The Lost Lamb's Trap - Chapter 35.2

Chapter 35.2: Stars (1)

She initially thought she had suffered internal injuries and needed to go to the hospital for a check-up.

Lin Ke was the one who threw that punch. She was glad it landed on her. The hardest slap on her face was from Lan Yao. The corner of her eye was still a bit swollen.

She had read all sorts of novels and watched TV shows, and she had also searched online, only to find that her situation was quite explosive anywhere you put it: a person being fought over in a love triangle getting a brutal beating. She didn’t even dare to buy medicine and just toughed it out until it got better.

During the meeting, two engineers sat next to her and reported on their work. Finally, they confirmed the production volume with the workshop R&D department.

There were many people there. Duan Litian was present in person. Lin Ke sat opposite her, three diagonal seats away from Duan Jiayang. She stood up, her speech from yesterday already memorized. “The brake system testing has been completed…”

After half an hour, Duan Litian listened to her talk about the matter and applauded. He then turned his head and flipped through two more pages. Just as he was about to announce his arrangements, his secretary pushed the door open and whispered two sentences in his ear.

Duan Litian frowned.

The phones of the two engineers on the table rang. They didn’t care about saving face as much as Duan Litian did. They said, “Miss Duan… something’s up. There’s a problem with the production of part X in the workshop. The design drawings have been sent over. Could you take a look…”

Duan Jiayang was stumped. This part was not in her speech.

Everyone was looking at her. She pursed her lips and returned to her seat.

The engineer said, “There’s a small problem with the final part, but it’s not a big issue. We’ll do two more tests… you can say this later…”

The moment the project went wrong, everyone was nervous and expectant, their gazes focused on Duan Jiayang.

Duan Jiayang’s hands trembled. Her tense back relaxed, and she felt a secret sense of relief.

The days of being roasted by fire were over.

No need to be a numb, busy zombie.

It felt so good…

Duan Jiayang turned her head to the engineer next to her and said, “You go report.”

Duan Jiayang sat in her chair and said nothing. The engineer used the design drawings and various data to report again, addressing all sorts of problems. He had solutions for both the resolved and unresolved issues.

She looked up and met Duan Litian’s gaze.

Duan Litian frowned. When the meeting was over, his secretary came over. “This project will be temporarily put on hold. We’ll make some changes. Come to the office later and have a good talk with the chairman.”

Duan Jiayang gave a sound of acknowledgment.

When she returned to her office, she was completely drained. She lay on her desk, exhausted. Her assistant came over, intending to report on work, but seeing her state, she held the documents and went to ask someone else instead.

Everyone was busy. It seemed there was a problem with a part in the workshop. They had tested it and found no issues, but they had overlooked a small detail: the hardware was not up to par. They needed to find someone to fix it, but no one was available at the moment. What should they do?

Duan Jiayang went to see, but she didn’t understand hardware. Everyone was busy. She really wanted to act like a boss and say, “You have three days to get this done, or you’re all fired.”

But she didn’t have the skills, so she couldn’t say it. She asked her assistant, “What will happen if we can’t solve it?”

The assistant said, “The new car’s timeline will be pushed back. This is related to the safety of the brake system…”

Duan Jiayang said, “Oh.”

So, she had failed again?

Or was it better than last time? At least she wasn’t killed off in one go.

She worked overtime at the company until eleven o’clock. She drove home that night. Duan Litian wasn’t back yet. She went to her bedroom and fell asleep, waking up at 8:30 in the morning. She went downstairs. Duan Litian was talking to his secretary, and there were also a few executives there. This time, they didn’t avoid her.

The secretary said, “We’re not afraid of anything else. We’re just afraid they’ll try to put a useless person in power.”

Duan Litian said, “That son from the Lan family? He’s a piece of trash. He went abroad to study for so long and didn’t learn a thing. He smokes and drinks and has bleached hair that makes him look like a ghost. He spends his days at bars and hangs out with a bunch of shady friends. If the Lan family gives the company to him instead of Lan Yao, I won’t be so polite. I’ll just take it. A man like that will ruin a big company in ten years. If I were his parents, I would just send him to the entertainment industry. At least he could make a living with his looks.”

As he said this, several people looked at him. Their looks seemed to say, “What about your daughter? Isn’t she also an idiot?”

Duan Litian frowned in displeasure. “No matter how much smarter Jiayang is than him, she’s a high-achiever from a prestigious university. She can learn what I teach her, and she’s serious about it. She’s just a little slow, but she’ll learn eventually. If she can’t learn, she’s still a good girl who knows how to be a pretty face and not cause trouble. Isn’t that a lot smarter than most people?”

