Chapter 284 I’ll Force Her out of Stars Entertainment“My leg is broken, but my arms aren’t! Go on, then! Expose your junk if you dare!”
Ah Sha stared at Bai Qi coldly with both hands raised at the ready.
Bai Qi buckled his belt again when he saw the needles in her hand.
“You sure you don’t want to look? Maybe just a teeny-weeny peek?” Bai Qi asked one more time.
Ah Sha gritted her teeth. “No. I don’t want to look at your junk. At all.”
Ah Sha shifted her left leg slightly and found that her entire calf was now immobile. Frustrated, Ah Sha peered at the tree hollow’s opening two meters above. Then, she glared at Bai Qi who was now seated beside (when did that even happen?) her.
The b.a.s.t.a.r.d had done it on purpose from the start, she was sure of it. Why else would he have jumped into this tree hollow?
As if he had read her mind, Bai Qi said, “You can’t move one of your legs, and my arm is now useless thanks to you. What if we run into wild animals?”
What he was really trying to say was: “If you hadn’t poked me with your stupid needles, we wouldn’t have fallen off the cliff in the first place. Look what I got for trying to save you?”
Ah Sha no longer had the strength to argue with him, so she closed her eyes to rest her mind. Right now, Xunxun was her only hope; she hoped Xunxun could figure out sooner that he had been chasing the wrong trail and then return to the original site of the landslide to look for her.
Twenty-four hours had pa.s.sed since Ah Sha went missing. Wan Qingsi’s long hike had already brought him to the headwaters of the stream. Still, he hadn’t encountered any signs of Ah Sha along the way.
“Young master, we’ll be out of this mountain if we go any further.”
Wan Qingsi suddenly halted in his steps. Every one of his followers held their breaths, fearing that he might suddenly go berserk and reduce them to a bunch of corpses.
“Let’s head back.”
Xiao Hua froze. “We’re going to stop looking?”
Wan Qingsi turned around and started walking. “No. We’re going back to the site where Ah Sha fell.”
Everyone was too afraid to question him further, so they just followed him as they made their way back to the starting point of the hike. The search party had been working non-stop throughout the entire night. Wan Qingsi’s subordinates were still good to go, but the staff members from the hot spring village were pretty much dead beat. Even so, the dedicated staff members clenched their teeth and soldiered on.
Thank G.o.d for Xiao Hua’s cleverness when she decided to contact the chopper. After Xiao Hua had given the pilot their location, Wan Qingsi brought his subordinates to carry on the search while the others were left behind to wait for the chopper.
“Young master, do you think the young miss is here?” Wan Yi asked once they had reached the site of the landslide. “But we’ve already looked. There aren’t any caves around.”
“Search again,” Wan Qingsi said, giving Wan Yi a pointed look. “Caves aren’t the only places that humans can hide in.”
Xiao Hua pointed at the few trees behind a huge rock. “That’s the only place we haven’t looked.”
Wan Qingsi climbed up to the top of the rock and examined it. Leaves and branches were strewn across the top surface of the rock. Wan Qingsi walked around the rock in one full circle. Then, all of a sudden, he saw something that nearly had his heart leaping to his throat. There was a crack on the trunk of one of the trees, and lodged in the crack was another shoe. It was Ah Sha’s other shoe!
Wan Qingsi jumped down and sprinted towards the tree. “Ah Sha!” he yelled. He crouched down to examine the crack and realized that it was actually the opening to a deep hollow inside the tree. “Ah Sha!” he shouted, louder this time.
“Xunxun!” Ah Sha’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was clear.
“Bring me a rope!” Wan Qingsi roared.
By time Ah Sha was on board a chopper bound for the hospital, it was already afternoon. “Are you hurt anywhere other than your leg?” Xunxun asked, wrapping his arms around Ah Sha carefully.
“Nah. I broke my leg, that’s all.” Ah Sha’s eyes were shut due to exhaustion.
She hadn’t slept since yesterday; she had to keep her eyes open most of the time and be on her guard against Bai Qi. Xunxun adjusted her into a comfortable position and then planted a kiss on her forehead. “It’s alright now. Just go to sleep.”
“Mm,” Ah Sha said. She didn’t make a sound again after that.
The warmth of sunlight was the first thing she felt when she finally woke up. She opened her eyes and met the gaze of the man who had been sitting there, watching her sleep.
“Are you hungry? Do you want to have a bowl of porridge first?”
Ah Sha stretched her arms above her head and yawned. “How long was I out?”
“Right now, it’s noon on the second day of your hospitalization.” Xunxun raised the bed higher and readjusted her position so that her head was now leaning against her pillow. “Don’t move your leg. You’re wearing a cast now, and it’ll be a few months before you can walk again.”
Ah Sha watched as Xunxun brought out the porridge and several light dishes. She sniffed and stretched out her arms. “Hug,” she said.
