Please speak like a human being.
"I don't know." Jiang Yilin stiffly turned to the side, seemingly sulking as she turned her back to him.
Lai Xi, still cheerful and optimistic, didn't notice Jiang Yilin's low mood. She assumed he was just still half asleep and asked in confusion, "Ah? I thought you knew where Lulu went, Chieftain. I wanted to ask you."
"Who are you calling?" Jiang Yilin immediately sat up, opened his eyes and stared intently at Lai Xi. He couldn't help but twitch his lips, but he had to pretend to be kind. However, unseen under the coffee table, his white fingers had already scratched himself until they bled.
Lai Xi didn't know why the clan chief had suddenly woken up. Now he was not only no longer sleepy, but he also asked him in a very gentle tone. So he continued with great interest, "Lulu? By the way, you might not know if you're not familiar with her."
After saying this, Lai Xi shuddered under the clan chief's gloomy gaze. He wondered what he had said wrong, but he hadn't said anything wrong.
"It's Xilu, Jin Xilu. We all call her Lulu, it makes us feel closer."
"Oh?" Jiang Yilin had already stood up. He put one hand in his pocket, not bothering to spare a glance for him, but at the end he couldn't help but ask, "Are you two very familiar?"
“We should know each other better than you, Chief. Whenever we have free time, we take care of the calico cat and the orange cat together.” Lai Xi was so engrossed in her own world that she didn’t notice the Chief’s dark expression.
Jiang Yilin was annoyed by his constant use of "we're not familiar" to his ears, but he knew that his relationship with Jin Xilu was definitely better and stronger than that of these inexplicable people.
"You're overthinking it. Nobody thinks you two are that close."
"By the way, Chieftain, you haven't told us where Lulu went!" Lai Xi asked anxiously from behind him.
"I don't know. She can go wherever she wants. You care about her so much? How can you expect her to know something you don't even know about someone as unfamiliar as me?"
Jiang Yilin turned and left, regardless of whether Lai Xi followed behind him. He walked on his own and then tripped over the threshold.
Lai Xi was confused. He was so anxious that he couldn't find Jin Xilu and was worried that she might be in trouble, so he came to the clan leader in his haste.
Lai Xi had come up empty-handed, and just as he was about to give up and ask others, he bumped into He Canyang, who was even more anxious than him.
The two brushed past each other. He Canyang was still wearing his familiar red hoodie and cotton slippers. It was obvious that he hadn't even had time to style his hair before running out.
"Thanks." He Canyang smiled and thanked Lai Xi, who was helping to hold the door open, before running into the house. His voice was very distinctive.
"Jiang Yilin, come out! We've found you."
Soon, perhaps less than two minutes later, before Lai Xidu had even left the door, he saw Jiang Yilin walking in front of He Canyang.
Yes, he wasn't mistaken; it was their frail, sickly, and incredibly precious Jiang clan chief. He was now urgently urging He Canyang to catch up with him.
"Why are you rushing me? Even the oxen that plow the fields get a rest. I just got to your house and haven't even had a sip of water yet." He Canyang lingered as he followed.
Jiang Yilin stopped speaking, frowned, and stared at him, her tone extremely cold as she bombarded him with questions like knives: "You really saw it? When? Was she alone?"
“I saw her by the river half an hour ago, but I only saw her profile. It looks like her, it’s definitely her.” He Canyang was genuinely worried about Jiang Yilin’s mental state. He knew that although Jiang Yilin was pretending that it didn’t matter to him whether Jin Xilu left or not, only he knew that Jiang Yilin was only physically there, but his heart had already fallen into the abyss along with the departed Jin Xilu.
On the morning Jin Xilu returned, Jiang Yilin meticulously prepared for how long before she could face her in a normal manner. Even now, He Canyang still remembers the red-eyed look on Jiang Yilin's face after she broke the mirror.
Lai Xi finally found an opening and quickly interjected, asking, "Who is it?"
"Kim Hee-ro."
"Why haven't you left yet?" Jiang Yilin's mouth was not as quick as He Canyang's. He quickly withdrew his gaze from Lai Xi for a brief two seconds and focused it on the cat in the yard. He opened his mouth, but the cat jumped away. A flash of white light appeared in front of his eyes, and he explained somewhat dryly, "Yeah, I'm looking for her. Something happened."
"Chief, you still say you're not familiar with Lulu? I actually saw it a long time ago. Your relationship with Lulu is unusual." Lai Xi was truly guileless, and whatever came to mind spilled out like beans.
"Who said our relationship is just so-so?" Jiang Yilin, having given up all hope, simply leaned against the door to see what other hurtful things Lai Xi could say.
He Canyang, always eager for a good show, crossed his arms and looked on with curiosity, his eyes darting back and forth between the two people talking: "Who is it? Who is it!"
Just then, the car that He Canyang had arranged arrived. Without saying a word, he pushed the two of them into the car, saying as he hurried, "Oh dear, oh dear, if you still have something to say, then get in the car. It just so happens that everyone in this car is looking for Jin Xilu."
Jiang Yilin was pushed into the car and sat by the window, lowering it to its lowest position. It was then that she made eye contact with the driver, who was looking down at the rearview mirror. He had a pair of very honest and clean eyes.
