Due to his curiosity, Li Xinwen increased the pressure he's exerting. From the pressure of a lower stage one Houtian to middle stage, he could see that Xue Liang was still able to resist and nothing much has changed. But when the pressure entered the peak of stage one Houtian, Xue Liang finally threw out blood and Li Xinwen immediately stopped. 'Just a mere stage one body transformation practitioner and he could already resist the pressure from a mid-stage one Houtian? He have a lot of potential. It's unfortunate that I don't like him,' Li Xinwen thought as he put his hand over Xua Liang's head and proceeded to inject his spiritual energy into him, erasing the things that has happened the moment Xue Liang got into his room.
Then, he proceeded to create a fake memory, making it that after Xue Liang entered his room, the male had an accident and fell down, knocking on his head and falling unconscious.
After he's done, he went over to his table and grabbed his phone that was charging. He scrolled over his contact list, found Xue Rui's number and proceeded to call him. It took him several rings before the phone call was finally answered.
"Hello?" Xue Rui's word were slurred before he continued to speak. "Xinwen... Ah'Wen... I love you so much and I miss you so much~"
Li Xinwen's expression turned dark when he heard this tone. "Rui-ge, are you drunk?" he asked. "Can you drive?"
"
Li Xinwen: ...
Li Xinwen couldn't say anything. He became speechless at Xue Rui's reply because he didn't understand what the man had meant until he remembered a certain modern slang. His face is immediately covered in black lines and he was just about to scold Xue Rui when he heard another voice from the other line.
"Xiao Rui, you're drunk. Let your big bro answer it," then following that voice, Li Xinwen could hear Xue Rui struggling.
"No! Brother... please don't take Xinwen away from me!!"
Li Xinwen then decided to simply wait for the people on the other side to be done while glancing over at Xue Liang who is out cold on the floor. Not long after, Li Xinwen heard Xue Rui's voice again.
"Xinwen, are you still there?" he asked, his tone sounding very pitiful.
"Here," Li Xinwen replied. "Rui-ge, I won't repeat this so listen carefully... come over quickly and pick up your brother," Li Xinwen said before he cut off the phone call.
* * *
Few hours before Li Xinwen's phone call, 7pm at Fluorescene Club, Xue Rui met with his eldest brother. In this private room, there were only two of them and no one else. Xue Rui sat down opposite of his brother who has a stoic expression. "You look well, Jun-ge. I guess the army is treating you right?" Xue Rui asked as he greeted his brother, Xue Jun.
Xue Jun just nods his head at Xue Rui's question. "Have you eaten?" his brother asked and Xue Rui shook his head.
"I went straight over after work... I finished up quite late so I didn't have time to eat," Xue Rui replied.
"Then, let's eat something first. Pad your stomach before drinking."
They then proceeded to call for the waiter. Because they are frequent customers in this club, they simply ordered the usual and the waiter understood.
"Xiao Rui, tell me what happened with Xue Liang earlier."
Xue Rui was distressed when he remembered what happened earlier. How Xue Liang had said he had taken advantage of Li Xinwen behind his back by impersonating him. Just thinking of it made his heart heavy and caused him a headache from all the stress. He slowly explained to Xue Jun about Xue Liang's matter and the eldest of the triplet also felt a headache coming.
From when they were young, Xue Liang had always been a troublesome child. The reason lay with their parents. Their father, Xue Yunfeng, only focused on raising the eldest to be his successor. On the other hand, their mother only dotted on the youngest and even spoiled Xue Rui. Xue Liang would always felt that he has no place in his own home so his rebellious phase came early.
Things got worse when they entered their teens. Xue Liang was caught in a street fight and when their father was informed of it, the man was livid. It was only then that they found out that Xue Liang had joined the underground organization. Xue Yunfeng was very close to disowning Xue Liang then, but he was stopped by their grandfather. Old Xue tells Xue Yunfeng to let Xue Liang do as he pleased, but at the same time, he also told Xue Liang that he as not allowed to step into their ancestral home until he reached the top of the food chain within the underworld circle.
