Chapter 24

Chapter 24

He Wei remembered this man.

She wasn’t entirely sure about the specifics, she only remembered that he was a second-generation rich kid, and had a very nouveau-riche sounding name.

Female celebrities are different from male celebrities; setting up a “newly in love” persona actually helps attract fans. So ever since Mu Sheng started dating this rich upstart, she had never avoided paparazzi or cameras.

Over these past few months, Mu Sheng had gained a million fans, and her value had also risen because of this wealthy boyfriend. Otherwise, there was no way she could have gotten a role in Cheng Yan’s production.

He Wei’s eardrums tightened and loosened repeatedly from the man’s shouting. She frowned and couldn’t help but raise a hand to cover her ear.

The man gradually calmed down a little at this point.

He thought Yan Huai simply couldn’t tolerate such crude language. After taking a rough breath, he tugged at his collar and forced himself to speak more politely:

“Sorry, President Yan. I was just too angry and didn’t control my emotions… sigh, you didn’t see the injuries on my girlfriend’s face…”

The man gestured on his own face. “It was swollen to almost two centimeters. She relies on her face for a living—you know how important her face is!”

The more he spoke, the more his anger surged uncontrollably. He glared fiercely at He Wei.

“President Yan, don’t be fooled by her. Don’t think she looks soft and harmless—actually…”

He looked like Popeye after eating spinach.

Before he could finish, Yan Huai interrupted him in a low voice.

“What do you want to do?”

He Wei looked up at him, her entire heart instantly sinking into an ice cellar.

Although Feng Ning had said a few hours earlier that Yan Huai had a new woman, He Wei hadn’t expected him to just push her out like this.

“Make her apologize to Sheng Sheng, and let Sheng Sheng slap her twice to vent her anger!”

This rich young master was used to being spoiled and acted on impulse. Moreover, since Yan Huai had called him here today, and their families did business together and had some relationship, he thought Yan Huai was simply helping him deal with this “bitch” woman.

After all, on the phone earlier, Yan Huai hadn’t said a single word in her defense—otherwise he wouldn’t have been so reckless.

The man thought of his little girlfriend’s face swollen like a pig head and grew both angry and distressed. He added in a rough voice:

“No, two slaps aren’t enough! Slap her until Sheng Sheng is satisfied!”

The upstart probably wanted her life.

Getting slapped that many times might as well be worse than restarting her life.

He Wei, however, had instead become calm. She raised her eyes and glanced at the man across from her.

Yan Huai lifted his chin slightly.

“Finished?”

“Mm… more or less.”

Yan Huai’s lips curled slightly. With his left hand, he lifted the half-smoked cigarette from his mouth, then twisted it between two fingers, reversing its direction. In the next second, He Wei saw him press the glowing cigarette head—fast and precise—onto the base of the man’s right hand that was resting on the table.

A pig-slaughter-like scream immediately erupted from the upstart—

“Ah… Yan, President Yan, you you you…”

“I’m teaching you how to speak.”

He Wei’s face went pale, unable to tell whether she was shocked or frightened.

The upstart jumped back half a meter in fear of another strike. The burn on his palm was unbearably painful, and his right hand trembled uncontrollably, even his voice shaking:

“You you you…”

Yan Huai flicked the cigarette butt into the ashtray.

“Mu Sheng has been a nude stand-in for two years.”

The man’s expression changed drastically.

“President Yan, Mu Sheng is your company’s artist…”

How could a boss harm his own employee like that?

Yan Huai raised his brow slightly, his expression cold and indifferent. “He Wei is still my woman.”

He Wei: “……”

She is not!

The upstart was also greatly shocked. His jaw nearly dropped. Before he could speak again, Yan Huai continued:

“I heard that in the past few years you played pretty wildly—used drugs, and caused three women to have abortions.”

At this moment, the upstart could no longer even feel the pain in his hand.

“Which one of these two do you want exposed?”

“Y-Young Master Yan, I know I was wrong, I shouldn’t have spoken to Miss He like that…”

“You’re apologizing to me for what?”

The man hurriedly turned toward He Wei and bowed deeply. “Miss He, I apologize on behalf of Mu Sheng and myself. I hope you can be magnanimous and not hold it against us…”

Yan Huai let out a faint, mocking laugh. “That’s it?”

The upstart froze.

Could it be that he still had to kneel?

He figured Yan Huai probably didn’t have that kind of preference, and after thinking for a few seconds, he finally understood what he meant. He quickly said:

“Miss He, our company actually still has a brand endorsement that hasn’t been decided yet. I wonder if you’d be interested in working with us… we’ll definitely offer you the highest industry rate!”

He Wei: “……”

The shift in tone was so abrupt that she didn’t react immediately. She instinctively glanced at Yan Huai across from her.

The man happened to be looking at her too. His gaze was deep and heavy. Their eyes met, and He Wei quickly looked away, giving a dry “mm.”

Same old rule—if a pie falls from the sky, not taking it makes you an idiot.

She would just treat this endorsement as compensation for that slap.

At least it counted as misfortune turning into fortune.

The man visibly relaxed, bowed to both of them again, and said, “Thank you, President Yan, thank you, Miss He. I won’t disturb your meal any further…”

As soon as the words fell, as if afraid Yan Huai would call him back, the upstart fled the room.

Only after leaving the teahouse did he call his unreliable girlfriend:

“Who the hell did you hear from that Yan Huai dumped He Wei?!”

His right hand still throbbed with pain at the base of the thumb.

“Damn it, if you can’t afford to mess with He Wei in the future, stay the hell away from her, got it?”

