Chapter 667: A Million Times for You (29)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“It’s difficult to take action on any of them, especially Jin Qingyan. Otherwise, you would’ve managed to harm him long ago. You’ve been planning it for so many years, and yet you still haven’t gotten a single chance to lay a finger on him.”
“I’m trying to think of someone far more capable than Yuan Mingzhu to take her place. Once I find that person…” Xu Youran immediately felt much more relaxed at the thought of it.
“How could it possibly be that easy to find someone like that? Don’t you know that those who possess psychic powers are few and far in between?” Gu Dongcheng shot her idea down.
“Yuan Mingzhu’s death is such a pity. I wonder how the investigations are going,” Xu Youran lamented.
“Give them a call to ask about it.”
Finding his suggestion to be a good idea, Xu Youran proceeded to call the police station. After hearing that she was a close friend of Yuan Mingzhu’s, the police told her that the case about Yuan Mingzhu’s death had already been closed.
“Why has it been closed so soon? What is the outcome?”
“The cause of her death was suicide. Her corpse is going to be cremated today, and her mother will be bringing her ashes home.”
“Alright.” Xu Youran ended the call dejectedly and said to her husband, “They said that she had committed suicide, but I don’t believe it.”
“Isn’t that good? Would you rather the police find out that you were the one who instigated Yuan Mingzhu to do those stuff? I reckon someone must have intervened secretly, but there’s no point wasting time to investigate this matter any further. It’s better to just leave it be,” said Gu Dongcheng as he sat up straight to put on his clothes.
Xu Youran sunk deep into thought but could not come up with a plausible explanation.
——
Fang Erlan was still deep in her sleep when her legs were lifted up above her head forcefully by Yan Ge, causing her head to be pressed down against the carpeted floor. He then dragged her out of the room as if she were a dead corpse. By the time she opened her eyes, she was already feeling giddy and faint.
Staring at the handsome man standing by the door, Fang Erlan quickly put on her shoes and apologized, “I’m sorry for causing you trouble and imposing on you last night. We’ll meet again next time.”
“Wrong, we’ll never meet again. Don’t show up in front of me ever again in the future. If you dare breathe a word to anyone at all, I won’t let you off,” he warned.
Yan Ge slammed the door shut with a loud thud and lay back down in bed. He did not manage to catch a wink at all last night, unlike Fang Erlan, who had slept soundly, as if she were in her own home.
Recalling the incident last night, Yan Ge decided to verify if he had really left the door ajar or if she had trespassed with a spare key card.
Thus, he immediately instructed his personal assistant, Xiao Li, to bring him the surveillance camera footage of the hotel, starting from the time he returned from the lobby until Fang Erlan barged into his room. At last, the footage showed that he had indeed failed to close the door properly and that she had barged inside his room in order to seek refuge and hide from a man who was chasing her continuously.
“Brother, did this woman really barge into your room last night?”
“Show me the footages from the other surveillance cameras. I want all the footages starting from the moment she entered the hotel.”
“Alright, I’ll go right away.”
Yan Ge leaned against the headboard and stared at the footage playing on his computer screen while his heart began to sink continuously.
His assistant soon sent him the footage of Fang Erlan entering the hotel and watched it together with Yan Ge.
“Brother, this woman seems to be a fan of yours. Notice how she had been secretly staring at you for a long time on the second floor. But she was stuck in a rather dangerous situation when the man was harassing her outside the toilet. I was so nervous for her. Fortunately, she managed to escape,” said Xiao Li.
Yan Ge instructed calmly, “Erase all of the surveillance camera footages and inform the management staff that a woman was almost dragged away and violated within the hotel premises. Warn them that I’ll take action and expose them to the media if they continue being so incompetent and lax with security.”
“Yes. Brother, you look really tired. Would you like to get some rest before leaving?”
“Nah, let’s leave in a bit.”
——
An Xiaoning put on her feathered jacket and headed downstairs with her purse to see that Lin Mingxi was in the midst of having her breakfast. Upon the sight of An Xiaoning, Lin Mingxi smiled mysteriously and said, “I saw Jin Qingyan at our door last night. Was he waiting for you?”
An Xiaoning sat down and looked at her before answering, “I bumped into him outside the door when I came home from a visit to Yuan Mingzhu’s apartment. He insisted on treating me to some tea so I went over to his house before coming home again.”
“Tea? Are you two going to get back together?” Lin Mingxi questioned apprehensively.
“Not a chance,” An Xiaoning answered with a straight face.
“How are things between you and that military Major?” Lin Mingxi asked.
“I treat him as a friend, but he says he considers me as his girlfriend.”
Lin Mingxi burst into laughter and asked, “How do you feel about him, then?”
An Xiaoning drank her glass of milk with a straw.
“We’ve only met a few times, and we don’t know each other too well yet. I can’t treat him as my boyfriend. He’s a really meticulous and caring man, though.”
Lin Mingxi was thrown into a stage of agitation the moment she heard her words. “Grasp onto him, then. He must have a strong sense of responsibility since he’s a military officer.”
“We’ll see how it goes.”
“Xiaoning… how’s the case regarding Yuan Mingzhu?” Mrs. Gu asked.
“There’s no need for further investigation. The case is closed, and suicide is claimed to be the cause of Yuan Mingzhu’s death. Also, you guys don’t have to worry for the time being. Yuan Mingzhu’s apartment and money were all given to her by Xu Youran. I’ve seen the items Yuan Mingzhu used to perform her rituals. She was the one behind the change in Mingxi’s fate and Jin Qingyan’s mother’s death. To put it simply, it was all related to Xu Youran. Now that Yuan Mingzhu is dead, Xu Youran wouldn’t be able to find anyone to replace her for the time being. Besides, I don’t think she would be getting her way easily from now on,” she answered calmly.
“I knew it was someone else’s doing right from the start,” said the intelligent Gu Beicheng.
It was obvious who “someone else” referred to.
“No matter what, Xu Youran is our common enemy,” said An Xiaoning.
That was a fact that everyone was well aware of.
“Beicheng, since you’re so close to Ye Xiaotian, could you try to persuade him and his mother to stop being so uptight about carrying on their family bloodline? Does the child’s gender really matter so much that they have to put Mo Li through so much torment? I wonder if the child has been aborted yet,” said An Xiaoning, letting out a long sigh.
“Of course not.” Gu Beicheng peeled off a small piece of dough fritter and shoved it inside his mouth before continuing, “Mo Li has been confined to the four walls of the ancestral hall, and Xiaotian’s mother has instructed her bodyguards to keep a close eye on her round the clock.”
“What exactly happened?” Mrs. Gu asked.
An Xiaoning explained the situation briefly.
“What a great sin. Since Heaven has blessed her with four daughters in her life, what’s the point of going against His will? Aren’t they afraid of receiving a punishment that they’ll regret for the rest of their lives?” Mrs. Gu remarked in distaste.
“Mrs. Ye is too obsessed with having a grandson and doesn’t want others to look down on the Ye family. So, she obviously couldn’t care less about the consequences. I’m just afraid it’ll be too huge of a price for them to pay. There’s no turning back. Refusing to accept a daughter and begging for a son comes with a set of conditions. Mo Li was just too unlucky to have met Ye Xiaotian in this life,” said An Xiaoning.
“Actually, he does love Mo Li,” said Gu Beicheng, who was bosom buddies with Ye Xiaotian.