Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Young Master Mu—" Ruan Danchen said.

Mu Huaisheng stopped her. "I"ll give you some time to think about it since the renovation is not urgent."

Ruan Danchen did not know what to say to his insistence.

"Do you have something on later?" Mu Huaisheng asked.

Ruan Danchen"s eyes instinctively s.h.i.+fted to Qi Chenglin who was sitting behind Mu Huaisheng. However, she could only see Qi Chenglin"s back.

A text followed suit. Unsurprisingly, it was from Qi Chenglin saying, "I have something to tell you later."

Back in the real world, Ruan Danchen gave her reply, "I have some other business to take care of."

"Where? I"ll send you," Mu Huaisheng said.

A faint smile appeared on Ruan Danchen"s face. "There"s no need, the place is nearby."

Mu Huaisheng gave her a self-deprecating smile as he said, "You"re in such a rush to draw the line in the sand?"

She felt awkward that she had to keep rejecting his suggestions. In hopes of salvaging her image, she said, "It"s really nearby."

The man could only nod his head. He did not persist after that and instead, got up and bid Ruan Danchen farewell. As he turned to leave, he spied Qi Chenglin sitting right behind him. Mu Huaisheng was stunned but managed to greet him anyway. "Mr. Qi."

Qi Chenglin nodded slightly and greeted back without a hint of warmth. "Mr. Mu."

"Waiting for someone?" Mu Huaisheng asked after noting that Qi Chenglin was alone.

Qi Chenglin uttered a note of confirmation and said nothing more. Taking that as his cue to leave, Mu Huaisheng nodded and left.

Sometime later, Qi Chenglin got up and sat across Ruan Danchen. His heated gaze fell on her.

As Qi Chenglin walked past the shop"s window while escorting his clients, he noticed that Ruan Danchen was here with Mu Huaisheng. The scene looked as if they were on a date. At that point, Qi Chenglin"s expression was as dark as a thundercloud.

Ruan Danchen had hugged and kissed Qi Chenglin before, yet she was seeing another man behind his back. That woman had no stop b.u.t.ton.

A quick note to Jiang Yuan had him calling Qi Chengzhi to step in for the client"s negotiation. Back when Qi Chengzhi was courting Song Yu, such occasions have happened countless of times.

Hence, once Qi Chengzhi had arrived, Qi Chenglin was relieved of his duty.

Only when he sat down behind Mu Huaisheng and eavesdropped did he find out that the meeting was business-related. It was followed by Mu Huaisheng"s confession which nettled at Qi Chenglin but his mood was soon saved by Ruan Danchen"s outright rejection.

Ruan Danchen was anxious as she knew that Qi Chenglin had overheard their conversation. Her heartbeat was erratic and she felt numbness on her scalp. Under Qi Chenglin"s gaze, she felt like a guilty criminal despite not committing any offense.

Judging from his reluctance to speak, Ruan Danchen steeled her resolve and spoke first, "Heh, doesn"t Young Master Lin have clients to attend to?"

"Didn"t you see my brother coming in to take my place?" Qi Chenglin said sarcastically.

Ruan Danchen kept her mouth shut.

Why were the two brothers so stubborn?

"Does Young Master Lin need something from me?" Ruan Danchen asked impatiently.

Qi Chenglin suddenly leaned forward and those stern lips showed a hint of a smile. He spoke in a throaty but attractive voice, "We"ve hugged and kissed but you"re still addressing me so formally. That won"t do."

Ruan Danchen"s face immediately flushed red as she growled, "Qi Chenglin, enough!"

Her eyes darted left and right to check if anyone heard her.

Qi Chenglin smirked and continued his teasing. "You can forgo the "Qi" next time."

She did not deign him a response.

"I"m serious," he spoke with emphasis.

"What do you want from me?" Ruan Danchen questioned straightforwardly.

At her tone, Qi Chenglin"s countenance hardened and he stood up. "Follow me."

The change in tone caught her by surprise but she followed him out of Shengyue. They got into Qi Chenglin"s car.

"In the glove compartment, there"s a doc.u.ment folder," Qi Chenglin informed as he sat in the driver"s seat.

