Chapter 87 — My Brother’s Wife?

Why did you stop talking?

Nan Si lowered his voice, and like a serpent flicking its tongue, it brushed past Lin Xiaowen’s ear as he went on. “Go on. Say that you are my elder brother’s wife, that you are a member of the Si family?”

Still dazed, Lin Xiaowen heard him continue.

“If you had come to see me as Ranran’s mother, I might have been more welcoming. But today you have come for another man, to demand an accounting from me... Am I wrong?”

Lin Xiaowen’s heart hammered in her chest. She kept turning his words over in her mind, and the confidence she had carried moments ago unconsciously weakened.

Nan Si could not bear to see that stricken, lost look on her face. He let go of her, restoring her freedom, then brushed at his sleeve and said carelessly, “Actually, I would rather you were here for Ranran. If Miss Lin has thought it through and is willing to hand over custody of Ranran, then we can discuss everything else. Not to mention merely a few endorsements and a couple of dramas... With our Xiaodong Group’s little miss as his mother’s boyfriend, what would it be for us to pour money into him and get him a few more productions?”

Completely enraged by his icy mockery, Lin Xiaowen raised her voice again. “I will never give up custody of Ranran, and I will also seek justice for my friend. Nan Si, don’t think that because the Si family has money, you can cover the sky with one hand!”

“Ha. Should I say you’re innocent, or simply stupid?” Nan Si had lost all patience for wasting time with her. Frowning, he said, “If you really have a solution, then go think of one. But move quickly—I have no patience. I have something to attend to and must leave now. Excuse me.”

“Nan Si, don’t go... You are not allowed to leave, do you hear me? Nan Si...” Lin Xiaowen cried out, but the security guards held her fast and she could not break free,只能 watch him leave.

Nan Si ignored her completely. Someone else opened the car door for him again, and he bent down and got in. At last, the noise by his ears was gone.

Less than half a minute after the car slowly started moving, Xia Bin, in the front passenger seat, suddenly called out, “President Nan, Miss Lin she...”

“What now?”

Nan Si nearly roared the words out. Could this woman stop appearing in his life, stop invading his ears?

“Miss Lin... Miss Lin seems... to have fainted.” Xia Bin glanced again at the rearview mirror and spoke in a low voice.

Nan Si’s expression tightened. He turned sharply to look back toward the hotel entrance, and indeed people had already surrounded the spot where Lin Xiaowen had just been standing...

“Stop the car!” Nan Si shouted. “Stop it now!”

“P-President Nan... President Yang’s meeting is about to begin, and this...” The driver had been specially sent by the other side to take Nan Si to the meeting, so his priority naturally remained the task at hand. He hesitated in difficulty.

“Cut the nonsense. I said stop the car!”

Nan Si hated nothing more than being ignored, and in a fit of irritation, he kicked hard at the soft interior panel of the door...

Seeing that he was truly angered, the driver hurriedly applied the brakes and brought the car to a stop.

Nan Si shoved the door open, but then froze mid-motion. He turned back to Xia Bin and said in a low voice, “You will attend this meeting as my full representative. Remember: I am you. Do you know what to do?”

Xia Bin turned and looked at him, then nodded heavily. Only then did Nan Si rise and stride away...

It was “I am you,” not “you are me.”

As his special assistant, Xia Bin understood all too well the difference between the two. As for the driver, who had already caused trouble, he still wore the same ignorant expression as if innocence could excuse everything, which only made Xia Bin sigh inwardly.

“What... what are we supposed to do... I didn’t do much to her...” stammered the red-faced security guard, staring helplessly at Lin Xiaowen, who lay on the ground.

“Call the police...”

“Shouldn’t we call an ambulance first? Saving her matters most, right?”

“Don’t touch her yet. What if she’s trying to scam us...”

It was the hottest part of the afternoon, and there were not many people around. Just as everyone was arguing over whether to call the police or the ambulance first, Nan Si rushed over in a single stride. Under the astonished and bewildered gazes of the crowd, he bent down and gently gathered the unconscious, flushed-faced Lin Xiaowen into his arms...

“Lin Xiaowen... Lin Xiaowen, can you hear me?”

Nan Si’s expression was very careful, very guarded, as though he feared the woman in his arms might shatter at any moment. He softly called her name.

“P-President Nan, someone who has suddenly fainted cannot be picked up carelessly. If it’s a heart or brain problem... it might...” The waiter who had first noticed Lin Xiaowen had never spoken so closely to the company’s president before, and so he sounded a little stiff and nervous as he cautiously offered his advice.

Nan Si swept his fierce gaze over the speaker and said with complete coldness, “She stood in the sun for so long. Why didn’t you let her go inside and wait?”

“This... I...” The waiter was stunned by the question. Hotel rules clearly forbade visitors and lingering for guests who were not checked in.

But before he could hurriedly organize his thoughts, Nan Si had already cut in crisply, “You may leave now.”

“...Leave? Leave where?” The waiter was stunned once more.

Nan Si no longer bothered with the dazed waiter. Instead, he turned to another woman who appeared to be the lobby manager and said, “Send a doctor to my room. Quickly.”

“Right away!” The woman answered and hastened off.

Nan Si carried Lin Xiaowen into the hotel lobby, then suddenly turned back to the two security guards and asked in a cold voice, “You were the ones who stopped her just now?”

“This...”

“We...”

After the lesson the waiter had just set, the two sweating guards did not dare answer casually.

Seeing their expressions, Nan Si gave them a faint look and tossed out one light sentence: “You are both fired.”

Then he left without looking back.

Lin Xiaowen slept quietly, her cheeks unnaturally flushed, yet her frailty made her seem especially delicate, stirring in others an urge to protect her.

Nan Si had been sitting by the bed, silently watching her for a very long time, until the nurse came in to remove the needle. Only then did he come back to himself, stand up, and walk to the window.

He took out a cigarette, meaning to light it, but then seemed to remember something. Turning back to glance at the sleeping Lin Xiaowen, he threw the cigarette aside.

By then, Lin Xiaowen had already been awakened by the nurse’s movement when the needle was removed. Frowning slightly from the pain, she slowly came to.

The ceiling above her was a pale blue she had never seen before. Even the pillow and quilt were unfamiliar, carrying a faint scent of fresh grass.

Lin Xiaowen moved her still-throbbing head, and a wave of dizziness surged up again.

“Don’t move around. Lying in bed means you won’t fall again, but you may very well faint once more. That aside, there is nothing too serious... but you keep leaving Ranran unattended and only having your friends, or your friends’ families, pick her up and care for her. In court, the judge would also consider you an unfit mother, and naturally would not think it right for the child to stay with you...”

Hearing Nan Si’s flat, cool tone, Lin Xiaowen immediately became fully alert. She looked toward the source of the voice and saw him in a white shirt and suit trousers, standing there and looking at her with a faint smile.