Never once had Sun Jingwei imagined that Bai Luo Yin would invite him out for a meeting. Sun Jingwei himself had always been somewhat interested in what kind of person Bai Luo Yin was since he was after all the General's second son. In terms of what he knew of this young boy, it was based on what little Gu Wei Ting had mentioned to him. As little as he knew of Bai Luo Yin, he also doesn't know much of Bai Luo Yin's mother, Jiang Yuan. Even though she was the General's wife, he seldom had contact with her and from what he did know of her, she was considered an intelligent woman. So without much interaction with either of them, how would he be able to properly pinpoint their personalities?

After they sat down, Sun Jingwei took the initiative to speak first.

"How are cla.s.ses? Tiring?"

"It's okay."

Sun Jingwei softly smiled before taking a sip of his tea.

"My daughter is in her third year of middle school. She's always busy with a thick pile of a.s.signments. It seems, no matter how much she does, it never ends."

"That's unavoidable since she is in the graduating cla.s.s."

Looking at him, Sun Jingwei noticed that Bai Luo Yin was slightly calmer in nature than Gu Hai. And in comparison to the younger military men that he had trained, he seemed more earnest and pa.s.sionate in the way he spoke.

"I've been in the army for a long time so most of the people that I've interacted with are from there. When we do something, it is always clear cut and to the point. In that way, it keeps us moving quicker from one task to the next. Because of that, it's quite rare for us to all sit down and calmly have a chat. So when it comes to times where I have to sit down like this and not feel the need to make a quick and decisive decision, I find it much harder for me to talk. This happens especially when I'm talking to kids around your age since there's a huge difference in the way we think. Therefore, if I've said something wrong, please pardon me."

“Uncle Sun, you’re too polite. You’re an elder, I should have been the one to say those words.”

Sun Jingwei laughed out loud and patted Bai Luo Yin’s shoulder, “Let’s not beat around the bush anymore; it won’t get this conversation anymore. You didn’t come looking for me just to have a chat right?”

Straightening himself up, Bai Luo Yin looked sternly at Sun Jingwei, eyes sparkling with curiosity. 

“Yes! There are some things that I want to ask you.”

Those words piqued Sun Jingwei already curious mind as he looked at Bai Luo Yin with great interest, “What do you want to ask me? Who is it about? The General?”

Bai Luo Yin paused briefly, carefully processing through his thoughts, "The General's late wife."

Once those words escaped his lips, he couldn’t take back. Those seemingly simple words were spoken in such a firm and strong tone that the atmosphere around them became somewhat heavy. So much so, that even Sun Jingwei’s expression was affected by it. In just a split second, it was now riddled with seriousness. His eyes were instantly touched with a gloomy aura that refused to leave. 

“It’s about Gu Hai’s mother,” Bai Luo Yin repeated once again. This time his voice carried a more serious tone since Gu Hai’s name was attached to the sentence. 

Sun Jingwei remained silent for a few more seconds, clearly struck with surprise before he awkwardly smiled. "What made you want to ask about this?"

Bai Luo Yin calmly replied back: "I believe that there exists a huge misunderstanding between Gu Hai and his father. And that misunderstanding lies in his mother. Deep in Gu Hai's heart, there's a direct relations.h.i.+p between his father and his mother's death. I want to clarify Gu Hai's mother died. I want to do all I can, to help Gu Hai get rid of those painful memories and make him acknowledge his own father once more."

A small bit of frustration swamped Sun Jingwei's face, however, as he looked at Bai Luo Yin dead in the eyes; those eyes unyielding eyes that spoke of it own accord. In that moment, he could not help but to feel admiration and appreciation toward the youth before him.

"You're very clever. Choosing such a provocative reason to try and obtain information from me. Your way of thinking is very beautiful, however, even though I sympathize with you, there's not much I can do to help. My hands are tied as it is and I only know so much. I've already talked about this with Xiao Hai countless times, but he simply does not believe me at all. I can't find anymore evidence to prove that the General is innocent. So, I advise you to abandon this idea. Don't let this small matter destroy the peaceful relations.h.i.+p between you two brothers."

"Your words and my words weigh differently in his heart. If I believe that his father is innocent, then I can also talk to him and make him believe that his father is innocent."

Bai Luo Yin's statement was rich with substance, powerful and resonating. It was completely unlike an exaggerated opinion of a child that did not know his own abilities. This child clearly knew the immensity of heaven and earth when he allowed those spirited words to swim out mouth.

