Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Page 484

Just as her son, Ye Jingye, was taking off his shoes at the door, she asked, "Have you eaten?"

Seeing that her son hesitated and did not answer, Bai Yinglan immediately went to the dining table and said, "I'll go heat it up for you."

Soon, the food was heated up. Ye Jingye seemed to want to say a few words of concern and apologize to his mother, but he felt particularly embarrassed. As a teenager who considered himself mature, he had a ridiculous sense of pride and felt that being close to his parents was a loss of face.

Ye Jingye ate his meal in silence. After he finished, Bai Yinglan did not quietly clean up the dishes as usual. Instead, she called out to her son, "Jingye, we need to talk."

Ye Jingye felt a chill run down his spine but remained silent.

"You need to study hard so you can get into a good university and have a chance to get a good job," Bai Yinglan said.

"Don't worry," Ye Jingye replied somewhat perfunctorily.

Bai Yinglan sighed, "How can I be at ease with you like this? You never know where you go on weekends, and recently you've even sneaked out in the middle of the night a few times. Your teacher has told me quietly that you've been dozing off in class more than once or twice."

Ye Jingye's expression immediately turned ugly. "What's the use of studying? A genius like my dad, who is so much more outstanding than me, got into a big company and a good job, but he still got suppressed and bullied. In the end, he divorced you and only became successful after marrying a rich girl. Do you want me to be like him?"

Even after saying these words, Ye Jingye still had his neck stiff and his face full of anger.

Bai Yinglan was stunned. She had told her son about some things her ex-husband did in his early career, hoping that her son would make more friends and not be aloof. But she had never talked about what happened to her ex-husband later.

"You..." Bai Yinglan didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Yes, I peeked at the letter you hid in the closet. That guy went to the Northeast and climbed up the social ladder, and he even wrote a letter saying that he was very concerned and advised you to remarry. It's disgusting!" Ye Jingye shouted angrily.

A year ago, Ye Jingye, who was skipping school for the first time, unexpectedly saw his mother go to the pawnshop. He rushed home and searched for the bankbook in the cabinet. He was eager to know if there was a problem with the family's finances. He did not find any problems, but he unexpectedly found a letter.

"It's all in the past. In short, you should study hard. Mom doesn't expect you to make a lot of money or get a high position. As long as you can get a proper position, pass the civil service exam, and live a peaceful life, that's better than anything else," Bai Yinglan said.

However, Ye Jingye wouldn't listen. He was unwilling to live an ordinary life. Deep down, he didn't agree with his father, but he also couldn't accept the fact that he was far inferior to his father. Like many young people with dreams, he wanted to forge his own path.

He used to be confused and didn't know what to do, but now he vaguely sees another path.

"I understand." Ye Jingye said this, got up and went back to his room, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.

Bai Yinglan lowered her head.

She was at a loss for a moment. After thinking for a while, she decided to complete the transplant as soon as possible. Since reasoning with her wouldn't work, she would use an educational method she had never used before.

The saying goes, "Spare the rod and spoil the child."

Late at night, after sensing that his mother had fallen asleep, Ye Jingye, without even taking off his clothes, threw off the covers and, with extremely fast and subtle movements, climbed out of the window and left the house.

He was going to meet a female friend he had recently met.

Ye Jingye did not have a two-timing relationship, at least he himself did not think so. Nowadays, many places are no longer separate schools for boys and girls. However, it is extremely rare for boys and girls to be in the same class. His school is divided into two separate campuses for boys and girls. His girlfriend at school was someone he met by chance half a year ago.

The two were drawn to each other because of their loneliness, but later, Ye Jingye discovered that she was a rich girl, which he hated. She was a good girl, but she couldn't truly understand his pain—the pain of desperately trying to play the role of a top student and forcibly fitting into the circle, but being unable to genuinely befriend these upper-class young masters and ladies.

He only felt a sense of stability after he unexpectedly met another girl.

