Chapter 71 Beware of Anonymous Letters

Ye Man was startled when he woke up in the morning to the sound of the system telling stories.

The system told him that his elder brother had been sitting on the sofa by the window and staring at him all night last night.

System: "If he hadn't just stared at you and done nothing, I would have suspected that he was possessed by a demon and was going to kill you."

After careful observation, I could see movement at the window.

Ye Man turned to the direction where the voice came from and asked doubtfully, "Brother?"

"Yeah." Chi Yan's voice was hoarse, and it was obvious that he had not slept all night and was extremely tired.

Ye Man asked curiously, "Why are you staying there?"

Actually, I wanted to ask him why he stayed awake and stared at him all night, but normally, he shouldn't know about this, so I changed the way I asked.

Chi Yan naturally couldn't say that after being reminded by Xu Huaiting, she had been watching him nervously all night, ready to rush up and save her brother's life at any time if he made any unusual movements.

After all, nothing happened last night.

After that night in the attic, Ye Man's sleep improved a lot. He was no longer easily awakened like in the previous few days, let alone the situation that Xu Huaiting described.

But Xu Huaiting was not the kind of person who would joke about this. Chi Yan planned to keep an eye on him for a while longer.

For the moment, he answered calmly, "Thinking about life."

Ye Man: “Ah?”

Chi Yan stood up and walked towards the bathroom: "Get up when you wake up, clean up, and have breakfast. We should go home."

Ye Man made an "oh" sound in response and scratched his head, not understanding what Chi Yan was thinking.

It can't be that he's really possessed by an evil spirit.

After thinking for a while, Ye Man couldn't figure out what Chi Yan was thinking, so he optimistically put the matter behind him.

"Brother has his reasons for doing things. Maybe he is really thinking about life." Ye Man said cheerfully.

System: "Host, I feel like you are different from before."

Ye Man climbed down from the bed, beaming with joy: "Everything has been going well recently, everything is going smoothly, people are in high spirits when good things happen to them, we winners in life are all like this, hehe!"

System: "Oh... this makes him a winner in life. I wonder who was the person who was secretly shouting at us, calling us vicious cannon fodder."

Judging from what he said, Brother Tong hasn't watched enough dramas, Ye Man thought.

To be honest, he has been a cannon fodder for 18 years, so he knows it very well. When he really becomes a cannon fodder, there is no system left.

"Brother Tong is so stupid." He laughed secretly. He said something about vicious cannon fodder, but that was just to follow the system and fool it.

The system snorted in dissatisfaction. How could he have the nerve to laugh at its stupidity?

When I went downstairs, Xu Huaiting had already gotten up and was making breakfast for Ye Man in the kitchen.

Xu Huaiting turned his back to the stairs leading downstairs, pretending not to hear anyone sneaking around the wall, touching the island, and quietly moving behind him.

The boy took advantage of him not noticing and hugged him from behind. He rubbed his soft face against his back and said in a sticky, nasal voice, "Ricardo."

Xu Huaiting felt so soft inside that he couldn't help but tease him, "Do you miss me?"

"Hmm," she shook her head up and down, "I haven't seen you all night. It's been a long time."

He told him excitedly: "You know, I knew it was you in the kitchen the moment I heard your voice, because your footsteps sound different from others, although I can't tell exactly what the difference is... But I definitely wouldn't make a mistake, even if I couldn't see you, I wouldn't hold the wrong person."

Ye Man was waiting for him to praise him.

But Xu Huaiting did not praise him.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly asked him, "Do you like summer?"

Ye Man replied inexplicably: "Like?"

Xu Huaiting: "I like it too. Your birthday is in the summer."

Ye Man said embarrassedly, "What's the matter?"

No one has taken this matter so seriously for many years.

Although he had celebrated his birthday last year, it couldn't really be considered a birthday. He was thinking about the mission, and the birthday party held by the Chi family was different from his understanding of birthdays. It was more social and not fun at all.

Xu Huaiting didn't answer him, but picked up a shrimp and said, "Taste it."

Being distracted and seeing other people coming down from the stairs one after another, Ye Man put this little matter behind him.

It was dark when I came, and it was still dark when I left.

Ye Man sat on the plane and reluctantly said goodbye to this small city in the far north.

But the living ancestor said that he would accompany him again next time, so Ye Man didn't feel so bad anymore.

After another dozens of hours of flight, the group finally landed in Beijing and was able to make it to the family reunion dinner on the 15th of July.

