Chapter 48 — TVF Chapter 48

Metaphysics Master (5)  Although Gu Yu looked grim, his anger wasn’t directed at Jin Yuansheng.

From last night until this morning, the people he had stationed at the private hospital where Yunyun was staying kept sending him messages nonstop: Madam’s biological father has appeared. He somehow produced a bottle of folk medicine from who-knows-where. Your mother-in-law didn’t hesitate at all and dripped it onto Madam’s forehead. By the next day, although Madam still hasn’t woken up, her condition has improved greatly. At this rate, with a few more bottles, Madam will wake up. Reading this, Gu Yu was overjoyed and was just about to rush to the hospital when the “informant” left behind sent another barrage of messages, all voice notes, sounding extremely urgent: Your mother-in-law is questioning the assistant you left at the hospital. I didn’t dare get close, but it seems to be related to Madam’s car accident. Seeing this, Gu Yu immediately called his assistant, who answered truthfully: “It seems someone obtained evidence that you were cheating, Boss. Madam went out to meet that person…”

Gu Yu’s head started buzzing. He wanted to explain things to his mother-in-law, but she refused to take his calls. Messages went unanswered too. He tried contacting his brother-in-law—same result, no reply, no pickup. To be honest, he felt a little guilty and didn’t dare face his mother-in-law directly. Planning to approach things indirectly through the brother-in-law he usually got along well with, he came personally to block him at his workplace.

Now face-to-face with his brother-in-law, Gu Yu explained everything in detail and finally said sincerely, “I didn’t cheat. I didn’t have an affair. I really didn’t do anything to let Yunyun down. I just want Yunyun to wake up.”

Jin Yuansheng raised an eyebrow. “So you came to find me just to say this?”

Suddenly, he noticed a wisp of black qi on Gu Yu’s shoulder. Remembering that the same kind of black qi had been lashed out of him by his dad with a willow branch that morning, his pupils shrank. He sprang to his feet, pulled out his phone—set to silent—and was about to call his dad, while warning Gu Yu, “Don’t move.”

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, the ceiling collapsed without warning. A panel smashed straight onto Gu Yu’s head.

Debris rained down from above. Just as the ceiling light was about to crash onto Jin Yuansheng’s head, he clearly felt his trouser pocket heat up for a moment. Then he watched with his own eyes as the lampshade twisted unnaturally in midair before landing on the table and shattering into several pieces.

Jin Yuansheng remained frozen, one hand gripping his phone. With his other hand, he pulled a handful of ash from his pocket. He and Gu Yu—who was clutching his bleeding forehead—stared at each other.

Gu Yu had indeed been hit by the ceiling, but he wasn’t knocked senseless or blind. Seeing the lampshade abruptly change its falling trajectory in midair, and the lump of ash in his brother-in-law’s hand, even someone as worldly as him ignored the burning pain and blood on his forehead. His eyes lit up. “I… can I meet Dad?”

Jin Yuansheng: …

He opened the meeting room door and let the people who’d heard the commotion come in. “You’re really good at climbing the ladder.” But… the gray-black aura around Gu Yu had only faded slightly, not disappeared entirely. He still needed to ask his dad—just who exactly had almost gotten his head split open.

Jin Yuansheng himself was calm, but his supervisor was drenched in cold sweat.

The company was fairly large, with an infirmary and on-duty doctors. A doctor treated Gu Yu’s wound, senior management all came out to apologize profusely, and Gu Yu behaved reasonably enough—but his attention never once left his brother-in-law.

Jin Yuansheng didn’t have his dad’s number, so he got it from his mom and called. “Something happened,” he said, recounting what had just occurred. “Do you want to see Gu Yu?”

He heard his dad say, “Both of you, come over,” and then the call ended. Jin Yuansheng looked at Gu Yu, who now had a large bandage on his forehead. “Do you want to go to the hospital first, or—”

“I’m going with you,” Gu Yu said firmly.

So the two of them left one after the other under the watchful eyes of the company executives.

The company was located in the Central Business District of the capital, not far from the Zuo family flower shop at all. Twenty minutes later, two cars pulled up one after the other in front of the shop.

Gu Yu knew what was appropriate. He left the driver and assistant in the car and got out alone. After looking around, he thought to himself that for his wife’s and brother-in-law’s biological father to open a shop here, the family’s foundation was indeed solid.

Jin Yuansheng had no intention of being polite. He pushed the door open, walked straight inside, and pointed at Gu Yu, who followed obediently behind him. “This is Yunyun’s husband.”

Seeing her husband again, Jin Ziyun felt conflicted. She loved him deeply and didn’t want to believe he’d cheated—especially since they had a young child together. But in her current state… wasn’t she basically a wandering soul? Her instincts told her that if she left her father, she’d quickly dissipate. So she forced herself not to think about her child for the time being.

