Ying Qingcang and Xin Qing settled themselves into a stand-alone wooden villa, which was surrounded by various lush vegetation and greeneries. This time, both Ah Nan and Ah Che had tagged along, though as soon as they had got their luggage settled, they hurried to leave.
"Where are you guys going?" Xin Qing asked. Being alone with Ying Qingcang was the last thing on her mind. "There are enough rooms, so why don"t you guys just stay here."
"Yeah, but the thing is, we still value our lives..." Ah Che thought.
Ah Che pulled open the door hurriedly, the edge of his lips tugged into a humorless smile. "Our rooms are at a further place," he said, already stepping outside. "So let us be out of your hair now, Young Master, Young Lady," Ah Che said, shutting the door behind him.
A wave of nerves. .h.i.t Xin Qing. At the same time, Ying Qingcang was slowly walking towards her. For a moment, Xin Qing panicked. Her eyes darted everywhere as she did not know where to look. When Ying Qingcang was about an arm"s length away, she jumped. "What are you doing?" she asked.
Ying Qingcang glanced at her with nothing but nonchalance in his eyes. Then he walked past her and heaved her luggage from the floor, "Don"t tell me you"re planning to carry this all by yourself?"
...Xin Qing hid her face behind her hands.
Ying Qingcang watched as Xin Qing hurried away into her room with her luggage. He felt the corner of his mouth lift into a smile. "Seems like Young Master Shen"s methods are pretty useful," he thought.
Ying Qingcang remembered Young Master Shen"s exact words to him. "Your top priority right now is to get Xiao Qingqing to trust you. And don"t start losing your cool when you"re around her. You gotta approach this thing with the same mindset and the same expertise that you employ during your business dealings. In business, you"re always trying to outwit and destroy your opponents. So do the same here. I don"t think Xiao Qingqing feels absolutely nothing for you. But you gotta slowly let her get used to your presence in her life. You gotta make her fall for you without her even knowing it"s happening!"
Recalling those words, Ying Qingcang began summing up the gist of Young Master Shen"s views. He then added his own understanding into the mix, which brought him to a realization. He realized that he had been treating Xin Qing wrongly all this while. Before, he was either extremely nice to her, or he was extremely mean to her. Their relationship was like a roller coaster ride, full of extreme ups and downs. No human being would be able to cope with that. Well, since he had already chosen her, Xin Qing belonged to him for the rest of their lives. And now, Ying Qingcang had decided to take things slow. The net had already been cast, which means that the prey would have no chance at all to escape.
Meanwhile, the unknowing prey hid out in her bedroom, staring at the calendar on her phone. She had already found out the reason Ying Qingcang brought her here. It was because tomorrow night was the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
A sense of powerlessness swarmed her. Even now, she still felt the same loathing she had felt for Ying Qingcang in the past. And yet, they had been intimate with each other. On the way to the villa, his treatment of her had been mild. Well, it was not something she would deem as mean or spiteful, but it was not overly nice either. Xin Qing actually preferred things to stay this way. At least it was better than before, when he would be extremely nice but then turn into a douchebag afterwards. It was like giving her a sweet date, but then slapping her right after she had eaten it.
Dinner was laid out in a small garden behind the villa and it was attended by all four people. The hot spring lay beside the dining table where steam could be seen rising off the milky white spring water. Because of the steam, the surrounding ambience had turned misty. Throughout dinner, Ah Nan and Ah Che stared at the tabletop. Then, before the full course was served, they stood up and told the other attendants that they had had enough.
"Have some more. If not you"ll get hungry in the middle of the night," Xin Qing said. She knew that she would feel all kinds of wrong if she and Ying Qingcang were to be alone together now. So she did not want Ah Che and Ah Nan to leave just yet.
Ah Nan was just about to insist that both of them were not hungry when Ying Qingcang pushed against an egg on the table. "If you"re done, then take these eggs and boil them," Ying Qingcang said.
The hot spring had high enough water temperature to simmer an egg until it was cooked through. In fact, it was one of the hot spring"s special features. Ah Nan and Ah Che took the eggs and placed them in a special funnel. And then they crouched down beside the water to boil the eggs.
Xin Qing kept her head low as she ate. Constantly, she would feel Ying Qingcang"s eyes on her body. But when she lifted her head, he quickly looked away. At some point, Xin Qing even thought she had been paranoid to the point of being neurotic.
The same thing happened a few times over, and all of a sudden she felt as if her appet.i.te had fled her. She set down her chopsticks and stared at Ying Qingcang, asking, "Why do you keep looking at me?"
"Wasn"t looking at you," Ying Qingcang took a sip of fish soup and pointed to something behind her. Hesitantly, Xin Qing turned her head around. That was when she saw that the s.p.a.ce around a thicket nearby was filled with fireflies. The fireflies swarmed the air in a cloud, igniting the night sky.
