The Anheyuan area was the cheapest in the entire cemetery, with twelve plots per row, but only two pavilions provided for resting.
After obtaining their number plate, Mother Gu and the other two waited in line for a long time before finally being allowed inside, and they took out the food they had prepared in their bags to tide themselves over.
“Huh? Where is Shushu?” Mother Gu held the lunch box containing the sweet and sour pork ribs, and upon noticing that her daughter was missing, she didn’t dare to place it on the table.
Bai Tang had been craving sweet and sour pork ribs since leaving home in the morning, but the adults were simply too stingy, preparing only a tiny portion. Seeing that her cousin happened to be absent, she cleverly said, “Sister fell asleep in the car. It looks like she stayed up all night playing games yesterday, so let’s let her rest a bit more.”
Mother Gu comfortingly patted Bai Tang’s head and handed the lunch box to her. “Tangtang is always the sensible one.”
A radiant smile spread across the girl’s face as she acquired the delicious food, and she happily walked over to where the microwave was placed. Lifting her gaze slightly, she caught sight of a foreign man dressed in a formal business suit.
The man walked straight up to Mother Gu and asked simply, “Are you Gu Qingjiao’s mother?”
Mother Gu paused slightly and replied, “Yes, who are you, may I ask?”
The man pulled a thirty-million-dollar check from his bag, cutting straight to the chase: “I am Jason from Shi Family South Manor. We are buying your daughter’s tomb.”
Everyone?
Buy, buying a tomb?
The Gu family had gradually declined after the head of the family passed away, and nowadays every penny had to be spent where it mattered most. Now, a check with a row of zeros was blinking right in front of the woman, and she could find no reason to refuse.
What concept was thirty million?
It was equivalent to buying five of the villas the Gu family currently lived in.
Just as Mother Gu reached out to take the check, Jason pulled his hand back, instead pulling a purchase agreement from his bag. “Don’t rush, sign your name first.”
Blinded by money, Mother Gu’s heart tightened, worried that such a good deal might slip away. She nodded hastily, her vision too blurred by greed to read the contents of the agreement properly, merely glancing over the name Gu Qingjiao.
She picked up the black pen and prepared to sign, but another woman nearby noticed something amiss and immediately called out to stop her: “Wait! Why are you people buying a dead person’s tomb?”
Jason raised a thick eyebrow at the person and asked, “And who are you?”
“I am Gu Qingjiao’s aunt, her direct family!”
Jason let out a scoff of laughter. “None of your damn business.”
The woman?
Jason turned back to look at the hesitant Mother Gu, leaned down, and whispered in her ear: “Your Gu family’s debts haven’t been fully paid off yet, have they?”
Mother Gu trembled all over, staring at the man with panic in her eyes.
Jason: “You’d better think carefully. My Second Young Master is not someone easy to deal with. Even if we didn’t give you this money today, you should know that as long as we want this tomb, there are plenty of ways to get it.”
Mother Gu clenched her teeth tightly and finally signed her name.
Bai Tang and her mother didn’t feel any heartache over the tomb. Watching a check being handed over so effortlessly to Mother Gu, besides being utterly astonished, they also felt a wave of bitter envy.
“Sister-in-law, how could you sell your own daughter’s tomb just for this little bit of money? What is thirty million? If you were short on cash, you could have just told me!”
The woman’s sarcastic remarks grated on Jason’s ears. He pinched the bridge of his nose and strode toward her. His tall, broad-shouldered frame with thick eyebrows and blue eyes successfully intimidated the mother and daughter.
Bai Tang had heard it clearly just moments ago: the man said he came from Shi Family South Manor. Although she was very terrified of this man, the thought that the handsome and wealthy Shi Lijin still lived in South Manor made her heart beat wildly with excitement.
Suppressing her fear of the man’s appearance, she tried to flash starry eyes, gently clasping her fists in front of her heart as she asked, “Excuse me, big brother, are you a friend of Second Young Master Shi?”
Jason stuck his pinky finger into his ear canal and twirled it. “What nonsense are you babbling about?”
Bai Tang naively thought his ears were blocked and he hadn’t heard clearly, so she repeated: “Big brother is a friend of Second Young Master Shi, right? May I ask if you’ll be attending the high-society banquet in a few days? Will, will Second Young Master Shi be coming?”
