Chapter 29

Chapter 29

“Hou Mengqiu is ruthless and calculating. Would she really go to all that trouble to find an unreliable thug just to send someone away? Yang Datong, you’re still not being honest.” The air pressure around Xie Qiyan dropped to a freezing point. With the trail gone cold once again, he had lost the last shred of his patience.

“I’m not…” Yang Datong was terrified. He scrambled to his knees, staring at the ground and trembling, not daring to look at Xie Qiyan. “I don’t dare say…”

If he spoke, Xie Qiyan would beat him to death.

If he didn’t, Xie Qiyan wouldn’t let him off either.

Yu Fei stepped forward and gave him a kick. “Stop dragging your feet. Speak up.”

“She wanted me to ruin her reputation!” Yang Datong cried out in terror, his voice shaking. “Hou Mengqiu said that woman was a beauty and told me to take my brothers and…”

The air seemed to rip open. Xie Qiyan’s eyes were dark and predatory, like countless blades hanging over Yang Datong’s head, ready to strike at any moment.

Yu Fei and Huo Yang’s expressions grew grim.

This was an incredibly humiliating tactic to use against a woman.

How was this any different from driving someone to suicide?

A woman with no one to rely on, suffering her husband’s betrayal while being tormented by someone like Yang Datong-no matter how strong she was, she would likely contemplate ending it all.

Hou Mengqiu had certainly planned it well.

Yang Datong defended himself with a shudder. “But we didn’t do anything! We only saw her from a distance. We really didn’t do anything…”

If he had known back then that the woman named Yao Qin belonged to Xie Tianqi, he wouldn’t have dared to get involved even if he were given ten thousand times the courage.

Now that Xie Qiyan had returned to the country to seize power, driving his own father into the ICU and even pushing Hou Mengqiu to the brink of madness, Yang Datong had a faint realization when he heard the rumors: Xie Qiyan was back for revenge.

No one who had ever crossed Xie Qiyan met a good end.

Not to mention that the person he was supposed to persecute in his deal with Hou Mengqiu years ago was Xie Qiyan’s biological mother.

Xie Qiyan suddenly stood up and kicked Yang Datong, sending him flying two meters away.

Clutching his chest in pain, Yang Datong begged for mercy over and over again.

Xie Qiyan clenched his fists, the veins on the back of his hands bulging. He was clearly enraged to the extreme.

The room was unventilated. Yu Fei had been in such a hurry when they arrived that he forgot to turn on the air conditioning. Now, fine beads of sweat were forming on Xie Qiyan’s forehead.

He was struggling to restrain his fury.

“Find a time to take him to see Hou Mengqiu. I want to see how much longer she can keep up her act.” Xie Qiyan steadied his breathing, the hatred in his heart for Hou Mengqiu deepening by several degrees.

It was a sleepless night.

At midnight, Xie Qiyan returned home and soaked in the bathtub for two hours.

The water was cold. He held his breath underwater for ten minutes. When he finally surfaced, he sent a large spray of water splashing everywhere. His hair clung softly to his scalp as he parted his lips, breathing sharply.

He brushed his wet hair back with a broad palm and picked up his phone from the side table. When he opened WeChat, he noticed a new friend request in his contact list.

The profile picture was a bowl of colorful glutinous rice balls, each one edited with a strange but cute expression.

The avatar was a glutinous rice ball, and the WeChat name was also “Wanzi.”

If Xie Qiyan couldn’t recognize who this was, he would truly be blind.

However, the verification message the other party sent was rather odd-

[Hello, I am the resident of Unit 2701, Building 16, Lanting Bieyuan.]

His WeChat had undoubtedly been pushed to Xia Wanzhi by Xie Tan, but he didn’t know what kind of role he was playing in Xia Wanzhi’s eyes.

Xie Qiyan frowned. After a moment’s hesitation, he pressed the accept button.

He didn’t bother adding a nickname, simply letting the contact sit there in his list.

It was already two in the morning; even the late-sleeping dogs should be asleep by now.

To his surprise, within a minute of the request being accepted, Xia Wanzhi sent a greeting.

