Chapter Two: Mother-in-Law

Boom—

The entire class, every boy and girl, was utterly stunned.

No one could believe that Su Ye had actually kissed Jiang Liuying, the school beauty, right in front of everyone—and not just a peck, but a full-on kiss on the lips!

Hadn’t there been rumors that Jiang Liuying was only pretending to be Su Ye’s girlfriend? No one had ever seen them hold hands, so how had it escalated to a kiss all of a sudden?

For a moment, it wasn’t just Jiang Shao and Class Monitor Song who were dumbfounded—even Jiang Liuying herself was at a loss, her beautiful eyes wide and unblinking, her mind a complete blank. Was this really happening?

This was her first kiss.

And the one standing before her—Su Ye—was a boy she had hired to pretend to be her boyfriend.

After that kiss, Su Ye seemed unwilling to let go. His face flushed a deep red as he still cupped Jiang Liuying’s face in his hands and asked, “Well? Does it feel warm? Comfortable?”

As if possessed, Jiang Liuying, who had meant to get angry, found her mind still blank. Yet she genuinely felt a tingling current flow through her body. She nodded woodenly, her lips parting as she answered softly,

“Mm…”

“In that case, one more!” Su Ye declared, and kissed her again.

Crash!

In the classroom, a student knocked over a desk, falling to the floor in shock.

Another kiss?

Jiang Liuying was instantly jolted awake, her lovely face burning with shame and fury. She raised her hand to smack Su Ye on the head.

Deflecting her with his hand, Su Ye quickly cried out, “Mother-in-law—ah, that hurts… Mother-in-law, don’t hit me! Let me explain!”

Mother-in-law? What was that supposed to mean?

Just that one phrase made Jiang Liuying stop in her tracks. Her stunning face flushed an even deeper red with a mix of shyness and anger, and she gritted her teeth, hissing, “Shut up! You… you… I’ll deal with you when we get home!”

She cast a mortified glance at her classmates, her eyes welling with tears. Covering her lips, she dashed out of the classroom.

In her wake, the classroom exploded into chaos.

“Heavens above, Su Ye actually kissed the school beauty! That’s it—everything’s over!”

“Why him? This is too cruel! The school beauty’s purity, ruined by that bastard!” Cries of outrage filled the room, and it seemed as if the crowd might tear Su Ye to pieces right there.

Jiang Shao’s face was ashen, his hands trembling. He pointed at Su Ye in fury before storming out.

Meanwhile, the other students stared at Su Ye as if seeing him for the very first time.

The boy in the desk ahead gave him a thumbs up. “Su Ye, you’re incredible! So you really are Jiang Liuying’s boyfriend? Impressive! But, what did you mean when you called her ‘mother-in-law’?”

“Oh, nothing. I’ve met her mother-in-law already,” Su Ye replied with a smile. If he were to tell them that Jiang Liuying herself was his future mother-in-law, no one would believe it.

It all went back to their families. Su Ye’s grandfather and Old Master Jiang had been sworn brothers in life and death, and had arranged for their grandchildren to be married one day. Over the decades, Su Ye’s family produced a grandson—Su Ye himself. But Old Master Jiang seemed cursed: six sons, all lost in childhood, until at last he had a daughter in his later years—Jiang Liuying.

By the terms of the old agreement, Su Ye was to marry Jiang Liuying’s daughter—only then would the third generation be wed.

Which meant that Su Ye now had a seventeen-year-old mother-in-law.

And because of this peculiar relationship, Su Ye had been taken in by the Jiang family when he came to Yang City. Even after his nine thunder veins were drawn out, the Jiang family continued to care for him. For the same reason, Jiang Liuying had asked Su Ye to pretend to be her boyfriend.

But Jiang Liuying was quite sensitive about being called “mother-in-law.” Now, with Su Ye blurting it out in a moment of panic, there was no doubt he’d face the little she-devil’s wrath when he got home.

The boy at the front desk gave Su Ye another appraising look, admiration in his eyes. “I really envy you! But you’d better be careful—everyone knows what kind of person Jiang Shao is. Before, we all thought you were just pretending, so nobody cared. But after school, he’ll definitely be waiting for you outside!”

Su Ye only nodded, remaining silent. When he thought of his family, a deep sigh escaped him; he preferred not to dwell on it.

For now, he needed to seize the faint insight he’d just gained into the heavenly thunder.

