"Girls must respect and love themselves. Only when you respect yourselves will others respect you. Do you understand?" Guo Shuxian lectured Che Xiaoxiao and Zhao Yating as she walked out.
"Understood." Che Xiaoxiao nodded solemnly, appearing to have an epiphany.
"Where is he?" Che Xiaoxiao and Zhao Yating came out of their room, only to find that Hao Jian had vanished without a trace.
"Teacher Qin is gone too. We fought so hard for so long, only to have her beat us to the punch," Zhao Yating said gloomily.
"That scoundrel Qin Bing is always so quiet, yet it turns out she's the craftiest!" Che Xiaoxiao exclaimed in frustration, slapping her hand: "Dammit, the duck that was at our lips has flown away again."
Guo Shuxian covered her face and sighed, feeling like her words had been in vain.
As he had been there many times before, Hao Jian opened the door to Qin Bing's house and carried her straight to her bedroom.
It wasn't until the next afternoon that Hao Jian left Qin Bing's house to return home, looking utterly self-satisfied, as if the word "scoundrel" were written all over his face.
Then, he casually picked up his phone, which had been in the car all night, and saw twenty missed calls, all from Shu Ya.
Afterwards, Hao Jian took a sharp intake of breath: "I'm dead!!!
Last night he had gotten carried away and completely forgotten about his wife at home.
When he arrived home, Hao Jian's mood was very anxious; he prayed fervently that Shu Ya had gone to work. However, the moment he opened the door, his expression fell.
Not only had Shu Ya not gone to work, but Ruo Lan was also there, chatting and watching TV with her.
On seeing Hao Jian enter, both stopped talking and turned their gaze toward him.
Shu Ya's gaze was as cold as ice, capable of freezing someone with a single glance, making Hao Jian shiver involuntarily.
Ruo Lan, on the other hand, looked at him with amused eyes, clearly enjoying the drama unfolding before her.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense; Hao Jian felt extremely uneasy, neither able to sit nor stand.
"Ah, watching TV? And Sister Lan is here too?" Hao Jian broke the silence first, unable to stand the eerie atmosphere any longer and decided to initiate conversation.
But both Ruo Lan and Shu Ya continued to stare at him silently as if he were some sort of rare animal.
Hao Jian knew he couldn't dodge the issue and began to explain, "Actually last night..."
"Kneel!" Before he could finish, Shu Ya coldly interrupted with just that one word.
"Huh?" Hao Jian was dumbfounded on the spot. Shu Ya actually demanded that he kneel? Wasn't that too excessive?
"Look, I really can explain..." Hao Jian said stiffly.
"Kneel!" Shu Ya commanded again, still as frosty as ever. She would listen to Hao Jian's explanation, but first, he had to kneel.
"There are other people here..." Hao Jian protested feebly, noting with dismay that Ruo Lan was present. Kneeling in front of her would be too humiliating, wouldn't it?
"Oh, so now I'm an outsider?" Ruo Lan said unhappily, glaring at Hao Jian and then advising Shu Ya: "This kind of man needs a firm hand. If he's not beaten three days out of three, you've got to make him kneel!"
At this, Hao Jian felt like crying; now was really not the time for trouble.
"If you don't kneel, you'll sleep on the floor tonight!" Shu Ya said coldly.
"Shu Ya, don't be too unreasonable. There are outsiders here; can't you show some respect for me?" Hao Jian immediately grew angry. It was outrageous for this woman to humiliate him in front of others!
Immediately, Hao Jian knelt down resentfully, glaring at Shu Ya: "I'm telling you, I'm not doing this because I'm scared of you, I'm doing this to show you respect!"
But Shu Ya ignored him and pressed: "Where did you go gallivanting last night?"
"Last night, I was talking business with Murong Qiushui," Hao Jian hurriedly explained with a smile, knowing he definitively couldn't mess up the explanation, or he wouldn't know how he might end up dead.
"Murong Qiushui? She's in Huaxia?" Shu Ya naturally knew of this influencer from Capital City and was aware of her connection with Hao Jian.
"She brought me some significant news—that the Ye Family wants to take that piece of land from me, so we talked all night," Hao Jian explained with a smile.