Chapter 111 - Waiting for Xu Yunhui to take action (3)
“No trouble,” said Chen Mingye. “If I don’t take you there and help you settle down, your cousin just might kill me. That wouldn’t make sense anyway. C’mon, c’mon, hop on in, okay? I have some free time lately, it’s no trouble.”
Huo Chengming opened up the car door first and got inside before he reached his hand out to Zhong Yuhuan.
Zhong Yuhuan took his hand and obediently climbed into the car.
She was followed by Li Jinyuan.
Chen Mingye was in charge of purchasing the tickets.
As though he was babysitting, he took them to Sydney. The hotel was already arranged in advance. They headed straight over to the hotel to rest up as soon as they got off the plane. After one night’s rest, they went out to lunch.
“I have a few buddies in Sydney as well,” said Chen Mingye over the dining table as he started flipping through his contact list, “Let me give them a call.”
Zhong Yuhuan smiled and said, “You don’t have to worry about that. We have a buddy called Yang Sem that we used to hang out with back home. His sister also studies in Sydney.”
“She’s still in school? Then she’s still a child herself. That’s not the same. What can a kid do?” As he was saying, Chen Mingye had already located the number and placed his call, “Just give me a minute.”
Having spent so much time together, there were real feelings between them.
Chen Mingye had already been taking care of Zhong Yuhuan for a while now. Naturally, he truly cared about her. No matter how one looked at it, he should make sure she was in good hands.
Zhong Yuhuan’s lips moved, but she didn’t say anything after all.
Networking in this circle was propped up by relationships. And that’s just not taking each other out to lunch, or playing a few games of golf together. Favors played a big role in it. Relationships built on favors were stronger and longer lasting.
Understanding that reasoning, Zhong Yuhuan decided to not say anymore.
Chen Mingye felt much better after he had placed the call and made all the arrangements.
“You can thank me formally after you have graduated college,” said Chen Mingye with a smile. “I will be returning home in a few years as well. There just aren’t enough businesses overseas to occupy my time.”
Zhong Yuhuan nodded.
Chen Mingye smiled and said, “And maybe you would have taken over the Zhong’s businesses by then.”
Zhong Yuhuan smiled lightly, “Perhaps.”
After lunch, Chen Mingye took the opportunity to visit his business friends in Sydney.
Li Jinyuan and Huo Chengming, on the other hand, accompanied Zhong Yuhuan to look at the apartment that she had booked.
To save some hassle, Zhong Yuhuan chose to live in the school apartment and picked the most expensive one available. After the two young men helped her move her items into the apartment, the three of them went for a walk on campus.
“Li Jinyuan, don’t you have a show tomorrow?”
“No rush,” smiled Li Jinyuan.
Zhong Yuhuan looked at Huo Chengming, “What about you?”
“I am fine too.”
Zhong Yuhuan thought about it for a moment and said to him, “I left the deed and the keys to our apartment in London inside the safety box. The passcode is my birthday. You can take it whenever.”
Huo Chengming was a little stunned.
She was telling him that to him?
“I felt that you would need some start-up capital,” said Zhong Yuhuan, winking at him.
Huo Chengming’s cheeks slowly began to blush. He didn’t realize that Zhong Yuhuan knew what he had been up to this entire time.
But she may not know all of it. Huo Chengming looked down to hide the darkness in his eyes and said in a deep voice, “There’s no need for that. I have money.”
“I know you have money, but you don’t have enough. You know it as well as I, you can treat that as my investment.”
“The deed for the apartment…”
“Oh, it was under my dad’s name, but he transferred it over to me last year. After all, he was going to bring Xu Xing back as his son. He needed to give me something to pacify me.”
Chapter 112 - Waiting for Xu Yunhui to take action (4)
With all that had been going on between him and his son, Zhong Chi would probably never grow to like him, but he was, after all, his son. Zhong Chi would still need to bring him back officially.
That was something that Xu Yunhui didn’t know.
Naturally, Zhong Chi wouldn’t be sharing that with Xu Yunhui either.
According to Zhong Yuhuan’s calculation, now that she has possession of the apartment in London, on that side, Xu Yunhui wouldn’t even be able to hold out till Zhong Chi took his son in before she would snap.
Xu Yunhui had been waiting and waiting, as she watched other women try to get close to Zhong Chi with the same mindset as her back in the days and wanted to become the new Mrs. Zhong. Xu Yunhui wouldn’t be able to handle that, and neither would Xu Yushan.
