The Golden Cane and the Wild Rose - Chapter 46.1

Chapter 46.1

It was indeed the red dress that Yun Ran had been wearing when she fell into the water.

How was the dress in Gu Hongfei’s hands? Had he been to the old woman’s house? Did he already know her secret?

Even though Jiang Musheng appeared calm on the surface, she was becoming uneasy inside.

Gu Hongfei’s expression, on the other hand, was not so calm. At this moment, he desperately hoped to see a panicked look on Jiang Musheng’s noble and pale face, even if it was just a hint. But there was none. Jiang Musheng sat there unmoving. When she opened her lips to say something to Yun Ran, she even flashed a slight smile. It seemed as if she didn’t care at all about his taunts and provocations.

Gu Hongfei felt as if his heart was being squeezed and his destiny was being invisibly controlled. It was as if his plans and his fantasy of a comeback were about to fail. Could he really have been mistaken? Was Jiang Musheng just a man, a very handsome man? Or was Jiang Musheng playing a mind game with him?

Regardless, he had already walked in front of Jiang Musheng and formally challenged her. As a man, and as a rival in love, he couldn’t back down. He extended his right hand, making a gesture to look at him. Jiang Musheng’s eyes lifted slightly, a faint smile still on her lips, as if giving him charity, she spared him a glance.

Gu Hongfei didn’t know if he was over-interpreting it or if Jiang Musheng really meant it, but he was furious now. He tried his best to suppress his anger, opened his lips wide, and mouthed silently, “I’ll be waiting for you to come find me.”

Jiang Musheng blinked, then looked away. Gu Hongfei instantly felt a sense of relief all over his body, as if Jiang Musheng’s eyes had just been exerting an invisible pressure on him.

Alright. Now all he had to do was wait for Jiang Musheng to come find him. Jiang Musheng must have understood his lip reading, right? Jiang Musheng was so smart, she wouldn’t be unable to read lips. As this thought came to him, Gu Hongfei raised his hand and slapped himself. He was angry at himself for deflating his own spirit and boosting the enemy’s morale just as the bugle had sounded.

He felt that his plan was good. If Jiang Musheng really had a big secret about her gender, she would definitely come to find him. At the very least, she would do something, like threatening or intimidating him with violence, or in a more extreme case, just getting rid of him. Wasn’t the rumored Jiang Musheng a ruthless person like that? He wasn’t afraid. He would wait for her to come. If he was wrong, then he was wrong. At most, Jiang Musheng’s people would give him a good beating. He had been beaten before when he was protecting Yun Ran. Although he was outnumbered, he was always proud of the fact that he was able to stand up for her.

He put the red dress Yun Ran had worn back into the gift box and carried the box downstairs. Yun Ran didn’t know about the exchange between him and Jiang Musheng. He thought this was a good thing. This way, Yun Ran wouldn’t know that he had used a less-than-honorable method this time, and he would still be a glorious figure in her heart.

As for Jiang Musheng, he believed that Jiang Musheng wouldn’t say anything either. Regardless of whether Jiang Musheng was a man or not, having been one for so long, she must also be familiar with the ways of men. Any problem that could be solved in private would be, and she would never let the person she loved worry. But he didn’t think Jiang Musheng was worthy of talking about love. Maybe Yun Ran was still in the dark. But he couldn’t be sure. Until everything was confirmed, all his thoughts were just his guesses.

Yun Ran had no idea that Gu Hongfei had come up to the restaurant, provoked Jiang Musheng, and then quietly left. Her mind was on other things. She rested her hands on the clean, open-weave placemat, propped her chin on her palms, and told Jiang Musheng with a flourish about some exciting news that her homeroom teacher had announced in class that day.

“Musheng, did you know? A very rich person who wants to remain anonymous is setting up a high-value scholarship at our school!”

Jiang Musheng gave a faint smile, pretending not to care. “I didn’t know there was such a person in Hong Kong.”

“Me neither. What a kind person!” Yun Ran said excitedly. “Now I’m even more motivated to study. I’m so grateful to this generous person who does good deeds without leaving a name.”

