Chapter 389 Unexpected Pleasure
When Zhang Han walked out of the restaurant, Zi Yan’s palms were trembling slightly.
Zhao Feng and Leng Yue, who were following her, stopped and watched from afar.
Zhou Fei had mixed feelings. Up to now, she didn’t know exactly what had happened, but… she knew that Sister Yan was very sad because she was hurt by this brother-in-law in front of her.
“You are finally back.”
Zhang Han took two steps forward and then stopped.
Through Zi Yan sungla.s.ses, he could see her red and swollen eyes.
“How long did she cry?”
Zhang Han felt so sad. He stepped forward again and tried to hold Zi Yan in his arms.
But as soon as he took a step, he heard Zi Yan’s slightly fl.u.s.tered voice. “Don’t come here!”
Zhang Han closed his eyes and whispered, “Shall we have a talk?”
“No, I have nothing to talk about with you. Get out of the way!” Zi Yan calmed down, but her voice was still trembling.
She was still emotionally unstable.
“What’s the matter?” Zhang Han frowned and said, “What will you hear? I’m surely going to tell you that what you saw was fake…”
“Can you stop saying that? I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear it. Would you please get out of the way, would you please let me go?” Zi Yan shouted, her voice trembling.
Zhang Han clearly saw the pain in her eyes, and could feel that she was nearly falling apart.
Zhou Fei was in a dilemma, and her arm being held by Zi Yan hurt a little. Knowing that Sister Yan was in great pain, she said, “Sister Yan… let’s calm down first. Can you talk about it later?”
Zhang Han stood in silence, knowing that if he forced Zi Yan to stay, it would only make her mood more out of control.
So Zhang Han quietly moved away from the road.
Zhou Fei and Zi Yan walked into the restaurant, followed by Zhang Han silently.
“Sister!”
“Zi Yan.”
“Madame.”
Zhang Li, Liang Hao, and Xu Yong all said h.e.l.lo.
But Zi Yan went straight to the sofa, as if she hadn’t seen or heard anything.
Mengmeng was watching TV there.
“MaMa? MaMa, you are back. I missed you so much.” Mengmeng happily stretched out her little arms.
“Yes, MaMa is back.”
Seeing Mengmeng, Zi Yan almost cried. She bit the tip of her tongue and let herself cool down. Then she held Mengmeng in her arms and said, “Come home with MaMa.”
“OK, let’s go back to play.” Mengmeng was still obedient. She didn’t know that she and MaMa were the only ones going back at this time.
When Zi Yan walked out with Mengmeng in her arms, she saw Liang Hao standing by. She paused and said in a low voice, “You are here, too?”
“Well, yeah, I heard you were coming back, so I came here.”
Looking around, Liang Hao sensed the serious atmosphere and nodded in reply.
“Then come to my house and have a talk,” Zi Yan said in a dull voice and went straight out.
Seeing Zi Yan pa.s.sing by with Mengmeng in her arms, Zhang Han wanted to stop her.
But he didn’t step out after all.
Instead, he just stood at the round table and watched Zi Yan leave.
Liang Hao glanced at Zhang Han, shook his head slightly, and went out with Liang Mengqi.
The Mercedes slowly left with Zhou Fei in the driver’s seat, Zi Yan and Liang Mengqi in the back seat, and Liang Hao in the front pa.s.senger seat.
Leng Yue and the others were following in the two cars behind them.
Zhang Han was standing in the same place, looking out of the window. Until the three Mercedes left his sight, he was still in a daze.
Luo Qing behind him pursed her mouth in a low mood. It was the first time that she had seen her boss look so confused and helpless.
“Brother… don’t be sad, it will be OK. When Sister Yan is no longer angry, you can comfort her.” Zhang Li couldn’t help trying to persuade Zhang Han.
“Mmm,” Zhang Han replied.
However, Zhang Li could still sense his brother’s depression.
At this time, Zhao Feng and Ah Hu entered the restaurant. Zhao Feng was embarra.s.sed, for he didn’t know what to say or how to say it.
Zhang Han has always been the anchor of all the people in this circle. Therefore, when he encountered an emotional setback, no one knew how to comfort him.
So the whole restaurant quieted down in this sad atmosphere.
“Zhao Feng.”
Zhang Han’s sudden voice made the others nervous.
