The Golden Cane and the Wild Rose - Chapter 34.1

Chapter 34.1

In a narrow, cramped rented room near the Oriental Dance Hall.

A plain, elegant white brassiere had been torn to shreds, its scattered fabric strips littering the floor.

A foot encased in a shiny black leather shoe stepped on them, grinding the no-longer-pure-white, tattered pieces of cloth.

“Run! Run all you want! I don’t believe you can escape from my grasp!”

The person speaking angrily was the owner of the shiny black leather shoe. As he spoke, the greasy, fleshy jowls on his face trembled with the opening and closing of his thick lips.

“Your sister couldn’t escape, she even died in my hands, and you won’t be able to either!”

The rented room was small, dark, and stuffy. The door was tightly shut, and with a big Buddha like Mr. Li sitting inside, it felt even more cramped.

The very flow of air was obstructed.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the old iron door that blocked out the light. Mr. Li moved at the sound, his small, narrow eyes looking over. The loose jowls on his face were a half-beat slow to follow.

It must be his men who had caught the runaway girl who didn’t know her place.

His eyes lit up with lust, a greasy, shiny light.

“Come in,” he said, smacking his oily lips, as if he was ready to taste the delicacy.

Miss Peony was beautiful, but she was more alluring than innocent. Her high school sister, on the other hand, perfectly met his desire for purity.

He rubbed his hands together and stood up. Then he changed his mind, thinking he should act a little more gently. After all, the girl wasn’t her sister; she didn’t have her sister’s extensive experience and couldn’t handle every kind of person.

But a pure girl was like a blank canvas, perfect for him to paint on as he pleased. It didn’t matter if he tore the canvas to shreds.

Who was he to have such power?

It was the power given to him by the British. He had people in front of the governor, so he wasn’t afraid of committing crimes. As long as he had enough money, he could bribe his way up. He would occasionally do some small, insignificant bad things that wouldn’t attract the attention of the British upper class.

However, he had everything ready.

The old iron door was pulled open from the outside, but it wasn’t the girl who had ignited his lust. It was just his two subordinates.

The two subordinates had their heads bowed, but it was still obvious that their foreheads were red and swollen.

Mr. Li ignored this, his face dark and his eyes angry. “Where’s the person I wanted?”

The room was already fearfully dim, and now with a fat dark cloud like Mr. Li, it was even more chilling.

The two subordinates skillfully bent their knees and knelt to admit their mistake.

“Mr. Li, please spare us! It’s not that we didn’t try our best to catch that girl, but we ran into someone even you can’t afford to offend.”

Mr. Li’s face turned completely black, as if it was about to drip with black, oily rain.

“Heh.” Mr. Li walked up to the two subordinates, anger in his voice, and gave a kick to each of their chests.

The two men were kicked to the ground, their faces full of terror.

“Tell me, who is this person I can’t afford to offend? There are very few people in all of Hong Kong that I can’t afford to offend!”

“Yes! Yes! You’re right, Mr. Li!” The two men flipped over and nimbly knelt again.

Under their flattery, Mr. Li’s face finally looked a little better.

“Who did you two run into?” Mr. Li asked.

“Jiang… Jiang… It’s Jiang…”

Neither of the two subordinates dared to say Jiang Musheng’s full name, even though Jiang Musheng wasn’t present.

Just a “Jiang” that scared his subordinates so much was enough for Mr. Li to immediately know who it was.

He gritted his teeth, his hands involuntarily clenching into fists.

It was truly a person he couldn’t and dared not offend!

But they had always minded their own business.

When did Jiang Musheng become interested in saving distressed girls?

Jiang Musheng put in a lot of effort to help Chen Hong. After the hospital examination, he was going to take Yun Ran home, and this time, Yun Ran didn’t resist.

However, she made a request.

“Ah Ran, you can ask for anything you want.” Jiang Musheng’s deep, cold eyes were filled with tenderness, just like a man doting on his girlfriend.

No matter how hardened she thought her heart was, Yun Ran couldn’t help but feel a little dazed.

After her mind drifted for a few seconds, she made her request. “I’ll go back with you, but you have to help me settle Chen Hong.”

“Okay, I’ll assign two more people to protect her. Is there anything else you need?” Jiang Musheng asked.

Yun Ran couldn’t think of anything else for the moment. She lowered her eyes and shook her head, not wanting Jiang Musheng to see the excitement and joy in them.

But she failed to suppress the upward curve of her lips.

Jiang Musheng’s lips also turned up slightly. He said to Chen Hong, “Don’t辜负 Ah Ran’s kindness. Study hard and live a good life.”

Upon hearing this, Yun Ran’s heart skipped a beat. She forgot to hide her emotions for a moment and looked up excitedly.

She met Jiang Musheng’s eyes, which were born of ice but willing to show her tenderness. She became flustered again.

“Thank you, Miss Yun!” Chen Hong’s thanks saved her.

She pulled her soul, which was about to be sucked in by Jiang Musheng’s eyes, back out. She looked at Chen Hong and said, “I didn’t do anything, really. I was just acting with Mr. Jiang’s power. You should thank Mr. Jiang. He’s the one who truly helped you.”

Chen Hong quickly added another thank you. “Thank you, Mr. Jiang!”