Jason sneered coldly at the girl and sternly lectured the blabbering brat: “Who’s your big brother? Shut your mouth.”
The stars in Bai Tang’s eyes shattered into pieces. She stared blankly at Jason, too scared to speak a word. Fortunately, her mother pulled her behind her, timely cutting off their line of sight.
Jason placed the signed purchase agreement back into his bag, zipped it up, and prepared to leave.
“Wait…” Mother Gu still couldn’t help calling out to him. “May I ask what you are planning to do with my daughter’s tomb?”
Jason retorted: “Does asking that now make any difference?”
Hearing this, everyone finally had an underlying feeling that things weren’t as simple as they seemed. Mother Gu hurriedly poured him a cup of water and coaxed submissively, “Then can we still come to sweep her grave in the future?”
“Sweep her grave?” Jason grinned and chuckled twice. “No need for that anymore!”
Not wanting to waste time here, he dropped a cryptic remark and left.
Mother Gu began to panic inexplicably after signing the agreement, so she mustered up the courage to follow him back to Gu Qingjiao’s grave, only to find that the plot of land had been cordoned off with warning tape.
Four men in black suits stood straight in front of the grave. The one in the middle was the most conspicuous, holding a tablet in his left hand while his right hand was casually tucked into his pants pocket. His skin was as white as jade, and his entire demeanor exuded aristocratic elegance.
Mother Gu clutched the warning tape in front of her, stared closely at the man for a long time, and finally managed to guess his identity.
The man was most likely Shi Lijin.
His reputation in high-society circles recently had been mixed; some said he was unrestrained and extravagant with money, while others said he was ruthless and psychologically abnormal. In short, getting close to him brought no benefits.
Moreover, Mother Gu had heard that her sister Shen Kewen had only been in South Manor for a few days before being driven mad by some method of his. Now, the entire family’s sovereign power was concentrated in the hands of the brothers Shi Lijin and Shi Feng, showing that the rumors in high-society circles were indeed true.
The woman stood outside the warning tape and watched them from afar. Soon, Bai Tang and her mother followed over as well.
Aside from the period when he had run away from home, Shi Lijin rarely left South Manor, especially in recent months as his illness worsened; he couldn’t stand the cold wind halfway up the mountain. Shi Lijin coughed lightly a couple of times, turned his back to the tombstone, and gave a gentle flick with his right hand.
Upon receiving the signal, three bodyguards immediately stepped forward and worked together to lift the stone lid at the bottom of the tombstone.
“What are they, doing?” In the distance, outside the warning tape, the woman began to panic.
“No! They’re going to dig up Gu Qingjiao’s grave!”
This remark ignited the fuse in Mother Gu’s heart. She hurriedly ducked under the warning tape, ran up to Shi Lijin in big strides, and shouted, “Second Young Master Shi! What, what are you people doing?!”
Jason, who had been busy, stepped in front of the woman and wished he could take out the purchase agreement and smash it in her face. “What are you running over here for? Spent all the money already?”
Mother Gu was left speechless by the retort, and could only soften her gaze, looking back and forth between Shi Lijin and Jason.
“But you didn’t say, you didn’t say you were going to dig up the grave…”
Jason: “The agreement stated this clause, you just didn’t read it. Big sister, I advise you not to meddle and ruin things here.”
Just then, two bodyguards finished their task and walked over, handing a small black box to Shi Lijin. Jason hurriedly opened a black umbrella to provide shade, and took the opportunity to scold his two careless subordinates: “I’ve told you hundreds of times, Miss Gu cannot bear the sunlight!”
Shi Lijin handed the tablet to Jason first, then received the box with both hands, gently brushing away the dust on top.
Mother Gu’s heart clenched, her eyes turning red. With a crying tone, she said, “You, you, Shi Lijin, aren’t you afraid of retribution!”
Shi Lijin maintained an indifferent expression, completely ignoring the woman as if she didn’t exist in his field of vision.
He stroked a corner of the box, the cool and smooth texture transmitting from his fingertips to his heart. He suddenly remembered the last words Gu Qingjiao said to him before she passed away: she had hoped he would go to the lantern festival with her.
She missed him, missing him right up until her dying breath.
