Chapter 25 Brother Complex Warning.

“Ye Xiaoyang, you were actually the spy!” Qian Jiayun’s tone was full of grievance.

“You’re the spy, aren’t you?” Ye Xiaoyang gave a cold snort.

“I know my own hidden card clearly.”

“You say you’re a loyalist, so I’m the spy?” Ye Xiaoyang said. “This logic works the same flipped around. Because I’m a loyalist, there’s still one spy left on the field—you.”

“First, from beginning to end I was showing loyalty to the lord.” Ye Xiaoyang spoke with perfect logic. “Second, just now you killed Lü Meng. The other party was a loyalist. You’re the one with ulterior motives, and now you still want to put on a show in front of the lord and say I’m the spy.”

“Everything I did from beginning to end was good. Don’t slander me.”

“Damn damn damn, Ye Xiaoyang, you spy. You actually made me take the blame.”

Luo Yi was a bit dazed. How had these two started arguing?

Speaking of it, if Zhou Jiahang wasn’t the spy, then one of Ye Xiaoyang and Qian Jiayun had to be the spy.

“Um…” Luo Yi gathered her cards and said softly, “Shouldn’t we kill the rebels first now?”

This true-and-false Monkey King situation, Luo Yi really couldn’t sort out. She might as well solve the rebels first. At this stage the spy and the loyalist’s goals should be the same.

With Ye Xiaoyang there, the other two rebels were simply easy to catch.

After the rebel camp failed, there were still one lord, one loyalist, and one spy on the field. The game continued.

Luo Yi sat on the mountain and watched the tigers fight. Neither Ye Xiaoyang nor Qian Jiayun was willing to admit they were the spy, so the two of them could only beat each other up.

Sima Yi was a meat-selling type of general. In a one-on-one there was simply no pressure. Qian Jiayun was not his opponent.

When the last drop of blood was gone, Qian Jiayun “pa” flipped open her identity card—sure enough, she was a loyalist.

Luo Yi’s heart sank. It was over. She had allowed the spy to frame the loyal and good.

On the field there was only her, this puppet lord, and the spy who held power over the court. You could guess with your toes that Ye Xiaoyang was certain to win this round.

“Ah ah ah, so angry.” Qian Jiayun wished she could go pinch Ye Xiaoyang’s neck.

Ye Xiaoyang was very calm. He no longer concealed his spy identity either. The mutual attacks with Qian Jiayun just now had only been what the game needed.

Luo Yi admired him from the bottom of her heart. Although she was about to be harmed by a treacherous minister, she had to say it—Ye Xiaoyang played really well.

Not only was his game skill good, his grasp of people’s hearts was also very precise.

Ye Xiaoyang wasn’t in a hurry to kill her. Instead he slowly hung a Lightning card and passed.

Lightning striking once was three drops of blood. Looking at the two of them’s currently remaining health, whoever got struck by Lightning would die on the spot. There would be no saving them.

“Brother, aren’t you too vicious?” Wang Changze moved behind Ye Xiaoyang to look at the cards. “Besides Xiao Qiao never getting hit by Lightning, who else can play Lightning cards with Sima Yi?”

The rule of the Lightning card was to draw a judgment card at the start of the turn. If it was in the range of Spade 2 to 9, that meant you were hit by Lightning. If not, the Lightning transferred to the next person.

The thing was, Sima Yi’s skill was that before the judgment card took effect, he could play a card to replace it.

Rounded up, it meant if Sima Yi wanted you to die you would die, and if he didn’t want you to die you couldn’t die either.

Luo Yi nervously drew a card. The moment she flipped it open, the corners of her mouth twitched.

Did she have to be this unlucky? Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrived—Spade 3!

She had thought Ye Xiaoyang would personally change the card and strike her to death. She hadn’t expected she would strike herself to death.

She was just about to say she had lost when Ye Xiaoyang interrupted her words. “Change card.”

He tossed out a Heart 9.

Wang Changze: “Are you crazy?”

Victory was within easy reach, and he actually saved the lord back.

Had he played loyalist for so long that he had gone too deep into the role?

Zhou Jiahang of course knew Ye Xiaoyang’s little thoughts. He said, “Luo Yi is playing for the first time. We should yield a little to her.”

