Chapter 26 Li Changjing, how could you be so insulting...?
Chapter 26
The rain that was predicted yesterday came today. It drizzled all morning and stopped in the afternoon, but the sky was still overcast. The rain kept coming and going, and the air was hot and humid.
Wen Yining had been working day and night for almost a week. When she looked in the mirror, her face was pale and haggard, with dark circles under her eyes. She no longer looked like someone whose life force had been drained; she looked so haggard that she looked like someone who could drain other people's life force.
But there was no other way; her senior needed it urgently, so she had to stay up all night to finish it.
It's okay, she'll just have to get through these few days. She's still young, she can just tough it out.
With this侥幸心理 (a sense of wishful thinking), Wen Yining learned her lesson when she left after class in the afternoon.
Sleep deprivation indeed made her sluggish. When she went out, she watched helplessly as her foot kicked the threshold. It wasn't until Aunt Liu yelled at her that she fell forward to the ground, feeling a burning pain all over her body, that she realized what had happened.
There were several small abrasions on both arms, the most serious being on the right wrist, where a large patch of skin was scraped off, making it look bloody and gruesome.
Sitting on the sofa with her wrist raised, Wen Yining's face and lips were pale with pain.
Aunt Liu took out the first-aid kit, looked at the horrific wound on her thin wrist, and said with heartache, "Luckily, the bone wasn't broken, otherwise I would have had to go to the hospital for a cast. Sigh, it's oily skin, it shouldn't leave a scar."
"It will definitely hurt to apply medicine to such a big cut, just bear with it, Xiao Wen."
The moment the disinfectant spray hit the wound, it felt like a basin of hot water or salt being poured directly onto it. Wen Yining's wrist trembled involuntarily from the pain, and a layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on her forehead.
Too embarrassed to cry out in pain, she gritted her teeth and endured it, turning her head towards the rainy courtyard outside.
It took her a while to get rid of the goosebumps from the pain after everything was done.
While waiting for the medicine to dry.
Aunt Liu looked out at the damp, gloomy sky and suddenly said, "The master is back. Jing-ge is going to the National Security Bureau for dinner tonight, so he probably won't be coming back."
Feeling guilty, Wen Yining was startled for a moment, suspecting that Aunt Liu knew about her relationship with Li Changjing, or could see through her feelings for Li Changjing, otherwise why would she suddenly say that?
She pondered Li Changjing's words in her heart without asking any further questions.
*
On a drizzly black night, two modified black Maybachs, their headlights on, drove into the residential area one after the other.
Only a few families live in this courtyard, and the number of residents has remained unchanged for decades. The guards on the outpost, armed with live ammunition, saw the familiar setup and the familiar license plate of the car in front and opened the parking barrier in advance.
The car stopped, and the bodyguard, holding an umbrella, quickly walked to the back seat and opened the car door. Li Changjing stepped into the car through the rain.
Because Li Changjing's father had returned from the military region to visit relatives, everyone was present at today's family banquet. Comrade Li has three sons and one daughter; except for his daughter who was abroad and unable to return, all his children and grandchildren were there.
As usual, the dining table resembled a conference table. Li Changjing listened with his eyes down, as was his habit, while Li Dongyuan, at the end, forced himself to look serious.
After dinner, Li Changjing and his cousin followed their elders into the study and didn't come out until an hour later.
He coldly tugged at the buttons on his collar and asked the housekeeper, "Where's Li Dongyuan?"
"Yuan-ge'er is in the study on the first floor."
When Li Changjing went in, Li Dongyuan, who had been recuperating for several months, was sitting on the sofa, looking almost human, though his complexion was pale. He had his legs crossed, with an open book on his lap, and was looking down intently at his phone, looking every bit like a spoiled rich kid.
He was so engrossed in reading that he didn't notice anyone until Li Changjing walked in and took the book from his lap. He instinctively and hurriedly put away his phone, calling out, "Second Brother."
Li Dongyuan always felt that his second brother had the same spirit as his grandfather. His attitude seemed approachable and gentle, but it always made people feel uneasy.
