With a ding, the elevator reached the parking garage, and the doors slid open slowly.
Ning Zhen was grateful that Meng Jiaran had brought her out. If she had stayed in that hospital room any longer, she would have cried herself dry. Without some time to recharge, she’d end up putting on a fake performance in front of Uncle Meng and Aunt Xiao.
"How about some congee?"
Meng Jiaran raised his wrist to check his watch, his face etched with exhaustion. "It’s getting late. Let’s grab something to eat, and then I’ll take you back to the hotel."
They were in Nancheng now, where amenities and travel weren’t as convenient as in Beicheng.
Meng Xianwen’s business trip here had been scheduled months in advance. He had taken an early morning flight that day and was met upon arrival in Nancheng, but an accident happened on the way to the Hengxing branch office. The driver swerved to avoid a collision and hit a guardrail.
The accident wasn’t severe, but the car provided by the branch wasn’t one of Meng Xianwen’s usual vehicles—meaning, in short, it had much weaker protective features.
The front of the car was crumpled, and both the driver and he suffered minor injuries.
As for why the driver had woken up but he hadn’t, the doctor’s preliminary diagnosis was that he was likely overworked and his body needed deep rest.
Considering the distance between Nancheng and Beicheng wasn’t insignificant, the Meng family didn’t want to move him. After receiving the news, they immediately rushed over.
"I can’t eat," Ning Zhen said weakly.
Meng Jiaran sighed, raised his hand, and a Rolls-Royce glided smoothly to a stop in front of them. He opened the door, nudged her inside, and coaxed, "If my brother wakes up and finds you collapsed from illness, he’ll give me hell. For heaven’s sake, please, just go along with this?"
Ning Zhen acted as if she couldn’t refuse, bending over to climb into the back seat.
She was actually hungry now.
In her mind, if Meng Jiaran hadn’t taken her out to eat, she would have secretly eaten the chocolate bread she had stashed earlier.
Unfortunately, the rush hadn’t given her much time to prepare; she had been dragged to the airport by Meng Jingshan.
Luckily, she was clever enough to anticipate that, with such a big incident happening, she’d have to put on a public show of being too worried to eat or sleep. Right before leaving, she grabbed a handful of snacks and stuffed them into her bag.
On the way, she had been a bit anxious—could it be that her three months of day-and-night curses had actually worked?
She was filled with unease.
When she got to the hospital, she found that Meng Xianwen’s forehead had only a small scrape. The bleeding had stopped even before he arrived at the hospital. She was speechless.
That’s it??
The wound wasn’t even as big as the cut on her finger from carelessly opening a package!
She wanted to roll her eyes, but when she saw Uncle Meng and Aunt Xiao looking like the sky was falling, she quickly composed herself, slipped into the role of a grieving partner, and let her tears flow on command.
"Zhenzhen," Meng Jiaran said suddenly as the car pulled out of the hospital. "I realized today that my brother is actually very fragile."
Ning Zhen: "?"
She blinked. In what world was Meng Xianwen fragile??
Had Meng Jiaran never seen how his brother attacked her?
That night, she had been playing the pitiful role—and genuinely felt pitiful—but Meng Xianwen was unmoved. He had this cool, detached look, like he was just watching her perform and seeing right through her. Occasionally, he’d even let out a chuckle, mocking her foolishness.
In front of the rest of the Meng family, he appeared to be sheltering her in his arms, but he’d whisper in her ear. On the surface, he was calming her down, but his tone was soft and each word was a threat: "Zhenzhen, how about telling the truth?"
He generously gave her the choice.
Either she denied everything, but then she’d have to explain why she was in the study with him late at night, tangled up in each other.
Trying to pin it on him? She wasn’t brave enough for that.
Or she could play along…
Ahhh, what choice did she have but to play along!
The day after it happened, he came to her place. He lounged on the sofa, watching her glance around nervously, and suddenly laughed. "Zhenzhen, didn’t you say yesterday that from now on, you’d do whatever I said?"
