Chapter 71 - It Wasn"t Her Fault
"Engagement?" Xian Zihao looked down at Cui Liuxian
He was in Beijing a few days ago. Even though his subordinates had accepted the invitation in his place, he was too busy to notice it.
With a slight suspicion in his eyes, he stared at Jiang Ruolan"s disappearing figure.
"Even though we are not friends with the Ling Family"s daughter, but our family still familiar with each other in the business world. I had received the invitation on behalf of our family, so you must partic.i.p.ate it too." Cui Liuxian approached Xian Zihao with a face full of dependence, her watery eyes glistening with hope.
"I heard that Vice President Han will be promoted and I also heard that your relationship with him are not good. I heard that he had set up an Anti-Corruption Unit in Ling Company to investigate all the major and minor issues within the company."
"Anti-corruption?" Xian Zihao laughed coldly, "You"re talking about Han Xuegang?"
Xian Zihao pulled his arm away from Cui Liuxian"s grip and looked at the watch on his wrist. He then took his coat and walked to the door without looking back.
"Eh? Zihao!" Cui Liuxian looking at him in astonishment. "This weekend is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Grandpa said you haven"t visited him for a while. Will you come with me too?"
Xian Zihao didn"t stop, nor he responds to her question. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.
Cui Liuxian looked at the door, which no longer showed Xian Zihao"s figure, in disbelief. Her slender nails were clamped tightly on her palms.
"Liuxian, Zihao is finally married. No matter how much he loves you, there will always be a suitable distance for you two. You have to get used to it." Zhan An comforted her gently.
Cui Liuxian blinked and looked at her adoptive mother in surprise. "Mom, you--"
"What"s wrong?"
"Didn"t you know about Jiang Ruolan"s past? Didn"t Bingqing already tell you while we were in Boston? That Jiang Ruolan, she--"
"What had happened in the past was due to the mistakes of the previous generation. It wasn"t Ruolan"s fault. Moreover, she was a good girl. Zihao already married to her. Since both of them had already received the marriage certificate, this marriage had been decided."
Zhan An smiled and looked at Cui Liuxian with reluctance in her eyes. Without saying anything, she walked back to the kitchen. She saw a table full of breakfast that was not eaten and sighed.
Looks like she won"t be able to get into the kitchen for the rest of her life.
"But mom, didn"t you say that when you came back from Boston, you will uphold justice for me?! You said that no one else was fit to be your daughter-in-law other than me." Cui Liuxian immediately walked to Xian Shuren, her eyes full of anxiety.
"How can you be on outsiders" side? Jiang Ruolan clearly used public opinion to be Zihao"s wife! Zihao didn"t even know her! Actually, he could easily divorce that woman. Zihao didn"t love her! They have no feelings with each other! This marriage was destined to be doomed! Mom, you said that you would help me!"
Zhan An just staring at Cui Liuxian. "Liuxian, mom knew that you love Zihao. You lived in Xian Family for the last twenty years, and throughout your life, you have long known that you are destined to marry him. Mom also knew your dream since you were young is to quickly grow up and marry him. However, marriage is not a joking matter. Since Zihao and Ruolan are living a good life, you should bless their life. Mom will definitely take responsibility this time and help you choose a good husband."
Cui Liuxian lowered her head and suddenly smiled, tears flowing from her eyes. "So, you also know how important Zihao is to me."
"Also, concerning your father and grandfather, as long as you praise and say something good about Ruolan, surely their anger will be gone. The old man loved you like his own granddaughter. His daughter-in-law whom he rarely talked to for more than twenty years, suddenly became useless. Liuxian, I rarely go home. When the situation calms down, only then can I enjoy my life!" Zhan An patted Cui Liuxian"s hand lightly. "Listen to your mother, stop crying."
Cui Liuxian didn"t say anything. She held the Chanel Pouch tightly in her hand. Her expression didn"t change, but her cold eyes were no longer looking at Zhan An.