This 1v1 contest’s strength disparity was too large. Ye Xiaoyang letting water flow was known to everyone.

When it was Ye Xiaoyang’s turn to draw the judgment card, he lazily lifted a corner. Unexpectedly it was Spade 8.

“Hahaha, how are you two both this unlucky!” Wang Changze clapped and cheered.

Ye Xiaoyang flipped his hand cards down and said, “I lost.”

Wang Changze: “?”

“You’re not changing the card?” The people around all found it strange.

“I only have spade cards left in my hand,” Ye Xiaoyang said lightly.

Wang Changze didn’t believe it. He took them to look. He actually held a whole hand of spade cards!

Even if he changed the card, it would still be death.

Then why had he just played the only heart card in his hand to Luo Yi? Why not keep it to save his own life?

Luo Yi blinked in disbelief.

Ye Xiaoyang… lost?

And he was struck to death by the Lightning he himself had hung? The cleverness backfired?

No.

Even if she only half-understood the game rules, she could completely see how ridiculous it was for Sima Yi to die to Lightning.

Ye Xiaoyang had deliberately sent her the win.

Her heart felt a bit warm, and a bit angry.

But thinking about it, Ye Xiaoyang sending her the win hadn’t violated anyone’s interests. He was his own faction. Losing was losing alone. It only benefited the few loyalists already lying as corpses on the field and her, this silly one.

Zhou Jiahang hadn’t forgotten the principle of this birthday banquet. After playing one round, he stood up laughing and said, “The song I requested is up. You guys play. I’m going to sing.”

After he left, there was no one between Luo Yi and Ye Xiaoyang.

Ye Xiaoyang quietly shifted a little toward her side. Qian Jiayun laughingly pushed Luo Yi. “Sit over that way. It’s so crowded here.”

Pushed so lightly, Luo Yi’s entire person leaned onto Ye Xiaoyang.

Her face immediately turned red.

Ai. She shouldn’t have come over.

For no reason, she was attracted to him again.

She had already tried her best these past few days not to think too much. But as soon as she quieted down, her whole mind was the scene of the two of them in the water room that day.

Under the hazy, ambiguous lights, the fluorescent glow of the screen fell on his upright side profile.

From her angle, she could even see his distinct eyelashes slightly lowered.

Luo Yi hurriedly looked away. She told herself to stay calm.

Ye Xiaoyang was that composed. She couldn’t throw her own formation into chaos and let people laugh.

Ye Xiaoyang was only pretending to be composed on the surface. Although he was playing cards, his mind was completely not on them.

That clear, sweet scent on Luo Yi’s body lingered around his nose, making his heart itch fuzzily.

Ye Xiaoyang found it hard to clearly say why he liked her.

Perhaps it was the restlessness of adolescence, and she happened to be like an innocent little deer that had wandered in.

Or perhaps it was that from childhood until now he had never met this type of girl, yet he just happened to be fond of this type.

But thinking it over and over, Ye Xiaoyang discovered he couldn’t find a suitable reason.

Liking was just liking. If you had to add those strange labels, then it wouldn’t be pure anymore.

Everyone played until evening. The hotel prepared a simple meal. After eating, they prepared to scatter.

Luo Yi had to first go to her aunt’s house to get things, so she could only part ways with Qian Jiayun first.

By the time she packed her personal things, she discovered everyone had already mostly left.

Walking outside the hotel, the sky suddenly became densely covered with dark clouds.

From between the cloud layers came rumbling thunder. She hadn’t brought an umbrella.

Luo Yi stood under the hotel corridor eaves looking left and right when suddenly a black umbrella covered over.

She lifted her eyes and discovered it was Ye Xiaoyang.

“Leaving?” he asked.

“Mm.” Luo Yi lowered her head and stared at her toes.

Actually after an afternoon of games, she and he weren’t as distant as they had been the past few days.

But talking face to face alone like this, Luo Yi was still a bit uncomfortable.

Since that day passed, Ye Xiaoyang also hadn’t brought up that kind of topic with her.

In the end, he hadn’t said anything to her. Luo Yi felt she shouldn’t guard against him as if guarding against a thief.

“I’ll walk you,” he said.

Luo Yi looked at this stretch of sky and worried, then could only nod and agree.

Under one black umbrella, one large and one small figure stepped into the rain with uneven steps.

