However, looking at reality, Yue Mingcang was not even that excellent. Both he and Yue Mingcang knew exactly how this gamble was won. He had practically let a whole Pacific Ocean’s worth of water flow through. To ask Long Yin to have a total, hysterical breakdown would be quite difficult for him. He was playing a villainous boss, not a psychiatric patient. Still, Long Yin could manage to act a bit malicious and unreasonable. He spoke with a cold face, “Do not think that just because you lucked into winning Longmen Port, you are someone important now. Longmen Port was a place the Long Family did not want anyway. Know your place!”
Yue Mingcang interrupted him, “That is not what I am talking about.”
Long Yin was confused. Not that? If not that, then what? Damn it, business activities were so complex, and he was just a roleplayer. If he accidentally missed something, he would not even notice it himself. After a brief pause, Long Yin tried to bluff his way back to his previous speech, “What? You win Longmen Port and get arrogant? Do not forget, the New Port is already built!”
Yue Mingcang interrupted him a second time, “I said, that is not what I am talking about.”
Long Yin was speechless. What does he mean? What exactly does Yue Mingcang want to say? According to the original plot, Yue Mingcang would engage in a fierce battle of words here, using the fact that he won the gamble to provoke Long Yin, causing him to lose face and act out in an extreme manner. Long Yin had missed the last “slap in the face” scene, so he wanted to make up for it this time, which was why he brought so many people to watch.
Of the people present, only the representative of the Long Family Conglomerate was not invited by him but had applied to attend on his own. He was the specialist Long Yin had assigned to handle Yue Mingcang’s loan business. In the past month, the specialist had issued eleven loans to Yue Mingcang and had been promoted from a senior specialist to a regional manager, soon to be responsible for all loan business within the Longmen Port area. Long Yin was incredibly confused by Yue Mingcang’s reaction, but in front of so many people, he did not dare show any weakness. He quickly regained his composure and continued with his script:
“Who do you think you are? A single gambling agreement!”
“I am not talking about the gambling agreement.” Yue Mingcang interrupted for the third time.
Long Yin frowned in confusion, unable to understand why Yue Mingcang was suddenly being so strange, so theatrical, so unreasonable. Wait, he seemed to understand. Yue Mingcang was “provoking” him!
Just as written in the original story, he would deliberately provoke him, making him fly into a rage, strike out in public, and expose his true nature!
That way, everything would make sense.
However, Yue Mingcang’s inability to speak clearly was truly a hindrance. If he had not encountered a roleplayer with such high comprehension skills, the consequences would have been unthinkable. Fortunately, he had successfully understood Yue Mingcang’s actions and put on a decent show by “arguing” with him. Next up was the fight scene.
For this significant fight scene from the original work, Long Yin had secretly made many preparations. The original table in the meeting room was heavy solid wood, impossible to flip or smash. Long Yin had someone replace it overnight with a lighter composite material table that could be easily lifted to cause maximum destruction. The potted plants in the meeting room were also replaced with more fragile ceramic vases, guaranteed to shatter at the slightest impact.
Now, the stage was set, the audience was ready, and it was time for his performance. Long Yin encouraged himself internally, slammed his hand on the table, and roared, “You have already won, so what else do you want? Speak plainly; I do not have time to play games with you!”
Yue Mingcang let out a long sigh and said coldly and sadly, “I never intended to oppose you. If you do not want me to win, you can have the auditors change the report right now.”
The auditor was confused. This was the final straw! He was a third party, yes, but that did not mean he was inferior, and it certainly did not mean he was a prop for these two to use in their public play! Just as the auditor summoned his courage and rolled up his sleeves to demand an explanation, Long Yin erupted first.
“Unreasonable!”
With a roar of fury, the office table was flipped over entirely by Long Yin. Screams broke out as teacups shattered across the floor. The once somber and dignified meeting room was now a complete mess.
Long Yin bellowed, “Everyone, get out!”
Without needing to be told, everyone fled in panic. Before people could even finish running out, Long Yin launched his attack, shouting at a rapid pace, “What exactly do you want?”
Yue Mingcang’s tone suddenly spiked, “Do you really not know what I want, Prince?”
Clang!
Long Yin raised his cane and viciously struck a teacup that happened to roll near his feet. The cup whistled past Yue Mingcang’s ear and shattered against the wall behind him.
Yue Mingcang, despite feeling he was in the right, could not help but lose some of his momentum in the face of Long Yin’s outburst. Long Yin stepped directly onto the debris and strode up to Yue Mingcang, his White Dragon cane striking the floor heavily. Before the meeting room doors closed, he shouted with all his might, “Make yourself clear, or you are not walking out of this door today! Use words I can understand and tell me: what! do! you! want!?”
Yue Mingcang let out a long sigh and said, “I want to go to the birdcage to see the pretty boy you are keeping.”
