Chapter 123: Flowers from a Mysterious Figure

She came over with Luo Ange on her arm, smiling brightly. Shu Aiqing glanced at me twice before looking away and pulling Yuan Shengxiao down beside her. Luo Ange did not hesitate; he sat naturally beside me.

The air was on the verge of freezing solid. I could hear my own wildly irregular heartbeat. Across from me, Shu Aiqing smiled like a benevolent mother and patted Yuan Shengxiao on the head. “I’m sorry. You just got back from Paris yesterday, and I asked you out today.”

Yuan Shengxiao’s smile was truly breathtaking. “It’s fine. I was planning to have Ange accompany me shopping anyway.”

Shu Aiqing asked, “Have you almost finished preparing everything for the engagement?”

“Mm. Ange has been taking care of it all.”

Only then did Shu Aiqing turn to me and make the introduction. “Shengxiao, let me introduce you. This is Yi Lanshan, Congxuan’s future girlfriend.”

Yuan Shengxiao looked at me and extended her hand politely. “Miss Yi, how do you do?”

I shook her hand. “Miss Yuan, how do you do? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She said, “Ange and I are getting engaged next month. You must come with Congxuan.”

I smiled and nodded. “All right.”

Shu Aiqing glanced at her watch. “Lanshan, weren’t you going to see Congxuan? You’d better go. Don’t keep him waiting.”

I knew she was not helping me out of the awkward situation out of kindness. I knew exactly what she was plotting. Still, at that moment, I was genuinely grateful to her. If I stayed there another second, I would have gone mad.

I grabbed my bag and stood up. “You two chat. I’ll be going.”

A waiter from the café came over carrying a bouquet of flowers. When he reached our table, he bent down and asked, “A gentleman outside asked me to deliver these flowers. Which of you is Miss Yi Lanshan?”

I answered, and he handed me the bouquet. I looked down and saw, to my surprise, Snow Towers.

Almost instinctively, I lowered my head to glance at Luo Ange, but he was not looking at me. He was studying the drinks menu.

I could not tell whether he had sent them. Yuan Shengxiao, however, broke into a smile. “Oh, are they from Congxuan? They’re beautiful.”

I asked the waiter who had sent the flowers. He shook his head, pointed outside, and told me that the man was still there.

Just then, my phone vibrated. A text from an unfamiliar number appeared on the screen.

Little girl, do you like them?

I almost ran outside on instinct, but there were people everywhere, and I had no idea who had sent me the flowers.

I called the number, only to find that it was no longer in service. After hanging up, I stood there like an idiot.

Suddenly, the man sent another message.

Little girl, thank you.

Several minutes later, I cursed and texted back: Damn you. If you have the nerve, come out and face me. Stop haunting me.

The wait that followed felt like it lasted a century. At last, he replied:

Heh heh. You’ve got quite a sharp tongue, little girl.

His tone made it sound as though we were old friends who had known each other for years. Who could he be?

If I were still with Luo Ange, I might almost have believed it was him.

But I knew with absolute certainty that it was not. We had needed to use all our strength just to love each other. Even if it had been love at first sight, the slightest external force—light as a feather—had been enough to overturn all that love, transforming it into suspicion, then hatred, and finally a knife driven viciously into each other’s chests.

Could it be Du Fanchuan? He had once loved calling me “little girl.” Or perhaps it was one of the boys at school with whom I had been close.

After thinking for a few seconds, I replied: I’m done playing with you.

The reply came quickly.

Little girl, the bond between us was destined long ago, in ways beyond our understanding. Whether you want to play or not is not for you to decide.

Looking at those words, I felt cold sweat break out across my back again and again, as though I had provoked someone I should never have touched and he was about to kill me to silence me.

I hurriedly called Zhou Fan and asked him to investigate the strange number and find out what was going on.

Zhou Fan called back soon afterward. His tone was unpleasant. “Where did you get that number?”

I told him what had happened. He was silent for a few seconds, then asked where I was and said he wanted to see me.

Of course, I did not think he had missed me. Though we had always been close and he had taken good care of me, it was working hours, and my father might have caught him doing all sorts of errands.

When he heard that I was on the pedestrian street, he shouted, “Don’t move! Don’t move! I’m coming right now!”

I continued walking until I reached the two landmark archways of Kangcheng. Then I suddenly noticed someone following me.

I turned around and made a clawing gesture, intending to scare Zhou Fan, but the moment I saw who was standing before me, I let out a startled cry, and the flowers fell to the ground.

The man stepped forward and planted one foot on the bouquet. He even ground his toe into it, and I could almost hear the Snow Towers crying out for help.

After calming my racing heart, I smiled. “Young Master Luo, where’s your future fiancée?”

Luo Ange’s dark jade eyes narrowed. “Yi Lanshan, where’s the handsome man who sent you those Snow Towers? Weren’t you going to see Shu Congxuan?”

I leaned slightly toward him. He did not move, only narrowing his eyes as he watched me.

I immediately lost interest, clapped my hands, and turned to leave. “I have things to do. Goodbye.”

“Wuyou…”

A figure came running toward us, and then—

Then two people seized my arms. In an instant, I became a puppet on strings, pulled so hard I nearly fell apart.

