Outside, Tiantianquan, Chen Siyan, and the beautician stood there curiously, wanting to peek inside but not daring to.
Just as they were staring at one another in confusion, Qin Yuhe carried Song Xinya out.
The three of them saw that Song Xinya’s head was covered by Qin Yuhe’s black suit jacket.
The oversized garment wrapped around most of her upper body, concealing her face completely. Nothing could be seen.
“Ya Bao!”
Tiantianquan ran toward Song Xinya and reached out to lift the jacket covering her face.
Qin Yuhe shot her a chilling warning glance. Tiantianquan immediately withdrew her hand and froze like a statue, standing there without daring to move.
She had meant well. She was worried about her best friend and wanted to see if Song Xinya was all right, but she had overlooked the fact that they were not alone.
The commotion had already drawn a crowd.
Most people in the world preferred to stay out of trouble and watch from the sidelines.
Most had come merely to see the spectacle. Very few genuinely cared about anyone else.
When a young woman was assaulted by a man—even if the assault was unsuccessful—she would inevitably be subjected to gossip and criticism.
All kinds of emotions filled the onlookers’ eyes: amusement, curiosity, prying interest, mockery, and more.
If the jacket covering Song Xinya’s head were lifted, she would be exposed, utterly naked beneath the crowd’s scrutinizing gazes, adding yet another scar to what she had already endured.
He was protecting her dignity.
At that moment, all he wanted was to protect her properly.
The beauty salon’s director hurried over. Ignoring the men sprawled across the floor and howling for help, he stood before Qin Yuhe in fear and trepidation, his face deathly pale and his head bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle.
“Something like this happened in my beauty salon. President Qin, I’m truly sorry. No number of apologies could express how sorry I am. If there’s anything I can do for you, please give me your orders.”
Qin Yuhe’s voice carried an imposing, icy authority. His gaze swept across everyone present.
“No one is to speak of what happened today. If even the slightest rumor gets out, I swear on my life that I will find whoever leaked it and make him beg for death.”
The beauty salon director’s legs trembled. He hurriedly replied, “President Qin, please rest assured. It absolutely will not get out. I guarantee that I’ll make sure they won’t even dare discuss it among themselves.”
Qin Yuhe carried Song Xinya away in long strides, his broad, powerful back straight and imposing.
The burly man lying on the floor dragged his battered body to the beauty salon director’s feet and clutched his leg.
“Please, help us call an ambulance!”
The director kicked him away.
“Are you going to die or what? Then hurry up and die!”
His beauty salon had been doing perfectly well. If this group hadn’t caused trouble there, would he have had to live in such terror?
President Qin was the head of the Qin Group, a man whose family’s influence spanned politics, business, the military, and academia. Was he someone ordinary people could afford to provoke?
If this group wanted to die, they should have found some deserted place and done it quietly. Why on earth had they kidnapped President Qin’s wife and caused trouble in his salon? Damn it, just thinking about it made him furious. Tsk!
If anything had really happened to Qin’s wife in his salon, the hell with it—he didn’t even dare imagine the consequences. His entire family might have had to accompany her to the grave.
The beauty salon director shuddered all over.
He looked around at everyone present.
“Hand over your phones. I’m going to check them one by one to see whether anyone took photos or recorded a video.”
Everyone knew that this involved a powerful figure and did not dare offend him. They all took out their phones.
The director didn’t trust anyone else to handle it, so he personally inspected every phone.
The five burly men’s phones, as well as Sheng Tianjun’s, were locked, and the director didn’t know the passwords.
That didn’t matter. He confiscated every one of them, soaked them in disinfectant solution, and ruined them beyond repair—thoroughly purifying the evidence.
After finishing all this, the director drawled leisurely, “Wait until the six of them are on the verge of death—barely hanging on by a thread—before sending them to the hospital.”
………
Qin Yuhe carried Song Xinya out of the beauty salon. The driver and assistant had already been waiting for them.
The car door opened, and Qin Yuhe carried Song Xinya into the back seat.
The assistant glanced at the veiled Mrs. Qin, then at the unprecedentedly grim expression on President Qin’s face. He knew that something serious had happened.
A subordinate who understood the rules never pried into his superior’s private affairs. The assistant and driver stared straight ahead, sitting as still as robots without saying a word.
The doors closed, and all the windows rolled up. Qin Yuhe removed the jacket covering Song Xinya’s head.
Her emotions had already settled considerably. She had pulled herself out of that desperate, unbearable situation. She neither cried nor made a fuss, but her expression was vacant and dazed, as if half her soul had been torn away.
Qin Yuhe’s heart clenched with pain.
They had not seen each other for a month. He had imagined countless ways their reunion might unfold, and every one of them had involved happiness.
The one thing he had never imagined was that they would meet under circumstances like these.
That Sheng Tianjun truly deserved to die!
He felt so heartbroken for her. The pain was so intense that it wrapped itself around his entire heart like a spiderweb, transforming into self-blame.
Qin Yuhe thought that it was his fault. If only he had returned a day earlier, she would never have had to go through any of this.
