Chapter 43: A Very Satisfying Deal
Gao Ming watched as Cheng Fei turned around and walked toward the bathroom door with the expression of someone marching bravely toward death.
He followed behind her, but before leaving, he opened a drawer and grabbed a roll of clear tape and a shopping bag.
Outside the bathroom, Cheng Fei had already mentally prepared herself to end up soaked while helping him bathe.
But Gao Ming only took his own pajamas from her hands and said seriously,
“If you were a real woman, there’s no way I’d let you escape tonight.”
“Well then, thank you very much for your great kindness!”
“No need to thank me. Bowing and kowtowing will be enough.”
“......”
Seeing her standing there stiffly like a wooden pole without saying anything, Gao Ming suddenly felt much happier.
He shut the bathroom door and left Cheng Fei outside.
“You bastard.”
Cheng Fei silently mouthed the words.
She wanted to go upstairs, but she was afraid Qin Yi would start nagging her again, so she dragged over a small stool and sat outside the bathroom, ready to help whenever needed.
She had no choice.
After all, Gao Ming was injured, so the whole family was treating him like an honored guest.
Late at night, a gentle breeze brushed past the treetops.
A few meows sounded out as Bread the cat walked energetically into the yard.
Cheng Fei whistled, wanting Bread to come over so she could pet the cat for a while.
But…
Bread only glanced at her, slowly walked to the wall, jumped onto the top of it in one smooth motion and ran away.
Even the cat treated her like this now. What dignity did she still have left?
At this moment, Cheng Fei did not want to talk.
She did not even want to think.
She only wanted to sit quietly by herself.
Haha…
Wait, wasn’t that obvious? She already was alone!
After resting at home for several days, she had almost done every embarrassing thing possible. Her dignity and pride had practically dropped to the level of worthless paper.
Although she had once worked in sales and often had to lower herself for customers, that at least came with good money.
Besides, Cheng Fei felt that even if she ran away in the future, she would never starve.
Thanks to Gao Ming, she had developed yet another new skill.
Being a maid.
Time passed slowly.
Life in Fuxian moved at a relaxed pace, unlike big cities that constantly pushed people forward without rest.
But their real life was in Yunzhou, not here.
Still, if Gao Ming ever had to choose a place to retire in the future, he would not hesitate to settle down in this small county town.
Goodbyes were always sad.
Whenever moments like this came, Cheng Fei could not hold back her emotions.
Maybe that was simply the difference between men and women. She felt that her control over emotions was far weaker now than before.
The tears gathering in the corners of her eyes again and again were the best proof.
…………………………………
“Dad, Mom, I’ll come pick you up later.”
“No need. We can just take the bus later.”
“The car I drove back is parked at the road entrance. I’ll let my dad drive it later.”
“Alright, alright. It’s getting late. Hurry and get in the car,” Lu Shengdong urged “heartlessly,” afraid the goodbye would drag on forever.
Cheng Fei forced herself to smile, but tears still slipped out from the corners of her eyes.
Realizing she was about to lose control, she hurriedly turned her head away to hide it.
This trip home had felt very different. Compared to every previous visit, her attachment to this home felt much stronger now.
“Dad, Mom, we’re leaving,” Gao Ming said before getting into the car too.
After fastening their seatbelts, it almost felt like a farewell ceremony.
Bread the cat jumped down from the car hood and kept meowing at them.
Cheng Fei waved her hand, turned the steering wheel sharply, and drove away cleanly.
But she still could not stop the tears building inside her. At some point, her eyes had already turned red.
Gao Ming handed her a tissue.
Cheng Fei glanced at him quietly, stopped the car, grabbed the tissue, wiped her face roughly, then angrily threw the used tissue out the window before driving straight toward the highway entrance.
By the time the towering buildings of Yunzhou appeared before them again, it was already deep into the night.
The SIM card Cheng Fei had thrown into the trash before running away had actually been picked up by Gao Ming.
The moment he inserted it back into the phone, an overwhelming flood of messages nearly caused the phone to freeze on the spot.
Zheng Qi, Bai Xi.
Bai Xi, Zheng Qi.
Mixed in were messages from Miao Lei and Liu Zhi too.
“Little Feifei, where exactly did you run off to?”
“Feifei, it’s time you returned a call.”
“Little Feifei, even honeymooning should have limits. Aren’t you afraid you’ll wear yourself out? Think about the future too. That man still has to stay with you for half your life. Don’t become a ‘juice-squeezing machine’!”
“Cheng Fei, this is the last warning. CALL. ME. BACK!”
…………………………
There were countless messages like these.
Her disappearance for an entire week had nearly driven the two women who cared about her crazy with worry.
But strangely, just as things seemed about to reach the point of calling the police, all the nonstop calls suddenly stopped two days earlier.
Cheng Fei immediately sensed something suspicious. She subconsciously looked toward Gao Ming, who seemed to be asleep.
Maybe her stare woke him up, or maybe he had never been sleeping at all and was only pretending.
In a sleepy voice, he muttered, “I already told them in advance, so don’t thank me.”
Fine. He had already explained clearly where she went, yet when he returned the SIM card to her, he still wore that worried expression like he was carrying all her troubles himself.
“Thank you soooo much…”
Cheng Fei forced out a fake smile.
Gao Ming copied her expression perfectly.
“…my ass!”
As soon as she finished speaking, Cheng Fei grabbed Gao Ming’s bandaged left hand.
She did not squeeze too hard, but for someone whose wound was still healing, the pain was absolutely terrible.
Gao Ming glared at her and breathed heavily for quite a while. But knowing he was partly in the wrong, he decided not to argue further.
