"Jian Yi, I want you to explain everything to me today. Don"t you think about going anywhere!" 

Song Yu could still hear Guan Xiaolin"s shrill voice from the elevator.

"Let me go!" Fl.u.s.tered and exasperated, Jian Yi howled and exerted all of his strength to break free from Guan Xiaolin"s hand. He used his free hand to grab her wrist and pry her grip.

Out of the blue, Guan Xiaolin felt a surge of determination and energy. She gnashed her teeth and refused to let go despite her expression paling from the pain.

"You still wanna chase after Song Yu and explain to her? No way! I"m telling you, Song Yu heard all about your filthiness. Do you think that if you chased after her and explained it to her, she"ll believe you or even forgive you?" The pain distorted her facial expressions, but she scoffed stubbornly at him. "Hmph! She wouldn"t believe a word you say!"

"Even if you went after her, she"ll only look at you with disgust. You lied to her all these years; you went through so many women just to climb the corporate ladder, and yet she still thinks you"re pure. Even though there"s nothing concrete between you two, but in her eyes, you"ve already overstepped the limits! No woman would be willing to accept that the man they love has been soiled!"

Their voices still remained audible even though the elevator was on its way down. Song Yu lowered her head and covered both ears with her hands. She felt disgusted.

The two of them were people that she trusted the most, but at that moment, her world was turned upside down by both of them at the same time.

She had always trusted Jian Yi, but after knowing that he—a person whom she had always placed her trust on—was undeserving of her trust, who else could she trust in the future?

When the elevator reached the bottom floor, the doors opened and Song Yu walked out of the elevator in a muddled state of mind.

She slowed her pace down upon seeing Qi Chengzhi.

He was leaning on the car door with one hand in his pants pocket and the other holding a cigarette. A puff of smoke escaped his lips.

He looked at Song Yu indifferently and tossed the cigarette on the floor to extinguish it. He then calmly said, "Let"s go."

"Jian Yi, so much time has pa.s.sed, Song Yu"s long gone!" Guan Xiaolin"s grimacing face let out a pleased smile. The two contradicting expressions made her face looked somewhat idiosyncratic.

Jian Yi paused suddenly and stopped tussling with her. He seemed to have thought of something and looked coldly at her. With a low voice, he said, "Guan Xiaolin, you did this on purpose, didn"t you? You came to me all of a sudden tonight because you knew Song Yu would come, so you made a point to act out all this in front of her just so she"d hear it! Right?"

"I thought it was weird that Qi Chengyue would suddenly call me here, but she hasn"t come yet. The both of you were in on this whole act!"

"With regards to the elder Qi lady, I"m not worthy of being a.s.sociated with her. She doesn"t know about us, because if she did, do you think she"d let me go?" Guan Xiaolin released her grip and no longer pulled on him.

Even if Jian Yi were to go after Song Yu, there was no way he could catch up with her.

"Whether you believe me or not, it was sheer luck that Song Yu heard us. I never expected it to happen. If you don"t want anyone to know you did something, don"t do it. None of today"s events would have happened if you hadn"t done all those vile things, and you wouldn"t even need to worry that Song Yu would find out." Guan Xiaolin smiled disdainfully. "Jian Yi, you brought this upon yourself."

"At first, I thought you were close to Song Yu because of the Song family, but even though they were bankrupt for so many years, you still chose to be with her. It seems you truly do like her. Pity. You can run to her and explain but she"ll never believe you. Even though you wanted to look for a lover, you didn"t come to me. I lost to Song Yu, but I won"t sit still and watch both of you be together."

"LEAVE!" Jian Yi said fiercely. He looked at Guan Xiaolin with a malicious gaze, as if he was itching to break her.

"You don"t need to tell me that. I wouldn"t want to stay here any longer either," she replied frostily and turned to press the elevator b.u.t.ton.

"I"m hungry." Song Yu touched her stomach.

Coincidentally, the car pa.s.sed through an intersection to a food street. There were plenty of people in the street and it was very lively. Puffs of smoke were present, and the faint smell of barbecue wafted into car notwithstanding the rather tightly-shut car windows.

Back at Shengyue, she only had a few bites before Qi Chengyue showed up.

Smelling the delicious aromas made her feel quite hungry.

Qi Chengzhi remained silent and parked his car somewhere on the side of the road. He then followed Song Yu into the food street.

The street was filled with countless small shops and none of them were clean. There were even some small stalls on both sides of the road, selling food like Chinese cold dishes 1 , Liangpi 2 , Chinese stuffed flatbread 3 , fried rice, and fried noodles. Many customers patronized the stalls even though it was wintertime.

People were walking shoulder-to-shoulder in the narrow road. Qi Chengzhi—with his expensive suit, black wool overcoat, sour face, lanky figure, and potent imposingness—appeared incompatible with the food street and stood out like a sore thumb.