Chapter 56: Where Are You Supposed To Be?
Jingwei entered the ballroom already angry.
Someone had attempted to use his name after being caught without an invitation, and one of his guards had decided the claim was credible enough to interrupt him instead of removing the problem.
Neither possibility reflected well on the people responsible for securing the Liang residence.
The gathering around the dessert table made the situation easy to locate. Several guests had stopped nearby, maintaining enough distance to pretend they weren’t watching while making no attempt to continue their previous conversations.
One of Jingwei’s guards stood with his back to him, blocking his view of the person at the center of the disturbance.
The third guard noticed Jingwei first. He straightened and quickly returned his phone to his jacket, but before he could explain why he’d sent the message, a young woman in pale green stepped forward.
"President Rong, I’m so sorry they disturbed you over this," the woman said softly.
Jingwei stopped.
The woman appeared to interpret his silence as permission to continue.
She gestured toward the guard standing between them and lowered her voice into something meant to sound discreet despite carrying far enough for everyone nearby to hear.
"She entered without an invitation, and no one confirmed her identity at the gate. Miss Qiao recognized her, but apparently she left the Qiao family to live with an older man. They’re concerned that she may have come here hoping to find someone wealthier."
Miss Qiao moved beside her friend. Jingwei recognized her as the daughter of a family whose importance existed primarily in its own estimation.
"She’s my stepsister," Meilin explained. "We didn’t want to cause a scene, but she admitted she wasn’t invited. When security tried to remove her, she claimed that you would allow her to stay."
Every new detail made Jingwei angrier.
Someone had entered an event under his company’s protection without being identified. That same person had then selected his name from all the powerful men in the ballroom and expected it to protect her from the consequences.
He stepped around the guard and in a split second, the anger just vanished.
Zhiyi stood between two of his men.
One guard held her left arm with both hands, his fingers locked above her elbow and around her forearm. The second restrained her in the same position on the right. She wasn’t pulling away from them. She wasn’t arguing or attempting to escape.
She was completely still.
Her face had lost all color, and her unfocused eyes stared beyond the dessert table without appearing to register anything in front of her.
Both arms hung rigidly between the hands gripping them. Dark marks had already formed beneath their fingers, each bruise preserving the shape and placement of the force being used against her.
Jingwei had seen that stillness before.
Men returned from failed assignments wearing it.
They could describe how many people had died, identify the direction of the gunfire and repeat every instruction they had received, but some part of them remained trapped inside the moment when their minds had stopped processing what their bodies survived.
His employees had put that expression on Zhiyi’s face.
"Let her go," he said. He kept his voice down, not wanting to scare Zhiyi or attract any more attention to the situation. But anyone who worked for him should recognize that tone and be scared.
The guard on her right looked over. His hands loosened slightly when he recognized Jingwei, but he didn’t release her.
"President Rong, she refused to cooperate and tried to—"
"I said let her go."
Jingwei didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
Both men released her at once.
Zhiyi’s arms dropped to her sides, but nothing else changed. She didn’t step away from them or look toward Jingwei. The pressure of their hands had disappeared, yet her mind hadn’t received enough of that information to follow.
Everyone around them began speaking at once.
Meilin attempted to explain that Zhiyi had admitted everything herself. The woman in green insisted they had only been protecting the Liang family. One of the guards started describing the single step Zhiyi had taken after being told to leave.
Jingwei heard none of it clearly enough to care.
He approached Zhiyi slowly, ensuring that she could see him before he entered the space directly in front of her. Her gaze remained fixed somewhere beyond his shoulder.
"What happened?" he asked.
The question required only one sequence. No interpretation. No decision about which information he wanted.
Zhiyi answered without looking at him.
"Meilin asked why I was here. I told her I was attending dinner. She asked who brought me, but I couldn’t tell her because she would tell my family about the five of you." Her voice remained even, each sentence delivered with the same empty precision. "She said I lived with an older man, and I agreed. Then she asked whether I was supposed to be here. Hanchuan told me not to leave the table, so I said no."
Her fingers twitched once beside the skirt of her gown.
"She called security. I told them my name was on the table, but they didn’t check. I told them to contact you. They said you didn’t deal with uninvited guests."
Jingwei looked at her arms again.
The bruises were turning darker. One set curved almost completely around her forearm, while the marks above her opposite elbow had already turned purple beneath the ballroom lights.
"They touched me," Zhiyi finished.
Something cold settled inside Jingwei.
He moved closer until only a narrow space remained between them. He still didn’t touch her. The warmth of his body reached her first, followed by the movement of his breath against her forehead as he lowered his head.
"Zhiyi," he murmured softly, like he was talking to a scared kitten.
But her eyes didn’t move.
He said her name again, slowly enough that it didn’t become another sound competing with the conversations around her. "They aren’t touching you now."
Her breathing changed, but her attention remained fixed past him.
Jingwei blocked more of the ballroom from her view. He couldn’t remove the music or the voices gathering around them, but he could make himself the nearest thing for her mind to find.
"You know me," he continued quietly. "You’re safe."
Zhiyi’s lips parted, although no answer followed.
Jingwei waited. When her gaze still failed to settle, he raised one hand and stopped before touching her face. He gave her enough time to see the movement, but she didn’t react.
His fingers brushed lightly across her cheek.
The contact startled her.
Zhiyi inhaled sharply and finally looked at him.
Recognition returned by degrees. Her eyes focused on his face before shifting toward the hand he had already lowered. Some color returned beneath the pallor of her skin, although she still appeared too distant from the ballroom around them.
"Don’t worry," Jingwei murmured. "I’ll deal with this."
Her attention flickered toward the crowd behind him.
He prevented her thoughts from reaching whatever new problem waited there by giving her one question.
"Where are you supposed to be?"
"The table," she answered immediately. "Hanchuan is going to be upset if he comes back and I’m not at the table."
Footsteps approached behind Jingwei.
Zeyu had finally escaped his mother and the woman she’d attempted to introduce to him. He entered the gathering with his usual easy expression, apparently expecting to find Zhiyi trapped in another conversation or still deciding how many desserts constituted a reasonable portion.
The expression disappeared when he saw her.
His gaze moved from Zhiyi’s pale face to the bruises encircling both arms. He didn’t ask what happened. He didn’t look toward Meilin or the guards waiting behind Jingwei.
For once, Zeyu said nothing.
Jingwei stepped back slowly, putting space between himself and Zhiyi without leaving her abruptly.
"Zeyu will take you back," he assured her. "Hanchuan won’t be mad at all. I promise."
Zhiyi looked toward Zeyu.
He came to stand beside her, close enough that she could follow without searching for him through the crowd. His attention remained on the marks left by the guards, but he kept his hands at his sides.
"Hey Professor," he said, his tone the same as Jingwei’s. "Let’s get you back to the table, huh?"
Zhiyi nodded and turned toward the tables.
Zeyu moved with her, silently placing himself between her and everyone watching as she walked away.