In the end, Ah Da chose not to give in. After all, it was himself who said that she didn't have to give anything if she didn't want to. To comply would mean draining her little vault dry, and Ah Da had no idea whether Qin Yu was telling the truth or not, or if those little skirts were truly worth that much money.
Anyhow, since he had the final say in everything, what was there to agonize over? Ah Da simply decided to follow his will, storming off to reclaim her incense burner and, before leaving, also took the Luminous Pearl with her.
She wouldn't leave even one Pearl for this blood-sucking capitalist!
The two of them were at a standoff over this matter for several days, and Qin Yu started leaving early and returning late after the spring festival holiday ended.
Having spent a considerable amount of time in the villa, Ah Da was growing bolder and would sometimes sneak out. During this period, she absorbed incense nightly and had stored quite a bit of Spiritual Power. To her, opening doors and avoiding detection was not difficult.
When the servants once again came to Uncle Wen, trembling with the news that things in the house were missing from time to time, Uncle Wen realized the seriousness of the situation. Could it be that the villa had actually been burglarized?
Uncle Wen decisively interrogated every servant, worker, and guard in the villa. He also personally oversaw a review of the surveillance footage over the past week. Unfortunately, they discovered nothing, and the items just vanished into thin air.
In the evening, Qin Yu returned to the villa after work. Long Jiu, Long Qi, and several directors of the corporation all followed behind him with their briefcases, seemingly with more work-related matters to attend to. Uncle Wen could only briefly put aside the villa's strange occurrences and led the servants to serve tea and snacks.
Their business did not conclude until past nine o'clock. The directors, one by one, emerged from the villa with pale faces and drenched in sweat, following behind Long Jiu and Long Qi, no less stressed than if they had just endured torture.
Qin Yu leaned back in the sofa, his hand propping his forehead lightly, massaging his brow, appearing somewhat fatigued. Uncle Wen approached to ask if he wanted to have some supper.
"No need," Qin Yu said without opening his eyes.
Uncle Wen then proceeded to brief Qin Yu on recent events.
"In recent times, some of the fruits, beverages, and prepared snacks in the villa have frequently gone missing. I've checked everyone and the surveillance, but found nothing unusual. It's peculiar. I must also say, it's a shame that I'm getting old and can't make heads or tails of it. This matter will need the young master's decision," he said humbly, bending at the waist. He managed all the affairs, big and small, of the villa, and such occurrences were his responsibility.
Qin Yu opened his eyes, his abyss-like phoenix eyes sharp as a sword. Then, as if he thought of something, he smiled like the thawing snow in early spring, "Uncle Wen, don't worry about this matter."
Uncle Wen frowned, not quite understanding, "Does the young master mean... to let it go?"
Could the young master know who the culprit was? It certainly seemed like he intended to protect someone.
"Mm," Qin Yu lowered his gaze and eyebrows.
Uncle Wen inhaled sharply, always feeling that the young master was hiding something. Nonetheless, as a longstanding butler of the Qin Family, not prying into the private matters of the household was fundamental.
Uncle Wen attempted another question, "Then should we prepare more of those items according to the person's liking?"
Qin Yu chuckled and shook his head lightly, "No need."
More would just go to waste. Her stomach was so small; perhaps she had already taken the leftovers back with her.
There was a hint of work-weary intoxication on Qin Yu's face, and it seemed not solely from that, after a little while, he stood up, took his coat, and headed upstairs.
"Uncle Wen, you should rest early too."
"Yes, young master." Uncle Wen stood there for a long time, still unable to comprehend the twists and turns of the matter. When had there been an additional person in the home, and how had he never seen her?
Qin Yu went upstairs to his bedroom, didn't see the young girl, and without seeing Xiao Yu, he undid his tie and walked straight into the bathroom.
The incense burner's inhabitant, Ah Da, heard the noise and her ears twitched. She then twisted her tiny body around, choosing to ignore it.
She wouldn't go out, nor did she desire to interact with him. Gazing upon the giant dessert placed on the Jade bed, Ah Da's heart blossomed with joy—it was something she had moved back after immense struggle. Previously, while wandering around the villa, she had inadvertently caught a whiff of a fragrance, and after tasting it, she discovered a new world.
It was so delicious, how could there be something this delectable in the world? Ah Da kept watch for several days, each time only taking one piece. She didn't dare take more, and on several occasions, she had wanted to soften towards Qin Yu and confess, because stealing wasn't right.
Becoming addicted to eating food was the conclusion Ah Da had reached after emerging from the incense burner.
People don't eat solely out of hunger; most of the time, it's to satisfy their desire for taste. Besides, eating could truly bring immediate happiness.
The simplest and most cost-free joy.
Ah Da looked at the grapes, pastries, and fresh flower cakes piled in the small space, and imagined two little people fighting in her mind.
One argued righteously that all these were illicit gains, taken without asking, and could not be eaten. The other said Qin Yu had bullied her to tears, so eating his food shouldn't carry any burden; moreover, she had already eaten before—what did one more or one less time matter?
As the dispute went unresolved, Ah Da decided to fall asleep, putting it off until tomorrow. At worst, she would take the Luminous Pearl out and confess to Qin Yu.
Tonight, Qin Yu had purposefully not lit the incense, intending to lie in bed and wait for a certain little glutton to come out and admit her guilt. Unexpectedly, he accidentally fell asleep.
In his dreams, Qin Yu returned to that wintry rainy night.
After leaving the hospital, he came home. The piercing cold wind grazed his cheek, and the wound covered on his ear throbbed with pain, spreading across half his face. Sitting in the empty living room, he vaguely heard Uncle Wen saying something about mourning properly and living well.
After the car accident, he was lucky to be alive, but someone had died.
The construction vehicle rushing towards him, the sharp screech of the emergency brakes, and the next moment being hugged in his arms...
Something was shattered...
A woman's feeble voice rose in his ear, mixed with the acrid smell of blood, and the world turned red.
The scene shifted, and Qin Huaiming came with the doctor, everyone saying he had post-traumatic stress from the accident, and his mind had irreversible damage that required treatment abroad.
This scene replayed countless times in his dreams, over and over like a curse determined to make him remember for life. There was a switch in his brain, tightly closed when awake, but opened during midnight dreams, and the bloodstained memories and those two familiar faces would storm in.
Trapped in such nightmares—pain, fear, uncontrollable, unable to escape...
At that moment, an icy cold little hand suddenly covered his burning forehead, the sweet fruity scent diluting the bloody odor, and a moment of lucidity pulled Qin Yu back from his dream.
The tension in his body gradually relaxed.
Sensing that the hand was about to withdraw, Qin Yu suddenly grasped it, his eyes snapping open, and a tender cry of pain erupted in the room, "Ouch!"
Sweat seeped into his eyes, stinging them, and under the silver moonlight, Qin Yu saw a young girl lying on top of him. Seventeen or eighteen years old, her jet-black hair flowed like satin down her back, wrapping around her, with a tiny, delicate face, and big glass amber eyes full of alarm.
Qin Yu's heart tightened.
The girl was wearing a loose white shirt with mismatched, askew buttons, exposing her dainty collarbone. The shirt just barely covered her thighs, and her fair, slender legs were curled up on the blanket.
Ink-black hair, snow-white skin—such a peerless face in the quiet deep night made the scene particularly demonically enchanting.