Chapter 1121: Perplexed and Smitten (181)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Two minutes later, the two of them lay beside each other without uttering a single word.
An Xiaoning kept her eyes open while waiting for a call from the Yin family. She wanted to see if they would actually call her. On the other hand, Henry felt extremely awake all of a sudden, despite being rather sleepy at the start.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Aren’t you usually very chatty?” he asked.
“I don’t feel like talking.”
“Are you upset because of this incident?”
“Would you be over the moon to hear that I’m upset?”
“…”
Noticing that he did not reply, she turned over to face him and said, “I suddenly feel like meeting my friends.”
“Go ahead and look for your friends, then. I’ll be happy to enjoy the peace by myself when you’re gone.”
“Another day, perhaps.”
“Boss, that fellow is calling you again!” An Xiaoning’s ringtone cranked loudly, greatly startling Henry.
She finally received the call that she had been waiting for.
An Xiaoning grabbed her mobile phone and answered, “Hello.”
“Ms. An, I’m Yin Shi. Grandpa has something to say to you.”
“Alright, please get him on the line.”
Old Mr. Yin immediately answered, “A mysterious man visited us with a huge sum of money, and he wants us to include Yin Cun’s name again in the ancestral records and move his ashes back to the ancestral graveyard. He even threatened me and made me choose between dying and abiding by his orders.”
An Xiaoning asked, “How did you answer him, then?”
“I… turned him down.”
“Oh? Didn’t you try and stall for time instead? I want to hear the truth.”
“Ms. An, why would I lie and hide things from you at this juncture? I actually trust you more than that man. So, Ms. An, we’ll cooperate with you, but you must protect the Yin family. We barely have any descendants left…”
“Rest assured, that man won’t lay a finger on your family.”
The patriarch asked, “How are you so sure, Ms. An?”
“Just trust me. Don’t worry,” said An Xiaoning.
“Alright, it’s settled, then.”
“Okay.”
Regardless of whether the man was Yin Cun or Xihou Jiaping, he definitely wouldn’t lay a finger on the Yin family.
An Xiaoning was extremely certain about that.
—
At about eight o’clock in the evening, it began drizzling and the temperature became much cooler. The breeze made the weather much more chilly.
Fang Erlan finally saw Yan Ge.
She had heard about Yan Ge’s arrival ever since she checked into the hotel.
However, she had never bumped into him.
She finally met him when all of the main and supporting cast had to sit together to rehearse their lines.
He sat in between Fang Erlan and Yu Caiwei.
Although Fang Erlan was holding the script in her hands, she was completely distracted.
She would occasionally glance and observe him using her peripheral vision.
However, he never looked at her and was instead focusing all his attention on the lines. Upon realizing that she did not have much time left, Fang Erlan quickly focused on memorizing her lines and developing her emotions.
Two hours had passed since eight o’clock in the morning.
When the actors and actresses were dismissed, Yan Ge stuffed a written note into her hand.
Fang Erlan looked at him and found that the piece of paper felt unusually warm in her hands.
She did not bring her mobile phone with her when she left the hotel.
Was that why he stuffed me a note?
Instead of opening it immediately, she headed to the washroom anxiously and sat down on the cover of the toilet seat before reading the note.
She glanced at his curly handwriting.
“There’s a bar 200 meters South of the hotel. Drop by later.”
Is he asking me to meet him in private?
Fang Erlan tore the piece of paper into shreds and dumped them into the rubbish bin, her heart pounding rapidly.
Xiao Chenyang and Xiao Yue were waiting for her outside the washroom. At the sight of her, Xiao Chenyang asked, “Would you like to have supper?”
“Sure, sure. Sis Erlan, let’s go,” Xiao Yue answered eagerly.
“Count me out. I’ll gain weight if I eat at night. If you’re hungry, go buy some food and have them inside the hotel room.”
“Sis Erlan, one meal won’t matter. You’re not going to gain weight. Let’s go together.”
In fact, Fang Erlan was a little hungry. However, she decided to turn down their offer when she recalled the note Yan Ge had given her. “I’m tired. I’m going back to my room to rest.”
“Alright, let Cousin escort you back to your room while I go buy some food.”
“Okay.”
When they arrived on the tenth floor, Fang Erlan exited the elevator and said to Xiao Chenyang without even turning around to look at him, “You ought to go to bed too.”
“Aren’t you going to invite me to your room to have a seat?”
“You may come and have a seat for as long as you want tomorrow. I’m really exhausted. I can barely keep my eyes open. I want to sleep.”
Seeing how lethargic she was, Xiao Chenyang walked her to the door of her room and instructed, “Get some rest, then. Don’t open the door to strangers at night. Call me if anything happens.”
“Alright.” She took out her key card and entered the room. She closed the door and looked through the peephole. She walked further in only after watching him leave.
She grabbed her phone and wallet, then left the room again.
As soon as Xiao Chenyang stepped foot inside his room, she was already in the elevator and on her way to the first floor.
She did not bump into anyone else apart from a few crew members.
Clad in a surgical mask, she walked out of the entrance of the hotel with a red umbrella in hand and began heading North.
Like Yan Ge had mentioned, she stopped in front of a bar after walking for about two hundred meters.
In order to ensure that she had gotten the right place, she stood by the entrance and took a few glances around the bar before entering.
The bar was especially crowded at night.
After Fang Erlan entered, she called Yan Ge. However, it was extremely noisy inside the bar and he did not answer.
She thought to herself that he probably didn’t hear his mobile phone ringing.
Thus, she tried to search for him amongst the crowd.
She turned around abruptly when she felt a warm hand grabbing hers.
It was Yan Ge.
He brought Fang Erlan to a private room before she could even recover from the shock.
There was no one inside.
Yan Ge closed the door and locked it.
He then pulled her onto the couch.
“Why didn’t you call me even though I didn’t call you first? Are you not going to ask me out… just because I didn’t ask to meet you?” he questioned, making her feel extremely flustered and nervous. His menacing glare seemed to be boring a hole through her heart.
“We’re assigned to different rooms because of the difference in our salaries. Both you and Yu Caiwei get to stay in executive rooms on the twelfth floor while I’m staying on the tenth. It won’t be convenient for me to visit you at your room.”
“Do you want to keep this up forever?” Afraid that she didn’t catch what he meant, he added, “Are you going to continue letting Xiao Chenyang control you? Do you want to live like this forever?”
Hanging her head low and staring at her hands, she shook her head and said, “No, but do I have a choice?”
“Even if you don’t now, it doesn’t mean you never will.”
“I’ll never have a choice,” Fang Erlan said with a lopsided smile.
“Why are you so sure?”
“Unless he sets me free out of his own accord, there’s no better solution than to comply. You don’t understand what he’s like. I only know a few things about him and yet I’m already well aware that there’s no way I can break free from his control. That’s why I’ve been thinking about this ever since we returned from the seaside. Yan Ge…” she said, gazing at him.