Chapter 53
Li Xingen's polite invitation reassured the short-haired woman somewhat, but Yin Zhihua's reaction was indifferent. He glanced back at Li Xingen, whose expression was calm, looking no different from any other hypocrite.
Yin Zhihua even felt that if he agreed to go to his house, he might be kicked out by this guy in the middle of the night, or wake up to find himself lying in his family's old house.
In short, this guy is absolutely capable of doing these things.
At this moment, Yin Zhihua did not show anything. He simply nodded to Lisa to reassure her, then lowered the brim of his hat and left the special passage with the passing staff.
Jin Chuwan gripped her backpack tightly and followed behind Yin Zhihua. She felt a strange, almost absurd, feeling, as if she were watching a live drama unfold online. Before, although she was by Jiang Chen's side, no one in the Jiang family cared about him. He was so carefree that he didn't even bother with arrogance, and Uncle Jiang seemed quite satisfied with Jiang Chen's state.
So regardless of what rumors circulate, the Jiang family is actually a harmonious and peaceful place, with loving fathers and filial sons.
As for Li Xingen, ever since Lily and the CEO settled down, there have been almost no more of those chase-and-run scenarios.
Who would have thought that Yin Zhihua, who seems to have an excessively cheerful personality, is actually the one who needs to live a life of hiding?
Thinking of this, Jin Chuwan gently tugged at Li Xingen's sleeve.
"I didn't expect you to help."
The boy glanced down at his sleeve, then his gaze slowly moved to Jin Chuwan's face. She seemed to have some feelings about her, but in the end, she smiled faintly with a sigh.
She suddenly looked up, her eyes seemingly tinged with a delicate halo as she gazed at him.
"Xing En, you're too gentle..."
Jin Chuwan spoke from the heart. Although she had suffered and been withdrawn in her childhood, Li Xing'en remained kind and gentle even after growing up. She was even willing to lend a helping hand when she had a rift with Yin Zhihua.
After Jin Chuwan finished her reflection, she looked up and saw that Yin Zhihua was already far away, so she quickly quickened her pace.
Li Xingen was somewhat stunned. He watched as the fingers hooked on her sleeve slowly fell down, and soon her profile became a silhouette, blurring into the scattered crowd.
He habitually curled the corners of his lips into a smile, but it was hard to actually manage a genuine laugh.
In the past, his smiles were mostly to reassure his mother, but he learned to smile at Kim Cho-wan to coax her into spending more time with his mother.
After all, for a long time, her mother seemed to need her a lot.
By the time he came to his senses, those deceptive acts of tenderness seemed to have become a habit.
She never hesitated to praise and compliment him, and for a time he even wondered if she had other feelings for him. So he also observed Jin Chuwan with a scrutinizing and critical eye, when she was talking to her mother, when she was sitting alone on the garden bench, and when she looked at him with her eyes crinkled.
He also generously gave her some opportunities. For example, he pretended not to know and asked her about her homework, deliberately created time for the two of them to be alone, gave her a scarf that he didn't know who had knitted, pretending that he had made it himself, or deliberately called her "Auntie" in an ambiguous way.
But the look in her eyes when she looked at me remained the same.
Calm and gentle, she often smiles, but not deeply.
Occasionally, Lee Sung-eun would feel that she was a complete fool for testing Kim Cho-wan.
But thinking about it carefully, perhaps Kim Cho-wan, who still thinks he's a good person, is the biggest fool.
Many times, he unleashed that cold and violent side of himself. He imagined Jin Chuwan's incredulous or heartbroken and panicked appearance, imagined her avoiding him, or saying with red eyes, "I never thought you were this kind of person," "How did you become like this?" and so on.
Perhaps out of a desire not to disrupt peaceful daily life, he suppressed those dangerous thoughts as soon as they surfaced.
So whenever she looked at him, he smiled.
But it's not deep either.
Li Xingen sighed softly. Several moving workers hurried past. Li Xingen noticed several suspicious figures moving around in the metallic reflection. He glanced behind him and finally suppressed the smile that was always on his face.
He quickened his pace, grabbing Jin Chuwan's hand as she looked around with one hand, while loosely putting his other arm around Yin Zhihua's shoulder, just like an ordinary young man strolling with his girlfriend and chatting with his good buddy.
Yin Zhihua glanced at the shoulder, about to express his disgust, but when he turned his head, he met the other person's gloomy gaze.
"Listen carefully, if it weren't for Jin Chuwan, I wouldn't even bother to look at you even if you were dead."
The boy's voice was low. The two were of similar height, both tall and handsome, and could easily attract the admiring gazes of passersby. However, at this moment, his gray eyes were filled with only impatience and annoyance. Even the admiring glances that accidentally bumped into him instantly turned into fear and fled.
The two didn't seem to be walking fast, but Jin Chuwan was having some trouble keeping up.
But she didn't complain. She was just tired and had to hold onto Li Xing'en's arm tightly. The next second, his arm was wrapped around her waist.
