My Groom Ran Away

Bai Bo nodded and just as he stood up to leave, Cheng Yuelin seemed to have thought of something. He called him back and lazily asked, “Do you know what the employees have been gossiping about lately?”

Cheng Yuelin frowned as he looked at Bai Bo. His question was the same as Qian Fan’s question from lunch when he said with a strange gaze — “Brother Lin, it is work time. You need to be aware of these sorts of things. You cannot let the employees laugh at you.”

Cheng Yuelin did not understand at that time, but he could not help but ask Bai Bo.

Bai Bo met his gaze and his expression was a bit conflicted. He hesitated for a while before finally opening his mouth and euphemistically said, “Boss… starting from tomorrow, you should probably stop wearing turtlenecks.”

Cheng Yuelin frowned for a moment before he finally realized something. He raised a brow and pursed his lips a little before saying, “Okay, I understand.”

He did not think that, just because he was wearing a turtleneck to hide his mild allergic reaction, the company would end up… gossiping about this sort of misunderstanding.

Bai Bo saw that his boss’s mood seemed to be pretty good. Breathing a sigh of relief, he finally turned and left the office.

After leaving, Cheng Yuelin rubbed his temples and laugh. It took a while to clear out those messy thoughts from his head.

Just as Zhong Yi came to drop off the cooperation contract, the phone on his desk buzzed—

He reached out to pick up the call.

Officer Ye’s voice carried a happiness he could not hide: “President Cheng, your father’s assistant from back then, has returned to Lanqiao and has turned himself in.”

///

After the call from Officer Ye, Cheng Yuelin received a call from Grandpa Ruan and he went to the Ruan family’s home alone.

He coincidentally ran into Ji Yijun who had just finished visiting Grandpa Ruan.

The two exchanged glances and Ji Yijun greeted him with a smile. “President Cheng, long time no see.”

“Mr. Ji” Cheng Yuelin nodded slightly, but he did not address him as uncle like before.

Ji Yijun did not mind. He nodded to reply and said, “Uncle Ruan is waiting for you. I will leave first.”

After speaking, he headed to the door.

Just as he reached the door, he silently turned his head to look again. He just happened to see Cheng Yuelin disappear behind the stairs.

Ji Yijun remembered the first time he met Cheng Yuelin eight years ago. He was only a half-grown teenager, and he had directly told him about Ruan Zhiyin’s issues at school before turning around and leaving.

There were many twists and turns, but in the end, it seems to have paid off.

///

When Ruan Zhiyin returned home, the large living room was dark.

After turning on the light, she frowned. She could smell the bitter scent of cigarette smoke in the air.

When her eyes fell on the man sitting in the living room, Ruan Zhiyin paused and asked, “Cheng Yuelin, why are you sitting in the dark?”

The man was sitting expressionlessly on the sofa. His eyes were glazed, and the coffee table ashtray had a few cigarette butts.

Cheng Yuelin did not speak, but she could tell that he was feeling down.

Ruan Zhiyin walked in front of him before she lowered her voice and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Cheng Yuelin seemed to come back to his senses and slowly met her gaze. He gave a light laugh and lazily shook his head. “Oh, it’s nothing. I just smoked a few cigarettes.

When Ruan Zhiyin left the house, Ruan Zhiyin had said that she was going to go out shopping with Gu Linlang. He did not expect that she would come back this early.

Looking at his nonchalant manner, Ruan Zhiyin sighed and said, “Smoking is bad for you, try not to smoke as much in the future.”

This was the first time she had seen Cheng Yuelin smoke.

Cheng Yuelin raised a brow and his eyes were playful as he smiled and said, “Ruan Zhiyin, you’ve been so concerned about me lately? You’re even caring about how much I smoke.”

Ruan Zhiyin choked a little. She picked up the ashtray on the coffee table and fired back, “I’m scared that I’ll end up inhaling your secondhand smoke and end up dying young.”

Then she pointed at the words on the box of cigarettes. “It clearly says that smoking is bad for you. If you aren’t that addicted to smoking yet, you should quit early.”

During the entire time they had been together, she had never seen Cheng Yuelin smoke. She felt that since he did not smoke much, it should not be that difficult for him to quit. They had gotten along pretty well so far; she did not want to see him turn into a smoker.

Cheng Yuelin gave a casual grunt as a response.

After speaking and meeting her gaze, he shook his head. “I understand. I won’t smoke in the future.”

He was not much of a smoker. He would normally only have a smoke once in a while. At most, he would smoke two, but just now his mood was not good, and he ended up smoking quite a few.

Now that she had brought up the smoking, his bad mood had dissipated quite a bit.

But just as he finished thinking about this, he heard Ruan Zhiyin’s voice asking, “So, why were you smoking?”

Cheng Yuelin looked up into her eyes. His eyes hid his emotions as he considered what to say. After a moment, he laughed and looked at the window. His voice was a bit vague, “I guess you can say, something has finally been resolved. But I did not find any relief.”

The key witness in that case was Father Cheng’s assistant, Xu Xin. The money had gone through his hands, but after Father Cheng was imprisoned, Xu Xin had disappeared.

When Officer Ye had called earlier, Xu Xin had returned to Lanqiao to turn himself in because his father had died. He had already given a clear account on what had happened.

Even though he was still missing a few pieces of evidence, Cheng Yuelin could already piece together what had happened.

With that, Cheng Yuelin casually leaned back against the sofa and his lips curled into a smile and met Ruan Zhiyin’s gaze. “Ruan Yingying, in the beginning, when you said that I was arrogant, you were really not wrong.”

Like his father, when his business was well, and was aggressively expanding his business, he had ended up taking too many cakes from other people, and did he begin to end up being caught in scheme after scheme. This led to his eventual downfall.

Cheng Yuelin’s heart was really clear. In business, profit was everything. People were willing to do whatever it takes. If it were him, would he have been able to sit back and do nothing?

Thinking of this problem, he thought about the amount of effort he had put in to try to clear the old man’s case.