“Yes, boss,” Zhao Feng replied seriously.
“Go,” Zhao Feng was chilled by Zhang Han’s indifferent eyes, as he heard Zhang Han’s calm voice, “bring Qiao Luoluo here.”
After that, Zhang Han turned around and walked step by step to the second floor, leaving a lonely back to his friends.
“Yes!”
Zhao Feng nodded in response.
Instead of leaving the restaurant immediately, he stood there, silently watching Zhang Han disappear at the corner of the stairs.
“Tell everyone!”
Zhao Feng’s face became serious, and his eyes were filled with rage. Clenching his fist, he said in a cold, dead voice, “In an hour, find out the address of Qiao Luoluo!”
As soon as the order was given to everyone, Zhao Feng’s men all started to take action.
Zhang Li, Luo Qing, and Zhao Feng were all on the first floor of the restaurant, and no one went to the second floor. They all knew that Zhang Han wanted to be alone at this time.
After a while, Instructor Liu hurried in.
By some means, he got the exact address and recent information of Qiao Luoluo.
She was not in Hong Kong at present.
She went to Lin Hai for business last night and would not be back for a few days.
Zhao Feng went upstairs to tell Zhang Han about it, but Zhang Han sat on the sofa in silence, as if he didn’t hear it.
Zhao Feng walked downstairs helplessly.
Night fell…
Supper?
Of course there was no supper.
At nine o’clock in the evening, Zhao Feng fumbled for some porridge, put it on the tea table, and comforted Zhang Han in a low voice.
However, the cold porridge was still in its original place the next morning.
As for the diners who came here, it was a little uncomfortable to see the sign still showing “closed”.
At noon, and at night… the restaurant was closed all the time, which made the eager diners suffer a lot.
When they learned from the members that there was a crisis in the relations.h.i.+p between the boss and his wife, these anxious customers finally understood Zhang Han’s behavior.
But if it went on like this, the customers would go crazy.
As long as they missed a meal made by Zhang Han, they would feel sick all over. How could they bear it!
So a notice was issued by 10,000 people: “Come back, Madame!”
Soon after, became popular on the Internet.
Even Zi Yan saw the notice.
“Go back… Can’t go back…”
Zi Yan began sobbing.
Before they realized it, the restaurant had attracted more and more loyal fans.
That day, when Zi Yan left with Mengmeng, the little girl soon began to cry since she didn’t see PaPa in the car. But no matter how much she cried, it was useless.
After accompanying Zi Yan back to Yunyin Garden, Liang Hao and Liang Mengqi noticed that she was too depressed, so they just sat for 10 minutes and then left.
In the evening, Mengmeng was still crying for PaPa. Having coaxed her daughter for a while, Zi Yan finally lost control of her mood and ran into her bedroom, leaving Zhou Fei alone to comfort Mengmeng.
“When can they make up?”
After coaxing Mengmeng to sleep, Zhou Fei wiped the sweat on her forehead and sighed.
The night went by silently.
At eight o’clock the next morning—
When Zhang Han went downstairs, he was surprised to see Zhang Li and Luo Qing leaning on the sofa, and Zhao Feng and Xu Yong sitting at the members’ table.
“You don’t have to wait here. Do whatever you have to do,” Zhang Han said.
“We are all worried about you,” Zhang Li replied.
“It’s OK. I’ll get them back.”
Zhang Han replied and walked directly to the door.
“Brother, what are you going to do?” asked Zhang Li hurriedly.
“Bring your sister-in-law back.”
He walked out of the restaurant, got in the panda car, drove very fast, and arrived at Yunyin Garden in half an hour.
After going upstairs, Zhang Han stood in front of the door and looked at the key in his hand.
In the end, he chose to knock on the door.
“Rat-tat-tat!”
About 30 seconds later, w.a.n.g Juan opened the door.
But she obviously didn’t welcome Zhang Han.
“Here you are, Mr. Zhang,” w.a.n.g Juan said h.e.l.lo as usual.
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t want to see you, Mr. Zhang. She’s in a bad mood, and you’d better wait for her to calm down. I have experience in this matter, and I will inform you when she is in a good mood. Then you can take the opportunity to coax her,” w.a.n.g Juan kindly suggested.
“I want to see her now.” Zhang Han didn’t want to wait, but he didn’t force his way in either.
w.a.n.g Juan hesitated and said, “I’ll ask her. Please wait a moment.”