At most another 2 – 3 years before they acted on it…
Zhong Yuhuan felt that she was in a pretty good spot right now.
But Huo Chengming frowned deeply.
She had to sacrifice so much to get an apartment, and she turned around and gave it to him…
Huo Chengming clenched his fist and his face was dark.
Why did he want to pamper her?
Why was it that he was so frightened that she’d be hurt in any way?
Because she was the best gift to him.
What she had done for them had well exceeded the vastness of mountains and lakes.
Zhong Yuhuan turned and gave Li Jinyuan a hug, “Work hard, study hard. Keep at it, Li Jinyuan!”
Then she gave Huo Chengming a hug also and said, “And the same goes for you.”
“I am going back to my dorm room. You two should get going,” said Zhong Yuhuan as she waved at them.
Her hug lasted just a second, but it left behind a hint of aroma from some sort of fruit that lingered around their nose and wouldn’t dissipate for a long, long time.
They recalled it now, she seemed to have had strawberries for breakfast that morning.
Huo Chengming and Li Jinyuan couldn’t help but stare at her face.
She smiled. Even her lips looked like they were reddened by strawberry juice, glowing in a bright color that words could not describe.
“See you two during the holidays!”
“Okay, Huanhuan. See you during the holidays!” Li Jinyuan smiled at her and replied softly.
Huo Chengming clenched his fist and turned away without saying a word, as though one more look and he’d want to bring her with him and keep her nearby.
***
What Zhong Yuhuan didn’t expect was the day she had been anticipated would come so quickly.
She had just finished her class for the day when she received a call from Lang Jinzhi, except it wasn’t Lang Jinzhi on the other end of the call, but Secretary Cheng.
“Miss Zhong… something happened at home. You might want to make some time and take a trip back?”
“I’ll return tomorrow.”
The cellphone seemed to have been taken away by someone, then came Lang Jinzhi’s voice, “Come to the Lang’s first when you arrived.”
“Okay.”
Chapter 113 - This Must Be What It's Like To Have A Little Sister (1)
Zhong Yuhuan had just hung up Lang Jinzhi ‘s call when Chen Mingye’s call came in.
“My buddy is going to pick you up. We will meet at the airport and go directly from Sydney,” said Chen Mingye on the other end.
Zhong Yuhuan knew that the purpose of that was to avoid being detected by Xu Yunhui and her daughter.
“Okay,” replied Zhong Yuhuan.
She immediately went to take some time off and packed her bags. She didn’t need to bring a lot with her, just one suitcase’s worth. But even so, she couldn’t help but miss the days with Li Jinyuan and Huo Chengming around. At least, she wouldn’t have to pack her own suitcase when they were around.
Zhong Yuhuan shook her head to get rid of this unrelated thought.
She headed downstairs and got inside the car after she finished packing.
Chen Mingye’s buddy drove her to the airport and even helped her with checking into a hotel nearby.
“I’m afraid I need to take off now,” said the man, seemingly a bit embarrassed by that.
“No, that’s alright. That is fine. Thank you,” said Zhong Yuhuan as she nodded at him.
It was probably Chen Mingye’s credit card that was run through during the check-in, and some server brought over afternoon tea shortly.
Zhong Yuhuan browsed the news and WeChat from the VIP suite.
Whatever that had happened at the Zhong’s was not yet in the news.
Which made sense, Xu Yunhui probably wouldn’t be the one babbling about it.
That’s why Yang Sen was still happily rambling on WeChat. He even asked Zhong Yuhuan, “Man Sen is having a concert soon. Do you want to go? I’ll pay for your plane ticket and hotel fee. I guarantee it will be VIP service!”
Zhong Yuhuan smiled after she had read it and turned her cellphone off.
With the exception of those on Lang Jinzhi’s side, she couldn’t let anyone know that she was on her way home.
Zhong Yuhuan didn’t let the hours of wait time go to waste. She read the PPT from school, a couple of academic published articles, followed by watching the recent financial news.
After she had done all that and snacked a little, Chen Mingye had already arrived.
Zhong Yuhuan didn’t bring her luggage with her, but first went downstairs to greet him.
“Have you had dinner yet?” asked Chen Mingye.
Zhong Yuhuan shook her head.
“Alright, let’s have dinner first before we board. I booked a redeye flight. We will go to sleep once we’ve boarded and will be landing when we wake up.” Having said that, Chen Mingye paused and checked on Zhong Yuhuan carefully, “Are you not anxious?”
Zhong Yuhuan smiled and shook her head, “No, I am not anxious. Let's find something to eat.”
