Moonlight Allure - Chapter 31

Generally speaking, if a package requires a signature, the courier calls in advance. If no signature is needed, they usually just leave it at the door.

Yet, this man’s hands were empty—no package in sight.

Jiang Xueyin’s hand trembled as it rested on the door. Pressing her weight onto her tiptoes, she kept her eyes glued to the peephole to continue her observation.

There was no box on the floor, either.

Is it a sasaeng fan? Or something else?

The man adjusted his baseball cap and pressed the doorbell again, looking up slightly.

For some reason, Lin Shan’s face flashed through Xueyin’s mind. Li Jiannan had called her a lunatic.

If Lin Shan had been released from detention only to find that Xiao Qingyu had gone abroad and was unreachable—and that “Jiang Xueyin” had supposedly died in the fire—would she lash out in a fit of rage and target Xiao Nianru for revenge?

The man outside remained silent, pressing the bell for a third time.

Just as Jiang Xueyin was about to call the police, the figure turned and left.

She immediately dialed Xiao Nianru’s number. The phone rang for a long time, but there was no answer. She must still be busy, Xueyin thought.

Ten minutes later, she tried again. This time, someone picked up, but it wasn’t Nianru.

“Hello?” Li Han’s voice was laced with heavy exhaustion.

“Is Sister Nianru busy?” Jiang Xueyin asked, a knot of unease tightening in her chest.

Li Han looked up at the glowing “Surgery in Progress” sign. After a moment of silence, she spoke: “Something happened. A prop collapsed and crushed her.”

“What?” Jiang Xueyin bolted upright from the sofa. “How is she? Which hospital? I’m coming right now!”

“Don’t come and add to the chaos,” Li Han said firmly. “Your identity is too sensitive; it’ll cause a scene. Nianru will be fine.”

“Then, has it been confirmed as an accident?” Xueyin thought of the man in the gray jacket loitering at the door, her anxiety spiking. “Actually, I’m at Nianru’s place. A strange man in gray was just outside. He pressed the bell three times without saying a word, and he was completely covered up.”

“You suspect foul play?” Li Han frowned, her fist tightening as she glanced at Xiao Nianru’s parents standing in the hallway. However, she quickly crossed them off her list of suspects.

Jiang Xueyin lowered her voice. “Could it be related to what happened on the cruise ship?”

“The cruise.” Li Han murmured. Nianru had mentioned the incident to her, but Li Han hadn’t pressed for details at the time, thinking it was best to let the past stay in the past.

But looking at it now, this smelled like a calculated retaliation.

“Call the police, Li-jie,” Jiang Xueyin urged. “We have to get to the bottom of this!”

“I know.” Li Han’s voice trailed off as the operating room doors swung open. She rushed forward, beating Nianru’s parents to the doctor. “How is she?”

On the other end of the line, Jiang Xueyin’s heart skipped a beat. If anything happened to Xiao Nianru, she would make those people pay with their lives.

This plot point hadn’t existed in the original novel. This was a “butterfly effect” change—and no one knew how deep the consequences of this ripple would go.

“The next 24 hours are critical. If she pulls through that, she’ll be out of danger,” the doctor explained, pausing briefly. “However, she needs to wake up within three days. Beyond that, the chances of her ever waking up drop significantly.”

Xueyin’s heart remained in her throat. The doctor’s two deadlines felt like twin guillotines hanging over her head.

As the call disconnected, Jiang Xueyin gripped her phone tightly. Her gut told her this was either Lin Shan’s doing or Li Jiannan’s. Regardless of who it was, she wouldn’t let them go.

But with her current resources, taking them down directly was nearly impossible—even a mutual destruction scenario was a long shot. She would have to “kill with a borrowed knife.”

She dialed Jiang Jue’s number. It rang for a while before he finally answered. “What is it?”

“Someone is trying to kill Xiao Nianru,” Jiang Xueyin said, her voice as cold as a shard of ice.

There was a stunned silence on the other end. “And?”

“Help me investigate her ‘accident.’ Also, send people to protect her,” she demanded.

Jiang Jue scoffed. “Do you even know who you are right now?”

“Someone was at Nianru’s door today. They didn’t say a word, just kept ringing the bell. I suspect someone thinks I’m still alive and came here to confirm it.” Jiang Xueyin wasn’t entirely certain, but she used the threat to pressure him. “I assume you haven’t told Mom and Dad I’m alive? Fine. You don’t have to. But if anything happens to Xiao Nianru, I will show up at their front door and lose my mind.”

“You’ve truly gone mad for her,” Jiang Jue muttered, his fist tightening as he stared at an invitation from Lin Shan on his computer screen.

“I’ve been mad since the day I arrived here.”

“Jiang Xueyin, I can help you, but on one condition,” Jiang Jue said after a long breath. “You have to leave the capital for a while.”

“For how long?” Xueyin frowned. “I just rented a place here for three years.”

“I’ll reimburse you,” Jiang Jue replied. “I’m sending you to Country Y. You can study directing or whatever you like there. Just don’t come back to the capital for three years.”

“Country Y.” Xueyin whispered. “Isn’t that where Xiao Qingyu is?”

“I’ll arrange for you to be at the same school. That way, you’ll still see Xiao Nianru from time to time. Does that satisfy you?” Jiang Jue tapped his knuckles against the desk.