Jiang Musheng said, “Ah Ran, have you ever thought that perhaps this person has some selfish motives for doing this?”

Yun Ran was stunned for a moment, then laughed. “I can’t control what their selfish motives are. All I know is that this is good for me. And if it’s good for me, I’m grateful.”

“It’s good that you can think that way.” Jiang Musheng expressed her approval. If Yun Ran could always put her own interests first and be proactive, no matter what happened in the future, then she wouldn’t have to worry too much about her survival.

“Your food is all here,” the waiter said, placing the dishes on the table and smiling as she walked away.

Yun Ran was thirsty. She took a big sip of the cold watermelon juice through a straw and squinted her eyes in satisfaction. Jiang Musheng didn’t move. She just watched her with a smile. Yun Ran felt that her gaze was a little strange, but she couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong. She personally wrapped a piece of lobster linguine for her, scraped off some of the excessive sauce on the plate, and then brought it to Jiang Musheng’s mouth.

“This way, it won’t be too rich. Try it.”

Jiang Musheng opened her mouth and ate the food. Her eyes were fixed on Yun Ran, never blinking, as if she might not be able to see her again soon. Gu Hongfei’s actions today showed that he must have discovered something and was now suspicious of her. She had never thought that her secret could be kept forever, just for as long as possible.

She knew that the exposure of her true gender would bring many crises. The Jiang family was a huge clan. Since she took over as the family head at 17, many people were not happy with her. Her second uncle’s family was a typical example. Her second uncle’s son, Jiang Jiaming, was two years older than her and was particularly dissatisfied with her. In order to fight for power and profit, he caused a lot of trouble behind the scenes. At that time, she was still young. She barely managed to handle it and, with the help of other relatives, drove Jiang Jiaming out of the country.

Over the years, there were still people in the family who were dissatisfied with her, but they hadn’t caused any trouble openly. At most, they were just secretly resentful. But all of this was based on the fact that she was a man. If she wasn’t a man, she wouldn’t have been considered an heir by the family, nor would she be qualified to be the head of the family. She couldn’t accurately predict what would happen once her true gender was exposed. In this new, developing era, would they be able to accept her continuing to control the entire Jiang family as a woman, or would they use this as an excuse to completely overthrow her? Obviously, the latter was more likely. Years of pent-up anger would erupt all at once, and the force of that would be unimaginable.

As Jiang Musheng thought about this, she couldn’t help but clench her teeth.

“Musheng? What are you doing, biting your fork?” Yun Ran asked with a laugh.

Jiang Musheng quickly released her mouth.

Yun Ran said, “Your expression was so serious just now. Your eyebrows were all scrunched up.” Yun Ran put down her fork and pressed her forehead with her fingertips.

Jiang Musheng smiled and shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Yun Ran was still a little worried. She suddenly remembered Gu Hongfei, whom she had forgotten, and immediately looked around, looking downstairs through the glass wall. “Huh? Gu Hongfei is gone?”

Jiang Musheng didn’t say anything.

After dinner, the two of them took a car back to the villa to rest. When they got downstairs, a team of bodyguards was lined up below. There was a large group of them, all called by the driver. At first glance, it was a little scary. Yun Ran had a strange feeling she couldn’t quite explain, but she didn’t know how to talk to Jiang Musheng about it. She just vaguely felt that some changes had been made without her knowledge. This was her woman’s intuition.

When they got back to the villa and entered the living room, they saw Xue Yu sitting alone on the sofa reading a magazine.

“Big brother and sister-in-law, you’re finally back!”

Jiang Musheng asked with a smile, “Were you waiting for us? Why didn’t you go to sleep first?”

Xue Yu’s face crumpled a little. “I don’t know why, but I just don’t feel like sleeping. I can’t sleep, and it’s boring.”

“So you were waiting for me to play something with you?”

Xueyu immediately smiled. “You know me so well! Let’s play badminton!”

“Okay.”

Jiang Musheng went to the yard to play badminton with her sister. Yun Ran also went with them. She wasn’t interested in playing badminton, but she wanted to watch the siblings play. Oh, no, it should be sisters. It was just that Xueyu still didn’t know that she had a great sister instead of a great brother.

