Chapter 97: Chapter 91: Zhan Qipei, The Hero Saves the Beauty
 

Lou Xinrou felt like she wanted to cough up blood.

“Hmph!”

Lou Xinrou pulled out one hundred yuan from her wallet, threw it at the smoking owner sitting at the doorway, and left crying huffily.

“Hey hey hey! You didn’t get your change, you haven’t taken your change!” the owner shouted at Lou Xinrou as she ran away.

Lou Xinrou continued to run and cry, as if she hadn’t heard him at all.

“You should go check on her,” Qiao Jing said as she picked up Lou Xinrou’s bowl of noodles and continued eating.

Zhan Qipei was reluctant to go, but the Zhan Family had always been closely associated with the Lou Family. Moreover, Lou Xinrou was a friend who had grown up with him and Zhan Nanqing, and she had come out with him. At this late hour, with her emotions out of control and running off alone, if something really happened, he would not only be unable to escape responsibility, but he would also feel somewhat guilty.

“Wait for me, I’ll be right back.”

After leaving these words with Qiao Jing, Zhan Qipei went after Lou Xinrou.

Lou Xinrou finally waited until Zhan Qipei came, and then she deliberately raised her voice to cry even more heartbreakingly.

“Brother Pei, you’ve changed. Even though you’ve always been indifferent to me before, you’ve never been this harsh. Just now, you actually yelled at me for Qiao Jing… Wuu wuu wuu…”

Zhan Qipei looked at Lou Xinrou expressionlessly, “When a person does something wrong, they must take responsibility for their actions. Don’t you feel there was anything wrong with what you said? You’re sad, you cry? When you say those hurtful words, don’t you think Qiao Jing is hurt too? She just doesn’t show it like you do. She is good at hiding her emotions and doesn’t like to show weakness in front of others. But that doesn’t mean she’s not upset.”

Lou Xinrou stared at Zhan Qipei with her mouth agape, stunned. What Zhan Qipei said now hurt her even more than when he had scolded her.

“Brother Pei, how do you know her so well?”

If you didn’t care, how could you possibly spend the effort to understand?

So, her Brother Pei cared about Qiao Jing; that’s why he understood her.

“Brother Pei, tell me the truth, do you like Qiao Jing?”

Zhan Qipei replied without hesitation, “You’re overthinking it.”

“But if you didn’t like her, how could you understand her so well?” Lou Xinrou pressed.

“Does understanding mean I like her? I don’t think so.” Regarding this question, he had been asking himself recently, and he had only come up with one answer.

The only person who could be his wife was the one who had performed surgery on him that day.

Lou Xinrou mulled over the words Zhan Qipei had said, staring at him intently, observing whether he seemed to be lying to her.

Lou Xinrou breathed a long sigh of relief in her heart, and in her excitement, she accidentally blurted it out.

“That’s great, as long as you don’t like Qiao Jing.”

Zhan Qipei narrowed his deep, dark eyes slightly and said, “I know how you feel about me, but I already have someone I like.”

Upon hearing this, Lou Xinrou’s pupils dilated, as if struck by lightning.

“Pei, Brother Pei… what, what did you say?”

Zhan Qipei had seen all along Lou Xinrou’s hostility towards Qiao Jing and knew why Lou Xinrou acted this way toward her.

So, he said this because he didn’t want Lou Xinrou to keep troubling Qiao Jing in the future.

“I’m telling the truth. Just recently, I suddenly fell for someone and decided that I would marry no one but her for the rest of my life.” Zhan Qipei said this with a serious expression, a grave demeanor, and not a trace of jest on his face.

“Who, who is she?” Lou Xinrou asked, her face pale, choking up.

“You’ll meet her eventually.”

Right! He would definitely find her, and once he did, he would keep her by his side every day, proclaiming to the whole world that she was Zhan Qipei’s wife!

Watching the preoccupied Zhan Qipei, Lou Xinrou let out a cry and left the taxi.

While heartbroken, Lou Xinrou thought of Qiao Jing.

Fortunately, she had Qiao Jing to keep her company, to share the heartbreak together.

After watching the taxi drive away, Zhan Qipei turned around and went back. When he arrived at the noodle shop, the owner was tidying up the tables.

“Where’s the girl who was sitting here just now?”

“She just left. Oh, she said her phone ran out of battery and turned off. Also, if you come back looking for her, she wanted me to tell you that.”

Left? Zhan Qipei frowned.

Hadn’t he told her to wait for him?

Zhan Qipei drove along the road he had come, searching for her.

Soon, he spotted Qiao Jing standing by the roadside.

Snowflakes suddenly began to drift from the sky, the first snow of the winter.

Qiao Jing lifted her hand to catch a pristine snowflake.

The snowflake peacefully lay in her palm, melting bit by bit.

This scene, witnessed by Zhan Qipei, made the girl’s figure seem so small and fragile, stirring a pang of distress.

Just as Zhan Qipei was preparing to find a spot to stop, three young men holding beer cans approached Qiao Jing.

“Yo! Look at that! Check out this face, check out this figure!”

Zhan Qipei’s face immediately darkened upon hearing this, blending increasingly with the night.

Qiao Jing ignored their advances, continuing to catch snowflakes in her hand.

Flake after flake melted in her palm, and although it was ice-cold to the bone, she hadn’t appreciated it enough yet.

“Brother Qiang, she’s ignoring us.”

The one called Brother Qiang stepped in front of Qiao Jing, offering her the rest of his beer.

“Beauty, have a drink.”

Qiao Jing glanced up at Brother Qiang, and that look nearly snatched his soul away. Instantly, the alcohol rushed to his head, and his legs failed to obey him. He took another step forward and reached out to wrap his arm around Qiao Jing’s waist.

But before he could touch her, a foot suddenly extended and kicked him to the ground.

“Ow—” Brother Qiang clutched his stomach and yelped in pain, then looked up with angry eyes.

“Who’s this meddling brat, trying to play the hero? We’ve got three, and you’re all alone. Do you think you can beat all three of us?” Brother Qiang was kicked but remained extremely arrogant.

Zhan Qipei took a step forward, positioning himself protectively in front of Qiao Jing, using his broad shoulders to shield her thoroughly.

Brother Qiang was helped up by the other two, cursing non-stop.

“You damn nosy brat, you like to meddle in others’ business, don’t you? Today I’ll make you learn the consequences of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. Boys, let’s take him down together!”

“Yeah!” The other two flexed their wrists, swaggering, feigning ferocious expressions. They cracked their knuckles with a clicking sound and advanced towards Zhan Qipei.

But in less than five seconds, all three were kicked to the ground by Zhan Qipei.

“Ouch—no more, no more, we concede. We didn’t recognize a great man when we saw one. We admit our mistake. Let’s make a deal, this girl is a rare beauty, how about we share her? Of course, you go first, and we’ll just have a little taste afterward.” Brother Qiang pleaded.