Chapter 420: Looking Like Someone Stole His Wife

The curtains were drawn tight, and the room was dim.

The hand holding hers was warm, its long fingers lacing naturally with Jiang Qingli’s. He leaned in, closing the distance, and a steady, reassuring presence enveloped her.

"Brother?"

Slightly stunned, she grabbed the curtain and pulled it open, confirming her suspicion.

Outside, it was already evening. The sky was filled with the sunset’s glow. The young man sat on the edge of her bed, his stern profile softened by the orange-red light.

"It’s me." Xie Youchen tucked a few messy strands of her hair behind her ear. He lowered his gaze to her eyes, his voice soft. "Who did Ah Li think it was?"

Jiang Qingli touched the tip of her nose guiltily, not daring to meet his gaze. "...No one."

"No one?" Xie Youchen repeated the two words, his tone unhurried. "Then why can’t you look your brother in the eye?"

Jiang Qingli couldn’t very well say she thought Ye Linyuan had come looking for her.

She hadn’t left Ye Linyuan’s file there last night, but he was a test subject the lab couldn’t just ignore. Besides, Fang Chi had also seen Ye Linyuan’s file, so there was no way to erase his existence.

Y-01 was the strongest test subject—highly intelligent and cold... In the eyes of most in the military district, he was definitely an unstable element.

Especially since Xie Youchen had never liked Ye Linyuan to begin with.

Jiang Qingli knew she couldn’t lie to Xie Youchen. She pulled the blanket over her head, rolled over, and wrapped herself into a giant caterpillar, trying to escape.

"I’m going to sleep. Good night."

"Don’t suffocate yourself." Xie Youchen dug her head out from under the blanket. He supported her head with one hand and adjusted the pillow with the other.

Jiang Qingli took the opportunity to let her head fall onto his lap.

Xie Youchen had showered before coming over. He carried the faint scent of body wash—the same kind she used—mixed with a hint of agarwood, a fragrance that put her at ease.

Lying on her back, Jiang Qingli looked up at him and asked, "When did you get back?"

"Three hours after Baili Jing notified the military," Xie Youchen said. "He informed me at the same time he informed them."

’That means Xie Youchen rushed over immediately after getting the news,’ Jiang Qingli calculated quickly.

’We haven’t seen each other since he got back, so he must have been helping with the cleanup.’

Jiang Qingli asked again, "So when did you come to my room?"

Faced with this question, Xie Youchen’s wording became a little vague. "While our Ah Li was sound asleep."

Xie Youchen thought she was just too cute like this. Even when she was talking about another male, he still found her adorable.

He couldn’t resist. He leaned down and kissed her on the eye.

Jiang Qingli raised a hand between them. "Right, they must have told you about Ye Linyuan after you arrived. What was the outcome of your discussion?"

After parting ways with Ye Linyuan, Jiang Qingli had decided to come back and handle things first. She wanted to negotiate a way with the military district to protect the lives of Ye Linyuan and the other innocent test subjects.

Based on how the military district usually handled test subjects, they would most likely conduct a full-scale search and eliminate Ye Linyuan and the others to prevent any future trouble.

That morning, Jiang Qingli had repeatedly assured them that she would solve the problem. Only then did Yuan Liang agree not to immediately send men to execute them, saying only that he would wait for the other high-ranking generals to arrive and discuss it, and that he would try his best to secure a chance of survival for her.

Xie Youchen didn’t answer right away.

Of course, Xie Youchen had no favorable impression of that guy, Ye Linyuan.

In his eyes, Ye Linyuan was an unethical product that should be destroyed, someone who was utterly unworthy of Jiang Qingli.

The only reason he hadn’t eliminated Ye Linyuan before was because Jiang Qingli liked him. Plus, he still bore her mark and couldn’t defy her, so he was allowed to live to warm her bed.

But two hours ago, Xie Youchen had personally interrogated Lü Xin and learned more details.

Besides the memory loss and the removal of his mark, Ye Linyuan had also been injected with several inducing agents. These made his contamination value extremely unstable, making it impossible for him to control his Beastification when he went berserk, and rendering him incredibly destructive.

There was no need to keep such an uncontrollable factor around.