With the way spoke, it sounded more like a wise man's deep and subtle way of thinking. Sun Jing Wei's eyes slightly widened as he restrained the movements of his pupils. The expression that crawled unmistakably into his eyes carried with it, a faint but brightly lit astonishment. Now, he better understood why Bai Luo Yin was able to leave such a deep impression in Gu Wei Ting's mind when they had first met.

"Since you wanted to know these things, why don't you just ask Xiao Hai directly? Everything that I know, he also knows. Whether you ask me or ask him, it would still be the same."

"Before I can convince myself, I don't want him to know what I am doing."

Sun Jingwei took a deep breath, his face now revelled with a smile, as if he had come to term with this prospect. "Then, that's good. I will tell you once more. In any case, you are also part of the General's family. This event happened a long time ago, it's really not much of a secret anymore."

In that moment, Bai Luo Yin once unperturbed mind suddenly became somewhat nervous, even tense as if a stabbing sensation was eating into his heart, trying to stop it from pumping. Perhaps, it was because Sun Jingwei was going to once again uncover Gu Hai's deeply engraved wound. The only difference was, this time around, it was Bai Luo Yin, himself, who wanted to replace Gu Hai and experience those unbearable pain again.

"This situation happened three years ago. At that time, the General was in charge of overseeing the engineering of a weapon research and development project. Later on, this military intelligence was discreetly inquired by a foreign military industry magnate. They sent over people to negotiate and wanted the General to sell this secret military information to them. They even went through the painstaking task of listing all kinds of rather generous conditions. But, the General remained unmoved under their subornation.

Afterwards, the General decided to personally delivered this secret military information, so in turn, this brought about the design of two routes, specifically made to throw those overbearing foreign magnate off. Among two vehicles, one of them would be tasked with transporting the fake doc.u.ments. But the thing was, no one knew, not even the military officers that were instructed to escort those doc.u.ments were clueless and unaware. Everyone believed that, that particular vehicle contained the genuine doc.u.ments.

However, in reality, the real secret military information was held tightly within the General's palm. He had worn civilian's clothes and taken a taxi to deliver it. As the proverb says, the most dangerous place, is the safest place, so in this way, no one suspected that taxi. The General effortlessly delivered the secret military information to a safe and secure location. But, the other vehicle met with a mishap. It came to no surprise to the General since he had earlier expected it to happen. He had already guessed that the foreign military industry magnate would not give up or admit failure, so that gave him more reasons to designed these two routes for the vehicles to travel through.

However, what the General had absolutely never thought of was that, his wife, madam Gu, had unexpectedly boarded that vehicle, Moreover, she had sustained serious injuries during the midst of the vicious firefight. She was immediately sent to the hospital but sadly, before she arrived, her breath was gone and she pa.s.sed away.

At that time, Xiao Hai was only fourteen years old, he simply did not believe the news of his mother's death. On top of it all, at the same time, there were all kinds of rumors going on within the military compound. All of which concerned your mother and the General's relations.h.i.+p. These things added on heavily to the suspicion that Xiao Hai already bore in mind. He strongly believed that his mother should have not shown up in that vehicle and even worse, everything that happened was neatly arranged by the General. All of it which was for the sake of a.s.suring the General and your mother would be together without any hindrance. That was how this malicious plan came about and caused the death of his wife."

Listening to everything up to this point, Bai Luo Yin was able to completely understand the reason for why Gu Hai instantly knew that he was Jiang Yuan's son. That was, how he could react and go out of control like that and how he could say those hurtful words.[1]

As it turns out, in his head, there was already a screening of him and Jiang Yuan as enemies. Two people that cannot live under the same sky, everything for him was already absolutely irreconcilable.  

"How did his mother learn of this information? Also, how was she able to catch up with the vehicle so quickly afterwards? Wasn’t the vehicle escorting the secret military information travelling in an especially well designed path? How could she so easily discover the path?"

Bai Luo Yin also harbored some suspicions of his own.

"The fact is, many of us were also perplexed by this sequence of event, since as you can clearly see yourself, it was and is still hard to understand. We've searched through many clues and exhausted all sources but all was to no avail. I, too, cannot help but to think of it in this way, perhaps during that time, madam Gu suddenly had a telepathic moment with the General and felt that he had met with danger, and quickly rushed out to a.s.sist him. Of course, I know that this reason is unreliable, simply absurd, but no matter how much it does not make sense, I believe wholeheartedly that the General is innocent. I can even vouch with my own head. This matter was definitely not something that the General had planned in advance."

