Chapter 56: Lin Yao, I Killed Him

The afternoons at Boyue Mansion are always immersed in a lazy halo.

Lin Yao was sunk in the massage chair in the living room, with a thin blanket on his knees and a light computer floating in front of him, chatting idly with Yu Ze.

The massage chair was soothing his shoulders and neck, bringing a tingling warmth. This was the life people should live, a hundred times more comfortable than the monotonous white ward in the White Tower.

"Honestly, you don't know. On the day you lost contact, I sent you messages every hour, and my fingers almost cramped."

On the other end of the computer, Yu Ze, who was communicating with Lin Yao, sounded a little scared and a little embarrassed.

"Later, I learned that you were on the L003 starship for rescue. I didn't know what else to say except 'Keep going' and 'Hold on'..."

Lin Yao smiled and ran his fingertips across the computer screen.

I remember when I first got the new optical computer given by Ye Heng, I opened the communication software and Yu Ze’s messages came flooding in.

His old one had long been scrapped in the red zone cave.

When Ye Heng found out, he immediately ordered a new one for him and asked Fang Lao to give it to him.

Those messages, from the initial "Where are you?" "Are you safe?",

Later on, "What did the doctor say about your condition?" "I prayed for you."

Then when he was receiving treatment in the White Tower, the constant stream of “Are you awake?” and “Are you feeling better?”

Even those with social anxiety have been forced to become information bombardment addicts, which shows how anxious they are.

"Thank you." Lin Yao said softly, "The situation was really not good at that time, so I didn't get back to you in time."

"No, no." Yu Ze muttered on the other end.

"I'm glad you're okay. By the way, how's your toxin clearance going? You need to take the medicine in the White Tower on time, and you still need to go into the treatment cabin at home on time for treatment."

"I will follow the doctor's orders."

Lin Yao said this, but he raised his arm, and his fair skin glowed in the sunlight.

On the day he returned to Boyue Mansion, Shasha ate the last third of the toxins in his body like eating dessert.

The dark color also faded away without a trace, and it turned back to its fair appearance.

Because he hadn't been exposed to the sun for nearly 20 days, Lin Yao felt like he had become even whiter.

Thanks to Yu Ze's social anxiety, even the communication was only voice. When the holographic message came over, he would stutter when he saw Lin Yao, so Yu Ze didn't notice anything unusual.

"Don't worry, I cherish my life very much."

Lin Yao listened to Yu Ze's muttering and recalled his previous plans.

Originally, when he was lying in the White Pagoda, he had planned to see Yu Ze, but a few days after he woke up, the doctor said that he was not in a good condition to see visitors.

By the time I could see him again, I had already returned to Dongji.

The reason is that Baita College issued an announcement that the assessment was suspended due to an accident in the red zone.

The scores of the guides who passed the three rounds of assessment on that day will count; the remaining guides will have to wait for the White Tower to select a new location and then take the assessment at another date.

Yu Ze just passed the time. He had originally planned to meet Lin Yao before leaving, but his family saw the notice and urged him to leave, worried that he would get into trouble alone.

So he had no choice but to tell Lin Yao and go home.

When Lin Yao heard the news that he had returned, he felt a little regretful, but he was also happy for him. He had passed the exam, and it would be nice to go home and have a good rest.

After all, they added each other as friends on the light brain, so they can still chat! It's just like every day now.

After hearing Lin Yao's reply, Yu Ze gave a few more instructions before hanging up the phone.

Lin Yao tapped the screen lightly with his fingertips, and clicked on other unread messages.

Yu Ze was not the only one who cared about him. Ye Heng sent him one or two holographic communications every day, plus many other messages.

Mr. Fang would also send him a message every day to ask about his recovery.

And Lei Ya, Lao K and others.

This one is from Lei Ya today:

"Lin, how are you doing today? When you have time, let's get together. Lao K and I will treat you to a drink to celebrate your survival!"

It was followed by a grinning expression. This person was the same as Yu Ze. From the time he got into trouble until now, he had been sending every message of concern to Yu Ze.

Lin Yao laughed and replied, "Let's talk about it later," but he felt a little warm in his heart.

The massage chair program ends and a slight prompt sound is emitted.

Lin Yao stretched and was about to pick up the tea beside him when a holographic communication invitation appeared on his computer. It was Ye Heng.

Lin Yao reached for the teacup while answering the call.

Ye Heng's figure appeared. He was wearing a neat military uniform. The background seemed to be his command room in the Red Shadow Legion, and the star map behind him was still slowly rotating.

"You've recovered well." Ye Heng's gaze fell on him with a slight smile.

