Chapter 10: Pushing Her Into the Wolf's Den

Zhu Yuan was driven out of the premises of the Pei Family Bank by the Bodyguard, and the heavy doors closed behind her.

By the time she returned to the hospital, the sky had already darkened.

As she passed the nurses' station, a nurse reminded her: "Miss Zhu, the medical fees for Zhu Lao Xiansheng are running low. Please take some time to pay at the self-service kiosk."

Sure enough, what was bound to come had come.

Late at night, Zhu Yuan sat by the hospital bed, holding her grandfather's withered, thin hand, and looking at the brows that remained tightly furrowed even in his sleep, she whispered: "Grandfather, I will definitely save you."

In truth, after her adoptive parents passed away, the Zhu Family still had some money, but after her brother was sentenced for injuring someone, all that money was used for compensation, and not a cent of extra money could be found.

The next day, Zhu Yuan spent two hundred yuan to hire a caregiver; after the Zhu Family decided to stop paying for her grandfather's medical expenses, they had dismissed the caregiver as well.

After making the arrangements, Zhu Yuan went to the Drama Troupe.

She was an actress at the Kyoto Drama Troupe; not long ago, Lu Huaizhan's condition worsened, so she had requested half a month of leave from the troupe, and today her leave happened to end.

"Xiao Fengzheng is back."

"Xiao Fengzheng, you're finally back; we've all missed you."

Just as she walked in through the back door, she ran into colleagues from the troupe who greeted her.

Because there was the character 'Yuan' in Zhu Yuan's name, which means kite, the troupe leader had given her the stage name Xiao Fengzheng back then.

Zhu Yuan responded with a smile.

After going to the troupe leader's office to report in, Zhu Yuan returned to the dressing room, only to hear Li Jie, the troupe's star performer, say while penciling her brows: "It's my birthday today, none of you are allowed to prepare gifts; just showing up is enough. Those who don't come, watch out, or I'll make things difficult for you."

She spoke in a joking tone, yet no one in the troupe dared to defy her.

Li Jie's relationship with the troupe leader was unusual, a fact everyone understood without saying.

If you offended her, you wouldn't have an easy life in the troupe from then on.

Zhu Yuan had just stepped in, and hearing this, she intended to pull her foot back and pretend she hadn't heard.

Who would have thought that Li Jie would see her through the vanity mirror and curl her red lips: "Yo, our Xiao Fengzheng is back."

She stood up, swayed her waist as she walked toward Zhu Yuan, and draped an arm over Zhu Yuan's hand: "You heard what I just said; it's only my birthday once a year, you can't refuse to give me this face."

"Li Jie, I..."

Zhu Yuan had just started to speak when she was interrupted by Li Jie, who leaned close to Zhu Yuan's ear and whispered: "I passed by the southern suburbs yesterday and saw you at the Pei Family Bank. What's wrong? Are you short on money?"

Zhu Yuan was slightly stunned.

"Don't worry, I haven't told anyone. If you're short on money, why didn't you come to me? I'll help you. Whatever amount you need, just say the word, it's a simple matter," Li Jie said generously.

Although everyone in the troupe was quite afraid of Li Jie, it was true that she had money; even the troupe leader might not be as wealthy as she was.

Before leaving this morning, she had tentatively called the Pei Family Bank and was told they would not be open for the next few days, but today was the hospital's final deadline.

She had no other choice.

"Alright, then I wish you a happy birthday in advance, Li Jie."

Li Jie's birthday party was quite grand; she had booked a private room at Sheng Tang, the biggest den of extravagance in Kyoto City.

Everyone gave her face before leaving the theater; although it couldn't be called dressing to the nines, the girls wore beautiful dresses and makeup, and the men wore shirts and dress trousers.

A stream of beautiful girls stepped out of the cars, and passersby stared with wide eyes.

Among them, Zhu Yuan, who walked on the edge, was the most eye-catching.

Even though she hadn't dressed up elaborately, under the brilliant lights of Sheng Tang, she looked as beautiful as a fairy who didn't eat the food of mortals.

Behind the crowd, a black stretch limousine slowly pulled to a stop.

Through the lowered window, a man with cold and languid eyes glanced over there indifferently.

The man withdrew his gaze, leaned back against the seat with his eyes half-closed, and tapped his slender fingers on the armrest.

