Chapter 103: Qin Liang’s Parents Return

Tang Yunle’s gaze slid from the photo frame to the bookshelf next to the desk. Just now, she had been so focused on the photo frame that she hadn’t even noticed this row of floor-to-ceiling shelves.

She got closer and found that most of the spines of the books on the bookshelf were printed with cold and unusual titles—”The Study of Consciousness After Death,” “An Examination of the Boundary of the Styx,” “The Theory of the Soul’s Dimension,” “The Possibility of the Existence of Heaven and Hell,” and “The Three Great Conjectures on Where People Go After Death.”

It was a uniform collection of works that explored the world after death. She had never expected that Qin Liang would actually like such books.

She had thought that he would like novels like “Yang Shen,” “Battle Through the Heavens,” “Lord of the Mysteries,” and “Reverend Insanity” like she did.

The girl casually glanced at a few of them, but her peripheral vision caught a deep red wooden box squeezed between two rows of books on the top shelf, with a bit of a dark red tassel peeking out from the edge.

“What’s this?”

she muttered to herself.

She raised her hand to grab it, but unfortunately, the height was a bit higher than her tiptoes and outstretched arm.

Tang Yunle’s eyes rolled. She glanced at the chair by the desk, dragged it over, and stepped on it.

The box was heavier than she had imagined. She carefully carried it down. When she jumped to the ground, she almost tripped on the leg of the chair.

The surface of the wooden box was carved with fine cloud patterns, and the corners were a little worn and shiny, as if they had been repeatedly rubbed.

Tang Yunle placed it on the desk and secretly glanced back a few times. After confirming that there was no one around, she wanted to open it.

But just as she was about to do so, she found that the box was locked.

Meanwhile, outside the examination room.

The man was sitting quietly on the waiting chair, but the young man beside him was pacing anxiously, making fine sounds.

“Little bro, don’t panic. This is just a pre-operative examination, not the operating table.”

“The doctor needs to refine the surgical plan based on your physical data.”

“Relax. You’ve survived the past few times when the success rate was even lower. Medical technology has improved a lot in recent years. This time, a conservative estimate is a seventy percent chance of success.”

Qin Wen comforted him in a gentle voice, trying to make the young man less anxious.

Qin Liang paused his steps. He turned his face to the side, his brows furrowed with an inerasable gloom, and he sighed lightly.

“Little bro, your mind seems to be in a mess,” Qin Wen said.

“Yes, it’s a mess.”

At this point, Qin Liang took a deep breath. His ice-blue pupils shone with a cold light in the corridor lights.

He looked at the young man on the chair, his expression exceptionally serious. “Brother, if, and I mean if, I don’t make it this time, Ah Le… can you help me take care of her?”

“Don’t say such depressing things. You’ve already overcome the fifty percent success rate hurdle before. This time it’s seventy percent. For you, it’s practically a sure win.”

“Bro!” Qin Liang’s tone became heavier.

“Alright,” Qin Wen compromised. “If something really happens… those two little ones you brought back, I’ll definitely treat them well, just like my own pets.”

“Not as pets. Yanhuo can be, but Ah Le is different. She’s not my female pet. She’s also my friend, and…”

Qin Liang’s eyes closed slightly. In his mind, countless images instantly surged: Tang Yunle’s drunken, red-eyed, and crying appearance, her flushed cheeks when she had a cold and fever, and her soft and pitiful appearance as she snuggled in his arms, calling him ‘daddy’ with a nasal voice.

Perhaps only in the moment of facing death can a person peel off all their disguises and see the hottest thoughts in their heart.

I kind of like her.

Without the constraints of the so-called pure love clause, without the shackles of a good brother’s friendship, and without the resistance of knowing her past identity.

At this moment, only liking remained in his heart, as pure as a sky washed by rain.

He liked Tang Yunle.

He couldn’t say when it had started. Perhaps it was the accumulation of their time together, or perhaps it was because she, in her black-stockinged bunny girl outfit, always liked to snuggle into his arms, or perhaps it was when she was acting cute and calling him “daddy”…

He only knew that he had really fallen for her.

He liked her obedience, he liked her liveliness, and he especially liked her sweet and soft appearance when she looked up and called him “daddy.”

After saying this, Qin Liang felt as if all the pent-up turbidity in his chest had dissipated. It was as if he had broken through layers of clouds and fog and had finally seen a clear sky.

There was no concealment, only the most sincere feelings were revealed.

“Alright, alright.”

Qin Wen stood up and walked to his side. At 1.8 meters, he was more than half a head taller than Qin Liang. He raised his hand and rubbed the young man’s hair, his tone a little teasing.

“Why does this sound like a cliché life-and-death scene from a bad movie? Don’t jinx it. If you have the time to say this to me, you might as well think about how to live and say it to her in person.”

The warmth of his palm came through his hair. Qin Liang, who was already an adult, turned his head a little uncomfortably, but he didn’t dodge.

“My foolish little brother,” Qin Wen smiled. “How long have you been in college, and you’ve changed quite a bit.”

“Just think about the past few times, with a forty or fifty percent success rate, me and Mom and Dad were so anxious. But you were so calm, you could even play on your phone. This time, there’s a conservative seventy percent success rate, and you’re the one who’s in a mess.”

“Who is it for? That little female pet of yours named Tang Yunle?”

“Hahaha, I never thought my foolish little brother would have this day.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, let me think. After we get home, will my foolish little brother start the once-every-three-years, must-have suicide note writing session again?”

“Crying his eyes out while writing a suicide note: ‘Dad, Mom, brother,'”

“‘I love you. You must burn all my toys for me. And you have to burn new snacks and new toys every year.'”

Being reminded of his past embarrassing moments, Qin Liang’s ears burned slightly.

“Let me think. There was another time, you even said you wanted to have your ashes made into a firework and send yourself to the sky.”

“Just like that screen name you picked, ‘Life as a summer flower, death as a firework.’ Hahaha!!”

“Bro!”

Qin Liang looked up, bristling, but he met the amusement in Qin Wen’s eyes. The worry and gentleness hidden in them were like warm water flowing over his heart, and he swallowed the complaint that was on the tip of his tongue.

Qin Wen looked at his reddened earlobes and finally stopped teasing him. He just raised his hand and rubbed his hair, as he had done countless times when he was a child.

“Let’s go, it’s time to go back.”

“Mom and Dad are coming back tomorrow. You should also spend some time with them. Mom and Dad are also very worried about you.”

The next day, Qin’s father and Qin’s mother arrived home. Tang Yunle also learned from Qin Liang that Qin’s father’s name was Qin Junye, and Qin’s mother’s name was Li Guwan.

Qin Liang spent the whole day talking with his parents. The family of four was happy and harmonious. During the day, they went fishing together. In the afternoon, they sat quietly with a book in their hands. At night, they sat around the dining table and chatted. There were no quarrels, no barriers, as if there was no family more harmonious than this.

Qin Liang was very happy.

However, Tang Yunle was not happy.

Why?

Because Qin Liang was spending more time with his family, and less time with her.

Although she knew that it was normal to spend time with one’s family, and she herself had even had conflicts with Qin Liang because of her family in this world. But watching Qin Liang with his family, the four of them so happy and harmonious, even when she was sitting at the dining table, she felt like an outsider.

Her heart felt as if it were blocked by something, heavy.