With that, w.a.n.g Juan closed the door.
This time, Zhang Han waited for five minutes.
When the door was opened, Zhou Fei jumped out and took Zhang Han by the arm to the side of the corridor, whispering.
“Brother-in-law, what happened? Sister Yan is crying again. Were you unfaithful to her? If that’s the case, I can’t help you, you…”
“Do you think that’s possible?” Zhang Han sighed and said, “If she saw something, it must be fake.”
“But… those pictures are real.”
“What pictures?”
“I don’t know. I secretly turned on Sister Yan’s mobile phone, but I didn’t find anything. They must have been deleted by her.” Zhou Fei shook her head and said, “Sister Yan must be sad to see you again, so you’d better wait. But if you really did that, I advise you to never come again.”
“Then, please comfort her and help me take care of them. The truth will come out soon,” Zhang Han said in a m.u.f.fled voice.
“By the way, Mengmeng has been crying since last night. We will go to the restaurant in the evening, so could you please prepare something for Mengmeng and Sister Yan? She hasn’t eaten anything these two days,” said Zhou Fei.
“OK.” Zhang Han nodded.
“Then I’ll go back.” Zhou Fei left.
Zhang Han stood for five minutes then went downstairs with a light sigh.
When he got back to the restaurant, Zhang Han seemed to lose all his motivation without Mengmeng and Zi Yan.
Fortunately, they would come back in the evening.
After a long wait, it was seven o’clock in the evening.
Before coming, Zhou Fei sent a message to Zhang Han.
So when they arrived, Zhang Han had prepared three dishes—one meat and two vegetables.
But there were some differences between Zhang Han’s imagination and the reality.
While Mengmeng went back into Zhang Han’s arms happily, Zi Yan didn’t even spare him a glance.
Zi Yan chose to sit at the outside member table with Zhou Fei, Liang Hao, and his sister.
“MaMa, MaMa comes here!” Mengmeng was calling from the sofa in front of the tea table.
“Have you forgotten what MaMa said to you?” Zi Yan looked at Mengmeng and said.
Mengmeng’s little mouth pouted up at once and she said nothing more.
Zhang Han sighed, served Zi Yan a meal, poured her a gla.s.s of milk, put it in front of Zi Yan’s table, and said softly, “Take the meal first.”
However, Zi Yan ignored him and pushed the meal and milk aside.
“Gulp…”
Staring at the delicious food and smelling the fragrance, Liang Mengqi and Zhou Fei exchanged a yearning look. Their stomachs began to cry.
They want to eat, but…
In the end, they did not move the chopsticks but just endured the torture of the fragrance.
“Can you talk with me upstairs? Anyway, you have to listen to me.” Zhang Han forced a smile.
“I don’t want to say anything to you!”
Zi Yan immediately got up to go out and quickly returned to her car.
Zhou Fei, Liang Mengqi, and Liang Hao also went out.
About 20 minutes later, Zhou Fei came in and took Mengmeng away by force.
The car carried them slowly away.
Late at night, Zhang Han was alone in the bedroom.
He looked at the empty bedroom and sighed.
Zhang Han got up and left the restaurant. He walked aimlessly in the street, and finally arrived at Mount New Moon. Sitting on the tree on the edge of the cliff in the east, he heard the sea breeze gently blowing through the forest, making the leaves rustle.
Under the sound of the waves, Zhang Han sat like this all night, until the rising sun lit up the world.
Suddenly, Zhang Han stood up and looked at the boundless sea, his black windbreaker flying backward slightly.
He moved and jumped forward.
He turned over in the air, fell vertically, plopped into the sea, and only aroused a tiny bit of water. Then the water returned to its original state, and no one came up for a long time.
From the perspective of onlookers, Zhang Han seemed to be committing suicide.
However, in the invisible sea, a figure was swimming down to the deep sea like a fish.
Zhang Han was not committing suicide. At this time, he had a small thing in his hand, which was called a water spirit stone.
His skin and clothes were covered with a layer of blue light.
The sea was beautiful and mysterious. So far, only a small part of the sea had been explored.
In the shallow sea, there were many corals and fishes, creating a beautiful scene. But Zhang Han was not in the mood to look at them. All he wanted to do was to swim until he was exhausted.
