A father should never be afraid of his son, nor should he allow his son to hold him hostage.
Before Lu Yinbing turned fifteen, Lu Hui had firmly believed in that principle.
Later, however, he gave in. He had no choice but to give in. In fact, he had even developed a profound fear of his own son, because Lu Yinbing was a lunatic.
A lunatic who had absolutely no regard for humanity in either his thoughts or his actions, and whose conduct and mannerisms bore a striking resemblance to those of the bandits of old.
Several generations ago, the Lu family had been a band of bandits who eventually descended from the mountains and turned over a new leaf. After several generations of genetic refinement, by the time the family line reached Lu Hui, they had produced a refined and cultured businessman. The Lu Group’s business empire spanned the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, machinery manufacturing, and construction. In the capital city, they had long since established themselves as an illustrious family possessing both immense wealth and considerable social standing.
In his younger days, Lu Hui had formed a marriage alliance with the prominent Su family, which had considerable influence in political circles. Lu Yinbing had been born amid the eager anticipation and fervent expectations of both families.
They had privately assumed that this child would inherit the finest qualities of both families and grow up to become a handsome, tall, refined, and elegant man, someone who was composed, shrewd, and sophisticated enough to become either a successful entrepreneur or a politician.
Reality, however, turned out to be the exact opposite. Lu Yinbing had practically staged a spectacular demonstration of atavism in the history of human evolution, reverting to the primitive instincts of his distant ancestors to an extent that arguably surpassed even the original.
It was true that he was intelligent, exceptionally handsome, tall, and gifted. He was also an Enigma, one in ten thousand, the kind of rare existence who naturally became the center of attention and the object of everyone’s admiration wherever he went. Yet, alongside all these remarkable advantages, he possessed one glaring flaw that no one could possibly overlook: an overwhelmingly self-centered and arrogant personality.
It was a personality that ran entirely contrary to the Lu family’s ancestral teachings, which emphasized gentleness, kindness, respectfulness, frugality, and humility.
And even that was Lu Hui’s more refined, civilized way of putting it. To be precise, his son had absolutely no manners and possessed a deplorable level of personal conduct.
Other prominent families might envy Lu Hui for having a son who could effortlessly manage business deals worth billions while still in his teens, but if such a son were handed over to them, they would probably have neither the good fortune nor the ability to endure him.
Before his parents divorced, Lu Yinbing’s mother, Su Miao, had made only one demand: she did not want to raise Lu Yinbing.
Lu Hui had signed his name on the divorce agreement with considerable regret.
Of course, his regret was only because of the circumstances. Under different circumstances, perhaps another woman might have resented a child because her husband had been unfaithful, or worried that the child would lose his inheritance rights after leaving the Lu family.
But the child being left behind was Lu Yinbing. That made all the difference.
Su Miao left, and from that moment onward, there was no one left who could truly control Lu Yinbing.
His delighted mistress, who had eagerly moved into the Lu household with her son, had initially intended to make her grand entrance, show off her abilities, and seize the family fortune for herself. It was only after arriving that she discovered the distribution of the family inheritance had already been settled by the old patriarch before his death.
At that time, Lu Yinbing had yet to reveal his more sinister nature. Out of concern for his grandson and out of faith in the genes inherited from the Su family, the old man had left sixty percent of the family inheritance to Lu Yinbing and forty percent to Lu Hui. Having settled everything, the old patriarch had promptly kicked the bucket and departed this world. The majority of the Lu family’s shares were simply waiting for Lu Yinbing to come of age before being transferred into his hands.
In other words, the ground beneath their feet belonged to Lu Yinbing, and even the sky above their heads belonged to Lu Yinbing.
Lu Hui spent most of his time away from home, which meant that the mother and son had to face a sharp-tongued, malicious, precociously intelligent little devil all on their own.
After so many years, everyone in the Lu household, from top to bottom, had already been thoroughly disciplined by Lu Yinbing. His stepmother had to put on a flattering smile and keep her tail between her legs whenever she saw him, while his younger half-brother was virtually indistinguishable from a eunuch, except that he had yet to be castrated.
In fact, when everyone first heard the news of Lu Yinbing’s death, they had all breathed a sigh of relief. This included Lu Hui himself. At long last, he would no longer have to endure the torment inflicted upon him by his own son.
As it turned out, the whole thing had merely been a prank.
