The woman's smile immediately disappeared. She kicked hard at the stool he was sitting on and ran a
hand through her hair in irritation. "You bastard!"
Marcus did not show any reaction. He only lowered his glance and stared at the wine glass in front of
him like it was some mystical marvel.
In the dim light, no one noticed a drop of crystal liquid falling and dispersing into the wine.
At the same time, in another bar, Rachel and Lea anxiously watched Celia guzzling wine like water. All
their attempts to stop her were futile.
Eyes blurry, she sat with her head on the table, muttering something about her relationship with
Marcus.
Lea signed and said, "I didn't expect her to be crazier than I am. By the way, what's going on with
Marcus? Weren't they supposed to elope before? Why did he suddenly hook up with that woman,
then? Who was she, anyway?"
Rachel shook her head. Even she was confused. "That woman must be his blind date. Celia mentioned
that his parents arranged for him to be introduced to a girl from a family of equal social rank."
Lea scoffed at the explanation with a frown on her face. She took a look at Celia, who had fallen asleep
on the table, picked up the woman's unfinished glass of wine, and took a sip. "If Marcus were forced to
do that for some reason, then there would be some wiggle room. The thing is, I don't think he did that
unwillingly. He seemed to enjoy it very much!"
Once she had her first sip of wine, she couldn't stop herself from drinking more.
Rachel reached out a hand to stop Lea, who was about to pour herself another glass of wine. "Please
don't leave me with two drunk women to send home later."
"Relax, my friend. I have a higher tolerance for alcohol than Celia."
Lea patted Rachel on her shoulder. "I have an idea. Do you want to hear it?"
Before Rachel could respond, Lea had already whispered the idea to her. She slowly formulated the
details of the idea that she had just come up with.
Rachel's eyebrows twitched as Lea's idea registered in her mind. The other woman was so smart that
she could come up with ideas that ordinary people wouldn't be able to imagine no matter how hard they
tried. 'It could work.'
Lea looked at Rachel's reaction. Seeing how she seemed to be on board with her idea, Lea grinned
and drank more wine. Finally, Henry arrived to take her home, looking down at her in helplessness and
adoration.
She and Jack first saw Celia home and then headed back to their own home.
On the next day, the nurses at her hospital remarked on the dark circles under Rachel's eyes. Some of
the nurses flocked around her and asked, "Rachel, is there anything going on with you these past two
days? You've been looking so haggard lately."
She tried to laugh off the comments awkwardly. However, when another nurse asked about Celia, she
was speechless for a moment, stunned, before she came up with a plausible excuse.
She had almost forgotten about it.
On her way back to her office after lunch, Rachel found a group of nurses in the emergency room
clustered around something.
Normally, the emergency room handled at least ten emergency rescues on a daily basis. People
initially got curious about these cases, but they quickly grew used to them.
Puzzled, Rachel glanced at the commotion for a while. She was about to step away when her phone in
her coat pocket rang. The screen showed Lea's name.
As soon as she connected the call, Lea's agitated voice rang in her ear. "Rachel, where are you? Come
here quick! Something happened to Celia."
For some reason, Lea's voice sounded like she was somewhere close.
Rachel disconnected the call and heard Lea's faint voice. Her pace gradually quickened until she was
running. Pushing her way through the crowd, she saw Celia lying on the stretcher with her eyes closed.
Lea was steadily pressing a hemostatic sponge against the gash on the side of her head, but blood
kept trickling down steadily.
It was a shocking sight.
"What happened?"
"I got a call from Celia's neighbor. She was already like this when I arrived." Lea herself was looking a
bit shell-shocked.
Taking a deep breath, Rachel calmed down and said, "It's going to be fine, the doctor will handle it."
Along with two doctors, she hurriedly wheeled Celia into the emergency room.
After an hour, she came out again. She took off her mask and said to Lea, who had been waiting at the
door, "The wound has been stitched, and she's only a bit bruised. She's still unconscious because she
has just lost a lot of blood."
The tension visibly leached out of Lea's body, and she heaved a large sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."
The two of them went to the ward together and sat quietly, waiting for Celia to wake up. Rachel, who
was trained to act detached when dealing with patients, didn't feel anything just then. Now that she was
no longer in treatment mode, tiredness overwhelmed her after she sat down.
She propped her chin on one hand and was starting to drift off when she heard Celia muttering. Her
heavy eyelids suddenly popped open.
Celia sat up on the bed and looking around her in confusion. "Why am I in the hospital? What
happened?"
"That's what we would like to know. What's wrong with you? If your neighbor didn't go out and see you,
you could have bled out or worse!"
Although Lea spoke a little harshly, her hands as she gently placed Celia's intravenous drip-inserted
hand into the quilt were gentle.