Chen Mingye let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I’ve heard that Mr. Zhong hasn’t been very nice to you in the past, but I was still worried that you would be sad after hearing the news.”
Having heard that, Zhong Yuhuan couldn’t help but notice the irony.
She wondered if Zhong Chi would regret it. He had always wanted to be the one in control. Would he still feel accomplished now?
Chen Mingye took Zhong Yuhuan to dinner. After making sure that Zhong Yuhuan was full, he went with her to pick up her luggage and headed to the airport.
“Thank you, Mr. Chen.”
“No problem. Your cousin worried that something might happen to you. I needed to make a trip back anyway, so we might as well travel together. That way, we won’t leave anything to chances.” Chen Mingye smiled casually. He didn’t think this was a big deal.
Chen Mingye said he would be with her “all the way”, and that was exactly what he did.
When the plane had landed in City Hai, he took Zhong Yuhuan all the way to the Lang’s before he took off.
That way, from the outside perspective, they’d think Chen Mingye took a trip back home and went over to visit Li Jinyuan for old time’s sake. The two of them had always been close and that was known to everyone. Nobody would think this has anything to do with Zhong Yuhuan.
Chapter 114 - This Must Be What It's Like To Have A Little Sister (2)
The area that the Lang’s resided in was built in ancient garden style.
The area that it took up was quite impressive within the high-end residential area.
Standing outside the front door, the servants who walked past all gave her surprising looks, probably having no idea who she was.
Zhong Yuhuan had never been to the Lang’s before. Lang Jinzhi had invited her before she went overseas, but there was always one thing or another that had gotten in the way.
Right when Zhong Yuhuan was quietly checking out the house in front of her, she heard the surprised voice of a servant, “Young Master Lang is back already?”
Zhong Yuhuan turned her head and saw Lang Jinzhi getting out of the car along with Secretary Chang.
Obviously, Lang Jinzhi had just left his work and rushed back while she was on her way.
“Cousin.” Zhong Yuhuan turned and smiled at him.
Lang Jinzhi suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Even though Chen Mingye had already sent him a lot of Zhong Yuhuan’s pictures when she was overseas, the pictures were never the same as the real person.
She has grown much taller and her features were that of an adult. She had on a warm orange dress, the hemline of the top was wide and looked like a blossoming flower.
She was blooming and immediately captured everyone’s eyes at first glance.
The only thing that didn’t change was her smile. When she smiled, her eyes seemed to be filled with stars, bright, sweet, and soft.
She made others naturally want to treat her nicely.
Lang Jinzhi didn’t feel like he had missed her a lot during the time that she was gone. But now, when she was standing in front of him, all those emotions that had been missing suddenly filled his chest.
Lang Jinzhi opened his mouth, and finally all the emotions turned into one line, “How long have you been waiting here?”
“I just arrived.” smiled Zhong Yuhuan. “How was the ink I sent?”
“They are fine.”
“Good,” said Zhong Yuhuan as she walked next to him.
Her closeness to him made Lang Jinzhi relax even more.
He even felt that he enjoyed her being close to him. It was something that he had never experienced before. At this moment, he realized how good it felt when his little cousin was close to him.
The servant walked up quickly and opened up the metal door before casting a cautious look in Zhong Yuhuan’s direction as though she was worried that Zhong Yuhuan might be upset that they had overlooked her earlier.
Naturally, Zhong Yuhuan couldn’t be bothered by that.
She focused on watching her steps while slowly walking inside with Lang Jinzhi.
Secretary Cheng followed behind them.
Lang Jinzhi asked in a low voice, “How’s the new school?”
“Not bad. Except that I’d occasionally run into one or two not-so-friendly schoolmates,” said Zhong Yuhuan with a slight frown.
“What kind of schoolmates?” asked Lang Jinzhi, speaking like a parent whose kid had just gone to school on the first day and wanted to know if she got along with her classmates.
“It’s a big school with all kinds of students,” Zhong Yuhuan did not elaborate on that.
Lang Jinzhi frowned slightly when he heard that but didn’t pursue the subject.
He asked in a low voice again, “How about the food? Do you like the food over there?”
“Back in London, we’d always visit Chinese restaurants during the holidays. Li Jinyuan and Huo Chengming would also make Chinese food for me occasionally. They were fast learners when it comes to cooking,” sighed Zhong Yuhuan.
Lang Jinzhi nodded. He then thought about it for a little while and he seemed to… not know how to cook?
It was Zhong Yuhuan’s turn to ask, “How about you, cousin? How’s work?”
