Chapter 88 - 82 Zhan Qipei Begins to Think of Qiao Jing
Chapter 88: Chapter 82 Zhan Qipei Begins to Think of Qiao Jing
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Just as the man was preparing to go further, Qiao Jing finally seized the opportunity, quickly withdrew her hands from the man’s large grasp, and then raised her hand swiftly—knife falling, striking the man’s neck.
“Mm-hmm—” The man let out a muffled groan before he fell down, his face buried in the valley in front of the girl.
The expression on Qiao Jing’s face suddenly darkened, and she pushed the man off her body with a shove. After giving him a displeased glance, she got out of bed and straightened her clothes.
Qiao Jing silently calculated the time in her mind, 49 days remained until her relationship with Zhan Qipei was completely over. Considering the short number of days left, the stifled anger in her heart finally dissipated.
The next day when Zhan Qipei woke up, he found himself lying on his own bed, without even a blanket covering him.
This woman, she brought him back, yet didn’t even bother to cover him with a blanket.
Last time she was drunk, he still covered her with a blanket.
Zhan Qipei sat up from the bed, rubbing his slightly sore temples.
A loud “bang—” the sound of a door closing came from outside.
She left?
So early?
Zhan Qipei pulled open the door and looked outside; it was empty, leaving only him alone, making him feel an inexplicable sense of emptiness.
This feeling was very subtle for him; he has always enjoyed peace, not fond of being disturbed. Before, Purple Garden was so big, yet he never felt empty or lonely.
And now, an apartment of less than a hundred square meters actually made him feel lonely.
After scanning the room, Zhan Qipei’s gaze settled on the flowerpots on the balcony and walked over to take a look.
He remembered this “number 1” flowerpot that only had a bud before, now it had grown leaves.
And this “number 9” pot, the morning before he saw it hadn’t yet broken through the soil, yet in just one day and one night, it had already sprouted green shoots.
He found this life filled with a rural atmosphere quite interesting.
After realizing this, Zhan Qipei found himself smiling.
Raising his hand to touch his mouth, he discovered that he had smiled more in this period than in the past decade or so.
Since when did he start to change like this?
The moment this question arose in his mind, the image of the girl’s beautiful and pure face emerged in Zhan Qipei’s thoughts.
As he thought about it, the scene in his mind shifted, and he found himself pinning Qiao Jing down on the bed, even pulling at her pants.
“This—”
Zhan Qipei’s brow furrowed, and he reached up to massage the center of his eyebrows.
Was he having a hallucination?
How could he possibly do such a thing to Qiao Jing?
Right, it must be a hallucination.
Just then, Zhan Qipei belatedly noticed a soreness in the back of his neck.
He touched it.
“Hmm…”
It really hurt, or else he wouldn’t have groaned.
Zhan Qipei went to the mirror and turned his neck to look at it.
Instantly, his face turned as blue and purple as the back of his neck.
Now there was no doubt.
“That woman…”
“`
What a heavy hand!
Zhan Qipei was puzzled by his actions—Even if he had been drunk, he shouldn’t have done such a thing to Qiao Jing, should he?
Could it be that, in his drunken haze, he mistook Qiao Jing for the person who saved him that day?
Zhan Qipei felt this possibility was likely, and decided that he should drink less in the future to prevent doing such a thing to Qiao Jing again.
If by chance Qiao Jing were also drunk and couldn’t resist, and something happened between them… that would be troublesome…
He pushed those thoughts aside for now as the recent cooperation with the Gan family was giving him a headache; he had to go to the company early for a meeting today and sort things out as soon as possible.
Around six in the evening, Qiao Jing returned from buying groceries at the market and was stopped by Qiao Licheng right at the doorstep.
“What are you doing here again? What, do you really want to end up in the station?”
A few days ago, Zhan Qipei had almost sent Qiao Licheng to the station. In the end, Qiao Jing, considering he was her biological father, let him off and saved him from jail.
This also marked the final severance of her and Qiao Licheng’s father-daughter relationship.
To Qiao Jing’s surprise, despite her attitude, Qiao Licheng didn’t show the slightest hint of anger.
That made Qiao Jing somewhat perplexed.
With a big smile, Qiao Licheng approached Qiao Jing, “My daughter, your dad hasn’t treated you well in the past. Captain Zhao gave me a talking-to, which made me feel very ashamed, so I want to take you home and make up for the twenty years of affection I owe you.”
Hmm? What’s he up to all of a sudden?
Qiao Jing wondered if Captain Zhao had revealed to Qiao Licheng that she was Professor Qiao.
That seemed unlikely, didn’t it? Her identity was a secret; if she didn’t want to reveal it, surely those around her wouldn’t disclose it.
“You owe me nothing. We are now independent individuals. You live your life, and I have mine. Just don’t bother me, that’s all.”
Qiao Licheng still showed no sign of annoyance, maintaining the demeanor of a loving father while looking at Qiao Jing.
“Xiao Jing, I know you blame me for being heartless and abandoning you in the past. I don’t want to make excuses, but in short, it’s all my fault. I’ve realized my mistakes deeply, and I hope you can give me a chance to make amends!”
Qiao Licheng spoke with sincere earnestness, almost on the point of kneeling before Qiao Jing.
With her understanding of Qiao Licheng and his family, Qiao Jing felt that his current attitude and actions were too baffling.
“What is it you really want?”
“Just wanting to take you back home,” Qiao Licheng said with a sheepish grin.
“If you won’t speak up, I’m leaving,” Qiao Jing said and strode past him.
Qiao Licheng saw Qiao Jing really leaving without paying him any attention, so he hurriedly chased after her and stopped her again.
“Xiao Jing, you—”
“My name is Qiao Jing,” Qiao Jing coldly interrupted Qiao Licheng.
She didn’t like it when people she wasn’t close to called her by such intimate names; it was irksome.
Qiao Licheng clenched his back teeth, suppressing his frustration, and continued pretending to be a caring father.
“Kid, I genuinely feel I was wrong and want to take you back to make it up to you. So, I went out of my way to find you a good marriage proposal, Boss Hou, the big boss of Huayang Foodstuff. Though he’s over fifty, he’s healthy, and his wife has passed away. He has a son and a daughter. Marrying him, you won’t even need to have children—just look after Boss Hou, and that’s it.”
“What did you say?” Qiao Jing’s defiant and cool brows lifted slightly, and an ominous pressure surged towards Qiao Licheng.
Qiao Jing’s stare gave Qiao Licheng an instant chill down his spine, his hair on end, his heart fluttering with dread: Why is this girl’s gaze so terrifying? Like a sharp ice blade, it pierced straight into his eyes.
“Heh—planning to marry me off to some old geezer? You say it’s for my good, but in fact, it’s for your own benefit, for the Qiao family to gain advantages, right?”
Smart as Qiao Jing was, she quickly guessed Qiao Licheng’s intentions.
With the façade stripped away, Qiao Licheng’s face was hard to maintain, but there was no choice—for Qiao Mengtong’s sake, for the sake of their Qiao family, he had to keep up the act and take Qiao Jing back with him.
“Child, your thinking is so outdated! It’s understandable since you’ve been living in the countryside and haven’t been exposed to the outside world, hardly influenced by modern thinking. Listen to me, a man is in his prime at fifty—how can he be called an old geezer? Plus, Boss Hou is the chairman and general manager of Huayang Foodstuff. So many women dream of marrying him but don’t get the chance, and I went through a lot of trouble just to get him to agree to meet you. Whether it works out depends on whether you’ll strive for it.”