HCB Chapter 3: Flirting? Who's better at it than you?
Chapter 3: Flirting? Who's better at it than you?
Wen Yiming watched from afar as Xia Lan got into Wen Shiyu's car, covered her face, and ran away. He couldn't help but punch the wall. In the end, he still couldn't protect Xia Lan. She must have been framed by her sister again.
Ever since he learned yesterday that his sister had used some tricks to lure Xia Lan out of the hotel, he had suspected a conspiracy.
So I arrived at the hotel early and searched the room my sister had booked from top to bottom. Not only was it empty, but there were no eavesdropping devices or cameras inside.
He was still worried, so he opened the room opposite and kept watch until Xia Lan went in, and then Wen Shiyu followed her in.
Before or after, no one ever entered or left this room again.
It wasn't until morning that Wen Shiyu brought Xia Lan out (in Wen Yiming's eyes, he was strangling Xia Lan and threatening her).
He followed them all the way, witnessing Wen Shiyu forcibly push Xia Lan into the car, and then drive all the way to the apartment. (Actually, Lu He very gently opened the car door for Xia Lan before getting into the driver's seat.)
Finally, seeing Xia Lan walk away, Wen Yiming rushed over and stopped Wen Shiyu's car.
The sudden intrusion startled Lu He, causing him to brake abruptly.
"Where did this lunatic come from? Does he have a death wish?!" Lu He angrily stopped the car, slammed the door, and got out to argue.
Upon seeing Wen Yiming, she exclaimed in surprise, quickly recalling the relevant figures in her mind.
It turns out to be the second male lead. He really is a persistent ghost, following us all the way here. But after all, it's a comic book, so everything that seems illogical is also plausible.
"What are you going to do?" Lu He leaned against the car engine and waited for him to speak.
Wen Yiming was taken aback by this. This girl hadn't been this arrogant before when she did bad things; at least she would have panicked when he came to question her. Why was she acting like this this time...?
Have they lost all sense of shame?
"What exactly are you up to?" Wen Yiming looked at Lu He with a gloomy expression.
“Brother, if you’re sick, go get treatment. Now that you’re following me, why don’t you tell me what kind of tricks you’re up to?” Lu He turned the tables on him.
"I'm your brother! Don't I have the right to tell you what to do?" Wen Yiming still used his status to pressure Wen Shiyu.
He didn't understand. Wen Shiyu used to be afraid of his older brother, so why was he acting like a completely different person today?
"What qualifications do you have?" Lu He couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The 27-year-old man in front of her was like a younger brother to her, who was mentally 31.
His act of putting on the airs of an older brother was indeed something that made Lu He want to mock him.
"What kind of future do you have, Young Master Wen? You're 27 years old, good-for-nothing, and live off your family. Every penny you swipe on that card is earned by your sister. Don't you know your own worth?"
Lu He mocked him mercilessly.
Wen Yiming's face immediately turned pale and then red: "I didn't want to associate with you, I didn't want to dirty my hands!"
"Oh, you don't mind getting dirty when you're spending money?" Lu He almost burst out laughing.
"When you were swiping your card for Xia Lan, you seemed quite comfortable with it, huh? That's hilarious. That's how business is. Forget about shady dealings. You're really funny. You don't have the ability to be a businessman. Why don't you learn how to be a decent person first?"
Lu He was absolutely right. In the memories she had, this older brother was a complete unrealistic and ambitious person.
It was because of his self-righteousness and rebelliousness in not listening to his family and choosing the College of Arts that Wen Shiyu had to study in the College of Business.
For the Wen family, it meant that their main account was ruined, so they started investing in a smaller account. Fortunately, Wen Shiyu was very promising and achieved excellent results. After graduation, he returned to the company and began to learn how to manage the company's projects.
And in just one year, it narrowed the gap between the Wen Group and the Duanmu Group by 0.1 percentage points.
Speaking of Xia Lan, she actually had good grades in business school.
After all, in the comic's setting, after Xia Lan and Duanmu Cong graduated, Duanmu Cong brought Xia Lan back to the Duanmu Group and made her his personal assistant.
Wen Yiming was so angry he couldn't speak. After all, he had accomplished nothing, and the poems and essays he wrote were all published with his own money, so he didn't earn much money.
He relied entirely on his family for food, clothing, and daily necessities, but he had always been aloof and never imagined that one day he would be belittled like this by his own sister.
It completely hit his sore spot.
"Is there anything else?" Lu He was getting a little impatient, and she got up to leave.
"...Stay away from Xia Lan!" Wen Yiming finally said this with a gloomy face. This line is indeed very comic book-like.
"Okay, I understand." Lu He agreed readily, then turned around, got into the car, and drove away in one smooth motion.
Wen Yiming was left bewildered in the wind. What was going on? Why did he agree so readily?
Lu He drove with one hand, opened the car window with the other, exhaled smoke, and stuck the cigarette out of the window, looking dashing and charming.