“Same ‘ol, same ‘ol.”
“Don’t work too hard now. I would like to be able to get together with you from time to time after I have moved back,” said Zhong Yuhuan.
Lang Jinzhi paused for a second.
He had never thought about this before. In his life dictionary, the words “hang out” had never existed. His plans have always been work-related.
Come to think about it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to hang out with Zhong Yuhuan from time, right?
Lang Jinzhi turned and gave Secretary Cheng a look.
Secretary Cheng was a bit surprised but immediately said, “Yes, I’ll rearrange your schedule.”
Chapter 115 - This Must Be What It's Like To Have A Little Sister (3)
Some people were passive, others were proactive. And Lang Jinzhi was the type who’d proactively do the best at work. He had more responsibilities than most and was also able to complete them better than most people. That was the reason why he had moved up so quickly.
But it would also be fine should he decide to be more selective about work and lightened up his workload.
As they were chatting, they had already walked to the end of the stone path and got close to the main living room.
When Zhong Yuhuan looked up, she saw a middle-aged man standing underneath the eaves. The middle-aged man was clothed in a Zhongshan style coat, the hair above his temples were white, but he looked kind. Not too old, perhaps around 50 or so, not yet reached his retirement age. He stood there quietly, listening to their conversation.
When Zhong Yuhuan got closer, the middle-aged man asked, “This is the daughter of Second Young Miss Ding?” His tone was tender and kind.
Lang Jinzhi nodded and said, “Yes.”
Zhong Yuhuan wasn’t sure how to address the man.
She figured he must be Lang Jinzhi’s father, but should she refer to him as Uncle? It has been a long while since the divorce.
“C’mon in first,” said Father Lang as he turned and walked into the living room.
Zhong Yuhuan tugged on Lang Jinzhi’s sleeve, “What should I call him?”
Lang Jinzhi looked down at her fingers that were white like onions and said in a low voice, “Just call him what’s appropriate.”
“Uncle?”
“Yes.”
Lang Jinzhi thought to himself this must be what it was like to have a little sister.
She would give him beautiful smiles and tug gently at his sleeves.
After they entered the living room, Zhong Yuhuan immediately smiled and greeted Father Lang once again.
When Father Lang heard “Uncle”, he had a peculiar look on him for a quick instant but finally didn’t comment on it. He had Zhong Yuhuan sit down first and the servant brought over tea shortly thereafter, in the lidded kind of tea cup.
“There aren’t many in the house right now. It will be just the three of us having dinner together,” said Father Lang.
Zhong Yuhuan nodded obediently.
“When do you plan on going home?” asked Father Lang.
Lang Jinzhi replied for her and said, “Perhaps after a little while. With what was going on at the Zhong’s, Mrs. Xu wouldn’t want her back right now.”
Having heard that, Father Lang frowned quickly, but didn’t comment on what kind of a person Zhong Chi was. It was probably because he wasn’t the type of person who gossip about others behind their backs.
The servant was just about to take Zhong Yuhuan’s luggage to the guest bedroom when Zhong Yuhuan suddenly said, “Oh, yeah, I have brought a gift for Uncle.”
Zhong Yuhuan stood up, walked over, and bent down to produce a large gift box from a big bag. The gift box was nicely decorated. She handed it over to Father Lang with both hands. Father Lang quickly took it from her, smiled and said, “You shouldn’t have.”
It didn’t need to be anything fancy, but whether they have brought something with them made a difference.
Especially for someone of their statuses.
It was always necessary to prepare gifts.
And, in fact, it wasn’t anything very fancy.
After all, she was never that close with the Lang’s before and haven’t been interacting with each other on a regular basis. Had she brought with her something overly expensive, that would actually appear that she had other agendas.
Lang Jinzhi stared at the large gift box for a few seconds.
Suddenly, he realized how his grandfather must have felt that first time they all had dinner together at Yue Lan Mansion when Zhong Yuhuan gave him a gift after she had given one to their grandfather.
Chapter 116 - Go see if the Madam has anything to do with it (1)
The gift that Zhong Yuhuan had prepared for Father Lang was a cashmere scarf. It was easy to tell that it was of good quality, but it could only be so expensive even if she had gotten a top-of-the-line one.
Zhong Yuhuan had stayed to crash at the Lang’s after dinner.
She was arranged to stay in the room that was close to Lang Jinzhi’s. Since then, the servants at the Lang’s were much more respectful toward her. They no longer looked down on her because her mother had died and she had been “exiled” overseas by her father.
