Chapter 95 — When Thunder Rolled, Ranran Would Be Afraid

Lin Xiaowen staggered toward the doorway, only to see the car that had been waiting there just pulling away.

A dull boom rolled across the distant sky, and at last a cool wind stirred.

“Mrs. Si...”

The attendant at the entrance saw Lin Xiaowen rushing over, all color drained from her face, and hurried to catch her.

“Mr. Si has just left. Would you like us to arrange a car for you...”

As the principal guest at the reception, the host, Mr. Yang, had naturally given strict instructions.

Though he could not understand why Mr. Si would leave his wife behind, he dared not neglect a single word or gesture that ought to be made.

“Move aside!”

Seeing the car growing farther and farther away, Lin Xiaowen had no mind for anything else. She flung out those two words, lifted her hem, and in a panic ran after the departing vehicle...

“Mr. Si, Miss Lin is behind us...”

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Lin Xiaowen in utter disarray, chasing after the car.

In truth, Si Nan had seen her long before. The moment Lin Xiaowen stepped out of the doorway, he had already ordered the car to move.

More than ten minutes had passed. This was a lesson for her.

As the car reached the main road, Lin Xiaowen, still in high heels, saw the distance widening. With no thought for anything else, she kicked off her shoes, gathered up her long skirt, and chased after it with even greater urgency.

The driver stole a glance at Si Nan’s expression in the mirror, and his foot on the accelerator loosened a little.

Si Nan kept his eyes lowered, showing no emotion, but the driver understood that this was tacit approval.

After a low rumble of thunder, rain began to fall at last, drifting on the wind, and soon heavier drops were striking her face.

Lin Xiaowen pressed her lips tightly together. There was no sorrow, no anger, not even panic.

Because the car ahead, creeping along not far in front of her, was telling her that the person inside was merely toying with her.

As if she were a stray dog being played with.

The phrase fit her situation with cruel precision.

Her silk gown clung damply to her body, and the elegant coiffure she had worn up had now come undone, spilling down around her shoulders.

Bare feet met the cement road; now and then a pebble bit into her skin, and she would flinch slightly, only to force herself into the next step.

“Mr. Si... the roads are slippery in the rain. It’s dangerous...”

The driver offered a quiet reminder, and only then did Si Nan’s gaze slowly sharpen.

In the rearview mirror, that stubborn little woman still wore the expression of someone unwilling to yield. Her lips were pressed together so tightly that they had become a pale, narrow line.

The rain grew heavier, beating against her slender shoulders and cheeks, yet still could not make her brow crease even once.

“Drive!”

Si Nan ground out the command in a cold voice, and the driver froze slightly.

“What? Do you want me to drive myself?”

Si Nan spoke impatiently.

Having steered a vast enterprise for so many years, no one had ever dared disobey his orders. And now a woman would not deign to obey him, and even his accustomed driver dared ignore him?

“Yes!”

The driver sighed faintly to himself and glanced again at the woman trudging after the car in the rain. Then he pressed harder on the accelerator, and the vehicle instantly pulled far away from her.

Baring her teeth, Lin Xiaowen stared in the direction of the car and could only force herself to run even harder. Rainwater slid into her wide-open eyes, stinging like fire, but she had no time to care. She could only quicken her pace.

Ranran was waiting for her. The rain was growing heavier, the thunder more frequent. Ranran would be scared.

Si Nan’s hands had long since clenched into fists, the veins standing out on the backs of them.

His gaze had been fixed all along on the woman in the rearview mirror.

Though the fat drops of rain that lashed her body had left her increasingly numb with pain, though her movements had grown stiff and every step more difficult than the last, she still refused to call him back. If she had only shown even the slightest hint of weakness, Si Nan would have found a reason to stop the car.

People who drove on rainy nights were especially careful, all the more so when they saw a woman in such a sorry state, barefoot in a splendid gown, struggling forward amid the unending traffic.

A passing Audi honked and rolled down its window.

“Beautiful lady, where are you headed? I can give you a lift!”

Lin Xiaowen was like a puppet without feeling, her eyes fixed only on the silver car, now growing hazy in the rain.

The man spoke to her again and again, but Lin Xiaowen gave no response. In the end he shut the window in frustration, deciding she must be some madwoman, and drove off.

A sudden, violent screech of brakes shattered Si Nan’s last bit of restraint. Ahead, the glaring headlights no longer revealed Lin Xiaowen’s figure. Si Nan urgently ordered the driver to stop, and the driver had in fact been watching the road behind them all along.

Before the car had even fully stopped, Si Nan shoved the door open and rushed out. In front of the vehicle that had braked hard, lying in miserable disarray, was Lin Xiaowen.

With his heart in his throat, Si Nan had not yet reached her when he saw her struggle to move, supporting herself on one elbow as she painfully lifted her head.

Slowly, very slowly, she swayed to her feet and looked at Si Nan with a calm, steady gaze.

By then Si Nan himself was half-soaked, his chest rising and falling heavily, his eyes like a flash of cold lightning as they fixed on the silent Lin Xiaowen.

“Miss... if the lady is all right... then...”

The driver thought he had been the one to hit Lin Xiaowen and had been anxious all along. Only when he saw her get back up on her own did he dare speak.

But Lin Xiaowen did not even look at him. After climbing to her feet, she continued to shuffle forward slowly. Only then did the man, as if suddenly spared disaster, hurry back into his car, start the engine, and leave.

Lin Xiaowen’s steps were slow, yet never did they pause. When she passed Si Nan, her gaze did not rest on his face for even a second; she simply walked past him and toward the car.

At last, Si Nan could bear it no longer. No one could place him, Si Nan, beneath their notice, and no one could treat him like thin air.

The cool rain had become a wall of water, drenching both of them from head to toe.

In one stride Si Nan was beside her. He reached out and seized Lin Xiaowen, who no longer had the strength to resist, forcing her to look into his eyes. The hand gripping her arm felt not only the chill of rainwater, but also a warmth unlike that of ordinary people.

Was she running a fever?

“Lin Xiaowen, look at me. I want you to look at me!”

Si Nan roared, gripping her chin and forcing her gaze to his face.

But all he received in return was that same hollow look, devoid of any emotion at all.

“Lin Xiaowen, you really are something. You’d rather run after a car in the rain, rather get hurt and fall than call out to me, than beg me, is that it?”

Si Nan’s bright eyes looked especially terrifying in the rainy night, but Lin Xiaowen seemed not to sense it at all, her blank gaze drifting past his face, which was contorted with ferocity.

She suddenly felt like laughing. Was this not exactly what he wanted to see?

Wasn’t Si Nan happiest when he saw her in the greatest misery? Then what was this expression on his face now for?

Lin Xiaowen closed her eyes. She did not want to see his face, nor did she want to think any further.

She said softly, straining to make her voice heard:

“It’s thunder. Ranran is most afraid of thunder...”

“Lin Xiaowen!”

Si Nan ground out her name through clenched teeth and then bellowed again, “Am I really so beneath your notice...?”