Lin Tai: "How do you know he has no way out if you don't even ask?"
"Fine!"
Lin Xi casually brushed him off and hung up the phone, but she did not call Ye Huan to ask for a solution to deal with Jin Jiu.
In her view, since even she and her grandfather couldn't think of a way to deal with Jin Jiu, Ye Huan—a pig slaughterer with his brains stuck in his pants—was definitely incapable of coming up with one.
Still, she could always use Ye Huan as a bodyguard; that way, she wouldn't have to worry about Jin Jiu sending people to cause trouble for her!
"It's been over twenty minutes. That scumbag Ye must be done with his shower and starting up the foreplay with the baseball cap girl..."
Lin Xi glanced at the time and sent a video call request to Ye Huan.
She didn't plan on having Ye Huan come over to protect her right now. She was at the company and perfectly safe, and Jin Jiu had already said he would finish her off after dinner.
So she only needed Ye Huan to pick her up from work later.
As for right now, of course, she wanted to keep torturing Ye Huan...
***
After taking a shower and coming downstairs in a bathrobe, Ye Huan saw Hongluan deep in thought and smiled.
"Stop letting your imagination run wild. I really don't have any other motive for coming to Pengcheng!"
"I don't believe you," Hongluan replied honestly.
"Do I have any reason to lie to you?" Ye Huan asked.
Hongluan was stunned. True enough—if the Underworld King really had some other motive in Pengcheng, he wouldn't need to hide it. Given his strength and personality, he wouldn't even deign to conceal it.
She asked, "Then how long do you plan to stay in Pengcheng?"
Just as Ye Huan was about to answer, his phone suddenly rang.
It was a video call request from Lin Xi!
"Hello, what kind of nonsense are you trying to pull now?"
Ye Huan answered, asking with annoyance.
Gazing at Ye Huan in his bathrobe on the phone screen, Lin Xi clicked her tongue.
"Yo, finished your shower already?"
With that, she hung up the video call. She had noticed that Ye Huan was in the living room, not the bedroom, which meant he and the baseball cap girl hadn't started yet.
She planned to wait a little longer—until Ye Huan and the baseball cap girl were right in the middle of it—to make a video call and interrupt him.
The mere thought of Ye Huan all eager and hot to go with the baseball cap girl, only to be interrupted by her and left agonizingly frustrated, made Lin Xi cover her mouth and giggle mischievously...
"What is her problem?"
Ye Huan muttered a complaint at his phone, then sat back down to continue chatting with Hongluan.
Ten minutes later!
Lin Xi sent another video call request. When he answered and she saw Ye Huan was still in the living room, she hung up again.
Another ten minutes passed, and Lin Xi sent yet another video call request. Upon answering and seeing Ye Huan still in the living room, she hung up once more in disappointment.
And so it went!
Every ten minutes, Lin Xi sent a video call request to Ye Huan. The moment he answered, she would hang up, driving Ye Huan to the brink of a breakdown.
*Why haven't they started yet?*
Watching the clock, Lin Xi saw there was only half an hour left before off-work time, yet Ye Huan and the baseball cap girl still hadn't started. This made her suspect that Ye Huan and the girl in the baseball cap must have already done it in the car, which was why he had no desire left for the entire afternoon.
"Darn scumbag, wasting my entire afternoon."
Lin Xi cursed angrily and got ready to work, but at that moment, she suddenly received an email.
It was the background check on Ye Huan that she had asked a friend to run.
*"Abandoned at the gate of a Pengcheng orphanage right after birth..."*
*"Abducted by human traffickers at age eight, no word since..."*
*"Returned to the orphanage at age eighteen, donated some money, reissued his ID card and household registration, and vanished without a trace again..."*
Reading this, Lin Xi suddenly felt that Ye Huan's background was quite tragic and his life journey quite bumpy. For a moment, she felt a wave of sympathy and pity for him.
