Jiang Chiyan ground his teeth and turned the tables. "Sure."
Xiao Cheng froze, rubbed the hot, reddened base of his ear, and swallowed a little uneasily.
Jiang Chiyan said meaningfully, "Your husband will try it with you. Whether you like it or not, we can... explore each other in depth."
Xiao Cheng's hand trembled involuntarily. His phone hit the floor with a thud, ending the call.
Jiang Chiyan looked at the disconnected call and chuckled.
He glanced at his watch.
It was eleven thirty, time for lunch.
Jiang Chiyan realized that Xiao Cheng's studio happened to be nearby.
Thinking of Su Jing, who was interning at Xiao Cheng Studio, Jiang Chiyan decided to go over and cadge a meal.
However.
As soon as Jiang Chiyan's car reached the entrance to Xiao Cheng Studio, he saw Su Jing looking furious, seemingly arguing with Lu Ting about something.
Su Jing rolled up her sleeves and glared at Lu Ting. "Don't stop me. This is already the third time he's stolen Cheng's opportunities. What gives him the right?"
Lu Ting held Su Jing's wrist and pinched her cheek. "Calm down, okay?"
"If we offend him, it won't just be Xiao Cheng. All of us will be in trouble." Lu Ting stroked Su Jing's back again and again, coaxing her.
Su Jing clenched her fists. "Just because he has power and influence, he gets to trample Cheng underfoot?"
Those words reached Jiang Chiyan's ears with perfect clarity.
He opened the car door, got out, and walked up to Su Jing. "What's going on?"
"Nothing... nothing, brother." Su Jing tried to gloss over it.
She didn't want to cause Jiang Chiyan trouble.
Jiang Chiyan toyed with the obsidian cuff link on the outside of his wrist and asked Lu Ting, "Then you tell me, Agent Lu."
Lu Ting didn't conceal anything either and gave Jiang Chiyan a fairly objective account.
There was a second-tier entertainer in the industry named Chu Luo, who seemed to be the illegitimate son of some high-ranking official.
Chu Luo couldn't stand Xiao Cheng and relied on his high-ranking father to make trouble for Xiao Cheng at every turn.
This was already the third time this month that he had stolen an opportunity.
Now...
Chu Luo was even sitting brazenly in Xiao Cheng's office.
After hearing this, Jiang Chiyan narrowed his eyes. The air around him instantly turned cold, and he moved past Lu Ting and Su Jing to head into the office building.
Lu Ting blocked his path and said pragmatically, "Lawyer Jiang, there are plenty of opportunities in the entertainment industry, but if we offend him, we'll..."
"So what?" Jiang Chiyan interrupted her blandly. "Agent Lu, I'm not like you. I can't stand seeing Xiao Cheng wronged."
In truth, what Lu Ting said was realistic and wasn't wrong.
But the man who shared Jiang Chiyan's bed, the man he loved.
Shouldn't have to suffer this kind of mistreatment.
"Jiang Chiyan, be rational!" Lu Ting tried to stop him.
Jiang Chiyan slowly tilted his head, met Lu Ting's gaze, and gave a low chuckle. "You may not know this, Agent Lu, but people in the business like to call me... Madman Jiang."
"I don't need to be rational. When I go mad... no one dares stop me." Jiang Chiyan's eyes were icy. "Anyone else can be wronged, but not Xiao Cheng!"
With those words, Jiang Chiyan strode straight into Xiao Cheng Studio's office building and headed directly for Xiao Cheng's office.
Just as Jiang Chiyan reached the office door, a trophy was hurled out and shattered at his feet with a crack.
Jiang Chiyan lowered his eyes and looked expressionlessly at the fragments on the floor, his gaze darkening.
He slowly crouched down, picked up the pieces of the trophy one by one, took off his jacket to wrap them in, and carefully set them aside.
That was Xiao Cheng's Nine Gold Best Actor trophy.
That was Xiao Cheng's glory.
Then Jiang Chiyan stepped into the office and saw...
The office was a complete mess.
Papers lay scattered across the entrance area: Xiao Cheng's handwritten song drafts.
The books in the bookcase and the drawers had been rummaged through and left in disarray.
By the floor-to-ceiling window.
A young man with cherry-blossom-pink hair, looking seventeen or eighteen, sat arrogantly in Xiao Cheng's office chair with his feet propped on the edge of the desk.
He held his phone, playing a game with earphones in, and said disdainfully, "A Best Actor, and he doesn't even have anything valuable in his office. How pathetic!"
This was probably Chu Luo.
Jiang Chiyan narrowed his eyes, his tone cold. "Get out!"
Chu Luo slowly raised his head.
The instant their eyes met, Chu Luo's scalp prickled and a chill ran down his spine.
Jiang Chiyan at that moment...
His eyes were suffused with crimson, his pitch-black pupils brimming with cold killing intent.
Chu Luo swallowed, forcing a show of bravado. "Who... who are you?"
With both hands in his trouser pockets, Jiang Chiyan walked forward indifferently and looked down at Chu Luo.
He didn't know whether it was his imagination.
Jiang Chiyan kept feeling that Chu Luo's nose and the shape of his lips...
Seemed to bear a slight resemblance to Xiao Cheng's.
There was no warmth in Jiang Chiyan's eyes. His fingers abruptly clamped around Chu Luo's neck, tightening and applying force.
Chu Luo's face turned blue from lack of oxygen. "You... let go of me..."
Jiang Chiyan lifted him, turning as though carrying a chick, and then...
