TLSMLMMM Chapter 18

It was the first time Assistant Xu had ever driven so recklessly. They were only two streets away from the hotel when, right before the next intersection, he saw a wall of stalled traffic blocking the road.

“Take another route!” Xu snapped, turning the steering wheel sharply only to see several black cars closing in from behind, completely cutting off their escape.

Before he could react, the man in the passenger seat had already flung open the door and bolted toward the hotel like a madman. The big wolfdog in the back seat leapt out right after him, swiftly chasing after Chu Junlie.

Leaning out the window, Assistant Xu watched as Chu Junlie lost one of his shoes mid-sprint but didn’t even slow down, didn’t even look back. The wolfdog grabbed the fallen shoe in its jaws and continued running after him.

In one breathless rush, Chu Junlie charged up to the hotel’s third floor. With a loud bang, he threw open the doors to the banquet hall and stood there at the entrance, trying to steady his breathing as every guest in the room turned to look at him.

He could see it clearly on the stage, Mr. Si was standing opposite Yan An. In Yan An’s hand was a ring—the same ring he and Mr. Si had custom-made for their engagement.

The hall fell utterly silent. Under the weight of everyone’s stares, Chu Junlie didn’t need to look down to know how disheveled he must appear.

His hair was a mess. His suit had been torn by bodyguards, speckled with traces of blood. He was missing one shoe. Every inch of him screamed humiliation and ruin.

But none of that mattered.

Lifting his head, Chu Junlie locked eyes with the man on stage. The image of that recurring dream flashed through his mind, and his vision burned red at the rims.

Was it still in time?

Would Mr. Si standing there among all these well-dressed, dignified guests still be willing to accept someone as battered and disgraceful as him?

“Mr. Si…”

Chu Junlie pressed his thin lips together, trying hard to hold back his tears. His eyes were red as he limped toward the stage under the watchful eyes of hundreds of guests.

Liefeng carried Chu Junlie’s shoe in its mouth. Watching its master’s uneven steps, it lifted one front paw, imitating him, and hopped along with a limp.

Mr. and Mrs. Yan were the first to rise from their seats. They hurriedly stepped in front of Chu Junlie, their eyes wide.

“Chu Junlie, what do you think you’re doing! This is your brother’s engagement party!”

“Is that so?” Chu Junlie’s face was cold. Liefeng bared its sharp teeth at them, a low growl rumbling in its throat.

The Yan couple instinctively took two steps back. Yan An’s face turned pale, he had no idea how Chu Junlie had escaped from the villa. When he turned toward the man on stage, he was startled to find Si Yunyi’s expression as calm and gentle as ever, even as he looked at the limping man and dog approaching.

“Brother Yunyi.” Yan An fought to steady his unease and lowered his voice as he spoke to Si Yunyi.

“Don’t let him affect you. We should just continue what we were doing. Otherwise, don’t blame me for telling everyone here about your grandfather’s condition right now.”

Si Yunyi’s gaze lowered slightly as he looked at Yan An.

“When my father visited your grandfather before, he already noticed something unusual. Later, we spent a great deal of money and effort to get a hold of your grandfather’s medical records,” Yan An whispered under the cover of the music, his eyes gleaming with threat.

“You know exactly what we have. That’s why your family kept backing down about the marriage. The Si family — your career’s ruined because you offended the Li family, your grandfather has Alzheimer’s, your older brother shakes just standing on a stage, and the rest of your younger relatives are a complete mess…”

Yan An leaned closer to Si Yunyi’s ear, a smug smile curling his lips. “Brother Yunyi, your Si family has no one left. What do you think will happen if I reveal your grandfather’s illness in front of all these guests and your family’s shareholders?”

Si Yunyi glanced down at Chu Junlie, who stood below the stage, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes, trying so hard to stay composed. Then his gaze calmly shifted back to Yan An. He spoke in a low voice:

“Do you see the flower basket in the flower boy’s hands?”

Yan An frowned and turned to look. The flower boy holding the rings stood nearby and beneath the petals in the basket, something seemed to be hidden.

Yan An bent down and brushed the petals aside. Beneath them lay a toxicology report.

“You tried to poison Chu Junlie once, but failed,” Si Yunyi said evenly. “If I’m not mistaken, he took a sample of the poison from your house and tested it on a mouse.”

He looked down at Yan An from above, his eyes calm but cold.

“The cosmetic hospital under your family’s name was robbed a few days ago. You still haven’t released the details of what was stolen.”

“I haven’t even read the toxicology report,” he continued, “but I can guess what substance you used.”

He leaned in slightly, his tone unhurried.

“Undiluted botulinum toxin incubation period twelve to thirty-six hours. Mild cases cause dizziness and muscle weakness; severe cases result in respiratory paralysis and death. And you must’ve used some anesthetics too to control Chu Junlie’s movements.”

Yan An’s expression froze. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the crowd of hundreds and struggled to steady his breathing.

“Poisoning. Unlawful imprisonment. Your whole family would be implicated.” Si Yunyi’s gaze flicked toward the stage below.

“And I assume you also told Chu Junlie that he isn’t truly part of the Yan family.”

“You…” Yan An’s throat went dry, a shadow of dread enveloping him.

“If you want mutual destruction,” Si Yunyi said, turning his gaze to the dazed old Mr. Si sitting nearby, “go ahead. Try it.”

His voice was still gentle and cold, but it made Yan An’s limbs go numb with fear.

