Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
The kids were pretty independent now, so they didn’t need her too much. She had been away for more than a year, after all. They had to learn how to be independent.
Her priority was to get back to good health. That way, she would have the strength to deal with whatever comes next.
Yan Huan retrieved Lu Yi’s phone, as sneakily as she could, and raced to the balcony. She scrolled for He Yibin ‘s number. When she asked Lu Yi about Lu Qin, he only told her half the story. She figured she would never hear the other half from him, so she had to take things into her own hands.
He Yibin had to be one of those people who knew about Lu Qin’s incident. Besides, he was aware that she was alive, which saves her the trouble from explaining anything.
“Hello? Lu Yi? What’s up?” asked He Yibin, unaware of the fact that he was talking to someone that wasn’t Lu Yi.
“It’s me, Yan Huan.”
“Oh, it’s you?” He Yibin chuckled. “How are you doing? Feeling better?”
He knew the answer to that, of course. He was the one who enlisted Joe, and the two had been in touch, so he knew that Yan Huan had been recovering well.
“Mhm. I’m feeling a lot better now.”
Yan Huan felt her face. These days, she didn’t even have to wear a face mask indoors. Back when she just returned to the Lu Family, she had to wear one because her face hurt when contacting wind or light.
“Good,” said He Yibin, relieved. “I’m glad to hear that. Oh, that reminds me. Why are you calling me all of a sudden?” He Yibin hadn’t forgotten that Yan Huan was using Lu Yi’s phone, and not her own. Yan Huan didn’t have much of a choice, however. Her old SIM card was long gone, and Lu Yi hadn’t bought her a new phone either. He wanted her to get as much rest as possible and not contact anyone yet.
“There’s something I would like to ask you,” ventured Yan Huan. She peeked into the room, as furtive and cautious as a thief. She was a thief, technically; she had stolen Lu Yi’s phone. “It’s about Lu Qin…”
“Ah. You want to know how he’s doing, is that it?” He Yibin was usually very astute when it came to such matters.
“Mhm,” admitted Yan Huan. She wondered if he really became a cripple because of him.
“He’s alright, physically at least,” said He Yibin. He might have held out on others, but not Yan Huan. She wasn’t an outsider, after all.
“There were bruise marks on him, but nothing too serious. He has bigger concerns, though. One midnight he woke up claiming that he had seen a female ghost and began running around the house like a maniac. Then he fell, and when Sun Yuhan went looking for him, she accidentally stepped on his private parts. She was in high heels.”
He stopped there. A man’s privates were his weakest spot, and even a flat shoe could have caused severe damage, not to mention high heels.
Even though they managed to fix it through surgery, it served little more purpose than an ornament. He could probably never make love again. The perpetrator—Sun Yuhan—had fled without a trace.
He Yibin realized why there was a saying; lovebirds fly in different directions when the forest is on fire.
Not every man was Lu Yi, and not every woman was Yan Huan.
There were people who could resist loneliness, but not temptation. In this world, there aren’t many who could resist both.
Before Yan Huan could inquire anything else, the phone had gone out of her hands.
She turned around. Lu Yi was standing there with a bowl of soup in hand.
“Drink up,” he commanded, raising an eyebrow. He knew what Yan Huan was doing, but didn’t expose her. She would know it sooner or later anyway. In fact, she had been more patient than he expected.
Yan Huan received the bowl. The soup had been made by Aunt Gu. Lu Yi trusted Aunt Gu fully on this matter, and would go hunting for ingredients, regardless of their rarity, as long as Aunt Gu claimed that it would make Yan Huan better.
The soup always tasted kind of strange, though.
Aunt Gu herself didn’t know if her soup really helped, but Lu Yi regarded it as something magical. To that, Aunt Gu could only smile helplessly. She herself didn’t think it was that amazing. Lu Yi’s high regard for the soup wasn’t without reason, however. There had been too many cases of success to call it a coincidence.
Not only did it help Liang Chen to get pregnant, but it also helped Yan Huan give birth to pretty triplets.
At one point of time, Aunt Gu was celebrated as a sorceress, and received endless requests to brew soup for others. In the end, none of them turned out to be like Yan Huan or Liang Chen. Perhaps they were just lucky, or had good constitutions, and all they needed was an opportunity.
Yan Huan took the bowl and began sipping by the bay window.
It didn’t taste too strange. Still, she felt nauseous by the time she was done.
“What’s in it?” she asked, looking up.
“It’s better if you don’t know,” said Lu Yi, tidying up her hair. Some things are better left unsaid. It’s best to treat them as Chinese herbal medicine. A wide range of things fell under Chinese herbal medicine, after all.
“Fine,” said Yan Huan. If Lu Yi said it was herbal medicine, then so be it. Even if it turned out to be ants or rats, she could only accept it. At the very least, she hadn’t seen the making process and was only in charge of drinking.
After a few days of drinking the soup, she was looking a lot healthier. She was still too skinny. It would look good on screen, of course, but anyone would think of her as anorexic if they saw her in real life.
“So you learned about Lu Qin’s incident?” Lu Yi browsed through his call history and found the call record with He Yibin that lasted for 3 minutes. He had been in the kitchen 3 minutes earlier, so he couldn’t have made the call. A certain woman must have stolen his phone to sate her own curiosity.
“Mhm,” admitted Yan Huan. What use was there in denying? Even if she had a silver tongue, she couldn’t have fooled the meticulous great Prosecutor Lu.
She wanted to know more, though. She lifted the bowl and drank another mouthful, so occupied in her own thoughts that she let the strange taste slide.
“Do you think Lu Qin will demand compensation from Sun Yuhan?”
