Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
In the next two days, whether because he didn’t want to disturb her recovery or not, Mo Jichen didn’t contact Jiang Se again.
It wasn’t until the eighteenth that he gave her a call, reporting some progress. He said that although Fu Yun had survived the critical period, his condition wasn’t good, and also mentioned that Zhu Yinlin had already been criminally detained.
Jiang Se listened calmly, hung up calmly, then opened her WeChat contacts and deleted the card of Zhu Mingli’s stepmother.
The cooperation was over.
On the fifteenth, Zhu Mingli’s stepmother going to “Huaqing Pool” wasn’t an accident, but her arrangement.
The one who recorded Zhu Mingli being “coerced” into crime by Fu Yun, aside from the parking lot surveillance, there was also her stepmother’s phone.
That video, of course, was sent to Zhu Yinlin.
Right now, Zhu Mingli probably wanted Fu Yun convicted more than anyone.
Hurting a criminal with several murder cases versus hurting a suspect who wasn’t yet convicted, for Zhu Yinlin’s case, the sentencing difference was worlds apart.
Zhu Mingli was the closest person to Fu Yun. In the kidnapping case seven years ago and even in Fu Jun’s accident three years ago, Jiang Se didn’t believe she had no other evidence or clues. She simply chose to hide them so she could wash herself completely clean.
It was time to let her experience what it felt like to pour all her strength into trying to save someone.
Whether she chose to continue hiding, or hand over the evidence in her hands.
Zhu Yinlin couldn’t escape prison anyway. It was only a matter of the sentence being long or short.
Back then, she watched Cen Se being abducted for three days with her own eyes, and even now, seven years later, showed no remorse. Telling Lu Huaiyan information was only because she wanted him to help her and Zhu Yinlin successfully take over Zhu Corporation.
But what right did she have?
Jiang Se did agree not to pursue the matter from seven years ago, nor the drugged red tea on New Year’s Eve.
But she didn’t agree to let her off easy.
Whether Zhu Yinlin or Zhu Corporation, she wouldn’t be able to protect even one.
These years, she had been trained by Fu Yun to always try accomplishing everything using others’ hands. She never thought that cooperating with someone like Lu Huaiyan was impossible from the start.
That man would never let her have it easy.
Thinking of Lu Huaiyan, Jiang Se subconsciously glanced at the wall clock.
Ten o’clock sharp.
The plane to the Nancheng had already taken off.
Lu Huaiyan was on today’s flight to send Han Yin. When Jiang Se received Mo Jichen’s call, he had already left for the suburbs to pick someone up.
This time, it was still Zhou Qing doing the driving.
After the plane took off, Zhou Qing deliberately waited another fifteen minutes to make sure there were no more sudden incidents before leaving with peace of mind.
That sudden incident from a few days ago had truly shocked him badly.
Who would dare believe that the gentle-as-jade Young Master Fu would be a beast in human skin?
Although the news hadn’t leaked yet, the Fu Group would likely experience huge upheaval at any moment. No wonder Young Chariman Lu needed to fly back the same day.
The Fu Group’s impending upheaval would be an excellent opportunity for the Lu Group to take a big slice of the cake.
After dropping the person off at South Guanyin Mountain, Lu Huaiyan would hurry back without stopping. The plane was expected to land in Beicheng around nine at night. Zhou Qing calculated the time and headed to the airport to pick him up.
After waiting less than half an hour, he saw his boss walking out of the terminal, travel-worn.
Zhou Qing got out to open the car door. Seeing a trace of fatigue on Lu Huaiyan’s face, he asked, “Little Chariman Lu, are we going straight back to the Linjiang villa?”
Lu Huaiyan gave a quiet “Mm.”
The car started, slowly driving out of the airport avenue. Just as Zhou Qing was about to turn on the signal to change lanes, Lu Huaiyan suddenly glanced at his watch and said, “Go to Xinhe Residence first.”
Last time, that girl had taken the record player to Xinhe Residence. He was going to retrieve it, and while he was at it, bring the few books she liked back to the villa.
Many people had already received news about Fu Yun, including the Cen family.
