Chapter 271 Mu Sijue and Xu Youning
The journey from the bustling city centre to the ancient village in the surburbs, was a significant number of kilometers.
On the way, Mu Sijue made another three phone calls to Xu Youning. The first time, it rang for over ten seconds, and she hung up.
The second and third time, she hung up almost instantly once the phone vibrated.
This insensible, wretched gal! How dared she hung up without looking at who was calling!
“Drive faster!” Mu Sijue vented his frustration on Ah Guang.
Ah Guang sped up while saying, “Seventh Brother, don’t worry too much. Sister Youning isn’t such an impulsive person.”
Was Xu Youning an impulsive person?
Mu Sijue recalled the time when Xu Youning was still a server at the hotpot restaurant.
The other staff in the shop were previously from the Mu family who had watched him grow up. He had a particular sense of affection for them.
Those few uncles and aunties had seen the look of him wailing while being beaten by his father. Naturally, they did not treat him with the doubtfulness of an outsider. When he visited the hotpot restaurant, they even called him by his nickname, and chatted comfortably with him like a family member.
Not too long after Xu Youning joined the restaurant, the aunties and uncles were no longer worried about the prospects of his marriage. Instead, they often brought up Xu Youning in their conversations with him, and they were full of compliments.
“The young gal is really smart. There was a time when a group of people tried to create trouble halfway through their meal, and she resolved the issue effortlessly. If it weren’t for her, we would have to trouble Ah Guang to come over again.”
“Xiao Mu, where did you find such an interesting little girl? If she wants to resign, you must not agree to it! You have to make her stay no matter how much a raise she wants!”
With these repeated mentions, he gradually began noticing Xu Youning. She worked fast when they got received many customers. When there was free time, she would lean around somewhere near the window, playing her phone. She was not much different from the girls of her age. A likable energy of cleverness could be sensed through her dark and lively eyes, but it did not give away any particular idea of how humorous she was.
Until one time, he visited the restaurant right when she was mimicking the voice of a particular animation series, “Demon! Return my grandfather!”
The sharp but unthreatening voice was full of a childlike quality. Her imitation was full of life. She cleared her throat, and suddenly said, “Big Brother! Big Brother! The demon has captured our Master!”
She was in fact memorizing some lines, but often mixing things up, which had thoroughly entertained the aunties and uncles. Meanwhile, he silently made a mental a.s.sociation of Xu Youning with a crazy person.
In the next few times, he went to have meals at the restaurant, some people were causing trouble again.
Xu Youning jumped off the windowsill, rolled up her sleeves and clarified the issue. The problem was resolved in no time.
That was when he realized that this little girl was incredibly logical and convincing when she spoke. Her firm and extensive reasoning had easily intimidated the other party into compromisation.
For the first time, Mu Sijue thought it was such a waste for Xu Youning to be a server.
But he was merely entrusted by someone else to take care of her, and did not wish to interfere in her decisions. Moreover, she was just a little girl. She was at best a little clever. What major accomplishments could she be capable of?
Until one time, he was going to discuss a business deal with some Vietnamese, and got Ah Guang to entertain them at the restaurant.
After it was done, Xu Youning suddenly coerced Ah Guang to take her to him.
He met this little girl out of curiosity, and she immediately said, “Those Vietnamese are trying to con you! They do not sincerely intend to do business with you. They have prepared inferior products for you!”
Of course Mu Sijue would not have easily trusted the words of a little girl. She took out her phone and played a recording, and it was a string of gibberish in Vietnamese. He could not understand, and she said, “Let me translate for you.”
The content of the translation was similar to what she had claimed. After that, she said again, “You don’t understand the conversation, but you definitely can recognize some of these people’s voices. If you suspect I’m taking advantage of you for not understanding Vietnamese, then you can look for someone who understands Vietnamese to translate it for you again.”
It was then when Mu Sijue realized Xu Youning was not afraid of him at all.
To her, everyone was the same. n.o.body was scarier than the other. n.o.body was n.o.bler than anyone else.
During the transaction, he requested to examine the stocks, unexpectedly to the other party. They refused, citing time constraint as an excuse, and he said, “Well then, I’ll do a random inspection.”
It turned out that Xu Youning was right. There were a lot of inferior goods among the quality goods.
If he had trusted the other party and went ahead with the deal, those people would have returned to their home country, and they would provide a million ways to excuse themselves if he ever wanted to go after them. Then he would have gotten the short end of the stick.
He terminated the deal, brought his men back, and reported them to the police. That group of Vietnamese were still in prison until now.
And after committing an act of merit, Xu Youning was taken back to the office by him.
Xu Youning possessed an even stronger sense of curiosity than the girls of her age, and inspected his office: “Seventh Brother, your office is really ugly.”
Mu Sijue had the impulse of throwing her out from the eighth floor.
But upon recalling Su Jianan’s entrustment, he suppressed that impulse, and invited Xu Youning for a seat. Instead, she was surprisingly unreserved, and just boldly sat down.
Mu Sijue asked her, “You know what I do?”
The little girl nodded with a face of innocence, “I know. Which child in City G did not grow up hearing about the Mu family? How could I not know what you do!”
Mu Sijue smiled. It was not a smile of good intentions. “Yet you still got yourself involved in my affairs? Are you not afraid to die?”
Xu Youning said very seriously, “Actually, I am afraid. But you’re my boss now. I’m afraid that you would make a loss and delay my pay…”
Mu Sijue stared at her. “I owe it to you this time. What do you want?”
Xu Youning stared back at Mu Sijue. “I want to be with you.”
“…”
“Oh, don’t be mistaken! I am not interested in you!” Under his glare, she hurriedly emphasized, “I meant I want to work for you!”
