Volume One, Chapter Twenty: Excitement

Song Qingyu realized that during both her hospital stays, it was always Pei Jingmo who stayed by her side. Pei Jingmo was attentive and highly observant; he could sense even the slightest discomfort she felt. Even the nurses would tease, “Your husband treats you like a porcelain doll—afraid to let you fall if you’re in his hands, and afraid you’ll melt if you’re in his mouth.”

At first, their teasing was relatively harmless. But as they grew more familiar, their banter took on a different flavor.

“Hey, your husband’s got such a great figure and those long fingers—he must be pretty strong in that department, huh? Can your petite frame handle him all night?”

Whenever conversations turned to such topics, Pei Jingmo would discreetly excuse himself, leaving Song Qingyu blushing furiously, caught between embarrassment and speechlessness. After all, her relationship with Pei Jingmo was perfectly innocent.

Just then, her phone rang. Seeing it was a call from the Gu family’s old estate, Pei Jingmo answered.

“Have you gone too far recently? You’ve replaced half of the people in the company—your second uncle is very displeased,” came the voice of the Gu patriarch.

Pei Jingmo’s expression was unreadable. “What’s he dissatisfied about?”

“You know very well.”

“Positions in the company should go to the capable. If the useless people he trained were any good, would I have replaced them?”

Father and son never saw eye to eye, and conversation between them was always strained.

“Anything else? If not, I’m hanging up.”

“So you’re not planning to come home anymore? Even if you don’t want to see this old man, don’t you want to see Chenxi? Since she learned you were back in Shangjing, she’s been waiting for you.”

At the mention of his younger sister, Pei Jingmo’s expression softened. “In a few days. I’m busy at the moment.”

“Now that you’re back, you’ll have to meet with people from other families. Prepare yourself. You’re now the president of Tianqi Group—don’t act as you did in the military…”

Before he finished, Pei Jingmo had already ended the call.

Taking advantage of the break, Pei Jingmo went to the top-floor ward.

Gu Mubai lay quietly on the hospital bed. If not for the steady rhythm of the heart monitor, one might have thought he was dead.

The eldest young master of the Gu family, once the favored son of heaven. Unlike Pei Jingmo and Fu Linhan, who were notorious for their unruliness, Gu Mubai was truly talented and outstanding. In the social circles of the capital, he was the unattainable ideal. Yet now, such a man was reduced to a vegetative state—neither alive nor dead.

“He was supposed to go on a business trip to Hanhai City, but changed his plans at the last minute?”

He Shubai nodded. “Yes.”

“Knowing my brother, unless it was something extremely important, he’d never change his plans on a whim. So, just how important was it?”

He Shubai hesitated for a moment, but Pei Jingmo caught it instantly.

“Speak.”

“I’m not sure if this counts as a clue.”

“Go on!”

“That period, President Gu met a girl. She was from an ordinary family and already had a boyfriend. President Gu cared a lot about her, but she saw through his intentions and rejected him.”

Marriages in the Gu family were never left to personal choice. Gu Mubai’s fiancée had been arranged by the patriarch long ago—a powerful alliance to strengthen the family. Clearly, Gu Mubai didn’t care for his fiancée, otherwise he wouldn’t have fallen for another woman.

Pei Jingmo frowned. “How did he react?”

“Not much, really. But after that, he stopped working late, though he didn’t return to the Gu estate either. No one knows where he went.”

Not working overtime was certainly out of character for him.

“Did you investigate the girl?”

“Yes. Nothing unusual. And President Gu really was driving too fast and caused the accident.”

With foul play ruled out, misfortune seemed the only explanation.

Pei Jingmo was irritated and wanted a cigarette, but smoking wasn’t allowed.

“Do whatever it takes to wake him up.”

He Shubai stared at Pei Jingmo in disbelief.

“Either he wakes, or he dies! Lying there like a useless wreck—what’s the point?”

He Shubai was speechless.

The rumors about the Gu brothers were true: the eldest found the second crude and boorish, while the second thought the eldest pedantic and rigid. It seemed the rumors were well-founded.

—

When Pei Jingmo returned to the ward and found Song Qingyu absent, he was about to search when he glimpsed her reflection in the bathroom.

Song Qingyu stood before the mirror, her face deathly pale, looking utterly devastated.

Pei Jingmo rushed in. “Are you feeling unwell?”

Song Qingyu looked at him and broke down in tears. “I…”

She pointed to her wound, tears streaming down like a string of broken pearls. “Why is my hair missing here?”

During the suturing, the doctors had no choice but to shave the hair around Song Qingyu’s wound. They’d sought Pei Jingmo’s consent beforehand. To him, hair would grow back, but Song Qingyu herself was irreplaceable. Knowing how much she cared about her appearance, he’d asked the doctors to shave as neatly as possible.

Until now, Song Qingyu had been too afraid to look in the mirror, dreading the sight of her ugly wound. Today, she finally summoned the courage—only to be stunned.

Pei Jingmo, who could face vicious criminals with unflinching eyes and kill without a second thought, was utterly helpless in the face of Song Qingyu’s tears.

He gently wiped her tears away. “To prevent infection, they had to shave a little.”

“But it looks so ugly!”

“It’s not ugly! You’re just as pretty as before.”

Song Qingyu’s hair was long and thick. With the top layer covering it, the missing patch was barely noticeable. Still, she couldn’t accept it, convinced she looked terrible.

Pei Jingmo had never tried to comfort anyone before, but now he racked his brains for ways to console her.

To keep her from tormenting herself in front of the mirror, he led her out and sat her on the bed.

“If you like… I’ll shave off all my hair to keep you company?”

Song Qingyu glanced at his already cropped hair and sniffled. “If you shave it any more, you’ll be bald.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Don’t. Being bald is too ugly.”

Pei Jingmo was silent.

Fortunately, his efforts calmed Song Qingyu at last.

At the doorway, Chu Xingzhi watched the scene in the hospital room, clenching his fists so tightly his knuckles whitened.

“If you go in now, you’ll really have lost,” said Meng Yucheng, who had come to visit him.

Chu Xingzhi, having suffered a hefty kick from Pei Jingmo, had been hospitalized for several days. Today, Meng Yucheng had come by, and together they visited Song Qingyu.

Chu Xingzhi’s face was ashen and clouded. He watched for a long time, his expression shifting from anger to jealousy, then to sorrow. Without a word, he turned and left.

Meng Yucheng hurried after him. “If you ask me, you’re too softhearted. He’s just a worker—killing him would be as easy as stepping on an ant. Why go to all this trouble?”

Chu Xingzhi, filled with frustration, grabbed Meng Yucheng by the collar. “Now the whole world knows he stole my Qingyu. If he dies, could I escape suspicion?”

Meng Yucheng was speechless. “Then why not just give up on Song Qingyu? She’s married now. Even if you win her back, she’s… secondhand—”

Before he could finish, Meng Yucheng received a solid punch to the face.

Chu Xingzhi’s eyes were dark and menacing. “Don’t you dare speak about Qingyu like that!”

Meng Yucheng, riled up, punched him back. “Are you out of your mind? If you cared so much, why did you sleep with another woman in the first place?!”

Chu Xingzhi wilted, like a frostbitten eggplant. He let go, looking utterly defeated but stubbornly determined.

“No matter what, I’ll never give up on Qingyu. I know she’s still angry with me. Once she’s calmed down, we’ll be together again.”