Jiang Musheng nodded slightly to accept it.

Chen Hong then turned back to Yun Ran, her eyes a bit timid, but she couldn’t hold back. “I don’t think what you just said, Miss Yun, is right. You didn’t do nothing. Because it was your attitude toward me that determined Mr. Jiang’s attitude. Even if you were using Mr. Jiang’s power, it wouldn’t have worked if he wasn’t willing to let you.”

“Is that true, Mr. Jiang?” Yun Ran asked with a curious, playful tone, realizing that she couldn’t stop her heart from beating faster and faster.

Jiang Musheng looked at her, as if he couldn’t do anything about it. He slowly let out a breath from his nose. He didn’t say anything, just took her hand, so seriously and devoutly that Yun Ran felt her heart was about to burst the next second.

With a red face, she pulled her hand away. “There’s a little sister here.”

Chen Hong smiled and said, “Miss Yun, I’m not a child anymore. My sister told me before that I should be around your age, and,” she paused, walked to Yun Ran’s side, and whispered in her ear, “I’m in a relationship. I have a girlfriend.”

Yun Ran’s eyes widened in shock. She really hadn’t seen that Chen Hong was in a relationship. She had thought the girl was still a naive student.

Maybe she was the naive one.

She thought she knew a lot, but she was only half-baked and still very cautious and timid when it came to love.

Jiang Musheng had his bodyguards take Chen Hong to Zheng Hangyi’s place and told the bodyguards to tell Zheng Hangyi, “Take care of her like a sister. Don’t get any other ideas.”

Before leaving, Chen Hong hesitated. She looked at the two benefactors who had helped her, wanting to say something, but ultimately said nothing.

Yun Ran, however, could see that she had something she couldn’t bring herself to say to them.

“Mr. Jiang, what do you think Chen Hong wanted to say just now?”

“It’s not hard to guess.”

“You know?” Yun Ran was surprised.

Jiang Musheng patiently explained, “It’s not hard to guess. Chen Hong has a sister, but she said her sister told her to come to you for help. It’s likely that she and her sister have run into some trouble they can’t solve. She didn’t ask us to help save her sister, which means her sister is probably in a bad situation. She probably wanted us to stand up for her sister and seek justice, but she also felt that it would involve too much and implicate us. She’s a sensible child who knows when to stop.”

Yun Ran understood and felt ashamed of the little selfish thought that had just crossed her mind. She hadn’t thought about Miss Peony’s situation first. Instead, she had thought about why Jiang Musheng could understand a girl’s heart.

“Ah Ran, do you want me to help her a little more?”

Yun Ran didn’t dare to answer this question easily. After thinking for a while, she finally said, “No.”

“Why?”

“I think Chen Hong is very smart. Knowing when to stop after securing her own safety is the best choice for her. If someone else stood up for her, things would get more complicated. Sometimes, hatred just continues endlessly like that.”

As she spoke, she thought of her old dad again.

In his last letter, her old dad had said: “Ah Ran, by the time you read this, your old dad will probably have passed away. Your old dad went to prison to pay for his own mistakes and has nothing to do with Mr. Jiang. Last night, a British lady who claimed to be your friend came to visit me. She said you were with Mr. Jiang now. I regret making up so many stories about Mr. Jiang being a bad person when you were little, just to scare you into being obedient. Mr. Jiang is a good person. If I die, it has nothing to do with Mr. Jiang. It’s my fault that I wronged him. Ah Ran, you must be rational and not seek revenge against Mr. Jiang. He might be the greatest support you’ll ever have in this life.”

Yun Ran had been blinded by hatred at the time. After hearing that conversation between Zheng Hangyi and Jiang Musheng, she left Jiang Musheng in a fit of anger.

Now that she thought about it, there were parts of her old dad’s last letter that she had overlooked.

Her old dad said he went to prison for his own mistakes and that he had wronged Jiang Musheng.

Her old dad also said that on the night before he died, a British lady who claimed to be her friend came to visit. Who was that British lady? Could it be Cecilia?

Before, when Jiang Musheng took her to various parties, she wasn’t interested in socializing with the ladies who came from a more noble background than hers. Only Cecilia liked to cause her trouble, so Cecilia was the only one who left a deep impression on her.

Could Cecilia have anything to do with her old dad’s death?

And most importantly, her old dad said that Jiang Musheng wasn’t a bad person and that he might be the greatest support she would ever have. Did her old dad want her to be with Jiang Musheng?

Coming back to her senses, Yun Ran asked again as if to confirm. “Mr. Jiang, if you didn’t have to consider me, would you still help Chen Hong?”

“If I didn’t have to consider you, I wouldn’t.”

In Hong Kong, too much suffering was happening every day. After all, he wasn’t the Goddess of Mercy who saved all from suffering.

He was just an Asura from hell who made all of Hong Kong fear him.

Yun Ran said, “If I were Mr. Jiang, I probably wouldn’t either.”

“So we’re not great people. We’re just one of the common people,” Jiang Musheng said.

Yun Ran didn’t agree. “Even if we’re just one of the common people, Mr. Jiang, you’re a person above the clouds. The difference between you and me is like the difference between clouds and mud.”

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