Interconnected

Su Qingye's matter was handled very quickly.

News of his death spread very quickly.

It seems like in TV dramas, funerals are always held on rainy days, creating a generally sorrowful and bleak atmosphere.

But Su Qingye's funeral was held on a sunny day.

Summer is approaching, and it's not really appropriate to expect everyone to wear black suits like in TV dramas under the blazing sun. So, few people actually wear suits properly, except for the Su family. Su Wenxie endured the heat to solemnly send Su Qingye off on her final journey, while Su Wensheng acted like a filial son.

Su wore a black silk shirt, a black ribbon around her neck, a black pencil skirt, and black high heels.

Today, she was just an accessory. With Su Wensheng above her and Su Wenxie below her, it was never her turn as a granddaughter. But she couldn't help it that people kept talking to her.

"Mr. Su, about the project from last time..."

She waved her hand, indicating that she wasn't going to talk about these things today. She would explain to everyone who came up, those of higher status, and politely decline those of lower status.

Upon hearing the words "President Su," Su instinctively wanted to refuse, saying, "Business has been good lately."

It is Bailutong.

I hadn't seen him in a long time, but he looked as healthy as ever.

She lowered her voice: "Don't be so flamboyant, you're not the main character today."

"And what about you?" Bai Lutong was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and black suit pants, and holding a bunch of white chrysanthemums in his hand. Although not many people wore suits, his casual short-sleeved shirt was unique.

Su Yao raised his head towards Su Wensheng, who was holding a microphone, and Su Wenxie, who was holding ashes, and said, "I'm not the main character either."

"It seems Mr. Su is having a hard time in the Su family. Would you like to come back to the Bai family with me?" Bai Lutong looked in Su Wensheng's direction, but spoke to Su Yao.

"Go back to the Bai family? That means both families will gang up on me."

"What? I'm here, aren't I?" Bai Lutong joked with her.

Su didn't want to talk to him, so she shut her mouth. She was getting tired of standing. Since graduating, she rarely stood and listened to others, especially when it was just a bunch of nonsense.

Bai Lutong suddenly became serious and asked her, "Should we take the Su family's property back?"

She thought for a moment: "What are the requirements?"

“Talk to me about… the contract for ‘Yao’.” He paused, wanting to see her reaction, but to his surprise, she listened to him finish speaking without flinching.

"They're a new company, right? It's not safe. What are they thinking?" Su Yao wasn't clear about her attitude towards "Yao." She only remembered that it was a newly established AI company that had emerged two years ago, and that it even originated overseas. It had no connection with Su's Group or her own investment company.

"It's a new company, but I've seen that it has a promising future. Do you remember that R&D company I joined back then? If they hadn't run out of funding, they would have made a fortune. Don't you think that company was more intelligent than the robots on the market right now?"

"You, the eldest son of the Bai family, can't even come up with the funds? You wouldn't dare to invest heavily in a bottomless pit and not produce any products, would you? Xiao Bai was one of the few who managed to stay by chance, but you also know how many of those failed products were unreliable." She was unwilling to take that risk.

Bai Lutong couldn't persuade him: "Fine."

He understood that Su Yao was always reluctant to take such risks; if she failed the first time, she would never succeed no matter how many times she tried.

"No other requests?" Su asked him.

Bai Lutong: "Let's wait and see. Even if the Su family makes money now, they can't share it with you. Why are you so concerned?"

"The money given to Wenxie is the money given to me."

"You two siblings seem to have a good relationship."

"It's better than having a relationship with you."

The two of them talked for a while and managed to avoid Su getting talked to by others.

Su Wensheng finished his speech. Su Yao saw Su Wenxie on the stage with tears in her eyes. She was about to say something to Bai Lutong when she turned around and found that he had disappeared.

She sighed and turned to leave.

The tombstones stood neatly in the cemetery, serene and silent. Su looked at them, the blue sky in the background was cloudless, the lush greenery blended with the blue, and birdsong could be heard occasionally beside her.

Su suddenly saw a person standing under the shade of a large banyan tree, wearing familiar black-rimmed glasses and a black shirt.

