CHAPTER 113: 113: HOW DO YOU THINK THIS BILL SHOULD BE CALCULATED? (2 MORE UPDATES)

Ning Guiwan’s beautiful eyes widened slightly as she lifted her hand to block the man’s lips, preventing him from coming closer.

Quan Yu looked at her, his deep-brown glazed eyes slightly intense, shedding their usual coldness and indifference, brimming with a faint tenderness.

As their gazes met, Ning Guiwan didn’t say anything, but her refusal was evident.

Quan Yu took the small hand covering his own lips, kissed the delicate fingertips, smiled, and said in a low and gentle voice, "Okay, I won’t force you. When you’re ready, we’ll talk."

Ning Guiwan pulled her hand back, her eyes looking elsewhere, refusing to meet the gaze of the man before her. "There won’t be such a day."

Quan Yu acted as though he hadn’t heard and glanced at his watch. "Auntie Wang is about to arrive. I have some matters to attend to tonight and won’t be able to stay with you. I’ll let Auntie Wang accompany you for your washing up. Get some rest early."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Wang Yanyan hurried through the door, puffing heavily from the run in her bulky down coat. She was well over fifty years of age. "I’m terribly sorry for arriving late!"

Setting down her things and shrugging off her down coat, she said, "Go ahead and head back, sir. It’s alright now that I’m here."

Wang Yanyan was a servant at Quan Yu’s private villa, brought over to take care of Ning Guiwan, as there were times when it was inconvenient for him to be around a hospitalized young woman.

Quan Yu stood up, took the suit hanging on the back of a chair and slipped into it. His slender fingers buttoned it up and straightened the cuffs. Then he picked up his overcoat—a mature man in a suit is at his most charming, commanding, and stylish.

"I appreciate your efforts, Auntie Wang."

"It’s what I should do," Auntie Wang replied with an ample and comfortable smile.

Quan Yu nodded, then lifted his hand as if to pat Ning Guiwan on the head, but thought better of it. Instead, he veered towards her forehead, brushing away a stray lock of hair with the back of his finger.

The gesture was quite intimate.

"If you can’t sleep, call the nurse. Don’t suffer in silence."

His tone was one of concern.

Ning Guiwan looked at him. "I’m not a child. I know."

Quan Yu smiled, playfully flicked her nose, and then left.

The sound of the door closing seemed to knock on her heart.

What followed was an inexplicable sense of loss and emptiness.

When she came to her senses, she met Auntie Wang’s meaningful smile, and inexplicably, she felt a bit guilty.

During washing up, Auntie Wang’s smile deepened. "The Master is really good to you."

"It’s all out of consideration for Grandma Quan," Ning Guiwan replied.

"Whether he truly wants to take care of you or does it out of obligation to his elders, I’ve lived long enough to tell the difference, and besides..." Wang Yanyan began. As she spoke, she leaned closer to Ning Guiwan’s ear, lowering her voice, "That villa of the Master’s—no woman has ever been there before. You’re the first."

Ning Guiwan was speechless.

"Our Master may always look stern and seem difficult to get along with, but he’s handsome, and wealthy too. Miss Ning, being with him is a good deal."

Ning Guiwan remained speechless.

"Before I worked at the Master’s private villa, I worked at the old house. You wouldn’t believe how many matchmakers almost wore out the doorstep. Batch after batch of pretty, young, and talented girls came along, but the Master didn’t take to any of them. Turns out he likes someone like Miss Ning... Oh, I don’t mean anything bad by that, Miss Ning. You’re so pretty, if I were the Master, I would like you too..."

"Auntie Wang, I’m getting a bit sleepy," Ning Guiwan said, interrupting because Wang Yanyan, who had finished helping her wash up, showed no sign of stopping.

"Oh, right, right, right. Rest is what you need the most right now. I’ll turn off the lights for you."

The room darkened, and silence followed, allowing a flood of thoughts to rush in.

So much had happened in the short few months since she returned to the country.

Those events replayed in her mind, scene by scene, halting at the moment from ten minutes ago, when Quan Yu walked to the door, pulled it open to speak a quick word to Ming Yi, then turned to close the door of the hospital room, his eyes resting on her lying in bed.

As the door slowly closed, the figure of the man was gradually obscured...

Thinking about it, Ning Guiwan was surprised at how clearly she remembered that scene, even down to the shadow that fell across the noble bridge of the man’s nose.

「...」

On the outskirts of the city, a river passed by, its waters merging into the Yangtze River a few kilometers away.

On the north bank of the river lay a vast wasteland, overgrown with weeds and sparsely dotted with a few frail poplars.

There, in the midst of the dry, yellow grassland, was a car with its dipped beams on, illuminating several figures in the light.

One of them lay on the ground, surrounded by several others standing around him.

Moving closer, one would discover that the person on the ground, curled up and looking pained, was Ning Rongyue’s cousin, Qian Lucheng, his face swollen and bruised.

