30: That night, the moonlight, like a tide, filled the entire room.
Shang Zhi tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. She wrapped the blanket around herself, thinking about the night they spent together.
After being rejected by Pei Yanxiu both openly and subtly several times, she learned her lesson and realized that it wouldn't work to confront him directly. So she would try to provoke him indirectly.
When she appeared before Pei Yanxiu at the banquet, arm in arm with Pei Wang, his expression changed as she expected.
"What are you doing?" During the meal, she went to the restroom, and he followed her out.
"What's it to you? Don't you dislike me? Mind your own business."
"Don't get entangled with A-Wang." His voice was cold, like it had been chilled to the bone.
"Some people are watching Ah Wang, you mustn't..."
"What's it to you? I told you, it's none of your business!" That day, he grabbed her wrist and led her to the dark stairwell, squeezing so hard it hurt.
"I said, no, don't you understand?"
Under the cover of night, before he could finish speaking and say anything more, his lips were silenced by her kiss.
A very gentle kiss, just like hers.
So, are you sure?
That night, the moonlight, like a tide, filled the entire room.
-
"Xixi, are you asleep?" Shang Zhi was lost in thought when Pei Yanxiu returned and leaned against the door looking at her. She sprang out of the warm bed, stepped barefoot on the floor, and approached him.
"Uncle Pei, please don't be angry. You've already scolded me and punished me. I really have to go to the company tomorrow; I have so much to do." If a tough approach doesn't work, try a softer one.
He brought his nose close to her loose nightgown, took a deep breath, and was surrounded by her faint fragrance.
"I really didn't mean it, you know, I just love making you angry, I've always been like this. I'm not grown up yet, I'll grow up slowly, wait for me." She reached out and put her arm around his waist, and when she heard her say this, he softened.
"This is the last time." He picked her up and carried her to the bed.
"From now on, Uncle Chen will pick you up from get off work. Except for company business and visiting your parents, you are not allowed to run around."
"Okay." He'd agree first; he couldn't really follow her around every day.
Shang Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Pei Qing'an invited a few friends to play golf and notified his two sons to come along. When Pei Yanxiu arrived, they had already been playing for a while.
"I heard there's been some trouble with that piece of land in Myanmar?"
"Great shot!" Xiao Youcheng, the founder of Xincheng International, made a beautiful shot.
“This is a big problem. I’m going to send A-Wang over.” Pei Qing’an handed the golf club to the caddie behind him.
"Would the Lu family be willing to cooperate?"
"They have no choice but to cooperate with Wan Jia. There are too many problems in that place. They have no experience in attacking them head-on, and if they take a conservative approach, someone else might snatch it away. By the way, I've arranged for A-Wang to marry Lu Xingqi, the youngest daughter of the Lu family, next month. Remember to make time for it."
"Next month? This... does Ah Wang know?"
"I will inform him."
"Isn't this a bit inappropriate? A-Wang will be unhappy, won't he? I've watched him grow up since he was little, I know him. He's different from Yan-Xiu. He's not an obedient child, he has his own ideas."
"You're too opinionated." Pei Qing'an smiled, his tone tinged with helplessness.
"I've heard rumors that you discovered that mine first, and that the Lu family took it away. Is that true?" Xiao Youcheng and Pei Qing'an were old friends for thirty years, and taking advantage of the fact that there were no outsiders present, he asked directly.
"Half true."
"We did discover it first, but it wasn't taken by the Lu family. We intentionally leaked the information to them."
"Why? Wouldn't it be better for Wan Jia to do it himself?"
"The problems the Lu family thought were problems with this project are not problems at all. The most vulnerable part is always in their hands. If something goes wrong in the future, we, Wan Jia, will become perfect victims, deceived by our in-laws, and everything will be their fault."
"Does A-Wang know about this?"
He will find out, but it's not the right time yet.
Pei Yanxiu followed behind the two, listening quietly without saying a word.
"Yanxiu, hasn't your brother arrived yet?" Pei Qing'an turned to look at Pei Yanxiu. He was slightly annoyed that Pei Wang was so late today. He was waiting for him to arrive so he could announce his marriage to everyone.
"Let me ask." Pei Yanxiu called Pei Wang, but no one answered.
