Chapter 22#
Phoenix Man (8)#
Yu Zhao was still feeling gloomy. He forced himself to muster some spirit: “How do you want me to help?”
“How about being a professional lover?”
Yu Zhao refused without a second thought: “No way.”
Before he knew Wang Cheng was married, he could still feel a little flutter. Now that he clearly knew the other party was married, how could he possibly agree to become his lover?
“You need to believe that you can do it. You don’t have to do much—just string him along. Once I have enough evidence, you can bow out gracefully. As compensation, I’ll give you a generous reward.”
“No, I said no. Please leave.” Yu Zhao’s face turned pale, a trace of anger showing.
Qiao Yi asked him: “He deceived you. Don’t you want revenge?”
“I do want it, but I’d rather live my own life well.” He didn’t have that much confidence; he still had his mother and sister to take care of. He didn’t want to get mixed up in messy affairs.
“Are you sure?”
Yu Zhao refused again, his voice tinged with anger: “The most I’ll do is say I found out from someone else, and I won’t let Wang Cheng know you’ve already discovered it. Don’t think about anything else.”
Asking him to be someone’s lover—just thinking about it made him sick. Even if it was work, no way.
This Xiao Yu clearly had a hot temper. Qiao Yi didn’t press him: “Here’s my contact information. If you need it, you can reach me anytime.”
His instinct told him that Yu Zhao would agree.
Although he could hire someone else, Yu Zhao was obviously more suitable because he was simple and straightforward. If someone like him lied, Wang Cheng would be even less likely to suspect.
Of course, that was only one reason. There was another very important reason: the other party seemed to be the white moonlight in Wang Cheng’s heart.
He didn’t remember much of the predetermined plot; many details were fuzzy. But the book said that the white moonlight had a younger sister and a sick mother.
It was because Wang Cheng helped out when the mother had an accident that later the white moonlight was willing to undergo surgery and bear a child for Wang Cheng.
Earlier, when Yu Zhao went into the small kitchen to hit the rabbit as an outlet, he had noticed the gift box in the corner and the unopened new clothes for a little girl spread out on the bed. There was also a medical document pressed under the table, with the patient marked as female, age forty-five.
Compared to Yu Zhao being a cross-dressing pedophile, the fact that he had a younger sister seemed much more realistic. Moreover, the other party knew him. From that first sentence, it seemed he was the one selling Chinese pancakes near the university town.
The messy things said by the female vendor of the terrible meat buns also confirmed this.
Wang Cheng was a low-key and patient man. He had humbled himself before Qiao Yi for so long, wasn’t it just to get benefits from the Qiao family?
He was already in a rift with Qiao Yi, yet he dared to cheat so blatantly—it couldn’t simply be because he couldn’t control his third leg.
If the person he encountered was the white moonlight he had longed for all these years, the vermilion mole he had been unable to obtain despite years of unrequited love, then it made sense.
When an old house catches fire, it burns recklessly without care. Wang Cheng was a young man, and in the pursuit of excitement, he could easily lose his reason.
Since the goal was to completely change Wang Cheng’s life, he couldn’t let the white moonlight, Yu Zhao, continue to develop a relationship with him.
But simply cutting it off lightly wasn’t reliable. After all, Yu Zhao had a seriously ill mother. What if Wang Cheng helped out again, and out of gratitude, Yu Zhao still ended up with Wang Cheng?
Humans were complex creatures. For some people, love wasn’t as important as family or responsibility.
To sever this ill-fated bond between Wang Cheng and the white moonlight, Yu Zhao was the most suitable. In a certain sense, for Qiao Yi, it had to be him.
But he wasn’t in a hurry. Perhaps soon, the other party would come knocking on his door voluntarily.
Yu Zhao didn’t take the card. Qiao Yi simply put it down, went down the stairs, and walked out slowly, planning to hail a taxi on Gaoqiao No. 2 Road at the end of the alley.
After Qiao Yi left, Yu Zhao threw the business card into the trash. He remembered he had to go to his mother’s place tonight, so he hurried into the small kitchen, took out the insulated thermos filled with chicken soup, and grabbed the gifts for his sister.
Just then, a call came. He answered, and a girl’s sobbing voice came through: “Brother, brother, Mom just fainted.”
His sister’s school was far from his university, with inconvenient transportation—it took four hours round trip. To earn more money, their mother rented near the school to take care of his sister, while he rented near the university town. He visited his mother once a week and took her for a checkup once a month.
The thermos in Yu Zhao’s hand fell and spilled on the floor. His breathing quickened: “Nannan, don’t cry. Ask the neighbor auntie to help. I’ll call the hospital right now.”
The girl on the phone said: “The neighbor auntie already called. I’m at the hospital now. Auntie said to call you, brother. Hurry up and come.”
Yu Zhao took a deep breath, grabbed his keys, phone, and wallet, and bolted downstairs.
He sprinted all the way to the alley. Just then, a taxi pulled over to the curb. He ran wildly, shouting loudly: “Wait a moment! Please wait!”
The man who had been hailing the car turned to look at him: “?”
Seeing Qiao Yi’s face, Yu Zhao was stunned for a moment, but at this point he couldn’t care about pride. He pleaded: “I’m really sorry. My mother had an accident and is in the First Central Hospital. Please let me take this cab. I can pay double the fare.”
At this hour in this neighborhood, it was actually hard to get a taxi. This cab was one Qiao Yi had called as a ride-share.
Qiao Yi paused, then pulled open the door and got into the passenger seat. He leaned halfway out and looked at Yu Zhao: “What are you standing there for? Hurry up and get in.”
Yu Zhao was taken aback, then scrambled into the car, feeling very ashamed: “Really sorry, and really thank you so much.”
He had just treated the other person so badly, but he was actually a good person.
Qiao Yi said to the driver: “Go to the hospital he mentioned first, then drive back to the original destination. I’ll pay.”
After dropping Yu Zhao off at the hospital, Qiao Yi said: “Alright, wait half an hour.”
The driver said: “Half an hour, I’ll lose a lot of money. And you can’t park long here by the hospital.”
“I’ll pay the parking fee, plus an extra hundred. Is that enough?”
“Enough, enough.” The driver said nothing more and simply turned on the music.
The other person seemed very anxious, and probably didn’t have enough money. He wasn’t particularly warm-hearted, but rather than waiting for Yu Zhao to turn to Wang Cheng for help and let Wang Cheng assist, it was better to let Yu Zhao owe him a favor.
Even if the other party didn’t agree to help him further, at least because of this, he wouldn’t be with Wang Cheng again. It just meant the task might not be as perfectly completed.
After more than ten minutes, Yu Zhao reappeared in Qiao Yi’s view.
He hadn’t really held out much hope, but when he actually saw that the car was still there, he rushed over and knocked on the window.
When Qiao Yi rolled down the window, he clenched his fist and said: “Mr. Qiao, about what you said earlier—I agree.”
Finally, he added: “I don’t want any money.”