She didn't notice that someone's gaze swept over her through the window of an oncoming car.
That was the Duanmu family's car. Duanmu Cong was sitting in the back seat, and the driver was driving.
Duanmu Cong had never seen Wen Shiyu like this before, exuding a free and unrestrained charm.
The Wen Shiyu I've met before was either pretending to be a good girl or she was vicious, which made her repulsive.
For a moment he was distracted and looked back. Only after the car drove away did he realize that the direction he had just been heading was the direction of Xia Lan's apartment.
"Oh no!" Duanmu Cong's heart tightened, and he had a bad feeling. What had that bitch Wen Shiyu done to Xia Lan again? So he hurriedly urged the driver to drive faster.
Xia Lan had just drawn the curtains when she sat on the sofa, recalling what Wen Shiyu had said to her in bed and what she had just witnessed.
Wen Yiming was arguing with Wen Shiyu downstairs... At this moment, Xia Lan was filled with thoughts, feeling her mind was in a mess, like her CPU was about to burn out.
Before she could figure it out, her phone rang crisply; someone was calling.
She picked up her phone, her brows furrowing slightly. The caller ID showed it was Wen Shiyu.
She should have hated and feared Wen Shiyu, but today the woman's gentle demeanor made her somewhat irresistibly want to get to know her again.
Xia Lan's finger moved uncontrollably to the answer button.
"Hello? Xia Lan..." It was Wen Shiyu's magnetic and pleasant voice.
“…Yes, it’s me…” Xia Lan’s sweet voice answered softly.
Duanmu Cong tried calling Xia Lan all the way but couldn't get through; the line was always busy, which made him very uneasy.
The moment he arrived at the apartment building, Duanmu Cong quickly opened the car door, rushed into the building, and frantically pressed the elevator buttons.
The elevator slowly descended from the 40th floor, floor by floor, a long wait indeed.
Duanmu Cong was clearly impatient. He glanced at the elevator on the other side, which was still going up from the 10th floor.
Usually, when the plot reaches this point, the male protagonist in the comic will rush into the stairwell.
As expected, Duanmu Cong unbuttoned his shirt, tugged at his tie, and then gritted his teeth and rushed into the stairwell.
He walked fifteen floors, panting heavily, sweat dripping from his stray hairs, until he reached the door of the female lead, Xia Lan. He knocked gently, but there was no answer…
He panicked even more and started knocking on the door urgently, which gradually turned into frantic knocking, shouting Xia Lan's name.
Finally, he got tired, sat down by the door, took out his phone, and dialed Xia Lan again... This time it wasn't a busy line, there was no answer...
Duanmu Cong tilted his head back, letting the sweat drip down, revealing his superior jawline, the attractive blue veins on his neck, and the undulating Adam's apple as he swallowed and gasped for breath.
The handsome man in the comic book leaps off the page.
"Hello!" He dialed the number again: "Get me a locksmith!"
Meanwhile, in a high-end French restaurant in the city center, Lu He and Xia Lan were leisurely enjoying dinner while drinking red wine and listening to the violin.
"You invited me here for dinner, what's your plan this time to humiliate me?"
Xia Lan clutched the hem of her clothes tightly, looking flustered and nervous. Like a panicked little rabbit, yet she mustered her courage and emboldened herself.
Lu He admired her sweet and lovely appearance, and her fearful yet defiant demeanor, and couldn't help but smile with affection.
With such a pure and lovely female lead, it's no wonder that the male lead and the second male lead are all completely captivated.
Even Lu He felt a protective instinct and affection for Xia Lan, this innocent little rabbit.
"I'm sincerely inviting you to dinner," Lu He couldn't help but tease Xia Lan with a wink. "After all, we've both... like that... we should at least strengthen our relationship a little, right?"
"You, you, you!" Xia Lan blushed instantly, knowing that Wen Shiyu had ill intentions; it was indeed meant to humiliate her!
Just as she was about to get up and splash Wen Shiyu's red wine, the other person suddenly reached out and gently patted her head to comfort her.
A gentle touch, a gentle gaze, a gentle tone: "Okay, Xia Lan, be good. I didn't know how to apologize to you, so I asked you out to dinner. I want to make it up to you properly in the future~"
After speaking, he took the wrist of Xia Lan, who had just raised her wine glass, and grasped the hand that had been withdrawing.
Xia Lan's hand, gripping the wine glass tightly, trembled slightly, as if it were filled with lead and she couldn't lift it.
She knew she couldn't get the glass of red wine out of the way.
"What's wrong?" Lu He looked at Xia Lan's flushed face and trembling eyes, as if she had noticed something.
She chuckled softly, then suddenly released Xia Lan's wrist. With a gentle flick of her fingers, she caused the wine glass to fall onto the table amidst Xia Lan's gasp, splashing red wine all over Lu He.
"Ah!" Xia Lan covered her mouth in alarm, her eyes brimming with apology, tears welling up in them: "I'm sorry... Wen Shiyu, I'm so sorry, I..."