"Chairman, the young master has been in an accident, a car crash, and he's already at the hospital," the butler reported, running up to him. He said it was a call from the hospital.
"I'll go take a look." Pei Yanxiu said goodbye to his father and set off for the hospital. Pei Wang's injury wasn't too serious; he had a broken leg, but he would recover with rest.
“Brother.” Pei Yanxiu stood by the hospital bed, picked up A-Wang’s X-ray and the photos from the scene, and looked at them again and again.
"You deliberately crashed the car? Why? Was it to avoid getting married?" Hearing his older brother say this, Pei Wang paused, his smile freezing on his face.
"It seems I was right."
"But your methods are really not very clever."
"I know it's not a good idea, so do you have any better ideas? This injury of mine will at least keep me in bed for a few months. Things in Myanmar are complicated; there's something wrong with them."
"How can you guarantee you can drag it out for a few months? Maybe the old man will make you have to complete the wedding in a wheelchair?"
"No way!" Upon hearing this, Pei Wang slapped his hand on the hospital bed, which aggravated the wound on his leg, causing him to wince in pain.
"Be careful, the wound still needs to heal properly, don't let it develop into any chronic condition."
"It doesn't matter. It's better if he's lame. He'll become a useless person with no value, and then things will be peaceful."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
“Ah Wang, wait a little longer. The time is not right yet, but the time will come eventually. Do you understand?”
"Brother, tell me, what level does a person or a company have to reach to be satisfied? I really don't understand, are those things really that important?"
Pei Yanxiu couldn't understand why Pei Qing'an kept asking A Wang to take risks for him when Wan Jia was already one of the top companies in Hong Kong. Was it simply because he disliked him?
"I'll go to the company tomorrow and talk to him."
"You'd better not go, brother." Pei Wang's voice carried a hint of helplessness.
As Pei Yanxiu left Awang's room and was about to leave the next room, a familiar voice came from inside, and he stopped in his tracks.
He hid behind the wall and looked inside. Sure enough, he hadn't misheard; it was his Xixi!
"Thank you for coming to see me, Azhi. It's just a minor injury; I wasn't planning on telling you." Pei Yanxiu looked up and saw He Yuqing again. It was always because of him!
"This is just a minor injury. The doctor said if I had come any later, you would have been..." Shang Zhi glanced at Yu Qing, then hesitated.
She heard from Yu Qing's colleagues that he had received a big order last night, and when they found him this morning, he was already unconscious in the private room.
He was covered in wounds, but thankfully they were all superficial injuries.
"Forget about that. Anyway, once your injury heals, you can go back to Los Angeles. Yu Qing, we're still young, we can start over together. Don't give up, okay?"
Shang Zhi squeezed Yu Qing's hand; he stood outside watching anxiously.
"good."
"Azhi, I have a gift for you, and I hope you will accept it." Yu Qing took out a small box from her bag and opened it to reveal a red Van Cleef & Arpels four-leaf clover.
"I remember when we first started school, you wore a blue one, it was so pretty. I thought to myself, it would be even prettier if it were red." Yu Qing's words touched the wound on the corner of her mouth, and tears almost welled up in her eyes.
“Ah Zhi, I know... I know that someone like me is not good enough for someone like you. That’s why there are some things I’ve never said.”
"I'll wait for you at school, okay?"
"Yu Qing, you really didn't need to buy this for me."
"No, it is necessary."
At that moment, Pei Yanxiu really wanted to push the door open and go in, but he restrained himself. He was worried that he might do something that Xixi couldn't accept in his emotional state, or say something that would hurt their relationship.
As I stepped out of the hallway, I sent her a message: "Come out."
Concise and to-the-point instructions were what annoyed Shang Zhi the most. When would he finally understand that she was a person with independent thoughts, not a pet he kept, and not someone he could just order by snapping his fingers?
After reading the message, she put her phone away and ignored it.
"I'll say it again, come out, I'll be waiting for you at the door." Pei Yanxiu got into the car, his temper visibly flaring.
He regretted it a little; he should have taken care of her child on the spot, so as not to be an eyesore here. He reached up and pressed his temples, his head aching terribly.
"I understand." Shang Zhi finally replied to his message, but it was just those three ambiguous words. Pei Yanxiu felt his headache getting even worse.
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