She had a bad feeling.
Then he laid out his purpose: He needed a girlfriend in name only for one year. She could choose to accept or refuse. If she agreed, after the year was up, he’d give her a sum of money, and she could leave with it.
If she refused, it was even simpler.
She could leave right now. If she ever came near Meng Jiaran again, he wouldn’t go easy on her.
Out of respect for their past history, he was letting her off this time and giving her the freedom to choose.
Ning Zhen was miserable.
She was so miserable, she still tried to argue: "Brother Xianwen, whether you believe it or not, I’m serious about Jiaran. How could you… I’ve always seen you as—"
Before she could finish, he interrupted her, slowly and calmly saying a number.
Ning Zhen swallowed her words. After a long pause, she nodded and tears streamed down her face. "Brother Xianwen, fine. I agree."
And so the agreement was made.
"I always thought he was invincible." Meng Jiaran rubbed his face. "Seeing him lying in that hospital bed today, I felt terrible. Zhenzhen, do you think I’ve been too selfish? My brother keeps telling me to report for duty at the company, but I don’t listen. All the burden falls on him. He must be so, so tired. I’ve never seen him so weak…"
Ning Zhen’s head was pounding.
She turned to look out the window, reminding herself: Don’t roll your eyes, don’t sneer.
Meng Xianwen was tired? Tired my ass! How he had tortured her over these three months, no one knew!
Don’t think she didn’t know what that dog-like jerk was up to. He was using her to build an image, winning praise for being "deeply in love," "a real man," "a man of character," while smoothly handling the relationship crisis with the Song family.
The Meng and Song families were old friends with deep ties. The two conglomerates behind them had countless overlapping interests.
To strengthen the bond, Song Dong and Meng Jingshan had come up with the idea of matching Song Yuqing with Meng Xianwen, a marriage of equals to seal the alliance.
Was Meng Xianwen the type to follow orders though?
But here was the problem: a direct refusal would hurt the relationship. So, before things got complicated, he propped up a girlfriend that even the Song family trusted, using her as a shield.
And he killed three birds with one stone, making sure Meng Jiaran would never have any feelings for her again in this lifetime.
Meng Jiaran was still rambling on, but Ning Zhen wasn’t listening. She had no energy left to comfort his shaken little heart. She couldn’t even save herself, and she still had nine months left of this one-year agreement.
She didn’t know how Meng Xianwen would orchestrate the breakup when the time came.
But, without a doubt, the blame would fall on her.
He would end up as the heartbroken man, maybe even "mourning" the lost love for a few years, while she would be cast as the capricious, spoiled brat who didn’t know how to appreciate her boyfriend.
In these three months, she had interacted with Meng Xianwen more than in the previous decade combined. So she knew better than anyone: his money wasn’t easy to earn. He would squeeze every bit of value out of her. But at least he was a man of his word—what he promised, he delivered.
"Ah!" she sighed faintly.
Meng Jiaran sighed with equal gloom. "Ah."
…
The night was deep.
The driver didn’t go too far. He stopped near the hospital at a restaurant that was still open. He was a local in Nancheng. "Young Master Meng, Miss Ning, this place is a long-standing establishment. It’s open until ten, and it has a good reputation."
Meng Jiaran looked out the window with little interest, then turned back and asked Ning Zhen, "Zhenzhen, how about this place?"
Ning Zhen was hungry enough to eat a whole cow, but she had to pretend she had no appetite, putting on a fake display as she said, "It's fine, since we're here. I can't eat much, but Uncle Meng and Aunt Xiao need to have something, otherwise they won't have the strength to keep going."
"Alright, let's get out of the car then."
Meng Jiaran pushed open the car door and waited by her side until Ning Zhen stepped out.
The two walked into the restaurant one after the other.
The place was doing good business; even past nine o'clock, the main hall was still filled with quite a few diners. Meng Jiaran led Ning Zhen to a seat by the window, pulled out his phone to scan the QR code, and handed it to her. "See what you'd like to eat."
