Chapter 1281: Chapter 742: Climbing Over the Wall to Escape? Deceived and Cheated Out of Love and Money? (Part 3)

After Si Yushan finished speaking, Si Qingxiao was stunned...

Not... not leaving?

Si Qingxiao originally thought that since she had no place to stay here, her dad might leave after dinner. Now what should she do?

"Sir, the documents are still in the car. I’ll go get them." Helper Yuan said and walked out.

"Dad, you smell like alcohol. Do you want to take a shower?" Si Qingxiao glanced at Jiang Chengsi’s phone case still in the living room, but her dad hadn’t noticed it yet.

"Alright, I feel sticky, it’s quite uncomfortable."

While Si Yushan was in the bathroom, Si Qingxiao tossed Jiang Chengsi’s phone case to him. She could only feel relieved that Jiang Chengsi had been staying in her room recently, with his suitcase and some clothes and personal items, or else if her dad saw them, she’d be done for.

"Find a chance and leave quickly," Si Qingxiao whispered. "My dad isn’t leaving tonight."

"But I..."

How was he supposed to leave?

Just as Jiang Chengsi was about to speak, Helper Yuan returned and noticed Si Qingxiao standing in the corner of the courtyard, giving her a second glance, "Xiaoxiao? Why are you standing there not going inside?"

"It’s nothing, Uncle Yuan. Let me help you with that."

Si Qingxiao had never done anything sneaky in her life.

She could already imagine if her father found out that she came to Pingjiang under false pretenses and had a man hidden at home, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The main thing was, she wasn’t ready to introduce Jiang Chengsi to her father.

Caught off guard, it felt like they were being walked-in on.

And after Helper Yuan brought in the documents, he kindly...

Locked the door.

If Jiang Chengsi tried to sneak out and unlock the door, the latch would definitely make noise.

Moreover, the lock at Si Qingxiao’s place was quite special, unlike ordinary locks. Otherwise, the first night he stayed here, he wouldn’t have been stuck in the courtyard the next morning.

How could he leave? He couldn’t just squat there all night.

Finally, he turned his gaze to the top of the wall—

For these self-built courtyards, the walls weren’t very high.

When Jiang Chengsi was in school, he had once skipped class by climbing a wall to go online, yet he never thought this skill would come in handy nearing the age of 30.

...

Once outside, he had nowhere to go, and his documents were all still with Si Qingxiao, so staying at a hotel wasn’t an option. He could only take a cab to the Tang Family mansion.

But it turned out no one was home that night at the mansion.

He knocked on the door for a long time, and only Hua Mei responded from inside.

At that moment, he was so confused, not understanding how he’d ended up in such a situation, being responded to only by a bird.

There was always someone at the Tang Family, so what was going on tonight?

Jiang Chengsi called Jiang Jinsang, but no one answered, and it was the same with Tang Wan. His phone battery was low, so he didn’t dare to keep calling, nor did he dare to turn on his flashlight. He could only squat at the door, waiting.

Could it be that no one from the Tang Family would return tonight?

He knew the Tang Family also had a place downtown, where Tang Yunxian stayed before the divorce. Could they all have gone there?

Jiang Chengsi took a deep breath; this was maddening!

When unlucky, even cold water seems to chip a tooth.

He never dreamed Si Yushan would show up out of the blue.

**

Jiang Chengsi waited at the door for about an hour, before finally seeing figures from the Tang Family.

They spotted a silhouette sitting under the porch light from afar.

In the dim light, surrounded by a few fluttering bugs, Jiang Chengsi’s figure looked lonely and desolate.

"Isn’t that... Fourth Brother?" Tang Wan was the first to recognize him, "Why has he... come back?"

"Grandpa Tang, Uncle Tang." He hurriedly stood up to greet them.

"Chengsi, what are you doing at the door?" Old Tang inquired.

Jiang Chengsi smiled awkwardly, thinking if he could go inside, he wouldn’t be squatting at the door, would he?

Nanny Huang quickly took out keys to open the door. After everyone entered, they noticed that Jiang Chengsi returned alone and was wearing dirty clothes.

The wall top wasn’t cleaned daily, and people rarely climbed over, so it was quite filthy. Naturally, his clothes got covered in dust.

The old grime, Jiang Chengsi tried for ages but couldn’t wipe it off.

In this state, he looked quite pathetic.

Old Tang scrutinized him, and not knowing where he’d been recently, seeing him return in such condition, he cautiously inquired, seemingly afraid of distressing him:

"Chengsi, tell Grandpa, have you been scammed?"

"Or dragged into some pyramid scheme?"

"Have you been bullied? Don’t be afraid; tell Grandpa what happened."

...

The neighborhood committee frequently educated the elderly on avoiding scams. The old man, knowing this, mostly thought of pyramid schemes, having heard they control people and don’t let them leave—if caught trying to escape, they might be beaten.

"No, nothing’s wrong." Jiang Chengsi couldn’t bring himself to tell them the truth.

"Alright, Wanwan, quickly find him some clothes and let him freshen up. We can talk later." The old man assumed he was embarrassed to speak and didn’t press further.

