The Scheming Ex-Husband's Courtship-Chapter 618 - 536 Being Followed

Chapter 618: Chapter 536 Being Followed
Jian Si hugged the bag in her arms tightly and quickened her pace.
But as she sped up, the person behind her did too; as she slowed, they slowed as well.
Her heart gradually began to feel uneasy, thinking about the three corpses in the district, the three linked murder cases, perhaps there weren’t just three people dead, there might be other bodies hidden somewhere.
This person had been following her, but when she got off the vehicle, she didn’t notice anyone at the entrance of the district. Could this mean that this person had always been hiding in the district, lying in wait for women returning home late?
Jian Si walked faster and faster, her right hand trembling slightly as she reached for her phone. Sensing her movement, that person suddenly started running, their heavy footsteps especially eerie under the night’s influence.
She fumbled for her phone while surveying her surroundings, wondering whether she should scream for help or run back to the security room. But what if she couldn’t outrun this "murderer"? What if they had a weapon and would slash down the moment she screamed?
Cold sweat dripped down Jian Si’s forehead, and at the same time, she got hold of her phone.
The footsteps of that person drew nearer. Jian Si hurriedly took out her phone, dialed a number without checking who it was, and while making the call, she started to run back.
The person clearly froze, not expecting her to turn around suddenly.
In the moonlight, Jian Si saw his face; he wasn’t very tall, under 5’7", about fifty years old, exactly as Nan Zhan had described before, but it wasn’t the worker who had repaired her wall initially.
Moreover, one of his hands was in his pocket, seemingly about to pull something out.
At that moment, the phone connected and a calm male voice came from the other end: "Hello?"
"Ah~" The call was abruptly disconnected.
~
After dinner, Nan Zhan returned to his room. In the Nan Family, there had never been such scenes of having meals and chatting in the living room. For Nan Hantian and Helan Ying, time was precious and wouldn’t be wasted on trivial activities like watching TV or chatting.
No sooner had Nan Zhan returned to his room and taken a shower than he heard a knock on the door, Helan Ying stood outside without coming in, holding a document, clearly still busy with work.
"A Zhan, I just mentioned Bingbing’s matter to you, you haven’t given me an answer yet."
"Do you mean Gao Ruobing?"
"Yes, our families had an arranged marriage, she is your fiancée. Although you’re busy, you should spend more time with her, girls need to be coaxed."
"Fiancée?" Nan Zhan clearly disagreed with this notion, "That was just a verbal agreement between you and Mrs. Gao, not only without any legal backing but also a primitive custom despised by modern society. Mom, as a law enforcer, you surely understand this, right?"
Helan Ying’s face turned stern, "What does marriage have to do with law? Gao Family’s vineyard has already achieved considerable scale, not only in Aus City, but also leading in the whole country. If we can become in-laws with the Gao Family, our combination of politics and business will make our position in Aus City increasingly stable."
Nan Zhan looked at his mother, whose makeup was impeccable. His maternal grandfather’s family was very wealthy from business dealings.
So what? Helan Ying held a high office, and Nan Hantian also had a non-negligible position in the political arena, but there was no love between them. That’s why Nan Hantian had a lover outside, that’s why Nan Yu existed.
Before he turned twenty, he was willing to follow their arrangements. But after turning twenty, he had already begun to plan his life on his own and did not need them to confine his personal freedom with their life goals.
"Mom, I don’t like Gao Ruobing, nor will I marry her," Nan Zhan said calmly, ignoring Helan Ying’s increasingly darkening expression, "I know what kind of woman I want to marry."
"You know? Then why don’t I see you bringing any women home? Apart from hanging out and eating with your buddies, can’t you do something to put my mind at ease? I heard Bai Chengxi is already married with a child, and you, still a bachelor. What’s wrong with Gao Ruobing? She’s beautiful, comes from a good family, I heard she has a nice personality too. You haven’t even met her and you’re already denying her a chance?"
"My opportunity is not for just anyone to demand." Nan Zhan shrugged, "She doesn’t qualify for it."
"You...." Helan Ying was so angered she was at a loss for words. She tightened the thin shawl over her shoulders, "Ultimately, I have the final say in this matter. Gao Ruobing is going to be our Nan Family’s daughter-in-law, whether you agree or not. I’ll arrange for both of you to register your marriage. As a descendant of the Nan Family, you should consider our family’s legacy; you have no choice in this matter."
After Helan Ying left, only then did Nan Zhan lie back down on his bed, casually flipping through a book.
No one could force him to do what he didn’t want to do!
