This forest hot spring not only had a golf course, but also a medium-sized horse ranch. Wen Xian didn’t make a fuss about wanting to ride a horse, but she curiously went to the stable to look at the horses.
Shen Lingge accompanied her by her side. Xiao Song and Duoduo were outside playing golf.
Although Wen Xian was curious, she didn’t dare get too close, only standing at the doorway, staring at a short-legged pony for a long time. That short-legged pony was pure white all over, only on its long, thick tail there was a faint brown color.
It drooped its head obediently, chewing on feed with white teeth.
Wen Xian blinked her eyes. She turned back to look at Shen Lingge standing behind her: “Shen Lingge, this little horse is so cute. What do you think its name might be? I think maybe it’s called Wen Xiaoxue.”
Shen Lingge: “……”
He glanced at that pony: “Why do you want everything you see?”
Wen Xian turned her head again and looked longingly at that pony. She really wanted to touch the pony’s fur. After looking for a while longer, she pulled Shen Lingge along as she walked away, still muttering in a small voice: “I don’t really want it, but our house really doesn’t have a little horse yet. We don’t have a little sheep either.”
Shen Lingge helpless: “Xian Xian, that little horse’s mother must also be here. If you take it away, it and its mother would both be unhappy.”
Wen Xian pinched his palm: “I know, I just think it’s really pretty. It really should be called Wen Xiaoxue.”
Shen Lingge reached out to rub her hair. He laughed in a low voice: “All the treasures in our Wen family are very pretty. Xian Xian is very pretty, Xianxian is also very pretty, Xiaoxue too.”
Wen Xian curved her lips, her voice happy: “Shen Lingge, let’s go eat some snacks. I want to eat oden and soup dumplings.”
Shen Lingge answered with a sound, then called over a sightseeing car.
The sightseeing car driver took them back to the hot spring hotel.
After Shen Lingge and Wen Xian left, beside the car parked under the shade of the trees, a driver wearing white gloves bent down to open the backseat car door. The man getting out wore expensive leather shoes and an exquisite, sharply pressed suit.
Although already nearing fifty years old, his face still looked handsome. His black hair was combed back, with not a single white hair in sight.
The man turned his head to glance at the stable Wen Xian had just been at. He turned around and stepped toward it.
Standing beside the stable were staff members. He asked in a warm voice: “Which horse was that girl just looking at?”
The staff member had a deep impression of Wen Xian. Seeing the man ask like this, he pointed at that snow-white short-legged pony: “She was looking at that one. But she didn’t go in, just looked from the doorway for a while.”
The man nodded, then set his gaze on that short-legged pony.
Not long after, the corners of his mouth hooked into a smile.
She is very cute.
…
After Wen Xian finished eating snacks and returned to the room, she flopped down onto the bed and didn’t want to move at all.
Seeing this, Shen Lingge walked to the bedside, squatted down, and helped her take off her shoes. Then he lifted her calves onto the bed.
Wen Xian rolled into the quilt along with the motion and didn’t want to move anymore.
Shen Lingge looked down at her from above: “Even your clothes, you want me to help you change?”
Wen Xian turned over, blinking her eyes as she looked at him, her tone full of confidence relying on his indulgence: “I wouldn’t mind letting you help me change, do you dare? Hmm hmm hmm? Say, do you dare or not?”
Shen Lingge: “……”
Shen Lingge took the sleepwear out from the suitcase, threw it onto the bed, and stopped bothering with Wen Xian. She would play around on the bed by herself for a while and then obediently go to sleep.
He moved his computer and sat in a corner of the room, starting to work.
Wen Xian lay on the bed, quietly glanced at Shen Lingge. Seeing him start to work seriously, she quieted down and didn’t make a fuss anymore.
After changing into sleepwear, she burrowed into the quilt, rolled around a few times, and then stopped moving. She had gotten up early today; not long after, she hugged the quilt corner and fell asleep.
Shen Lingge lifted his eyes and looked at the already sleeping Wen Xian. Her condition these past two days had gotten much better; at night she very rarely had nightmares now. And this change happened after she was frightened by Song Mingxi that day.
During the time when she was injured, while she was awake, she rarely cried like that. Only when it hurt would she hold onto him and sob for a while.
Wen Xian was still trapped in the rainy night from four years ago. She had never been able to walk out from that night.
Thinking up to here, Shen Lingge couldn’t help but think of Zhao Chengshan. His two bank cards had both received huge transfers. The card he gave to his parents contained Wen Group’s compensation money. The funds in the card he gave to Jiang Zhenzhen were transferred through overseas accounts.
Although Shen Lingge had not yet found out the identity of the person behind it, this matter couldn’t be unrelated to the Chang family.
Chang Ligu had set up a scholarship at Licheng University. Zhao Chengshan had relied on that scholarship to finish his four years of college. So Chang Ligu and Zhao Chengshan already knew each other long ago.
Then what was the Chang family’s motive?
Four years ago, Shen Lingge had looked at the financial status of that company under the Chang family in Licheng. There hadn’t been any abnormalities. But thinking back now, maybe there were still things he hadn’t uncovered.
A few months ago, the investigation team sent to check on the plane crash personnel had already returned. The cause of the plane crash wasn’t just encountering bad weather. At that time, there were also people who had tampered with things inside the plane.
Perhaps, originally, they could have survived.
The person who tampered with things was obviously Zhao Chengshan.
Shen Lingge had once promised Wen Xian that he would investigate everything clearly. He knew she had always kept this matter in her heart. But this recent kidnapping had made her even more uneasy.