But as Jiang Chengsi went to shower, he pulled Jiang Jinsang aside, exhorting him for ages, asking him to keep an eye on Chengsi, considering they’re brothers, some things might be easier to discuss.

The old man seeing him like this thought he had been cheated out of money and affection.

After all, among the Jiang brothers, he had the simplest nature.

Jiang Jinsang nodded in agreement.

...

When Jiang Chengsi came out of the shower, he found Jiang Jinsang sitting in his room.

"Why are you here?" Jiang Chengsi was feeling stifled inside.

"Heartbroken, did she throw you out?"

Jiang Jinsang could only think of this, otherwise, why would he come back at this hour, looking so disheveled? "But why are your clothes so dirty? Did you guys have a fight?"

"What nonsense!" Jiang Chengsi snorted, "We’re doing fine."

"Then what’s going on with you? Coming back so late, and looking like that?"

"What do you mean by looking like that? I was dressed properly, okay."

Seeing him still having the energy to argue, Jiang Jinsang guessed that they hadn’t broken up. If he were really heartbroken, with his temperament, he’d throw himself out entirely, without the energy to bicker.

"So, what’s up with you then?"

"Don’t ask."

"I don’t want to ask, but if you don’t tell me the reason, I can’t cover for you. Do you want me to tell Grandfather that you fell on your own walking in the dark? Grandfather is worried something happened to you; he’s ready to call the police."

Jiang Chengsi understood the old man’s concerns. Ordinary excuses wouldn’t fool Jiang Jinsang, so he decided to just tell the truth.

"If I tell you, you better not laugh."

"I promise."

"Mr. Si came over, and I climbed over the wall to escape." Jiang Chengsi felt embarrassed just thinking about it.

No one would believe he nearly broke a leg because he hadn’t climbed a wall in ages, and his hand got scratched; the more he thought about it, the more humiliating it seemed.

In this day and age, crawling over walls to escape is hard to believe.

He felt disgruntled inside, and as soon as he finished speaking, he heard Jiang Jinsang’s laughter.

"Jiang Xiaowu!" Jiang Chengsi was furious, "You promised not to laugh, do you have to laugh so loudly?"

"Fourth Brother, I’m just curious, what are you afraid of? Why did you run? At most, it’s just meeting the father-in-law early. You said he liked you and encouraged you to pursue Miss Si, so why were you running?"

Jiang Jinsang couldn’t hold back.

How is it that his love life is full of these amusing incidents?

"..." Jiang Chengsi was a bit dumbfounded.

"You guys probably weren’t doing anything secretive at the time, so why were you hiding? You made yourself look like a thief."

Jiang Chengsi started to reflect after hearing that.

It made sense; he wasn’t that much of a disgrace, yet why was his first instinct to run when he knew it was Si Yushan coming over?

He didn’t even know what he was afraid of!

Utterly absurd.

When Jiang Jinsang came out of his room, he told Old Tang that Chengsi had been staying at a friend’s house and had a small conflict, but it was nothing major.

Old Tang trusted Jiang Jinsang, and since Jiang Chengsi was fine, he didn’t ask further.

Jiang Chengsi, feeling vexed in his room, possibly because Si Yushan was there, couldn’t call Si Qingxiao; they could only communicate through messages.

He still didn’t know why he ran!

Just as he was about to reply to Si Qingxiao’s message, he suddenly heard Tang Wan’s laughter coming from the East Courtyard—

He gritted his teeth in anger!

Jiang Jinsang, you damn thing, you spread it everywhere, didn’t you?

You just wait...

The old man was easy to fool; Tang Wan knew the truth and didn’t believe the story about a fight with a friend. Jiang Jinsang must have told her the truth.

Tang Wan laughed so hard she almost cried.

"I’ve been to Miss Si’s house; their walls are pretty high. It’s quite incredible that Fourth Brother managed to climb out. Luckily, he’s tall; otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have made it." Tang Wan held back her laughter, "By the way, he can’t go back to the Si Family. Should Fourth Brother return to Beijing with us?"

"His documents are with Miss Si; he’ll need them before he can do anything."

...

The next morning, just as the rooster began to crow, the old man prepared to go out for his morning exercise and found a suitcase left at the doorstep.

It belonged to Jiang Chengsi; he recognized it.

This kid, did he leave the suitcase outside last night?

It was dark when he returned last night, so it might have been left behind. The old man didn’t think much and brought his suitcase back.

With his documents in hand, Jiang Chengsi couldn’t stay at the Si Family. Si Qingxiao informed him that she might be heading south with her father for a few days, so he had to follow Jiang Jinsang and others back to Beijing.

Upon opening the suitcase, he found that Si Qingxiao had neatly packed everything for him.

And at this time, he also noticed that the box he hid at the bottom had been moved.

His mind exploded once again.

Oh crap—

She saw it!

She must think he carries such things around with him, always with dirty thoughts in his mind.

...

So on the way back to Beijing, Jiang Chengsi remained down in the dumps the entire trip.

Even after arriving back at the Jiang Mansion and seeing the old lady, he still appeared crestfallen.

This left the old lady puzzled; how did he end up so depressed after a short trip?