Chapter 287 - A Man and a Woman, Alone Together in the Late Night
Chapter 287 A Man and a Woman, Alone Together in the Late Night
When Su Jianan was returning to her office, she met a few colleagues along the way. The way they looked at her was mixed with an additional sense of suspicion and distrust.
She could only hasten her steps, and hid in her office. She opened a news site; the financial news, social and even entertainment news had reported about the Fanting Garden’s construction collapse.
Social news questioned the credibility of Lu Enterprises. Financial news analyzed how Lu Enterprises would be impacted by the incident. Entertainment news even speculated that Han Ruoxi had found out about Lu Enterprises’ current problem long before, prompting her to leave Lu Enterprises.
All discussions were against Lu Boyan and Lu Enterprises.
Su Jianan closed the webpage, and paced to and fro in the office.
A long time later, she looked back on that day when everything drastically changed. She could not recall any other feelings apart from torment and uneasiness of that half a day.
At about 2 p.m., the family of the deceased in the accident had rushed over to City A from other places, and arrived at the police station to identify the bodies.
Su Jianan hesitated for a moment, then walked up. Jiang Shaokai stopped her immediately, and asked, “Where are you going?”
“The morgue,” Su Jianan said.
“Are you crazy!? You cannot go!” Jiang Shaokai pressed Su Jianan back on her seat. “It’s not like you are unaware of the family’s emotional state when they are identifiying bodies. If they learned about your relationship with Lu Boyan, who could guarantee that they would not beat you up?”
“But if I don’t go take a look, I won’t get over it,” Su Jianan said. “I will be careful.”
Jiang Shaokai knew that he could not win against Su Jianan in an argument, and resigned, “I’ll go with you.”
Cries could be heard from the morgue at a distance; police officers stood at one side, looking sympathetically but there was nothing that could be done.
Su Jianan walked over, handed a piece of tissue to a family member. Words of comfort were stuck at her lips; she could not say them.
It was about people’s lives. They were still alive yesterday, carrying hopes of a whole family; people who were still on the phone with their families, were lying stiffly there, no longer breathing, their hearts no longer beating, they would no longer be able to open their eyes…
Right before death, no matter how sincere the words of comfort and apology were, they would come off as colder than usual.
A plainly dressed lady took over the tissue paper, and lifted her head up. “Thank—” the rest of the phrase was gutted in her throat.
Her eyes dilated as she looked at Su Jianan; her voice was almost trembling, “You’re the wife of that… developer?”
Su Jianan said very faintly, “Yes. I’m sorry, we are…”
“Return my husband’s life to me!” The woman went out of control, she grabbed her bag beside her and repeatedly smashed Su Jianan with it—
“Hey! Stop!” The officer shouted.
Jiang Shaokai reacted in time, and held on to Su Jianan, pulling her backwards. But the bag still scraped across Su Jianan’s forehead; the metal piece had struck her forehead heavily. It was a blunt pain, but she did not flinch at all.
Jiang Shaokai heard a noise, and knew that Su Jianan was hit. He shielded her insistently, and grabbed that woman’s hand, “Do you know that this is police assault!?”
The woman obviously did not infer from Jiang Shaokai’s words that Su Jianan worked at the police station, and cried even harder, “Ask her to return my husband to me!”
“Madam, your husband’s death has nothing to do with her!” Jiang Shaokai said. “The law and the people responsible for the accident will give you an explanation.”
“Nothing to do with her?” The woman yelled with all her might. “Isn’t the unscrupulous businessman of that developer company her husband? How could the wife of an unscrupulous businessman be a good person?”
While crying, the woman was about to charge at Su Jianan again, but the police officers managed to stop her. Jiang Shaokai took Su Jianan back to the office.
Jiang Shaokai wanted to take a look at Su Jianan’s injury, but her hair was covering her forehead. He was ultimately only her friend, he could not do anything as intimate as brushing her hair. He could only ask, in pent up rage, “Didn’t you get hit just now?”
Su Jianan pressed onto her hurting forehead, “I was just hit by the metal piece. It’s nothing much.”
It was uncertain whether Jiang Shaokai was angry or he was joking, “I just found out that you are really unsuitable for meeting any families of those deceased.”
From Chen Xuanxuan’s older sister’s death to Su Yuanyuan’s death, until that day’s deceased members of the incident, all of the family members had wanted to hit her.
Su Jianan sat down, pondered deeply for a moment and said, “Chen Xuanxuan’s mother was being unreasonable, but this madam today…”
“You can sympathize with her but who is sympathizing with you?” Jiang Shaokai cut Su Jianan’s words. “Alright, it has nothing to do with you. Lu Boyan wouldn’t want to involve you in this either. Just stay here properly, don’t go meet family members anymore.”
Time passed by in a blur, and when Su Jianan realized, it was already time to get off work.
She left by the back entrance; Uncle Qian was already waiting for her with the door opened.
She got in. Uncle Qian was starting the car as he said, “Young Madam, Young Master asked me to send you back home. He is probably still busy at the company.”
Su Jianan nodded. She did not have the mood to cook after she got home. She turned on her computer, and browsed various websites for news, especially gossip news sites. Their homepages were almost flooded with news of the collapse incident.
Such a fervent enthusiasm for gossip, it was as odd as the collapse itself. Su Jianan recalled Lu Boyan’s words—Kang Ruicheng knew how to manipulate online discussions, causing the blame to be directed at Lu Enterprises.
If it were so, those posts had become meaningless.
Su Jianan shut her computer down, and kept herself occupied non-stop. Until 11p.m., she went to bed intending to sleep, but she ended up tossing and turning, unable to do so.
