Chen Liuhe, seething with indignation, utterly failed to realize his own absurdity. He kept cursing the interviewers for their lack of vision. With his charisma and intellect, he thought, becoming a mere manager was an underutilization of his talents; even a general manager position felt like a waste.
He looked up at the setting sun, ran a hand over his stubbled chin, adopting a melancholic expression that reeked of weathered experience, a gloomy charm that might captivate any girl under eighteen.
He flicked his cigarette butt, ground it under his ten-yuan military canvas shoes, shook his close-cropped hair, shot the real estate company a disdainful glance, then pedaled towards Hangcheng University.
When Chen Liuhe and Shen Qingwu returned home, a red BMW was parked outside their gate. A tall, graceful woman stood beside it.
Seeing her, Chen Liuhe frowned slightly. Shen Qingwu, adept at reading expressions, asked softly, "Brother, do you know her?"
"Not really," Chen Liuhe replied. He stopped the tricycle outside the gate. Ignoring the woman, whose face lit up at their arrival, he carefully helped Shen Qingwu off the tricycle first. Only then did he turn to the waiting woman. "Yes?"
"I need your help," Qin Ruohan quickly said.
Chen Liuhe eyed her up and down. "Then go back where you came from. I'm busy cooking."
"You're refusing before you even know what it's about?" Qin Ruohan's face tightened.
"Heh, whatever it is, I don't have the time to get involved in your mess," Chen Liuhe waved her off, pushing his tricycle into the courtyard, uninterested in dealing with her.
Qin Ruohan stared blankly at Chen Liuhe's retreating back, her face pale. She bit her lower lip, looking helpless and desperate, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
Shen Qingwu calmly glanced at Qin Ruohan, her expression unreadable. But the desperation in Qin Ruohan's eyes made something stir within her, a faint resonance, perhaps a memory.
Such helplessness had once been her own, a year ago. Her grandfather gone, her brother imprisoned. In the treacherous depths of the capital, she had faced the cold stares, the ridicule, and the dark retaliation all alone.
Perhaps, at that time, she had been as helpless and desolate as this woman now.
"Big trouble?" Shen Qingwu asked, almost without thinking. Despite her young age, she was no naive girl. Years steeped in the capital's murky waters had forged her into a woman of startling maturity. Moreover, the terrifyingly intelligent girl's twenty years of life experiences could not be summed up by merely "tragic" or "complicated." A whole book wouldn't be enough.
She didn't pity anyone, nor did she sympathize. It was simply that this woman, whom her brother had rated a nine out of ten, evoked a momentary pang of empathy.
Hearing Shen Qingwu's words, Qin Ruohan nodded, tears welling up. Yes, she was in huge trouble, immense trouble. Otherwise, she would never have sought out Chen Liuhe. The moment she appeared here, it signified she was at her wit's end, with no other choice but to cling to Chen Liuhe as her last desperate hope.
Shen Qingwu nodded and said no more, maneuvering her wheelchair into the courtyard. Just as Qin Ruohan felt her heart sink into despair, Shen Qingwu's voice drifted back: "The gate isn't locked. Come in if you have something to say."
Chen Liuhe, who had just parked his tricycle and was about to wash vegetables, chuckled when he heard Shen Qingwu. "What? Feeling charitable?"
"No. I just think she looks a lot like me a year ago." Shen Qingwu's calm words made Chen Liuhe's expression falter, a momentary flash of icy coldness in his eyes, which then quickly vanished. He said nothing, simply smiled and nodded, picking up the vegetables and heading to the sink to wash them.
Shen Qingwu seemed to sense Chen Liuhe's thoughts. She wheeled over to him, gently tugged at his sleeve, and whispered, "Brother, are you hurting?"
"I know. Our old Shen family are tough as nails, with the straightest spines in the world!" Chen Liuhe grinned, no bitterness, no pain.
"Sit," Shen Qingwu gestured to a small stool in the courtyard, addressing Qin Ruohan who had followed them in.
Before Qin Ruohan could speak, Chen Liuhe interjected, "The fact that you came to my house to wait for me means the situation you're in is very serious. It also means you're desperate, seeking help from anyone, even a complete stranger like me."
