Qin Ya appeared somewhat distracted and listless because she was worried about Su Zhan, who was not seen at the wedding ceremony.
Sitting next to Qin Ya, who was not uttering a word, Lin Xinyan could tell that she was in low spirits.
“It must be a tiring day for you.” Lin Xinyan poured her a glass of water.
Qin Ya took a sip of water before answering, “I’m fine. By the way, I notice that Su Zhan isn’t here tonight. Did anything happen to him?”
At last, she couldn’t resist but ask about Su Zhan’s whereabouts.
It was obvious to Lin Xinyan that Qin Ya had yet to move on from Su Zhan.
Pouring herself a glass of water too, Lin Xinyan swirled it as she asked, “Why’re you asking me that? Is it because you still care about him?”
“I am not,” Qin Ya denied it right away before she clarified, “Is it normal for him to be absent at your wedding ceremony with Zong Jinghao?”
Lin Xinyan did not answer her right away. Instead, she took two sips of water first before slowly speaking, “He’s been here all the time; he just didn’t show up in front of the guests.”
“Why?” Qin Ya pressed on.
Lin Xinyan put down the glass of water and stared at Qin Ya without responding to her. She was sure Qin Ya cared about Su Zhan a lot, judging from how eager she was to find out what happened to him. She blurted that question out of her instinct and there was no way she could fake it.
Soon, it dawned upon Qin Ya that her reaction had sold herself. She tried to justify but failed to come up with a valid reason. All at once, she appeared flustered and restless.
Lin Xinyan cast a glance at the door and checked the time on her watch. I suppose Zong Jinghao has tricked Su Zhan into coming here already?
With that thought in mind, she decided to get straight to the point. “Ya, it’s very obvious you care about Su Zhan.”
“I don’t.” This time, there was a diffidence in Qin Ya’s soft voice.
At first, she tried to hold back the urge to ask about Su Zhan so as not to reveal her feelings. However, her effort was in vain now that Lin Xinyan already saw her through.
Instead of probing her for answers, Lin Xinyan gave her time to sort out her thoughts.
Meanwhile, Shen Peichuan was meeting Zong Jinghao in the room next door. Shen Peichuan had found out the sender of the gift Lin Xin received before the ceremony. However, he did not share the information with her because it was sent by someone from the Gu family. In order not to make Lin Xinyan worry, he lied to her and decided to tell Zong Jinghao about it after the wedding ceremony.
Seeing Su Zhan standing at the door to the lounge where Lin Xinyan was resting, Shen Peichuan asked, “Su Zhan’s been avoiding people the whole night. How come he’s standing outside the lounge now? Why doesn’t he just enter the room?”
Zong Jinghao, who was sitting with his back leaning on the sofa, adjusted the collar of his shirt as he responded, “That’s part of my plan.”
Zong Jinghao told Su Zhan to meet him at the lounge as he had something to tell him. When Su Zhan reached the lounge, it naturally followed that he would catch the conversation between Lin Xinyan and Qin Ya.
At first, Su Zhan intended to leave the moment he heard Qin Ya was inside. However, Zong Jinghao made him stay there without telling him the reason.
Just as Su Zhan was puzzled by his action, he heard Lin Xinyan saying, “Ya, it’s very obvious you care about Su Zhan.”
For some reason, he had a burning desire to hear Qin Ya’s answer and to see whether she still cared about him.
He was fine even if she no longer loved him. As long as she cared about him, it showed that she still had feelings for him.
Perhaps in that way, he would not feel that his feelings for her were worthless.
When Shen Peichuan came to meet Zong Jinghao, he saw Su Zhan straining his ears trying to catch Qin Ya’s response.
“Why did you make him stand there?” Shen Peichuan was puzzled. Was it because Zong Jinghao wanted Su Zhan to eavesdrop on the conversation of the people inside the room?
As quick-witted as Shen Peichuan, it took him a very short time to come to the conclusion that Qin Ya must be inside that room too. “I’m impressed by how kind Xinyan and you are by putting in so much effort to help Su Zhan, even though the two of you are already exhausted after the ceremony.”
Not wanting to continue the discussion on Su Zhan, Zong Jinghao cut him off by asking, “What is it that you need to tell me?”
Shen Peichuan’s face turned solemn at once. “Xinyan received a gift before the ceremony.”
Although Zong Jinghao was not drunk, he was feeling slightly tipsy. Thus, he appeared unperturbed in response to what Shen Peichuan said, because he did not think there was anything fishy with Lin Xinyan receiving a wedding gift from her friends.
“The gift’s from Gu Huiyuan.” With that, Shen Peichuan fished out his phone to show Zong Jinghao the picture he took of the woman who appeared in the CCTV footage.
“That woman sent her gift to Xinyan through one of the staff members just now. Although what she gave Xinyan isn’t something dangerous or life-threatening, I still have a feeling that she’s up to no good.”
Zong Jinghao narrowed his eyes contemplatively. In fact, he had been keeping an eye on the Gu family all this while too. Although they were a huge family, not only were they divided and disunited, but they also had more enemies than friends.
To make things worse, Gu Bei had offended plenty of people himself because of his previous ruthless behavior too. This time, it was unlikely that Gu Bei and his father would be able to turn the table.
Therefore, Zong Jinghao had been focusing his attention on Gu Bei’s elder sisters who were all married instead. So far, they had been behaving themselves. Zong Jinghao understood that he must know the ins and outs of the Gu family before plotting anything against them, so he did manage to gather some information on Gu Huiyuan too.
However, he was taken by surprise to see Gu Huiyuan making her move.
“What’s the gift she gave Xinyan?” Zong Jinghao queried.
“I didn’t see it clearly, but I can be sure it’s nothing dangerous. What are you going to do about it?” Shen Peichuan asked.
“Did you tell Xinyan that the gift was sent by Gu Huiyuan?” Zong Jinghao was worried about Lin Xinyan’s reaction when she was made aware of that. The last thing he wanted was to see her worry about such a matter.
“Nope. I told her I couldn’t find out anything about the sender. Luckily, she didn’t probe into it,” Shen Peichuan replied.
“Get someone to keep an eye on Gu Huiyuan.” Zong Jinghao had no time to handle that for the time being. After the wedding ceremony, he intended to keep Lin Xinyan company for two days. Also, Lin Xinyan had a pregnancy checkup scheduled the day after tomorrow and he wanted to be there with her.
