Afterlife Department

Chapter 191 - A Secret

China, S City.

Huo Ling crossed his arms as he continued to stare at Yi Bing while waiting for the other\'s answer with his brows raised.

Meanwhile, Yi Bing. "…" damn. I really forgot. What to do? What to say? Asking online for the answers!

-no. He\'s just joking. As the first grim reaper, and the strongest one at that, how can a mere ghost (soul) contend with him? Intimidate him? Ha-ha.

However, it is on the premise that it is not Huo Ling. The one before him is Huo Ling, who he likes. He cleared his throat to mask his discomfort and compose himself.. "I didn\'t tell you because I don\'t want you to stress yourself." He answered.

It is a half-truth and half-lie. He really didn\'t want for Huo Ling to be stressed, since grim reapers shouldn\'t do that. Instead, they should make the souls more relax and be comfortable, which is what he had done before: taking Huo Ling for a vacation to the places Mo Shi recommended to them.

His answer is also a half-lie, since he truly forgot to tell Huo Ling about what happened to the Huo family.

It wasn\'t known whether Huo Ling had seen through his lie or not. "Oh." He just said.

If Huo Jinghua was present and saw Huo Ling\'s response, he would say that Huo Ling was really cut from the same mold with Huo Meiying, his mother. From the tone of his voice, up to the twitching of his muscles as he made an indifferent expression, he perfectly acted his mother\'s usual indifference. Even just the form of his shoulder, Huo Ling completely imitated Huo Meiying.

Yi Bing. "…" \'oh\'? What does that mean? Can anybody tell me? What is an \'oh\'? His hand jerked. He wanted to cover his face, since he felt that Huo Ling really had seen through his lie. However, he could only brave it and also act indifferent like Huo Ling.

Huo Ling, he is indifferent since he was hiding his thoughts. On the other hand, Yi Bing acted indifferent to not lose his face. You can clearly see who has the upper-hand here.

If only Huo Ling could remember all the memories he has with Yi Bing starting from the first time they met, he would have already exploded and cursed indignantly in his heart since Yi Bing was being shameless again. Unfortunately, Huo Ling couldn\'t. Or else, he would have laughed at Yi Bing\'s face for Yi Bing\'s carelessness – his forgetfulness, and now shamelessness.

But, since he was carefully raised by Huo Meiying, and also guided properly by Hao Baiyun and Lei Shan, as well as have been showered by kindness by Kale, Huo Ling decided to let Yi Bing off. "Tell me what happened to them." he said as he put away his indifferent expression and now revealed his anxiety.

Yi Bing also became serious. "Okay." He answered. "Yesterday morning, after their breakfast, Huo Dakuan was provoked by your uncles and he passed his CEO position to your youngest uncle, Huo Jinghua." He started. "Nothing happened after that during the morning, as well as the afternoon. It all started in the evening." He said as he narrated from Huo Chengyi \'attacking\' Huo Jinghua out of spite, to Huo Chengyi\'s car accident and Wang Yan\'s face burning, then Huo Luan being robbed and stabbed, Li Fei being kidnapped until Huo Dakuan falling into a coma.

Huo Ling silently listened. Even though Yi Bing was talking about his relatives\' accidents, his face didn\'t show any warmth and concern towards his relatives that were named. Instead – "How about my mother?" he asked. The only one he cared about is Huo Meiying. He is very worried something had happened to her, too. If there is, he doesn\'t know what he\'ll do.

Fortunately, nothing happened to her. "She\'s fine." Yi Bing answered.

The heavy rock on top of Huo Ling\'s heart was lifted. "Thank god…!" he muttered as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Yi Bing saw Huo Ling\'s pale face gained color. A smile formed on his lips, but also immediately disappeared. Because he felt pleased seeing Huo Ling\'s happy and relaxed expression after confirming that nothing happened to his mother, he decided to tell him some information. "Your mother was looking after Huo Jinghua." He told him.

"My youngest uncle?" Huo Ling was surprised.

Yi Bing nodded. "Yes. He didn\'t have anyone to accompany him in the hospital since he is single and has no child, either." He explained. "He\'s the one new CEO of your family\'s company." He reminded him in case Huo Ling forgot or didn\'t notice because he was absent-minded earlier when he was listening to him.