Shortly after she had settled in, Lang Jinzhi came knocking on her door, along with him was Secretary Cheng.
Zhong Yuhuan let them inside her room and seated them.
Secretary Cheng, being a people person, didn’t feel awkward at all and started saying in a low voice, “Mr. Zhong had a fall at the equestrian club last August and his patella (knee cap) was stepped on by a horse. He has yet to recover from that. Back then, Ms. Xu was partly being stubborn and also partly trying it out. She wanted to regain his favor toward her from taking good care of him.
Towards the end of last year and Xu Xing’s birthday, Mr. Zhong had sent out invitations to his birthday party, and there were rumors in the circle that Mr. Zhong was getting ready to officially recognize Xu Xing as his son. But the birthday party was cancelled later on. And this year, Mr. Zhong's health started to deteriorate…
All the way up to last month, Mr. Zhong suddenly passed out and was sent to the hospital. Trace amount of arsenic was found in him and his family doctor had already disappeared.”
Upon hearing that, Zhong Yuhuan couldn’t help but sigh. She said, “And here I thought she would have better tricks up her sleeves.”
Was Xu Yunhui vicious? She didn’t kill Zhong Chi after all. Was Xu Yunhui not vicious? But she did plot against the man whom she had shared the same bed with for so many years.
One way or another, it was none of her business.
All Zhong Yuhuan felt was a shred of sadness for the original owner.
She wondered if Zhong Chi would regret now that he didn’t treat Ding Ruxue and her daughter better than he did.
Secretary Cheng stopped and looked at Zhong Yuhuan carefully. He seemed to worry that the news would have upset her.
“How is he doing now?” asked Zhong Yuhuan.
“Still being monitored in ICU. They are still working on getting the arsenic out of his system.”
Arsenic trioxide compound would cause multiple organ failure in a human’s body.
But if it was treated on time, it would only cause irreversible damage to the body without being fatal.
“Let’s give it a couple more days. I’ll go visit him later. Right now we need to wait for Xu Yunhui to expose themselves.” How else would Zhong Chi be willing to transfer over to her what she was after?
“Alright,” nodded Lang Jinzhi.
“I’ll have to continue to trouble cousin to keep on monitoring the situation.”
“No trouble at all,” said Lang Jinzhi. Then, after a slight pause and somewhat out of character, he added, “You should get some more rest the next couple of days.
It was starting to get dark outside. Secretary Cheng needed to go home and it’d be scandalous for Lang Jinzhi to continue staying in her room, even if he was her cousin.
Lang Jinzhi and Secretary Cheng walked out together, closing her door behind them.
Zhong Yuhuan collapsed on the couch and the weariness took over her suddenly.
As soon as she crumbled onto the bed, her cellphone rang. Zhong Yuhuan grabbed her phone and was a little surprised by the name on the caller ID - Huo Chengming.
“Hello?” said Zhong Yuhuan as she picked up the phone.
“You are not at school?” asked Huo Chengming from the other end.
“Eh. Something came up so I took some time off.”
“Something happened?” asked Huo Chengming, his tone became nervous immediately.
“I am fine. Something happened back home so I came back with Mr. Chen. You and Li Jinyuan seemed to be very busy so I didn’t mention it to you too. It won’t take long to take care of the matters here anyway!” Zhang Yuhuan tried to make her tone sound light hearted so Huo Chengming could stop worrying about her.
Chapter 117 - Go see if the Madam has anything to do with it (2)
“I am outside of your school right now,” said Huo Chengming all of a sudden.
Zhong Yuhuan was stunned a little and said, “How come you visited my school all of a sudden?” Having said that, she thought she knew why. Huo Chengming must have learned some tricks about surprise visits somewhere and wanted to pleasantly surprise her at her school.
“We came to visit,” said Huo Chengming, then he added in a dulled voice, “Li Jinyuan is here with me as well.”
Zhong Yuhuan didn’t know what to say to that. “You are both outside of my school right now?”
“Mm.”
“Welp. Guess you will just have to return to where you came from,” said Zhong Yuhuan innocently.
“Mm.”
He sounded blue over the phone so Zhong Yuhuan asked, “What do you like me to bring back for the two of you on my way back?”
“There’s no need,” said Huo Chengming, his tone much more relieved than earlier.
It looked like all she had to do to appease him was to say she’d buy him stuff.
Each of them was getting easier to appease than the previous one!
Zhong Yuhuan couldn’t help but sigh.
“It’s getting late where you are… get some rest.” As soon as Huo Chengming finished saying that, it seemed someone had ripped the cellphone from him.