When she was in a daze, unknowing whether she had fallen asleep or not, she sensed a familiar presence. She opened her eyes. It was Lu Boyan.
He had probably just returned home, showered and was about to go to bed. Noticing that she had woken up, he was stunned for a split second, “Did I wake you?”
Su Jianan shook her head, “What time is it?”
Lu Boyan’s hand stretch over Su Jianan to reach the phone by the bedside, checking the time, “1 a.m.”
When he moved his hand back, his elbow accidentally touched Su Jianan’s forehead. “Ow,” Su Jianan made a noise in pain; he furrowed his brows, brushing her hair apart, revealing a frightening bruise on her fair forehead.
His expression turned sullen, “What happened?”
If it were not for him touching it, Su Jianan was almost going to forget about this minor injury through her whole day of feeling lost. She didn’t know what to say, stuttering, and saw Lu Boyan’s gaze grow colder. She could only confess honestly, “A family member from one of the deceased was at the morgue to identify the body this afternoon.”
Lu Boyan had already guessed what had happened, his finger caressed her injury, “Is it very painful?”
“It’s ok.” Su Jianan touched the corner of her forehead. “Jiang Shaokai managed to pull me away at that moment. Her bag had only brushed across and accidentally hit my forehead. It didn’t even bleed.”
Lu Boyan went downstairs to fetch the medical kit, and found a spray which helped to relieve bruises. He covered Su Jianan’s eyes and applied the medicine on her injury.
Even though there was no bleeding, the metal piece still managed to break her skin. When the medicine was sprayed, both a comfortable cooling sensation and a stinging pain overwhelmed her; Su Jianan bit her teeth, not making a noise, and held onto her injury.
Lu Boyan put the medical kit back and returned to bed. Seeing Su Jianan holding onto her injury like a child, he removed her hand, and coaxed her as anyone would coax a child—blowing on her injury.
Su Jianan felt her heart warm; the stingy sensation miraculously disappeared. She dived into his embrace, “It’s not painful anymore!”
“Jianan,” Lu Boyan’s voice sounded particularly deep in the silent atmosphere, “I’m sorry.”
Su Jianan blinked in confusion, “Why are you apologizing to me?” Touching her injury, “It was me who decided to meet the family members, it’s not your fault.”
Lu Boyan wanted to say something, but Su Jianan changed the topic, asking, “How are things?”
“The police are still investigating the cause of the accident,” Lu Boyan paused for a while, hugging onto Su Jianan tightly. “It’s late, let’s sleep.”
Su Jianan considered that Lu Boyan would still have many things to deal with the following day, so she agreed, “Ok.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, her eyes shut, and it did not take long for her to fall asleep.
Just as Jiang Shaokai had said, the only thing she could do at the moment, was to stay by Lu Boyan’s side.
No matter what, she would stay by his side forever.
Lu Boyan seemed to know what Su Jianan was thinking, he hugged her even tighter, but did not close his eyes for a long while.
In the night sky, his deep eyes were cold and sharp, like a deep lake, full of unknown dangers.
First a secretive tip-off, then a manipulated accident. Kang Ruicheng had given him so many “surprises”. If he did not give a gift in return, how could he reciprocate Kang Ruicheng’s enthusiasm?
A certain nightclub in the downtown area—
“Move!”
With a single command from Captain Yan, a huge “bang” went off; the door of a certain private room was kicked open. A group of plainclothes police officers who were wearing bulletproof vests underneath had orderly surrounded the room. The guns were aimed at the people inside, “Don’t move!”
Everyone in the room were stunned. The two people who were in the midst of a transaction were still holding the “goods” in their hands. Captain Yan’s gun aimed directly at their heads, so they could only remain stiffly in position.
All evidence was present. The timing was just right.
A satisfied Captain Yan signaled for his subordinates to handcuff the people. A group of operational employees, regardless of their countries of origin, were all aprehended and taken from the nightclub. The police cars very quickly drove away from that place of debauchery and vice.
A car which was stopped opposite the nightclub was done watching the show, slowly started the engine again, and drove towards a residential area of mansions in the east of the city.
“Seventh Brother,” Ah Guang drove as he asked, “If Kang Ruicheng knew we disrupted such of a major business deal of his, wouldn’t he take revenge?”
Mu Sijue sneered very arrogantly, “If you are scared of Kang Ruicheng then you wouldn’t have the guts to take revenge.”
Ah Guang was speechless. Seventh Brother, you are underestimating the enemy! Blatantly!
Back at the mansion, Xu Youning was watching television in the living room with her legs crossed. Once she saw that Mu Sijue had returned, she rushed forward, “Where did you go? Why didn’t you take me along?”
Mu Sijue coldly glared at Xu Youning, removed his outerwear and dumped it to her, “Girls better stay away from such things.”
“Then, must girls act as your servants?!”
Xu Youning was about to throw the outerwear back to Mu Sijue, but as Mu Sijue’s cold glare shot over, she trembled a little. Her throwing stance softened, and turned to tidy the outerwear instead, then obediently placing the outerwear on his arm.
Ah Guang said shyly with his head hung low, “Seventh Brother, if there’s nothing else, then I’ll be leaving.”
Mu Sijue agreed, then Ah Guang vanished from the mansion in an instant.
Xu Youning knew she would not be able to get an answer from him. She turned to walk upstairs, “I’m going to bed. Good night, Seventh Brother.”
Before she could take another step, someone suddenly pulled her collar from behind. She turned to see Mu Sijue, “It’s late in the night, and we’re a man and a woman alone together! What do you want to do!?”