Episode 60 Regret
Ten thirty at night.
After the thunderstorm, Eric's bar was still brightly lit and bustling with people.
The light from the prism on the stage occasionally refracted onto the heavily made-up face of the young lead singer, while her gaze lingered intermittently among the crowd below, occasionally distracted by the man at the bar...
Jiang Shu sat at the bar, drinking alone, his eyes looking absent-minded. He seemed to pay no attention to the others' attempts to flirt with Xu Yiwei.
Until the melody of "Under the Mount Fuji" sounded, he finally raised his eyes subconsciously, and happened to meet the girl's glance at him. Her voice was full of storytelling, the female key was gentle, and her smoky voice was sexy, adding a bit of loneliness and tenderness to this mourning love song.
When the song ended, his eyes followed Xu Yiwei's voice and ended together.
After finishing the game, Xu Yiwei immediately walked to the bar and asked the bartender for a mojito. As soon as he took the glass, he followed the direction of his gaze and moved closer to Jiang Shu.
"What a coincidence, Mr. Jiang, how come you are free today?"
Jiang Shu smiled politely at her: "I heard from Eric that you are still working part-time. You have some free time recently, so you came to visit."
"So... you came here specifically to support me?"
The next singer came on stage at the right time, and the scene was boiling again. Jiang Shu moved his lips, but the drum beat was too strong, and Xu Yiwei couldn't hear what he said at all. He had no choice but to move closer to him, stand on tiptoe, and whisper in his ear and ask -
"What did you just say?"
He lowered his head: "I mean... you sang very beautifully just now."
In such occasions, even small greetings are tentative, and the purpose of the tentativeness is either to create ambiguity or to embarrass people.
But Xu Yiwei obviously would not let the atmosphere become awkward easily.
"If President Jiang likes it, can you come and support me more often in the future? I'm currently stationed here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Next time, you can ask President Lin to come along. Doesn't she also like to listen to Eason Chan?"
She took the initiative to mention Lin Ying, and Jiang Shu's brows frowned. "You haven't been working here for long, but you know her quite well."
"After all, he's my boss. Just be more careful and don't push your luck. Isn't that what you taught me?"
The two of them clinked glasses intermittently. Jiang Shu folded his arms, lazily leaning against the edge of the bar, his five fingers clasping the rim of the cup, dangling it at his elbow. His hazy eyes caught a glimpse of her profile, and the corner of his mouth curled up slightly...
Xu Yiwei noticed this gaze and couldn't help but touch his face: "What are you laughing at?"
Jiang Shu just shook her head, leaned forward, and touched her mojito with the wall of the glass. The next second, the sound came close to her earlobe for no reason, and the aftertaste of alcohol spread on her skin, making her feel uneasy and agitated...
"I just suddenly realized...you're not just good-looking, you're not that stupid either."
As soon as he finished speaking, his movements stopped, and his eyes continued to focus on her face...
In such an atmosphere and with the help of the lines, in order to stay calm, she calmly drank the drink in her hand. The crushed ice in her throat made her heart feel cold. She regained some normal consciousness and immediately turned around to ask the bartender behind her for a cocktail.
Jiang Shu, however, took the initiative to stop the other person's action, "Please give her another mojito and give me another glass of Black Label."
"…Why? Are you afraid that I'll pester you like I did before?"
Xu Yiwei asked back bluntly.
"I came here today because I'm afraid you can't get enough of me." His serious attitude left Xu Yiwei confused. She tried to test him:
"So, Mr. Jiang is now... regretting his decision?"
"If I say yes, will you go back with me tonight?"
He had an ambiguous look in his eyes and was playing with the newly added pure brew in his hand.
"Who was it that repeatedly advised me that this circle was beyond my scope? Instead of using all possible means to save people, why not do something more in line with the mainstream?"
"It's just a love affair between a man and a woman, how can it not be considered mainstream?"
He tilted his head back and drank the whiskey in one gulp. The glass fell heavily back onto the marble bar table. He raised his head towards Eric, who was not far away, to signal that he was leaving first. Then he immediately pushed through the crowd and slipped away from Xu Yiwei...
But before slipping away, Xu Yiwei still saw his rare seductive look.
Is he lonely?
Although she had heard about his attitude towards women in the past, Eric had also said that he had indeed changed a lot after returning, and seemed to have turned over a new leaf. However, his behavior tonight really made her a little confused...
But why do we have to figure him out?
As long as she was sure of her attitude towards him, that was enough. She could not control the past or the future. The only thing she could grasp was the present.
Just like that, she put down her half-drunk mojito, followed his steps, quickly pushed through the crowd, left this dazzling space, and ran behind the man who had seduced her...
"Mr. Jiang... Jiang Shu!"
She caught up with him and called his name for the first time.
He paused at the sound, and glanced back with an ambiguous look worthy of reflection. When she came closer, he immediately pulled her close, holding her waist lightly, and disappeared into the stairwell behind him where no one knew...