The sky was already late. Colored lights had just come on. Fine threads of rain scraped across Luo Yi’s cheeks. She was wearing a thin dress and couldn’t help stroking her exposed elbows.

Ye Xiaoyang saw she was cold, but there was nothing he could do.

If they were that kind of relationship, now he would definitely protect her in his arms and not let her suffer the slightest cold.

He shifted the umbrella a little more toward her side.

“Going to the bus stop?” Ye Xiaoyang asked.

“Mm.” She nodded.

Ye Xiaoyang wanted to hail her a taxi, because it was almost one kilometer from here to the bus stop.

But selfishness made him pinch off this thought—he wanted to stay with her a little longer.

Ye Xiaoyang weighed his words in his heart. That day after she ran away from the water room, he had been startled and shocked. Many words that hadn’t had time to leave his mouth were all stuffy in his chest.

Although Ji Changming had said that in the high school stage, no matter how much you liked someone, you had to hold it in until after the college entrance exam.

But Ye Xiaoyang knew he couldn’t wait a single moment longer.

If she ignored him like this every day, sooner or later he would hold it in until something went wrong.

Even if they didn’t become boyfriend and girlfriend, couldn’t they be ordinary friends like before?

“Luo Yi.” He suddenly called her name.

She froze and looked up at him.

“From now on don’t ignore me,” his words were quite stiff. To soften the tone, he added, “Okay?”

Ye Xiaoyang had never spoken to anyone else in this kind of discussing tone. For her, he was willing to restrain his sharp-edged pride.

“I didn’t ignore you,” Luo Yi said.

Her attitude toward everything was soft and cottony.

Even if she was truly distancing herself from him, she could still deny her behavior with this kind of extremely innocent tone. This was the point that most infuriated Ye Xiaoyang.

If she were angry at him or hated him, scolding him once would be a hundred times better than this lukewarm attitude.

Now she clearly didn’t want to share her inner heart with anyone at all.

Whether happiness or sadness.

She was like a lonely little beast, lurking alone on a barren sand dune, letting the night swallow all her emotions.

Ye Xiaoyang was cold on the outside and hot on the inside, like a mangosteen. If you could split open his hard outer shell, you would discover his inside was pure white, tasting sour and sweet.

But Luo Yi was the opposite of him. She was a lychee. The outside was sweet, soft, tender fruit flesh, but the pit in her heart was hard and astringent, refusing anyone to come close.

They had to cross the road. The two of them stood in front of the crosswalk waiting for the red light. The atmosphere stayed silent like this.

Rain threads clung to Ye Xiaoyang’s eyelashes and gathered into extremely fine droplets.

In the hazy line of sight, her well-behaved, lovable appearance made pity flood from the bottom of the heart for no reason.

Look how hateful she was.

He actually couldn’t get angry at her.

The moment the green light came on, she stepped forward with her little legs.

Suddenly an electric bike shot out from the side, charging in this direction at full power.

Luo Yi was looking at the ground with a heavy heart and hadn’t noticed this electric bike that wasn’t following traffic rules at all.

Ye Xiaoyang yanked her arm hard. Luo Yi instantly woke with a start.

The electric bike had lost control.

The wet, slippery ground increased its inertia. It showed no sign of slowing down. It was about to hit them.

In his urgency, Ye Xiaoyang pulled Luo Yi into his arms.

For some reason, the soles of his feet suddenly slipped. The umbrella was blown away by the wind. The two of them “plop” fell to the ground.

Ye Xiaoyang’s left hand supported her head. His right hand instinctively went to brace the ground.

In an instant, both of their weight pressed onto his right wrist.

In the noisy chaos, Luo Yi heard a “crack”—then his entire person pressed down on her.

Luo Yi didn’t care about her rain-stained dress or this unexpected physical contact.

She asked in a trembling voice, “What’s wrong with you? Are you okay?”

Oh god. She swore, in this moment she was panicked to the extreme.

Ye Xiaoyang’s face was pale as paper. Bean-sized droplets rolled down his forehead. Who knew whether they were rainwater or sweat.

“Don’t scare me, okay?” Luo Yi was about to cry.

After a brief blank in his brain, intense pain came from his right wrist.

Ye Xiaoyang could be certain—his right wrist was fractured.