I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

"Let's put aside the unwritten rule that top-tier superhumans should ideally be paired with other top-tier superhumans."

Seeing that Gu Yan did not respond, Lin Zhenting continued to speak.

"Tell me about your health, Master."

"I have seen the diagnosis report from the Lin family's imperial physician."

"Young friend, you are a smart man. There are some things I don't need to spell out."

"Any father with even a shred of selfishness wouldn't stand by and watch his daughter go..."

"Jump into a fire pit."

"certainly!"

Lin Zhenting changed the subject, his imposing aura slightly toned down, "I have seen and remembered the six years you have devoted to my Lin family and the Pei family."

When the topic of six years came up, Gu Yan's eyes glazed over for a moment.

Memories surged forth like a floodgate bursting open.

Six years ago, he first stepped into Lin Jinyu's specially made room that could insulate against high temperatures.

At that time, Lin Jinyu was like a young beast trapped in a desperate situation, her whole body tense, her eyes burning with two dark flames that could burn everything at any moment.

The room reeked of burning, and the floor was littered with the remains of burnt objects.

Anyone who steps within three meters of her will be relentlessly attacked by waves of scorching fire.

Gu Yan remembered that when she first approached him, his cuffs instantly rolled up and turned black, and his skin felt a burning pain.

He didn't back down, but slowed his breathing and said in the calmest voice, "Sister Lin, my name is Gu Yan."

His response was a streak of fire that grazed his cheek, and the smell of burning hair wafted from his hair.

The next day, he came again with his arm wrapped in bandages.

Lin Jinyu huddled in the corner furthest from him, her eyes fierce and chaotic, flames flickering uneasily around her.

"Get out! Aren't you afraid of dying?" Her voice was hoarse.

"Afraid."

Gu Yan nodded obediently, but still slowly moved a little closer, "But my job is to help you."

"Help me? You're all the same! You all want to see me lose control! You want to see this monster burn everything down!"

Flames suddenly shot up, and a wave of heat hit us.

Gu Yan didn't dodge; the stray hairs on his forehead were singed and curled. He endured the stinging pain on his skin and slowly reached out his hand.

Instead of touching her, he started cleaning up the charred debris on the ground.

The movements were slow and steady.

"You're not a monster, Sister Lin."

He said, his voice not loud, but clear through the crackling of the flames, "You're just... injured here."

He pointed to his heart.

day to day.

He comes every day with new burns and old scars that haven't fully healed.

Sometimes she would sit quietly at a distance she could tolerate and play piano melodies that brought peace to her mind.

He learned that skill specifically after observing her emotional fluctuations with his "Emotional Eyes".

Sometimes it meant enduring the high temperatures to slowly clean up the room she had messed up when she lost control.

Lin Jinyu went from initially driving him away in a fit of rage to later turning a blind eye.

Then one day, Gu Yan was struck in the chest by a sudden, out-of-control wave of fire. As he groaned and staggered back, he caught a glimpse of a fleeting glint in the girl's eyes...

Panic?

After that, the flames around her seemed to subside by a tiny bit.

The turning point happened one afternoon.

Gu Yan inadvertently touched the edge of a fragmented memory of hers, and the backlash was intense.

His face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back. He had to hold onto the wall to keep from collapsing.

Lin Jinyu, who had always faced him with cold wariness, for the first time, voluntarily suppressed all her flames.

She didn't approach, but bit her lip tightly and stared at his sweat-drenched face for a long time.

Finally, he abruptly threw a tube of healing ointment at Gu Yan's feet, then quickly turned his head away, his ears turning slightly red.

Later, she began to allow him to get close and touch her.

She told him about the horror of her abilities, about the bloody fire she witnessed as a child caused by her biological father losing control, and how she herself had awakened her biological father's abilities.

He tells her how she grew up under the protection of her adoptive father, Lin Zhenting, but she always firmly believes that the same destructive factor flows in her blood and will eventually burn away all that she loves.

"Anyone who gets close to me will get hurt."

As she spoke, the flame burned quietly in her palm, reflecting her empty eyes. "It would have been better to push her away from the start."

Gu Yan simply listened, and then, when Gu Yan's emotions were relatively stable, she gently grasped the wrist with the flame pattern.

The instant his skin touched hers, a sharp burning pain shot through him, but he didn't let go. Instead, he guided the power of his Emotional Eyes.

Like the most precise probe, or the gentlest flowing water, it slowly seeped into her heart, a place scorched by fear and despair.

"Look."

He endured the pain, his voice trembling slightly, yet with a smile, "I wasn't burned. Your flames can be warm too."

Lin Jinyu was stunned. Looking at the spot where the two were clasped, the raging flames actually subsided slowly, leaving only the warmth of skin contact.

At that moment, a tiny crack appeared in her strong mental defenses.

That was a protracted battle that lasted for several years.

With patience, she smoothed away the sharp edges; with gentleness, she dissolved the violence; with seemingly insignificant touches and words, she pieced together her shattered self-awareness little by little.

From being covered in wounds, to being speechless, and then to the blonde girl being able to give him an awkward, not-so-skilled smile.

The hardships during that time, the thrill of each emotional outburst, the excruciating pain that felt like my brain was about to explode during each in-depth treatment...

Only Gu Yan herself knows the truth.

"I heard that the Pei family transferred 300 million to your account."

Lin Zhenting's voice pulled Gu Yan back from her long reverie.

He looked at the boy in front of him with complicated emotions. In the past six years, the boy had grown from a teenager into a handsome young man.

I watched them grow up; they're more than family to me.

But the weariness and sickness in his eyes, which were not of his age, became more and more obvious.

This made even the underworld tycoon feel sorry for him.

"My Lin family cannot fall behind."

"Four hundred million has already been transferred to your name."

Lin Zhenting paused, stepped forward, and unexpectedly reached out and grasped Gu Yan's hand that wasn't against the wall.

His hands were broad and strong, calloused from years of holding guns, but this grip carried a rare, weighty sincerity.

"Young friend, I'm sorry."

"Thank you very much."

This apology was for his blunt and even hurtful rejection.

This "thank you" is for Gu Yan's dedication to Lin Jinyu over the past six years.

Lin Zhenting knew perfectly well that without this young man, his adopted daughter would probably have already perished in the abyss of self-destruction.

The warmth and pressure from her hand brought Gu Yan back to her senses.

Marrying into another family?

He never even considered it.

Whether it's Lin Jinyu or Pei Yuran, the swordswoman from the Pei family, they both have huge psychological flaws.

In Gu Yan's opinion, he was not suitable to be a girlfriend at all, let alone get married.

That was a patient, a patient whose condition had been temporarily stabilized only after he had exhausted all his efforts and even sacrificed himself.

not to mention……