Chapter 23: Pink Scandals

Chapter 23: The Pink Scandal

"Why didn't you mention this when we went to the slimming center before? Did little Cai stop you from talking about it?" An Changpu first thought of the shrewd, assertive receptionist Xiao Cai, who seemed to have a close relationship with Jilu.

"This wasn't something Sister Cai could make the final decision on. After our boss found out about Song Chengliang's situation, he specifically called an employee meeting and explicitly prohibited us from mentioning it to outsiders!" Xiao Cai shook her head quickly, being fair and not letting Xiao Cai take the blame. "Think about it, no matter how popular someone used to be, the dead cannot be brought back to life, and our business still has to go on, right? So after Song Chengliang died, Jilu became the top nutritional consultant in our place! What the boss thought of him in the past is one thing, but now he definitely has to heavily protect and support Jilu. If the brand that is Jilu collapses as well, it won't be easy to find a nutritional consultant who can hold down the fort on short notice."

This reason was not hard to understand, and neither An Changpu nor Qin Ruonan would criticize the slimming center boss's approach on account of it. Starting from his own standpoint, the slimming center boss was naturally talking business. He himself did not proactively commit illegal or criminal acts, but that did not mean he also had to double as a moral model, going all out to cooperate with the public security work and wholeheartedly helping them find every suspect who might have dealt a dark hand to Song Chengliang.

Police-civilian cooperation was someone else's business. As the boss, protecting the business and minimizing losses was how he acted responsibly toward himself and the employees under his command.

"Then aren't you afraid that if you tell us about this now, people will suspect that you leaked the information when we come to investigate later?" Qin Ruonan thought the young girl looked still quite green and didn't look like a sophisticated person. Didn't she have any misgivings about this sort of so-called "informing" behavior? Was her relationship with Jilu that bad, or was her relationship with Song Chengliang that good?

Xiao Cai didn't seem worried about the leak of information at all. She said carelessly, "There are so many people and so many mouths up and down our place. As long as no one saw me telling you that thing on the spot, who dares say I was the one who spilled it?! Anyone could have done it! Besides, to be honest, I've been quite scared these past two days. What if Jilu really is the person who did the bad thing? The boss forbids us to talk about it, and if no one tells you and he gets away with it in the end, then how terrifying would it be for me to work with a murderer every day!"

"You mustn't rush to conclusions, and you shouldn't view someone as a murderer so carelessly. Even for us as police officers, before the court announces its verdict, we cannot use a defining word like 'criminal' to describe the other party; we can only call them a 'suspect.' Whether Jilu is actually entangled in Song Chengliang's case, we will definitely investigate clearly. However, before the truth comes to light, I hope you won't hold any unwarranted preconceived prejudices against Jilu." An Changpu reminded Xiao Cai to watch her words and actions in daily life.

Xiao Cai immediately nodded and agreed, saying, "Rest assured, I know my limits. In case Jilu really is a murderer, it wouldn't be wise for me to offend him; and in case he isn't a murderer and remains the top-tier nutritional consultant at our place in the future, it still wouldn't be wise to offend me—wait, it wouldn't be wise for me to offend him!"

Leaving aside everything else, although this young girl still had a youthful air about her and wasn't particularly slick, she had a certain sharpness ingrained in her bones. Hearing her say this, An Changpu and Qin Ruonan also dispelled many of their concerns.

Next, the three of them began to eat the unfinished dinner, chatting casually about trivial matters inside the slimming center while eating. Regarding Song Chengliang's popularity with people, especially his popularity with women, Xiao Cai and Xiao Cai's accounts were completely consistent. They both said that Song Chengliang was very popular with women and usually quite skilled at cozying up to the female employees in the center. However, Xiao Cai herself didn't have a good impression of him. According to her own words, Jilu was too arrogant, too proud, and put on too many airs, yet Song Chengliang had too sweet a tongue, was too lustful, and too flamboyant. Neither of these two types of men was likable; the former appealed more to girls who liked challenges and liked facing difficulties head-on, while the latter suited women who lacked self-confidence or simply wanted to hear blind flattery.

When the young girl said this, a smug expression carried across her face, as if she had drawn a clear line between herself and the two types of women she mentioned, and felt extremely proud of it.

Xiao Cai finished eating first and proposed to leave ahead of time so as not to accidentally be seen by people if she walked away together with An Changpu and the others later. Since she had done something the boss didn't allow, she certainly still had to be careful to steer her boat safely through ten thousand years.

An Changpu and Qin Ruonan naturally respected her opinion. Besides, it was still dinnertime after work, and the streets were lively without any safety concerns, so they let Xiao Cai leave the restaurant alone first. The two of them also finished their food and went downstairs to drive home.

Because An Changpu felt his ankle could already drive without being affected, he took the initiative to offer to drive Qin Ruonan back. To reduce the number of private interactions with An Changpu, Qin Ruonan was naturally more than happy to dodge the task of dropping An Changpu home and then picking him up early the next morning, and she immediately agreed.