Xunxun turned around and pulled her into his arms. The two of them stayed in the embrace while everything else in the world faded away. After a while, Ah Sha was starting to feel annoyed with herself for being so weak, like a damsel in distress. Just as Ah Sha was about to push Xunxun away, Xunxun said, “I’m so sorry!”
If he hadn’t been so careless, Ah Sha would never have been brought away by Bai Qi. Nor would she have fallen off the cliff and ended up lying here, injured and debilitated.
“It’s not even your fault!” Ah Sha shoved him away. “You’re letting your imagination run wild again. Stop that.” “Hey, where did all this guilt come from, huh?” Ah Sha said, poking the man’s chest. “I’m the one who should apologize!”
Xunxun laugh incredulously. “What on earth do you have to apologize for?”
“Um, for making you worry?” Ah Sha stared up at him. “You must’ve been worried sick when you couldn’t find me. Believe it or not, I wasn’t scared at all. I knew you’d find me!”
Xunxun stared deeply into her eyes. Then, he buried his head against the column of Ah Sha’s neck. “I could’ve just left Bai Qi there, but you didn’t allow me to. Why?”
When he was rescuing Ah Sha, Xunxun had actually planned to kill Bai Qi, but Ah Sha stopped him. In the end, they rescued Bai Qi as well. Xunxun left him in the care of the hot spring village’s staff.
“He never would’ve fallen down the cliff if it weren’t for me. He tried to save me, that’s why he fell.” Ah Sha pressed her lips together, forming a tight line. “It didn’t feel right to kill him under that kind of circ.u.mstances.”
“Okay. I understand. Now, time to eat!” Xunxun set the bowl of porridge before her.
After making a short work of the porridge, Ah Sha called Ying Qingcang.
Unsurprisingly, the first thing Ying Qingcang did was give Xunxun a piece of his mind. When the phone was pa.s.sed back to Ah Sha, she dared not tell Ying Qingcang about her broken leg. Instead, she told him that she had merely sprained her ankle. After that, Ah Sha was subjected to Xin Qing’s anxious questioning about the state of her health. At first, Xin Qing had insisted on coming to visit Ah Sha at the hospital. But then she changed her mind after Ying Qingcang had said something to her.
After hanging up, Ah Sha asked, “You haven’t told daddy and the others that I’m a bounty hunter, right?”
“No,” Xunxun said with a shake of his head. “You’re the only person who has the right to tell them.”
“Mm!” Ah Sha bit into a piece of fruit. “Maybe I’ll tell them some day in the future!”
Ah Sha stayed at the hospital for half a month. Every day during her hospitalization, there were reporters skulking around inside the hospital, hoping to sneak into Ah Sha’s room. However, they were all found and chased away by Xiao Hua. Xunxun was practically living at the hospital too. When the doctor finally told her that she was allowed to go home and asked her whether she wanted to get discharged right away, Ah Sha didn’t hesitate for even a second. For all she knew, she might actually end up sick if she spent another second cooped up in here.
When she got home, booting up her laptop was the first thing she did. She hadn’t gotten in touch with Johns for quite a while; now was as good a time as any.
“My G.o.d! I really thought Bai Qi had killed you!” Johns yelling voice blasted through the laptop’s speakers. Then, when Johns saw another head popping up on his screen, he jumped in his seat. “Xun-Xunxun?”
“Long time no see, Uncle Johns. You’ve gotten old,” Xunxun said, firing the first salvo.
The corners of Johns’ lips twitched. “Haha, Haha… Very funny. And you’ve grown up so much!”
“I know, right!” Xunxun said with faux enthusiasm. “It’s been, what? Ten years? And yet here you are, alone and unwanted.”
…
Johns gulped. “Um, hey, Ah Sha! You know what? Something just came up. How about we chat next time!”
It was clear from Xunxun’s behavior that the man was here to put him through the wringer. “If Chen Huan ever found out that Ah Sha had become a bounty hunter, she’d probably chop me into pieces,” Johns thought guiltily.
“Don’t worry. I don’t think my mother will chop you into pieces.” Xunxun was like a roundworm inside the human intestine as he stared back at Johns from the screen. “She’ll just experiment on you and test her latest drug on you.”
Johns broke out in cold sweat. Ah Sha took pity on Johns and nudged the man sitting beside her. “Stop scaring him. It’s not even his fault!”
“Uh, look, guys, I really have to run. See ya!” Johns went offline immediately.
Xunxun snorted. “He’s the main culprit behind all this.”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Ah Sha’s face broke into a grin. It was better to use Johns as a scapegoat than to have Xunxun stay mad at her.
Xiao Hua brought a wheelchair to the apartment the following day. After making sure that Ah Sha could move around the house on the wheelchair, Xunxun said, “I have to drop by the company for a bit. Just watch TV if you’re bored. Or you could go online. I’ll be back very soon though. Oh, and what would you like for dinner?”
