“Ruan Yingying!”
Before she could finish speaking, Huo Qiang interrupted her in a cold voice.
His sharp gaze swept across Ruan Qingshan’s expectant face, then fell on Ruan Yingying beside him, who had agreed so readily. The feeling of being used, mixed with the pent up frustration he had endured for days, made it impossible for him to maintain his composure any longer.
She agreed? She actually agreed?!
Could it be… that the reason she had asked him to accompany her back to her family home this time was because of the Ruan family?
It seemed this woman really had not changed at all!
Ruan Yingying seemed completely unaware of Huo Qiang’s anger.
She gently stroked her abdomen, a trace of helplessness and fatigue appearing on her face. Then she turned toward Huo Qiang, softening her voice slightly. “Huo Qiang, I feel a little… uncomfortable. Could you accompany me to the bathroom? It’s upstairs, and I’m afraid the stairs might be slippery.”
Although Ruan Qingshan felt it was a pity that the conversation had been interrupted, he hurriedly said, “Yes, yes, Yingying’s health comes first. Son in law, hurry and accompany her.”
The anger in Huo Qiang’s chest was stuck in his throat, but when he looked again at Ruan Yingying’s swollen belly, he still forced himself to hold it back.
He rose with a dark expression, gripping his walking stick somewhat roughly, and headed toward the stairs first.
Ruan Yingying quickly followed.
As soon as they reached the second floor and turned into a relatively private corridor, far from the eyes of those downstairs, Huo Qiang suddenly stopped.
He turned around and abruptly shook off the hand Ruan Yingying had lightly rested on his arm. His voice was suppressed to a very low pitch, but it carried an icy edge.
“Ruan Yingying! Don’t think that just because you saved my father, you have the right to interfere in my affairs or the Huo family’s affairs and casually make demands on behalf of your family!”
“Arrange a job? Forget it!”
Ruan Yingying did not get angry when he shook off her hand. She simply rubbed her wrist lightly.
Then she raised her head and curved her lips into a smile. There was a hint of slyness in it, as though she were hiding some thought he had yet to understand.
“Don’t worry. I won’t put you in a difficult position.”
Huo Qiang was stunned when he heard this. Obvious confusion surfaced in his eyes.
Hadn’t she already agreed just now? Why was she saying she would not put him in a difficult position now?
Yet her expression was calm and her eyes were clear. There was no sign that she was pretending.
His tightly furrowed brows did not relax, and his tone carried a warning. “You’d better not play any tricks.”
A moment later, the two of them came down the stairs one after another.
The three people downstairs immediately fixed their eyes on them, their expressions filled with undisguised anticipation.
When they saw Huo Qiang and Ruan Yingying walking down side by side with calm expressions, without any trace of an argument, Ruan Qingshan’s worried heart finally eased slightly.
It seemed there was hope!
Ruan Yingying sat back down on the sofa. She looked up at Ruan Qingshan and naturally picked up where the conversation had left off.
“Dad, about what we were saying just now, about having Huo Qiang help arrange a job for Qianqian…”
She paused at this point. Seeing Ruan Qingshan’s eyes light up again, she continued.
“Of course I can help. But you also know that things are a little difficult right now. I’m about to join my husband at his posting, and the baby in my belly is getting bigger every day, so there are expenses everywhere. As for the Huo family, Grandpa just went through an illness, and the supplements he’ll need during his recovery will also cost quite a bit…”
She phrased it tactfully, but the meaning was crystal clear. She could help, but there would need to be arrangements, and those arrangements would cost money.
Hearing this, the smile on Ruan Qingshan’s face froze, and displeasure rose in his heart.
As a businessman, he was extremely shrewd. Naturally, he understood the hidden meaning behind his eldest daughter’s words.
But… he could not help feeling that Yingying seemed somewhat different from before.
In the past, it had always been Yingying who brought money and goods from the Huo family to subsidize her own family. She had practically obeyed everything the Ruan family said. How could she possibly make such a fuss over a small favor that was well within her ability to arrange?
While he was hesitating, Ruan Qingshan suddenly felt someone tugging at the hem of his clothes.
He lowered his head and saw that Ruan Qianqian had already come up beside him.
She stamped her foot, her voice filled with a hint of tears as her eyes reddened.
“Dad! I don’t care… I want to go!”
Her hand tightened around his sleeve, as though she were afraid he would shake his head.
She had heard everything just now.
Ruan Yingying was actually going to follow that crude cripple to that godforsaken place and join him at his military posting.
She had no idea what had gotten into her, but for Ruan Qianqian, this was the best news imaginable.
If Yingying went to join her husband at his posting, that meant her sister was not getting divorced and would not be leaving with Siyuan Bro.
Moreover, Ruan Yingying had not only agreed to go with Huo Qiang, she had also agreed to help her arrange a job!
If she really managed to get a position in the theater troupe, wouldn’t that mean she could get close to Siyuan Bro?
