplicably surging even higher.

Perhaps it was because Yu Wangxiao behaved too normally. From beginning to end, he had not said a single wrong thing. Even after Yu Lin pointed at his nose and cursed him, he still maintained the uprightness and dignity that the Yu family should have… and even had time to act pitiful in front of his little lover.

Yu Lin clenched his fists, exhaled, and took a few steps closer, staring straight into Yu Wangxiao’s eyes. His voice lowered a little. “I was the one who provoked you. If I can’t afford to provoke you, then that’s my bad luck. Just don’t fucking bully Lin Jiangye, okay?”

Softening his stance in a volume only the two of them could hear was the biggest concession he could make right now. Hot-tempered as he was, Yu Lin also knew he could not continue making trouble. It would only make him lose face in front of Lin Jiangye.

Besides, Lin Jiangye was easily frightened. If they really started fighting, this fragile rabbit might be scared into having some kind of problem.

Yu Lin thought a lot, but these brief self-explanations did not have much effect.

Because Yu Wangxiao lowered his eyes and looked at him, his brows slightly furrowed, yet a faint smile seeped through his eyes that made Yu Lin’s teeth itch. “Yu Lin, as a highly educated adult, your attitude toward intimate relationships is too extreme and too childish.

“Little Uncle will assign you homework. Starting tonight, you need to learn how to respect your other half’s thoughts and feelings. After you finish studying, write an eight-thousand-word reflection and send it to He Chen’s email before next week.”

Yu Lin: …

He fell silent for a moment. Unable to make any more vivid angry expressions, he raised his hand and punched directly toward Yu Wangxiao’s elegantly shaped nose bridge. He used too much force and did not hold back at all; his sleeve even sliced through the air with a faint sound.

“…Stop!”

Lin Jiangye was startled. Without hesitation, he stepped forward and took the initiative to block him, protecting Yu Wangxiao’s bloodied shoulder with his body, like some kind of innate food-guarding instinct.

His reaction speed was far faster than a human’s. In an instant, he could capture the brief stunned look appearing in Yu Wangxiao’s eyes, and he could also immediately judge that the fist opposite him could no longer stop and was getting closer and closer to him.

If he were hit, he might suffer a fracture, and his face was still very fragile for now… Lin Jiangye decided to resist. So he raised his hand, grabbed Yu Lin’s wrist, squeezed it lightly, and used the force to push him straight toward the other side of the corridor.

Bang—!

An unexpectedly loud noise rang out. Yu Lin fell to the ground, his head slamming against the wall. In the blink of an eye, the smell of blood spread.

But he had not reacted at all. Completely unguarded, he had been thrown away with great force. His vision and thoughts sank into dizziness and chaos.

He breathed with difficulty and struggled to half-open his eyelids. In the corner of his vision, that thin figure produced strange double images.

That beautiful, soft face that should have been incomparably familiar to him was made unfamiliar and gorgeous by the plain hospital gown.

It was like a porcelain vase shattering before his eyes, spilling thick, icy silver-white moonlight all over the floor, emitting a dangerous yet alluring signal. If it flowed over along the floor tiles, perhaps it could corrode his flesh, bones, and marrow.

Had he been beaten into hallucinating? Or was this a side effect of a concussion?

Yu Lin did not understand what he was thinking, nor could he distinguish whether everything before him was real or fake.

It was a terror and beauty that did not conform to any common sense, causing him to briefly lose the ability to breathe. He could not control it at all. It was as if a taut thread in his mind snapped with a crash.

“…Young Master Yu, please don’t move your body. Stay where you are!”

Of course, aside from the surveillance camera not far away and aside from Yu Lin’s inexplicable “hallucination,” no one had clearly seen what had actually happened.

Everyone experienced a brief daze. The medical staff froze for several seconds before surrounding Yu Lin to bandage him.

The burly men from the security team also hesitated to speak. They looked at the expressionless Lin Jiangye, then at the quietly curving corners of Yu Wangxiao’s lips, and only felt cold sweat break out on their heads, unsure whether they should step forward and intervene.

The corridor was so silent one could hear a pin drop.

Only Lin Jiangye did not realize anything was wrong. After all, this was only a very basic combat technique.

Seeing that the medical staff had arrived, he quickly grabbed Yu Wangxiao’s sleeve and said seriously to the nurse, “Hello, this injured person also needs disinfection and bandaging. Please hurry, thank you.”

