That night, Qiao An was extremely vigilant, afraid that Du Xiaoruo might lose control and end the novel.
Even when he stretches in the morning and accidentally reveals a bit of his lean waist and abdomen, he quickly pulls down his clothes to cover it, as if afraid someone might try to take advantage of him.
Du Xiaoruo wanted to kick him away when she saw his pathetic appearance.
There were two knocks on the door, followed by Lele's voice.
"Mom, can I come in?"
Du Xiaoruo quickly sat up in bed. "Lele, please come in."
Today is the first day of school. Lele is wearing a navy blue British-style suit school uniform. Because he promised Xiaotong that he would donate his hair, he tied his long brown curly hair into a half-bun on top of his head. With this change in hairstyle, his temperament suddenly became very different. The noble young master described in the novel suddenly came to life.
Feeling embarrassed by Du Xiaoruo's gaze, Lele blushed slightly at the base of her fair ears and asked softly,
"Mom, are you going to take me to school today?" Huang Longyu said his mother was going to take him to school.
"Well... although it's not good to compare yourself to your classmates, Mom was planning to take you to school today anyway."
Lele was instantly delighted, ran around the room twice with her hands raised, then suddenly remembered something and stopped.
"Has the Little Bookstore gone bankrupt?"
Du Xiaoruo was brushing her teeth when she heard Lele's question. She poked her head out of the bathroom, toothbrush in her mouth, and asked indistinctly,
Why do you ask that?
Lele pointed outside the door, "I just saw Uncle Muhua wandering around our house."
Qiao An raised her hand and patted Lele on the back of the head, correcting her.
"This is called staying at our house, not homelessness. Is there something wrong with your Chinese tutor? You get a five-figure salary a week, and what kind of nonsense are you teaching?"
Amidst Qiao An's incessant chanting, Du Xiaoruo and Lele escaped from the villa.
Du Xiaoruo doesn't like having a driver; she finds driving herself very comfortable and doesn't have to endure the awkwardness of being in the car with other people.
Previously, the original owner drove a pink Porsche. Du Xiaoruo didn't really like that kind of pink color, as it lacked power and explosiveness. A few days ago, she found a cool black sports car in the garage, an Audi R8 Black Knight, and immediately fell in love with its cool appearance.
Du Xiaoruo asked the driver for the keys and drove the cool black warrior out.
After dropping Lele off at school, Du Xiaoruo received a phone call from a real estate agent inviting her to view a shop today.
If the real estate agent hadn't called to remind her, Du Xiaoruo would have almost forgotten about it. She bought a shop while buying condoms? It sounds like a joke.
However, Du Xiaoruo has done this kind of thing quite often, because she doesn't know how to refuse. When she encounters sales pitches, she often spends some money to keep quiet. It's just that this time she did something a bit big.
Considering that she had already paid a deposit of 20,000 yuan, and that the other party might not be able to refund the money if she said she didn't want to buy it now, Du Xiaoruo thought that since she was idle anyway, she might as well go and take a look. If the shop was good, she could take it over and become a landlady.
Following the address sent to her by the agent, Du Xiaoruo drove around the streets and alleys of Wencheng, finally stopping beside an old street with a retro atmosphere.
This street is beautiful, with tall plane trees on both sides. Under the huge shade of the trees, the Western-style buildings look very old.
The ground floor of these Western-style buildings is lined with shops facing the street, while the second floor is a small attic with a pointed roof. Outside the second floor, there is a small terrace with iron railings, where many shops have planted flowers, creating a lively yet romantic atmosphere.
Du Xiaoruo stood by the roadside waiting for the real estate agent, looking up at the dense shade of the trees overhead. The sycamore leaves hadn't turned yellow yet, but when autumn came, this road would surely be a golden yellow, with thick fallen leaves covering the sidewalkâit would definitely be beautiful.
She felt inexplicably familiar with the scene, and just as she was about to figure out why, the real estate agent rode up on a small electric scooter, interrupting her train of thought.
The agent was just as enthusiastic and talkative as yesterday, launching into a relentless sales pitch as soon as he saw Du Xiaoruo.
"Miss Du, isn't this street beautiful? These old Western-style buildings are over a hundred years old. And look at these big trees and the flowers on these balconies, doesn't it have a bit of a French feel?"
Du Xiaoruo wore a polite smile and nodded from time to time.
Following the agent, we arrived at the shop we had booked yesterday. It was located at the end of the street, and because of its remote location, it was very quiet. The shop was small; the first floor was probably less than fifty square meters. Climbing the narrow wooden stairs to the second floor, we found ourselves in a small attic with a triangular pointed roof.
Du Xiaoruo opened the glass door leading to the terrace and walked onto the small balcony.
The balcony is covered with small sun-patterned tiles, and the wrought iron railings have exquisite patterns, with faint traces of rust visible on them.
She realized why the scene looked so familiar; it was the place she had described to Chen Ding as the place where she would open her shop in the future.
"When I retire, I'll open a dessert shop. It will be in the quietest corner of the street, not too big, and paved with small sun-patterned tiles. The second floor will be my bedroom, with a small attic with a pointed roof and a small skylight in the roof. When the weather is nice at night, I can see the stars through the skylight."
When Chen Ding heard Du Xiaoruo's description, he simply curled his lip and muttered a sarcastic remark.
"By the time you retire, you won't even be able to climb the attic anymore. If you want to do it, you have to do it now."
Unexpectedly, she recreated this scene in her novel. I don't know if it was Chen Ding's arrangement, but it seems that an invisible force was drawing Du Xiaoruo here.
Without any hesitation, she signed the contract for the small shop.