Ruan Danchen opened the glove compartment warily and took out the folder. She glanced at Qi Chenglin.

"Open it up." His attention s.h.i.+fted from her to the doc.u.ment folder.

Ruan Danchen opened the folder and pulled out the doc.u.ment within. The paper was only halfway out when she froze.

It was a DNA test for biological parents.

Shocked, she turned around to face Qi Chenglin as he explained, "You sent for the test. According to the normal process, the results would only be out after thirty days so I went ahead to hasten the process. The report came out this morning."

Ruan Danchen"s bottom lip trembled as she looked at the report. There was a jumble of emotions in her. She was so nervous that she hesitated to see the results.

Qi Chenglin just waited patiently for her.

Ruan Danchen took a deep breath and pulled out the report. After reading the results, she breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was as she suspected beforehand, the confirmation meant a lot to her.

Youxuan was her child. He really was hers.

"My son, my son… He"s alive. My son…" Ruan Danchen"s shoulders shook as the dam broke, her sobs echoed through the car.

Qi Chenglin frowned and asked solemnly, "What do you mean?"

His question was met with sobs.

Qi Chenglin grasped her wrist and repeated his question. "Why did you think he was dead?"

Ruan Danchen turned around to face him. The guilt on her face was evident. Her eyes and nose were red from all the crying as tears rolled down her cheeks. "They told me that he was dead, that I went into premature labour and had a C-section. When I woke up, they told me that the baby was stillborn. They lied to me… They lied to me…"

Qi Chenglin let out a heavy breath. It hurt him to see her this upset. All of a sudden, he pushed the driver"s seat back and scooped Ruan Danchen onto his lap.

"Everything"s fine now," Qi Chenglin crooned softly as he stroked her hair.

His sensual lips placed a comforting kiss on her forehead. He moved his hand to her face and gently wiped her tears away with his thumb.

His pair of lips made their way down to the side of her eye. He kissed away the tears on her eyelashes.

"He is healthy and happy. He was born a bit prematurely and placed in an infant incubator for a month but from then onward, he was healthy," Qi Chenglin whispered as his lips caressed her wet cheeks.

At this moment, Ruan Danchen did not realize how intimate their exchange was. She buried herself in Qi Chenglin"s embrace as she cried and thought about Qi Youxuan growing up into the healthy boy he was now. To think that he had to stay inside an incubator when he was a baby made Ruan Danchen"s heartache.

Qi Chenglin peppered her face with gentle kisses to calm her.

Gradually, Ruan Danchen came back to her senses. The feeling of his hot lips made her body shake. The initial paleness of her face was quickly replaced by a spreading blush. She pushed against him and leaned away.

"Qi Chenglin…" Ruan Danchen"s voice was meek.

His intimate kisses made Ruan Danchen hesitate to call him "Young Master Lin" at this moment. Unwittingly, their relations.h.i.+p was strengthened through this encounter.

Qi Chenglin leaned forward as she tried to get away. Those pa.s.sionate lips chased after her. "Eh?"

"Don"t be like this…" Ruan Danchen was shaking.

"Like what?" His magnetic voice cooed.

Ruan Danchen"s whole face had turned red. She was being worn down by his kisses as his words danced along her skin like feathers.

The more she tried to speak up, the harder Qi Chenglin kissed her in an attempt to occupy her lips.

When he decided to let her go, her face was in an unspeakable shade of crimson. The blush extended underneath her blouse, giving her an innocent and naive look.

"What"s wrong with me kissing my son"s mother?" Qi Chenglin nudged her lips as he muttered.

Ruan Danchen said nothing.

The problem was his son"s mother was not equivalent to his wife!

Ruan Danchen tried her best to keep her head down to hide her embarra.s.sment. She did not see the soft, amused smile on Qi Chenglin"s face. Those elegant fingers combed through her long hair and ma.s.saged her neck and head.

Ruan Danchen was unwilling to raise her head so Qi Chenglin leaned forward to kiss her on the lips. His persistence had all but destroyed her resistance so she let him have his way. She kept her head down but did not fight his kiss.