There was a bang behind her, the door closed tightly, and the voice-controlled light at the entrance of the corridor suddenly woke up. Her thoughts were like thousands of free tadpoles, making her whole body numb and tense. Jiang Shu controlled her completely in the narrow visual space.
She thought he would kiss her, and even that they were about to have a hearty and passionate time together in this unknown place. She was already prepared, but he held her wrist and opened his mouth to question her -
"Who let you get close to me?!"
His tail was shaking, filling the entire stairwell, causing Xu Yiwei to almost collapse against the wooden door behind him...
"…Are you testing me? Do you know everything?"
"The villa was robbed as a cover-up. You destroyed the surveillance camera at the door afterwards, didn't you? You owed money on your mortgage, so someone came to your place to collect the debt. You couldn't come up with the money, so you gave up my study to protect yourself. You were afraid that I and the police would pursue you, so you deliberately lied and said you were raped and begged me to pity you, right?"
Her lips trembled, but she fell silent several times, even the dust in the air was shaking - "I don't want to be like this, but I have no choice... There is no other way. If I don't do this, I'm afraid he... They will really kill me..."
"who are they?"
Xu Yiwei fell silent again, and Jiang Shu urged him, "If you don't tell me, I'll hand you over to the police tonight."
"No! Even if you hand me over to the police, I'm still a victim. I... I just..."
"You just don't know whether Lin Jidong will let you off easily, right?"
As soon as the name came out, Xu Yiwei's face immediately showed a sense of relief, and tears burst out like a dam breaking. The whole person was like a piece of gradually melting ice, soaking the door behind him and slowly falling down.
Xu Yiwei has always believed that the art festival three years ago was like a dream, a dream that was split into two halves, one half was a daydream and the other half was a nightmare.
The daydream part was about her encounter with Cen Shuo.
The nightmare part was the day she chose to take the initiative to get to know Lin Jidong. She buried this bomb herself.
Pierre was on duty during that time, and she and Cen Shuo were volunteers, busy almost every day from morning till night. That day, Cen Shuo was busy managing the situation, so he couldn't accompany her to get the materials for the stall, so she had to go alone. Usually, it took the two of them to move a whole box of tools, but today she stumbled even more. After getting the things, she risked bumping into people as she trotted all the way to Cen Shuo's school stall. As a result, she accidentally bumped into the man she was chatting with...
The older one among them was Lin Jidong.
However, Xu Yiwei didn't know it at the time. He just kept apologizing, lowered his head, and put the things that were knocked out back into the box from time to time.
Lin Jidong didn't pay much attention to her at first, but the young man even leaned over and handed her something - probably because he saw that she was young and good-looking, so he exchanged a few more words of greeting.
After learning about her school's booth and the recent project it had undertaken, his eyes lit up and he politely asked, "Boss Lin and I are going to visit your school's booth later. Pierre and I are old acquaintances."
Having said that, he took out a business card from his side pocket as if out of courtesy - Tengchun Culture, Wang Duo.
Xu Yiwei didn't understand these rules at the time, let alone the value behind this business card. It wasn't until she broke up with Cen Shuo and jumped into the money trap and fell into the world of pleasure that she realized that it was not Wang Duo who had "taken a fancy" to her, but Lin Jidong...
The reason why he found her again was because he saw that she owed a lot of debts and could be exploited. To a certain extent, Lin Jidong was also her real debtor - the company to which she owed money was also funded by Lin Jidong.
That's why he is fully aware of his debt situation.
She originally thought that Lin Jidong was threatening her just for sex, but when she was called over that day, he stared at her face carefully for a long time, and finally sighed and said -
"It does look a bit like him, but I wonder if that guy can take the bait."
It was then that she realized that what Lin Jidong wanted her to do was much more troublesome and dangerous than sleeping with someone.
However, she only felt the danger after the villa was robbed.
"Next week I'm going to Sheshan to participate in a golf tournament. There will be a cocktail party afterward, and I'll arrange for you to be there. Then you should find a way to get close to Eric. Following him will always give you a chance to get in touch with Jiang Shu. He'll be back from Hong Kong in a few days. Remember what I told you, don't reveal your true identity to anyone."
It was easy for Eric to notice her and arrange for her to contact Jiang Shu, both from her appearance and her way of doing things.
And what she had to do, she thought at first, was simple - find a way to get into Jiang Shu's bed, then collect evidence, frame him for rape, and make him a tainted general manager in public opinion.
This was a major blow to both Jiang's mother and son.
But their plan basically fell through. Let alone climbing into the bed, Xu Yiwei had never even touched the corner of Jiang Shu's bed. There was no ambiguous evidence to accuse him.
After two weeks of stalemate, just when Xu Yiwei was about to give up and go on strike, the villa was suddenly "broken down" - she was completely unaware of this at first, and even thought for a while that she was really unlucky and had encountered debt collectors...
