2
The car drove all the way to the police station entrance, and the driver still felt like he hadn’t quite come back to reality.
“Open the door.” Gu Xueyi said.
The original owner had been accustomed to throwing her weight around the Yan family, so the driver didn’t find anything amiss and obediently got out to open the car door for her.
Gu Xueyi glanced around, cross-referencing with the body’s memories, and quietly made a mental note.
Watching Gu Xueyi step out, still wearing a pair of pretty, clean crystal slippers, the driver couldn’t help but offer a veiled protest. “Are you… are you really going to pick up the Fourth Young Master?”
“Yes.” Gu Xueyi took in the driver’s hesitant expression.
What? Was this Yan Si some kind of troublemaking tyrant?
The would be all the more reason to straighten him out.
Gu Xueyi tightened her grip on the ‘whip’ in her hand.
Such a troublemaker in the family, going bankrupt within three generations would be the least of their worries, bringing the entire family to ruin would be the real catastrophe!
Gu Xueyi grew even more resolute in her decision and strode into the police station.
The driver watched her retreating figure, sighed, and decided to wait outside. If things got out of hand… he could always call the Second Young Master.
This really was strange. Why was the madam meddling in the Fourth Young Master’s affairs today? Even the master never got involved. Please don’t let this cause a huge mess!
“Where is Yan Si… Yan Wenbai?” Gu Xueyi asked directly as soon as she stepped through the door.
The Yan family was notoriously famous, known to everyone, and the Fourth Young Master’s name naturally carried weight. The young policewoman at the entrance hesitated for only a second before quickly responding. “He’s inside. Please follow me.”
“You’re.. Mrs. Yan, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
Before her marriage, the original had frequently appeared in gossip magazines. After marrying into the family, because Yan Zhao kept a low profile, she had to follow, and her appearance before the camera became rare.
The young policewoman’s impression of Mrs. Yan was still from a few years ago, the raised eyebrow, the bold red lips, the eye-rolling expression printed in those gossip magazines. For a moment, she almost didn’t recognize the young woman standing before her.
After marriage, didn’t most women suffer hardships and become less glamorous than before? So why did Mrs. Yan seem like a completely different person—an even more beautiful one at that?
Perhaps marrying into a top-tier powerful family like the Yan family made a difference?
Pushing aside her confusion, the young policewoman stopped and opened the glass door in front of her: “He’s right inside. But the Fourth Young Master… isn’t looking too good right now.”
Gu Xueyi nodded: “Thank you.”
The young policewoman felt a bit flattered.
Mrs. Yan really had changed completely…
Meanwhile, Gu Xueyi had already laid eyes on the Yan family’s Fourth Young Master.
In the small room, only one young man sat slouched in a chair. He had a lean, tall frame and wore the strange attire of this world—something called a “shirt,” it seemed. The shirt’s collar was torn open, revealing a large expanse of his youthful, wiry chest.
Hearing footsteps, he turned his head.
“Gu… Gu Xueyi?” The young man narrowed his eyes, hardly able to believe it.
“Yan Wenbai?” Gu Xueyi scrutinized him more closely.
The young man was probably around twenty. A white bandage was tied around his forehead, with a faint trace of blood seeping through.
Beneath the bandage, he had sharp eyebrows, starry eyes, a straight nose, and remarkably striking features—indeed, he carried the air of a scion from a distinguished family. However, his brows were tightly knitted, and his gaze toward her was filled with impatience and irritability. If he grew out his hair and wore a long robe, he would resemble the young swordsmen from her own world.
“What are you doing here?” Yan Wenbai asked unhappily.
“I received word from the police station.”
Yan Wenbai tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a cold and disdainful expression: “Then my older brother’s secretary should be the one handling this… What’s it got to do with you?”
“I am your sister-in-law.” Gu Xueyi’s tone was calm, as if she were merely stating a fact, devoid of any emotion.
Yan Wenbai had heard this sentence many times in the past and was about to reflexively fire back a sarcastic retort. But as he looked up, he met Gu Xueyi’s indifferent gaze.
She had removed the heavy makeup that always tried to outshine everyone else, but hadn’t cleaned it off completely. At the corners of her eyes still lingered a trace of black mascara and red eyeshadow—or maybe it wasn’t eyeshadow, maybe it was from rubbing them red. And at the corners of her lips, a faint remnant of lipstick remained…
It wasn’t messy. On the contrary, it looked rather clean, even a bit beautiful. As if she had just cried, revealing a prettiness akin to the sky after a storm.
The willfulness and ferocity had completely faded from her face. She no longer stared at him with that look of disgust and loathing, nor did she frantically insist, “I’m your older brother’s wife! You have to listen to me!”
She looked at him coldly, as if looking at a stranger.
Yan Wenbai unconsciously clenched his fingertips, a strange, inexplicable feeling rising in his heart instead.
Gu Xueyi casually grabbed a chair and sat down: “Go ahead. What happened?”
Yan Wenbai suppressed that strange feeling in his heart.
He curled his lips and sneered, “You think I’m going to tell you?”
Gu Xueyi flicked her wrist.
A sharp crack rang out as the belt struck the floor.
Gu Xueyi: “I think you will.”
Yan Wenbai’s heart instinctively gave a little shudder.
His chest also felt tight.
Had Gu Xueyi lost her mind?
Was she… was she actually trying to hit him?
“Hey, hey, hey! This is a police station!”
“Third Young Master, don’t do anything rash…”
Suddenly, a commotion erupted from outside the glass door.