And what about him? What had he done? He hadn’t even seen what Gu Qingjiao looked like wearing the cloak he sent her, and he would never see it again.
Shi Lijin walked forward as if no one else was around, with Jason holding the umbrella and following closely behind, terrified that his dear Miss Gu would vanish into ashes the moment she touched sunlight.
Unable to endure the woman’s crying and fussing behind them, Jason casually mentioned to Shi Lijin: “Second Young Master, she’s Miss Gu’s mother…”
Having said that, and seemingly wanting to stir up trouble, he added another sentence: “Shen Kewen’s older sister.”
Sure enough, the forward-moving steps came to a halt, and Shi Lijin cast his gaze onto Mother Gu.
Upon hearing the name Shen Kewen, the two nearby bodyguards tacitly assumed the woman was about to meet a miserable end, so they also walked over and blocked the woman in the middle.
Mother Gu roughly knew what Shen Kewen meant to Shi Lijin. Subconsciously shrinking her neck, she stared at Shi Lijin with panicked eyes.
Shi Lijin: “You are Shen Qin?”
Shen Qin’s legs went soft, and like someone begging for survival in a desperate situation, she spoke in a weak voice: “I am Gu Qingjiao’s mother.”
“Good,” Shi Lijin nodded. “I’m taking your daughter away.”
Shen Qin’s tears blocked her vision. To her, this Second Young Master Shi was merely a junior, but the oppressive aura emanating from him was a level she had never experienced in the twenty-some years since she married into high society.
Today, let alone just taking away Gu Qingjiao’s ashes, even if he wanted to overturn the entire Gu family, she had no ability to resist.
She could only watch the man leave.
Shi Feng sat before his father’s grave waiting all afternoon, and when he finally saw people approaching, he discovered that Shi Lijin was holding a small object in his arms.
Keeping the clothes of the deceased was one thing, but now he was even…
“Xiaojin, what are you doing?”
Shi Lijin stopped in front of him, neither evading nor concealing it.
“If you’re scared, you can leave first.”
Shi Feng stared blankly at such a morbid younger brother, feeling his chest jerk violently as an unprecedented wave of pain struck him fiercely.
“I’m scared of you,” after a long silence, Shi Feng finally couldn’t help voicing the thought in his heart. “Xiaojin, you scare your older brother.”
The brothers’ gazes met unintentionally, the atmosphere plunging instantly to freezing point. Jason, holding the umbrella nearby, felt rather innocent. He glanced at Shi Lijin and whispered, “Second Young Master, let’s head back. Miss Gu is waiting for you at home.”
Shi Lijin was indeed easy to fool, quickly withdrawing his gaze, patting the box in his hands soothingly, smiling faintly in his heart, and climbing into the car.
Jason breathed a sigh of relief, only to turn around and see the eldest young master glaring at him from the wheelchair. His sturdy body shook as he thought: it’s over, I just pleased one and offended another.
After a brief pause, Shi Feng was helped into the car. Watching Shi Lijin cradle that box like a precious treasure, Shi Feng felt a slight headache.
“Let’s go out for a stroll, Xiaojin.”
“I strolled today.”
“Today was just sweeping graves. I hope you can go out to relax your mind.”
Shi Lijin took off his jacket and draped it over the box. “My mood is great, no need to stroll.”
Shi Feng’s back felt somewhat chilly. “How do you plan to deal with this thing? I’ll have someone help you.”
This remark seemed to touch Shi Lijin’s reverse scale. His face chilled, and he stared at the other person with a gloomy gaze.
“Xiaojin, I am your older brother, don’t look at me like that.” Shi Feng met his gaze very earnestly. After calming down, he changed the subject. “There’s a small banquet at the Xiao family mansion in a few days. My legs are inconvenient, will you attend on my behalf?”
“Just a circle of a bunch of trash gathering together to build a vanity fair, I’m not going.”
“But you are the future head of the Shi family, you’ll need to interact with these figures sooner or later.”
“I just happen to share the surname Shi, you’ll have to be the head of the house.”
Shi Feng smiled bitterly, pulling Shi Lijin’s left hand over to rest on his paralyzed leg, and said earnestly, “Xiaojin, you are the future hope of your older brother. I must not let anything happen to you again, otherwise how will I face Mom in the future?”
