Chen Huan was changing into her swimwear back at the villa.
"Hmph! I'm gonna doll myself up and go seduce a bunch of men at the beach!"
It was rare for Xunxun to be away from Ah Sha. But there he was, standing at the door alone, shaking his head at his mother. "Are you really not going to him?"
"Go where?" Chen Huan played dumb.
"Ah, okay. Looks like you really don't care. Just let him be devoured by that woman, then!"
"A man with his abilities?" Chen Huan said, her lips twisting in a look of disgust. "As if anyone could force themselves on him if he isn't a willing participant."
"Tsk, tsk," Xunxun said. "But I saw with my own eyes how the woman had spiked his drink."
Chen Huan was out of the door like a gust of wind the moment those words got past Xunxun's lips.
"You damn brat! He's your father!" came Chen Huan's yelling voice. Xunxun merely shrugged. "But he's still your man!" he thought.
Avril deposited Boss Wan on the bed. Then, she climbed onto his body and whispered into his ear: "Still not awake yet? Even a eunuch would react to this kind of drug. I'm waiting for you to give me a taste of paradise!"
Boss Wan opened his eyes, and the coldness on his face intensified. He shoved Avril away and ran to the door, where he stood, listening for any sounds outside. After a long while, he frowned. "Why isn't she coming yet?" he mumbled.
"Who are you waiting for?" Avril gave him a look of dissatisfaction. "Your dick will be ruined if you don't fuck me in the next ten minutes!" She sauntered over to him, her hips swaying as she moved. In one swift motion, she lowered the zip of her skirt.
Boss Wan stared coldly at the woman before him. If it were not for the fact that she was still of some use to him, he would have shot her to death already. How dare she set him up.
"You know about my family, right?" Avril had already taken off her skirt at that point and was standing half-naked beside Boss Wan. "You'll ally yourself with the William family if you marry me. You can expand your casino business into Europe." She laughed coyly. "This arrangement will benefit you and I both!"
Just when Boss Wan was about to speak, a loud smash sounded. Pieces of shattered glass filled the floor of the room as a fuming Chen Huan burst in.
"How is this possible?" Avril said, gaping at Chen Huan. "This... This is the twelfth floor!" Chen Huan flicked a quick glance at Avril. With a raise of her hand, Chen Huan threw a handful of powder into the air. Boss Wan dropped to the floor quickly and rolled as far away from Avril as possible. A horrifying scream sounded as Avril fell to the ground, where she rolled around, covering her face with her hands. Boss Wan rushed over and yanked Avril up by her hair and then tossed her out the window.
"Yo! Aren't you afraid she'll fall to her death?" Chen Huan said in annoyance.
Boss Wan patted his hands together. "It's the ocean down below. Plus, it won't be a problem even if she dies," he said, reaching out to hug Chen Huan. Chen Huan took two steps backwards. "I'll be taking my leave, then. Seeing as you are fine now," she said with a hard, stony look on her face.
Just like that, the sparkle in Boss Wan's eyes dimmed and he began tearing his clothes off in agony. "Fine. Go, then," he said. "Leave me here to die."
The corners of Chen Huan's lips twitched as she smirked. Indeed, she had been worried just now. Though in hindsight... "Oh, come on, this is Boss Wan we're talking here," she thought. The guy was artful and sneaky. "Right, as if he would fall for the cheap tricks by the likes of Avril," she thought. "Keep pretending, then," Chen Huan said, turning to leave. Behind her, Boss Wan's knees hit the floor. Chen Huan took a furtive glance backwards and saw the redness creeping up his entire body. His eyes were already bloodshot.
"You're shitting me, you mean you actually fell for her trick?" she said, hesitating for a moment. Boss Wan levelled her with a fierce look. "Go! Hurry up and leave before I lose it!"
Chen Huan ground her teeth together and closed the distance between them in huge strides. Then, she shoved him to the floor. "Damn it. I must have accumulated eight lifetimes' worth of bad luck to know you..."
There is always a surreal and romantic quality to seaside night views. In such settings, even the air is capable of rousing romantic feelings. Chen Huan's eyes fluttered open. She felt as if her entire body was about to fall apart. Something was tickling her chest. She glanced down to see Boss Wan's head rubbing against her.
