Chapter 9: The Girl Who Could Abandon

When Jiang Se got out of Han Xiao’s car, she looked up and immediately saw Jiang Ye standing under the streetlamp.

The boy was holding an umbrella, staring at her with a look of longing, resembling a disheveled large dog.

Jiang Se walked over, holding the umbrella, and deliberately poked at the wound on his face. “Didn’t I tell you to go treat your wound? What, is it not hurting?”

Jiang Ye awkwardly turned his head away. “It doesn’t hurt.”

The injuries on him weren’t severe, just some superficial scratches, but they still hurt. However, at this age, it seemed too embarrassing to admit pain, so he gritted his teeth and pretended it didn’t hurt.

“Then I’ll make it hurt a little more.”

Jiang Se changed her tactic and pinched him hard, reopening the wound at the corner of his lips.

Blood oozed out, and Jiang Ye couldn’t help but hiss in pain.

Jiang Se released her grip, still wearing an expressionless face.

“When you have no cards left to play, the best thing you can do is hand things over to someone capable of dealing with them—like the police. Jiang Ye, what’s the point of being foolish and reckless? It only brings harm.”

Jiang Ye pursed his lips, his face shadowed by the dim light, and a touch of stubbornness appeared in his expression.

But he knew Jiang Se was doing this for his own good.

“Second Sister, don’t worry about Cao Liang’s business. I can handle it. Please don’t… go begging those people for help.”

Jiang Ye understood the predicament Jiang Se was in right now.

He didn’t want her to lower her head and beg anyone because of him.

“How do you plan on handling it? Are you going to ruin a hand?” Jiang Se looked down, glancing at the burn scar on his hand, “If ruining a hand will make you change your impulsive nature, then go ahead and do it. It’s better to ruin a hand today than to lose your life tomorrow. If it weren’t for Han Xiao today, I wouldn’t have gone into the club to find you. Jiang Ye, remember this: if there’s a next time, no one will come to save you.”

“Don’t worry, next time I’d rather ruin my hand than have you beg anyone!” Jiang Ye took a deep breath, holding his neck up, “If I ruin my hand, I’ll go to college as planned and still be able to make money. You don’t need to compromise yourself.”

The boy’s face, marked with wounds, carried a defiant stubbornness, as if he was willing to go to extreme lengths. Jiang Se looked at his disheveled face and, for some reason, found herself feeling a sense of resonance.

She had once been that stubborn, willing to burn everything down.

Maybe it was because of this shared stubbornness, or maybe it was because the boy still refused to let her beg anyone at this moment.

Jiang Se softened her tone. “There are many ways to solve a problem. Don’t choose the one that hurts you the most unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

She raised the umbrella slightly, her black eyes filled with a resolute determination. “I don’t beg anyone, and I won’t beg anyone because of you or Cao Liang. Now, tell me—why did you break Cao Liang’s hand?”

The grudge between Jiang Ye and Cao Liang had started when Jiang Ye smashed Cao Liang’s hand.

That boy, who had promised to earn big money for her and Jiang Tang, shouldn’t have been so impulsive and brainless.

Jiang Se needed to know the reason.

Jiang Ye’s face darkened, and he fell silent for a while.

Until the scab at the corner of his lips solidified again, he tugged at his lips and spoke softly, “I can tell you, but you have to promise me that you won’t let Elder Sister know about my business with Cao Liang.”

…

By the time they reached Liyuan Street, it was almost nine o’clock.

The lights in the courtyard were off, and at this hour, Yu Shiying and Jiang Chuan hadn’t returned yet.

Jiang Se took out her keys and was about to open the door when suddenly, someone jumped out from behind the tree’s shadow.

“Jiang Ye!”

Her hand trembled, and she turned her head to see a beautiful girl with short hair to her ears, staring intently at Jiang Ye. Her eyes were gradually turning red.

Jiang Ye saw the girl’s eyes welling up and, for the first time, clenched his teeth tightly. “Why are you crying? It’s not that painful.”

Jiang Se didn’t need to ask to know who this was. It was that “Little Stutterer”.

Jiang Se shot Jiang Ye a glance, then opened the door and walked inside, taking out her phone to send a message to Xu Zhou: 【Zhou Zhou, help me out.】

---

The rain in Tongcheng lasted all night.

Standing in the cold wind and rain for more than twenty minutes, Han Xiao kept sneezing as he drove back to the financial district.

By the time he got home, he didn’t even change his clothes. He immediately called Lu Huaiyan: “Brother, what did Jiang Se want to talk to you about?”

Lu Huaiyan was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at the night view of Beicheng. Hearing the question, he replied, “Are you that free? Have you finished reviewing the contract with the Cao family for next week?”

