Chapter 38

Xie Jin, who selected home furnishings online for only four hours last night, did not get up until after 10:30 pm, still groggy.

It took him a while to react that this was Su Tao's house in Jiangcheng.

He got up and turned to look at the tightly closed bedroom door. He tiptoed over, twisted the door handle, and it was unexpectedly unlocked.

He turned on the new bedroom wall light he bought, adjusted it to the dimmest brightness, and saw that Su Tao was sleeping soundly, hugging the stuffed rabbit doll he bought.

He gently lifted the quilt on the other side and got in, putting his face next to this brave rabbit, holding Su Tao's hand. He fell soundly asleep again in less than a minute.

Xie Jin, who did not dream all night and did not even know how long he had slept, was suddenly hit by something soft, disturbing his rare good sleep.

He frowned tightly, opened his eyes full of raging anger, and his pitch-black pupils were like a raging fire. In his heart, he had already engraved the spirit tablet of the person who woke him up.

Unexpectedly, what entered his eyes was a tranquil and pretty little face.

The fire was instantly extinguished without even a wisp of smoke. Xie Jin seamlessly switched to a smiling face and said, "Morning, little peach."

"Get out," Su Tao said.

"Ok!"

Su Tao did not go to work today. Instead, she went directly to Jiang Nian's villa.

After squatting all morning, she did not catch Qin Xuexi going out, but she did catch Jiang Nian leaving.

Su Tao got out of the car and pressed the doorbell of the villa gate.

On the lawn in the backyard of the villa, Qin Xuexi had a blanket over her lap. She was drinking warm water and caressing her slightly bulging belly, being very attentive to keeping warm and nourishing the fetus.

Even at home, she was wearing pink home clothes. It seemed that she really liked the color pink.

Exposed on her arms were two bruises. Su Tao's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she discreetly averted her gaze.

"How did you find this place?" Qin Xuexi put down her glass of water. Her eyes seemed even more vicious than when Su Tao first met her a year ago, "You found out it was me so quickly? No wonder you can keep Xie Jin in the palm of your hand. You are quite smart."

Su Tao lowered her eyes. Her eyelashes concealed the surprise in her eyes. She did not expect Qin Xuexi to admit it so straightforwardly.

"Are you here to question me about why I ruined your endorsement deal?" There was a biting tone in Qin Xuexi's voice. She gave a cold laugh, "Because I hate you." "Back then, Xie Jin almost drove me to death. If I hadn't climbed up to Old Jiang, I'm afraid I'd be in prison now. I can't get back at him, so why can't I get back at you? I won't let you be well off if you don't let me be well off."

Qin Xuexi threw the glass in her hand out. It hit the ground and shattered into pieces.

Su Tao did not say a word since entering. Qin Xuexi was answering her own questions. It seemed she did not need Su Tao to ask anything. She just vented her emotions herself.

It seemed her grievances had accumulated too deeply. A year later, her hatred had not subsided at all. On the contrary, it appeared to have accumulated to a certain extent that she could not help but vent it as if wanting the whole world to know.

"The company was built up by me accompanying him bit by bit. Yet he took away my position for you and transferred me away! What do I lack compared to you?" Qin Xuexi was no longer concerned about nourishing the fetus. Speaking of the past made her hysterical, "We had just celebrated the success of a new project. Why did he treat me like this? What does it have to do with me after you left? Fine, he doesn't value our past affection, but he even wanted me locked up! I loved him for six years!"

With the last cry, she wept bitterly, as if she was wronged by an unfaithful man after dedicating all her love, only to end up in misery.

Qin Xuexi's accusations gave Su Tao a lot of information that subverted her existing perceptions.

If her words were true, Su Tao had doubts about the rumor of Xie Jin's surrogate. If there was love, even huge matters could not have made Xie Jin send Qin Xuexi to jail, right?

Su Tao took advantage of Qin Xuexi's current immersion in her self-pity to slowly open her mouth, fishing for information: "You must have given a lot to him in the past?"

Big teardrops kept dripping down Qin Xuexi's face. She could not control herself and sank into grief.

"Do you know how much I loved him? He always asked me to customize pink dresses, definitely with six pleats. I thought he liked women dressed like that, so I changed all my clothes to pink. He had a bracelet that was his mother's heirloom, supposedly left for his future daughter-in-law. I secretly made an identical one. I didn't dare wear it in front of him. I was always carefully hiding it, but I also wanted to deliberately reveal a little, to see his reaction after discovering it. As a result, his eyes never fell on me at all. I wore that bracelet for so long, yet he never noticed it. I spent so much thought and effort for him. What have you done that could compare? What right do you have to receive his love?"

Su Tao stared blankly at the almost crazy woman before her eyes. Her thoughts were a mess in her mind.

The old rumors, the pink dresses, the identical bracelet, it was like a messy thread all tangled together, but it also seemed she could find the end of the thread at any moment. As long as she pulled, she could untangle all the threads.