“Get some rest, Huanhuan!” said Li Jinyuan from the other end.
Then she heard a bunch of muffled sounds, presumably the two of them were fighting over the cellphone again. Then she heard the dial tone.
The other end was so far away.
Li Jinyuan watched as Huo Chengming put away his cellphone and resigned to sighing, “Wei-geI’s trick was problematic.”
“We can try it again,” said Huo Chengming.
“How?” asked Li Jinyuan, then he got it all of a sudden, “…. Go back too?”
“Mm.”
The two young boys from way back when had already grown up into older boys and getting more and more like two adult men.
They now have their own capital. Never mind about traveling internationally, they could even travel the world if they so choose without blinking an eye.
Once they have made up their mind, they didn’t even pack anything before they hurried to the airport and took the first flight back.
Back at the Lang’s.
Zhong Yuhuan slept all the way to noon.
She sluggishly got up, got ready, and put on a clean dress. When she pulled open the door, she saw Lang Jinzhi’s face immediately.
“I was just about to have you come down for lunch.”
“You didn’t go in to work today, cousin?” asked Zhong Yuhuan, surprised to see him there.
“I did. Just coming home quickly during lunch time.” Lang Jinzhi paused for a little bit and asked, “How come you slept in so much?”
“Jet lag.”
Lang Jinzhi was a very nice person, at least from Zhong Yuhuan’s perspective.
Just like right now, she just had to soften up her tone and give him a good reason. And his look softened up immediately without any more reproach.
Zhong Yuhuan followed Lang Jinzhi to the dining room to have lunch.
They were the only ones in the dining room.
Zhong Yuhuan asked, “Uncle doesn’t eat at home?”
“He’s at work.”
“What about the others?”
“Some are at school; some are traveling overseas for business; some are at work. Everybody is very busy,” said Lang Jinzhi.
This was when she realized that the only reason Lang Jinzhi was there was because he made a special trip home from work. Was he worried that she would feel awkward being by herself?
Zhong Yuhuan smiled as she bit down on her chopsticks.
Her cousin seemed to be a very thoughtful person!
Lang Jinzhi ate lunch with Zhong Yuhuan quietly before he headed back to work. Left on her own, Zhong Yuhuan walked around Lang’s and enjoyed the scenery in their garden.
Just as Zhong Yuhuan had guessed, Lang Jinzhi came home to have lunch with her every day for the next few days. He didn’t do much, just had lunch with her before he took off again.
Zhong Yuhuan, too, enjoyed her rare down time and adapted quite well to her days at the Lang’s.
Chapter 118 - Go see if the Madam has anything to do with it (3)
On the other hand, Li Jinyuan and Huo Chengming had already arrived in City Hai. They checked into the hotel first before they asked around to see if there were any incidents in City Hai recently.
There wasn't much in terms of news except that Young Master Nan had finally graduated college and his family was preparing for his wedding again.
Could he be the reason?
Li Jinyuan and Huo Chengming exchanged a look; both of them looked cold.
***
A private hospital in City Hai.
Zhong Chi was finally transferred from ICU into a regular VIP room.
He had regained his consciousness and learned that Xu Yunhui kept the words out of the media about him falling ill. Zhong Chi agreed with her decision for the sake of keeping their stock prices from plummeting.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Xu Yunhui and Xu Yushan on both sides of him, looking very worried.
Zhong Chi was a little touched when he saw that.
The contrast, naturally, made Zhong Yuhuan seem even more ungrateful.
Xu Yunhui helped Zhong Chi sit up and said tenderly, “Don’t worry, Chi-ge. The doctor said it won’t take you long to recover.”
Xu Yushan, on the other hand, was starting to get impatient with all the pretending.
Someone happened to knock on the door at this moment. “Is Boss Zhong awake? I am Xiao Zhao.”
“Oh, Assistant Zhao is here,” smiled Xu Yunhui as she stood up. “Then Shanshan and I will excuse ourselves. We will let you two talk.”
Zhong Chi, too, was eager to find out what had happened during this time so he just nodded, with no intention of asking them to stay.
Xu Yunhui’s expression froze a little.
She had forgotten what kind of a person Zhong Chi was. As touched as Zhong Chi was, he wouldn’t mix his personal feelings with work that needed his attention.
Xu Yunhui and Xu Yushan walked out of the room.
Assistant Zhao walked inside.
Assistant Zhao turned and looked at the room entrance before he looked back at Zhong Chi. He was startled by what he saw.
