Chapter 47: You Are a Thief

“…Yu Wangxiao, that flower of yours is about to bloom.”

At one in the morning, Lin Jiangye struggled to pull himself back from his colorful, emptied-out state of mind and return to the real world.

He stared fixedly at Yu Wangxiao, his gaze lingering for a long time on the man’s beautiful cupid’s bow. Once again, he felt a subtle difficulty in breathing.

After a moment of silence, Lin Jiangye reached out and cupped his face. His fingertip slowly brushed over the corner of Yu Wangxiao’s lips, touching that fresh wound that seemed both visible and hidden, and said faintly, “If I had a flower too, it would already have turned into a tropical rainforest by now. Tomorrow, it could evolve into the strongest invasive species and rule the Earth.”

“How is it that exaggerated?” Yu Wangxiao laughed softly and tilted his head to kiss his fingertip. The warm breath fell into Lin Jiangye’s palm, making a tingling itch rise faintly in his heart.

“No, no, you’re too bad. I’ll definitely get addicted to this kind of thing. I didn’t know before that you humans… Do you really like it?”

Lin Jiangye could not help pinching his face. His right hand seemed bewitched as it stroked along the side of Yu Wangxiao’s face, sliding down little by little until it gently pressed against the artery in his neck.

The rhythm of his heartbeat had yet to return to normal even now. It was still like a tight, urgent drumbeat, vivid and unrestrained. Lin Jiangye was like this, and Yu Wangxiao was also like this.

Lin Jiangye raised his head and looked at the vibrant cypress flower, almost completely about to bloom, then at those dark green branches growing tenaciously like snake scales. He could not help feeling shocked by this frightening speed of maturation.

“It’s something ordinary couples do. Why wouldn’t I like it?” Yu Wangxiao’s voice carried a hoarseness that was hard to conceal. He took the initiative to clasp Lin Jiangye’s wrist, applying a little force and pressing it even more firmly.

The slightly damp texture of his side neck was rubbed red in Lin Jiangye’s palm, leaving several overly fresh finger marks. They formed a clear contrast against the remaining cold white skin. The bite marks Lin Jiangye had left a few days ago were still there. Yu Wangxiao had not done any repair treatment.

“…Yu Wangxiao, you really are so bad. I’m so hungry I’m about to go crazy, and you’re still doing this.”

Lin Jiangye closed his eyes with difficulty. A burst of silver light surged up, then was drawn back into the depths of his eyes as his lashes trembled. He was working hard to suppress the power that had nearly spilled straight out of his body.

This intense visual impact would make him uncontrollably savor it over and over, making him crave and think about it constantly. It was a long hunger that could almost never truly be resolved.

“Hungry? Handle Du Ning’s problem properly, and we’ll go eat some midnight snacks.” Yu Wangxiao raised the corner of his lips and unhurriedly proposed a solution. “Don’t worry. Right now, I am the most… careless man in the world.”

“I don’t believe you!”

Although he said that, he did not seem to have any other method right now. Whether Du Ning’s life could be preserved or not, the problem of two souls in one body had to be resolved as soon as possible.

And to solve this problem, either Du Ning or Yu Ling had to die. Their symbiotic state could not continue unless this world suddenly produced some very reasonable soul-cultivation method.

Otherwise, the mother and son would either both explode and die, or they would only walk down the path of the ghost infant and leave behind a highly dangerous living-dead body at the same time. That would be the real trouble.

So the safest and most proper method was for Lin Jiangye to personally eat one of the souls. As for who to eat, and how to eat… those details could actually be discussed with Du Ning herself in advance, depending on her personal wishes.

Lin Jiangye buried his face in the crook of Yu Wangxiao’s neck, took several deep breaths, and bit him once before gradually recovering from his state as a starving ghost reincarnated.

He picked up the bath towel draped at the end of the bed, wiped Yu Wangxiao’s neck, then briefly wiped himself clean and put on his clothes.

Standing before the hidden door leading to the study, Lin Jiangye paused. He turned back and glanced at Yu Wangxiao, who was slowly buttoning his shirt, and suddenly felt a trace of awkwardness spread after the fact.

“…Yu Wangxiao, is your bedroom soundproof? What if people heard us? There’s a child living in Du Ning’s head.”

“It’s very soundproof. Even murder couldn’t be heard.” Yu Wangxiao’s mood was indeed very good. He could even make jokes now.

“Then it’s fine.”