The complexion on Bai Luo Yin's handsomely constructed face stiffened with coldness and the tone of his voice bore nothing but harshness, "But your head was not enough to make Gu Hai's thoughts weaken. You can't even convince me."

All of a sudden, Sun Jingwei forced a smile as he laughed bitterly, "This was something that I had just said to you a moment ago. Though I sympathize with you, there's not much I can do to help, my hands are tied. Even if I were to tell you, you would still harbor a suspicious mentality. So, this situation can only be set aside like this. I hope there will come a day, Xiao Hai will suddenly realize, will suddenly understand the General's hards.h.i.+ps. Perhaps, this riddle will involuntary undo itself."

Bai Luo Yin's mindset, even his heart became heavy, until Sun Jingwei took his leave.

It was as if the entire world was crowded inside that small throbbing muscle within his chest. He now knew, the cruel and painful memories that Gu Hai had suffered alone in.  

He hastily rushed back to school.

Fortunately, cla.s.ses had not been dismissed yet and the 'good' thing was, Bai Luo Yin merely skipped two cla.s.ses and nothing more. Standing at the cla.s.sroom's doorway, Bai Luo Yin took several deep breaths. Trying his best to suppress the heaviness in his chest all at once, before he nonchalantly walked in as if nothing had happened.

"What did the teacher in charge of the cla.s.s want with you?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. She just wanted me to write a report."

The dismissal bell rang loudly throughout the school indicating the end of the school day which every students always longed for.

Gu Hai gathered his belongings while continuing to ask: "What report?"

"Wasn't there a consensus that our cla.s.s was selected along with others as outstanding? We need a report introducing the fundamental circ.u.mstances of our cla.s.s. The teacher thought that my writing style is pretty good, so she thought that it was possible for me to do it for her instead."

Gloominess attacked Gu Hai's face, he didn't even bother to try and refrain himself from cursing: "Does she think her student is stupid donkey huh? Something that she can just order around as she pleases?!"

Bai Luo Yin remained silent, not saying anything. He simply picked up his schoolbag, followed Gu Hai and walked out together.  

While they walked, Gu Hai was still complaining, "In the future, if she asks you to do something for her again, you shouldn't do it."

"Why?" Bai Luo Yin thought that Gu Hai took too much care in this.

Gu Hai, on the contrary, was not in a good mood at all, "You're asking why? You wrote that thing for her, yet the other teachers don't even know, so they'd still make you complete their a.s.signments on time."

"It's alright. I write really quick anyways. I can just make up for it later and it'll be fine."

"Doesn't making up your a.s.signments mean you have to spend more time and effort huh? There's not a lot of time after school as it is, now those a.s.signments are just going to occupy half that time."

Due to the fact that there were other students walking in front of and behind them, Gu Hai did not shamelessly say:

If you spend another half an hour on an a.s.signment, that's half an hour less we get to be intimate with each other. Anything or anyone that tries to occupy our time on the bed, will never be spare!

Looking at Gu Hai's unwillingness to spare anyone or listen to reasons, Bai Luo Yin could not help but to reply back, "Can you stop wasting time? You sound just like a bunch of nagging girls."

"Did you just say I'm a nagging girl again huh?"

Gu Hai had every intention to use his own skillful yet murderous hands to stealthily jab Bai Luo Yin's p.e.n.i.s, but Bai Luo Yin's reaction was a lot swifter than his. Bai Luo Yin jetted off ahead, out of that mischievous boy's grip. 

As he ran away at full speed, he would turn around occasionally to look at Gu Hai's somewhat surprise appearance. While there was a slight pout on Gu Hai's disapproving lip, Bai Luo Yin himself wore a beautiful cheery smile. Like a pouncing wolf, Gu Hai urgently leaped forward several times, chasing after him.

On the road, the two talked and laughed cheerfully, enjoying their moments together. Today, Gu Hai feigned laziness and bluntly said that wanted to eat out. This certainly brightened Bai Luo Yin's entire face causing him to immediately become excited.

But……

In reality, he did not have an appet.i.te at all.

Right now, no matter what he was given, it would all taste the same. However, in order to make sure Gu Hai could not see through him, he stubbornly shoved three big bowls of rice, one after the other, into his mouth. Afterward, he even bought a big pile of snacks.

As they continued on the road, he happily ate, to suppress his surging emotions.

Translator's Note:

[1] Yin Zi is referring to when he and Gu Hai found out about Jiang Yuan's relations.h.i.+p to Yin Zi and how Gu Hai was p.i.s.sed off yet still he was unable to understand why at that time.

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