I understood Ye Qingcheng's reasons for not believing Ke Yingying, so temporarily distancing myself from Ke Yingying to gain Ye Qingcheng's trust was a viable plan. I got into a car with Ye Qingcheng and we left Chengdu.
Ye Qingcheng took me to a county town. I slept for a while in a simple hotel and was then woken up by Ye Qingcheng. It was around nine o'clock, the sun was shining brightly. Looking at Ye Qingcheng's solemn face, I asked in confusion, "Teacher Ye, why did you bring me to such a remote place?"
"To meet someone."
"Who?"
"You'll know when you meet them."
I followed Ye Qingcheng to a marketplace, a large farmer's market selling everything imaginable. Ye Qingcheng mysteriously went to a fruit stall, entered a small room with the female owner, and handed her a wad of cash.
The female owner looked distressed and pointed to her child, who was still asleep. The child looked about two years old and was sleeping soundly. The female owner picked her up and handed her to Ye Qingcheng. The child's eyes fluttered open slightly, and she snuggled onto Ye Qingcheng's shoulder and fell back asleep.
I was dumbfounded, "What is this all about? Buying a child? Teacher Ye, if we wanted to raise a child, we wouldn't plan to give birth, but we could legally adopt one. Buying and selling children is illegal!"
"Can you cover for me?"
"Cover for what?"
Just as I was about to speak, the female owner pulled me out of the room and started to struggle with me, shouting that even if I were the child's father, I couldn't take her away. Since we were not far from the marketplace and it involved a child, many people gathered to watch. Looking at the onlookers, I noticed that some of them didn't fit the usual demeanor of people at the market; they looked like bodyguards.
Did this rural child need bodyguards? At that moment, I roughly understood Ye Qingcheng's intention for me to cover for her. I glanced back into the room; there was no longer any movement. I shook off the female owner and threw down a sentence, "You're being unreasonable!"
As I left, I deliberately looked back. As expected, two men who looked like bodyguards went into the room to check the situation. I took the opportunity to slip into the crowd, hailed a taxi at random, and went to a county town in a different direction from Ye Qingcheng.
After wandering around in another county town and confirming that no one was following me, I returned to the county town where we were. Upon my return, the place was in an uproar, unusually agitated.
I didn't know why, but thinking about the girl's appearance made me feel uneasy. I felt like I was missing something. This girl gave me a sense of foreboding, or was there some special conspiracy at play? As I stepped into the hotel, I looked up at the sky, a dark flock of birds flew past. Coupled with my agitated mood, it felt as if the end of the world was imminent.
Honestly, I had never felt this way before. Ever since that girl appeared, I had become restless and increasingly uneasy. What was going on?
Entering the hotel lobby, I saw Ye Qingcheng waiting for me.
"Teacher Ye, what exactly is going on?"
"Let's talk in the room."
We went up to the third floor together. Once inside, the girl, now clean and in new clothes, was happily playing with toys on the bed. Upon seeing me enter, the girl showed no fear. She just looked up at me and continued playing with her toys.
"After arriving here, I haven't found the truth about Teacher Li Jiu's injury," Ye Qingcheng stated directly.
"Then what does this have to do with our kidnapping of a child? Who is this child? Isn't she the fruit seller's daughter? Why does she have bodyguards?"
"My mother's name is Cao Qian."
"And your father?"
"My father's name is Tang Nan."
After asking, Ye Qingcheng looked at me, "If you still don't believe me, you can get a paternity test."
Hearing this, the restlessness in my heart seemed to have an explanation. I looked at Ye Qingcheng coldly, "How did you know this secret?"
"Don't you remember what I did to Lu Yao?"
"Lu Yao knew this secret?"
"He wanted to be the successor, so naturally, he knew more. Unfortunately, he exposed his intentions too early, which made me realize his connection with the 'Southern Faction.' So I captured him, tortured him, and forced him to reveal this secret."
"Is Cao Qian also controlled by the 'Southern Faction' for this reason?"
