“From Songlan Mansion to a casino’s private rooms. Your love certainly comes cheap.”
“…”
Song Liang didn’t understand.
【What does he mean? Is he praising me for being hardworking and practical?】
【…】
Sometimes, the system truly admired its host.
He never wasted energy tormenting himself. Anything he didn’t want to hear became incomprehensible, while anything he wanted to hear he could happily supply himself.
【According to this world’s prevailing values, working as a host at Songlan Mansion or a server at a casino is considered disreputable. People look down on those occupations.】
Song Liang understood.
He was about to explain that he had already resigned when Xiao Yi spoke gravely.
“I will never approve of you and Xiao Ji. Either take the money, hand over the Emperor’s Tear, and leave—or you and the entire Song family disappear from Linhai.”
The threat carried considerable weight.
It was also entirely credible.
Even a minor cannon-fodder villain like Xiao Wenyu could quietly have a person or two killed, let alone Xiao Yi, the man who controlled the Xiao family.
That was this world’s internal logic.
Money and power were the only law.
As for why Xiao Yi hadn’t acted against him before, he simply hadn’t considered him worth the trouble.
3085 trembled.
【Doesn’t he want the Emperor’s Tear anymore?】
Song Liang’s lips curved carelessly.
【Look at the man in front of us. Does he seem like someone who’d let an inanimate object put him at another person’s mercy?】
3085 faltered.
No. Of course not.
In the original novel, Xiao Yi had been cold and ruthless from beginning to end, whether toward his siblings or the nephew he had raised himself.
His only tenderness had appeared before his relationship with Xiao Ji broke down.
Someone so utterly accustomed to imposing his own will might care about a family heirloom, but he would never tolerate being controlled through it.
Still less would he accept being played by a young man he had never taken seriously.
Put more plainly, it wasn’t impossible that Xiao Yi would kill Song Liang in this study today and look for the Emperor’s Tear afterward.
3085 felt chilled.
Only now did it fully grasp the danger they faced.
It was regretting its failure to stop its host from recklessly confronting the main villain when Xiao Yi suddenly reached down beneath the desk.
3085 cried out.
【Host!】
Song Liang’s gaze sharpened too.
He hadn’t forgotten that the man had carried a gun even at the mansion.
He immediately rose and caught his hand.
Xiao Yi, who had merely been reaching for a check: “…”
He looked down at their joined hands, his expression shifting inscrutably.
Finally, he raised a dark, searching gaze to Song Liang.
“… Xiao Ji is still outside.”
And this man dared flirt with him?
Song Liang returned a challenging look.
“So you know Xiao Ji is outside?”
Yet he still dared kill his nephew’s future spouse?
“…”
Their eyes met.
A flash of menace rose in Xiao Yi’s gaze as he looked into those bright, audacious eyes.
Then he abruptly seized Song Liang’s wrist and pulled him toward himself.
Song Liang pitched forward, his hips striking the edge of the desk, his body almost pressed against Xiao Yi’s chest.
Before he could resist, a dark voice sounded above him.
“I’ll give you one last chance. Choose to live peacefully, or—”
“I choose Xiao Ji.”
Song Liang looked up into the dark green eyes so close to his own, refusing to yield.
Xiao Yi’s gaze turned chilling. His grip tightened.
“You have a death wish—”
Song Liang certainly didn’t.
Before Xiao Yi could finish, he lunged forward.
Xiao Yi’s pupils jolted wide as he was tackled to the floor.
The glass vase beside him swayed, then fell and shattered.
The crash immediately reached the people outside.
Xiao Ji, Yang Xuan, and the others changed expression and rushed in with the bodyguards.
The next thing they heard was someone’s declaration of unyielding devotion.
“Even if you kill me today, I won’t give up Xiao Ji.”
“…”
Everyone froze.
Xiao Ji’s heart jolted, a strange feeling briefly passing through it.
Then they saw the scene clearly and were horrified.
Their refined, distinguished employer was pinning Song Liang to the floor.
One hand held his arm. The other appeared poised to choke him.
Yang Xuan hurried forward.
“Sir!”
Xiao Ji panicked too.
Song Liang’s earlier instruction to call the police flashed through his mind.
He shouted, “Uncle! I really do like him!”
The declaration stunned everyone.
Even Song Liang, busy entangling himself with a certain man, stopped and looked at Xiao Ji.
【Playing the victim works this well?】
【… Could you let go of the villain’s hand first?】
Song Liang: 【Oh.】
Out of everyone’s sight, he released the hand he had been holding against his own throat and untangled his lower leg from Xiao Yi’s.
After being held fast by him, Xiao Yi’s hair was disheveled and his tie crooked.
His handsome, cold face blazed with anger.
Those green eyes fixed on Song Liang as though he truly wanted to strangle him.
How could he fail to see what was happening?
The man was deliberately playing the victim.
The instant the vase shattered, he had predicted that the people outside would rush in.
He had suddenly grabbed Xiao Yi’s waist, used the moment he stiffened to reverse their positions, then trapped his arms and legs so that anyone entering would think Song Liang was the victim.
Xiao Yi ignored his nephew’s shout and stared at the young man beneath him.
Before he could speak, however, he was pulled to his feet.
Yang Xuan earnestly urged him to calm down.
The bodyguards anxiously inspected him, trying to determine whether he was injured.
And his nephew stood opposite him, shielding a certain person.
Amid the overlapping voices and confusion, the lawyer who had come that night to deliver the arrangement contract stood uncertainly in the doorway.
Holding the document, he asked hesitantly, “Mr. Xiao, do you… still need your contract?”
The contract.
The agreement for keeping a lover.
Yang Xuan finally remembered that matter.
After a moment of silence, his expression settled into deathly calm.
“Leave it on the desk.”
Everything was already a complete mess. They might as well accept it.
His employer apparently wouldn’t be needing the contract anymore.
Song Liang, both the victim and the instigator, dutifully got up from the floor and hid behind Xiao Ji as though nothing had happened.
Looking at his uncle’s cold anger, Xiao Ji felt shocked and unsettled.
He had never seen his uncle loathe anyone so much that he resorted to physical violence.
He started forward.
“Uncle…”
Xiao Yi stared coldly across the room.
“Get out. Now.”
Song Liang frowned slightly.
“Don’t speak to your nephew like that.”
Xiao Yi looked at him.
“I meant you.”
Song Liang: “…”
Fair enough.
Today’s objective was more or less accomplished, and he had done enough shameless things for one evening.
He was also afraid of truly enraging the man and ending up killed with a single bullet.
“Then get some rest, Uncle.”
After a pause, he added, “I won’t tell anyone you tried to choke me. I know you’re a good elder.”
Xiao Ji finally lost his patience too.
“Just get out!”
Song Liang left, thoroughly satisfied.
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