ATFBETIBM Chapter 417

Bai Lixin was pressed down on the sofa.

Fei Yino half-knelt in front of him, his eyes seemingly glued to his face, a mixture of infatuation and madness, refusing to look away for even a second.

“Do you know? I’ve been waiting for you to come back. Do you know how long I’ve waited for this day?” Fei Yino exclaimed with excitement. “Fifty years, exactly fifty years. Every time I saw that face in this house, I thought you had returned, but each time, it wasn’t you.”

“I’m really sad,” Fei Yino said with painful expression, pinching his chest through his clothes. “It feels like there are steel nails poking at me every day, it hurts so much. My yearning for you hasn’t faded with time; instead, it has become more intense. The desire for your return grows stronger each day, and I feel like I’m going crazy.”

Bai Lixin blinked his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

‘No, I think you’re already mad.’

“No, no, no,” Fei Yino waved his hands in a panic. “It’s not your fault.”

He reached out to grab Bai Lixin’s hand, but Bai Lixin reacted quickly and instinctively moved back into the sofa, a look of panic and rejection on his face. “I don’t like people touching me.”

Fei Yino’s hand froze instantly.

He awkwardly withdrew his hand, the brightness in his eyes dimming. “Sorry, you are right to be repulsed.”

“If I had been braver at that time, things wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

“You clearly asked me for help, but I turned a blind eye and let things happen.”

“It’s right for you to reject me. I won’t touch you. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

The man who was usually indifferent and arrogant now resembled a lost child, only expressing guilt and apologies over and over.

Bai Lixin silently watched the man in front of him, and pursed her lips without saying a word.

S419M: [Lord Host, this is a bit like chasing your wife in the crematorium. Just looking at Fei Yino’s current performance, he seems quite pitiful.]

Bai Lixin: [Pitiful?]

S419M quickly changed his tone: [But this is just an illusion! The moment I think of the over 100 plaster figures in his studio, I immediately wake up. So, never be led by love. Don’t soften your heart just because the other person shows a little weakness, especially this kind of crazy character.]

There were footsteps coming upstairs.

Bai Lixin looked over from the corner of his eye and saw Fei Taizong and Li Manyu coming down.

Fei Taizong immediately saw Bai Lixin when he descended.

He hurried over, a hint of anger between his brows. “You finally know how to come back? Where did you go yesterday? How could you suddenly disappear?”

Bai Lixin: “…”

‘If only you had prepared a phone for me.’

“Shut up.” Fei Yino coldly interrupted Fei Taizong’s accusation. “What right do you have to speak to him like that?”

Fei Taizong turned pale, and he actually stopped talking.

Li Manyu stood beside Fei Taizong, her gaze shifting between Fei Yino and Fei Taizong, finally settling on Bai Lixin.

The four of them remained silent, maintaining a delicate balance and tranquility.

In the end, the appearance of Aunt Zhang interrupted the standoff between the four. “Master, Madam, young masters, breakfast is ready. Would you like to eat now, or should I serve it later?”

Fei Yino: “Aunt Zhang, serve it later. I have one more dish to prepare.”

Aunt Zhang stood at the kitchen door, looking puzzled. “What do you want to make? Just tell me, I’ll do it, and you can rest.”

“No, I want to make this dish myself.” Fei Yino cast a cold glance at the silent Fei Taizong and Li Manyu. When he looked at Bai Lixin, his expression instantly softened like a breeze. The speed of this change left even the system speechless. “Xiao Tou, wait here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”

After saying that, Fei Yino stood up and left, but he didn’t go to the kitchen; instead, he turned towards the backyard.

A few minutes later, Fei Yino walked in from the backyard, holding several vibrant and dew-kissed roses in his hands.

He wasn’t afraid of the sharp thorns; his palm grabbed the rose stem filled with thorns directly. Bai Lixin even saw a fresh red line sliding down from his wrist, making it hard to distinguish whether it was Fei Yino’s blood or the juice from the rose petals.

Fei Yino entered the kitchen with the fresh flowers, and Bai Lixin temporarily lost sight of him.

Now, only Bai Lixin, Fei Taizong, and Li Manyu remained in the hall, exchanging glances in silence.

The air grew quiet, and the three seemed to have made up their minds, none daring to speak first.

Bai Lixin maintained the expression he had when facing Fei Yino, looking at Fei Taizong and Li Manyu. However, unlike Fei Yino’s reaction, Fei Taizong and Li Manyu seemed oblivious to any differences. They continued to stare towards the kitchen, bodies slightly tense, seemingly wary of Fei Yino.

Indeed, they were different from Fei Yino.

Fei Yino was in the game, yet outside it.

They weren’t.

There were footsteps on the stairs again, it was Big Zhuang and the others.

Different from Big Zhuang’s spirited appearance, Red Hair seemed a bit withered. Only Mr. Mouse looked like an innocent young man who knew nothing.

