“I hurried to Xihu City to see her that very day. She’d just woken up from getting her stomach pumped,” Huang Yaming laughed rather sardonically, “She said a lot that day. Looking at her lying on that sickbed in a hospital gown, her face pale as she kept on crying and apologising and pleading……how do I say it? You know how much I liked her back then, right? So, I simply couldn’t help but give in in the end.”


  A certain person seemed not to come to mind for him at all as he said this. She had once lain on a hospital bed and had a surgery because of him, hiding alone in a rental house to recuperate and hence losing her job. Yet, she had not even told him about this matter, much less forced him to take responsibility……she was Chen Jingqi, that girl who, having once been hurt by him, had taken care of him day and night by the hospital bed again and had been hurt completely again by him afterwards.

  At this point in time, there seemed to be no way out of this. Tan Qingling was sufficiently determined and ruthless, and Huang Yaming seemed to be aware of this. Even while remembering what had happened before, he had decided to accept it nevertheless.

  What could be done at this point? Xu Tingsheng was just Huang Yaming’s bro, not his father……actually, not even his father might be able to dictate his actions in a matter like this.

  Xu Tingsheng threw his cigarette away and gave it one final go, “You can’t have her trying to kill herself once every few days, right? You’re in that industry and you like playing around. Can you properly manage yourself or will I have to get Tan Yao to substitute you?”


  This could be considered a strategy as Xu Tingsheng still wished to prevent this if he could.

  “Nope, that isn’t necessary,” Huang Yaming waved a hand dismissively, “I told her about that before. It was when we went to look at the mines afterwards. She went along with me. On the flight back, I told her exactly that. She said that she’ll feel assured so long as we get engaged now and marry after graduation. She’ll trust me no matter what other people outside might say.”


  Huang Yaming looked at Xu Tingsheng and Fu Cheng.

  “Say, is she actually saying that she won’t mind however I go gallivanting about outside so long as the one I marry is her?” Huang Yaming laughed, “Well, since she’s so keen, considering how much I liked her back then, I might as well marry her and dump her at home……”


  “.……” Xu Tingsheng and Fu Cheng were both speechless as they could not help but marvel at Tan Qingling’s methods.

  “I’ll be heading off then,” Huang Yaming waved as he walked away, “Don’t mention Chen Jingqi. She’d be done for if we got married. The woman is too silly and too pure. She can’t handle it. Hurt her once and she’s practically half-dead……with me, she’d go crazy if she didn’t die first.”
……

  To Chen Jingqi, relationships were more important than money and material goods. She would not have chosen to suffer in silence the first time otherwise. She would also not have chosen to leave Huang Yaming due to having been hurt too painfully much the second time.

  That night, Tan Qingling had only manipulated the dead drunk Huang Yaming to say a few things, yet had so easily compelled her to give up. Afterwards, when Huang Yaming had been rather distant to her for a period of time, she had gone to look for Chen Jingqi again to probe things out.

  Actually, Chen Jingqi had told Xu Tingsheng long ago that she wished to go to Xinan with Zhang Xingke, requesting his help in this matter.

  While this might be her trying to avoid things, her desire for a fresh start in life was also manifested therein.

  It was just that due to the upheaval in Hucheng over the gutter oil affair, the company’s intended development in Xinan had been delayed. Rather than the start of the new lunar year, it was only recently that preparations for it were properly underway.

  Chen Jingqi had been making preparations for going to Xinan over the past few days in the midst of routine work.

  While leaving the workplace, she saw Tan Qingling who was waiting a short distance away.

  Still in her second year of university, Tan Qingling had applied for leave from classes to come to Yanzhou where she was to be engaged.

  Huang Yaming’s engagement arrangements were very hastily underway. It was scheduled for a weekend, not in their hometown of Libei but in Yanzhou.

  Tan Qingling totally did not mind this at all. Huang Yaming’s parents would definitely be coming anyway. Also, as compared to those poor relatives from Libei, she actually preferred for people in Yanzhou, including Xu Tingsheng, Fu Cheng as well as Huang Yaming’s acquaintances and business associates, to know of how her relationship with Huang Yaming had progressed. She wanted them to know that she was practically assured of victory.

  Also, amongst them all, she felt it most important that Chen Jingqi was informed.

  After some simple, surface-level pleasantries.

  “Right, Huang Yaming and I are getting engaged. Did you know that?” Tan Qingling smiled.

  Chen Jingqi was visibly stunned by this. Even though she had actually given up long ago, a stabbing pain still inevitably gripped her as she suddenly learnt of this. She had loved Huang Yaming before, maybe still did……just that she dared not continue to associate with him again.

  Tan Qingling observed her for a while before deliberately asking, “What, didn’t he tell you?”


  Chen Jingqi shook her head, “No, he didn’t.”


  “Look at him, forgetting even that!” Tan Qingling exclaimed in an exaggerated tone, “Well, how about this? Let’s treat it like I’ve specially come to invite you today. I especially hope that you can be present at our engagement party……after all, you once took care of him day and night, right? Just think of it as my thanks to you.”


  Tan Qingling told her the time.

  “Sorry, I may not be free on that day,” Chen Jingqi said as calmly as possible as she lowered her head and turned to leave.

  Tan Qingling called after her, “What? Don’t tell me? What’re you still thinking of?”


  Chen Jingqi stopped in her tracks, not looking back as she said, “Rest assured, I gave up long ago. I will give you two my blessings.”


  “Come over and have a glass of wine then?”


  “I have an evening flight to Xinan on that exact day.”


  “Hah……”


  “There’s really no need for you to keep on seeing me as an opponent. Rest assured, I really won’t do anything at all.”


  Somehow or other, this sincere, heartfelt statement aggravated Tan Qingling.

  Perhaps because she felt assured of victory and was thus in too good a mood, Tan Qingling forgot to keep up that usual facade now. It could also be because keeping up the act was too tiring for her that she would happily rip off her mask and vent after ascertaining the success of her plan, just as she had done to Huang Yaming after getting together with that small-time boss.

  “Since when were you qualified to be my opponent?!” With her mask thoroughly off now, Tan Qingling mocked arrogantly.

  “I don’t want to talk anymore. Sorry,” Her head lowered, Chen Jingqi walked away.

  “Right, you don’t seem to be very well-educated? So brainless……” Tan Qingling continued, “I remember learning something when investigating you before. You got an abortion for Huang Yaming? Really, how dumb. Do you truly not see see how good a role model Fang Yunyao is?”


  Chen Jingqi stopped in her tracks.

  Tan Qingling got more and more into it, “Do you know why I called you brainless? Just look at Fang Yunyao. You know her, right? Just how is an elderly woman like her whose reputation is smelly to death qualified to marry Fu Cheng, even becoming the Xu family’s goddaughter?”


  “It’s all because of that brat. Get it?”


  “Why do you think she shamelessly insisted on giving birth to her child if not for this? Do you really believe that she was avoiding Fu Cheng and only met him by chance? That woman’s a deep, patient schemer. Look at how she’s played Fu Cheng, Xu Tingsheng and the rest……”


  “How’s her life like now? How will it be like in the future? What doesn’t she have? That’s why I said that you’re dumb. If you’d learnt from her and shamelessly insisted on giving birth to your child, maybe it really wouldn’t have been so easy for me……”