"Last year, Cao Qian used a fake Tang Yi to assassinate Zhu Guang and Duan Dongyang. She originally planned to tell you this secret after getting married. But unexpectedly, her scheme was exposed by Lin Han at the wedding. Cao Qian, knowing she had no chance with you, came to Sichuan to live alone. It was then that the 'Southern Faction' used the real Tang Yi to control Cao Qian, making her help Gao Ziming obtain the inheritance. Unfortunately, Cao Qian failed, and the 'Southern Faction' didn't get their way. The second daughter of the Gao family, who was the most uninvolved, became the heir. Therefore, the 'Southern Faction' gave Cao Qian two conditions: one was to kill you, and the other was to let Gao Ziming regain control of the Gao family. If she achieved either, they would return Tang Yi to Cao Qian."
"So, Ning Caichen also knows this secret?"
"Yes. Ning Caichen was originally unrelated to this matter, nor was he Cao Qian's pawn. He simply liked Cao Qian and knew that Cao Qian would go to great lengths to seize power in the Gao family rather than kill you. Therefore, he decided to take your life on Cao Qian's behalf."
"So that's how it is?"
"Understood?"
"Yes, Teacher Ye, I have a question for you. You knew where Tang Yi was trapped from Lu Yao, and you also knew that woman had 'Southern Faction' bodyguards. So you were only there for the first time today?"
"As expected of the successor."
Ye Qingcheng's words made me smile bitterly. To grasp the laws of development of things through Yin-Yang changes, thereby controlling the key points of their development and change. These were things I had taught Ye Qingcheng. If it were in the past, she would have first investigated the situation, made a plan, and used her powerful acting skills to rescue Tang Yi.
But Ye Qingcheng was different now. She had found the key point and was pushing the development of events in her desired direction through a faster route. If in the past Ye Qingcheng could be called a schemer of the Stanislavski system, she had now integrated all four systems. She understood the true meaning of scheming, and there was no distinction between systems. Like Li Jiu, Old Ghost, and Teacher Wang Ren, she had simplified the complex, returned to the basic, and developed her own unique realm.
"Are you planning to deal with me?"
"Yes!" Ye Qingcheng replied without hesitation.
Seeing Ye Qingcheng's demeanor, I was convinced that she had taken a shortcut. How should I put it? The reason Ye Qingcheng hadn't achieved four-system integration in the past was due to her lack of proactive aggression.
In the sheepskin book Li Jiu gave me, attack methods were divided into two main types: reactive attack and proactive attack. Reactive attack was a hot-blooded attack, typically displayed as anger and retaliatory hostile actions after being attacked. In other words, the former Ye Qingcheng was a gentle and brave lamb, a lamb that could be brave and angry, but this usually happened when the enemy attacked her.
This behavior could be called hot-blooded. Most novels, movies, and anime depict this hot-blooded mode: after being oppressed and bullied, under extremely infectious background music, a retaliatory counterattack is launched, making it feel very satisfying.
The other type was different, called proactive attack. That is, to attack others with premeditation. The emotional coloring was very singular, like when Ye Qingcheng forced Lu Yao to provide information and seek death through torture. In that situation, Ye Qingcheng didn't display much cruel emotion; her goal was singular: to know the whereabouts of the 'Southern Faction' and avenge Li Jiu. This behavior was called cold-blooded, and it was Ye Qingcheng's current realm. She was adapting to this behavior of attacking through the key points of things, and she would not stop until she achieved her goal.
"Teacher Ye, do you realize there's a problem with your current integration?"
"I know. It's because of your teaching that I've realized the aspect I've always suppressed is my strongest side."
"Suppressed?"
"Exactly. Do you remember how I met Teacher Li Jiu? He was looking for innate criminals, and I happened to be one of them. However, Teacher Li Jiu gave me a medicine that suppressed the cold-blooded behavior in my genes, which is why I've been a lukewarm schemer for most of my life."
"Teacher Ye, didn't you ever think that this was Li Jiu's expectation of you?"
"It doesn't matter anymore. As long as I can get revenge, I don't care if I go to the Underworld and accept Teacher Li Jiu's punishment."
As Ye Qingcheng spoke, she took out a homemade hunting rifle, the same model as Ning Caichen's. She must have found out how Ning Caichen obtained the gun and made one herself. Now, Ye Qingcheng pointed the gun at Tang Yi, "If you rush over, I'll pull the trigger, and this child will die."
I took a deep breath, "There has to be a choice."
"Stand in front of the child and take this shot for her. If you die, I will obtain the truth about Teacher Li Jiu's death, and then I will kill everyone involved in this matter."