The Lost Lamb's Trap - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Stars

Duan Jiayang was grateful that she was the one driving today; otherwise, there would have been an accident.

The car moved slowly, and unfortunately, every single light was red.

Lin Ke reminded her, “I’ll drive later. You’ll get pulled over by the police if you keep driving in this state.”

Duan Jiayang didn’t switch with her and insisted on driving. They were both already late.

Since they were already late, she didn’t mind being a little later. Lin Ke went around from the back to the front passenger seat. Lin Ke’s lips landed on her cheek. Duan Jiayang didn’t move at first. A moment later, she lowered the car seat, lay it flat, and re-buckled her seatbelt. Lin Ke climbed on top of her to kiss her, in case someone passed by and saw them having an affair.

Their lips and tongues intertwined. Duan Jiayang ran her fingers through Lin Ke’s hair, letting out a repressed, muffled groan. She closed her eyes, her hand stroking the back of Lin Ke’s neck, full of regret and frustration. When Lin Ke first kissed her, she should have resisted to the death. But now that kissing had become a routine, she could no longer push Lin Ke away.

She wished she could die with Lin Ke.

Her mind went blank from the kiss. She held Lin Ke’s hand and placed it on her chest.

Lin Ke gasped for breath, lifting her head. Their wet gazes met. She unbuckled the black seatbelt on Duan Jiayang. Her fingers released the buckle, and the black strap bounced off her limp body.

She leaned into her ear and whispered, “Binding yourself won’t keep you from crossing the line?”

At 10 a.m., Lin Ke, wearing a white suit and heels, clocked in at the office. Even though Director Lin was late, her presence was still intimidating. Duan Jiayang turned and went to the pantry next door.

Duan Jiayang called her dad and asked him directly what he said yesterday. Duan Litian repeated what he had said.

Lin Ke hadn’t lied to her.

The problem was that she didn’t know if Duan Litian knew there was someone in her room yesterday.

Duan Litian said calmly, “I’ve arranged everything. If you really want to get away from her, do as I say. Don’t procrastinate.”

Duan Jiayang opened her mouth, but her dad seemed to have predicted what she was going to say. He countered with a soul-piercing question, “Do you have any other good ideas?”

Duan Jiayang was choked up. Her mouth silently closed. Her dad said, “Duan Jiayang, if I were you, and she was harassing me, I would have gone abroad long ago. I wouldn’t even want to see her.”

Duan Jiayang said, “So I should run for the rest of my life? If I leave, will she work for you?”

Duan Jiayang had a bit of cleverness, but she didn’t use it for the right things. Just like the last time she told her dad she would get Lin Ke to be her sugar baby, she left him speechless.

“No, Duan Jiayang, I’ve noticed you have a talent for arguing with me.”

“Don’t argue with me when I’m trying to come up with a solution for you. You’re so stubborn. I’m doing this for your own good. Do you really want me to spell it out? Dating, getting married, finding a new partner… which one can’t make her give up?”

In a way, Duan Jiayang believed his words, “for your own good.” She said, “So that’s how you tormented my mom’s love.”

She heard a grinding sound on the phone. Duan Litian’s anger flared. “I don’t owe your mom anything! What do you know! If you weren’t my daughter, I would’ve killed you long ago! Don’t be so conceited!”

He angrily hung up the phone. Duan Jiayang leaned against the tea cabinet, feeling scared.

Before, she and her dad had a good relationship. At that time, Duan Jiayang didn’t mention her mom, and he didn’t mention Lin Ke. She was a simple, unambitious employee at the company, and he happily attended banquets to find out if the person he liked was single.

The two of them acted like a loving father and daughter.

Duan Jiayang pressed her temples. They were throbbing and hurting.

Everyone in the office was busy with their own work. Duan Jiayang sent a message to Yang Ruiqi. The makeup products she had asked her to find a few days ago were ready, and she had gotten a discounted price for her.

Yang Ruiqi was busy and just said thank you.

Several hours later, she said, “Your clothes are very nice. Are they the same brand as Director Lin’s?”

Duan Jiayang looked down. They were indeed from the same brand and series. Lin Ke was good at picking things. In a way… she was also good at picking things.

During lunch break, someone knocked on the door. Duan Jiayang didn’t really know them. She squinted her eyes at the ID badge. It was someone from Human Resources. Her dad was… so quick.