Lu Hui suspected that Lu Yinbing had done it deliberately, simply to toy with everyone’s emotions and manipulate them like puppets in the palm of his hand, all for the sheer pleasure of watching them suffer.
But what else could they do? They could only put up with it. What choice did they have? It wasn’t as though they could poison Lu Yinbing to death.
Leaving aside the question of whether they could even succeed in poisoning him, if Lu Yinbing discovered their intentions, he would make absolutely certain that they wished they were dead.
Lu Yinbing rested his elbow against the armrest, his long, slender fingers idly spinning the remote control as he switched the screen back to the footage he had been watching earlier. He raised his chin slightly and asked, “Who is this person?”
His younger brother, Lu Xingyun, was wearing a pair of chilled gloves as he peeled lychees for him. After peeling three lychees, he would change to a fresh pair of gloves, ensuring that the fruit remained consistently cold, crisp, and refreshing.
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Lu Xingyun felt a cold sweat break out across his back. The sensation was no less terrifying than that of Li Lianying being singled out by Empress Dowager Cixi.
The person on the screen had a slender, frail-looking build and was holding up a large umbrella. If Lu Yinbing had not pointed him out, Lu Xingyun would never have paid any attention to him in the first place.
“He doesn’t seem to be among the guests invited to this event. I’ll ask the butler to check the surveillance footage from that day. Brother, is there something wrong?”
Lu Yinbing remained silent, making it obvious that he had no intention of entertaining his younger brother’s question. Lu Xingyun wisely took the hint and changed the subject. “Brother, Gao Yuyang and the others have arranged a welcome-back banquet for you. They’re all friends you used to get along with before you left. They asked me to find out whether you’d be willing to honor them with your presence.”
He proceeded to list the names one after another, as though he were reciting the dishes on a menu.
“Friends?” Lu Yinbing couldn’t recall a single one of them.
Lu Xingyun realized that he had chosen the wrong word and promptly corrected himself. “The lapdogs who used to follow you around before you left.”
That, at least, rang a bell for Lu Yinbing.
“Gao Yuyang and the others have gradually started taking over their family’s businesses over the past few years. Oh, and that Sheng Lin, do you still remember him, Brother? He got married as soon as he graduated from university. It’s actually pretty hard to imagine. Back then, he used to follow you around everywhere. If you so much as glanced east, he wouldn’t dare take a step west. Everyone used to say that he liked you. But the Sheng family didn’t hold a wedding banquet, and Sheng Lin never brings anyone out with him, so I have no idea what kind of person his wife actually is.”
Lu Xingyun handed over the photographs one by one. When he came to Sheng Lin, Lu Yinbing glanced at the picture and dismissed it with indifference. “With a man of his caliber, how much better could his wife possibly be?”
“Then, are you not going?”
“Go? Of course I’m going. If I don’t show up, I’m afraid they’ll forget I even exist.”
Lu Xingyun immediately hurried off to arrange a car for him.
His mother, Lin Shuangwu, shot him a fierce glare before secretly sending him a message.
【Have you no self-respect? We’re both sons of the Lu family, yet the moment he comes back, you start serving him like a servant. You’ve completely disgraced yourself!】
【How about this, Mom? You try not smiling at him when you see him first, and then I’ll stop running around after him and waiting on him hand and foot. How does that sound? Neither of us should criticize the other.】
Lin Shuangwu promptly fell silent.
The welcome-back banquet was held at one of Gao Yuyang’s private clubs. By the time Lu Yinbing arrived, the entire fourth floor had been cleared out, leaving only one private room specially reserved for their gathering.
The moment he entered, a crowd of impeccably dressed men rose to their feet in unison. Most of their faces looked familiar.
Enigmas possessed an innate ability to suppress Alphas through their pheromones. The sharp, aggressive medicinal fragrance of saffron seeped through the private room in fine, invisible threads, pressing down relentlessly on the Alphas inside. The instinctive shudder triggered by the overwhelming pheromones stirred up the fear of being dominated that they had experienced back in their student days.
Modern medicine had already come close to perfectly resolving the problems that arose when Alpha and Omega pheromones fluctuated uncontrollably, both in society at large and in individuals themselves. Apart from their respective vulnerable periods and heat cycles, ordinary Alphas and Omegas could live much as they had before differentiation, without their secondary genders significantly disrupting their daily lives.