Their eyes met, and Su waved to him, mouthing, "Why are you here?"

An Chi walked towards her. "I was thinking that it wouldn't be appropriate for me to show up at Grandma Su's funeral, given my status, but I also thought that you probably wouldn't like this kind of atmosphere, so I came to pick you up."

“I really don’t like it.” Su Yao walked over to him and pointed in the direction of the exit.

The two people walked outside.

He didn't speak, but she did: "Why do you wear your glasses sometimes and not sometimes?"

"My nearsightedness has gotten worse in the past few years. I wear my glasses more often, and I can see clearly when I take them off, but I always have to be more careful when driving."

Walking on the lawn, Su Yao suddenly realized something and turned to him, "Then why weren't you wearing your glasses when you took me racing last time!"

“There’s something called contact lenses,” An Chi told her.

She laughed heartily, with the clouds drifting by behind her. He watched her walk forward, the ribbon around her neck fluttering in the wind, her shirt, being a bit too big, swaying in the breeze. An Chi sensed that she wasn't as happy as she seemed.

"If you don't want to laugh, you don't have to force yourself," An Chi said, pulling her back.

Su Yao suddenly fell silent, the smile on her face vanishing completely. "I don't actually want to laugh or cry. Seeing Su Wenxie crying so sadly, I wonder if I'm too cold-hearted. My own grandmother has passed away, and I'm still so calm. The whole funeral feels like a business transaction, rather than truly comforting the departed soul."

"Su Yao, you should treat her the same way she treats you. It's only right."

Her gentle smile was illuminated by the sunlight. "You don't understand, An Chi. Aunt An loves you, and you have such a sensible younger sister like An Lan. You think family is about mutual giving, but our family is different."

He kept holding her hand, showing her his hand, and joking with her, "Aren't you worried about others seeing us at a time like this?"

Su Yao's face finally stopped its usual half-smiling expression and became lively. His eyes were filled with nothing but whites, his mouth was only pursed, and he flicked his hand and quickened his pace to walk out. This was more like Su Yao.

When Su Yao sat in the passenger seat, she didn't feel uncomfortable. She said, "I'm the only one sitting in this passenger seat."

“It’s possible, for two people.” With his eyes looking ahead, one hand holding the seatbelt and the other gripping the steering wheel, An Chi licked his lips after speaking, leaving a trail of moisture that looked like jelly.

As Su took advantage of his hand being close to the seatbelt, she slapped him hard: "If you keep making these kinds of ridiculous jokes, I'm really going to ignore you. Do you even know the difference between a child and an elder? Have you ever seen me make this kind of joke with you?"

You weren't like this four years ago.

“I,” Su thought for a moment, “wasn’t it okay if I was drunk at the time? An Chi, if you really want a girlfriend, I’ll introduce you to one.”

"Tsk, Su Yao, if you say one more word, this seat can really seat two people." The phone's steering wheel spun, navigating around one road after another.

Su looked out the window when a message popped up on her phone. She had left in a hurry and forgot to tell Ge Jin that he had sent her a message.

She sent a voice message: "Okay, you can handle things over there yourself. I'm leaving now. The car is still here, you can drive it."

Upon receiving the news, Ge Jin immediately made a phone call.

Who picked you up?

The phone wasn't placed to his ear; the sound came directly from the speaker, and An Chi heard Ge Jin's words.

“A friend,” Sue was about to reply.

After giving a few more instructions, Su Yao hung up the phone.

"Why don't you mention the driver?" His cold attitude made me feel somewhat annoyed.

Su raised an eyebrow and snorted, "You certainly know your place. But I won't answer 'friend.' What do you want me to answer? My adopted son, hmm?"

He didn't speak, nor could he utter a word.

Their relationship was indeed as strange as Su Yao described. They were not lovers, not friends, and even the only connection they had was a mother-son relationship, which had vanished four years ago, leaving only a blank space.

He didn't belong to her world, and she could never dance with him.

Therefore, he can only become more and more outstanding and powerful until he is qualified to be used by her, and only then will she acknowledge the relationship.

This time, the car obediently drove to Yuhai Bay, and An Chi didn't cause any more trouble. Su thought that she should thank An Chi for bringing her back.