He let out a light sigh. Once he figured out Zhao Chengshan’s motive, he planned to tell Wen Xian about all of this.
Shen Lingge felt a faint sourness in his heart. His Xian Xian had suffered too much.
—
The moon rose above the treetops.
Wen Xian, wrapped in a bathrobe, walked out together with Duoduo. In the long wooden corridor, there were only the two of them. Walking outside was the open-air hot spring, further up were the private wooden house hot springs.
Wen Xian held her phone in her hands and tilted her head to ask Duoduo: “Duoduo, did you see that new person added in our group chat?”
Duoduo replied: “Saw it this afternoon already. The one with a dog as the profile picture. Can’t access their Moments. When playing golf I asked Xiao Song, he said it’s someone added to play games with us tonight.”
Wen Xian propped her chin and muttered: “Then I hope he’s a big boss. Otherwise, I’ll turn on mic and scold him.”
While they talked, the two of them walked outside the corridor. The place wasn’t repaired like it was deep in the forest; lights with soft glows lit up the steps and the wooden houses. A slightly cool night wind blew past.
Wen Xian unconsciously tightened her bathrobe a little.
Before she even walked up the steps, she saw Shen Lingge standing not far from the steps. He was wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, the bathrobe outside draped on casually, chest muscles and abdominal muscles faintly visible.
Seeing her come out, he walked down the steps and reached out to hold her hand.
On these steps, there was all steam vapor; looking up, it was all a hazy scene. Faintly, one could see people sitting in the pools at different heights. Tall pine trees stood silently to the side.
Xiao Song and Duoduo had gone off elsewhere to play. Shen Lingge held her hand and walked toward the higher wooden house.
Wen Xian tugged at her bathrobe, glancing around everywhere. She even saw a coffee shop in the woods.
Under the night, warm light shone through the glass windows into the night outside. Inside the shop, apart from the staff, all the people coming and going were wearing bathrobes.
The pool inside the wooden house was very big. Wen Xian turned her head and looked at the sign standing there — this was a red wine bath. The display on the stone wall showed the temperature here: 39.8 degrees Celsius.
After Shen Lingge took off his bathrobe and hung it up, he turned around and the scene he saw was Wen Xian carefully leaning at the pool’s edge, sniffing the scent of the water in the pool. He helplessly walked over and pulled Wen Xian up: “Careful not to fall in.”
Wen Xian got up, threw her bathrobe onto a chair to the side, and went into the water. The slightly hot water instantly wrapped around her, and Wen Xian let out a comfortable sigh.
But Shen Lingge sat a little distance away from her.
She opened her bright, watery eyes and stared at him for a while before shifting her gaze away.
One wall in this wooden house was hollowed out; leaning against the pool’s edge, one could see the scenery of the forest wilderness. Under the boundless night, scattered lights burned, and within the pool, mist swirled.
The bushes outside the house, under the lighting from inside, even the water vapor on the leaves was clearly visible.
Wen Xian pointed at a slanted camellia flower and said: “Shen Lingge, take a picture of me. I want a photo with this flower. Take it so I look good, got it?”
Shen Lingge was silent for a moment, then silently took her phone and got ready to take a picture.
After Wen Xian posed, she curved her lips and looked toward Shen Lingge. But Shen Lingge, looking through the camera, didn’t move for a long time. Today she was wearing a handmade pink and white lace one-piece swimsuit.
On both her slim shoulders were tied butterfly knots, the lace circle at her chest was a faint pink, and further down was semi-transparent white gauze, dotted with a few pearls and small butterfly knots.
Wen Xian’s figure was already good; now she stood right in front of him.
Everything within his sight was her. Her bright eyes in the frame met his gaze; the background and camellia behind her were all blurred in Shen Lingge’s eyes. He only steadily looked at the person in the frame.
Maybe she got a little impatient waiting; she moved slightly, softly complaining: “Shen Lingge, you’re so slow, I’m tired from standing. Did you finish taking it?”
Shen Lingge’s gaze was dark as he pressed the shutter, not even caring if he had taken her clearly. After taking the shot, he shoved the phone into Wen Xian’s hand, and immediately the sound of water splashing was heard.
It was Shen Lingge getting up out of the pool. He casually picked up the bathrobe: “I’ll go to the coffee shop and buy you something to eat. Do you want coffee or milk tea? Bread or cake?”
Wen Xian didn’t even lift her head as she replied: “Milk tea and bread. Milk tea has to have red beans and ice cream. Bread, don’t want sweet ones.”
Shen Lingge frowned slightly. He definitely wouldn’t give her ice cream.
After Shen Lingge left, Wen Xian opened the album to check the photo Shen Lingge took for her. She originally thought since he took so long, even if not dozens of shots, there should at least be a dozen. But when she opened it, there was only one lonely photo lying inside.
Wen Xian, not very happy, tapped to open the photo. What greeted her was a whole patch of mist. Her figure was even shot with a ghosting effect, plus the forest behind her, in the photo she looked like a wandering soul that had left her body.
Neither human nor ghost.
Wen Xian: “……”
If she ever let Shen Lingge take pictures again, she really would be a dog.
Wen Xian put down her phone, feeling bored as she waited for Shen Lingge to come back. She leaned against the stone wall, cupping the water in the pool and playing with it for a while. Not long after, footsteps sounded outside the wooden house.
Wen Xian was slightly stunned. Shen Lingge had only left for a few minutes—he was already back this quickly?
Under the night, a man wearing server attire slowly approached the wooden house holding a bottle of champagne and a wine glass. The closer he got, the faster his heartbeat became. By the time he reached the doorway, he actually felt faintly nervous.
She was right inside.