When Qin Shen heard that Wen Qianqian passed the civil service exam, his head started to hurt even more. He had always felt that he was the lucky man of this world. Everything he did in the past two years went smoothly. The only leg injury he had was also healed, which made him stronger.
But ever since Wen Qianqian passed the civil service exam, everything seemed to have changed. The world no longer revolved around him. He used his true level to get along with the world, but in return he was questioned and ridiculed about his abilities.
"I'm obviously not that bad, not that bad!" Qin Shen couldn't help but roar in his heart, but he didn't know that he was doing well in the past because he was the protagonist of this world, and he is bad now because this is actually his true level.
Without the halo and filter of the protagonist, his actual ability is very ordinary, but he can't stand the gap, becomes resentful, and feels that the whole world has let him down.
He gritted his teeth, a rebellious mentality rising in his heart, and complained to Qin's mother: "Our family is rich! She is just a small civil servant, how can I possibly rely on her? Mom, are you getting senile?"
Upon hearing this, Mother Qin was immediately displeased, her brow furrowed. "Why am I so senile? Don't you even open your eyes and look at the current situation at home? The company is about to be acquired, and it's hard to say whether they'll want you or not. At least civil servants have iron rice bowls, with a secure life! Civil servants have status and prestige, and if they're successful, they have connections and connections. Don't look down on her low rank; she might be of great use in the future. I think she's much better than you!"
Mother Qin became more and more impatient and ordered Qin Shen: "Don't talk nonsense to me. I want her to come home for dinner this weekend!"
Qin Shen suddenly felt like a deflated ball: "Mom, my current girlfriend is Yingxue..."
Mother Qin was completely annoyed. "What's the matter with Xue? Tell her to get lost! I'm warning you, don't look for these questionable women out there. You just need to coax Wen Qianqian and make her satisfied."
After saying that, he emphasized: "If you can't even do this little thing, get out of the Qin family! The Qin family doesn't want a prodigal like you!"
After saying that, she hung up the phone heavily.
Qin Shen's face looked extremely ugly. Before he could hang up the phone, he suddenly heard a "click". He looked up suddenly, only to see Yue Yingxue, who had come in at some point and was trembling with anger.
She was extremely fragile at this moment, shaking all over like a willow tree in a strong wind. She even spilled the fish maw soup in her hand. Her lips trembled and tears streamed down her face.
Qin Shen was stunned, and raised his lips awkwardly: "Yingxue, when did you come in?"
Yue Yingxue didn't say anything, just kept crying.
For some reason, this time when Yue Yingxue cried, he not only didn't want to comfort her, but also felt irritated: "Did you hear everything?"
Yue Yingxue nodded while crying, then repeated the same trick and ran out crying.
In the past, at such times, Qin Shen would have chased her out, then tangled with her for a while, playing out the old cliché of her escaping, him chasing, and her being unable to escape, then promising her jewelry and resources, and the two of them would reconcile. However, this time, Qin Shen felt extremely bored, suddenly tired of this game of chase, and for the first time, he didn't bother to chase her out.
He sat at his desk, his mind full of what Mother Qin had said: "If you can't even do this little thing, get out of the Qin family." Thinking of this, he pressed his solar plexus firmly, suppressing his annoyance, and called his most capable assistant: "Go check on Miss Wen's latest news, and report her situation to me as soon as possible."
Police station.
Wen Qianqian had just arrived at work when she received a WeChat message from Lu Xingyan: [Hello, Miss Wen, I wonder if you are free tonight. Would I be so kind as to invite you to dinner to express my gratitude?]
She looked at the text message and raised the corner of her mouth slightly, then checked her work schedule and found that because the cases were being finalized and prepared for transfer to the court in recent days, she had rare free time and could go home normally without having to work overtime.
So she thought about it and replied simply: [Okay.]
As soon as the WeChat message was sent, the other party replied immediately: [See you tonight at 6 o'clock at Yunyin French Restaurant.] It seemed as if he had been waiting for her for a long time.
She looked at it, put down her phone, and prepared to continue working.
At this moment, the team member who had given her Lu Xingyan's information suddenly passed by and joked with her, "Hey, Qianqian, you saved the CEO's life, but he didn't express his gratitude?"
He teased her gossipingly, "Is it like in the TV dramas, where the first black card lets you spend whatever you want? Hahahahahaha."
"Tsk, what are you talking about?" Wen Qianqian glanced at him with a smile, "I understand the rules that you can't accept money or property from people involved in the case."
