“I’ve been busy with my personal issue in past few days .Let’s discuss that some other time .Now If you’re feeling alright, head back to your house as soon as you can,” Wu Qingsong said,fixing his gaze on her . When Gu Fuying looked at himn there was a tremor of unspoken words on her lips, but ultimately shw choose remain silent . Than she turned and hurried back towrads the banquet hall part of it was to flee from WuQingsong’s gaze as she don’t want her secret liking to be expossed and part of it was that to tell her parents about her aunts schemes ,so they can deal with her swiftly, as her aunt right now seems truly hell-bent on her destruction.
As Gu Fuying returned to the banquet hall , Second Aunt Gu eyed her up and down with a flicker of surprise. “Fuying, are you alright?”
Gu Fuying sneered, with a chill in her voice. “Auntie, what do you think? should have something happened to me, or what did you wish would happen to me?”
Listening to her retort Second Aunt Gu’s face flushed with embarrassment, as a wave of guilt washing over her. “I was just asking. Look at you, you dare to speak to your elders like that, regardless of age?”
Gu Fuying’s eyes narrowed in disgust at her aunt’s hypocritical facade. “If you want respect, then you have to act like a decent elder first.”
Her mother, sensing the tension in Fuying’s words , interjected between their argument , “What’s going on, dear?”
“Mom, Auntie drugged my wine and had a few thugs waiting for me in the alley . If Yingying hadn’t drunk that glass of wine for me, it would be me in the hospital right now in place of her or maybe i won’t even be able to make it to the hospital .”
“Is Yingying alright ?” Gu’s mother’s heart sank at her daughter’s explanation, thinking how Xu Ying had been dragged into this because of her invitaion to the banquet.
Gu Fuying shook her head reassuaring her mother . “The man who saved me before, and his friend, they came and rescued us.” After confirming about XuYing’s situation.Fuying’s mother shifted her attention to the mastermind of this incident and said.
“Zhang Ru! How can you be so vicious!” Fuying’s mother’s voice now trembled with fury.
Father Gu’s face also darkened, and with a grim resolution settling upon him as he think . If his younger brother couldn’t control his own wife, then he would discipline her on his behalf.
On the other hand , in a frantic rush to the hospital, Xu Ying stirred in Huo Chen’s arms countinusly , her voice a influced by the aphodisiac changed in to a sultry murmur. “Hot, I’m hot, I am feeling so uncomfortable~” Her eyes fluttered open as she repeated these words in a loop , hazy and unfocused, catching a blurred glimpse of Huo Chen’s face. A thought came in her mind .Was this a dream? A hallucination?
She called “Eh~ Huo Chen!” Her voice now laced with an uncharacteristic coquettishness, as her face flushed with fever. Her hands, seemingly independent from her body , reached out and touched Huo Chen’s face. It was so cool, so comforting against her burning skin that it is addicting.
“Don’t move,” Huo Chen rasped catching the unruly hand of her , his breath feeling heavy against her face and his eyes dark with suppressed desires. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed continusly try to moisten his throat but it seems futile , his entire body rigid as acane, fighting the fiery heat within.
Xu Ying blinked as his bezare reaction , her gaze disarmingly seductive. The heat of the drug now totally consumed her, and she instinctively reached for her clothes, attempting to pull them away from her chest.
“Don’t move!” Huo Chen yelled again practically collapsing seizing her hands and pinning them down.
“Then let me kiss you!” Xu Ying looked at him with her dewy , delicate eyes. And before Huo Chen could even process these words , she wrapped her arms around his head and pressed her lips against his.
Huo Chen’s eyes widened with shock at a sudden rush of sensation as her soft lips met his. It was as if a dam had burst open within him breaking all his resolves. He kissed Xu Ying back, passionately,It was a kiss that was spiraling, slow but dangerously, out of control.
“Huo Chen, I am feeling bad ,” Xu Ying murmured between breaths. When her words fell, a sudden clarity as amidst the haze, jolted Huo Chen back to reality. He felt her small, restless hands still fumbling to undress herself so he grabbed them. His reason which was after the kiss was barely hanging on, finally prevailed. He glanced at Xu Ying, whispered an apology in his heart, and then, with a swift, decisive motion, he delivered a sharp chop to her neck rendering her unconsious.
As she slumped motionless in his arms, Huo Chen forcibly reined in his body’s surging desire and then scooped Xu Ying up and ran, a desperate dash toward the hospital.
Gu’s father and mother after this incident clearly was not in a mood to join the wedding celebration so they abruptly abandoned it and rushed their daughter straight to the hospital. Their first concern was now Xu Ying’s health , but they would not simply forget the monstrous actions of Gu’s Second aunt.
