Volume One, Chapter 29: She Doesn't Know You!
Dongcheng Police Station.
The officer conducting the interrogation looked at Lu Jinnian with an expression of utter disbelief. “So, what you’re telling me is that you don’t know him, but you still hit him?”
Lu Jinnian’s face was dark and brooding, and he said nothing.
He’d acted on impulse.
The fire that Sang Wan had kindled in him erupted the moment he saw that man reach out to grab her.
In that instant, he had rushed over in a fit of anger.
It wasn’t until the police appeared that he finally snapped back to his senses.
Lu Jinnian knew he had lost control.
He hadn’t always been this way.
His subordinates often whispered behind his back that he was cold and aloof, untouchable.
His friends always said he was unshakably calm and composed, like a robot with flawless programming—never making a mistake.
Even Sang Wan had claimed to love his steadiness and reliability.
The man who had lost control in public, begging for affection, was nothing like him.
The man who lashed out and hurt someone in front of everyone was even less like him.
Where on earth had things gone wrong?
Lu Jinnian couldn’t figure it out.
The door to the interrogation room swung open. Another officer entered, his face even more exasperated. “Sang Wan says she doesn’t know you. Do you have any other family we can contact?”
Lu Jinnian’s eyes shot up, blazing with fury.
How could Sang Wan ignore something this serious?
Did she have any idea what it would mean for the Lu Corporation if word got out that he’d assaulted someone and ended up in the police station?
He’d done it all for her!
If that bastard hadn’t laid a hand on her, would he have gone after him like that?
How could she be so heartless?
His face black as thunder, Lu Jinnian rattled off another phone number.
A little over ten minutes later, Lu Zhiyi came rushing in.
“Brother!”
She shrieked, as if only now believing that the person on the other end of the phone really had been the police, and that the police weren’t lying to her. “What… what happened?”
The man who’d been beaten was called Zhao Chengang, a professor in the engineering department at Imperial University.
Both the surveillance footage and Zhao Chengang’s own statement spelled out the facts.
Zhao Chengang had been on a date with Xu Yiyi. During their meeting, Xu Yiyi’s friend arrived, and he had graciously invited her to join them.
Then Lu Jinnian had stormed over and, without a word, assaulted him.
He was left battered and bruised.
His black-rimmed glasses now had one broken arm.
Zhao Chengang looked frail and pitiful.
They reached an amicable settlement over medical expenses, lost wages, and emotional damages.
It was nearly midnight when both parties finally left the police station.
Zhao Chengang now knew that the man who’d hit him was none other than the CEO of the Lu Corporation.
With the substantial compensation transferred to him by Lu Zhiyi, all of Zhao Chengang’s righteous indignation melted away into genial humility. “It was a misunderstanding, a complete misunderstanding… Mr. Lu, rest assured, even if I had a hundred times the courage, I wouldn’t dare lay a hand on your wife! Today was all one big misunderstanding!”
“I’m Xu Yiyi’s boyfriend. I guess you could say we’ve met through a fight…”
Whatever thoughts had flickered through his mind upon seeing Sang Wan’s face vanished entirely when he learned who she was.
Zhao Chengang thumped his chest. “Mr. Lu, you and your wife are having a spat, aren’t you? All couples fight, but it always blows over by bedtime. Just talk it out. Next time Mrs. Lu comes to Imperial University to see Yiyi, I’ll be sure to let you know right away—is that all right?”
Looking at Zhao Chengang’s sycophantic face, Lu Jinnian shot him a frosty glare and turned to leave.
The red sports car roared away from the police station. In the rearview mirror, Zhao Chengang was still bowing and smiling obsequiously.
The saying goes that people flock together by kind. Xu Yiyi was Sang Wan’s best friend, but her boyfriend was such a character that even Lu Jinnian felt he’d been dragged down a notch simply by association.
Brooding, he turned to Lu Zhiyi. “Do you have a cigarette?”
