VIP Volume, Chapter 87: The Father-in-Law Arrives

Faced with such a calamity, Ye Xiaoxuan did not know whether to laugh or cry. It was even harder to bear than being wrongly accused.

At the very least, when someone framed you, you knew who had done it. This time, he did not even know whether it was a person or a ghost. He had gone to sleep perfectly fine, and woken up with this appearance. If he closed his eyes again tonight, who knew whether he would still be able to open them in the morning?

With the little nurse still there, Ye Xiaoxuan simply went out, found a barbershop, gritted his teeth, and shaved off all his hair, becoming a shining bald man.

If they had the guts to come again tonight, he would see what sort of tricks that unknown person, human or ghost, could work on his head. Could they possibly even grow him a few tufts of hair?

He returned to the convalescent home with his head gleaming bald, and suddenly discovered something: others’ looks at him were truly different now.

Before, they had regarded him mostly with contempt and disdain, as if he had crawled out of a trash heap, and anyone who stood too close would be afraid of getting dirt on them.

Even the few who had been a little kinder wore an air of condescension, as though they possessed some innate superiority, and so deigning to glance at him was a kindness; speaking to him was already a great favor. That was the usual attitude city people had toward villagers.

But now it was different. Ye Xiaoxuan found that the surrounding gazes had suddenly taken on a hint of fear, as if he had just returned from some mysterious place where a band of ruthless men lived.

He took the elevator back up to his room on the twelfth floor. Pushing the door open, he froze.

Beside Yu Er's empty bed, there were actually a man and a woman sitting there.

The woman was an old acquaintance, Hua Lingluo. The man also had a great bald head, looked to be around forty, wore a lewd expression, and was eyeing Ye Xiaoxuan unfriendly.

Ye Xiaoxuan touched his own bald head, and his first impression was that he had no fondness whatsoever for another bald pate. It was the same mentality as when one beauty on a pageant stage looks at another beauty: outwardly all courtesy, but inwardly wishing the other could be disfigured on the spot.

Hua Lingluo walked over with a dark expression and, without warning, slapped him hard across the face, cursing, "How did you bully Yu Er?"

Ye Xiaoxuan felt guilty and did not explain. He went around her, set the bag in his hand on the cabinet, took out a bottle of milk, sat by the bed, and lifted Yu Er into his arms. He took a sip himself, then pressed his mouth to hers and fed it to her mouth-to-mouth.

The bald man saw this, bulged his eyes, and was about to rush over. Hua Lingluo grabbed him at once, shook her head, and her gaze toward Ye Xiaoxuan softened considerably. Then she pointed at the bald man and said, "This is Yu Er's father."

"Cough, cough!" Ye Xiaoxuan nearly sprayed the milk into Yu Er's face. He swallowed it instead and choked so badly that tears came to his eyes.

This bald fellow was actually Yu Er's father? The resemblance between father and daughter was far too distant.

Facing this prospective father-in-law, Ye Xiaoxuan felt uncomfortable all over, cold sweat pouring down his back. He carefully set Yu Er down, not knowing whether to stand or sit. He suddenly remembered he ought to offer a cigarette, but he did not smoke, so he had not bought any.

Ye Xiaoxuan took a bottle of mineral water from the bag and, trembling, handed it to the bald man. "Uncle, have some water..."

The bald man gave a cold snort and did not reach out to take it.

Embarrassed, Ye Xiaoxuan set the bottle on the table beside him and did not know what else to say.

Hua Lingluo coughed lightly and said to Ye Xiaoxuan, "Xiaoxuan, I already told Uncle Wen about you and Yu Er. He feels that Yu Er is still too young. If you want to talk about it again, wait a couple of years."

Ye Xiaoxuan scratched his head and did not take up that thread. Instead, he said to Hua Lingluo, "Have you eaten breakfast? Shall I go buy something for you downstairs? This is our first meeting, and I did not even prepare a gift..."

The bald man gave a heavy snort. Hua Lingluo hurriedly said, "This is not your first meeting. Uncle Wen already came last night, and he gave you a gift too..." As she finished, she cast a half-smiling glance at Ye Xiaoxuan's bald head.

At first Ye Xiaoxuan had no idea what she meant. Then, seeing the look in her eyes, he instantly understood. Fury surged up in him at once. He pointed at the bald man and shouted, "It was you! Last night you were the one who made my hair look like that ghostly mess!"

The bald man gave him a disdainful look, neither denying nor admitting it, only snorting through his nose.

Hua Lingluo continued, "Do you understand what Uncle Wen means? If..."

Suddenly Ye Xiaoxuan leaned his head close to the bald man's face, nearly mouth to mouth, and sneered, "Are you mute?"

The bald man had not expected Ye Xiaoxuan to do that, and was startled. His head recoiled on instinct, and he opened his mouth to curse, "You little..." But after only half a sentence, he realized he had fallen into Ye Xiaoxuan's trap. He snorted again, shut his mouth, and turned his head away.

Ye Xiaoxuan refused to let him off. He climbed onto the bed and again pressed his face nearly against the man's nose, asking, "Do you think it would lower your status and shame you to speak a single sentence to me yourself?"

The bald man's eye twitched violently, clearly suppressing his anger. He turned his face to the other side and would not even look at Ye Xiaoxuan.

But Ye Xiaoxuan did not let up. Crawling across the bed, he moved around behind the man, still clinging close to his face as he said, "Even if you do not want to pay me any attention, I still have to pay attention to you. Yu Er and I have already been intimate as husband and wife. Should I call you Father-in-law, or Uncle Wen?"

At last the bald man erupted in rage. A flash of cold light flickered in his hand and stabbed straight at Ye Xiaoxuan's chest as he shouted, "You little beast! How dare you ruin my daughter?!"

At first, Hua Lingluo had found this pairing of old and young somewhat amusing, the big bald head and the little bald head looking like natural-born enemies the moment they met.

Yu Er's father had always been this kind of person: neither cold nor warm to anyone, and spoke very little. But today he had finally met his match. Ye Xiaoxuan was, after all, a little hoodlum, a little scoundrel. If he wanted to deal with someone, he could come up with every trick under the sun.

What she never could have imagined was that Uncle Wen would truly lose his temper and reveal killing intent. Ye Xiaoxuan was, after all, Yu Er's boyfriend. Though his roguish habits were unbecoming, he was hardly deserving of death!

Ye Xiaoxuan had never seen a blade move so fast. He only felt silver light enveloping his head and body, while all he could hear by his ear was the tearing hiss of cloth; he could not even see what sort of knife it was.

In no time at all, his upper body was completely bare. His newly bought red bean shirt had turned into a heap of shreds, scattered around him.

What was astonishing was that the pieces were all almost exactly the same size, as though they had been measured with a ruler.

By then the bald man had also stopped. His eyes were wide as he stared at Ye Xiaoxuan without saying a word.

Only then did Ye Xiaoxuan see the weapon clearly. It was far too familiar; he had seen one just an hour earlier. It was a barber's razor, the kind used to scrape bald heads and shave beards.

Curiously, Ye Xiaoxuan picked up two scraps of cloth and overlapped them. They actually matched fairly well. Excited, he looked at the bald man and said, "Wow! Amazing. How did you do that?"

Then he suddenly saw that his own upper body was bare and quickly crossed his arms over his chest, his face red as he cursed, "You old men are all improper. The older you get, the more you like stripping men's clothes off!"