Chen Liuhe spoke casually while washing vegetables. "Often, such situations are very tricky, even life-threatening. Frankly, we're not related. Your life and safety have nothing to do with me. Why should I help you?"
Qin Ruohan took a deep breath, looking at Chen Liuhe's perpetually lazy expression. "I'm sorry, I'm out of options. I've tried every solution I could think of. In the end, my gut told me you're the only one who can help."
Chen Liuhe scoffed. "Gut feeling? What's that worth? And why do you think I can help you, instead of you just dragging me down to die with you?"
Qin Ruohan's body trembled. "I don't know... I just know you're not an ordinary person."
Chen Liuhe smiled. He didn't bother refuting that statement. Instead, he said, "Tell me what happened first, then I'll see if I can be a good samaritan."
Qin Ruohan's face lit up. She swallowed back her tears, composed herself, and began: "You saw what happened last night. Someone is trying to harm me. To achieve their goal, they even hired a sniper. Just as you guessed, they weren't trying to kill me; the whole show was just to scare me."
"This goes back to my father. Although our family wasn't super-rich, we were well-off in Bianzhou. Last year, my father opened an entertainment club, and business was booming. But soon, it caught the attention of some underworld figures. They threatened, lured, and intimidated my father, demanding 50% of the club's shares."
Here, Qin Ruohan's face twisted in pain. "That club was my father's life's work. He poured all his energy and money into it. Of course, he wouldn't give it up, nor would he bow to those criminals. But a few days later, my father died in a car car accident, and I inherited the club." Tears streamed down Qin Ruohan's cheeks, but she consciously kept her head held high, refusing to let them fall freely. Her lips were pressed tightly together, fighting back sobs.
Chen Liuhe interjected, "And then, those who coveted your club started coming after you?" Chen Liuhe wasn't surprised by this. His experience had taught him that darkness existed in every corner of the world. So, such an incident wasn't particularly rare. However, he did feel some sympathy for this woman's plight. From a wealthy family, yet now facing such a tragedy, even her family ruined.
He paused. "This is easy enough to deal with. Why not just give them 50% of the shares? After all, you can never earn enough money, but if you lose your life, you lose everything."
Qin Ruohan became agitated. She said fiercely, "Never! My father was murdered for this club! Now that it's in my hands, there's no way I'll let those executioners profit from it! Otherwise, my father's struggle would be in vain! His death would be meaningless!"
Chen Liuhe shook his head. "That's called a delaying tactic. Understand?"
"I thought of that too, but it's useless. They see me as a helpless woman now. They no longer want 50% of the shares; they want to buy the entire club for two million," Qin Ruohan said.
"Heh, those people are really impolite, so ruthless," Chen Liuhe sneered. He paused, then asked, "So, how do you want me to help you?"
"I want to keep the club, and I want to fight those people to the very end!" A strange look, which Chen Liuhe recognized as venom and hatred, flashed in Qin Ruohan's eyes.
"Last night, they gave me an ultimatum. If I don't hand over the club within three days, they told me to prepare my coffin to go see my father!" Qin Ruohan said. She took a deep breath and added, "They are desperate men; if they say something like that, they will definitely do it."
Qin Ruohan stared intensely at Chen Liuhe: "If you help me, I guarantee you won't suffer any losses! I've investigated you. I know you and your sister rely on each other. I know your sister is a brilliant student at Hangcheng University, but your lives are tough, relying solely on your scrap-collecting income. And your sister isn't healthy; she's frail and needs traditional Chinese medicine for recuperation, which is a huge financial burden for you."
"As long as you help me through this crisis and help me keep the club, I can solve all these problems for you!" Qin Ruohan said, her eyes burning with intensity.
Chen Liuhe eyed Qin Ruohan, chuckling softly. "You've certainly done your homework. You hit right on our current predicament." He wasn't surprised that Qin Ruohan had managed to dig up this information. If she lacked even that capability, she would be too inept.
He instinctively rubbed the stubble on his chin, glanced at the impassive Shen Qingwu, and asked gently, "Little sister, what do you think?"
Qin Ruohan's tragic fate didn't seem to stir much emotion in Shen Qingwu. She calmly looked at Chen Liuhe. "What do you think?"