“Why?” Mu Sijue’s stare grew sharper. Not many people could withstand such a gaze.
Yet Xu Youning was able to look at him smilingly. “Because I want to! The hotpot restaurant is too boring. If I follow you to meet big shots everyday, I might be able to witness some fights. Isn’t it fun?”
Mu Sijue inspected her and revealed a look of disdain. “Little girl.”
“Do you look down on girls?” Xu Youning grew frustrated. “Let me tell you! I was already a leader of the pack over a decade ago!”
Mu Sijue was done checking her, and his smile grew even more disdainful upon hearing that, “Is being the leader of a bunch of kids anything worthy of showing off?”
In comparison with Mu Sijue, she was indeed a much more unworthy “leader”. Xu Youning lightly rubbed the tip of her nose in embarra.s.sment, “I just wanted to say… I possess a certain level of capability!”
Mu Sijue acted unexpectedly, yet Xu Youning was also quick to respond, and flexibly avoided his attack. She even managed to fight back for a few moves and ended up getting pinned down on the sofa by Mu Sijue.
Little did he expect she was so easy to yield and immediately smiled, “Seventh Brother, a gentleman does not fight with a lady. You let go of me first, let’s talk it out.”
Once Mu Sijue let her go, Xu Youning grew agitated, pointing at him, “How dare you ambushed me! What kind of gentleman are you!”
“When have I ever told you I am a gentleman?” Mu Sijue held her hand down. “Where did you learn that?”
He was asking about her fighting ability.
Xu Youning brushed across the tip of her nose with her index finger, “To be honest, my maternal grandmother sent me overseas to study after I graduated from university. But I did not apply for the university overseas, and spent the sum of money on traveling. I was conned during the trip and lost a lot of money, and could not get it back, so I went to learn martial arts.” She looked quite proud, “It is now only possible for me to be the one doing the s.n.a.t.c.hing!”
Mu Sijue knew she traveled to many countries behind her grandmother’s back, and learned many foreign languages. She had probably picked up Vietnamese from the locals when she was in Vietnam.
But this was not a good enough reason for him to accept her. “Why do you want to follow me?”
“Because you’re formidable,” she seemed to have always been this direct, “No one else would dare to defy you in City G. If I became your subordinate, then I can… take revenge.”
“Who do you want to take revenge against?” Mu Sijue asked.
But Xu Youning refused to say, except to respond dismissively. He was not one to keep pressing for an answer. But only later after investigating, then did he learn that Xu Youning’s family was only left with her and her maternal grandmother. Her parents had pa.s.sed away from an accident long ago.
The cause of their death seemed to be more complex, and had something to do with some people in the ancient village. But the trail eventually went cold.
Mu Sijue told Xu Youning that he would inform her again. A few times meeting her later at the hotpot restaurant, she nonchalantly called him Seventh Brother, appearing to be unworried that he might reject her.
The person who broke the silence was in fact Mu Sijue. He pulled her aside to ask, and she smiled saying, “Who said I am not worried? But I recently realized that the people around you were all able to make full use of their strengths under your leadership. And then I stopped being worried!”
This was a compliment. Mu Sijue had lost count of the number of times he had heard such compliments.
But strangely, he started taking Xu Youning along with him and sent her to deal with some simple issues.
It was expected that people were not convinced by such a young girl. His subordinates often made things difficult for her, but she dealt with her own business calmly, and helped to resolve a few more serious matters. Within half a month, she was able to prove herself of her ability.
The next time meeting her, Mu Sijue heard his subordinate calling her sister. It was the first time he cast a look of astonishment at a subordinate, while she raised her brows at him and smiled very gleefully.
Xu Youning did not get full of herself. She remained careful in dealing with issues, her daily training routine had grown even more intense than what most men would do. She looked incredibly energetic whenever she was out and about while remaining extremely composed when met with major issues. Mu Sijue could feel his own suspicions and guard against her shedding.
But he did not expect her to be so impulsive today.
Mu Sijue suddenly recalled the revenge she had mentioned, and then phoned someone to investigate whether Xu Youning’s parents and that person named Chen Qingbiao were related.
It was found out very soon that when Chen Qingbiao and Xu Youning’s parents were young, Chen Qingbiao was still not the tyrant of the ancient village, and was a business partner of Xu Youning’s father.
Their business expanded thereafter, but the two partners had conflicting views. They fell out and went to court.
Originally, Xu Youning’s father had an absolute chance of winning that case.
However, Xu Youning’s parents got into an accident and both died, just on the day before the court session began.
Chen Qingbiao took advantage of the fact that Xu Youning was alone with her grandmother and seized the business after dismissing them with a small sum of money. Ever since, he prospered and even further expanded the business, eventually becoming the tyrant of the ancient village. The villagers were upset with him but dared not speak against him.
Xu Youning’s grandmother got hospitalized today, also because Chen Qingbiao had brought people to her house. Only then she became so impulsive and claimed that she wanted to kill someone.
At the doorstep of Xu Youning’s house, the door was shut tight. Mu Sijue ordered Ah Guang to find someone to take them to Chen Qingbiao’s house.
The person who took them there was in his teens, sitting in the front pa.s.senger seat, giving Ah Guang directions. Soon, the car reached the entrance of a villa, the kid pointed to the building, “It’s this building!”
Ah Guang gave the kid a few pink notes and asked him to return home, and then asked, “Seventh Brother, are we going to look for Sister Youning?”
Mu Sijue sulked, “Enter!”
He was not worried about Xu Youning. He simply did not want to fail what Su Jianan and Lu Boyan had entrusted him with.