The phone rang. It was Xie Yu.
“Hello, what do you want?” Ji Qingtang said irritably.
Xie Yu clicked his tongue. ”Why so fierce? Who upset my little sister?”
“No time for your nonsense. If you have something to say, say it.”
“Nothing much, just checking in on how you’re doing in Germany.”
“I’m fine. Nothing else? I’m hanging up.” Ji Qingtang said coldly.
Xie Yu sat on the sofa, with Old Master Xie sitting across from him, whacking him hard on the shin with his cane.
Xie Yu hissed in pain and hurriedly spoke up. ”Don’t go yet, little sister—Grandpa hasn’t talked to you yet.”
He quickly handed the phone over to Old Master Xie, and the butler beside them respectfully took it and passed it to Xie Chuanlin.
“Hello, Grandpa.”
“Ah, Tangtang, it’s Grandpa,” Xie Chuanlin said cheerfully.
“Mm, Grandpa.” Ji Qingtang felt a warmth in her heart.
Xie Chuanlin glanced at Xie Yu, still sitting on the sofa, and snorted. Xie Yu shuddered, feeling like he was about to be done for.
Xie Chuanlin then put on a smiling face. “My good granddaughter, how are things abroad?”
“Everything’s great, Grandpa. No need to worry about me,” Ji Qingtang answered obediently.
“That’s good. So when are you coming back home?” Old Master Xie asked, looking relieved yet expectant.
Ji Qingtang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She’d only been there a few days and he was already asking her to come back. “Grandpa, the project here isn’t finished yet. I’ll come back once things wrap up here.”
Xie Chuanlin sounded a little disappointed. He sighed, then asked, “Tangtang, come back whenever you want to. Don’t stay away because of that Lu family boy. We don’t have to put up with that kind of grievance.”
“Grandpa, I know. I’ll come back as soon as I’m done here.”
Xie Chuanlin gave a few more instructions before reluctantly hanging up. Ji Qingtang suddenly remembered something and quickly spoke up. “Grandpa.”
Hearing her call him Grandpa, Xie Chuanlin’s eyes lit up. “What is it?” The corners of his mouth were practically curling up to the sky.
His voice was clearly delighted. The old butler watching from the side found it amusing—the Chairman Xie who had commanded the business world all his life turned into a child in front of his own granddaughter.
The kind who begged for candy, no less.
“Grandpa, can you pass the phone to Xie Yu? I have something to ask him.”
At those words, Xie Chuanlin’s face fell, and he said very unhappily, “I won’t.”
Xie Yu, listening nearby, burst out laughing.
Finally, at his granddaughter’s urging, he reluctantly handed the phone to Xie Yu, slapping him for good measure. “Tangtang has something to tell you.”
His tone was nasty. Xie Yu smugly took the phone. “Lil’ sis, what’s up?”
“I remember you had a friend in high school named Shen Qian, right?” Ji Qingtang said flatly.
Xie Yu’s heart tightened, though his face remained calm. “Yeah, why? I haven’t been in touch with him for ages.”
“Really? Well, what a coincidence—guess who lives right across from me?”
“Don’t tell me it’s Shen Qian?” Xie Yu said, “curious.”
“You really didn’t know?” Ji Qingtang asked after a moment of silence.
“I swear, I had no idea. We stopped contact long ago. Besides, why would I put you right across from him?”
This still didn’t dispel Ji Qingtang’s suspicions, but then again, whether Xie Yu had done it on purpose didn’t really matter that much.
On Xie Yu’s end, it was as if a floodgate had opened, and he kept chattering away, “Isn’t this perfect? Should I have him get back in touch with you, big brother can reconnect with him and have him look after you. It’s not all that safe for you out there on your own.”
Ji Qingtang refused immediately, “No, don’t. I don’t need that. I’m perfectly safe.”
Shen Qian was the definition of unsafe, after all.
Since the phone was on speaker, Old Master Xie had heard the whole exchange clearly. Frowning, he poked Xie Yu again with his cane.
“Is that Shen Qian, the only son of the Shen family?”