Lowering her head, Celia did not speak for several long moments and then finally, hesitantly replied, "I
missed a step on my way upstairs this morning, so..."
She looked reluctant to say anything more.
Lea didn't believe what she said. She opened her mouth to refute Celia's words, but Rachel placed a
warning hand on her shoulder. Rachel shook her head, signaling that Lea should stop asking.
After wishing Celia to have a good rest, Rachel exited the ward. After all, she was still at work. Only a
few steps behind her, Lea said in a whisper, "Do you think that Celia couldn't accept what happened
and tried to—"
Rachel's head whipped around, and she leveled Lea with a serious look, stopping her mid-sentence.
"No," she said firmly. "Celia's not that fragile."
Lea released the breath that she didn't know she was holding and said, "That's good." She glanced at
her watch and added, "I left in such a hurry after that phone call that I left Rita at home. There are
maids at home, but who knows what sort of mischief that girl would be up to. I'm heading back first."
It was a relief to think that Rita's limbs were bound to become more flexible with age. Although Rita
was a girl, she was even more destructive than any boy at this point.
Only Lea could control her. Henry would always defend his daughter.
Rachel nodded.
Lea had taken a few steps away when she suddenly stopped, recalling something. She turned around,
tilted her head, and asked, "Rachel, has your aunt Flo been visiting normally?"
"It's normal. What's wrong?"
Lea smiled. "Oh, you almost fell asleep while you were just sitting there, so I thought..."
Rachel smiled at her and replied, "You think too much."
Rachel didn't want to wear a wedding dress over a pregnant belly, even if Jack kept telling her that he
wanted to have a child. Thus, she still insisted on taking the appropriate contraceptive measures at that
point.
As soon as Marcus finished a meeting, he glanced at the vibrating phone on the table. It was Jack
calling him.
He rubbed between his eyebrows and picked up the call. "Hello?"
"Are you in the company?" Jack asked in a low voice. "Rachel just called me. Celia fell down the stairs,
and her head hit the handrail, so she was taken to the hospital. If you have the time, maybe you can go
and visit her. It's better to talk to her face to face."
Marcus frowned and said in a serious tone, "Why did she fall down the stairs?"
As soon as he finished his question, he realized that he had asked too much. He sighed, stood up, and
walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows. In a helpless voice, he said, "I have something to deal with,
so I can't go there. Please ask Rachel to take care of Celia for me."
After hanging up the phone, he put his hands on the window, his expression stony and eyes alight with
annoyance. The futility of his current situation and the fact that he couldn't take care of Celia himself
were making him angry.
His secretary pushed the door open and entered his office. After a few moments of hesitating, he said
in a low voice, "Mr. Ji, your father will be arriving in about ten minutes. He said that he has something
to tell you."
His annoyance simmering in him, Marcus pulled at his tie. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do
about it. He asked his secretary to prepare tea for his father.
The topic for discussion during Larry's visit was Marcus' marriage to the daughter of the Chen family.
Marcus bowed his head and listened to Larry wordlessly. It was not a discussion—it was an order from
Larry. He sneered, "Whatever you say, Father. You have already made plans, anyway."
"Watch your words!"
Larry punched at the arm of the sofa in anger. "There should be a time limit to your little temper
tantrum!"
Marcus replied with a sneer, "There is no limit. You only need to remember to hand in that document
once the news is released."
After he had finished speaking, he buzzed the intercom and asked his secretary to come in again. He
handed the secretary a draft. "Find a news media outlet to announce this."
It was late at night, and the lights were dim.
Rachel sent her car for maintenance. Jack usually sent someone else to take the car to the shop, and
the receptionist already recognized the car. "Miss, why did you bring it here in person today? Anyway,
we're about to close down. Why don't you drive it over tomorrow if that's more convenient for you?"
Rachel frowned slightly.
"In that case, can I leave the car here? Call me when you have it ready, and I'll come back to pick it
up."
"That wouldn't be a problem, miss," the receptionist answered with an apologetic smile on her face.
"Please take care and be careful on the way."
Rachel whirled around and walked out of the door. It was rush hour now, so it was difficult to call a taxi.
She planned to call Jack to pick her up, but this location was quite out of the way from the company.
She plunged her hands into her coat pockets, stomped her feet, and approached the intersection. She
could wait by that book stand close by—at least it would be less cold.
A few people were standing there waiting for cabs. Rachel was absently looking at the colorful
magazines and newspapers on the wooden board, and her eyes strayed toward the road again. She
prayed fervently that she could hail a taxi as soon as possible, but her thoughts were suddenly
interrupted when she heard a surprised voice exclaim, "Hey, look! Mayor Ji's son is getting married!"
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