After exiting the elevator, the group entered the private room one after another.

"Li Jie is truly generous, having her birthday at Sheng Tang. You have to know, the spending here is frighteningly expensive."

"How expensive? I've only heard of it; I've never been here."

That person gestured with their fingers: "One night's spending is enough to cover your performances for several years."

The other person was dumbfounded and gave Li Jie a thumbs up: "Li Jie is extravagant!"

Li Jie pressed her shawl against her chest, her smile bright: "Don't try to save money for me tonight; eat well and drink well."

As Zhu Yuan walked inside, a hand suddenly grabbed her.

She turned back to see it was the makeup artist from the troupe. Zhu Yuan was not a big name like Li Jie and didn't have a dedicated makeup artist; they were randomly assigned from the troupe's makeup team, and this person happened to have done her makeup a few times.

"Xiao Fengzheng, remember later, you must toast Li Jie a few more times."

Zhu Yuan was confused by what she said: "What's wrong?"

Li Jie was the birthday girl, and furthermore, she had a favor to ask of her, so toasting her a few more times was perfectly normal, but the makeup artist's words clearly had a different meaning.

The makeup artist lowered her voice and said: "Do you remember the play you performed before you took leave?"

Zhu Yuan nodded.

That was a very classic play for the troupe; Li Jie was the A-role, and Zhu Yuan had finally managed to secure the B-role for that character.

This meant that if Li Jie had an emergency and couldn't perform, or if the performances were too frequent and exhausting, she had to step in.

In other words, she was the understudy for Li Jie's role in that play.

However, Li Jie had never let that play go. It wasn't until the day before she took leave half a month ago, when Li Jie fainted from overwork, that she finally had the chance to go on stage.

But as soon as she left the stage, she received a call from the Lu Family, so she had no idea what the subsequent reaction was.

"You don't know, but the reaction to that play was exceptionally good, even overshadowing Li Jie's performance. I heard Li Jie made a huge scene at the hospital over this. She is the star of the theater; if you want to keep working in the troupe, don't offend her."

After the makeup artist kindly warned Zhu Yuan, she went to take her seat with the others.

Zhu Yuan silently looked at Li Jie, who was sitting in the main seat, chatting and laughing; so that was the case.

She didn't like discussing other people's gossip, but she had heard from others before that Li Jie was the type to hold a grudge for the smallest slight.

Her limelight had overshadowed Li Jie; how could Li Jie be friendly to her, let alone help her?

Tonight's birthday party is likely not that simple.

Zhu Yuan was just weighing an excuse to leave in her mind when she heard a laugh come from the doorway of the private room: "Happy birthday, Miss Li."

Seeing the person arrive, Li Jie raised an eyebrow and stood up, walking over gracefully, "Many thanks for honoring us with your presence, Young Master Lou."

"With an invitation from a great beauty like Miss Li, how could I bear not to come?" The man was wearing a floral shirt, walking into the brilliant lights as if he were a colorful butterfly.

The person who arrived was none other than Lou Yi, and Zhu Yuan was certainly no stranger to him.

A large part of the reason why Ling Bing had targeted her back at the Lu Family was because of Lou Yi.

At first, Lou Yi and Ling Bing had come together due to a family partnership; Ling Bing fell deeper and deeper, but Lou Yi remained indifferent.

Then, while watching a play, Lou Yi took a fancy to Zhu Yuan, dumped Ling Bing outright, and frequently made romantic overtures to Zhu Yuan.

After being politely rejected by Zhu Yuan, he even started acting pure and innocent, writing her love letters, though Zhu Yuan hadn't even glanced at a single one.

"Eh, what a coincidence, Xiao Fengzheng is here too!" Lou Yi spotted Zhu Yuan and looked her up and down several times, his eyes filled with amazement.

Zhu Yuan did not meet his gaze and gave a slight nod.

Li Jie held a wine glass, wrapped one arm around Zhu Yuan's shoulder, and said with a smile, "You and Young Master Lou can be considered old acquaintances, so why not have a chat?"

"Besides, aren't you short on money? I'm a bit tight on cash lately and might not be able to solve your urgent needs, so you might as well ask Young Master Lou what he thinks."

The blood in Zhu Yuan's heart froze; she now completely understood the intention behind Li Jie calling her over tonight.

So she wanted to push her into a wolf's den!