Chapter Eleven

  Li Jin suddenly woke up like a dream and suddenly remembered that Shu Mu was coming to pay his respects. It seemed that he had already walked to the door!

  What's going on!

  Not to mention how he couldn't explain why he was here in the first place, when he saw Shu Mu, whether or not he could open his mouth at all was a problem.

  He gritted his teeth, glanced to the side, and happened to see a door half-open on the right side of the mourning hall, with unknown purpose. Outside, the crowd was in an uproar, occasionally punctuated by high-pitched screams that grew louder and closer. Before he could think twice, Li Jin dashed towards the door and slipped into the darkness just as the mourning hall's door opened.

  What a close call!

  A cold sweat broke out at once, and Li Jin slowly let out the breath he had held in, using the faint light that filtered in from outside to observe his surroundings.

  It turned out to be a small rest room, with tables, chairs and sofas inside, and even a double bed in the corner against the wall. Who would dare sleep here every night, accompanied by the dead, without being afraid of ghosts?

  Li Jin turned around and leaned against the wall. From this angle, he could see a familiar figure in front of the mourning hall through the gap under the door.

  It was probably Li Yiheng who gave the order not to disturb, so those fly-like reporters were unable to follow him in. At this moment, only Shu Mu stood in front of the coffin.

  Shu Mu wore a black Armani suit, the tight cut showcasing his good physique. From the entrance to the front of the coffin, every step he took was full of charm, even the monotonous sound of his leather shoes stepping on the ground seemed to have a certain rhythm, as if he were walking on the Paris Fashion Week catwalk rather than coming to pay respects to the deceased. He walked up to the coffin, pinched three incense sticks, raised his arm, and placed the burning incense one by one on his forehead, in front of him, and on his chest, then bowed deeply and inserted the incense into the incense burner. Immediately after, he turned around, without even glancing at the photo on top of the coffin, as if paying respects was just a task assigned to him.

  Suddenly, steady and slow footsteps echoed from the corner.

  Shu Mu was startled and quickly withdrew his right foot, turning around in response.

  "It's you." Seeing clearly who had arrived, Shu Mu let out a snort of laughter.

  In the dimly lit hall, Li Yiheng slowly walked out.

  Li Jin was shocked. The spiritual hall was large but empty. He had been here for half a day and hadn't seen another person. Where did Li Yi Heng come from?

  The ancestral hall had no windows on all four sides, with only the four large lamps on the top shining brightly like daylight. The pale light cast down, making Li Yiheng's face look bloodless and haggard. Li Jin had met him just yesterday, but at that time, the dim yellow lights of the hotel had actually added a few more romantic contours to Li Yiheng's haggardness. Today, it seemed that this man, who seemed to never age, had truly begun to show signs of aging overnight.

  Is it for myself? Li Jinshen had a sense of self-awareness and couldn't help but make an anxious guess.

  Li Yiheng's character was calm and composed, unmoved by the eight winds. How could a trivial matter like Shu Mu's provocation stir him? He walked towards Shu Mu with an unyielding gaze, all the way to Ke Yuanling's presence, bowed his head in respect, and lit three incense sticks.

  Shu Mu was already used to being surrounded by people, let alone Li Yi Heng who had never been on good terms with him. Being treated like this by the latter, how could he let it go? He raised an eyebrow and sneered, "Come to think of it, I should thank you for holding a funeral for Ke Yuan." He lowered his eyelashes and smiled coldly, "But I really can't understand why you had to stop the funeral procession for seven days. Even if you stopped for 49 days, in the end, wouldn't you still have to push him into the cremation furnace and turn him into a pile of white ash?"

  Li Yiheng didn't show any anger or annoyance, as if he hadn't heard anything at all. The incense started to burn, and his eyes sparkled, staring only at the slowly rising white smoke.

  "Can't you see, are you waiting for him to return in seven days and meet with you at night?"