He didn’t know how long he had been swimming, maybe more than three hours？
He had reached the deep sea, and the bottom of the sea was getting dark. It was about 800 meters below the surface, and since all the sunlight couldn’t pa.s.s through the water, the light here was very weak, and ordinary people would feel depressed and scared in the black and blue environment.
Zhang Han activated his spiritual force and made it move around his eyes, so that he could see the scene in front of him and nearby.
He floated up, rested for a moment, took out his cell phone, and found that only 30% power remained. After checking the coordinates, Zhang Han learned that he was near the Dongsha Islands.
“Dongsha Islands?”
After thinking for a while, Zhang Han sank into the sea again. When he reached 1,500 meters, he saw the bottom of the sea, so he continued to swim to the depths.
When Zhang Han could not see clearly, he suddenly found something unusual. The vision under him was darker than the deep sea he had just pa.s.sed, and it was like a huge black creature lying on the bottom of the sea.
Zhang Han took out his mobile phone and turned on the flashlight.
However, due to the protection of the water spirit stone barrier, the light did not spread out. So Zhang Han controlled the water spirit stone, removed the barrier at the light column of the flashlight, and the light slowly shone out. Although the distance that could be lit was limited, Zhang Han could see the scene below faintly with the light.
It was a deep trench!
He retreated a little, went to the edge of the trench, and swam to the side for a moment. Suddenly, from the depths of the trench, Zhang Han felt a sense of crisis.
There was definitely something down there.
Zhang Han looked in that direction, but he didn’t go down.
He knew that his current strength was not enough to support his exploration.
At this time, there was not much spiritual force left in Zhang Han’s body. When he was about to go back, he suddenly saw a bulge on the edge of the trench on the right side.
“A sunken s.h.i.+p?”
The shape was like a sunken s.h.i.+p.
Was this the coordinates on the treasure map mentioned by Bai Chuan? Not necessarily.
The area of the sea is too large, accounting for 70% of the Earth, and this trench and sea floor were not very deep, just a small corner of the ocean.
Zhang Han swam to the shadows and found that it was a sunken s.h.i.+p or a small cruise s.h.i.+p. Part of it was hanging on the edge of the trench, and the rest was on the bottom of the sea, like a s.h.i.+pwreck on the edge of a cliff.
The s.h.i.+p had been totally eroded by the sea, and Zhang Han entered it through a gap in the hull.
He looked around and saw a dozen dead bones. Ordinary people might have been afraid, but Zhang Han was used to it.
There were three levels in the s.h.i.+p. At last, on the bottom level, Zhang Han found something.
In the inner room of the third floor at the bottom were lots of boxes, many of which were rotten, with a lot of gold and silver treasures visible.
“Hiss…”
Zhang Han activated his Treasure-sniffing nose, and suddenly found a fragrance of spirit treasure coming from the corner on the right side of the room. He swam in that direction, opened two small boxes, and finally found a piece of metal the size of a palm.
Wiping away the stain on the stone, he saw its red body.
It turned to be a Fire Cloud Stone.
A Fire Cloud Stone was a first-stage spirit treasure, a memory metal, which could improve the self-healing ability, quality, and connectivity with a soul sense of weapons. Though as a low stage treasure it was not very useful, Zhang Han could use it to refine his 18 black cards.
After checking the metal, Zhang Han was about to leave when he suddenly looked at the bottom of the box that he had just moved.
A faint light came from the bottom of the box.
Zhang Han moved the big boxes to reveal a hole with a diameter of two meters.
“Cultivator’s abode?”
Zhang Han reached out and touched it, and found that the light wave at the hole was a defensive formation.
“Just a small formation with warning and camouflage functions.”
Zhang Han activated his spiritual force and entered the formation directly.
The scene suddenly changed.
Now, Zhang Han was in a stone house of about 20 square meters. There were only a table, a chair, and a cattail cus.h.i.+on in front of him. He found a small pile of bones on the cattail cus.h.i.+on.
“The spiritual Qi here…”
Zhang Han felt that the spiritual Qi here was extremely rich, even a hundred times that of the outside world.
In all corners of the stone house, there were a total of 18 traces of crystal stones.
Zhang Han looked at them a few times and realized that the dead bones were from the former master of this place, who had failed to advance to the higher stages during his cultivation.
“I wonder what kind of cultivation method could kill him.”