"In short, I hate both of you. I don't have the ability now, but in the future when I do," she said as she unconsciously caressed her belly. She viciously said, "Don't expect to live well, you and Xie Jin!"

Su Tao's eyelashes quivered slightly. It seemed that she had grasped the clue from that bit of messy threads. She finally said the first sentence since coming here.

"Did Xie Jin ask you to leave back then because of the kiss between you two?" Qin Xuexi's face was still covered in tear stains and her red eyes still held hatred. She looked blankly at Su Tao's words, still not understanding what she meant: "What kiss?"

"Didn't you kiss him before?" Su Tao's gaze was tranquil. She quietly watched her, just as she did a year ago. The more she looked, the more guilty Qin Xuexi felt.

Su Tao retracted her gaze. She felt some things might need confirmation again.

She walked out without saying a word. Behind her, she heard Qin Xuexi's belated attempt to provoke her, thinking it could stimulate Su Tao.

"Of course we kissed! We even did it! He is especially fierce in bed! I and him..."

Su Tao had already left the villa and could no longer hear her deliberately shouting. Her face was cold as she drove away.

Back at the company, Su Tao parked downstairs. She did not get out of the car and organized her thoughts before calling Li Yajie.

"Sis," Su Tao got straight to the point after the call connected, "You know that Director Jiang has a mistress, right?"

"I know," Li Yajie's calm voice came from the phone.

Naturally, Li Yajie had long known about this. As long as it did not threaten her legal status, she would not interfere with however Jiang Nian wanted to fool around.

Su Tao: "That mistress is pregnant."

There was a brief silence on the phone before a light laugh suddenly came through, "It seems this mistress is quite ambitious, but her intelligence does not match up."

Su Tao looked surprised, not quite understanding Li Yajie's words.

Li Yajie immediately explained what she meant: "Jiang Nian is infertile. This is something I spent heavily to keep secret, precisely to prevent what is happening now."

Su Tao suddenly understood. That meant Qin Xuexi was pregnant with someone else's child, and Jiang Nian still did not know.

Then if Jiang Nian found out, Qin Xuexi would probably not have a good outcome.

Su Tao: "Sis, I know this mistress. She and I have a deep grudge. She was the one who instigated Director Jiang to obstruct my endorsement this time."

Li Yajie: "Then I understand now. Leave this matter to me to handle. Wait for my message, peach."

Su Tao breathed a sigh of relief. As she raised her eyes, she saw through the car window the tall, cold figure walking towards her from across the street. In her mind, she heard Qin Xuexi's hysterical crying again.

"Xie Jin almost drove me to death."

"I thought he liked women dressed like that, so I changed all my clothes to pink."

"I secretly made an identical bracelet. I didn't dare wear it in front of him. I was always carefully hiding it, but I also wanted to deliberately reveal a little."

...

Su Tao closed her eyes, concealing the mess and entanglement in them. She got out of the car.

Xie Jin had not been idle all morning. He went to pick up a car and buy daily necessities to move into the apartment across from Su Tao's company.

This time, no matter how she rejected him, even if she beat or scolded him, he would stay by her side and silently guard her.

He had originally planned to buy some tasty food to bring her, even if she did not like to eat it and threw it away.

But he did not expect to see her car as soon as he left the apartment.

Seeing little peach, the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up. He took big strides and walked quickly over.

A black sedan suddenly stopped in the middle of the road next to Su Tao's car, catching his attention.

A long-haired woman wearing a black baseball cap, mask, and sunglasses came out of the black sedan, holding an iron bucket and heading straight for Su Tao.

He quickened his pace and ran over quickly.

Seeing Xie Jin run over to her in shock from walking, Su Tao immediately became alert and stopped. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed someone in black walking towards her. Before the person could get close, she suddenly raised the iron bucket in her hand as if to splash its contents over.

Su Tao immediately dodged to the side. She was very confident she could dodge this, but was suddenly shielded in someone's arms, causing her to be unable to dodge swiftly and lose her balance. The two fell to the side of the road together.

The viscous red liquid splashed all over Xie Jin without any waste.

A pungent, fishy smell came over. It should be pig's blood.

Blood slowly flowed down from the top of Xie Jin's head, making it unclear whether he was splashed or had cracked his head open from the fall.

He frowned slightly, as if somewhere was painful, but it was just for a moment before he regained his composure. Blood flowed from his temple down the side of his face, yet he only looked at Su Tao, "Did you get hurt anywhere from the fall?"

Su Tao shook her head. The two struggled to stand up. Su Tao noticed he seemed to have some difficulty with his ankle. She reached out to grab his arm to steady him, looking towards the black sedan speeding away on the roadside with narrowed eyes. "Are you alright? Did you sprain your ankle?" Su Tao turned her gaze back to Xie Jin and saw him staring at her with an unrestrained smile on his face, despite being drenched in blood.

