“Granduncle, thank you for your compliment. We’re grateful as long as you don’t find Tingfeng and me being too nosy. Other than that, I couldn’t afford to accept your compliment.”
“Oh? Busybodies, huh?” The former master’s eyes flashed. “You just helped Xiao Qi and that kid, and you call yourselves busybodies, huh?”
At that moment, Zhao Youlin was completely calm. She gave a smile as she said, “No. I don’t regret helping them. But I regret snatching your gun in public.”
The former master quirked one of his eyebrows. “Are you afraid of it?”
Zhao Youlin keenly noticed a trace of coldness and disappointment in the former master’s eyes. She knew that he had misunderstood her. She sneered, “Granduncle, you have just praised me for my bravery. How could you backtrack so soon?”
“I…”
“Granduncle and Uncle, those guns were not real, right?”
The moment Zhao Youlin held the gun, she was aware that despite the fact that the gun looked real, it was not enough to get someone killed.
The appearance of a gun could be deceiving. However, its weight and touch could not deceive Zhao Youlin, who was a professional in this area. The elder did not plan to shoot Ye Yan from the beginning. In other words, he did not once intend to put Ye Yan in a difficult position from the beginning. He only wanted to give Ye Yan a warning.
If that was the case, why did she have to be so nosey as to butt in the well-meaning act that a grandfather was putting on for his granddaughter?
Right after Zhao Youlin spoke, the former master and Su Liqiang were taken aback. Mu Tingfeng was the only one who kept his cool. That was because the moment he grabbed Su Liqiang’s gun, he had the same train of thought as Zhao Youlin.
He was well aware of Zhao Youlin’s background. If he was able to see through this, he believed Zhao Youlin would do as well. All these were within his expectations.
Zhao Youlin met the former master of the family’s gaze. There was a hint of surprise in his calm eyes. The smile on her face grew increasingly prominent. “It was a fake gun. Regardless of whether we appeared, Granduncle, Uncle, you don’t plan to hurt anyone. It was meaningless for us to interrupt. In fact, we have somehow destroyed your original plan. We’re… very sorry.”
The former master did not respond to her. He stared at Zhao Youlin for a while before he smiled. However, there seemed like a malicious intent hidden beneath his smile, and it looked terrifying.
“You’re wrong.”
Zhao Youlin was stunned. “What?”
“Indeed, it was a fake gun. Your appearance had also messed up our plan. However, you don’t have to take this to heart. After all, your appearance is within our expectations. In other words, your appearance goes well with our plan. At the very least, that kid had thought that we were holding real guns.”
Zhao Youlin and Mu Tingfeng were taken aback. They finally realized that at the end of the day, the older a man was, the wiser he was.
The former master of the family discreetly sized Zhao Youlin and Mu Tingfeng up. The couple was still holding hands tightly. When he recalled Zhao Youlin’s previous words, he did not say anything. Their tea had turned cold. He then refilled warm tea for them.
“The autumn tea has been freshly picked. Although it’s not of the utmost grade, it is barely consumable. Try it.”
The former master Su had brushed off his question for Zhao Youlin and no longer dwelled on it. As such, Zhao Youlin and Mu Tingfeng unwittingly breathed a sigh of relief.
The former master took the initiative to switch the topic. Zhao Youlin and Mu Tingfeng naturally cooperated with him. They enjoyed the tea while chatting about Su Ruixin and the rest of her group. The atmosphere was harmonious, and nothing went wrong.
After some time, Zhao Youlin looked like she had recalled something. She asked tentatively, “Speaking of which, we don’t see Jifeng around today. Has he gone out?”
When Su He called her, she told her that she could not find Su Jifeng. At that time, Zhao Youlin had already noticed something was wrong.
Ever since Su He was admitted to the hospital due to the accident, Su Jifeng had been staying inside the house and keeping an eye on Su He, as if he had wished to tie his younger sister to him!
However, he went missing right at the time when Ye Yan met with an accident. What a coincidence!
The former master of the family was not surprised upon facing Zhao Youlin’s question. He lifted the tea cup and sipped it before he said calmly, “Liqiang has sent Jifeng to Yellowstone because of the incident related to Xiao Qi.”
“Yellowstone?”
Mu Tingfeng was aware that Zhao Youlin did not quite understand what Yellowstone was. He then took the initiative and explained to her, “Yellowstone is the Su family’s training ground to train new recruits. Most people who have been sent to Yellowstone would, at the very least, be tortured so hard so that it was as if they had been skinned alive before they could crawl out of it.”
Zhao Youlin thought to herself. ‘So, the pitiful cannon fodder has been tossed into the family’s torture chamber for a reshaping, huh? What a pity…”
Zhao Youlin and Mu Tingfeng had a casual talk with the two elders before they found a reason to excuse themselves. The former master did not make them stay. He asked them to pay them a visit with Su Ruixin on their next trip.
Zhao Youlin and Mu Tingfeng naturally promised him. They rejected Su Liqiang’s intention to send them off. They heaved a sigh of relief as soon as they got into the car.
After they breathed out a sigh of relief, they inadvertently exchanged glances. The next moment…
“Hahaha… I never thought you would be that nervous too.” Zhao Youlin’s eyes lit up as she looked at Mu Tingfeng teasingly.
Mu Tingfeng’s deep eyes sank, looking more attractive than usual. The smile on his face showed that he was in a completely relaxed mood at that moment, making him friendlier than usual.
“I thought you were not afraid of your granduncle when I saw you were chatting with him so casually.”
Since the matter had been exposed, Zhao Youlin no longer held herself back on this matter. She let her hair down and leaned against the soft back of the chair while letting out a comfortable sigh.
“How could I possibly not be afraid of him? He’s a cunning old fox and it’s not easy to fool him. I almost thought he…”
Zhao Youlin did not continue. However, Mu Tingfeng had already guessed her thoughts.
He creased his eyebrows and felt curious. Indeed, the old cunning fox could not be easily fooled. His grandfather was an old fox and his granduncle was an old fox as well. However, the former master of the Zhao family was also an old fox. If his grandfather and granduncle noticed that Zhao Youlin was different, how could Zhao Youlin’s nominal grandfather not have noticed this before? The former master of the Zhao family was Zhao Youlin’s closest blood relative. However, he did not suspect Zhao Youlin’s identity even once, much less bring up her unusual behavior in the past.
Did the former master of the Zhao family really think that Zhao Youlin had become a changed woman right after her suicide attempt and so, he had never suspected her identity, or could it be due to the fact that he had long learned about the truth, but decided to act stupid?
Zhao Youlin, on the other hand, had learned the truth but acted stupid, or had she never thought about this before?
With this in Mu Tingfeng’s thoughts, he did not reveal it to Zhao Youlin. He instinctively felt that even if someday someone had to expose this truth, he should not have to be that someone..