The HR person took her to the next room to talk. There were two other people inside, whom she introduced as assistants. She asked Duan Jiayang if she wanted to go see the translation department and choose a comfortable office for herself.

After chatting for twenty minutes, Duan Jiayang returned to the office. She had no work and was idle. She turned on her computer. Lan Yao had sent her a message.

Lan Yao: “Can I pick you up tonight?”

Duan Jiayang’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, pressing down and then deleting, deleting and then pressing again, over and over.

She looked at the office. Lin Ke’s door was open, but she wasn’t inside.

Two hours later, as Duan Jiayang was about to leave, Lin Ke came back. Not long after, she went out again. This time, she came back with a box in her hand and placed it on Duan Jiayang’s desk.

Her movements attracted the attention of several people, who all stared at the box on her desk.

Duan Jiayang leaned back in her chair, not opening the box. She curled her fingers and bit the leopard head on her ring.

She had a good temper and was rarely seen with a cold expression. But now, her eyes were fixed on one spot, filled with bitterness and hatred. Her skin was very pale, and her lips were painted a bright red. When she was angry, she had a kind of arrogant indifference. She bit her lip several times, finding everyone unpleasant and looking extremely hostile.

Noticing Xiao Li opposite her secretly looking at her, Duan Jiayang frowned. “Is there something you need?”

Xiao Li quietly looked away.

Yang Ruiqi clicked her tongue at him and said, “Keep your eyes to yourself, or you’ll go blind.”

Lin Ke went into her office and didn’t come out again. Duan Jiayang tapped her fingers on the keyboard, stuffed the box into her bag, left early, and walked straight out of the company.

The weather was still hot and stuffy. It was still a while until evening.

She slung her bag over her shoulder and went to a bubble tea shop. The desserts at this shop were good, but the prices were ridiculously high. Duan Jiayang felt like a fool for eating alone. She was annoyed and scrolled through the news on her phone.

Duan Jiayang thought of a small thing. When she and Lin Ke first started their ambiguous relationship, she was terrified. She searched online for what would happen if stepsisters were overly intimate. She found a very explicit story.

A younger sister coveted her gentle older sister. When the older sister got married, she kidnapped her and did this and that with her in the new house, with no morals or boundaries.

She asked herself honestly, at seventeen, she wasn’t a pure as a blank slate. She occasionally read stories about domineering CEOs. But this one was too shocking. While others found a new world, she read the whole thing and felt the world was collapsing. She closed the door to that world. The world was about to explode.

Later, as an adult, she found a few tricks in it and realized it had a little bit of educational value.

Now, she looked for it again. The novel that had once amazed her, now she only found the writing to be moving.

Duan Jiayang looked up, took a sip of her coffee, and was about to leave. When she turned to get her bag, she saw the person behind her and was startled. “Lin Wan, are you crazy?”

Lin Wan had appeared silently, without Duan Jiayang noticing. Lin Wan looked at her with extreme disgust. She sat down opposite Duan Jiayang.

The two of them had only met briefly once, and they hadn’t run into each other since. Their meeting today was because Lin Wan had been staking out the place for a few days and finally saw her alone.

“You’re still reading things like that? Isn’t it disgusting?”

Duan Jiayang sat lazily, looking like a defiant villain. She also exuded malice and said, “It is disgusting. But isn’t your daughter head over heels for me? I told her not to contact you, and she won’t even tell you where she lives.”

Lin Wan’s face changed. The loose skin on her cheeks, a result of aging, trembled. Duan Jiayang slowly moved forward, propping her chin on her hand, and pursed her red lips, sizing her up wantonly. “Aging is so scary. No man loves you now, do they?”

“Stay away from Lin Ke. Let her go,” Lin Wan clenched her fingers.

Duan Jiayang clicked her tongue and said, “Why should I?”

She crossed her arms and enjoyed watching her change, seeing her face contort with anger. Duan Jiayang was overjoyed.

Lin Wan said, “If you insist on being with her, then I might as well tell you. Lin Ke is just like your dad was back then. She’s only after your money.”

She scoffed, “Duan Jiayang, you don’t have the intelligence to play this game with her. You’ll lose everything you have. Think about what happened to your mom. I heard you were there when she died, and I heard she was as thin as a skeleton.”