The team member smiled, but soon stopped laughing and said to Wen Qianqian in a slightly serious tone, "There are some things I shouldn't say, but I think the president is a good person. If you have a chance to meet him, please help pass on his message."
Seeing him become serious, Wen Qianqian suddenly realized the importance of the matter: "What is it?"
The team member pursed his lips and said, "Didn't I tell you last time that Captain Zhang's plan was to start by investigating the people around the president?"
"Although you later confirmed that the murderer was someone else, we investigated for a few days and still found something strange."
He lowered his voice. "According to our investigation, it seems that someone at Lu Xingyan Company has been paying close attention to his whereabouts. It's just ordinary attention, but their attention has reached a perverted level. They know exactly where he goes after get off work, where he usually eats, what he eats, where he goes on weekends, what routes he takes, and who he sees. They even developed a system to calculate the probability of what he eats and where he goes every day."
Thinking of this, the team member shook his head: "It's terrifying. They know so much about a person's living habits. As a police officer, I instinctively feel that there is something wrong."
"However, because the focus of the investigation at the time was not on this, although the system was strange, it was indeed not illegal. After all, it was their internal work, so we dropped the issue at the time."
He looked at Wen Qianqian and said, "Now that the case is over, I don't know Lu Xingyan, and there's no chance for us to meet. If you have the chance to meet him, you can give him a heads-up. I always feel that this is necessary."
Wen Qianqian nodded: "Okay, I understand."
After the team members left, she stared at the pen in her hand, thinking over and over again about his words. He was right. No matter what the reason was, there was no need to keep track of a person's whereabouts in such detail. Doing so in detail was ostensibly to better serve Lu Xingyan, but in fact it was just waiting for an opportunity, wanting to take advantage of his living habits and do something unnoticed.
Thinking of this, her scalp tingled slightly. This person hiding in the dark was so patient and terrifying.
Hillside villa.
Lu Xingyan has a lot of private properties. In addition, the business of Lu Group originally includes real estate, so he has even more houses. As long as he wants, he can move into a new house every day. He can live in so many properties across the country that he can't finish living in them even if he lives in them for N years.
This time he came to the villa halfway up the mountain in the suburbs of Beijing because he was still recuperating for the past two days, and Assistant Yuan felt that this was the quietest and had the best air, so he came back to live here. Normally, he only came here a few times a year.
At this time, Lu Xingyan had no intention of looking at the mountains and rivers here. He sat in the huge cloakroom in the villa, which looked like a counter in a shopping mall, and was troubled by the walls of shirts and suits.
He hesitated and struggled for a long time, and finally couldn't help but say: "Assistant Yuan, which one do you think is better for me to wear?"
"Yes, Mr. Lu," Assistant Yuan nodded, and without saying a word, he took a few steps forward and picked out a white shirt and a pure black suit from the almost all new clothes.
He showed it to Lu Xingyan, "Mr. Lu, what do you think of this suit? The shirt is 50,000, and the suit is 180,000. It's a perfect symbol of your noble status."
Lu Xingyan refused without a second thought: "This dress is too dark and looks heavy, like something you'd wear to a funeral. No way."
Assistant Yuan was stunned for a moment, but didn't say anything. He continued to pick out two pieces of clothing: "How about this one? The patterned suit and light blue shirt look much more casual."
Lu Xingyan immediately shook his head: "It's too expensive. I'm not going to the award ceremony."
"What about this set?" Assistant Yuan gritted his teeth and took out another set.
"No, too old."
"What about this set?"
"No, it looks like I'm going to a meeting. I refuse to go to the meeting today."
…
After going back and forth for several times, Lu Xingyan finally lost his patience and said, "Assistant Yuan, can you be more reliable? Why can't you even do such a small thing?"
He looked at Assistant Yuan with an incredible expression.
Assistant Yuan glanced at Lu Xingyan dimly, "Boss Lu, it's not that I'm unreliable, it's that you've changed..."
"What?" Lu Xingyan was surprised.
Assistant Yuan continued quietly, "In the past, you would never refuse any clothes I arranged for you..."
After listening to this, Lu Xingyan was silent for a moment.
Just when Assistant Yuan thought he was silent for self-reflection, he suddenly said, "That's because your previous arrangements were all good, but the taste today is not good, it's very poor."
...Okay, Assistant Yuan shook his head helplessly. It seemed that he really forgot about the "Congratulations and Get Rich" socks by the Daming Lake. He didn't say a word at that time. Today was really abnormal and weird.
