A cold glint gathered in Ying Qingcang"s eyes almost instantly. "You had someone following me?"
"I..." Rong Siman panicked slightly, and then she quickly added, "Oh, I was just worried about you. Your body hasn"t fully recovered, and yet you"re all alone out there. What if something happens to you?"
Aggrieved, Rong Siman"s eyes turned red-rimmed. "But I never expected you to... I mean, with that woman..."
"You"re the one couldn"t live up to my needs," Ying Qingcang said as he sat down on the couch and loosened his tie. "Can I help it if my body only reacts to her, but when I"m with you I can"t even get it up?"
"Is that your only reason?" Rong Siman grumbled.
"If not? She"s the real culprit behind my father"s disappearance. What, were you expecting me to fall in love with her?" Ying Qingcang paused for a moment. Then, he suddenly had an idea. "From how she was acting, it seems like she hasn"t gotten over me yet. Maybe I should pretend to be in love with her so that I can find out where my dad is. I can even reclaim Ying Enterprises along the way. Killing two birds with one stone!"
Rong Siman stared at him in disbelief. Then, she pounced on Ying Qingcang and grabbed his arm. "You... You can"t do that!" she yelled, her voice laced with anger and panic.
"Just kidding," Ying Qingcang said, smiling at her. "Aren"t you the only one I"ve always loved? The only reason I was with her back then was because of the Ancestral Behest. Why are you getting so worked up over this?"
Rong Siman seemed relieved by Ying Qingcang"s words. A teasing glint formed in her eyes and her hands snuck under the waistband of his pants. She licked her lips. "Let me try again. I refuse to believe that you can only have a reaction to her."
As soon as she was done talking, she tugged at her dress, revealing her naked body underneath it. At the same time, her hands had already begun a series of skillful strokes. Too bad, though; no matter how much she teased and stroked, Ying Qingcang was like a G.o.dd*mn eunuch. From start till end, he remained as limp and soft as spaghetti.
"Just give up, okay? Unless you find a doctor who could cure me, she"s the only woman I can have a reaction to. It can"t be helped since our bodies are tied together by the Ancestral Behest!" Ying Qingcang pushed Rong Siman away and rose to his feet. "Do you still remember your promise to me when we first rebuilt Ying Enterprises?"
Rong Siman grabbed a blanket and covered herself with it, though she left her thighs and shoulders bare. "That I"ll never involve myself in the company"s decision and policy-making processes. And that I"ll never do anything to Xin Qing behind your back," Rong Siman said, wiggling her body on purpose.
Ying Qingcang turned around so that his back was facing her and, in doing so, concealed the hatred and contempt that had formed in his eyes. Still, the cadence of his voice remained flat when he spoke next: "I can overlook your usual attempts at provoking her and all the verbal a.s.sault you"ve thrown at her. But how dare you act on your own and try to kidnap the kids?"
Seeing that Ying Qingcang was facing away from her, Rong Siman did not bother to hide the panic on her face. "Ah Cang, I didn"t do it! What kidnapping?"
"That kidnapping incident had nothing to do with Xin Qing in the first place. You"re the one who sent someone to knock out the kidnappers and then asked that foolish man to trade Ah Sha for the children." Ying Qingcang turned back around and leveled her with a profound stare. "You really think I won"t find out about all these things?"
First, Rong Siman panicked, and then her eyes darkened. "You sent someone to spy on me?"
"You think I"m like you?" Ying Qingcang released a derisive laugh. "Those men who work for you spilled their guts after I gave them a little scare. That is why you should never try to do anything behind my back."
"Ah Cang!" Rong Siman walked towards Ah Cang completely naked. "I just wanted to help you! You"re the one who told me that you"ll marry me once you"ve reclaimed Ying Enterprises. I just couldn"t wait anymore."
Ying Qingcang pushed her away. "I"m going back to S City. You should avoid doing unnecessary things and ruining my plans if you want to tag along. I"ll get very angry if you do." Ying Qingcang stared at Rong Siman, his eyes suddenly glazing over. "You know, I can"t bear the thought of losing you. So, don"t break my heart!"