The secretary nodded flatteringly and said, “Then are we still going to work with the Lan family this time?”

Duan Litian was ambitious and ruthless. “Of course, we’ll cooperate. The Lan family also wants to cooperate with us. It’s a win-win for both sides. I don’t believe the Lan family doesn’t want the money in my pocket. They want money, and I want hardware. We’re still good friends. They want a few hundred million, and I’ll give it to them without batting an eye. If they really give the company to Lan Rui, we’ll just take Lan Yao and her team and kick the company to the curb.”

Duan Jiayang stood on the stairs for a while, listening in a daze. When they mentioned that the two families were close, she spoke up, “Dad, I’m not planning to go on a blind date with Sister Lan Yao anymore.”

Duan Litian was smoking. He put out his cigarette in the ashtray and said, “Did one project scare you? It’s not a big deal. We’ll just have someone else solve it.”

“It’s not that.” Duan Jiayang said, “I don’t think it’s necessary anymore. I feel guilty. I can’t hold on anymore. She’s a great person, but I’m about to become useless.”

Duan Litian looked up at her, waved his hand to dismiss the executives, and only kept his secretary.

He said, “What does that have to do with anything? You do your work, and she does hers. Right now, you’re the best match for her, and she’s the best match for you. I just said some things clearly. I wasn’t hinting at anything this time, was I? With you two together, the Lan family and the Duan family both win. The Lan family can be yours, and our Duan family…” Duan Litian was a sly old fox. “I’ll have to consider who will take over.”

Duan Jiayang had guessed this from the beginning, which was why she had asked if the two families had any relationship or cooperation.

She didn’t say anything. She first leaned against the sofa, then lay down on it. She stared at the ceiling.

She was unresponsive.

Duan Litian continued, “The Lan family also needs protection, and our Duan family is the best. Why did I talk to her father and immediately want you two to be together without any of the traditional formalities? It’s because we both saw the benefits for each other.”

“Don’t say that. That’s just what you guys think. Sister Lan Yao truly likes me. She’s serious about me.”

“Then why didn’t she pursue you before?” Duan Litian said.

“Didn’t you say it yourself? Her family isn’t as good as ours, and they don’t accept her sexual orientation, so she didn’t pursue me. It’s not like she could be stuck at the parents’ hurdle before we even got together, right?” Duan Jiayang said.

Duan Litian sneered, “Duan Jiayang, are you truly clueless or just pretending to be? Her parents didn’t accept her sexual orientation at first, but how did they accept you later?”

Duan Jiayang was silent. Duan Litian couldn’t stand her uselessness. He couldn’t even talk to her. “You two aren’t kids anymore. She’s two years older than you. She’s 26 or 27. Why didn’t she pursue you?”

“I told you before. We’re using each other. Do you think the Lan family won’t get any benefits from us? I’m investing a lot of money. Do you think it’s all based on a good relationship? I told you to use Lin Ke to climb up because I wanted to absorb the Lan family into Xuedang. Her parents didn’t accept her sexual orientation at first, but they suddenly accepted it because they want to take money from Xuedang and take over my company. Whoever is with you will be the head of Xuedang.”

Duan Jiayang said, “Can you stop talking about this? When you first picked a partner for me, you said she was good. Now you’re saying she’s not. You’re the one who keeps saying what’s good or not.” Duan Jiayang mumbled. She didn’t want to hear this. If they kept talking, everything would sound like a transaction. “Sister Lan Yao isn’t like that. She’s genuinely good to me. I can feel it.”

Duan Litian said, “I’m doing this for your own good! Why don’t you appreciate it?!” He looked at his secretary and threw his hands up. “See? I explain things to her, and she thinks I’m too realistic. If I don’t explain, she doesn’t understand. She blames me for not explaining my conspiracies clearly.”

The secretary soothed him, “Calm down, sir. She’s still young.” The secretary also spoke to Duan Jiayang nicely. Getting married is for life. You have to live together for decades, so it’s best to find someone suitable. Someone from a similar background. When you meet the right person, you should seize the opportunity.

Duan Jiayang stood up with a start. “I have my own ideas. You two are always talking and interfering with me. I had already decided to tell Sister Lan Yao we weren’t a good match, but you said, ‘I picked her specifically for you.’ When I said I didn’t want to get married, you gave me a whole speech. It’s always you talking, talking, talking. If I don’t do what you say, I’m a fool. If I do what you say, and the project fails, you also call me a fool. What do you want from me? I don’t want to listen to you anymore!”

Yes, she was indecisive, but at the very beginning, when it was raining at the company entrance, Lin Ke held an umbrella and walked with her. Lan Yao saw everything, and then she said she also wanted to try.