Shi Lijin lowered his eyelids and moved his lips, a slight bitterness washing across his taste buds.
Gu Qingjiao was once again woken up by the system.
System: [Host, although I’ve malfunctioned again, this content is too thrilling, I have to send it for you to see.]
Gu Qingjiao thought it must be genuinely thrilling, so she sat up properly to watch. However, this time, the dialogue content flashing across the screen turned out to be like this:
Sugar: [Sisters, I’m so shocked! He actually gave Gu Qingjiao’s ashes to her mother!]
Cannon: [Ahhhhh the child is too young, don’t scare me!]
Sugar: [Really, I swear my mom was right there watching like an idiot, wow he is so crazy, I love it!]
Cannon: [Bai Tang, are you sick?]
Sugar: [He is so black-hearted, I love it!]
Cannon: [You really are sick.]
…
Gu Qingjiao was completely bewildered.
What on earth is this?
Why did the system change right after a nap?
“What is this? Am I just looking at air?” Gu Qingjiao shook her stiff neck, feeling rather speechless.
System: [Don’t panic, once I fix it, I’ll show you the full version. It will definitely refresh your worldview.]
Gu Qingjiao didn’t want to spoil the system’s mood, so she didn’t reply. In fact, her worldview had already been refreshed back when she searched for Shen Kewen.
Upon learning that Shen Kewen suffered from dissociative identity disorder, she subconsciously still felt a bit of sympathy for that woman. After all, Shen Kewen’s kindness toward Gu Qingjiao was out in the open, and throughout all of South Manor, and even the current Gu family, apart from a sparse few individuals, she rarely felt warmth anymore.
Shen Qin and the mother-daughter pair of Bai Tang boarded the car.
Shen Qin sat in the driver’s seat, staring blankly ahead with lifeless eyes for a moment. Feeling she simply couldn’t hold on any longer, she turned her head and said to her sister-in-law in the passenger seat, “You drive, I need to rest in the back for a while.”
Shen Qin swapped seats with Bai Tang.
Sitting beside her daughter, Shen Qin smiled bitterly and then leaned weakly against her daughter’s arm.
Gu Qingjiao’s arm inexplicably began to swell with discomfort.
She shifted inward a bit, slowly pulling her arm out so Shen Qin could lie down comfortably, while she curled up to the side.
Shen Qin fell asleep.
Her time to fall asleep was just as brief as Gu Qingjiao’s.
Gu Qingjiao boredly looked out the window, wondering what kind of thoughts were churning in her heart.
Right at that moment, the system screen flashed again:
Sugar: [Acting all fake, just got thirty million, probably still thrilled to death, fake, both mother and daughter are equally fake!]
Cannon: [What thirty million?]
Sugar: [Oh, forgot to tell you, Shi Lijin actually gave her mother thirty million just to buy Gu Qingjiao’s grave.]
Cannon: [Tsk tsk…]
Gu Qingjiao was completely numbed.
What on earth was this little card machine playing at?
Although the conversation between these two wasn’t complete, Gu Qingjiao could roughly guess who Bai Tang’s words were targeted at.
It seemed that these past few months of a slacker mindset had made her cousin a bit too carefree.
Gu Qingjiao cast her gaze toward Bai Tang in the passenger seat and smiled faintly.
Five days later, the high-society banquet.
The banquet was held inside the Xiao family mansion, with a grand and solemn scene. Looking across the hall, several well-known entrepreneurs were already present.
Of course, none of this had anything to do with Gu Qingjiao. After all, in high-society romance novels, famous figures were a dime a dozen, and having already seen the most luxurious South Manor and eaten the rarest delicacies, she felt no particular novelty toward these bland backgrounds.
She came with only one purpose: to encounter a handsome hubby.
Following the system’s prompts, Gu Qingjiao walked all the way in a certain direction. After tossing up and down between upstairs and downstairs, and seeing all kinds of diverse men, a prompt sound finally rang in her head after some time:
[Congratulations to the host for successfully encountering the male protagonist!]
[Do you see that handsome guy ahead? He is your destined partner, named Ji Haiyan.]
[Go! Pour red wine on him, then pretend to wipe it off for him, and the sparks will fly right out.]
“Alright.” Gu Qingjiao casually picked up a glass of red wine nearby and walked straight toward the man.