Seeing the young man’s silence, Jiang Qingli’s heart sank a little. "Do you want to kill Ye Linyuan?"

"Ah Li." Xie Youchen looked at her and repeated Lü Xin’s confession to her, word for word. "If Ye Linyuan undergoes a complete Beastification, the resulting damage would be incalculable. Are you confident you can control a monster like that?"

Jiang Qingli hadn’t expected Lü Xin to be so depraved.

She sat up and looked at him seriously. "I’m not sure if I can resolve this completely, but I don’t want to see Ye Linyuan and the other test subjects die. As long as the military gives me the chance, I will do everything in my power."

"If I fail, I’m willing to bear the consequences and accept the military’s punishment."

The sunset reflected in her eyes. Xie Youchen stared at that bright splash of orange, his heart stirred.

’She’s really grown up.’

’The little girl who used to just follow her brother around, hugging his waist and wheedling him for help, has grown into someone who can stand on her own two feet. I don’t even know when it happened.’

Xie Youchen’s lips curved into a smile. He bent his knuckle and gently scraped the tip of the girl’s nose. "I hope to hear good news from you by next Sunday."

"Okay..." Jiang Qingli answered automatically, then paused. "Next Sunday? That long?"

Xie Youchen raised an eyebrow. "You think that’s not enough?"

"No, that’s a long time! I thought you’d only give me two or three days!"

Jiang Qingli immediately guessed that Yuan Liang and Xie Youchen had bought her more time. She threw herself into his arms and, smiling, pressed a kiss to his lips. "Thank you, Brother."

Xie Youchen didn’t tell her that he had guaranteed it with his military rank.

He simply hooked the girl’s chin, tilted his head, and captured her full, rosy lips, his large hand supporting the small of her back as he savored the long-overdue kiss.

The curtains were wide open. Jiang Qingli had her back to the window, unable to see what was happening outside.

Naturally, she also didn’t know that as she was pressed against the glass, kissing Xie Youchen, a figure stood on a branch in the distant woods, coldly watching everything.

Xie Youchen, however, merely spared the figure a glance, his dark eyes filled with disdain and provocation.

As the kiss deepened, Xie Youchen lifted the girl into his arms with one hand, his other large hand sliding up from the hem of her nightgown.

But just as a sliver of skin between the girl’s legs was revealed, Xie Youchen reached out and pulled the curtains shut, plunging the room into darkness.

The outermost layer of white sheer fabric swayed gently, enough to make one’s imagination run wild with all sorts of risqué, romantic scenes.

...

"It’s getting dark. Are we still going?"

Beneath a towering, ancient tree, the youth designated W-103 looked up at Ye Linyuan’s back and whispered to Q-39 beside him, "39, what’s up with the boss? Logically, we should have gone straight there after we regrouped. Why did we come here? Don’t tell me the boss wants to take out the military district?"

Q-39, who wasn’t much older, frowned and said, "It’s possible. I remember the boss disappeared for over an hour after he got here, and he seemed to be in a great mood when he came back! Then he stood in that tree for over ten minutes. He must have been scouting the inside and then the outside!"

W-103 said, "But there are only five S-ranks right now, and we’re both just eighteen. We don’t have much combat experience. Won’t we just drag the boss down...?"

As he was speaking, he got a kick in the back. "Shut up, the boss is here."

With a flash of black mist, Ye Linyuan appeared before them.

He only said, "The plan continues," before dissolving into black mist and disappearing again.

W-103 was confused. "Huh? We’re not attacking the military district anymore?"

’Besides, why is the boss’s face as black as the bottom of a pot? Even with his blank expression, you can tell his resentment and anger are about to burst through the heavens.’

’It’s like someone stole his wife...’

’Could it be that female who was all over our boss earlier?’

W-103 shared his speculation with the others, very worried. "That female isn’t going to ruin our plan, is she?"

Hearing this, Q-39 let out an exaggerated "HA!" and looked at him like he was an idiot. "What are you talking about? Does the boss look like the kind of guy who cares about females? He couldn’t give a damn about them!"

"That’s true."

The few of them recalled Ye Linyuan’s face, which seemed to have renounced all love and desire, and they all laughed in relief.