Four feathers
Ye Linghan never asked about Yin Chen's affairs. If the other party didn't say anything, he wouldn't take the initiative to ask.
Yin Chen had not returned after being called out by Yin Ster. Ye Linghan took a short nap on the bed and then planned to return to his apartment in the city.
The villa was large and spacious, and even though it was filled with expensive furniture, he always felt uneasy when he was alone.
The suburbs are quiet and far from the commercial area, so it is difficult to get a taxi. Few online taxi drivers are willing to travel so far to pick up and drop off passengers, so you may have to wait for a long time without anyone accepting your order.
In the past, Yin Chen’s driver would pick him up and drop him off, but today when he came, Yin Chen sent him away, so Ye Linghan couldn’t find anyone to take him away.
But fortunately, money is omnipotent. As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. After Ye Linghan's long wait, he actually found a driver who was willing to accept the order.
However, it takes an hour and a half for the driver to get here. Ye Linghan was feeling a little bored lying on the bed, so he took the opportunity to look around the villa while Yin Chen was away.
He had been with Yin Chen since he was very young, but he lived in the city most of the time. He had been here only a few times and had never even observed it carefully.
The villa has four floors and you need to take the elevator to go up and down. Of course, if you have plenty of time, you can also take the stairs.
Ye Linghan pressed the elevator button and arrived at the first floor. He thought that since he had free time, he might as well go up one floor at a time.
The structure of the first floor is very simple, with a large living room in the middle, followed by a kitchen, a study and a bedroom. The study and bedroom are for Yin Chen to use for work, so that he can rest conveniently after working until late at night.
Although the Yin family is the family that manages the entire vampire clan, other than the three major families of the high-level vampire clan, the rest of the people know very little about it. Most people have the impression that Yin Chen is a very mysterious entrepreneur.
As expected, it's lonely at the top. In the huge room, there is not a trace of worldly air. To be superior to others, one must be able to endure loneliness and solitude, Ye Linghan thought, and unconsciously walked to Yin Chen's study. The exhibits inside were neatly arranged, and there was only a thin stack of documents on the table, which was enough to prove that he didn't come here very often.
Just as Ye Linghan was walking past the bookcase, he suddenly felt a gust of cold wind coming from the side of his neck. After being with Yin Chen for a long time, his neck had become extremely sensitive.
Huh? How can there be wind in this confined space...
Ye Linghan stopped and looked at the bookcase. The floor-standing bookcase was very high and its square appearance had no sense of design, so it was difficult to see any clues.
His fingers unconsciously reached forward, but he was startled by the sudden ringing of the phone.
The ringtone echoed in the slightly empty study, interrupting his actions. He hurriedly picked up the phone and the caller ID showed that it was from the online taxi driver he had booked on the platform.
"Hello?" Ye Linghan answered the phone.
"Excuse me, is this Mr. Ye?" came the driver's voice.
The voices on the phone were already a little unclear, and the driver's voice was particularly hoarse.
"Yes, I am." Ye Linghan carefully distinguished what the other party meant and tried to answer.
"I see your location is in Yueshan Court?"
It is the name of the villa.
Ye Linghan was puzzled, subconsciously thinking that he had filled in the address incorrectly, which caused the driver's doubts. He felt relieved when he quickly opened the app to confirm that it was correct.
"Hmm..." The driver's tone was full of twists and turns, and the ending tone was dragged out for a long time. "It's like this. As you know, your home address is indeed quite far from the city, so..."
The driver paused and said something that could only be understood but not expressed in words.
How could Ye Linghan not understand what he meant? He simply disliked the long journey and wanted to pay more, but thinking it wouldn't be much, he didn't care too much.
"Okay, add as much as you want, and I'll give it to you later."
There was a sound of flushing water on the other end of the line. "How about four times the price?"
The driver was smart. He knew there was a recording system in the car, so he chose to ask for a price. However, the price he paid was not very reasonable.
"You..." Ye Linghan frowned. He estimated that the taxi he took would cost around 200 yuan according to the most expensive price on the platform. If he was charged four times the price, it would be equivalent to 1,000 yuan including the original price. Even though Ye Linghan had enough pocket money, he didn't want to be exploited.
Before he could object, the driver's voice came again: "Or you can cancel the order and let someone else take it. However, your location is so remote, I guess no one is willing to come." It seemed as if he was sure that Ye Linghan would not cancel the order, so he spoke so arrogantly.
But Ye Linghan was not the type to suffer a loss. The price could be agreed upon at the beginning, but he absolutely could not raise the price halfway through the journey. He was just about to press the hang-up button when another call suddenly came in, interrupting his conversation with the driver.
Ye Linghan pressed the answer button, and a man's voice came from the other end: "Linghan, where are you? Come quickly!"
"Okay." Ye Linghan agreed.
The person on the other end of the phone was his college roommate and one of his few good friends, named Zhao Tang, who now worked as an assistant in the Strange Trace Research Section.
After hanging up the phone, Ye Linghan's finger lingered on the online car-hailing driver's phone number above the phone screen. He wanted to press the dial button, but he felt angry inside. However, for what Zhao Tang said, after constant psychological struggle, he chose to replay it.