Since her husband didn’t have his celestial eye open and couldn’t see her, she stayed curled up in her father’s pocket without moving.

Qin Jingzhou was sitting in a rocking chair by the window, sizing up the male lead of this world. The male lead’s halo was intact. He might not radiate overwhelming righteousness, but he did fit the general standard of a favored son of fate in romance novels with not-too-skewed values.

With Qin Jingzhou’s kindergarten-level face-reading skills, Gu Yu currently had no romantic entanglements. In other words, cheating and affairs were baseless rumors—at least for now.

Seeing his official father-in-law remain silent, Gu Yu spoke respectfully. “Dad, I’m Gu Yu.”

He naturally knew that his wife and brother-in-law had a terrible relationship with their biological father. He’d even had people investigate before, and after seeing the results, he’d stopped taking the man seriously. But now… he felt that his subordinates’ blindness was oddly justified.

Because aside from looking relatively young—which could easily be achieved with cosmetic medicine—his father-in-law didn’t look like a reclusive master at all.

Qin Jingzhou took out a wooden chip from a nearby drawer. It floated in midair and ignited without flame. A disposable paper cup beside the water dispenser seemed to come alive, flying beneath the burning wood chip. When the chip burned out, the ashes hovered for three seconds before falling neatly into the cup.

He pointed at the still-floating paper cup. “Pour some water and drink it.”

Jin Yuansheng roughly guessed that his father was about to open Gu Yu’s celestial eye, so he sat down beside him and waited eagerly for the show.

Gu Yu cautiously stepped forward, reached out… grabbed the cup, glanced at the odorless ash inside, then walked silently to the water dispenser.

He filled the cup, shook the ash around, then tilted his head back and gulped it down in one go—smooth and decisive.

Compared to paper talismans, the biggest drawback of talisman water made from wood was that it scratched the throat.

Gu Yu, completely unprepared, choked hard and rolled his eyes, hurriedly gulping more water. Once he finally recovered, he saw the small head peeking out of his father-in-law’s pocket. It was as if his soul left his body—he stood rooted to the spot, speechless for a long while.

Jin Yuansheng and Jin Ziyun both struggled to hold back their laughter.

Jin Yuansheng even “kindly” reminded him, “Take a look at your right shoulder.”

Gu Yu turned his head as instructed and indeed saw a… hard-to-describe mass of gray-black qi on his shoulder. He reacted quickly. “Just now, the ceiling—”

“Yes,” Jin Yuansheng replied.

Gu Yu immediately felt short of breath. “What should I do?”

That gray-black qi had already given him a taste of its power—there was now a fresh wound on his forehead. If that thing found another chance to act… whether he could leave his father-in-law’s flower shop in one piece was highly questionable.

Gu Yu looked pleadingly toward his wife’s soul peeking out of her father’s pocket. “Yunyun, I really didn’t cheat! I really didn’t!”

Qin Jingzhou had his own plans, so for once he spoke up fairly for Gu Yu. “Dad took a look for you. He really hasn’t done anything to let you down… just wanted to play mediator between you and her mom aside.”

Jin Ziyun trusted her dad, but losing face wasn’t an option. She still demanded, “Then who were you with, arm in arm, going to a hotel the day before yesterday?”

Gu Yu thought back and nearly dropped to his knees. “That wasn’t arm in arm… that was my dad’s illegitimate daughter! I went to put out the fire, wife!”

Jin Ziyun: …

After about half a minute, she gently tugged on her father’s clothes. “Dad… are you going to save him?”

Qin Jingzhou smiled. “Can you really let your son grow up without a father?” Without waiting for her answer, he ordered his son, “Go home and bring that willow branch.”

From the moment Jin Yuansheng stood up to the moment he returned with the willow branch, less than five minutes passed.

Qin Jingzhou took the branch, tapped its tip lightly, then flicked it casually.

Gu Yu covered his face and squatted down. If he hadn’t covered his face, he probably would’ve cried out. But at the same moment sharp pain exploded across his back, the strange sensation on his shoulder vanished as well.

He turned his head to look. His shoulder was indeed empty, and he could even vaguely sense how unwilling that gray-black qi had been as it dissipated.

At the entrance of a quiet private restaurant somewhere in the capital, the male supporting character was bidding farewell to the female lead.

Watching her get into the driver’s seat, he waved. Suddenly, a wave of palpitations struck him. He watched with his own eyes as an advertising board detached from a building across the street and smashed down onto his beloved’s car.

He lunged forward, hastily calculating as he went. Gritting his teeth, he tore open the car door and dragged his unconscious beloved out of the severely deformed vehicle, roaring inwardly: Gu Yu! Jin Ziyun! I meant to spare your lives…