The Golden Cane and the Wild Rose - Chapter 46.2

Chapter 46.2

Yun Ran felt a little uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to show it. She continued to practice shooting, firing one shot after another, venting her frustration at Cecilia for bothering Jiang Musheng through her shots.

Compared to her chaotic, rhythm-less shooting, the two who were officially competing looked much more professional. Yun Ran stopped to rest, thinking that she should observe first and not just waste bullets endlessly. Cecilia’s posture for holding the gun was very standard, and she held herself with a very cool demeanor. If she didn’t know Cecilia, she would never have thought that Cecilia would be a person who was so crazy in love.

Yun Ran watched them both fire at the same time. The final score was: Cecilia 9 points, Jiang Musheng 10 points.

Yes! Yun Ran felt happy for Jiang Musheng in her heart.

Cecilia suddenly turned to her and asked, “Yun Ran, do you dare to compete with me?”

Yun Ran’s smile faded. She said unhappily, “You’re already an expert, and I just started. Aren’t you afraid of winning dishonorably?”

Cecilia said, “When you’re on a battlefield, do you tell the enemy this kind of logic? ‘I started learning late, so the enemy should go easy on me’?”

Yun Ran angrily turned her face away and stopped looking at Cecilia. Cecilia was talking nonsense that only seemed to make sense. How could a simple competition be compared to a battlefield? But in Cecilia’s mind, it was possible. It was just like how she thought that even though she was the one who pushed Yun Ran into the water first, Yun Ran also dragged her down, so they were even. She didn’t care if Yun Ran could swim or not. Naturally, she also didn’t care that Yun Ran was just starting to learn how to shoot and was far behind her.

In short, the two of them just didn’t like each other, but this place belonged to the governor, and Cecilia had the right to be there. There was nothing Yun Ran could do about her being an eyesore. Her only comfort was that Jiang Musheng was not like those philandering, womanizing scumbags. She was dedicated to her, and no matter how much Cecilia flirted with her, it was useless.

“Okay, since you think it’s not fair to compete now, I’ll wait a few more days. Is a week enough? We’ll compete on this day next week. To be fair, I won’t touch a gun for this week, but you can practice as much as you want.”

Yun Ran thought for a moment. This way, it was much fairer.

“Let’s do it,” Yun Ran’s competitive spirit was ignited.

“Let’s add a wager. Do you dare?” Cecilia asked.

“What’s the wager?”

“The loser has to grant the winner one request.”

Yun Ran hesitated a little. The word “request” was too broad. What if she lost and Cecilia asked her to leave Jiang Musheng?

“What’s wrong? Are you scared?” Cecilia asked, taunting her.

Yun Ran continued to think rationally, unaffected by her.

“Okay.” Jiang Musheng suddenly answered for her.

Yun Ran’s eyes widened in surprise. “Musheng, what are you doing?”

Jiang Musheng said with a smile, “Ah Ran, I believe you can win.”

Yun Ran felt a lot of pressure. Cecilia gave Yun Ran a look of defiance, then said to Jiang Musheng with a sense of injustice, “Musheng, just you wait and see. I will never lose to Yun Ran.”

“Are you deliberately trying to stir up trouble?” Yun Ran asked, confused.

Jiang Musheng didn’t confirm or deny it. “I think this will motivate you and make you improve faster.”

Yun Ran was speechless.

Anyway, every day after that, when she didn’t have classes, Yun Ran was practicing shooting. Most of the time, Jiang Musheng was with her. There were also times when Jiang Musheng had other things to deal with and couldn’t leave, so she would arrange for two bodyguards who were good with guns to protect her and provide guidance at any time.

It was true, as Jiang Musheng had said. The wager with Cecilia was a good way to motivate her. She would get more and more excited as she practiced. In her heart, she was a thousand, a million times unwilling to lose to Cecilia! She was determined to defend her love and her lover, even though Cecilia couldn’t really threaten her.

After Gu Hongfei hinted to Jiang Musheng to come find him privately, he waited for three days, but there was no movement from Jiang Musheng. He couldn’t sit still anymore. He wanted to go find Jiang Musheng directly, but he didn’t dare. He was weak and still feared Jiang Musheng. He went to pick up his cousin from school again, hoping to run into Jiang Musheng by coincidence.

But for another two days, Jiang Musheng didn’t show up. The person accompanying Jiang Xueyu was a male bodyguard who looked a little familiar. He recognized him as the one who had also been squatting outside his roasted goose restaurant before. He didn’t dare to act rashly. He thought that maybe he had really been mistaken. That was why Jiang Musheng hadn’t made a single move. She didn’t care at all. If he dared to spread any baseless rumors in society, then Jiang Musheng wouldn’t be merciful to him. Gu Hongfei was scared.

