Gou An marched back to He Jinxing.

During her conversation with the bodyguard, he had stood there the entire time with his usual smile. His gaze, which seemed non-aggressive but somehow made people feel pressured, always lightly on her.

This was probably what old men did. Holding a high position, it was rare for them to have the gentlemanly demeanor to tolerate a junior leaving them and running to the side to chat with the bodyguard about random things, wasting a lot of their time.

Even when she returned to him, the hem of her skirt flouncing in anger, he said in a tone without a trace of blame, “An’an, you can’t bully a bodyguard like this ah.”

The whole sentence had less conviction because of the word ‘ah’ added at the end.

Gou An raised her head slightly and looked blankly at the man next to her who was much taller than her, as if she was a little confused as to why he suddenly wanted to speak for Ye Lang.

“They are your protectors, but you’ve probably heard the saying ‘water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it.’”

The sun was setting and some birds took off from the deck.

The sound of the sea breeze mixed with the cries of departing seagulls, made their voices faint.

He Jinxing bent down slightly towards Gou An, moving closer to her ear and speaking at a distance that was close but not uncomfortably close. “He Ran was kidnapped when he was a child because my father was too harsh on his bodyguards. He punished them simply because He Ran fell into the pond while playing. This caused one of the bodyguards to become resentful and turn against us.”

“He Ran was kidnapped by his bodyguard?”

Gou An was a little surprised. This was the first time she learned the details of He Ran’s kidnapping.

Of course, if she had wanted to know earlier, it would have been in the original text, but she just had no interest and was too lazy to browse through it.

“Before becoming bodyguards, most of them were desperate criminals who would do anything for money and have no sense of morality.” He Jinxing said this but then suddenly turned back to look at Ye Lang who was following behind them. “You don’t feel attacked by me saying this, do you?”

……………… Of course he would feel attacked, not unless he was deaf!

Gou An looked in confusion at the man with a smile on his lips and felt that even his smile had become sinister and cunning.

She didn’t quite understand why he suddenly attacked Ye Lang for no apparent reason… Ye Lang has been following me around lately, so it seems that he hasn’t had a chance to offend him, right?

Ye Lang didn’t bother to argue with He Jinxing, merely glancing at the man out of the corner of his eye. He casually pinched the funny strawberry sun hat and tilted his head to the side.

It was obvious that he didn’t even want to pay attention to this person who had such a hypocritical smile.

“In short, we have to be polite to them,” said He Jinxing.

It was very much like an elder preaching.

Unfortunately, the person being lectured didn’t appreciate it at all.

“No need.” Gou An said expressionlessly, “If you don’t want to be deceived, all you have to do is not trust in the beginning.”

He Jinxing and Ye Lang were both stunned when they heard this.

The bodyguard walking behind turned his gaze away from the sea and stared at the back of the little miss’ head in front of him. His eyes were heavy and it was unknown what he was thinking. In short, his reaction was much greater than when he was attacked by He Jinxing just now.

He Jinxing smiled—an actual, genuine smile. He didn’t look angry at being disobeyed. Instead, his mood suddenly became very good because of these outrageous words.

As he smiled, Gou An looked back at the bodyguard holding a funny hat in his hand, and somewhat slowly realized something—Did my answer just now count as helping He Jinxing bully Ye Lang?

She moved her lips, wanting to say something, but when she looked into the other person’s slightly lowered and dark eyes, she gave up the idea—

Never mind.

She had been bullying him all along anyway.

Gou An turned her head and was about to continue walking forward when she suddenly felt a pain in her scalp, her hair being pulled somewhere. She frowned slightly and felt these two persons around her also turn their heads to look at her.

He Jinxing suddenly stopped talking, his eyes lightly swept across Gou An’s chest, hesitated for a few seconds, moved his eyes away, and reminded slowly, “An’an, your hair is tangled in the necklace.”

Gou An subconsciously lowered her head to look, and felt a strand of hair being pulled, causing pain on her scalp.

She hissed and stopped walking immediately.

Perhaps the strong wind on the deck blew her hair onto the necklace. The necklace was quite complicated and her hair easily got caught on it.

The necklace was too valuable, and the ball hasn’t even started yet, so it couldn’t be damaged. Gou An began to regret not listening to the stylist and tying her hair up properly. Now she was in such a mess that she could only bend over with her eyes closed, trying hard to get her hair off the necklace.

Because the position was rather delicate, He Jinxing could only stand by and watch, and it was difficult for him to keep his sight on her chest. Gou An almost broke into a sweat after trying to untangle it a few times.

Just as she was busy struggling with the necklace, the cell phone in her bag rang. Her hair became more and more tangled and she couldn’t straighten her neck. She could only ask He Jinxing to help her take out the phone.

He Jinxing took a look. She saw it was Zhou Yutong.

“It should be your friend,” he said. “Do you want me to help you answer it?”

At this time, Gou An thought that Zhou Yutong and Tang Xinjiu must have come back from their walk and found that she was missing, so they were looking for her. She said ‘okay’ without thinking too much, and even remembered to say ‘thank you’ politely.

She continued to bend over and struggle with the necklace, and out of the corner of her eye she saw He Jinxing open her phone and press the hands-free button.

Then Zhou Yutong’s voice rang out across the entire deck—

“Hey? An’an? Where did you go? I just asked people, and they said that Uncle Perky Butt took you away! Oh my, you were taken away too easily. You just had a cool face and acted like no one could get your WeChat, but now it turned out like this! By the way, did you two go on a date? Did you agree to dance together later? Hahahaha, go ahead, don’t worry about my gege. He can handle the pressure. After all, he’s Uncle Perky Butt! My gege can’t afford to offend him!”

There was a brief moment of silence, with only the sound of the sea breeze.

“Uncle Perky Butt?”

The man’s voice still sounded gentle and low.

There was a moment of dead silence on the other end of the line.

At this moment, Gou An’s hand slipped and the hair strands wrapped around the necklace was directly pulled off. 

After successfully freeing herself, Gou An straightened up and the first thing she did was to turn her head to look at the railing on the side of the ship, considering the possibility of jumping from here.

From the Day the Engagement was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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Chapter 39.1 — What Kind of Lousy Defense?
Chapter 39.2 — What Kind of Lousy Defense?
Chapter 39.3 — What Kind of Lousy Defense?
Chapter 40.1 — People in Jiangcheng are Just so Idle
Chapter 40.2 — People in Jiangcheng are Just so Idle
Chapter 40.3 — People in Jiangcheng are Just so Idle