Lin Jiangye tidied his hair and pressed the switch. Warm yellow light from the other side of the hidden door poured out.

Du Ning was still squatting in the corner by the study door, not trying to break free from the leather restraints around her wrists.

Her bloodshot eyes were wide open, turning toward the sound to look at them. She seemed quiet, but that instinctive fear once again surged from the depths of her eyes. Yet her aura was subtly completely different from before.

“…Sister-in-law, is that you?” Lin Jiangye felt something was not right and asked tentatively.

“It’s me. I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble.”

Du Ning spoke. As expected.

“The crazy woman in the Yu family old residence” was indeed Du Ning’s role setting, yes. But when she briefly broke free from her shackles and gained free will, she completely possessed the ability to communicate normally.

In comparison, she seemed luckier than Xu Lifang. At least the real her was clearly still a long way from mental collapse.

Du Ning instinctively avoided Lin Jiangye’s gaze. Her tone was gentle and soothing, without the slightest resentment. “Mr. Lin, please don’t blame Xiao Li too much. She is also a pitiful victim.”

Xiao Li was that possessed young caregiver.

Lin Jiangye narrowed his eyes. “So what’s going on with Bodhisattva Holding a Child?”

“Just a method to control people’s hearts.” Du Ning pressed her lips into a smile, unexpectedly extremely frank, and slowly explained without panic. “The great power within my body contains endless vitality. It can revive the dead and regrow flesh on bones, allowing a pregnant woman whose fetus had died in the womb to smoothly give birth to a living child… Xiao Li’s elder sister was saved by me, and from then on, she believed in me without question.”

Great power… It sounded very much like fragments of his corpse.

As for this so-called endless vitality, that was truly a little exaggerated. He was not that powerful. He merely possessed the ordinary abilities to reshape flesh and hook away souls.

It just so happened that he could hook the soul of a fetus that had just left the body back into the mother’s body. Xiao Li’s sister had truly been lucky. If the soul had already completely dissipated, her sister would most likely have given birth to an incurably foolish patient… and if she were even more unlucky, it would have been a living dead descending from the sky.

Lin Jiangye’s lips twitched. He took a few steps forward and sat back in the comfortable chair in the study, hiding all his inner complaints. Tilting his head, he looked at her. “I thought this kind of thing would require all kinds of interrogation, coercion, and temptation before you would be willing to reveal even a tiny bit.”

“Eldest Sister-in-law has always been easy to talk to. There’s no need for formalities. Just say what needs to be said.” Yu Wangxiao leaned beside the sofa armrest and explained, still in a rather good mood.

Du Ning gently shook her head and smiled faintly. “No matter what, this time, I’m the one asking something of you. I’ve also done many wrong things and am in the wrong first. My attitude can’t be poor. Mr. Lin, Wangxiao, I won’t hide any secrets. Please ask freely.”

“I see. Then I’ll ask directly.” Lin Jiangye sat up straighter, put away his smile, and became extremely serious. “Du Ning, look at me.”

“…”

This seemingly simple request was extremely difficult for Du Ning.

She was very afraid of Lin Jiangye, but not because Lin Jiangye had personally touched the inside of her skull and could easily tear open the firm texture of a human body with his hand.

That was indeed a terrifyingly sharp pain. However, it would only last for a while and would not make Du Ning feel timid.

She could not explain what she was afraid of. It was a fear she herself could not understand. Du Ning was silent for a long time. The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes trembled uncontrollably as she forced herself to raise her head and meet those black, bright, harmless, soft almond eyes.

“…Mr. Lin, please ask.” Du Ning’s voice trembled sharply, then she immediately forced herself to remain calm.

“You and Yu Ling can only have one survivor. It has to be decided tonight. Choose one. There is no other choice.” Lin Jiangye spoke directly, looking down from above as he carefully observed her expression. “You’ve already seen Xu Lifang’s coffin, right? If this continues, Xu Lifang’s today will be your tomorrow.”

“Choose Ling’er! Let Ling’er live!”

Du Ning blurted it out without thinking, almost forgetting her instinctive flinching and fear.

Immediately after, she took several deep breaths, quickly calming her agitation before softly speaking again. “He is a good child. He has never done anything bad in his life, a good child who never got to grow up… I understand my own condition. A sickness of the heart can’t be cured, and my body has long been overdrawn. I won’t live much longer. Let Ling’er use my body and live carefree and happy for a few years in the Yu family. Is that alright?”

