Chapter 24: Encountering Xu Qiang Again

The door opened, and Xie Yan appeared in front of it. He squatted down and slowly helped me change my shoes. "Are you angry, Mianmian?"

"Are there any things you're hiding from me?" I asked Xie Yan.

Xie Yan lowered his eyes and remained silent. The tenderness between his brows just now gradually faded away, and even the smile at the corner of his mouth turned into an indifferent distance.

I suddenly felt a bit cold. The steak on the frying pan sizzled. I suddenly realized that our marriage was so fragile. I shook my head and said to Xie Yan, "It doesn't matter. If you think I'm not worthy of being your wife, we can break up."

As soon as the words fell, Xie Yan looked at me with shock in his eyes. "What did you say?"

I smiled helplessly. "This is the consequence of a flash marriage. I thought we could get to know each other gradually, but actually, you probably think I'm ridiculous, right? Otherwise, why do you always have so many things that I don't know about?"

The club, the servants, the extraordinary abilities...

I don't blame Xie Yan, but I don't like this situation.

My words seemed to sting Xie Yan. He suddenly stood up, lowered his eyes that were suppressing his emotions, and looked at me coldly. I averted my gaze.

"Mianmian, please trust me." Xie Yan said firmly.

But I didn't want to listen.

I looked at the light blue flames in the kitchen and spoke again

without any emotion, "If you still insist on not telling me the truth, I can't continue to be with you."

"But..." Xie Yan suddenly hugged my shoulders.

I frowned. I vaguely thought that Xie Yan would tell me the truth, but he didn't. Xie Yan raised his hand and ruffled my long hair. He gently kissed my forehead.

"Mianmian, can I tell you later, okay?" Xie Yan said feebly.

It was like this again.

The spark that had ignited in my heart suddenly went out. I raised my hand and pushed Xie Yan away. "Sorry, I can't accept a husband who can't be honest with me."

After I finished speaking, I turned around and left.

The elevator door opened in front of me. A group of people hurriedly got out of the elevator and walked towards the corridor. My heart was as cold as ashes, and I numbly got into the elevator.

The night wind carried a chill and blew my long hair apart. I turned around and looked at the way I had come, hoping that Xie Yan would come to find me and tell me about himself. I would definitely understand him, but he didn't.

I walked towards my home with red and swollen eyes. Suddenly, there was a series of footsteps behind me. I raised my head in horror and continued walking forward. When I walked, he walked; when I stopped and pretended to tie my shoelaces, he also stopped.

Someone was following me.

Realizing this, I started running quickly. The next second, I slipped and my ankle hurt as if it were broken. I ignored the pain and turned around to look at the person behind me. Unexpectedly, I saw Xu Qiang's face.

"You..."

"Gu Mian?" Xu Qiang said in surprise when he saw me.

"It's me." I nodded with a pounding heart, feeling relieved that it wasn't a complete stranger.

After letting out a sigh of relief, the pain in my ankle was instantly magnified a hundred times. I sucked in a breath of cold air and held my ankle, not daring to move. When Xu Qiang saw me like this, he quickly ran over.

He looked at my ankle. "It might be a bone injury."

After saying this, Xu Qiang stood up and looked around. It was probably already midnight, and there wasn't a single person on the road, let alone a taxi.

"There's no hospital nearby." Xie Yan said as he helped me up from the ground. "If you don't mind, you can come to my place first. I live nearby."

Xu Qiang lived in a rented room. There was only a bed and a table in the room. After I entered, Xu Qiang put me on the bed. He casually wiped the sweat off his face and said, "I'm a big guy and don't care about these things. If you don't mind, you can sleep here."

"What about you?" I glanced at the room. There wasn't even a sofa here.

Xu Qiang waved his hand, and a simple-minded smile appeared on his honest face. "Don't worry about me. I had already made an appointment with my friends to play cards. I just saw you when I came out to buy cigarettes. Otherwise, I would have gone back to play cards."

Even if Xu Qiang had a place to stay, I was still occupying his sleeping place.

I thanked him embarrassedly. After Xu Qiang left, I gritted my teeth and walked over to lock the door. After confirming my safety, I went back to the bed.

The night in the suburbs was terrifyingly quiet. I lay on the strange bed and stared blankly at the stars in the sky outside the window.

Suddenly, there was a series of footsteps outside the door. I suddenly sat up and looked at the door warily. I even tried my best not to make a sound when I breathed. A few seconds later, there were more footsteps.

I stared fixedly at the door, and my mind quickly recalled the things in the room that could be used for self-defense.

Soon, it was quiet outside the door again. I didn't dare to lie down. I just sat by the bedside until dawn. During this time, the footsteps didn't sound again.

When it was dawn, Xu Qiang came. The first thing he said when he saw me was that he had lost his phone.

"Lost?" I didn't believe it at all.

As soon as Xu Qiang heard my words, his face turned ugly. Finally, as if he had no other choice, he said, "Actually, I'll tell you the truth. I lost money last night, and they insisted that I mortgage my phone to them. They'll give it back to me when I have the money."

"How much money did you lose? Aren't they your friends?" I still didn't believe Xu Qiang's words.

Xu Qiang squatted on the ground. When he heard my words, he was taken aback. Then he suddenly looked up at me, and his honest and simple face gradually turned ferocious.

He stood up and walked beside me. He scratched his hair irritably with one hand, cursed, and kicked over the table with a foot. "I knew I couldn't deceive you."

The water cup and bowls and chopsticks on the table crashed to the ground, and the sound of porcelain breaking rang in my ears.

I opened my mouth and looked at Xu Qiang, who had suddenly changed his face, in disbelief. The simple-minded face from last night kept reappearing in my mind. Was this still the silly Xu Qiang who had helped me find a place to stay?

At this moment, I didn't care about exploring Xu Qiang's character anymore. Instead, I had to find a way to leave this place.

I tried my best to lower my head to reduce my presence, hoping that Xu Qiang wouldn't go crazy at me.

"Speak!"

Xu Qiang suddenly shouted at me.

I was so scared that I closed my eyes tightly and curled up my body. In my panic, I touched my ankle. "Hiss!"

The faint scream in the room seemed to stimulate Xu Qiang. After hearing my cry of pain, he suddenly froze in place. His eyes rolled dully, and his head kept tilting to one side.

This was a precursor to going crazy.

I looked at Xu Qiang's strange posture with a tingling scalp. I estimated the distance to the door in my mind. As long as I could stand up, I could run out before Xu Qiang reacted.

I propped myself up on the bed and stood up. But as soon as I escaped through the door, I was stunned by the scene in front of me.

There was a courtyard outside the door, and a woman was hanging in the courtyard.

Yes, a woman was hanging on a tree.

"Ah!" I screamed and stepped back. The cold and gloomy wind drained all the strength from my body from all directions. My body went limp, and I fell to the ground, trembling all over.