For some reason, Fu Ling suddenly felt like crying. She snuck a furtive look at Su Shaoqing’s busy hands. After a long while, she turned her eyes away. Su Shaoqing looked up at that moment and gazed tenderly at her. “Do you feel okay? I’ll ice your wound for you in a bit. If it still hurts after that, let’s go down to the hospital.” However, Fu Ling didn’t reply. “Ling, you can get mad at me if you wish, but don’t throw your health out of the window like that!”
“That’s enough!” Fu Ling snapped. Pushing him aside, she said, “You know very well that I don’t need your care or your attention. I’m going upstairs!” She stood up to storm off, but the moment her foot touched the ground, a jolt of pain shot through her leg, and she fell back down on the sofa with a look of defeat.
Su Shaoqing acted quickly and steadied her immediately. “Fine. Can I at least help you upstairs?”
Su Shaoqing took a step backward and tried to compromise with her. Just as Fu Ling was about to reply, her phone started to ring—it was her food delivery driver. He had arrived at the door. Delivery drivers and other outsiders weren’t allowed to enter the premises without the permission of the owner because Su Shaoqing’s villa was located in an upscale neighborhood
Fu Ling picked up the phone and was about to speak when Su Shaoqing snatched the phone away from her. “We don’t want the food anymore.” He hung up on the call immediately.
“What the hell? Who are you to cancel my food delivery order like that? Su Shaoqing, you’re too much. That was the food I ordered!”
Fu Ling screamed at him and lunged for her phone. However, the delivery man called her back first. As soon as she picked up the call, she heard an angry bellow from the other end. “Do you think you’re all that just because you live in an upscale neighborhood? You ordered the food, and you’re canceling on it now? What am I supposed to do with it, then?”
“Oh, no, I want the food!” Fu Ling replied hastily. “A crazy person intercepted my call just now.”
“No, she doesn’t!” Su Shaoqing snatched the phone back and said, “You can enjoy the food. As for the money, I’ll transfer it to you right away.” He hung up the phone immediately after speaking and flung it far away into a corner. Looking solemnly at Fu Ling, he said, “Ling, I’ve told you before that you can get mad at me, but there’s no need for you to disregard your own health to spite me. You’re injured, so just sit down and rest for a bit. I’ll make dinner for you.”
“No, I want my food delivery!” Fu Ling was absolutely furious. Glaring angrily at him, she exploded, “Su Shaoqing, I only agreed to come and live at your place. That doesn’t mean I have to listen to everything you say! I’ll eat whatever the hell I want—what I eat has nothing to do with you. You have no right to restrict my personal freedom like this!”
Fu Ling stormed up to him, glowering. “If you keep doing these sort of things, I’ll move out right now. I never begged you to allow me to live here. Get your facts straight, you madman!”
Su Shaoqing frowned. “Ling, you were never like this before!”
“Before? Don’t talk to me about the past. Time changes everyone. Besides, how much did you really know about me back then? You think you know a lot about me, but you actually know nothing at all!” Fu Ling yelled, refusing to let Su Shaoqing get a word in. “Give me back my phone right now. If not, I’ll leave immediately!”
Su Shaoqing’s eyes narrowed. He couldn’t talk sense into Fu Ling when she was raging at him like this. He gazed at her, a conflicted look flashing in his eyes. Finally, he decided to compromise with her. “Do you really have to eat takeout?”
“Yes,” Fu Ling snapped. “I’d rather eat that greasy, MSG-filled stuff than eat whatever the hell you cook. Understand?”
“Alright. I’ll order some takeout for you. But can you please eat something instead of the one you just ordered?”
Fu Ling glared at him for a long time before nodding her head.
Su Shaoqing breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Immediately, he gave Yun Shui Jian a call and ordered a few dishes for her. “Do you want to stay in the living room or go upstairs to your room?” he asked Fu ling. “I’ll give you the TV remote control if you want. There’s even a laptop in my room. Do you want to play games on it?”
Su Shaoqing looked expectantly at her. Fu Ling felt extremely uncomfortable under his intense gaze and chose to remain on the sofa without another word.
As soon as she sat down, Su Shaoqing hurried over with a remote control. “You can take a look and see if there are any dramas or movies you’re interested in. I’ll go upstairs and get the laptop for you.”
“Su Shaoqing!” Fu Ling called after him. He stopped in his tracks a few meters away from her. With his back still turned to her, Su Shaoqing heard her ask, “Are you doing this out of guilt?”
Su Shaoqing froze at the question. He clenched his fists and remained silent for a long time. Behind him, Fu Ling continued, “There’s no need for you to feel guilty. If I think about it, you were a victim of your own circumstances back then too. You didn’t love me, but I continued hanging around you, didn’t I? I might have aborted our child, but I did that without consulting you. If I wanted to keep it, you wouldn’t have been able to talk me out of it anyway. I stopped blaming you for that a long time ago. If you still feel guilty and want to make it up to me somehow, you don’t have to do all this. If it weren’t for Bai, I would have never come back, so you can save it! I don’t need your apology.”
Fu Ling gazed at Su Shaoqing’s back. Back then, she believed that they were destined to be—after all, he had been the first person she noticed in the vast sea of people around her. No matter where he was, she was always able to find him in a blink of an eye.
His silhouette was a very familiar one to her; it was the most beautiful one. Every night, she continued to see his back view in her dreams. It was firm, solid, and handsome. However, he was slightly hunched over right now—the sight of a defeated-looking Su Shaoqing was one she never thought she would see.
