Chapter 673 - 452: Car Accident (2)

"Because young people tend to be shortsighted. You think you’re in control of the future, but in reality, it’s murky and completely uncertain.

By then, it’ll be too late to regret, won’t it? I’m not saying this to lecture you; I’m saying it because I’m worried."

After listening to his father’s long-winded speech, Chen Yuan deliberately waited a moment before answering.

He didn’t want to seem rash or like he hadn’t given it any thought.

"I’ve given it serious thought, and I won’t have any regrets."

"Alright. I respect your decision. Let me talk to your adoptive parents first, and then I’ll get back to you."

...

BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...

Chen Yuan hung up the phone and let out a long sigh.

Marriage really wasn’t a matter for just two people. No matter how capable or resourceful he was, he couldn’t handle it all by himself.

No matter what he was like to the rest of the world, in front of his parents, he was still just a child.

Perhaps only after he was actually married and began to handle things more capably would his family finally believe he could stand on his own and let him manage his own life.

In any case, he had finally summoned the courage to tell his family.

’If this is settled, then Jiangg Yao will be my fiancée...’

After a relationship of over a year, reaching this outcome was a way for Chen Yuan to finally be at peace with himself, no longer tormented by his conflicting thoughts.

Beneath the overcast sky, the driver saw that Chen Yuan had finished his call and sped up a little, reaching the city proper in no time.

Ten minutes later, a message came back from Jiang Zhengfeng.

The message read: "I’ve informed your adoptive parents. We’ll set a time to meet next week. Bring the girl from the Jiangg family with you, and we’ll all have a meal together."

...

Once in Mingzhu City, Chen Yuan learned that the two sisters were done with their work and heading home. His fingers flew across the screen as he texted Jiangg Yao to let her know he had arrived, too.

The three of them agreed to meet at the Resource Planning Bureau first. They would hand the prepared documents over to the local director to officially dissolve Meiruxue Company’s business license, and then they’d all go grocery shopping before heading home.

Chen Yuan planned to wait for them at the entrance to the Bureau. He’d dismiss his driver and take over as chauffeur for Ningning and Yaoyao.

"Wait for me in the city outskirts tomorrow. When I call, pretend you’re taking me to the airport. If Jiangg Ning or Jiangg Yao ask, just say I’m going to Linzhou. Don’t blow my cover."

"Understood, Director Jiang. What should I say about when you’ll be back?"

"If I’m held up, I’ll be back in the evening. If not, I’ll be back in the afternoon."

On the way to the Planning Bureau, Chen Yuan gave the driver careful instructions.

He was keeping something from the sisters, but it wasn’t some malicious scheme. Chen Yuan had pulled some strings and was going to visit his prospective mother-in-law at the detention center tomorrow—not as a relative, but in his official capacity as a member of the Jiang family.

This way, no one would be the wiser.

Besides, Chen Yuan had no way of explaining this to Ningning and Yaoyao.

Jiangg Ruxue might be their elder, but now that Chen Yuan knew so much of the past, he couldn’t possibly treat her with his former respect. He was even more afraid she would try to leverage her daughters’ relationship with him to stir up trouble.

Chen Yuan already had a plan for how to handle her.

Most importantly, he had expended so much effort to get her out of this mess. He needed to make her understand that he was only helping because of Jiangg Ning and Jiangg Yao. He hoped that once Jiangg Ruxue was released, she would stop causing trouble, stay quietly at home, and cut all ties with the business world for good.

The other matter was the marriage.

Whether he and Jiangg Ning ended up together or not, they would all be family one way or another. It would be impossible to hide their three-way relationship from Jiangg Ruxue forever; with her personality, she was bound to sniff something out eventually.

It was better to tell her himself and prevent her from getting the wrong idea and causing more problems.

He wanted Jiangg Ruxue to know that the sisters had someone to rely on now. She could no longer push them around as she pleased, mother or not.

...

A short while later, the car he was in drove smoothly onto East Lingjiang Road, stopping at a red light.

Dark clouds gathered and stacked in the sky, casting the entire city in shadow. Headlights flickered on, their beams mingling with the red and green glow of the traffic signals at the intersection.

