Chapter 483 You Were Good at Hiding Your Feelings
The reason why Lu Boyan had kept this from Su Jianan—the fact that Xu Youning was a mole—was that he had been worried that it would shatter her.
However, beyond his expectation, Su Jianan looked calm.
Lu Boyan asked with confusion, “Did you already know?”
Su Jianan picked up a pillow and stuffed it into her arms to rest her chin on it. “I just felt something was wrong once or twice, but I didn’t expect it to be like that.”
Lu Boyan frowned. “When did you feel that?”
Su Jianan answered casually, “I felt it when I was in the hospital first. Youning was there, too. One day she went to visit me and you suddenly looked alert. Back then, there were only Youning, you and me in the ward. I couldn’t figure out why you would guard against her, but I didn’t ask you anything about that.”
To Lu Boyan’s surprise, Su Jianan had long before found something wrong with him. He asked with interest, “What else?”
“The second time was when we were on the island,” Su Jianan said, “I found that you were always trying to keep me from staying alone with Youning.”
Lu Boyan had thought that he had perfectly hidden his intent from Su Jianan, without expecting that she would perceive it.
He kneaded his temples as if he had a headache. Then he looked at Su Jianan and asked, “Is there anything that has escaped your notice?”
“Yes! Don’t you know?” Su Jianan tilted her head and said in a serious, joking voice, “You successfully hid the fact that you adored me. You were really good at that, like a skillful actor!”
“…” Lu Boyan raised his eyebrow, wondering how to sidetrack her. Then he said, “Are you sleepy? Let’s go to the bedroom.”
Su Jianan took Lu Boyan’s hand and returned to the bedroom with him.
Lu Boyan hadn’t taken a shower yet; he went into the bathroom after watching Su Jianan lie down. Su Jianan held the quilt and stared at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep.
A mole…
The two words were too far away from ordinary life. She wondered, “What did Xu Youning experience as Kang Ruicheng’s subordinate before she became a mole and carried out her missions alone?”
“Xu Youning must have been trained in a cruel way. Otherwise, she couldn’t have managed to conceal her true ident.i.ty or made herself look like an ordinary person in the past year or more.”
“Granny Xu pa.s.sed away. Has Xu Youning ever thought about coming back to live a normal life?”
With that, Su Jianan realized that she didn’t want to believe that Xu Youning had hurt her on purpose.
After a while, Lu Boyan stepped out of the bathroom and saw Su Jianan staring at the ceiling. He walked over and lay down beside her. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
Su Jianan moved slightly to lie in Lu Boyan’s arms. “I can’t sleep…”
Lu Boyan sighed softly and hugged Su Jianan. “Xu Youning is highly valued by Kang Ruicheng. She will be fine with him.”
“I’m not worried about it.” Su Jianan shook her head. “I was just thinking. Maybe Xu Youning didn’t expect that Kang Ruicheng would threaten me with those doc.u.ments. That’s why she betrayed him and handed over the evidence to prove the innocence of Lu Enterprises. Maybe she realized that she had hurt me, so she wanted to redeem herself that way…”
Lu Boyan knew that Su Jianan was loath to lose a friend like Xu Youning, which was the reason why she was trying to justify her actions.
He rested his chin on Su Jianan’s shoulder and said, “You think that Xu Youning is an innocent, nice person. But you have to know that she was always acting whenever you two were together. Jianan, she has given you a false image of her. We never got to know her well.”
Although Lu Boyan’s words sounded irrefutable, Su Jianan felt unable to agree.
In her opinion, a person could deceive others with words, but not with body language. She didn’t think that Xu Youning could act all the time.
“Well, let’s wait and see.” Su Jianan finally decided to give up pondering over it. “I want to sleep.”
“Mm.” Lu Boyan kissed Su Jianan’s shoulder. “Good night.”
Not long after she closed her eyes, Su Jianan fell asleep in Lu Boyan’s arms.
A few hours later, as the mist cleared with the morning sun, a new day arrived.
Lu Boyan washed up and finished his breakfast, while Su Jianan was still sleeping. Before leaving, he returned to their room.
Su Jianan was lying on the bed, half-awake. Lu Boyan kissed her forehead and said, “I’m off to work.”
“Mm.” Su Jianan opened her eyes and murmured. At that very moment, she felt her babies move. She grabbed Lu Boyan’s hand in surprise and placed it on her belly, then she said with a smile, “They are listening to you!”
Lu Boyan petted her swollen belly with a gentle smile on his face.
Su Jianan twined her arms around his neck. “Did you tell my brother about Granny Xu?”
Lu Boyan said, “He’s going to discuss business matters with me today. I will tell him about it at lunchtime.”
Su Jianan looked down and said, “Granny Xu took care of him when my brother was a little kid. He will be sadder than me if he hears that she pa.s.sed away…”
Lu Boyan brushed a lock of black hair off Su Jianan’s forehead. “Your brother has experienced more than you could imagine. He knows that he should accept such news calmly. You don’t need to worry about him.”
Su Jianan replied “oh.” She looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand and said, “It’s eight now. Go to the company. See you tonight.”