Zhou Fan glared viciously at Luo Ange. “Who the hell are you? Let her go.”

Luo Ange shot back without yielding. “Who are you?”

People had already begun to gather around us. They were probably imagining the scene as two men fighting over one woman, with me cast as the fickle woman wavering between them.

I shouted at Luo Ange, “You sick bastard, let go of me!”

He looked slightly startled. The next second, I landed in Zhou Fan’s arms. Fortunately, Zhou Fan had forged himself a body of steel and iron; he caught me securely.

I had no intention of looking at Luo Ange. I simply dragged Zhou Fan away from there.

Later, I often wondered whether, if I had turned around, I might have seen the hurt and reluctance in Luo Ange’s eyes—whether I might have heard him whispering after me.

We found somewhere to sit, and Zhou Fan held out his hand. “Give me your phone.”

I handed it to him without thinking and asked what he was going to do.

He opened the back of the phone, removed the battery and SIM card, then lifted the phone and shook it. “That’s strange. This shouldn’t be happening.”

His comical expression made me want to laugh. I noticed a Häagen-Dazs shop not far away and asked whether he wanted ice cream.

He glared at me irritably. “Ice cream? Are you out of your mind? Do you know you’re in trouble?”

I assumed he meant Luo Ange and raised an eyebrow. “What’s going to happen?”

“What’s going to happen? Yi Lanshan, did you leave your brain at home today? Do you know where that number came from? Overseas. Overseas, do you understand?”

I wiped my face. “Why are you spraying me with spit?”

His chest was heaving violently. Suddenly, he grabbed my ear. “You foolish little sister, what kind of person have you gotten yourself mixed up with? Why would an overseas number be texting you?”

Only then did I realize how serious the matter was. I went over everything that had happened recently. The only thing I could think of was the day Old Master Zhou had sent me to the printing factory.

But that man had clearly said he was a major celebrity. And yet—yet he had also seemed to say that his father was involved in arms smuggling.

Arms smuggling. Drug trafficking. Wanted criminals…

My scalp prickled, and I asked Zhou Fan helplessly what we should do.

He took out a cigarette and lit it, staring into the distance. I knew he was thinking, so I did not dare disturb him.

After a while, he said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it. If that person texts you again, tell me.”

“Could it be dangerous?”

He sighed. “Wuyou, do you know what the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done in my life is?”

I shook my head. He had never worked undercover. Though he inevitably encountered some vicious criminals, how dangerous could his life really be?

He blew a smoke ring toward me. “The most dangerous thing I’ve ever done was getting to know you. You’re a gigantic, unpredictable time bomb. I never know when or where you’ll cause trouble again, or when you’ll beat me bloody. But, Wuyou, from the moment your father brought you before me, from the moment you timidly called me ‘Brother,’ I was already trapped in danger. And I was perfectly willing to stay there.”

He rarely spoke in such a florid manner. If I had not known perfectly well that he felt only brotherly affection for me, I might almost have thought he was confessing his love.

Come to think of it, ever since my father had taken me to the Public Security Bureau years ago, pointed to a tall, slender, handsome young man, and told me to call him Brother, I had begun bullying him and demanding whatever I wanted from him. It was only after what happened with Du Fanchuan and Yi Huayang that I had deliberately distanced myself from him.

In truth, what had he done wrong? My father had ordered him to keep me confined, and he had had no choice.

All these years, he had treated me even better than a real older brother. Even Xia Qi and Li Wanqiu were envious.

I pinched his cheek. “Don’t worry, Brother. Your little sister will behave from now on and treat you well.”

He sighed. “Just stop causing trouble. I can’t protect you forever.”

I joked, “Then hurry up and find me a sister-in-law and give me a little nephew to play with.”

To my surprise, he agreed readily. “Mm. Soon.”

By the time I finally saw the announcement of Luo Ange and Yuan Shengxiao’s engagement in the news, a week had already passed. I was suffering terribly from menstrual cramps, so Xia Qi came to the courtyard house to keep me company.

We watched the news in silence. Then she asked, “Do you want to cry?”

I looked at the Snow Towers in the vase, replaced with fresh flowers every day, and shook my head as I drank my brown-sugar water. What was there to cry about? It was only a broken heart, not a death.

Following my gaze, she asked, “Who exactly is this mysterious person?”

I shook my head to show that I had no idea. Someone sent flowers every day, but the number had not texted me again, and I had not encountered any danger.

Xia Qi pondered for a moment. “Could Luo Ange be staging all this himself? The way he looks at you is honestly terrifying.”

I shook my head firmly. Young Master Luo was busy preparing for his engagement. Where would he find the time to play house with me?

She glanced at the time, then suddenly became frighteningly enthusiastic. “We’re not doing anything anyway. Let’s go sing karaoke.”

I shook my head. My stomach hurt, and I did not want to go anywhere. I only wanted to lie down.

She pulled me to my feet. “Come on, come on. Didn’t you get a huge writing fee? You can treat me to karaoke.”

What huge writing fee? It was simply the wages Old Master Zhou had given me because I had been working so hard lately.

A new entertainment complex had opened near Kang University. Xia Qi said the sound system in its karaoke rooms was incredible, and that it was perfect for people with broken hearts.