"You damn animal," she grumbled. "My waist is about to be torn in half, for heaven's sake." Chen Huan deeply regretted her decision to stay behind. She should have let this man die. Boss Wan's hand slid between her legs. "I think I'm still feeling the drug's effect," he muttered incoherently. "Let's go for another round!"
Chen Huan shoved him away. "Get the hell away from me!" Boss Wan raised his head instantly. His eyes appraised her, taking in the greenish and purplish bruises on her body. He felt a twinge of pain in his chest right then. He brought his lips to her body and began kissing all her bruises. Chen Huan wanted to kick him away, but her body was too weak and tired for her to do even that. She resigned herself to let Boss Wan kiss all over her body.
The night deepened. Finally, a knock sounded at the door.
Buzzing with energy, Boss Wan climbed off the bed and went to answer the door. Xunxun stood outside the door, holding Ah Sha's hand.
"You can replenish your body with sex, but my mom can't. She needs to eat," Xunxun said, glaring at him in annoyance. "Also, where's the thing you promised me?"
Boss Wan ignored the boy and began pinching Ah Sha's tiny cheek instead. "Oh, would you look at my daughter-in-law. How adorable!"
Xunxun levelled him with a cold stare. "Don't tell me you're going back on your promise?"
"I'll give it to you when we go back," Boss Wan said, glaring back at Xunxun. "Is he even my biological son?" he thought. "How can he ask for things in return after doing me a favor?"
During dinner time, Xin Qing kept grinning at Chen Huang.
"Don't you feel hot at all?" Xin Qing asked, playing dumb. Chen Huan was dressed in a turtleneck blouse right then. Her entire body was covered up tightly.
BossWan kept his I'm-a-zombie-whose-face-will-never-change-even-after-a-millennium face as usual. "She's got a cold," he said, ladling a bowl of soup for Chen Huan.
Xin Qing was about to chuckle when Xunxun gave her a sidelong glance. "Mother-in-law, what's that on your neck? A mosquito bite?"
"I don't have a son-in-law like you," Xin Qing said fiercely. Ying Qingcang took Ah Sha into his arms with a cold look in his face. "Ah Sha," he said. "Tonight you'll be sleeping together with daddy and mommy!"
Completely oblivious to what was going on, Ah Sha nodded. "Hug mommy to sleep!" she squealed.
"Mommy will hug you, and daddy will hug mommy!" Ying Qingcang said, smirking at Xunxun. "I'll kick your ass for bullying my wife," Ying Qingcang thought.
Xunxun scowled and turned to Boss Wan, whose attention was solely focused on Chen Huan, completely ignoring the fact that his son's ass had just been kicked. Deep down, Xunxun cursed his father, hoping that his father would never be able to win his mother's hand in marriage.
Avril had already been rescued by then. The island's helicopter was deployed to send her to the nearest hospital. After a thorough examination, she was told that her body did not suffer any major damages. Her face, however, was a different story altogether. When she arrived at the hospital, an unknown substance was stuck to her entire face. When the doctors got rid of the substance, they discovered that her face had been ruined; the skin there was riddled with bumps and dark pores.
"You people are a bunch of useless thrash! Contact my family and ask them to come to get me!" Avril had begun screaming hysterically the moment she saw herself in the mirror, beating up anyone who dared approach her. Representatives from the William family arrived the second day, and Avril was brought to a hospital in England for further treatment. Whining and crying, she begged her family to help her get revenge.
The members of the William family were not fools. After researching Boss Wan's background, they all thought it was a miracle that Avril was even alive. As for vengeance? Well, they would not even consider such a thing unless they had a loose screw in their minds. At first, Avril kept whining and kicking up a fuss. After that, the members of her family told her everything they knew about Boss Wan. Once she was done hearing everything, Avril just sat there for a long time, staring off into space. She did not kick up a fuss again after that.
Avril was no fool, either. Her family would never dare mess with someone like Boss Wan. Heck, none of them was even a match for the man. Smith had even called Ying Qingcang to thank them for sparing Avril's life.
