My Lovely Wife is a Forensic Doctor - Chapter 212
Chapter 212 The Considerate Sister-in-Law
Flinching awkwardly, Yin Anran quickly hid her phone behind her.
“Give it to me,” Qin Jinhuan said sternly as he put his hand out.
“I’m really hungry, Jinhuan.”
She tried changing the subject again, but this time, Qin Jinhuan didn’t let her get away with it. Instead, he held her hands down roughly and snatched the phone away from her.
“Jinhuan!”
Qin Jinhuan pushed her hands away when she tried to grab the phone. “Who were you calling?” he questioned coldly.
“M-My friend.”
“Which friend is this? What’s their name?”
“You don’t know this person—he’s a new friend of mine,” answered Yin Anran timidly with her gaze lowered.
“Password.”
“Jinhuan…”
“Password, now!”
The more Yin Anran acted evasively, the more suspicious he felt toward her. Unquestionably, he would not tolerate it if she was plotting something against Mu Yu.
Unnerved by his cold, stern look, she hesitated for a while and answered shyly, “It’s the date of your birthday.”
Since this was Qin Jinhuan’s first time using her phone, he was stunned by her answer. He then quickly unlocked the phone and checked the caller history for the last contact she had called.
However, he was surprised when he noticed the name of the caller. After checking the time of the call, he asked again, “You were calling Wu Zhimin?”
Wu Zhimin was the Chairman of Wu’s Enterprise; he was an honest businessman. Furthermore, Wu’s Enterprise was in a long term partnership with the Qing Tian Group. He thought that Yin Anran had been plotting Mu Yu’s demise with some underground criminals, but she was calling Wu Zhimin instead. According to Qin Jinhuan’s information on Wu Zhimin, he didn’t seem like the sort of person who would get himself involved with things like that.
Yin Anran nodded apprehensively.
“Why are you calling him at such a late hour?” Why were you sneaking around?
“B-Because…”
“Speak up!”
Startled by his loud, harsh tone, Yin Anran blurted out, “I was begging him to extend the deadline for the South City Factory’s deliverables. When I was driving back from West Bay, I estimated that I would reach An City around 11.00 PM, so I arranged a meeting with him at midnight. Unfortunately, the car accident delayed our meeting. I knew that you hated begging for help, and you’d never allow me to do it for you. So, I had to make up an excuse to distract you because I was scared to contact President Wu while you were still here.”
Stunned, Qin Jinhuan froze for a second. He immediately responded, “Who did you meet up with at West Bay?”
“President Ding. He was there to meet his clients,” Yin Anran answered truthfully.
“Ding Jiangtao?”
Ding Jiangtao was the Chairman of Jiang Tao Industry.
Yin Anran nodded weakly.
Jiang Tao Industry and Wu’s Enterprise were Qing Tian Group’s two biggest clients. After the mass resignation of South City Factory’s workers, they hadn’t been able to complete their orders as scheduled. Hence, they had to pay the hefty liquidated damages to both of these companies.
“Who told you to go and meet them?”
“No one did—I went there on my own accord,” Yin Anran muttered. “I just wanted to do whatever I could to ease your burden.”
He was moved yet angry at the same time. “How did it feel when you hit a snag?”
“Oh no, they weren’t mean to me at all!” Her face lit up. “They were really nice to me, especially President Ding; he wasn’t mad that I called him this late. In fact, he sounded really concerned when I told him that I was in a car accident.”
“Did you really have to call him this late at night?”
“I had to!” Yin Anran was secretly relieved when she realized Qin Jinhuan wasn’t out to reprimand her. She explained right away, “Have you ever thought about why those old workers insisted on mass resignation? They knew that we would never be able to find experienced workers to work in such a short period of time. What would happen then? Without experienced workers, our delivery dates would be delayed, and we would have to pay the hefty liquidated damages. Between increasing their pay and paying the hefty compensation fees, the workers compared it to peanuts and watermelons! Thinking that we’d be more concerned about the liquidated damages, the workers probably thought that we would compromise and bargain with them. Hence, they waited comfortably at home for us to invite them back. However, what if we send out the letters from Wu’s Enterprise and Jiang Tao Industry stating that they’ve agreed to extend the deadline for the deliveries by tomorrow morning? Do you think they’d still remain quiet? I’d be willing to bet that they would come back to work as soon as possible, since they would never be able to find a company such as Qing Tian Group—we have the best welfare benefits compared to other factories.”
“How did Ding Jiangtao respond to that?”
“President Ding was quite understanding about it. He asked me how long it would take, and I said that if the recruitment went smoothly, it would take about a week; if the recruitment didn’t go as planned, then it would take about 10 to 15 days. He readily agreed and gave me 20 days. When President Wu heard that President Ding had agreed to extend the deadline, he agreed without much hesitation and said that someone would contact me in the morning.” Yin Anran explained proudly, “As long as these two companies agree to extend the date of the product delivery, we won’t have to pay hefty liquidated damages. No one would ever use this against you by next year’s summer evaluation, and your position as the company’s CEO would never be wavered.”
“Did President Ding ask you about your face?”
Yin Anran froze before covering her face with her hands as she nodded. “I told him that I had a slight argument with one of the workers earlier and got hurt when I was trying to persuade them. President Ding seemed to believe me and even tried to comfort me,” she answered with a pained look.
She rubbed the bandage on her head and grimaced. “Jinhuan, do I look very ugly like this?”
Qin Jinhuan shook his head. “No, it’s not ugly. You look fine.”