This was tantamount to Old Xue's wishes to subdue the underworld circle. At that time, Old Xue's rank was that of a General, a rank above Xue Yunfeng who was a Lieutenant General at the time. Then, two years ago, Xue Liang returned to their ancestral home with his head held up high. In just five years, he managed to become the master of the underground organization. But at the same time, Xue Jun had also reached the rank of Brigadier General at the age of 20, making him the youngest to reach the rank in history. Then, a few months after, Xue Rui had also gotten great achievements in the business world, making him the youngest man to become a business tyrant.
All sorts of praise hailed from every direction for the Xue Family. But due to the nature of Xue Liang's business, his achievements were naturally concealed. Feeling that the family is treating him unfairly again, Xue Liang 'ran away' from home. Although he ran away, he still keeps close in touch with his brothers.
"I sent some men to search for Xiao Er but he really knows how to hide. If he didn't want to be found, then he won't be found," Xue Jun said with a heavy sigh. "I should put a tracker on him when we see him again..."
"Ge, that aside, what should I do? Because of Er ge, my relationship with Xinwen became very complicated... Please tell me how to fix this..." Xue Rui said helplessly.
Xue Jun was just about to answer when the waiter came in with their food. "We'll talk later. First, let us eat," Xue Jun said as he picked up his utensil. Xue Jun was raised in a very strict manner and one of the rules he was taught is that one should not speak while eating. Xue Rui understood this so he just quietly ate his food.
After dinner, they ordered a couple of bottles of wine and in just a few hours, Xue Rui was totally spent. He continued to complain about Xue Liang's matter to Xue Jun who only gives out comments every now and then. It wasn't until Li Xinwen called did he feel slightly better. But the final sentence that Li Xinwen told him before cutting off the call made him sobered up. 'Pick up my brother...?'
"Xiao Rui, what's wrong?" Xue Jun asked when he saw the change in his brother's expression.
It took Xue Rui a while to process what happened and once he got it all figured out, his face went dark. "Brother! I'm going to the Li household!" he said as he stood up and grabbed his coat. Though he felt slightly sober, he was still drunk so it was not good for him to drive.
"Driving at this state? If you want to go and meet your maker that quickly, feel free. If not, then wait for a bit. Big bro will pay and then we'll go to the Li household. Big bro has someone waiting for us outside," Xue Jun said as he too stood up. "But you will explain to me what happened in the car."
"En. Thank you, Jun-ge," Xue Rui replied. "And... it's just that, Xinwen said that Xue Liang is there with him... now I'm feeling anxious..."
"We'll go quickly," Xue Jun said, understanding his brother's worry. Deep inside, he was also worried. Though he never told his brother, he had looked up at Li Xinwen's information once out of curiosity and when he learned more about Li Xinwen, he can't help but develop a feeling toward the other. Unfortunately, because Xue Rui fancied him, Xue Jun decided to give up and did not look for the male again so he never found out about Xue Liang's matter until today. 'If I continued to keep an eye on him, I could've kept him safe...' he thought to himself, feeling regretful.
Leave a comment below. Again, if you like the story so far, and wish to support me, you can do so by donating at: ko-fi.com/traita
Reminder:
On February, I plan to have the artist do another character design. The vote will be up in discord on late January. So if you haven't joined the discord server yet, you can do so at: https://discord.me/lxl (it's L, X and L)
Lanyu's character design will be up hopefully mid-february, depending on how busy the artist will be. For the new one, it might be released on mid-march.
Finishing his call with Xue Rui, Li Xinwen began to contemplate on how to deal with the unconscious man in his room. 'I'll just tie him up,' Li Xinwen decided after a while and began to look around for something to tie up Xue Liang.
In his quest, he saw the small hole by the glass door to his balcony and understood how Xue Liang managed to get into his room. 'Really. This Xue Liang is truly dangerous,' he thought to himself before he continued his search. In the end, he couldn't find anything to tie Xue Liang with so he ended up using his spare bed sheets. He cut them into strips before tying the ends together to make one long makeshift strips.
Finishing the makeshift rope, he approached the still unconscious Xue Liang and tied the man up securely. Once he's done, Li Xinwen then brought Xue Liang downstairs and unceremoniously threw him on the sofa. His next step was to create a barrier around Mother Li's room so that no sound could travel into the room to bother her rest. After all, Li Xinwen doesn't know how messy things could go once Xue Rui arrived. 'Not to mention... his eldest brother was with him. Who knows if I'm going to have the whole set here tonight.'
