novelraw Chapter 314: You don’t have a wife to coax, nor a son to take care of.
Chapter 314: You don’t have a wife to coax, nor a son to take care of.
Delphine stood up and quietly followed Kyla Zamora out of the banquet’s main hall. Waiting outside was an inconspicuous assistant, who spoke softly: "Miss Gu, both the front and back entrances of the hotel are surrounded by reporters. Young Master Ye has instructed me to take you through the staff passage."
Delphine exchanged a glance with Kyla Zamora. Some upscale hotels did indeed have staff cleaning passages.
"Let’s get out first. The entrance is packed with people," Kyla said after receiving photos from Jason. Without a moment’s hesitation, she urgently pulled Delphine along and followed the assistant.
They were on the 23rd floor, and after the elevator descended to the 3rd floor, they switched to the cleaning passage.
Through the side door of the passage, they emerged into an extremely secluded and quiet alley. Night had fallen by this time, and the alley was lit by only one dim streetlamp. Darkness engulfed them from all directions, and Delphine suddenly stopped, reaching out to clutch Kyla Zamora’s arm.
Kyla sensed something was wrong too. She pulled out her phone for its flashlight, only to find that the assistant who had been walking ahead of them had suddenly vanished.
From behind came the sound of urgent footsteps.
Kyla had no time to react. She grabbed Delphine and ran toward the mouth of the alley. They barely made it a few steps when someone caught Delphine by the arm. Instinctively, she defended herself with a swift throw.
Jocelyn Yeager restrained her hand and hurriedly said, "Delphine, it’s me."
Relief washed over Delphine, but just as she was about to speak, she saw a few burly figures looming at the mouth of the alley.
"There she is. Grab that woman first."
"Damn, there’s a guy with her."
"Doesn’t matter—take them both."
The three of them instantly felt a surge of tension.
"Split up and run," Jocelyn Yeager instructed in an unusually stern tone, his refined face half-hidden in the night. After a brief word to Kyla, he pulled Delphine toward another section of the alley.
Forced to follow him, Delphine trailed behind, suddenly realizing she had never known that, in the midst of the opulent Southern city of Nanyang, such deep and shadowy alleys could exist.
Once the two emerged from the alley, their expressions turned slightly grim.
Meanwhile, halfway through the charity banquet, when the scandal broke out, Ignatius Leclair had been accompanying his grandfather in a chess game.
In the side hall, a fireplace was burning brightly, casting warmth over the room. Grandfather and grandson sat near it—a grandmaster’s white jade chess pieces in one hand, black pieces in the other—while the jovial old butler busily refilled their tea, enjoying the spectacle.
"Why would you play there?" Ignatius Leclair placed a black piece on the board, and his grandfather immediately grew displeased. Wrinkling his old face, he hesitated over his white pieces. This grandson had been adorable as a child, yet now even in chess he was relentless, cornering him mercilessly.
The man lowered his gaze with calm composure and said in his deep voice, "Grandfather, we’ve been playing this round for half an hour now."
The old man grumbled, "A thirty-year-old bachelor playing chess with his old grandpa—what’s wrong with that? You don’t have a wife to entertain, nor kids to care for."
Ignatius Leclair’s godlike handsome face briefly showed the hint of a smile, the corners of his lips lifting slightly. Without a word, he swiftly made his move, and within a few turns, the old man lost half his territory and suffered an utterly crushing defeat.
"I’m done playing. Just because I said a few things, you chose to escalate it to this level," muttered the grandfather, sipping tea with a sullen expression. "Go take a look at the neighbor’s family — Old Wei’s granddaughter-in-law is so competent. They keep having children, even a particularly adorable little great-granddaughter. Now look at yourself—you keep holding yourself aloof, and I can’t even see the shadow of a granddaughter-in-law."
Ignatius Leclair’s phoenix-like eyes remained unfathomably deep, as tranquil as an ancient pool. "You’ll see one someday," he said quietly.
"Someday? I doubt I’ll see one even in ten years. You’ve been feeding me that line for a decade," the old man grumbled, his wrinkled face etched with disappointment. "The Cloud Family’s young lady was perfect for you. If your mother had still been alive, your marriage would’ve already been arranged. It’s been so many years now, all wasted."