IMGH Chapter 31

Secret Talk

Why does this stranger’s tone feel strangely familiar?

Han Yuancheng stopped in his tracks and stared blankly at the man writing furiously.

The white paper quickly filled with densely packed small characters. The man set down his pen and held the paper out in front of Han Yuancheng.

The small characters were written in bold, forceful ink, with the last stroke of each character curving up slightly — a handwriting style Han Yuancheng knew all too well. With trembling hands, he took the paper and read it over carefully several times before looking up again, his eyes filled with disbelief.

He stared unblinkingly at the man before him. The man’s clear eyes burned with intense, scorching heat.

The familiar handwriting. The familiar tone. The familiar gaze.

It’s Qiu Rui. It really is Qiu Rui!

Han Yuancheng’s eyes grew hot with emotion. He suppressed the shock rising in his chest, picked up the pen, and wrote back.

The two men communicated in silence through paper and pen, yet a heavy, charged atmosphere surged through the quiet space between them.

Han Yuancheng wrote down all of Qiu Chen’s recent movements on the paper, but when he went to pass it over, he noticed that Qiu Rui had drifted off, a look of bitter resentment on his face.

Qiu Rui had already told him everything from beginning to end — Han Yuancheng now knew that Qiu Rui had temporarily borrowed Jiang Yi’s body.

Seeing that Qiu Rui had spaced out, Han Yuancheng reached out and waved a hand in front of his eyes.

“Ryan, what’s wrong?”

Having temporarily borrowed Jiang Yi’s body, Qiu Rui was not only able to control it freely — he could also receive whatever thoughts surfaced in Jiang Yi’s mind. Qiu Rui had always known that Jiang Yi was shameless, but he hadn’t expected him to be this lacking in decency. The man had actually been fantasizing about him — and doing such obscene things in his imagination at that. Even if it was only taking advantage of him on a mental level with no physical action involved, Qiu Rui still found it utterly unacceptable. His face had turned an ashen, stormy shade.

Seeing Han Yuancheng looking at him with confusion, Qiu Rui didn’t want him to notice anything unusual. He composed himself and offered a reassuring smile. “It’s nothing!” But his tone carried a humiliation and fury he couldn’t quite hide.

Qiu Rui picked up the pen and wrote back: “I can’t leave Jiang Yi’s side for the time being. If anything comes up, you can reach me through him. Qiu Chen knows how important the DL2014 project is — he shouldn’t try to interfere with your contact with Jiang Yi. But you’re probably within his surveillance range too. Be careful of Qiu Chen during this period!”

“Understood. I just don’t understand — what is Qiu Chen trying to accomplish by trapping your soul in that evil array?”

“He probably couldn’t find a way to kill me without anyone noticing, so trapping my soul in the array was his fallback. A Qiu Rui lying there like a vegetable, completely without consciousness, poses absolutely no threat to him. And now that none of you can see me — even if Jiang Yi were to bring me back to the Qiu family estate, there would be no evidence to prove that any of this was Qiu Chen’s doing. Something this unbelievable — even the members of the board of directors probably wouldn’t believe it.”

Han Yuancheng had also considered Qiu Rui’s reservations. Qiu Chen had carried this out without leaving a single trace. Even now, knowing full well that he was involved, they still couldn’t do anything to him without solid evidence.

At the thought of this, Han Yuancheng clenched his fist in bitter fury, the knuckles of his pen-holding hand cracking audibly.

“Qiu Rui, don’t worry. I will definitely find a way to bring you back.”

“Chengcheng, the most pressing matter right now is to find Taoist Cao. He was the one who gave Jiang Yi this formation — he must know how to break it.”

“Qiu Chen has probably taken precautions. Taoist Cao may have already gone into hiding. But I believe there’s no shortage of gifted and extraordinary people in this world. I’ll send more men to search for him across the country.”

“This must be done discreetly — don’t let Qiu Chen find out. He probably still doesn’t know we’ve made contact. It would be best if we wait a while before meeting again, so as not to arouse his suspicion.”

Han Yuancheng nodded in agreement. To avoid raising Qiu Chen’s suspicions, the two men chatted casually on the surface about matters of their cooperation, while covertly using paper and pen to lay out a plan for their future course of action.

Meanwhile, in the haze of his stupor, the thoroughly bored Jiang Yi had been lost in fantasy. He had only made it to the eighth form of the Dragon Yang Eighteen Stances when he suddenly felt a lightness wash over his entire body. He opened his eyes once more — he had broken free of the haze and returned to reality.