CHAPTER 48: CHAPTER 48 YOU’RE JUST A COWARD

So filthy!

Jian Xi wiped her mouth and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She happened to run into a young nurse just coming in for the night shift.

"Miss Jian, why are you washing up so late at night?"

Jian Xi didn’t even look up as she said, "It felt a bit dirty. I’m just brushing to freshen my breath."

Suddenly, a dark shadow enveloped her, and a chill ran down her spine from above. Jian Xi looked up. The nurse had already fled in fright, and Si Yuhuan’s scowling face loomed over her.

"Are you trying to startle me to death?!"

Jian Xi, her mouth full of toothpaste foam, couldn’t help but curse.

Si Yuhuan clenched his jaw. "So, this is how you talk about me behind my back?"

"Obviously. Who knows how many women you’ve kissed?" Jian Xi shot him a disdainful look, making no effort to hide her contempt.

"Hurry up and get out," Si Yuhuan ordered, slamming the bathroom door.

Jian Xi deliberately took her sweet time, treating his words as if they were hot air.

He probably couldn’t catch Jiang Qimeng and came back to take his anger out on me.

She wasn’t stupid enough to be his punching bag.

After leisurely finishing her washing up, Jian Xi emerged. She even remembered to apply a face mask, carefully cutting out a section around her wound to keep it dry. What a delicate little patient she was.

Si Yuhuan clenched his fists. He had waited for a full half an hour, and the fire in his belly had long since died down.

When Jian Xi swept her hair up, revealing the bruised forehead from when he had teased her and caused her to bump it, his remaining anger dissipated completely.

"You..."

"You’re the one who kissed me. You know exactly what I want from you, so of course, I’d press my advantage. Who knew she would walk in at that moment? You need to reflect on yourself. Why provoke her and still get intimate with me? Or what, am I supposed to believe you’re not like other men who only think with their lower bodies? You’re just the same."

Jian Xi, as if determined to provoke him, reignited Si Yuhuan’s fury.

"Jian Xi!"

"I’m dizzy, and my whole body hurts. You’d better not lay a finger on me. Otherwise, I’ll make sure you’re on tomorrow’s front-page headline: ’Director Si Abuses His Wife for His Mistress—An Act Condemned by All!’ You’ll be flamed to death by netizens."

Si Yuhuan, "..."

"I really want to sew your mouth shut."

Jian Xi, with an infuriatingly innocent smile that revealed her pearly white teeth, said, "If I were you, I wouldn’t be thinking about how to shut me up right now. I’d be thinking about how to appease your precious mistress so she stops being angry. Why not cede territory and pay reparations? Buy her designer brands, jewelry, gems?"

His wife, a woman who supposedly still loved him deeply, was standing before him, enthusiastically instructing him on how to woo another woman. No matter how he looked at it, Si Yuhuan found the situation infuriating. Feeling his control slipping, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and said coldly, "Just shut up."

"Alright." Jian Xi peeled off her mask, slipped into bed, turned off the light, and feigned sleep, all in one smooth sequence.

It was as if nothing had just happened.

She hid under the blankets, her body shaking with suppressed laughter.

"Laugh again and I’ll throw you out."

Jian Xi pulled back the blanket. "HAHAHA!"

She really couldn’t hold it in anymore. The thought of Jiang Qimeng’s expression, uglier than if she’d eaten shit, was just too satisfying.

Si Yuhuan flipped onto the bed and pinned her beneath him.

This woman dared to challenge him!

Jian Xi’s bright, gleaming eyes stared up at him. Her fluttering lashes were as light as a fan made of feathers. The hydrating mask had left a dewy film on her face, making her already flawless skin look even more supple and Q-bouncy, like jelly.

"I’m injured. Is Director Si planning to take advantage of my condition to fulfill his matrimonial duties?"

Her light, almost flippant tone pierced Si Yuhuan’s chest like an ice pick. His pupils contracted, and his expression changed drastically.

Jian Xi scoffed, "If Director Si is indeed in the mood, I can certainly keep you company."

