strictlysupreme Chapter 1265 Yunrui's sincere heart: Qi Zhifang is dead? Dead...
Chapter 1265 Yunrui's sincere heart: Qi Zhifang is dead? Dead...
Gu Yunqian's last words, "It's not my place to meddle in the Qi family's affairs," were still echoing in his ears, but at this moment they turned into sharp icy spikes, piercing into his bone marrow along his spine.
"No need." When Yan Wanqing turned around, her hair stuck to her pale cheeks.
She looked at the distorted neon lights in the rain, and recalled the rainy night twenty years ago when her father brought his illegitimate son home, and her mother's broken jade bracelet glowed coldly in the entrance hall.
At that time, she was hiding at the corner of the stairs, listening to the sound of broken porcelain and quarrels, which overlapped with the sound of rain at this moment to form the same desperate rhythm.
The rain flowed down the ribs of the umbrella and wet her bare ankles.
Yan Wanqing walked forward mechanically, letting the rain blur her vision.
The street lights cast colorful spots of light in the puddles, just like the rouge spilled on my mother's dressing table in my memory.
The yellowed receipts in Qi Ruixiang's safe, Yang Bin's evasive eyes, and Gu Yunqian's unfathomable smile behind his glasses, intertwined into an impenetrable web in the rain.
My phone vibrated in my bag. It was a work reminder from my secretary.
Yan Wanqing glanced down at the screen. The lock screen wallpaper was a photo of her standing at the celebration banquet of Miaoyin Media. Her smile was so bright that it seemed fake.
She suddenly remembered that before going out this morning, she had carefully drawn eyeliner in the mirror, thinking that she could get a glimmer of hope from Gu Yunqian with this impeccable mask.
"Miss?" The taxi driver rolled down the window and the horn blew mixed with the sound of rain.
Yan Wanqing looked at the empty seat in the back seat and recalled that when she was a child and had a fever, her father would always carry her on his back and rush to the hospital on rainy nights like this.
At that time, she thought that the Yan family's protection was indestructible, just as now she thought that Gu Yunqian would intervene because of their many years of cooperation.
The rain overflowed the waterproof platform of the high heels, and the coolness climbed up the calves.
Yan Wanqing waved her hand and continued walking in the rain.
She suddenly realized that she was just a discarded piece on the chessboard - Qi Ruixiang's fire of revenge would not be extinguished because of her, and Gu Yunqian would not disrupt the carefully planned chess game for an insignificant piece.
When she finally stopped in front of a convenience store to avoid the rain, the water droplets on her eyelashes hit her collarbone, causing pain.
The glass door reflected a disheveled figure, with a pearl brooch hanging crookedly on the collar, like a sarcastic joke.
The phone vibrated again. It was a work email from Qi Ruixiang. The wording was so polite that it was almost cold.
Yan Wanqing slowly squatted down against the cold wall, letting her tears mixed with rain water slide into the corners of her mouth, which was so salty and bitter that it made people feel sick.
The rain showed no sign of abating, and the rumble of thunder in the distance was like the death knell of fate.
Yan Wanqing curled up under the dim light of the convenience store and realized clearly for the first time that the balance she had tried so hard to maintain had already collapsed under Qi Ruixiang's paranoid obsession.
And there was nothing she could do except wait to be swallowed up by the coming storm.
In the dining room of the Gu family's old house, the crystal chandelier cast a warm yellow glow, and the silver tableware reflected fine light on the dining table.
The aroma of grilled steak mixed with the mellow scent of red wine flowed in the air. Gu Yunxi put down his knife and fork, and when he looked up, he met Gu Yunqian's meaningful gaze.
"I heard that Qi Ruixiang has been visiting you at school recently?" Gu Yunqian turned the red wine glass and observed his sister's reaction. "Did it affect your work?"
Gu Yunxi paused, the candlelight in front of her flickered in her eyes: "No, meeting him is part of the job!" She remembered the look Qi Ruixiang gave her during the interview, which was filled with a kind of paranoid flame. "It's just business dealings, each taking what he needs."
"Just business dealings?" Gu Yunqian raised his eyebrows, his eyes behind the lenses sharp as an eagle, "I remember before Lin Xu went abroad, you guys..." He deliberately dragged out the last syllable, watching his sister's fingers tighten around the wine glass.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning flashed outside the window, illuminating Gu Yunxi's pale face. She took a deep breath and said, "Brother, we have been brothers and sisters for so many years, there is no need for you to test me. Lin Xu is doing well in Cambridge, and I have my own research to do. I am really not interested in those things."
