SES Chapter 143 Part 2

Luo Ren sneered, “If life’s full of risk, did you buy insurance for yourself?”

Jinhua’s heart pounded. The man who’d seemed calm at the door was now completely shadowed, his eyes glinting cold and dangerous — like he might pull a knife at any second.

I’m in trouble, she thought.

Her company had trained them for this: In dangerous situations, stay calm, stay compliant. Survival comes first.

“I—I did,” she stammered. “Clients trust you more if you… if you’ve bought it yourself. If we don’t, why would anyone believe in us?”

Luo Ren’s brows knit tighter — so Mu Dai and Yi Wansan came all this way just to talk about… insurance?

“If you don’t believe me,” she said carefully, “I still have my sales materials…”

She edged a hand toward her bag, then froze at his glare. “I swear, there’s nothing else in there. No spray, no knife — if you don’t believe me, check it yourself…”

He snatched the bag and pulled out a folder of plastic-bound documents.

Flipping through them, he saw rate charts, policy outlines, sales scripts — and lines marked in red pen, complete with motivational notes.

Failure once doesn’t mean you’ve failed forever. Don’t lose heart.
Success requires patience!
One day, the people who look down on me will see my worth.

Luo Ren looked at her again — then at her bag.

Everything about her was a bit of a show: the cheap knockoff purse, the generic clothes. She was a woman from a small mountain village trying to survive in the city, clinging to her pride, refusing to bend or break.

If she hadn’t hurt Mu Dai — if she really had just talked insurance — then what he’d done just now… wasn’t right.

He let go of her and stepped back. “You’re saying all you talked about was insurance?”

Sensing the shift in his tone, Jinhua relaxed and nodded quickly. “Yes, yes, really!”

She showed him her phone. “That girl even gave me a number afterward — said her brother handles her money…”

She opened the contact — then froze, realizing too late what she’d done.

Three hits in one shot.
That’s what it felt like — as if three arrows had raked through his brain before one drove straight through his chest.

Luo Ren almost laughed — his lips twitched, then tightened again.

Jinhua saw the change in his face but stayed silent. Somehow, she thought, he didn’t seem like a bad person after all.

“And then?” he asked.

“There was no ‘then,’” she said honestly. “The girl wanted to see the bride. Qingshan asked Aunt Qi to take her in. They talked for a bit, then she came back out. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I went home.”

That was it — the whole story.

Luo Ren stood silent for a while. On the frosted window, faint shadows moved — Jinhua’s sister-in-law, bouncing the baby, tiptoeing to peek inside. She hoped, silently, that this man had nothing to do with her sister-in-law.

“…Sorry,” Luo Ren said at last. “Looks like I was wrong.”

Jinhua blinked in surprise. It took a moment for it to register before she waved her hands. “No, no, it’s fine! Really!”

Her expectations had been low — as long as he didn’t stab her, she’d count herself lucky. But an apology? That was almost touching.

Luo Ren gave a faint smile and turned to leave. When he opened the door, the sister-in-law quickly turned away, rocking the baby and pretending she hadn’t been eavesdropping.

“Don’t let the kid get wet,” Luo Ren said as he passed.

She said nothing, only watched him go — then hurried inside, pressing Jinhua for details. “Big Sis, who was that guy? Did he come just to see you?”

Jinhua busied herself gathering her papers, ignoring her. When pressed again, she finally muttered, “No one.”

The threshing ground was noisy and full of life. Nearly every able-bodied man in the village was there, pounding stakes, tying poles, climbing high to hang red banners. Against the gray sky, bright sheets of red fluttered in the wind.

Luo Ren sat at the edge of the field. A group of kids ran by, shrieking with laughter. The one leading them dragged a broken umbrella — the ribs scraping lines across the dirt.

It was the same umbrella he’d thrown away.

He smiled faintly, lowered his head, and closed his eyes, forcing his thoughts to settle.

The louder the world got, the quieter his mind became.

Caojiatun — it should’ve just been an ordinary village.

Forget Cao Yanhua for a moment — Mu Dai and Yi Wansan had barely been here long enough to offend anyone, hadn’t even shown their stance or purpose.

Mu Dai’s conversation with the bride, Ya Feng, had been brief — Aunt Qi was with them the whole time. That meeting was nothing more than an introduction, a polite exchange.

So how could things have gone so wrong? And all three — one after another?

Unless it was all a setup. Someone had lured them here deliberately, only to strike. Cao Yanhua, Mu Dai, Yi Wansan — they probably never even realized they had enemies until the moment it was too late.

Who was behind it?

The Leopard?

No — it didn’t fit his style. The Leopard liked to make him watch things happen helplessly, sometimes even telling him the plan beforehand. Everything is out in the open, not hidden like this.

Then… Xiong Jian?

Maybe. Starting from Xiang Silan, signs of cooperation between Xiong Jian and humans had begun to surface. But Xiang Silan’s schemes had always been sloppy, full of holes.

Perhaps this one was smarter.

But here was the real question: how did it know Mu Dai and the others were enemies?
Could the shaman have been right — that Xiong Jian could somehow communicate with each other?

And more importantly… who was carrying it now?

Qingshan’s house was quiet. Aunt Qi sat by the door, needle and thread in hand, mending a pair of pants.

The men were all out working; someone had to stay home to keep the bride company.

But she was old — half blind, half deaf.

Luo Ren dropped silently down from the back wall. She didn’t even notice.

Not that it mattered if she did. He could always knock her out — he just didn’t want to hurt an old woman if he could help it.

The bride’s room was easy to spot. A bright paper cutout of dragons and phoenixes was pasted on the wooden door. Through the glass panes, he could faintly see a shadow moving — someone bent over, busy with something.

The door wasn’t locked. Luo Ren slipped inside.

Ya Feng sat on a small stool at the foot of the bed, bent over, gently stroking a pair of red wedding shoes on the floor.

Hearing the noise, she lifted her head blankly.

Her eyes were distant — she didn’t even seem surprised to see a stranger. “Who… are you?” she asked softly.

Luo Ren stepped closer.

Had she been abducted? Maybe. Maybe not.

She looked harmless — a gentle, frightened girl. He almost felt bad about scaring her.

He crouched down in front of her. “I’m looking for someone,” he said.

“Looking for someone?”

“Yes. First, a chubby man named Cao Yanhua, Qingshan’s cousin. Then, a young woman, Aunt Qi, brought her in to meet you. You two talked for a bit.”

Ya Feng’s face slowly changed. Her eyes flickered with awareness, her breathing quickened, chest rising and falling sharply. She looked toward the window, then back at him, terror in her eyes.

“Go,” she whispered.

“Go now. Don’t look for them. If you don’t leave soon… it’ll be too late.”