Jin Chuwan looked up in surprise, but Li Xing'en remained in the same position as Yin Zhihua, continuing her conversation. She tried to push him away, but as soon as she made a move, she felt the force on her arm tighten.
Jin Chuwan frowned, but considering the special circumstances, she held back.
They left the theater quickly; it wasn't time to actually enter yet, and the crowd outside was chaotic. Thanks to Li Xing'en's timely contact, the driver had already turned to a suitable location to wait for them.
The man in the car yawned. He hadn't even finished his cigarette when the phone rang. He barely managed to suppress his complaints when he looked up and saw the young master and the silver-haired boy with their arms around each other's shoulders, seemingly on good terms.
He rubbed his eyes, his consciousness beginning to waver.
No, they made up so quickly?
As the three got into the car, they saw several men in suits chasing after them and spreading out across the square, searching for something.
Having learned her lesson, Jin Chuwan took the initiative to sit in the passenger seat this time. She tidied her hair behind her ear and then looked back at Yin Zhihua.
"So, I'm helping you out this time?"
Yin Zhihua was flicking away dirt that wasn't actually on his shoulder when he heard Jin Chuwan's voice. He looked up, and their eyes met. The young man raised a hand to tidy up his messy yet handsome hair.
"Then I'll treat you to dinner, it'll cost less than a hundred yuan."
The two of them suddenly burst into laughter in unison.
Sitting on the other side, Li Xing'en glanced over. The unknown connection between the two of them was quite irritating to him, but he couldn't throw Yin Zhihua out or demand that Jin Chuwan not have any contact with anyone other than him.
That's unrealistic, even though he really wants to.
The driver finally managed to leave the congested main road. "Where are we going now?"
Just as Li Xingen was about to speak, Yin Zhihua answered first: "Go to where we just came from, my car is still there."
Jin Chuwan looked at Yin Zhihua with a puzzled expression: "Aren't you going with Xing En? Aren't you not allowed to go home right now?"
Yin Zhihua propped her chin up, seemingly unconcerned.
"Don't worry, I may lack many things, but I certainly don't lack friends. As for a place to stay, I can easily find somewhere with just a phone call, so there's no need for you to make arrangements, Young Master Li..."
Jin Chuwan frowned slightly at the barbed words from Yin Zhihua, but since he had his own plans, she wouldn't meddle. However, she was somewhat dissatisfied with how he spoke of Li Xingen.
"Xing En offered to help you, can you please stop calling me 'Young Master'?"
The boy's beautiful eyes glanced out the car window, while Yin Zhihua listened to Jin Chuwan's accusations but only responded casually.
"Yes, yes, yes...it was my fault."
Kim Cho-man frowned even more deeply, and Lee Sung-eun responded just in time.
"It's okay, I don't care about these things."
Yin Zhihua's eye twitched. He felt a strange mix of nausea and nausea, a complex feeling he couldn't quite shake off.
In the end, he decided to try again for his friend.
"Wake up, Jin Chuwan. What kind of bewitching potion has he given you? You must stay away from this kind of person..."
Kim Chu-wan was even more dissatisfied.
"What do you mean by 'this kind of person'? Can't you tolerate even a little prejudice?"
As Li Xing'en listened, the smile in his eyes was almost impossible to hide. He glanced at the rearview mirror in surprise and saw the driver looking at Jin Chuwan with a worried expression, as if he was very concerned.
"Drive carefully."
Li Xing'en murmured something, and the driver's hand slid slightly. Jin Chuwan felt the car shake and quickly gripped the seatbelt on her shoulder.
She didn't want to argue with Yin Zhihua anymore. After all, they had already done what they could to help. As for his own family affairs, she didn't know and didn't want to get involved.
The silver sports car quickly returned to 11th Street. When Yin Zhihua got out of the car, he and Li Xingen looked at each other for a moment, and then glanced at Jin Chuwan. He didn't say anything, just shook his head to himself, and then raised his arm as a farewell.
After Yin Zhihua left, Jin Chuwan suddenly remembered the blue roses in the trunk. She glanced back at them, then quickly looked away.
Oh well, since I can't give it away, I'll keep it for myself.
"Xing En, I want to go back."
Li Xing'en did not answer, but the driver understood and quickly turned the car around and headed towards the East District.
On her way home, Jin Chuwan received a call from Jin Chaoyang, who said she was going on a date with her fiancé and wouldn't be coming home. She seemed very curious about whether there was any progress between her and Jiang Chen, but Jin Chuwan didn't give her a chance to be curious. She just told her that she was already home and that she should remember to eat well before hanging up.
After Li Xing'en took Jin Chuwan back, he originally wanted to take the opportunity to follow her, but Jin Chuwan waved to him while holding the flowers and left before he could come up with an excuse.
The car behind me made a soft beep.
Li Xingen glanced back and then opened the car door.
"Alright, let's go back."
--
After returning home, Jin Chuwan searched for a long time but couldn't find a suitable container to hold the flowers, so she had no choice but to leave them on the table.
The room wasn't big, and this huge bouquet actually made it feel a bit cramped.