Duan Jiayang’s weakness was hit again and again. She gritted her teeth. “Lin Wan, try saying that again…” She grabbed the teacup on the table. “Then I’ll play with your daughter while I’m still young and disgust you to death. I’m just playing with her to make her turn against you and hate you. If you hadn’t taken her away back then, we would have been together. But now, I haven’t even thought about being with her because you disgust me. And to be honest, I’m two-timing. I’m going on blind dates. As for your daughter, I’m not going to marry her, so how can she trick me out of my money? If my dad hadn’t given you a sum of money back then because you were old, you would be penniless.”

Duan Jiayang mimicked her dad’s words, acting like a jerk. “I won’t give Lin Ke a single cent. I’ll just drain her of her value and make her work for our family’s company for the rest of her life.”

“Did your dad teach you that?” Lin Wan was indeed furious. Her elegant artist image crumbled, and her face was so contorted that she looked like she wanted to kill someone.

Duan Jiayang said, “You and your daughter have been disgusting me for so many years. I should learn something, right? Otherwise, I would have eaten all that food for nothing.”

To disgust someone is to take what you’ve hidden in your heart, what you were unwilling to say because of your morals, and blurt it out. It’s not that Duan Jiayang couldn’t be disgusting, it’s just that various moral constraints prevented her from swearing.

If Duan Jiayang wanted to, she could also be a bad person.

She could be as decadent as she wanted, just like her dad said. Get married, have kids, find a new partner, and do whatever it takes to disgust Lin Ke. It was possible.

Lin Wan clearly didn’t have her old power anymore. Duan Jiayang was shameless, and she couldn’t do anything to her.

“Duan Jiayang, you…”

“What, you want me to stay away from your daughter, but you came empty-handed? Aren’t you going to give me some money or something? My monthly allowance is 1.2 million,” the mental math was a bit difficult. Duan Jiayang took out her phone. A message from Lin Ke came in. She slid the message away and opened the calculator. “14.4 million. I’ll round it down for you. Give me 10 million, and I’ll leave her.”

She probably didn’t expect Duan Jiayang to be so shameless. Her eyes were full of surprise, and she didn’t say a word for a long time. Duan Jiayang’s patience ran out. She took her bag and got up to leave.

Lin Wan turned sideways and pulled her phone out of her bag. This woman was recording. She said, “You better remember what you said. If you cling to Lin Ke shamelessly later on, I’ll let Lin Ke listen to this. No matter how good the relationship is, if she hears these words from you later, do you think it will last?”

Duan Jiayang reached into her bag, felt the box, slammed it on the table, and walked out.

Lin Wan didn’t move. She knew one thing for sure: as long as she brought up Duan Jiayang’s mom and kept mentioning her, Duan Jiayang would lose control, and she and Lin Ke would return to where they started.

Duan Jiayang had her own kind of wickedness, and Lin Wan had her own kind of malice.

Lin Ke was standing at the entrance. She must have heard everything Duan Jiayang said. Duan Jiayang walked past the counter, avoiding the chance to face Lin Ke directly.

Duan Jiayang didn’t know what was in the box. She hadn’t had time to look.

Lin Wan’s appearance had pulled Duan Jiayang’s guilt back to the edge.

She retreated to her boundaries and wouldn’t accept anything from Lin Ke.

Duan Jiayang got in her car, set the navigation, and was ready to go.

The car entered the lane and hit a red light. She had to wait for thirty seconds. The time was just right. Duan Jiayang looked at the dessert shop with a triumphant expression. Lin Ke and her mom were talking. Lin Wan took the box from the table and threw it on the ground.

The box rolled on the ground, and the contents rolled out.

Duan Jiayang’s gaze followed. Her fingers rested on the gear for a few seconds before she pulled them back.

It was a model of a small car.

This was the small car that had been on Duan Jiayang’s computer for the past few days, the one she had designed little by little every day. Lin Ke had… made the model?

The light turned green, and Duan Jiayang continued to drive forward.

She rolled down the car window, feeling a little carsick.

It might be a lingering effect from yesterday. She got out of the car and propped herself against a tree. The feeling was unbearable. She clenched her fists and punched the tree twice, hard. It hurt.

She blinked and spoke to the tree for a long time as if confiding in it. She took out her phone from her bag. It was almost time. Lan Yao had arrived for their meeting.

Maybe, her dad was right.

She always procrastinated and lost one opportunity after another.