“Ah, alright, Mr. Lin.” The head nurse reacted very quickly as well and hurriedly tried to separate the source of the conflict. “Do the two of you need to move to the physical examination center for further checks?”

“Of course we do.” Lin Jiangye immediately answered, unusually anxious.

Yu Wangxiao cooperatively nodded slightly. His gaze lingered on Lin Jiangye, and he smiled. “I’ll listen to him.”

That sentence sounded weaker than usual. Lin Jiangye’s expression became even more serious, and he directly took Yu Wangxiao’s hand. “Let’s go now.”

“Cough, cough… Wait!”

“What else do you want?” Lin Jiangye turned to look at Yu Lin, his expression cold.

Such an especially impatient attitude was rare, but Yu Lin could no longer care about these small details. He pushed away the nurse’s hand, worked hard to sit up a little straighter, and forced down the bloody, metallic taste rising in his throat. “Lin Jiangye… don’t leave yet. Come over and let me look at you…”

“I refuse.”

Lin Jiangye did not stay for even another moment. He pulled Yu Wangxiao and turned to leave. Even though the voice behind him continued coming intermittently, his steps did not slow down at all.

Because his hearing was good enough. Even the information he missed could be collected without anyone knowing.

As long as he deliberately left a bit of attention behind, he could clearly catch Yu Lin’s movements as he tried to chase after them, as well as the fragmented voices of the people around them, sometimes loud and sometimes soft.

“Lin Jiangye, are you human? How could you treat me like this… No, you must have already gone insane. It’s all Yu Wangxiao’s fault. He tortured you until you went crazy.

“I handled it wrong. That night, I shouldn’t have directly driven you out. I was a little… Fuck, Yu Wangxiao is a lunatic, a liar. There’s something wrong with his mind, and he’s deliberately acting for you. You can’t afford to provoke him. Don’t be deceived by him so obediently that you help him count the money after he sells you!”

The elevator doors slowly closed at this moment, and the nurse pressed the button leading to the top floor. Yu Lin’s irritated words were covered by a dull echo.

“I don’t need bandaging. Don’t bother with me. Where’s my phone? Xu Jiang, come here. Call Lin Bingsheng for me and tell him to quickly watch his own son properly. It would be best if he could bring him home and lock him up. Call now.”

“Hello, Lin-ge? How’s your leg? Does it still hurt?”

“…Hang up right now. Who told you to call Jingyao? Xu Jiang, can you not even tell who matters more? Have you also gone crazy recently?”

Lin Jiangye did not listen to the subsequent commotion anymore. He supported Yu Wangxiao out of the elevator and arrived at the “physical examination center” the nurse had mentioned, only to discover that there were no other patients here at all.

The decor was cold and minimalist, and the smell of disinfectant was much lighter than downstairs. It was equipped with ECG and EEG machines, complete emergency equipment, and could even perform simple ultrasound diagnostics and eye examinations.

A hospital would not set its physical examination center on the top floor of the building. Clearly, this was also Yu Wangxiao’s personal territory.

The outdoor terrace was as large as a sports field. The floor-to-ceiling windows reflected the colorful night view of the vast city. Transparent freezers were filled with fresh fruit and alcoholic beverages. On the bookshelf sat an expensive-looking cigar set, but it seemed to have never been opened.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows. This was the first phrase that popped into Lin Jiangye’s mind.

Before he had time to take in all the details, the medical staff waiting in advance surrounded them and smoothly separated the two of them.

He sat dazedly on the sofa, holding Yu Wangxiao’s still-warm coat. On the coffee table was a beautiful fruit platter.

Yu Wangxiao needed his wound treated. He unhurriedly undid the buttons of his shirt, calmly revealing his exceptionally well-shaped upper body.

What reassured Lin Jiangye was that his injury was not too serious. The torn scrape caused by the tip of the crutch had already begun healing on its own, though the bruise would take several days to fade.

A small patch of deep red had spread across the dark shirt, not clearly visible. In the next moment, it was thrown into a bright yellow trash bin. A faint smell of blood lingered around his left shoulder, slowly climbing over his clear, cold-white collarbone.

One anti-inflammatory injection, one tetanus shot. The sharp needles silently pierced into flesh, making Lin Jiangye’s nose move slightly.

So fragrant.

Mixed and intertwined with the scent of alcohol and iodine, it was very much like… the hospital-themed department’s special soul set meal for supervisors, containing a cup of blue-flame cocktail, an icy glacier flavor wrapped in saltpeter and whale blood.