Jin Chuwan opened the window, and the evening breeze quickly blew in, causing the gauze curtains to sway. She propped herself up on her arms and looked at the scenery in the distance. Two worlds separated by twenty years, seemingly different yet not so different.
Occasionally, she would think of her parents from her previous life, and sometimes she would want to see if they still existed in this world, but she would quickly dismiss such thoughts.
Even if we search, so what? Even if they exist, so what? They are no longer themselves, and she is no longer herself.
That evening, Jin Chuwan took out some glutinous rice balls from the refrigerator. She liked this kind of soft and sticky food. She had bought them at the market a couple of days ago. When she bought them, she thought that her birthday was coming soon, but she hadn't calculated which day it was.
Oh, so it's today.
As Jin Chuwan looked at the round glutinous rice balls that were about to float to the surface, she seemed to be transported back to a New Year's Eve filled with the sound of firecrackers, when she seemed to be standing alone in a kitchen like this.
The mother hysterically smashed things, and the two figures tumbled and wrestled. The lights inside the house were even more dazzling than the fireworks outside.
Now, those memories that once left her feeling helpless and anxious are just scattered fragments, and there are hardly any scars left; at most, it's just another sigh.
After finishing her glutinous rice balls, Jin Chuwan began studying as usual.
She wanted to start a new life through her own efforts, although she knew rationally that her future life would likely continue in the same routine as before.
She knew perfectly well what things would be like twenty years from now, but she still couldn't help but fantasize.
Life will be good from now on, right?
When the thought came to her mind at ten o'clock, Jin Chuwan got up to wash her face. She opened her phone to play a game of whack-a-mole to pass the time, but as soon as she opened the game, her phone vibrated.
The caller ID showed Yin Zhihua.
She frowned and pressed the call button.
The voice on the other end of the phone sounded weak. Jin Chuwan stood up and looked down again to check the time.
It was already very late, and Yin Zhihua still seemed to be outside.
"Where are you now?"
The boy sitting on the green belt looked embarrassed and awkward. He didn't know why he had called Jin Chuwan. He scratched his head, wanting to hang up, but in the end he still awkwardly gave her his location.
"You wait where you are, I'll be right there."
As Yin Zhihua listened to the voice on the phone, his face felt slightly hot. He wasn't sure if it was because it was too hot huddled in this corner, or if his wounds were starting to burn.
If he had known that his house was being staked out, he would have been more obedient and not gone back. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been afraid of being discovered and unlucky enough to fall down the steps.
The wound on his side seemed to be bleeding, but he had no time to think about that. He was just thinking about how to explain things to Jin Chuwan when she arrived so as not to lose face.
Would it be okay if I got hit by a car? Or did I get into a fight with the bodyguard?
He was lost in thought like a fool. Luckily, there weren't many people around at that time, otherwise someone would probably have called the police.
When Jin Chuwan arrived, Yin Zhihua was looking up as if counting stars. He sat alone under a streetlamp, looking like a homeless stray dog. She subconsciously thought of the plot in the novel, recalling the original setting of a poor nobleman, and then Jin Chuwan suddenly fell silent.
Is there really such a nobleman in the world who loses a shoe, is covered in dirt, yet smiles like an idiot when he sees her?
It seems that even the world of novels can be unreliable at times.
Jin Chuwan pressed her forehead, looking quite helpless.
"Tell me, what exactly happened?"
Before Jin Chuwan arrived, Yin Zhihua had clearly thought of countless excuses, but in front of Jin Chuwan, his mind seemed to go blank for a moment. When he came to his senses, he had already honestly confessed everything.
"You fell down by yourself?"
After Kim Cho-wan finished speaking, she remained silent for a short while.
Yin Zhihua felt that the silence was like a second injury to him. He even felt a little wronged. Just as he was about to be stubborn and tell Jin Chuwan not to care about him, his arm was suddenly lifted up.
Under the streetlights, Jin Chuwan looked down at the obvious scratches.
Are there any other wounds?
The boy shook his head.
"Didn't I say you can't go home? Why are you still thinking about going back?"
Hearing Jin Chuwan's soft question, Yin Zhihua glanced at the hand supporting him.
"You know, the puppy is at home. I just wanted to go back and feed it..."
The boy's fluffy hair was now hanging down in a mess, and his slightly upturned eyes were somewhat unfocused, as if he knew he had done something wrong and dared not look at himself too much.
Even though he was much taller and stronger than her.
Jin Chuwan sighed, took Yin Zhihua's hand, and helped him to his feet. Because of his injury, the boy walked with a limp, and soon the two stood at the intersection waiting for a passing taxi.
"Can you tell me why you'd rather do this than be taken back?"
Jin Chuwan's voice was somewhat soft, and she seemed unaccustomed to asking about other people's private affairs, so she looked a little uncomfortable.
The boy raised his hand and touched his earlobe; he looked even more uncomfortable than Jin Chuwan.
It's not exactly a respectable reason.
"Because I'm very handsome, a young lady from a pharmaceutical company likes me, so now they're determined to arrange a marriage between us..."
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