Chapter 69 Forced Love from My Archrival 18

Chapter 69: Forced Love with My Rival 18

At first, Lin Huaiqing was still half-asleep, turned over, and went back to sleep.

But the shaking beneath him grew increasingly violent, with a racket kicking up outside.

With a loud crack, the floor-to-ceiling window shattered, finally snapping Lin Huaiqing wide awake.

Once he realized what was happening, he didn't even bother with slippers, scrambling into a corner and crouching down with his head covered.

Everything in sight was shaking, and the chandelier overhead was swinging like crazy, like a giant pendulum.

A dozen seconds felt like an eternity, and when he realized the earthquake had stopped, he bolted down to the hotel lobby.

In the open garden behind the hotel, a crowd of guests had gathered—some in pajamas, some who hadn't even had time to throw on clothes.

In the face of a massive natural disaster like this, humans always seem so small.

"Huaiqing! Are you okay? You scared your Uncle Wang half to death! If anything happened to you, how would I ever explain it to your dad?"

Uncle Wang spotted him in the crowd, nearly in tears, and pulled him into a tight hug.

Xue Chengan, standing nearby, looked a mess—he'd run out bare-chested, no shirt on.

"Cousin, thank God you're okay."

It was pouring outside with gale-force winds, and Lin Huaiqing could barely make out what Xue Chengan was saying.

Standing bare-chested in the rain, even a young guy like Xue Chengan was shivering.

By the time firefighters evacuated them to an emergency shelter, it was almost dawn.

Along the way, the once bustling, vibrant city had turned into a wreck—ruins and rubble everywhere.

Countless buildings had collapsed, and the casualties were heavy.

The hotel they were staying in was built solid, so it hadn't fully collapsed—only a few workers got minor injuries during the evacuation.

They were all put up together in the shelter. The earthquake had knocked out the island's cell towers, so they had no way to reach the outside world.

They couldn't even make international calls to let Lin Zhen know they were safe.

Lin Huaiqing leaned against the cold wall, his mind drifting off.

By tomorrow morning, when Lin Zhen saw the news about the earthquake in M Country, he'd probably be losing his mind with worry. This was the first time he'd ever felt like someone would actually worry about him if something happened.

The next morning, Lin Zhen got up as usual, had his morning tea, and turned on the morning news.

One headline, easy to miss among the domestic news, caught his eye.

"Magnitude 7.5 earthquake strikes M Country."

His heart seemed to skip a beat, and he frantically dialed Lin Huaiqing's number.

Lin Huaiqing's phone wouldn't go through, so he tried Wang Xing's number—also dead.

If he had a heart condition, it would've given out right then and there.

"Xiao Wang! Book me the first flight to M Country! The very first one!"

"Mr. Lin, with the massive earthquake in M Country, all flights are grounded."

Meanwhile, Qin Fan, who was spacing out during a company meeting, also saw the news.

"Magnitude 7.5 earthquake strikes M Country."

He snapped to attention, sitting up straight.

Wasn't M Country exactly where Lin Huaiqing had gone for his overseas business trip?

M Country wasn't big—just a bunch of islands—and the epicenter of this quake happened to be in the waters near Lover's Island.

Then Lin Huaiqing...

Qin Fan's heart dropped, and his palms started sweating. He kept telling himself it was fine.

No way, Lin Huaiqing couldn't be that unlucky. It couldn't happen.

He fumbled with his phone, opened the messaging app, and found his chat with Lin Huaiqing.

He typed and deleted over and over, finally settling on just four words:

"Are you okay..."

But the second he hit send, a red exclamation mark popped up next to the message.

Lin Huaiqing had deleted him at some point, and he hadn't even known.

Qin Fan couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. Lin Huaiqing hated him that much—couldn't even spare him a spot on his friends list.

During the meeting that day, Qin Fan ignored Qin Feng's glare and walked out in front of everyone.

It took a week for flights to M Country to resume, and Lin Huaiqing and his crew had spent that whole week in the shelter.

Once they got in touch with Lin Zhen, they and the construction crew boarded the first flight home.

Disaster relief in M Country was still underway, so the construction work had to be put on hold indefinitely. Either way, what mattered was that everyone was safe.

Stepping back onto home soil, Lin Huaiqing finally felt the weight come off his shoulders.

Before he could even get his bearings, Lin Zhen pulled him into a tight hug.

Fatherly love didn't need words; Lin Zhen never said anything sappy, just held him close in his clumsy way.

He'd lived half his life with just this one dumb son—if something had really happened to him, he wouldn't have been able to go on.

Thank God, thank God it was just a false alarm.

"Dad... the Lover's Island project..."

"Forget the project. You all coming back safe is the best gift there is. Old Wang, take the workers to the Marriott for a good soak and a nice meal to help them unwind."

"Got it! Leave it to me!"

"You and Cheng An come back to the old house with me. The old master and Lin Lan need to see you with their own eyes before they can relax."

Lin Huaiqing: "Okay!"

Uncle Wang made calls to arrange rides, and Lin Zhen, as the boss, naturally had to calm the construction crew down. Only Xue Chengan sat next to Lin Huaiqing, glancing around.

"Cousin, look over there!"

"Huh?" Lin Huaiqing followed the direction of Xue Chengan's finger and just barely caught a glimpse of a figure flashing by.

"What is it?"

"There was someone over there, looking over here the whole time."

They had gone straight from the shelter to the airport, boarded the plane, still wearing their dirty clothes. Of course people would stare when they got off.

"They're looking at you like you just escaped a famine."

"No! That person really looks like Young Master Qin! If you don't believe me, go check yourself." Xue Chengan was confident in what he saw and was sure he wasn't wrong.

"Young Master Qin? Which Young Master Qin?"

"Of course, it's Qin Fan, the second young master of the Qin family."

The moment Xue Chengan mentioned that name, Lin Huaiqing was reminded of the night before the earthquake when Xue Chengan had asked him a question.

Assuming Xue Chengan was testing him again, he simply gave him a cold look.

"You keep bringing him up in front of me—could it be that you're the one who likes Qin Fan? Now you're seeing things."

"Cousin, you're reading too much into it. How many times have I even met the second young master of the Qin family? Besides, I've got 20/20 vision in both eyes. It really might be Qin Fan."

"So what if it is? What's that got to do with me anyway?"

As if Qin Fan showing up here had anything to do with him.

"Huaiqing, Cheng An, let's go!" Lin Zhen waved at them from not far away.

"Coming!"

Back at the Lin family home, Lin Huaiqing stayed home to recover for a few days. The housekeeper cooked him all sorts of tasty dishes, never repeating the same thing, and kept saying he'd lost weight since coming back from abroad.

How could he not have lost weight? He had been living on dry, hard bread and cold water for over a week in the shelter, counting himself lucky if he got a sausage, and unlucky if even the bread was small.