Chapter 33

◎Stalking◎

Lan Hua decided to put the matter aside for now, since it was Regas who should be concerned about it. However, there was one thing he still needed to investigate.

In the evening, Lan Hua left Chaohua Manor for the Southern Defense Department. Minister Meng Chengwang of the Defense Department had not received prior notice of Lan Hua's arrival, so his unexpected visit surprised him.

"Young Master," Meng Chengwang greeted him respectfully.

Lan Hua nodded expressionlessly, then said to Meng Chengwang, "Come with me, no need to call anyone else."

Meng Chengwang responded and followed Lan Hua into the minister's office. Lan Hua sat in Meng Chengwang's office chair, while Meng Chengwang stood respectfully in front of his desk, the position where subordinates usually stood when reporting to him.

"Has there been any unusual activity in the Southern Region since I returned?" Lan Hua asked.

Lan Hua wouldn't ask this without a reason, but Meng Chengwang thought about the information gathered over this period and there really wasn't anything unusual. He could only answer truthfully, "Reporting to the young master, there have been no unusual developments during this period."

The Lan family members would vent their frustrations on the battlefield whenever they were unhappy. The key point is that every member of the Lan family is full of martial virtue and overwhelms their opponents. As a result, as their territory in the Southern Region continued to expand, both internal and external opponents were basically killed or forced to retreat after being attacked a few times. Even their desire for revenge was extinguished, let alone the thought of anyone taking the initiative to attack.

Nevertheless, the Defense Department did not relax its monitoring of any unusual activity within and outside the Southern Region, and information from defense departments in various locations was being compiled and sent to headquarters in real time. However, there was indeed no unusual activity; it was all routine information.

Lan Hua hummed in agreement and said nothing more.

"Young Master, have you made any discoveries?" Meng Chengwang asked.

“No.” Lan Hua lowered his eyes. He hadn’t actually found anything concrete, but he always felt that something was observing him from the shadows, an invisible gaze that was cold and sticky. His intuition was always accurate, so he was sure it wasn’t his imagination, but he couldn’t find the source of this gaze.

"I'm going to the control room," Lan Hua said to Meng Chengwang as she stood up. "You don't need to come with me."

After speaking, Lan Hua left the minister's office and went to the control room where the AI ​​was located. Lan Hua searched through all the data and records in the control room, but still found no valuable clues. Just as Meng Chengwang had said, there was no unusual activity.

Lan Hua had never encountered anything like this before. This feeling of being "watched" was different from the feeling he had when his father stared at him like a corpse during his recovery. This "watching" made him feel as if he were being stalked by a snake—unrestrained, cold, sticky, obsessive, and disgusting. Most importantly, he could sense it intuitively, but no other tracking or detection method could find the origin of this gaze, let alone counter-tracking it.

*

Ning Huixing Sihui Manor

"Come and see your mother," Duke Lanxi said, beckoning to Lan Hua as he entered.

"Okay." Lan Hua nodded and went to the ancestral hall with his father.

"What brings you here?" Duke Lanxi asked, his solemn expression easing only after they left the ancestral hall.

“I’m being stalked.” Lan Hua looked at his father.

“It wasn’t me.” Duke Lanxi looked at Lan Hua with disdain. “You’re not your mother.”

Lan Hua: "..." This is his biological father.

The two talked as they walked to the reception room. Although Duke Lanxi was joking about his son, he activated the blackout system as he entered the reception room.

"The key is that we can't find any evidence or source." Lan Hua recalled the feeling of being spied on with disgust.

Duke Lanxi was quite pleased to see his eldest son encountering something he disliked but was powerless to do anything about: "So you came here looking for some clues?"

Lan Hua naturally didn't miss the look of amusement on his father's face, but since he needed a favor, he could only endure it: "I checked all the information in the Ministry of Defense before, and I didn't find any clues. Besides, there aren't many people who can do this much that even I can't find." "Not many" was just him being modest; if it weren't for the reality, he wouldn't have thought anyone could do this. But the reality was that someone had done it, and he couldn't find out!

Lan Xi sat down opposite Lan Hua and began to boil spring water to make tea, leisurely saying, "I don't know either." He couldn't think of any person or force that could bypass the Southern Region's defense system to spy on Lan Hua and make Lan Hua unable to find out, leaving him impotently furious.

Lan Hua had been hoping his father could provide some useful clues, but after waiting for so long, all he got was this sentence... Lan Hua was speechless.

"Would you like some tea?" Lan Xi poured a cup of tea and handed it to Lan Hua, saying, "To cool down."

Lan Hua took the tea his father had brewed, thought for a moment, and took a sip. "At least the shielding device is still somewhat useful." But he couldn't keep the shielding device on all the time and be a vacuum person.

"Do you think it's coming for you, or for the Southern Region?" Lan Xi started brewing tea for himself, focusing on rinsing the teacup, and asked in a moment.

