0094 Desire (4)
Because of the winter short semester, many students from various departments at National Taiwan Normal University are still on campus.
He Lingling, dressed in a simple suit, strode towards the conference room in the Economics and Management Building.
She hasn't been sleeping well lately, and her complexion isn't great, so she wore light makeup, which was still quite appropriate.
Since the meeting was specifically requested by the college leaders to be chaired, she couldn't afford to be careless. After leaving Songhanju, she had been staying at Shengyue, which was in the city center, so even if she left half an hour later than the day before, she could still arrive at the school earlier.
He Lingling saw that bottled water had already been placed on the first row of tables, so she asked the students who came to set up the venue to brew some tea in preparation.
Although the speaker was a big name, he was very approachable and arrived at the venue precisely fifteen minutes before the meeting started.
He Lingling was surprised to see who had arrived; she had indeed been quite absent-minded lately. When she looked at the guest list yesterday, she hadn't even noticed Old Qi's name. Although she had only met Old Qi once six months ago, she liked this kind old man very much. Moreover, that meal together had brought them even closer.
Lingling went to greet Old Master Qi, took the old man from the secretary, and led him to a seat.
Old Qi was naturally delighted to see Lingling. The girl was about the same age as his granddaughter, clever and quick-witted, and also the girlfriend of a family friend's child. He had no reason not to like her.
Lingling had a meeting to chair, and jokingly told Old Qi that the meeting was about to start and she couldn't stay with him for too long. Old Qi waved his hand and said, "Go do your work, don't worry about this old man." The two of them laughed.
The conference proceeded fairly smoothly. Professor Qi was a guest, and perhaps considering his advanced age, no other activities were arranged besides a brief exchange with the young scholars.
After finishing her hosting duties, Lingling went to the restroom at the end of the corridor to change out of her high heels.
She wasn't used to wearing high heels for long periods, and a patch of skin was chafed on the back of her foot. When she accidentally bumped it while changing her shoes, she hissed.
Even this small sound was heard by Old Master Qi's secretary. She came in just in time to see Lingling, and seeing her actions, she understood immediately. She quickly took out a band-aid from her bag and handed it to her: "Put this on quickly."
Lingling smiled and thanked the person who had come, then asked, "Has Elder Qi not left yet?"
The secretary smiled and said, "The old gentleman ran into a former student and said he wanted to revisit his alma mater. He probably hasn't left the meeting room yet."
Upon hearing this, Lingling thought to herself that she should greet Elder Qi as a matter of courtesy. So she said goodbye to her secretary and sure enough, when she left the management building, she saw Elder Qi and his party who had not gone far.
She quickened her pace to catch up with them. When Professor Qi recognized them, he smiled and asked his student to wait two minutes.
"Why aren't you inviting me to dinner this time?" Lingling said with a mischievous smile.
Old Qi pretended to be serious: "You young people are all so busy, how could I dare to bother you?" Then, as if remembering something, he smiled at Lingling, "I heard that Aze has asked Qi Le to help him with house design again. Is your good news coming soon? Anyway, hurry up and have that kid send over the painting he owes me!"
Lingling was taken aback. In a flash, she realized something and hurriedly asked, "Qi Le is your granddaughter?"
“Yes, she and Aze are childhood friends.” Old Qi was clearly surprised that Lingling didn’t know about this relationship. He pretended to be angry, but was actually joking. “I always said that Aze has been a shrewd kid since he was a child. Back then, you asked Lele to design the house you lived in, and you even asked me to write the inscription. Now you’re asking us for your wedding house. What, you’ve used the Qi family and now you’re turning your back on us?”
He Lingling was stunned for a moment, and some guesses gradually formed in her mind. She tentatively asked, "Are you saying that you wrote the name Songhanju?"
"Yes, it's Songhan Residence." Old Qi understood as soon as he saw the girl's expression.
Fuze has always loved doing things in secret since he was a child. He went to great lengths to give someone a house, and he hasn't told them about it all these years!
He shook his head and smiled, "Girl, Aze is a child we've watched grow up. Maybe he's a bit stubborn sometimes, and he just doesn't like to talk much, but he's definitely someone you can entrust your life to."
"Songhanju was a piece of calligraphy that he personally came to me to write. Before that, he and Lele had been discussing the blueprints for more than a year. Later, he also supervised the construction himself... Haha, you should ask Qi Le about this. During that period, she spent half of her day cursing Aze as a 'capitalist'."
“I came up with quite a few names for that house, but this kid wasn’t satisfied with any of them. He’s very thoughtful, and he wrote your name on Chengxintang paper for me. That’s when we finalized the name ‘Songhanju’ together. It’s taken from the line ‘On the seven strings, one can quietly listen to the cold wind in the pines.’ You probably didn’t know any of this, did you?”
After finishing his sentence, Old Qi smiled again. Among the children of their generation, the adults all loved Xiao Fuze the most. Everyone said that such a bright and precocious child was rare, and because of the changes that followed, they all felt even more affection for this child.
He secretly thought the girl in front of him was a good match. For kids of their generation, as long as they truly love each other, isn't that the best match?
When Lingling came to her senses, Old Qi and his group had already gone far away.
Feeling very unsettled, she parked her car at the school and decided to walk around and get some fresh air.
Wandering along the still chilly streets, from dawn to dusk, she had no idea how long she had walked to get here...
Looking up, the lights from every household shone a warm, golden glow.
Across from us is Shengyue.
They were standing together on the highest floor. She looked at the clear yellow expanse opposite her, and he asked her from behind if she liked it.
She didn't remember if she had answered him. But he never waited for a definite reply before taking action.
It's the city center, which she's always complained about wanting to live in, because it's centrally located, making it convenient to get to her workplace. And because it's on the first floor, it's easy to get upstairs even with a wheelchair. Since she's the one "supervising" Qi Le's renovations, the style won't be like Songhan Residence this time; she'll definitely like it…
She had to cover her mouth with her hand to stop herself from crying out loud. God, what had she missed...? How much had that person done for her before leaving?
She rummaged through her bag for her phone, afraid that if she hesitated even a second longer, she wouldn't have the courage.
It turns out that someone who was always bad at math could clearly remember that string of numbers, which was closely related to his name.
She waited in the pitch-black night for an answer, an answer that could save her, but all she received was his determination to completely sever ties with her.
It turned out to be a disconnected number.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
