Chapter 134: You Hit Her, I Hit You

Jiang Yao spoke as she drained the wine in her glass, and a single icy tear slowly slid down her cheek.

He Yunqing, seated across from her, reached out. His warm, cool fingertips moved slowly over her cheek, gently wiping away the tear.

The genuine sensation left Jiang Yao stunned.

She instinctively seized He Yunqing’s large hand and squeezed it twice.

Then, as though she had suddenly realized something, she sprang from her seat like a released spring.

Embarrassed and astonished, she raised a hand and pointed at him. “You… you…”

“What about me?” He Yunqing asked calmly from across the table.

Jiang Yao swallowed. “You’re really He Yunqing?!”

“Is there a fake He Yunqing?”

Jiang Yao shook her head, then carefully examined the man before her once more. Only then did she finally confirm that he was truly alive and standing before her.

He had come back.

Jiang Yao sat down again. Somewhat awkwardly, she wiped away her tears before speaking once more. “Your voice… it’s healed?”

“You can hear it?”

Jiang Yao nodded in relief, genuinely delighted. “That’s wonderful. As long as it’s healed, that’s wonderful.”

“Is it?”

“Of course it is.” Jiang Yao prodded at the food in the pot with her chopsticks, trying to conceal her earlier embarrassment. “Once it’s healed, you can go back to the way things were.”

“Can we really go back to the way things were?”

“Of course we can. You can continue acting and singing, and there will still be plenty of people supporting you.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

He Yunqing’s gaze was like two sharp blades. When their cold glint swept over her, it felt as though they had scraped against her heart.

The hand holding her chopsticks trembled involuntarily.

Then she continued pretending that nothing was wrong. “Your career, obviously. What else could it be?”

“You said you would wait for me to come back.” He Yunqing went straight to the point.

“I did say that. But there are many kinds of waiting, you know. Besides waiting for someone you love, there’s waiting born of family, friendship, and all sorts of other feelings. And I did wait for you, didn’t I?”

Jiang Yao forced herself to keep speaking.

“Then which kind were you?”

“I…” Jiang Yao was driven into silence. She turned the question back on him. “What kind do you think it was?”

“Jiang Yao!” He Yunqing pressed her relentlessly. “Then what do you call all the things you said to me just now?”

“He Yunqing!” Her voice trembled so faintly it was almost imperceptible. “We’ve already broken up.”

He Yunqing looked at her, even her lips trembling slightly with agitation. Unable to bear pressing her any further, he lowered his head in silence and poured himself a glass of wine.

She was already carrying Cheng Yanchi’s child.

It was only a matter of time before she married Cheng Yanchi. More importantly, it was the right choice.

And yet, when he had seen the news abroad that she was about to become engaged to Cheng Yanchi, he had ended his treatment ahead of schedule and hurried back home.

But what could he do after returning?

He could not stop Jiang Yao from marrying Cheng Yanchi. He could not even demand an answer from her.

All he could do was watch helplessly as she quietly walked toward another man.

But even so, he had come back.

At the very least, he had to see her once before she became engaged to someone else…

He had seen her now, but seeing her had only left him with a deeper sense of helplessness.

A small hand gently pressed down on the rim of his glass.

Jiang Yao stared at He Yunqing stubbornly, refusing to let him drink.

The man’s long, jade-like fingers brushed her hand aside with a light flick. Then he picked up the glass himself, his throat moving once as he drained it in a single swallow.

“I have something to do.”

The man rose and turned to leave. After a moment’s thought, he looked back. “Don’t forget to send me an invitation when you get engaged.”

That one sentence pierced Jiang Yao’s heart once more.

He knew exactly how to make her hurt.

Jiang Yao watched his retreating figure. She closed her eyes, and tears poured down her cheeks…

Luo Yixian had been in a terrible mess lately.

Ever since Jiang Yao and Ye Yiyi had come to see him, he seemed to have run into one piece of bad luck after another. Nothing at work was going smoothly, and several business deals had fallen through.

The few new girlfriends he had recently taken up with had suddenly become impossible to handle, constantly making scenes and picking fights with him.

During the day, someone had even come looking for him and demanded that he cooperate with an investigation into his tax affairs.

If he had truly been clean and aboveboard, that would have been one thing. Unfortunately, he knew perfectly well that he was anything but innocent.

He was sitting alone in his car, smoking gloomily, when someone knocked twice on the window.

Luo Yixian looked up and saw a tall, broad-shouldered man standing beside the car.

He lowered the window and discovered that it was He Yunqing.

At that moment, He Yunqing stood with both hands clasped behind his back, his body turned slightly away from Luo Yixian’s car as he gazed into the distance, looking like a statue.

Luo Yixian frowned and drawled, “Well, well, who do we have here? Isn’t this the celebrity He Yunqing, the one accused of sexually harassing someone?”

He Yunqing could not be bothered to waste words on him. He knocked twice more on the car door and ordered, “Get out.”

Already irritated, Luo Yixian got out at once. His tone was contemptuous and mocking. “What is it? I heard you’d gone mute. You’re cured now?”

The instant the words left his mouth, He Yunqing’s fist came flying at him with the force of a violent gust, landing squarely against Luo Yixian’s cheek.

Luo Yixian staggered and spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Are you insane?”

“I’ve been drinking. I felt like finding someone to spar with,” He Yunqing said calmly.

Luo Yixian sneered. “Give me a break. Jiang Yao told you, didn’t she? That I instructed Feng Xiao to frame you, and now you hold a grudge against me. I’ll tell you the truth—so what if I did instruct her? What are you going to do about it?”

He Yunqing elegantly flexed his wrist.

“You can slander me if you want. But your mistake was laying a hand on Jiang Yao.”

“And what if I did?” Luo Yixian asked in a brazen, insolent tone.

He Yunqing threw another punch, this one striking Luo Yixian squarely in the stomach.

“You hit her, so I hit you.”

“You want to fight? You think I’m afraid of you? I’ve got plenty of anger with nowhere to vent it!” Luo Yixian grimaced in pain, but still refused to back down. He raised his fist and swung it at He Yunqing.

The two men immediately grappled with each other.

Luo Yixian was no match for He Yunqing. After only a few exchanges, his face was swollen and bruised.

“All right, all right,” he pleaded hurriedly. “I was wrong, okay? Are you really trying to beat me to death?”

He Yunqing’s eyes were bloodshot. The fist he had raised stopped in midair.

“Looks like the rumors are true after all. You really do care about that Jiang Yao.”

He Yunqing seized Luo Yixian by the collar.

“I do. So you’d better know your place.”

The warmth had vanished from the man’s gaze. What shone from the depths of his eyes was the icy glint of a beast, and a chilling murderous intent seemed to radiate from his entire body.

His presence sent a shiver through Luo Yixian.

“All right, all right, I understand. As long as she stops coming after me, I’d have to be out of my mind to provoke her again.”