"What are you smiling about? You're covered in blood yet you can still smile." Su Tao didn't understand his thought process. She looked down at his foot and asked again, "Did you sprain your ankle?"

Only then did Xie Jin belatedly move his foot. He hesitated for two seconds, opened and closed his mouth, furrowed his brows, and exaggeratedly yelled, "Ow, it hurts!"

Su Tao: "..."

How overdramatic.

Although it seemed deliberately exaggerated, his foot did seem to be injured. Su Tao helped him into the car to take him to the hospital.

After taking off his coat, Xie Jin was only wearing a black vest. He simply wiped his head and face, stopped her, and said, "Don't go to the hospital. With all this blood on me, take me home to wash up first."

Su Tao looked at him and pointed to the apartment he had bought diagonally across: "Your home is over there. I'll help you back?"

"I already emptied that apartment, there's nothing in it," Xie Jin blinked and said, "Let's go to your place to wash up."

Seeing the blood red stain on the left side of his fair complexion, Su Tao didn't refuse further and started the car.

On the drive to Su Tao's home, Xie Jin complained that his foot hurt too much to walk. He put his arm around Su Tao's shoulders, leaned his whole body against her, and hobbled inside the door with difficulty.

Su Tao helped him sit on the sofa and went to find him new towels, asking as she did so, "Can you wash yourself standing up?"

Xie Jin raised his brow, his eyes following Su Tao's movements, a smile playing on his lips. Feigning concern, he said, "No, I can't. Help me wash, let's do it together."

A towel landed on his head, followed by Su Tao's indifferent voice, "I meant, do you need a plastic stool in the bathroom?"

While Xie Jin was showering, Su Tao called Le Xuan and asked her to buy a set of high-end designer menswear from the mall, reporting the sizes to her. She hung up amidst Le Xuan's sounds of astonishment.

Accompanied by the pitter-patter of flowing water from the bathroom, Su Tao thought back to the earlier scene. She didn't call the police because she had already guessed who was behind the pig's blood.

She had been keeping up with Tian Yingying's activities. She heard all kinds of rumors about her after the finale recording that day.

Word was going around that Rui Qi had ordered a ban on Tian Yingying.

Rui Qi not only represented the platforms but also the investors' stance. No one dared to offend Rui Qi and Tian Xin. News like this spread quickly in the industry. Soon, multiple platforms announced they would no longer hire Tian Yingying.

Knowing she had provoked someone powerful, her agency cancelled all her jobs. There were subtle signs they wanted to abandon and freeze her out.

The small resources she had accumulated through "The Road to Debut" were also given to others overnight. Various negative information about her personal life started emerging online.

Her inappropriate speech and photos from her amateur years were dug up, shattering her cute and innocent image. Netizens unanimously told her to get lost.

The variety shows she had appeared in were reported and forced to be taken down. Unaired shows rushed to edit her parts to avoid being removed.

This wave of attacks completely eliminated any chance of Tian Yingying making a comeback. So her splashing pig's blood to disgust Su Tao was understandable.

Just a bit powerless. Perhaps wary of Xie Jin's methods, she only dared to vent by throwing pig's blood without causing any real harm.

There was a knock on the door. It should be Le Xuan with the clothes. The shower water had also turned off as she went to open the door. Xie Jin came out of the bathroom at that moment.

Seeing Xie Jin standing at the door, Le Xuan's eyes looked like they would pop out.

He had a towel around his waist, his upper body bare, water drops still clinging to his hair. His entire being exuded masculine pheromones.

Le Xuan immediately covered her eyes with both hands but couldn't resist peeking through her fingers twice to confirm it was Xie Jin before blocking her view again.

This was not a scene she could watch.

Su Tao picked up the bag of clothes Le Xuan had dropped in her fluster and closed the door slightly, blocking Le Xuan's line of sight. Indifferently, she said, "He's just borrowing the bathroom, don't think too much."

Le Xuan uncovered her eyes, nodded meaningfully, smiled, and turned to walk to the elevator, waving goodbye to Su Tao.

After closing the door, a warm chest suddenly pressed against her back. Through her thin clothing, she could feel his scorching heat.

Xie Jin clung onto her and said weakly, "My foot hurts, I can't walk. You have to support me."

Su Tao took a step forward away from his chest, only holding onto his arm. Unfazed, she said, "Get dressed and I'll take you to the hospital."

Xie Jin's voice grew even weaker. He also rubbed his temple, feigning his head hurt too. "Don't go to the hospital. I already called my private doctor to come. He told me not to move around and to rest at home. I might not be able to leave your place for now, or I'll become completely disabled."

He then added, "I got injured saving you. It's not too much to ask you to take care of me, right?"

Su Tao: "..."

So now the violent boss is using a sickly sweet script?

She suspected she had been duped.