Although she was only three years younger than Li Changjing, she had always been afraid of him as much as she was of her uncles and elders. She always felt that this second brother had a hidden ruthlessness, and she was even more afraid of him after he gave her a beating last time.
Li Changjing seemed oblivious to his unease, picked up the book, glanced at it, and flipped through a couple of pages.
"Original German." Li Changjing closed the book and smiled. "Your German has improved a lot. You used to not even understand a few words, but now you can read the original."
Li Dongyuan just grabbed a book to pretend, but he didn't even know if it was in English or German. Hearing this, he felt a little embarrassed, but he didn't dare to say anything.
Li Changjing sat down next to him and started flipping through the book. Li Dongyuan saw that he was about to sit down in the room, and he didn't want to be in the same room with him, so he immediately stood up and was about to leave.
"sit down."
Li Dongyuan's legs moved faster than his brain. Upon hearing this, he instinctively stopped. After hesitating for a while, he turned around and sat back down, keeping a safe distance from Li Changjing.
"Second brother, speak quickly if you have something to say."
"Grandpa and Uncle just said that you will be under my care from now on."
Li Jingyuan had a very strong bad feeling. "What do you mean?"
Li Changjing looked up from his book and told him, word by word, "It means you're past the age where you can act recklessly. Your family has arranged a blind date for you with Wen Zepeng's daughter on Saturday."
Li Dongyuan's expression changed drastically, and he stood up abruptly. "Didn't I already say I have a girlfriend? I'm not getting married!"
"We broke up." Li Changjing looked at him casually.
"Why should I!"
Seeing Li Changjing's expression, Li Dongyuan felt a chill and instinctively wanted to leave. The moment he moved, he was suddenly grabbed by the neck and his head was slammed hard against the mahogany table with a "bang." Li Dongyuan let out a scream, and then his head was twisted forward at a contorted angle.
He was already wasting his days, and during this time he ruined his health, so he was completely powerless to resist.
Li Changjing pressed him firmly onto the table with one hand, making him look at the photos hanging on the wall.
There are several photos on the wall, including photos of Comrade Li and others. The top one is a restored photo, a black and white old photo of a young man with black eyes and black hair, wearing a worn-out cotton-padded coat and military uniform, standing in front of an earthen cave dwelling.
"You've been studying modern history and your ancestors' history since you were little, and this is what you've become? The achievements of our predecessors are not something for you to squander!"
Li Changjing's tone was cold and sinister: "You can do whatever you want in the past, but you need to know where the bottom line is! Marriage isn't something you can be willful about!"
"You usually drive around with your bunch of cronies, spending money like water and having a blast. Everyone calls you Young Master Li, and when something happens, someone will cover for you. What do you think that's all about? It's just because your surname is Li. Since your surname is Li, you can't possibly marry a minor celebrity into the Li family!"
Li Dongyuan's face turned pale and then red. He knew that Li Changjing was telling the truth, and he couldn't refute it. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and said, "A person like you who only knows power has no idea what true love is!"
Li Changjing released him, a sarcastic smirk playing on his lips. "Your little bit of true love? It's worthless."
Li Dongyuan stood up, panting, rubbing his face and taking several steps back. "I'm telling you, I'm not going."
After saying that, he turned around and walked out.
"You don't have to go," Li Changjing said casually, wiping his hands.
Li Dongyuan paused, turned to look at him. Although he had always known that the man had severe mysophobia, seeing him so openly disgusted with him, Li Dongyuan's expression changed drastically.
"I won't do anything to your girlfriend, it's not worth it." Li Changjing was too lazy to even get angry at his stupid cousin. He lowered his head and spoke his threats calmly. "As for you, it's simple not to arrange a marriage. From now on, all your credit cards will be canceled, and I won't support your company's mess anymore. I will also tell everyone that anyone who dares to help you is offending me, until you figure out what's most important."
Li Changjing raised his head. "Li Dongyuan, you'll understand when you've thought it through. I'm doing this for your own good."