When the trio arrived at the hospital , Xu Ying was already recovering after the treatment of the drug . Though her lips seems to be a little swollen,in her astonishment Gu Fuying asked “Yingying, what’s wrong with your mouth? It was fine when you left with him. Huo Chen, did you fall while carrying her?”
hearing her question Gu’s mother buried her face in her hands, embaressed .While Father Gu also looked incredibly awkward. And the main culprit Huo Chen, he was felling utterly flustered, as he couldn’t even bring himself to meet Xu Ying’s gaze from the moment she regained consiousness.
Hearing GuFuying’s query Xu Ying looked at Huo Chen suspiciously. He fell while carrying me ? This man was so strong, he carried her like as she weighed nothing. Why would he have dropped her? But she felt no pain in her body . Seeing her silently gazing at him , Huo Chen hesitated, then stammered, “I… I ran a little too fast, so I fell.”
Gu Fuying nodded, her eyes filled with concern as she looked at Xu Ying. “Are there any other injuries on your body due to the fall ? Does it hurt anywhere else?” After speaking, she gently poked Xu Ying’s lips to which Xu Ying winced. The skin on her lips seems to be broken, and it still stung a little.
Gu’s mother as if diverting the attention from this awkward topic approached Xu Ying, her face etched with remorse. “Yingying, I’m so sorry. If it weren’t for Fuying, you wouldn’t have been dragged into this mess .”
Xu Ying seeing her apologetic expression shook her head. “It’s alright. If it hadn’t been for Fuying last time, I would have been in trouble also.” While she said this, the recent incident was still a harsh reminder of the insidious malice at play—a family scandal that could not be made public with in the Gu Family .
Thinking of her sister-in-law’s schemes against her daughter againand agin , Gu’s mother’s anger flared anew. “I just knew it! Her second aunt was complaining about her daughter marrying such a man just a few days ago, furious at her own daughter’s bad judgement .And today she’s all smiles. Turns out she was just waiting for her chance to strike here!” Her sister-in-law was always arrogant, constantly vying for superiority. She had actively tried to find unsuitable matches for her own daughter, simply to ensure Gu Fuying wouldn’t marry better than hers. Now that her daughter was married to a “sent-down youth,” she turned her malice on Gu Fuying. If her daughter had truly been accosted by those thugs, her life would have been ruined and maybe she won’t even survive this dfay .
Xu Ying, unable to comment directly on such a family matter, could only offer a cautionary reminder: “Once a person harbors bad intentions, they won’t give up until they achieve their goal. Please tell Fuying to be more careful in the futureand you also try to contact them as less as you can .”
Gu’s mother nodded at her reminder , taking her warning to heart.
Just then, Director Sun rushed in the ward , his face etched with concern for XuYing . “Hey, Xiao Xu, why are you in the hospital? What happened?” The genuine worry in his eyes was evident as he saw her lying on the bed.
Xu Ying smiled at his worried face and replied . “Nothing’s wrong, I just fell onthe street . Why are you here, Director? Is something the matter?”
Director Sun’s face lit up as he remembered the good news. “It’s nothing major, just that your uncle has secured a big order for our factory from the department store of another county ! I came to inform you about this . We need you to ramp up the production and keep pace with the factory’s progress so we don’t delay the delivery date as this is our first intraction with an other county .”
“Oh, and by the way, I’ve had a telephone installed in your village, so we can contact you easily if anything comes up,” he also added. “Were you serious when you said you’d work in our food factory from now on ?” Director Sun eyed Xu Ying skeptically. This girl must be mad! How could their canteen possibly offer better benefits than a state-owned restaurant? It would be a complete demotion to have Xiao Xu, with her talent, cooking in a factory cafeteria.
Gu’s mother was equally stunned by his query . “Yingying, why would you go to the food factory canteen? Did someone bully you at the state-owned restaurant?” State-owned restaurants were far more prestigious and harder to get into than a factory canteen.
Xu Ying, though reluctant, knew she had to go there just for the sake of earning goodwill . She lowered her head, wtih a look of heartfelt longing on her face. “I just love cooking, you know? I want everyone to enjoy the delicious food I make. Every time I see how much people love my cooking, it makes me incredibly happy.”
[Host, your acting is so real, even i can’t tell it’s not real .] the system chimed in.
Xu Ying felt a shiver of disgust at her own words; they were truly sickening.
Director Sun and Mother Gu, however, looked at her with genuine admiration. This girl truly had a profound love for food, they thought. Otherwise, she wouldn’t even consider lowering her status to work in a cafeteria.
“As long as your director agrees to your resignation, I’m more than willing to have you come work in our cafeteria,” Director Sun eagerly declared. Who wouldn’t want Xu Ying’s delicious cooking? If she came, he could eat in the factory every day and never again suffer his old wife’s unpalatable meals.