A fine, drizzling rain began to fall, pattering softly as it slicked the car’s black paint.

The windshield wipers swung back and forth.

Chen Yuan was looking at the road ahead when he happened to glance over at the adjacent lane and spot a dark red Porsche up ahead.

He watched it for a moment, a smile playing on his lips.

The sisters weren’t driving fast. He’d managed to catch up to them with just a few blocks left to the Planning Bureau.

"I see you," he texted Jiangg Yao.

...

"Where? The young master said he sees us."

At the intersection, Jiangg Yao, in the passenger seat, looked up from her phone. She scanned the rows of stopped vehicles, trying to spot which one Chen Yuan was in.

Jiangg Ning couldn’t help but look around curiously as well.

But the sky was dark, and a light rain was falling. With countless vehicles stopped at the intersection, how could they possibly spot him so easily?

"We’ll see him at the entrance after we drop off the documents anyway."

"True."

Jiangg Yao shrugged, glanced around a few more times, then looked away.

...

Suddenly, the light turned green.

Instantly, the stopped cars surged forward, flowing into their respective lanes like a receding tide.

Tires crunched over dead leaves and loose pebbles, splashing muddy water as the once-congested intersection cleared in an instant.

Chen Yuan’s car was diagonally behind Jiangg Ning’s, in a different lane. Even after the intersection, traffic was too heavy to merge closer, so he just told the driver to take it slow and keep following them.

Just then, his mind drifted to Ningning and Yaoyao’s offer to take him to visit their father’s grave, and he grew lost in thought.

During the Qingming Festival a while back, Jiangg Ning had returned to Mingzhu City, presumably to visit the cemetery. The Jiangg Family’s troubles hadn’t started yet, and he’d known very little about the sisters’ family life back then.

’No wonder Ningning had been so unhappy when she got back from Mingzhu City.’

As he was lost in thought...

Suddenly, without warning, an old sedan shot up from behind. Its high beams were on, piercingly bright in the rain, and it was moving incredibly fast. The light momentarily blinded Chen Yuan’s driver, who instinctively slowed the car.

For a brief half-second, Chen Yuan frowned, raising a hand to block the reflection in the mirror.

He hadn’t even processed that the light must have turned red behind them. How had that car followed them through?

Worse, after clearing the intersection, the car just kept accelerating. It swerved across two lanes as if out of control, its horn blaring a continuous, piercing HONK HONK.

It was chaos.

Other drivers were probably cursing the out-of-control car as they swerved to get out of its way.

In the gray rain, the sedan’s tires spun wildly, kicking up a spray of muddy water. It shot past Chen Yuan’s car like an arrow loosed from a bow, charging ahead recklessly. In that instant, Chen Yuan froze.

He could only watch, his eyes wide, as the out-of-control car slammed into Jiangg Ning’s dark red Porsche just ahead of them.

HOOOOOOONK—

The driver, stunned, slammed on the horn in a desperate attempt to warn them.

Just half a second later.

A tremendous bang shattered the night’s quiet.

BANG!

The acrid smell of burnt rubber filled the air. A deep black skid mark was seared into the pavement. The rain continued to patter down.

Chen Yuan’s mind went blank with a deafening ROAR.

He stared in disbelief at the scene before him. Half-mad, he fumbled with the door handle, then stumbled out of the car and sprinted toward the Porsche, which had smashed through the guardrail.

"Ningning! Yaoyao!!" Chen Yuan shouted as he yanked at the caved-in car door.

Wreckage from both cars littered the ground, some of it scattered as far as the roadside greenery.

The front half of the old Ford sedan was now a heap of scrap metal, its hood buckled upwards. Seconds after coming to a stop, thick smoke began to billow from it.

Its driver scrambled out of the car.

Several other drivers had also pulled over.

"Hurry up and help me open this door!"

Chen Yuan roared, his voice raw, pouring every ounce of his strength into prying at the door. Veins bulged on his forehead from the strain. His efforts were met with the tooth-aching SCREECH of stressed metal.

For an instant, it was as if the world had fallen silent.

The silence was broken by the wail of approaching sirens.