However, the reason why Assistant Yuan could be Lu Xingyan's assistant was that he was naturally quite capable.
It’s okay if the boss is not satisfied, we have plan B.
So, he immediately called Lu Xingyan's personal image consultant and said, "Hello, Mr. Lu is at the villa halfway up the mountain. Please come over."
The so-called official image stylist's daily work actually just helps Lu Xingyan match and organize clothes, as well as cut his hair. However, later on, Assistant Yuan took over the task of helping Lu Xingyan match clothes, and his daily work only left cutting his hair, which he did once a month. It was a very comfortable and relaxing job.
When the image designer heard Assistant Yuan's call, he immediately rode at full speed and appeared at the villa halfway up the mountain in 20 minutes.
"Mr. Lu is going to meet someone tonight. Please help Mr. Lu prepare his clothes." Assistant Yuan told him what happened as soon as he saw him.
The image designer nodded, then asked Assistant Yuan seriously, "Excuse me, what is Mr. Lu going to meet with tonight?"
Assistant Yuan: "A policeman."
The image designer immediately understood: "Oh, I see." He thought carefully for a long time: "Meeting the police is a formal occasion, so you should dress elegantly and solemnly, with dignity, and your full aura should be on full display."
As he spoke, he picked out the same clothes from the closet that Assistant Yuan had picked out the first time.
Lu Xingyan: ...
"Pfft, hahahahahahahahaha", Assistant Yuan couldn't help it and almost fainted from laughing.
At this time, Lu Xingyan looked at the time. It was almost noon. Not wanting to delay any longer, he frowned and thought for a long time: "Just treat it as an outfit for a date."
The image designer was very surprised: "Why a date? A date with a police officer?"
Lu Xingyan's face darkened, and Assistant Yuan quickly said, "Boss Lu has spoken, just follow his instructions. Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask."
The image designer immediately shut up and turned to look at Lu Xingyan: "Mr. Lu, what style of clothes have you worn on dates before? Can you tell me so I can take a look?"
Lu Xingyan's face darkened even further, and he said after a moment, "I didn't have a date. I was just studying abroad."
The image designer was so shocked that he immediately covered his mouth with his hands. Oops, he seemed to have asked something he shouldn't have asked again.
"Hahahahahahahahahaha..." Assistant Yuan couldn't hold back his laughter any longer.
Finally, Lu Xingyan decided on a high-end white shirt and gray suit. He looked at the acquired asset report in the villa for a while, and when he saw that it was almost time, he got up and set off.
Wen Qianqian arrived at the restaurant on time and found that it was a very romantic French restaurant. There were candlesticks on the dining table, and the cutlery and forks were all made of silver. Every little detail showed the taste of the restaurant.
When Lu Xingyan mentioned the name of the restaurant before, Wen Qianqian searched for it but didn't find it. But after arriving there, she immediately realized that this was probably a restaurant that was not open to the public and only accepted customized orders from members.
There was no one in the entire restaurant except Lu Xingyan, who was sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling window waiting for her.
Maybe he has recovered, because today, wearing a light gray suit, he looks particularly warm and gentle under the candlelight of the candlestick.
Seeing Wen Qianqian, Lu Xingyan subconsciously felt a little nervous, but his long-term training in not showing his emotions allowed him to conceal his nervousness very well. He even smiled and greeted her, "Miss Wen, please sit here."
Wen Qianqian nodded and sat down. To be honest, it was her first time in such a high-end and luxurious restaurant and she was a little uncomfortable with it.
She looked at Lu Xingyan and felt that he was different today than she had seen before. He was not as sharp as in the magazine, nor as gloomy as in the hospital. At this moment, he was sitting opposite the candlelight with a faint smile on his face, which made people feel suddenly good.
She couldn't help but praise him: "Mr. Lu seems to have recovered well. He looks much more relaxed and his smile is beautiful."
"Really?" Lu Xingyan subconsciously touched his face and unexpectedly found that it was a little hot.
"A hot face means you have a fever," a sentence his mother once said suddenly popped up in his mind for no reason. If you have a fever, your face will definitely turn red. Lu Xingyan's heart paused, and he suddenly felt very subtle.
But he still had strong crisis public relations skills. In order to hide the slight blush on his face, he picked up the red wine on the table and drank it in big gulps.
