Chapter 546

Huo Jingyan stubbed out his cigarette, "Is Shu Xia there?"

"Why are you suddenly looking for my wife?" Qiao Muting raised an eyebrow, then began searching for Shu Xia inside Xinghai Villa.

He checked both upstairs and downstairs, but Shu Xia was nowhere to be seen.

"I wanted to ask if she has any news about my wife," Huo Jingyan said.

Qiao Muting: "Your wife?"

"Yes, she didn't come home."

"What a coincidence, my wife didn't come home either."

The two men fell silent for a moment.

Any suspicions Huo Jingyan had originally held vanished; it seemed Jiang Nannan hadn't lied to him, and she was indeed with Shu Xia keeping a friend company.

"You're acting strange. You came specifically to confirm something, didn't you? Did your wife find out about you and your secretary?" Qiao Muting asked in a deep voice.

Ever since he found out Huo Jingyan was with that secretary, he had felt this situation would spiral out of control.

In their social circle, there were almost no secrets; many people could pretend to be ignorant of such things, and family members in various arranged marriages usually turned a blind eye.

However, Huo Jingyan and Jiang Nannan were different.

After a few minutes of silence, Huo Jingyan said, "She won't find out; that secretary was just an accident."

He would go handle it personally tomorrow morning.

He would absolutely not let Jiang Nannan find out.

In the future, such uncontrollable matters would never happen again.

Qiao Muting gave a grunt of acknowledgment, "Fine, let's hang up."

After the call ended, Qiao Muting dialed Shu Xia's number.

It rang a few times before it was answered.

"Why aren't you home?" Qiao Muting asked.

Shu Xia was sitting on the sofa; Jiang Nannan had gone to take a shower because she felt she had cried too messily.

As a result, she received Qiao Muting's call at this moment; she had been so focused on keeping Jiang Nannan company that she had cast Qiao Muting to the back of her mind and forgotten to tell him she wouldn't be back tonight.

Thinking of the relationship between Qiao Muting and Huo Jingyan, Shu Xia chose to hide the truth and opted for the same excuse as Jiang Nannan.

"Nannan and I are keeping a friend company. This friend ran into some trouble, so I won't be back tonight."

Qiao Muting's expression shifted, but he didn't ask further, "Alright."

After ending the call, Qiao Muting lay on the bed and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep as he usually did, but after trying for a long time, he only felt more awake.

He sat up with a dark expression.

Does Shu Xia have that many friends?

She would rather sleep keeping a friend company than come back to sleep with him?

The insomniac Qiao Muting's aura grew colder and colder, with a faint trace of hostility.

Once his emotions calmed down, Qiao Muting furrowed his brows; he suddenly realized that his reliance on Shu Xia was becoming increasingly uncontrollable.

Had he fallen in love with her?

He immediately denied it.

He liked the feeling of sleeping with Shu Xia, and he relied on his stable mood and sleep when he was with her.

This had nothing to do with romantic love between a man and a woman.

Besides, Shu Xia didn't like him, did she?

Realizing his emotions were once again being led by the nose by Shu Xia, Qiao Muting darkened his face and got up to go to the study.

He might as well hold a few video conferences.

——

Ye Yaoguang scrolled through her phone.

Ever since she gave the address, Jiang Nannan had vanished without a trace and hadn't replied at all.

If Jiang Nannan had kicked up a fuss, Huo Jingyan would surely have come looking for her by now, or Jiang Nannan would have followed the address to come and verify things.

Yet, up until now, neither of these things had happened. What exactly was Jiang Nannan thinking?