"For my own good?" Li Dongyuan was enraged by this threat, knowing that Li Changjing was truly capable of such a thing. He pointed at him and cursed, "All you care about is your power, what brotherhood do you have! You and Liu Peilin call each other brothers every day, you knew his father was going to get into trouble, but you didn't even warn him beforehand! What does his father's trouble have to do with him! Yes! He's not exactly clean! But it's not worth the trouble of arresting him. If you had just warned him, he would have run far away long ago, and he wouldn't be locked up in that place with no windows and soft walls right now!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Li Dongyuan realized what he had said. Looking into Li Changjing's eyes, his face turned pale instantly.
But having come this far, he braced himself and added in a short, breathless voice, "You can fool others, but you can't fool me. I overheard your conversation with my elder brother a long time ago."
Li Changjing looked calmly at his cousin, who had been spoiled since childhood. He used to think he was stupid, but now he thought he was not just stupid, but hopelessly stupid.
He gestured for his bodyguards to move aside so that Li Dongyuan could leave.
Seeing how calm he was, Li Dongyuan felt a chill run down his spine and became extremely vigilant, not daring to go out easily.
Li Changjing stood up and gave him a sarcastic smirk, "I'm just informing you that I'm going to let you live a normal life and you can't stand it. It seems that your little bit of true love isn't that important to you."
"You should soon realize that you love interests more than those vague feelings."
*
The rain started that day and continued intermittently for over a week, covering Wen Yining's last few days in Beicheng.
These past few days, she's started to feel anxious every morning when she sees the new date on her phone. She can't help but send Li Changjing all sorts of WeChat messages, and she even takes pictures of the tree downstairs and sends them to him.
Sometimes she felt that Li Changjing was like an old man. He almost never used WeChat to chat with her at length. When she sent him a message, he would just call her directly when he had free time.
Wen Yining, who was used to communicating via WeChat and would at most make voice calls for the most important matters, was initially very uncomfortable.
On the last day, Liu Hengheng excitedly jumped around the room, cheering that he was on vacation, and said, "Teacher, teacher, see you when school starts!"
This was probably the last time they would meet; she wouldn't sign the contract again, and Li Changjing never mentioned it.
Wen Yining didn't say anything, just smiled and nodded, gently patting the child's hair one last time.
Beicheng has always been a popular tourist city. After all, it is an ancient capital and holds a pivotal position in the country. In addition, it is summer vacation, so train tickets are very difficult to buy. She managed to grab a ticket for Tuesday in the early morning of the third day after the contract ended.
The scar on my elbow has fallen off, and the one on my wrist is more serious, but it has scabbed over as well.
Wen Yining is leaving early tomorrow morning, so she's packing her things at home today. She'll have lunch with Li Changjing at noon.
The senior student paid for everything via WeChat transfer. Wen Yining looked at the balance she had saved up over this period and considered inviting Li Changjing to dinner, but she quickly dismissed the idea.
Forget it, it's too expensive to treat Young Master Li to dinner. Let her wait until she's rich.
Wen Yining withdrew a portion of the money into her bank card, and the transfer notification arrived quickly. She clicked on the notification to check her balance.
She glanced at the string of numbers at the end of the message and froze, instinctively thinking that she had miscounted because her brain was stiff from staying up all night.
Six figures...
Hundreds of thousands...
She held up her phone and stared at the screen, counting the digits one by one several times, but it was still a six-digit number.
Who forwarded the wrong message?
No, it's definitely a scam!
Wen Yining immediately opened her text messages and scrolled up, easily finding the bank's notification message from several days ago confirming the arrival of funds.
She had so many text messages on her phone that she stopped reading them and only cleaned them up periodically, which is why she only discovered this message now.
But is a scam really that convincing?
Wen Yining remembered Li Changjing.
I don't want to think about that possibility.
But no one else would transfer so much money to her for no reason other than him.
I recall Gao Zhiyuan's question, "How much does Li Changjing pay you a month?"