Many people say that this world is about karma, but in reality, most people who do evil still live happy and joyful lives. Only those with bad luck face a bad end. Duan Jiayang belonged to the unlucky kind. Every time she did something wrong, she would immediately receive consequences and experience the bitter fruits of her actions.

In the restaurant, Lin Ke sat in the seat Duan Jiayang had just vacated. Lin Wan sat up straight, exuding a graceful elegance with every gesture.

Lin Wan said, “She’s playing with you, just like she did before. She doesn’t see you as a person at all; she’s just amusing herself, can’t you…”

“Amusing myself? I can tell the difference between amusing myself and something else.”

She looked at Lin Wan, her expression calm, showing no sign of the harm Lin Wan had caused her. But the calmer and more indifferent she appeared, the less she had truly let go.

“Did your boyfriend give me a chance to fight back back then? Did you give me a chance to tell on him? You beat me black and blue and wouldn’t let me cry. Wasn’t that amusing yourself?”

“The situation was different back then. Didn’t I send him to prison in the end? Life was hard back then. It was a last resort,” Lin Wan said mournfully, her tone full of helplessness. “Now, I want what’s best for you. Do you really want her to exploit you to death? I did my best to raise you because I wanted… you to have a good life.”

As people get older, they abandon their selfish desires. She had given everything to Lin Ke. Unfortunately, she could no longer control her.

“Why does it have to be Duan Jiayang? She treats you like that. Don’t you feel humiliated?”

Lin Ke had been very smart since she was a child. She was a fast learner. Lin Wan was proud of how outstanding and exceptional she was. She always thought Lin Ke would be an artist, or if not an artist, she would be better than those two people from the Duan family. But for the sake of Duan Jiayang, she was willing to debase herself.

Duan Jiayang perfectly demonstrated what it meant for two positives to make a negative.

Duan Litian went to a top university in his youth. He was the most handsome guy in school and at the top of his class. Duan Jiayang’s mother also studied at a top university in the United States. But their child failed tests and ranked at the bottom of her class.

Yet, it was this idiot who had her daughter so obsessed and crazy. She couldn’t understand it, nor could she let it go.

Lin Ke’s attitude did not soften. “If you really want what’s best for me, don’t interfere in my business. We’re getting better.”

Lin Ke was impenetrable. She didn’t listen at all.

Better? What was better about it?

“Look at yourself! You look like a mess! You threw away a great future in the US just to come back for her? She doesn’t even want to be with you!” Lin Wan’s words hit a nerve. Lin Ke suddenly looked up and stared at her, her expression grim.

As an adult, Lin Ke no longer relied on her for a living. She had broken free from her control and become a true beast. Even for her mother, she would show her claws.

“Tell me, are you after Duan Litian’s money?”

Lin Ke didn’t answer. She turned her head. Lin Wan raised her eyebrows in confusion, asking what she was looking at. Lin Ke turned back and calmly asked if she was finished. Lin Wan figured it out herself. Lin Ke thought Duan Jiayang had come back.

“Don’t come looking for me again.”

Lin Ke turned sideways and picked up the small car model. The car door was shattered. She gently played with the door, putting the car into her bag.

She stopped again, looking down at Lin Wan. “If it’s really like that, if she won’t be with me because you took me away, then…” Her thin lips mockingly uttered a few words. “Just think… you really deserve to die.”

“Lin Ke!”

“Stay away from me.”

Two days later, on a weekday, everyone in the office was talking about Director Lin’s upcoming business trip. The person she was going with was from the R&D department. They were going to Ta Shan.

Ta Shan was a bit far. They would leave tomorrow.

Duan Jiayang went out to make a call. She told her dad, “You don’t need to find an excuse to get her to leave. She already knows.”

Duan Litian didn’t say much or ask many questions. He just told her to come up.

Duan Jiayang turned and saw Lin Ke. Lin Ke said in a calm tone, “I’ll go up with you.”

The two of them went upstairs together. They were the only ones in the elevator. Lin Ke probably had something to say, her lips moving, but she held it back.

Duan Litian had someone pour tea. He looked at the two of them kindly. Duan Litian smiled and thanked Lin Ke for taking care of Duan Jiayang during this time. He also said that Duan Jiayang wasn’t suited for that job and that it would be better for her to do something related to her major.

Lin Ke said, “It’s not that she can’t learn. It’s that she gets moved around before she can even start. It was like that before, and it’s like that now. She’s slowly figuring it out and keeping up with the pace.”

