Cheng Liang was still waiting for Cheng Ying’s answer, but the electronic pen he had placed on the table suddenly emitted a creepy clicking sound. This pen, supposedly made with the most advanced technology of the current era, seemed like a wind-up toy as it trembled twice on the table.
Then, with a “bang!”, it exploded.
The fragments from the explosion slammed heavily into Cheng Liang’s mocking face, instantly creating countless small bloody scratches. Some of the sharper ones even pierced directly into the man’s skin.
“Ah!” Cheng Liang clutched his face and let out a wretched scream.
Cheng Ying put down the script in her hand, a panicked look on her face. “Brother, are you okay? I’ll go get a doctor for you!”
“Don’t you dare!” Cheng Liang viciously stopped her as she turned to leave. “Do you think everyone is as shameless as you? Take the script and get lost. Filming starts in three days. Have Jiang Hanguang familiarize herself with the script, and don’t bring shame to Cheng’s!”
Cheng Ying meekly picked up the script and walked out of the office.
A smile still hung on her face as she leisurely strolled back to her car.
The car door closed, and the smile vanished.
Cheng Ying activated the self-driving mode, leaned back against the seat, and covered her eyes with her hand. Her thin lips were pressed tightly together as she tried hard to control her emotions.
After a moment, she spoke, “Mantou, what’s the current status of Cheng Liang’s plan?”
Cheng Mantou’s weak voice sounded in her mind, “I almost thought you were going to kill him just now…”
Cheng Ying was silent for a moment, then a mocking smile touched the corner of her mouth. “This is a critical period. How could he be allowed to die?”
Cheng Mantou didn’t know if Cheng Ying had truly considered it, but the situation just now had indeed been dangerous. Cheng Ying had suddenly taken control of her network and manipulated the pen to explode.
She didn’t doubt that if Cheng Ying wanted to, she could even control the fragments and force of the pen’s explosion.
She only needed to make a slightly larger fragment slice across Cheng Liang’s carotid artery at the right angle to easily complete an “accidental” murder.
Cheng Mantou didn’t dare provoke Cheng Ying at this moment and reported in a formal, by-the-book manner, “Cheng Liang has already persuaded most of the shareholders to join him and has drafted documents to force an abdication. Barring any other accidents, he will be able to replace Cheng Bai and become the complete controller of Cheng’s within this month. The restart plan for ‘Chaos’ is also on his schedule. It’s estimated he will start on it immediately after successfully taking power.”
A month was still too long.
Cheng Ying looked at the script she had tossed onto the passenger seat. On an open page, the words “Invested by Feng’s Food Group” were particularly glaring.
She lowered her eyes. “Tell me, if we start planning to bankrupt Feng’s Food now, what’s the fastest it could be done?”
“Uh,” Cheng Mantou was choked up by the sudden change of topic. After a long pause, she answered cautiously, “Feng’s Food is one of the leading companies in the food industry…”
“I know.” Her suddenly willful master interrupted her imperiously, without any awareness that she was making an unreasonable demand. “I just want to know how long it will take.”
“Hmm… for a group of this size, a public opinion war would be ineffective. We can only look for loopholes in their business operations. Just investigating for problems would take at least two weeks, and even then, we can’t rule out the possibility that they have no problems.”
Cheng Ying: “…Then start investigating now.”
Cheng Mantou: “Understood.”
After Cheng Mantou left, Cheng Ying picked up the script again, but she couldn’t read a single word.
How could she have the face to show this script to Jiang Hanguang?
Even though she could stop the movie’s release, she couldn’t prevent the filming now.
She looked at her own hands, which were still trembling slightly. In the man-made accident a short while ago, she had stopped in the end.
Because she knew very well that killing Cheng Liang now would make it impossible to stop Cheng Mo.
Cheng Mo was an opponent countless times more terrifying than Cheng Liang, and she would never let her go.
Never mind what the world would become then; the most crucial thing was, if she lost, what would happen to Jiang Hanguang?
Would Cheng Mo let her go?
Cheng Ying was unwilling to consider that minuscule possibility. What she wanted was for Jiang Hanguang to be completely safe and sound.
Even if that so-called complete safety was merely choosing the lesser of two evils.
Cheng Ying knew she had made the right choice, but she still couldn’t help but loathe herself.
Loathing her own powerlessness.
Cheng Liang’s scolding was right. A person who couldn’t even protect their own lover was indeed useless.
Not long after Cheng Ying left, Jiang Hanguang woke up.
She didn’t have the habit of sleeping in, and since her peaceful sleep had been disturbed, she was groggy for a while before getting up decisively.
Then she discovered a nearly dry wet spot on her chest. Puzzled, she unbuttoned her clothes and found a bite mark. The mark was very faint, but it was conspicuous enough on her fair, tender skin.
Jiang Hanguang: “…”
She recalled what Cheng Ying had said when she left and detected a hint of a guilty conscience in her words.
The Omega on the bed’s ears turned red, but the corners of her mouth lifted as she gently chided the culprit who had already fled the scene.
“Scoundrel.”
After finishing breakfast, Jiang Hanguang had just sat down on the sofa, preparing to look up a few movies to relax, when she heard the sound of the front door opening.