"That's right," Lin Yao raised his eyebrows, his tone a little proud, "The food at Boyue Mansion is ten times better than at the White Pagoda."

Ye Heng chuckled softly and got straight to the point: "Let's get down to business. How are you thinking about the thing I mentioned to you earlier?"

Lin Yao knew that he was talking about joining the Red Shadow Legion.

After Shasha helped Ye Heng clear the remaining wave toxins in his body, Ye Heng seriously extended an invitation to him.

He said he needed a guide who could fight alongside him, and asked Lin Yao if he was willing to come to his side?

At that time, Lin Yao teased him, asking if he was planning to transfer him from the White Tower via a military transfer order, or if he wanted to send him to Chiying as part of the army?

Ye Heng replied: "You are both my comrade and my partner."

These words really touched Lin Yao, but he was busy dealing with the assessment at that time, so he just said that he would give a reply after the assessment was completed.

Now that the assessment is over, he has also caught a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of his conspiracy. He originally wanted to agree to let Ye Heng go to Chiying, but now he is afraid that the plan will be shelved.

"I..." Lin Yao was about to speak when the intercom at hand suddenly rang. It was the housekeeper of Boyue Mansion.

"Mr. Lin," the butler's voice was respectful and clear, "there's an old man at the door who calls himself 'Uncle Fu' who wants to see you. Could you please let him in?"

Uncle Fu?

Lin Yao was stunned for a moment, then reacted.

Uncle Fu! Why is he here?

"Let him in and take him to my door." Lin Yao said hurriedly.

Seeing this, Ye Heng on the other end of the hologram spoke considerately:

"It seems you have a visitor. Go ahead and do your work. We'll talk after you've met the visitor."

"Okay." Lin Yao nodded and watched Ye Heng's figure disappear from the holographic projection.

He didn't move, still drinking tea in the massage chair, until the housekeeper brought Uncle Fu to his door and rang the doorbell.

Lin Yaocai stood up, straightened his home clothes, and went to open the door.

-

I walked to the entrance and looked out through the display screen. There were two people outside the door.

The butler knocked on the door and retreated to a suitable position. Uncle Fu stood behind the butler, his gray hair meticulously groomed under the corridor light.

He had his usual kind smile on his face, but for some reason, Lin Yao couldn't help but want to frown when he saw that smile.

The moment the door opened, the light from the corridor lamp poured in, casting a warm yellow at Lin Yao's feet.

"Xiao Yao." Uncle Fu spoke first, his voice a little hoarse, a characteristic of the elderly.

Lin Yao pulled the corners of his mouth, trying to make his smile look more natural: "Uncle Fu."

"Sorry to bother you, butler." Then Lin Yao turned his head and nodded to the butler behind him in a polite tone.

"It's my pleasure, Mr. Lin." The butler bowed slightly and turned to leave.

"Come in." Lin Yao stepped aside to let Uncle Fu in, then closed the door and led him to the living room.

The two of them sat down on the sofa, separated by a large coffee table.

Lin Yao placed the poured tea in front of Uncle Fu and heard the person opposite him sigh softly.

Then he spoke word by word, his voice as light as a feather, yet carrying a tremendous weight:

"Lin Yao, I was the one who killed him."

The air froze instantly.

Lin Yao didn't expect Uncle Fu to say such a shocking thing as soon as he arrived. He had originally planned to ask him about the medicine in a few days.

"Don't you think it's incredible?" Uncle Fu's voice was deep and hoarse.

The kindness on his face completely shattered, revealing the complex mixture of fatigue, sadness and relief underneath, like a painting ruined by rain.

"But it's true."

He raised his eyes to look at Lin Yao, and a sharp light suddenly flashed in his cloudy pupils: "Lin Yao can't wake up. You are not him."

Lin Yao's grip on the teacup suddenly tightened, all his attention was fixed on this sentence.

Uncle Fu knew, he actually knew it a long time ago.

"The day Delinwei pushed him down the stairs, he was in a coma for five days." Uncle Fu spoke slowly, his voice as light as a sigh, but every word was as sharp as a knife.

"During those five days, it was the master who asked me to feed him medicine."

Lin Yao's breathing suddenly stopped. He didn't expect that there was something about the original owner's grandfather here.

"That medicine is highly poisonous and there is no antidote." Uncle Fu's eyes fell on the wood grain of the coffee table, as if he was telling someone else's story.

The colorless and odorless poison, mixed in the nutrient solution, can corrode a person's spiritual sea bit by bit, and eventually even consciousness will turn into ashes.