Jiang Musheng was always very patient when she played with her sister. This was a kind of patience and thoughtfulness that you would almost never see in a man. She let her sister stand in a downwind position, making it easier for her to hit. Xueyu had little strength, and sometimes when there was no wind, the shuttlecock would awkwardly land on the middle line that they had drawn. Jiang Musheng always counted it as a point for Xueyu. Xueyu would giggle, happy that she didn’t have to cheat.

“Sister-in-law, do you want to play a couple of rounds with my brother?” Xueyu handed her the racket directly. “I have to go to the bathroom. Sister-in-law, you can play with my brother for a bit.”

Yun Ran was forced into it. She took the racket. She was a little embarrassed because she knew that the only sport she was good at was running. Everything else was her weakness. Even though the shuttlecocks Jiang Musheng hit over were gentle and didn’t have a murderous force behind them, she still couldn’t really return them. When Yun Ran served, her shots were always off, but Jiang Musheng could always return them. Her body was as sharp and flexible as her eyes. Her posture for returning the shots was graceful and relaxed. She easily hit the shuttlecock back.

Yun Ran let her hands fall in defeat. “I don’t have a talent for playing.”

Jiang Musheng walked over the middle line and said to her, “It’s not a bad thing. A person’s energy is limited. You should save it for more important things.”

Yun Ran didn’t quite understand what she meant.

Jiang Musheng said, “You have a talent for shooting. That’s a life-saving skill. It’s much more useful than playing a game.”

Yun Ran instantly felt better about being bad at badminton.

Xueyu said she was going to the bathroom, but she never came back. Jiang Musheng said, “That little mischievous genius Xueyu. She’s not coming back. She wants to leave us some alone time.”

Yun Ran laughed. “My little sister Xueyu is worried about your personal happiness. Why are you so ungrateful?”

Jiang Musheng smiled and shook her head. “You’re teasing me, too.”

“I’m not. I’m just feeling bad for you.”

Yun Ran went straight back to the master bedroom with Jiang Musheng. Since they returned from the fishing village, they had been sleeping together. It was a tacit understanding between them. Of course, most of the time, they just lay in the same bed and didn’t do anything that crossed a line. Although there were times when Yun Ran wanted to, Jiang Musheng was overly principled and wouldn’t go out of line.

Tonight was the same. She deliberately rubbed up against Jiang Musheng, trying to light a fire, but Jiang Musheng always managed to stay within her boundaries. Yun Ran realized that she was just a person with an incredibly strong will. Yun Ran might be willing to be Daji, the temptress, but Jiang Musheng wasn’t necessarily willing to be King Zhou, the tyrant who falls for her.

Whenever Yun Ran felt defeated, Jiang Musheng would always hold her and comfort her with tender, lingering kisses. She would kiss her forehead, her eyebrows, her nose, her cheeks, her lips, and her chin, but never go any lower. Even if Yun Ran arched her neck, trying to get Jiang Musheng’s kisses to slide down, Jiang Musheng would never do it. Yun Ran eventually gave in and found satisfaction just from Jiang Musheng’s kisses. Jiang Musheng’s kissing skills were becoming more and more mature. Just kissing alone could make her heart pound.

The next morning, Jiang Musheng took her to the shooting range. Cecilia was still the one to arrive late. Just as Yun Ran was realizing that shooting was not as easy as she had thought yesterday and was getting discouraged, Cecilia didn’t continue to watch them from the next lane. Instead, she walked directly into their training area.

“It looks like Miss Yun’s shooting progress isn’t going so well.”

Yun Ran gritted her teeth and ignored her. She loaded her gun, fired two shots. One missed the target completely, and although the other one hit the target, it was still very far from the bullseye. It was clear that hitting the bullseye yesterday was all thanks to Jiang Musheng.

“Musheng, let Miss Yun practice on her own. How about we have a little competition?” Cecilia brushed her golden curls back and asked Jiang Musheng with a radiant face.

Yun Ran looked at Jiang Musheng, hoping she wouldn’t agree. But the next second, she heard Jiang Musheng say, “Okay.”

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