In the driver's seat of the Grand Cherokee, Xu Lize calmed himself for a good ten seconds before redialing Zhao Rui's number.
"Speak," he uttered a single, quivering syllable as his Adam's apple bobbed, the underlying anger sending a slight shiver through Zhao Rui on the other end of the line.
Zhao Rui was taken aback for a moment but quickly regained his composure. He got straight to the point. "Old Yu probably won't make it through the night. The hospital has issued a critical condition notice. General Manager Wen has rushed over there immediately. I originally wanted to wait a bit longer, but..."
"Where are you now?" Xu Lize raised his hand to rub his temple.
"I'm at the hospital," Zhao Rui replied in a hushed tone. "General Manager Zhu, General Manager Zhou, and General Manager Liu are all here."
"Humph... They're all here for the funeral, I suppose," Xu Lize sneered. He reached out to press the button and start the car. "I'm on my way. It'll take about twenty minutes. Call me if there's any change."
Behind the thick villa gate, Su Yang heard the roar of the car engine fading into the distance.
She sat in the darkness for a while, until the muscles in her calves began to feel numb. Then she slowly got up and went upstairs to take a shower.
After removing her makeup, washing up, and blow - drying her hair, Su Yang casually tossed her clothes into the washing machine.
After pouring in the laundry detergent and setting the mode, she suddenly remembered the dress she had left at the entrance.
Holding the laundry detergent, Su Yang hesitated for a moment. Just as she was about to go downstairs to pick up the dress, the phone on the washing machine suddenly vibrated.
At first, she thought it was Xu Lize and felt a slight flutter in her heart. But when she saw the unfamiliar caller ID, a sense of foreboding welled up inside her.
"Hello. Is this Su Yang?" The voice on the other end of the line was both strange and familiar, bright yet grating.
"Who's this?" Su Yang pretended to be calm and even paused the just - started washing machine to leave the room in silence.
"Su Yang," the other person seemed to breathe a sigh of relief upon hearing her answer. Her tone became lighter as she introduced herself. "I'm Ren Sijia."
"Hello," Su Yang replied indifferently. She was so unmoved that she didn't even bother to ask how Ren Sijia had gotten her phone number.
"I'm really sorry, Su Yang. I'm calling you out of the blue. I was wondering if you'd like to have lunch with me tomorrow noon?"
"Tomorrow?" Su Yang was puzzled. "Why?"
She didn't think she and Ren Sijia were close enough to sit down and have a meal together.
Ren Sijia's voice sounded a bit hesitant. "I... I'm really sorry for causing you and your sister to have a falling - out because of me."
"What falling - out?" Su Yang was a bit confused for a moment.
"I've had a lot of welcome banquets thrown for me by friends since I got back to the country. I found out that Qianqian and I have a lot of mutual friends. We hit it off after getting to know each other better, so..."
"Miss Ren," Su Yang suddenly interrupted Ren Sijia coldly. "Can you get to the point?"
It wasn't that she was impatient with people's ramblings. In fact, she loved long phone conversations, as long as the other person was someone she was willing to chat with. In that case, Su Yang would be a very good listener.
But obviously, Ren Sijia didn't deserve it.
Su Yang's sudden interruption made Ren Sijia take a sharp intake of breath.
"Get to the point, Miss Ren," Su Yang repeated, barely maintaining basic politeness. "If you have something to say, you can tell me on the phone, but there's no need for lunch."
"What if it's about my third brother?" Ren Sijia asked after a few seconds of silence.
"Xu Lize?" Su Yang squinted her eyes. "What can we talk about regarding Xu Lize?"
"Su Yang, you might have misunderstood. My third brother and I... It's not what Qianqian told you. Or at least it's not like that for now. I... I just want to talk to you. If you think lunch is unnecessary, we can meet for coffee. I..."
"One - thirty tomorrow afternoon. Where's convenient for you?"
After the anniversary celebration, Su Yang finally had a weekend free from all kinds of trivial work. But she really thought lunch was unnecessary, so she compromised and agreed to meet Ren Sijia for a cup of coffee.
"Let's meet at the coffee shop on the first floor of Jinmao Tower."
"Okay. See you tomorrow." Su Yang agreed and then hung up the phone neatly.
On the other end of the line, Ren Sijia slowly put down the phone only after hearing the beeping sound in her ear.
"Sijia, Sijia?" Jiang Na, sitting across from her, saw her looking blank as if her soul had left her body. She waved her hand in front of Ren Sijia's eyes. "What did that Su say?"
"Ah? Oh..." Ren Sijia came back to her senses but frowned and asked, "Nana, you said before that Su Yang has a very strange personality, right?"
Jiang Na pursed her lips and thought for a while. "She's really quite strange. If you say she's introverted, well, last time at the bar, that idiot Yuan Song tried to drug Xu Zhiying behind my back. Su Yang was quite brave when she found out."
"How brave?" Ren Sijia asked curiously.
Jiang Na gestured with her hand. "She directly smashed a wine bottle and pointed the broken glass at Yuan Song, telling him not to make any more moves."
"Anything else?" Ren Sijia lowered her eyes.
Jiang Na shook her head. "Not much else. Every time I've seen her, she's been quiet and doesn't like to socialize. But you've seen her temperament. Seriously, it's not that I'm looking down on her, but there's definitely a big gap between her and our circle. Just look at Su Qian, who's like a vulgar nouveau - riche. Su Qian also said that her older sister grew up in the countryside. What could she possibly know?"
Then Jiang Na exaggeratedly said, "Really, when she came to the party with the third brother later, she was wearing a dress from brand B. Those dresses used to be bought for you by the third brother. You know..."
"Nana, let's not talk about this," Ren Sijia said. Suddenly, she lowered her head and pretended to casually wipe the corner of her eye with her finger.
Jiang Na was startled and quickly grabbed her hand and looked at her face.
"Sijia, why are you crying?"
"No, I'm not," Ren Sijia avoided Jiang Na's gaze and turned her head in a hurry. She took a tissue from the tissue box on the table and held it in her hand. "I just... I just feel that Su Yang is quite hostile towards me. I don't know why. Just now on the phone, her tone wasn't very nice either."
"She's really... so ungrateful!" Jiang Na slapped the table angrily, her eyes full of indignation. "Why does she have a bad tone with you? What have you ever done to her? It's just so inexplicable!"
"It must be a misunderstanding," Ren Sijia pressed the tissue against the corner of her eye. "She's already married to the third brother. In theory, I should call her third sister - in - law now."
"Third sister - in - law my foot!" Jiang Na sneered and then heavily patted Ren Sijia's shoulder as if to encourage her. "Sijia, I really don't understand. We can all tell whether the third brother likes Su Yang or not. They're just a contract couple. Does she really think she can lord it over others with that marriage certificate? In fact, she probably just had some good luck in her past life and now has this fleeting marriage with the third young master of the Xu family. But... Humph, does she really think she can grow old with the third brother? I really have to thank her. Stop having such delusions!"
"Nana, don't talk nonsense!" Although they were in Jiang Na's room at the moment, Ren Sijia still blushed and covered Jiang Na's mouth. "It's not good if others hear this."
"What's not good!" Jiang Na felt a sense of righteousness welling up in her. "I'm telling you, Sijia. As long as you tell the third brother in person that you still can't let him go, you bet he'll change his mind right away!"