Chapter 15

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Ling Ran’s heart thundered in his chest. Behind him, a husky, tingling voice sounded beside his ear.

“Don’t scream.”

His mouth was firmly covered, so even if he had wanted to cry out, he could not have made a sound.

Ling Ran nodded vigorously.

The hand over his mouth finally eased. Its fingertips seemed reluctant to part from the softness of his lips, lightly brushing across them twice before sliding down to encircle his slender waist.

Suddenly, Ling Ran’s feet left the ground. With one arm locked around his waist, the tall enigma lifted him effortlessly.

Rainwater covered the ground, and even the small umbrella held by the tall man could barely shield them from the downpour.

As though he were carrying an object, he carried the little Omega through the puddles and brought him back to the door.

When Ling Ran was set down, he still had not fully recovered his senses. Lowering his head, he saw that only a tiny splash of water had touched his shoes. By contrast, the trouser legs of the man opposite him were drenched and dripping.

“Uncle…”

His eyes were veiled with moisture, the outer corners of his luminous, peach-blossom eyes faintly reddened.

Nor was that all. Besides the vivid red mark on his fair cheek, an unnatural flush had spread across his face.

Jiang Zhiyu raised a hand and touched his cheek. The skin was tender and burning hot.

“You have a fever.”

Ling Ran continued staring at him in a daze. He touched his own cheek as well. It was indeed very hot. And when he had drifted into sleep that afternoon, he had felt waves of chills running through his body.

Yet at that moment, he could not tell what had caused the heat. In front of the enigma, he tugged at his trouser cuff and pulled it upward, revealing a slim stretch of dazzlingly pale ankle.

His gaze was clear and innocent as he whispered, “I clearly brought a suppressant.”

How could he still be going into heat?

Jiang Zhiyu could not help curving his lips. “It isn’t heat.”

He had been soaked through by the rain during the day. Falling ill was only natural.

Dazed and woozy, Ling Ran only knew that he was being held around the waist and carried into the room. Once he had been laid back on the carved solid-wood bed, he felt even colder and instinctively burrowed beneath the covers.

His body grew hotter and hotter. As his fever blurred his consciousness, someone supported his head and fed him a large cup of bitter medicine.

He tried to push it out with his tongue, but the cold rim of the cup pressed firmly against his lips and tongue.

A deep, intoxicating voice carried an overwhelming force that allowed no refusal.

“Swallow.”

Even his tightly closed eyes were forced to glisten with tears. Under that command, he swallowed every drop.

The medicine took effect quickly, and he soon fell back into a muddled sleep.

After a while, Jiang Zhiyu left the room and turned toward the one next door.

Butler Song was a perceptive man. He had arranged for Ling Ran to stay in the guest room beside Jiang Zhiyu’s.

Just as Jiang Zhiyu was about to open the door, the sound of a wheelchair rolling over the floor came from behind him.

Jiang Zhichen approached beneath an umbrella, his brows and eyes shrouded in gloom.

“Was it you who had someone bring the younger son of the Ling family here to stay?”

An enigma had no need to endure anyone’s questioning or interrogation. Jiang Zhiyu lowered his eyes and looked at him.

“Yes.”

Jiang Zhichen’s expression changed. Raising his voice, he asked, “What exactly are you trying to do? Don’t you know Shengyi is about to marry him?”

“Not necessarily,” Jiang Zhiyu replied.

“What did you say?”

Perhaps he had thought of something. Jiang Zhichen stared at the powerful man before him in utter shock.

“Zhiyu, I’ll ask you only one thing. Do you still intend to take revenge on the second branch of the family?”

“Second Brother,” Jiang Zhiyu said, his gaze calm and still, “if your accident five years ago had also been deliberately caused by someone, would you seek revenge?”

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Jiang Zhichen froze slightly. He had once been a vigorous, ambitious alpha, but after the accident five years earlier, both his legs had been crippled. The doctors said the possibility of his walking again was extremely small. From that day onward, his temperament had changed completely. He no longer involved himself in the affairs of the group, spending his days enveloped in gloom and resentment.

But his accident had merely been an accident. The police had investigated and found nothing unusual.

“I’m not like you. Your mother was seriously ill back then. If she hadn’t suddenly received that devastating news and suffered a worsening of her condition, she wouldn’t have left us so soon…”

Jiang Zhiyu interrupted him. “How has your rehabilitation been lately?”

“Just the same as always. It’s useless. You don’t need to keep finding doctors for me. Don’t have that Doctor Song come again.” Jiang Zhichen’s voice was bitter. “It’s nothing but a waste of time.”

Jiang Zhiyu ignored him. “I’ve arranged an appointment for you with a doctor at a private hospital in Europe. The consultation is scheduled for next week.”

“I said I don’t need it!”

Jiang Zhichen hurled the umbrella in his hand to the ground.

“I’m going to be crippled for the rest of my life, do you understand?! It doesn’t matter who examines me—the result will be the same. If I can’t stand, then I can’t stand! What is there left to treat in a cripple? What use am I to the Jiang family? I’m nothing but a useless man, a useless man who can do nothing!”

He grew more hysterical with every word. Fortunately, the rain was heavy enough to swallow all his indignation and complaints, keeping them from spreading beyond the curtain of rain.

The little Omega in the room next door was fast asleep as well and could not hear him.

After venting his fury, Jiang Zhichen’s eyes reddened slightly. His expression gradually returned to its usual cold gloom, and his voice sank once more.

“I’m not going to Europe. Cancel it.”