*"No wonder he ended up in the slaughtering business. A life like that made it impossible for him to pursue further education; without a degree or skills, he could only take on a purely physical job like butchering;"*
*"He's so good at fighting, he must have been bullied constantly after being trafficked, which is how he picked up those fighting skills..."*
While concocting imaginary reasons for Ye Huan's butchering job and fighting prowess, Lin Xi continued reading his file.
As she read, she froze:
*"Ye Huan has had a mental illness since childhood? Mentally unstable? Prone to losing control when an episode hits?"*
***
Chapter 16: Brutally Slapping a Rival in Love
*"That guy is a psycho?"*
Lin Xi found it hard to believe. She immediately called Ye Huan and demanded:
"Do you have a psychiatric disorder?"
Ye Huan: "Yo, you didn't skimp on the background check, did you? Are you suspecting that I slept with you during a psychiatric episode? Now that you mention it, that's entirely possible. No wonder I can't remember when or where I slept with you."
After reading Ye Huan's file, Lin Xi had initially felt quite sympathetic toward him. She had called to verify the information, intending to help him get treatment if he really had mental issues.
However, after hearing Ye Huan's reply, she was so angry she almost lost her own sanity. All her sympathy for Ye Huan vanished completely, and she roared:
"Get your butt over here and pick me up from work right now!"
With that, she hung up the phone!
On the other end, Ye Huan stared blankly at his phone, then abruptly looked up at Hongluan sitting across from him and asked:
"Does Lin Xi have something wrong with her brain?"
Hongluan was startled. "Impossible. If she had a neurological disorder, Lin Tai wouldn't have let her become the CEO of Lin Group."
Thinking about it, Ye Huan realized she had a point. He stood up and said, "Lin Xi told me to pick her up from work. You..."
"I should be heading back too!"
Hongluan stood up. After an afternoon of idle chatter and various probings, she had confirmed that the Underworld King had no other purpose in Pengcheng—he was purely here to be tormented by Lin Xi.
Ye Huan walked Hongluan to the door, came back inside to change his clothes, and then had a driver take him to Lin Group.
On the way, the driver said:
"Master, there's a car trailing us from behind. They aren't even trying to hide their tracks. Is that sent by Hongluan?"
"It's the Water and Fire Judge from Hell Gate. Just ignore them," Ye Huan said.
The driver understood immediately. The Water and Fire Judges were the personal bodyguards of the Hell Gate Sect Master. Since Ye Huan had taken over as the Sect Master of Hell Gate, the two judges naturally assumed the responsibility of protecting him.
Arriving at Lin Group!
Ye Huan told the driver to head back first, then walked on foot to the entrance of Lin Building. Just as he was about to go in, a flashy red Ferrari LaFerrari came speeding up, blocking his path.
"Park my car properly!"
A well-dressed, upright young man with slicked-back hair and a bouquet of red roses stepped out of the car, casually tossed the car keys at Ye Huan, and commanded.
"You've got the wrong person, I'm not the valet!"
Ye Huan tossed the car keys back and explained.
"For a pig slaughterer like you, parking my car is the supreme honor of your life!"
The young man tilted his head back, looking down at Ye Huan through his nostrils, and sneered with utter contempt. He tossed the car keys at Ye Huan once more and ordered:
"Hurry up and park my car."
*So this guy recognizes me...* Ye Huan narrowed his eyes. For a moment, he couldn't tell if this was a helper Lin Xi had found to mess with him, or someone Lin Canglan and Li Meiya had brought in to disgust him.
However, he could be certain of one thing: this guy must have watched the surveillance footage from Shangyang Restaurant; otherwise, he wouldn't have recognized him at a glance.
"What are you standing there frozen for? Go park the car!"
Seeing Ye Huan standing still in his spot, the young man scolded him.
*Crack!*
Ye Huan slapped the young man right across the face and said coldly:
"Don't ever order me around with that tone again."
The young man was stunned silly by the slap. When he finally recovered, he shouted furiously:
"You—you pig slaughterer, how dare you slap me! Do you know who I am?"
