Chapter 296 I'm here, you must be safe
She took the bird's nest and put it aside. "Can you play chess?"
On the coffee table was a chessboard and a half-finished chess game. Yan Weilan, feeling exhausted, leaned against the armrest of the sofa. "I'm not very good at chess, but Bai Qing is. He's only a teenager and can figure out situations that adults can't." She leaned back, raising her eyelids lazily. "He's never lost."
"Really?" Chen Qing held the black chess piece. "I've seen Mr. Yan lose before."
Yan Weilan narrowed her eyes.
"At Cuiyin Villa, he lost the chess game with Elder Meng from the very beginning."
She replied nonchalantly, "Bai Qing respects Hongwen, so of course we won't argue about winning or losing."
Chen Qing dropped a piece without thinking. "I've learned a few basic things from Jiang Jingyan. He once told me that winning or losing in a game of chess is never about sincerity or talent. Winner or loser, we're all just pieces on the board." She picked up a white piece and played against herself. "Fight on the court, behave yourself; behave yourself, fight off the court. Which of these do you think Mr. Yan and Mr. Meng belong to?"
Not a single breath could be heard in the huge living room.
Yan Weilan laughed softly, "Miss Chen appears innocent on the surface, but in reality, she's a ruthless person. Are you trying to sow discord between our family members? Jiang Jingyan is already dead. If you don't want to stay with Bai Qing, you can go down and accompany him soon. Why bother with this?"
"Yeah, why would I bother with this?" Chen Qing's eyes never left the chessboard. Her tone was neither salty nor indifferent. "The Jiang family lost. Are you happy? But the victory or defeat of a chess game is not enough to be concluded in just one game. Mr. Meng's game has just begun. Could I be his opponent?"
Her words fell along with the chess piece.
Yan Weilan shuddered and urged coldly, "Go upstairs after drinking, and don't think about anything else!"
Chen Qing stood up, holding the bird's nest, looking down at him calmly. "You clearly know everything. You know how much Mr. Yan has suffered. You know that Meng Hongwen used you to kill me, and who will be next. You still remember the pain of pregnancy. Mr. Yan has endured the neglect of his biological father for more than 30 years. How could he forget it?"
"But the person who should not be forgotten is at large, with someone taking the blame and bearing the brunt of the disaster. You failed Mrs. Jiang's friendship more than a decade ago, and now you are failing your son's filial piety decades later. If you hadn't been so stubborn, Mr. Yan's life shouldn't have been like this. You will never get what Mrs. Jiang threw away in your entire life, and you deserve to regret it." She looked directly at Yan Weilan, her tone strong and powerful.
Yan Weilan was silent for half a minute, then chuckled and beckoned the servants over, "Drink it all, don't leave a single drop."
Three people immediately appeared behind Chen Qing, holding her tightly. One person stood in front of her and brought the bowl to her mouth.
"I'm deeply touched by your advocacy for Bai Qing. The Yan family will take note of this." Yan Weilan crossed her legs, a sickly and sinister smile on her face. "Don't worry, Zhong Manwei will know tomorrow morning that you died for her son. She'll probably be filled with gratitude and will accept you into the Jiang family's ancestral tomb. Miss Chen, I'll grant you your wish. Have a nice trip."
Chen Qing's limbs were shaking, she was sobbing and struggling, looking horrible and terrifying. The servant in front of her forced her lips open with brute force and poured liquid into her.
"Qing'er!" The man who had been standing outside the house for a long time finally rushed in, subdued the bodyguard beside the sofa in a few moves, snatched the remaining bird's nest from the servant's hand, and threw it away, causing broken porcelain pieces to fall and scatter.
Chen Qing took a small sip and pressed it under his tongue, tears hanging from the corners of his eyes, and stared at the person who came with an expressionless face.
"Spit it out." Yan Baiqing placed a handkerchief under her chin and squeezed her cheeks with force, his voice almost whispering, "Be obedient, and I'll do whatever you say."
The servant bodyguard was about to step forward, but was frightened by his gaze. He turned to look at Yan Weilan and waited for orders.
Yan Weilan seemed to have expected this, but also seemed to be so stunned that she couldn't speak. She sat upright on the sofa, calm and collected.
Chen Qing stared at the man for a while, then lowered his head and blurted out everything.
After Yan Baiqing confirmed that she had vomited everything, he took the cup of water and held the back of her neck to drink it. "Rinse your mouth, don't swallow."
Chen Qing's well-behaved appearance calmed him down a lot. He glanced at the mess behind him, and silently hugged Chen Qing upstairs.
He was dusty, his coat was damp and cold, his beard was sticking out, and his hormones were surging. Only then did Chen Qing realize that Yan Baiqing had a beard. He usually had fair skin and kept himself clean, and his bookish air concealed most of his wildness.
"How did you find this place?" She looked up in his arms. "It was slower than I expected."
Yan Baiqing was filled with rage, but he laughed out loud, "You still dislike me?"
"When we came out of the hospital, it was Huamei who was chasing the car. I thought you would follow us immediately."
"So you deliberately provoked my mother with words to force me to show up, right?"
Chen Qing was speechless.
Yan Baiqing walked her to the bedroom door but didn't go in. "Zhong'an Mansion is safe enough. You can rest assured tonight."
She muttered softly, "I just escaped a disaster, and you told me it was safe..."
"It's hard to tell when I'm not here." The man brushed her messy hair behind her ears, "I'm here, you must be safe."
There was no light in the bedroom. The dim light from the corridor stretched Yan Baiqing's shadow. Chen Qing stared at it and curled his lips. "Do you know that I said those words to your mother on purpose?"
"Know."
She took a deep breath and fluttered her eyelashes.
"Qing'er knows etiquette and is polite. Even if she's angry, as a woman, she would never stab my mother in the heart." Yan Baiqing stroked her collarbone, shoulder, and arm, then found the faint pulse of her wrist and squeezed it slightly. "It's okay. I said, whatever you say is up to you."
"Although it was intentional, it was also sincere." Chen Qing retracted his hand and avoided him. "Meng Hongwen's death is not a pity. One thing is one thing. Even if you did something wrong, it is a fact that the previous generation owed you. Consider it as me helping you vent your anger and repaying you for saving me."
Yan Baiqing curled his fingers together, his voice hoarse, "Are you trying to please me?"
"No." She looked up, her eyes still filled with the compassion and desolation she had under the moonlight that night.
"You know what I've done, yet you still stand up for me." Yan Baiqing tapped her eyelids with his fingertips, teasing with a smile, "You're just trying to curry favor by saying that when you're on someone else's territory."
Chen Qing sighed and turned to get his pajamas from the hanger. "I'm not the one to judge what you should bear, but I can tell what you shouldn't bear. Mr. Yan, I pity you."
Yan Baiqing stood with his hands behind his back, "Winners take all, losers take all. I care about the results."
"Jiang Jingyan said that there's no such thing as absolute victory or defeat in this world. Everything stems from obsession. Have you truly defeated him? Have you won what you wanted most?"
His heart was trembling and his cheekbones were tense. He watched Chen Qing walk into the bathroom, lock the door, and stand there to relieve the sourness spreading in his heart. It took a long time before he left the room.
After going downstairs, Yan Weilan held the tablet, and the screen showed the picture of Chen Qing's bedroom.
"I understand why Jiang Jingyan likes her." She looked at the man at the stairs leisurely, half contemptuously, half teasingly, "I also understand why she would rather die than choose you."
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