Jiang Xueyin was satisfied. She felt no sense of belonging in the capital; it didn’t matter where she went, and Country Y would likely be safer.

“Fine. I want to study photography,” she said.

“Done. In three days, go straight to the airport,” Jiang Jue instructed.

“That’s too soon!” Xueyin protested. “Nianru is injured. I need to know she’s safe before I leave!”

“Don’t worry. The hospital she’s in belongs to our family’s holdings. I’ll have people watching it; no one will get a chance to finish the job.” Jiang Jue’s fingers flew across the keyboard. He hit ‘Enter,’ officially declining Lin Shan’s invitation.

Lin Shan likely wanted to team up with him against Jiang Xueyin.

“I’ll leave in four days. I have to see her once before I go, no matter what.” Xueyin hoped that by the time she arrived, Nianru would be awake.

Jiang Jue was silent for a moment. “Fine. But wear a mask and a hat. Don’t let anyone recognize you.”

“I know.”

He hung up.

Xueyin opened Weibo. The trending topics were flooded with headlines like “Xiao Nianru Injured by Collapsed Prop” and “Condition Critical.”

She realized the hospital would be swarming with reporters. Li Han was right; she couldn’t go now. If she were spotted, Jiang Jue might be driven to desperate measures, and that would be trouble.

She sat down, rubbing her temples. As expected, “killing with a borrowed knife” wasn’t easy. As long as one has attachments, true freedom is impossible.

She looked at a photo of Xiao Nianru on her phone, clutching it to her chest, whispering a silent prayer that she would be okay.

That night was sleepless for many. Even Nianru’s parents stayed by the ward all night.

The next morning, Xueyin called Li Han immediately. “Has Sister Nianru woken up?”

“No.” Li Han stood outside the ward, watching Nianru’s mother wailing through fake tears while the father recorded it. Li Han’s brow furrowed in disgust. “What do you think you’re doing?” she barked.

Jiang Xueyin froze. Who else was in the room? Li Han’s hostility toward the people in that ward sounded even sharper than her usual coldness toward Xueyin. She held her breath.

“We just want justice for Nianru,” an elderly woman’s voice crackled through the phone.

“Justice, or money?” Li Han sneered. She stepped forward, snatched the phone, and deleted the recording. “I will call the police to get her ‘justice.’ You’ve seen her. Now, leave.”

“By what right? We are her parents! You’re just her manager—an outsider!” Mother Xiao’s voice rose to a shrill pitch, as if volume alone could make her right.

“You two have spent years like leeches, draining the life out of Xiao Nianru, while I am the one providing her with a constant stream of fresh blood. Tell me—who do you think the ‘outsider’ is?” Li Han stepped forward aggressively, leaning against the hospital bed. She blocked their view of Nianru, shielding her just as she had the day she first took her away from them.

“If you have any sense, you’ll get out now,” Li Han threatened. “I will keep sending you your allowance on schedule. But if anything happens to her, you won’t see a single cent!”

Mother Xiao lifted her chin defiantly. “Bullshit! Do you take us for fools? Someone told us that if she dies, we are the primary heirs! Everything she owns becomes ours. It won’t have a damn thing to do with you!”

On the other end of the line, Jiang Xueyin’s face went deathly pale. Someone? Who?

In the original novel, the “Scum Alpha” later bribed Nianru’s parents to defame her, destroying her image and career. Is the plot shifting? Is it happening early?

Was it the person outside the door yesterday? Was it Lin Shan?

Li Han was just as sharp. She caught the slip of the tongue instantly and grabbed Mother Xiao’s wrist with a crushing grip. “Who? Who instigated you to kill her?”

“What? How could we kill our own daughter!” Mother Xiao’s eyes darted around, her expression a mask of panicked guilt.

“Give me the phones.” Hearing Jiang Xueyin’s voice through the speaker, Li Han moved with lightning speed, snatching both phones before the parents could react. She scrolled through their WeChat records. Her face darkened instantly; her gaze, when she looked back at them, was cold enough to draw blood.

Someone had indeed told them: if Xiao Nianru died, they would inherit tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions.

“Call the police now!” Jiang Xueyin urged.

Li Han hung up on Xueyin and immediately dialed 110. “Hello? I’d like to report a conspiracy to commit murder. The location is Beijing First People’s Hospital, Ward XXX.”

Mother Xiao turned ashen. “No! You can’t! We are her parents—you can’t have us arrested! When she wakes up, she’ll hate you for this!”

“Where do you get your confidence?” Li Han glanced at them with pure disdain as she tucked her phone away. “You are beyond stupid. No wonder you were so easily conned. You’d better give up whoever is behind this if you want a lighter sentence. What your ‘contact’ didn’t tell you is that Nianru drafted a will long ago. You get nothing.”

Sixty percent was to be donated to impoverished girls, twenty percent was left to Jiang Xueyin, and the remaining twenty percent was for Li Han herself.

Nianru had drafted the will before her divorce from Jiang Xueyin. At the time, Li Han hadn’t understood why someone so young was so insistent on it. Now, the reason was clear: she was building a fortress against her own parasitic parents.

The parents stared at Li Han, their eyes wide with disbelief.

“Impossible, you must be lying!” Mother Xiao shrieked.

“Enough!” Li Han snapped. “Stop disturbing Nianru’s rest. Shut your mouths and wait for the police. You can tell the truth to them!”