*Crack!*
Ye Huan gave the young man another slap. "I don't give a damn who you are."
"You..."
The young man was boiling with rage and roared:
"I am Su Lei, the young master of the Su Family!"
*Crack!*
Ye Huan gave Su Lei yet another slap. "Even if you were Su the Big Cannon, I'd still slap you just the same."
"Good, very, very good! You just wait, I'll make you pay for hitting me and for offending the Su Family."
Su Lei roared angrily. By now, he had realized that this pig slaughterer who had just returned from overseas had no idea what the Su Family meant in Pengcheng, nor did he understand Su Lei's influence in the Pengcheng business community.
To deal with such a reckless brute, using his status to suppress him was completely useless.
*Crack!*
Ye Huan slapped Su Lei again. "Are you threatening me?"
"You..."
Su Lei didn't dare speak anymore; every word he said earned him another slap, and he couldn't take much more of this. Glaring hatefully, he got back into the car, intending to drive away.
By now, his face was swollen from Ye Huan's slaps, making him unfit to see Lin Xi.
However, once inside the car, he realized the car keys were still in Ye Huan's hand. He shouted angrily:
"Give me the keys!"
"Go pick them up yourself!"
With a flick of his wrist, Ye Huan hurled the car keys hundreds of meters away.
Su Lei: "..."
Right at that moment, Lin Xi walked out of Lin Building. Seeing the Ferrari LaFerrari and Su Lei inside the car, she paused in surprise and said:
"Young Master Su? Why are you here?"
Since Su Lei was in the car, and Ye Huan had slapped the left side of his face, Su Lei was currently facing Lin Xi with his right cheek, so Lin Xi didn't notice that his face was already swollen.
Watching Lin Xi's surprised expression, Ye Huan finally confirmed it: Su Lei wasn't someone Lin Xi found to torment him, but someone Lin Canglan and Li Meiya had brought in to disgust him.
"Ahem, well, Shen Huamei invited me to her birthday party, and she said she invited you too. So I figured I'd come find you and we could go together. But just now I suddenly remembered something I had to take care of—uh, you go ahead first, I'll rush over as soon as I'm done."
Su Lei gave an awkward laugh, too embarrassed to face Lin Xi with the front of his face.
"Alright, then you go handle your business!"
Lin Xi smiled faintly, then stood in place, preparing to watch Su Lei leave. This was the entrance of Lin Building; as the CEO of Lin Group, it wouldn't be polite for her to leave first.
"Young Master Su, why aren't you leaving yet?" Ye Huan asked, holding back his laughter and playing dumb.
*Leave your mother's spicy face! You threw my car keys hundreds of meters away, how am I supposed to leave, pedal my way out with my feet...?* Su Lei cursed inwardly, but out loud he said:
"I'm just thinking about how to handle the matter I have to attend to next. You guys go ahead, I'll smoke a cigarette and then leave."
With that, he pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and puffed away with a very convincing expression of deep thought.
"Alright, see you later then!"
Lin Xi smiled, and then headed straight to the parking lot with Ye Huan.
Su Lei waited until Lin Xi's figure completely vanished from sight before getting out of the car to go look for his keys.
After Ye Huan and Lin Xi got into the car, Lin Xi said:
"Accompany me home to change my clothes first, and then come with me to my friend's birthday party."
In an instant, Ye Huan understood Lin Xi's intention. Taking him to a friend's birthday party was her way of using her friends to give him a hard time and humiliate him.
***
This wasn't Ye Huan's first time at Lin Xi's place; earlier that morning, he had accompanied her home to grab her household registration booklet.
Though the Lin family was very wealthy, they maintained a frugal household tradition, so Lin Xi's home wasn't a luxury mansion or villa, but a spacious 180-square-meter flat.
Of course, given that Pengcheng was a top-tier metropolis in Huaxia with an average housing price of sixty to seventy thousand per square meter, Lin Xi's apartment was quite valuable nonetheless.
