After returning home with the child, her ex-husband knelt down and gently coaxed her.

Anning changed her clothes, opened the car door, and the man finished his last puff of cigarette.

"I'll have someone take you back."

Lu Xiyan's expression instantly returned to normal. He picked up his phone to make a call, without looking directly at An Ning.

His cold expression and tone made An Ning feel a tightness in her chest.

She stood before him, her voice trembling, and asked, "May I ask you a question?"

Lu Xiyan paused, his finger about to dial, and glanced at her.

Her lips were pale, but her face was unusually red. Her half-dry hair, hanging down her shoulders, outlined her small, palm-sized face.

With wet hair and wet eyes, he looked somewhat pitiful.

Lu Xiyan knew perfectly well that he shouldn't show her any more unnecessary concern, so he looked away and said, "Ask away."

An Ning resisted the urge to rush up and hug him, her nose stinging with tears. "Do you love Cheng Wanwan?"

Her delicate brows furrowed slightly, and her eyes were filled with tears, as if she were unwilling to accept it.

Lu Xiyan's brow twitched slightly as he suddenly remembered what had happened yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday, Cheng Wanwan's deliberately intimate actions in the car were with his permission.

As expected, she saw it.

Lu Xiyan originally thought she wouldn't care, but he didn't expect her to ask at this time.

He said coldly, "What's it to you?"

What does it matter?

An Ning pressed her pale lips together tightly; she truly had no right to interfere in his feelings right now.

She clenched her fists, stubbornly tilting her head back. "But I just want to know, do you love her...?"

This answer is very important to her.

She looked like she was about to cry, as if he had done something to wrong her and made her feel aggrieved.

Lu Xiyan's eyes churned, his hand, hidden in his pocket, clenched tightly, then relaxed after a moment.

"I don't love it."

He uttered two words softly, then asked, "Are you satisfied now?"

He could have said "I love you," or at least made up an excuse.

But seeing her extremely aggrieved expression, he still told the truth.

Upon hearing those two words, An Ning suddenly smiled.

She smiled with her eyes narrowed, and then tears fell.

It's good that you don't love me, it's good that you don't love me...

"Lu Xiyan," she said, raising her tear-filled eyes and then curving her lips into a smile, "if I were to say that I—"

Before she could finish speaking, a black car pulled up in front of them, interrupting An Ning's unfinished words.

Jiang Yao got out of the car and greeted An Ning politely, "Hello, Miss An."

An Ning turned her head away and wiped away her tears.

"President Lu."

Jiang Yao whispered something in Lu Xiyan's ear, and Lu Xiyan frowned slightly before his gaze fell on An Ning.

"Send her back first."

After giving his instructions, he glanced at An Ning's pale face and said to Jiang Yao, "Call a doctor to come over with us."

"Yes, Mr. Lu."

Seeing that he seemed to have something urgent to do, Anning obediently got into Jiang Yao's car.

......

The man in front of me had extremely handsome features, but he kept a cold face and didn't say a word. His presence was so intimidating that I didn't dare to breathe too hard.

The surrounding air suddenly turned cold, making Sun Liangying feel a little uneasy.

"Mr. Lu, what can I do for you?"

Lu Xiyan glanced at her coldly, a small USB drive on the table.

Sun Liangying looked over and asked, "What's this?"

"monitor."

Lu Xiyan's two simple words made Sun Liangying's face, already adorned with exquisite makeup, appear even paler.

"Surveillance?" She chuckled dryly, feigning ignorance. "Mr. Lu, what kind of surveillance is this?"

"Don't understand? Let me explain in more detail." Lu Xiyan glanced at her. "This land already belongs to Ou Teng. To prevent any unnecessary news from appearing, surveillance cameras were installed on this land some time ago."

"We happened to have recorded a video of your company's employee drowning."

Lu Xiyan chuckled softly, "Manager Sun 'inadvertently' rocked the boat, causing his colleague to fall into the water. He then acted as if nothing had happened for several tens of seconds after the colleague fell in. Only when someone nearby saw it and alerted him did Manager Sun pretend to call for help."

With his slender fingertips lightly tapping the table, Lu Xiyan's eyes, sharp as knives, seemed to see right through Sun Liangying. "Manager Sun's first-rate acting skills are on full display in this surveillance footage."

Sun Liangying's face turned deathly pale. "Mr. Lu, what are you saying? I don't understand. How could I—"

"I don't like beating around the bush."

Lu Xiyan interrupted her feigned ignorance, his eyes turning cold and sharp. "It's either going to the police station and eating in jail, or disappearing from Jinghai. The choice is yours."

He stood up, looking down at the woman's pale face, and sneered, "A small company like Haowei has really cultivated quite a few 'talents'."

He emphasized the last two words, gave a cold laugh, and walked away.

Sun Liangying's face turned pale and then red. People in the business world all know that Lu Xiyan is a man of his word.

Of course she didn't want to go to jail. She was so young and had such a bright future ahead of her. How could she possibly go to jail for something like this!

An Ning isn't dead yet, so why should she go to jail?

She took out her phone and opened the text message—[Make Anning disappear. I have a way to get you transferred to the Lu Group headquarters as the deputy general manager of the project department. A lot of people have died on that Longhu land plot in recent years; one more Anning or one less, no one will know.]

She stared at the text message in her hand and quickly dialed the number.

"Miss Cheng! You have to save me!"

......

"Lu Xiyan..."

"Western Banquet..."

"Don't go, west Yan..."

That night, the full moon hung high outside the window. The person lying in bed had a persistent high fever, his brows furrowed, and he kept muttering unconsciously.

The three-year-old child hugged the woman's burning body and whispered comfortingly, "Mommy, hug me, hug Mommy and you won't be sick anymore..."

The person on the bed kept murmuring, and Xiao Anxian couldn't wake her up, so she quickly ran barefoot into the kitchen.

Li Chunfang was preparing a medicinal bath. Anning had a high fever all afternoon, and even after taking medicine and getting an injection, the fever hadn't subsided. She was going to try giving her a hot medicinal bath to make her sweat and see if that would bring the fever down.

If the fever doesn't break soon, I'm afraid it will make me stupid.

"grandmother!"

The little one ran in, looked up at her, and asked, "Do you know who 'Lu Xiyan' is?"

Upon hearing this, Li Chunfang was taken aback, looking down into his two clear, large eyes. "Lu Xiyan?"

"Yes!" Xiao Anxian nodded vigorously, her eyes serious. "Who is he? I need to find him!"

Li Chunfang squatted down and asked him, "What do you want with him?"

"When Mom was sick, she would always call out this name, she would call out this name while sleeping, and she would also cry secretly..."

Xiao Anxian lowered her eyes, her gaze dimming. "If we bring him here, Mom won't get sick anymore..."