To be honest, this was the first time in his life that he had dinner with a girl alone. Somehow he felt that something was wrong with him. He felt even more nervous because he was uncomfortable. He even sighed silently, why was having dinner with a girl harder than acquiring a company?
I even felt a little regretful. If I had known earlier, I would have asked Assistant Yuan for some advice...
I was just thinking about what topic to talk about later when the waiter suddenly came over to break the deadlock: "Hello, Mr. Lu, excuse me, your dinner is here, our chef is here to serve you personally."
Lu Xingyan's nervousness was interrupted and his expression suddenly relaxed.
Then I saw a fat blue-eyed chef coming over, chattering in French, with a translator standing next to him, translating word by word.
"Hello, Mr. Lu, this dish is French baked snails, made with snails air-shipped from France."
Uh... snail... Wen Qianqian's expression paused when she heard this.
"This dish is French foie gras, using the fattiest part of the foie gras. It can be eaten alone or with garlic bread."
Um...foie gras...
"This dish is truffle cream soup. It combines sweet and savory cream with premium black truffles. It's our chef's specialty and has won an international competition..."
"Wait a moment," Lu Xingyan carefully caught the fleeting look of lack of interest from Wen Qianqian, and immediately stopped the chef and asked her softly, "Don't you like it?"
Wen Qianqian shook her head: "I'm not used to it", but still followed suit: "It's okay, maybe I'll get used to it after eating a little."
She wasn't that demanding when it came to food, thinking it was up to the host to eat whatever she wanted. She could just eat whatever she wanted, and if she wasn't full, she could just go back home and order takeout. Seeing that Lu Xingyan had already ordered all the dishes, it would be too much trouble to change them, so she decided to just forget about it and eat whatever she wanted. At worst, she wouldn't touch the dish of snails...
But Lu Xingyan saw her subtle expressions clearly. He lowered his head and thought for a few seconds, then immediately waved his hand to the waiter, "Take these dishes away, bring the menus over, and order again."
Wen Qianqian finally came back to her senses from the shadow of the baked snails: "Ah, you don't want to eat this anymore?"
Lu Xingyan smiled and handed her the menu: "I'm sorry, I didn't think it through."
He explained everything in detail: "After I made the appointment with you, I researched it online for a long time and even asked Assistant Yuan to ask our company's front desk. They all said that French cuisine is the best choice for dining with girls; it would seem very romantic."
He smiled sheepishly: "To be honest, I haven't eaten French food very often. I didn't know what to order, so I asked the chef to make his specialty. I didn't expect you wouldn't like it."
Now Wen Qianqian felt embarrassed: "Actually, I don't dislike it. I'll try it more..."
"Don't do that," Lu Xingyan shook his head and handed over the menu firmly, a little anxiously: "I don't want to leave a bad impression on you the first time I dine with you. What about later..."
He bit his lower lip hard, swallowed the rest of his words, and pointed at the menu: "Order whatever you want. There's no rush. Take your time to look at it."
Wen Qianqian wanted to refuse, but when she saw the pan-fried lamb chops on the menu, the meat looked incredibly tender and sizzling with oil. She couldn't resist the temptation: "So I really order it?"
"Yeah." Lu Xingyan looked at her with a smile.
After a while, the lamb chops and dessert were served. Just like in the picture, the lamb chops were fragrant and steaming, and the cake was shiny and looked very tempting.
As soon as the lamb chops were served, Wen Qianqian couldn't help but cut them with a knife and fork. Later, she felt it was too slow, so she simply grabbed the rib bones with her hands and started eating.
Lu Xingyan looked at her devouring the lamb chops with big mouthfuls and laughed unconsciously. Only then did he feel as if all the red tape had been torn apart, and the relationship between them finally became relaxed and comfortable.
Wen Qianqian bit into the tender lamb and looked at the foie gras toast in front of Lu Xingyan with a bit of surprise: "Is this all you're going to eat?"
She noticed that he hadn't ordered anything at all, but had just randomly picked up a dish from the ones that had just been served and left it.
"Yeah," Lu Xingyan answered honestly, "I'm not very interested in eating. When I was studying abroad, I studied until very late every day. When I went to the cafeteria, there was not much food left. So, I usually ate whatever was left in the cafeteria. After a long time, I felt that everything I ate was the same."
When Wen Qianqian heard this, she suddenly felt a little sad for some reason. This business tycoon in front of her had hundreds of billions of dollars and had enough money to try all the delicacies in the world, but he had lost interest in eating.