As the voices trailed off, the glass door was shoved open violently.
A young man around Yan Wenbai’s age strode in and immediately launched into a taunt: “What’s this, Yan Wenbai? Can’t win a fight, so you’re tattling to your parents? What, you’re gonna have your brother come deal with me? Everyone knows your brother is missing, dead or alive—there’s still no word on him!”
Yan Wenbai shot up from his chair.
“Jiang Jing, do you want to die?”
“Come on, if you’ve got the guts, hit me—” Jiang Jing held his head high, a smug grin on his face.
Crack! Another sharp sound rang out as the belt flew through the air and struck the floor at Jiang Jing’s feet.
Jiang Jing yelped in fright and instinctively took a step back.
“Who’s that?” “What the hell!”
The smugness on Jiang Jing’s face vanished completely. Pale and shaken, he turned to look at Gu Xueyi.
Yan Wenbai suddenly felt less tightness in his chest.
“Who are you?” Jiang Jing grabbed the doorframe, thoroughly embarrassed, and stared at Gu Xueyi with an ugly expression.
He thought the woman before him looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t quite place who she was.
“Gu Xueyi. His sister-in-law.”
Yan Wenbai pressed his lips together tightly. This time, he didn’t argue.
Jiang Jing was taken aback for a moment, his voice filled with surprise: “You’re Gu Xueyi? … Yan Wenbai, your sister-in-law is actually this good-looking! Her temper’s not great, though, tsk. No wonder your brother doesn’t like her!”
Gu Xueyi lifted her eyelids slightly. The curling lashes elongated the corners of her eyes, letting out a glint of cold light. There was a sharpness that commanded respect without anger, yet also an inadvertent allure.
Jiang Jing suddenly fell silent, unconsciously fixing his gaze on Gu Xueyi.
“Let’s leave here first,” Gu Xueyi said.
Jiang Jing didn’t make another sound.
Yan Wenbai didn’t say anything either. He simply looked up and shot a fierce, menacing glance at Jiang Jing. Jiang Jing wasn’t afraid of him and immediately glared back.
Guided by the young policewoman, Gu Xueyi completed the necessary procedures.
Seeing this, Jiang Jing couldn’t help but remark, “After President Yan went missing, can’t they even send out a secretary? Mrs. Yan has to come handle it herself? My dad at least sent an assistant to run errands!”
Gu Xueyi turned her head back and said in a calm, unhurried tone: “Oh? No one in your family cares about you or pays you any attention, and they can just send anyone to brush you off—is that something to be proud of?”
Jiang Jing’s expression froze.
Yan Wenbai, who had just walked out behind her, twitched the corner of his mouth into a pleased smile. Since when did Gu Xueyi have such a talent for shutting people up?
Jiang Jing, still young after all, was itching to fire back at Gu Xueyi. But he opened his mouth and, after a long moment, couldn’t manage to come up with a single forceful retort.
Meanwhile, with the formalities complete, Gu Xueyi was already striding ahead: “Keep up.”
Yan Wenbai felt that being ordered around like this was beneath his dignity, but he couldn’t very well plop down on the ground and declare, “I’m not moving.” So, he swallowed his anger, followed behind, and obediently went outside.
But as soon as they exited the police station gates, Yan Wenbai immediately headed off in the other direction.
“Where are you going?” Gu Xueyi called after him.
“You don’t need to worry about what happens next.”
Gu Xueyi turned to look at Jiang Jing: “Please, Third Young Master Jiang, come to our home for a visit.”
Jiang Jing hadn’t expected Gu Xueyi to invite him. He licked his lips, thinking: Why would I be afraid to go? He immediately nodded: “Sure! Let’s go!”
Yan Wenbai’s anger flared up instantly upon hearing this.
What was Gu Xueyi doing inviting Jiang Jing to the Yan house? Jiang Jing had just been in a fight with him! Was Gu Xueyi planning to apologize and appease him? Was she that afraid of the Jiang family? No way! He couldn’t let Gu Xueyi disgrace the Yan family.
Yan Wenbai immediately spotted the family car parked by the roadside. He quickly walked over, opened the passenger door, and got in.
The driver, seeing his grim expression, addressed him sheepishly: “Fourth Young Master.”
Oh no, oh no. The madam must have just had an argument with the Fourth Young Master.
Gu Xueyi and Jiang Jing soon got into the car as well.
Hearing the sound of the car doors closing, Yan Wenbai glanced back. Only then did he notice that Gu Xueyi was wearing a sleeveless silk nightgown, revealing her slender, straight neck and a stretch of fair skin on her chest… with only a simple trench coat loosely draped over it. The belt cinched her slender waist, accentuating her graceful figure. Yan Wenbai’s eyelids twitched, and he didn’t dare look any further.
“Stop the car,” Yan Wenbai said.
The driver quickly hit the brakes and asked cautiously, “Fourth Young Master? What’s wrong?”
Yan Wenbai opened the car door, got out, walked to the back row, and pulled the door open. He said to Gu Xueyi, “You sit up front.”
Gu Xueyi looked up at him but didn’t move.
Yan Wenbai found it hard to look her directly in the eye.
“Hurry…”
The words died in his throat.
He barely managed to squeeze out a sentence: “Please, sister-in-law, sit in the front.”
Dressed like that, sitting next to Jiang Jing—what kind of picture would that make? How could he let Jiang Jing see her like this? What was Jiang Jing anyway?
**