As he aged, wrinkles around his eyes covered his tanned skin, resembling withered, fallen loofah vines in autumn. Thick black eyebrows pointed upwards above his pupils, adding a touch of naivety and humor to the old man's appearance. A scar, likely from an injury sustained in his youth, now blended into his forehead wrinkles, yet somehow it looked quite harmonious.
Their eye contact didn't last long; everyone in the car was distracted by the sound of the woman in the passenger seat tapping her cane.
Chen Yanan sat in the passenger seat with her legs crossed, her left hand gripping the seatbelt across her chest. The rest of her body was turned to look at the people in the back seat, and she asked in surprise, "So many people, did they all get on?"
"Hey, you too, even with your leg crooked, you still can't behave yourself, always following me around!" He Canyang slapped the back of the passenger seat fiercely, signaling Li Quan that he could drive. "Uncle Li, we can drive now."
"Okay, let's go." A few minutes after the car, which was full of people, left, a cat's tail appeared in the rearview mirror. The car turned and left the intersection, and of course, no one saw the orange cat and the calico cat meet up and sneak into the Jiang family's house together with the girl.
The atmosphere in the car was strange. Even if Lai Xi was slow to realize, he could tell that Jin Xilu must have run into some trouble, otherwise why would so many people be looking for her?
So, in the car, he brought up what he hadn't finished saying earlier: "Clan leader, you're also looking for Jin Xilu? Really, what's there to be ashamed of? I actually noticed it from the start—you and Lu..." Lai Xi, startled by Jiang Yilin's sharp glare, abruptly changed his words, "Sister Lu, your relationship is more than just ordinary."
"How many times do you have to say that?" Jiang Yilin turned to the side, puffing out her cheeks and looking out the car window with displeasure. She had asked Lai Xi to take care of the calico and orange cat before because she thought he was gentle and warm-hearted, and the aunties liked to ask him for help. In addition, he was big enough that he wouldn't be bullied by the calico and orange cat and would run away. That's why she chose him to take care of the cat.
But now he has discovered that Lai Xi is not only overly enthusiastic, but also talks a lot.
"Really! You have to believe me. I noticed it the last few times. When Sister Lu talks to you, she deliberately keeps her distance. No, oh dear, I'm getting more and more confused. I can't describe it." Lai Xi sat in her seat, waving her hand frantically and slapping her thigh one last time. "It's like, a stray cat smells the catnip in the orphanage, and the more it tries to hide it, the more excited and happy it becomes."
"Wow." He Canyang and Chen Yanan in the passenger seat both exclaimed in unison.
"What an abstract description."
"What a terrible description."
This time, Jiang Yilin didn't interrupt. He lowered his eyes and stared at his palms. The sunlight shone on him, and his eyelashes trembled slightly. His eyes were a little red, as if he was thinking and feeling annoyed.
"Alright, let's get down to business. I don't know what exactly happened between you and Sister Lu, Chief. Either she's looking for you, or you're looking for her. If there's a misunderstanding, it's better for the two of you to clear it up." Lai Xi continued rambling on, unaffected by the others.
"yes."
What did you just say?
"That's right, that's right."
The three voices collided again, with Jiang Yilin's surprised voice standing out abruptly among the others.
Lai Xi was interrupted, so he had to repeat himself: "I said, is there a misunderstanding between the two of them?"
“That’s not it. You said she was looking for me? When?” But Jiang Yilin interrupted her again. His eyes were filled with too many emotions that Lai Xi couldn’t understand, like someone who had accidentally found a broken piece of candy in their pain.
“Just before New Year’s Eve, Jin Xilu asked everyone in the Jiang family, and no one knew where you had gone,” Lai Xi told the truth.
"Later, when I heard that you would definitely come back on New Year's Eve, Sister Lu told everyone to take a holiday early, and she would take care of waiting for you to come back."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yilin first looked at He Canyang beside her.
He Canyang suddenly felt a chill down his spine and gave an awkward smile: "There was such a thing, but at the time I thought you two hadn't made up yet. I thought you were really busy, so I thought I'd let Jin Xilu worry for a few days, which is why I notified you."
Jiang Yilin slumped back into his car seat, leaning against the cushion, his hands and feet cold and numb. He had been trapped in his own thoughts for far too long, so long that he had foolishly believed that night was just a dream.
"So it wasn't a dream." Xilu, he called her name in his heart, his heart burning and bleeding. He couldn't tell if it was the stinging pain or the desire mixed with honey. His greedy love was at work. He was now so happy that he saw a white light before his eyes and couldn't see anything clearly. He was about to faint.
Xi Lu, it turns out, has feelings for him.
He licked the blood beads from his bitten lips and swallowed them into his stomach, which was burning and screaming inside. His teeth began to tremble again as he bit open the wound on his lips, making it bigger. But his blood was limited; if he did nothing, it wouldn't be enough, and it still wouldn't be enough.
All he wanted now was to devour Kim Hee-ro, to have her eyes fixed on him, to have her lips pressed against his, and to have her feel his body heat with every breath she took.
"Wait for me, I will find you."
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