However, an Enigma represented a further level of differentiation built upon the Alpha classification. At present, there were still no suppressants capable of completely isolating or neutralizing an Enigma’s pheromones.
Fortunately, the Enigma population was exceedingly small, so their existence was not enough to provoke widespread panic.
Gao Yuyang, who served as the social butterfly of their group, was already so overwhelmed by the pheromones that his face had turned pale. Nevertheless, he still rose to his feet with a smiling face and busied himself welcoming their guest and making the necessary arrangements.
Lu Yinbing had grown even taller than he had been when he left. Everyone now had to tilt their heads back to look at him. The innate physical advantages of an Enigma gave him a higher muscle mass, making his figure appear even more elongated, lean, and upright.
The Lu family’s strong, defined features and the Su family’s softer, more delicate qualities blended remarkably well in his face. His slightly upturned eyes, thick and long eyelashes, dense black hair, and thin lips that seemed perpetually poised between a smile and a smirk gave him an appearance that was both strikingly beautiful and undeniably masculine. There was something coldly alluring about him, along with an unmistakable air of heroic sharpness, and a teasing, almost cruel playfulness that suggested he would make a joke at someone else’s expense without the slightest concern for whether they lived or died.
It was as though Lu Yinbing’s golf club had swung straight into Sheng Lin’s face. He could practically feel the burning pain spreading across his cheeks, and he hurriedly offered a feeble explanation. “It was a marriage arranged by my family.”
“Oh.”
The dismissive tone in Lu Yinbing’s response felt like another swing of the golf club straight to Sheng Lin’s face. Gao Yuyang and the others watched him with faint, knowing smiles, their expressions brimming with barely concealed schadenfreude. Their amusement made the situation even more humiliating for him, leaving him with no way to save face.
No one had made this trip in vain. Lu Yinbing had successfully reminded them all that he was still the same Lu Yinbing he had always been. Growing older had done absolutely nothing to instill in him any of those supposedly admirable virtues, such as gentleness, tolerance, or magnanimity.
Whenever he hit a golf ball, someone had to retrieve it for him. Whenever he opened a bottle of Louis XIII, poured himself a drink, and took a couple of sips, he would demand a fresh glass. The glass had to be disinfected right in front of him, and even the ice cubes had to undergo various rounds of disinfection before being frozen in his presence. He didn’t like the taste of whiskey stones, complained that ice cubes made his drink too diluted if they remained in the glass for more than ten minutes, and considered the condensation clinging to the outside of the glass too dirty to touch with his hands.
The waitstaff had already been driven out of the room, leaving the young masters who were usually waited on hand and foot to serve Lu Yinbing themselves, all while harboring resentment in their hearts. They weren’t even allowed to handle things directly with their bare hands. His obsession with sterile procedures was practically on par with that of a major municipal hospital, yet despite their painstaking efforts, they still had to endure his complaints about how clumsy and incompetent they were.
Zhou Mingchen, meanwhile, had spent the past few years cultivating the image of a Buddhist-like gentleman in the capital’s elite circles. He had been so busy maintaining that persona that he had practically worn his sandalwood prayer beads all the way up to his elbows.
Among them all, Sheng Lin was undoubtedly the quietest and the most attentive in his service.
Yet no one protested, and no one thought there was anything particularly wrong with the situation. From the very first day they had met Lu Yinbing, he had behaved exactly like this. They had long since grown accustomed to it.
He embodied the very worst of the Chinese temperament accumulated over five thousand years of history, bringing all its less admirable traits together into one magnificent collection.
Even Empress Dowager Cixi might not have been as difficult to please as he was. Dong Zhuo might not have been as domineering. Cao Cao might not have been as suspicious of everyone around him…
It was little wonder that the elders of their respective families had always harbored considerable reservations about Lu Yinbing. Lu Hui might have held an advantage over them in the business world, but what was the point of that when their own sons had ended up serving Lu Yinbing like slaves?
By the end of the gathering, Lu Yinbing had thoroughly enjoyed himself. Everyone else, however, looked as though all the color had been drained from their faces. They felt as if their very life force had been sucked out of them. Gao Yuyang couldn’t help thinking that perhaps Lu Yinbing should have simply died in that tropical rainforest and stayed dead.
