Chapter 58: Staying Over

The moment the words left He Jueyun’s mouth, he regretted them. He realized his phrasing was ambiguous.

What he had meant was that Sanyao had its own hotel properties, or at the very least, he could help her apply for a secure, free place to stay. After all, this incident had been triggered by 【Case Analysis】, so Sanyao bore some joint responsibility and had a duty to protect its Players.

For an adult man to suddenly invite a lady to stay at his home, no matter how one looked at it, it seemed to have ulterior motives.

He Jueyun immediately glanced at Qiong Cang’s face. Fortunately, Qiong Cang did not look displeased. She merely smiled and asked, “Under what pretense do you think I can stay at your place?”

Since she put it that way, He Jueyun’s train of thought shifted.

It just went to show that people sometimes acted on strange impulses. Once you started down a questionable path, you had to keep driving down the detour.

He Jueyun’s mind raced, and he laid out his reasoning logically and systematically. “Your personal information has been severely leaked, and your fame and controversy are both rising. You’re right at the center of the storm. Finding a new, secure place to live won’t be easy. You can’t just buy a new apartment, can you? You’ll have to rent. But renting still makes it easy to leak your personal information. Don’t underestimate the extremists in this world. They have a thousand ways to dig you out of any corner. A single woman living alone with no combat ability is really unsafe.”

Qiong Cang merely smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Her sleep quality was very poor, and she couldn’t stand living with someone else, so she had no intention of staying at He Jueyun’s place. It was just that she felt truly exhausted right now and only wanted to find a quiet place to take a quick nap as soon as possible.

Sanyao’s games were mentally draining. She had been tense all day, and then she had been kept awake all night by a bunch of strange people. Now, she felt her brain aching from overuse.

He Jueyun continued, “I have to work during the day, so I won’t be home most of the time. No one will disturb you. The guest room is quite far from my bedroom, so we can keep our distance at night too. You can stay for a while until Sanyao cleans up the information online, and then look for a place that suits you. But you’ll have to do some cleaning. I don’t accept messy roommates.”

He Jueyun waited for a moment after speaking, but when he didn’t get a response from Qiong Cang, he turned his head to look. Only then did he realize she had her eyes closed, resting. He couldn’t tell if she was asleep.

He Jueyun’s lips twitched awkwardly. After driving past the intersection ahead, he pulled over for a moment.

The autumn morning air was still somewhat chilly. Qiong Cang was only wearing thin pajamas, wrapping her arms around herself to conserve body heat.

He Jueyun took off his suit jacket and carefully draped it over Qiong Cang.

Qiong Cang’s eyelids fluttered. She wanted to open them but didn’t.

Another half hour or so passed, and the traffic on the road noticeably picked up.

He Jueyun turned a corner and slowed down, preparing to enter the neighborhood.

His gaze fell outside the window, spotting a breakfast shop on the street. He was hesitating whether to pull over when a voice suddenly sounded in his ear.

“Where did you get this jacket?”

Startled, He Jueyun turned his head. He saw Qiong Cang with her eyes half-closed, holding his suit jacket and studying the cuffs. She even lifted it up to sniff it.

He Jueyun’s ears turned red. He looked away and said slowly, “…Sanyao issued it.”

Qiong Cang sighed with feeling. “Sanyao’s benefits are really great.”

He Jueyun said dryly, “Yeah.”

He drove straight into the neighborhood from the main road, completely forgetting what he had wanted to do just a moment ago.

Qiong Cang asked again, “What about this car? Does it cost money to borrow it? How much is this car?”

Pretending to be busy watching the road, He Jueyun muttered a few “mms”.

Qiong Cang raised an eyebrow. “Hmm?”

He Jueyun said, “It’s fine, it’s a free loan, an employee benefit. If you need to keep up appearances for a class reunion, we even offer a full package service.”

Qiong Cang sighed with feeling once more. “Your boss is really a good person.”

He Jueyun didn’t know how to feel about this praise; it felt a bit subtle. He went along with it and added, “Yes. Our boss is approachable, open-minded, practical, respects the company’s new blood, and can accept all kinds of bizarre proposals. Aside from being a bit harsh on his son, he has almost no other flaws.”

Qiong Cang smiled. “I can tell you respect him a lot.”

He Jueyun turned the steering wheel, heading into the underground garage. Catching her expression out of the corner of his eye, he asked casually, “Have you seen a photo of Sanyao’s boss?”

“No.” Qiong Cang didn’t seem very interested. “Most rich people don’t rely on their looks.”

He Jueyun cleared his throat and said meaningfully, “Sanyao’s boss’s son is quite handsome, and more importantly, he’s very charming. If there’s a chance, I can introduce you. Very few people dislike him.”

Qiong Cang nodded in deep agreement. “Isn’t that the truth? He’s a rare flower of wealth in this world.”

He Jueyun: “…??”

Qiong Cang said with heartfelt admiration, “He really is incredibly rich.”

He Jueyun: “…” This superficial woman.

He Jueyun parked the car, pulled the handbrake with force, and snatched his jacket back from her arms.

“We’re here!”

Qiong Cang: “?”

Brother Q could be really fickle sometimes. She didn’t even get a chance to coax him.