Turning sideways, he kicked Chu Luo out of the office in one vicious, swift movement that left no time to react.
Bang-
Chu Luo slammed heavily onto the floor, his face contorting with pain.
Jiang Chiyan's fists cracked, his tone chilling and sinister. "Did I give you permission to act up?"
Clutching his chest, Chu Luo staggered to his feet.
Perhaps Jiang Chiyan's expression was too frightening. He didn't make a sound, simply stumbling away toward the exit.
Seeing this, Su Jing rolled up her sleeves and started to chase him.
"Su Jing!" Jiang Chiyan stopped her with a cold shout. "Come back."
Su Jing was so angry her lungs hurt. "Brother!"
"I told you to come back," Jiang Chiyan said indifferently. "I can beat him up, but you can't."
Jiang Chiyan bent down to pick up Xiao Cheng's drafts from the floor and said in a low voice, "An intern at a celebrity's studio chasing someone down to beat him up. Are you afraid Xiao Cheng doesn't have enough trending topics already?"
Su Jing couldn't accept it. "So we're just letting him off?"
She glanced at Jiang Chiyan's eyes and was startled.
Dark, twisted, obsessive, sinister.
Like an evil spirit that had crawled out of hell.
Jiang Chiyan raised an eyebrow, viciousness radiating from him.
He wasn't running a charity.
Let him off... how could that be possible??
At first, Su Jing had thought her brother was too merciful.
Not until that evening.
Su Jing found that she couldn't reach Jiang Chiyan by phone.
Only then did she vaguely feel...
Something had happened to Jiang Chiyan.
At that very moment, Jiang Chiyan sat properly in the police station's interrogation room, leaning lazily against the back of his chair as though he had no bones.
The tabletop before him was clean, with a cup of hot tea on it.
Across the table sat Chief Meng of the police station.
Chief Meng said, "Lawyer Jiang, a few hours ago, we received a report from Chu Luo. He said that in an alley outside a bar, someone... someone..."
Chief Meng trailed off, genuinely unable to say it.
"Someone did what to him?" Jiang Chiyan tapped his pale fingertips against his leg and tilted his head, deliberately playing dumb.
Chief Meng said, "He... was bitten by mosquitoes."
Jiang Chiyan snorted with laughter. "Chief Meng, you even handle mosquito bites?"
Chief Meng wanted to swear too.
He had never seen such a fucking bizarre case.
Two hours earlier, Chu Luo had called the police to report that mosquitoes had bitten him.
The young officer who answered thought he was crazy and told him to call 120 to get his head checked, or see a psychiatrist.
Not long afterward, the hospital called and said-
A patient who had been bitten by mosquitoes over two thousand times, with his whole body swollen like a gorilla, was accusing Jiang Chiyan of murder.
Given that Jiang Chiyan's background was a mystery.
Chief Meng could only politely ask him to come in first.
Chief Meng asked, "Lawyer Jiang, where were you between nine and ten this evening?"
Jiang Chiyan crossed his legs, calm and composed.
Between nine and ten...
He had probably been outside the bar, delivering a clubbing blow to Chu Luo.
Then he had stuffed the unconscious Chu Luo into a stinking dumpster.
And released several hundred mosquitoes inside.
Jiang Chiyan reckoned Chu Luo was probably still lying in the ICU with an oxygen tube in.
Jiang Chiyan looked at Chief Meng before him, but what he said was, "I came to find Chu Luo."
Chief Meng paused. "Why?"
Jiang Chiyan said, "Chu Luo came to Xiao Cheng Studio to commit robbery and smashed a cello worth 1.02 million. I came to demand compensation."
After saying that.
As though he had prepared it long ago, Jiang Chiyan took a USB drive from his pocket and pushed it toward Chief Meng. "This is the surveillance footage from Xiao Cheng's office this afternoon."
Chief Meng was shocked. "Robbery... that's a criminal case."
Jiang Chiyan blinked his foxlike eyes innocently. "Then please help me open a case, Chief Meng."
Twenty minutes later.
Jiang Chiyan walked out of the police station safe and sound.
As soon as he emerged, his phone rang.
It was a call from Xiao Cheng, his voice urgent. "You beat Chu Luo into the ICU?"
Jiang Chiyan calmly murmured an affirmative.
Xiao Cheng instantly flew into a rage. "Jiang Chiyan, are you crazy? You seriously injured someone. You'll fucking go to prison!"
Xiao Cheng estimated to himself.
For someone to end up in the ICU, it had to be a serious injury like several broken ribs or a brain hemorrhage.
Intentional assault causing serious injury...
Could carry the death penalty.
Xiao Cheng searched legal provisions on Baidu, his heart going cold.
Jiang Chiyan gave a low chuckle and deliberately teased him. "So... your boyfriend flew into a rage for his man and seriously injured Chu Luo for you. Don't you owe me some kind of reward?"
Xiao Cheng was silent for a long time.
Only heavy breathing came through the phone.
It lasted long enough to make Jiang Chiyan a little uneasy. He said, "Actually, I didn't..."
"Jiang Chiyan." Xiao Cheng interrupted him. "I'm driving back to Demon Capital now."
Jiang Chiyan hadn't caught on and couldn't quite follow Xiao Cheng's train of thought.
Xiao Cheng enunciated every word. "I was the one who made an enemy of him. I was the one who beat him up. I'll take the blame. It has nothing to do with you."
"Jiang Chiyan, I won't let anything happen to you."