Jiang Die tugged at the corners of her lips. Who would have thought that the absurd things happening to her would continue throughout the day? When she was about five hundred meters from home, she caught sight of a man’s figure.
The man was dressed in a white shirt, his face as pleasant as a spring breeze. Before today, there had even been an album in Jiang Die’s phone filled entirely with his photographs. Just thinking about it made her feel sick.
She had no intention of paying attention to him, but the man’s voice, tinged with irritation, called out to her.
“Jiang Die.”
Jiang Die turned around and happened to see him reaching out as though he wanted to take her hand, only to pull it back again. She found it somewhat amusing.
“Is something wrong?”
Xing Yiming frowned. “Who was the man you got engaged to after I left last night?”
Jiang Die felt baffled when she heard this. Was this man sick? He had “dumped” her, yet afterward he came back to show concern. What kind of act was he putting on?
“Who are you to me? Why do you need to know?”
“Xiaodie, although I don’t like you and we can never be together, we grew up together. I can’t just watch you jump into a fire pit.”
Xing Yiming automatically ignored the anger in her words, and a trace of concern appeared on his face.
“If you didn’t know him before this and had no idea what kind of person he was, you could have simply announced last night that the engagement was canceled and found someone who genuinely liked you. Wouldn’t that have been better? Why did you have to act out of spite and humiliate yourself?”
Out of spite?
Humiliate herself?
Did he really think that Jiang Die had found Lu Liyan last night and randomly gotten engaged to another man just to anger him and attract his attention?
Could he be any more shameless?
Jiang Die had no intention of indulging him. The corners of her lips curved slightly, the mockery in her light-colored eyes impossible to conceal.
“Xing Yiming, stop flattering yourself. What exactly are you to me? Just because we grew up together, you think you can put on this act of pretending to care about me while lecturing me? Who do you think you are?”
Seeing the man’s expression darken, she could not help recalling Lu Liyan’s outrageously handsome face.
Heh! The difference really was like heaven and earth.
She genuinely could not understand how she had ever fallen for such a sorry excuse for a man.
Her tone became increasingly sharp.
“As far as I know, Jiang Weiling has never acknowledged you, has she? I’d really like to see when she’ll finally accept the trash I no longer want.”
“Jiang Die, don’t be so cruel with your words!” Xing Yiming suppressed his anger. “What happened last night was my fault, but it has nothing to do with Weiling. You don’t need to take your anger out on her.”
Seeing him act like a gallant protector of his beloved, Jiang Die remembered how, when he had wanted to get engaged to her, he had acted as though someone had cut flesh from his body while insisting that he and Jiang Weiling had nothing to do with each other. Now that he had walked away from the engagement banquet without looking back, he was not even bothering to pretend anymore.
Jiang Die felt that she really had not said anything wrong.
Although Jiang Weiling always acted weak and vulnerable in front of Xing Yiming, in reality, he was nothing more than her obedient dog.
Even at the end of the novel, when Xing Yiming set her on fire, he did so to ensure that Jiang Weiling could truly take control of the Jiang family. Even though Jiang Weiling had said that she had never wanted to become the head of the Jiang family, it was only after Jiang Die’s death that Xing Yiming finally experienced his belated regret.
Jiang Die merely sneered and retorted, “When did I ever say this had anything to do with Jiang Weiling? Why are you getting so worked up?”
“…”
The confrontation between the two was witnessed from a black Rolls-Royce parked not far away.
An elderly man sat upright in the back seat. His neatly styled appearance, graying hair, and wrinkles around the corners of his eyes did nothing to diminish his handsome features. If Jiang Die had seen his face, she would certainly have been startled. Although the resemblance was not particularly obvious, his brows and the contours of his features bore some similarities to Lu Liyan’s.
At that moment, he was wearing reading glasses and had the window partially lowered, keeping his eyes fixed on the two figures.
Before long, he watched the man leave. Since he could not hear their conversation, he sighed repeatedly.
“Alas, where did that foolish boy’s emotional intelligence go? He doesn’t even know to see Xiaodie home…”
After learning that Lu Liyan had invited Jiang Die to the teahouse, only to abandon her soon afterward to deal with work, Lu Chengxiao was genuinely frustrated with him.
What made him even more anxious was that when he had arrived nearby, he had seen Xing Yiming waiting for Jiang Die, and then the two had stood face to face, seemingly talking about something.
After all, Jiang Die had liked Xing Yiming for so long…
But after making Xiaodie so humiliated yesterday, how did that man even have the nerve to come looking for her again?
Lu Chengxiao grumbled inwardly. He really could not stand watching anymore, so he took out his phone and called Lu Liyan.
However, the call only returned the message, “Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently switched off…”
He then called Xiang Yan three times in succession before someone finally answered.
“Where is Lu Liyan? Why isn’t he answering his phone?”
Hearing the elderly man’s somewhat stern voice, Xiang Yan could not help feeling as though he were being summoned to answer for a crime.
“Old Master Lu, President Lu was just in a meeting, so his phone was switched off. He hasn’t had time to turn it back on yet. Is there something you need?”
Lu Chengxiao said, “Put him on the phone.”
After a moment, a cold voice came through.
“Grandpa.”
“You were supposed to take Xiaodie out today, so why did you go back to the company?”
Before Lu Liyan could respond, Lu Chengxiao spoke with deep frustration.
“Fine, you went back to the company, but you didn’t even know to see her home. Didn’t you say you had decided to give it a try and get to know her properly?”
On the other end of the call, Lu Liyan had just entered his office. He closed the door, shutting out the sounds from outside, then walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked down at the bustling traffic below.
Hearing this, he could not help pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Why were you following her?”
He genuinely regretted agreeing to pursue things with Jiang Die after Lu Chengxiao found out about what had happened at the engagement banquet. He should have gotten married first and told him afterward.
“I was just worried that my granddaughter-in-law might encounter some danger on the way,” Lu Chengxiao stubbornly defended himself.
“I have my own arrangements. You don’t need to worry about it.”
Hearing this only made Lu Chengxiao more concerned, and he began rambling.
“If you don’t know how to pursue a girl, I can help you. For example, your first date was at a teahouse, which is so boring. You should…”
“Ahem.”
The sound of Xiang Yan clearing his throat came through especially clearly, and Lu Chengxiao stopped talking.
Ever since his boss had said, “You don’t need to worry about it,” Xiang Yan had been forced to take over the phone call. By this point, he finally could not bear it anymore and awkwardly tried to smooth things over.
“Old Master Lu, President Lu really is quite busy today. He has another dinner engagement later, and he’s currently rushing to approve some documents…”
Lu Chengxiao still wanted to say something, but then he suddenly remembered Lu Liyan’s current situation and could not help sighing.
“Forget it. You two should take good care of yourselves.”
“I’ll help.”
Before the call ended, Xiang Yan seemed to hear those five words, but for a moment he did not understand what Lu Liyan meant. He then walked into the pantry.
At the same time, Lu Chengxiao told the driver to turn around and head toward the shopping mall.
“…”
As the person at the center of the conversation between the Lu family’s grandfather and grandson, Jiang Die naturally knew nothing about it. For some reason, however, she suddenly sneezed.
The following afternoon.
After throwing away everything related to Xing Yiming, Jiang Die had also finished tidying up her room. After working for a while, she grew tired and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
After a while, she reached beneath her pillow, took out her phone, and began scrolling through it.
“Recently, a long-running veteran variety show has fallen from grace. Its famous host, Ji Zhouzhou, has regrettably withdrawn from the program and announced that she will no longer be involved in its future work…”