“I’m fine.” Lu Qianqian said.
“Okay. Madam, you could rest now, and switch with Qianqian later. Alright?”
Mama Lu decided to go with it after some thought. She could not afford to fall here because she still has a daughter to take care of, and so returned to her room for her rest.
With her husband gone, she had to be strong a mother.
Meanwhile, Lu Qianqian pulled Lin Mu’an up from kneeling. “You’ve done enough for my father—you don’t have to keep kneeling.”
Lin Mu’an looked around, and only hugged Lu Qianqian when he saw that Mama Lu was gone.
Still, it was a gentle embrace without any intention of crossing the line. “I hope that your father could be relieved. I’ll take care of you and your mother in his stead.”
“You are the one who needs taking care of.” Lu Qianqian said contemptibly.
“Then we’ll take care of each other and weather through all obstacles, okay?” Lin Mu’an asked with a smile. “Looks like I’m not getting a gold medal, but I’m with you. You are not helpless.”
Lu Qianqian broke into tears at those words again.
“I won’t let myself get worn out even if it’s to protect you and my mother.”
Lin Mu’an sat down at her words and patted his own shoulder. “Lean on it, you can count on it. You could sleep for a bit.”
Lu Qianqian leaned on him and closed her eyes.
She wanted to cry, but she felt much better with Lin Mu’an.
Both of them had nothing to depend on. It was only be depending on each other that they could get warmth.
It was two in the morning when Mu Qiqi and Sheng Xiao finally reached home.
However, they thought they entered the wrong door when they found Third Brother watching tv in the living room.
“You’re finally back… I’m just lodging.”
“The Sheng family chased you out?” Sheng Xiao smiled.
“I jumped out a window.” Third Brother shrugged. “The whole family’s gone mad—whether it’s Second Brother or the old man, everyone is living under your shadow. I ran off because I really can’t take it…”
“It’s not like I could not offer you lodgings, but you’re going have to work and pay for it.”
“Sure, I’ll be your bodyguard then?”
“With those moves of yours?” Sheng Xiao was not belittling him, but Xu Che could force Third Brother on his knees begging for mercy with just one hand.
“Still, lodging here is not going to work in the long run. You have to find your own way out, because the old man would never let you stay with me for long.”
“I’m going to sleep.” Third Brother knew that better than anyone.
It was tragic even thinking about it—everyone wanted to escape Old Sheng’s control, but even in a big family like the Sheng family, who else aside from Eighth Brother had the wisdom or mental strength to walk away?
As for Sheng Kai? He was caught in the fog and unable to escape too.
Early next morning, Mu Qiqi took a detour to visit Lu Qianqian before heading off to school. She realized that with Lin Mu’an’s help, Lu Qianqian looked much better.
In the end, she did not make the wrong choice there.
“I’ve brought you breakfast. Qianqian, just tell me or Xiao Xiao if there’s anything we can help with. Don’t keep it to yourself at such a time.”
Lu Qianqian glanced at the bodyguards standing outside the funeral hall and smiled faintly at Mu Qiqi. “We’ve already received the Crown Prince’s good will. Don’t worry, I won’t self-destruct—now go to class. I’ll call you if I need you.”
As a matter of fact, the bodyguards were there to stop Lu Qianqian’s uncle and Old Lin from making trouble there.
After all, would Old Lin be able to bear with his own grandson busying around at someone else’s funeral hall?
These bodyguards were therefore here as a matter of precaution.
“Give me a shout when the arrangements for Uncle Lu’s burial. Xiao Xiao and I would come see him off.”
“Okay.” Lu Qianqian nodded.
“Now go in.”
And after Lu Qianqian returned inside the building, Lin Mu’an dashed out. “Xiao Qi, thanks for telling me this, or I would feel regret and disappointed.”
“You really don’t understand your feeling towards Qianqian, do you?” Mu Qiqi asked impatiently.
“There’s not time to understand now. I just know now that I can’t bear to see her cry, stay with her and help her.”
Mu Qiqi smiled and shook her head. “At least you like a man now.” She said before she left.
That was when Lin Mu’an noticed a white sedan was parked by the road. Old Lin wound down his window to shoot his grandson a look, but Lin Mu’an simply acted as if he did not see him.
He merely instructed the bodyguards, “Keep an eye on things. Don’t let anyone start trouble.”
Naturally, Old Lin would not sink so low that he would throw a fit in a funeral hall. However, would a grandfather like him not be furious that his own grandson was there to make funeral arrangements for another person?
But now that the pillar of the Lu family had crumbled and the other factions in their extended family raring to go, he would use this chance to force Lu Qianqian and her mother to leave the country.
That was the most important thing right now.
“Drive.”
Lin Mu’an only calmed down when he saw the white car leave, but he had the feeling his grandfather would not give up so easily, and would try something one way or another.
At the moment, the Lu family was vulnerable in every way possible, offering all sorts of advantages to be taken of them.
He must be careful, and keep little pepper as well as her mother safe.
Be that as it may, Lu Qianqian was no doll to be toyed around. She could put up a resistance, and while she had no experience in managing a company yet, she had undergone extensive training as a successor, and not just anyone could take her down.
Some encounters are immediately fortunate, like Mu Qiqi and Sheng Xiao.
Other encounters are full of ups-and-downs, where both persons would have to hold on tightly to each other.
Like Lu Qianqian and Lin Mu’an.
After Old Lin returned home, he promptly contacted the Lu family’s uncles to make his intentions clear.
He would help the one who has the best chance of claiming power, but the condition for that was for said person to work with him to chase Lu Qianqian and her mother out of the country, with no chance of them coming back.
Be that as it may, would his schemes really succeed?
On the same morning, Old Sheng did not notice that there was one less person in his house, and only assumed that Third Brother did not come out for breakfast because he was throwing a fit. Still, he eventually realized that something was not right after Third Brother did not show up for the whole day, and had someone knock down his door—only then did they found that Third Brother’s window was open but he was not in it.
“Sir, Third Young Master might have run way.”
“Where else could he go? Find Sheng Xiao!”
It was already enough that he left, and now he would rein another one of his grandsons and betray the family?
There was no chance of that happening.