The servant hurriedly fetched the keys, and Jiang Tianqi snatched them away, dashing back upstairs in a flurry.
Before long, he came rushing back down, having changed into a different set of clothes.
Nianchu noticed that Jiang Tianqi was wearing something different from yesterday.
Jiang Tianqi noticed Nianchu too. As he passed her, his eyes darted around, and he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Grandpa, let Sister Liang come with me. She's got nothing to do sitting around here anyway. I can show her around and help her learn the way."
Elder Jiang thought he had actually taken last night's words to heart, and said cheerfully:
"Fine, fine. Zhaozhao, take her along. Once you're done with the errand, go do some shopping. You girls all like buying things—no need to rush back."
Nianchu sensed that Jiang Tianqi wasn't being kind out of the goodness of his heart. She felt something was off.
She wanted to refuse, but Jiang Tianqi seemed to see through her hesitation. He raised an eyebrow and said with a sneer:
"My second brother went through all the trouble of bringing you here from afar and treating you so well. You're not going to say you can't even do him a small favor, are you?"
With that, Nianchu had no room to decline.
She could only let Jiang Tianqi drag her out the door.
But she remained highly vigilant, her whole body tense.
Jiang Tianqi, a complete change from his prickly attitude yesterday, flashed her a warm smile:
"Don't be so nervous, Sister Liang. Grandpa and Second Brother both think so highly of you—you think I'd sell you out?"
Nianchu pressed her lips together in silence, refusing to take the bait.
Jiang Tianqi continued: "I've seen plenty of girls like you. Why don't you just tell me straight—how much money are you planning to squeeze out of the Jiang family?
Here's my offer: whatever you're asking for, I'll double it. I won't expose you, and we split it fifty-fifty."
Nianchu seemed to understand where his hostility came from. She defended herself earnestly:
"I'm not after your family's money."
Jiang Tianqi rolled his eyes dramatically. "Who are you trying to fool? If you weren't after money, you wouldn't have had your grandpa cozying up to mine on his deathbed!"
Nianchu fell silent.
Her grandfather had entrusted her to the Jiang family not to curry favor with the powerful, but simply because there was nowhere else to turn.
Her father was useless, and her stepmother only wanted to squeeze every bit of value out of her.
Without her grandfather, her birth family was nothing but wolves and tigers.
An eighteen-year-old girl could hardly break free from that fate on her own.
But there was no point in explaining any of this to Jiang Tianqi.
He wouldn't believe her anyway—it would only invite more humiliation.
Seeing her go quiet, Jiang Tianqi lost interest too. He quickened his pace out of the villa, where the Jiang family driver was already waiting outside.
He hopped into the passenger seat. Nianchu followed behind, hesitating at the car door.
She still didn't want to go out with Jiang Tianqi. She had a bad feeling about this.
Jiang Tianqi rolled down the window and shouted at her: "What are you dawdling for? If you delay Second Brother's business, can you afford to pay for that?"
With such a heavy accusation hanging over her head, Nianchu had no choice but to get in the car.
The ride was uneventful. Jiang Tianqi wore his Bluetooth earbuds and didn't bother her.
About an hour later, the car came to a stop a hundred meters away, diagonally across from the main entrance of the Tianbei Procuratorate.
Jiang Tianqi hopped out with practiced ease and dragged Nianchu out with him.
Government buildings carried an imposing presence of their own.
Even someone as arrogant and willful as Jiang Tianqi straightened his collar after getting out, a hint of solemnity settling on his face.
"Not just anyone can get into Second Brother's office. I'll go deliver the stuff. You wait here and don't wander off. I'll come get you when I'm done, and we'll head back together."
Nianchu nodded hesitantly. "Alright. I'll wait here for you."
Jiang Tianqi gave her a meaningful look, barely suppressing a grin, and walked toward the procuratorate.
The moment he entered the lobby, Xiao Lin, who had been waiting, hurried over.
"Young Master, hand the item to me quickly."
Jiang Tianqi knew this was his brother's right-hand man, so he cooperatively pulled the USB drive from his pocket. "Here."
A quarterly meeting was underway inside, and Jiang Tiansong was about to present his work summary. All the materials were on that tiny USB drive.
Xiao Lin didn't have time for small talk. He tossed out a quick "Much obliged," turned, and rushed off.
Jiang Tianqi watched his retreating figure with a sly look, then his eyes darted around. He slipped out through a completely different exit from the one he'd come in.
Once outside, he called Old Jin, the driver who had brought them, and told him to come pick him up.
Private cars weren't allowed to park nearby, so Old Jin had driven a bit further after dropping them off to find a parking spot.
Now, as he drove away, Nianchu, still standing across from the procuratorate, had no idea what was happening.
Old Jin, however, noticed and asked when he saw only Jiang Tianqi getting into the car:
"What about that young lady who came with you earlier? Isn't she coming with us?"
Jiang Tianqi said with a grin:
"Girls all love shopping. She went off to have fun on her own."
Old Jin didn't press further.
Jiang Tianqi added: "Since we're out anyway, no rush to get back. Old Jin, let's go to Universal Studios. That new foreign sci-fi blockbuster is amazing—I want to watch it again."