In truth, when someone suddenly began acting tyrannical, ordering everyone else around and demanding that they do this or that, people would naturally assume that something had gone wrong with them. But when someone like Lu Yinbing remained domineering and overbearing at all times, people gradually became so accustomed to his behavior that they even learned to rationalize it. If he unexpectedly showed them the slightest kindness, they would treat it as though he had granted a general amnesty, sparing them from some terrible punishment.
It was much the same principle as laying down the butcher’s knife and attaining Buddhahood on the spot.
Lu Yinbing hadn’t come here simply because he had nothing better to do and wanted to pick fights with them for his own amusement. They weren’t even half as interesting as the monkeys in the tropical rainforest. After four years away, he had finally returned, and this gathering had allowed him to test the waters and get a fairly clear picture of the situation.
Even a small glimpse could reveal something of the larger picture. Through these people, he could glean a reasonable understanding of the changes that had taken place in the capital’s business circles and the relationships between their respective families.
The Gao family had become considerably more capable and respectable than they had been before he left. Nevertheless, a dog that had grown accustomed to obeying commands would remain a dog. Even if it had grown as powerful as a Tibetan Mastiff, the moment it heard the familiar whistle, its body would obediently lower itself to the ground, no matter how unwilling it might be in its heart.
Summer in the capital was notoriously unpredictable. At dusk, the sky had still been filled with brilliant red clouds, but by now, the rain had descended in a dense curtain, obscuring the world beyond it. Despite the excellent drainage system, the white marble pavement had inevitably become wet. Heaven on Earth had no underground parking garage, so the waitstaff stood outside holding umbrellas for the guests while they waited for the drivers to bring their cars around.
Xu Lan had said that Sheng Lin would undoubtedly have drunk quite a lot that evening, so she instructed Man Yu to go and pick him up, taking the opportunity to help the two of them develop a closer relationship. Chen Yanning had also assigned Man Yu a task, insisting that he absolutely had to bring Sheng Lin home and keep a close eye on him. Man Yu obtained the car keys from Sheng Lin’s assistant and waited outside until the group finally emerged.
The person surrounded by everyone in the middle was presumably Lu Yinbing. This was the first time Man Yu had gotten a clear look at him.
He was exceptionally tall, the sort of man whose presence immediately caught the eye without anyone having to search for him. Even dressed casually in nothing more than a black trench coat, he stood out more than any of the wealthy young masters around him, all of whom were dressed in expensive, fashionable clothes. How could anyone possibly possess such striking, richly defined features, as though an artist had painted him with the darkest ink and the boldest strokes?
Man Yu watched as Lu Yinbing’s brows furrowed ever so slightly. The very next moment, Sheng Lin took off his own coat and laid it on the ground, using it to wipe away the patches of rainwater on the pavement directly in front of Lu Yinbing.
His husband might call him despicable and shameless, yet he was willing to use his own clothes to wipe the water off the ground for someone else.
Man Yu hurriedly ran his fingers through the excessively long hair hanging over his forehead, pulling it down to obscure his vision. He lowered his head, pretending he hadn’t seen anything, and wishing he hadn’t seen it in the first place.
He decided to wait until everyone else had left before going over to pick up Sheng Lin.
Sheng Lin certainly wouldn’t want him appearing in front of his friends and the person he liked. If Man Yu showed himself now, Sheng Lin would only get angry with him again.
Man Yu thought he had hidden himself rather well. Everyone’s attention was entirely focused on Lu Yinbing, and even Sheng Lin hadn’t noticed his presence.
Lu Yinbing’s gaze wandered aimlessly around the area until he spotted a scrawny stray cat in the corner, sitting in the rain and grooming its fur with its paws.
He had seen this cat before. He had even asked Lu Xingyun to look for it once. It had appeared here and had also shown up at his funeral, so it was likely that someone present recognized it.
The fine drizzle fell softly around him, making his heart itch with a strange, restless curiosity. Lu Yinbing lifted his chin slightly and asked, “Which one of you is he here to see?”
Everyone followed the direction of his gaze. Sheng Lin immediately clenched his teeth, cursing his terrible luck under his breath. “He looks sneaky and suspicious, clearly not a good person. Nobody knows him. How could we possibly know someone like that? Get security to throw him out!”
“If you’d said even a few words less, I might not have figured out that you knew him. You’re awfully worked up about this. Did your father give you a younger half-brother born out of wedlock, too? Go on, bring him over here.”