Her silence was a silent rejection.

Later, she also wanted to say it wasn’t a good fit.

She thought everyone knew she was wavering.

Everyone told her to choose. And in the end, when she couldn’t choose and couldn’t handle it anymore, it was all her fault.

“You always think Lin Ke and I are still connected, don’t you? I’ll tell you why I don’t want to be with her. Look at me now. What do I look like? Do I have any pride left?! You’re still competing with her mother, aren’t you? Look at how excellent she is. Look at what kind of idiot I’ve become! My friends aren’t my best friends. I’m a complete amateur at everything I do. I feel like I’m not worthy! A person like me should just be a useless person who feeds off of you, Duan Litian, for the rest of my life! When I went to find her, you said that a fool would get what she deserved, and I deserved it. I’ve always remembered that phrase as my life’s principle, and I have indeed gotten what I deserved. I listened to you completely. I did whatever you told me to do, and now I’ve become a complete waste! Sometimes I just want to die!”

“You just know how to scold me, scold me, scold me. You’ll always scold me. Yes, I’m stupid. I’ve always been this stupid! But isn’t that your fault?! If you hadn’t brought Lin Wan into our home, I wouldn’t have given up painting. Maybe I would have become an artist like my mom! If you hadn’t sent Lin Ke away, I wouldn’t have gone to study English. Maybe I would have studied chemistry or pharmaceuticals and become a doctor or a pharmacist! Instead of being a half-baked person at everything!”

As she spoke, Duan Jiayang came to a realization. Oh, she had once had things she wanted to do. She had done exceptionally well in chemistry. She was also very grateful to her homeroom teacher and wanted to study chemistry. But all of a sudden, she became lost, and her path became a mess.

Duan Litian opened his mouth, but his breathing was heavy, and his face was flushed purple.

She knew her dad wanted to lower her sense of morality, make her choose based on what was best for her, and he was also speaking up for her, telling her not to be a fool.

But how could she not be a fool?

What was the right way to live in the future?

The project had failed, and she felt incredibly relieved. It felt as if a ray of light had appeared in the gray sky.

Her eyes were red. Duan Jiayang sat on the sofa, wiping her eyes. Duan Litian was being scolded by her so fiercely that he was dizzy. “Why don’t you look for the reason within yourself… Forget it. It’s just a project. Just have Lin Ke do it. You just need to say a few nice words to her, and it will be fine. Why are you crying? What’s there to cry about?”

“You don’t understand…”

“This is the workplace. Sometimes you work hard on something, but you don’t get the highest reward. You’re just doing it for someone else, and if you’re not careful, you’ll mess up and have to take all the blame.” Duan Litian sat across from her and poured a cup of tea. He said, “I know you put in a lot of effort this time, but you can’t fall apart at the first setback. You and Lan Yao are just using each other. Being cruel to Lin Ke is what she owes you. People always have to climb up. Think about when your grandfather passed away. Everyone was watching. They all wanted to destroy Xuedang. If I hadn’t cut off a few tails to keep one alive, would there be a Xuedang today?”

Duan Jiayang said, “You don’t understand.”

“You just don’t understand…”

Duan Jiayang pressed her hands over her eyes. “Why can’t you just say, ‘Jiayang, it’s okay. Talk to her properly. If you don’t think it’s a good fit, then break up. Do whatever you want, don’t force yourself. You can’t force love’… Why can’t you say that?”

Duan Litian was choked up.

Duan Jiayang said in a muffled voice, “Do you think I don’t want to talk to you nicely? I really listened to you. Look. Every time you told me to do something, I complained, but I still went and did it, didn’t I? When you brought me back from the island, I did whatever you told me to do, didn’t I?”

Duan Jiayang lay at home for a long time. The housekeeper came up to deliver a meal, knocking on the door. When she was hungry, she would eat something, just a little bit.

The housekeeper was worried and went to talk to Duan Litian. Duan Litian frowned and said nonchalantly, “She’s not learning the good things, only the bad. She didn’t learn any of Lin Ke’s clever tricks, she only learned her binge eating.”

Duan Litian knew that Lin Ke had a strange habit. When she first came to the house, no one was home, so she would carry her pot and eat from it all day. It bothered him a lot. He always thought there was something wrong with that kid’s brain, but every time Lin Ke got first place in exams, he had nothing to say. He never liked Lin Ke and she wasn’t his child, so he was too lazy to care.

He never expected that after Lin Ke left, Duan Jiayang would learn this bad habit from somewhere. It took her a long time to quit.