Duan Litian didn’t argue. He followed her words. “That’s what I thought, too. The method I taught her before was indeed wrong. I plan to have her join the Ta Shan project. You can go and see if it’s suitable. If you just dismiss her without even trying, isn’t that just calling her stupid?”

The old fox was a master of language. Every sentence was meant to trap someone.

He had said he would find an excuse to send her on a business trip, but now it seemed he had just been trying to fool Duan Jiayang. Lin Ke had to go to Ta Shan.

“Jiayang just learned how to do exterior design. She only understands modeling. If I remember correctly, Ta Shan is for technical R&D, working on hardware. She can’t even understand two of the terms. The two are completely different. Forcing her to go…”

Duan Litian waved his hand, rudely interrupting her. “I didn’t say she had to go to Ta Shan now. She’ll learn at the company first. If she can’t learn, she won’t go. Didn’t you have a conflict with R&D before? They thought you weren’t capable in the design department. If she learns R&D, you can go to R&D and teach her hands-on. That way, the two departments will have less conflict, and there won’t be as many rumors.”

He went around and around, all for Duan Jiayang’s good, and also hinted that Lin Ke wouldn’t separate them, so she shouldn’t be ungrateful.

Duan Litian said earnestly, “Xiao Ke, you don’t understand. This company will be handed over to Jiayang sooner or later. She has to learn something, doesn’t she?”

Lin Ke glanced at her. “Ask Xiao Yang what she thinks.”

Duan Litian held his teacup and drank. “Duan Jiayang, think carefully.”

Duan Jiayang was already used to it. She lowered her head. “I’ll listen to my dad.”

The room was silent for a long time. Their breathing was heavy. All eyes were on one person.

Duan Jiayang said, “Maybe… that is indeed more suitable for me.”

“Okay,” Lin Ke said, without any objections.

Duan Jiayang looked up at her. In an instant, she went from a defensive state to an unusually calm one. She drew in her long legs, as if she was an outsider. “You decide.”

Her tone was gentle, and her gaze was tender.

It made Duan Jiayang suspect this was a different kind of threat.

Lin Ke dispelled her worries. She got up and said, “Come to my office later to sign the transfer form. If I come back from my business trip, it will probably take a few days for you to move out.”

She left, clean and decisive.

Duan Jiayang sat in her dad’s office. Her dad made phone calls and chatted. Finally, Duan Jiayang heard him say, “Old friend, let’s have dinner together later. Let’s go fishing in Haijiang. First to catch, first to kill.”

He was talking to Lan Yao’s dad.

So that’s what Duan Jiayang meant.

When parents rush their children to get married and have them follow their wishes, it’s often not because they want their children to be happy. It’s because they want to experience a glorious moment as a parent, to be the main character again while walking on their child’s red carpet.

Duan Jiayang finished her tea and went out. She didn’t take the elevator. She took the stairs, one step at a time. She didn’t want to see anyone. After six floors, she held the handrail. She felt suffocated, like a grain of sand trapped in a clam shell. While others give birth to colorful pearls, she remained a grain of sand.

Not procrastinating, not dragging things out, only meant her head was cut off in an instant.

Sometimes, after walking the wrong path for too long, she could sense the path was wrong, but her feet habitually took her down that path anyway.

Duan Jiayang went directly to the director’s office. Lin Ke was packing up. She would go home in the afternoon to pack her luggage and fly to Ta Shan tomorrow.

Before, there was a small car model on her desk. Duan Jiayang often saw her doing repair work on it, repainting it to cover the cracks. Now, it was put away in the drawer.

She looked up at Duan Jiayang with the gaze of a hunter assessing her prey. The prey she had so painstakingly cornered had been stolen by someone else.

Duan Jiayang placed the form on the desk, waiting for her to sign. Lin Ke took out her fountain pen, bent over, and wrote smoothly on the paper. Her other palm rested on the table. “You’re so heartless. In the car this morning, you were kissing me, and your fingers were on my waist, as soft as a puddle of water. And now you’re drawing a line.”

After signing her name twice, Duan Jiayang moved past Lin Ke to grab the transfer form. Lin Ke put her pen away. “So, between the two choices, you’re choosing her, right?”

Duan Jiayang didn’t want to answer. When she saw the small car with a crack in the drawer, she turned around. She had just taken one step past Lin Ke when she stopped. “Yes, that’s right.”