Jiang Se didn’t want to see anyone from the Cen family yet. She hadn’t returned to Xinhe Residence these past few days. Her injuries hadn’t healed, and Lu Huaiyan didn’t want her worrying about other matters. Staying at the villa was the most peaceful option.
The black sedan pulled up beneath Xinhe Residence in less than an hour.
Lu Huaiyan got out and went upstairs.
The apartment still looked exactly as it had when Jiang Se left. The room’s window was open, and the night breeze blew through gently, rustling the books on the bedside table.
Lu Huaiyan shut the window, walked over, and picked up the book Jiang Se had casually left by the bed. As he passed the nightstand, he paused. His gaze shifted to the jade thumb ring beneath the lamp.
Inside the smooth, translucent white jade ring lay a diagonally placed, slender silver USB drive. On one end of the USB hung a dark-indigo tassel that swayed lightly in the air as he passed.
Lu Huaiyan had received a similar USB drive before.
Back when he negotiated with Jiang Se in the Tongcheng teahouse, she had given him a silver USB drive containing Lu Jinqin’s recordings.
She used the same kind of USB again and placed it inside the jade ring. That meant this USB was for him.
Lu Huaiyan picked it up. His lowered eyelashes cast a shadow beneath the light.
This USB was definitely something she had prepared for him in case she never came back.
Now that she had returned safely, whatever was inside, he didn’t need to look.
Lu Huaiyan had always been decisive.
Since he had already chosen to turn the page on this matter, he wouldn’t look back.
Putting the USB back where it was, he turned off the lamp and walked toward the living room, then lifted the record player beside the sofa and headed for the entryway.
At the entryway, he should have changed shoes and left.
But for some reason, it was as if his feet had taken root. He couldn’t move.
Moonlight spilled in from the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
The man stood motionless in the moonlight. No one knew how long had passed before he finally moved. He placed the record player on the entryway cabinet and walked back to Jiang Se’s bedroom.
When he used to stay here, he had purposely left a computer for work.
It sat in her desk, right next to hers.
Lu Huaiyan didn’t turn on the lights. He picked up the USB, opened the computer, and inserted it into the port.
Inside the USB were more than twenty videos.
The first video was the oldest, recorded the third month after she completed her coming-of-age ceremony.
Lu Huaiyan moved the cursor over it. With one light click, the video opened.
A familiar voice sounded in the quiet bedroom—
“Cen Se, I’m sorry. I left you behind for two years.”
On the screen, the girl looked calmly at Lu Huaiyan. “I thought that as long as I forgot the you from that time, everything could be over. I thought that as long as I didn’t look back at you, I could be fine. I thought I had found a medicine that could make me forget you and forget that incident, but I was wrong.”
“I was wrong, Cen Se. The one who could heal me was never anyone else, but you. I know you’re still trapped there. Only by bringing you back can I truly heal.” The girl slightly pressed her lips together. “I want to tell you—”
The air stilled.
After a pause of several seconds, she continued, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Choosing to go to the painting institute that day wasn’t wrong. Leaving through the back door wasn’t wrong. Meeting those people was never your fault. Them tearing your clothes and forcing you to drink medicine, your trembling, your tears, your fear, none of that was your fault.”
“I’m very sorry I once questioned you with them.”
“I shouldn’t have blamed you for not being strong enough. I shouldn’t have blamed you for not being powerful enough. I shouldn’t have blamed you for believing until the end that there was a fourth person.”
“I’m very sorry I was late, Cen Se. I won’t run anymore. I know you’re in pain, in despair. I know you hurt. Please wait for me.” Tears slowly rolled from eighteen-year-old Jiang Se’s eyes, sliding across the smile at her lips. “I’ve already bought the place that imprisoned you. I’ll become strong enough to bring you out myself.”
The final frame froze on that moment.
The girl’s tearful, smiling face reflected quietly in Lu Huaiyan’s eyes.
Across five years of time, he saw eighteen-year-old Jiang Se crying.
Lu Huaiyan suddenly remembered that night.
He remembered the girl curled silently in the corner.