Ye Jingye felt that studying hard was not his path; the path he took was to experience the joys and sorrows of life in the sleepless nights of Hankou.

However, he also felt that he couldn't let his mother down and just become a bad child.

"I'll help her this last time, then I'll withdraw and focus on my studies to improve my skills. I'm not far from taking the top spot. After university, I'll go my own way."

Ye Jingye said this to himself on his way to the port.

At the same time, Bai Yinglan sat up, covered her face with her hands. She hadn't slept at all, and she knew that her son had once again secretly left home.

She told herself that she couldn't wait any longer. Her son was definitely not going out to do anything righteous late at night. Even though nothing had happened so far, what about later? She had to quickly improve her strength and bring her son back to the right path.

Meanwhile, Ashley, who was at her wits' end in the darkness, once secretly followed Ye Jingye, this little brat.

Chapter 1125 Free Confidante Sister: Letting Go, Returning to the Right Path?

Inside a residential house in Hankou.

A woman with a neat bun, two strands of hair at her temples, and large round-framed gold-rimmed glasses sat on the sofa. She wore a shirt with embroidered buttons on the collar and cuffs, a light blue cloak-style cotton coat resembling a Hanfu phoenix, black straight-leg trousers similar to dress pants, and black cotton socks.

Judging from her appearance, clothing, and intellectual and mature demeanor, it's hard to associate her with a criminal.

"Why are you here so late at night again? You finished your work during the day and I've already paid you," the woman said, lighting a cigarette as she did so.

The boy, Ye Jingye, waved his hand to clear away the smoke like he was swatting away mosquitoes, and said, "Can you please not smoke?"

"Such a young age, yet so nosy." The woman continued smoking. "If you want to chat with someone, go outside and turn left to that place. All the women there are like kind older sisters."

"I don't want to do this anymore," Ye Jingye said.

"Oh, that's good," the woman replied.

Ye Jingye was stunned. He didn't expect this woman to not try to stop him at all. He looked at her incredulously.

The woman smiled and said, "What kind of look is that? I'm not a good person, but I'm not so bad as to actually drag a good student into the abyss. I was already planning to tell you next time you come, 'You don't need to come anymore.'"

"The Abyss? People kill and rob here and nobody cares. We're just dealing in secondhand goods." Ye Jingye was unimpressed.

The "secondhand goods dealing" he was referring to wasn't selling secondhand products, but rather taking parts from old, broken magical devices and reassembling them into a usable device.

However, it is not easy to reuse the core components of a magical artifact. First, repairing it requires superb magical power manipulation skills, which is a weakness of the Seris training method. Second, the core components have extraordinary marks. When these marks are present, any external components that are not original cannot be used and may even explode. The mark must be removed, which is a highly technical task.

The woman smiled.

"So, you're just a kid. Murder? The dead aren't powerful or wealthy people. Robbery? The robbed aren't powerful or wealthy people either."

"You have to understand that the companies that produce these magical devices all have official backgrounds at the very least. They are usually state-owned, and some are even state-owned. They always only replace, never repair. If we smuggle out such 'second-hand goods,' it would be damaging the interests of the powerful and wealthy."

"To be more precise, it harmed the interests of their dogs. You know, a lot of cheap goods on the market are actually substandard products that these dogs 'dispose of'. Do they really think there are people everywhere who can make magical devices?" "Even second-rate artificial talents and those shoddy implants are related to these dogs."

“If you kill a hundred ordinary people, they’ll just go through the motions. But if you steal even a single shred of meat from one of their dogs’ food bowls, you’ll be in big trouble.”

After saying that, the woman took a deep drag, tilted her head back and exhaled a puff of smoke towards the ceiling. With a forlorn look in her eyes, she let out a long breath, stubbed out the cigarette, and looked at Ye Jingye with eyes full of advice.

Ye Jingye felt a lingering fear, but also a surge of excitement. "Isn't that even better? We should ruin these damned guys' business." Young people are completely defenseless against the illusion of fighting against a corrupt world.