The housekeeper had taken care of Duan Jiayang for a long time and was still worried. She wiped her hands and said, “She can’t be this depressed. Jiayang is already emotionally fragile. Why don’t you call that Xiaoxiao and ask her to come and keep Jiayang company?”

“That’s enough, don’t you worry about it. She’ll be fine on her own. She always lays around for a few days, and then when she figures it out, she’ll come out.” Duan Litian looked upstairs, paced downstairs for a while, looked upstairs three times, and then went upstairs. He knocked on the door. “You’ve gotten through so many things before, what’s so hard about this? What do you want? If you don’t want to do it, then come back and be idle. Go on a trip with your friends. You can go to Hong Kong and have some fun. Spend some time with your great-aunt. She’s getting old.”

Duan Jiayang didn’t reply. Duan Litian knocked twice more, thinking that he hadn’t said anything wrong. He went to his study, thinking of calling Hong Kong.

After he finished the call, the housekeeper rushed over and said, “Sir, Miss just went out.”

“Where did she go?”

“I asked her, but she didn’t say. She went out by herself and didn’t drive. Do you think she ran away like she used to?”

“Lin Ke is back. Where can she run off to?” Duan Litian huffed. “This idiot…” He didn’t say the rest of the word. “Go, go, go. Have Uncle Wang follow her in the car. Keep your distance so she doesn’t notice.”

A few hours later, Uncle Wang called back and said that Duan Jiayang had met up with Lan Yao. Duan Litian stomped his foot and still couldn’t hold back. “Idiot! Such an idiot! I paved the way for her, but she doesn’t know how to walk on it! Idiot! Why can’t she be as smart as her mother?! How can she be so stupid!”

The housekeeper didn’t understand and asked, “Maybe they’re on a date.”

“A date, my foot.” Duan Litian fumed. He shouldn’t have been so clear and open with her. It would have been better for her to be an idiot.

The two of them met at a restaurant. Duan Jiayang arrived first. She hadn’t gone to work today and had waited for three hours. Lan Yao had finished work and came out during her lunch break. She was wearing a suit, and so was Duan Jiayang.

Duan Jiayang looked at her and softly said, “Sister Lan Yao.” The waiter came to serve water. The liquid in the triangular cup was colorful, like a rainbow juice.

She said seriously, “Sister Lan Yao, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can be with you. I’ve actually been in contact with Lin Ke this whole time. We’ve been entangled for a long time. We’ve been entangled since she came back, and it’s probably going to be a never-ending fight. It’s not fair to you…”

Before she could finish, Lan Yao, for the first time, rudely interrupted her. “I know.” She looked at Duan Jiayang and took a deep breath. “Including everything that happened between you two before.”

Duan Jiayang was slightly stunned and couldn’t find her words.

“You… knew?”

“When she lived in your house, I knew she liked you. All those things between you two… weren’t a secret.” Lan Yao said.

“Oh… is that so?” Duan Jiayang lowered her head in silence. She had thought about what to say next, to be frank and open. It turned out that Lan Yao had seen through her current entanglement with Lin Ke. So she knew all along…

Lan Yao said, “Didn’t I tell you before? I also had my own motives.” She smiled. “What do you want to say?”

Duan Jiayang had nothing to say.

Lan Yao said, “I’ve always been curious about something. I’ve never understood why… you later fell for… why you got entangled with her.”

Lin Ke wasn’t the only one who went abroad to study; Lan Yao did too. Lan Yao went to a private high school. She didn’t take the college entrance exam to study in China. It was just to satisfy her parents’ desire to show off. In August, they entered their senior year of high school, and Lan Yao went to a university abroad.

When she left, Duan Jiayang was eager to stay away from Lin Ke. She even wanted to light incense every day and pray for her to die a horrible death. Lan Yao would comfort her every day and guide her, telling her not to be so extreme.

Duan Jiayang pursed her lips. She said, “You should know that Lin Ke’s mom was pregnant. I was devastated at that time and fell out with my dad. No matter how much I yelled or went crazy, my dad ignored me. I felt so hopeless. At that time, when I opened my eyes, it was her, and when I closed them, it was also her. She was so annoying, but she seemed to be the only one left.”

“But you broke up,” Lan Yao said with curiosity. She wanted to know, but she also knew she shouldn’t ask, so she turned her question into a statement.

“Yeah. That’s why I’m in such a mess now.” Duan Jiayang didn’t want to talk about this. She pulled herself together. “Sister Lan Yao, maybe we’re not a good fit. If we pursue this further, it will get very weird, and the outcome won’t be good. We might not even be able to be friends, and it will hurt you.”

Lan Yao said, “Don’t think I’m so fragile. If I hadn’t been completely prepared…”