Ah Sha’s hand shot up immediately. “Roasted duck!”
Xunxun kissed her. “Alright. I’ll bring some back.”
At Stars Entertainment, Qi Xiu was eyeing Wan Qingsi warily.
“Ken, the public is now saying that you’re disrespecting the Ying family by openly dating Mei Jing.”
“Just ignore them. Have you dealt with the media storm caused by the incident at the hot spring village?”
When the reporters, the same ones whom Xiao Hua had kicked out of the hospital, failed to get an interview with Mei Jing after the landslide, so they had no choice but to take a shot in the dark. The result of that was a bunch of baseless articles with outlandish claims. Some people even claimed on the internet that the Ying family had planned Mei Jing’s accident to punish her for seducing Wan Qingsi.
“The hot spring village’s management had released a statement saying that there was no foul play involved in the accident. They’ve emphasized in their statement that Mei Jing wasn’t the only one who fell off the cliff. The nonsense should stop soon.” Qi Xiu paused and glanced at something in his notebook. “By the way, Mo Nan had tried to reach out to you several times. Judging from his behavior, I’m guessing that he’s looking to collaborate with us?”
Wan Qingsi arched his brow. “He’s moving pretty fast. He must be eager to meet his doom.”
“Shall I reply him?”
“No. Ignore him. If he wants to get a foothold in S City, real estate is definitely the first thing he’ll start with. That’s got nothing to do with us.”
Qi Xiu hesitated for a moment. “But I heard he’s Zhuang Yan’s sugar daddy now. From the looks of it, he’s planning to invest in her movie.”
“Haha. Now I see where this is going. He’s trying to leverage me. He’s making it clear that he’d be gunning for Stars Entertainment if I refuse to help him.” Wan Qingsi chuckled humorlessly. “What a fool indeed.”
“Ah! One more thing,” Qi Xiu said suddenly. “I nearly forgot. An Ru’s coming back tomorrow.”
Wan Qingsi raised his head. “Oh. Ask her agent to pick her up at the airport. And notify the reporters.” Wan Qingsi picked up a stack of folders from his desk and handed it to Qi Xiu. “I’ve already signed everything. I won’t be around the company these days. Just send everything to my house if there’s anything else that I need to sign.”
“Oh,” Qi Xiu said, and then he paused, looking at Wan Qingsi as if he had something else to say.
“If there’s something on your mind, just spit it out,” Wan Qingsi said, standing up. “If not, I’ll be leaving now.”
“Do you really not know, or are you just playing dumb?” Qi Xiu said, rolling his eyes. “h.e.l.lo? I just told you that An Ru is coming back tomorrow. Aren’t you even worried that she might cause problems?”
“Problems?” Wan Qingsi said in a tone of amus.e.m.e.nt. “I’m pretty sure she has neither the right nor authority to do that.”
“That might be the case, but she always thought you’d be with the daughter of the Ying family. Now, with Mei Jing’s sudden appearance and all, I’m worried that she might do something stupid.” Qi Xiu shuddered at the mere thought of An Ru’s manic obsession with Wan Qingsi.
An Ru was not Tang Yue. Petty schemes were all Tang Yue was capable of; An Ru, on the other hand, was fearless and capable of literally anything. That, plus she was a very talented singer with a huge fan base. Because of that, she had always been arrogant and full of herself within the circle. Once, there was a model who had tried to seduce Wan Qingsi at an event. An Ru slapped the poor woman in front of the whole crowd.
For a long while, Wan Qingsi stood there in silence. Sensing Wan Qingsi’s reticence, Qi Xiu tried to remind him again. “Mei Jing usually appears meek and submissive. Her mild temperament makes her an easy target. I really hope she doesn’t end up being destroyed by An Ru.”
“You know what? I actually look forward to An Ru’s gimmicks.” Wan Qingsi opened the door. “Let her do what she wants. It might bring Mei Jing more publicity!”
Ah Sha only found out about An Ru’s return when she saw the news the next day. At the airport, the woman brazenly claimed that she had pushed herself to graduate ahead of schedule—half a year earlier—for Wan Qingsi’s sake; because she missed him and wanted to return earlier to see him. However, when a reporter asked An Ru whether she knew Mei Jing, her answer rendered Ah Sha speechless…
“Her? She’s just another woman who’s trying to use Qingsi to climb to fame. Qingsi might be willing to give a face to her, but I sure as h.e.l.l won’t. I’ll kick her out of Stars Entertainment the moment I see her!”
The moment she heard that statement, Ah Sha lowered her head to look at Xunxun, who was currently giving her a leg ma.s.sage.
Xunxun merely gave her an innocent look. “Well, what can I say? The woman has a bad case of delusional disorder.”