"Tell me what happened back then." One hand was rubbing the back of her head while the other hand was roaming around her waist without any shame.

Every contact point with Qi Chenglin heated up as if electricity flowed between them. Ruan Danchen had no intention to keep the past a secret, especially from someone as intelligent as Qi Chenglin who could more or less piece the story together. If he were to judge her, she would not blame him.

Ruan Danchen let out a heavy sigh as sadness bubbled inside her. Although she had always resisted his advances, she did not want him to hate her.

"Why don"t you let me down first," she said.

"No. Stay here and speak. Don"t be childish," Qi Chenglin reb.u.t.ted.

Ruan Danchen was not amused. "I"m not."

She twisted in his lap and tried to climb over to the pa.s.senger seat but was held firmly by Qi Chenglin.

Qi Chenglin shot her a look and hugged her tightly against his body. "I"m already like this. Do you really want me to let go?"

Ruan Danchen let out a surprised gasp as her brain short-circuited. His hardened manhood was poking her from beneath.

"Qi Chenglin, you!" Ruan Danchen was both ashamed and agitated. She had never met someone as shameless as him.

"Be good. You"re my son"s mother, can"t you let me have a hug?" He c.o.c.ked his eyebrows and asked innocently.

Ruan Danchen remained silent.

He was going to use that line on her every single time now.

Qi Chenglin watched the disgruntled expression on her face but the woman did not resist. Her gullible obedience made him feel like bullying her.

Ruan Danchen was becoming cuter in his mind and his interest in her had only grown. He wanted to get to know her more.

His expression softened as his hands traveled along her supple waist. He lifted her body and stole a quick peck from her lips, as if to reward her for her deference.

By this time, Ruan Danchen was already paralyzed by his kisses and did not struggle against him. She heard him say, "Be good and tell me what happened then?"

Ruan Danchen took a nervous breath and told him the whole truth about her past. She did not expect Shen Jialiang to use such drugs until she had found herself trapped in his embrace.

Her story was more or less what Qi Chenglin had guessed. Back then, he was unsure of Ruan Danchen"s role and objective but after recent interactions, he understood that she had no intentions to harm his people. Moreover, the fact that the Shen family had lied to her about Youxuan proved that she was a victim after all.

After hearing Ruan Danchen"s side of the story, Qi Chenglin came to the same conclusion. Liao Ronghua wanted to save her skin and threw Ruan Danchen under the bus.

Ruan Danchen did not dare to face Qi Chenglin. She kept her head down, ashamed.

"I"m sorry, I"m sorry. It was my fault." She buried her face in her hands as she sobbed.

Qi Chenglin tightened his embrace. His hand secured her head against his shoulder while he let out a sigh. "I"m not blaming you so don"t cry."

Ruan Danchen shook her head. "I shouldn"t have promised them. All I thought of was the circ.u.mstances that led to my mom giving me up. I was not aware of the after effects of my actions on you. When I realized my mistake, it was already too late."

"You didn"t do anything wrong." Qi Chenglin smiled and stroked her hair. "You gave me a son. Youxuan"s a great kid and I"m happy to have him."

"I"m happy too, I"m happy that I decided to give birth to him and that he grew up to be a smart and healthy boy." The thought of Qi Youxuan made her heart swell with happiness.

"All these years, you"ve never kept in contact with the Shen family?" Qi Chenglin asked in a light tone as he wiped the tears away on her face. Her tears had dampened his s.h.i.+rt.

Ruan Danchen shook her head. He followed up with another question. "And Liao Ronghua?"

"After she got into the Shen family, she never came by to see me. I was still in university then but she never tried to find me. Once I graduated and got a job, I moved out and never saw her again. Just a phone call during the new year. Since I was not welcomed by the Shen family, I did not want to intrude. She once asked where I lived but I felt that she was just maintaining pretenses, acting as if she cared about me. Even if I were to tell her, she would have forgotten after she hung up the phone. I ended up not answering her question." She was afraid that Liao Ronghua would ask her to do dirty favors for her. She also did not want to get her hopes up, waiting for Liao Ronghua to appear at her doorstep just to be disappointed.

