At He family estate,
He Ruilin had been turning around on the bed. She could not fall asleep. She looked at her phone every few minutes, but no call nor messages came in.
Finally, she could not lie still. She sat up and took her phone. After a moment of hesitation, she dialed a number.
She held onto her phone with trembling hands. She was nervous and excited.
That night, she had installed a video surveillance in the room. He Ruize did not know about it.
This was the only thing she had to blackmail Zong Jinghao.
If he cared about Lin Xinyan, he would not let this video where Lin Xinyan was being stripped spread on the internet as porn video.
Zong Jinghao looked at his phone as his thumb rubbed on the screen. Just as his phone was about to stop ringing, he picked up the call.
“Hao.” He Ruilin said excitedly.
She thought Zong Jinghao would not accept her call.
Zong Jinghao did not answer her. Her feelings did not affect him.
Slowly, He Ruilin calmed down. The hand on the blanket tensed and relaxed a few times before she opened her mouth. “Did you receive the video? Was it exciting?”
Zong Jinghao’s eyes were half-closed. As if time had stopped, the storms in his eyes had been paused.
“Let’s meet. I’ve booked a room at Shanghuang Hotel. Room 108. I’ll be waiting for you. You can choose to not come, but I can guarantee you that the video in which Lin Xinyan was being stripped would be all over the net. She would be the target for horny men.”
She ended the call but her heart was still thumping loudly.
She was nervous.
Yet when she thought about meeting him, she was excited.
She stood up from the messy bed and ran to the wardrobe barefooted. She started to look for the clothes she was going to wear tonight.
The wardrobe was filled with expensive suits and dresses but none of it was what she wanted. She felt that none of it was pretty enough for tonight.
Yet it was too late to buy clothes now, so she took them all out and tried them one by one.
Her excited look right now was like a young lady who had just fallen in love and about to meet the man of her dreams. She had to become more beautiful so that she could present him the most beautiful look of hers.
To make him surprised and fall in love with her.
It was her dream for Zong Jinghao to fall in love with her.
Lin Xinyan went out of the bathroom and saw Aunt Yu enthusiastically greeting her. It was written all over Aunt Yu’s face that she knew what had happened in the bathroom earlier.
Lin Xinyan lowered her head in embarrassment and gave herself an excuse to leave. “I’m going to check on Xichen.”
She walked into the room.
She could not withstand that enthusiastic look from Aunt Yu.
“We’ll be eating soon.” Aunt Yu told her.
Lin Xinyan pretended not to have heard her and went into the room.
She only came out when it was time to eat.
Now that Lin Ruixi had a “dad”, she did not even want Lin Xinyan anymore. When she was about to eat, she ran to sit beside Zong Jinghao. “I want to sit with dad.”
Zhuang Zijin went to carry her away. “Sit with grandma.”
She was afraid that the little girl would not be able to leave Zong Jinghao eventually.
This was not good. After all, Zong Jinghao was not really her dad.
“No, I want to sit with dad.” She pulled Zong Jinghao’s arm and hugged in tightly.
No one could separate her from her dad.
“Ruixi—”
“Let her be.” Zong Jinghao said quietly.
Zhuang Zijin was silent for a moment. “The girl isn’t being thoughtful. Don’t mind her.”
“I don’t mind.” Zong Jinghao let her sit beside him. “You can be yourself here. Treat this like your home. I’m sure you were unhappy about my divorce with Lin Xinyan.”
Zhuang Zijin’s attitude towards him had been ambiguous and Zong Jinghao could sense it.
Zhuang Zijin was honest; everyone knew what was going on. “You are divorced, technically we should not come to disturb you—”
“I think you’ve mistaken about the divorce.” Zong Jinghao was not in a hurry to explain. He slowly said, “Lin Xinyan and I—”
His gaze turned to Lin Xinyan. “Lin Xinyan and I had not gone through the divorce officially, so we were not planning to divorce.”
“What?” Zhuang Zijin looked at her daughter in shock as she asked, “Is this true?”
Lin Xinyan nodded honestly.
Zhuang Zijin was in disbelief. She had always thought that Lin Xinyan no longer had a relationship with Zong Jinghao.
“So, officially we are still husband and wife.” He was hinting to Zhuang Zijin that Lin Xinyan’s staying here was normal and legal.
“Aunt Yu, I’ll be going out tonight.” He had not been planning to eat at home, but he did not want Zhuang Zijin to be staying here anxiously, so he told her his plans.
“You’re not eating at home?” Lin Xinyan was the one who asked this but she regretted it as soon as it left her mouth. It seemed pointless.
He gave a soft laugh and faintly hummed in response. “I have something to do. You’ll be staying in the room you once stayed in. Xichen is already inside, so it’ll be easier for you to take care of him.”
Lin Xinyan felt grateful for his arrangement. She nodded and said again, “Thank you.”
“We’re husband and wife, you don’t need to be so polite to me.” He said the first five words louder. It seemed like he was emphasizing to Lin Xinyan, and also to Aunt Yu and Zhuang Zijin. He wanted them to understand his relationship with Lin Xinyan.
Zong Jinghao stood up and Lin Ruixi held tightly onto his arm. “Where is dad going? Can I follow you?”
She blinked her eyes as she looked up.
Zong Jinghao pinched her tiny nose and rejected her. “No.”
“Why?” Lin Ruixi asked, disappointed. She wanted to follow her dad.
What if he did not come back after he left?
Then she would not have a dad anymore.
No, she could not let dad just leave.
Zong Jinghao coaxed her patiently. “Do you want me to like you?”
Without hesitation, Lin Ruixi nodded. “Yes.”
“You’ll have to listen to me, then I’ll like you, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, you have to wait here at home like a good girl.”
Lin Ruixi felt a little unwilling, but she still nodded. “Okay, come back early.”
If she was not a good girl, she was afraid that dad would not like her.
Zong Jinghao went upstairs to change. The shirt he had just now was wet when Lin Ruixi was washing his face. It felt uncomfortable sticking to his skin.
Under the light, he looked handsome, charming, and eye-catching under the pure black suit.
However, he had a cold look on his face, which gave off a sense of suppressed desire.
Lin Ruixi stared at the man who came down the stairs and fell into a trance.
Zhuang Zijin had been feeding her but she was too lost to remember opening her mouth. Her big eyes were staring right at him.
“Ruixi.” Zhuang Zijin reminded her.
Lin Ruixi came back to her senses and sighed. “Dad is so handsome.”
Her dad was the most handsome person in the world.
Zhuang Zijin was surprised by her granddaughter’s action. She seemed a little too young to be fangirling.
When Zong Jinghao reached the entrance, Lin Ruixi suddenly slid down the chair and ran over. She stood nearby, looked at him, and asked, “Dad, will you still come back? Will you abandon us? Will you not want us anymore?”
Lin Xichen had told her it was dad who did not want them. She was afraid that dad would never come back after he went out this door, abandoning her, Xichen, and mommy again.
Her eyes were red and her voice was hoarse as she said, “Don’t leave us.”
She was afraid, so afraid.
She did not want to leave dad.
Looking at her anxious eyes, Zong Jinghao walked over to pat her head. With a determined tone, he said, “I won’t.”
The girl was happy again. She smiled as she said, “Kiss!”
She tiptoed and reached out her hands for a hug, signaling him for a kiss.
Zong Jinghao lowered himself down and Lin Ruixi circled her arms around his neck. Smack! A wet slobbery kiss on his face with some rice that she had not swallowed.
Zong Jinghao lost his words.
I must have done terrible things in my past life. Why else would Lin Xinyan and her two children come to torture me in this life, he thought.