She recalled the information his teammates had shown her some time ago, which showed that his parents died when he was 16, and he went abroad shortly thereafter. Perhaps it was the pressure of studying so hard and then coming back to compete for his parents' company that forced him to work so hard that he had no time to care about anything else, let alone sit down and enjoy a good dinner like an ordinary person.
Thinking of this, she waved to the waiter and ordered another lamb chop. Then she used the public knife and fork to pick up a piece of ribs and put it on his plate: "Want to try it?"
Lu Xingyan looked up in confusion, and Wen Qianqian chuckled at him: "It smells pretty good, want to try it?"
“If you lose interest in tasting delicious food, life will lose a lot of fun. Don’t rush to reject it, just give it a try.”
"Okay." Lu Xingyan nodded, watching the knife cut a piece of lamb chop and put it into his mouth as usual.
I don’t know if it’s because of the environment, but the lamb chops were so tender and fresh that the juices splashed everywhere when I bit into them. They tasted very delicious.
He lowered his head and ate slowly without saying a word, but waves surged in his heart, as if no one had cared about his preferences since his parents died in a car accident. Over time, he himself regarded eating as a way to cope. As long as he was not hungry, it didn't matter what he ate. Even Assistant Yuan, who was closest to him, really thought he liked to eat dry bread slices.
More than ten years passed, and finally someone told him to "give it a try."
Before he knew it, he had finished the whole plate of lamb chops.
After eating, he wiped his mouth with a tissue, and his eyes unknowingly met Wen Qianqian's gaze, and they smiled at each other. The atmosphere of the meal was perfect.
Seeing this, Lu Xingyan pondered for a moment and slowly spoke, "Miss Wen, I noticed that you were soliciting clues on Weibo before. At that time, you seemed to have promised a generous reward to anyone who provided the clues."
He looked at her and said, "I wonder if I could give you this generous reward on your behalf?"
Wen Qianqian shook her head: "No, I was the one who collected the clues and made the promise. There's no reason for you to do it for me."
Lu Xingyan was very firm: "Miss Wen, please give me this chance. You collected clues to help me. There is no reason for you to spend money."
He paused, then pulled a document from his bag and handed it to her.
She took the document doubtfully, a little curious: "What is this?"
Lu Xingyan looked at her and answered seriously, "This is the donation certificate from the Red Cross."
He smiled faintly. "I asked you before what you wanted, and you said you didn't need anything. But I really wanted to express my gratitude, so I thought about it carefully. I figured you didn't become a civil servant for money or profit, so it could only be that you truly want to do something for the people."
"So I'm donating 10 million yuan to the Red Cross in your name. Here's proof of donation."
Wen Qianqian looked at the donation certificate and was so stunned that she couldn't speak for a moment. She had never thought that someone would do things so considerately. She refused to accept the gift, so he donated the money in her name to the place she wanted to help.
Somehow, I was actually a little touched for a moment.
He looked at her and smiled faintly: "So, back to the topic just now, Miss Wen, please give me this opportunity to thank the person who provided the clue."
Wen Qianqian then nodded gently.
The two of them ate dessert together for a while, and she suddenly remembered what the team member said that morning, and asked him, "By the way, do you tell other people in the company about your daily whereabouts?"
Lu Xingyan was a little confused: "I usually tell Assistant Yuan and a few secretaries what I have to do. Is there something wrong with that?"
Wen Qianqian thought about it and decided to tell him, "During our investigation, we discovered that someone in your company knew your whereabouts very well. It seems they've recorded your data hundreds of times and even knew what you ate, where you went, who you talked to, your living habits, and every detail of your preferences."
She looked at him. "They even created a system based on your daily data to predict your attitudes and actions."
"We think this incident is a bit strange, but we have no evidence. I can only tell you this. Please be careful in your daily life."
Lu Xingyan listened silently, his brows furrowed slightly. He had always known that someone within the Lu Group was scheming against him, constantly trying to bring him down. He had been in charge of the Lu Group for several years, but he still kept discovering that someone was constantly plotting against him in the shadows.
He thought about Wen Qianqian's words and secretly figured that the person who knew all his whereabouts must be someone close to him.
He couldn't help but smile, thinking to himself, these people are really overreaching. Now they are not satisfied with the board of directors and have even set their sights on the people around him. What a good trick.
After thinking it over, he sincerely thanked Wen Qianqian: "Thank you, Miss Wen, for reminding me. If it weren't for you, I might have been kept in the dark. Thank you!"
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