Long Yin was stunned. He could no longer stay in character. He asked with total confusion, “What? What birdcage? Where is there a birdcage?”
Yue Mingcang said coldly, “Do I really need to explain what the birdcage is? The mid-mountain villa at Mingyue Tan. You have been staying there lately, have you not?”
With that, Long Yin understood. But while he understood, he also found it incomprehensible. The good news was that the doors to the meeting room were closed, so Long Yin no longer had to act. The bad news was that he understood Yue Mingcang even less now than before.
Could it be that Yue Mingcang was upset because Long Yin had not invited him to see his new home, and he was so bothered that he brought it up during a three-party meeting? Was that right?
Long Yin said in disbelief, “If you want to visit Mingyue Tan, it is not impossible. But can you not mention such a small thing privately? Why bring it up at such a critical moment?”
“A small thing? I suppose for someone of your status and position, keeping as many pretty boys as you like is perfectly reasonable. It is all a small thing.” Yue Mingcang gave a bleak smile, and the little color remaining in his face drained away completely.
Heaven knows how he felt when he saw the news yesterday. One moment, Long Yin had given him an intimate kiss and a peach-colored promise they both understood; the next, the media broke the news of him pampering a pretty boy. What was that? A warning? A joke? Irony? Was he being told not to dream too much and to remember his place?
But he had always known his place. He had always known he was not worthy of Long Yin. It was Long Yin who gave him privileges again and again, making him think he was slightly special to him. He was wrong. Some random pretty boy could enter Long Yin’s birdcage, while he had yet to even touch the front gate. To Long Yin, he was nothing at all. Long Yin’s affection for him was perhaps just a passing glance at coarse food after growing tired of delicacies.
Faced with Yue Mingcang’s tearful questioning, Long Yin wanted to throw up his hands and ask, “What of it?” What of it? The original story did not say a villain could not keep a pretty boy!
“I want to see him. Is that okay?” Yue Mingcang’s voice was at its lowest point, like a fatally wounded beast making its final struggle.
Long Yin felt a dreamlike sense of absurdity. At a serious three-party meeting, Yue Mingcang, the power fantasy protagonist, was making a scene because he wanted to see a pretty boy at Long Yin’s house. This was not a protagonist; this was a spoiled brat!
Long Yin took a deep breath and said slowly, “I can find a suitable opportunity to arrange a meeting, but can you be more mature? Mentioning such an irrelevant matter in this setting, do you not think you are being…”
Yue Mingcang said softly, “He is in the birdcage right now, is he not?”
“Yes! So what?” Long Yin replied irritably.
Heaven knew how much he wanted to vent to Xiao Bai about Yue Mingcang’s ridiculous behavior right now and check if the main system had issued an alarm. However, since he had collected enough humiliation value, his freedom of movement had increased, and he no longer needed Xiao Bai to follow him twenty-four hours a day. Since the new house was just finished and Xiao Bai would not let go of its nest, Long Yin had left it at home. Now he was surrounded and isolated, with an endless urge to complain and nowhere to release it.
Yue Mingcang let out a sorrowful laugh, his tone incredibly firm. “Right now. I want to see him. If you do not let me, then take Longmen Port back. Act as if I never signed this gambling agreement.”
Long Yin was speechless.
Yue Mingcang’s threat was effective. Taking back Longmen Port would be a major plot accident for Long Yin, something he wanted to avoid at all costs. So, no matter how unwilling he was, Long Yin had to satisfy Yue Mingcang’s wish.
After a thirty-minute drive, the car carrying Long Yin and Yue Mingcang stopped at Mingyue Tan. The driver was responsible for parking in the newly built garage, while Long Yin led the way. The birdcage under the night sky had a unique charm, but at this moment, neither of them was in the mood to appreciate the scenery. Long Yin walked ahead in a fury, with no intention of waiting for Yue Mingcang. Yue Mingcang also walked with quick, large strides, but he was soon left behind.
It was not his fault. Anyone seeing the sight inside the birdcage would have reacted exactly like him: jaw-dropped and frozen in place. The interior decoration of the birdcage was very strange. It was not strange in terms of aesthetics or style, but strange in a “human” sense. When the elder Master Long was alive, the birdcage held too much filth. It looked magnificent but was actually disgusting. Now, this cage built for pleasure had been renovated by Long Yin into a… primitive forest?
Forgive Yue Mingcang for not being able to find a better word; he was trying his best. Before him were countless towering ancient trees, with shrubs growing at his feet. Every step was difficult. In the distance, a massive waterfall fell from over ten meters high; nearby, the scent of earth filled his nose. Looking up, a silver-white python coiled on a branch, eyeing the intruder; looking down, a snowy-white bunny was leisurely nibbling on the grass.
The starkly different scene left Yue Mingcang’s brain in a fog, and much of his strong resentment and sadness dissipated. At this moment, whether Long Yin kept a pretty boy in the birdcage did not seem as important. More importantly: did Long Yin really live in a place like this every day? Seriously?!
