Chapter 41: Crashing into His Embrace, a Perfect Fit
"Xiao Hao, slow down. What’s going on? Didn’t Chen Hao go home after the party with you guys last night? Why did he suddenly go missing? And what does this have to do with Shengsheng?"
"Mom, I just found out myself. Chen Hao’s family said he never came home last night, and they can’t reach him by phone!"
Yun Sheng put down her utensils and looked at Lin Hao, her tone cold. "Who is this Chen Hao you’re talking about? What does it have to me whether he went home or went missing?"
Lin Hao glared at her and said urgently, "Stop playing dumb! We had a few drinks at the party last night, and Chen Hao said he was going to go ’get to know you.’ But then he disappeared. The time he went missing is the same time you came home last night. How can it be such a coincidence?"
At that moment, Lin Yueyao, who was sitting to the side, also gently set down her coffee cup and looked at Yun Sheng with a puzzled expression.
"Yun Sheng, you didn’t ride back with us yesterday evening. You said you needed to buy something. I heard from the staff this morning that you didn’t get home until after eleven last night. What were you buying that took so long? Could it be... that Chen Hao’s disappearance really has something to do with you?"
Yun Sheng didn’t respond to Lin Yueyao. Instead, she stared straight at Lin Hao.
"Lin Hao, why did Chen Hao want to ’get to know’ me? We’re complete strangers; our paths have never crossed. Was his ’getting to know me’ meant literally? Or... did he hear you say something about me, get the wrong idea, and decide he wanted to come teach me a lesson on your behalf?"
Lin Hao was struck speechless by her question.
’It was true,’ he thought. ’I did show my contempt and disdain for Yun Sheng in front of my friends. I even said she was disrespectful to Sister Yue Yao. And that’s why that guy Chen Hao...’
Seeing his shifty gaze, Yun Sheng knew she was on the right track.
As if holding back immense sorrow, she continued, her voice trembling slightly.
"Lin Hao, even if... even if you refuse to acknowledge me as your sister, the fact remains that we share the same blood, doesn’t it? You knew someone meant to harm me, yet not only did you fail to stop them or tell the family, but now that something’s happened, you come running to question me first?"
"I... I did try to stop him!"
Flustered by her questioning, Lin Hao retorted instinctively, but his voice lacked any conviction.
"I-I told him not to do anything stupid... He’s the one who wouldn’t listen!"
"You tried to stop him?"
Hearing this, Su Wan’s expression turned completely grim, her voice laced with suppressed fury.
"How did you try to stop him? By casually telling him not to do anything stupid? Xiao Hao, Chen Hao is your friend. If you had genuinely wanted to stop him, would you have failed? Or was it that, in your heart, you also felt it was no big deal to let him go teach Yun Sheng a lesson!"
"Mom, I..."
Stung by his mother’s unprecedentedly harsh questioning, Lin Hao couldn’t even lift his head. He instinctively glanced at Lin Yueyao, silently pleading for help.
Seeing this, Lin Yueyao immediately spoke in a soft voice, trying to de-escalate the situation.
"Mom, please don’t be so angry. Xiao Hao is still young; he probably just didn’t think things through. Friends joke around and don’t always watch what they say..."
"Yue Yao, you don’t need to speak up for him anymore!"
For once, Su Wan cut her adopted daughter off, her tone pained and resolute.
"This isn’t about being young or careless with words! This is about right and wrong, about having a conscience! Yun Sheng is his own sister, connected by blood. She just came home a few days ago and is in a new and unfamiliar place. It would be one thing if he simply showed no affection for her, but to condone or even tacitly approve of an outsider harming her? How can that leave me at ease!"
She looked at Lin Hao with an expression of pure disappointment, her eyes filled with heartache.
"Lin Hao, you have disappointed me immensely! Starting today, you will stay home and reflect on your actions! I am temporarily freezing all of your supplementary cards and extra accounts. When you have truly recognized your mistake and figured out how a family member should be treated, you can come talk to me about unfreezing them!"
After dealing with her son, Su Wan immediately turned to Yun Sheng, her tone filled with apology and sympathy.
"Shengsheng, it’s my fault for not raising him better. You’ve been wronged. The family will handle this matter with the utmost seriousness. We will never let him act so recklessly again, and we will never let anyone bully you. Good girl... please don’t take it to heart."
Yun Sheng lowered her gaze and said nothing more, only giving a quiet "mhm."
’This time, I didn’t take things too far.’
’Seeing how furious Su Wan was—freezing his accounts and grounding him—that’s enough to make Lin Hao suffer for a while.’
’That kid should keep his head down for a bit. At the very least, he won’t dare to openly sic anyone on me again.’
’As for the rest... I’ll deal with it later.’
She didn’t stay any longer. Nodding to Su Wan, she picked up the small dog at her feet and turned to leave.
...
The public levitating vehicle was packed during the morning rush hour. The air was stuffy and hot, a mixture of urban dust and the smell of sweat.
Yun Sheng stood in a corner near the articulated joint between cars, her gaze fixed on the steel-and-glass jungle rushing backward outside the window.
Just as the vehicle was about to enter the central Tower area hub, a teeth-jarring screech of twisting metal suddenly came from up ahead.
BANG! RUMBLE!!!
A violent impact and a muffled, explosive boom erupted one after another, accompanied by a powerful shockwave that surged from the front of the vehicle.
The levitating vehicle’s body lurched to a halt at a terrifying angle, then slammed on its brakes in a near-uncontrolled stop amidst the piercing shriek of alarms.
"Ahhh—!"
"Grab onto something!"
"My stuff!!!"
Screams, curses, and the crash of falling objects exploded in an instant!
Everyone standing was thrown forward uncontrollably, people shoving and crashing into each other. The car descended into chaos!
Yun Sheng had been holding onto a nearby handrail, but the sudden, violent impact made her fingers lose their grip instantly.
She stumbled, losing her balance completely, and her entire body was flung forward by inertia!
Just as she was about to slam hard into the cold metal seatback in front of her, an arm suddenly reached out from behind and to the side, catching her by the waist and pulling her aside.
In a dizzying loss of balance, she crashed into a firm, warm chest.
The owner of that embrace let out a muffled grunt from the impact, but his feet didn’t move an inch. The muscles in the arm around her waist tensed instantly, forcibly steadying her out-of-control body.
However, their troubles were not over.
The levitating vehicle had likely been in a chain-reaction pileup. The braking system, having failed to stabilize the car after the first emergency stop, was now triggering an even worse outcome.
The entire car began to swing and tilt violently from side to side, completely out of control.
"Look out!"
"Here it comes again! Hold on!"
The already chaotic crowd inside the car lost their balance again, tumbling into one another in a terrified mass, like dice being shaken.
A more ferocious wave of people surged forward from behind!
The force of the push pressed Yun Sheng completely into the chest before her.
This time, there wasn’t a sliver of space between them.
The side of her face was pressed against the curve of his neck, her nose brushing against his prominent collarbone. Through the not-so-thick fabric of their clothes, she could almost trace the outline of his firm pectoral muscles.
The heat and strength of an adult male body radiated through her, an almost scorching presence.