Qin Muyang: [Hurry, hurry, hurry.]
Fu Yunli: [Voice message—Qin Muyang, did a donkey kick your brain? It’s the middle of the night and you’re not sleeping, what do you need my whole family’s phone numbers for?]
Qin Muyang: [Don’t worry about it, it’s a matter of utmost importance. Your bro here handles things for you with full dedication, so when your bro needs you, you should also lend a hand in silence.]
Probably because drowsiness outweighed any desire to chat further with this lunatic, Fu Yunli simply sent over his older brother’s and mother’s phone numbers, then sank back into slumber with the soft, fragrant woman in his arms.
Qin Muyang waited for a long time, but the number he wanted never came.
Ten minutes later.
He had no choice but to steel himself and call again. “Bro, you missed one.”
With that, he hung up immediately.
Fu Yunli: [Voice message 60 seconds—Qin Muyang, I’ll f*ck your grandpa—…]
After hearing the opening, Qin Muyang knew there was no need to keep listening. It wasn’t anything good.
Fu Yunli: [There are only two people in my family besides me, who else could I have missed? Call me again and I’m blocking you.]
Qin Muyang typed awkwardly: [Li Qianqian.]
Fu Yunli: [?]
Qin Muyang: [If you don’t give it to me, you’ll regret it.]
Fu Yunli shot up from bed like a dying man revived. He gripped his phone, somewhat agitated—heaven knows how much he’d been struggling these past few days seeing the spending records of Li Qianqian swiping his card.
He was out there living on plain water and thin gruel every day, but her? She’d blown several million at the Imperial in a single night!
If it weren’t for his shares and his goddess, he would have snapped long ago.
Fu Yunli: [Did you find something out? What did Li Qianqian do? Can I come back?]
Qin Muyang held his phone, knowing exactly how much Brother Yunli wanted to get rid of Li Qianqian—he’d even been willing to give up his assets to fake his own death.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t found anything at all. He’d been played by Li Qianqian instead!
And with his pride, how could he possibly say that?
Qin Muyang: [Just tell me whether you’re giving it or not.]
Fu Yunli was much more straightforward this time, sending over a string of numbers without hesitation.
Qin Muyang watched the chat box buzz nonstop, all messages from Fu Yunli, so he simply set him to Do Not Disturb.
He typed in that string of numbers but hesitated to press call. When Li Qianqian picked up, what should he say?
Ask about the photos?
No, that would make it seem like he really wanted to see them.
Ask why she deactivated the account?
No, that would make it seem like he cared.
Qin Muyang’s brain was about to explode from overthinking, but he still couldn’t come up with anything. He finally gave up and threw caution to the wind, gritting his teeth and calling directly.
The dial tone rang alongside the thunderous pounding of his heart.
Qin Muyang had never been this nervous in his entire life—only to get no answer.
“Li—Qian—qian!”
He’d thought of every possible outcome, except that Li Qianqian had her phone on silent!
And in the middle of the night, he couldn’t exactly barge into the Fu residence.
Qin Muyang was so furious he didn’t sleep a wink all night. He deleted all the photos Li Qianqian had sent him, then clicked on other female streamers’ videos to watch for a while.
In the end, he went back to the trash bin and restored all of Li Qianqian’s photos.
Qin Muyang, with two big dark circles under his eyes, told himself: this was evidence of Li Qianqian’s misconduct—how could he possibly delete it?
The next morning, at dawn.
When Li Qianqian stepped out after breakfast, she happened to run into Fu Huaishan, who was also heading to the company.
“Good morning, Big Brother.”
“Morning.” Fu Huaishan acknowledged her, walking ahead of her. The driver had already parked the car at the villa’s entrance.
Just as he pulled open the car door, he suddenly turned back to look at the woman behind him. “Going to the branch office?”
“Yes.”
“Get in.”
“No need, I’ve already asked Xiao Lin to drive over and pick me up.” Li Qianqian declined tactfully, thinking to herself that she needed to find a chance to get her driver’s license.
Otherwise, with a whole garage full of luxury cars she could only look at but not drive—what a waste.
