Chapter 436: Issuing an Invitation to Cohabit

Jiang Lai was lifted onto the desk by Ke Zhongyu.

This wasn't the first time she had sat like this.

But it was the first time she had done this.

Ke Zhongyu wasn't rough; he had become much gentler, completely unlike that morning. Jiang Lai knew he was afraid of hurting her again.

"I know you don't like it in broad daylight — should I cover your eyes?"

"I've thought about this here for a long time."

Ke Zhongyu's two sentences made Jiang Lai's whole body heat up. Then she heard the sound of a drawer being pulled open. Jiang Lai abruptly reached out and pushed against Ke Zhongyu's shoulder, surprised that things had been prepared here in advance too.

As Ke Zhongyu held her tight, he added, "I've always been prepared for when you're willing. I'll be gentle... mm."

Jiang Lai hastily reached out to cover his mouth. She could least tolerate Ke Zhongyu constantly talking during this — and dirty talk at that — which could mesmerize her into a daze and let him do as he pleased.

Forty minutes later.

Jiang Lai sat on the desk with her clothes neatly in place, reaching out to take the water Ke Zhongyu handed her and drinking it.

Because she worried about being found out when she left later, Ke Zhongyu hadn't recklessly rumpled her clothes. Instead, it was Ke Zhongyu whose tie lay on the floor and whose shirt had lost several buttons.

Fortunately, there was a spare shirt in the rest room.

Ke Zhongyu dressed neatly, took the water Jiang Lai hadn't finished and drank it all, then held her in his arms and sat back down.

A moment of tenderness.

Jiang Lai asked about the leaked video.

While running his fingers through Jiang Lai's hair, Ke Zhongyu told her what the investigation had uncovered.

The video had indeed been secretly filmed by a researcher who participated in the testing, but his original intention was to take it home to show his wife and child what he had worked on. Somehow, it got leaked.

This matter would be handed over to the police to investigate. The researcher had violated confidentiality protocols by secretly filming an unreleased product — not only would he be fired, but there would also be compensation to pay.

As for why it was connected to Ke Chi, the media side said they heard it from so-and-so, and so-and-so said it came from another person. After a round of questioning, the source was Ke Chi.

Ke Chi said he had just mentioned it casually, an unintentional slip, and never meant to bring losses to the Ke Clan. He even laughed and said wasn't the public opinion issue already resolved? The press conference was held smoothly, and they even rode the heat of public opinion for a wave of promotion — the Ke Clan completely profited from this round.

But this was a result Jiang Lai and the others had worked day and night for. Everyone else could rotate shifts, but Jiang Lai alone couldn't, to the point that she fell into a high fever and lost consciousness.

Ke Zhongyu looked at Ke Chi's manner of showing no awareness of his mistake and couldn't hold back. First, he kicked the man to the ground, then stepped on Ke Chi while replying to Jiang Lai's message, instructing the others that no one was allowed to come near.

After he had given Ke Chi a beating and was still pinning him underfoot, Jiang Lai suddenly arrived.

It truly caught him off guard.

Would a good person pin someone underfoot and beat them?

Jiang Lai didn't care who Ke Zhongyu was beating. What she cared about was Ke Zhongyu's injured hand. She took his palm and said, "Following you is suffering too."

Ke Zhongyu extended his hand in front of her: "For you."

Jiang Lai gently held his hand and arm against her heart: "Mm, I'll take it."

Someone who appeared aloof and cool, but was in truth straightforward and passionate.

Ke Zhongyu looked into her eyes: "All for you."

Jiang Lai returned to business: "So it's been handled?"

"No." Ke Zhongyu's gaze darkened slightly. "This matter came suddenly. We hadn't even noticed it before. I'll have people keep watching."

"Mm-hm." Jiang Lai used to just nod; now she even made sounds.

Ke Zhongyu buried his head in Jiang Lai's neck again. After a moment of gathering himself, he asked a question: "A Lai, can we live together?"

He issued an invitation to cohabit.

……

G Province.

Wang Peng had just returned from picking up his grandson from kindergarten when he saw someone sitting in the house. His wife and daughter-in-law were hosting him, and all three wore smiles on their faces.

The grandson ran toward his mother.

His wife stood up with a beaming smile and introduced him as the son of a friend, here in G Province on business and dropping by on behalf of his father to visit an old friend. The young man had come from B City, and his surname was Gu.

His wife whispered in his ear that most of the man's family were government officials — who would have thought that he, a mere driver back then, could have officials treat him as a friend.

Both his wife and daughter-in-law clearly wanted him to curry favor.

Wang Peng's right eyelid kept twitching nonstop.

Gu Zhiyan sat on the sofa and smiled at him.

Left with no choice, Wang Peng had to invite the man into his own room. When he was young, he had worked as Gu Sen's driver. After Gu Sen passed away over two years ago, he quit too, moving from K City to the provincial capital, where he got a place to live and a stable job as a bus driver.

After technology developed, bus driving work became harder to do, so he became a city bus driver instead. He had thought his days would continue smoothly and peacefully, but he never expected a matter sealed away for twenty-eight years to be brought up again.

Before Wang Peng could speak, Gu Zhiyan first laid out his cards: Wang Peng's workplace before retirement, his son's workplace, his daughter-in-law's maiden family, and which kindergarten his grandson attended.

Nothing else needed to be said — Wang Peng himself knew the weight of it all.

He demanded, "What exactly does your Gu family want to do?"

Gu Zhiyan: "I just want to know what really happened to my... cousin back then, and what role you played in it. Tell me what you know, and I won't disturb you or your family again."

Back then, the Gu family had told him the same thing — just get the job done, and the subsequent housing and work would all be arranged for him. They would never disturb his life.

He had lived in fear for years, settled into stability in his later years, and now the younger generation of the Gu family had come before him saying the same things.

The younger generation couldn't outmatch the elders.

Wang Peng didn't dare speak directly, afraid of angering the people behind it all.

Seeing that he still had reservations, Gu Zhiyan had no choice but to escalate the threat: "If you won't talk, I'll just have to report to the police under the charge of trafficking. Your family probably doesn't know you once participated in the trafficking of a baby, do they?"

People care about face like trees care about bark — especially Wang Peng, who had lived a stable life and was regarded as a good-natured man by both outsiders and family. He simply couldn't allow himself to lose face in his old age.

"It had nothing to do with trafficking! That's absolute nonsense!"

"If you refuse to tell what happened back then, I'll take it as your participation in trafficking. You should be clear on what kind of crime trafficking is."

"Trafficking my ass!" Wang Peng knew "trafficking" was a serious crime. The moment that label came down, he nearly couldn't breathe. "Your Gu family yourselves didn't want her because she was a girl, threw her away, then quietly went looking for her, and then someone else didn't want her to be found. Every one of your Gu family had their own ulterior motives, and in the end you pin the blame on us ordinary people!"

Gu Zhiyan's head buzzed.

"What did you say?"

"Our family despised her for being a girl?"

"Abandoned? What do you mean, abandoned?" His pupils contracted sharply, and his speech began to grow incoherent.