Playing with My Feelings

Ye Jian rose, walked over, and as he passed him, flicked his wrist. *Smack!* Something resembling a newspaper, scorched with burn marks, landed on the table before Liu Shiheng. "Something happened to Han Qingyu. All four of them are gone," he said. Liu Shiheng's smile vanished. His emotions couldn't shift gears that quickly, leaving his entire body frozen for an instant... Turning his head, he said, "Brother Ye, don't joke around with me like that. That kind of stuff really scares me. They clearly went back..." "After they went back, they went to avenge you and He Tangtang. Killed three generations of the Alphonse family in one go. Right at the Azure front-line command post airfield, fighting their way through the crowd to execute them in broad daylight." Ye Jian said, "If you don't believe me, see for yourself. That's a newspaper from your own Azure." So it was true. There was no way Ye Jian would go to the trouble of concocting a fake newspaper just to trick him. This time, Liu Shiheng couldn't hold it together. His eyes reddened in an instant. His hands trembling violently, he flipped through the pages for quite a while without finding the relevant section. Ye Jian, on the other hand, was utterly relaxed. In fact, he stood to the side watching with a trace of smug satisfaction: *That's what you get for being sly, that's what you get for calling her sister-in-law and prying into things...* The piece was the very article Ashleia had written. After reading it himself, Ye Jian hadn't believed for a second that Han Qingyu's bunch of four was dead. After all, he had run into two of those shameless bastards in person and had been deeply exasperated by their antics. "Still, forging a blood feud with the Alphonse family really is a bit troublesome," Ye Jian mused. At the same time, Liu Shiheng quickly finished reading the article. By rights, he should have felt more at ease than Ye Jian, for he knew those four far better and had more reasons than anyone to believe they were fine. Yet in reality, he wasn't relieved at all. No matter how much Liu Shiheng reasoned with himself, he couldn't suppress the worry and dread in his heart. Nor the self-reproach. *What if? What if they...* "What are you spacing out for? Bring over the sliced fish!" On the other side, Courtney called out. Liu Shiheng ignored her, turning and walking out the door to sit down against the wall. After a while, Ye Jian appeared before him. He stood for a moment, then sat down as well, offering Liu Shiheng a cigarette. "What's the matter? You really got scared? By rights, someone like you... Ah, I get it." Striking a match, he helped Liu Shiheng light his cigarette, then lit his own. Taking a drag and lowering the cigarette, Ye Jian said helplessly, "How about this: let me break down for you why they're fine..." He spoke non-stop for over ten minutes, going from Wen Jifei and Han Qingyu to Chen Buer, whom he knew even better. Ye Jian finally managed to convince Liu Shiheng. "Sigh, why the hell am I the one comforting you?" Ye Jian gave a wry chuckle. Liu Shiheng turned his head and managed a smile as well. Sniffling, he asked, "Brother Ye, are you... an undercover agent?" Liu Shiheng merely mouthed the words *undercover agent* without making a sound. "No, I'm not." Ye Jian turned to look at him. "Hey, you punk aren't planning to go undercover by my side, are you?" "No way, I don't have the guts for that." Liu Shiheng confessed honestly, then chuckled. "At most, I'll just drag you into a life of decadent pleasure." "..." Ye Jian said, "Azure ought to give you a medal for that." Two days later, the two of them gave Courtney the slip and secretly boarded a ship bound for Las Vegas, Mitli. The date was September 27, 1991. On that same day, it had already been six days since Squad 1777 returned to their station. Lao Jian lay on a hospital bed; his injuries genuinely hadn't fully healed, though his condition wasn't quite as severe as it seemed. He had a mission to carry out. Shang Nianhua was clad in a temporarily borrowed standard Azure white shirt, sitting at the bedside holding a bowl and meticulously feeding him chicken soup with a spoon. She had been the one looking after him these past few days. "By the way, that girl Que Qingshang... is she actually your biological daughter?" With Wen Jifei's crucial parting mission weighing on his mind, Lao Jian knew he couldn't stall forever. He still had to head back to oversee the new recruits completing camp and replenish his squad's