·

·

The place where He Jueyun lived was very close to Sanyao’s office. He also liked quiet, so he had bought both the upper and lower floors.

Ignoring the housing prices in this area, his apartment looked quite ordinary.

It was well-lit and simply decorated. Various trial electronic products from Sanyao were laid out on the tables and in the cabinets. Large pieces of equipment occupied almost every corner, but the overall layout was cluttered yet orderly.

Qiong Cang stood at the doorway, slowly changing her shoes.

He Jueyun walked into the living room and paced around. He was clearly bringing a girl home for the first time, and he felt a bit lost.

He turned around to look at Qiong Cang, who was standing obediently by the door waiting for instructions. Only now did he realize, with a start, that he didn’t feel the slightest bit of resistance to inviting a lady home and letting her disrupt his private life. It had nothing to do with work. It was simply unimaginable.

He must be going crazy.

He Jueyun scratched his head, and finally said a beat too late, “You must be tired. I’ll go make the bed for you first.”

He had spare beds in his home, which made it convenient for friends or employees to stay over. But while a bunch of men wouldn’t mind, Qiong Cang probably wouldn’t be comfortable sleeping in a bed others had used.

“No need,” Qiong Cang said softly, walking straight to the sofa and lying down. “I’ll just sleep on the sofa for a bit. I’ll skip lunch and leave tonight. You don’t need to worry about me.”

He Jueyun opened his mouth to speak, but seeing how exhausted she truly was, he held his tongue.

He went to the kitchen to pour a glass of milk. As he passed the living room, he instinctively glanced toward the sofa.

Qiong Cang lay motionless, her long hair splayed around her. He Jueyun stood there in a daze for a moment, realized something was off, and walked over to draw the curtains tightly, leaving no gaps. Only then did he tiptoe to the study and start working.

He Jueyun immediately opened the Sanyao Forum, logged in as a backend administrator, and began drafting an official announcement.

Around seven in the morning, a red-highlighted announcement was pinned to the top of Sanyao’s forum and official website. The wording was stern, and the stance was clear.

The statement declared that, after verification by Sanyao’s backend, a certain MCN company, driven by malicious competition, had deployed a large number of internet trolls online to spread false information. Not only did they leak the private personal information of an official Sanyao Player, but they also smeared her reputation. The methods were dirty and the impact was severe. If left unchecked, it would lead to unhealthy competition in the industry, which had drawn the serious attention of Sanyao’s management.

From now on, Sanyao would sever all cooperative relations with the enterprise and blacklist it permanently. The signed artists under the company would also have their safety ratings lowered until their contracts were terminated.

This single action was enough to cause an industry earthquake. Sanyao’s tough stance made netizens cheer, but when they scrolled down, they found there was more.

In the second half of the statement, He Jueyun briefly described the incident where Qiong Cang’s home was splashed with paint in the middle of the night. The perpetrators were the family members of the deceased whose “character image” had collapsed due to the plot setup of 【Case Analysis】. He highlighted the harrowing experience of a woman living alone being harassed by four people in the dead of night. He also stated that the plot arrangements of the Instances were strictly reviewed by officials, warning the public not to cause trouble for the Instance participants, or else Sanyao reserved the right to sue.

Connecting this to the doxxing incident from the night before, netizens immediately realized that the person harassed was Qiong Cang, while also matching the identities of the other villains one by one. Those who woke up early and read the entire statement started their day filled with rage. They bumped the thread while cursing furiously.

“Are they insane? Don’t they know what kind of trash they are? Now that they’ve been exposed, they actually went to cause trouble for the Player?”

“The decision-maker who leaked Qiong Cang’s home address deserves to die too. Have they no self-awareness? Is she even your competitor? Did you try to suppress the expert to show off your power, and then force her to sign with you? Do you think Sanyao is dead?”

“Brainless capitalists causing trouble again.”

“No wonder. I was wondering why so many internet celebrities jumped on the bandwagon to make sarcastic remarks after that rumor-mongering post came out yesterday. What kind of people are they? Every single one of them. Brothers, avoid them like the plague. 【Image】”

“Sanyao’s response time was really fast. Thumbs up. I hope they can guarantee her safety in the future. I’m counting on you to protect my wife.”

“They had to be fast, the perpetrators are already at the police station. It’s a total disaster out of nowhere. I feel so sorry for my poor fairy sister.”

“Can I get a refund on the money I donated before? They were clearly scamming us, that wasn’t my intention.”

He Jueyun scrolled through the comments, closed the screen with peace of mind, and stretched.

·

Qiong Cang originally thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep. After all, it was daylight now, and the busy sounds of the day were about to start. Based on past experience, she could only stay awake in such an environment. Unexpectedly, her mind grew hazy, and she quickly drifted off.

She could hear the sound of He Jueyun walking on the floor, the crisp clicking of his keyboard, and the sound of his distinct voice speaking in hushed tones.

Everything around her was full of life. Instead of irritating her nerves, that vitality actually calmed her down.

Half-asleep, she felt He Jueyun walk over. He supported her head with one hand, pulled out the arm she was using as a pillow, slipped a small pillow under her head, and covered her with a thin blanket.

Qiong Cang felt it, but she was too tired to move.

By the time she woke up completely, it was nearly noon.