Liao Zhongqing, standing nearby, quickly kicked him: “What are you saying? Do you think my sister Zhongqiu is a pushover?”
Zhou Qichen reluctantly stopped himself. He and Liao Zhongqiu were getting married this autumn, so no matter how much he craved other girls, he had to behave properly on the surface.
Meanwhile, Liao Zhongqing leaned closer to He Canglan: “How did Lan Die get into the He family’s house? Did you arrange the pass for her?”
He Canglan responded indifferently: “No.”
“Did you get her?” Liao Zhongqing grinned mischievously.
He Canglan casually flicked the ash from his cigarette, slightly raising his phoenix-like eyes with a relaxed posture.
After a long pause, his thin lips parted: “Don’t mention her to me again!”
Liao Zhongqing opened his mouth but ultimately swallowed his words. Had he grown tired of her so quickly?
But that was normal in this circle—there was never a shortage of beauties!
That night, they indeed had no further interaction.
Dinner ended after 8 p.m. Lan Die declined the He family’s offer to have a driver take her home, insisting on taking the subway herself.
The weather in Jing City in June was unpredictable. A cool breeze rose, and thunder began to rumble in the distance.
“Mom, Lan Die didn’t bring an umbrella. She might get caught in the rain on her way home.”
He Nanzhi immediately dialed her number, but three calls went unanswered: “What’s going on? Why isn’t Lan Die picking up?”
He Canglan had been drinking and chatting with a group of friends all along.
The thunder and lightning outside did nothing to dampen the spirits of these gathered young masters.
Liao Zhongqing suddenly realized that He Canglan had disappeared at some point.
Large raindrops began to fall, thick and fast.
Lan Die was walking briskly on her way home.
The subway station was about a fifteen-minute walk from the neighborhood where Lan Die lived.
Even after 9 p.m., the streets of Jing City were still bustling.
A passing drunkard whistled at Lan Die, uttering some vulgar and flirtatious remarks.
Lan Die was terrified! She quickly sped up her pace, breaking into a light run on the street.
The cold raindrops hit her body, quickly soaking through her clothes. The downpour had arrived without warning.
Through the car window, He Canglan watched the young woman running in the rain.
She resembled a beautiful butterfly struggling in the wind and rain, yet she stubbornly held her head high, refusing to bow to the storm.
Lan Die was completely drenched, her delicate and full curves shimmering with an alluring glow under the dim streetlights.
She was truly beautiful—achingly, devastatingly beautiful.
But such beauty, since it did not belong to him, was not worth pitying.
The car drove slowly through the rain as He Canglan coldly watched the slender figure running ahead.
Yi An, sitting in the driver’s seat, grew restless: “Mr. He, should we give Miss Lan an umbrella? She’ll catch a cold like this.”
There was no response from the back seat. The car was enveloped in a heavy, oppressive atmosphere. After a while, a slightly hoarse voice finally spoke:
“She asked for it.”
Yi An’s heart sank. Though anxious, he knew it was not his place to say more.
The figure running ahead stumbled, falling to one knee on the ground, but quickly got back up.
“So foolish!”
He Canglan muttered coldly, breathing heavily as he suppressed the urge to rush out of the car and pick her up.
If she wouldn’t even acknowledge him, why was he pretending to be so devoted?
In the car, the man’s fists gradually clenched. The veins on the back of his hands bulged, and his knuckles turned white from the tight grip.
On the back seat lay an exquisite jewelry box, clearly of immense value.
Australian pink diamonds are renowned worldwide. Amid his daily busy schedule, he had squeezed out time to personally select a set of pink diamond jewelry.
A pink diamond necklace, a pair of pink diamond earrings, and a pink diamond ring. The entire set was worth millions, yet he hadn’t even blinked.
As long as that little woman would like it! It was worth it.
Originally, he had planned to send her back after dinner and personally put them on her.
The car was parked by the roadside, and silence filled the interior.
Yi An glanced at the person sitting in the back through the rearview mirror. He was smoking, his eyes fixed on the lit window on the second floor amidst the wind and rain, as if lost in thought.
After what felt like an eternity, the light in that window went out, and the light in He Canglan’s eyes seemed to suddenly extinguish as well.
He sighed, rubbing his tired brow. “Let’s go.”
Having been caught in the rain and feeling emotionally distressed, Lan Die fell ill the next day.
Afraid of worrying her grandmother, she didn’t dare go home and instead curled up in her dormitory bed, her cheeks burning with fever, drifting in and out of delirium.
Cong Yue wrung out a damp towel, repeatedly cooling her down with physical methods.
That delicate, fragile girl remained silent, simply curled up in a ball, her eyes brimming with tears.
Cong Yue took care of her day and night for two days, with Du Shaokang handling all the meals and fetching water in between.
It wasn’t until the third day that Lan Die’s high fever finally began to subside.
Cong Yue pinched her little face. “Die’er, you nearly scared me to death! You were almost delirious with fever.”
Lan Die’s voice trembled. “Thank you, Yueyue.”
“What’s wrong with you? Is something on your mind? Is it… because of He?” Cong Yue asked cautiously.
Lan Die didn’t deny it.
The image of him sitting together with Wang Shuyi at the card table was like a thorn in her side.
She had thought she wouldn’t care.
Of course, having decided to stop dreaming, she had to learn to let go.
“People like that aren’t from the same world as us. Getting involved with them might just leave you hurt. Most of them play with emotions—how many of them are any good!” Cong Yue said indignantly.
Lan Die didn’t speak, only silently shed tears, her long eyelashes fluttering as she softly murmured, “Mm.”
“Do you know what the new phone number he gave you means?” Cong Yue inadvertently brought it up again.
1×521521521—Lan Die naturally knew, but now, it felt more like a mockery.
She thought he would probably never say those three words to her.
For the next month, everything seemed to return to how it was before.
Lan Die never saw He Canglan again.
At first, she had worried about running into him during Sunday classes, but later realized her worries were unnecessary.
There were no more messages or calls from him on her phone. It was as if this person had never appeared in her life.
During the school summer break, aside from preparing her graduation thesis, Lan Die devoted all her time to the television station.
Director Xie suddenly transferred her from outdoor shoots to become a news anchor at the station and host a flagship cultural interview program.
Not only did this help her successfully win over the audience, making her a rising star among Beijing’s hosts, but her salary also increased several times over.
Lan Die had always believed it was due to her hard work and Director Xie’s special care that things had gone so smoothly.
Until one day, after a live news broadcast, Director Xie approached Lan Die privately.
The director’s general idea was that the station’s financial program wanted to interview the head of a certain well-known enterprise.
“I can try to contact the person in charge,” Lan Die said confidently.
Director Xie smiled warmly, “This enterprise is a bit special. Whether it can accept an interview is not up to the person in charge.”
Lan Die was puzzled, “Not even the person in charge has the final say?”
“Right, it’s up to the capital that holds controlling shares.” Xie Tianhua gave Lan Die a meaningful look, “Xiao Die, Canglan has returned from South Africa, hasn’t he? Why don’t you ask him?”
…