This sounded like a simple request, but long-term care for a small adult who could not take care of himself and could not even speak was actually quite costly. The choice of caregiver also had to be considered more carefully.

Lin Jiangye turned to look at Yu Wangxiao, because he did not have the right to speak on this matter. It depended on what Yu Wangxiao thought.

“Raising him is fine. I don’t live in the old residence often. However, what is your definition of happiness for him?” Yu Wangxiao looked thoughtful.

“Let him eat more snacks he likes, watch television and play games. It would be best if he can get along with his younger brother… That would be completely enough.”

Yu Wangxiao nodded. “I won’t interfere too much with Yu Lin’s thoughts. He can decide for himself. The other requests are fine.”

“Thank you, Wangxiao. Truly, thank you, and truly, I’m sorry. For so many years, you alone have supported the messy Yu family. You’ve done far better than your eldest brother and sister-in-law.” Du Ning could not help letting out a heavy breath of relief, abruptly closing her sore eyes and allowing that tearing pain to suddenly spread through her skull. “You’ve never married, and there’s nothing I could help with. That scum Yu Chaoyuan only ever caused trouble for you…”

“There’s no need to apologize. Those few little yellow papers of yours couldn’t borrow my life. If there’s nothing else you want to say, leave the rest to Jiangye. Cooperate with him and listen to him.”

“Alright, I understand.” Du Ning smiled faintly. With her eyes closed, she continued softly, “For Ling’er, I have never done a single thing I regret. Even now, being able to wait until an extraordinary existence like Mr. Lin appeared is Heaven telling me that the gamble and choice I made for Ling’er were completely correct. The mad me does not regret it, and the current me does not either… Let me die alone. Let me suffer alone. This is the sin I deserve.”

Her voice was extremely firm, even faintly revealing a bit of joyful yearning for death. Her logic formed its own system, and Lin Jiangye could not say much to criticize it.

A mother doing seemingly mad things to save her child was actually very normal. Lin Jiangye thought this was reasonable, while also being unable to stop himself from seriously suspecting his own mother.

His mother was far more capable than Du Ning. Before She became the cornerstone of the gods of death, Her ability to cause trouble had likewise been outstanding.

If She had long since predicted that Lin Jiangye’s workplace relationships would be so terrible, even forcing him to blow up and die together with all his colleagues in the void… Lin Jiangye simply could not imagine what eerie things his mother might have secretly added into his body without telling him.

Unfortunately, that moon had already been replaced by a newborn moon. The world did not revolve around him, and now he had no way to investigate deeply. He could only first resolve the mother before him who was gladly heading toward death.

Lin Jiangye re-tightened the restraints around Du Ning’s hands, making sure she absolutely could not easily break free. Then he calmed himself and concentrated.

“Yu Wangxiao, give me one of your candles.”

Yu Wangxiao raised his brows slightly and took out a full box of candles from the desk drawer. Counting them carefully, there were several dozen. They were kept in a specially made titanium box, and their condition was very good.

“So many… Turns out you have a fear of insufficient firepower? But this is just right. The success rate will be much higher.”

Lin Jiangye did not stand on ceremony with him. He casually grabbed a large handful of candles, then ate them all as quickly as possible. To be honest, they tasted terrible, even worse than ordinary candles. Lin Jiangye almost choked himself.

Yu Wangxiao was holding back the desire to feed him water. Standing behind the sofa a slight distance away, he asked faintly, “What’s the principle behind this?”

“Do you remember the jade plaque you took on the plane? Actually, I secretly ate it. I kept hiding it from you before.” Lin Jiangye stood in front of Du Ning, his hand lightly covering her head. “The ghost infant really did live inside that jade plaque, but Gu Yuan’s soul wasn’t there.”

Yu Wangxiao’s face quietly darkened, his smile not quite a smile. “Understood. And then?”

“For his soul to successfully charge into my body when he was brain-dead, it was much more difficult than possessing an ordinary human. It needed several layers of complicated pushing forces. First was the ghost infant containing his flesh and blood. Second was the compatibility between the jade plaque and me… In the end, the vast majority of the power he could borrow came from me, from my corpse.”

“So now, after you’ve eaten a lot of… your corpse.”

“Mm-hm, and Du Ning’s flesh too. I only just touched it today. Personally digging out that piece of flesh near her nasopharynx wasn’t just to investigate the situation. I had already made preparations in advance at that time.” Lin Jiangye silently absorbed the freshly eaten candles, working hard to digest the energy hidden within. “I really feel so uncomfortable. Hurry and praise me for being smart.”