“Hi, handsome.”
The man who was proactively approached saw that she was a clean and pretty girl, and a light instantly lit up in his pupils. “Hello, may I ask who you are?”
System: [Say: I like you, I want to marry you, please leave your contact information.]
Gu Qingjiao paused, gently swirling the wine glass in her hand, and asked, “Do you know what kind of wine this is?”
Ji Haiyan: “I don’t know.”
System: [Say: This is my long-lasting commitment to you.]
Gu Qingjiao: “This is red wine.”
System…
The man…
“Miss is really humorous.” Ji Haiyan smiled faintly, took a business card from his bag, and handed it to her. “My name is Ji Haiyan, what’s your name?”
Gu Qingjiao took the card and discovered he was actually a voice actor. No wonder his voice sounded so pleasant, giving people a steady and calm feeling.
Her favorable impression instantly shot up, and she smiled generously at him. “My name is Gu Qingshu, but unfortunately I don’t have a business card.”
Ji Haiyan pulled out a pen and held out the pen along with his palm. “It doesn’t matter, you can write your name down.”
On the other side, Bai Tang spotted her cousin chatting with a strange man upstairs, and her expression instantly darkened.
She felt this white lotus was really good at putting on an act. She had claimed earlier that she didn’t want to come, but in the end, wasn’t she sticking shamelessly to a wealthy man the moment she had the chance?
Gu Qingjiao neatly wrote the three characters Gu Qingshu on Ji Haiyan’s palm.
Ji Haiyan’s palm tickled, and his gaze couldn’t help lingering on that face.
This was the prettiest girl he had seen so far. Although dressed somewhat plainly, the refinement and brilliance emanating from her core were like a microphone in a voice actor’s hands, worthy of being specially cherished.
He carefully tucked the girl’s name into his palm and was just about to start a second round of conversation when he found that an extra person had appeared beside the girl.
Bai Tang was also holding red wine, blocking the space between them as she asked, “Sister, do you know this person?”
Gu Qingjiao nodded. “Just met.”
Bai Tang raised her voice and asked, “Then will your husband get angry if he finds out?”
Gu Qingjiao: “Huh?”
What is this girl playing at? Trying to break up a pair of mandarin ducks?
Ji Haiyan was also somewhat shocked. “This…”
Bai Tang covered her mouth with a reserved smile, half-hiding her amusement as she revealed to him: “My sister said her husband is Shi Lijin.”
Gu Qingjiao…
Bai Tang originally thought the man would back off upon hearing this, but instead it drew a hearty laugh from him: “Little sister, you really know how to joke.”
She was slightly startled and gave a perfunctory smile along with it. The next second, she noticed the business card in Gu Qingjiao’s hand. Tilting her head and squinting at the name for a long time, she was shocked when she finally read it clearly.
“You’re Ji Haiyan!”
“Yes.” He was a public figure in the voice acting circle, so he wasn’t surprised by the girl’s reaction.
Bai Tang was so happy she almost jumped. She was too excited, just like a fan meeting her idol: “Ah, Brother Ji, I love you so much! I love your works so much! I never expected to meet you here! I’m really, really so excited!”
Unable to control herself any longer, the girl grabbed onto him and jumped up, instantly forgetting the existence of other items in her hand, which resulted in spilling red wine all over her male god.
Bai Tang covered her mouth in shock and hurriedly pulled out wet wipes. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Brother Ji, I didn’t mean to! I’ll wipe it clean for you.”
“It’s fine, little sister, it’s okay, I’ll clean it up myself.” Ji Haiyan politely pushed her away.
Gu Qingjiao, standing aside with her arms folded across her chest, took a small sip of wine and said, “Cousin, how can you be so careless.”
After saying that, she picked up her phone and calmly checked Ji Haiyan’s works:
Work 1: The Overbearing Uncle Falls in Love With Me
Work 2: High-Society Brother, Don’t Mess Around
Work 3: The Frail Sister Can’t Escape
…
Gu Qingjiao?
Male lead?
The system popped out to clear her doubts: [That’s right, this is your male lead, your handsome hubby.]
Gu Qingjiao muttered in utter confusion, unaware that her phone had been snatched away by Bai Tang. The little girl’s fierce expression looked as though someone had peeked at her most treasured secret.
