Первая книга из серии «Мастер озорства» Кто я

Глава 24

Despite my immense discomfort, I still caught a glimpse of something oozing from the damp walls of the pit, from the deep dents. What was that red liquid? No! It couldn't possibly be blood! I frantically tried to wipe it away, but my foot slipped, and I lost my balance, falling to the ground. At the same time, I seemed to hear some faint noises coming from the cave above me.

Section 196: Unexpected (4)

Is that... footsteps? It doesn't sound like it. Ignoring the pain, I quickly looked up.

"Hehehehehehe..."

What came into view was a very beautiful face. She, or rather "it," was lying by the entrance of the cave, facing down, quietly watching me... Everything about it was right, except for its eyes.

It...it didn't have eyeballs! A terrifying black hole stared at its pale face! And I, unable to control my fear any longer, screamed hysterically.

"Help! Help me!"

I screamed and opened my eyes, gasping for breath. It was just a hallucination, just a hallucination. But... but on the damp walls, I saw that the scratch marks were still there.

They are real!

2 bloodline

"Oh? Sister, he seems to have woken up." As Su Yan was placing a round vessel, she heard heart-wrenching screams coming from the deep pit behind her. She frowned and muttered.

"Ignore him, do your thing," Ye Min replied without looking up as she fiddled with some powdery substance.

"Hmm." Su Yan stopped talking and continued fiddling with the props.

After a while...

"Sis, he's so noisy, can you think of something?" Su Yan covered her ears and stomped her feet. "Let Mom teach him to be quiet." That's what she said.

She actually said that.

"Shut up!" Ye Min suddenly slammed a jar to the ground! "Clang!" The jar shattered, startling Su Yan so much that she dared not utter a sound. After a moment of stunned silence, she cried out, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Ye Min took a deep breath, slowly walked around to her side, patted her shoulder, and said softly, "Mom gets tired too, you know? Don't keep mentioning Mom, she'll get upset. She should be back by now... Do you understand?"

She stopped sobbing and nodded, her face bare.

I heard voices outside while I was inside the pit. I didn't care about saving face at that moment, and I quickly raised my voice: "Help!" I had only shouted a few times when suddenly a large amount of liquid was poured down from above, splashing all over my face and making me cough uncontrollably.

What...what is this?! As the liquid was poured down, a strong, pungent smell of blood immediately filled the entire small pit. I hurriedly tried to wipe it with my hands, and it felt very sticky to the touch.

Section 197: Unexpected (5)

It was blood! I screamed in shock as I looked at my bright red hands!

"Can't you just be quiet?" Just as I was crying and screaming, an impatient voice suddenly came from above.

That voice sounded so familiar.

I could hardly believe my ears, "Ye...Ye...Ye Min?"

The dark figure overhead sneered, "What? You've remembered me again now?"

Overwhelmed by guilt, I was so frightened I almost knelt down. "You...you...you..." Wasn't she acting crazy in the small stone chamber?

"Ha, thanks to you, I survived a close call. Besides... if I scratched myself, wouldn't I be careful about that? But..."

At that moment, the soft crescent moon shifted its position slightly, and by the moonlight, I could clearly see the person above me from the bottom of the pit. It really was her!

“But you weren’t so lucky,” Ye Min said quietly.

I was stunned! Then I roared, "What do you mean?!"

Ye Min laughed, laughed heartily, laughed so hard her body trembled, laughed... laughed just like the Buddha statue that kept appearing in my dreams!

Looking at this woman, I suddenly felt a chill run from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.

"Good brother, you're being too polite." The lovely girl by the cave edge laughed again, and those words pierced my left chest like a knife. Wh...what? Brother?

Seeing me staring blankly, Ye Min pulled something out of her pocket, something like a book, but it was backlit, so I couldn't see it clearly. She pulled out a square object, paused, seemingly hesitating, but after a moment, she raised her right hand, and the object slowly floated down. Thinking it was some strange object again, I was terrified and tried to dodge, until it hit me… and I realized it was just a photograph.

Yellowed old photos.

Could it be a photo of one of the girls I dumped? So Ye Min is her sister or something, coming to get revenge on my behalf? The photo was stained with sticky blood, making it hard to see clearly, and I hurriedly wiped it with a clean corner of my clothes while thinking this. Once the blood was dry, I could see the photo clearly; it seemed I was wrong.

