Chapter 2173: The Truth Abroad (5)
However, what Ruan Jiaojiao didn’t know was that while you definitely couldn’t hear anything from the corner of the wall, her parents had lived through that age themselves; no one knew better than Ruan Jianguo and Shu Jiao what was going on in Duan Xi’s head! It was just that there were some things Shu Jiao didn’t want to do herself, so she had Ruan Jianguo do them.
When Ruan Jiaojiao returned to the private room, Duan Xi still hadn’t come back.
Seeing that they were about to start eating, Ruan Jiaojiao ran over to call him. She had just raised her hand to knock when the door opened, and Duan Xi stood in the doorway, his expression looking a little ugly.
"Brother Xi?" Ruan Jiaojiao called out in surprise.
Duan Xi’s eyes were dark, but he quickly adjusted his expression, took the hand she’d lifted, and said softly, "Let’s go eat first."
"Oh, okay." Ruan Jiaojiao nodded, tilted her head to glance at Duan Qianyang inside the room, and only then followed Duan Xi away.
That evening at dinner, Ruan Jianguo pushed out a huge multi‑layered cake. Looking at the family crowding around her, Ruan Jiaojiao felt utterly satisfied, her smile brimming with happiness.
After they finished singing the birthday song, Ruan Jiaojiao and Little Potato cut the cake together. Once they’d served pieces to the elders in the family, their peers didn’t need her to fuss over them and just started helping themselves.
After the cake, the large group started heading toward the cinema.
In the movie theater, in the dark, enclosed space, Ruan Jiaojiao lowered her voice, a little nervous, and said to Duan Xi, "Brother Xi, my dad said we have to go home tonight. He said he’ll come pick us up as soon as the movie ends."
Ruan Jiaojiao understood what Duan Xi meant, and she was willing too, but she was still young after all. Just saying this made her little face burn fiery hot in the darkness.
She thought Duan Xi would at least be somewhat unhappy, or emotional, or try to come up with some other plan, but unexpectedly, he only reached out and pulled her shoulder into his arms, lowered his head to kiss her forehead, and answered, "Okay."
Seriously this well‑behaved?
Ruan Jiaojiao looked up at him suspiciously. "Brother Xi... you’re not mad?"
Duan Xi shook his head, his hand on her shoulder tightening slightly. He lowered his head and kissed her little cheek again. "Watch the movie."
It sounded shameless to think this, but Ruan Jiaojiao really felt there was something a bit off about this version of Duan Xi. She was too embarrassed to ask about that kind of thing though, so she could only pull her gaze back with some confusion and focus all her attention on the movie.
In the past two years two child stars had become popular, both cute and funny, and they completely captured Ruan Jiaojiao’s attention. She laughed out loud with everyone else from time to time.
While everyone was laughing, Duan Xi’s gaze was fixed on Lu Xian and Lu Meng sitting in the row ahead, his eyes dark and unreadable.
His thoughts involuntarily drifted back to earlier that evening, in the hotel’s private room.
When Duan Xi followed Duan Qianyang into the private room, he saw a file lying on the table. Duan Xi glanced at Duan Qianyang; Duan Qianyang tapped that file, signaling him to take a look.
Duan Xi already had a bad feeling in his heart, but after reading through the file, his whole face still darkened without warning, turning extremely grave.
"Is it reliable?" he asked Duan Qianyang.
"It’s a document from higher up. I don’t know at which step something went wrong, but afterward all these people were autopsied. Because the matter isn’t over yet, they temporarily aren’t allowed to notify the outside family members, and we only got the news this morning," Duan Qianyang said.
Normally, something like this wouldn’t have left much of an impression on Duan Qianyang, but he’d just read it in the morning, and then in the afternoon he’d seen someone who was supposed to be dead appear at the Ruan Family’s hotel, which forced it into his memory.