That's why she was so anxious and irritable afterwards, exaggerating the already unclear reality, causing Lin Jidong to threaten her later -
"Why are you so stupid? I told you I would personally take care of your debt. I sent someone there just to threaten you. All you had to do was act pitiful and keep relying on him. Why..."
"I don't want to act pathetic anymore, and I don't want to do this anymore! He just has no interest in me, no matter how much I resemble your daughter..."
But when mentioning his daughter, Lin Jidong's face turned cold and he slapped Xu Yiwei in the face.
"You're just like her, a waste! You're only causing trouble for me!"
Xu Yiwei didn't know why Lin Jidong was so hostile to everyone he could call his family, nor did he know why he had to put Jiang Shu in that situation.
He only sees benefits, but the benefits he sees are more out of obsession rather than benefits themselves.
From that moment on, Xu Yiwei suspected that deep within this man's heart, he was hiding a dark and dank past that no one could fathom...
But this had nothing to do with her, and she had no interest in figuring it out, because after she chose to jump out of the last cage, she had already felt that she needed to clear her sight, look more at herself, and think more about what she wanted and what she could do...
But Lin Jidong was like a wild ghost haunting her, and she had no one to rely on, so she could only trust Cen Shuo.
She felt that Cen Shuo had at least been sincere to her. She had been too ambitious and had easily given up on the relationship. Cen Shuo owed her something, and at least he wouldn't do anything to hurt her...
"Cen Shuo is currently an employee of a gaming company under Jianglin. I checked the HR information and found that the person who recommended him was Wang Duo. Do you think Wang Duo forced him to leave his company and then returned him to Jianglin Group out of kindness?"
Xu Yiwei had no idea what was going on. After moving out from Jiang Shu's place, she had a rare few days without being under surveillance. She thought she had been freed, but after learning so much information from Jiang Shu, she felt like her mind was about to explode...
Who is she actually working for? Is she still in the game?
"Didn't you and Wang Duo discuss it when Lin Ying and I pushed you into Tengchun? The person behind Wang Duo is Lin Jidong."
"No! I admit I was a little surprised when I heard his name, but I really have no connection with Mr. Wang, and I don't know what his relationship with Lin Jidong is... I really, really am just a tool being used!"
She is very self-aware about this.
Jiang Shu looked at her tearful eyes, folded his arms and huddled in a corner, unable to help but hold back his words...
Lin Jidong must have known something, and he knew that his stepson Jiang Shu was a playboy. He had been lying dormant for many years, and this time, when Jiang Shu returned from Hong Kong, he would definitely take the opportunity to seize power and profit.
It is easy to dodge a spear, but hard to guard against an arrow from the dark.
But he had actually been prepared for this hidden arrow - because he had never had any relationship with Xu Yiwei, and Xu Yiwei had also chosen to retire from the business after the theft, and even became an abandoned child...
But the game is not over yet. When a chess piece is dropped, another one will inevitably be picked up.
"I'm sorry... I know I've brought this upon myself, and I admit I initially approached you for a purpose. But that purpose... isn't something I can decide. If I could, I wouldn't have had to intrude into a world that didn't belong to me in the first place...
I owed a lot of loans over the years and could not pay them off at all. I was desperate and tried many unconventional ways to make money, but they were all a drop in the bucket. Mr. Lin agreed to repay my loan and at first he only asked me... to sleep with him. At that time, I thought that since I was desperate, I would sleep with anyone and I could earn double the money, so I would be wasting my time. But I didn't do it.
Not only did I fail, I blew it…”
Jiang Shu already knew Xu Yiwei's position at this moment, so he stopped pressing her. He leaned over and stretched out his hand, wanting to help her up. She stumbled and unexpectedly and deliberately fell on his chest.
"I admit that I had other motives when I first approached you, and I knew I wasn't worthy. But ever since the night you refused to sleep with me, I've developed feelings for you. Jiang Shu, believe it or not, I kind of like you. I know people like you aren't pure behind the scenes, but I...at least I don't want to hurt you.
You don't have to respond to me. I'm just telling you this so that I can feel better. From now on... I won't push your luck any further."
Her voice was muffled in her throat, and Jiang Shu felt like there was a mobile phone on his chest, vibrating and buzzing non-stop. When the content was finished, the vibration stopped, and the arm that was on his waist loosened.
Clang——
She turned and rushed out the door.
The stairwell was empty again in an instant.
Fortunately, she was not allowed to drink at that time, otherwise he would have chased her endlessly.
The rain was still falling when we left Eric's bar.
He saw the familiar Aston Martin light up its headlights—even in the pouring rain, it was still so eye-catching.
The passenger window was rolled down by the owner. Song Qi took off his sunglasses and teased Jiang Shu who was sitting in the passenger seat.
"I just saw her take a taxi back home. She looked pretty strong."
Jiang Shu nodded, as if he had forgotten to respond.
“So you took her down on your own, without any need for me, your ‘fiancée’, to threaten you.
Now, isn't it time to sync the information to me? It's worth it for me to come here in the heavy rain to drive you."
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