Translator: O(n^n) oh baby

TLC: Jury

Editor: thepinkfleurdelis

Quality Check: Kai

First Published on Chaleuria

Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Six: Alice's Insanity (I)

There was silence in the car. 

"See, you're not even at your little brother's level." Yan Jin mocked Chu Ge to break the silence. 

"…Shut up," Chu Ge retorted grumpily. 

"*Squeak*?" Xiao Yu looked at Yan Jin blankly. 

"You're fine." Yan Jin petted Xiao Yu comfortingly. Yan Jin added, "You did the right thing." 

Yan Jin Jin rewarded Xiao Yu with a melon seed from his pocket. 

Xiao Yu looked at Yan Jin's pocket, then looked at the melon seed in his hand with mixed feelings. 

Ever since he had resumed his human form, Xiao Yu didn't frequently change into his hamster form. So, Yan Jin's habit of carrying melon seeds with him…

In some sense, this symbolized how much Yan Jin cared about him. However, Xiao Yu found it difficult to get used to such extremes. 

"*Squeak*." So, Nan Chan was the one who wanted to kidnap me? Xiao Yu suddenly asked after finis.h.i.+ng his seed. 

Yan Jin felt some misgivings from Xiao Yu's even tone. 

"Yes. We'll be visiting Nan Chan right now. Will you be scared?"

"*Squeak*." Nope, you'll be there too. 

Yan Jin stared blankly at him and then smiled. 

Chairman Yan's happiness meant that Xiao Yu received a large pile of melon seeds. 

"What happened?" Chu Ge asked. 

"Nothing," Yan Jin replied. 

Chu Ge wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt Yan Jin's smugness fiercely emanating in his voice. 

So what if you can read hearts? Chu Ge thought. 

"At the very least, I can understand what Fishy is saying." Yan Jin gave a rare reply to Chu Ge's internal bickering. 

"Amazing, too amazing," Chu Ge conceded in mock admiration. 

Xiao Yu munched on the melon seeds, then suddenly said, "*Squeak*?" Did Nan Chan abduct me because of you?

Yan Jin rubbed his nose awkwardly. 

The silent agreement shocked Xiao Yu into dropping his melon seed. 

"*Squeak*?" It's really because I took her intended husband?

Xiao Yu was surprised. 

Xiao Yu knew Nan Chan, but it was one-sided. He'd seen NN's young leader when SI and NN had collaborated long ago. 

Nan Chan had had many doubters because of her youth and beauty. Despite this, she had led both NN and the Nan Family to success, silencing her critics. 

In the fas.h.i.+on industry, NN's Nan Chan and YL's Yan Jin had become synonymous with prodigy. However, in Xiao Yu's eyes, Yan Jin had relied on his overseas influence and inexplicable fortune (such as the mystery designer). Nan Chan appeared to be a genuine business genius. 

Among his friends, Xiao Yu had heard countless stories of how the female entrepreneur easily reversed unfavorable situations. 

If he'd heard in the past that Nan Chan and Yan Jin were getting engaged, Xiao Yu definitely would have sent his congratulations to them on Weibo. Nan Chan and Yan Jin seemed to be a match made in heaven. It was as natural as the sun rising from the east. 

If that person had then added that Yan Jin would reject the engagement and announce his marriage with another guy, Xiao Yu would have thought he was crazy. 

Not that Yan Jin was crazy, but that the messenger was crazy. 

This wasn't an exaggeration of Xiao Yu's thoughts towards those two people a year ago. Their families were a perfect fit, so the marriage certificate would be a quick formality. 

But, the world was a mysterious place.  

A year later, Xiao Yu had unexpectedly been able to s.n.a.t.c.h Yan Jin away from a woman he'd only been able to look up to. 

Well, perhaps not "s.n.a.t.c.h". 

Love was so absurd it could make the sun rise from the west. 

Love ignored logic and truths, which was why it led countless people to pursue the impossible, like a firefly to a flame. 

"Huh?" Yan Jin rubbed Xiao Yu. "More accurately, it's that young women like her can't compete with your overwhelming masculine charm. 

"*Squeak*." As long as you understand that you're the root of all evil. 

Xiao Yu put his paws on his waist.  

"*Squeak*." Hurry up and say who you love the most. 

"Who do I love the most? Of course it's my Fishy." Yan Jin played along cooperatively. 

Chu Ge couldn't take it any longer. He whacked the steering wheel and said, "It's revolting listening to you. I want to kill myself… and you while I'm at it." 

Yan Jin laughed at him. 

Xiao Yu pinched Yan Jin to snap him out of his happy delirium and brought them back to more important matters. 

"*Squeak*?" What are you going to do when you meet her? Confront her?

"Mainly to see what she thinks. Women are very different from the girls they once were. The little girl from back then…" Yan Jin stopped in the middle. 

"*Squeak*?" Well?

"Nothing. I wasn't sure where to start," Yan Jin said, but it was clear he had intended to say something else. 

At NN corporation. 

It wasn't Xiao Yu's first time here, but without a doubt, he had more mixed feelings now than ever before. 

He wasn't here to discuss collaboration. Neither was he here to chat with some designer friends. Instead, he had come here to protest. 