So no matter what, she had to make sure Dad agreed!
Although Ruan Qingshan did not want to spend the money, he really could not bear to see Ruan Qianqian looking so aggrieved. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and agree.
“Yingying, don’t worry! Dad understands! I’ll pay for whatever needs to be arranged and whatever needs to be paid for. I absolutely won’t make things difficult for you and your husband! Just tell me how much you need.”
Only then did Ruan Yingying reveal a faint, satisfied smile and nod.
“Dad, you’re very thoughtful.”
By the time they left the Ruan family home, dusk was approaching.
Before they left, Ruan Qingshan stuffed a bulging kraft paper envelope into Ruan Yingying’s hands, repeatedly saying that she could ask him for more if it was not enough.
The car drove away from the quiet plane tree lined street and merged back into the evening traffic of Shanghai.
The car remained quiet, but the atmosphere was completely different from when they had arrived.
Huo Qiang remained silent, his expression even more complicated and unreadable than before.
He looked at the thick envelope in Ruan Yingying’s hand and thought about how she had behaved at the dinner table, how she had ultimately accepted the money…
This woman had so many schemes!
She had just said she would not put him in a difficult position, yet in the blink of an eye, she had accepted the money!
Could it be that she really intended to use the Huo family’s connections to arrange that job for Ruan Qianqian, all for the sake of this money?
She really had no idea what she was doing!
He endured it again and again, but in the end he could not hold back. He turned his head, his voice stiff and carrying a cold tone of frustration.
“Ruan Yingying, let me make this clear. Even if you took a huge amount of money, the Huo family will absolutely not help your family use connections for something like this! The military has its own rules!”
After saying this, Huo Qiang stared heavily at the woman in front of him.
He was waiting for her to react as she had in the past, either crying endlessly or threatening to do something drastic.
But as a soldier, he still had basic principles. He had already made up his mind that no matter what she said this time, he would not compromise.
A moment later, the woman in front of him finally reacted.
Ruan Yingying was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed as though she had heard the funniest joke. Her laughter was sweet and clear, her almond shaped eyes curving into crescents.
Seeing this, Huo Qiang’s brows furrowed even more deeply, though his voice became somewhat unnatural.
“What are you laughing at?”
The moment he finished speaking, he felt something being slipped into the pocket of his military uniform.
He looked down and saw that Ruan Yingying had stuffed the thick envelope inside. She even patted it lightly afterward.
Huo Qiang was even more bewildered. Thinking that she was trying to bribe him, he immediately became guarded again.
“Take it out. I…”
“Who said taking the money means you have to do the job?”
Before he could finish, Ruan Yingying interrupted him.
Her voice was light and cheerful, carrying the smugness of someone who had successfully pulled off a little prank.
“This money is for Dad. I’m going to buy him some nutritional supplements so he can properly recover.”
Huo Qiang was completely stunned.
He lowered his head and looked at the conspicuous envelope against his chest, then abruptly raised his head to look at Ruan Yingying.
The faint smile on her face had not yet faded, and her eyes were clear and open.
Watching the expression on Huo Qiang’s face change from anger to confusion, then from confusion to shock, Ruan Yingying could not help laughing as she shook her head.
There was a sense of unprecedented relief in her heart.
How could she possibly really arrange a job for Ruan Qianqian?
Everything she had done at the Ruan family home just now had merely been a way to get back the money the original owner had previously poured into her family.
This trip to her family home had been about collecting a debt from the very beginning. But Ruan Yingying had already known that her parents were calculating and insatiably greedy.
So she could only come up with this plan.
The words Ruan Yingying had said about buying nutritional supplements for her father kept circling through Huo Qiang’s mind, and a warm feeling even swept through his heart.
But after that warmth came an inescapable sense of embarrassment, weighing heavily on his chest.
Who was he?
He had been trained as a reconnaissance soldier and had risen to become a regimental commander at a young age.
On the battlefield, he could sense danger in the wind and assess the enemy situation from the smallest clues.
Yet just now, right under his nose, he had completely failed to notice such obvious intentions and actions from her. Instead, he had spent so long making his own assumptions.
That feeling was even more humiliating than making a mistake on the training ground.
Had he simply judged her based on his preconceived notions?
Or… had he never truly tried to understand her?
After all, she really did seem a little different from before.
Although these thoughts crossed his mind, he still could not bring himself to say anything. He simply took the envelope and put it back into her hands.
“Since you’re the one who brought it back, you keep it.”
After saying that, before she could respond, he turned toward Xiao Cheng in the driver’s seat and instructed him.
“Back to the family compound.”
Ruan Yingying stroked the envelope in her hands, but this time she did not refuse.
She had thought it through. This money had originally come from the Huo family anyway. Even if Huo Qiang refused to take it, she would find a way to spend it on the Huo family.
Or perhaps, when everything truly came to an end, she could return all of it to Huo Qiang.