The voice on the other end of the phone, belonging to Pei Yu, frowned slightly. “Her? Husband?”
He suddenly looked toward the sleeping girl on the hospital bed and said coldly, “Who are you?”
“She’s drunk. She’s in ZL Club, Room 2302. Take her away.”
Pei Yu froze for a moment and was about to respond, but the call had already been hung up.
Cough… cough…
The little girl on the bed suddenly coughed a few times. She opened her eyes and, in a babyish voice, said, “nana…”
Pei Yu put down his phone and went to make a bottle of milk. The girl held the bottle and drank greedily, getting milk all over her mouth.
“Nana…”
Nian Nian suddenly raised the bottle, and milk dripped down her chubby wrist onto Pei Yu’s clothes.
“You really are a little greedy cat,” he said.
He gently wiped her sleeve, carefully avoiding the bruises from the IV on her hand.
“I want… song song…”
Under the glow of the bedside lamp, his lowered figure was wrapped in soft light. His eyelashes cast fan-shaped shadows under his eyes, and his Adam’s apple moved as he hummed a slightly off-key children’s song.
Nian Nian listened while reaching for his black-rimmed glasses slipping down his nose. Pei Yu deliberately scrunched his nose to tease her, and just like that, he completely forgot the earlier phone call.
Meanwhile, Pei Yanli hung up and stepped out of the room to get some air.
The 23rd floor belonged entirely to him, and it was extremely quiet—so quiet that his thoughts could not settle.
He took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one after another.
But he still didn’t wait for the person he was expecting.
He called again, but this time the phone was already turned off.
His brows furrowed. His mind flashed back to how she had clung to him earlier—crying, making a fuss, refusing to let go.
A drunk wife, and a husband who simply ignores her?
What kind of husband is that?
The manager rushed over after hearing the news. He saw the man’s slightly disheveled suit, and especially… the bite mark on his neck.
It looked exactly like someone who had just slept with a woman.
No wonder Miss Qin had urgently asked for surveillance footage earlier.
“Why are you looking?” Pei Yanli asked coldly.
The manager quickly looked away, but still couldn’t help saying, “Mr. Pei, your neck… cough… there’s something there.”
In the reflection of the floor-to-ceiling window, Pei Yanli saw the bite mark on his neck, and his gaze darkened further.
“Know what you should and shouldn’t say.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Pei. I won’t talk nonsense in front of the old master.”
“Has my grandfather left?” Pei Yanli asked coldly.
“Not yet,” the manager said. “He’s waiting for you downstairs.”
“Don’t let anyone come up.”
“Yes.”
In the downstairs private room.
As soon as Pei Yanli opened the door, a teapot flew toward him and shattered at his feet.
“Where have you been?”
A cold, authoritative voice came from inside.
Old Master Pei stood in the center of the room with a cane, his face dark with anger.
His sharp eyes scanned Pei Yanli and finally stopped at his slightly disheveled collar and the ambiguous bite mark on his neck.
Pei Yanli stepped calmly over the broken pieces.
“I was handling some personal matters.”
Old Master Pei slammed his cane hard on the ground. “Look at the mark on your neck! You call that personal matters?”
The man’s gaze remained sharp. “Didn’t you always tell me to move on, Grandfather?”
The old master stepped closer, his eyes piercing him. “Pei Yanli, I absolutely will not allow what happened three years ago to destroy you again! Since you’ve slept with the Qin family girl, you should take responsibility, not keep provoking other women outside! The Pei family will not tolerate such irresponsibility.”
Pei Yanli’s jaw tightened. After a long silence, he said coldly, word by word:
“Do you think I should marry any woman just because I slept with her?”
He wasn’t so careless that he wouldn’t even know whether he had slept with Qin Songyin.
“You—”
The old master raised his cane in anger.
Just then, there was a soft knock at the door.
The manager’s nervous voice came through: “Old Master, Mr. Pei… Miss Qin says she wants to see you. She said if she doesn’t get an answer tonight, she won’t leave.”
Pei Yanli’s eyes darkened with irritation.
Old Master Pei lowered his voice. “Don’t you also want to know about Jiang Zhi? Back then she left you and ran off with another man. Don’t you want to know who that man was?”
At this, the man looked at the old master but said nothing.
“Get along properly with the Qin girl. I can hand her over for you to deal with.”
With that, Old Master Pei turned and left.
Outside the door, Qin Songyin stood there, her eyes red but chin stubbornly raised, tightly clutching her phone.
The moment she saw him, her gaze immediately fell on the clear bite mark on his neck, and her face turned pale.
“Pei Yanli,” she said, her voice trembling but still controlled, “the woman you were holding earlier… who is she?”
Pei Yanli looked at her with cold, emotionless eyes.
Light from the corridor fell across his sharp features, casting deep shadows.
His thin lips parted. His voice was low, but clear enough for everyone to hear:
“None of your business.”
“…Is she your female secretary?”
“Qin Songyin, I’m not interested in you. Don’t act like you’re my wife.”
Qin Songyin bit her lip as she watched him leave without looking back, her fists tightening.
As soon as he stepped outside, a cold wind blew in.
He got into the car, eyes fixed ahead.
If not for his grandfather’s reminder, he would have almost forgotten about the man who once took Jiang Zhi away.
He pulled out an audio file on his phone and sent it to Chen Chi.
“Find this person as soon as possible.”
The truth he had been trying to uncover—he would find it, no matter the cost, piece by piece.
Su Yi slept deeply, not knowing how she ended up dreaming about the day she recorded the breakup audio.
Because she was afraid Pei Yanli would suspect something, Old Master Pei’s idea had been for her to find a man to record it with.
Staying in the hospital all the time, Su Yi didn’t know anyone. After a long search, she finally found a high school student doing a summer job.
The boy recorded it with her again and again, and in the end, took 100 yuan and kept thanking her.
A continuous ringing phone woke her up. Still groggy, Su Yi picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Su Yi… your voice… are you okay? I’m so sorry. I drank too much last night and didn’t notice you were missing from the private room. I even tried to ask the manager for surveillance, but he yelled at me. I’m so angry. If anything happened to you, I’d fight the owner of that club!”
Last night.
Su Yi looked around at the unfamiliar place.
Memories rushed back like a tide, and she froze completely.
She realized she had done a lot of things she shouldn’t have.
Like clinging to Pei Yanli while drunk, acting wildly, and even throwing herself into his arms, asking to sleep with him.
Her whole body burned with embarrassment.
How could she have…