***
To go to her company, Jiang Ruolan had to walk a few minutes to get to the bus stop. At first, she was a bit stuffy, but her mood immediately improved when she inhaled the fresh morning air.
As she was walking, a familiar black Land Rover appeared behind her and stopped next to her.
Jiang Ruolan wanted to ignore it, but the car was parked next to her, and there was no reason for her to pretend not to see it.
Jiang Ruolan stopped and looked at the driver in confusion.
The car window slowly rolled downwards, revealing a delicate face. Xian Zihao said nothing.
Even through her sungla.s.ses, she could still feel the measuring look in his eyes. The confusion lasted for a while, and then Xian Zihao asked as if nothing had happened, "Isn"t there a bus stop across the street from Greenville Residence? Why do you have to walk this far?"
"Not to my company." Jiang Ruolan secretly rolled her eyes behind her sungla.s.ses. This young master born with a golden spoon in his mouth must have never taken a bus before. No wonder he did not know that the bus had a fixed route.
Xian Zihao smirked and pretended he didn"t see the mocking look in Jiang Ruolan"s eyes. He casually placed his arm on the window sill. He then glanced at the bus stop not too far from them. "Aren"t there too many people there?"
"It"s just a bus. It"s normal to squeeze. A dollar can take us this far. It"s worth it." Jiang Ruolan replied indifferently and continued walking towards the bus stop.
Xian Zihao was driving his car at a slow speed by her side. The closer she got to the bus stop, the faster her footsteps became.
Suddenly, in the crowd, a man in his early twenties, sneaking his hand into the pocket of a middle-aged woman who was waiting for a bus.
The act was clearly visible from Jiang Ruolan"s side.
Xian Zihao saw it and his eyebrows furrowed. Jiang Ruolan acted as if she didn"t see anything.
When the man secretly took out the middle-aged woman"s wallet, Xian Zihao quickly took out his phone, wanting to record this scene.
Jiang Ruolan, with her sharp eyes, saw his movement and immediately rushed to the door, suppressing his action. "What are you doing? Are you crazy? What picture did you take?!"
"This situation is not suitable for everyone to step in. So I will send the photo to the police station as this is their job. What"s wrong with that?" Seeing Jiang Ruolan making such a fuss over nothing, Xian Zihao glanced at her with a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt in his eyes.
"What if the thief"s accomplice saw your actions? People like them, who were used to stealing, might just be desperate. If you meddle in other people"s business, have you thought of how they are going to deal with you?! Where is your common sense?" Jiang Ruolan s.n.a.t.c.hed Xian Zihao"s phone and when she saw that he had already taken the photo, she glared at him. "What a meddler!"
Xian Zihao stared at her for a moment before sneering, "Who doesn"t have common sense?"
As he said that, he took his phone back from her and signaled her with his eyes to get in the car.
Jiang Ruolan couldn"t be bothered with him. Seeing that he was adamant, she turned around and walked towards the bus stop.
Xian Zihao raised his eyebrows and hit the horn.
Jiang Ruolan stopped her steps. The thief seemed to be watching them. She turned her head and glared at Xian Zihao while gritting her teeth. "You did it on purpose, didn"t you?"
"If you don"t want to be retaliated against that thief, get in the car." Xian Zihao raised his eyebrows, no warmth in his eyes.
No matter how reluctant she was, when Jiang Ruolan saw the thief took a call, only asking a single sentence, then hung up, she immediately knew that something bad will happened.
She saw him narrowing his eyes and looked at her as if he already knew that they had recorded his crimes and was waiting for an opportunity to attack.
Jiang Ruolan wasn"t stupid. She quickly got in the car. She put her bag down heavily, raised her hand to comb the hair behind her ear, and angrily said, "You little f.u.c.ker!"
Xian Zihao looked at her with a smile that wasn"t a smile. He did not rush to drive but glanced at the anger in Jiang Ruolan"s eyes and said, "No wonder my friend who works in ZF said that the number of phone calls is too few and he doesn"t even get many reports. So it turns out that most people have the same mindset of turning a blind eye just like you."