"What are you doing in our house, you pig slaughterer?"
The moment Ye Huan and Lin Xi stepped through the door, Lin Canglan and Li Meiya shot up from the dining table like springs, and Li Meiya demanded angrily.
"Get out! Our house doesn't welcome you." Lin Canglan directly issued an eviction order.
Ignoring them entirely, Ye Huan cast his gaze toward an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old young beauty who was sitting at the table eating. Who was this?
"So this must be the brother-in-law? Looks pretty handsome!"
The girl looked Ye Huan up and down, speaking in a sarcastic, mocking tone, her eyes filled with disdain and contempt.
*Ah, so Lin Xi has a younger sister...* Ye Huan realized, and smiled. "Sister-in-law, you sure have a good eye!"
***
Chapter 17: A Bride Price of 100 Million
"Such a psycho!"
Lin Xi's younger sister, Lin Xue, rolled her eyes, went back to eating, and ignored Ye Huan completely.
In her heart, however, her first impression of this brother-in-law was utterly atrocious. She had clearly been using biting sarcasm, yet Ye Huan actually praised her for having a good eye.
He couldn't even tell the difference between a compliment and an insult—truly fitting for a pig slaughterer!
"I told you to get lost! Are you deaf?"
Seeing that Ye Huan not only hadn't cleared out of his house but had even started chatting with Lin Xue, Lin Canglan flew into a rage.
"I'll wait for you outside!" Ye Huan said to Lin Xi.
"Okay!" Lin Xi nodded and headed straight for her bedroom.
"Wait!"
At that moment, Li Meiya suddenly called out to stop Ye Huan, saying:
"Since you're already in, don't rush off just yet. I happen to have something to discuss with you."
Lin Canglan was stunned. "What is there for you to discuss with a pig slaughterer? Ask him about the price of pork overseas?"
Li Meiya gave Lin Canglan a look that he failed to interpret, then walked over to the living room, sat on the sofa, crossed her legs, and said:
"Come over here!"
Ye Huan walked right over and was about to sit down.
Li Meiya barked, "Who gave you permission to sit?"
Heaven as her witness, Ye Huan wanted to slap Li Meiya to death on the spot, but out of consideration for his benefactor Lin Tai, he held back.
Standing straight, he asked, "What do you want to talk to me about?"
Lin Canglan strode over and sat down beside Li Meiya, equally curious about what Li Meiya suddenly wanted to discuss with Ye Huan.
Lin Xue, still eating, also cast a curious glance over.
"Ye Huan, marriage is supposed to follow the traditional rites of three letters and six etiquettes. Our Lin family doesn't hold to that many rigid rules, but we do need to talk about the bride price, the house, and the car. I can't just hand my daughter over to you for free," Li Meiya said.
Nearby, Lin Canglan instantly grasped Li Meiya's intention: she was trying to drive up the price of the bride price to force Ye Huan to retreat in the face of difficulties.
He immediately chimed in cooperatively: "Ye Huan, what do you think is a reasonable bride price? What kind of house size and car budget would even match Xixi's status?"
Ye Huan thought for a moment. "The bride price shouldn't be less than 100 million; the house must be at least 1,000 square meters, a detached villa with a garden and a swimming pool; as for the car, something worth twenty or thirty million will do."
Lin Canglan, Li Meiya, and Lin Xue were stunned!
Especially Lin Canglan and Li Meiya—aside from being shocked, their breathing grew shallow, their faces flushed red with excitement, and their bodies trembled.
"Y-you have that kind of money?!"
Li Meiya suddenly felt that this pig-slaughtering son-in-law wasn't quite as hateful anymore.
"Is butchering pigs abroad really that lucrative?" Lin Canglan asked excitedly.
Ye Huan looked baffled. "I'm marrying into the Lin family as a matrilocal husband, aren't you guys supposed to give me the bride price, the house, and the car? You don't need to give too much, just provide according to what I said."