After spending a vacation that was neither long nor short in a place that was almost isolated from the world, Ye Man felt as if he was in another world when he returned to Beijing.

Xu Huaiting insisted on sending them back to the Chi family's old house. But he said he would definitely not leave after sending them back.

Chi Yan asked him to go back to her home, as the Xu family must be having a family dinner tonight, and Mr. Xu must be missing his grandson.

Xu Huaiting sighed: "Without a father or a mother, having dinner with a bunch of unfamiliar relatives, what kind of family dinner is this?"

Chi Yan was about to sneer when he saw his brother tugging at someone's sleeve with a distressed look on his face: "That's too pitiful."

Xu Huaiting: “Yes.”

Chi Yan: “.”

Ye Man tugged at Chi Yan's sleeve: "Brother..."

Chi Yan took a deep breath: "Get in the car."

Ye Man: "Brother is so nice!"

Seeing that Xu Huaiting was about to get a job at the Chi family, Meng Yao's eyes lit up: "Me too——"

Chi Jue: "Your parents have sent someone to pick you up."

When I looked to the side, it turned out to be someone from my family.

It turns out that Xu Huaiting was not lying when he said that he had no parents. What reason did Meng Yao have not to go back to his own home but to go with the Chi family?

The Meng family smiled politely at the few people and paused slightly when passing by Xu Huaiting. Xu Huaiting didn't care. Just like he said, even if there was a relationship with Xu Ziyi, the Meng family couldn't control him. But it was different for Meng Yao.

Sure enough, the other party greeted him with a smile, didn't say anything else, and just asked Meng Yao to leave.

Chi Jue kept his eyes down and said nothing the whole time.

Chi Yan patted his shoulder, Chi Jue smiled and shook his head to indicate that everything was fine.

Ye Man was standing by and asked the system nervously, "Brother Tong, Brother Tong, the points we earned won't be deducted, right?"

System: "Don't worry, I won't! Once the points are in my hands, don't even think about letting me take them out again!"

Xu Huaiting: "Do you want my help? If you want, I'll have someone secretly capture Meng Yao later."

The system and Ye Man fell silent at the same time.

They are not used to having a third person in the group chat.

Ye Man thought about it and felt that their group chat of three people in two groups was quite magical.

Xu Huaiting couldn't hear the voice of the system, but he could notice that Ye Man was distracted. Based on the current situation, he roughly guessed what he was talking about with the system. Nine times out of ten, his guesses were correct, always making people think that he could really hear the voice of the system.

Out of curiosity, Ye Man even asked the system if it could allow others to hear it speak.

The system replied: "There are rules that say I can only communicate with the host, so I can only communicate with the host. But later on, everyone learned how to drill holes. By spending some points to connect their own wavelength frequency to the phone, they can pretend to be the phone's built-in AI and talk to people. But by doing this, most people can't tell whether it's the system or the AI ​​that's talking, and they can't say too much, just a few brief sentences. Although everyone knows to drill holes, they can't really be so blatant."

There are loopholes to be exploited, which means that the room for maneuver is relatively small.

"so it is."

After replying to the system, Ye Man quietly said to Xu Huaiting: "No need, I need to think about this matter more carefully."

Ye Man doesn't want to cause trouble anymore, and the system doesn't want to leave, so they have to think of a way to have the best of both worlds.

Ye Man promised Xu Huaiting that he would find him if he needed him, and Xu Huaiting never mentioned the matter again.

It's not like he's really interested in what's going on between Meng Yao and Chi Jue.

It gets dark early in winter. It is completely dark before dinner time.

The car stopped at the gate of the Chi family's old house. Ye Man followed a few people and walked into the old house with brisk steps.

From a distance, before entering the house, I could hear the sound of casual chatting and laughing.

"So Xiaoman was like this when he was little, but he never told us."

A girl who sounded very young said lively: "Brother Xiaoman was really amazing back then!"

The voice was unfamiliar, probably that of a high school girl.

When Ye Man was mentioned, his tone was quite familiar.

Ye Man's joyful mood suddenly sank to the bottom.

Although he hadn't confirmed it yet, he had a bad feeling, as if he had expected it.

Ye Man let go of Xu Huaiting's hand, and the rhythm of tapping with his cane became faster and faster. He staggered past the others and walked quickly into the living room.

Someone in the living room who heard the noise looked toward him.

The strange girl sitting on the sofa was startled when she saw him, looked at him carefully with uncertainty, then suddenly stood up and said in surprise, "Master!"