Cheng Ying was back.
Her heart beat a cheerful rhythm, and she stood up with a smile to greet her.
But she saw that the usually cheerful Alpha now had her eyes downcast, looking rather unhappy.
“Xiao Ying, what’s wrong?” Jiang Hanguang worriedly took her hand.
Cheng Ying let her lead her to the sofa.
She still didn’t speak, making Jiang Hanguang even more worried. She gently cupped her face, looked into her eyes, and caressed her cheek. “What is it? Can you tell me?”
The woman’s bright, dark eyes were full of gentle love, making one want to drown in them.
But Cheng Ying didn’t dare to look into the woman’s eyes.
The kinder Jiang Hanguang was, the more guilty she felt.
After so many years, for the first time, she had someone she cared for immensely and wanted to protect with all her might, yet she still had to compromise.
She really hadn’t improved one bit.
She finally mustered the courage to hand over the script. “Cheng Liang… my brother said he wants you to film this movie.”
Then, like a child who had done something wrong, she dodged the woman’s hand and shrank to the other end of the sofa.
Jiang Hanguang flipped through the script and understood what was going on.
She sighed softly, looked at Cheng Ying with a smile, and moved next to the Alpha huddled in the corner of the sofa. “Is this why you’re unhappy?”
Cheng Ying nodded. “I couldn’t stop it…”
She had wanted to comfort Jiang Hanguang by saying the movie wouldn’t be released anyway, and even if it were, it would only be after she had turned Feng Nan into a public pariah. But then she realized that saying such things now was no different from daydreaming, so she could only remain silent.
In the silence, she was gently embraced by the woman beside her. That soft, warm hug was like a vine, entwining her fragile heart.
She wanted to cry, to bury her face in the woman’s embrace and say she was sorry, but she felt she didn’t have the right.
The bold promises she had once made had become a joke in the face of helpless reality.
Jiang Hanguang didn’t comfort her directly, but simply patted her shoulder gently. The Cheng Ying of this moment seemed to have reverted to that fragile Alpha from her susceptible period.
Jiang Hanguang felt not a shred of resentment toward her, only an overwhelming ache in her heart.
“I already thought about these things when I was divorcing Feng Nan.” Jiang Hanguang said, stroking the Alpha’s soft hair. “He’s not the broad-minded type; in fact, he’s often very extreme. I knew he would definitely retaliate, but there was nothing I could do.”
Cheng Ying couldn’t help but look up at Jiang Hanguang. A helpless and bitter smile was on the woman’s face. “Actually, when I was looking to sign with an agency, several good companies sent me invitations, but in the end, without exception, none of the signings were successful.”
Cheng Ying’s eyes widened. She suddenly understood. Jiang Hanguang falling into Fan Jie’s hands wasn’t a mistake by the company’s review department, but a deliberate act.
Feng Nan’s revenge had already begun back then.
Her heart ached even more, but Jiang Hanguang still looked nonchalant, as if telling someone else’s story. “At that time, I thought I would never have a chance to make a name for myself in this lifetime. But I couldn’t have regrets. It was the path I chose, so I had to swallow the bitter fruit myself.”
Cheng Ying didn’t know what to say to comfort her and could only refute softly, “That’s not true…”
There was no way Jiang Hanguang married Feng Nan willingly. She just… never had a choice.
Jiang Hanguang smiled and shook her head. “I was unwilling to marry him back then, so my father made me kneel for three days. Later, when I packed my things to run away, my mother knelt at the door, telling me to save them, that if the company went bankrupt, they wouldn’t be able to survive.”
Cheng Ying clenched her fists. She had thought about these things, but hearing Jiang Hanguang say them aloud was a completely different feeling.
The family that had never given her warmth had, in a time of crisis, mortgaged her off like a piece of merchandise.
How much pain Jiang Hanguang must have been in back then.
“I was too cowardly. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t step over my kneeling mother,” but the woman was still smiling. “So I could only marry him. This was my choice. I can’t blame anyone else.”
Cheng Ying really couldn’t bear to hear her talk about herself like that. She raised a hand to cover her mouth, frowning. “That’s not cowardice.”
If being too kind was cowardice, then this world was truly beyond saving.
But the woman gently yet irresistibly pulled her hand away and continued speaking.
“The day before you signed me, I was still considering whether to terminate my contract with Fan Jie, leave this industry, and spend the rest of my life paying off the breach of contract fee.” Jiang Hanguang looked at her gently. “And then, I met you.”
The woman lightly kissed her hand. “It was you who told me I could become famous. It was you who let everyone know about the Mo Yan I played. It was you who pulled me out of that hopeless situation. It was you… who made me feel that I’m actually very lucky. You’ve done so much for me that I don’t even know how I can ever repay you.”
Cheng Ying shook her head, not knowing if she was trying to say there was no need to repay her or that her own motives weren’t so noble.
I just wanted you to be my flower, I just wanted… to have you.
Jiang Hanguang looked at her, her eyes filled with sincere love. “Now we’ve encountered a problem that even you can’t solve, but it’s okay. I always thought I would have to face all of this alone. Having you here now is already the best thing I could have ever dreamed of.”
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