"Wu Qishan."
Bai Wenxi murmured these three words between her teeth, her eyebrows tightly knitted.
She never expected that her father also knew this man. However, when her father mentioned him, it was just a passing note.
Since Wu Qishan was the developer of a nearby island, he came to discuss with Bai's father about buying Moon Island to build a tourist sea promenade.
He even chased Bai's father all the way to Moon Island. Bai's father found it extremely annoying, so he recorded this incident in his diary that day.
This diary was a way for her father to relax and sort out his feelings in the dead of night. Bai Wenxi stroked the yellowed inner pages, as if she could still feel the lingering warmth of her father.
Apart from herself and her mother, no one else knew about this secret little habit of her father.
Jiang Beihuai tilted his head back. The glaring sun slanted down, seeping through the fine gaps in the dense jungle and creeping into every corner of the earth.
He shifted his steps and changed his position, completely shielding Bai Wenxi from the sun under his shadow.
"Awen, the sun is getting stronger. Let's go inside and read." He took off his coat and held it up, creating a cool space that gave Bai Wenxi a brief respite from her anxiety.
"I don't want to read anymore. Let's go back." Bai Wenxi flipped through the records absent - mindedly, with faint dark circles under her eyes.
She hadn't had a good sleep for several days because of these strange things.
Jiang Beihuai gently kissed the top of her head, filled with tenderness. Love begins with beauty on the outside and thrives on strength within.
The more time he spent with Bai Wenxi, the more he felt the powerful inner strength within her, and all of this made him deeply infatuated.
Bai Wenxi originally planned to take the diary home and read it from the beginning, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she flipped to the last page.
[The weather is fine today, but my heart is clouded...]
The handwriting was scrawled, interspersed with countless drops of black ink.
Between the lines, one could sense Bai Zhongxun's pain. Bai Wenxi's hands trembled as she continued to read her father's last diary entry.
Jiang Beihuai was sharp - eyed. He pointed at the date and exclaimed in surprise, "This was written by your father this year!"
Bai Wenxi wiped away the tears that blurred her eyes and carefully scrutinized the page in the sunlight for a long time.
Although it was obscured by the ink, the traces printed on the paper were still visible under the scorching sun.
This was written by her father on Moon Island in person before his car accident.
Bai Wenxi never expected that her father would come to Moon Island alone. She quickly hugged the diary and continued to read.
[Yao Chunmei secretly borrowed a huge sum of money from Wu Qishan... I haven't been here for a long time, and now it has become a deserted island. I'm so afraid that Wenxi's island will be occupied by these people...]
Bai Wenxi clutched the paper tightly, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force.
Jiang Beihuai wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled his tottering wife into his embrace. Bai Wenxi felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar. Due to fear, her teeth chattered.
Jiang Beihuai covered her eyes, his heart filled with pain. "Don't read anymore. I'll read it for you."
Bai Wenxi refused his kind offer and insisted on continuing to read. "This is the diary my father wrote before he left. Reading it feels like I'm having a conversation with him in person."
She choked with sobs and could hardly speak. "I thought my father didn't know, but it turns out he knew everything..."
Her father even recorded his suspicions in it: [Yao Chunmei always goes out with different men. When I ask her, she says they are her colleagues from the drama troupe. But after I hired someone to investigate, I found out that they are all idlers in society.]
[My marriage has already brought pain to my eldest daughter. I can't let my youngest daughter follow the same path. I'll just muddle through.]
Unlike the previous diary entries that were full of high - spirits or artistic musings, this last diary entry was filled with decadence and disappointment.
Bai Wenxi could even envision her father's lonely back as he sat at his desk writing.
Although Jiang Beihuai knew that what he was about to say might spoil the mood, he couldn't help but say it. "Your father was really patient. Even if he had no feelings for your step - mother, wasn't he afraid that Yao Chunmei's close association with those men would lead to trouble?"