Ning Zhen took the phone, tempted to order everything.
She randomly picked a bunch of items and placed the order. The phone buzzed with a vibration, and when she saw the caller ID, a complex feeling flickered through her mind. "Jiaran, it's for you."
Meng Jiaran took the phone listlessly, glanced at the caller, and answered in a low, dispirited tone: "Hey, Yuqing?"
Ning Zhen discreetly pricked up her ears, trying to catch what they were talking about.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was noisy with people, and only muffled words reached her ears.
The one calling Meng Jiaran was Song Yuqing, the only girl of the Song family's generation and the daughter-in-law that Meng Jingshan had his eye on. Song Yuqing was four years younger than Meng Xianwen, with a gentle and reserved nature. Both Meng Jingshan and Xiao Xuezhen liked her very much, and the elders from both sides wanted to set them up.
In a corner no one knew about, Meng Jiaran also secretly had a crush on her.
Over the past three months, Ning Zhen had tried her best not to think about that nightmare that had made her skin crawl, but at this moment, it all came flooding back, unavoidable.
That day, she had been out shopping with Aunt Xiao Xuezhen. Since it was getting late, Aunt Xiao invited her to stay the night at the old mansion. Seeing that Meng Jiaran hadn't returned, she called him. He was drinking with some old friends. On a whim, she had the Meng family driver pick him up.
She went along too.
Taking care of a drunk person was exhausting. She even carried him upstairs to his room. She initially thought about being considerate and helping him undress, but when she got close, the smell of alcohol was so strong she wished she could back up eight meters.
She just tossed him onto the bed and didn't bother much more. Disgusted by the stench of alcohol and sweat on herself, she didn't overthink it and went back to the guest room to shower. After changing into her pajamas and stepping out of the bathroom, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror... Now, she could only explain it as being impulsive late at night. Her mind went blank, and she sneaked back into Meng Jiaran's room, holding her breath as she lay down on the bed.
Having used up all her energy after a long day, she dozed off.
She didn't expect to have such a strange dream.
In the dream, she lived in a wealthy family romance novel. The male lead was Meng Jiaran. But she wasn't the heroine; she was a minor female supporting character who barely got any scenes.
According to the story's development, she had deliberately schemed against the male lead, leaving something of hers in his bed and slipping out of the room before he woke up, all to mislead him into thinking they had been intimate.
But the next morning, the male lead woke up with a pounding headache and never even noticed the item under the pillow.
Instead, it was a servant from the Meng family who saw it while changing the sheets. The person dragged into this was too afraid to say anything, so she could only find the butler. The old butler was also terrified and, panicking, ended up telling the male lead's eldest brother.
The male lead's eldest brother, a crafty old fox, knew exactly what was going on the moment he heard it.
How could he allow such a scheming woman to get close to his younger brother? The novel mentioned it only in passing, but with his methods, he quietly had the female supporting character kicked out. From then on, she never appeared in the story again.
Ning Zhen woke up in a fright.
When she came to, only ten minutes had passed. Not caring whether the dream was real or not, she jolted upright. At the same time, the drunk Meng Jiaran was frowning and making gurgling sounds in his throat, as if he was about to throw up at any second.
Her face turned pale. No, don't throw up!
Before he could vomit on her, she scrambled out of bed and bolted from the room.
…
"Mhm." Meng Jiaran answered absently, lifting his eyes casually to glance at Ning Zhen, and said into the phone, "Don't worry, my brother's fine. My sister-in-law is also there, she'll take good care of him. I'll let you know when he wakes up."
Ning Zhen looked down with a cold smirk.
Who said she was a scheming female lead's supporting character? Compared to the male lead and his older brother, she was like a pristine lotus blooming from the muck.
Meng Xianwen was a hypocritical, sly old fox, and Meng Jiaran was just as calculating!
These two brothers had set her up!