Sheng Lin offered no explanation.
Just as Man Yu had no way to defy Xu Lan and Chen Yanning, Sheng Lin had no way to defy Lu Yinbing either.
So this was what Man Yu had meant when he promised that he would never disturb Sheng Lin again. Sheng Lin had repeatedly told him not to show his face in public and embarrass him, especially not in front of Lu Yinbing. Yet here he was, standing right there, practically begging Lu Yinbing to notice him. Wasn’t the humiliation Sheng Lin had already suffered in front of Lu Yinbing enough? Had he not lost enough face already?
Now Man Yu was about to hand Lu Yinbing another piece of leverage against him. So many people were present, and every single one of them would know that he had married a wife like this. How was he supposed to continue moving in their social circles after tonight?
He could only glare viciously at Man Yu and warn him not to say anything foolish before dragging him over. If Lu Yinbing didn’t ask any further questions, perhaps he could muddle his way through the situation by passing Man Yu off as his father’s illegitimate son. Gao Yuyang and the others had better be sensible enough not to expose his lie, either. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or the day after that, he would definitely divorce Man Yu.
Man Yu’s heart pounded with dread, and he shook his head repeatedly. His instincts told him that nothing good could come of this.
The people surrounding Sheng Lin already looked down on him. They were always making fun of him and playing cruel tricks on him, and Lu Yinbing appeared to have an even worse temper than any of them. If Man Yu went over there, he would undoubtedly be humiliated. There was even a chance that he might be beaten.
People like these didn’t need a reason to hit someone. As long as they were displeased with another person’s face or behavior, they could simply lash out and start beating them. Most of the time, they wouldn’t even have to take responsibility for their actions.
Would Lu Yinbing dislike him? Probably, wouldn’t he? Being the spouse of someone who had once pursued Lu Yinbing was hardly a position that invited friendly conversation or cordial relations. Lu Yinbing himself seemed to order Sheng Lin around as though he were a servant. Why would he possibly treat Man Yu with kindness? If Lu Yinbing hadn’t intended to teach him a lesson, there would have been no need to summon him over in the first place.
Besides, Man Yu had never been particularly likable to begin with.
He had taken only two or three steps when countless terrible possibilities had already flashed through his mind. Unable to contain his fear, he pleaded with Sheng Lin, “Please, don’t… H-husband, I… I don’t want to go… I… I’m scared.”
“Don’t call me your husband!” Sheng Lin snapped.
He gave Man Yu no opportunity to refuse. Grabbing him by the wrist, he dragged him toward the others, forcing him to stumble along until they were standing in front of everyone.
Man Yu shrank into himself uneasily, clutching the hem of his clothes so tightly that his fingers curled into the fabric. He tucked his head down between his shoulders, drawing his neck inward as though he wanted to retreat entirely into his chest and disappear from sight.
The atmosphere fell silent for several seconds. The only sound was the sharp patter of raindrops striking the tiled roof overhead.
The shrunken gland at the back of Man Yu’s neck began to feel faintly uncomfortable. He caught the scent of an exceedingly faint fragrance of saffron, its intensity and rank so terrifyingly high that it sent a chill through him. It had been many years since he had been able to sense another person’s pheromones at all.
The unfamiliar pheromones lingered around him, and that couldn’t possibly be a good sign. In the ABO world, pheromones were often associated with conflict, suppression, and mating. The moment Man Yu caught that scent, his nervousness and anxiety were pushed to their absolute limits.
A faint shadow fell over his head, and someone reached out a hand toward him. Man Yu instinctively raised his wrist in front of himself to shield his face, his heart filled with apprehension.
He thought he heard Lu Yinbing chuckle.
The pain he had anticipated never came. Instead, a warm palm, its surface slightly roughened by thin calluses, settled against his face. Immediately afterward, the hand swept up the hair that had concealed his face for years.
Lu Yinbing’s palm was broad enough to cover Man Yu’s entire face. Naturally, it was also large enough to sweep every last strand of his hair away, leaving nothing to fall back into place. The fine drizzle, carried along by the cool breeze, fell against Man Yu’s newly exposed face, bringing an unusual sensation of coolness that contrasted sharply with the scorching warmth of the other man’s palm.
Without his hair to serve as a barrier, Man Yu suddenly found himself exposed before everyone. He was deeply uncomfortable with the situation, but he was even more afraid to dodge or pull away, worried that doing so might offend the person in front of him.