It is as he had guessed seeing Huo Ling\'s surprised expression. "What?!" he exclaimed. He really didn\'t notice the minor details earlier.

However, Yi Bing noticed another emotion in Huo Ling\'s eyes: doubt. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked.

Huo Ling pursed his lips. "Are you sure?" he asked. "It was really him who…" he didn\'t continue what he\'s about to say as his brows scrunched up in contemplation.

"…" Yi Bing\'s face darkened. Why is he doubting me? Am I a liar?

(A/N: YES!)

"Sorry." Huo Ling apologized when he saw Yi Bing frowned. "I didn\'t mean to doubt you. It\'s just – " he said as he made an awkward expression.

"What?" Yi Bing asked as he glared at him in dissatisfaction. He looked like he\'s picking a fight.

Huo Ling helplessly sighed. "Maybe because of too much accident, the transferal of power in the company didn\'t make big waves as much as the misfortunes they faced…" he muttered. Then, he looked at Yi Bing. "In fact, I believe you. It\'s just, I was shocked." He explained.

"Ob. Vious. Ly." Yi Bing sarcastically said.

Huo Ling. "…" bro. Can we still be friends? His face was covered in dark lines. "I\'ll tell you why." He told him.

"Speak." Yi Bing graciously said.

Huo Ling\'s lips twitched. He never knew a grim reaper can be hard to please. You really can learn something every day. "I was shocked that my youngest uncle inherited the CEO position because…"

Yi Bing\'s brows raised. "It\'s as you said. He\'s the youngest son, yet he inherited the position when it should be the oldest son." He said. "Even if it wouldn\'t be the oldest son, there\'s still the second son and the third son. He\'s the last in line, yet he was the one who was picked." He explained.

Huo Ling nodded. "Yes, yes." he said. "However, that\'s not only it." he told him.

Yi Bing\'s brows raised as his interest was piqued. As he remembered, Huo Jinghua was secretly protecting Huo Meiying. All the \'accidents\' that happened last night was his doing. He is a behind-the-scenes boss. A big mastermind.

With the tone Huo Ling was speaking, could there be more secrets shrouding Huo Jinghua?

S City Police Station.

The entire station was covered by a gloomy atmosphere. Even the ringing of the telephones sounded warped and slow, adding to the heavy atmosphere.

"Are xiao Xie and Song Mingfan still tailing Su Heng?" Jiang Xinduo asked as he sat beside Ke Congyi.

"Yeah. Xiao Xue was complaining he\'s gonna die of boredom." Ke Congyi said. "Song Mingfan translated, nothing was happening to Su Heng and everything is normal. Thus, xiao Xie\'s all shriveled up." He explained.

"How about xiao Zhang and xiao Xue?" Jiang Xinduo asked.

"They are caught by Huo Dakuan\'s people, as well as Secretary Lewis." Ke Congyi answered. "However, Huo Dakuan\'s people didn\'t have time to spare on a policeman since many things happened to their family last night. And on Secretary Lewis\' side…" his voice slowed down while his fingers suddenly stopped tapping on his keyboard.

"Hm?" Jiang Xinduo turned when he didn\'t hear Ke Congyi speaking. "What\'s wrong?" he asked.

"They were spared by Secretary Lewis." Ke Congyi said.

"That\'s good, then. Why are you frowning?" Jiang Xinduo asked.

"I\'ve created a program, but it can only be used for a short time for the time being…" Ke Congyi slowly said as he pondered about the right words to say.

"Hm?"

"And I found something." Ke Congyi said as he looked around before he opened his drawer and took out a folder. "Fortunately, my fingers react faster than my brain. Thus, they printed this before I could recover from my shock." He said before he pouted. His program was immediately destroyed by a strong anti-virus program of the households he attacked.

"\'shock\'?" Jiang Xinduo said as his lips curved up after he read the contents of the folder. "Indeed, these are shocking." He said as he looked at the words as well as the profile pictures printed on the papers. "They are merely skeletons in a closet." He said as he looked at the first page, then the second page and the third page. "But the question is, who are hiding these skeletons? And from whom?"