"How come you let her off the hook?" Ying Qingcang asked Boss Wan in a perplexed tone. Boss Wan had been living on cloud nine for the past few days. Chen Huan had never rejected him ever since that day. The two of them were now sleeping in each other's' arm every night. A look of satisfaction formed on Boss Wan's face at Ying Qingcang's question. "Smith is still useful to you, right? Plus, this island belongs to your wife. Having someone die here might tarnish its reputation."
Ying Qingcang snorted and shot him a glance. "What are you planning to have my wife do for you again?" Like hell he would believe that Boss Wan had done it out of the kindness of his heart.
"I'm planning to ask Xin Qing to help keep Chen Huan here for a few more days," Boss Wan said. He figured the chances of him having a successful marriage proposal were pretty high this time around. However, before he could even finish revelling in his joy, he found himself running head first into a brick wall.
"Where did you say that she had gone off to?" A crack finally formed on Boss Wan's otherwise emotionless expression. "So she told you she was going to leave, and you just, what, decided to let her leave?" he said, glaring fiercely at Xunxun."Why the hell didn't you do something stop her?"
Xunxun laughed mockingly. "She's my mother," he retorted. "You think I can stop her if she chooses to leave? You're the one who's incapable of bagging your own woman. Don't blame me for your own failures."
Gritting his teeth, Boss Wan turned around to leave, pulling out his phone as he did. "Get a chopper over here, right now," he said into the phone.
"You won't be able to find her even if you go," Xunxun reminded him kindly. "She's already gone into her lab back at the base. You don't have enough clearance to enter her lab." Boss Wan ignored his son's unsolicited advice. His phone pinged with the satellite coordinates of Chen Huan's current location; Chen Huan had gone to the Antartica, which held the base of a certain country in the American continent. He was pretty confident that he was able to infiltrate the place.
Boss Wan left in a hurry. The next day, Young Master Shen and Zhang Mi came back from New York. Thus, the few of them spent another week on the island. On the fifteenth day of Chinese New Year, they all returned to S City. Young Master Shen recalled his promise to the village chieftain last time. He took out the military uniform and showed it to Ying Qingcang.
"This is the uniform of our country's military," Ying Qingcang remarked. "And it doesn't belong to some low-rank officer, either, based on the insignias. The rank is at least high enough for the owner of the uniform to be stationed at the capital." Ying Qingcang paused in thought. "Give it to Boss Wan. It's quite inconvenient for us to look into this."
Young Master Shen curled his lips. "Right now, he's busy chasing his wife. Probably doesn't have time for this."
"Snap a picture and send it over. Have his underlings looked into it?"
Everything returned to normal after the Chinese New Year. Those with jobs went back to their stations, and the idle remained, well, idle. Today, Zhang Mi invited Xin Qing to go shopping with her. They could use the shopping trip as an opportunity to buy gifts for Shi Qianqian's unborn child.
"What do you think of this style?" Zhang Mi asked, holding out a very skimpy bra towards Xin Qing.
Xin Qing nodded. "It suits you," she answered.
"I'm asking you to buy it!" Zhang Mi glared at her. "All your clothes have been picked out by Ying Qingcang. You should buy your own clothes from time to time, you know. That way, you can surprise him!"
Sometime during their chattering and lingerie shopping, they suddenly heard a voice whispering to them from the fitting room beside them.
"Hey! Hey!"
Zhang Mi turned around and saw a woman poking her head out of the room. The woman was waving at them.
Xin Qing glanced around before she walked over, dragging Zhang Mi along. "You calling us?"
"I'm so sorry," said the lady. "I was trying out a lingerie, but I ruined the zipper of my skirt." She handed a purse to them. "Can you guys do me a favor and buy some clothes for me? Thank you so much!"
Zhang Mi handed the bag she was carrying to the lady. "Here. Try it out first. I just bought this. Let us know again if it doesn't fit."
The lady took the bag without reservation and thanked them. Zhang Mi and Xin Qing stood outside the fitting room and waited for the lady. Heck, they still had the lady's purse.
"She must be one of those kind-hearted, naive women," Zhang Mi told Xin Qing.
"Yeah?" Xin Qing glanced at Zhang Mi. "How do you figure?"
"Hello?" Zhang Mi said, waving the woman purse in the air. "She literally just handed her purse over to us without fearing that we might run off with it."