In the dim moonlight, the smile in the yellowed old photograph was blurry but still recognizable, which puzzled me greatly.

Family photo?

The background of the photo is an antique-style hall. Inside, a middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit, with his hair styled in a side parting, has thick, sword-like eyebrows and eagle-like eyes, giving him a solemn air. A woman leaning against him smiles gently, her luxurious fuchsia cheongsam adding to her dignified elegance. Also in the photo are two girls, both wearing floral dresses.

Section 198: Unexpected (6)

What's this?

I didn't see anything, and just as I looked up to ask what was going on, I heard Ye Min's voice again: "I knew it, but I forgive your ignorance." She paused, then chuckled softly, "You know Yang Guocheng, right?"

Yang Guocheng? The old man?!

I suddenly realized something, and a jolt ran through me. I picked up the photo and looked at it carefully several times. After a long while, I asked Ye Min above me in a trembling voice, "What... what's going on?" No wonder, no wonder the man in the photo looked familiar. I think I understand what's going on, but my mind is probably still a bit foggy, so I asked a question out of the blue.

Ye Min didn't answer my question directly. She turned her head and called out, "Yan, come here."

"Hey, you're here." A sweet, natural voice immediately filled my ears.

As soon as the sound faded, the girls arrived. There were two girls squatting above me, staring at me. This severely damaged my self-esteem; I felt incredibly insulted. I wasn't a monkey in a zoo. At that moment, I no longer wanted to ask why they had pushed me into the pit, because I knew they would soon reveal the reason.

The truth has finally come out.

Ye Min stared expressionlessly at Yang Feng, whose bottom was splattered with snake blood she had prepared, without saying a word. She put her arm around Su Yan's shoulder, who had come running at the sound of her voice. "Come on, let me formally introduce you." She pointed to the bottom of the pit and turned to Su Yan. "This is your brother, the son of Yang Guocheng and that vixen, the dashing young master of the Yang family, Yang Feng."

"Hello, brother—" Amid Ye Min's teasing, Su Yan playfully bowed and gave the deep pit an extremely cute smile.

I suddenly remembered a quote from Shakespeare.

Ye Min ignored Yang Feng's surprised expression and pointed to Su Yan, saying, "Yang Feng, this is your little sister, Yang Su Yan. As for me, I am your older sister." She then added, "Oh, right, and of course, my surname isn't Ye—this young lady's surname is Yang, but my given name isn't Min, it's Liu Yan."

"This... this name has been hidden for so many years."

"This... is the name your father left me."

Now, though I was still stunned, I understood what had happened. I understood why the old man had been going out so often during that time; I understood why Ye Min was personally recommended by the old man to join the company; I understood why the old man told me to take care of her; I understood why Su Yan suddenly appeared at Zhi Lei Temple; I understood why she always stammered about her experiences… So… so… so they were actually my half-sisters! That makes sense…

Section 199: Unexpected (7)

"So you deliberately fell from the bamboo house too?" The coincidences along the way might not have been coincidences after all. Since she injured herself, then...

"Of course. I was preparing some not-so-good things on the third floor at the time, and you disturbed me. What should I do?" Ye Min pretended to be troubled.

It turns out they were plotting something!

But why?

Ye Min always understood me very well. She saw my confusion, and with a mature and steady laugh, she said calmly, "Little brother, do you know why?" After saying that, she glanced at me, her eyes showing no pity whatsoever, coldly and viciously piercing me.

"Twenty years ago, the man surnamed Yang abandoned my mother and me because of that vixen, that's right, your mother! At that time, my mother was pregnant!"

After Ye Min finished speaking, she turned her head and glanced at Su Yan.

“He left us nothing! Twenty years have passed, and he hasn’t given us anything! My mother later gave birth to my younger sister, Suyan, and single-handedly raised us both with great hardship and selfless dedication. I thought that not having a father wasn’t a big deal, that the three of us could survive without him. Who knew…”

Ye Min's tone suddenly became very agitated, "Who knew that my mother could never forget that heartless man? She could never get over it herself, and she was silent and depressed all day long. His abandonment completely changed my mother!"

Her voice began to choke, and she lowered her head in silence, her face bare.

“I hate your father! Our whole family hates him! We hate him to the core!” When those words came out of her mouth, I trembled. Her expression changed again, and her tone shifted, becoming both amused and delirious.