Jiang Zhiyu gave a faint laugh, bent down to pick up the umbrella, shook the water from it twice, and placed it in the wheelchair.

“Xu Guanyi will accompany you.”

With that, he said nothing more and walked straight into the room.

*

Ling Ran woke after sleeping for a while and felt far more refreshed. He sat up, his head finally no longer clouded.

The rain had fallen all night, but at last it had stopped. After the storm, the bamboo grove appeared even greener and fresher. When Ling Ran drew a deep breath, the air still carried a damp, humid scent.

After leaving the room, he glanced at the tightly closed doors on either side.

In his feverish, half-conscious state the previous night, he seemed to have heard people talking outside, though he had not been able to make out their words. Then he had heard the door next door open.

He wondered whose room it was.

Butler Song appeared with a genial smile and personally brought him breakfast.

“Mr. Ling, it is already ten o’clock. Would you like to eat now?”

Ling Ran nodded and agreed, then glanced to the side.

Butler Song promptly explained, “The room next door belongs to General Manager Jiang, but he left this morning. He should have gone to the office.”

Ling Ran nodded again. He had not even asked, yet Butler Song had volunteered the information.

Ling Ran sat to one side drinking his porridge while Butler Song continued standing beside him and attending to him, which made him feel rather embarrassed.

“Once you have finished, someone will take you home. And please take this with you as well.”

Butler Song handed him a small jar containing an unfamiliar transparent liquid.

Ling Ran asked blankly, “What is this?”

“You’ve forgotten? This is the ointment General Manager Jiang applied to you last night. It works exceptionally well on red, swollen injuries. Usually, one application is enough to reduce the swelling, and it can be used anywhere.”

Ling Ran touched his cheek. It was indeed no longer swollen or painful.

Had Jiang Zhiyu really applied the ointment to him little by little the previous night?

Ling Ran had never been cared for so attentively. He clutched the jar of ointment and tucked it firmly into his pocket.

After breakfast, Butler Song led Ling Ran out of the inner courtyard.

He had worked in the old residence for decades and saw certain things even more clearly than some of its masters.

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He treated Ling Ran with exceptional warmth and courtesy, introducing him as they walked to the origins and designs of the inner courtyard’s mountains, streams, flowers, birds, and the four noble plants—plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum.

Ling Ran listened obediently the entire way. Yet when they passed through the lush bamboo grove, he could not help losing himself in thought for a moment.

The two figures who had clung tightly to each other behind the grove amid the previous night’s torrential rain remained vivid in his mind.

Jiang Shengyi had personally told him that the person he loved was Yin Chu, and that he did not want to marry Ling Ran.

It was as though the knife that had hung suspended over his heart had finally fallen. Though its blade had torn his flesh into a bloody, indistinguishable ruin, at least the truth he had sought to confirm now had a definite answer.

Jiang Shengyi did not love him. He never had.

Ling Ran had apparently become the obstacle between Jiang Shengyi and Yin Chu, the culprit who had prevented two lovers from being together.

In any case, Jiang Ronglian already despised him for being ill. The marriage agreement between the two families could indeed be dissolved now.

For the two years he had loved Jiang Shengyi, he had been like a clown entertaining himself on a stage.

And backstage, Jiang Shengyi had been holding Yin Chu’s hand, surely watching the spectacle with delight.

Now that Ling Ran knew they were the pair who truly loved each other, their one-hundred-percent compatible pheromone match had become a joke—a shackle binding him and Jiang Shengyi together.

It would be better to set them both free as soon as possible.

After reaching that conclusion, Ling Ran felt a little more clarity and resolve settle in his heart.

Zhao Qin was waiting on the lawn. When he saw Ling Ran approach, he hurried to the Rolls-Royce and opened the rear door.

No one was inside.

Ling Ran thanked him and got in.

As Zhao Qin drove him down the mountain, another car happened to approach from behind. Zhao Qin yielded slightly, allowing it to speed past, nearly brushing against the Rolls-Royce as it raced downhill.

Ling Ran recognized it as Jiang Shengyi’s car. During the brief moment when the two vehicles drew level, he saw Yin Chu seated in the passenger seat.

Zhao Qin muttered a curse at the car’s retreating rear.

“Knowing General Manager Jiang isn’t in the car is the only reason he dares drive like that. What a piece of trash.”

The Rolls-Royce soon stopped outside the Ling residence. Ling Ran got out and said to Zhao Qin, “Thank you for bringing me home.”

Zhao Qin was so alarmed that he repeatedly bowed in return. Before leaving, he did not forget to add, “By the way, Mr. Ling, don’t forget that you have to go to the group headquarters next Wednesday for your final interview.”

“All right. I remember.”

Ling Ran nodded.

Only after the Rolls-Royce had driven away did he realize that something was wrong.

Zhao Qin was merely Jiang Zhiyu’s mouthpiece.

Could it be that Jiang Zhiyu had also instructed Human Resources to bring him back for the final interview?

He climbed the steps and opened the front door.

The atmosphere inside was so quiet that it felt almost eerie. The moment Ling Ran looked up, he saw his elder sister, Ling Mo, standing in the entryway with a stern expression, waiting for him.

“Xiaoran, you finally know how to come home.”

Ling Suo’s voice immediately came from inside.

“Now that you’re back, get in here this instant!”

Ling Ran’s heart tightened. Lowering his head, he walked into the living room. When he saw the two people seated on the sofa, his fingertips began to tremble faintly, and his cheek seemed to burn with pain once more.

Jiang Ronglian and Aunt Jiang looked over at him with cold, mocking smiles.

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