Jin Qingyan printed two copies of the agreement and walked toward her. “Does that mean you chose to help her partly because of me?”
An Xiaoning wrapped her arms around his waist and said, “She’s your biological niece, so that makes her mine too. I’ll take the money and save her and, at the same time, solve your sister’s problem. That also means I’m saving the potential victims from her misdeeds. If she continues acting this way, I reckon Qingyue will have no choice but to resort to the last possible solution, and that is to lock Bao’er up like a prisoner. That’ll prevent her from doing any shockingly horrifying deeds.”
Jin Qingyan lowered his head and kissed her hair. “I know that as long as you’ve set your mind to it, you’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish the task. You have my support.”
An Xiaoning looked up and said, “The twin corpses that we found by the lake today turned out to still be alive…”
After explaining the situation to him in detail, she finally got to the main point.
“Mr. Gong mentioned that he wants me to be his granddaughter-in-law and introduce me to his grandson. What do you think of that?”
“How would you like me to think of it?” He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.
Noticing that he was about to bring her inside, An Xiaoning frantically said, “Bring this agreement downstairs. Qingyue and the rest are still waiting for us.”
“Let them continue waiting.” He then placed the document onto the table and pinned her down beneath him. Staring at An Xiaoning affectionately, he said, “I think you’re still hoping that I’ll strip you down to nothing.”
An Xiaoning chuckled in amusement and said, “Quit fooling around. Give me ten minutes. I’ll go downstairs to hand this agreement to Qingyue. I’ll be back soon.”
“Five minutes.”
“Fine, five minutes it is.”
He stood up while An Xiaoning got out of bed and headed downstairs with the document.
Noticing that Shi Bao’er was no longer in the living room, An Xiaoning asked, “Where is she?”
“I got Fan Shixin to take her away.”
“Okay, here, have a look at it.”
After perusing the document together with Ling Ciye, Jin Qingyue said, “No, the money is too little. Sis-in-law, I must give you 50 million dollars like I had promised earlier. This is a grave matter to me…”
An Xiaoning interrupted, “I think 20 million dollars is good enough. At the end of the day, you’re Qingyan’s sister. Just give the money to me as a labor fee after everything is completed.”
“Sis-in-law… I’ll pay you first, alright?”
“I haven’t even started. It’s not too late to pay me after everything is done. I’m not afraid that you won’t pay up, so don’t worry.”
Jin Qingyue chuckled and said, “Alright, since you’ve said that, I’ll give it to you in the future, Sis-in-law.”
Jin Qingyue stamped her thumbprint onto the agreement, and An Xiaoning kept one copy of it.
“You guys may go back and leave Bao’er here with us.”
“Okay.”
An Xiaoning left together with them. However, Jin Qingyue and Ling Ciye walked toward the entrance while she headed to the guardroom.
Shi Bao’er was seated on the chair and snacking on some tidbits.
Standing by the door, An Xiaoning looked at Shi Bao’er and said, “Your mommy has handed you over to me. From now onwards, you must listen to me and adhere to my instructions.”
Shi Bao’er flung the bag of tidbits in her hand onto the ground and sprung up from her seat. She glowered at her and yelled in exasperation, “I don’t want to obey you, I want to go home!”
“Go home?” An Xiaoning said to Fan Shixin, “Lock her up in the basement where we once locked Xu Youran. I’ll give you further instructions tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, Young Madam.”
―
Mrs. Yan finally stopped spouting nonsense to the media because Yan Ge had told her about their breakup.
However, they would have to wait until the television series was to go on air before announcing the news of their breakup.
Still, Mrs. Yan felt that they were not really going to break up and that it was merely one of Fang Erlan’s tricks. Hence, she did not agree to go home like Yan Ge had told her to and, instead, continued staying at the hotel.
She would follow Yan Ge to the set.
She felt a little bit relieved to see that Fang Erlan and Yan Ge did not speak to each other outside of filming.
After all, Fang Erlan and Yan Ge were both actors who had great acting chops. Thus, Mrs. Yan was afraid that they might just be putting on a show in front of her.
Due to the heavy rain, the production team could not help but wrap up at 9:20 pm.
Fang Erlan was in the midst of getting changed in the changing room when she received a call from Mrs. Yan.
After staring at the caller display, she swiped to answer it and placed the mobile phone beside her ear. “Hello.”
“I’d like to meet you in private.”
“Auntie, you may just cut straight to the chase now. At this point, is there still a need for us to meet in private?”
Mrs. Yan felt a little more certain after hearing her words. “You’ve really broken up with my son, right?”
“Of course. So, Auntie, you may rest assured. From now on, Senior Yan Ge and I will just be colleagues. We won’t be working together again after this television series. Besides, I’ll also sell my apartment in Qingyuan Estate and move elsewhere after filming comes to an official close. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Mrs. Yan did not expect her to be so straightforward. She felt as if a heavy boulder had been lifted off her shoulders after hearing her answer.
“You’ll find a man who’s more outstanding than my son,” said Mrs. Yan, who was generous with her blessings.
Fang Erlan said, “Thank you for your blessings. I will.”
Not expecting her to give such an answer, Mrs. Yan was at a momentary loss for words. After a moment of silence, she said, “Ah, you really don’t know how to be modest.”
She then ended the call.
Fang Erlan placed her phone aside and continued to change into her clothes.
As soon as she exited, she bumped into Yan Ge, who had just exited from the male changing room. Remaining calm and composed, Fang Erlan greeted him with a nod. Just as she was about to turn around, he said, “Why… are you that unwilling to even say hello?”
Fang Erlan shook her head and said, “Of course not, Senior Yan Ge. I’ll be taking my leave now.”
Yan Ge stared at her sulkily and asked, “Are you that reluctant to speak to me?”
Fang Erlan could tell that he had become much more haggard than before.
“No, it’s mainly because Xiao Yue and the rest are waiting for me outside.”
He was well aware of that because he had seen them before he entered the changing room.
He did not say anything else and entered the changing room.
Fang Erlan exited to see that Xiao Chenyang was not around. She asked, “Where is he?”
Xiao Yue answered, “Cousin said that he went out to buy some food. He told us that we should go wait inside the van because it’s pouring heavily and that he would be back soon.”
“Alright,” said Fang Erlan, who then headed to the nanny van together with Xiao Yue and the chauffeur.
Once they got inside the car, Fang Erlan scrolled through the internet to look at the latest news, only to discover that there were still netizens gossiping about her. She skipped the post and proceeded to look at other news.
Xiao Yue was seated beside her and was playing with her mobile phone as well.
All of a sudden, the door of the van was pulled open forcefully.
Upon the sight of the man, Fang Erlan dropped her mobile phone in shock.
