Chapter 1116: Once Socially Matched

However, looking at the Madam's expression, he realized that was not the case at all.

He suddenly realized with a start that his son must not be in his room.

"Husband, I'm telling you the truth, please don't be angry..."

"Slap!"

A slap landed loudly on the Madam's face, and he was furious: "You short-sighted woman, do you have any idea that what you've done could get our whole family killed?"

The banquet tonight was actually a matchmaking dinner; Commander Liu was going to bring his daughter, and if Qi Heng didn't show up, they would lose face—let alone their current position, he feared the entire family's lives would be at stake.

"Someone! Go and bring that unfilial son back immediately!"

Even if they rushed to Jiangzhou to catch him now, it would be too late to attend the evening banquet.

But he had a way to remedy the situation.

Jiangzhou.

Huaxia University.

Shi Ran and Qi Heng had agreed to eat lunch together and then go to the Library, but when the time came, he didn't show up.

She thought perhaps he had been delayed by something, or was being pestered by Yun Qitian.

Qi Tian was a very interesting person; he was surrounded by a crowd of beauties all day long, yet he ignored them all and insisted on hanging out with the two of them!

At first, she thought Yun Qitian was after her, and A Heng thought so too; he was very bothered by it.

But after spending a long time together, the two of them realized that didn't seem to be the case; Yun Qitian preferred occasions where Qi Heng was present, and if Qi Heng wasn't there, he would go off to busy himself with other things!

Could it be that the two of them were together?

She went to the Library herself; even if they were together, they would definitely be at the Library and not anywhere else.

She arrived at the Library, and Yun Qitian was indeed there—but Qi Heng was not!

She walked over: "Qi Tian, have you seen A Heng?"

"No, aren't you two together?"

"No."

Shi Ran shook her head, her brows slightly furrowed: "We agreed to have lunch together at noon, but he stood me up." She felt something was wrong.

Qi Heng would never disappear for no reason without even saying a word; even if he couldn't make it due to something, he would call to tell her.

"Where could he have gone? Could he have been kidnapped by bad guys? Let's call the police, right now, immediately..." Yun Qitian appeared very unsettled; he was more anxious than Shi Ran, and even started shouting right there in the Library.

The very quiet environment was completely ruined by him.

Everyone's gaze turned toward them in unison; it was too embarrassing.

Being embarrassed didn't matter, but the key was that she didn't want too many people to know about this matter.

Shi Ran pulled him away.

Outside.

Shi Ran finally let go of Yun Qitian's hand, her expression serious: "Qi Tian, I need your help to save A Heng."

"Help, help, help, I will definitely help."

Yun Qitian nodded his head like a chick pecking at rice: "You've already guessed where he might be, right? Tell me quickly, I'm worried to death."

"Is A Heng in danger? He was kidnapped, right?"

Fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead, and his palms began to sweat from nervousness; he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, spinning in circles, unable to stay still for a single moment.

Shi Ran: "You are being too irrational; forget it, I don't need your help anymore, I just hope you don't make things worse."

Her father once said that when a person is emotionally agitated and hot-headed, they shouldn't do anything, as whatever they do will be wrong.

The thing she had to do didn't have a high success rate; she couldn't have Yun Qitian messing it up.

After she finished speaking, she turned and left, and Yun Qitian immediately chased after her: "Ranran, don't be like this; I promise you I will be of help, I won't hold you back..."

L Country.

"Mmph, mmph."

Qi Heng was tied up tightly, his mouth covered with tape, and thrown into the corner of the living room.

His mother hadn't appeared; he didn't need to think to know she must have been grounded by his father.

When he was on the plane, he had also thought he was kidnapped by bad guys, but now he understood: the one who "kidnapped" him was none other than his father.

He paced in, personally tore the tape off his mouth, but immediately followed it up with a fierce kick!

"Cough, cough, cough..."

This kick landed right in the center of his chest, nearly killing him.

His father didn't usually have this kind of personality; he didn't like to use force to solve problems, and more often than not, he would lay out facts and reason things through, and he rarely wore his emotions on his sleeve.

Today he was very agitated, his eyes wide open, roaring loudly: "You bastard, do you know what you are doing? Do you think you can just run away from home and be done with it? You almost got our whole family killed."

He had already called Commander Liu and postponed the scheduled banquet to three days later, with the excuse that his son had caught a cold and was running a fever, and truly couldn't get up.

Commander Liu was a soldier, and soldiers had straightforward and reasonable personalities; he agreed readily, so the matter was glossed over without being exposed.

Qi Heng retorted: "What did I do wrong to make you this angry? How much has the Sheng Family helped our family—don't you have any idea? Just because you see yourself about to get ahead, you look down on those with a merchant background and want to cling to higher branches; if you like those high branches, go yourself, but I'm not going."

"You still don't know what you did wrong? I'll beat you to death!"

Furious, he grabbed a horse whip from the coffee table and lashed it at his son, strike after strike!

The whip struck his body, leaving a new bloodstain with every lash.

"Tell me, are you wrong or not?"

Qi Heng stiffened his neck: "Beat me to death then; even if you beat me to death, I am not wrong!"

"Good, very good, you won't admit your mistake, right? I'll beat you to death today, and be done with it, so you won't bring disaster upon the family."

The whip was raised high once again and fell heavily, but it did not land on the son.

Lady Qi did not know when she had run out from the room, throwing herself in front of her son to take the punishment for him.

"Ouch! It hurts so much!"

With this strike, he had used his full strength; one lash of the whip had split the skin and flesh!

"Mom!"

"Meiqi, are you alright?"

Both father and son were panicked; just a moment ago, Qi Heng had not even frowned when he was being whipped, but now he was flustered and hurriedly checked his mother's injuries.

He knew how painful it was to be struck by the whip.

Lady Qi fainted from the pain.

"Mom, please wake up, wake up, don't scare me."

"Are you all dead? What are you still standing there for? Hurry and call a doctor over."

There was a flurry of chaos in Qi Fu.

The servants agreed and hurried to fetch one; the doctor arrived quickly, and after examining her, said to the Vice President, "Furen fainted due to shock; she will wake up in a while, there is no serious harm."

Lady Qi was put on an IV drip, and both her son and husband kept watch by her bedside, bringing a moment of temporary peace to the household.

The bottle of fluid was almost finished when Lady Qi slowly woke up.

"What just happened to me?"

Seeing her son and husband both guarding her side, her expression suddenly changed, and she used all her strength to push her son: "A Heng, run! Your father wants to use you for a political marriage."

"You woman..."

He blamed his wife for being loose-lipped, but the words of reproach had only just left his mouth before he stopped.

Furen had just woken up, and he remembered the doctor's words not to agitate her.

Qi Heng did not run; he gripped his mother's hand tightly, his heart aching: "You are truly foolish, why did you take that whip for me just now? My skin is thick and my flesh is tough, I would have been fine; if something had happened to you... I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life."

Although Qi Heng was not Lady Qi's biological son, the mother and son had a very good relationship, better than many biological mother-son relationships.

"Don't cry, don't worry about me, go apply medicine first."

She struggled to sit up and told the servant to bring the medical kit over; she wanted to apply the medicine to her son herself.