“I told you…”
“Spare me!”
Just as Qing Muye was about to patiently explain again, Meng Jingwei gave him no chance. “Don’t feed me that nonsense about insomnia or depression. You think you can bully me for being uneducated just because you’ve read a few more years than me?”
She was furious. “Let me tell you, if it weren’t for Grandma being so good to me, I would have called the police long ago and had you arrested for rape. Based on your past crimes, executing you ten times wouldn’t be enough!”
That scoundrel, that despicable, shameless player.
Qing Muye: …
His face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. If he didn’t like her, he might have ensured she wouldn’t see the next sunrise.
“What do I have to say for you to believe me?”
Qing Muye secretly let out a sigh of relief, using his astonishing self-control to suppress the emotions churning within.
Meng Jingwei shoved him away and waved her hand. “I’m not listening, I’m not listening, you babbling idiot.”
With that, she swaggered off.
Watching her retreating back, the man raised a hand, pushed open his suit jacket, placed one hand on his hip, and pinched the bridge of his nose as he paced back and forth in the living room.
In this situation, Meng Jingwei simply didn’t believe him. No amount of explanation would matter.
Meng Jingwei wandered through the Qing family’s old mansion alone, admiring the exquisite scenery of the rear garden.
Rounding the back garden, she followed a cobblestone path that led to a bamboo grove.
The autumn wind rustled, the bamboo leaves whispered, and the yellowed leaves swayed in the wind, drifting down to the ground, forming a thick carpet of fallen leaves.
Meng Jingwei stood on the cobblestone path, suddenly inspired to take a selfie in such a beautiful bamboo forest.
As she was holding her phone, trying to figure out where to place it for the photo, she saw the ever-present Qing Muye approaching.
“What are you looking at? Come here and take a picture for me!”
Meng Jingwei snapped at Qing Muye impatiently, showing him no tolerance.
Qing Muye, accustomed to being treated as an honored guest, was used to people fawning over him. Meng Jingwei’s bossy demeanor, however, didn’t anger him; instead, it gave him a different kind of feeling than usual.
He thought this woman was rather interesting.
He didn’t realize that his excessive fondness for her made everything enjoyable.
Qing Muye walked over and took the phone from her hand.
Meng Jingwei, holding up her skirt, stepped into the bamboo grove in her high heels, only to find that the heels sank into the soft soil.
“It’s such a hassle being a woman,” she muttered, looking down at her high heels. Then, she lifted her leg and kicked off her shoes. With a soft thud, they landed beside Qing Muye.
Her such… unrefined, ungraceful appearance caught Qing Muye’s eye. He raised an eyebrow, a faint smile gracing his impossibly handsome face. “Barefoot, aren’t you afraid of pricking your feet?”
“What’s there to be afraid of? I often went barefoot at home when I was a child.”
As Meng Jingwei spoke, she lifted her right foot and forcefully swung it forward. The black high heel cut through the air in a parabolic arc, striking the man’s face precisely.
“Hey, be careful!”
Seeing the high heel about to hit Qing Muye, Meng Jingwei instinctively cried out. By the time her words fell, Qing Muye had already caught the high heel with ease.
Meng Jingwei scoffed dismissively, muttering, “His skills aren’t bad. Why bother being so good? I can’t even beat him in a fight, it’s so… annoying!”
If only she were a bit more skilled, she would have pinned Qing Muye to the ground and beaten him soundly, just to vent her frustration.
Afterward, Meng Jingwei stood in the bamboo grove while Qing Muye once again played the role of a cameraman, professionally taking photos of her.
After a few shots, Meng Jingwei, having lost interest, casually sat down on a rock in the bamboo grove. Next to the rock was an artificial rockery and a stone carving.
Seeing her sit on the rock and fiddle with her feet, Qing Muye picked up her pair of high heels and walked into the bamboo grove, sitting down beside her.
As soon as he sat beside her, Meng Jingwei glared at him with displeasure. “Who told you to sit here? Stay away from me!”
At this moment, she absolutely did not want to be alone with Qing Muye.
Qing Muye, who had been holding back his temper, finally could no longer suppress his anger. He tilted his head slightly, his handsome face tinged with a hint of indifference. “If I leave just because you tell me to, wouldn’t that make me lose face?”
“You’re not leaving? Fine, if you’re not leaving, then I’ll leave!”
Meng Jingwei slapped a certain spot on the nearby rockery and stood up, intending to walk towards a large boulder to her right. However, after only a few steps, her foot suddenly missed, and with a shriek, she fell.
Qing Muye had been watching her from the moment she stood up. Seeing her suddenly fall, the man rushed forward with lightning speed and grabbed her hand.
However, his speed was too great, and Meng Jingwei’s falling momentum was so strong that she pulled Qing Muye down with her.
Everything went dark. Meng Jingwei felt herself stumbling and sliding, then falling steeply before crashing to the ground with a thud.
The moment she fell, she didn’t feel the bone-piercing pain she expected. Instead, she landed on something soft.
“Mmm…”
Qing Muye groaned.
In the darkness, Meng Jingwei reached out and touched. Only then did she realize that during the vertical descent, Qing Muye, with his astonishing reflexes, had caught her, taking all the danger upon himself.
Moreover, it seemed he hadn’t even considered what might be on the ground or if it was dangerous.
Thinking of this, Meng Jingwei couldn’t help but feel a little touched.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
Meng Jingwei asked, reaching out to feel his face and tracing her way to his nose, checking his breathing.
“I won’t die.”
Qing Muye brushed her hand away, took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and immediately began searching his surroundings.
However, the underground chamber was too vast, and the phone’s light was insufficient to illuminate everything clearly.
“You have a basement in your old mansion, why didn’t you say so? We almost died here.”
Meng Jingwei reached out to rub her knee. She was fine, but her knee had hit the ground and was in pain, already swelling.
“This secret room, I’m afraid even Grandma doesn’t know about it.”
Qing Muye held his phone, preparing to call for help, but there was absolutely no signal!
“No signal?”
Meng Jingwei vaguely guessed. She sighed. “Falling from above, tumbling, and then dropping vertically for several seconds, at least twenty to thirty meters deep. If the opening hadn’t been slanted, increasing the buffer, we might have died here.”
When she first fell, she was too panicked to feel anything.
However, after a moment’s rest, she felt pain all over her body, especially her legs, which ached severely.
Meng Jingwei knew very well that if she felt pain all over, Qing Muye would be in an even worse state.
“I’m here, don’t worry,” Qing Muye comforted Meng Jingwei, shining the flashlight on her. “Let me see if you’re injured anywhere.”
Meng Jingwei sat on the ground, curling her legs. She couldn’t help but mutter, “My legs hurt.”
Qing Muye reached out and lifted her skirt, only to see that her knee was injured, bleeding, and already swollen.