The call was quickly connected. The driver's voice was still hoarse, mixed with a hint of laziness, and he said lightly: "Now it's five times."
Unscrupulous businessman— forget about making money in this life! Ye Linghan cursed in his heart, but his tone was still smiling. He gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, five times is five times. Please come quickly."
"Okay~" The driver was blinded by money. Seeing Ye Linghan agree so readily, he only regretted not raising the price higher.
After a discordant episode, Ye Linghan no longer had the heart to look at the strangeness of the bookcase. Instead, he went to the bedroom upstairs. The lingering atmosphere there made him feel at ease.
It was almost noon and the sun was at its highest point, but the air in East City was relatively humid, not yet that dry.
The phone rang again, and the car horn in the distance outside the window howled intermittently. It was the urging of a black-hearted driver, which made Ye Linghan feel a little annoyed.
He came to the side of the car, and just as he opened the door, a cloud of white smoke rushed towards him. Ye Linghan subconsciously dodged backwards.
What is this thing? As Ye Linghan was thinking, he felt a slight pain in his head.
"Are you ready to get in the car?" Seeing that Ye Linghan was still not getting in, the driver rolled down the window and cursed.
Ye Linghan frowned, suppressed his anger and got into the car. He routinely reported the last digit of his cell phone number. After he got in the car, he finally saw the driver's face clearly through the rearview mirror.
The man was very similar to the image he had imagined in his mind, a middle-aged man in his forties, with a bald head, a face full of flesh, wearing a floral shirt, and a large gold chain around his neck, the purity of which was unknown. He looked like someone who was not to be messed with.
"This smoke is damn strong." The driver muttered to himself and extinguished the cigarette butt in the ashtray on the passenger side.
Ye Linghan followed his hand movements and saw that the ashtray was full of cigarette butts, which had already exceeded the normal intake of an adult male in a day. Judging from the degree of bulge in the cigarette butts, there were estimated to be about thirty cigarette butts.
Ye Linghan observed calmly. He didn't die after smoking so much. The filtration system was really powerful.
I don't know if this smoke was accumulated or if it was just from the morning's intake. If it was just from the morning, it would be a bit scary. But thinking about the smoke that just came out of the car, it makes sense.
As the engine started, Ye Linghan asked, "Master, what brand are these cigarettes?"
"No brand, custom-made." Perhaps because they were talking about something interesting, the driver's tone unexpectedly softened. He raised his eyes lazily and glanced at Ye Linghan in the rearview mirror. "Why? You want one too? That'll cost you. This pack isn't cheap."
How expensive could this be? Ye Linghan doesn’t smoke, so he doesn’t know.
From the villa to the city, one has to pass through a sparsely populated area with wide roads. There is no village in front and no shop behind, and there is not a single car around. The driver slowed down, stretched out two bent fingers, and gestured backwards.
After seeing this, Ye Linghan blurted out, "Ninety?"
Unexpectedly, the driver in the driver's seat snorted coldly: "Oh, what's the point of living in such a nice villa? You don't have any sense at all." As he spoke, the amplitude of his hand shaking became even greater! "It's nine thousand!"
He even deliberately emphasized his tone, sounding both boastful and contemptuous.
Nine thousand? Ye Linghan's lips parted in surprise. He hadn't expected that a pack of seemingly ordinary cigarettes would cost nine thousand yuan.
He was not the unworldly person the driver said. Following Yin Chen, he had seen too much luxury and extravagance since he was a child. However, a pack of cigarettes costing nine thousand yuan was not in line with his values.
In addition, he rarely saw Yin Chen smoking, so he had no contact with him.
No wonder the fare is so high. It seems like this is not the first time they have cheated people. It turns out that they make money by dishonest means. Ye Linghan was shocked and cursed in his heart.
But where did a taxi driver buy cigarettes worth 9,000 yuan? A taxi driver actually had such channels and connections.
“Where can I buy this?”
When the driver heard Ye Linghan ask, a smug smile appeared on his face, as if he thought showing off in front of a wealthy person would make him look more respectable. "These cigarettes are hard to buy, but if you pay me the purchase fee, maybe I can help you."
Ye Linghan didn't immediately respond to the driver's words, "Since it's so expensive, it must have something unique about it, right?" He was not the kind of person who would fall for the same person twice. Besides, he had connections around him, so he didn't need to suffer this loss at all.
"You don't smoke?" the driver asked.
Ye Linghan nodded: "Well, how did you know?"
The driver scoffed. "Cigarettes are addictive, and you ask so nonchalantly, obviously you've never smoked before."
Ye Linghan smiled and said, "Indeed, I didn't smoke it. I bought it for my master... my friend." He used to be forced to call Yin Chen "master", but as time went by, Ye Linghan felt that this title was very strange, so he gradually stopped calling him that. Fortunately, Yin Chen acquiesced.
But after all, I have been shouting it for many years, and sometimes I blurt it out subconsciously.
Perhaps it was because the smell of smoke had dissipated, but the dull headache Ye Linghan initially felt also eased a lot.
"Damn it!" Suddenly, the driver's curse and a sharp brake sound came into Ye Linghan's ears.
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