HBWMA -Chapter 224 He touched you… your leg?

After the trip to Golden Bay, everyone returned to Whale Harbor with Shen Zhuang, and only Shen Guiling stayed behind in South Bay City.

After a night of deep sleep, Jiang Huashan finally woke up sometime in the afternoon when the sunlight was gilded and bright.

Her brain had just booted up, her mind still hazy and unfocused.

At first, she only felt the sunlight was too harsh. Just as she raised her hand to block it, someone had already walked up to the bedside.

His shoulders were broad, blocking out all the light.

Against the light, his face was sharp-featured, handsome and composed.

“Shen Guiling?”

Shen Lanxi’s indifferent gaze turned colder.

“No.”

“Shen Qingyu?”

Shen Lanxi fell silent, then turned as if to leave. Suddenly, he seemed to think of something. His eyelids lifted slightly, his gaze calmly swept over the girl’s face, and he turned back again.

“……”

Jiang Huashan’s dazed expression instantly cleared. This young heir was the one who couldn’t tolerate even the slightest irritation—this trick usually worked every time. Why wasn’t it working now?

“Miss Jiang, you’re finally awake?!”

Zhang Ru had been running back and forth between the master bedroom and the kitchen countless times. At last, she saw Jiang Huashan open her eyes and immediately brightened.

She hurried over despite Shen Lanxi still being present.

“You’ve slept so long—you must be hungry, right? What do you want to eat?”

“Aunt Zhang?” Jiang Huashan looked around and realized she was already back at the embroidered building. She touched her stomach. “I want soup dumplings from Huaicheng.”

Shen Lanxi glanced at her.

“I knew it already. The buns are in the steamer. I’ll go heat them up now.”

With that, she nodded at Shen Lanxi and rushed out again.

Shen Lanxi was quiet by nature, and Jiang Huashan was used to it. She glanced at him sideways and took the initiative to speak.

“Why are you here? Where’s Shen Guiling?”

“He’s in South Bay.”

“In South Bay? What is he doing there? Why didn’t he come back?”

Shen Lanxi raised his eyes, his gaze calm and faint.

“Why are you suddenly so concerned about him?”

Jiang Huashan pouted. How could she not be concerned? He still had Bai Zheng’s files—if he wasn’t in Whale Harbor, how was she supposed to trick them out of him?

Shen Lanxi waited, but she didn’t answer. He just kept looking at her.

Jiang Huashan chuckled twice, then gave up entirely.

“I’m not suddenly concerned. I’ve always been very concerned.”

Anyway, everyone already knew she had been drawing comics for Shen Guiling. She might as well just go along with it.

A dark trace flickered across Shen Lanxi’s ink-black eyes.

“What happened between you and him in Bai Zheng’s room?”

Jiang Huashan frowned, her eyes full of caution.

“What kind of attitude is that? Interrogating me? Believe it or not, I’ll report you to Grandpa.”

Shen Lanxi glanced at her.

“Why do you think I’m the first person you saw when you woke up?”

Jiang Huashan clicked her tongue.

“Fine then. Ask.”

“Why did Bai Zheng capture you and A-Ling?”

“What else could it be? The whole banquet had only me and the social butterfly being the most beautiful. If he was going to catch someone, of course he’d pick us.”

“Did he mention who the accomplice was?”

“No.”

“……”

Shen Lanxi looked into her eyes.

“How did you kill Bai Zheng?”

“With a gun. He brought it himself. He was going to shoot us, but karma turned it back on him. Funny, right?”

Shen Lanxi couldn’t laugh.

“What I mean is, Bai Zheng was the Imperial Court’s Chief Magistrate. Ordinary people couldn’t even get close to him. What methods did you two use to make him drop his guard?”

Jiang Huashan answered without hesitation.

“I don’t know. Shen Guiling killed him. I was unconscious at the time.”

“There was a laptop in his room, but the data inside was automatically destroyed. Who destroyed it?”

“I don’t know. I was unconscious.”

“Was it him himself? Why would he destroy the data mid-way?”

“I don’t know. I was unconscious.”

Shen Lanxi nodded, his gaze drifting behind her, his tone casual.

“Why is your leg injured?”

“I don’t know. I—”

Jiang Huashan froze.

Only then did she realize.

The wound on her leg was just below her buttock. At such an awkward position, saying “I don’t know” would be basically the same as admitting someone had touched her there.

Her tone shifted instantly.

“Oh, I remember now. I was too scared at the time and cut it myself with a knife.”

“You yourself—”

Before Shen Lanxi could finish, Jiang Huashan cut him off.

“I also have a question. Did you find the secret room and rescue us?”

Shen Lanxi thought she was going to thank him and nodded slightly, avoiding her gaze.

Jiang Huashan immediately launched a counterattack.

“Shen Lanxi, you did it on purpose, right? I had a tracker on me—it already minimized search time as much as possible. Why were you still so late? Do you know if you had been one step later, I… I would’ve been dead!”

Shen Lanxi: “……”

“Don’t tell me you blocked the search again and stopped Fifth Uncle from boarding the ship, which almost got us killed? You really never change—you’re as cold-blooded as ever.”

Shen Lanxi’s face darkened instantly. Without a word, he turned and left.

Jiang Huashan secretly exhaled in relief.

Heh. Got him.

But before she could feel proud for long, Shen Lanxi suddenly stopped.

She immediately pulled back her smile.

He turned around and walked back to her bedside. Looking down at her, his eyes carried an unmistakable certainty.

“Shen Guiling touched you?”

Jiang Huashan exploded, jumping off the bed and pointing at his shoulder.

“What nonsense are you talking about? We—”

Shen Lanxi slowly added two words:

“Your leg?”

Jiang Huashan’s expression froze instantly. She slowly retracted her finger.

Shen Lanxi stepped closer, his gaze now carrying something unreadable.

“Now you understand? It’s not that Shen Guiling is smart—it’s that you’re too stupid.”

Jiang Huashan pursed her lips, then smiled.

“Got it. I’ll eat your brain next time.”

Shen Lanxi was silent for a moment, then turned and left the room.

Gao Zhi had been teasing the little wretch in the courtyard. Hearing Shen Lanxi’s footsteps, he quickly stuffed the creature into his pocket and followed.

“Young master, how was it? What did Miss Jiang say?”

Shen Lanxi paused, glanced back at the embroidered building covered in flower walls, and said calmly:

“Not a single word of truth.”

Gao Zhi looked sympathetic.

“Master, I told you this approach wouldn’t work. See? You just got yourself irritated again. Honestly, Miss Jiang has already maxed out the skill of provoking you.”

Shen Lanxi turned to look at him.

Gao Zhi immediately shut his mouth and nodded vigorously, his sunglasses sliding back onto his nose.