S419M: [I was just thinking about doing tasks and forgot these three were still lingering in the Fei family. Lord Host, will they affect you in completing the game tasks?]

Bai Lixin: [They won’t affect me.]

S419M: [Oh, then just ignore them. By the way, Lord Host, do you already have answers to the second game questions?]

Bai Lixin: [I have some, but not all. There are still a few questions I haven’t figured out.]

S419M: [What questions?]

Bai Lixin: [For example… Where did the original owner Xiao Tou go? Did he disappear, or was he already killed? Although the original owner hasn’t appeared, his existence cannot be ignored. He is the thread running through the second game and even the third game.]

S419M: [So, what’s the dispute between Fei Yino and the original owner Xiao Tou?]

Bai Lixin: [Let me boldly speculate.]

[During my chat with Sister Wang, I obtained a clue that the original owner was very attached to Fei Yino.]

[At that time, Fei Yino, although not showing his affection, probably wasn’t indifferent either. If he truly disliked someone, he wouldn’t let them wander around him freely.]

[Did the original owner undergo training as a Yangzhou thin horse? We don’t know. We also can’t reconstruct from these fragmented words what the original owner’s purpose was in getting close to Fei Yino. Was it just a simple liking? Or was it to find a lifesaving straw in this house? Or maybe both?]

[By the way, there’s one more thing. Fei Yino should have shown some tenderness to the original owner privately. These gentle gestures led the original owner to believe he had found a lifesaving straw, prompting him to seek help from Fei Yino in his most desperate times.]

S419M: [However, judging from the current results and Fei Yino’s remorse, Fei Yino feels guilty for not listening to the original owner’s plea for help.]

Bai Lixin: [Since Fei Yino couldn’t become the lifesaving straw, then there was no more light in sight. For someone who is in despair, the most painful thing may be that they think they have hope, but this is just more despair disguised as hope.]

S419M imagined a scenario.

A person falls into a swamp, waiting to die, with no one around. In despair, he gradually chooses to compromise and quietly await the arrival of death.

At this moment, someone comes to the edge of the swamp. The man squats down, gently chats with him, encourages and comforts him, reigniting his hope for life. However, when he tries to ask for help, the person could have handed him a branch to pull him out, but instead, he just stands there, witnessing his sinking and death.

The ultimate feeling of despair instantly reaches its peak.

If the outcome doesn’t change, it’s better for that person not to have appeared at all.

Bai Lixin: [Let’s briefly go through the timeline.]

[I guess the chronological order should be like this.]

[At the very beginning, the original owner and Li Manyu joined this family four years ago.]

[Although Fei Yino initially rejected them, there probably wasn’t much malice, so he tolerated the original owner’s presence.]

[During this time, the original owner should have gradually encountered bad things.]

[For example, the training of Yangzhou thin horses and late-night guests. To create conditions for the guests, Fei Taizong even deliberately sent away miscellaneous people in advance, leaving only the most trusted Aunt Zhang waiting late at night.]

[If we consider the original owner as an advanced Yangzhou thin horse, then the strange phenomena in his room can be explained.]

[The surveillance and mirror were probably specially prepared by Fei Taizong.]

[To monitor the original owner, to satisfy some big shot’s perverse taste, or even for extortion.]

S419: [Perverse taste? Extortion?]

Bai Lixin: [Uh… let me put it this way. There are people who seem normal, but occasionally harbor perverted thoughts, like spying on others while they’re showering.]

S419M: [So, that’s why the mirror is there?! What about extortion?]

Bai Lixin: [Imagine scenes of a person capable of overturning the business world and another beautiful young man having sex in bed. Wouldn’t that be considered an indecent video? Although Fei Taizong may not have torn his face off in front of guests, the hidden cameras should have captured a lot. Each scene could potentially become leverage to manipulate others.]

S419M: [Ah, Fei Taizong looks refined, but he’s not a good person at all. He’s been treating the original owner as a bargaining chip from the beginning. The original owner is so pitiful, why didn’t he resist?]

Bai Lixin sneered: [Do you think there is such a possibility? Fei Taizong is gentle to the original owner in public but abusive in private. Fei Taizong is exceptionally skilled at disguising himself; just like the servants who highly praise him, Fei Yino once believed his father was excellent. Seeing Fei Taizong being gentle to the original owner, he even felt jealous and developed resentment, thinking the original owner stole the fatherly love that should have belonged to him.]

[This house is the Fei family, and Fei Taizong is the master of this house, his character is deeply ingrained. If someone suddenly comes out and claims I am a serial killer, would you believe them?]

S419M decisively shook his head: [I wouldn’t.]

Bai Lixin: [There you go; others wouldn’t believe Fei Taizong is that kind of person. It’s a cognitive bias.]

[Going on, the original owner should have gone through a long period like this, and Fei Taizong became more and more greedy after tasting the benefits.]