“See you tonight.” Lu Boyan kissed Su Jianan’s lips before he turned and left the room.
Lu Boyan went downstairs and said to Uncle Qian, “I’m going to the company.”
It was precisely nine o’clock when Lu Boyan arrived at Lu Enterprises. As soon as he entered his office, the secretary who was in charge of his schedule followed him in. She briefed him on the scheduled work for the day and told him, “Boss Su of the Cheng An Group has just arrived. He is waiting for you in conference room one.”
Lu Boyan looked at his watch and checked the time. He said, “Let’s go.”
In those days, Lu Enterprises and the Cheng An Group were working together on a project. They would sign a contract after reaching an agreement that day. Everybody knew that it was a cooperation of mutual benefit; it was an extremely rare occasion for two business giants to join hands.
It was Su Jianan who had facilitated that.
After signing the contract, both sides shook hands, saying politely that they hoped for a happy cooperation in the future. However, Lu Boyan said seriously, “Yicheng, stay here. I have something to tell you.”
The others left as soon as they heard Lu Boyan’s words, with only he and Su Yicheng remaining in the large conference room.
Su Yicheng was in a good mood since they had entered into an agreement. He shrugged and asked, “Is there anything else you want to discuss with me?”
“No,” Lu Boyan said, “I have bad news for you.”
The smile froze on Su Yicheng’s face. He asked, “What’s wrong with Jianan?”
“It’s not about Jianan.” After a long pause, Lu Boyan said, “It’s about Xu Youning and Granny Xu.”
Su Yicheng felt relieved when he was told that it wasn’t about Su Jianan. However, he felt as if a bomb had exploded in his mind when he heard the second half of Lu Boyan’s words.
He had been busy preparing for his wedding, so he didn’t contact Granny Xu. He had wanted to call Xu Youning, to ask her to take Granny Xu to City A and attend his wedding.
However, the fact that Lu Boyan was going to tell him bad news about Granny Xu came as a shock.
After a long while, Su Yicheng managed to ask calmly, “What’s wrong with Granny Xu?”
Lu Boyan said slowly, “She pa.s.sed away by accident.”
“Pa.s.sed away…”
Su Yicheng hadn’t heard those two words for more than ten years.
More than a decade ago, he grieved over his dead mother and wanted to die. He never wanted to suffer that kind of heart-wrenching pain again.
However, at that moment, he realized that he had lost another beloved relative.
Su Yicheng asked in a repeatedly tremulous voice, “What on earth happened?”
“According to the police, Mu Sijue’s men searched her house. Because of that, Granny Xu fell by accident and pa.s.sed away on the way to the hospital,” Lu Boyan said.
Su Yicheng immediately got to the main point. “Why would Mu Sijue ask his men to do that? Doesn’t Youning work for him?”
“Frankly, Xu Youning is Kang Ruicheng’s mole,” Lu Boyan said, “Sijue sniffed her out.”
Su Yicheng guessed what had happened. “Mu Sijue found that Youning was a mole, so he asked his men to search the Xu family for evidence, and it led to Granny Xu’s death. Right?”
Lu Boyan kneaded his temples. “Xu Youning saw this the same way. She persisted in saying that Sijue was the murderer who had killed Granny Xu. But I have to tell you that’s not the case.”
“What do you mean?” Su Yicheng’s eyes looked like torches. “If it’s not what I think, then which truth would it be?”
“Sijue would never be ruthless to an innocent old lady.” Lu Boyan looked into Su Yicheng’s eyes. “Kang Ruicheng’s right-hand woman is Xu Youning, and his biggest rival is Sijue. Think about it. Who would benefit from it if Xu Youning is deadset on thinking that Sijue is the murderer?”
All of a sudden, Su Yicheng figured everything out. He stopped pondering over the truth about Granny Xu’s death and began to worry about Xu Youning.
“How is Youning? Where is she?” Su Yicheng sounded anxious.
Lu Boyan told him more details, but Su Yicheng was confused. “Why didn’t Mu Sijue tell Youning the truth? Isn’t it dangerous for her to return to Kang Ruicheng?”
“Because Xu Youning didn’t believe him at all. She kept insisting that he was the one who killed Granny Xu.” Lu Boyan touched his forehead helplessly. “It won’t be too late if we tell her the truth after we get rid of Kang Ruicheng. Anyway, she can’t deal with him herself—that’s what Sijue told me.”
Su Yicheng got the hidden meaning of Mu Sijue’s words.
Mu Sijue had let go of Xu Youning because he wanted her to overcome the pain of losing her grandmother, and he would handle the biggest trouble in her stead.
In the end, Su Yicheng simply sighed and said, “Forget it.”
In his eyes, the whole story must have been much more complicated than he thought. Both Mu Sijue and Xu Youning had been caught up in the vortex. He wasn’t supposed to interfere, otherwise, he would be making even more trouble.
“Boyan, I’m not familiar with Mu Sijue and I don’t know him well, but I trust you,” Su Yicheng said, “I’m not going to get involved for the time being. But I won’t let him off if he turns out to be the murderer of Granny Xu.”
Lu Boyan nodded. “I will tell you the whole story in due course. At present, the less you know about it, the better.”