Xia Wanzhi: [Hello, Mr. Qi. I am the resident of Unit 2701, Building 16, Lanting Bieyuan. My surname is Xia.]
Xie Qiyan stared at the message for a few seconds before slowly sending back a single character: [?]

On the other end, Xia Wanzhi was suffering from insomnia, unable to adjust to her first night in the new house. Seeing the question mark he sent, she couldn’t help but frown.

So cold and aloof?

Unable to read him, Xia Wanzhi sent: [Sorry to bother you so late.]

Xie Qiyan: [?]

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

Her lips twitched. Looking at the two question marks he had sent, she found it both funny and annoying. Since he was clearly awake anyway, she decided to just state her needs: [I just moved in. While cooking with a friend tonight, I noticed the kitchen sink is leaking. Do you have time to come over and fix it?]

Xie Tan had said that if anything came up, she should contact the butler, and he would take care of everything for her.

Xie Qiyan was silent for several seconds: [?]

Seeing yet another question mark, Xia Wanzhi sat bolt upright in bed.

Is this guy brain-dead?

Communication with a moron was impossible. Just as she was about to ask Xie Tan if she had given her the wrong number, her phone vibrated.

It was a new message from him.

Xie Qiyan: [Who am I?]

Xia Wanzhi: [???]

No…

He really is sick in the head.

Xia Wanzhi laughed out of pure frustration. Becoming increasingly convinced she had added the wrong person, she asked: [Aren’t you the Mr. Butler for 2701?]

Xie Qiyan stared at his phone screen for half a minute. A drop of water slid slowly from his damp hair and landed on the screen. He let out a scoff and, for some inexplicable reason, replied with a single word: [Yes.]

Quite the “Mr. Qi.”

Quite the “Mr. Butler for 2701.”

That little traitor Xie Tan did nothing but find work for him to do all day long.

And Xia Wanzhi, with her twenty-something-year-old stupid brain, couldn’t even outplay a ten-year-old brat.

Xie Tan told her the house was her own, and she believed it.

Xie Tan told her he was the Mr. Butler, and she believed that too.

With a brain like that, she’d probably help count the cash after someone sold her off.

Now she was living in his house, treating him like her private butler, and ordering him around to fix a sink.

She really had some nerve.

Xia Wanzhi breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his reply. She figured she hadn’t added the wrong person after all; he was just a cold and aloof Mr. Butler.

Xia Wanzhi tapped on the screen: [Then I have the right person. Please come over tomorrow after 11:00 AM, Mr. Qi. Thank you.]

After sending the message, Xia Wanzhi went to the WeChat transfer interface and sent him five thousand yuan for rent.

Xia Wanzhi: [Xie Tan said you would be collecting the rent on her behalf from now on. This is for this month. Please accept it.]

After the message was sent, a certain character she had overlooked during the transfer flashed briefly through her mind.

She was extremely sensitive to that character.

It was the “Yan” from that godforsaken Xie Qiyan’s name.

It seemed to have popped up somewhere just now to annoy her.

On high alert, Xia Wanzhi suspiciously clicked back into the transfer interface to check if she had hallucinated it.

[Transfer to X (**Yan)]

Xia Wanzhi froze.

Returning to the chat interface, she fired off a barrage of questions: [Are you Xie Qiyan?]

Xie Qiyan gave a light smirk as he looked at the five thousand yuan Xia Wanzhi had transferred. When the new message popped up asking if he was Xie Qiyan, he snorted, thinking her stupid brain wasn’t completely hopeless.

Xie Qiyan: [No.]

Xia Wanzhi: [Who are you trying to fool?]

Xie Qiyan accepted the money she transferred before replying: [Hello, Ms. Xia. My name is Qi Ayan. I am your private butler. It is a pleasure to be of service.]

Xia Wanzhi: “…”

Finally, Xie Qiyan added one more line: [Do you need to see my ID?]

Xia Wanzhi’s doubts vanished instantly: [No need, thank you. Sorry to trouble you to come over tomorrow then.]

The person’s profile picture was an old ginger cat; it didn’t look like something Xie Qiyan would use at all.

Plus, the tone of the subsequent messages didn’t have even a shred of Xie Qiyan in them. Xia Wanzhi turned off her phone, shook her head, and burrowed back into her blankets, closing her eyes to continue counting sheep.