Xie Yu clutched his leg in pain. Grandpa, if you want to talk, just talk—stop poking me with your cane!
But on the surface, he still nodded aggrievedly. Yes, that was Shen Qian, the Shen family’s only son.
“Tangtang, listen to your brother. It’s not safe for a young girl abroad. Grandpa worries about you.”
Ji Qingtang had no choice but to give in, “Fine, fine. I still have some things to take care of here, so I’ll hang up now, Grandpa.”
“Bye-bye, Tangtang.”
Xie Yu, clutching his leg, watched the old man say bye-bye into his phone and sighed silently.
“What, you’re not convinced?” After hanging up, the Old Man casually tossed the phone into Xie Yu’s arms.
Xie Yu caught the phone—which had been a treasure just moments ago and was now a casually discarded object—and squeezed out two words, “…Convinced.”
Ji Qingtang still sent Xie Yu a WeChat message: “Don’t you dare contact that Shen Qian. Don’t go looking for trouble.”
With the way things were now, that guy was already practically flying high without any contact at all.
If she contacted him and asked him to look after her, his tail would shoot straight up into the sky.
Besides, she didn’t need anyone looking after her!
All she wanted was to make money!!
After all that talk, he’d be better off just transferring her some money. A few days ago she’d gone on an impulse shopping spree and bought several limited-edition bags in one go, blowing through this month’s funds.
“How is looking after my little sister looking for trouble? I’d walk through fire and climb mountains of blades for her,” Xie Yu replied obsequiously from his end.
Ji Qingtang: …
After a busy day at the company, Ji Qingtang finally headed home.
As she drove into the residential complex, she noticed their building brightly lit, with several blue-eyed, blond-haired men carrying things inside, surrounded by lots of colorful decorative lights.
She wasn’t one to meddle in other people’s business, so she drove on toward the parking lot. But they happened to be carrying things right in her path, so Ji Qingtang had no choice but to stop and wait.
One of the men in the middle made an apologetic gesture toward her. Once they had passed, Ji Qingtang parked her car.
Riding the elevator upstairs, she happened to run into that group. When they saw her, a few of them whispered something to each other, and then the man who had gestured to her earlier scratched the back of his head and walked over, looking a bit embarrassed.
“Hello,” he greeted Ji Qingtang in broken Chinese.
Ji Qingtang was a little puzzled and asked in German, “Is something the matter?”
Apparently that one phrase of Chinese was all he knew. Seeing that she spoke German, he switched to German as well. “Do you also live here?”
Ji Qingtang nodded.
“Beautiful lady, would you have time to come to our party tomorrow? It’s right downstairs.”
“Thank you, but I probably won’t have time.” Foreigners were warm and direct, so Ji Qingtang wasn’t particularly surprised.
“That’s all right. I hope you can come.” With that, he smiled and left, showing perfect tact.
When she reached her own door, Ji Qingtang carefully peeked across at the opposite apartment. Seeing no movement, she went inside.
Exhausted after a long day, all she wanted was a bath and then to collapse into bed.
Ji Qingtang picked out a movie she’d saved ages ago, adjusted the water temperature, and soaked comfortably in the tub while watching.
After her bath, she casually wrapped herself in a bathrobe and climbed into bed.
She was drifting off in a daze when her phone chimed—a WeChat message from Shen Qian.
The content made no sense at all.
“Send this sticker, then type ‘airplane whoosh whoosh,’ and a bunch of little airplanes will appear on your screen.”
Below it was a sticker of a little girl holding up a toy airplane.
Ji Qingtang found it baffling. She was too sleepy to bother with it.
But he kept sending message after message, urging her on.
Clearly, he wasn’t going to give up until she did it.
Ji Qingtang saved the sticker, sent it over, and typed, “Airplane whoosh whoosh.”
She frowned at the screen. No little airplanes appeared. Was this guy messing with her?
The next second, he sent back a sticker: a little boy’s foot stomping a tiny airplane to bits, with three big words stamped across it: Whoosh my ass.