When the young master gave an order, Old Jin, as the driver, naturally obeyed.
He drove her to Universal Studios.
Jiang Tianqi first bought popcorn and Coke, then went to watch a movie.
After finishing one movie and still not having had enough, he checked what else was showing, but nothing else caught his interest, so he reluctantly left the cinema.
Right next door was an arcade, where many of Jiang Tianqi's peers were playing. Jiang Tianqi went over, got a membership card, and loaded three hundred yuan worth of game credits.
After playing for a few hours and running out of credits, he waved his hand grandly and topped up another five hundred, staring at the game screen with excitement shining in his eyes.
…
Nianchu stood for an hour, slowly sensing that something was off.
Jiang Tianqi had been gone too long—did delivering something really take this much time?
She realized she might have been tricked.
Nianchu hesitated for a moment, looked up at the solemn and imposing gates of the procuratorate, gathered her courage, and walked over.
She had barely reached the entrance when she hit a barrier—
The doors here were all smart-controlled, equipped with facial recognition systems.
She was an unfamiliar face and couldn't even get through the door.
Just then, the front desk receptionist at the procuratorate noticed the young girl at the entrance.
She looked toward Nianchu and asked gently, "Little sister, is there something you need?"
She even pointed toward the mailbox by the door:
"If you're here to submit a petition letter or appeal a grievance, you can use that."
Her friendliness eased Nianchu's nervousness considerably:
"Thank you, I'm looking for someone."
"Looking for someone? Do you mean one of our leaders?"
"No, no…"
Nianchu knew this was Jiang Tiansong's workplace—she had looked it up online last night and found out what this place was.
Working in such a solemn, sacred place, he must carry no small amount of pressure.
She didn't want to cause Jiang Tiansong trouble during work hours, so she gestured with her hands, trying her best to describe what Jiang Tianqi looked like.
"I'm looking for the boy who just came in here. He's about this tall, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, wearing a black T-shirt…"
The receptionist only half-understood, but her tone remained gentle:
"If he's not someone from our unit, then the person you're describing probably wouldn't stay here. There are two side gates over there—little sister, could the person you're looking for have left through another exit?"
Nianchu's heart sank slightly as she realized Jiang Tianqi had pulled one over on her.
At this point, catching up to him was definitely out of the question.
And she had rushed out in such a hurry that she hadn't brought anything with her.
No phone, no wallet—she didn't even know the exact location of the Jiang residence.
Even if she tried to go back on her own, she wouldn't be able to find the way.
Nianchu thought for a moment and finally decided she shouldn't wander off randomly.
It was an hour's drive—relying on her own two legs to walk back would be far too easy to get lost.
She decided to stay here and wait for Jiang Tiansong's lunch break.
It was almost noon; he would definitely come out to eat.
When she found him and explained the situation, Jiang Tiansong wouldn't ignore her, and she'd be able to get back to the Jiang residence.
With that thought, Nianchu went outside, found a step, and sat down hugging her knees.
She waited for a long time, her own stomach growling, but still no sign of Jiang Tiansong.
What Nianchu didn't know was that big institutions like this usually had their own cafeterias.
And she was afraid that if she left, Jiang Tiansong might happen to come out at that exact moment, and the two would miss each other—so she became even more reluctant to move.
Holding onto that thought, she sat on the steps, enduring from just past morning all the way until the sun set.
Nianchu squinted, her forehead resting against her arm, her body tilting sideways on the steps, nearly falling—she barely steadied herself with her palm on the ground.
Having nearly dozed off, she jolted awake from the sudden shift, looked around in a daze, grabbed the wall to slowly stand up, and blinked hard.
How long had she been waiting? Had Second Brother still not come out?
Just as she was pondering this, a sleek sports car suddenly pulled up across the street.
The door opened, and a woman in a red dress, sunglasses covering most of her face, with a real celebrity aura, stepped out and walked straight toward Nianchu's direction.
As the woman climbed the steps, Nianchu instinctively stepped aside to make way for this beautiful sister who clearly had presence.
The woman passed her without a sideways glance, clicking her high heels as she entered the gates with an air of pride.
About two minutes later, the procuratorate let out for the day. The elevator descended, and the prosecutors who had been busy all day filed out one after another.
Jiang Tiansong was among them, surrounded by five or six people, still giving instructions on work matters.
Everyone wore similar prosecutor uniforms with impeccably tied ties, but Jiang Tiansong simply had a kind of striking presence—even hidden in a crowd, when people looked over, he was always the first one they noticed.
Xiao Lin was also in the crowd, holding a voice recorder to take notes, when suddenly he noticed a splash of distinctive color up ahead.
He looked up and saw Shen Qiaofei holding her sunglasses in hand, smiling warmly as she gazed at them.
The woman carried herself with poise, yet her smile was exceptionally radiant, somehow bringing a touch of vitality to the entire cool-toned lobby.
"Prosecutor Jiang." Xiao Lin reminded him in a low voice.
Jiang Tiansong looked up and saw the woman waiting outside the door.
Shen Qiaofei gave a playful, lively smile and waved at him.
Jiang Tiansong: "Let's call it a day for now. We'll discuss the rest at tomorrow's meeting."
He walked toward Shen Qiaofei.