Rong Siman was utterly bewitched at that point. Seeing this version of Ying Qingcang had her heart beating in a crazy rhythm. She nodded immediately and said, "Mm hm. Don"t worry. From now on, I"ll let you know first before I do anything!"
The summer holidays ended, and the three children were once again back at school. Xin Qing, too, was starting to get busy. To fit the eastern market, Xin Qing had done some modifications to the "For You" products that had been shipped into the country from England. She had taken it upon herself to hire several old master craftsmen and book several private embroidery studios in order to place Chinese-style embroideries on top of the original products. In coordination with the promotional efforts for the product"s first launching this coming year end, Xin Qing had collaborated with CK to come up with a design of a new jewelry line. The bedding products and the jewelry line would complement each other and form a series.
"This is the final prototype," Xin Qing said, showing her design drawings to Ah Nan, Zhang Mi and Monica. "You guys should have a look. If there aren"t any problems with them, we"ll ask the craftsmen to start working immediately. I want all products to be ready by Christmas!"
Excited, Monica ran her hands over the drawing. "Wow, they all look really nice!"
Xin Qing had come up with three designs in total. The first design involved a traditional Chinese ink wash painting featuring a beautiful blend of mountains, water and a phoenix. The next design was created with Chinese New Year celebration in mind; in this design, red patches would be skillfully embodied onto the main piece so as to create an effect similar to having droplets of red dye diffuse and spread out over a body of water, thus giving the entire design a delicate and aesthetic quality. The final design was three-dimensional embroidery of a series of hieroglyphs known to the ethnic minorities in the southwest region of China. The hieroglyphs, which looked like punctuation marks, would be st.i.tched onto the original piece in such a way that would give the characters an impression of fluidity, thus giving them a flowing effect.
"I"ve already sent the jewelry designs to CK. They liked it very much and had decided to use it as their main product line for the winter season. The jewelries will be launched together with the bedding products at that time." Xin Qing was very satisfied with her designs. She was better in this type of work compared to managing the company. This was her pa.s.sion after all, whereas keeping Xin Enterprises up and running was merely a responsibility.
Zhang Mi sighed. "Why can"t I come up with such vivid and lifelike designs?"
"I find it rather strange, too. Didn"t you guys graduate from the same university? You were even roommates, right?" Monica laughed playfully. "How come there"s such a huge gap in skill between you two?"
Zhang Mi growled. "I swear I"ll bite you to death!"
Xin Qing smiled at Monica. "Hey, don"t underestimate her," Xin Qing said. "Her calligraphy skills are on the national and professional levels. Even her grandfather frequently praises her!"
"Oh, please! Those are just casual writing," Zhang Mi said. But then she got carried away by the praise and began squabbling with Monica.
Ah Nan had always conformed to one good custom in particular: never ever interrupt whenever women are speaking. That was why he had kept his head low and studied the designs carefully while the women were chatting among themselves.
"Do you find any problems with them?" Xin Qing asked him.
Ah Nan smiled. "They"re all very well done. Young miss, you"re very good at this!"
Xin Qing waved him off. "Nah, the credit belongs to you." Xin Qing pointed at her. "Oh, speaking of credits. I haven"t rewarded you yet. But first you must tell me how you managed to find out about Ted and Yuna? I mean, wow, your timing was just too good."
"Boss Wan was the one who did the investigation." Ah Nan frowned. "However, he did mention a strange thing. He said that they couldn"t find out anything at first, but after that it was like someone had helped them from behind the scenes. All of a sudden, all the information came popping out."
For a brief moment, Xin Qing went into a pensive mood. "Boss Wan told you all that?" she asked.
"Yeah. This is what he wanted to discuss with you last time. But you"ve been so busy for the past month, so he told me instead."
Monica blinked her eyes a few times. "Could it be... Ah Cang?"
"Impossible!" Xin Qing snapped, causing Zhang Mi to jump.
