Chapter 162: In Front of the Bar

On the way to drive Du Xinyan home, Zhao Fan grew increasingly annoyed by her endless nagging. The moment she stepped out of the vehicle and the car door slammed shut, he drove away immediately.

Caught off guard by the suddenly moving car, Du Xinyan staggered forward and turned back with a look of sheer disbelief in her eyes.

"As expected of someone who hangs out with Yang Yuqing—both of them are utterly ungrateful wretches!"

The more Du Xinyan thought about it, the angrier she became, stamping her feet furiously in rage.

Just at that moment, another car sped past her, whipping up her clothes with a gust of wind and forcing her to stumble forward a few steps.

"Thud!"

Du Xinyan tumbled to the ground. Once she scrambled back to her feet and realized what had happened, she flew into a furious rage.

"Which blind idiot drives this fast? Are you in such a rush to get reincarnated?"

Meanwhile, Zhao Fan had no inkling of the events unfolding behind him. Not long after driving away, his phone rang with a call from Yang Yuqing.

"Hello, hello? Zhao... Zhao Fan? Where are you? No, wait... where am I? Sob, sob... Zhao Fan, my head hurts..."

On the other end of the line, Yang Yuqing's words were completely disjointed, punctuated by heavy sobs.

Frowning, Zhao Fan asked, "Where are you?"

"Huh? What?" Yang Yuqing reacted sluggishly on the other end. "Where am I supposed to go? I want to... I want to go home."

Zhao Fan pinched the bridge of his nose. "I asked where you are. Tell me, you—"

Before he could finish, a deafening blast of music erupted from the receiver, shocking Zhao Fan's ears.

A few minutes later, the background noise finally subsided.

"Hello? Excuse me, are you Mr. Zhao Fan?"

Someone else had taken over the phone—a woman with an extremely gentle voice.

Zhao Fan grunted in confirmation. "It's me. May I ask where the owner of this phone is?"

"A bar. The Blue Bar."

The Blue Bar? Yang Yuqing actually went to a bar!

Realizing this, a nameless anger flared up inside Zhao Fan, though he quickly forced it down.

"Could you please give me the exact location?"

"Alright..."

Half an hour later, Zhao Fan arrived at the Blue Bar. As soon as he stepped out of his car, he spotted two figures beneath the bar's neon sign—one sitting with her face buried in her knees, and the other standing, holding a mobile phone that was still engaged in an ongoing call.

Throughout the drive, Zhao Fan had kept the line open to maintain contact. Now, matching the scene before him with the situation, his gaze fell upon the standing woman's hand, and everything clicked instantly.

"Hello, I am Zhao Fan. May I have your name?"

"Liu Jirou." The woman stated her name and ended the call. "Good evening, Mr. Zhao. This is the owner of the phone."

At the same time, the call screen on Zhao Fan's phone displayed that the conversation had ended.

"Thank you so much for looking after her, Miss Liu."

"You're welcome."

Beneath the dim lighting, Liu Jirou's smile was remarkably gentle, matching her voice and instantly putting people at ease.

Zhao Fan cast a casual glance at Liu Jirou. She was not the sort of woman whose beauty took one's breath away, but her entire presence radiated a soothing comfort.

She was a rare kind of woman.

After exchanging a few brief pleasantries, Yang Yuqing, whose face was still buried in her knees, suddenly snapped her head up.

"Zhao Fan!"

Her voice was piercingly loud.

Zhao Fan paused slightly and instinctively looked over. "What is it?"

Yang Yuqing raised her face, whimpering, "I feel awful, sob, sob, sob..."

No sooner had those three words left her mouth than Yang Yuqing burst into fresh tears.

Seeing her tears stream down endlessly, Zhao Fan had no choice but to squat down and reach out to wipe them away.

"What are you crying for?"

Zhao Fan felt utterly helpless. Ever since he had known Yang Yuqing, he had never seen her in such an emotional state.

"It hurts."

Yang Yuqing batted his hand away and began scrubbing frantically at her own face. She rubbed so hard that her skin turned crimson within seconds.

Watching this, Zhao Fan felt a surge of emotion and instinctively grabbed her wrists, pinning her hands down. "My dear young lady, you're rubbing your own face, not washing dishes. Control your strength."

If she kept scrubbing like that, she would end up ruining her complexion.

Zhao Fan thought his intervention was for her own good, but in Yang Yuqing's eyes, this act of care felt overbearing. Before she knew it, her tears fell even faster.

After a brief moment of silence, Zhao Fan found himself flustered and at a loss.

"Hey, why are you crying? Did I do something wrong? Or did I..."

Standing nearby, Liu Jirou watched the scene unfold with a hint of amusement in her eyes. Silently, she put down her phone and turned to walk away.

Youthful romance, she thought, always carried an inexplicable entanglement. Still, the two of them looked quite well-matched—at least in terms of appearance, there was nothing to fault.

Preoccupied with managing Yang Yuqing, Zhao Fan failed to notice Liu Jirou's departure. By the time he finally managed to calm the crying girl down and looked up to find the other woman gone, he felt a momentary flicker of surprise. However, he had no time to ponder it, as Yang Yuqing started weeping all over again.

This was peak business hours for the bar, and Yang Yuqing's loud crying drew the gazes of numerous passersby. Seeing a stoic man squatting before a weeping woman, the men looked indifferent, while the women cast looks of utter contempt.

"Making a woman cry like that—he doesn't look like a real man at all."

"Exactly, exactly..."

Hearing the whispers of the passersby, the corner of Zhao Fan's mouth twitched uncontrollably. If he weren't completely certain that he and Yang Yuqing shared no romantic entanglement, he would have... well, forget it. There was no use arguing with the ignorant.

Glancing at Yang Yuqing, who was still bawling, Zhao Fan abandoned all thoughts of gentle persuasion. He scooped her up in a bridal carry and bundled her straight into his car.

"Ah, ah, ah! What are you doing? What are you doing? Zhao Fan, you..."

Yang Yuqing struggled desperately, instantly attracting even more stares from the crowd.

Zhao Fan patted her back and sighed. "Stop shouting. If you yell any louder, people are going to mistake me for a human trafficker."

Influenced by Yang Yuqing's protests, the surrounding glares grew sharper by the second, as if the onlookers wanted to slice him to pieces with their eyes alone.

Whether it was because Zhao Fan's words finally registered in her booze-addled brain or not, Yang Yuqing's struggle abruptly ceased, allowing him to successfully deposit her inside the vehicle.

Originally, Zhao Fan intended to drive Yang Yuqing back to the Yang family estate. However, midway through the journey, the previously intoxicated girl suddenly sobered up.

"Zhao Fan, where are you taking me?"

Glancing through the rearview mirror, Zhao Fan replied, "Taking you home."

Strange, why did Yang Yuqing suddenly seem completely normal?

Yang Yuqing shook her head. "I'm not going back to the Yang family."

Her words carried a strange undertone. Zhao Fan checked his surroundings and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"Why won't you go back? Did you have a fight with your family?"

Yang Yuqing lowered her gaze, her hands resting on her knees, twisting and interlocking continuously—a clear sign of her inner anxiety.

"Not really... I wouldn't call it a fight."

"Not a fight?" Zhao Fan looked at her intently. "You can tell me straight. I can't guarantee much else, but I am absolute when it comes to keeping secrets."

Looking up with a hint of hesitation, Yang Yuqing said, "I... I don't mean it that way. It's just that this matter is really hard to talk about with you."

Hard to talk about with him?

A subtle ripple stirred in Zhao Fan's chest. He smiled and said, "Then we won't talk about it. I'll take you to a hotel instead."

"Alright."