"Drive in, I'll tell the security guard to offer you a glass of water. Thanks for your hard work, driver." She pointed inside.

As a result, An Chi stopped himself, and Su Yao looked at him with some doubt.

"Go in by yourself, I have other things to do."

His behavior became increasingly incomprehensible to Su.

Since he returned to China, An Chi seemed to be very busy. Sometimes, if he wanted to see him, he would have to send a message to ask if he was home first. Su thought about it and decided that he should let go and let him experience things on his own. He couldn't raise him to be like Su Wenxie. "Okay, then I'll treat you to dinner next time."

"Do you particularly enjoy treating others to meals? Ask Bai Lutong for help, and treat him to a meal too." An Chi knew about what happened between them that time.

Su ignored his unfriendly tone and refused to serve him: "Eat or don't eat, it's up to you. If you don't want to eat, other people are begging to eat with me."

An Chi heard the car door slam against the car with a loud thud. He rolled down the window and called out to her, "Su Yao."

The woman's long, black hair twisted as she turned, and when you sniffed it, you could smell the fragrance of roses. Her hair brushed against the car window, like exploring a thicket, vaguely weaving through it. An Chi felt short of breath; this had happened to him more than once.

Su Yao squinted. To match the atmosphere of the funeral, she wasn't wearing bright lipstick today, just her natural light pink, which made her look even more like the morning when he returned to the country and they were embracing in bed. Her eyes were naturally alluring, and when she squinted, they seemed even more thoughtful. One corner of her mouth was upturned, making her look cunning and dangerous like a fox: "What? Regretting it, little brother?"

Blinded by greed, he went along with her words, "Regret."

Her smile was bright and alluring. "Then I'll treat you to dinner."

Upon hearing the word "eat," An Chi realized, "To eat, we have to cook first, right?"

"Hey! Did I say I shouldn't joke like that!" The woman frowned, making the bones around her eyes even more prominent and clear. She pointed her finger at An Chi, thinking that it would be really fun if she could use her finger as clothing for her younger brother.

An Chi had been thinking about these things for a long time, but he knew he didn't even have an identity, let alone anything else: "I mean, is it that my sister is thinking abnormally that I'm cooking, or is it that you want to cook with me?"

Su withdrew her finger and looked at his long eyelashes, his increasingly prominent nose, and his full, thick lips. She noticed that two buttons on his shirt were undone. Besides the brown mole on his ear, there were two other moles she remembered below his collarbones, seemingly symmetrical, but upon closer inspection, they were slightly different. She hadn't looked closely that time in order to avoid it, but this time she saw them clearly.

Su felt something was off. "I can't cook. If you want to cook, how can it be considered my treat? Okay, I'll treat you next time. I'm going back now, don't you have something to do?"

She had said everything, and An Chi couldn't say a word in response before she fled as if she were escaping.

An Chi was about to speak but then closed his mouth again. He watched her get into the security guard's car until she was out of sight before leaving.

As Su got into the car, she kept wondering if she was really that desperate for a man, and if she really treated An Chi as someone she could sleep with whenever she wanted.

But didn't I do it with Bai Lutong once before? I shouldn't be that desperate.

Is it because she hasn't been with a man in too long? Or does she really have feelings for this child? But clearly, he's just a child in her eyes.

Or maybe he made too many jerk jokes, which made me think about that kind of thing.

But she didn't react this way when others joked like that before.

Su couldn't figure it out, so she simply stopped thinking about it. She figured work didn't require using her brain. Her final conclusion when she returned to her room was: nothing is better than working.

While Su could still think about her own problems, An Chi couldn't think about anything else. He just wanted to do it with Su. He couldn't force her, so he either endured it or thought about it on his own every day.

Aunt Hong is sometimes in the city center, so it's inconvenient for him. That's why An Chi bought a house here. He comes here whenever he has something to do. He looks at the kitchen that hasn't been opened in a long time and the bathroom that he comes to almost every day.

When he came out, he was showering, and his free hand was angrily pounding the wall.

After coming out of the bathroom, he made a phone call. "Send the contract to President Su."