"Geez, what are you getting so worked up for?" Monica said, sharing a look with Zhang Mi. Then, all of a sudden, Monica"s eyes went wide. "You... You ran into him in England, didn"t you?"
Xin Qing immediately shook her head. "Nope. Never. I never saw him."
"Seriously, you"re acting weird," Zhang Mi mumbled with a pout.
After that, Xin Qing came up with a bunch of excuses to chase them out of her office. Then, she slumped over her desk and stayed in that position for a long time. Her cheeks were burning for the whole time.
It had already been a month since the incident that day. At the beginning, she would think about it every night, about the way the two of them were wrapped in each other"s arms that day. One time, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror while taking a bath. She ended up fantasizing about Ying Qingcang"s embrace.
Xin Qing hated herself for being so pathetic. That s*n of a b*tch had violated her, yet she was still hung up on him.
"How can it be him who helped Boss Wan get the information? That b.a.s.t.a.r.d had even cheated me!" Xin Qing thought as she stared at the photo on her desk. Still, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. At one point, she reached out and slapped the picture frame aside. A loud crack sounded as the frame tumbled off her desk. She panicked, and picked it back up immediately. Indeed, the frame was damaged by the fall.
Xin Qing carefully cleared the broken shards away. With a sigh, she placed the frame into her drawer. After a brief moment of thought, it still did not sit right with her. So she stood up, grabbed her purse and then left the office.
At the mall, she headed straight for the home decor department. She remembered seeing a beautiful stainless steel picture frame here. She had wanted to buy it when she had been here with Ying Qingcang last time, though she never had the chance to come back since then.
After getting the picture frame, Xin Qing headed for the elevators. Just then, she heard quarrelling voices somewhere nearby where she noticed two women clawing at each other and pulling at each other"s hair. One of the women seemed very familiar to Xin Qing, so she walked closer.
"You shameless s.l.u.t! How dare you demand more money from me? In your dreams!" The older woman spat at the younger woman whose hair was currently within her grip. The younger woman had a scary look on her face when she shouted back: "You old hag! Don"t think you can take all the money for yourself!"
Xin Qing was finally able to recognize the woman with the familiar face. It was Yang Shuwen, the same woman she met in England, the mother whose kids were the victims of that kidnapping incident. Xin Qing quickly skirted them, wanting to leave as soon as possible. That was when she heard Yan Shuwen"s yelling voice: "If you hadn"t run off with Liu Fuming"s money, he wouldn"t have faked the kidnapping of his own children just to get his hands on the ransom money. Right now he"s in jail! Our family is ruined because of you, and yet you dare come here and demand more money from me? I"ll kill you, you f*ck*ng s.l.u.t!"
"Oh. So that"s the truth behind the kidnapping!" Xin Qing thought with a shake of her head. "That"s just unbelievable." She did not feel like listening to any more of that nonsense. She walked away quickly towards the elevator on the other side and then left the mall.
"What did you buy, young miss?" Ah Che asked curiously when he noticed the bag in her hand.
"Ah! It"s nothing really. Just some girly stuff," Xin Qing answered, putting the bag away.
Her phone rang. Xin Qing picked up without even glancing at the screen. "h.e.l.lo!"
She regretted it the next instant. "Jiang Qianren?" she said.
She was just about to hang up when she suddenly heard the voice of a different speaker.
"President Xin, I"m Song Chunli."
Xin Qing went into a momentary daze. "Aunt Song... h.e.l.lo."
"I must apologize for the intrusion. Qianren had insisted that he wanted to see you. I couldn"t stop him so I decided to follow him here. Do you have time tonight? We"d like to treat you to dinner."
Xin Qing thought she had heard wrongly, so she asked, "Um, what did you say Aunt Song, I don"t think I caught that."
"You didn"t hear me wrongly. I said we"d like you to join us for dinner." Song Chunli"s laughter was heard on the other end of the line. "Don"t think too much about it. Since Qianren insists on seeing you, I"d prefer we have dinner together out in the open rather than him sneaking behind my back just to see you."
Well, when she put things that way, Xin Qing had no choice but to say: "I have time. Let me know the time and place!"