<h4>Chapter 397: Chapter 397: The So-Called Deception</h4><h4></h4>


    The temperature in M Country was even colder than back home. Bai Qian made Fu Han wear a cream-colored wool coat before getting off the ne, insisting rather forcefully.


    Outside the airport, along the roadside, the cold wind howled. Fu Han wrapped the white wool coat tightly around her and looked around with a pair of beautiful eyes. It was her second visit here, yet she felt no familiarity with the ce at all. Instead, she felt as if the pitch-ck night was a monster lying in wait, ready to swallow her whole when she least expected it.


    Fu Xingbo and Bai Qian shifted their gaze away from Fu Han and exchanged a look, reading deep meanings in each other’s eyes. Finally, it was Fu Xingbo who spoke first, "Mr. Ji, if you don’t mind, you could take our car. There’s a nice resort hotel not far from our vi, a popr choice among travelers."


    "That would be really great, thank you." Ji Liangchuan smiled, a good-looking man with exaggerated, peach-shaped eyes that gave him an appearance of innocence under the fuzzy night lights, as if he were a fresh-faced student just out of school.


    The luxury business van sped off into the night, with Fu Han sitting alone in the passenger seat and Bai Qian along with three others in the back. As soon as Fu Xingbo got into the car, he made a phone call. He was calling Bai Wei, and everyone in the car kept a tacit silence, not speaking a word.


    Fu Han didn’t say anything, but she was trying hard to pick up bits of information she wanted to know from the fragments of Fu Xingbo’s conversation.


    The streetlights here were spaced much farther apart than back home, where one would only appear every several meters. Perhaps due to the location being in the suburbs, the area felt deste. The limited reach of the streetlights failed to reveal what structuresy beyond.


    The van’s high beams tore through the night as it raced on, but the darkness would close back in behind it, as if the vehicle had never pierced through the dark curtains at all.


    About ten minutester, Fu Xingbo finally ended the call. After a few seconds of silence during which he didn’t speak, Fu Han couldn’t help but turned around and ask, "Uncle, what... what did Bai Wei tell you?"


    When Fu Xingbo looked up at Fu Han, his eyes were unfathomably deep, aplexity shimmering within that was indescribable.


    His voice, low and resonant, filled the quiet cabin like the rustling leaves stirred by the wind in the stillness of the night,nguid yet with a touch of chill.


    "Fu Han, Bai Wei said that He Xing really had an ident." As soon as these words left his mouth, Fu Xingbo saw Fu Han’splexion turn pale. He paused for a moment before continuing immediately, "Xiaohan, He Xing actually wanted to go to the airport to send you off yesterday, but there was an ident on the way. However, you needn’t worry too much. He only suffered some minor external injuries and has now passed the critical period."


    "Really?" Fu Han clung to his words like a drowning person grasping at thest straw, her wide, shining eyes looking at Fu Xingbo with an expression that was both careful and pleading, as if she feared he would say something she didn’t want to hear.


    Luckily, Fu Xingbo nodded vigorously, almost without any hesitation, saying, "Of course it’s true. Why would your uncle lie to you about something like this?"


    Seeing Fu Han’s disbelief, Fu Xingbo coughed and pretended to be stern as he said, "Xiaohan, think about it, when has your uncle ever lied to you before?"


    "Didn’t you all say on the ne that He Xing would be alright?" As Fu Han spoke, her murmuring grew quieter, until atst she was merely muttering to herself, "But now He Xing really had an ident, and I really don’t know if I should..."


    The words "trust you" were on the tip of her tongue, but after some thought, she held them back. After all, she was the younger one, and no matter how worried she was about He Xing, she couldn’t voice such a sentiment.


    Bai Qian and Fu Xingbo exchanged nces, and after a couple of forced chuckles filled with a sense of guilt, Bai Qian spoke, "Xiaohan, sorry, it was your auntie who lied to you on the ne. But I have known your uncle for nearly thirty years, and he has never been one to spout nonsense. If he says that He Xing is out of danger, then He Xing must really be through the worst."


    These words echoed over and over in Fu Han’s head until she had to admit that what Bai Qian said was true; the person who promised He Xing would be okay on the ne was indeed Bai Qian, and now she could also see that Fu Xingbo was speaking the truth.


    It’s just that...


    The nighttime scene outside the window felt like an all-pervasive fear, slowly eroding away thest traces of warmth in one’s heart.


    Even now, she was well aware of how much He Xing meant to her heart; she truly couldn’t afford to be hopeful anymore.


    Then Fu Xingbo’s voice sounded again, "Xiaohan, if you’re really worried about He Xing, your uncle can immediately buy ne tickets and apany you back to check on him, how does that sound?"


    His words were like a sword thatpletely shattered thest defense in Fu Han’s heart. She couldn’t help thinking that if Fu Xingbo were really deceiving her, he would never make such an offer.


    The bnce in Fu Han’s heart tipped, tilting toward what she hoped for.


    Ji Liangchuan, who had been glued to his phone all this time, suddenly lifted it, the blue glow from the screen faintly illuminating his face, casting a soft blue hue. "Fu Han, here’s my recent chat with Liang Tao. You can have a look. He Xing is no longer in danger for his life now," he said.


    While it was very impolite to look at someone else’s phone, at that moment, Fu Han couldn’t care about such niceties. She apologized before taking Ji Liangchuan’s phone.


    Just as Ji Liangchuan had said, Liang Tao mentioned the car ident involving He Xing in the conversation but quickly noted that He Xing had ovee the critical phase and wouldn’t take long to recover.


    Fu Han was reassuredpletely. She handed the phone back to Ji Liangchuan with both hands and sincerely said, "Thank you."


    The car continued on forward, relentlessly breaking through the night toward a brighter road ahead.


    Ji Liangchuan’s gaze drifted involuntarily towards Fu Han; it was so dark in the cabin that he couldn’t see her expression, but his eyes softened as if he were gazing upon the world’s most precious jewel.


    On the other end of the phone, across the vast ocean, Liang Tao’s phone wasn’t in his own hands, but held in the long, slender hands of He Xing.


    Just as He Xing, under the guise of Liang Tao, had messaged Ji Liangchuan, the car ident had only caused him minor external injuries. The reason he had spent so long in the Emergency Room wasn’t due to the severity of his injuries but because he had missed the optimal window for treatment.


    Liang Tao looked cautiously at He Xing, who was all bandaged up like a mummy, "President He, why don’t you just tell Mr. Ji the truth?"