De Linfeng said, let him go peacefully.

Uncle Fu raised his head, looked at Lin Yao's shocked face, and suddenly smiled, a smile that was uglier than crying:

"So when you woke up, I knew you were not him. The real Lin Yao was killed by me long ago."

"Killed?!" Lin Yao finally found his voice, which was as hoarse as if it had been rubbed by sandpaper.

He took out two sealed bags from the storage ring and threw them on the coffee table.

The medicinal residue in the sealed bag had long since dried up and turned yellow and black. They were exactly the two bags he had found in the garden and taken to the underground trading market for inspection.

"Then I can get an explanation for these things today, right?"

When Uncle Fu's eyes fell on the medicinal residue, his body trembled slightly, but he immediately regained his composure. "Of course, you'll know everything you want to know."

"The stuff inside was given to me by the master, and I put it into the medicine to boil it."

Uncle Fu did not see Lin Yao taking away the medicinal residue with his own eyes, but he could still see that there was a shortage of medicinal residue in the jar.

He was very sure that the current Lin Yao already knew what was in it.

"De Linfeng?" Lin Yao laughed in anger. "What's his reason for doing this?!"

"Lin Yao is not his biological grandson?" Lin Yao found it really incomprehensible and hard to accept when he heard this.

Let him believe that his own grandfather wants to kill his grandson?

Then he would rather believe that the original owner's grandmother, who was like white moonlight, had cheated on De Linfeng.

Uncle Fu shook his head and said that Lin Yao’s father was De Linfeng’s biological son.

"He just listens to the Lin family." Uncle Fu lowered his eyelids, and his long eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes.

"The Delin family dares not disobey the Lin family's orders. I am just an executor."

"Executor?" Lin Yao's voice suddenly rose, the anger in his chest like ignited dynamite.

"That's the child you watched grow up! From childhood to adulthood, you fed him, made toys for him, and even secretly slipped him candy when he was bullied by Delinwei. How could you be so cruel?"

The original owner's memories of Uncle Fu suddenly surged up, and those warm fragments turned into sharp glass shards, piercing Lin Yao's heart and causing pain.

Uncle Fu's shoulders suddenly slumped, and for the first time, signs of collapse appeared on his old face.

He raised his hands, covered his face, and suppressed sobs leaked out from between his fingers:

"Yes! I watched him grow up! But if I don't do this, his ending will be even worse!"

"The Lin family has been keeping an eye on him for a long time," he suddenly put down his hand, his eyes red, like a trapped beast that has been forced into a desperate situation.

"No, it should be Lin Wanzhao's lineage, they have been targeted for a long time."

"Do you think Lin Yao's grandmother and parents died in accidents? No, it was the work of the Lin family."

"It's a pity that the Delin family has declined and can't compete with the Lin family, which is at its peak. Master doesn't have any evidence, so he can only swallow this bitter fruit."

"This damn family system, the big families oppress the small families, and all the families in the empire exploit the resources of the entire society. How absurd."

"The master really likes Lin Yao. The Lin family asked us to give him drugs for experiments. The master refused, but was threatened by Lin Zhixiong, saying that if we don't do it ourselves, then they will do it."

Uncle Fu's voice became louder and louder, with a kind of despair that was almost insane.

"Rather than letting him fall into the hands of those lunatics, why not take action ourselves? At least... at least we can leave with dignity and leave our bodies intact!"

He gasped and stared at Lin Yao:

"That push from the young lady saved us a lot of trouble. She was unconscious, and we gave her medicine naturally... No one could find fault with it."

The living room fell into silence again, with only Uncle Fu's heavy breathing echoing.

Lin Yao sat on the sofa, and the blood in his body seemed to have frozen.

He looked at the old man in front of him, saw the pain and madness in his eyes, and suddenly felt a chill running down his bones.

It turns out that the original owner's death was never an accident, but a carefully planned murder.

"Why is the Lin family targeting you? And why do you choose to tell me now?" Lin Yao asked the question he wanted to know most.

-

After Uncle Fu left, Lin Yao sat on the sofa in a daze for a long time. He never thought that the source of all the original owner's suffering was due to an absurd reason.

And this reason also devoured the original owner's grandmother and parents.

But his appearance seemed to verify that the absurd reason was not groundless, which was why Uncle Fu chose to tell the whole story.

Because what Lin Yao couldn't do before, Lin Yao now has the ability to do.

“What a pity…”

Lin Yao murmured softly, his fingertips sliding across the cold coffee table.

The boy who lived cautiously in the Delin family and hid the candy secretly given to him by Uncle Fu under his pillow eventually died at the hands of his closest person.