Zhang Han shook his head slightly. There were so many cultivation methods, some of which were extremely effective, but they would bring greater danger to the advancing cultivators. There were countless cultivators who died when they were making a breakthrough and advancing to a higher stage.
In addition to the rich spiritual Qi and the things Zhang Han saw, there was nothing else in the stone house.
Zhang Han meditated for 10 minutes until all his spiritual force was restored. Finally, he looked at the stone house, put the Fire Cloud Stone on the table, and turned away.
There was nothing special about this stone house, but the spiritual Qi here could help him a lot… For example, making Foundation Elixir.
Yuan Qing Fruit was about to mature, and the success rate of alchemy could be increased by 30% here, which was an unexpected pleasure for Zhang Han.
He left the s.h.i.+pwreck and swam directly up to the sea surface. After recording the coordinates, Zhang Han dived into the water again and went back to the steep cliff of Mount New Moon.
It was well past one o’clock in the afternoon when he finally returned to the restaurant.
Zhao Feng, who had been waiting in the restaurant for a long time, told Zhang Han that someone was sent to Lin Hai to take Qiao Luoluo back, but he never found a chance. But he got the news that Qiao Luoluo would be back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
In the evening, Zi Yan again came with Mengmeng, followed by Zhou Fei, Liang Hao, and his sister.
Although Zi Yan was in a better mood this time, not so dull, she only talked with Liang Hao, who was sitting opposite her. Her att.i.tude toward Zhang Han was even colder, and she didn’t pay attention to him or eat the food he made.
Zhang Han frowned all the time, for he didn’t like Zi Yan to be close to any other men.
Seeing her brother’s expression, Zhang Li walked angrily to Liang Hao’s table.
“Come out with me!” Zhang Li said to Liang Hao.
“Well, OK.” Liang Hao smiled and nodded, but he felt that Lili was not being very friendly.
When Zhang Li was out of the restaurant and had walked 50 meters away, she stopped, turned to stare at Liang Hao, and said sourly, “Do you know Zi Yan’s ident.i.ty?”
“Huh?” Liang Hao was stunned. What did she mean? Wasn’t Zi Yan the girl he knew?
“She is my sister-in-law! Sister-in-law!” Zhang Li said angrily, “Although they are quarreling now, she is still my sister-in-law, my brother’s wife, and she has children. What do you want to do? Can you stop trying to attract my sister-in-law’s attention? Do you know how annoying you are?”
Zhang Li’s words embarra.s.sed Liang Hao. He shook his head and said, “Zi Yan is in a bad mood. As her friend, I just want to help her and comfort her.”
n.o.body dared to talk to Liang Hao like this before, but Zhang Li’s rude warning made him feel that is was very… interesting.
“Maybe it’s because I like her. I’m not a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t, I’m not.”
Liang Hao forced a smile to himself.
Hearing this, Zhang Li snorted and said, “Is it up to you? Don’t be too close to my sister-in-law, or you will pay for it.”
After Zhang Li spoke, she turned back to the restaurant. She knew it might be rude to say that, but when she saw her brother’s expression, she would do it even if she went too far.
“Alas…”
Liang Hao shook his head helplessly and followed the girl back to the restaurant.
After Liang Hao sat back down, he noticed that Zhang Li kept staring at him, which deprived him of the desire to speak. Zi Yan felt something strange and became silent as well. After Mengmeng finished eating, they sat for a few minutes and asked Zhou Fei to leave with Mengmeng.
After they left, Zhao Feng got the news mentioned by Zhou Fei an hour later.
In recent days, Hong Qitao had been negotiating with the Royal Entertainment Company, and was preparing for the final negotiation the next day. Knowing that Zi Yan didn’t want to join the Hongcheng Company, Liang Hao planned to find someone to terminate Zi Yan’s contract and help her set up her own studio, so that she would have more freedom. As for Liang Hao himself, he was responsible for investments and handling a series of business matters. When the studio started to make profits, he could get dividends. In other words, he had established a company with Zi Yan.
Zhang Han rejected the plan directly. He told Zhao Feng to prepare an anonymous bank card and deposit 300 million yuan in it.
“I’m Zi Yan’s husband!
“She still wants to work with others?
“Is she kidding me?”
At 1:30 the next afternoon—
In the conference room of the Royal Entertainment Company, an important meeting was about to be held.