Meanwhile, Cheng Fei looked at the incoming group video call from Bai Xi and suddenly felt numb all over.
If she answered, she would definitely get yelled at.
If she did not answer, the two women would probably come looking for her tomorrow morning.
After thinking it over, she chose the lesser evil.
She accepted the call.
The moment the video connected, furious shouting exploded from the screen like two starving lionesses spotting prey.
“CHENG FEI!”
“Little Feifei!”
“Sisters, can you spare my life for now? I already made it back to Yunzhou! I’m driving on the overpass right now!”
Cheng Fei quickly interrupted them.
To prove she was telling the truth, she turned the phone toward the road outside the car window.
“Believe me now? I’m really not lying.”
“Fine!”
“We’ll deal with you later!”
“Okay, okay! Punish me however you want. Private room on the second floor of the Kailisha Hotel. I already booked it.”
Beep!
The two women hung up at the exact same time.
Now Cheng Fei truly felt nervous.
Facing those two lionesses later…
Would she even survive with her body intact?
She could not help but start thinking about the possibility of running away again.
“A friendly reminder,” Gao Ming suddenly said beside her, “don’t get any funny ideas.”
Cheng Fei glanced sideways and met his eyes.
She was the current Cheng Fei now, not the same person who had signed that agreement before.
Forcing someone to do things they hated was wrong no matter how you looked at it.
In business, people could throw away morals for profit. But as a person, doing that was shameless.
The more confident and fearless Gao Ming was in the business world, the more guilty he felt facing her right now.
He no longer wanted to keep forcing her like this. And there was only one solution left.
“Stop being angry,” Gao Ming said softly. “It’s bad for your health.”
“Think about those words again after someone kidnaps you and uses your past against you,” Cheng Fei replied coldly.
“I know what I did wasn’t right. So in the future, I’ll try my best to compensate you.”
Cheng Fei had one very obvious weakness.
Simply put, she had been poor for too long.
Whenever she heard about money, her eyes would light up automatically, her heartbeat would speed up, and her body would react instinctively.
One obvious sign was that her ears would stiffen slightly and perk up.
“Compensate?”
Back when they signed the agreement, had it not clearly said “unconditional”?
And Gao Ming had agreed to that himself.
So why suddenly change his attitude now?
Did he really grow a conscience?
Bullshit.
Cheng Fei could guess his purpose almost immediately. He simply wanted to keep her stable and stop her from running away.
After all, chasing after someone was tiring and troublesome.
Just look at this trip alone.
First he sat in front of a computer carefully checking videos one by one. Then he drove hundreds of kilometers from Yunzhou to Fuxian.
Luckily everything went smoothly.
If anything unexpected had happened, even someone as energetic as Gao Ming would have suffered badly.
Still…
There would be money involved, and the offer he painted was just too tempting.
Maybe she should agree first and think about the future later.
As for escaping?
There was still plenty of time in the future. Her legs belonged to her, after all. Sooner or later she could probably trick him into paying early and then—
“H-how much?” Cheng Fei asked carefully.
“Six million. Plus a fully furnished 150-square-meter apartment in Jiangxin Residential Area.”
For a moment, Gao Ming only heard music from the car speakers. The person beside him had gone completely silent.
When he turned to look, Cheng Fei’s eyes had widened dramatically.
She stared straight ahead in shock. There was no normal expression left on her face anymore. Her eyes practically turned into giant floating money symbols.
“Hey! Watch the road!”
Gao Ming shouted.
Only then did Cheng Fei’s mind return to normal.
But all her irritation had completely disappeared. Now her face was filled with strange excited smiles instead.
“R-really? You’re not lying to me, right?”
Her trembling voice made it obvious how emotional she was.
Even though she knew Gao Ming’s personality fairly well, she still could not stop herself from asking again to confirm it.
Gao Ming shook his head.
Then he typed everything they had just discussed into text and even signed it personally using a handwriting pen.
Holy crap!
Six million in cash, plus a luxury apartment worth another four million!
She was rich!
Three years of this deal meant she would earn over three million per year.
With her own abilities, even if she worked until her brain exploded, she could never make that much money.
Unless she sold every organ in her body one by one.
With this money, she could skip at least ten years of struggling.
Later she could open a small business, bring Lu Shengdong and Qin Yi over to live comfortably with her, and enjoy life peacefully.
Gao Ming already knew money worked well against someone obsessed with wealth, but he had not expected it to work this well. She did not even hesitate.
“Alright then, dear sir, please rest assured. I will safely deliver you to your destination.”
Gao Ming closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
She was hopeless.
Completely hopeless.
At first, Cheng Fei drove happily like she had won the lottery. For the first ten minutes, she was practically floating with excitement.
But not long after, she remembered where they were heading and why.
The excitement was still there, but much weaker now.
Like someone walking toward execution, she nervously continued driving.
Originally she had driven steadily at eighty kilometers per hour, but without realizing it, her speed had dropped to fifty.
By the time they arrived, she almost got out of the car trembling.
The truth was, Zheng Qi and Bai Xi simply cared about her too much.
But right now, Cheng Fei was genuinely scared.
It felt like the fear of a child who had done something wrong and was afraid to go home and face angry family members.
For a moment, she even felt confused about herself.
If she still had the same original goal as before, getting close to them as a “best friend,” enjoying attention from both sides, and secretly taking advantage whenever possible, then she would never feel this nervous.
Maybe deep down, she had already accepted them as true friends.
And that was why she was afraid they would be truly angry.
After all, Zheng Qi and Bai Xi genuinely cared about her.