  As soon as this was said, Li Jin's heart suddenly shook violently, and she subconsciously looked up to find Li Yi Heng's expression. Li Yi Heng remained unchanged, but finally had some reaction, raised his head, and lightly glanced at Shu Mu: "You're guilty, so you naturally don't dare see him."

  "What's wrong with my heart?" Shu Mu found this sentence really ridiculous.

  Li Yiheng sighed and said, as if comforting a noisy child: "That money was deposited this morning, wasn't it?"

  Shu Mu was taken aback, and suddenly, as if provoked, he clenched his fists tightly: "What do you mean? Not only did you attend his funeral, but also want to pay off his debts?"

  Li Jin was stunned.

  Does this mean...?

  "No matter where you've misused the money, I'll pay it back for him. This matter ends here, and from now on, he owes you nothing. As for the media, I've also given a gag order, forbidding them to mention this again." Li Yiheng said sternly, "These three incense sticks are your apology to him. I hope you won't come to see him again in the future. May you not disturb his peace on Qingming Festival and other days."

  "Li Yiheng," Shu Mu said with a furious smile, "who do you think you are?"

  Li Yiheng didn't say anything, but his attitude was very clear.

  "Kuo Yen is a dog I've raised." Shu Mu sneered, "He's alive, he has to work hard for me. Dead, and no one else gets to have a say!"

  "A dog?" Li Yi Heng suddenly burst out laughing, and gradually, his laughter grew louder, until it became a mournful howl. "Then when you killed this dog, did you feel even a shred of guilt?"

  "The life and death of a dog, don't I even have the right to decide?" Shu Mu sneered.

  Li Yiheng looked up, as if the ceiling was inhabited by the spirits of the dead. In the dimness, a pair of ears seemed to be listening to worldly affairs. However, no matter how long he looked, all he saw was a patch of white light that made his eyes sting and almost brought tears to his eyes.

  "Why?" Li Yi Heng knew that this sentence was like a sharp silver needle, once asked, it would drain all his energy, but he refused to give up, he wanted to know, "Why did you have to kill him? You've already taken everything from him, why must you destroy him completely?"

  "Because he loves me." Shu Mu said matter-of-factly, "If a dog falls in love with you, wouldn't you feel disgusted? This dog is filthy and ugly, yet every time it sees you, it wags its tail and licks its lips. You clearly despise it, but can't shake it off or get rid of it, and have to endure it snuggling up to you and making eyes at you with a gaze that seems to want to lick you from head to toe with its disgusting tongue. Of course, you'd want to kill it, and think about killing it every minute of every day. When petting it, you'd want to rip out its fur; when hugging it, you'd want to strangle it with your arms; even when kissing it, you'd want to bite off its tongue! This thought occurs to you every day, 365 days a year, repeating itself a hundred times a day. So I killed him - isn't that a perfectly normal thing to do?"

  Cold, really cold.

  The mourning hall was installed with high-power air conditioning, and the wooden coffin was piled up with ice blocks. However, all of this could not compare to the chill in Shu Mu's words.

  But he still wasn't satisfied, and with a raised chin, he coldly laughed three times: "But even if I killed him, what's the big deal? Do you think he would blame me or hate me? No, no, no, he loves me to death, if he knew about it in the afterlife, he would only ask me if I had dirtied my hands, worrying that in the future, no one would take care of me and whether I would get used to it." He gently stroked his palm, shouting "Bravo!" repeatedly. "Love, great love, great Ke Yuan's love, if it weren't for him making me sick to my stomach, maybe I would really have to sincerely applaud!"

  So that's how it is.

  Li Yiheng got the answer and was no longer willing to continue entangling with Shu Mu, turned around, but just faced the black-and-white photo of Ke Yuan on the wall. The sound of his voice and smile were still in his ears, but he would never see him again for eternity.

  His heart was surging with emotions, painful to the bone, when suddenly a strange voice broke the silence of the room.

  "You're lying," someone said in a low voice. "Shu Mu, you killed Ke Yuan, not because you hated him, but because you were afraid of him."

  It's already late at night, don't you think I'm cute for working so hard to update? ~