328—You Can Forget I Said That
He didn't realize his reputation had become so bad.
"Did he describe the person who told him to get rid of me?"
"No. He said he didn't see the person, that they communicated through text messages. He gave me the number but it couldn't be traced."
"Send it to me." He could handle that at least.
"Alright."
"Anything else?"
"How's my sister? Mother said I should ask." Gao Tinghua said tentatively. He couldn't say he was the one worried about her and was afraid that she would not respond to his calls.
"She's fine."
"That's great. Please greet her for me." He said with relief.
An awkward silence, making Gao Tinghua pause in realization. Of course, would Chairman Li ever do that? He couldn't wait to make sure Pei Yueran never had anything to do with him again, so how could he be so kind?
"You can forget I said that," he amended smoothly.
"That's all?" Li Chuanmo asked plainly. He wasn't even considering delivering such a message in the first place.
Before Gao Tinghua could respond, he had hung up.
Gao Tinghua rubbed his nose, feeling helpless. What could he do to make his brother-in-law like him, at least a little?
Li Chuanmo went to the room to check up on Pei Yueran, only to meet her sleeping, her long lashes fanned out prettily.
Li Chuanmo bent down and drank in the sight of her, almost greedily. She was so beautiful that it was surreal, far too precious to him to let her come to harm.
As his hand inched forward to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, her lashes fluttered lightly. In the next moment, she opened her eyes.
"What are you doing?" Seeing his bent beside her, with a hand coming for her hair, she asked with a look of suspicion.
"Just admiring my Honey. How are you feeling now?" Li Chuanmo tucked away the wayward strand before taking his hand back and asking with tenderness.
"Still tired, but I'll live." Pei Yueran said before she yawned.
"Don't you think we should go to Doctor Xu, so that he can give you a check up and make sure you're totally okay?" Li Chuanmo asked. Doctor Xu was an old family friend of the Lis.
"I don't think it's necessary, I'm just fine." Pei Yueran refuted. She was feeling fine, not to mention that she had already sworn off hospitals. They were almost synonymous with trauma for her now.
Besides, work had piled up in their absence, she needed to work on a couple of projects.
"If you say so. But if you feel the slightest discomfort, let's call him immediately."
Pei Yueran agreed.
Both of them ate before going to the study together. Li Chuanmo had another meeting with some business partners, while Pei Yueran worked on her laptop.
After about an hour, her phone rang. It was her mother-in-law, video calling to ask if they were back from the Capital. Pei Yueran told them Li Chuanmo was in a meeting and Zhang Heying didn't mind. She didn't call to talk to him anyway.
After the pleasantries, they asked her how the banquet went. "Did everything end smoothly?" She asked with concern.
"Did anyone target you?" Li Qianye asked by the side.
They had already agreed to tell the old Li couple all that happened, so Pei Yueran summarized the weekend in a few words, excluding the part where she met Han Leifeng.
As expected, both of them were shocked.
"But everything is fine now Mom, Dad. Don't worry," Pei Yueran emphasized.
Zhang Heying kept making the sign of the cross, thanking God for her safety. She couldn't bear to imagine what would have happened if they had succeeded.
"How about the criminals?" Li Qianye asked.
"Have they been handed over to the authorities?" Zhang Heying followed.
"They were caught, and Chuan said he will take care of things."
"Tell Chuanmo to handle everything cleanly and leave no traces," Zhang Heying said in a ruthless tone, surprising Pei Yueran. She had always seen her mother-in-law as a soft-spoken woman who was kind to everyone.
Seeing her look, Zhang Heying said, "You're surprised? Don't be. You should know that being kind to your enemies is being ruthless to yourself. It's better to nip such problems in the bud, to prevent future complications."
"Letting such people go scot-free will not make them grateful to you. Rather, they'd become more insatiable and bold. If they were aiming for a pound of flesh before, they would come for one's life the next time," Li Qianye added from the side.
Pei Yueran nodded obediently. She understood their point of view. "Got it, thank you Mom, Dad."
"Anytime Ran'er. Try to put the awful memory behind you and make sure you rest well. We have to travel for a few days, but we'll come see you when we return.
"No problem Mom, we'll be expecting you."
"When are the boys coming back?" Zhang Heying asked.
"In about a month from now. They said they're too busy to come back before the summer break."
She missed them already, but at least they were having fun. Her only concern was that Han Leifeng might actually go to the school and shock Han Yichen.
It made some sense for him to want to see his son, but she didn't think he was ready to see his supposedly dead father.
Or perhaps, she was the one that wasn't ready to let them meet.
Pei Yueran was a person that usually faced her emotions straightforwardly and honestly, but in this instance, she really wanted to shrink away and bury her head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich.
She tried to convince herself that he did not deserve her honesty and transparency, but it just wasn't her way of doing things.
Suddenly determined, she made a resolve to tackle this issue quickly by going to the boys' school during the week to talk to Han Yichen. She felt that preparing him by easing into the topic would make it easier for him to accept.
Now that her heart felt lighter, her ability to focus grew and she was soon immersed in work.
As long as she personally explained things to him during the week, he would understand, and everything would be fine.
Unfortunately, work was so overwhelming that she did not have the time. Even the planned trip to City A had to be postponed because they had needed to be abroad for a business meeting.
There was no time to rest or even think about Han Leifeng's matter, not to mention speak to Han Yichen.
She remembered sometime during the next week, and made a note on her digital calendar to attend to it that very weekend.
But before she could do that, Han Leifeng did something that made her see red.