The agent said that shops in this area are very expensive, and even a shop in such a remote location costs tens of millions. He also suggested that Du Xiaoruo could take out a loan. Du Xiaoruo directly used the black card that Qiao An gave her to pay the full amount.
The intermediary was still in a daze the moment the money arrived in his account.
Yesterday, he saw Du Xiaoruo acting suspiciously outside the pharmacy and guessed that she was probably a shy girl who came to buy condoms. The agent originally just wanted to try his luck since he was bored anyway, but he didn't expect to make such a fortune. He could earn more than 100,000 yuan from this one deal.
After signing the shop contract, Du Xiaoruo received another call from Xia Qingye, inviting her to have afternoon tea at Xiyou.
When they arrived at Xiyou, Fan Yue was naturally there, and the three of them got together again.
Xia Qing also asked, "How is Mu Hua doing? As a friend, I'm really worried about him."
Du Xiaoruo had been running around outside all morning and was parched.
She drank most of a cup of milk tea before explaining to Xia Qing and the others.
"Mu Hua is fine now. Qiao An's mother... aunt, is a good friend of Li Zhesheng. She helped to find out about Liu Zhi's situation. There was indeed a misunderstanding that caused Mu Hua's mental state to be not good. Now the misunderstanding has been cleared up, and she is fine."
Xia Qing also visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fan Yue ate her Black Forest cake with a small spoon, a gossipy smile appearing on her face. "Xia Qingye, do you like Mu Hua?"
"Me?" Xia Qing pointed to her nose in shock, but her voice trailed off after meeting Fan Yue's confident smile. "Was it that obvious?"
Fan Yue smiled knowingly.
"You can't hide your feelings for someone. Haven't you noticed how many times you've said 'as a friend'? It sounds like you're trying to cover it up."
Xia Qing also asked seriously, "Should I take the initiative? After all, it hasn't been long since Qiao Qingchuan's accident, and I'm a little worried that people will gossip."
Fan Yue wrinkled her nose, smiled, and shook her head.
"If you ask me, I'll definitely say of course I'll take the initiative. I'm the kind of person who found a father for my child through a sperm bank while I was still in college. I don't care about other people's gossip. Life is my own."
Xia Qing then turned to Du Xiaoruo and asked, "Xiaoruo, what do you think?"
Du Xiaoru finished the rest of her milk tea in one go. "I also agree that we should take the initiative." Because Xia Qing and Mu Hua are destined to be a couple.
The grapefruit mousse cake was delicious. Du Xiaoruo even packed two portions to take back for Qiao An and Lele before she left.
Once in the car, Du Xiaoruo felt a little disoriented. She opened the navigation app to check the address and realized that it wasn't far from Jinse's little white building. She decided to drive there to pick up Qiao An after get off work.
The group building was bustling with people, a little different from usual. In addition to employees in business suits, there were also many beautiful women dressed up and walking by in a hurry, followed by a group of assistants, some of whom were even live streaming.
Du Xiaoruo's gaze swept across the crowd and landed on Secretary Jin, who was walking back and forth.
She raised her hand and waved.
When Secretary Kim saw her, she quickly strode over to her.
As they walked to Du Xiaoruo's side, Secretary Jin extended his arm and escorted her into the elevator.
"What are you doing today? There are so many people." Du Xiaoruo asked casually as she entered the elevator.
Secretary Jin pressed the floor button and replied with a smile, "Today is the day Jinse is choosing its spokesperson for the next year. Several big stars have been booked. President Qiao is still in the studio. I'll take you there."
Inside the photography studio, Qiao An was coordinating with Song Qiqin, a rising star in the entertainment industry this year, regarding the details of the upcoming shoot.
Because Song Qiqin is currently very popular and has a sunny and sweet temperament, which matches the image of Jinse Sports series very well, Qiao An wanted her to come over and try on the makeup first.
Song Qiqin sat obediently next to Qiao An, listening attentively to what Qiao An was saying, nodding occasionally. Her assistant was live-streaming Song Qiqin's work for the day on her phone.
In the live stream, netizens were showering Qiao An with declarations of love.
[Mr. Ha, I miss you so much. It's been almost half a month since I last saw you after we parted ways at Beibei Restaurant.]
[Our CEO is so handsome! How can there be such a perfect man? He's both handsome and capable.]
[While Ha Zong is undeniably handsome, he lacks a certain soul when he's not being funny, hahaha.]
[Upstairs, don't be so ridiculous. Our CEO Ha isn't a comedian; his elite demeanor is much more charming, okay?]
After Qiao An and Song Qiqin finished discussing the details, Qiao An called the stylist over to do her hair and makeup. Just then, Song Qiqin picked up the cup that was clearly Qiao An's on the coffee table and took a sip of water.
"Miss Song, this is my cup," Qiao An said, frowning slightly and offering a slightly uncomfortable reminder.
Song Qiqin didn't care at all, her face still wearing her signature bright smile. "I'm a little thirsty. Mr. Qiao wouldn't be so stingy as to not even share a sip of water with me, would he?"
Just then, Du Xiaoruo walked in behind Secretary Jin.
Her gaze lingered on Song Qiqin's hand. She recognized the cup; it had always been on Qiao An's desk and was supposedly a unique piece by a design master, so Du Xiaoruo remembered it vividly.
Upon seeing Du Xiaoruo, Song Qiqin was momentarily stunned, but she quickly and casually placed her cup on the coffee table, smiling as she greeted Du Xiaoruo.
"Xiaoruo, I've watched your live streams before, you're so beautiful in person."
Before Du Xiaoruo could reply to Song Qiqin, there was a loud crash as Qiao An threw the water glass that Song Qiqin had touched directly into the trash can. The domineering CEO instantly backed down.
"Wife, she wants to harm me."
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