The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and the automatic lights in Boyue Mansion lit up one after another. The warm yellow light spread across the living room, but it could not dispel the chill in Lin Yao's heart.

He just sat there from dusk to nightfall, until the holographic communication prompt tone of the optical computer suddenly sounded, startling him back to his senses.

It’s Ye Heng.

Lin Yao stared at the name for a few seconds, his fingertips unconsciously sliding across the answer button.

The holographic projection lit up, and Ye Heng's figure emerged clearly. He returned to his residence.

He had taken off his straight military uniform, leaving the collar open and water droplets on his neck, indicating he had just finished a shower.

"What are you thinking about?" Ye Heng's eyes fell on his face, and his brows knitted instantly. "Why do you look so bad?"

Lin Yao shook his head, his voice a little shaky: "It's okay."

"Are you really okay?" Ye Heng clearly didn't believe it, his eyes showing a hint of worry. "Are you feeling unwell again? Do you need to go to the White Tower?"

Lin Yao avoided his gaze and looked at the night outside the window: "No."

He paused, as if he had made up his mind, and suddenly said, "Ye Heng, I agree to go to Chiying."

Ye Heng was stunned, then his eyes showed obvious joy, and his voice became a little higher:

"Really? Then I'll apply for a transfer order right away. The Legion's process is fast, and it should be approved in two days at most."

He seemed to be afraid that Lin Yao would regret it, so he spoke quickly:

"The guide quarters at Chiying are single rooms with separate treatment rooms, comparable to those at the White Tower.

If you don’t want to live in the dormitory, you can also move to the officers’ apartment. There are vacancies in the building where I live, and it’s close to the training ground…”

Lin Yao listened quietly, and for the first time he discovered that Ye Heng could also be talkative.

The man who was usually calm and taciturn, now had a glint in his eyes when he talked about Chi Ying, and even the cold and hard aura around him softened a lot.

But his silence eventually made Ye Heng realize that something was wrong.

Ye Heng's voice gradually lowered, finally pausing mid-air. He tentatively asked, "Do you feel something is wrong? We can discuss it..."

"No." Lin Yao raised his head and looked at Ye Heng with an unusually calm expression. "Let's register. I'll join the army."

Ye Heng on the other side of the holographic projection froze instantly.

The joy on his face froze and his pupils shrank slightly. He obviously didn't expect Lin Yao to suddenly say this.

Both of them knew what it meant to register to join the army.

Ye Heng had imagined the scene of Lin Yao nodding countless times, perhaps after a battle side by side, or perhaps on a quiet afternoon.

But he never thought it would be at this moment, when Lin Yao's face was pale and there was an unremovable depression in his eyes.

"Did that Uncle Fu say something to you?" Ye Heng's voice lowered, with an imperceptible tension in his tone.

He knew Lin Yao, and this man would not make such a decision for no reason.

Lin Yao looked at his tense jawline and suddenly smiled faintly, with a bit of complexity and determination: "You worry too much."

He picked up the water glass on the table and stroked the cold wall with his fingertips: "Uncle Fu did mention you. But he said... that I should not miss you."

Ye Heng frowned even tighter, obviously not believing it.

But seeing the silence in Lin Yao's eyes that refused to delve into the matter, he finally swallowed back the question that was on the tip of his tongue.

"Okay." He responded softly, with a bit of complicated emotions in his voice.

"Put the registration aside for now. I'm not on Central Star, so it's not good for you to go alone. I'll go get the transfer order first."

Lin Yao nodded and said nothing more.

The moment the holographic projection went off, silence returned to the living room.

Lin Yao looked at the empty projection area. The water had turned cold, just like his mood at the moment.

The last words De Linfeng said to him when he went to the study, and the words Uncle Fu said to him today, echoed in his ears alternately:

"Ye Heng treats you well, you must register with him as soon as possible."

"Marshal Ye is very good, don't miss him."

Lin Yao didn't think this was simply a pressure to get married, but rather what he could gain through Ye Heng. Since both of them said similar things, it was inevitable that it might be another calculation.

But the two of them looked very sincere when they said this, which disturbed his thoughts a little, so he said the words "register" to Ye Heng.

Now that I think about it, Ye Heng was still rational and didn't agree completely.

-

Lin Yao didn't expect to hear the news of Uncle Fu's death the next day.

The news came suddenly, but seemed to be expected.

Because Uncle Fu said yesterday that if he told Lin Yao these things, he could go find the boy he raised.

I just wonder if Uncle Fu can catch up with the young man’s hurried pace?