IMGH Chapter 19

I Want to Be the Person You Trust Most

After Jiang Yi hung up the phone, he quietly turned things over in his mind. Since Qiu Rui’s soul was trapped here, what had become of his physical body?

In films and television dramas, people who had their souls taken away ended up either dead or in a vegetative state. If Qiu Rui’s situation was the same, his family must be frantic with worry.

Over the past few days, Qiu Rui had never mentioned anything about his family. The things he had said were few enough that Jiang Yi could count them on one hand. The man Qiu Rui had asked him to contact today sounded young over the phone — so what was his relationship with Qiu Rui? His instincts told him that this person must be the most important one in Qiu Rui’s heart.

A trace of jealousy stirred in Jiang Yi’s chest, and the tangle of unanswered questions nearly suffocated him. Unable to hold back, he asked Qiu Rui, “Rui’er, who is this gentleman to you?”

“He is my private secretary — and the only person I can trust.” Qiu Rui’s voice drifted over from the floor-to-ceiling window, carrying with it a faint note of longing and hope.

The only person he can trust!

Did that mean he was also the most important person? Jiang Yi felt a prick of discomfort in his heart. He also wanted to be someone Qiu Rui could trust. He gazed at Qiu Rui’s profile silhouetted against the floor-to-ceiling window, and after a moment’s thought, he walked to his side. Fixing his eyes on him earnestly, he said, “Qiu Rui, this situation started because of me, so I will take responsibility. If there is anything you need help with, just say the word — I will spare no effort.”

A man who was usually flippant and careless, once he turned serious, became someone remarkably difficult to look away from. As their eyes met, sparks seemed to fly between them.

Meeting Qiu Rui’s gaze — bright and brilliant as a sky full of stars — Jiang Yi felt his heart race uncontrollably. The impulse to pull the man before him into his arms surged up all at once, and in that same instant, Jiang Yi froze.

He could not understand how he could have developed these kinds of feelings for Qiu Rui after knowing him for barely three days. Could it be that he liked him? Jiang Yi trembled from head to toe, and the look in his eyes as he stared at Qiu Rui shifted into stunned uncertainty.

Qiu Rui sensed the change in Jiang Yi’s gaze and looked away with a faint air of puzzlement. His tone remained calm and even as before. “Jiang Yi, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you for the time being. Once all of this is over, I will certainly repay you generously.”

With those words, Qiu Rui subtly and seamlessly drew back from the delicate, charged atmosphere that had begun to form between them. The polite distance in his tone sent a small, dull ache spreading through Jiang Yi’s heart.

Jiang Yi’s spirits sank. He forced the corners of his mouth into a smile as a response.

He sat in front of his computer but could not type a single word. No matter how hard he tried, he could not lose himself in the story — the image that kept surfacing in his mind, without exception, was Qiu Rui. Jiang Yi closed the laptop, lay down on the sofa, and stared up at the bright white ceiling.

I want to find someone who will move my heart.

It seems fate had already arrived quietly, without announcement. The formation that had trapped Qiu Rui’s soul had, at the same time, also ensnared his heart.

****

Lying in bed, Qiu Rui’s thoughts raced. The only person capable of tripping him up and dealing him such a silent, underhanded blow was one person — his cousin, Qiu Chen.

Qiu Rui’s suspicion was not without basis. Qiu Chen had a history of such conduct.

Long ago, Qiu Rui’s father had outmaneuvered Qiu Chen’s father within the family and claimed the position of head of the household, and from that point on the two branches had broken with each other and ceased all contact.

After his father passed away unexpectedly, a new successor should have been elected, but the Qiu family had few members, and the only eligible candidates were Qiu Rui and Qiu Chen.

Qiu Chen spent his days drinking, womanizing, and gambling, with no knowledge or ambition to speak of. The family’s internal members and the board of directors unanimously agreed that Qiu Rui should be the successor to both the family and the company. This drove Qiu Chen to hate Qiu Rui to the bone. He had schemed endlessly, devising countless plots in an attempt to bring Qiu Rui down. Time and again, out of consideration for their shared bloodline, Qiu Rui had held back and let things go — yet he had never imagined that the defeated Qiu Chen would resort to dark arts to trap his very soul.

Qiu Rui quietly reproached himself for not heeding Han Yuancheng’s warnings sooner and dealing with Qiu Chen once and for all, and for allowing the situation to deteriorate into the irreversible mess it was today. Fortunately, Han Yuancheng had not yet fallen into Qiu Chen’s clutches. The message Jiang Yi had relayed should have already reached him by now.

The Wellman China representative Jiang Yi had impersonated — Ryan — was a name that didn’t correspond to any real person. Ryan was the exclusive English name Han Yuancheng had given Qiu Rui, known to no one else. The collaboration with Wellman had not yet been made public, and only a handful of people were aware of it.

By passing along those two pieces of information, Jiang Yi had given Han Yuancheng — sharp and perceptive as he was — every reason to detect that something was amiss.

His parents were long gone, and Han Yuancheng was his only family. Qiu Rui silently prayed that Qiu Chen had not lost all reason to the point of harming Han Yuancheng. If the two of them could manage to meet in person, it would surely be enough to break through the dead end they now faced.

In the bedroom, Qiu Rui lay awake worrying about Han Yuancheng’s safety, and at the same time turning over in his mind how to eliminate Qiu Chen completely and put an end to the threat once and for all. He did not sleep the entire night.