CHAPTER 143: CHAPTER 143: DO NOT IGNORE HIM

"That’s good, at least it makes up for the regret of losing the child." Lin Banxia couldn’t help but sigh, her beautiful eyes gazing at the figure disappearing through the restaurant door, her mind momentarily blank.

She felt that woman looked familiar because, when organizing her mother’s belongings last time, the woman in that pocket watch...

Lin Banxia furrowed her brows in shock. Could it possibly be the same person?

Perhaps it’s human nature to be inherently pure and unwilling to hear unpleasant things, gravitating instead toward yearning for a beautiful world.

Because of her words, Huo Yanting couldn’t help but glance at her again, inexplicably gaining a little more insight into her.

In the past, he had also sat here eating with Chu Tingting, but in Chu Tingting’s eyes, there was certainly none of the genuine purity he saw in Lin Banxia. She was always eager to talk about where was fun and what was interesting, urgently introducing him to listen and see.

But Huo Yanting didn’t understand women at all, so naturally, he couldn’t cherish them the way Chu Tingting did.

Yet the calm and composed girl in front of him stirred an entirely different kind of emotional resonance within him.

Halfway through the meal, Lin Banxia’s phone rang incessantly.

Huo Yanting raised his suspicious eyes toward her, indifferent yet probing: "Busy with work?"

Lin Banxia had no choice but to hastily grab her phone and repeatedly walk away to answer calls.

Oddly enough, three of her good friends were all asking her to help introduce them to a job at the Huo Empire.

How strange, who might have leaked her connection to Huo Yanting?

"No, it’s just some former university classmates. They’ve been job-hunting recently, and they wanted to know if I have any good recommendations," Lin Banxia replied somewhat dryly.

"Have you disclosed our relationship to anyone?" Huo Yanting immediately guessed and asked with a cold expression.

"Of course not! I haven’t told anyone. I’m baffled myself—how could all three of them call me at the same time? I think there’s definitely something behind it," Lin Banxia narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly, as though she’d already figured out who’d been spreading rumors behind the scenes.

"So, do you want me to help them or not?" Huo Yanting asked mockingly.

Lin Banxia’s heart jumped, interpreting Huo Yanting’s sarcasm as a refusal.

Terrified, she immediately waved her hands frantically: "I’ll find some other good jobs to recommend to them; I won’t bother you."

Huo Yanting, of course, didn’t want to concern himself with her unimportant friends. If the connection was only driven by benefit, there was no need to help.

After dinner, the two drove home together.

But a heavy feeling lingered in Lin Banxia’s heart—it must have been Lin Shiyi stirring up trouble behind the scenes, deliberately setting her friends to come to her.

Oh, it’s not that she doesn’t want to help them; it’s just that she’s struggling to survive herself.

The man in front of her isn’t her sponsor; her relationship with him is purely transactional.

Moreover, her arrangement with him is fragile at best—she has no idea when she might inadvertently anger this man. If he gets annoyed or bored, would he really do as he said and kick her aside without hesitation?

But the pear garden means more to her than life itself. For this reason, she can only grit her teeth and direct her friends toward other opportunities.

That evening, Lin Banxia once again succumbed to Huo Yanting’s relentless demands and fell into a muddled sleep.

This man really made her fear the darkness, dread the fall of night.

The next morning, Lin Banxia forced herself to descend the stairs for breakfast, clutching her sore waist.