Chapter 15: A Beauty Causing Trouble

The next day was Sunday, the day she had made an appointment with Xie Qingyun.

But she had something more important to do on Sunday, so she contacted Xie Qingyun and rescheduled the appointment to next Wednesday.

Xie Qingyun told her to take care of her own business first.

It was raining lightly outside. She held an umbrella and went out, going to a flower shop to buy two bouquets of flowers.

Then she went to Ningzhi Cemetery in the suburbs.

She was wearing a black trench coat, black high heels, and holding two bouquets of chrysanthemums. She held a black umbrella and walked slowly up the hill.

There were dozens of steps in front of her. With each step, her heart sank a little.

She stopped at a tombstone and squatted down, placing one bouquet of chrysanthemums in front of the tombstone. Her eyes were sore as she looked at the dusty photo on the tombstone. Her slender fingers brushed over it, wiping away the dust.

“Grandpa Pei, Grandma Pei, Ruo Ci has come to see you.”

“Are you doing well?”

“How’s Little Uncle? I guess Little Uncle is very happy to be with Grandpa and Grandma.”

“You must take care of yourselves. Ruo Ci misses you.”

She stared at the photo on the tombstone for a while, then stood up and bowed deeply in front of the tombstone.

She walked to the tombstone next to it. The two tombstones were next to each other. She squatted down and placed the bouquet of chrysanthemums in her arms in front of the tombstone. She looked at the young boy’s cold brows in the photo on the tombstone and reached out to wipe away the dust.

Then she touched the words “Pei Jing” engraved on the tombstone, her eyes moist, her voice choked with tears. “Little Uncle…”

“This is your fifteenth year gone.”

“If you were still here, you would be eighteen years old. You would be a mature and steady man. You would probably be married with children.”

“In these fifteen years, Ruo Ci hasn’t made any progress. I haven’t been able to escape the Jian family, and I haven’t taken good care of Xu.”

“If it weren’t for Xu, Ruo Ci would probably have seen Mom, Little Uncle, Grandpa Pei, and Grandma Pei by now.”

“But I still have Xu. I can’t abandon him…”

“Little Uncle, they want to drive me to a dead end. Can you tell Ruo Ci what to do…”

“How can I protect Xu? I’m sorry for him. I made him lose his parents since he was a child…”

Tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed onto the ground. Her tears blurred her vision.

At this moment, a man in a suit holding a black umbrella was standing not far from her. His black eyes were bottomless, and the hand holding the umbrella handle tightened, his knuckles turning white. He heard everything she said.

She squatted in front of the tombstone, her tear-filled eyes fixed on the photo on the tombstone. She didn’t notice the man beside her.

The man took a deep look at her, then turned and left.

She stood in front of the tombstone for half an hour. The rain was getting heavier. She bowed in front of the tombstone. “Little Uncle, Ruo Ci will come to see you again.”

She walked down the steps. Although she was holding an umbrella, the rain still wet the hem of her trench coat, and her hair was dotted with raindrops.

Walking down, she opened her phone and found that she couldn’t hail a taxi here. Plus, it was raining, and there were basically no vehicles on the suburban highway. There was also no place to take shelter from the rain nearby.

She opened her phone map and searched for the nearest bus stop. It was two kilometers away, about half an hour’s walk.

The rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. She didn’t hesitate. She closed her phone, put it in her pocket, and walked towards the bus stop according to the route indicated on the map.

She had just taken a few steps with her umbrella when a Maybach stopped beside her. She turned her head and saw the familiar profile through the lowered window. The lines were sharp and cold. She was puzzled.

How did he end up here?

His voice fell with the raindrops, firm and不容拒绝. “Get in.”

She hesitated for a moment. This wasn’t the time to be coy. She didn’t want to walk to the bus stop in the rain either. With the current rain, even with an umbrella, her clothes would get wet by the time she reached the bus stop.

She opened the passenger door, put away her umbrella, and got in.

She put the umbrella at her feet and turned to look at him. “Mr. Pei, how did you end up here?”

Actually, Jian Ruo Ci wanted to say, “How did you end up in the middle of nowhere? You wouldn’t be following me, would you?”

