Lin Cheng directly took Qiao Ying away from the palace. He did not plan to wait until tomorrow morning but headed straight back to his dukedom immediately.
He really did not want to deal with the old king and the nagging from the royal family members. Also there was Qiao Ying - if they did not leave tonight, there would be no peace, as Karina would not let her off.
He was afraid Qiao Ying would end up killing someone. And he really did not want to sleep on the couch again or sneak into Qin Hanyue's room like a thief to shower.
The car was already waiting.
Qin Hanyue came out of the main hall just in time to see Lin Cheng and Qiao Ying getting into the same car up ahead. Qin Hanyue went to the car in front, opened the door and got in.
The cars drove out of the palace.
Lin Cheng: "Did you make some kind of deal with Lai En?"
He noticed the interaction between Qiao Ying and Lai En.
"Although I don't want that position, I don't want Lai En to have it either. He's not the best candidate."
"I just want to mind my own business. I don't really want to get involved in these things, but my uncle has devoted his whole life to C Country, so I can't just stand by and do nothing either."
Qiao Ying: "I asked Lai En for detailed information, down to the whereabouts over the years, about his family, especially his father."
Lin Cheng understood with a nod. Then he asked, "Lai En's father... Diamond J is a foreigner?"
Qiao Ying: "No, but he might as well be."
Lin Cheng: "His identity hasn't been fully verified yet? What's your plan going forward?"
Qiao Ying: "I made an appointment with Lai En to meet in private."
Lin Cheng: "Okay, got it."
Then he casually asked, "How did you offend Karina again? Just now in the main hall, it looked like she wanted to accuse you of something."
Qiao Ying: "She found out about you being cuckolded."
Who cuckolded whom?
No matter which character it referred to, it hit Lin Cheng's funny bone. After all, Qin Hanyue was the one being "cuckolded".
Lin Cheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The more he thought about it, the funnier he found it. He had never laughed like this before, laughing so hard that his stomach started to hurt.
Qiao Ying looked at Lin Cheng who couldn't stop laughing with shoulders shaking, and said blankly: "That funny?"
Lin Cheng said while laughing: "Miss Qiao, the way you talk is so amusing." Tears of laughter were about to flow out.
The car suddenly stopped. Lin Cheng looked and realized it was not their car stopping, but Qin Hanyue's car in front that had stopped.
Qin Hanyue got out of the car and walked towards theirs.
With the laugh still in his voice, Lin Cheng said: "The cuckold is here."
Without much expression, Qiao Ying said: "You can go to the front and laugh."
Qin Hanyue came to Lin Cheng's car door and knocked on the window.
Lin Cheng promptly got out. The smile on his face had not faded away.
He gave up his seat to the rightful owner, planning to move to the front. He looked back again but decided against squeezing in next to the driver after all.
Although listening to Qiao Ying talk was very interesting, he didn't want to be the light bulb here. Lin Cheng went to the front car and greeted the driver, Qin Yan, very politely: "Hello~"
Qin Yan: Is watching others flaunt their affection when you're single that enjoyable?
The two switched seats and the car continued on its way.
Sitting in the car, Qin Hanyue looked at Qiao Ying who was staring out the window. He wondered what she and Lin Cheng were talking about to make him laugh so happily.
It was raining lightly outside, and the scenery was not bad. Qiao Ying heard Qin Hanyue ask the driver to raise the partition between the front and back seats. Only then did she withdraw her gaze to look at him.
Everyone at this deliberately preponed state banquet knew what it was for. Yet unexpectedly, in the end it became the scene of Lin Cheng's proposal, turning into Karina’s moment of humiliation.
Karina was so mortified at losing face in front of all the royal family members that she almost couldn't take the blow. She could barely stand such an impact.
Staggering back to her room in embarrassment from the main hall.
The moment she entered, she tripped over something and fell. The expected pain did not arrive as Karina crashed onto something.
The thing that broke her fall felt very strange. Karina also smelled the scent of blood. Creeping horror crawled up her spine. When she looked up and saw that she had fallen onto a few corpses, Karina let out a string of screams from her throat.
Almost tearing through the roof.
She rolled and crawled her way up.
Karina had thought the reciprocation Qiao Ying spoke of was to publicly tear off her veil on stage to get back at her. Only now did she realize these were what she meant.
The partition created a private space in the back seat.
Before Qiao Ying could ask why Qin Hanyue raised the partition, the man's body turned towards her as he pulled her into his embrace, his chin on her bony shoulder, his voice lazy: "Xiao Ying, I'm a little drunk."
The scent of alcohol on him was quite obvious and he did sound rather tipsy.
Qiao Ying emotionlessly asked: "Should I give you two shots to sober you up?"
She couldn't hide anything in her formal dress. Her cell phone and precious silver needles were kept in Qin Hanyue's pocket.
Qin Hanyue: "No need."
Qiao Ying raised half an eyebrow slightly: "So you wanted to use drunkenness as an excuse to do something?"
Qin Hanyue tightened his arms. His lips touched her hair as the vinegary jealousy within him leaked out a little: "What do you think?"
Qiao Ying: "What's one plus one?"
Qin Hanyue laughed: "I'm drunk not stupid."
Qiao Ying: "Drinking so much, it seems you're quite upset."
Qin Hanyue thought for a while: "Actually I didn't really catch what lines you said to Lin Cheng in the main hall. Could you say them to me again?"
What did she say?
She talked about proposals, talks about marriage, and invited people for wedding drinks.
Quite out of character, Qiao Ying readily agreed: “Sure.”
Just as Qin Hanyue was about to tell her to take out the name, Qiao Ying already said: “Lin Cheng, marry me.”
Qin Hanyue: "......"
To Qin Hanyue, this was a crushing blow. He thought if only she could call out his name instead of Lin Cheng's, he would be over the moon.
But she did not cooperate at all.
Not only no cooperation, she even wanted to anger him for fun.
Qiao Ying: "Want to hear more?"
Qin Hanyue: "No need."
It was as if she had rendered Qin Hanyue speechless. For a long time he did not speak again, just hugging her like this. He was probably sulking.
Qiao Ying was bored being hugged like this. She rested her chin on his shoulder and looked out at the scenery in the rear window behind Qin Hanyue: "You raised the partition just to hug me and tell me again you're drunk? Which step couldn't the driver see?"
Qin Hanyue also felt like he owed the partition board for not doing anything. So he was working hard to set the atmosphere as prelude. Yet Qiao Ying took the initiative to strike instead. He said: "Can I take it as you implying I should do something the driver can't watch?"
Qiao Ying's eyeballs shifted to the corners and she gave him a sideways glance: "What do you think?"
Qin Hanyue moved closer to her ear again and asked: "When we were dancing just now, were you staring at me because you wanted to kiss me too?"
Qiao Ying: "Looks like you really are drunk."
Of course she would not admit it.
Qin Hanyue: "I wasn't drunk yet when we were dancing."
Qiao Ying hooked up the corners of her mouth in a faint smile but did not respond to him.
Qin Hanyue looked up at her. His arm remained around her waist without letting go. Face to face, very close to each other. He asked: "You really didn't think that way?"
His big palm stroked her waist ambiguously.
Qiao Ying: "No."
Qin Hanyue told her: "You didn't but I did."
Qin Hanyue immediately kissed her.
Whether it was his cool scent or the wine, they were smells Qiao Ying liked. Mixed together, the liking doubled.