The nights were always boring; he finished a book and it was almost midnight. He picked up his cell phone and looked at it, no messages from that woman.
He felt a bit annoyed—didn’t she care about how he hadn’t returned home yet late at night, wasn’t she afraid something might happen to him?
Humph, this woman is so cold and heartless, ungrateful.
Nan Zhan tossed the book aside, leaned against the headboard, closed his eyes, intending to doze off a bit, but unexpectedly fell asleep, and even had a dream. He dreamt of watching a child being born; he stood by the hospital bed surrounded by doctors and nurses. He heard the woman’s cries, which sounded agonizingly pitiful, followed by someone saying: "It’s a boy."
He wanted to see who it was, but those people blocked him from seeing, eventually, a little one wriggled out from the crowd, familiar eyebrows, familiar smile, it was actually Zhengzheng.
Nan Zhan was curious to see which woman was giving birth inside, when a sudden ringtone startled him awake from his sleep. He groggily picked up the phone and saw it was a call from Jian Si.
He cleared his throat, intending to scare her a bit by delaying, but still answered the phone insincerely: "Hello."
"Ah~" A scream came from the other end, and then the line went dead, but Nan Zhan could tell it was Jian Si’s scream. From his years of experience, she must have seen something horrifying or encountered someone terrifying.
She was in danger.
Nan Zhan quickly sat up in bed, didn’t even change his clothes, just rushed out wearing his casual home clothes.
He was driving while trying to call Jian Si back, but the phone remained unreachable.
After a moment of panic, he soon regained his calm. First, he needed to figure out where she was.
The days they spent together made him realize that Jian Si was a very home-bound woman, mostly working to earn money or staying at home cleaning, and hardly ever going out on weekends except occasionally taking Zhengzheng to his uncle’s house.
So at this time, she must be at home, or if not at home, somewhere nearby. Moreover, judging from the sound earlier, the echo did not seem like it was inside a house, but rather outside.
Thinking this, Nan Zhan fiercely pressed down on the accelerator.
~
Jian Si, running hastily, bumped into someone’s shoulder, and her phone flew out, heavily crashing onto a flower bed and turned off from the impact.
"Hey, miss, are you alright?" The man hurriedly tried to help her.
Jian Si, not knowing where she grabbed a stone and raised it: "Don’t come any closer, or I’ll really throw it, the stone won’t see anything."
The man paused, seemingly understanding something, and said with a wry smile: "Miss, I’m not a bad guy."
"Not a bad guy? Then why have you been sneakily following me?" Jian Si looked at his hand, which was always in his pocket, bulging as if it might be holding some weapon.
The man followed her gaze to his own pocket, suddenly pulled out his hand, frightening Jian Si so much she closed her eyes and screamed: "There’s...
"Miss, don’t yell, I’m a good person." The man took out a towel, "This is just for wiping sweat."
Jian Si widened her eyes as she saw the towel he took out; it really didn’t seem to be a weapon, but she was still puzzled: "Then why were you following me?"
Maybe the towel had some anaesthetic on it.
"I was just night running." The man explained, "I have a habit of night running. Today I went out with friends and came back late, but if I don’t run a couple of laps, I feel uncomfortable. I saw you walking in front and was afraid that if I suddenly ran past, it would startle you, so I just quietly followed behind you."
Jian Si rubbed her forehead, thinking, Uncle, you’d have been better off just running past, you almost scared me to death being "quietly" like this.
"What’s going on?" A security guard nearby, hearing the commotion, rushed over and greeted the man: "Isn’t this Li Dako?"
Li Dako quickly nodded: "It’s me, it’s me."
While they were talking, a beam of strong light shone over, followed by a sedan that drove briskly in, eventually braking next to Jian Si.
Jian Si, seeing Nan Zhan quickly stepping out from the car, was stunned for a moment, "You, you just got back too?"
"What?" Nan Zhan frowned.
Jian Si didn’t realize that her call had gone through, and to Nan Zhan at that. She thought his sudden appearance was just a coincidence of him also returning late.
"What happened?" When Nan Zhan saw her standing fine, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but his expression was sour.
"It’s all a misunderstanding." Li Dako hurriedly explained: "I was out running at night, but this lady thought I was a bad guy, scared and screamed, even alerted the security guard. I live in Unit 2 of Building 9, this security guard knows me."
Nan Zhan looked him over and then pulled Jian Si along: "Let’s go."
Jian Si was still skeptical, feeling that the occurrence was too coincidental.
She lowered her voice and said: "I think this old man is suspicious."
Nan Zhan glanced at her, directly picked her up and put her in the car, and unceremoniously closed the car door.