She knew that for a big shot like Pei Yan Zhou, it wasn’t difficult to track someone’s whereabouts.

She didn’t say it because she knew she was nothing. She wasn’t worthy of him doing that.

Pei Yan Zhou’s thin lips parted. “To visit my parents.”

He closed the car window, glanced at the hem of her trench coat, and turned on the heater in the car.

“Your parents…”

“He’s gone.”

Pei Yan Zhou’s expression was as calm as water, but Jian Ruo Ci knew he wasn’t heartless. He had just experienced too much, and his joy and anger no longer showed on his face.

At the young age of eighteen, he had already become a figure in the business world that everyone respected and feared. He had experienced so much along the way, and he knew how much hardship he had endured.

Mentioning such a sensitive topic, an unpleasant memory for him, Jian Ruo Ci felt a little guilty and changed the subject. “Pei Yan Zhou, we’ve only met a few times. You’ve helped me so much, and I haven’t thanked you properly.”

“Are you busy today? I’ll treat you to dinner to show my gratitude.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” She said. “There’s a hotpot restaurant that’s pretty good. My brother and I go there often. Do you want to try it?”

Pei Yan Zhou focused on driving. “No.”

Jian Ruo Ci: “…”

He couldn’t possibly dislike hotpot, but those high-end restaurants that matched his status would cost all her savings…

He spoke slowly, his cold voice devoid of any emotion. “Qingyun said you cook very well?”

“It’s just okay. Qingyun probably just said it was good because it suited her taste.”

Pei Yan Zhou: “A meal cooked by hand is more sincere.”

After Xie Qingyun had eaten the food she cooked, she had bragged to him about it, telling him how delicious it was and even mocking him for not having eaten Jian Ruo Ci’s cooking.

So, he wanted a home-cooked meal. He should have said so earlier. She had worried for nothing, thinking she wouldn’t be able to keep her wallet.

But then she thought about how she had just moved into the old villa district and didn’t have any ingredients at home. “I moved, so I need to go to the supermarket. Is that okay?”

“Okay.”

Ten minutes later, the car stopped in the underground parking lot of the supermarket. She got out of the car and entered the supermarket with Pei Yan Zhou.

Jian Ruo Ci went straight to the fresh food section. Pei Yan Zhou followed beside her. He was too eye-catching, and many eyes fell on them.

She looked at the person beside her and tentatively said, “Should we… walk separately?”

He didn’t hesitate for a second. He answered directly, “No.”

Jian Ruo Ci was speechless. He was really difficult to deal with.

She lowered her head to reduce her presence. She didn’t talk to him either, as if they were strangers.

The more she did this, the closer Pei Yan Zhou got to her, so close that others thought they were a couple. The women around them all looked at them with disappointment, envy, and jealousy.

Jian Ruo Ci muttered under her breath, “A beauty causing trouble.”

She then asked, “Hey, what do you want to eat? Any food you can’t eat?”

“No.” Pei Yan Zhou: “Anything is fine.”

Jian Ruo Ci thought he was a difficult person to please, but he was actually quite easygoing. If that’s the case, then it was settled.

She would make her best dishes. “They’re all home-cooked dishes.”

“They’re not as good as what you usually eat. Don’t dislike them.”

Pei Yan Zhou uttered two words. “I won’t.”

Jian Ruo Ci stared at his face for a few seconds. “Pei Yan Zhou.”

“Hmm?” Pei Yan Zhou: “What’s up?”

Jian Ruo Ci looked him up and down. “What’s wrong with saying one more word? Will you be cursed by a witch and turn into a frog?”

He was really stingy with words. If he could express something with one word, he wouldn’t use two.

“Maybe.”

Maybe?

Jian Ruo Ci was speechless. It was so hard to get him to say three words. It was better not to say anything at all.

A little boy pushed a shopping cart around the supermarket, running wildly. He wasn’t tall, and he didn’t pay attention to where he was going. He ran straight towards her.

Pei Yan Zhou reached out and hooked his hand around her slender waist, pulling her into his arms, dodging the shopping cart that the child had bumped into.

Her hands rested on his chest, and the scent of wood unique to him filled her nostrils. Her heart raced uncontrollably.