Si Yuhuan immediately rolled off her and lay on the narrow hospital bed, silent.

He truly was the cause of all the injuries on her body.

"You don’t love me anymore, do you?" Si Yuhuan found himself blurting out.

After a long silence, the woman beside him nodded. "Mm-hm."

Si Yuhuan left.

Jian Xi was certain he wouldn’t be showing his face around her for quite some time.

「The next day, Jian Xi was discharged from the hospital and headed straight for the clubhouse.」

When Wan Yu heard about this, she choked on her wine, spraying it everywhere.

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH—"

"Are you crazy? Pushing him away like that will only make Jiang Qimeng, that little bitch, even more smug, won’t it?"

Wan Yu ground her teeth in fury. "If it weren’t for her, Si Junyan wouldn’t have dared to abuse his connections and act so arrogantly, not even if he had a hundred times the courage!"

Jian Xi took a sip of red wine, but Wan Yu snatched the glass away and replaced it with juice.

"Don’t worry. I won’t let anyone off the hook. It’s all part of the plan."

Wan Yu pressed on, "So, what exactly is the plan? Spill the beans!"

Jian Xi smiled enigmatically and took her to see Si Junyan.

"An old friend is leaving. We’re just sending him off."

Jian Xi knew that today was the day Si Junyan would be expelled from Beijing.

Of course, she was going to kick him while he was down!

As they reached the airport and Jian Xi was about to get out of the car, she noticed several cars following them. A number of burly young men, looking like thugs, emerged from the vehicles. She quirked an eyebrow. "And what’s this?"

Wan Yu, checking herself in the mirror, applied a coat of fiercely red lipstick. "We have to reclaim everything we’ve lost. That little bastard was swaggering around so arrogantly last time. Today, I’m going to make sure his face is beaten as swollen as a pig’s head!"

When she finally saw Si Junyan, her jaw almost dropped.

"My God, who beat him until his face is swollen like a pig’s head?"

Jian Xi gave a bitter smile. "If I told you it was my elder brother, would you believe it?"

"No way!" Wan Yu looked as if her worldview had been shattered. After a moment, she let out a long breath. "So even a gentleman can have a wild side! Terrifying! But damn, that beating looks good on him. So satisfying! I’m going to give him another round myself!"

Saying that, Wan Yu rolled up her sleeves and gestured for her men to charge, but Jian Xi stopped her.

"Look at the state he’s in. Another beating and he’ll be dead. I’ll show you something more interesting."

Wan Yu trusted her friend’s capabilities, but just to be safe, she instructed the men behind her, "If things look like they’re going sideways, jump in and beat him senseless. Don’t hold back."

Jian Xi understood her friend’s caution: once bitten, twice shy.

Si Junyan was waiting alone for his flight.

Having lost his prestigious status, he couldn’t even get into the VIP lounge.

First, he had been severely beaten by Jian Mingcheng. Then, he was subjected to the family’s disciplinary measures. Now, with no one to even attend to him, he was alone, carrying his luggage into exile, his heart burning with bitter resentment and a profound sense of injustice.

A few elderly tourists from a tour group, dragging their luggage, accidentally bumped into him. He immediately roared, "Get out of my way! Can’t you see I’m sitting here? How dare you come near me? Are you looking to die?"

If not for his injuries, his fists would have already flown.

But the tourists were no pushovers. They immediately yelled back, "Are you going to die from a little bump? Are you made of glass? If you’re so delicate, you shouldn’t be out here making a fool of yourself! If you’re so high and mighty, go sit in the VIP lounge!"

Si Junyan was stunned into silence. The fact that he could even afford a plane ticket was an act of mercy from Si Yuhuan.

Several of the tourists, looking fierce, raised their fists as if to strike, and he immediately cowered.

These people, however, didn’t care if he cowered. They rained punches and kicks down on him. It was only when airport security arrived that they finally stopped, leaving him with a parting threat, "Try acting tough again, and we’ll break your legs!"

Si Junyan curled into a ball on the floor, utterly wretched.