He hadn’t expected Zhong Chi to have aged so much during such a short amount of time. His face was a waxy yellow with dark black circles under his eyes. His face was slightly swollen, making it look twisted.
He looked like an entirely different person!
Assistant Zhao stuttered a little and said, “Boss… Boss Zhong. We have been investigating. We have notified the police… when your family doctor disappeared. We suspect he was the one who did it.”
Zhong Chi’s face was dark and vicious. He gritted his teeth and said, “I have always been nice to him. We must find him so we can find out who ordered him to do that. I have been in business all these years. Who did I offend to a point that they wanted me dead?”
“Could it be… the Ding’s?”
Zhong Chi shook his head and overturned that right away, “If Old Man Ding hated me that much he wanted me dead, he would have acted upon it a long time ago. Not to mention that Ding Qiuyue had been their head of household for a while now. She doesn’t have the brain to do something like this.”
Assistant Zhao sighed.
“Oh, yeah! I needed to let you know something else.”
“Shoot.”
“When you first fell ill, Madam had instructed us to not mention to anyone about your illness.”
“Yes, I am aware of that.”
“But later on, Miss called and said she wanted to talk to you. I gathered that Madam didn’t give her any details so Miss called me instead.”
Zhong Chi's face changed colors.
It was the right thing to do for the company to not mention his illness.
But what would be the reason to keep it from Zhong Yuhuan?
Zhong Chi never had any problems gauging others with the worst intent. He let out a breath lightly and said through gritted teeth, “She thought I was about to die? So her intention was to keep Zhong Yuhuan from coming back?”
Slowly, a peculiar idea crossed his mind.
He had never thought about it before, but once it had occurred to him, it started forming a clearer and clearer picture.
“Go… and investigate. I want to know if Madam has anything to do with this.”
Chapter 119 - I am Huo Chengming (1)
They had never suspected Xu Yunhui in the past. Now that the seed had been sowed, it was plenty easy to start looking into her.
After all, the few years that Xu Yunhui had spent at the Zhong’s really hadn’t allowed her to become very powerful.
When the investigation report reached Zhong Chi, he was so angry that he yanked the IV right out of his arm and shouted angrily, “So that’s it! I finally saw through her darker than viper heart! Lucky I never recognized Xu Xing! Had I done that, I would have been dead even sooner! She wished for her son to take over my spot immediately…”
Now that was Zhong Chi’s misjudging Xu Yunhui.
With Xu Yunhui’s personality, if he had recognized Xu Xing sooner, she wouldn’t have done anything to him.
But Zhong Chi was gauging her by his own standard, so naturally he’d feel that her plan was to murder him!
Zhong Chi snickered and said, “She forgot that even though she is the official Mrs. Zhong right now, I could still squash her with one finger.”
Assistant Zhao kept his head lowered and dared not say a thing.
That was not something that he wanted to offer his opinion on; he was better off just keeping his mouth shut.
“Go and give Zhong Yuhuan a call.”
“Yes, sir.”
Zhong Chi said coldly, “This illness at least let me see clearly the true nature of those around me.”
When Xu Yunhui went to the hospital the next day, she found another person in the room.
She was the actress whose resources had been taken away from her, and she was currently crying in front of Zhong Chi. This particular actress has the reputation of being pure and tender. All Xu Yunhui wanted to do was to call her bullsh*t. If she was so pure, why did she keep thrusting herself in front of Zhong Chi? Was there really anyone who was pure in their circle?
At this very moment, Xu Yunhui almost couldn’t maintain the look on her face. She really wanted to leap onto the actress and rip her face off!
“Why is Miss Lin here?” Xu Yunhui turned and asked the bodyguard.
The bodyguard, who was in charge of guarding the patient room looked a little uneasy, said, “Miss Lin is here to visit Boss”
“Haven’t I said it already? To not let anyone find out about his illness?”
“Miss Lin called a few times and Boss said she could come visit.”
Xu Yunhui heard a buzzing noise in her head.
Zhong Chi had been very nice to her the last few days, almost like they were back to the days when they were in love before. Even when Zhong Chi was feeling so fragile, he asked a few times about how Xu Xing was doing at school and seemed to be genuinely concerned about it. Xu Yunhui almost thought that perhaps once this was over, Zhong Chi would be touched by how well she had been taking care of him and quickly recognize Xu Xing. That way she wouldn’t need to take any more risk…. And no need to try and harm him again…
But now Xu Yunhui understood.
Once the gears started to turn, there was no turning back.
