Chapter 973: Perplexed and Smitten (33)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing much…” she replied in an undertone.
“Nothing much, then what’s with your face? And your clothes…” Even though she was using both her arms to hug her chest area tightly, he could still tell that her b.u.t.ton had been ripped off. Moreover, there was dust on her body.
Fang Erlan did not answer and continued to stare at the lift doors.
Seeing how she did not speak, Yan Ge’s eyes were spurting with fire as he straightened her body and asked with a frown, “Do you want me to go and ask those security guards just now?”
Fang Erlan looked up, her eyes watering. “I’ll tell you when we’re in my room.”
When the lift doors sounded as they arrived, the two went out. Once Fang Erlan arrived at her room door, Yan Ge followed her inside.
Fang Erlan went in and took a new dress from her wardrobe before entering the bathroom.
A few minutes later, she emerged in a new set of clothes and had her face washed. The mild graze on her face was also aching faintly.
As she casually tied her hair up into a ponytail, Fang Erlan explained, “After eating just now, a hotel staff told me my parents were here, so I went out. Once I entered the lift, Jing Yang went in after me. He forcefully brought me to the second bas.e.m.e.nt level and wanted to…”
She found it hard to go on and simply muttered, “But he didn’t hurt me.”
She was basically expressing that she had not been raped by him.
Yan Ge narrowed his eyes. “He didn’t hurt you? Then how did your b.u.t.ton get ripped off? And how do you explain the injury on your face? Why didn’t I see him when the security officers came up just now?”
“He didn’t come up just now, he’s probably gone now.”
“Why didn’t you let the security officers take him to the police station?”
Fang Erlan replied, “Forget it, he’s got a scandal on him right now. I don’t want to…”
“He’s got a scandal on him precisely because there’s a problem with him!” Once his words landed, Yan Ge turned and was about to walk out of her room.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll go and retrieve the surveillance footage to hand over to the police.”
Fang Erlan hurriedly tried to pull him back. “No matter what, if the scandal leaks out from my side when I had already told him I’d let it go, wouldn’t he hate me more? He might really come back to me for revenge a second time.”
Yan Ge asked instead, “Could it be that you can’t bear to see him get punished? Why, is your heart aching for your idol?”
“Didn’t I already say? He’s no longer my idol, why would my heart ache for him?”
“Then, why don’t you report him to the police? Are you really just afraid that he would get back at you again?”
“That’s one of the reasons. Who knows what one can be capable of when they are desperate? Also, I want this matter to be settled as quickly as possible. At the crucial moment, he still stopped. That shows that he isn’t incorrigible yet.”
Yan Ge’s eyes were now fixed on her porcelain-white neck. As they s.h.i.+fted down, he noticed that the neckline of her one-piece dress was rather low, revealing a faint view of her cleavage.
A burning sensation went up his throat. Detecting his gaze, Fang Erlan lowered her head to look and unconsciously pulled up her one-piece dress.
“You should put some ointment on your face. Do you have it? Also, before filming tomorrow, get the makeup artist to conceal it with makeup so it’s not visible.”
“No, I don’t. I’ll just get Xiao Yue to buy it for me.”
He did not say anything further and was about to head out of her room. Just when he reached the door and had yet to open it, the doorbell rang.
Mrs. Fang’s voice sounded from outside the door. “Erlan? It’s mother, open the door quickly.”
Upon hearing her mother’s voice, Fang Erlan immediately leaned against the door to peek through the peephole. To her horror, she realized that not only were her parents here, even her uncle, auntie, and cousin had came.
She instantly turned and pushed Yan Ge inside.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a whisper.
“A lot of my family members are outside now, you shouldn’t go out yet. You should go only after they’re gone, you can stay in the bathroom first.”
Seeing her face of panic, Yan Ge pursed his lips tightly and entered the bathroom without saying anything else. In an instant, he had entered and locked the door from the inside.
Only then did Fang Erlan open the door.
“You stupid daughter! I already told the hotel staff to come up to call you just now, why didn’t you go down? Is it because now that you’re a celebrity, you don’t want to see us anymore?” Mrs. Fang sputtered as soon as she saw her. “We went through such pain to find you, what is with your att.i.tude?”
“Something happened just now. I was already on my way down. What are all of you doing here?”
The handful of them went in one by one, and Mrs. Fang responded, “Your cousin knocked someone down with his motorbike, and the person’s in a hospital now. The hospital wants your cousin to compensate the victim with 100 thousand dollars and pay for his medical expenses. Otherwise, your cousin will have to go to prison.”
Fang Erlan retorted, “Then just ask Second Uncle and Second Aunt to give him the money. It’s not like they don’t have the money.”
Second Uncle Fang responded, “Erlan, if Second Uncle had the money, I would have forked it out already. We wouldn’t have had to beg your parents to bring us to find you. When your brother got married and built a new house, he borrowed money outside and used up the money for the wedding and bridal gifts. Don’t talk about 100 thousand dollars, we can’t even fork out ten thousand dollars now. Erlan, even though your grandmother raised you up, you can’t leave your Uncle and Auntie in the lurch now that we’re in need of help.”
His words could not be any more obvious. They basically wanted to borrow money from Fang Erlan.
However, Fang Erlan was unwilling to lend them this money.
“I’ve grown up with Grandma since I was young. Although you and Auntie never said anything about this, you both were obviously dissatisfied with it. Isn’t that so?”
Mr. Fang couldn’t help but interject, “Erlan, it’s an emergency now. Let’s not be calculative about that. If your Second Uncle had other solutions, he wouldn’t have had to come and find you. This money is only to be borrowed from you, they’ll return it to you in the future.”
“I don’t have much money on my hands either. One hundred thousand dollars is impossible, I can only lend 20 thousand dollars.”
With her filming still uncompleted, it was impossible for her to receive all her salary. While she had only received around 30% of the full amount, she also had the 100 thousand dollars she received as compensation from the hotel previously. Fang Erlan had other uses for this money, as she intended to use them to buy a house in A City.
To buy a house, this amount of money was actually far from being sufficient.
She had grown used to living a life of hards.h.i.+p in the past and was frugal with her daily expenses. Other than for her grandmother’s hospital bills before, she rarely spent money as she had no one else to rely on but herself.
By lending money to her Second Uncle and his family, it meant that she wouldn’t be able to get back this sum for a long time. Back then, when she was cast as minor characters in television shows, she could not even earn 100 thousand dollars in a year.
She had a clear impression of how they treated her since she was young. To her, she was doing all she could by lending them 20 thousand dollars already.
Once her words came out, the five instantly changed their expressions. Second Aunt Fang couldn’t help but exclaim exasperatedly, “I heard you earn a lot from filming one episode of a television series. Now that you’re the first female lead, you’re telling us you don’t have money? Erlan, if you’re unwilling to lend us the money, you can just say it outright. Why complain to us about being hard up? There are no outsiders here anyway, we’re all your family. You’re not even willing to help out your family. Erlan, you’re simply too ruthless. Do you really want to see your cousin go to prison? Since you’re forking out 20 thousand dollars already, what’s so difficult about going all out to fork out the rest of the 80 thousand dollars?”