He had almost had his own dirty secrets exposed.

The person on the other end didn’t know what they said. The man cursed again:

“Cry, cry, all you ever do is cry. What the hell use are you to me!”

After the upstart left, the atmosphere in the private room became tense and silent.

He Wei’s breathing was very light—so light it was almost inaudible. She kept her head down and didn’t dare look at Yan Huai.

After about two minutes, she heard him ask:

“Were you scared?”

He Wei blinked and softly replied, “Mm.”

What she didn’t say was that compared to that upstart who shouted and even tried to hit her, she was even more afraid of Yan Huai just now—the man who had calmly pressed a cigarette onto someone’s hand without a change in expression.

The gentler he seemed, the deeper the cruelty hidden in his bones, and the more dangerous he became.

But precisely because he was that kind of person, when he became gentle, it carried a fatal kind of attraction.

It was deadly.

He Wei could even confirm that if not for her previous life, she might already have fallen completely into Yan Huai’s gentle trap by now.

But there were no “ifs.”

In her previous life, the scene of him driving into her was still vivid in her mind.

That time, the brakes were applied in time—if they hadn’t been, what then?

Would she have been crippled, or directly killed?

Just like when he crashed into that investor before, or when he burned the upstart with a cigarette today—he showed no restraint whatsoever.

He Wei used to not understand it and thought Yan Huai simply disliked her because she was Yan Chen’s girlfriend, and thus resented her as well.

But after restarting this life, the more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt—

Compared to being disgusted because of Yan Chen, it seemed more like… because he loved her but couldn’t have her, so he chose to ruin her out of desperation.

So when he heard her say she had broken up with Yan Chen, the desire in his eyes almost overflowed without concealment. Unfortunately, at that time He Wei’s mind was entirely on the fact that she had restarted her life, and she didn’t notice it at all.

Now that she thought carefully, she could actually recall his expression very clearly.

It was over.

If it was really because of unrequited love, then wasn’t her current situation very dangerous?

He Wei suddenly didn’t feel well at all.

It wasn’t like she had never experienced those thunderous, cliché teenage romance novels before, and she knew very well the usual routine of those obsessive CEO male leads—locking the female lead up in a dark room, breaking her legs when she tried to escape, and so on.

He Wei felt Yan Huai absolutely had that kind of potential. She couldn’t help but tremble slightly just as the private room door opened and a waiter came in to serve the dishes.

Two or three minutes later, the waiter left and closed the door, and the room fell quiet again.

There weren’t many dishes, each one fragrant and appetizing, but He Wei had completely lost her appetite. Her hand under the table clenched slightly, and then she looked up.

“Yan Huai.”

In either lifetime, she rarely called his name.

This was only the second time.

Yan Huai lifted his eyes slightly. “Mm.”

He Wei clenched her fingers, staring directly into his eyes. “In the future… will you do that to me too?”

After all, he had plenty of methods—he could always find other people’s weaknesses and then push you straight into hell.

“If you behave, I won’t.”

“And if I…” He Wei’s voice caught. “If I don’t behave?”

Yan Huai stared at her reddened eye corners. After a long pause, he suddenly let out a soft laugh.

“Then I won’t either.”

How could he bear to.

These past few days while on business trips, he thought about seeing her every day.

He missed her very, very much.

So much that he wanted to see her, to hear her softly call him “husband.”

Yan Huai got off the plane yesterday, and at night he couldn’t fall asleep no matter what he did on his own bed. In the end, he still went to He Wei’s room.

The bed was clean and neat, with a very pleasant laundry detergent scent. For once, he slept deeply and steadily through the night.

He Wei felt a sourness in her nose, her heart unsettled and chaotic. Even she herself didn’t know whether she believed him more or doubted him more.

She didn’t speak anymore. The corners of her eyes were still slightly wet, stirred up by the behavior of those two men earlier.

Just as she was about to change the topic, the man across from her suddenly stood up, walked around the table toward her, and stopped beside her. He slightly bent down to look at her, and after a moment, lifted his finger and gently wiped away the tears at the corner of He Wei’s eye.

And then, in the next second, He Wei saw him bring that finger—stained with her tears—to his lips. He extended the tip of his tongue and lightly licked it.

When he spoke, his tone was low and suggestive, carrying a faint erotic undertone along with his movement:

“Salty.”

He Wei: “……”

She blinked without moving, clearly feeling the man’s fingertip brushing across her face.

“Does it still hurt?”

He Wei shook her head.

She guessed what Yan Huai was about to do and was just about to put distance between them when her shoulders were pressed down by him.

“Don’t dodge.”

He Wei held her breath.

The next second, the man placed a very light, gentle kiss on her forehead.

It was soft and tender, without a trace of desire.

Yet He Wei’s heart began to beat wildly, and the tips of her ears inexplicably grew hot.

Yan Huai had already straightened up. In just a few seconds, he had returned to that untouchable, distant demeanor.

“Now let’s talk about business.”

His eyes lowered toward the blue-and-white porcelain plate.

He Wei followed his gaze and looked over as well. She had still felt awkward about it earlier, but now she actually relaxed a little.

“How much do you want to sell it for?”

It seemed like he didn’t remember.

He Wei let out a breath and raised three fingers. “Three hundred thousand… I guess.”

She had checked—it was the normal market price.

“Short on money?”

“……”

He Wei wondered if she had been too greedy and was just about to lower the price when Yan Huai lightly tapped his finger on the table.

“Then five hundred thousand.”

“…Isn’t that too much?”

“Then one million?”

He Wei: “……”

So nice to have money.