Suddenly, Xiao Yu was relieved that he was hiding as a hamster in Yan Jin's pocket. If he were showing up in person, he didn't know whether he could fight a younger woman over another guy. 

This must have been why Yan Jin said that being a hamster was more suitable earlier… Xiao Yu couldn't help but think. 

In the past, Xiao Yu had thought that the greatest disparity between Yan Jin and himself was in their social status. Now, although he had a salary of over ten million and countless world-renowned designers singing his praises, he still felt that he was far behind Yan Jin and could only chase Yan Jin's receding shadow. 

In reality, Xiao Yu sensed that their greatest disparity was actually in their mental fort.i.tude. 

No matter what he did, this guy always single-mindedly pursued his end goal. Other people couldn't help but follow his lead. 

As for himself, he couldn't even properly follow someone. He could only hide in his leader's pocket as a pet. 

This was why Xiao Yu always subconsciously rejected Yan Jin's gifts or gave something in return. In his heart, he felt more comfortable having this justification for material gifts. On the other hand, he had no way to reciprocate the invaluable immaterial gifts.

"Brother Jin!"

A delighted voice thundered through his ears.

He saw Nan Chan throwing herself at Yan Jin and felt puzzled. 

"Miss Nan, compose yourself," Yan Jin ruthlessly rebuffed her. He bluntly retreated two steps to the side. 

"It's been so long, Brother Jin! Come sit inside and we can chat. I'll make you some tea. We have a lot of your favorite brand in the office." Nan Chan ignored Yan Jin's aloofness and enthusiastically stepped closer. Tugging intimately on his arm, Nan Chan pulled Yan Jin over to the sofa.   

Xiao Yu didn't know why, but he felt that the situation was strange. 

He discreetly poked his head out of the pocket for a look and immediately understood why he had this feeling. 

Although there were a few minor differences, but the composition and arrangement of the room, from the redwood desk to the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked S City was identical. Even the somewhat short coffee table and the two bonsai saplings were present. 

Xiao Yu s.h.i.+vered and retreated back into the pocket. 

This isn't normal. This definitely isn't normal. 

"No need for tea." Yan Jin stopped Nan Chan, and then added coldly, "You know why I'm here."

Nan Chan tilted her head. 

Xiao Yu glanced at Nan Chan's s.e.xy black spaghetti strap dress, high heels, and heavy makeup. She seemed more like a flirty college student as she revealed an innocent smile. 

Her curved red lips seemed like they'd just consumed fresh blood. 

"Seeing that Brother Jin said that I already know, then that must mean I truly already know. Let me guess… right! Brother Jin must have come here to marry me!"

Xiao Yu s.h.i.+vered and grabbed the edge of Yan Jin's pocket. 

Chu Ge hadn't followed them in as per Yan Jin's suggestion. In Yan Jin's words, trump cards were meant to be used at the end. The self-proclaimed servant happily complied and stayed obediently in the car. 

Currently, Xiao Yu really wished that Chu Ge was here with them. He needed to confirm who was the strange one here: himself, or the others?

He really couldn't understand how Yan Jin could keep a calm expression in front of this extraordinarily peculiar person. 

Too strange, really too strange. 

"I remember that I've rejected our engagement more than once now. We really aren't a good match." 

"How could that be? You clearly agreed to it." Nan Chan pouted at Yan Jin's refusal to honor his previous words. "On March 21st of this year, at 2:47:28 PM, you explicitly agreed to marry me."

"I said I would consider it. The engagement was the Nan Family's decision; I never agreed to it." 

Yan Jin's eyes dulled as he recalled his grief at losing Fishy then. He had urgently needed some way to vent his boundless inner darkness and his resolve had weakened. 

He had wanted to use Nan Chan as a stepping stone to rid himself of his nauseous inner demons. He hadn't expected to almost reveal something that couldn't be revealed in front of Fishy. The cost of this and provoking Nan Chan's oddities were much more than any potential gain. 

Thinking back on it now, he really felt like it was too late to regret his decision back then. 

If he'd known earlier that Fishy was equipped with resurrection, he could have better spent his time lighting incense sticks instead of going crazy. 

Nonetheless, Yan Jin didn't think it was his fault. He really wasn't a good person, and the darkness at the bottom of his heart was terrifying. But was the Nan Family any good either?

They had spent so long eyeing each other cautiously. Yan Jin could shelve his plans on account of Nan Wei and Chu Ge. Only for Xiao Yu would he never forgive. 

In front of Chu Ge and Nan Wei, he'd a.s.serted that the culprit wasn't the Nan Family, but rather only Nan Chan. However, he felt differently inside. 

Nan Chan had long since become representative of the Nan Family. 

As for the "unprofessional abduction", it wasn't because Nan Chan didn't have the experience to find professionals. 

Those abductors weren't true abductors in the first place. They were criminals who could murder, commit arson, or carry out any unimaginably evil scheme. 

They only knew how to kill. They didn't know to abduct someone. Probably, they had only wanted to abduct Xiao Yu first because they didn't trust the seemingly innocent but dangerous girl. 

The only reason Nan Chan could have selected them wasn't to kidnap Xiao Yu and threaten Yan Jin. Rather, she had wanted——

To directly kill Xiao Yu.