In the end, Xiao Qitang still failed to get her WeChat contact.
Someone—probably a paparazzo—must have leaked the news. Xiao Qitang had been playing a murder mystery game with friends at B1 of the XX Business Park downtown, and his fervent fans had rushed over one after another, hoping to surround their beloved idol.
Xiao Qitang had no choice but to make a hurried escape through the staff entrance arranged by Xiao Wai.
He looked rather disheveled.
Ye Yunche nudged Ye Yunjin with his elbow. “Brother, was this your doing?”
Ye Yunjin smiled gently. “No.”
Ye Yunche immediately understood.
Then it had to be him!
No wonder the brothers worked together so well.
On the surface, Ye Yunche seemed to be the one who had caused trouble from childhood to adulthood, but every one of his schemes had actually been suggested by Ye Yunjin.
And Ye Yunjin usually didn’t make a move. But whenever he did, he never left anyone with anything they could use against him.
He was absolutely a ruthless schemer.
…
After the murder mystery game incident, Zhu Liuyue invited Zhao Xin and Tan Zhi out several more times. She ended up becoming quite close with the two younger girls, sometimes bringing Zhu Qi along as well.
One day, Zhao Xin asked hesitantly, “Sister Liuyue, could you send me Zhu Qi’s WeChat contact?”
Zhu Liuyue said, “You’ve been hanging out for so long. You still haven’t added each other?”
“Ah, no, it’s not for me. It’s for a friend…”
A friend.
That definitely meant herself.
Zhu Liuyue didn’t expose her.
“Sure. I’ll send Zhu Qi’s contact to you first, and then you can forward it to your friend.”
Zhao Xin replied happily, “Okay, okay!”
Speaking of Zhu Qi, when he wasn’t causing trouble, he was actually quite obedient. And he was definitely the type of younger brother who was obsessed with his older sister.
Zhu Liuyue had only praised him for a few sentences when she received a call from one of Zhu Qi’s friends.
“Sis, come quickly! Zhu Qi is fighting with Eldest Young Master Bai!”
Zhu Liuyue froze.
“Wait… Who did you say? Bai Shurou’s brother?”
“Yes, that’s right. The address is XXX…”
By the time Zhu Liuyue hurried to the scene, she was surprised to discover that Ye Yunche was there too.
Bai Shucheng’s nose had taken a heavy punch and was bleeding profusely. Zhu Qi stood a short distance away, panting heavily and glaring viciously at him. He was bruised as well.
Bai Shurou stood between them, biting her lip as silent tears streamed down her face. Her eyes were red.
What a bizarre scene.
Before Zhu Liuyue could ask anything, Ye Yunche took the initiative to approach her.
“Hello, sister-in-law.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Bai Shurou called my brother. I don’t know what got into him, but he told me to come handle this. I have no position to take, and I can’t deal with this kind of argument anyway. If I hadn’t heard that our little brother Zhu Qi was here, I wouldn’t have come.”
Why hadn’t Ye Yunjin come?
Of course, it was to avoid any further contact with Bai Shurou and prevent the misunderstanding from deepening.
So he had sent his younger brother, Ye Yunche, instead—a move that killed two birds with one stone.
With Ye Yunche here, Bai Shurou was sure to be happy. After all, the person she liked was the younger brother, not the elder.
But Zhu Qi…
What did that brat have to do with any of this?
Zhu Liuyue strode over and grabbed Zhu Qi by the ear.
“Ah, Sis! It hurts, it hurts—”
Zhu Qi was already bruised from the fight, and the pain from his ear made him grimace.
At last, Bai Shurou stopped crying silently and wiped the corners of her eyes.
She also stepped forward and explained, “Junior Sister Zhu, don’t blame Zhu Qi. This was my elder brother’s fault. He was only standing up for what was right.”
“Standing up for what was right?” Zhu Liuyue raised an eyebrow.
Her gaze shifted between Zhu Qi and Bai Shurou. How had the two of them gotten entangled again?
Could it be that her little lackey of a younger brother was destined to become the devoted male supporting character by the female protagonist Bai Shurou’s side?
