Su Luo finally moved. He lifted his feet and started toward his daughter — but after only two steps, he stopped. He suddenly realized that he no longer had the courage… no longer even had the standing to face her. He, who had once believed he had done enough, that he had given his daughter the most privileged and comfortable of lives, had in truth been such an unfit father, even a hateful one.
He turned abruptly, and his gaze met Ye Tianxie’s. The dazed, clouded look in his eyes wavered for an instant, then sharpened into clarity. He said, “Is there a cleaner room upstairs?”
Ye Tianxie shook his head crisply. “No.”
Su Luo said nothing, then sighed lightly. “Come with me.”
With that, he turned and walked toward the thickly dust-covered staircase, each footfall landing with tremendous weight. The two bodyguards who had come with him followed close at his heels.
Ye Tianxie glanced at Su Feifei, rose from the sofa, and followed them up. In this moment, he had come to know another Su Feifei, and at last had gained a reasonably deep understanding of her… someone as lonely, and as pitiable, as he was.
The second-floor balcony.
It was nearly noon, and the scorching light of the blazing sun poured through the glass onto Su Luo — yet it could not dispel the cold and the ache within him.
Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned to face Ye Tianxie, his gaze traveling from head to toe, taking in every inch of him. Only now was he truly, carefully sizing him up. From the day Su Feifei was saved by Ye Tianxie, he had been investigating everything about the man — and the results had startled him again and again.
“You’re called Ye Tianxie?” Su Luo broke the silence.
Ye Tianxie nodded slightly and gave a soft laugh. “Boss Su, you’re the richest man in Asia. What you earn in a single minute is more than many people earn in a lifetime. Let’s not waste time on empty talk — whatever you want to say to me, just say it.”
Su Luo’s expression didn’t change, though his gaze grew firmer. “It seems you know who I am, and who Feifei is… As far as I know, you’ve lived alone for years and have almost no contact with outsiders. That you didn’t refuse Feifei’s presumptuous request to move in here — surely that has something to do with my identity.”
“Heh. If I said no, would you believe me?” Ye Tianxie laughed easily, and neither his laugh nor his words carried the slightest affectation or falseness. “You’re right. I didn’t refuse — solely because she’s your daughter, Boss Su. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been qualified to so much as set foot through my door.”
It was a blunt thing to say, and none too polite. The two bodyguards behind Su Luo both frowned, and the looks they turned on Ye Tianxie visibly darkened.
Su Luo, however, showed not the least anger; if anything, the tension in his expression eased somewhat. “You’re not a hypocrite. Whatever your purpose, since you’re willing to say it outright… then if Feifei stays here, I’ll feel a great deal more at ease. Since you didn’t refuse, it means you’re willing to protect her. Am I right?”
“Something like that. Come to think of it, your daughter and I could be said to have a certain fate between us.”
Molested her in the morning, played the hero and rescued her at night… That’s no ordinary depth of fate.
“Could you tell me a few things about yourself? For instance, your family, your—”
“No!” Before Su Luo could finish, Ye Tianxie cut him off flatly, his previously mild tone turning noticeably hard, his brow sinking sharply.
Su Luo didn’t press further, though the shock and admiration accumulating in him only deepened. He had commanded the business world for half a lifetime, and among all the younger men he had ever dealt with, not one had ever been so utterly at ease as Ye Tianxie. He plainly knew who Su Luo was, yet seemed to disregard his identity entirely; his manner of speaking was neither servile nor overbearing, and carried not the faintest trace of deference or awe. As though the name “Su Luo,” and the man that name represented, were nothing more than the most ordinary of names and men.
“Very well. That’s your private affair, and I shouldn’t pry too far. Since you say you’re willing to protect Feifei — then how do you propose to prove you have the ability to protect her?” Su Luo’s expression grew grave, his eyes fixed steadily on Ye Tianxie’s. This was the question he cared about most.
Clearly, he would no longer go against Su Feifei’s wishes, would not force her to leave and come home. But a daughter’s safety, to any father, mattered more than his own life.
“That… how should I answer that?” Ye Tianxie scratched the tip of his nose lightly, as if answering, or perhaps talking to himself. Then he went on: “How about this… Boss Su, there’s a listening device under the sole of your right foot. And in the left pocket of the gentleman behind you on the right, in his cigarette case, the third cigarette in the top row has one hidden inside the filter. There — now you can take them out.”
Su Luo and both bodyguards froze.
The bodyguard behind him on the right shot Ye Tianxie a deeply suspicious look. Ye Tianxie had had no physical contact with them whatsoever, and even now stood more than a meter away. As professional bodyguards, they were experts in precisely this sort of device, their sensitivity to such things far beyond an ordinary person’s — and even they hadn’t detected it. And a man who had never so much as touched them could sense it just like that? And name the exact position with such precision… It sounded funnier than any joke.
So he thought — but his hands moved quickly all the same. And when his fingers touched the cigarette case in his pocket, his heart gave a sudden lurch: How did he know I keep a cigarette case in this pocket?
The case was opened, the third cigarette in the top row drawn out, and its filter carefully torn open. At once a tiny piece of metal tumbled from it and struck the floor with a soft click.
Picking that small metal fragment up off the ground, Su Luo and both bodyguards were shocked beyond belief, staring at Ye Tianxie as if at a monster — a phantom appearing in broad daylight.
It was unmistakably a listening device.
Su Luo swiftly removed the leather shoe from his right foot, and on the sole, at a glance, they saw an almost identical thin metal sliver stuck to the heel.
Both fragments were crushed beyond use. Su Luo put his shoe back on, and when he faced Ye Tianxie again, his composure was gone beyond recovery. “Shock” no longer came close to describing the storm raging within him.
An esper… an esper with terrifying abilities. Apart from that, he could find no other explanation for any of it.
(End of Chapter 74)