But he didn’t want to back down. He had already come this far. In his moment of great conflict, he came up with a solution. He would send an anonymous letter to a newspaper. He would let the reporters confirm the specific details, and he could get away safely! On the sixth day of his wait, he wrote an anonymous letter revealing Jiang Musheng’s true gender as a woman and put it in the newspaper’s mailbox. Then he sat in a cafe across from the post office and ordered a cup of coffee. He didn’t leave until he saw someone from the post office come out and collect the mail. Gu Hongfei finally left with a sense of relief.

The day before Yun Ran was to officially compete with Cecilia, she was still practicing hard. Her hands had developed calluses. Jiang Musheng was not with Yun Ran at this time. She had secretly arranged to meet Cecilia at a restaurant. Cecilia dressed up and happily went to the appointment. When she arrived at the restaurant and sat down in front of Jiang Musheng, she put away her overly happy smile that might give her away. She tried not to give the person across from her a pleasant look and said, “Musheng, if you’re here to ask me to go easy on Yun Ran in the competition tomorrow, you can save it. I won’t ruin the fairness of the game.”

“I do have something to ask of you, Cecilia, but it’s not to ruin the fairness of the competition,” Jiang Musheng said.

When Cecilia heard this, her hidden smile reappeared. As long as Musheng wasn’t asking her out because of Yun Ran, it was fine.

“Go on, Musheng. What do you need me to do?”

“If you win, can you make a request for Ah Ran to go to Singapore or the mainland?”

Jiang Musheng’s request was still about Yun Ran, but Cecilia wasn’t unhappy, nor was she happy. She didn’t quite understand what Jiang Musheng meant. It took her a while to figure it out.

“Musheng, are you tired of Yun Ran and want her to leave, to be as far away as possible?”

Jiang Musheng said, “I want Ah Ran to leave.”

Cecilia felt that Jiang Musheng’s voice suddenly had an infinite sense of melancholy, and she also felt a sense of sadness. “Musheng, why would you do this?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you for now, but you’ll know soon.” Jiang Musheng asked earnestly, “Cecilia, can you grant my request?”

“Yes!” Cecilia agreed, extremely excited. No matter what the reason was for Musheng wanting Yun Ran to be as far away as possible, it was a good thing for her. As long as Yun Ran wasn’t by Musheng’s side, was she still afraid that she wouldn’t have a chance?

“Thank you.” Jiang Musheng raised her wine glass and clinked it with hers.

Cecilia happily clinked her glass with hers, drank the white wine in her glass, and was intoxicated.

The day of the official competition with Cecilia had arrived. Yun Ran was extremely nervous. Although she had practiced countless times in the past week and had made great progress, she was still very afraid of losing to Cecilia.

The rules were set by Cecilia. Only one shot would be fired, and whoever had the higher score would win. Logically speaking, Cecilia hadn’t touched a gun in days, so she was more likely to make a mistake, but Yun Ran couldn’t help but wonder if Cecilia hadn’t done as she said and had secretly found another place to practice. In short, no matter what, she couldn’t let her guard down.

Before they left, Jiang Musheng suddenly told her that she had some important business to take care of and couldn’t go with her. She wished her good luck. Yun Ran held onto her, wanting Jiang Musheng to hug and kiss her. Jiang Musheng indulged her, kissing her face and fingers all over. She held her tightly for a while before letting go.

“Okay, I’m fully charged. You go and be busy. I’ll come find you with good news!” Yun Ran let go of her.

The two of them separated at the villa gate. Yun Ran left first. Jiang Musheng took Xueyu and said she would take her to watch Yun Ran and Cecilia compete. Xueyu cheered, saying she wanted to go to the site to cheer for her sister-in-law. Jiang Musheng said, “Don’t make a sound. We’ll surprise Ah Ran after it’s over.”

“Okay.”

What Yun Ran didn’t know was that the car Jiang Musheng was in had been following her all along. When she arrived at the place where she was to compete with Cecilia, Jiang Musheng and Xueyu also arrived at a hidden high point where they could see them competing below.

Yun Ran noticed that she wasn’t the only one who was nervous. Cecilia was also very nervous.

“Have you thought about what you’ll ask of me if you win?” Cecilia asked.

Yun Ran was stunned for a moment. She had spent the last few days focusing on practicing shooting and hadn’t thought about how to make good use of that request if she won.

Cecilia laughed. “You haven’t thought about it. It looks like you won’t win. I’ve already thought about it.”

“Ready!” The referee raised a small pink flag and bit a whistle in her mouth.

Yun Ran and Cecilia quickly got ready and aimed at the target. When the referee blew the whistle and waved the flag, the two of them fired at the same time. Two bullets flew out. The guns fired, and everything was settled.

When the referee ran over to check the scores, everyone on the scene was extremely tense. Xueyu was also nervously pulling on her brother’s sleeve. “Big brother, do you think sister-in-law can win?”

Jiang Musheng didn’t answer. She just said, “Let’s go down.”

“Okay.”