Qi Chenglin seemed to understand her thoughts. He dabbed the tears away as his heart ached for her. He knew how hard her life was when he looked into her university life.

Liao Ronghua seemed to have forgotten that she had this daughter. She sacrificed her own daughter to get into the Shen family and no longer cared about Ruan Danchen.

Seeing Ruan Danchen"s pale and saddened face, Qi Chenglin wrapped her in his arms and whispered sweet nothings in her ears.

He rubbed the tears and kissed her face; it was not long before her face was clean again.

Ruan Danchen did not shy away from his touch. She remained in his embrace as he showered her with affection.

Qi Chenglin took out some tissue from the glove compartment and gently cleared away the tear tracks on her face.

Ruan Danchen sniffled. Her eyes and nose were red like a rabbit"s and Qi Chenglin could not resist the urge to cuddle her. There was some doubt in her eyes as she asked hesitantly, "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes?" Qi Chenglin replied in his somber voice.

"You agreed to an engagement with Shen Zhijing but why did you cancel it? The Shen family wouldn"t have agreed so easily," Ruan Danchen asked. Sitting on his lap no longer felt weird.

Qi Chenglin combed through her hair and explained softly, "When I said I wanted to do a DNA test, Shen Jialiang was not worried because Youxuan was mine. What he didn"t know was that I also requested for a maternal DNA test. I never believed that I slept with her. And when the results came out, it was evident that Youxuan was not Shen Zhijing"s son, he was not even related to the Shen family. Shen Jialiang had no right to force me to marry Shen Zhijing."

After so many years, Ruan Danchen finally heard the truth from his own account.

Qi Chenglin quietly watched over Ruan Danchen as she calmed down in his lap. After making sure that her mood had stabilized, he placed her back onto the pa.s.senger seat.

He looked at the time—it was already noon. "It"s already lunchtime, let"s go grab a bite."

Without waiting for Ruan Danchen"s reply, he started the car toward Dynasty.

The staff at Dynasty welcomed them as the black Mercedes-Benz stopped in front of the restaurant.

Qi Chenglin got down and went around the car to Ruan Danchen. He held her hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Ruan Danchen looked down in surprise.

His slender and delicate hand firmly encased hers.

She was speechless. What was he trying to do?

Noting that the waiter"s attention was elsewhere, Ruan Danchen surrept.i.tiously tried to pull her hand away but Qi Chenglin only tightened his grip. He clucked at her like a boyfriend would. "There, there. Don"t be naughty."

Ruan Danchen could not speak.

What did she do to be labeled naughty!

The waiter overheard their conversation and could not resist taking a look. His gaze fell on the linked hands and he smiled in secret. As per Dynasty"s service crew training, no matter what the situation or who their patrons were, they had to keep a neutral expression.

Internally, the waiter was shocked at this revelation. All these years, the second Young Master of the Qi family had never had a partner despite having a son. Now, he was holding hands with a woman!

The waiter did not dare to spy on them for too long but he was curious as to who the woman was. For someone who had no rumors of romance, Qi Chenglin"s public display of affection pretty much ascertained the woman"s status as his future wife.

Wasn"t it the same for Qi Chengzhi?

Manager Qian was stationed at the door and he was as polite as always. His eyes fell on the linked hands as he asked, "Young Master Lin, to your private room?"

Qi Chenglin nodded. Manager Qian hurriedly ordered some staff to get the room ready. In his mind, he was antic.i.p.ating the next major Qi family event that might happen sooner than later. This was the first time he witnessed Qi Chenglin dining with a woman in his private room.

The room was s.p.a.cious with a round dining table in the middle. The table was too big for the two of them, so they moved to a smaller tea table that was in front of the screen door. It did not matter much to them.

Free mini scene:

ChengYu Mini Scene 3

Qi Chengzhi said, "I randomly slotted one in."

"But why do I feel that it"s familiar?"

Qi Chengzhi c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. "Thinking about it?"

Song Yu was exasperated. "I"m being serious! It looks like that time in Hong Kong…"

Qi Chengzhi leaned forward. His lips curled into a smirk. "Miss it?