In the hospital room, Jiang Yuan and Heng Yuwei remained frozen in that position for several seconds, until Heng Yuwei's voice, as faint as a mosquito's buzz, sounded in Jiang Yuan's ear.
"Jiang Yuan, can you let go first?"
"Oh, oh, sorry, I'm sorry!"
Seeing that Heng Yuwei's pectoral muscles had deformed under his grip, Jiang Yuan quickly released his hands, steadied himself, and bowed repeatedly to apologize.
"Just focus on resting—stop trying to be a hero!"
Heng Yuwei helped Jiang Yuan back to sit on the bed, blushing as she scolded him.
"Okay, okay!"
Jiang Yuan was also flushed red now, his head lowered, not daring to look at Heng Yuwei, like a primary school student caught misbehaving in front of a teacher.
"You're not going anywhere these next few days. Stay here and rest properly, got it?"
Heng Yuwei crossed her arms, looking at Jiang Yuan, who was bowing his head before her, and spoke in a tone that brooked no argument.
"That's more like it!"
Heng Yuwei smiled in satisfaction, then, while Jiang Yuan wasn't paying attention, gave him a "head pat" and quickly ran to the hospital room door.
"Oh, and if you get bored these days, I'll have someone send a computer over tomorrow!"
Heng Yuwei twisted the door handle, turned back to say a word to Jiang Yuan, then gently closed the door.
"Huh, pretty soft..."
After Heng Yuwei left, Jiang Yuan looked down at his own hands and muttered quietly.
...
In the 12th-floor general manager's office of the Songjiang Bai Group headquarters building, the recently discharged Proud World Dragon Emperor sat in a plush executive chair, staring at his phone screen, which was dialing a number.
"Sorry, the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later! Beep! Beep! Beep!"
After a series of prompts, the other end of the line went to a busy tone.
"Damn it! That bastard Xu Yi!"
The Proud World Dragon Emperor dialed several times in a row, but Xu Yi's phone was never answered. Furious, he threw his phone onto the desk, grabbed a cigarette pack, pulled one out, lit it with a snap, stuck it in his mouth, then clasped his hands behind his head, propped his feet on the desk, his face full of anxiety.
Since Xu Yi had led his thugs to the Jinsongling Grand Hotel, a full six hours had passed, and he had been out of contact for the same amount of time!
The Proud World Dragon Emperor had no idea how Xu Yi's final operation had turned out, and didn't even know where this group of people was now!
Refusing to believe it, he dialed several numbers belonging to Xu Yi's subordinates, who were also members of the Proud World Guild, but the result was the same—none answered!
"Xiaoya, get up here immediately!"
The Proud World Dragon Emperor finally called his secretary Xiaoya, said one sentence, and tossed the phone onto the desk.
A minute later, a voluptuous female secretary swayed over to the Proud World Dragon Emperor with a sexy gait, bent down, fully exposing the cleavage at her collar to his view, and cooed, "Boss, what are your orders?"
Irritated and restless, the Proud World Dragon Emperor pushed the secretary's approaching body away and said, "Go to the Jinsongling Grand Hotel right now and find out what's going on there!"
"Got it, boss!"
Seeing that the Proud World Dragon Emperor was in a bad mood, Secretary Xiaoya dropped her flirtatious demeanor, quickly nodded to him, and left the general manager's office.
After Secretary Xiaoya left, the Proud World Dragon Emperor casually stubbed out the cigarette that had burned to the end, clasped his hands behind his head, half-reclined in his chair, closed his eyes, and waited silently.
About half an hour later, the Proud World Dragon Emperor received a message from his secretary.
"Around noon, a brawl broke out in the Bamboo Suite on the 88th floor of Jinsongling. Several people were seriously injured, and all the troublemakers were taken back to the Public Security Bureau!"
"No wonder..."
This message cleared up the confusion in the Proud World Dragon Emperor's mind, making him finally understand why Xu Yi and his group weren't answering their phones—they'd been locked up!
Having figured out the reason, the Proud World Dragon Emperor immediately dialed a number. Soon, a low voice answered on the other end.
"Hello, President Bai, I'm in a meeting. What's up?"
"Director Zhao, sorry to bother you for a minute. I wanted to ask you about something."
The Proud World Dragon Emperor put on a full smile and spoke in a very polite tone.
"What is it, President Bai? Please make it brief."
The director surnamed Zhao on the other end sounded a bit anxious.
"I heard someone caused trouble at the Jinsongling Hotel around noon. Is that true?"
The Proud World Dragon Emperor feigned a casual, inquiring tone.
"Ah! Don't even mention it. People from the Longping Public Security Headquarters have already arrived, and we're holding a meeting about it right now! Alright, talk later!"
"Director Zhao..."
Director Zhao finished speaking, hung up with a "click," and didn't give the Proud World Dragon Emperor any chance to stall.
Putting down the phone, the Proud World Dragon Emperor could no longer sit still. He shot up from his chair and paced back and forth in the office.
From Director Zhao's brief words on the phone, the Proud World Dragon Emperor extracted a key piece of information: this incident had actually alarmed the Public Security Headquarters, and a special meeting had been convened!
Realizing the severity of the situation, the Proud World Dragon Emperor had just picked up his phone to seek information through other channels when he suddenly received a tieba post from Secretary Xiaoya!
He clicked on it and was so startled he nearly dropped his phone!
"Hengyun Group Heiress Suddenly Targeted in Assassination—Who Did It?"
Just the title of the post was enough to terrify the Proud World Dragon Emperor. He had only wanted to warn Jiang Yuan—how had it suddenly turned into an assassination?
Skipping the lengthy text descriptions, the Proud World Dragon Emperor flipped through the bloody images attached to the post one by one. When he saw a flat-haired man in a suit raising a baton to strike Heng Yuwei and an unfamiliar man lunging in front of her, his face instantly drained of color!
That flat-haired man in the suit showed half a profile in the photo. The Proud World Dragon Emperor looked closely and immediately gasped—it was Xu Yi!
"It's over! It's over!"
Combining Director Zhao's earlier tone with the post before him, the Proud World Dragon Emperor finally understood why the Public Security Headquarters had been alerted!
It wasn't hard to imagine that if Xu Yi and his crew couldn't hold out and ratted him out, the next day there would be a new trending topic online with the headline: "General Manager of Bai Group Hires Assassin to Attack General Manager of Hengyun Group!"
"Xu Yi, I'll f*ck your mother!"
The Proud World Dragon Emperor slammed his phone hard onto the ground, stomped on it a few times, and suddenly felt dizzy as his blood pressure, which had just been suppressed, shot up again!
Just then, the phone with its shattered screen on the floor rang. After struggling to make out the name on the caller ID, the Proud World Dragon Emperor tremblingly picked up the phone, put it to his ear, and pressed the answer button.
"Hello, Dad..."