Si Yunyi rose from his seat, stepped away from Yan An, and smiled slightly.

“So now, please put down the ring.

“And get off the stage.”

Chu Junlie watched as Yan An, dazed and stiff, placed the ring down and awkwardly stepped off the stage. Then a hand reached out from above pale and slender.

Following the hand upward, Chu Junlie met the eyes of the man he had longed for so deeply.

“Mr. Si…” His chest surged with emotion as he tightly grasped Si Yunyi’s hand and stepped onto the stage.

The guests watched in shock as the groom changed before their eyes. Murmurs rippled through the hall. Many of Yan An’s relatives and friends, seeing their well-mannered, handsome young man replaced by this “simple, rustic” eldest son who’d grown up in the countryside, began to hiss and jeer.

They had come to attend Yan An’s engagement not this country bumpkin’s.

Chu Junlie quickly picked up the ring, carefully wiped it clean, and earnestly placed it on Si Yunyi’s finger. Si Yunyi took the other ring but paused just before sliding it onto Chu Junlie’s hand.

Chu Junlie nervously looked at the booing crowd below, then at Si Yunyi again, his eyes filled with unease and sincere pleading.

They all thought he wasn’t good enough that he didn’t deserve Mr. Si, that he could never compare to Yan An. They opposed this marriage, and Mr. Si had heard every word.

“Mr. Si,” Chu Junlie said, his breath unsteady, eyes clear and honest.

“I’ll be good.”

Don’t listen to them. Take me away.

“Before,” Si Yunyi said quietly, looking into his eyes, “I knew you were in danger but I didn’t stop you.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Chu Junlie blurted. “You warned me already. It was me — I still had hope for them, I didn’t see their true faces, I didn’t listen to you properly!”

His voice trembled, then softened. His gaze grew gentle, submissive, and pleading.

“I’ll listen to you from now on.”

“You don’t need to listen to anyone,” Si Yunyi murmured, lowering his eyes as he slid the ring onto Chu Junlie’s finger.

“You’ll always be free.”

Watching the two men on stage exchange engagement rings, several of the Yan family’s relatives stood up and left. Others stayed, staring at the pair with the eager eyes of those watching a farce.

The aloof and proud Si Yunyi of the Si family, together with that country bumpkin from the Yan family?

No matter how you looked at it, they didn’t match.

The master of ceremonies, with nerves of steel, moved on to the next part of the program and presented the marriage document.

Si Yunyi signed his name, then handed the brush to Chu Junlie. Chu Junlie lowered his head and carefully wrote his name, stroke by stroke.

This time, it wasn’t a rehearsal. It was real.

The cameraman zoomed in on the document, and the image was projected on the large screen behind the couple. Many of the guests, after seeing Si Yunyi’s elegant handwriting and then Chu Junlie’s clumsy scrawl, couldn’t help but laugh mockingly.

A bumpkin was still a bumpkin.

He couldn’t even write his own name properly.

When it came time to drink the engagement wine, Yan An whispered something to his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Yan forced a smile, raised their glasses, and after drinking, left in a hurry.

Chu Junlie looked at Si Yunyi across from him, his eyes shining with the light of someone who had survived a catastrophe. Without hesitation, he drank the wine in his hand.

Si Yunyi lowered his gaze and took a light sip from his own cup.

The story in the book, he had already changed its beginning.

Chu Junlie had not married into a Si family branch, and he himself had not retired early to travel the world as written in the novel.

Most of the Si family had been preserved.

From here on, all he needed to do was treat Chu Junlie well, let him live peacefully for these three years, help him seize the opportunities he deserved and when Chu Junlie finally met his true love, he would quietly propose a divorce. The Si family would then survive this storm intact.

But Yan An hadn’t been wrong about one thing.

Grandfather Si’s illness couldn’t be hidden much longer. In the book, he had less than a year left. And as for himself, if fate followed the same course, he would have only three years.

The Si family needed someone strong enough to carry it forward.

“Mr. Si.”

Chu Junlie’s soft voice pulled Si Yunyi from his thoughts.

Si Yunyi looked up to see Chu Junlie gazing intently at the engagement wine in his hand.

“Mr. Si, you don’t seem to like drinking,” he said cautiously. “Can I finish yours for you? Please?”

Si Yunyi was silent for a moment, then handed him the glass.

Chu Junlie’s face lit up. He took the cup with both hands and happily drank the remaining wine, his expression so gleeful it was as if he had tasted something divine — his whole demeanor bright and wagging like an excited puppy’s tail.

Si Yunyi’s expression remained calm as his eyes drifted to the large gray-blue dog still pretending to limp. The dog, sensing his gaze, bared its teeth at him and standing on one paw blatantly switched to limping on the other.

It probably didn’t realize who it was baring its teeth at.

Si Yunyi said nothing, his gaze cool as he gave the unneutered dog a brief, indifferent glance, then led Chu Junlie over to toast the honored guests.

By the time the engagement banquet ended, the Yan family hadn’t shown up again. As evening fell, Si Yunyi drove Chu Junlie back to his rented apartment.

Chu Junlie, tipsy and red-eyed, clung to the car door and refused to get out.

“Mr. Si,” he said, eyes glistening, “you said before… you could take me to stay with you.”

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Author’s Note:
(The details about botulinum toxin poisoning were confirmed with an attending physician from the Affiliated Hospital of Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.)

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