She drank the red wine in one gulp, the spicy liquid burning her throat. "As for Qi Ruixiang, he is your subordinate, not mine."
Gu Yunqian was silent for a moment and poured more wine into her glass: "Don't be so excited, I just care about you a little bit." His voice was low and a little aggrieved, "You have to tell me the truth, so I can help you later, right?"
At the same time, dozens of kilometers away, the building that once symbolized the status of the Yan family was shrouded in rain. Yan Wanqing stood in the entrance, soaking wet. Her pearl brooch had been lost at some point, and her hair was messy and stuck to her face.
The ticking sound of an old-fashioned clock came from the living room, interweaving with the sound of rain to form an irritating rhythm.
She kept using her breathing to adjust her mood. She didn't even bother to take a shower or change clothes, and ran around the house feeling freezing cold!
"Dad!" She rushed into the study, and the desk lamp on the mahogany desk stretched Yan Taifeng's shadow very long.
Yan Taifeng slumped in the armchair, his loose silk robe slipping down to his elbows, revealing his skin covered with age spots.
His skinny fingers stroked the purple clay teapot. The patina on the teapot glowed with an eerie oily sheen under the lamp, as if it had condensed decades of secrets.
Yan Taifeng slowly raised his eyes, his cloudy pupils reflecting his daughter's embarrassed image, and a mocking smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: "Why? You hit a snag with Gu Yunqian, so you come back to vent your anger on me?"
He coughed twice and tapped the armrest with his knuckles. "Is that all the patience I taught you?"
Thunder exploded outside the window, illuminating the faded family portrait on the wall - in the photo, the young Yan Taifeng was hugging his first wife, with the young Yan Wanqing in his arms.
Yan Wanqing stared at the photo, digging her nails deep into her palms: "Qi Ruixiang has already started digging up old scores, and Yang Bin is helping him check the dock warehouses from decades ago. Do you really want to wait for things to get out of hand?"
"Warehouse?" Yan Taifeng suddenly coughed violently, veins popping out on his neck, and spit turbid phlegm into the celadon spittoon. "They are just some overdue account books, what can you do with them?"
He fumbled out his cigarette box, but found that the lighter was damp and couldn't light. He angrily crumpled the cigarette and threw it on the ground.
Yan Wanqing looked at her father's trembling hands and thought of the high-spirited business tycoon she knew when she was a child.
Now his back is hunched, like an old dog with its spine removed, but the sinister look in his eyes has not diminished in the slightest.
"You should give us an explanation for Qi Zhifang's matter as soon as possible! Is it good or bad, dead or alive?" She suddenly asked, her voice as cold as ice. "If you, an accountant, are so tight-lipped, we will not even be able to keep our last bit of dignity!"
The study fell into deathly silence, with only the ticking of the clock.
Yan Taifeng stared at the dragon pattern on the purple clay teapot, his Adam's apple rolling: "Accountant?" He suddenly laughed shrilly, his dentures pale under the light, "That woman climbed into my bed under the banner of love and wanted to get involved in the company's core business. Go away! Even so, do you still insist on what you just said?"
He stood up suddenly, and the hem of his nightgown swept the rice paper on the table. The word "忍" (forbearance) written in wet ink was smudged in the rain.
"She secretly checked the smuggling accounts back then," Yan Taifeng approached his daughter, his foul breath spraying on her face, "I gave her a chance! As long as she behaved herself, I would support them and their son for the rest of their lives!" His skinny fingers tightly grasped his daughter's wrist, "But she insisted on sending the account book to the media!"
Yan Wanqing felt cold all over and finally understood where the hatred in her father's eyes came from.
It turns out that in Yan Taifeng's world, betrayal is more unforgivable than any crime.
"So you just let her disappear?" Her voice trembled. "And those witnesses, you too..."
"Shut up!" Yan Taifeng shook off her hand, staggered and knocked over the flower stand. With the sound of the celadon bottle breaking, he grabbed the paperweight on the table and smashed it against the wall, "She deserves to die! And that bastard with her!" He fell on the armchair, panting heavily, "Now that bastard is here to destroy everything I have..."