Seeing his currently gloomy expression, as if his stomach hurt, Yu Wangxiao truly could not get angry. He laughed softly and said warmly, “Mm, Tuantuan is the smartest.”

“Very good.”

Lin Jiangye felt extremely satisfied. Then he softly said to Du Ning, “Du Ning, did you think you could hide? Open your eyes and look at me.”

Du Ning’s whole body trembled. That invisible fear abruptly roared upward, almost becoming tangible. She did her utmost to suppress it with reason and cooperate with his request, slowly lifting her eyes.

“You’re scared? Good. You should be scared. You are a thief, you know?” His wrist exerted slight force, pressing her firmly in place. His smiling black eyes flickered, and his black pupils suddenly dissolved eerily, falling into a suffocating flow of silver-white, like some sticky living thing that should not be stared at directly.

“All the power you now possess originally belonged to me. Do you understand? Now, I will use my authority and take it all back. Du Ning, you no longer have the ability to resist fate. You can’t save your child. You don’t have that ability.”

Lin Jiangye stared straight at her. His hand moved downward and suddenly tightened around her neck. Smiling softly, he spoke many deliberately gentle words.

Du Ning could not breathe and instinctively began struggling, but he kept laughing. His laughter grew louder and louder, hollow and mad, very much like a devil tempting humans. It continued until Du Ning uncontrollably let out a scream of utmost fear and despair. The dense blood vessels in her eyes burst along with it, turning into large patches of blood that blurred her vision and dyed all the whites of her eyes red.

Bang!

At a certain moment when reason was completely lost, Du Ning fell straight to the ground, as though she had fainted from exhaustion.

She—or rather, he—was breathing extremely weakly and would be unable to wake again for a short time.

At the same time, Lin Jiangye let out a muffled groan, stepped back a few paces with a frown, and forced himself to gnaw through that despairing soul that had rushed into his body.

Creak. Creak.

The slow chewing sound with its strange texture spread little by little through the gloomy Yu family old residence, disturbing everyone’s nightmares.

Yu Lin, who was standing in the backyard smoking, froze. He raised his head to look toward the third-floor window that seemed unimaginably far away. The cigarette butt slipped silently from his fingers.

He seemed to faintly realize something. Pale-faced, he lowered his head with a laugh and abruptly slapped himself.

Five minutes later, like a young swallow returning to its nest, Lin Jiangye impatiently threw himself into Yu Wangxiao’s arms, hugging him and inhaling deeply. His face was equally pale.

“…Eating a soul that almost turned into a living dead really feels like gnawing on a piece of rotten wood. What should I do, Yu Wangxiao? I’m so full, but I feel awful.”

Yu Wangxiao held him and nestled into the soft sofa, unhurriedly rubbing his stomach. He tilted his head and kissed him lightly. “What should we do? A kiss?”

“Mm, I want a kiss.”

…

It was unknown how long passed before Lin Jiangye was kissed until his whole body went soft. Comfortably leaning in Yu Wangxiao’s arms and smelling his favorite scent, he finally managed to put down that uncomfortable, strange feeling.

He did not want to frighten Du Ning either, or make her death experience so painful. But there had been no better method. Because he wanted Yu Ling to live better, he had to preserve the integrity of Du Ning’s body. He could not truly perform brain surgery.

And if he told her in advance, he absolutely would not have been able to create such a strong stimulating effect.

Du Ning had to truly believe in his overwhelming “malice” before she would surge with a panicked, unscrupulous instinctive desire to survive.

Although his conscience was slightly uneasy… once he thought of how she had long since written Yu Wangxiao’s birth characters on the life-borrowing yellow paper, Lin Jiangye felt a little better.

“Tuantuan, your acting just now was very good.”

“Wu… Was it a little exaggerated?”

“Not exaggerated. I liked it. I liked it very much.” Yu Wangxiao held him tighter, quietly emphasizing his tone.

Lin Jiangye’s heart skipped as he sensed a subtle heat spreading. “Really?”

“Really.”

Yu Wangxiao’s warm lips pressed against the corner of his eye, kissing him again and again as he continued in a low voice, “I want you to use the same attitude and do the same thing to me. Try it next time?”

“Hah? Yu Wangxiao, you, you…” Lin Jiangye was greatly shocked.

“Tuantuan, please.”

Yu Wangxiao only curved his lips and spoke slowly, word by word, his gaze deep. “You know it. When I’m happy, the flower blooms.”