Just like once she had become Zhong Chi’s girlfriend, she had already passed the point of no return by the time he married Madam. She had to follow through with it, unless Ding Ruxue was completely dead.
And now, once she walked down the path of setting up Zhong Chi, she couldn’t stop anymore. If she stopped now, she didn’t stand to gain anything from this, and neither would her son. Let alone that as long as Zhong Chi was alive, she ran the risks of being exposed.
She needed to follow through with her plans…
Xu Yunhui forced herself to calm down. Smiling tenderly, she said, “Oh, okay. Well, if that’s the case, then I won’t say anything else. I’ll be back a little later.”
Naturally, Zhong Chi caught the entire exchange.
Before he found out the truth, Zhong Chi had always been pleased with Xu Yunhui’s humbleness and knowing her own place. But now that he was aware of the truth, her humbleness, tenderness, and poise all turned into a bone-chilling honey-coated dagger!
Chapter 120 - I am Huo Chengming (2)
“I couldn’t believe she had been putting up with this front for so long and been so manipulative…” snickered Zhong Chi. “Prepare some money for Xu Yunhui. She can take the money and take care of Xu Yushan and Xu Xing seeing as how he’s my son after all. She won’t get much more from me. I am still in my prime. I can have more sons if I want. Xu Xing had never stepped up to the plate, I doubt he would accomplish much in the future anyway.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Assistant Zhao.
Zhong Chi asked again, “Anything back from Miss?”
“Miss answered the call and said she’d take the next flight back.”
That was when Zhong Chi finally started looking better.
“She hated me a few years ago. I was aware of that. Her personality was not like mine, nor her mother. She had always been blunt and straightforward. She always exploded when she was unhappy. And when she was happy, she also wore her emotions on her sleeves. If she is going to rush back, that means she still thinks of me as her father.” Thinking about that, Zhong Chi frowned, “That being said, her straightforwardness is much better than Xu Yunhui and her daughter’s acting and fakeness. At least I know I wouldn’t be stabbed from behind.”
Assistant Zhao chuckled uncomfortably and said, “You are right.”
***
Zhong Yuhuan heard knocking on the door when she woke up.
She quickly opened the door and saw Lang Jinzhi and Secretary Cheng standing outside.
Lang Jinzhi was stunned a little when he saw her.
Zhong Yuhuan still had on her pink pajama. It had been bought by Secretary Cheng because she had forgotten to pack her pajamas. Lang Jinzhi frowned when he saw it at first. He couldn’t appreciate that type of pajama.
But now that Zhong Yuhuan was wearing it; it exhibited completely different effects.
The pink pajama made her cheeks look even pink.
Her slender legs exposed under the hem made her look delicate and fragile.
Lang Jinzhi didn’t even think about it before he quickly removed his suit jacket and put it over her. He then frowned and said, “How come you came and got the door in your pajamas?”
Zhong Yuhuan yawned sluggishly. Turning to walk back inside the room with the suit jacket over her, she said, “I didn’t want to make cousin wait.”
That finally shut Lang Jinzhi up.
After the three people were seated, Zhong Yuhuan poured out glasses of water, “New developments?”
Secretary Cheng nodded and said, “Yes, Ms. Xu will be doing it one more time, tomorrow morning.”
“Oh, then I better head over soon,” said Zhong Yuhuan as she stood up. “I need to go there tonight. Once it happened, she’d for sure try to barricade the hospital room, and I wouldn’t be able to get inside.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Lang Jinzhi immediately.
“Cousin has time?”
“I’ll take tomorrow off.”
“…. Are you sure?”
Lang Jinzhi looked into Zhong Yuhuan’s eyes and remained silent for a little bit.
Was he sure?
….. Yes.
Even though this would be the first time he has taken a day off since he started school and then work.
But the words “take tomorrow off” just rolled out of his mouth, just like that.
Lang Jinzhi thought about it for a second.
It should be alright for him to take a day off… After all, he had never taken a day off before now.
“Okay, thanks, Cousin,” said Zhong Yuhuan as she pulled the suit jacket off of herself and handed it over to Lang Jinzhi. “Let me go change real quick then we can head over shortly.”
Lang Jinzhi paused for a second before he took his suit jacket back from her. He didn’t put it back on. He just nodded and walked away with Secretary Cheng.
Zhong Yuhuan quickly put on a dress that looked very cheerful before she walked out with her purse.
As there were usually a lot at the dinner table at the Lang’s, Lang Jinzhi thought about it for a little bit before giving Chen Mingye a call and having him come over as cover up when they all went out to dinner together.