0045 045 Beauty is the best weapon
Zhu Jiangxu's newly relocated villa is located in the suburbs of Jingyang, nestled against low mountains in a pleasant environment, free from the polluted air of the city.
For a while, he had been taking Jiang Yu to stay in a hotel suite, where the air quality was much worse than in Changgang. She has a congenital respiratory disease and didn't dare to go out all winter.
Now that spring has arrived, she has finally escaped the smog of the city and moved into the fresh air of the mountains. The mountainside is already covered in green. She sits in the yard watching the little monkey in the mountains climb up a tall tree to sleep again. If it really is friends coming over today, then this can be considered a spring day spent basking in the sun.
After noon, guests began to arrive one after another, and the sounds of greetings reached the backyard. Jiang Yu turned over in the recliner but did not go out.
Qi Yu and Qi Shuyao arrived around 4 p.m. She watched as the servants carried the lamb to the kitchen, and then she followed them. She watched them bleed it, shave it, gut it, clean it, marinate it, and finally put it on the oven. The lamb was then taken to the open space in the backyard.
Once the fire was lit, a fragrant aroma soon began to waft out, and oil dripped onto the flames with a crackling sound.
She squatted by the pillar of the small pavilion, staring at it for a long time. Then someone gently patted her shoulder. She turned around and saw Jiang Yu pushing a small stool over to her.
"You should sit down. If you squat for too long, you'll feel dizzy when you stand up."
In mid-April, Qi Shuyao was already running around the city in a sweatshirt, while Jiang Yu was still wearing a sweater with a thick shawl wrapped around her, her face as white as an impenetrable snow mountain.
"Thank you," she said softly.
The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, and the atmosphere was a bit awkward. Last time, Qi Shuyao had witnessed her arguing with Xu Mei and then left without saying goodbye. Since then, a lot of things had happened. When she saw her face, she even had a feeling of being in another world. Her gaze fell on her eyebrows and eyes, and she felt a subtle sense of familiarity.
"Sister Xiaoyu... I met a friend before, and I think she looks a bit like you."
"Who is it? Do I know them?"
"You probably don't recognize me, do you...?"
"Yao Yao!"
Qi Yu's voice interrupted her. He strode over, grabbed her hood, and lifted her up.
"My sister isn't feeling well, how can I let her squat down to chat with you?"
"It's alright, Mr. Qi..."
Jiang Yu was busy explaining, but Qi Shuyao had already obediently followed Qi Yu to the middle of the courtyard, and even turned back to wave to her.
As they approached the middle, Qi Shuyao suddenly grabbed Qi Yu again, pulling his arm close to her ear and whispering.
"Don't you think that Tu Mi looks a lot like Sister Jiang Yu?"
"What?"
"What? You know Xu Mei, right? Aren't these two her daughters?"
"Were you two just talking about this?"
"Tell me first, is that right?"
Why do you think that?
"Oh dear, what's wrong with you... I just looked up and suddenly thought they looked a bit alike. And you know what? No, I didn't tell you I was here. On Jiang Yu's birthday, I saw her arguing with Xu Mei at the temple on the mountain..."
She stopped talking mid-sentence. Qi Yu glanced at her and then followed her gaze.
The newly appointed director of the Jingyang City Public Security Bureau walked in with another girl who looked like a robot. She looked very similar to the one she had seen at home. Except for the one who was sent to her home, which had some mixed-race features, they both had the same eerie smile.
"Are robot technologies so advanced now? Can they even be mass-produced?"
Shh, don't make a sound yet.
Qi Yu patted her shoulder to comfort her. In comparison, he was much calmer. However, Qi Shuyao had only met two people like this, while he had already met four or five. They all looked similar and were about the same age.
Almost everyone had arrived, and Jiang Yu came over from the back. She didn't sit with Zhu Jiangxu, but instead sat next to Qi Shuyao in the back. The last two to arrive were He Benran and his girlfriend, the actress An Yuan.
Everyone was seated, and the tender lamb was roasted. The chef swiftly cut it into small pieces and served them to each person. The lamb chops that were placed in front of Qi Shuyao were her favorites. Today, she only glanced at them without saying a word or touching them.
Jiang Yu, who was standing beside her, kept watching her and sighed softly.
Any kind of gathering will turn into a battlefield for men, and this time the purpose was not pure. Qi Shuyao leaned against the back, listening to Zhu Jiangxu's calm judgment of the current leadership team.
The leadership transition meeting ended at the end of March. The previous forced easing by the top leaders did not affect the normal election below. However, many people did not expect that Su Changce would take the second-in-command position in one fell swoop. He had not been in politics for long and it was difficult for him to win over the public. Even Zhu Jiangxu, a businessman who returned from Changgang, disagreed with him.
"If this country continues like this, it might as well just destroy itself. Does Su Changce understand politics? Does that mean I can just buy some kind of official position?"
Qi Shuyao didn't look at his face. She took out her phone and checked again. His second cousin, Liu Jiangyan, who had a hidden relationship with him, was still the Minister of Finance. He had been in that position for many years. What kind of cards were they playing?
