"Finished chatting?"
Seeing Song Nuan return, but not in a good mood, Xu Yiran glared at Xu Jiaming behind her and said, "Old man, what did you say? Did you force Song Nuan to do something against her conscience?"
Am I that kind of person?
Xu Jiaming pointed at her nose and said angrily, "You haven't explained the graduation certificate to me yet, so stop talking nonsense."
Xu Yiran took a deep breath, preparing to speak, but her mother had already grabbed Xu Jiaming's hand and said to him, "Yiran has already explained it to me, so don't be so fierce. I'll explain to you later that this isn't our daughter's problem."
"It's not her problem?" Xu Jiaming asked suspiciously.
Xu's mother said, "It's a long story, but in short, we really misunderstood our daughter this time. You should apologize to her quickly and not make her angry."
Upon hearing this, Xu Yiran crossed her arms, raised her chin, and shook her feet, waiting for Xu Jiaming to apologize.
If she had a tail, it would be pointing skyward right now.
"What kind of logic is it for an older man to apologize to a younger man?"
Xu Yiran scoffed, "I don't want it yet, Lao Deng. Just you wait, I'll make a ton of money and then I'll dazzle you with my wealth."
Xu Jiaming picked his nose. "Then you'd better hurry up."
"..."
Xu's mother invited the two to stay for dinner, but Xu Yiran declined, and Song Nuan also refused. Not long after they left, Xu Jiaming asked Xu's mother, "Do you still have the Du family's contact information?"
"Yes, there are, but after so many years, no one is probably using the number anymore."
"Never mind whether anyone uses it or not, find it first."
Xu's mother had no choice but to go through the old account books and find the number for Xu Jiaming.
Xu Jiaming immediately dialed the number, only to receive a cold, inaudible message: "The number you dialed is currently switched off. Please try again later."
Xu's mother: "See, I told you no one would use it."
Xu Jiaming sighed.
On the way back, Song Nuan pressed Xu Yiran for answers, and that's when she learned about the graduation certificate.
It turns out that Xu Yiran's research results were misappropriated by the professor. She reported the matter to the school, but the school turned a blind eye and had no intention of pursuing the matter.
With the school's protection, the professor remained unscathed and his career flourished. He even published the research findings of his entire group, while she, the one who stood out—
She was enslaved, deliberately failed courses, and prevented from graduating smoothly.
Xu Yiran also has a temper. She originally wanted to just endure it and go back to China after getting her diploma so they could part ways. But the professor wouldn't let her go. Even though she swallowed her anger, she still couldn't quell his rage.
That's why she chose to return to China.
Even if the price is that these three years of effort will not be rewarded.
Song Nuan didn't know how to comfort her. If she hadn't gone back to the Xu family with her today, she wouldn't have known about this at all.
"Why don't you come work for the Song family?"
Xu Yiran laughed and said, "It's nothing. I'm doing very well at my current company. Although my career advancement is indeed limited, it's not too late to switch to your company after I've learned something."
Seeing that she was able to think positively, Song Nuan felt relieved.
Tuesday arrived in the blink of an eye.
That day, Song Nuan went to the baking shop for her private lessons as usual. Just after class, she received a call from Ouyang Zhoujing.
His clear, crisp voice rang out, "So, are you free tomorrow?"
Song Nuan suddenly remembered that he had asked her to have dinner together.
Afternoon or evening?
"night."
After hesitating for a while, Song Nuan finally agreed, "Okay, just send me the time and address."
Ouyang Zhoujing smiled and agreed, then hung up the phone.
When they returned to the garden, Li Jingchen had not yet come back.
Song Nuan went to take a shower first. She had been making cakes all afternoon and had a lot of cream on her body. Although it tasted sweet, she felt sticky and uncomfortable.
It was exactly 6:30 when I finished showering, but Li Jingchen still hadn't returned.
He's been coming home on time these past few days, usually by 5:30 pm.
Song Nuan wanted to call him, but just as she was about to dial the number, she worried that he was in a meeting and that it would disturb him, so she sent him a message instead.
Are you coming home for dinner tonight?
A few minutes later, Li Jingchen replied: 'I'll be back later, you eat first.'
Song Nuan typed away, filling the boxes with text, but after thinking for a moment, she deleted it and simply replied with a "Okay".
She flipped open the calendar; tomorrow was the first.
It is Li Jingchen's Gregorian calendar birthday.
Is he really working overtime at the company? Or, like last time, is someone else preparing to celebrate his birthday with him?
She tore off the calendar and threw it into the trash can.
He then called Xu Yiran, "Yiran, where did you run into Li Jingchen's fiancée when you went to check out the venue last time?"
"It's a hotel near Shimao City, what happened?"
"fine."
Song Nuan didn't say a word more. After hanging up the phone, she changed her clothes, put on a mask and hat, and went out.
It wasn't far from Huayuan to Shimao City, especially since it was nighttime and the roads were clear and not congested at all. Song Nuan drove very slowly, and what should have been a ten-minute journey took her almost twenty minutes.
I had just found a parking space and parked my car when someone knocked on the window.
She carefully lowered the car window.
Xu Yiran stretched her neck through the car window, and the sudden appearance of her large face startled Song Nuan, making her heart skip a beat.
"You really came."
Song Nuan clutched her chest, "Quickly stick your head back in!"
Xu Yiran obediently did as she was told.
As Song Nuan got off the bus with her bag, before she could say anything, another figure suddenly appeared beside her. Song Nuan turned her head and her body trembled.
What are you doing here?
Fang Yu gestured with her chin toward Xu Yiran, "She asked me to come, saying she wanted to support you."
"To support the event?"
Xu Yiran hooked her arm around her shoulder, a sly grin on her face: "Yeah, don't think I won't know just because you don't tell us. Are you planning to secretly catch them cheating without our knowledge?"
Song Nuan's face turned bright red, whether from being strangled or from having her secrets exposed, it was hard to tell.
"Don't talk nonsense. I just came here for a stroll. There's no way I'm catching someone cheating."
Although she did want to see if Li Jingchen was there to celebrate his birthday with Zhong Qingya.
But it's one thing for you to want to see it, and quite another for others to know.
Song Nuan didn't consider herself to have a high self-esteem. She had experienced things that were even more embarrassing than this before. With Qin Yuchuan as a precedent, Li Jingchen celebrating his birthday with another woman was nothing to her.
But Song Nuan just cared.
She worried that her sincerity would be betrayed and that she would be ridiculed, even though she knew that Xu Yiran and Fang Yu would not do such a thing.
"No matter what you say, if you want to go in and see tonight, I will definitely go with you. I won't let you face it alone." Xu Yiran's voice interrupted her thoughts.
Song Nuan frowned, "Yi Ran, I really..."
Suddenly, I was patted hard on the shoulder.
Song Nuan looked at Fang Yu in confusion, but before she could speak, Fang Yu said, "I don't really like getting involved in these things, but I had someone investigate, and this venue was indeed rented by Zhong Qingya at a high price, and this afternoon..."
She suddenly stopped talking.
Song Nuan had a vague idea, and her heart sank.
She asked, "What happened this afternoon?"
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