Thinking about the attitude of their friends towards girls, who implicitly accept that they should own bags...
She almost stiffly memorized the card number, then tried to transfer the money using Alipay. She only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the cardholder's name wasn't his.
Scams are indeed becoming increasingly sophisticated these days.
Just to be on the safe side, I should go to the bank to check and confirm before reporting the case.
Just as I was thinking this, the phone rang suddenly.
It was Li Changjing. He told her to go to the door; he was waiting for her and would take her somewhere after dinner.
The place he mentioned was very close to the school. She wondered what he wanted to do with her, as it sounded like he had something important to do. Wen Yining thought for a moment and decided to go with him to take a look first, and then go to the bank.
Anyway, no one has contacted her for several days, so if it's a scam, there's even less reason to rush.
Li Changjing took her to the Cantonese restaurant they often went to. The thought of eating like this tonight, but not knowing who would be sitting next to her at the same time tomorrow, made Wen Yining suddenly lose her appetite.
A small, white porcelain bowl filled with soup was placed in front of her. Wen Yining turned her head, and Li Changjing withdrew his hand, looking at her with a slight upturn of his lips. "Looking down, are you reluctant to part with me?"
Looking at Li Changjing's expression, Wen Yining saw him looking down at her with a smile, just like before, without any sign of parting. Her already unhappy mood became even more depressed. She subconsciously wanted to refute him, but she lowered her head, picked up her spoon, and nodded.
She actually admitted it readily, which surprised Li Changjing. He used both soft and hard tactics to force Wen Yining to say that she couldn't bear to part with him.
Wen Yining had no choice but to blush and say she couldn't bear to part with him under his gaze.
Li Changjing picked up a towel from the table and happily wiped his fingers, looking at her and saying, "I'll take you to see a house."
What kind of house are you looking at?
Li Changjing smiled and said, "I'll take you to see the house you live in."
He dropped the towel, leaned closer to her, raised his hand to touch her cheek, his eyes fixed on her face. His warm fingers lightly pressed against her lips, his breath gentle yet intensely present. "Ningning, don't go," he whispered.
Wen Yining suddenly had a guess, and she felt a chill run down her spine. Looking into his eyes, she almost whispered, "I just found an extra 100,000 yuan in my card. Was it from you?"
The two were extremely close, and she clearly saw a fleeting look of surprise and astonishment in Li Changjing's eyes. He lowered his hand, sat up straight, and all his previous gentleness and flirtatiousness vanished. His gaze swept over her face. "You just noticed?"
The surprise in his eyes and his words felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over Wen Yining in the sweltering heat, almost making her shiver.
It really was him who gave it to me.
He even thoughtfully considered her feelings, avoiding anything as blatant or embarrassing as giving her his bank card in person, and he didn't even bother to tell her after turning away.
But precisely because of this, it makes people feel even more embarrassed and humiliated.
His momentary surprise sent a chill down her spine.
So, in his eyes, does he assume that he had already discovered the money and then silently accepted it as if nothing had happened?
The scar on my wrist started to throb with pain.
Wen Yining pulled her hand away from his, turned her face away, looked out the window, took a deep breath, and tried to calm herself down. But when she turned her head back, she couldn't help but tear up. She looked at him and said, "Li Changjing, did you think I had already discovered your transfer, and then pretended I hadn't found anything and just accepted it?"
Li Changjing remained expressionless, his gentle smile vanished, and his gaze fell upon her reddened eyes. He paused, somewhat surprised that the usually well-behaved girl would react so strongly.
He didn't argue, because he genuinely hadn't expected her to refuse.
Wen Yining stared at him with reddened eyes, stubbornly demanding an answer from him.
Li Changjing didn't answer that question. He reached out to hug her, his tone nonchalant and trying to appear calm, "Alright, why are you so angry?"
Wen Yining understood.
The fact that he didn't give a direct answer means that he genuinely felt that way.
Wen Yining pushed his hand away, tears streaming down her face but remaining silent, "Li Changjing, how could you insult me like this?"
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