The others didn't reply, but He Benran exhaled a smoke ring and echoed Zhu Jiangxu's words.
"Old He is the most arrogant and self-righteous person. Does he really think the Su family will side with him? Dream on."
Sitting next to him, An Yuan also held her head high with arrogance, rolling her eyes one after another in sync with her man's words.
Qi Shuyao was chatting with Tang Qian on her phone.
"Sister Yunyun, do you know Anyuan?"
Tang replied very quickly.
"I know, that girl has only been in the industry for a few years, but she already has more resources than she does, and she always acts like she looks down on everyone."
Why does she have such good resources?
"Her sugar daddy is He Benran, Old He's nephew. Because Old He only has one daughter, he boasted that he was the sole heir of the He family even before he took over. Ugh, I don't even want to talk about him. Back then, someone was so blind as to introduce him to me. I almost threw up my dinner from the night before."
She remembered correctly; she had met He Benran when she was a child and saw him bullying her cousin, saying that she wasn't a member of the He family.
However, it seems that he himself no longer wants to be a member of the Ho family.
Because he couldn't stand his uncle, he joined forces with Zhu Jiangxu, who also disliked the second-in-command? How good is Zhu Jiangxu's relationship with Liu Jiangyan? Will he also stand by and watch them die like he did with their eldest brother? And what is Qi Yu getting involved in all this? Does he also disapprove of the current situation?
Qi Shuyao's mind was in turmoil, but her hands were casually flipping through An Yuan's resume since her debut: big-budget productions, leading roles in every film, and being criticized in every one of them.
She also found a lot of stills from the show, and the face kept changing, full of a technological feel. After looking at it for a while, it looked like a robot's face had become swollen.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her. She found the opening photo of An Yuan's debut work and compared it with the girl sitting next to the police chief.
These two must be sisters.
Qi Shuyao could barely hold her phone anymore. She lowered her head and pressed her temples with her hands, feeling the throbbing pulse there. What was going on? Did every man at this party have a robot? What kind of organization had infiltrated them?
She grabbed her phone and ran to the bathroom, locked herself in a stall, and took a few long breaths. She pinched her arm and rubbed her face; the pain told her she was still in the real world.
No, they already have robots that look exactly alike, so they might have even figured out how to feel pain in hallucinations.
She supported her trembling legs and turned on her phone again. The screen was still on An Yuan's profile. The profile said she was twenty-two years old. The person who was sent to her house was also described as twenty-two. The police chief's daughter looked to be around twenty years old, maybe also twenty-two.
This is terrifying. She thought she could accept some bizarre things that ordinary people couldn't understand, but she never expected that strange things these days would start to challenge natural science.
Qi Shuyao walked back slowly with her arms crossed. On the way, she met a maid who was delivering drinks and asked her if she needed anything. She really wanted to gulp down a glass of wine, but when she thought about how she was in Zhu Jiangxu's house, she shook her head and didn't drink anything.
She continued walking into the courtyard, each step feeling unsteady. As she passed the small grove of trees, which were not yet fully grown, she vaguely heard a girl crying.
She instinctively thought she had seen a ghost in broad daylight, but before she could run away, she saw a thin, small girl behind the tree trunk.
Even though she was mentally prepared, Qi Shuyao still took a step back when she saw that face that was being used so much.
Fortunately, this girl looked much younger than the others.
The girl's face was flushed, her body was hunched over, and she kept crying, which made Qi Shuyao take a step closer and ask her what was wrong.
The little girl raised her head, her eyes revealing a maturity hidden in their darkness. She lowered her tightly wrapped arms, revealing blood-tinged red marks on her neck, densely packed, new ones pressing down on old ones, layered with scabbed teeth marks, and many more marks that she could not recognize.
"Have you seen enough? Can you get out of here now?"
Her voice was particularly deep, and her tone was not like that of a child. Although her eyes were clearly trying to be fierce, her facial features still looked very youthful.
Qi Shuyao seemed to understand; could this person have dwarfism?
She jogged back to the courtyard. The drinking party had reached its climax, and everyone was staggering around. In the center, the police chief was introducing his daughter to Zhu Jiangxu. Zhu Jiangxu listened attentively, his eyes fixed on Jiang Yu in the distance with great interest.
Jiang Yu didn't look at him. Another little girl approached her, and Qi Shuyao walked closer, hearing her ask...
"Aren't you jealous?"
"What am I jealous of? You don't actually think we'll get married, do you?"
Jiang Yu spoke lightly, and the little girl, realizing she had made a fool of herself, shrank back. She turned to look at Qi Shuyao, smiled, and pulled her to sit down.
"Where did you go?"
"Going to the restroom... Sister, do you know who that little girl in the woods is?"
Jiang Yu glanced back, lowering her voice even further, tinged with helplessness.
"You are diagonally in front of me, the daughter of Yao Mu, chairman of the Yao Group."
She paused for a moment, thought for a moment, and then added a sentence.
"On the surface, she is his daughter, but in reality, she is his lover."
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