Lin Canglan: "..."
Li Meiya: "..."
Lin Xue: "..."
They had actually thought Ye Huan was going to give Lin Xi a 100-million bride price, a house over 1,000 square meters, and a twenty-to-thirty-million car.
After all that buildup, Ye Huan expected Lin Xi's family to give those things to *him*!
"Get out of my house!"
Li Meiya unleashed her Lion's Roar technique in fury, causing the entire building to shake a few times.
"Get out! Get out of here! If you ever dare set foot in my house again, I'll break your dog legs," Lin Canglan roared as well.
Ye Huan curled his lips and hurried outside, though he was secretly overjoyed inside. Being able to piss off people who disliked him this much gave him a profound sense of achievement.
Still, he suddenly thought to himself: except for Lin Tai, everyone else in the Lin family loathed him. That simply wouldn't do—it was bad for his peaceful life down the road.
After turning it over in his mind, Ye Huan decided to set himself a small goal: whip his father-in-law, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law into absolute submission and become the master of the household as a live-in son-in-law.
Half an hour later!
Lin Xi finally came out!
"You're going to a birthday party dressed like this?"
Ye Huan looked Lin Xi up and down, asking.
Her long hair was tied into a ponytail, revealing her smooth, full forehead, a delicate and exquisite face without an ounce of excess fat;
On her upper body, she wore a white tight-fitting T-shirt that accentuated her slender waist and full, voluptuous curves to the absolute limit;
On her lower body, she wore loose, slightly bleached ripped jeans;
On her feet were a pair of simple white sneakers.
Youthful, lively, sunny, energetic, pure yet sexy, with just a hint of rebellious charm.
This outfit was certainly pleasing to the eyes, but it was hardly suitable for attending a high-society birthday party.
"I'm naturally gorgeous. Even if I wore a burlap sack, I'd still stun the whole crowd!"
Lin Xi boasted airily and stepped into the elevator.
"You'd look even more stunning without wearing anything!"
Ye Huan followed her into the elevator and remarked.
"I'll beat you to death!"
Suddenly remembering how she had once been taken advantage of for free by Ye Huan, Lin Xi leaped up and launched an attack on him right inside the elevator.
"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing..."
"I'll tear your mouth apart..."
"Stop! If you don't stop right now, I'll ravish you right here in the elevator!"
"I'll beat you, I'll beat you, I'll beat you to death..."
By the time the elevator descended to the second basement level and Ye Huan emerged, his hair looked like a bird's nest, though his clothes miraculously remained un-ripped.
Once they got into the car, Lin Xi glanced at Ye Huan's bird's-nest hair, a victor's smile blooming on her face as she said:
"There will be a lot of people at tonight's party, and some of them I really can't stand. So they must never find out about our relationship, otherwise those people will definitely seize the opportunity to mock me."
Ye Huan understood now. So this girl had dragged him along to the party not to let her friends give him a hard time, but because...
"Then why don't you just leave me behind?"
"If you don't go, who's going to protect me?" Lin Xi pouted.
Now it clicked: the girl was worried the Jin Family would retaliate against her because of Jin Feiyu's incident, and was using him as a bodyguard.
***
After much effort, Su Lei finally found his car keys. Then, after calling his bodyguards, he found a pharmacy to apply an ice pack to the left side of his face, which had been swollen up by Ye Huan's slaps.
Only then did he bring his bodyguards to Superface Bar.
"Why are you all standing outside?"
Seeing that everyone who had come for the birthday party was gathered at the entrance of the bar, Su Lei asked in confusion.
"We're waiting for Lin Xi!"
A beauty wearing a pink halter strap bodycon dress answered with a smile.
In an instant, Su Lei understood what was going on. Frowning, he said:
"Xiang Yingxin, I know you and Lin Xi don't get along, but tonight is Shen Huamei's birthday party. Isn't it a bit much if you make a scene with Lin Xi here?"
"Yo, looks like you're in the know already!"