The thought alone made Li Xinwen let out a heavy sigh. He didn't know the temperament of the eldest siblings but after knowing the other two, Li Xinwen didn't have high hope of him being decent. "I guess a young master will always be a young master," Li Xinwen said to himself.
Just then, Li Xinwen heard the door upstairs being opened, then closed, followed by several footsteps. "Hua-jie? Why is she awake at this time?" Li Xinwen wondered as he glanced at the stairs. He could hear the footsteps getting closer and Li Xinwen started to try and think of a good excuse on why Xue Liang is here. In the end, he decided that telling the truth would yield a better result. Especially since Li Jinghua is someone who had experienced a rebirth, lying would not be beneficial. He had learned his lessons in a hard way.
'Technically, it is not my fault. If she had told me she broke the engagement, would I play along with the original's wish on keeping Xue Rui close to the family?'
When Li Xinwen thinks about it, the person who is most wronged here is himself. "Maybe this is heaven's way of telling me to pay my debt..."
"What debt?" Li Jinghua's voice sounded out.
Though Li Xinwen already knows that Li Jinghua is arriving, he still puts on a surprised expression on his face. "Hua-jie! What are you doing up so late?" Li Xinwen asked, faking his nervousness as he shifted his body as if to attempt to hide Xue Liang's figure from Li Jinghua.
Of course, his action was seen since Li Xinwen let it be so. So when Li Jinghua saw Xue Liang's figure, a deep frown is formed on her face. Then it turned to worry as she glanced at Li Xinwen. "Ah'Wen... he... what is he doing here?!" she asked in a slightly panicked tone as she approached Li Xinwen. She looked over him from top to bottom, before she raised her hand and attempted to lift Li Xinwen's shirt up.
Li Xinwen's reaction was quicker, and he grabbed Li Jinghua's wrist to stop her from doing so. Unfortunately, this only made Li Jinghua became more suspicious.
"What did he do?" Li Jinghua's voice sounds stern as she glared at Xue Liang with eyes full of malice.
"Hua-jie, do you think he did anything when he's like that?" Li Xinwen asked back.
"I... well," Li Jinghua's expression softened slightly but the suspicion in her eyes didn't disappear. "Let me see your body."
"Why?" Li Xinwen asked back.
"To make sure that nothing really happens."
Li Xinwen was now feeling nervous. The reason why he's reluctant to let Li JingHua see his body is because of the fact that his wounds have disappeared completely after drinking the water inside the dimension. 'I should've used them before going down...'
Just as he was lamenting, the bell to the entrance rang once. "Ah! That must be them!" Li Xinwen said as he avoided Li Jinghua and rushed to the door.
"Wait, who is them? Ah'Wen!" Li Jinghua called out, though she still minded her voice as to not accidentally waking her mother. But her brother continued on to the door so she can only follow.
When the door opened to reveal two strikingly similar men standing side by side, Li Jinghua's mouth was left hanging open. "This... this..." she pointed to the two men by the door before turning to Li Xinwen with a confused expression, silently asking Li Xinwen for his explanation. The two men were none other than Xue Rui and Xue Jun who had rushed all the way from the club. Xue Rui's face was flushed and reeks of alcohol. Though Xue Jun had also drunk his fill, one can see that he handled his drinks better than his younger brother.
Li Xinwen who saw this can't help but let out a heavy sigh. Earlier, he did have a bad feeling that tonight might end up being too messy once the three brothers arrive. Add Li Jinghua to the equation, Li Xinwen felt a heavy headache coming his way.
"Hua-jie, this is... Xue Rui," Li Xinwen pointed at Xue Rui. "And this over here is-"
"Xue Jun," Xue Jun speaks up suddenly, cutting Li Xinwen's sentence off. "I believe this is the first time we've met, though both of you seemed to have already met my two younger brothers."
When Xue Jun spoke, Li Xinwen actually received a huge surprise. Not because how his voice sounded, but because he felt Xue Jun checking him out, spiritually!
Li Xinwen looked up at Xue Jun and their eyes met. In that instant, both of them knew that the others are not someone simple at all. Xue Jun's eyes narrowed at his findings but Li Xinwen simply turned his head and ignored his questioning look.