The woman slapped her forehead in exasperation. This kid simply didn't understand how terrifying "dogs" were. Big shots always had to put on a show, but dogs had to be fierce, otherwise they couldn't compete with other dogs vying for power.

"Forget about that, tell me why you came to my place so late. I'll reluctantly play the role of a kind older sister for free this once."

"Don't call me 'big sister,' you're only nineteen," Ye Jingye retorted, dissatisfied.

"Huh? You believe me when I say I'm nineteen? I'm an extraordinary being." The woman laughed. "Pui, I've changed the subject again, you idiot. Fine, I'll guess myself. I guess you and your little girlfriend had a fight."

Ye Jingye shook his head. "You guessed wrong."

The woman's face showed no sign of the frustration that her guess was wrong. "Then you had a fight with your mother."

Ye Jingye froze instantly, his expression clearly conveying the question, "How did you know?"

Ye Jingye abruptly shook his head, "It wasn't an argument, it was just..."

He didn't know why, but he told this woman, whom he had only known for less than two months and had only met three or five times, his true feelings, which he had never even confided in his girlfriend. He told her everything without reservation.

Although he seemed drunk, stammering, illogical, and constantly repeating what he had already said, and even spouting nonsense like "you probably don't understand."

"She's so good to me. She didn't ask anything of me. She asked so few of me and was so good to me. But, but I really don't want to do what she says. I don't want to be a dog for those people in the future, and I don't want to end up like my father who abandoned me."

"She's so wonderful, I can't let her down."

“You wouldn’t understand. It’s because she’s too good that I can’t even bring myself to argue with her. Sometimes I think that if she were a bit more domineering, I might be able to make up my mind.”

"In short, I don't want to do this anymore."

As Ye Jingye spoke, his voice grew softer and softer until he finally fell silent.

The woman listened quietly, but she didn't feel much. That's how it is for well-cared-for students; huge things might be trivial to them, and trivial things might be huge to them.

There was no conflict at all; it was just that the young man was creating trouble for himself. The woman lit another cigarette. "Your mother is right. If you really have any ideas, it's not too late to put them into practice later." She wasn't foolish enough to advise Ye Jingye to give up those stupid ideas; she knew that would only cause resentment.

Ye Jingye himself clearly thought the same thing, but it just so happened to be this woman.

Only after the person said that did he truly become certain.

"It's getting late, and you have to go to school tomorrow. Come on, I'll find a boat to take you across the river," the woman said. "You don't need to come again."

"Oh," Ye Jingye replied woodenly.

After saying so much, venting his emotions, and confirming the path he should take, he felt relieved and lightheaded.

Ashley listened to the whole thing from the shadows of the ceiling of the house.

Anyway, she couldn't understand what the boy was struggling with.

But is this kid going back to the right path? Then he'll most likely be safe. If he's safe, his father's target probably won't show up.

"What a waste of our time," Ashley muttered to herself, her shadow shifting as she moved to another shadowy spot, preparing to return.

Back at their lodgings, Ashley reported the situation, and Ronan decided to continue the surveillance operation.

Time flies and it’s three days later.

It seems that Xiao Ye is returning to the right path. Ronan and his group began to discuss whether they should do something to try to lure their target.

Just then, Golan suddenly came over and said something.

Bai Yinglan is dead.

Chapter 1126 Death, Great Joy and Sorrow, the Contradictions of the Times

How could this woman suddenly die? She was perfectly fine just a few days ago.

"What's going on? Could it be the person who sold her the magical artifacts?" Ronan asked.

Even if the person selling her things says, "I don't want to give you the goods, but I want the money," Ge Lan, who is secretly following Bai Yinglan, can reply, "I don't want to pay the money, but I want the goods," and then unleash a move called "Blood Boiling," steaming the other person into cooked meat from the inside out.

"No, she had already bought magical tools and was on her way to meet another person who could perform the transplant surgery. She was on a bridge when she was innocently caught up in an attack between superhumans."