Lin Jiangye’s throat tightened slightly. He involuntarily fell into a daze for a moment, then forced himself not to look at Yu Wangxiao’s beautiful wound. He pointed at the fruit platter. “Can I eat?”

“It’s late. Don’t eat too much. We still have to visit Old Madam Gu.” Yu Wangxiao did not completely indulge his appetite. He turned his head to let the nurse treat the wound. “Sorry for letting you see Yu Lin making a scene. He can curse at me, but he shouldn’t attack you.”

Lin Jiangye endured and only picked up two cherries, frowning slightly in disagreement. “He shouldn’t curse at you either.”

“…Perhaps he has his reasons for treating me like this. Tuantuan, I do have a hypocritical side. I’m not an entirely innocent good person.”

Yu Wangxiao lowered his eyes, his expression unclear. The night fell over his superior side profile, freely smearing light and shadow into a vague contrast of brightness and darkness.

As he spoke, the medical staff understood and left one after another, leaving only some medicine to prevent infection and anti-inflammatory dressings. A faint strange sound came from outside the window—the hum of an engine and the noise of rotating blades.

Lin Jiangye was briefly silent. His gaze locked straight onto Yu Wangxiao, watching him take out a freshly ironed shirt from the wardrobe, bury the wound on his shoulder beneath fabric once again, and then be wrapped in an even sharper suit jacket.

That blood scent with special magic finally faded, allowing Lin Jiangye to breathe normally and have a sufficiently calm mind.

“I only believe what I see, hear, and feel myself. What he says doesn’t count.”

Lin Jiangye spoke softly.

He was not stupid. Of course he could understand Yu Lin’s repeated accusations, those sincere, angry accusations aimed only at Yu Wangxiao.

If this had been before the Gu family birthday banquet, perhaps they might have sounded somewhat reasonable. But now, he did not think “hypocritical” was an appropriate description.

Yu Wangxiao and he had already experienced an absolutely supernatural horror incident together, and throughout the entire process, this man had never covered up those mysterious dangers surrounding him.

The gun inside his suit. His calmness when ordering his assistant to steal the corpse. And… the way he openly placed surveillance devices in every corner around Lin Jiangye, seemingly without any psychological burden even after being discovered several times.

Rather than hypocrisy, it was more like Yu Wangxiao had displayed a trace of inhumanly malicious nature. But just this level of bad intentions was something Lin Jiangye could completely understand.

After all, when he used to rob his superiors of food by blocking the road, he had not had any psychological burden either.

Moreover, after repeatedly verifying the facts until now, Lin Jiangye was already very certain—getting close to this man, who smelled far too delicious, was the fastest way for him to recover his strength.

He would not take the initiative to distance himself from Yu Wangxiao. No matter what others said, it was useless.

“Mm, your approach is very correct. Only believing everything you personally feel is the safest.”

The favorability above Yu Wangxiao’s head quietly climbed upward, and he himself was, as always, somewhat overly considerate.

He draped a thicker coat over Lin Jiangye and patiently fastened the complicated double-breasted buttons.

The sound of helicopter blades grew stronger. Before long, it actually landed steadily on the terrace before them. A middle-aged man wearing a windproof face mask jumped down from the pilot’s seat, revealing half his face.

It was the familiar and reassuring Chen Ming.

Lin Jiangye froze slightly. He had heard the helicopter long ago, but he had only thought it was a passing aircraft. He had not connected it to himself at all.

“We’re taking a helicopter to… see Old Madam Gu?”

“It’s not far. She’s on an island west of A City. A helicopter is the most convenient for the round trip.” Yu Wangxiao naturally took his wrist, as if he had already done it countless times.

Lin Jiangye did not realize anything was wrong, but as he felt the temperature around his wrist gradually rising, he inexplicably began missing that blue-flame cocktail that burned his throat.

In his former long trainee career, he had only had the chance to drink it once, and it had been stolen.

To suppress his strange thoughts, Lin Jiangye tried to divert his attention and focus his mind on the present human world.

He exhaled, fastened his seatbelt, and said in a slightly dry voice, “My body is very fragile. What if I’m afraid of heights and faint on the aircraft?”

Yu Wangxiao laughed. He did not say anything. Instead, he placed a fluffy hat on Lin Jiangye’s head, the curve of his lips very beautiful.

“The wind is strong tonight. Wear your earmuffs properly.”