YiHan fainted from overexertion. He didn't know how long JingYuan went on for. He wasn't able to get out of bed at all the next morning. Thankfully, he had worse bouts of lazing in bed. He also had a really bad temper when woken up, so no one came to disturb him. Otherwise, his relationship with JingYuan could've been easily exposed.
JingYuan had grabbed a bowl of congee from the kitchen and fed it to YiHan by his bed for breakfast. Then, he soothed YiHan to sleep again before, finally, heading back to his own guest bedroom.
He took out his phone and called a number in his contacts. "Chen Hong, look into a woman for me. Tao Qi. I want all information on her within three days. Also, how's the investigation into Feng Qun going?"
"There's nothing special about Feng Qun. He's not particularly good at anything, but he really did know how to have fun and enjoy himself. He would play anything, do anything. If I really have to pinpoint something suspicious about him, it would be the incident roughly a month ago when someone secretly contacted him," Chen Hong responded from the other end of the phone call.
JingYuan's gaze sharpened. "Who is it?"
"The person wasn't familiar to me, but I followed the leads and found him to be someone from the Qi family's branch family. However, nothing really came from that secret meetup as Feng Qun never did anything afterwards. Not long after, Little Master broke off all ties with Feng Qun and the Qi family withdrew," Chen Hong replied.
"The Qi family…" JingYuan's voice went low. "Just as I thought. It's them. They bribed Feng Qun. They had schemes in place against HanHan, but then when they saw HanHan ignoring Feng Qun for good, they gave up on that path."
"That should be it," Hong said.
"Put the matter of Feng Qun aside for now. Investigate Tao Qi. I want to know every single thing about her. From her childhood to now, from her family's situation and all the way to who she knows."
"Yes, Mr Mu," Chen Hong said in a very professional tone.
"Also, teach the group of rich kids led by Li Sun a lesson. Make them know their own limits so they won't ever upset HanHan again."
"Yes, Mr Mu," Chen Hong repeated.
JingYuan hung up and a dark cloud overtook his face. It was the Qi family behind the scheme against his little one. However, they've already bought over Feng Qun. Why did they paint him as the villain while hypnotising HanHan then? Not only would it kill off one of their pawns, it'd tip the Bai family off. It made no sense. If it's Qi MingYang behind it, why would such a minor mistake be made? The other man was a very careful and thorough man.
Could the mistake be caused by something out of the other's control?
Perhaps the hypnotism could be completely controlled. There were many tiny details about it that could be emphasised by HanHan's subconscious. HanHan was already cautious about Feng Qun. After that escalated, of course the younger man thought the other was a villain. This was the only explanation that made some sort of sense as of now.
If that was the case, that meant the hypnotism wasn't invincible. Once real life turned out to be drastically different to what happened while HanHan was hypnotised, once HanHan felt cared for and safe, then he would be able to separate dream from reality!
As JingYuan pondered, he let out a soft sigh. While an obedient little HanHan was very cute, it made his heart ache so much. He would rather have his HanHan turn back into the sensitive, easily frazzled little porcupine from before than to see his lost gaze with tears streaking down his cheeks again.
JingYuan's mind flashed back to YiHan on that morning. Hands dripping with blood. Glass shard raised. Tears rolling down his cheeks. Two soulless eyes blankly staring back at him. JingYuan's heart throbbed. TianYang was correct. If he loved someone, he must protect them from a role as close to the other as possible. It would be extremely dangerous to let anyone else be in that role! (TianYang: That's not what I meant!)
That Tao Qi…
JingYuan squinted his eyes. She's not as simple and naive as she looked. She could keep a leash on a mean dog like Li Sun. How could she be simple? She acted so pure and naive that even he was nearly taken in. Was her appearance truly a coincidence?