ranks... Feeling somewhat tense, Lao Jian deliberately brought up a topic to divert attention. "Why, do you care?" Shang Nianhua's eyes danced as she looked at him, teasing with a light chuckle. In truth, she had harbored affection for him before. When Yang Qingbai returned recently and mentioned that Lao Jian had nearly fallen in battle at Xilang Peak, muttering her name in his final moments, Shang Nianhua's guard had completely melted away. Yet even with just that, Lao Jian was already unable to hold his ground, stammering flusteredly, "No, I didn't mean that." "Then let me answer you properly... No, she isn't." Shang Nianhua shook her head and said softly, "As for me, when I graduated from college, I specifically sought you out to take a photograph together. Do you remember? After I went back, my family immediately demanded that I marry. The groom they chose was my cousin..." "Huh?" "Frightening, isn't it? So of course I refused. After all, I was educated in the modern era. My cousin didn't agree either; he already had someone he loved, a female war slave from our household. But there was nothing we could do. The family elders insisted on preserving the purity of the Shang clan's bloodline, so we had no choice but to pretend to be together." Shang Nianhua paused. "Later, they pressured us to produce a child, and that was how Qingshang came to be." "So she's the daughter of your cousin and that female war slave?" Lao Jian asked. "Was it that easy to guess? Sigh." Shang Nianhua let out a breath, her gaze turning heavy as she continued, "Once the clan found out, Qingshang's mother was secretly executed, and my cousin killed himself to follow her in death. I staked my own life to save Qingshang, adopting her as my goddaughter. Later, as she grew up, perhaps because she was raised within the clan and heard all sorts of rumors, she came to believe that I had caused her birth parents' deaths just to protect myself. Over the years, she has acted very close to me on the surface, but deep down, she has always wanted revenge." "Can't you explain and tell her the truth? Or did you tell her and she refused to believe it?" Lao Jian asked, somewhat perplexed. Shang Nianhua looked at him and gently shook her head. "Whether she would believe it or not, I can never tell her. If her hatred remains focused on me and she seeks revenge against me, I can just stay on guard. But if she turns her hatred against the Shang clan and seeks vengeance from the family... she will certainly die." Finishing her tale, Shang Nianhua offered a faint smile, lowering her head to diligently ladle out more chicken soup. At this moment, this formidable woman—who had always managed the Shang clan's worldly affairs with masterful skill—seemed to embody both strength and fragility all at once... as well as a striking tenderness. Lao Jian thought: *Why not just pull her into a hug?* *Yeah, for the sake of the mission.* He did just that, reaching out and sweeping her into his arms. The chicken soup, bowl, and spoon clattered to the floor. Shang Nianhua struggled slightly, then went still. "Are you serious?" she whispered against his chest. "Yes, I am." "But I belong to what you call the Self-Preservation Faction." "Doesn't matter. Your Shang clan has never provoked Azure." "Will Azure agree?" "I can handle it." "...Mm." The feeling of having someone stand up for her filled Shang Nianhua with happiness. Cheerful, she asked, "Then we have an agreement, right?" "An agreement? Yeah, it's a deal!" Now that they had reached an agreement... Lao Jian suddenly sat bolt upright, letting go of her, and said excitedly: "Since that's settled, let me tell you something really important. I plan to let you go back very soon, because Han Qingyu and the other three aren't actually dead. In the future, they want to..." All in one breath, gesticulating as he went, Lao Jian laid out the entire plan and arrangement Wen Jifei had devised to use the Shang clan as a foothold. After finishing, he waited for a while without hearing any reaction from Shang Nianhua. Looking up... Shang Nianhua sat upright, staring at him with eyes brimming with grief and indignation. "What's wrong?" Lao Jian asked in confusion. Shang Nianhua: "Are you playing with my feelings?" "...No, I'm not." "I think you are. You only did that so you could feel safe telling me that Han Qingyu and the others aren't dead, just to take advantage of me! Otherwise, who on earth would act like this? It hasn't even been a single second since we settled things..."