“Come here. Did you not want to see him?” Long Yin’s voice echoed from afar.
Yue Mingcang tiptoed through the bunny’s carrot patch and walked cautiously toward Long Yin. Soon, he arrived at a glass wall. Inside the wall was an independent space of uncalculable width and about two meters in height. it was divided into three layers connected by stairs. Each layer displayed strange but cute props, such as paw-shaped toys, magnetic swings, and ferris wheel models. Unlike the primitive style outside, there were many modern technologies inside the wall, such as UV dryers and automatic feeders.
Long Yin said, “You insisted on seeing Xiao Bai. Come on, say hello.”
Full of confusion, Yue Mingcang followed Long Yin’s gaze through the glass wall to a small table on the middle layer. It was a palm-sized black-and-white toy table, and on it sat a pure white plush hand warmer. Yue Mingcang felt he had seen this hand warmer on Long Yin’s office desk. To confirm if it was the same one, he slowly approached the glass wall to get a better look.
“Woof!”
A tiny black face with a pink tongue popped out of the white plush hand warmer and let out a cheerful bark. Yue Mingcang nearly jumped out of his skin and blurted out, “What an ugly thing!”
Xiao Bai was devastated. The protagonist called it ugly! Xiao Bai burst into tears with a woof, and its tiny black head buried itself back into the long white fur, shivering piteously.
“Wait, no, wait…” Yue Mingcang realized his mistake too late. He wanted to take it back, but it was too late. While crying hysterically, Xiao Bai took off on its short legs and disappeared from Yue Mingcang’s sight in seconds. In Yue Mingcang’s view, a white plush hand warmer with no head or legs just slid across the ground.
Yue Mingcang was speechless. His brain worked rapidly, and he finally realized where the problem was. What pretty boy? What kind of pretty boy was this? Unscrupulous media were truly harmful!
Yue Mingcang turned around to apologize to Long Yin. However, Long Yin, who had been beside him, was now standing far away. Moonlight filtered through the dome of the birdcage but could not penetrate the dense canopy. All that landed on Long Yin were fragmented rays of light, like a heart that had been broken and shattered completely.
“Those were your true feelings, were they not? You think Xiao Bai is ugly, right?” Long Yin kept his head down, and his voice was very soft.
Yue Mingcang defended himself urgently and helplessly, “No, it was just my first time seeing Xiao Bai, and I was caught off guard. I misunderstood. I did not expect the pretty boy to actually be a dog.”
He had fully realized how ridiculous his mistake was. Before coming here—specifically, since he saw the news last night—he had imagined the scene of meeting the pretty boy countless times, including verbal battles and even physical altercations. He had imagined it so many times that he had accumulated countless insulting words in his heart, waiting to pour them out the moment they met. Thus, he had accidentally blurted out “ugly thing.”
In fact, that hand warmer—no, that little dog—was incredibly cute. Although it was not a common breed and its appearance was a bit confusing, making it hard to tell if it was a dog, a fox, or a hand warmer, it could certainly not be called “ugly.” Yue Mingcang felt the key issue was not explaining why he called Xiao Bai an “ugly thing,” but the problem of mistaking the “pretty boy” for a gigolo pamper by Long Yin. But he was wrong. The mistake he made this time was far more serious than he realized or any of his past mistakes combined.
Long Yin shook his head, “It is not your first time seeing Xiao Bai. Every time we met, Xiao Bai was on my office desk. You have seen Xiao Bai long ago.”
Yue Mingcang was speechless. He had always thought it was a hand warmer, fluffy and pure white! Why would a dog sit perfectly still on an office desk without moving?
“In your eyes, I am just like Xiao Bai—an ‘ugly thing,’ am I not?” Long Yin said this resolutely, his eyes full of disappointment and loss.
Xiao Bai was his system, generated according to his image, similar to his original form. Black skin, but with snowy-white scales. Ostracized by the dragon clan and forsaken by destiny. He thought Yue Mingcang would be the exception, but as it turned out, fate would not give him any special treatment.
Yue Mingcang was confused. He could not understand what Long Yin was saying at all. Who said Long Yin was ugly? Did he say Long Yin was ugly? Was that right?
Long Yin said sadly, “Go. You are not welcome here. Neither Xiao Bai nor I want to see you again.”
“Wait, let me explain. I really did not mean it like that!” Yue Mingcang ran a few steps forward and reached out to grab Long Yin’s sleeve.
The moment his fingers touched him, Long Yin “flew” up. Specifically, he did not fly, but jumped. Because he jumped so high, it gave the impression of taking flight. To Yue Mingcang’s shock, the precious Little Master Long easily kicked off a tree trunk and jumped onto the highest branch in a few moves. His figure moving through the trees was as agile as a leopard, and in less than five seconds, he had completely disappeared into the vast canopy.
Yue Mingcang was speechless.