Han Xiao immediately begged, “Oh, come on, Brother, I’m just a waste of money. Can we not talk about the contract? Just leave it to Assistant Li. I really have something I need to discuss with you. Mom’s been pushing me to get married lately, and the matchmaking appointments she’s lined up for me go all the way into next year.”

He cleared his throat and tried to make his tone sound more serious: “Brother, what do you think of Jiang Se?”

Han Xiao, usually carefree, deliberately lowered his voice as he said this, afraid his brother would think he was just joking.

“Didn’t the engagement between Jiang Se and that illegitimate son of the Fu family fall apart? The Cen family doesn’t acknowledge her anymore. I guess she wants to go back to Beicheng, so marrying me is just perfect.” Han Xiao shrugged. “And as for me, instead of marrying some traditional and demanding woman from a well-matched family, it’s better to marry someone fun.”

Although the Han family wasn’t as influential as the Fu family, they were still considered a prominent family in Beicheng. What’s more, Han Xiao wasn’t a disgraceful illegitimate son like others might think.

For Jiang Se, who had lost the Cen family’s support, Han Xiao believed he was the best option she could find.

“Jiang Se is definitely looking for you to solve the Cao Liang problem, right? Brother, how about I take care of it?” Han Xiao chuckled. “If it were Cao Xun I ran into today, I wouldn’t compete for the spotlight. But Cao Liang, that little brat, I can still handle him. He’s just a little kid who hasn’t even grown a full beard. A nice car, a little apology from Jiang Se’s brother, and that should settle things.”

Lu Huaiyan knew exactly what kind of person his brother was.

He also understood the purpose behind this call.

With a cryptic tone, he said, “She didn’t come to me to solve the Cao Liang issue. She came to talk about a deal.”

“A deal?” Han Xiao responded in surprise. “What deal?”

“Don’t know. But this deal is probably to save her brother from delivering the apology drink to Cao Liang.” Lu Huaiyan swirled the drink in his glass, the amber liquid gently moving, reflecting the cold, sharp outline of his eyebrows. “Han Xiao, there’s something you’ve misunderstood.”

Han Xiao was puzzled. “What did I get wrong?”

“It’s not that the Cen family doesn’t want her, but that she doesn’t want the Cen family. So Han Xiao—” Lu Huaiyan paused slightly, his lips cool and thin as reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window, “a girl who can discard even the Cen family at will, unless you change your whole approach, she won’t take a second look at you.”

“…”

After hanging up the phone, Lu Huaiyan drank the last of his glass, then turned and walked into the bathroom.

The sound of water splashing, steam rising from the bathroom.

Half an hour later, the man, with his slim waist wrapped in a towel, stepped out. His wet hair dripped with water, droplets running down his prominent Adam’s apple, following the defined lines of his chest and abdomen, disappearing beneath the towel.

Lu Huaiyan pulled a cigarette from his pack, biting it between his lips as he gazed out the window.

There was no rain in Beicheng.

The empty night sky was only decorated with a lonely crescent moon, cold and beautiful in its solitude.

For some reason, his mind drifted to the image of Jiang Se’s face, her smile fading as she softly and coldly said—

“Mr. Lu, let’s make a deal.”

A deal?

Lu Huaiyan flicked the lighter, lowered his head to light the cigarette. As the smoke ignited, he squinted.

The CEO of the Lu family never loses in negotiations. Did she really want to make a deal with him?

---

Two days later, Jiang Se received the information from Xu Zhou.

The documents meticulously listed the backgrounds of Cao Xun and his fiancée, Jian Ruyi.

Cao Xun was 27 this year, and he had gotten engaged to Jian Ruyi four years ago.

They never got along, and although their families had forced them into the engagement, only a few close friends knew about it.

After the engagement, the two of them had gone their separate ways, each playing around more recklessly than the other.

Jian Ruyi had been romantically involved with so many people—singers, movie stars, models—that she couldn’t even count them on both hands. Cao Xun was no better, having several affairs on the side.

Jiang Tang had been in a relationship with Cao Xun three years ago.

They dated for two years before breaking up a year ago.

Later, Cao Xun came to Tongcheng for the film city project, and Cao Liang transferred to the high school where Jiang Ye was studying.

Cao Liang was one year below Jiang Ye, and the two had gotten into a conflict over a single sentence.

“That bastard pointed at my sister’s dance video and said she was a worn-out shoe that my brother had tired of playing with.”

The whole school of Tongcheng No.1 High knew that Jiang Tang was Jiang Ye’s sister, and that comment quickly reached Jiang Ye’s ears. He immediately went to confront Cao Liang, and the two boys started fighting.

Jiang Ye had inherited both Jiang Chuan’s physique and skills, effortlessly breaking one of Cao Liang’s hands.