A blush spread across her cheeks. “Really?” She covered her face and looked down. “I must look very ugly; you’re just being nice to me,” she said coyly.
“It really doesn’t look ugly,” he replied in a serious tone as guilt filled him from the inside.
When she was slapped earlier during the day, not only did she not hold it against him, she didn’t care about how she looked and worked tirelessly to help him solve his problems. If it hadn’t been for this, she wouldn’t have gotten into the accident. Yin Anran had done so much for him, yet all he could think of was whether she was trying to hurt Mu Yu.
She never complained once, yet he was the one who passed ill judgement on her.
All of a sudden, he felt like he was the worst of all.
“Jinhuan, I didn’t embarrass you and the company in front of them! I swear! All I did was give them an overall analysis about the situation. They are smart businessmen after all, so after much consideration, they weighed the long term benefits that come with the cooperation of both companies and readily agreed to my suggestions.”
Even though he knew that she was being dramatic, the slight tremor in her voice and her swelled up face still made him guilty. Still, he couldn’t help but question her again, “If you were calling Wu Zhimin, why were you so flustered when you saw me walking in?”
If she hadn’t panicked, he probably wouldn’t have misjudged her.
“I know that you’re a proud man, Jinhuan; I didn’t want you to find out that I had secretly gone and look for them behind your back. I even warned them not to say anything too! I told them to just come up with an excuse about helping the company in dire situations, and they all agreed to do so!” She squirmed around and continued, “Are you still mad at me, Jinhuan?”
He ignored her question and warned her solemnly, “These things are not within your duties, so don’t involve yourself without my permission next time. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Although Yin Anran mentioned repeatedly that she was afraid of him finding out, she still felt a pang of disappointment when he didn’t praise her about it.
Just then, his warm gaze glanced at her face. “Does it still hurt?” he asked gently.
She rubbed her head and nodded with a pout.
“What about your face?”
Her fingers trailed down to her face as she shook her head with tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She sniffled and said, “Jinhuan, the pain on my face will subside and disappear; the real pain I’m feeling right now isn’t on my face, but in… my heart. Jinhuan, I really didn’t mean to kick her…”
Qin Jinhuan interrupted, “Alright, it’s already in the past. Let’s not talk about it.”
Yin Anran nodded and explained hastily, “Jinhuan, I’m not trying to put the blame on her; it was my fault for talking trash about her first, so we’re both at fault. I only hope that you’ll give me the chance to explain myself and not take one-sided statements from other people when it comes to handling matters related to the both of us. Could you do that, please?”
There was a desperate, pleading tone in her voice that made her look weak and fragile.
“I know that I can be selfish and impulsive at times, but I’m not an evil and unreasonable person—you were there to raise me up, and you have influenced me in many aspects of my life. You know the nature of who I really am; you wouldn’t have taken care of me for so many years if you didn’t. I know that I crossed a line when I fed laxatives to Mu Yu last time, and I’m willing to be punished for it. I will not hold a grudge against you, so if you decide to remove me from the CEO’s office, I just wish that…”
A knock on the door interrupted Yin Anran’s sentence.
As Qin Jinhuan turned around, Cheng Xiang’s voice came from outside the door. “Boss, the food is here.”
“Come in.”
“Yes, Boss.” Cheng Xiang pushed open the door and walked in with a bag. Then, he placed the food containers on the table next to the bed.
“Boss, Huang Bo has found a caretaker.”
“Alright, please wait for me outside.”
“Alright.”
As Cheng Xiang walked out, Qin Jinhuan pulled open the table on the bed.
“A caretaker?” A look of surprise flashed across Yin Anran’s face.
He nodded, opened the food containers and placed them right in front of her. Then, he tucked a pillow behind her back, adjusted her in a comfortable position and beckoned toward the food.
“Are you going back?” Her eyes teared up again.
“Yes. I have some matters to attend to in the morning, so I’ll let the caretaker handle it from here. When your observation period is over, I’ll come back and pick you up.”
“Okay.” Although she was disheartened, she didn’t try to make him stay.
She was smart enough to know that there were certain things that couldn’t be rushed with time. Since he was so concerned about her, it meant that the ruse she orchestrated had already done its job.
“Eat your food and rest well. Call me if anything pops up.”
“Yes, Jinhuan. Tell your driver to drive slower. The roads must be frozen by now, so please be careful out there.”
“I will.”
“Oh, what about my car…”
“I will arrange for someone to tow your car. You just need to get some rest.” Qin Jinhuan stifled a yawn as he glanced at his watch.
Yin Anran felt bad for him and quickly motioned him to leave. “Jinhuan, you should go home and rest.”
“Alright.” Qin Jinhuan gave a few more orders and left hurriedly.
He was thinking about Mu Yu as he rushed straight from the hospital to his mother’s place.
As Yin Anran had predicted, the road was quiet and the weather was cold; the melted snow had frozen into ice on the road, causing the road to be slippery. As a result, Huang Bo had to drive slowly. By the time they reached his mother’s old house, it was already 4.30 AM.
When Qin Jinhuan exited the car, he saw the flickering lights of the east room upstairs and rushed toward it. Assuming that Mu Yu would be sound asleep, he slowed down by the stairs. Worried that she was upset since he had left her in such a hurry to see Yin Anran, he was wondering how to coax her if she was awake.
He turned the knob and realized it wasn’t locked. Then, he tiptoed into the room as he didn’t want to startle her.
Suddenly, a woman’s soft moans could be heard from the room…