Zhu Qi rubbed his reddened ear and said indignantly, “Sis, you don’t know this, but Bai Shucheng isn’t human. He lost a gambling debt. Mortgaging his house, car, and company was one thing, but now he actually wants to use his own sister to pay off the debt.”
Zhu Liuyue glanced at him in surprise.
“What does that have to do with you?”
Zhu Qi pouted.
He instinctively looked at Bai Shurou, hesitant to speak.
In the end, Bai Shurou took the initiative to explain.
It turned out that Zhu Qi had secretly gone to the hospital to cause trouble for Bai Shucheng again, behind Zhu Liuyue’s back. But when he arrived, he happened to see Bai Shucheng beating and verbally abusing Bai Shurou.
When Bai Shurou accidentally fell to the floor, Bai Shucheng hadn’t even bothered to help her up.
After Bai Shucheng left, Zhu Qi, who had been watching from the shadows all along, could no longer stand by. His youthful sense of justice flared up, and he finally entered the hospital room and helped Bai Shurou back onto the bed.
Bai Shurou thanked him.
Zhu Qi was too embarrassed to admit that he had come there to avenge his sister, so he could only say weakly, “My sister is already engaged to Brother Yunjin. If you know what’s good for you, stay away from her. Otherwise, I, Zhu Qi, won’t let you off.”
Bai Shurou said, “I know. Everyone has misunderstood. In truth, I only admire and respect Ye Yunjin. I have no romantic feelings for him.
“Besides, they’re already engaged. I, Bai Shurou, would never stoop to breaking up someone else’s relationship.”
Seeing how firmly she spoke, Zhu Qi believed her.
After that, the two of them ran into each other twice more.
The first time was when Bai Shurou was discharged from the hospital. She was alone, leaning on a crutch, and nearly fell.
Zhu Qi hurried over to support her.
“You’re being discharged, but no one from your family came to pick you up?”
Bai Shurou smiled bitterly.
“What family do I have? My mother died of illness when I was very young. I only have my brother and father. Now that my brother is drowning in gambling debt, my father is probably working somewhere to pay it off. As for my brother… I might as well rely on myself.”
Zhu Qi felt that she was truly pitiful.
After all, Bai Shurou had once been the favored daughter of the elite circle, but now she had fallen to such a state.
He helped her call a taxi and supported her into it.
The second time, he saw Bai Shurou working part-time at a flower shop. Wanting to do a good deed, he ordered a bouquet from her.
He had to admit that Bai Shurou had excellent taste. The bouquets she arranged were different from the cookie-cutter, internet-famous bouquets everyone else made.
A friend of Zhu Qi’s was about to celebrate his birthday, so he planned to return to the flower shop and order another bouquet from Bai Shurou.
Instead, he happened to catch Bai Shucheng harassing his sister and trying to tie her up and take her to some President Wang of Jindi Capital.
When Zhu Qi heard this, he knew that President Wang of Jindi Capital was already in his seventies.
So he stepped forward to stop them.
Bai Shucheng hurled several nasty insults at him.
“She’s my sister. What business is it of yours, you wet-behind-the-ears brat? Even if I wanted to sell her, it would still have nothing to do with you.”
Zhu Qi’s sense of justice exploded.
He tried to stop Bai Shucheng, and the two of them ended up fighting.
Bai Shurou didn’t dare step forward to break up the fight. She could only cry. As she cried, she remembered to call Ye Yunjin. Perhaps he would have a way to help.
When Ye Yunjin heard that Bai Shurou was asking for help, he was filled with annoyance.
He didn’t want Zhu Liuyue to develop even the slightest misunderstanding again.
So he turned to Ye Yunche and said, “You. Go take care of something for your brother.”
Ye Yunche was unwilling from the start. “No.”
Using the art of carefully chosen words, Ye Yunjin said, “Zhu Qi is in trouble. Are you going to help him or not?”
Ye Yunche nodded vigorously. “Of course!”
How could he not help his future brother-in-law?
And just like that, he fell straight into Ye Yunjin’s trap.