As soon as she got into the car, Qin Ruonan started digging into her wallet. An Changpu saw through her intention and spoke up before she could pull her wallet out of her handbag: "If you pay me for the meal, I'll charge you for the medicine plus an errand fee!"

Hearing this, Qin Ruonan gave an awkward smile, shoved the half-pulled wallet back in, and didn't say anything more.

Along the way, Qin Ruonan remained silent, keeping her face turned toward the car window the entire time. Since An Changpu knew her state had been a bit strange for the past two days, he naturally wouldn't go straight to the point to ask. He observed her in silence for a while and found her frowning, looking somewhat worried, so he simply spoke up first, asking as if casually: "What's wrong? Down in the dumps, is it because you've been running around working continuously and are too tired?"

"Hmm," Qin Ruonan responded absentmindedly.

"See, I guessed right on the first try!" An Changpu pretended to believe Qin Ruonan's perfunctory reply while continuing to probe, "We've really been quite tired lately. Zhong Han even called me last night, asking when I'd have time to go out for a meal together, and he specifically asked me to call you along too."

"Hmm," Qin Ruonan responded subconsciously, and then her brain quickly filtered out that sensitive name from An Changpu's words, which instantly brought her back to her senses. She straightened up in her seat: "Wait a minute! Did you just say Zhong Han called you?"

"Yeah, you weren't seriously listening to what I just said, were you?"

"What did he say to you when he called?" Qin Ruonan asked nervously.

An Changpu looked at Qin Ruonan in some surprise; her reaction completely exceeded his expectations. Mentioning this matter just now was merely intended to open up a topic and then find an opportunity to probe Qin Ruonan's reaction to see why she was feeling unhappy. He never expected that she would have such a huge reaction to Zhong Han's name.

"What on earth did he say to you?" Seeing that An Changpu didn't answer, Qin Ruonan's heart leapt to her throat. She wasn't quite sure whether her current worry stemmed more from fearing that An Changpu couldn't handle that incident she had witnessed, or from fearing that An Changpu would be furious that she knew about it yet concealed it.

"He didn't say much, just that after we finish dealing with Cui Lidong's case and have some free time, he wants to invite me out for a meal and asked me to invite you along too. That's all." An Changpu faithfully relayed Zhong Han's invitation.

Qin Ruonan let out a cold, faint snort: "Not interested."

"If you don't want to go, you don't have to force yourself. Zhong Han originally said he was afraid that you, a young woman, would feel awkward going out with us, and even told me to call Tong Yinyin along to keep you company." An Changpu knew that when they first met, Qin Ruonan didn't seem to like Zhong Han very much, so her attitude was entirely within his expectations.

Qin Ruonan desperately wanted to bite her tongue hard. Why on earth did she answer like that just now? She never imagined that Zhong Han would want An Changpu to ask Tao Yinyin along as well. Then why did he invite her too? Was he trying to have her, the witness, testify and force a showdown with An Changpu?

Dammit, why did that hateful man have to be An Changpu's so-called good friend? She had no standing or reason to ask An Changpu not to see him. If there really was going to be a showdown, would it be good for her to be there or not to be there? Would being there make An Changpu lose face, but if she wasn't there, wouldn't it be too cruel to let him face a good buddy and a girlfriend who had betrayed him all by himself?

"What's wrong? If it's that difficult, don't force yourself!" Seeing Qin Ruonan's expression grow solemn and tangled, An Changpu thought she was just too embarrassed to refuse. "I'll tell Zhong Han when the time comes that you have something temporary to take care of and can't go. It won't put you in an awkward spot with anyone."

"Let me think about it some more."

Unable to hold back his curiosity, An Changpu glanced at her a few more times, drawing a huge question mark in his heart.

Aside from having a rather straightforward temper, Qin Ruonan was generally quite reserved in other aspects of her personality. Yet a moment ago, she was so sensitive even to Zhong Han's name—could the source of her troubles these past two days actually lie with Zhong Han?

He vaguely remembered hearing someone say before that women are very complex creatures, and their emotional expressions are sometimes the exact opposite of their inner thoughts; when they like a certain member of the opposite sex, they will deliberately show rejection and annoyance.

Could it be...

He looked at Qin Ruonan again, furrowed his brow, and forced himself to swallow back the question that had reached his throat.

Early the next morning, Qin Ruonan and An Changpu met up at their unit and went together to the slimming center to find Jilu.

Jilu wasn't surprised by the arrival of the two of them. Anyway, there was nothing much going on at the slimming center early in the morning, so he led them directly to a corner in the lobby far away from the doors and the front desk.

When asked about the friction between himself and Song Chengliang that he had intentionally concealed earlier, Jilu didn't even ask about the source of the information. He just smiled dismissively and said, "Oh, you guys have some skills. I didn't expect you to figure this out so quickly! Have you also managed to figure out the pink scandal that caused Song Chengliang such massive trouble along the way?"