Su Shaoqing took a deep breath and clenched her fists. “If you really want to make it up to me, then help me out with something. Help me save Bai’s life.”
“Okay!” Su Shaoqing mustered up all the willpower in his body to utter out that reply.
“Qin Yanzhi is Bai’s biological father. I know you can help us look for him.”
“Okay!”
Fu Ling’s lips turned up at the corners. “Bai is my life!”
Su Shaoqing balled his hands into fists as the room fell into silence. Tears swam in his eyes, but he moved his lips with difficulty and found his voice eventually. “I’ll find him as quickly as I can!”
Initially, Shi Nuan couldn’t understand why Fu Chengyan had refused point-blank to let her take on this project. However, the moment she saw Shen Shixiu, Shi Nuan understood his reluctance immediately. Fu Chengyan had merely wanted to reduce the opportunities for them to meet each other.
However, two people who were fated to meet would always meet each other eventually.
Because Yuan Jia had fallen ill and was in the hospital, Lin Yu couldn’t find anyone reliable to be her assistant. After agonizing over this for a while, he decided to ask Shi Nuan for help.
Fu Chengyan knew how to keep his work life separate from his private life. Hence, he only realized Shengyuan was going to partner with Shen Shixiu for this project when Shi Nuan returned from the business trip with Lin Yu. The world was a small place, after all.
Shen Shixiu was very stunned when he saw Shi Nuan, but he didn’t let the shock show on his face. After nodding slightly at the woman, he jumped straight into the topic of discussion. “Jiangyuan Group doesn’t have many conditions, but we’ll make sure to abide by Shengyuan’s carefully. We hope to develop the best business plan for this project. Mr. Lin, Ms. Shi, do either of you have any ideas regarding this?”
Lin Yu shot a look at Shi Nuan, who hastily took out the blueprints from her bag. She then handed them to Shen Shixiu. “Please have a look at these, Mr. Shen. These blueprints have been developed by Mr. Lin and myself. We’ve considered the geographical conditions, and we feel that…”
The discussion carried on for quite a while. After she became acquainted with Shen Shixiu, Shi Nuan immediately noted that this man was very detailed when it came to his work. He even managed to bring up some of the issues that the others hadn’t managed to pick up on.
Shi Nuan used to think that Fu Chengyan was one of the best in the industry, but Shen Shixiu surpassed him in almost all aspects when it came to work. Shi Nuan felt completely lost—Fu Chengyan probably kept her around in the office only because of her relationship with him.
After the discussion, Shi Nuan felt completely drained.
Lin Yu had to return home because of some family issues, so Shi Nuan issued Shen Shixiu an invitation for lunch. She wanted to bring him to Yun Shui Jian, but Shen Shixiu turned down her offer. “I heard the roadside stalls over at Jing University in Jiang City are pretty good.”
Shi Nuan felt a little stunned, but she forced herself to laugh. “Yeah, they’re pretty good. I graduated from Jing University, so I basically grew up on the food from those roadside stalls. Why? Do you want to try them too, Mr. Shen?”
Something flashed in Shen Shixiu’s eyes. He laughed and said, “I spent my university years overseas, so I never got to experience studying in a local university. If you don’t mind, Ms. Shi, could you take me on a stroll around that area?”
“Sure!” Shi Nuan replied cheerily. She kept away the documents on the table before standing up and saying, “Hold on a second, Mr. Shen. I have to settle a few things first, and then we can go for lunch after.”
Shen Shixiu nodded and gestured at her to take her time. Shi Nuan quickly put the rest of the documents on the table away.
While she was busy with the documents, Shen Shixiu used the time to make a call. When he hung up, he spotted Shi Nuan walking towards him. She was evidently done putting away the documents. “You’ve waited long enough!”
“I just finished clearing those files. Would you like to take my car or call your chauffeur to take us there?”
“Could I trouble you, Ms. Shi?”
Shi Nuan agreed. “Sure! However, my car is a little small, so it’ll be a tight fit. I hope you don’t mind, Mr. Shen!”
Shi Nuan led him downstairs. While in the elevator, she texted Fu Chengyan: I’m going out with Shen Shixiu for a while. He says he wants to head over to Jing University.
Fu Chengyan was in the middle of a meeting when his phone beeped with a new notification. One of the executives, who was giving a presentation at that moment, immediately stopped talking. Fu Chengyan looked up blandly to glance at the new message. When he saw the words ‘Shen Shixiu’, his eyes darkened slightly. The executives in the room felt the sudden tension in the air, and they all held their breaths. They trained their eyes on Fu Chengyan’s phone, waiting for him to explode.
However, Fu Chengyan merely narrowed his eyes. Half a moment later, he opened the message and replied to a single word: Alright! He made sure to add a crying emoji.
Fu Chengyan stared at his message for a long time, looking rather dissatisfied. Quickly, he edited the message to add a pouting emoji at the back as well.
But that didn’t seem enough, either. He then added an unhappy expression, too.
Even after sending a few messages, Fu Chengyan still felt dissatisfied. He continued glaring at his phone before sending one last emoji of a wronged face. After this, he finally kept his phone away and looked up at the executive again.
The executives were all staring at him, looking a little peculiar.
Fu Chengyan narrowed his eyes. He coughed slightly before he ordered, “Continue!”