Bai Tang: “So you came over just to find Brother Ji. You knew he was here all along, didn’t you! Sister is so stingy, you wouldn’t even tell me!”
Gu Qingjiao rubbed her eyes, not wanting to bicker with her, and simply held out her hand, demanding that the other party return the phone.
Bai Tang, perhaps possessed by something, panicked and tried to exit the webpage. But because she was too nervous to figure out where the exit was, she simply pulled down the status bar and turned on airplane mode. Tapping wildly around, she ended up turning on everything like Bluetooth and personal hotspot instead of airplane mode. Finally, in a panic, she accidentally tapped play featured content.
Thus, the voices of a man and a woman blasted out from the speaker:
[Man: Don’t leave me again, okay?]
[Woman: I don’t know… I don’t know…]
[Man: Baby, forget him, be with me.]
Gu Qingjiao, who was slightly nervous because her phone had been snatched…
Bai Tang, who accidentally played the audio because she was nervous…
Ji Haiyan, whose audio was being played publicly…
The high-society people, who cast strange glances upon hearing the audio…
Gu Qingjiao snatched back her phone and directly exited.
“Cousin, how can you be so impolite.”
Bai Tang’s face turned green on the spot.
Gu Qingjiao reached out and patted Ji Haiyan’s arm, smiling nonchalantly. “Handsome, nice meeting you, see you next time.”
Leaving her little cousin right there, she strolled away in a relaxed manner.
At nine o’clock in the night, the dance inside the mansion commenced. Not wanting to join the lively crowd, Gu Qingjiao took a glass of red wine and went out for a stroll by herself.
When she wandered over to the pool, she happened to spot a beach lounger right in the middle. Gu Qingjiao was quite delighted; she hadn’t expected that even coming out could afford her a chance to lie down.
So she sat over, sipped her wine, and took out the Bluetooth earphones she had just bought today. Preparing to connect them, she discovered a familiar name under other devices: Jason.
Could it be that Jason from South Manor?
She wasn’t sure.
After looking at it for a moment, she brushed it aside as just a stranger passing by.
She played a piece of ambient instrumental music that sounded very atmospheric, its soothing melody resembling sheets of drawing paper piecing together images in her mind.
Late at night, the high-society vanity fair came to an end, and guests left one after another. Those living farther away chose to stay and rest here for the night.
And Shi Lijin, who had been given special care by the hosts ever since stepping through the gates, was the very last to emerge from inside.
The master of the mansion had specially arranged a top-tier suite for him, but Shi Lijin was particular about his bed and had mysophobia, unable to sleep comfortably in someone else’s room. Therefore, the vehicle driven over by his driver was a motorhome, where the young master slept in the motorhome while the subordinates slept in the suite.
As the group walked along, Shi Lijin extended a hand backward and casually asked, “What time is it?”
Jason handed over the tablet and replied, “Twelve o’clock.”
Shi Lijin opened the map software and found that the tablet wasn’t connected to the internet, so he took out his phone and turned on his personal hotspot.
When connecting to the network, he saw an eye-catching name under the wifi list: Gu’s Jiaojia.
Shi Lijin froze.
The bodyguards following behind froze as well.
“Second Young Master, is there a problem?”
Shi Lijin calmed down slightly and tried connecting to that network.
When entering the password field, he pondered for a moment in his heart.
He clearly remembered Gu Qingjiao’s past phone password, entering first: n s d s b. No, the password had to be eight digits.
He found somewhere random to sit down and study it slowly. The pale, ghost-like water ripples projected onto his face, casting a faint glow.
He thought that this brief and mysterious Pinyin abbreviation must have some special meaning.
Could it be something Gu Qingjiao left behind specifically for him?
Shi Lijin lifted his eyelids, a flash of clever inspiration crossing his bright mind. Moving his fingers, he entered the password:
Password: s l j n s d s b. Connected successfully.
Shi Lijin stood up excitedly, his eyebrows and eyes smiling.
He held his phone high, following the wifi signal all the way to search.
Until he finally discovered that this place turned out to be an outdoor swimming pool.
Across the pool sat a beach lounger.
On the beach lounger lay a familiar girl.
Shi Lijin stared straight across, his dark pupils gradually generating a glow.
Finally, I’ve found you.