Chapter 21 If that’s not Xu Ji, then who is it…
In the morning, the curtains in the house were gently drawn open, and warm sunlight instantly rushed into the bedroom.
Tao Siyun woke up with the gentle caress of a pair of hands.
Qin Shu sat down on the bed and pinched her nose. "Little lazybones, get up and have breakfast. Do you want mommy to bring it to your room?"
Tao Siyun drowsily opened his eyes, turned over, and with his back to the window, he said weakly, "No, I don't want to eat. I'm so sleepy. Let me sleep a little longer."
"All right."
Tao Siyun rubbed his cheek against the back of Qin Shu's hand and asked subconsciously, "Where are Dad and brother? Are they up?"
"Well, they got up a long time ago. Your father had already left after breakfast."
Qin Shu rubbed her hair and said, "Then Mom will go out. You should sleep well."
It was almost noon when Tao Siyun woke up. Jiang Zhen and a few others discussed in the group chat about getting together in the evening. Li Huan even sent her a pitiful emoticon, expressing her regret that she was far away in Beijing and could not have fun with them tonight.
Tao Siyun likes quietness, karaoke, discotheques, and clubs. These extremely physically demanding activities are tiring enough for her, who can't wait to lie in bed for two days to catch up on sleep every weekend.
She lay on the bed, typing away on her phone keyboard: [How can you, someone enslaved by your mentor every day, still have the energy to go clubbing? Shouldn't you take advantage of the weekend to rest and recharge your severely overdrawn body?]
Li Huan: [Of course, but a free disco still gives me energy. A female researcher needs to go to a crowded place to relax occasionally, okay? Besides, this is the only way I can encounter crush now and then. I go to the disco to recharge my body better~]
Tao Siyun: [Don’t tell me your crush works part-time at a disco]
Li Huan: [No, he's just been going to discotheques more frequently recently. I think his presence has been a part of every discotheque in West Shanghai.]
Tao Siyun: [If I remember correctly, isn't your crush Leonardo DiCaprio? He recently came to China to party???]
Li Huan: [NoNoNo, that was just a fantasy I had when I was a naive little girl because of my idol’s looks. It was purely blind worship of my idol by a fan.]
***
During lunch, Tao Daiming said to Tao Qian, "I went for a morning run with your Uncle Nie this morning, and I mentioned your situation. If you go to their company, you're a good fit for your field, and you'll be a supervisor when you start working there. Would you consider it?"
Tao Qian didn't even think twice and immediately found a reason to refuse, "Forget it. If people knew about your relationship with Uncle Nie, they would think I was trying to win over my father."
Tao Daiming: "What's the point of competing with your father? Do you think I'm giving you a backdoor? Let me tell you, he's been wanting to poach you for a long time, but he didn't mention it to me because he saw you had no plans to change jobs."
"Then I can't go," Tao Qian said confidently, "Our two companies are competitors. Besides, my previous company was pretty good to me."
Tao Daiming frowned and couldn't help asking, "So what are you planning on doing? You're almost thirty years old, and you're just going to sit around and do nothing, just living day by day?"
Tao Qian said lazily, "Let's just hang around for now. Just treat it as a holiday. It's okay to rest for a while. A few days ago, I asked the agent to rent out the house. I won't live there permanently anyway, so it would be a waste to leave it alone. It would be nice to collect rent every month. Being a landlord is my ideal life."
Tao Daiming was furious at this: "If I had known, I wouldn't have bought you a house."
A few years ago, when Tao Siyun was still studying abroad, Tao Daiming's company developed a real estate project in the west of Shanghai. Although the family now lives in Beijing, Qin Shu is from the west of Shanghai after all. There was an internal discount at the time, so she bought two houses facing each other, one for Tao Qian and the other for Tao Siyun.
***
The birthday party was arranged in the evening at the hotel where the family usually gathered for dinner during festivals. It was said to be Tao Qian's birthday, but in fact it was also a small family gathering. Relatives who had not seen each other for a long time took this opportunity to eat and chat.
The Tao family doesn't have many relatives, only the uncle's and aunt's families. In the private room, the elders sit together, and the younger ones sit at a separate table.
Tao Qian is the oldest among the younger generations.
He could be considered the "other people's child" as adults called him. He had been outstanding since childhood and even ranked third in the city in the college entrance examination that year, which brought a lot of honor to his family. He has since become a role model for the younger generation, which made Tao Daiming and Qin Shu particularly proud in front of relatives and friends.
Tao Qian listened to the birthday song and looked expressionlessly in the darkened box at the three-layer cream cake in front of him, which was decorated with a circle of colorful candles and was in a pink color. His brows twitched wildly, and finally, he reluctantly made a wish for his 29th birthday, and then began to cut the cake.
