substitute

It was not until the deep winter of 180, near the New Year, that Shi Youchen finally adjusted his physical condition to a level that satisfied him.

"Well, the communication will be temporarily cut off for a few days. I will be back soon. You can stay in Mirage Abyss with peace of mind. Other things have been arranged." Shi Youchen went to find He Xian before leaving. He felt relieved when he learned that Pei Chanbai had recently shown signs of waking up.

Then he put on all the restraints and left with Ying Yungui who had been waiting for a long time.

...

In the Visa Clan territory of Area 3, as soon as the two entered the gate, a beautiful secretary came to greet them. "Please follow me. Chief Tamer and several elders have been waiting for a long time."

"Yeah." Ying Yungui looked a little tired, as if he hadn't rested well, but he still exuded the majestic aura of a superior. The secretary didn't dare look directly at him, but only glanced at the person following him.

The man was a bit thin for a man. Although he wasn't as slender as a willow in the wind, he was more likely to arouse people's pity and desire to explore him. The secretary was no exception.

After just two glances, she couldn't help but think, "He looks so... thin, how could he be with the president?"

However, the next second, the pair of raised eyes told her the answer.

Although the man's face was good-looking, it wasn't particularly stunning. At least, he wasn't the most beautiful man the secretary had ever seen. But his eyes were the most captivating she had ever seen.

It is mysterious, profound, quiet and distant.

When these words flashed through his mind, the secretary shook his head fiercely. These words were not enough to describe these eyes, these words would only tarnish them.

"Are you okay?" Ying Yungui's oppressive voice came from above his head. The secretary suddenly came back to his senses and found that he had stopped there unknowingly.

This was really rude. She blushed a little and apologized quickly: "I'm so sorry! I was distracted by something. Please forgive my negligence!" Ying Yungui caught her glance behind him and knew what was going on.

"It's okay, lead the way." There was a hint of pride in his tone, but unfortunately the secretary was still thinking about it and didn't hear it.

The three of them came to an old bronze door. The secretary lowered his head and felt around on the wall for a few times, and found a crack in the middle of the bronze door.

"President, please come in."

Ying Yungui suddenly reached out and put his arm around the person behind him, and the two of them walked in together. It wasn't until the figure completely disappeared and the bronze door closed again that the secretary suddenly realized, "Hey, the clan leader said... only the president can enter here..."

Inside, Ying Yungui put his arm around Shi Youchen's shoulders, leaning close to his ear, chuckling and teasing him. This was the scene the few people quietly waiting by the fireplace saw. If one ignored the awkwardness of the situation, they certainly looked like a pleasing couple.

Tamer frowned, clearly unhappy with the extra person's presence. Just as he was about to open his mouth to remind them, he was stopped by the great elder beside him: "President Ying, please take a seat here."

Ying Yungui finally retracted his arm, straightened his posture, and nodded to the old man who spoke: "I am not here today to represent the association, but as one of the participants in the super evolution. There is no need to address me that way, just call me by my name."

"Yun Gui." The Great Elder readily followed the advice and stood up to personally bring a new set of pillows and placed them on the bench where Ying Yun Gui was sitting.

Ta Mo really couldn't bear to watch it anymore and said, "Yun Gui, this is a secret meeting. Who is this person next to you?" The dissatisfaction and accusation in his tone were not concealed at all, and his sharp eyes pierced directly at Shi Youchen who was quietly standing aside.

This face...always made him feel familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it. It must have been a long time ago.

Ying Yungui sat down nonchalantly, spread his legs and leaned back, then pulled Shi Youchen's hand hard, making him sit next to his legs. At the same time, he looked at Ta Mo with a smile on his face: "This is the person I borrowed from the experimental subject research center of our headquarters. He is now my assistant."

Such domineering behavior was like a lion declaring its sovereignty, but in Tamer's eyes it suddenly had a different interpretation.

"It's really not appropriate to bring in an assistant... to this kind of place. Ask him to wait in the room." Ta Mo, convinced that this man was just a plaything for Ying Yungui, spoke with disdain. "Wait until we're done with our business. You'll have plenty of time for him to keep you company."

Ying Yungui didn't move at all, and the smile on his lips deepened: "Uncle Tamer, I said, this is my assistant, his last name is Lin." The last three words were deliberately emphasized.

After saying this, Ying Yungui's eyes never left Tama's dark face.

"..." Tamer stood there awkwardly, not wanting to give in so easily, nor would he take the initiative to apologize to someone of such status.

Unfortunately, Ying Yungui has never lost to anyone in terms of stubbornness.

After a long moment of dead silence, the Great Elder came out to smooth things over. He stretched out his bony arm and handed Shi Youchen a small stack of documents. "Assistant Lin, this is what we're going to discuss in today's meeting. You can take a look at it first." Then he coughed lightly and said, "Tamo, don't waste time and disrupt the clan banquet tonight."

The expressions of the people around them had to soften a little. They suppressed their unhappiness and sat around the burning fireplace.

Shi Youchen lowered his head and flipped through the stack of information without saying a word. Apart from him, no one else was holding the same thing in their hands. It seemed that everyone already knew the situation.

"Yun Gui, what are your thoughts on the several new experimental plans Noah has recently proposed?" The Great Elder was the first to get to the point. As soon as he spoke, the expressions of Chief Tamer and the other elders grew more serious.

