The wildcat, who was usually spoiled and unruly and never gave Lin Chen a friendly look, didn't dare scratch him this time. She paused and said dryly, "Good training, son, you're such a good boy."

"No need to take off your clothes, my stepmother can't stand seeing this—"

As Ruan Qing'an spoke, she instinctively tried to run away, but before she could even finish her sentence, someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

Forced to plunge headlong into the arms of a young man.

Lin Chen had already sat up and was leaning against the headboard. He bent his long legs and pinched Ruan Qing'an's nape with his slender fingers, just like he was holding a cat, making her lean against him. She couldn't escape, and the young man's hard muscles made her nose hurt.

He squinted slightly and said, "Why are you running away? When you were groping me just now, why didn't you see that you were trying to run away, stepmother?"

"..."

He plopped down on someone's abs while his other hand groped around.

Even Ruan Qing'an, with her thick skin, couldn't resist at this moment, and she couldn't help but emphasize: "Wait, it's all a misunderstanding!"

"First of all, I am not a hooligan."

"Secondly, I am not a hooligan."

"Finally, I am not a hooligan."

Lin Chen replied perfunctorily, "Yes, yes, yes."

Enraged, Ruan Qing'an broke free from Lin Chen's embrace and retorted, "Then how did you end up here!"

Now it was Lin Chen's turn to be embarrassed. He froze on the spot, and even unconsciously loosened his grip. Ruan Qing'an immediately slipped out of his arms and became aggressive.

The cat found a place to threaten again and started brandishing its claws: "This is Lin Qisheng's bedroom, what are you doing here?"

"Then what are you doing here?"

After they finished speaking in unison, the two looked at each other in bewilderment.

This is exactly the same situation as last time in the study. A thief broke into a house and ran into his colleague. The two of them were sneaking around, and they ended up bumping into each other again. It was really embarrassing.

037: [You two are really a villainous couple! No matter what bad things you do, you always seem to bump into each other. This is the second time already!]

At this point, Lin Chen didn't have the confidence to mention Ruan Qing'an's groping, and Ruan Qing'an didn't dare to mention Lin Chen hiding in the bedroom and doing bad things.

Don't ask, the answer is they're all guilty.

Ruan Qingan coughed lightly, changing the subject: "So Lin Chen, why are you here, and in Lin Qisheng's bed?"

"...He has nowhere to hide here."

Lin Chen paused, then got out of bed: "I came to the bedroom to look for something, but I heard your footsteps halfway through, but there's nowhere to hide in this old man's bedroom."

"Then you'll hide in bed?"

"There's a curtain separating us, so you just plopped down."

Lin Chen was so angry he almost laughed. Lin Qisheng's large bed was separated by a curtain. When he was sick and needed to handle affairs while in bed, his secretary stayed in the bedroom almost every day. In order to ensure privacy, the curtain was placed around the bed to prevent people from seeing what was happening inside.

He didn't expect Ruan Qing'an to sit on the edge of the bed without even looking at the curtain in the way, and just sit on him while doing whatever she was doing.

Upon hearing this, Ruan Qing'an couldn't help but touch her nose. She was focused on finding clues and didn't care about these things. She only glanced at the big bed and didn't pay any attention to it, let alone the curtains.

As the two were talking, Lin Chen, supporting himself on the headboard, lifted the curtain and prepared to stand up, but suddenly felt as if he had pressed something.

He paused slightly, then looked up.

"What's wrong?"

There's something here...

Lin Chen paused, his hand resting on the patterned decoration on the headboard. He couldn't help but frown, clearly feeling the protrusion beneath his hand being pressed down. After applying pressure again—

Immediately afterwards, the large bed began to move.

Behind the bed, instead of a wall covered in gold-leaf wallpaper, was a dark passageway. Judging from its style, it was clearly built at the same time as the basement, but probably only Lin Qisheng knew this.

The two stood at the entrance of the passage and looked at each other.

Ruan Qing'an suddenly said, "The old steward is probably still busy with things at the manor, so the servants don't dare to come over."

“I used an excuse to get them all away.”

"so--"

Both of them paused for a moment, and when they looked at each other, they could see the eagerness in each other's eyes. The next moment, they hit it off immediately.

037: [Lin Qisheng is really having a tough time dealing with you guys...]

As Ruan Qing'an and Lin Chen walked into the passage, they discovered that although it was built in the same style as the basement, it was a dark room with extremely luxurious decorations—more like a secret love nest, and a bedroom, a place that was both private and ambiguous.

At the end of the passage was a tightly closed door with a lock. Ruan Qingan took out a hair clip and began to manipulate it.

As she tried, the only sounds in the deathly silent passage were the turning of the lock and the two people's soft breathing. While fiddling with it, Ruan Qing'an suddenly asked, "What are you looking for here?"

"I didn't find anything in the study last time, so I'm here to try my luck."

Lin Chen casually remarked that what he was looking for was exactly what Lin Qisheng had been hiding from him. Since the study didn't have it, he could only turn his attention to the more private bedroom.

Since there was still some time to go, Lin Chen asked in return, "What about you?"

"I, as his stand-in, couldn't escape either, and I was almost strangled to death by him. I'm just trying to dig up what happened before and get some leverage over him."

'Click—'

As Ruan Qing'an was speaking, the lock in her hand clicked open. She tried to push the door and found that it seemed to be quite old, with even the metal parts starting to rust and it was very heavy.

Just as she was about to exert force, a long arm reached out from in front of Ruan Qing'an, braced against the door, and easily pushed it open.

"Stop pushing, your strength is like a cat scratching you."

"...Show some respect to your stepmother!"

"I can't learn to respect the stepmother who touches my stepson's abs."

"I already said it was a misunderstanding!!"

037: [You two are doing something bad, can't you be a little more discreet!]

After exchanging a few words, their voices abruptly stopped a moment later, because after the sealed, heavy door was pushed open, a strange smell faintly floated in the air.

The two, who had been laughing and joking just moments before, suddenly fell silent.

This dark room, like the passageway outside, was extremely luxurious, but—the blood, long since dried and blackened, left indelible marks on the floor, and chains descended from the walls, locking a section of white bone.

To be precise, it was a body that had decomposed and eventually turned into bones. Judging from the shape of the pelvis, it should have been a woman.

For a moment, Nguyen Thanh An felt an urge to vomit.

This dark room belongs to Lin Qisheng. It's outrageous that Lin Qisheng sleeps outside the dark room every day!

Lin Chen's face also darkened. He was indeed not a good person, but compared to Lin Qisheng, he felt that his son was still too conservatively evil.

He suddenly asked, "Who is this?"

"It should be... ugh, it should be Xia An'an, right?"

Ruan Qing'an looked away with a pained expression: "That night, when the old man was choking me, he mentioned this name. Judging from his attitude towards me, he probably imprisoned Xia An'an as well."

"Xia An'an must have tried to escape and even attempted suicide, and was eventually imprisoned here by Lin Qisheng—"

When Ruan Qingan spoke, he noticed the silence of the young man beside him.

She subconsciously looked up and noticed that the young man's dark eyes held a complex expression that was almost impossible to discern.

"What's wrong, Lin Chen?"

"..."

Lin Chen closed his eyes, exhaled a breath of stale air, and said with some difficulty, "Xia An'an... is my mother's name."