"There were quite a few people on the bridge at the time," said Golan. "I was at the bridgehead, and she was in the middle. She died too quickly." If Bai Yinglan had died a little slower, Golan would have been able to take her away in the chaos and then use Dinia's Life Mushroom to save her. But she died too quickly. At that time, both sides had the power of the fourth tier. Golan's only chance to save Bai Yinglan was to unleash her full power at the beginning to control the situation.

There is only a chance.

Golan would never do that. A fourth-tier cultivator is no small fry. If she had unleashed her full power in that situation and intervened, both sides would have tried to find her afterward, which would undoubtedly have caused trouble for Ronan's plans.

"It was just an accident after all," Ronan couldn't help but sigh.

“It was an accident for her personally, but it’s not in the context of society,” Lu Jianling said.

It's not fair to say that public security was much better a hundred years ago, but one thing is certain: there were definitely far fewer cases of violent crimes committed by superhumans back then than there are now.

Compared to the past, the number of superhumans now is ten times that of then, and the total wealth has increased by far more than ten times. Theoretically, there is enough wealth to go around, but the problem is that back then it was the early 17th century, the end of the agricultural era or the beginning of agricultural capitalism, while now it is the late 18th century, the early stage of the industrial era, and local industrial revolutions have already begun.

The form of wealth is different from the past. Simply put, the era of capital has begun, and capital is not good at making money. It likes to pursue monopolies and monopolize resources.

In the past, you were at level four, and so was I. It wouldn't have been unacceptable for you to eat more.

But now, we're both at level four, and you're so much higher than me, that's unacceptable.

Only business warfare is possible!

Fake business warfare: scheming and backstabbing, elaborate plots. Real business warfare: I'll smash your head in with one hammer.

“When a powerful superhuman becomes a loser, the consequences are severe,” Isabel said.

Madam Zhao took a sip of tea. She felt that some extraordinary individuals were too greedy for wealth. "In the end, they are still too greedy. Even if a fourth-tier individual loses their assets, they can't maintain a decent life no matter what job they do."

“It’s not necessarily about greed.” Guo Hanlu has a different view. “Sometimes, it’s just a matter of face. Superhumans don’t actually have that strong a desire for material things, but they have a deep-rooted belief that they deserve a social status that matches their strength. And in this day and age, wealth is the symbol of social status.”

"But it is precisely because wealth can become a symbol of status that people are now going out of their way to create wealth."

Every era has its own irreconcilable contradictions.

What was originally planned as an afternoon for action turned into an afternoon of chatting and drinking afternoon tea.

Although they were all corrupted by Ronan, they started establishing their own government as soon as they started chatting.

All of this was due to the sudden death of the target's ex-wife.

"Do you think the target will show up?" Madam Zhao suddenly asked, bringing the topic back to the main point.

While eating pastries, Gelan said, "Probably not. Although this man doesn't seem heartless, he doesn't seem to care much about his wife and son either. After all, his ex-wife is dead. If she were in a critical situation, he might show up."

For someone who joins an organization whose slogan is to dedicate themselves to an ideal, it is impossible to expose themselves for the sake of a dead person.

Before dinner, Ashley returned with more news.

The police took Ye Jingye from the school and informed him of his mother's death, saying that the bridge had collapsed due to an accident, and his mother had fallen off and drowned.

That's pure nonsense. Bai Yinglan grew up by the river and was an extraordinary person. How could she possibly drown so easily?

Ye Jingye wanted to see the body.

The police said the body was washed away by the water and they are still looking for it.

That's nonsense. It's not a bridge over the river, but a small bridge over a small lake. The water flowing under the bridge isn't rushing at all.

But that's the police's stance, and that's the outcome. Believe it or not, there's no body. If you sign the registration form, you can receive compensation. If you insist on making a fuss, they'll arrest you on charges of obstructing official business and disturbing the peace.