As they were taking the elevator down, the referee announced the result.

“Miss Cecilia is the winner!”

Yun Ran didn’t believe it. She ran over to the target to confirm. Cecilia had indeed shot a little more accurately than her, by a difference of 0.1, but a loss was a loss. She felt wronged and suffocated. She reluctantly asked, “What is your request?”

“Leave Hong Kong. You can choose to go to the mainland or Singapore.”

Yun Ran wasn’t too surprised by this request. Cecilia just wanted her to leave Jiang Musheng. She had already guessed that. But she didn’t really want to comply. Just then, she saw Jiang Musheng and Xueyu walking towards them. Her eyes lit up. “Didn’t you say you had something important to do? Why did you come?”

“It’s taken care of. How did your competition with Cecilia go?”

Yun Ran dropped her head in defeat. Cecilia said triumphantly, “Musheng, I won.”

“Yun Ran, you’ll follow our wager and leave Hong Kong and go to the mainland or Singapore, right?”

Yun Ran nodded very reluctantly. Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration. “I said I’d leave, but I never said I wouldn’t come back. You didn’t ask me not to come back.”

“Then I’ll just add…”

“No, you can’t patch it!” Yun Ran said, winning a round.

Cecilia said, “Let’s compete again.”

Yun Ran said, “No more competing.”

Cecilia had no choice but to look at Jiang Musheng.

Jiang Musheng said, “Perfect. Ah Ran, you and Xueyu can go on a trip together. You can come back after a while.”

“Okay.” Being forced to leave had turned into a voluntary trip. Yun Ran was very happy. “But, Musheng, aren’t you coming?”

“I’ll come find you later.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve already booked the tickets, Ah Ran. Do you want to go to the mainland or Singapore?”

Yun Ran swallowed. She was a little surprised. She looked at Xueyu and asked, “Where do you want to go, Xueyu?”

Xueyu said, “I’ve already been on a plane, but I’ve never been on a boat. Let’s go to the mainland, sister-in-law?”

“Okay.”

Yun Ran didn’t know how she was suddenly going to the mainland. It was a little like being forced into it, just like the shooting competition with Cecilia. Jiang Musheng personally sent them off to board the ship. She said that everything on the mainland had already been arranged. When they arrived, a boss named Lin who was in the real estate business would take care of them. Boss Lin had two younger sisters who were about their age, and they could play together.

The more Jiang Musheng explained, the more uneasy Yun Ran felt. They had arrived at the pier, and it was time to board the ship. Jiang Musheng urged her, “Hurry up and get on board.”

Yun Ran grabbed her hand and didn’t want to leave. Jiang Musheng hugged her tightly, then hugged Xueyu, and said, “Hurry up and go. Don’t waste any time.”

“Xueyu, give your sister-in-law a demonstration.”

Xueyu listened to her brother and hopped onto the ship like a little rabbit. Six bodyguards, including Biao, also got on board with them.

“Ah Ran, it’s your turn,” Jiang Musheng urged again.

Yun Ran turned around, still unwilling to let go of Jiang Musheng’s hand. “What about my schoolwork?”

“I’ll ask for a leave of absence for you,” Jiang Musheng said with a smile. Just as Ah Ran’s hand was about to let go, she grabbed it again, reluctantly.

The two of them began a long tug-of-war. Cecilia, who was there to supervise the farewell, felt her head ache.

Have you had enough of this disgusting lovey-dovey stuff? It’s time to go!

Yun Ran felt that it wasn’t enough. She stood on her tiptoes, tilted her head up, and kissed Jiang Musheng on the lips. After a slow separation, she said, “Remember to come find Xueyu and me soon. We’ll be waiting for you.”

“Okay,” Jiang Musheng promised.

“The ship is leaving! The ship is leaving! Passengers who have not yet boarded, please board with your tickets and hurry up!”

The two of them finally let go of each other under the ship’s broadcast. Yun Ran turned around and boarded the ship. She suddenly heard someone shouting behind her, “Jiang Musheng is there! She’s trying to escape on the ship! Get her! Hurry!”

Yun Ran was startled, and her feet froze. She saw the bodyguards who had already boarded with Xueyu all take out their guns. What was wrong with Jiang Musheng? Why was someone trying to catch her?

Just as she was about to turn back to look, Jiang Musheng pushed her, sending her onto the ship.

“Sister-in-law,” Xueyu supported her worriedly and then looked at her brother, who was still standing on the shore.

The ship started to move. The iron gangplank was retracted, as if it was in a hurry to escape a battle that was about to break out. The distance between the ship and the shore widened. After Yun Ran stood firm, she turned around, her whole body chilling. She saw Jiang Musheng smiling and waving at her and Xueyu. Her lips slowly parted and came together. The distance was a little far, so she couldn’t see what Jiang Musheng was saying.

Only Jiang Musheng herself knew. She mouthed silently, “Ah Ran, I love you.”

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