Ying Yungui glanced at Shi Youchen's slender fingers flipping the papers, his tongue tip nudging the side of his cheek. "I've taken a closer look. Excluding one completely unrealistic option, one with ridiculously low resource utilization, and two with excessive duplication with existing projects, there's only one left... which is barely reasonable."

"But if I remember correctly, the main operator of this last remaining item, as written in the submitted proposal, is the Visa family."

Ying Yungui's eyes were full of meaning. The fire in the fireplace crackled, illuminating the playful look in his eyes.

Tamer frowned and said, "Don't get me wrong, this plan has nothing to do with us." His tone was serious, and he didn't seem to be shirking responsibility.

Shi Youchen finished reading the information in his hand and found the page of information they mentioned - about the possibility of high-level talented awakened psychics assisting in the implantation of high-matching attribute energy.

"Oh? Uncle Tamer means that Noah has proposed so many projects that are impossible to pass, but the only one that has the possibility of investment and control is in your family, and it has nothing to do with you?"

This does not sound very convincing.

At this point, the youngest of the elders spoke up: "Not only does this have nothing to do with us, but our family hopes this project will never be passed."

"What do you mean?" Ying Yungui became interested and put on an attitude of listening attentively, "I'd like to hear the details."

The elder glanced at the other people and said stubbornly, "Because Noah has already privately asked for someone, and we didn't agree, he resorted to this tactic, trying to bypass our family and start the project directly. When the time comes, we will have to pay even if we don't want to."

"Needing people?" Ying Yungui really didn't know this, so he took the information handed to him by Shi Youchen, read the relevant information several times, and finally figured out something was wrong.

"Who does he want?"

The elder's face suddenly turned pale, then immediately turned red with anger: "He wants Kulin."

"Fuck!" Ying Yungui threw the document in his hand, and the paper floated towards the fireplace, where it was suddenly swallowed by the flames inside and burned clean in the blink of an eye.

"Be careful." Shi Youchen pulled back Ying Yungui's arm in time to prevent the sudden rise of anger from licking him, and then carefully rubbed his back to help him breathe.

This series of skillful soothing movements were clearly seen by several people, and they immediately had a wonderful eye contact.

At this moment, Tamo remembered something. He finally understood why Assistant Lin looked so familiar.

His face is five points similar to Ying Yungui's deceased lover "Shi Youchen" many years ago, and four points of these five points are due to his eyes.

"Heh." Tamer suddenly chuckled, the meaning of the laughter unclear. The Great Elder looked at him with a rebuke, but he saw the anger and tension on his face quickly fading. Instead, what remained was only contempt, relief, and a little bit of pity.

The Great Elder read his inner thoughts at the moment: Ying Yungui is nothing special. How powerful can a person who has to rely on a substitute to express his emotions be?

"...I won't let him pass this project." The bloodshot in Ying Yungui's eyes faded, and he shook Shi Youchen's cold hand firmly. "Where is the Kulin man?"

The Great Elder said: "According to the time, he should be home soon. According to his usual habits, he will probably go back to his room to wash up, and then go directly to the banquet hall to wait for the clan banquet to begin."

"Huh." Ying Yungui let out a long sigh and forced a polite smile. "I'm not feeling well. I'd like to talk to Assistant Lin alone. We'll discuss the rest tomorrow. Please tell Kulin to come find me after dinner. I... won't disturb your family gathering."

This time the Great Elder was somewhat dissatisfied. There was a guest in the house but he was hidden and not allowed to show up. This was a very rude behavior for a big family like Visa, not to mention a distinguished guest of Ying Yungui's status.

Unexpectedly, Tamer changed his attitude and readily agreed: "I will send dinner to your room. Since you are not feeling well, I won't disturb you to have a good rest."

When they left the room and the bronze door closed, Shi Youchen saw Tamu looking back at him with a complicated look.

He knew what kind of identity he had become in that look.

After a long silence, Ying Yungui hugged Shi Youchen's waist, buried his head in his arms, and muttered, "Are you angry?"

"No." Shi Youchen patted his back gently. "They treat me as your new substitute. This is the result we want. Why should I be angry?"

Ying Yungui didn't know what was going on, and suddenly his mind snapped out of control: "What if it's true? Are you angry?"

"What do you mean, really?" Shi Youchen didn't understand what he meant at first, and his tone was a bit perfunctory. Unexpectedly, Ying Yungui suddenly loosened his arms and broke free, looking up at him with red eyes, aggrieved, and gnashing teeth, "If I really found a substitute, wouldn't you be angry?!"

...Shi Youchen fell silent.

Then he sighed softly, reached out and touched Ying Yungui's forehead, but there was no sign of fever.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I've noticed that you've been particularly emotional lately, losing your temper all the time."

Ying Yungui grabbed the hem of his clothes tightly and refused to give in: "You haven't answered my question yet."

"Still making trouble." Shi Youchen saw that he couldn't get over his sudden stubbornness, so he had to tell the truth, "No, I won't be angry."

Ying Yungui's eye twitched.

"I'll tell him you're an old man who's who knows how many thousands of years old. I'll scare him away, and then I'll come back and deal with you."

Ying Yungui felt happier after hearing this. He grabbed Shi Youchen's arm and asked, "So how are you going to deal with me?"

"Pa" a slap was gently placed on the face.

"I'll let you...die with me, okay?"

Ying Yungui's pupils sparkled, and he looked at him with a perverted and lively expression: "You said you wouldn't leave me."

As the two hugged each other tightly, the thought that flashed through Shi Youchen's mind was - it's over, the plan hasn't been completed yet, and he can't go completely crazy yet.