Chapter 116

Chapter 116

Uncle Ping brought another Guan Family kid over under escort.

He was sixteen, addicted to online games and gambling. After layer upon layer of deliberation, the decision was made to send him to Du Island ahead of schedule to cure his internet addiction.

The kid was deeply unconvinced, but he neither argued nor made a scene.

Because he had heard that a terrifying person lived on the island. Apparently, that person had been there since his grandfather’s generation, and no one knew how many years he had lived. Everyone knew of that person’s existence, yet none of them seemed the least bit curious about his identity. Not only were they unafraid, they respected him immensely and never mentioned his name lightly.

The kid did know that the person was called Guan Heng.

He had the surname Guan, same as him.

He was assigned to help out in the kitchen of the mansion. The first time he went in, he got such a fright that he nearly jumped out of his skin. The Old Woman inside had an ugly face, half of it covered in hideous scars.

He was so scared he almost cried, and he became even more convinced that the island was terrifying.

Now his internet addiction was gone too. He spent every day behaving himself, deathly afraid that he would be dragged off and eaten.

He lived in the mansion for two months, and not once did he run into that person called Guan Heng. Everyone treated him very well, and Granny Bai was extremely kind. There was delicious food every day too, so gradually, he was no longer so scared.

Du Island was especially beautiful.

When the weather was good, he would go outside for walks. When the weather was bad, he stayed in the mansion, and over time, he grew more and more bored. The mansion was as intricate as a maze. He only dared to stay on the first floor, but he had basically wandered through every room there.

One day, he slipped into the library and found a row of specimens inside.

Uncle Kang, the butler, said there were many rare plants on the island that were protected by the government. It sounded very impressive, so he wanted to look through the specimens and broaden his horizons. Unfortunately, he did not find any.

Some of the specimens were very well made and meticulously organized. Others were not. Even the herbarium pages looked sloppy, and they had been made by two people. The title page of the album listed two authors: Gu Yu and Ning Qiuyan. He scoffed at them.

Wait a second.

He remembered now. This Ning Qiuyan seemed to be the name of Guan Heng’s wife.

Everyone in the Guan Family knew Guan Heng had a wife. When he had eavesdropped on his parents’ conversation, he vaguely heard them mention something about the only mixed-race one.

He thought, What’s so special about being mixed-race? They’re everywhere.

Then he put all the specimens back where they had been.

There was also a music room in the mansion, displaying all sorts of instruments. The audiovisual room, on the other hand, was rather fun. Other than the game console and cartridges, which had all been confiscated, there were still many movies to watch. He had no idea who had made several watchlists, but they covered every genre. He watched them in order, and not a single film was a dud. Clearly, that person had excellent taste, and he admired them quite a bit.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a year passed, and it was already Spring Festival.

On the morning of the twenty-ninth day of the last lunar month, Uncle Kang dressed himself neatly and had the driver take him to the dock. Granny Bai also cheerfully started cooking. Everyone on Du Island looked very happy.

He found someone and asked, only then learning that Guan Heng and his wife were coming back from Sujing.

So they didn’t live in the mansion, he thought. No wonder he had never run into them.

This inevitably made him very curious. While working, he kept finding excuses to run out of the kitchen. He wiped the vase in the dining room back and forth three times.

At last, the black sedan returning from the dock stopped outside the mansion. The car body was polished to a shine; only the tires were stained with a bit of mud.

Uncle Kang attentively got out of the car to open the door.

A foot in an equally gleaming leather shoe emerged from inside, and it felt like a pity when it stepped into the mud. The person who got out was a man with long hair. He was very tall, and just the sight of his profile startled the kid.

The man was so perfect he looked as if he had stepped out of a painting, cold and noble, as though not a speck of dust could touch him.

He heard the people in the mansion call that man “sir.” Just as he was feeling shocked, another young man got out of the car. He looked about the same age as his older brother, Guan Ziming, and was about as good-looking too. It was just that he seemed to be injured, with a Band-Aid on his neck.

Then he heard Uncle Kang call that young man “Xiao Ning.”

Sir. Xiao Ning.

Who else could they be but Guan Heng and his wife?

He looked at the daylight around him and widened his eyes.

In his heart, he wondered why everything was different from the gossip.

Because Guan Heng did not look like someone who would eat people, and his wife, Ning Qiuyan, had a perfectly standard Eastern face. He was not mixed-race at all. He was not even a woman.

Belatedly, he remembered-oh, right. Ning Qiuyan was not called Guan Heng’s wife by everyone, but Guan Heng’s partner.

The law did not say a partner had to be a girl.

As soon as Guan Heng entered, he wanted to go upstairs.

It seemed to be because he had gotten seasick from the boat ride or something, so he was in a bit of a bad mood.

For someone that old, he was more delicate than expected.

The young man called Ning Qiuyan, however, had a very good temper. He held Guan Heng’s hand and followed him upstairs, probably to coax him.

After seeing the two central figures of Du Island, the kid returned to the kitchen.

To his surprise, Granny Bai was making him ice cream, probably because she was afraid he would miss home during the family reunion season of Spring Festival.

Sure enough, Granny Bai was the best.

He had to hurry and tell the correct version of these things to the next person who came to Du Island.