Lan Hua glared at his father, who was clearly feigning ignorance. If it were truly after the Southern Region, why would it be keeping a close eye on him every day since he appeared? But he didn't want his father to have his way, so he sneered, "If I can only rely on my intuition to find concrete evidence, and it really is after the Southern Region, wouldn't it be incredibly easy for it to investigate the affairs and secrets of the Southern Region?"

Lan Xi put the tea leaves into the still-warm teacup, smelled the aroma, and didn't take Lan Hua's assumption to heart. She said casually, "If it really has interest in the Southern Region, it should just come over. If it really has that ability, then the Southern Region can be given to it."

He glanced at Lan Hua and chuckled, "It's just that you were spying on me and you couldn't find the spy." Both he and Lan Hua knew perfectly well that the whole thing was aimed at Lan Hua and had nothing to do with the Southern Region. This gaze was like an annoying fly—not a real threat, but incredibly irritating and difficult to shake off.

Lan Hua: "..." Knowing this, he still brought it up. What a good father he is.

Knowing that Lan Hua was merely annoyed and helpless, and was actually not in any danger, the old father was in a good mood and casually asked, "Did you turn on the blackout when you took a shower?"

Lan Hua: "...!" This father-son relationship is beyond repair!

He said irritably, "I don't have an exhibitionist streak."

Duke Lanxi said as he poured water, "Then it must be very disappointed."

Lan Hua: "Can you please stop looking at that 'the more the merrier' expression on your face? I can at least pretend to be a loving father and son with you."

Lan Xi said with a serious face, "Then it is definitely not acceptable to accept it." The spectacle of this rebellious son is one less time to witness, while the bond between father and son can be rekindled at any time, so the choice is naturally very clear.

“If they’re only after you, you can try luring them out,” Duke Lanxi said, smelling the tea.

Lan Hua nodded; he actually had the same idea. "I'm planning to do the same." Rather than being bothered by this gaze all the time, he might as well try to find out what it was all about.

*

Lan Ye has announced her comeback!

After being neglected for half a year, Lan Ye's Xingbo has finally come back to life. All of Xingbo's artificial grass was cleared away, and a pinned announcement was immediately posted to officially announce its comeback!

Lan Ye was already a top-tier celebrity, and every move he made could spark explosive discussions. His disappearance was shrouded in mystery; although it was said that he was imprisoned in the Stafar Sanatorium, these were all just rumors. The last image of him was during his wedding at the Temple of Ten Thousand Rites.

Moreover, "The Moonlit Beauty" is currently showing in theaters. The film's aggressive marketing campaign has further fueled the already high level of interest in the love triangle. Over the past six months, netizens have had enough of the gossip about this relationship from Gani's perspective, and they desperately miss Lan Ye, hoping for his perspective and revelations.

However, they also understood that although Lan Ye was a top celebrity with extremely high popularity and influence, he was nothing in front of powerful figures like the Third Prince and Jia Ni. Lan Ye was utterly powerless to protect himself in their presence, and in the complex and entangled relationship between the three, he was the only one who became cannon fodder, disappearing without a trace, his fate unknown.

Some even speculated that Lan Ye wasn't actually imprisoned at the Stafar Sanatorium, but had been murdered long ago, with the truth simply covered up. As for who killed him, there were various debates, ranging from the royal family to the Subec family, and even the Lan family. In short, during Lan Ye's disappearance, all sorts of conspiracy theories arose.

Now that Lan Ye's comeback announcement has been released, it has soared to the top of the trending searches on Weibo, surpassing all other terms on the list in terms of popularity.

"I can't believe my eyes! Lan Ye has come back to life?!"

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!!! I'm so excited!!! I knew my brother was alright!!!"

"Is it really Lan Ye? Are you sure it wasn't hacked?"

"Sun Worshippers, assemble!!! Charge!!!"

"Watch closely! The stagnant entertainment industry is about to get some good show!"

"Haha, I'm so busy checking out Lan Ye's blog and then Gani's blog!"

"Lan Ye is actually alright! He can even make a comeback! He managed to emerge despite the pressure from the royal family and the Subec family? Holy crap, can someone dig into Lan Ye's real background? I don't believe the previous rumors anymore! I'm going crazy because I can't find the gossip field! Help me out!"

"Lan Ye is indeed Lan Ye. Her comeback announcement caused a sensation in the entertainment sector. Impressive."

"So, are you sure it's the real person and not a hacker? There's no text, not even a projection, so I'm still taking a wait-and-see approach."

Meanwhile, the box office of "The Moonlit Beauty," which had initially generated a lot of buzz but had only seen lukewarm performance, suddenly skyrocketed. According to viewers who later bought tickets, they wanted to see the narrative from Gani's perspective first, then compare it with Lan Ye's later narrative, and also gather material for future gossip!

Meanwhile, media professionals have been eagerly awaiting Lan Ye's official debut in the entertainment industry.

A note from the author:

Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 23:31:31 on August 30, 2022 and 20:04:27!

Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: Luo Miao (1 bottle);

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!