After all, the man hadn’t hit him, had he?
The surroundings grew increasingly quiet, while Sheng Lin’s expression underwent a subtle distortion.
Man Yu vaguely sensed that the pheromones had grown a little stronger, and his nervousness intensified along with them.
“Have you no manners at all? Don’t you know how to apologize?”
Lu Yinbing suddenly lashed out, startling Man Yu so badly that he instinctively stammered, “S-s-sorry…”
“Apologies, “
It wasn’t until Sheng Lin spoke after him that Man Yu realized Lu Yinbing hadn’t been addressing him at all. His eyes widened in astonishment.
With Lu Yinbing’s broad palm framing his face, Man Yu’s features appeared even smaller, as though his entire face could be held in a single hand. His expression was timid and somewhat bewildered, his eyes glistening with moisture, while his dry lips had turned a vivid red from the way he kept biting them.
Startled, he suddenly opened his eyes wider and met Lu Yinbing’s gaze. But the moment their eyes met, he timidly withdrew his gaze again, biting down even harder on his lower lip until it became even redder.
To be fair, Man Yu had a remarkably delicate and refined face. There was absolutely nothing ugly about his appearance. At first glance, he looked like a gentle, mild-mannered, and honest person who wouldn’t lose his temper over the smallest things. He didn’t even look twenty-eight years old; he could easily have passed for a university student. The gauze dressing covered nearly the entire right side of his face, making him appear even more innocent and pitiful.
If one really had to point out his shortcomings, there was a small, pale bluish birthmark near his forehead and hairline, roughly the size of the pad of a little finger. It was partially concealed and barely noticeable unless someone looked closely. He was also far too thin, to the point that his cheeks had sunk inward, and his overall complexion looked dull and unhealthy.
He didn’t dare meet other people’s eyes. Whenever he noticed someone’s gaze sweeping toward him, he would immediately feel as though ants were crawling all over his body, leaving him intensely uncomfortable. He would even start wondering whether he had forgotten to zip up his trousers or whether the other person was scrutinizing him, judging him, or secretly laughing at him.
He had initially grown his hair long to hide the birthmark. As time passed, however, it had become longer and longer, eventually reaching down to the tip of his nose. The more of his face it concealed, the less noticeable he became, allowing him to minimize his presence as much as possible.
Lu Yinbing continued looking at his face for longer than Man Yu could bear. Man Yu kept his eyes lowered, the moisture gathering in them becoming increasingly pronounced as he clenched his teeth even harder against his lower lip.
Only when Lu Yinbing noticed that he was on the verge of tears did he finally shift his gaze away, and even then, he showed no intention of letting the matter go. “You squeezed someone’s wrist until it looked like this, and you think apologizing to me will accomplish anything? Sheng Lin, I see that old habits really do die hard.”
Sheng Lin’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. Gao Yuyang’s eyes flickered as well, his gaze shifting back and forth between the three of them. And then, to Man Yu’s utter astonishment, he actually heard Sheng Lin apologize to him.
It was only after Lu Yinbing pointed it out that Man Yu realized his wrist had turned red in a large patch. His skin was simply very susceptible to marks, and the redness would fade before long anyway. He hurriedly said, “I-it’s fine,” before adding in a soft, weak voice, “I-it doesn’t hurt…”
After all, Sheng Lin was his husband, wasn’t he? How could he allow someone else to speak about his husband like that?
Man Yu wasn’t merely an honest and straightforward person. He was also an exceptionally traditional and conservative Beta.
When he thought about it, the situation seemed almost absurdly tragic. He had actually reached the point where he needed an outsider to stand up for him.
Rather than feeling relieved after receiving the apology, Man Yu became even more dejected. His head remained lowered, and the delicate, slender, fair skin of his neck glimmered softly beneath the lights. His wrist was still red, and he continued stammering that it was all right. Even his hair, when brushed aside, felt as soft as his temperament.
In just a few moments, Lu Yinbing had used his sharp mind to reach a conclusion. This half-brother of Sheng Lin’s was far more intelligent than Sheng Lin himself, or at least, he was much more skilled at seducing people. Every little movement, every seemingly insignificant gesture, was calculated with remarkable finesse.
At least, he had certainly chosen the right approach to get what he wanted.