After three years of listening to thunder, he’d always wondered if one day his thunder veins might regrow. He spent every moment thinking of ways to stimulate his body’s acupoints.

But as Jiang Liuying had once said, heavenly thunder belongs to the heavens—how could it ever be forced into human meridians?

Just before he’d kissed Jiang Liuying, a sudden realization had dawned on him: an indescribable current of heavenly thunder seemed to stir within him. The pattern of the thunder veins forming was nothing like the neatly aligned human meridians—it was more like the crisscrossing of heavenly thunder.

“Heavenly thunder—these are celestial veins, not human ones. All this time, I’ve been listening to the lifeblood of the heavens themselves!” Su Ye mused, and opened the thunder recordings on his phone, listening with renewed focus.

This time, he could make out indistinct ancient characters within each peal of thunder.

With every rumble, a different ancient character emerged. Even more astonishing, he understood them, despite never having learned such archaic script.

How he yearned for a true thunderstorm! With thunder and lightning crashing around him, his enlightenment would surely deepen.

Other students, noticing that Su Ye lingered after school, snickered knowingly, “Ha! Weren’t you so bold kissing the school beauty just now? Now that you know Jiang Shao’s waiting outside, you’re too scared to leave! Coward!”

“Yeah, a loser who hasn’t even opened a single acupoint—how could he dare face Jiang Shao? The three great school beauties already belong to others. Doesn’t he know? He’s asking for trouble!” With mocking laughter, they left the classroom.

Su Ye immersed himself in the thunder sounds on his phone, and before he knew it, night had fallen. He was the only one left in the classroom.

“No, these thunder recordings are too weak! I need to hear real heavenly thunder!” For three years, Su Ye had been obsessed with thunder; he knew the weather around Yang City like the back of his hand.

“With this weather, the only place to hear thunder is by the sea!”

He couldn’t suppress the burning urge within him—the secrets hidden in the thunder were too mysterious to ignore. He longed to immerse himself in a real storm, with thunder and rain all around.

With that thought, he quickly hailed a car on his phone and set out for the seaside.

As Su Ye walked out of the school gate, he suddenly discovered that Jiang Shao and his gang were still waiting outside. There were about seventeen or eighteen of them—half students, the others rough-looking punks with dyed yellow hair.

They’d clearly been there a long while; the ground was littered with cigarette butts. When they saw Su Ye emerge, the gangsters flicked away their cigarettes and strode over in unison.

“You little bastard, you really dare show your face?” Jiang Shao’s eyes glinted with malice, his fists cracking ominously. “You dare touch the girl I fancy? You must have a death wish!”

One of the punks, the leader, sneered, “Jiang Shao, you need me to deal with a loser like this? What does that say about you?”

“Hong, this brat lives with the Jiang family. I… I can’t do it myself,” Jiang Shao replied, a hint of dread in his voice as he mentioned the Jiang family. Even the other punks frowned when they heard the name.

Just then, they saw Su Ye hurriedly get into a car and drive off.

“Damn, that coward ran! Get in the cars—after him!” Hong and his crew had several souped-up motorcycles; they leapt on, engines roaring, and took off in pursuit.

“That weakling! When we catch him, beat him within an inch of his life!” Jiang Shao, seeing Su Ye run, grew even more aggressive, shouting after him.

In the taxi, the driver glanced nervously at the racing motorcycles behind them. “Are those people after you?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about it—just drive faster!” Su Ye felt a surge of irritation. Would he really be able to hear thunder at the seaside tonight? If Jiang Shao and his gang caught up, things would get ugly.

Meanwhile, at the Jiang family estate.

Jiang Liuying paced back and forth, baseball bat in one hand, scissors in the other, fuming with rage. Her chest heaved as she muttered curses about that pervert, that damned freak.

“Young miss, there’s still no sign of Su Ye coming back,” a servant hurried in to report. From the look of things, Su Ye must have angered her again.

“It’s almost eight o’clock and he still isn’t back? Don’t tell me that little scoundrel is too afraid to come home?” Jiang Liuying ground her teeth, snapping the scissors menacingly.

“Miss, I heard something from one of Jiang Shao’s followers, though I can’t say if it’s true. Apparently, Su Ye went to the seaside, and Jiang Shao’s group went after him…”

Jiang Liuying paused, her delicate lips parting in surprise. “The seaside? What’s he doing there?”