He remembered lifting her up, her near-collapsed body trembling faintly in his arms, and the blood-streaked fingers gripping his shirt with the last of her strength.
It was as if a bullet had violently pierced his heart in the void.
At some moment, the man forcefully closed his eyes.
After a long while, he suddenly opened them, gasping like a drowning man. A deep groove appeared where his collarbone met his throat.
His index finger paused on the touchscreen for a long moment, then slowly swiped, opening the next video.
One video ended, followed by another long pause.
More than twenty videos, each very short. The longest was no more than three minutes; the shortest less than one minute.
The girl in the videos never cried again.
The second-to-last video was recorded the day before she came to Beicheng. In it, she told sixteen-year-old Cen Se that she had found the fourth person.
“It’s Fu Yun, Cen Se. The mastermind who kidnapped you back then was Fu Yun. Wait a little longer; soon I will bring you back.”
The last video had no date, only a name in the title.
Lu Huaiyan clicked on the video named “Lu Huaiyan.”
The computer screen emitted a faint cold glow in the darkness. As soon as the video started, a soft voice said—
“Older Brother Huaiyan.”
The moment that “Older Brother Huaiyan” fell, both Lu Huaiyan and the girl on the screen choked slightly.
It was like a fishbone stuck in the throat.
This was the shortest video, only a few lines.
“Older Brother Huaiyan, I will personally go bring Cen Se back.”
“Please forgive my selfishness. If I don’t bring her back, I cannot escape that thunderstorm.”
“If I cannot come back, I don’t want you to become another Zhao Zhicheng. After bringing me back, leave me in the past, keep moving forward, no need to look back.”
The girl in the computer smiled lightly at this point.
The screen froze on this scene, froze on Jiang Se’s calm, smiling face.
A minute later, the computer went into sleep mode and turned off the screen.
The bedroom returned to darkness.
Lu Huaiyan silently stared at the black screen.
Until the phone rang in the dark, he moved his eyelashes slightly and looked down.
He waited a moment before answering.
“Ah Yan, are you home?” Through the receiver, Han Yin’s voice was as gentle as always.
Lu Huaiyan pressed his Adam’s apple and said calmly, “Mother, I’m not in a position to talk right now. I’ll call you back later.”
Han Yin paused on the other end: “Ah Yan, what’s wrong?”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t speak. He just took a sharp, urgent breath.
Han Yin said softly, “Whenever your mood is off, your voice is lower than usual. Tell me, what happened?”
In the past, Lu Huaiyan would have just made an excuse to brush Han Yin off.
But at this moment, his mind was still frozen on the last frame of the screen, frozen on Jiang Se’s tearful eyes.
A long while.
The man closed his eyes. “Mother, I’ve done something wrong.”
He pressed the palm of his hand against his wet eyelashes and slowly said, “I regret it.”
Lu Huaiyan had never liked looking back, never liked regret.
Because regret is a completely useless emotion. It makes a person weak, fragile, resentful.
His life principle had always been to move forward, leaving all useless emotions in the past.
But now he regretted.
He regretted not truly taking sixteen-year-old Cen Se out of that abandoned factory.
He regretted not agreeing to marry her when she turned eighteen and properly be her “medicine.”
He regretted letting her walk such a lonely, unsupported path alone.
If he had known he would love her this much one day, he would have treated her well from the start.
No matter where she was, he would have found her, never letting her wait, cry, or be hopelessly alone in the dark.
Han Yin smiled: “Ah Yan, it’s perfectly normal for people to regret. Mama has regretted many times too. It’s okay, Ah Yan. We’ll make it right. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine, Ah Yan.” Her voice trembled slightly toward the end.
Hearing the slight choke in Han Yin’s voice, Lu Huaiyan lowered his palm, slowly took two deep breaths, and his eyebrows and eyes gradually returned to their usual calm and steady expression.
“Mm, I understand.” The man closed the computer and walked quickly out of the bedroom. “I should go find Jiang Se. Once I’m home, I’ll call you.”
At the entryway, he paused, then added, “Don’t worry. I’m fine now, Mother.”