At that moment, another car approached. Its engine noise alerted Qian Lucheng, who strained to open eyes he could barely keep open. However, he was dazzled by the approaching car’s headlights, forcing him to close his eyes again until he could recover.

When he opened his eyes again, a person stood before him.

It wasn’t one of those who had previously beaten him.

This certainty stemmed from the different aura of the person before him; with their back to the car lights, Qian Lucheng couldn’t make out their features, only a tall, straight silhouette, hands clasped behind, looking down at him.

An overwhelming sense of superiority hit him, yet it was tinged with an indescribable ease and leisure.

The more the other remained immovable as a mountain, the more unbearable Qian Lucheng found it, worse than the beating he had just endured.

"What... What exactly do you want?" Qian Lucheng couldn’t feel the pain in his body anymore, only the fear of the man before him.

"I’ve said everything I needed to say, and you’ve beaten me up too. I haven’t done anything else to wrong her, aside from babbling nonsense in front of that woman. Please let me off..."

"Babbling nonsense?" The man in front finally spoke, his voice low and deep, chilling to the bone even more than the cold night wind.

Under Qian Lucheng’s panicked gaze, the man slowly squatted down, his coat hem rustling on the grass. He lifted a hand, and someone immediately handed him an iron rod.

The next moment, the end of the iron rod was under Qian Lucheng’s chin. Though Qian Lucheng didn’t see the man exert much force, his chin was lifted powerfully.

"Your few words of nonsense caused her to get hurt. How should this debt be settled?"

Before Qian Lucheng could speak, one end of the iron rod landed on his right hand. "Did this hand touch her dress?"

The tone was light and slow, yet it made Qian Lucheng break out in a cold sweat instantly.

「...」

Ning Rongyue hadn’t expected Quan Yu to show up at the annual meeting.

Seeing how anxious Quan Yu was about Ning Guiwan, her heart pricked as though pierced by thousands of needles, jealousy and anger burning her sanity. Knowing she should quit while she was ahead, she still had the information leaked to the press.

That evening, she gave Qian Lucheng a sum of money and personally put him on the train to Inner Mongolia.

Just in case, he had to leave, and the farther, the better.

She had designed the whole thing ingeniously, confident that they wouldn’t suspect her. But she didn’t expect that the day after sending Qian Lucheng off, she’d receive a call from him first thing in the morning.

He hadn’t gone to Inner Mongolia and had gambled away all the money she gave him, demanding she immediately send more funds.

Ning Rongyue wasn’t one to be threatened, but it was a critical time; she couldn’t afford to let Qian Lucheng cause further trouble. She would deal with him once the coast was clear.

Qian Lucheng was staying at an insignificant little hostel. Ning Rongyue, afraid of being recognized, didn’t drive but wore a mask and a hat and took a taxi instead.

The hostel was in a filthy and messy alley. Ning Rongyue frowned in disgust as she walked.

Upon finding the hostel, she climbed a narrow and steep staircase to the third floor and found the room number Qian Lucheng had indicated, raising her hand to knock on the door.

Just as she knocked, the door opened.

A flicker of doubt crossed Ning Rongyue’s mind, but she didn’t dwell on it. With the carpet filthy beyond recognition and the air filled with an unpleasant odor, she just wanted to quickly get rid of Qian Lucheng.

Stepping through the door, she saw the room was small and could be taken in at a glance. On the bed lay a person, back to her, and Qian Lucheng’s coat hung on a chair.

Ning Rongyue was somewhat displeased. "Qian Lucheng, you must leave today. If you don’t want to go to Inner Mongolia, then go to Beijing or Heilongjiang. In any case, you can’t stay in Shencheng. Don’t blame me for not warning you. If this gets exposed, you’ll be in for a world of hurt, even if it doesn’t kill you. Understood?"

No response from the person on the bed.

"Qian Lucheng!"

Still no response.

Ning Rongyue called out a few more times, gradually realizing something was amiss.

She walked two steps closer to the bed, and her gaze suddenly caught two suspicious bloodstains on the blanket, which startled her. "Qian... Qian Lucheng?"

The person on the bed still gave no hint of reaction.

An ominous thought surfaced in her mind, and a chill instantly soaked through Ning Rongyue’s body.

He... couldn’t be...

If he was... then who was the person who had called her earlier?

Her ears buzzed, her heartbeat raced, and her legs felt paralyzed, unable to move, as fear crawled up her spine.

It took some time before Ning Rongyue regained control of her legs and turned to run out.

She could pretend she had never been here. Right, she’d never come to this place; none of this had anything to do with her.

But before she could open the door, it was pushed open from the outside. Seeing the person at the door, Ning Rongyue’s heart sank to the bottom.

"Th-Third Aunt..."

SMACK!

Chen Lijuan slapped her across the face. "Shameless slut! You actually lured my son to a hotel!"