In an instant, Ye Man felt like he was falling into an icy cave.

The color on his face quickly drained away. He clenched his teeth, which were creaking and knocking, and squeezed out the other person's name from between his teeth: "Lü Junxing."

The girl said happily, "It's me, Master. I'm so happy that you still remember me after all these years!"

"Why are you here?" Ye Man interrupted her, her voice filled with fear.

His attitude made the elders of the Chi family look at each other in confusion.

Grandpa Chi explained, "This little girl said she was your childhood friend and came to visit you. Since you were coming back today, we invited her to stay for a while and entertained her."

Lu Junxing also said: "Master, I will apply for college next year. I will be an adult soon. I thought I was finally free and the adults couldn't control me anymore. So I hid it from my parents and came back to see you during this holiday. It took me a lot of effort to contact someone to find me. By the way, I have something to tell you. Before, our two families lived in -"

She was halfway through her words when, perhaps noticing how ugly Ye Man looked, she became cautious and stopped talking, asking, "Should I not have come?"

The system was also wondering what happened to Ye Man.

But Ye Man no longer had the energy to talk to anyone else.

He used his last bit of strength to ask Lu Junxing to come out with him.

Chi Yan and Chi Jue subconsciously wanted to follow. Noticing their movements, Ye Man said to them in an unprecedented cold attitude: "Don't follow me."

He had never spoken to them in such a tone before, and for a moment they were all stunned and hesitated, not daring to move.

When the two men walked out one after the other, Xu Huaiting followed them without thinking.

......

Lu Junxing followed Ye Man to the door of Chi's house. Ye Man's hand holding the mobile phone was shaking.

He called the driver, said a few words and hung up, and told Lu Junxing: "I'll ask the driver to take you away. Where are you going? What hotel are you staying in? Or go to your grandmother's house."

Lu Junxing carefully looked at his expression and said in a low voice: "Brother Xiaoman, are you still upset about what happened back then? Actually, my grandma and I are very grateful to you. If it weren't for you, my grandma would have..."

Her voice became softer and softer as she spoke, because Ye Man was shaking uncontrollably.

"You... told anyone?" he asked with a trembling voice, "You said I was the one who tipped you off?"

Lu Junxing's eyes widened: "I didn't! You told me not to tell anyone at that time, and I haven't told anyone in all these years!"

"But I don't understand, why don't you tell me? If we can catch him——!"

"Lü Junxing!"

"......" Lu Junxing turned his head away unconvinced.

There was a silence between the two.

After a long pause, Lu Junxing said in a muffled voice, "I came here this time to tell you some good news. Grandma's condition seems to have improved a little. Well, it can't be said to have improved. The doctor said that she may have some conditioned reflexes to certain specific objects or scenes that she once remembered very clearly. My parents and I plan to take grandma back to her previous residence to have a look. After that, we will probably take grandma abroad. You know, she hasn't reacted much in the past two years, but when it comes to leaving, she still resists fiercely. Maybe she still misses this place, or she has some unfulfilled wishes."

"Yeah." Ye Man responded without much interest.

The Chi family’s car drove over.

Lu Junxing did not insist on staying.

But before leaving, he lowered his voice and said to Ye Man: "Brother Xiaoman, you must be careful."

She bit her lip and said, "Not long ago, we received an anonymous letter with lots of photos of my grandma in it. The other party demanded half a million dollars. My parents called the police, and my grandma has temporarily moved to a distant relative's house. However, they are still worried about her, so they decided to take my grandma away as soon as possible, but the formalities will take some time to complete."

Ye Man: "Anonymous letter, you mean..."

Lu Junxing: "My parents and I both suspect that it was the person who committed the crime that year, but there is no evidence, it's just intuition. From the tone and feeling, I think it must be him! Brother Xiaoman, I can be found even when I am abroad, and you have been in Beijing, I am afraid..."

She didn't finish the rest of her words, but Ye Man understood what she meant.

"You really have to be careful." She hurried back just to find him and tell him about this. She originally wanted to discuss other things, but Ye Man was really against this, so she could only let it go for the time being.

Ye Man nodded stiffly and forced out a thank you.

Lu Junxing was finally relieved.

After seeing the people off, Ye Man's body swayed a bit.

Xu Huaiting, who was hiding in the dark, felt his heart tighten and he immediately ran over to catch the person who fell down.

"I'll take you to the hospital!"

Ye Man was sweating profusely, and he grabbed Xu Huaiting tightly, shaking his head: "I'm fine."