The World Ends In 27 Days

Jingwei stopped beside the table and looked at Zhiyi’s arms.

"The guards no longer work for me," he said. "Meilin and the other women were removed from the ballroom."

Hanchuan nodded. The consequences were appropriate, but knowing the men had been dismissed did nothing to remove the marks they’d left behind.

Qinghe had finished examining Zhiyi and was speaking quietly with someone at his hospital, arranging for the imaging she needed later that evening. Zeyu returned from the dessert table carrying a fresh plate with two chocolate pastries and a fruit tart arranged in the same order as the ones Zhiyi had selected.

He placed it in front of her without making a joke.

Zhiyi looked at the plate before lifting her attention to him. "The pale layer is vanilla cream."

"I asked," he assured her.

That appeared to satisfy her. She picked up the small fork beside the plate and cut through the first pastry while the five men settled around her.

They no longer had any reason to remain at the banquet.

Shichen had already crossed the ballroom toward them after noticing the gathering near the dessert table. Hanchuan intended to leave as soon as he arrived, regardless of what explanation the Liang family offered for the conduct of security personnel employed by Jingwei’s company.

Before Shichen reached the table, another group intercepted him.

Qiao Meilin was returning to the ballroom with her parents.

Two replacement guards followed several steps behind them, apparently uncertain whether Jingwei’s order to remove Meilin allowed her parents to bring her back. Meilin’s mother held her by one elbow while speaking rapidly to Shichen, and her father wore the strained smile of a man attempting to turn a public humiliation into a private misunderstanding.

Shichen listened for less than a minute before directing all three of them toward the table.

Hanchuan felt Zhiyi become still beside him.

She didn’t stop eating, but the fork remained inside the pastry while her attention moved from her father to her stepmother and finally to Meilin. She appeared to be recalculating whether withholding Hanchuan’s name had accomplished what she intended.

Clearly, it hadn’t.

Her family had found them anyway.

"President Pei." Qiao Zheng stopped at the edge of the table and inclined his head. "I apologize for interrupting. It appears there has been a serious misunderstanding involving my daughters."

Hanchuan didn’t invite him to sit.

Meilin’s mother offered Zhiyi a worried expression that arrived too late to be convincing. "We had no idea you were here. If we had known you intended to attend such an important event, we would have helped you prepare."

Zhiyi looked down at the custom gown Zeyu had selected, the jewelry Qinghe had fastened around her throat and the bracelet resting above the bruises on her wrist.

"I was already prepared," she replied after a moment.

Zeyu’s mouth moved slightly, but the expression never reached his eyes.

"That isn’t what your mother meant," Qiao Zheng said.

"She isn’t my mother."

The correction was delivered without anger. Zhiyi wasn’t attempting to insult anyone; she was identifying why the statement was inaccurate.

Her stepmother’s smile tightened. "I’ve raised you since you were young. Surely we don’t need to make that distinction in front of President Pei."

The distinction only became inconvenient when people with influence were listening.

Hanchuan rested one hand against the back of Zhiyi’s chair. "She made it because you described yourself incorrectly."

Qiao Zheng’s expression flickered before he recovered. "Of course. Our Zhiyi has always been very particular about language."

He spoke as though her precision were an amusing family habit rather than something he had never tried to understand.

"We’ve been extremely worried since she left home," her stepmother continued. "She disappeared without explaining where she was going or who she intended to live with. Any parent would be concerned."

Zhiyi considered that statement longer.

"You didn’t contact me."

Her stepmother blinked. "We wanted to give you time to calm down."

"I wasn’t upset."

"You left very suddenly."

"Hanchuan came to get me."

The use of his name changed the air around the table.

Qiao Zheng glanced at Hanchuan before looking back at his daughter. "You should have told us that President Pei was assisting you. We could have avoided all of this."

Zhiyi had told them who was waiting outside.

They simply hadn’t believed her.

Hanchuan knew that from the brief description she’d given him after returning to his office. What mattered now was the speed with which her father abandoned concern about an unknown older man once he discovered the man was Pei Hanchuan.

"There was nothing for you to avoid," Hanchuan said. "Zhiyi chose to leave. I took her home."

The word home caught her attention.

Her fork moved out of the pastry, but she didn’t take another bite.

Qiao Zheng appeared to hear something different in the statement. His posture relaxed as though Hanchuan had finally given him an opening.

"Then I’m grateful she had someone responsible to rely upon. Zhiyi has always struggled with practical matters outside her studies. Had we known she was staying with you, we would have reached out immediately and welcomed the opportunity to become properly acquainted."

There it was.

Not relief that Zhiyi was safe. Not concern about the bruises visible on both arms. He wanted the relationship he believed his daughter had created for him.

"You don’t need to become acquainted with me," Hanchuan replied.

Qiao Zheng’s smile faltered.

Meilin had remained quiet while her parents attempted to repair the situation, but the refusal appeared to exhaust her patience.

"She told us she was living with an older man," she protested. "She admitted that he bought her clothes and jewelry and paid for everything. How were we supposed to know she meant you?"

Hanchuan looked at her. "I’m older than her. She’s living with me. Of course she told you she was living with an older man," he said like clearly, she was the stupid one.

Meilin opened her mouth, but nothing followed.

Her mother stared at Zhiyi as though the answer had created a more serious problem than the one she came to solve. "You’re living in President Pei’s home?"

"Yes."

"And the dress?"

"Zeyu selected it."

Meilin’s attention snapped toward the man seated on Zhiyi’s other side.

Zeyu leaned back in his chair and regarded her without any of the charm he offered women when he wanted something from them. "She needed a dress."

Zhiyi touched the necklace lightly. "Qinghe chose the jewelry."

Qinghe ended his call and returned the phone to his pocket. "It suited her."

"The invitation came from me," Shichen added. He had taken the remaining chair beside Jingwei, leaving the Qiao family standing outside the complete circle. "Her place was arranged with ours."

Meilin looked toward Jingwei.

He offered her nothing.

The misunderstanding Zhiyi had tried to prevent had now become unavoidable. Her family knew that she possessed connections to all five men. The important distinction was that none of those connections belonged to them.

Qiao Zheng attempted to recover. "It seems Zhiyi has kept a great deal from her family."

"She didn’t keep anything from us," Hanchuan said. "She kept it from you."

The difference ended the conversation.

Hanchuan stood and offered his hand to Zhiyi. "We’re leaving."

She looked at the remaining pastry and fruit tart before taking his hand.

Zeyu covered the plate and lifted it from the table. Qinghe reminded Zhiyi not to bend her arms unnecessarily until the imaging was complete, while Jingwei spoke briefly to the replacement guards. Shichen didn’t look toward the platform where his family expected him to remain for dinner.

The six of them left together.

Behind them, the Qiao family remained beside an empty table with no invitation to follow.

By the time the hospital imaging confirmed that Zhiyi’s arms were bruised but unbroken, the banquet had ended and the city had moved into another day.

And after that, 23 days remained.