She did know how to drive, but the original owner hadn’t had a license.
“It’s on the way. I have something to tell you.” Fu Huaishan stepped aside, his arm resting against the car door.
“Alright.” Hearing the latter part, Li Qianqian found it hard to refuse, so she could only bend down and get into the car, sending a message to Xiao Lin.
Fu Huaishan walked around to the other side. Under the seat were two large bags, with what appeared to be shirts faintly visible inside.
The man handed over the letter in his hand. “Returning this to its rightful owner. I won’t pursue the shirt matter any further, but I hope it won’t happen again in the future.”
Li Qianqian reached out to take it, and saw it was a confession letter, reading: [For Qianqian’s eyes only, from Huaishan.]
Li Qianqian: “…”
She felt her toes curling in embarrassment. So Big Brother had known all along that she was the one who took the shirt.
“Big Brother knew it was me, so why…”
“You’re a member of the Fu family. In front of outsiders, I’ll always protect you. Places like the Imperial are best avoided—don’t degrade yourself just because you’re feeling stuck.”
Fu Huaishan let out a sigh, like an elder patiently instructing her.
“Mm.” Li Qianqian felt a mix of emotions. Fu Huaishan was a good big brother.
The ride was awkward for Li Qianqian, but thankfully Big Brother had no interest in giving a long lecture.
When they arrived at the Rose Entertainment building, Li Qianqian thanked him and hurried out of the car.
Good morning, Sister Qianqian.” The receptionist smiled like a spring breeze.
“Morning.”
Li Qianqian walked toward the corner and overheard several voices conversing from inside the practice room.
“Bai Chi, congratulations! You’re about to land another big IP. The male lead #2 in Epiphyllum is practically yours, right? I’m so jealous—you’ve got both talent and looks!”
“Eh, honestly, it’s pretty boring. A role with zero challenge. If my sister hadn’t begged me to help out, I wouldn’t even bother with this kind of simp character.”
Li Baichi’s sloppy, carefree tone drew envy, jealousy, and resentment from those around him.
Still, they kept up the flattery on the surface. “Right, right, Bai Chi-ge is such a ratings magnet. A youth idol drama like this is practically wasting your talent.”
“Bai Chi-ge, I heard there are still several bit parts with decent lines open in Epiphyllum. What do you think of us? If we go, we can look out for you on set.”
The group fawned over him, kneading his shoulders and patting his legs.
“What’s so hard about that? I’ll just mention it to my sister later and get you guys some important minor roles.”
Li Baichi folded his hands behind his head and leaned back, completely unconcerned that he’d just had a fight with Li Qianqian yesterday.
“Bai Chi-ge is the best!”
“Gotta hand it to Bai Chi-ge!”
“With something this big, we should celebrate tonight.”
The group spoke insincerely, already scheming to take advantage of him again, though inwardly they were full of contempt—so what if he has a good sister? What’s so impressive about that?
“Sure, I’ll treat. Bring everyone along. Don’t call Pei Jin—what a pathetic look he’s got. He’d just ruin my appetite!”
Li Baichi said without hesitation. He was used to spending money lavishly, and his own acting fees had long since run dry.
But Li Qianqian had also given him a supplementary card with no spending limit, so he felt no pressure at all.
“Got it, got it!”
Li Qianqian overheard every word of the conversation. A faint smirk tugged at one corner of her mouth as she turned and headed for the elevator.
Once inside her office, she first made a call to Assistant Gu, instructing her to cancel the supplementary card.
Then she dove into her work, until someone suddenly kicked the door open.
Li Baichi kicked the door shut again with his foot, then sauntered over to the sofa and plopped down, staying silent.
If not for Shushu urging him to lower his head and endure—since Epiphyllum was about to start filming and he couldn’t let Pei Jin have an easy win—he wouldn’t have bothered coming at all.
In his view, the fact that he was willing to condescend to come find Li Qianqian on his own should have made her overjoyed.
So he refused to be the first to speak. He was waiting—waiting for Li Qianqian to coax him, apologize, and willingly hand over what was his.