"I don"t understand a word of what you"re saying." Hua Zhendan complained."I took Xuan Tianmei home as you instructed. About five minutes later, when I was at my place, I noticed her apartment was on fire." Su Yang clarified.
"Was she inside?" Hua Zhendan who was now standing upright questioned anxiously. Xuan Tianyi raised a curious eyebrow at him.
"She was." Su Yang said.
Hua Zhendan was quiet for a second. With a fearful heart, he asked, "Is she okay?"
"I"m afraid not," Su Yang replied. "I mean, she"s alive, but a good deal of the left part of her face is burnt."
"Where"s she?"
"I brought her to the hospital." Su Yang replied.
The conversation continued with one or two dialogues before Hua Zhendan said. "Please stay with her and take care of her. We"re on our way."
When Hua Zhendan disconnected the call, Xuan Tianyi looked at him inquisitively before asking, "Did something bad happen to Shen Rui?"
Hua Zhendan shook his head robotically.
"What happened then?" Xuan Tianyi asked.
"There was a fire at your apartment. And your sister—"
"What happened to my sister?" Xuan Tianyi sprang to his feet. Every trace of previous drunkenness now extinct.
"She suffered some injuries—"
"What happened to her? Where"s she? Is this some kind of joke?"
"She"s at the hospital. I"ll drive you there."
Shaky, Xuan Tianyi hurried out in front of Hua Zhendan.
The road to the hospital was tense, quiet and filled with anxiety.
Following the directions given by the receptionist, Hua Zhendan and Xuan Tianyi hurried to Xuan Tianmei"s room.
On seeing his sister sedated with part of her face bandaged, Xuan Tianyi felt a knife had ripped his soul into two. He realized just how silly he"d been to keep malice with the only family he had ever known.
He ran his hand through the unburnt side of her face and a tear dropped from his eyes. "I"m such an idiot. I shouldn"t have left her alone." Xuan Tianyi murmured.
"Don"t blame yourself. You couldn"t have known this would happen." Hua Zhendan rubbed his hand along Xuan Tianyi"s back to console him.
"What would have happened had they not found her on time?" Xuan Tianyi asked. Dismayed.
Hua Zhendan stayed silent.
Xuan Tianyi let out a sharp breath. Turnin to Hua Zhendan, he said in a sober voice, "I want to go see the doctor."
"I"ll accompany you." Hua Zhendan said and led him away.
Soon after they left, Su Yang entered the room and sitting down on a chair she conveniently found beside the door, buried her head in a crime novel.
When Hua Zhendan and Xuan Tianyi returned to Xuan Tianmei"s hospital room, the first thing Xuan Tianyi saw was Su Yang.
He stopped and stared at her curiously, "I"m sorry. Who are you?"
Su Yang stood up and stared in Xuan Tianyi"s face. Caught off-guard, Su Yang stuttered, "Emm... I... I am... Xuan Tianmei"s girlfriend."
"You"re what?" Xuan Tianyi gaped at Su Yang.
Hua Zhendan ma.s.saged his temple. Keeping a secret from Xuan Tianyi was one thing. Lying about the secret was another thing entirely. He stepped between them. Pointing to Su Yang"s, he said to Xuan Tianyi. "This is Su Yang."
Xuan Tianyi looked from one person to the other. Silently demanding an explanation of who Su Yang was exactly, Xuan Tianyi raised a brow at Hua Zhendan.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
"Well, I"d better get going." Su Yang said and started to leave.
Hua Zhendan raised a hand to stop her. He held Xuan Tianyi"s hands and explained, "When you first started working here, you know I had a bad impression about you."
Xuan Tianyi nodded.
"I didn"t want to hire someone who would ruin my company"s reputation, so I had to make sure you weren"t entirely bad. Then I hired Su Yang to shadow you."
Xuan Tianyi pulled his hands away from Hua Zhendan"s. Everything Hua Zhendan had said so far made sense. But he could tell from the look of guilt on Hua Zhendan"s face that there was more to the story. He pressed on. "After you were sure of my character, you fired her, right?"
"I..." For the first time in a long time, Hua Zhendan caught himself uncertain of what to say. "I didn"t."
Xuan Tianyi"s shoulders drooped in disappointment. "So, you"ve been having someone shadow me this whole time. Don"t you trust me?"
"I... Of course, I do." Hua Zhendan said.
Xuan Tianyi shook his head in disbelief.
"I wasn"t having her shadow you. I asked her to stay on... As your bodyguard." Hua Zhendan explained.
"Without my knowledge." Xuan Tianyi"s tone was so sober, it scared the c.r.a.p out of Hua Zhendan.
"I... I was going to tell you."
"No, you weren"t." Xuan Tianyi shook his head again. "You were never going to tell me because you know I wouldn"t support that madness. And you had to keep her on because you"re extremely insecure and need someone watching my every move."
Hua Zhendan found himself at a loss for words. Some of what Xuan Tianyi said was true and he didn"t know where to start defending his actions.
"What else?" Xuan Tianyi asked.
"What do you mean?"
"What haven"t you told me yet? The absolute worst thing you"ve done."
"I... Su Yang has a software installed on your phone. She can use your microphone to listen to you and can also watch you through your camera."