Tao Qian brutally cut off the chocolate Hello Kitty head in the middle and brought it to Tao Siyun. When Tao Siyun was not prepared, he reached out from behind and pinched her face, saying grimly, "You're looking for death!"
Tao Siyun was startled and quickly protected his phone with his hands, struggling to hide, but it was obviously too late. Tao Qian had already seen everything.
Tao Siyun quickly changed the subject and said, "Don't you remember that you bought me a Doraemon cake for my birthday last year? I'm ordering you a Hello Kitty cake as a token of my appreciation!"
"You're quite the grudge-bearer, girl. I already told you it wasn't intentional. Besides, didn't you like that blue fat guy when you were a kid?" Tao Qian narrowed his eyes, his gaze landing on the Meitu Xiuxiu page Tao Siyun was editing on his phone. His eyelids twitched. "Hurry up! Delete the photo you just took right now. If you dare post it on your Moments, you're dead!"
"I don't."
It just so happened that at this time Tao Daiming asked Tao Qian to come over to toast. There was no way out. Before leaving, he took a last look at the screen and saw himself wearing a pink birthday hat and colorful girlish heart stickers on the photo. He tapped Tao Siyun's head, squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth, "As long as you are happy", and let her go to the table of elders.
Tao Siyun ate the cake in small bites and gathered with his cousin Tao Qi to make emoticons for the photos they had just taken. The two were of similar age and both studied design. From time to time, they exchanged a few words about their photo-editing skills.
Tao Qi was extremely interested in the gossip about the handsome boss. He turned his head to glance at the next table, lowered his voice, and whispered to Tao Siyun: "An An, Auntie said that Brother Xiao Qian was heartbroken. Is that true? He seems okay to me, not heartbroken. Has he moved on?"
"It should be true," Tao Siyun arranged the photos into a nine-square grid, edited the text for his Moments, and pressed the green post button. "Haven't you noticed he hasn't posted in a while?"
Tao Qi rubbed his chin and thought for two seconds. "That's right. Oh, right, my mom said there's a nice girl at her workplace. She's planning to introduce her to Xiao Qian. She's also from Peking University, and they're from the same class. What a coincidence, right? Maybe they both know each other. I heard she's also very outstanding. There seems to be a photo of her on Peking University's official account. Wait, I'll check it out for you!"
"Oh, I got it. Look, it's in the C position. It says below that the person is an outstanding alumnus."
Tao Qi's slender fingers with overlapping rings slid across the screen. The moment the photo enlarged, Tao Siyun's pupils suddenly shrank and he even forgot to react.
The first thing she noticed was not the person her cousin was pointing at, but a man wearing a uniform black suit who was standing out in the crowd.
If that isn't Xu Ji, then who is it?
Tao Siyun blinked. She almost forgot that he was also from the University of Peking.
"No, Tao Anan, what's with that expression? You're really that serious." Tao Qi, who has been in the fashion industry for many years and has seen countless people, saw her dazed look and said in disbelief, "You're being too much for someone who might be your future sister-in-law. There are so many handsome men and beautiful women out there, and this girl is just above average in appearance. Is she really that stunning? How can you be so stunned, like you've never seen the world before?"
Tao Siyun silently stuffed a piece of cake into his mouth.
"Honestly, as your sister-in-law, you should check her out first. What's your first impression? Do you think she's attractive?" Tao Qi hugged Tao Siyun affectionately, "Talk to me, don't just focus on eating."
"Hmm..." Tao Siyun stared at Xu Ji on the phone screen, licked the cream on the corner of his lips, and poked the cake on the plate with a fork in his hand. After a while, he said slowly: "I think it's good, but what I say doesn't count. Everyone has different perspectives..."
Tao Qi patted her shoulder and said, "No, no, logically speaking, siblings should have similar tastes. At least the first impression is okay, so I wouldn't just pass her up. It seems my mom's first connection is still very promising."
The word "blind date" is too old and too formulaic for Tao Siyun, and even a bit unfamiliar. After all, Tao Daiming and Qin Shu were in a free love relationship back then, and Tao Qian might not like this kind of gentle relationship.
She lowered her head, eating cake and looking at her phone. Suddenly she thought of something and opened the search engine. After a pause, she typed the words "Xu Ji" in the input box.
Several entries popped up at once, but before she could see them clearly, her cousin suddenly came over.
Tao Siyun hurriedly switched the screen and covered the phone to prevent him from seeing it.
"Tsk, what are you hiding?"
"Nothing." Tao Siyun said evasively.
"You can't even look at me," Tao Qi found it strange seeing her guilty look on her face, "Stingy girl, just give me a like on my Moments."
"oh."
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