Jiang Ruolan sneered. "What can I do even if I don"t turn a blind eye? In this world, how many young people dare to speak frankly? In the end, there are still five sentences, "who dares to do it"?"
Xian Zihao started the engine and drove the Land Rover away from the bus stop.
He"s not talking, but his eyes didn"t seem that he agreed with her.
Jiang Ruolan laughed. "This is society! I am just like everyone else, an ordinary citizen who does not dare to say anything because she is afraid of causing trouble! Unlike you, who are high up in the sky, if those criminals want to do anything to you, I"m afraid they"ll have to look themselves in the mirror to see if they have the strength to do so!"
"It seems like it"s very easy to enrage you." Xian Zihao smiled.
Jiang Ruolan deadpanned. "What do you mean?"
After a moment of silence, Xian Zihao said lightly, "I"m sorry about Cui Liuxian."
Jiang Ruolan immediately stopped talking and looked at him blankly. "I didn"t do it because of her."
"She is the granddaughter of a good friend of my grandfather who pa.s.sed away. After she was born, she was left in Xian Family for adoption, and like Xian Guiying, she also the beloved child of everyone in the Xian Family. She is also the best choice for my future wife, whom my family has had high hopes for since I was young. But my feelings for her, almost like Guiying"s, were not that of a man or a woman. As I told you, as long as she looks pleasing to the eye, the person who married me is the same as anyone else. Therefore, I have never openly rejected this marriage."
After saying that, Xian Zihao paused for a moment to see Jiang Ruolan quietly listening, before continuing, "After what happened, I went with the flow. On the one hand, I dispelled the public"s suspicions, and on the other hand, I made a very normal cla.s.sification for my life. We were both at the age of marriage. Besides, I really consider your little hedgehog att.i.tudes is charming."
Jiang Ruolan frowned at his "little hedgehog" remark. She glanced sideways at him and saw that he was faintly smiling. She rolled her eyes in dissatisfaction and muttered in a low voice that only she could hear clearly, "You are the hedgehog. Your whole family is a hedgehog."
There was a deep smile in Xian Zihao"s eyes as he drove steadily and said in a deep voice, "Cui Liuxian is extremely disappointed at the moment. Don"t take any of what she has said to heart."
So it turned out that he was just trying to console her by beating around the bush.
Jiang Ruolan rolled her eyes. "I don"t mind it. It was just so sudden, and I was confused as to what to do."
"That"s for the best." Xian Zihao"s voice went back to its usual dryness.
Usually, Jiang Ruolan needs at least half an hour to get on the bus, but now, she only needs ten minutes to get to her company. She hurried out of the car, but before she could say thank you, the car left like an arrow that had left the bowstring.
Her expression froze as she looked at the silhouette of the black Land Rover, leaving the area with a bit of confusion in her eyes. Why did Xian Zihao explain so much to her?
Jiang Ruolan went into the empty office and was about to arrange doc.u.ments when, suddenly, a pile of photos fell out of nowhere and landed on the floor.
She hurriedly squatted down to pick it up, but when she saw the content, her face immediately turned pale.
She picked up the photographs on the floor one by one, which was the same color as twenty years ago. Each one showed stagnation of blood, the broken limbs due to falling from a high place, and a pair of resentful dead eyes still wide open.
An extreme shock quickly spread through her body. Her body fell hard onto the floor. She looked at the photos one by one with disbelief.
How could this be …
This was a photo taken by a reporter twenty years ago after her mother had jumped off a building. These photos had sealed up because of the b.l.o.o.d.y and gore scene, so why they appeared on her desk?
These pictures, as if they were re-created by a digital camera and it seemed to be new, piercing the eyes.
Twenty years ago, she was still so young, and together with Yijun, they were carried downstairs by the adults. She watched numbly as her mother"s body was carried away, and the stagnation of blood made her unable to understand what was happening in front of her.