Xuan Tianyi laughed, then looked at Su Yang. "Can you remove it?"
Su Yang who had long returned to her book looked up at him. "Huh?"
"The software you have on my phone. Can you remove it?"
"In a few clicks. Yes, I can." She nodded.
Xuan Tianyi handed his phone over to her. She tinkered with it and returned it to him in a few seconds.
"Done." She announced.
"Thank you." Xuan Tianyi said to her and she gave him a small, tense smile.
"Xuan Tianyi," Hua Zhendan touched his arm.
"Don"t," Xuan Tianyi said angrily as he shoved Hua Zhendan.
Hua Zhendan flinched at the pain from Xuan Tianyi"s shove but managed to maintain his balance.
Xuan Tianyi glanced at him, shook his head and walked out of the hospital room.
"I"m... I"m sorry he saw me, boss." Su Yang apologized.
"That"s okay," Hua Zhendan shook his head. "I asked you to stay with her." He gestured to Xuan Tianmei.
Su Yang nodded her head in agreement.
"Where were you when we came in earlier?"
"Bathroom."
"Okay." Hua Zhendan nodded. "Xuan Tianyi got a call from the apartment"s landlord some minutes ago..."
Su Yang listened attentively.
"The fire department says it wasn"t an accident. It was an arson. And the landlord wants him to pay for the damage."
"Of course it was arson." Su Yang said. "I have a camera installed outside the apartment. I watched the clips and it caught the face of the arsonist."
"Really?" Hua Zhendan was pleasantly surprised.
"Actually, I"ve seen him hanging around the apartment suspiciously several times."
"And you didn"t think to report that to me."
"I only report stuff that directly affects Xuan Tianyi. Anything else is gossip. And unless you"re paying me for it, that"s a waste of my time."
Hua Zhendan shook his head. Nothing that came out of Su Yang"s mouth was surprising to him at this point. "Fine. You send me pictures of the arsonist and I"ll take them to the police station for investigation."
"Police station?" Su Yang chuckled. "Please. The police will investigate this in six months. The Black Knife will do it in a week."
"The Black Knife?"
"My gang."
"You belong to a gang. Okay." Hua Zhendan nodded. Once again, he wasn"t surprised.
Su Yang smiled broadly.
"Fine." Hua Zhendan then asked, "Do I have to pay?"
"A lot of money." Su Yang said. "But nothing beyond you, trust me."
Hua Zhendan nodded. He was too bothered about the disaster with Xuan Tianyi to bother himself with Su Yang and her idiosyncrasies.
***
"I need a room." Xuan Tianyi told the receptionist at the hotel.
"We have three types of room—"
"I want the cheapest one available." Xuan Tianyi immediately interrupted her.
"Okay, Sir." She replied courteously. "But the room isn"t ready yet. You can sit in the cafe while we prepare the room."
"Okay," Xuan Tianyi nodded at her.
As Xuan Tianyi was entering the cafe, Shen Rui was leaving. Seemingly surprised to see one another, they stopped and exchanged pleasantries. "Good evening, ma." Xuan Tianyi said.
"Good evening. What are you doing here?" She asked.
As she spoke, Xuan Tianyi reckoned that her words were spoken with a finery that intimidated him. Her voice was as soothing as a soft breeze in the middle of summer. He probably didn"t notice any of these the first time they met because of the conditions under which they had met. "Just renting a room for the night."
"I just finished a meeting."
"Oh! Okay." Xuan Tianyi nodded his understanding.
"I"ve been meaning to have a conversation with you."
"Me?" Xuan Tianyi touched his chest lightly.
She smiled gently in reply.
"About what?" He asked. Curious.
"Do you want to take a seat?" She pointed at a table.
He nodded and followed her to the table.
"Do you need anything?" She asked after they sat down. Looking around as if searching for a waiter.
"No. Thank you." Xuan Tianyi shook his head.
"What I wanted to talk to you about... Is your career." She said.
"What about it?"
"I"ve looked over some of the Ads you"ve worked on. And I think you have the potential for acting."
"Really?" Xuan Tianyi feigned interest out of respect.
"Yes." She smiled. "And my productions company is thinking of going into a new movie genre. Called Yaoi or Boys love. Whatever you wish to call it. I figured that since you and my son used to f.u.c.k, you might be interested in this."
Xuan Tianyi frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, this new genre is because of my son. I believe that if we raise enough awareness about the LGBT community, people could become more tolerant of them. And I wouldn"t have to worry so much about my child anymore. The both of you actually. Since you both belong to the same community."
The more she spoke, the more offended Xuan Tianyi felt. Clearly, she only thought of Hua Zhendan asked her son and not him. Also, she didn"t seem as tolerant as she claimed to be. "I"m sorry, ma. But I"m really not in the state of mind to have this kind of conversation."
"I guess that isn"t a yes."
"I"m afraid not." He shook his head.
She smiled again. "Don"t reply in a hurry. Take your time to think about it."
"Okay," Xuan Tianyi nodded at her. As she left, Xuan Tianyi"s mind immediately became preoccupied with thoughts of his sister, Hua Zhendan and the landlord.