"The one inside is called Xue Liang," Li Xinwen said to Li Jinghua as if he's just continuing from his explanation later. "They are all triplets."
"Triplet...?" Li Jinghua's eyes went from Xue Rui to Xue Jun, back and forth as if trying to find any differences between the three.
"That's right, ah! Where's second brother? Xinwen, he didn't do anything bad to you, right? He... he... did he..." Xue Rui, upon hearing Xue Liang's name, finally speaks up. Earlier, his mind went 'offline' the moment he lays his eyes on Li Xinwen and felt that he was simply dreaming.
Knowing what Xue Rui was thinking about, Li Xinwen quickly dispelled his thoughts. "No. Nothing happened. Xue Liang is inside all tied up."
"Tied... up?" Xue Rui stared at Li Xinwen for a while and once he saw that Li Xinwen wasn't lying, he felt a huge sense of relief. The thoughts that have been crushing down his chest suddenly disappeared.
"Come on in so you guys can pick him up," Li Xinwen said as he gestured for the two to come inside.
The two brothers stepped into the house but as they walked towards the living room, Li Xinwen noticed that Li Jinghua stood rooted in her place while her eyes are still staring at the two brothers.
"Hua-jie?" Li Xinwen called out and Li Jinghua finally snapped out of her stupor. "Is something the matter?" he asked, his face shows a hint of worry.
"Ah'Wen... they are triplets?" Li Jinghua asked and Li Xinwen just nods his head. "Triplet..." Li Jinghua repeated as she suddenly felt that something was not right but she can't pinpoint what it was. She was once again deep in her thought that she didn't realize Li Xinwen coming over to her.
"Hua-jie," Li Xinwen once again called her out in a gentle tone making Li Jinghua snap out of her thought and look at him. "Whatever it is you're thinking about, you can tell me. Since you trust us with your secret, then if there's something worrying you, you can share your burden with this younger brother of yours," Li Xinwen said with a smile.
"I... well," Li Jinghua looked hesitant at first before sighing. "Those three... looks exactly the same."
"Yes, they are," Li Xinwen agreed, though since he was a cultivator, he could differentiate the three of them easily just by their spiritual signature.
"What if... the one with me in the apocalypse is not Xue Rui?" Li Jinghua voiced out her suspicion. "Back then, Xue Rui always went out to find supplies. One day, he didn't return for a long time and... when he did, he suddenly became a three-line ability user..."
Just from the sentence alone, Li Xinwen understood Li Jinghua's suspicion. "So, what Hua-jie is saying... the 'Xue Rui' that was with you at that time might not be Xue Rui at all? He might be the other two of the triplet?"
Li Jinghua simply nods her head and Li Xinwen turned his head to the direction of the living room. "If that is true, then... I guess we'll have to include them in our plans for the future."
"But maybe we don't have to! Ah'Wen, if the person that was with me back then is really not Xue Rui and is one of them, then they are dangerous. It is enough if we have Xue Rui as our back up plan."
"But Hua-jie, that Xue Jun person is not a simple man. He seems to be a high ranking officer in the military. Who knows, maybe he can also help us with weapons?" Li Xinwen tried to persuade Li Jinghua. Based on Li Jinghua's memories, Li Xinwen knew that they need a lot of weapons if they want to live a good life in the apocalypse. "Also, it seems that he's a martial artist like Mr. Min."
"Martial artists like Mr. Min?" Li Jinghua's eyes widened as if she had just remembered something. "Earlier, you said he's a high ranking officer from the military?"
Li Xinwen nods his head and then, Li Jinghua quickly rushed over to the living room as if she had just been injected with chicken blood. Li Xinwen was left confused as he stared at the direction Li Jinghua ran to. 'I guess there is more to the apocalypse that Li Jinghua lived in than what I currently found out from Hua-jie...'
I apologize for the lack of update last week. I did not expect webnovel to be blocked in China considering it is from China. I do have VPN but I couldn't get it to work. The ones in my phone worked well though.
Anyway, I did have it scheduled before, but before my flight, I removed it to do some editing and then, yeah. Can't upload in China *cough*
There will be two extra chapters this week in order to make up for the missing release last week. Hopefully, you guys won't be too mad on that XD
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