Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

“I know about Hou Lin’s release.”

In the Liu villa, Jun dropped the bomb on Jin instead of the former receiving a shock.

“You know he is out?” Jin was too flabbergasted to comprehend. “How a-and why aren’t you doing anything?”

Jun released a soft sigh. “Uncle Yunru told me, especially what happened after Cai Lingyun’s release. He said Hou Lin was being considered for parole.”

His eyes widened. “And you agreed?”

“Not initially. Not for a long time, Jin. I didn’t want to take the risk after how Cai Lingyun almost hurt Ai. So at first I told Uncle Yunru to cancel his parole plea. I didn’t want anybody hurting my family again. But after a few days, I decided to meet Hou Lin myself.”

*Flashback*

“I shouldn’t really be here, you know that, right?” Jun faced Hou Lin in the bureau’s private meeting room, his dark brown eyes squinting at him.

“You shouldn’t be getting this chance at all. I heard that you have been behaving very well in jail. Not causing ruckus. Not getting into fights…not that you are that type of a person anyway. But Cai Lingyun planned the same thing. Act decently and get a chance for parole. Are you doing something like that?”

Hou Lin had his handcuffed fingers intertwined and twiddling against each other close to his stomach. He stared at Jun for a long time without an answer. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling after meeting him.

Jun looked at Hou Lin, who seemed to be looking back at him but also staring into empty space at the same time. He held a serene and peaceful expression. Jun waited patiently for some reason after which Hou Lin moved his lips.

“…How are you?” he asked in a very quiet voice.

Jun blinked. “Fine.”

Hou Lin looked away, slightly nodding. “How is…Sky doing?”

Jun’s gaze fell on his fingers that seemed to tremble a little bit. But the small, soft smile on his lips remained intact. It seemed as if he was unfazed by Jun’s confrontational stature.

“Sky is doing well…” he answered his own question, “I read the news that…Sky won the award for the best publishing platform. It was a close race with Dream High,” he nodded to himself again. “Congratulations.”

Jun would have otherwise felt irked by someone seemingly trying to avoid an important conversation but he didn’t. He knew how Hou Lin worked and thought at his own pace. He was on the autism spectrum and after having worked with him, Jun understood that his ways of communication were a little different.

Jun asked, “What do you want to do if you get released?”

Hou Lin’s gaze paused at wherever he was looking and he sat still.

“Cafe.”

“What?”

A soft smile greeted his lips. “Yahui liked coffee a lot. She used to…”

Mentioning Yahui in the past tense made Hou Lin breathe shakily. Tears threatened to swell in his eyes.

“…drink coffee a lot. She liked the coffee I prepared. I want to open a cafe.”

Jun kept his gaze fixed at him.

“I want to open a cafe with my brother. But I don’t know…if he would want to help me. I would have to…ask him that,” he said in a daze. Find your next read on

“That’s all you want to do?”

Hou Lin tore his gaze away from the empty space and back into Jun’s eyes. “I would also clean Yahui’s tombstone from time to time. She…” he took some time to organize his thoughts, “She was a good person to me. I don’t want to see her tomb lying in dirt and dust. I keep thinking about her. I miss her. It will be good if I maintain it.”

“That’s all?” Jun repeated his question.

“That’s all.”

Hou Lin said it with certainty as if there was nothing else about the outside world that even remotely attracted him.

Jun stared at him acutely, trying to find any glint of lie in his eyes, no matter how faint if possible. But he didn’t find any.

“Do you want to take revenge for her death?” he asked one last question.

Hou Lin clasped his palms together, exhaling a silent breath.

“Yahui killed herself,” he stated though it tore apart his heart. freёweɓnovel.com

“She killed herself because she wanted to bring an end to it. I…felt that in her eyes that night. It’s strange. I have a hard time understanding what others think and feel. But strangely, I got what she was thinking. She doesn’t want revenge anymore.”

Jun let the silence be.

“What if she was still alive?” He asked somberly. “If she still wanted revenge and asked you for help, would you have helped her?”

Hou Lin stared at the empty space again as if he was lost in his thoughts.

“I think…I would ask her to be the cafe’s co-owner. I would make coffee. She would talk to the customers. I cannot do that. She is good at talking to people. It would be a good life,” he nodded to himself, a hint of sparkle shining in his eyes with that imagination.

Jun had nothing more to say or ask. He slowly got up and turned to leave when Hou Lin said, “Thank you.”

Jun stopped and turned back.

“Thank you for burying Yahui and making a tombstone for her six years ago. You are a good person Sir Jun.”

Jun held back a slight choke forming in his throat. Hou Lin was like a family member to him. His betrayal had hurt him a lot.

“You…you were a good person too, Lin. Only if you hadn’t let Zhan Yahui use you.”

Hou Lin said nothing to that and only saw Jun leaving him in silence.

*Flashback ends*

There was a spell of silence in the room as Jun talked about his meeting.

“He wants to live a simple life. His eyes were not lying. I just…know it.”

Jin slowly nodded. “If you believe in him, then I will too. But I will still keep an eye on him because he is too close to Shui’s office. That is what I will do.”