"Hehe...but it's okay...Mom...Mom will get better."

My mind was racing with thoughts of the old man, and I couldn't think of that old hag for a moment.

I didn't know the old man had this side to him, but... "But what does it have to do with me?" Shouldn't they be hating everything related to him? I'm innocent!

Ye Min pinched the area between her eyes on the bridge of her nose slightly, and said succinctly with a light laugh, "Hmph, I knew it, I knew you would say that. Little brother, you want to know why we're targeting you instead of Yang Guocheng, right? Okay, then I'll tell you."

Section 200: Unexpected (8)

She suddenly stared at me and said, "Do you still remember She Tong?"

It felt like someone had suddenly ripped my heart out, and I was in excruciating pain.

Ye Min spoke slowly, but as she uttered the name, tears welled up in her eyes. "I tried so hard not to live in the shadow of hatred for my father, but I was powerless to pull myself out of it... until, until I met She Tong. He helped me out of that gloom. He tried to help me face this broken family positively again and actively try to make my life whole."

At this point, Ye Min's expression clearly began to wander, as if she had returned to the season when they first met...

3 Origins

"Ah...so refreshing."

Sitting on a bench in the playground, Ye Min closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This was her first time leaving her birthplace to study in Xishuangbanna, a place said to have four suns. She didn't particularly like the scorching sun, but she had no choice but to endure it to complete her studies.

It doesn't snow here in winter, which made her feel a little uncomfortable.

If you think about it carefully, it's been almost a year since she arrived in this unfamiliar city... With her withdrawn and introverted personality, it's no surprise that she hasn't made any friends—let alone close friends. Oh well, if the world doesn't understand me, I might as well just shut up.

The girls' dormitory was located on the northwest side of the playground. Evening self-study had just ended. Ye Min stared at the brightly lit dormitory, her eyes filled with extreme disgust—this was the fundamental reason why she didn't go back to her dormitory after class but instead sat on the playground. She hated noisy and chaotic environments; she preferred to be alone, leisurely and content… Of course, occasionally, just occasionally, her resilient heart would crack—for example, sitting here with loneliness.

Accompanied by darkness, all was silent.

"Excuse me, are you waiting for it, or is it waiting for you?"

In the quiet, dark playground, Ye Min was surprised to find that there were other people around. The sudden question startled her. However, she quickly calmed down and, searching for the source of the sound, saw a plain white shirt "floating" not far from her.

Ye Min felt a little embarrassed. She always didn't know how to deal with questions from strangers, especially since she didn't even know what "accompany it" meant.

Seeing the strange girl on the bench looking bewildered, the man in the white shirt chuckled, "I was talking about the chair, the chair." Before Ye Min could react, the man had already stepped in front of her and "it." In the darkness, Ye Min saw him half-squat down, gently pat the bench, and then hear him shamelessly say, "Hmm... looks like you've been keeping it company while it waits for someone..."

Section 201: Unexpected (9)

His meaning was clearly implied.

As they drew closer, the blurry face slowly turned into a more discernible shape, though not clear, enough to make out the general outline. Ye Min remained silent; she had nothing to say for the time being.

"May I sit here?" the man in the white shirt asked politely, seemingly unbothered by her coldness and indifference.

Ah... so this guy was deliberately trying to pick a fight to flirt with her... Ye Min felt a little disgusted. Are all men these days so shameless? She wanted to get up and leave. Encounters are wonderful, that's true, but a long time ago, she had already adopted a respectful but distant attitude towards love.

Just then, the man in the white shirt spoke again: "Is this your first time sitting here?"

"So what if it is?" Ye Min thought to herself, but replied casually, "Yeah, what's wrong?" It was a polite answer, but it was also wrapped in a cold self-protection.

The man in the white shirt smiled mischievously and said, "This bench is my girlfriend. It's been with me for two years. I come here to keep it company every day. Are you trying to steal it away from me?"

He was facing Ye Min when he said this, and Ye Min happened to turn her face as well. Even though the playground was pitch black, she could still see a light flashing in the darkness, which seemed to be his eyes, shimmering with a strange light.

Under this light, Ye Min felt somewhat suffocated. She was surprised by this feeling, until the light grew stronger and stronger...

"Who's there? What are they doing?"