The mockery on Ethan Lancaster’s lips grew more pronounced. "You have to investigate the person sleeping next to you, but you can’t let outsiders off the hook, either. What if they’re working together?"
Hearing this, Hannah Lynch could no longer hold back. "Ethan Lancaster, what are you trying to say?"
"Doesn’t everyone say I’m a scoundrel? That ans anything I do is understandable. There’s no need for you to get so worked up, Miss Lynch."
As Raina Reddington sat there, her chaotic thoughts suddenly fell into place.
’When I got the video cara, I made a point to check it. The face on the screen was Ethan Lancaster’s. That ans the cara was discovered long ago, and they prepared a fake for to find. I was tricked, and so was the person who wanted it from . Ethan turned the tables on both of us. The person controlling the ga instantly beca a pawn on the board. How ridiculous!’
Although Hannah Lynch was displeased, she couldn’t just storm off in front of the Wallace Family.
Raina Reddington’s stomach was empty, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat a single bite. Just sitting here was torture.
At a nearby table, well-dressed guests were gathered in small groups, discussing the recent incident. A little child, no more than three or four years old, was playing with a pair of chopsticks.
The grandmother sitting beside her peeled a grape and offered it to the child’s lips, just wanting her to have a taste. But unexpectedly, the child opened her mouth and inhaled the entire grape.
The grandmother jumped in fright and frantically tried to get it out, but it was too late.
The grape was lodged squarely in the child’s throat. The girl’s mouth fell open as she dropped her chopsticks in distress.
Her mother, sitting on the other side, saw what was happening and imdiately began slapping her on the back. "What’s wrong?"
"She’s choking on the grape!"
"Mom, Mika is so young, how could you—" But now wasn’t the ti to place bla. The woman quickly pulled the child onto her lap, bent her forward, and struck her daughter’s back hard with the palm of her hand. It was no use. The little girl’s face was turning red and streaked with tears, and the family was starting to panic.
"What do we do?!"
"I’ll... I’ll call 911..." The grandmother was frantic, her mind a complete blank. She couldn’t rember where she’d put her phone.
Others at the table grew anxious too. "Just take her to the hospital! Don’t waste any ti."
"But the nearest hospital is at least ten minutes from here."
Watching her daughter’s legs kicking wildly, the mother cried out in despair. "Mika, don’t scare ..."
The cries reached the main table. Mr. Wallace was the first to rise and head over, and Raina Reddington also snapped back to reality.
The child’s father took his daughter and saw that her face was already rigid and her skin was turning purple. The grandmother’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor...
Suddenly, a pair of hands took the child from him. Raina Reddington quickly pulled out a chair and sat, placing the girl on her lap. She used one hand to grip the child’s cheekbones, with her forearm resting against the girl’s chest, and used her other hand to support the back of her neck, positioning her face-down.
Raina Reddington struck the child’s back. After five or six blows, the girl’s mouth twitched, and the grape lodged in her throat ca flying out.
"WAAAH—" The loud wail made everyone’s tense expressions relax. The girl’s mother reached for her child, too emotional to speak.
The child’s grandmother couldn’t get up. She grabbed Raina Reddington’s hand, pressing her forehead to the back of it while repeating the sa two words over and over, "Thank you, thank you—"
"Please, don’t. I’m a doctor."
"Thank you, truly, thank you—"
Ethan Lancaster stood a short distance away, watching Raina Reddington help the old woman to her feet. She stood among the crowd, poised and composed, showing no signs of sha or wanting to hide from what had happened earlier.
’Everyone else had been helpless in the face of death. Only she was brave and composed. This was a Raina Reddington stripped of all cunning and hypocrisy.’
The little girl’s father’s hands were still cold. The feeling of getting her back from the brink left him dazed, almost unable to believe it. "Does she still need to go to the hospital?"
"No," Raina Reddington said calmly.
"Will there be any lasting effects? Her face was purple just now. Could she have suffered from a lack of oxygen to the brain..."
"No." Her certainty was absolute, instantly reassuring them.
"Thank you."
"You’re welco." Raina Reddington returned to her table. She glanced at the ti; it was getting late. She turned to Ethan Lancaster beside her and asked, "Can we go? I have to work tomorrow."
Given Ethan Lancaster’s temperant, he should have ignored her completely. But his thin lips parted, and he replied with a single word, "Soon."
Ethan Lancaster didn’t waste ti on pleasantries. As the banquet broke up, he took Raina Reddington and left.
They walked out one after the other. Once outside, Raina Reddington saw Hannah Lynch affectionately linking arms with Miles Hawthorne as they approached a car. A driver opened the door, and they got in without a backward glance.
’After all these years, he still folded paper cranes so beautifully, so lifelike.’
"Fourth Master," soone called out to Ethan Lancaster.
’Probably just saying goodbye,’ Raina thought, too tired for pleasantries. She went straight to the car to wait for him.
Ethan Lancaster turned to see a man approaching him. He recognized the face—it was the father of the little girl.
"Fourth Master, hello."
"You’ve already expressed your thanks. No need to make a special point of it."
Half of the man’s figure was cloaked in moonlight. His earlier panic was gone, replaced by a steady composure. "I know you’re determined to win the water conservancy charity project, Fourth Master. I can help with that."
Ethan Lancaster raised an eyebrow. The man stood with one hand in his pocket. "I’m sure you have your own thods, Fourth Master. Just consider my assistance as the icing on the cake."
"And you are...?"
"I have a say in the final review and vote."
He didn’t need to say any more.
When Ethan Lancaster got into the car, Raina Reddington instinctively leaned away, toward the opposite door. The car started, and the light from the streetlamps stread in through the tinted windows. The mark on Raina’s face was still starkly clear. It felt as if the slap had landed on Ethan’s face too, and a dull ache began to throb within him.
Raina Reddington pulled her gaze from the window, her palm resting lightly on her cheek. "Are you satisfied?"
"And you? Are you satisfied with how things turned out today?"
There was little light in the car, and their expressions flickered in the passing shadows. Raina’s sense of grievance surged. "If I hadn’t thrown you under the bus, I would’ve been dragged down to hell. I chose the lesser of two evils."
"What did they offer you?"
"They were just using the video from that day at Aristor Hall to blackmail ."
Ethan Lancaster truly hadn’t expected that. "Why didn’t you tell ?"
"By the ti you found the person behind this, my reputation would have already been ruined. The hospital is the only sanctuary I have left to protect. Other than that, I have nowhere left to hide."
’As for her family ho... once she married, that ant she could never truly go back.’
’And The Verdant Garden? That had never been her ho.’
"So you set up? Is that it? You were afraid of being disgraced, but you think I wouldn’t be if a video like that got out?"
Raina Reddington pressed her lips together, saying nothing.
"You’re a she-wolf, leaving wounds that don’t even bleed!"
Raina Reddington’s nose tingled, and an unbearable sting filled her eyes. Tears welled up and spilled over. She finally stopped holding back and began to cry aloud.
Ethan Lancaster shot her a sidelong glance. ’I’ve barely said anything to her,’ he thought. ’How is she crying already?’
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