“Only women’s cigarettes. Do you want one?”
Lu Zhiyi lifted her chin.
Lu Jinnian rummaged in the glove compartment, found a cigarette, lit it, and rolled down the window.
The night air was cool; the ember at his fingertips glowed and faded.
Lu Jinnian’s face was shadowed and bleak.
All he could see in his mind was Sang Wan dragging Xu Yiyi out of the bar, not once looking back, so resolute.
And the words from the police—she says she doesn’t know you!
“Where are you going, Brother?”
He drove the sports car back to the bar, retrieved his own vehicle from the parking lot, and tore away with a screech of tires.
Lu Zhiyi’s anxious cries were swallowed up by the wind.
Lu Jinnian drove to the hotel where Sang Wan had once stayed.
It was late, and the receptionist and manager were nearly hoarse from explaining.
Since Sang Wan had checked out, several guests had stayed in that room, and it had been cleaned multiple times.
Even if Lu Jinnian searched, even if the police came, there was no chance of finding a single trace of Sang Wan.
But Lu Jinnian refused to believe it.
With no other choice, the manager upgraded the current guest to a top-floor room with a night view, bowed and scraped as he escorted them upstairs, then invited Lu Jinnian over.
The economy room was barely over ten square meters—smaller than the bathroom in the Lu family villa.
The bed was a tangled mess.
There was even a half-eaten cup of instant noodles on the table.
Anyone could see at a glance that it was impossible to find any clue as to Sang Wan’s whereabouts. Lu Jinnian stood in the doorway, his gaze dark and terrifying.
Leaving the hotel, Lu Jinnian called Yang Yan. “Have you found that man yet? … Then find out where she is now.”
Standing by the door of his Mercedes, Lu Jinnian smoked one cigarette after another.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop of a small attic, Sang Wan and Xu Yiyi lay in wicker chairs, gazing at the stars.
“That bastard acted out for you. Are you sure you don’t want to go see him? Is everything really fine?”
“What could possibly be wrong? … Did I ask him to get involved? Besides, I’m his ex-wife, not his mother. If someone wants to go, let them!”
“If only you’d had this backbone sooner!”
“…Don’t get me started on you. First date, and you went to a bar? You’ve really got guts!!!”
“How was I supposed to know? He said we should sit, listen to some music, have a drink. I thought it was one of those quiet, cozy places…”
The more she spoke, the angrier Xu Yiyi became. She sat up indignantly. “Yesterday when I went to hand in paperwork, the department head spent ages introducing me to him—he practically tried to force a marriage on the spot… And that’s the man holding my professional title in his hands. Even if he’d been a dog, I’d have had to go, right? … Kept saying he was a promising young man, dignified and refined—ha!”
Thinking of all Zhao Chengang’s sly probing.
And the lecherous glint in his eyes when he saw Sang Wan.
Xu Yiyi immediately felt all her secret, romantic illusions shatter. “I wanted a cold, handsome wolf in sheep’s clothing, not an actual wolf! Ugh…”
Her wailing was cut off as Sang Wan covered her mouth.
Xu Yiyi nodded knowingly.
Sang Wan let go, lay back in her chair once more.
Then Xu Yiyi asked quietly, “Do you believe in true love?”
Sang Wan: …
“Forget it, let me put it another way…”
Perhaps realizing how childish her question sounded, Xu Yiyi rephrased herself. “After a failed marriage, do you still believe there’s such a thing as genuine love and a happy marriage in this world?”
Sang Wan gazed silently at the inky night sky above.
The clouds were thin, like a veil of mist drifting softly by.
Behind that veil, the stars twinkled, scattering their faint light.
Her first instinct was to say she no longer believed.
She had suffered enough for love.
Yet in her mind, a pair of silhouettes flashed by—beautiful and everlasting.
Sang Wan turned her head to Xu Yiyi. “Do you still remember Professor Ming?”