Jiang Ruolan sucked in a breath of cold air, wanting to pull away from her sight, unable to look at the woman whose face was already covered in blood. Just as she was about to flip over the picture, her expression suddenly stiffened as she raised the picture again.
This crystal necklace …
The same necklace Jiang Ruolan"s mother had given her at the time, but she clearly remembered only one necklace and not two. Could it be that the necklace her mother wore was fake?
But why would she take that fake necklace with her when she was committing suicide? So much so that until now, Jiang Family had not discovered it in the past few years. But later on, they realized that the crystal necklace wasn"t destroyed, and it was in Jiang Ruolan"s hands.
Starting from there, they began to look for her traces.
When it was close to eight o"clock, her colleagues started walking into the office. They watched her sitting on the floor in confusion.
Jiang Ruolan hastily adjusted her expression, put the photos on the floor into a kraft paper bag on the table, and stared at the kraft paper bag in her hands.
Where did this brown paper bag come from?
Could these photos be placed here?
Who had put these things in her possession? There weren"t many people who knew about her past. Who did this? What did these people trying to say by showing her these pictures?
Was someone trying to threaten her?!
Jiang Ruolan frowned and tightened her grip on the brown paper bag in her hand. As she saw more of her colleagues entered the office, she quickly put the bag back into the drawer without batting an eyelid.
Xiong Ruogang, who had been on leave for two days due to an ankle injury, actually came to work. As soon as she entered the office, she said, "Sister Jiang, a handsome man is driving a Ferrari downstairs wants to see you."
Jiang Ruolan raised her head just to see Xiong Ruogang shamelessly shrugged her shoulders. "When I just walked the entrance, the man pulled me and told me to tell you that he was waiting for you."
Jiang Ruolan: "..."
"Ferrari driver?" The corner of Jiang Ruolan"s mouth twitched.
Without thinking long, she knew which ancestor was downstairs.
"Yes, if I remember correctly, it must have been the latest Ferrari. I saw it in an auto magazine two months ago. It"s so cool!"
Without a word, Jiang Ruolan lowered her head and signed another press release. After thinking for a moment, she stood up and went to the lobby.
Just as she reached the first floor, she saw Qin Gengxin leaning against the reception desk and playing with the receptionist"s hands. the receptionist"s face was flushed red from shyness.
Jiang Ruolan rolled her eyes and slapped Qin Gengxin"s shoulder. "What"s up? I"m warning you, if you dare wasting my time again, don"t blame me for kicking your a.s.s."
Hearing her voice, Qin Gengxin"s attention shifted from the blushing receptionist to unfriendly Jiang Ruolan. "Why are you angry? Have I offended you?"
"Yes, you did offend me, Young Master Qin! This is because I can"t stand people like you. Would you stop bothering me? Even though this place is owned by Qin Family, I still have a bit of personal freedom, right?"
Qin Gengxin snickered. He put his hands in his pockets and approached Jiang Ruolan step by step.
Jiang Ruolan immediately took a cautious step back and glared at him, "Stop, don"t come near me!"
However, the fellow acted as if he did not hear her and walked towards her.
Jiang Ruolan could not dodge in time, and her wrist was already grabbed by him. "What are you doing? This is a public area. Let go!"
"Did I get drunk last night?" Qin Gengxin asked.
"Nonsense." Jiang Ruolan twisted her wrist but couldn"t escape. She gritted her teeth in anger.
"Then who sent me back?"
"Of course, both of us sent you back together. You are as drunk as a dead pig. You are so heavy!"
"Huh?" Qin Gengxin was startled and immediately pulled Jiang Ruolan into his embrace. He lowered his head and smiled maliciously. "Did you do anything to me last night?"
Jiang Ruolan retorted coldly. "What can I do to you? Stop being sentimental! You might as well worry about whether your good brother has done anything to me!"
Qin Gengxin just laughed. "You mean Zihao? You"re not his types. I think even if you throw yourself into his arms, he will not do anything to you. Besides, you don"t even have too much meat on your body. Besides me, who else can feel anything to you?"