Jiang Beihuai scratched his head, looking puzzled. "Or those men might have had evil intentions and tried to deceive the Bai family's property through your step - mother."
The two of them looked at each other and fell silent. After Jiang Beihuai said this, they both realized a possibility at the same time.
Bai Zhongxun's death was so sudden, and Yao Chunmei had handled the car accident very sloppily.
Maybe he discovered some of Yao Chunmei's secrets and was silenced.
However, Bai Wenxi chewed on this speculation in her mind several times but finally didn't say it out loud.
She hugged the diary tightly and said to Jiang Beihuai, "Let's go inside the house again. Maybe my father left something else."
Jiang Beihuai took her hand and slowly walked into the house. The dilapidated wooden house was in a complete mess, just like Bai Wenxi's current state of mind.
"Our phones have no signal. Yu Ning can't get in touch with us. She should send someone over." Jiang Beihuai was afraid that she would be drowned in grief, so he started making small talk. "The rescue boat received the signal to rescue those two villains. They should know that we've come to Moon Island."
Bai Wenxi bent down to look for the remaining sticky notes in the drawer. "Don't worry about this. There must be someone coming to find us..."
Just as she finished speaking, she heard the rustling sound in the jungle.
Jiang Beihuai pricked up his ears and listened for a while. "Why are there footsteps coming from two directions?"
Bai Wenxi pulled open the half - collapsed wooden door. "Is it Yu Ning leading two groups of people to find us?"
A powerful kick broke down the wooden door, and Bai Wenxi was thrown to the ground by the force.
Seeing that the comers were not friendly, Jiang Beihuai quickly grabbed her and ran away through the gap in the broken house.
Running through the dense forest, the man still chased after them relentlessly. There was a cliff ahead. The two stopped and clasped their fingers tightly, then turned to look at the man.
The black muzzle of the gun was pointed directly at them. The man coldly pulled the trigger.
Jiang Beihuai laughed self - deprecatingly. "I never thought I'd die at the hands of such a person."
The man took out a pistol from his bosom, his face twisted in a hideous expression. "Who asked you to go against people you shouldn't?"
Bai Wenxi was already sweating profusely, but she still managed to say bravely, "Before I die, I want to know clearly. Is the person behind you Wu Qishan? Or is it Yao Chunmei who instructed you to do this?"
"Hehe, want to know? Go ask Lord Yama in hell!" The man pulled the trigger, ready to shoot them dead.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Wenxi pulled Jiang Beihuai and jumped off the cliff. The two hugged each other and rolled down between the stone crevices. The gunshots startled the birds nesting in the jungle and alerted Su Yuning and the others.
Several gunshots rang out, and everyone rushed in this direction. The man fired a few shots down the mountain and then immediately ran in the opposite direction.
The rough rocks tore their clothes, and the protruding branches and weeds scratched Jiang Beihuai's cheeks.
He tried his best to protect Bai Wenxi in his arms, not wanting her to get hurt at all.
However, during the fall, Bai Wenxi's leg was hit hard by a rock, and blood gushed out immediately. She was in excruciating pain.
In order not to worry Jiang Beihuai, she gritted her teeth and didn't make a sound.
At the bottom of the cliff was a deep pool, with a tributary leading to the sea. After they fell into the water, they immediately fainted due to the pressure difference.
Jiang Beihuai held on to Bai Wenxi's hand tightly with his last bit of willpower.
They woke up a long time later. They weren't washed ashore but were stuck in a narrow crevice in the cave.
Bai Wenxi was already pale due to excessive blood loss, and her lips kept trembling.
Although Jiang Beihuai was still conscious, his arm was stuck in the rock crevice and couldn't move. His right hand still tightly held Bai Wenxi's body. Thanks to him, Bai Wenxi wasn't washed away by the current.
"Wenxi, wake up." Jiang Beihuai kept patting her face, afraid that she would fall into a coma due to the low temperature while sleeping.