This led to a grudge between the two. Cao Liang, being a cunning and vengeful person, was afraid that causing more trouble might get him sent abroad by his grandfather, so he resorted to retaliating in secret.

If he couldn’t get to Jiang Ye, he would target the girls who had been romantically linked to him.

The girl who was involved just a few days ago, Chen Liyin, had been Jiang Ye’s deskmate in senior year.

Jiang Se leaned back on the couch, her head resting on the backrest as her eyes closed. Her mind raced, piecing everything together.

Had Jiang Ye not confessed, she never would have connected this matter to the gentle and reserved Jiang Tang.

Jiang Se had no intention of dragging Jiang Tang into this.

Based on what she knew about Jiang Tang and the information she had gathered, Jiang Tang had no idea about Cao Xun’s fiancée when she was with him.

In that relationship, Jiang Tang had been deceived, a victim.

Why should a victim be forced to live under the shadow of such a mess?

Jiang Se entered her room, rummaging through her luggage until she found a USB drive in a small box.

The silver-grey USB spun a few times in her fingers as she opened her computer, about to plug it in when her phone suddenly pinged with a new message.

[Time, place.]

As though he anticipated that she wouldn’t have his number, the message was signed at the end: [Lu Huaiyan].

It was up to her to pick the place.

Jiang Se quickly thought for a moment and responded with the location: [163 Financial Street, Friday at 3 PM].

---

163 Financial Street was a Japanese tea house, just a block away from the Hongding Club.

Lu Huaiyan arrived before 3 PM.

A young waiter in a kimono bent at the waist and led the way, opening the paper sliding door. A girl sitting on a tatami mat turned her head to look.

She was wearing a light green floral kiku skirt, and her thick, voluminous hair was tied in a loose fishtail braid that hung at the side of her shoulder. Small, delicate pearl earrings gleamed from her fair earlobes, and her eyes, misted with a distant gaze, resembled two pools of ink-dark lakes.

For a brief moment, Lu Huaiyan thought of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

His thoughts wandered for a split second, but he quickly pulled his gaze away and checked his watch. “You’re early; it’s only 2:40.”

Jiang Se smiled gently. “But didn’t President Lu also arrive early?”

Lu Huaiyan walked over and sat down on the tatami across from her, separating them with a low tea table.

On the table, tea utensils were neatly arranged, and on Jiang Se’s side was a black tea bowl filled halfway with greenish tea.

Jiang Se asked him, “Matcha, would you like some?”

Lu Huaiyan was indifferent about what to drink, nodding, “Sure.”

Making authentic matcha wasn’t difficult, but the art lay in the graceful process of preparing it.

Lu Huaiyan looked up at Jiang Se.

The girl moved gracefully as she sifted the powder, added water, and stirred the liquid.

Every movement was pleasing to the eye.

The past twenty years of refinement were engraved into her bones, unchanged by her surname or environment.

Jiang Se, meeting the man’s heavy gaze, pushed the tea bowl across to him, her long, pale fingers contrasting with the dark bowl, almost like white jade.

They both sipped the tea slowly, as if this meeting wasn’t about business, but rather a casual catch-up.

When they finished their tea, Jiang Se took out the recorder and said, “Let me play a segment for you.”

She pressed the play button, and the sound of static crackled through, followed by a soft, seductive female voice.

“When are you going to fulfill the promise you made to me?”

“Stop giving me empty promises!”

“Xiao Xuan is your son too. Sooner or later, he’ll call you ‘Dad.’ If you don’t act now, Lu Huaiyan, that little devil, will take over the entire Lu Corporation. How will you face Xiao Xuan and tell him you’re his father?”

Jiang Se paused the recording.

The woman’s voice was familiar to both Lu Huaiyan and Jiang Se.

— It was Lu Huaiyan’s stepmother, Hu Yuping.

The “Xiao Xuan” mentioned in the recording referred to Lu Huaiyan’s half-brother, Lu Huaixuan.

From the context of the recording, the term “half-brother” seemed to be questionable.

Jiang Se placed the recorder back in her bag and looked up at Lu Huaiyan.

His expression remained calm as he listened to the recording and as she paused it, as though the woman plotting against him wasn’t of concern.

“Don’t you want to know who your stepmother was talking to?” she asked.

Lu Huaiyan casually stroked the tea bowl. Upon hearing her question, his fingers moved away from the bowl, and he quietly asked, “Where did you get this recording?”

Jiang Se smiled gently, “I recorded it myself. Just a coincidence.”

Lu Huaiyan hummed, “Was it the ‘coincidence’ you encountered at the Lu Corporation’s 80th anniversary banquet last year?”

Jiang Se: “…” He was spot on.

“It seems I guessed right.” The man gazed at Jiang Se, a hint of interest flashing in his clear, refined eyes, then he asked, “Jiang Se, what did you intend to do with this recording?”

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