"That"s so beautiful!" Xin Qing exlaimed in barely-contained awe. The sight before her right now was one that she would never be able to see in the city. Xin Qing stood up, and took off running towards the thicket. But as she neared the thicket, she slowed her steps. She did not want to scare the fireflies away.
"Young Master, the eggs are ready," Ah Nan said, setting the cooked eggs on the table. Seeing that Xin Qing was preoccupied with something else and had not noticed them, Ah Nan and Ah Che hurried off.
After the fireflies and the eggs, Xin Qing"s mood was greatly lifted. In fact, she was now in the mood for a quick dip in the hot spring. But it was also at that moment that she realized a problem.
"Why aren"t you leaving?"
Ying Qingcang sat himself on the living room couch. The living room, which was directly facing the hot spring.
"Why should I leave?" Ying Qingcang answered with another question.
Xin Qing pointed at the hot spring and said, "Because I"m about to take a dip in the spring."
"Oh. Then go ahead. Don"t mind me."
Xin Qing frowned. "How am I supposed to do that when you"re right here?"
"Ah!" Ying Qingcang exclaimed, as if he had had an epiphany of some kind. "But I"ve already seen your body without a st.i.tch from top to bottom. What"s there to be shy about?"
Xin Qing took a huge step onto the stairs. She was going upstairs. "I"m going to bed. See you tomorrow."
A tiny smile formed on Ying Qingcang"s lips as he watched her leave in huffs of anger. "The water temperature is high in this hot spring," he thought, "if you were to take a dip today, how are you supposed to join me for a dip tomorrow..."
Xin Qing knew absolutely nothing about that plan though. In fact, she went fishing at the lakeside the following morning. And then in the afternoon, she descended the mountain to check out dragon trees. She had heard a couple of things about the dragon trees. First was that the dragon trees could only be found here. And the second was that the dragon trees had another name called "red-blood tree". The reason it had been given that name was because blood-like red sap would be released the moment its barks were slit.
Handicrafts made from dragon trees were sold at the mountain foot. So Xin Qing bought a few as a souvenir. She was planning to give them to Zhang Mi and Shi Qianqian upon her return to the city.
Both Ah Nan and Ah Che missed dinner. After dinner, even Ying Qingcang himself went missing too. Xin Qing could be careless about him though. She saw his absence as the perfect opportunity to finally enjoy that soak in the hot spring.
Despite being the only one there, Xin Qing still held scruples about walking around in the nude. Instead, she wrapped a bath towel around herself and entered the hot spring. And as she sat there in the hot spring, her eyes kept glancing towards the living room in fear of Ying Qingcang"s sudden return.
Eventually, her vigilance lost out to the hot spring"s appeal. She swam a few circles around the hot spring. While doing so, she accidentally discovered that the huge rock she had a.s.sumed to be a wall was not, in fact, just a wall. There was something behind the rock, and when she saw what was behind, it was as if she had swum into another world. It was another pool, a small one. Around the pool, yellow chrysanthemums flourished. Xin Qing immediately decided that the flowers were what she would check out first, so she began to swim towards them. But as she was making her way around the rock, she b.u.mped into something.
"What"s that?" she said as her hands poked around in the steamy air. The fog above the pool was too thick, and since it was also night time, the area certainly provided extremely poor visibility.
"Are you satisfied with what you"re touching?" Came a low and deep male voice from beside her ear.
Xin Qing jumped. "Ying Qingcang? What"s he doing here?" she thought. Immediately, she began turning around with every intention to flee. But then her foot slipped, and she began falling into the water instead. She had been holding her breath and preparing herself for the splash when she felt something wrap around her body. Xin Qing knew what it was. It was Ying Qingcang"s arm.
"Well, since you"re offering yourself to me, I guess I should help myself, then," Ying Qingcang said and began laughing. Xin Qing tried to pushed him away, "Who...who"s offering herself to you...let me go," she muttered incoherently.
She knew that tonight was the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. And she also knew what the night would entail. Whatever it was, it sure as h.e.l.l would not be taking place in a hot spring...
"Oh, you"re not offering?" Ying Qingcang said, waving something in his hand before stopping in front of her face, "then why are you removing your towel?"
Xin Qing all the blood in her body flooding into her head. Her crimson-colored face felt as if it were thoroughly cooked.
"That...that was an accident. You...you...just give it back!"
Ying Qingcang chuckled a few times, though the warmth and tenderness in his eyes had utterly bewitched Xin Qing.
The following afternoon, they headed back to the city. Ying Qingcang was sitting in the car with a sated look on his face. Xin Qing, who had taken the window seat, looked nothing but sullen. Le Le nestled against her, altering its attention between licking her hand and looking at Ying Qingcang.
She had planned not to speak a single word to Ying Qingcang. But that plan was foiled when Xin Pengfei"s call suddenly came through.
"He"s inviting us to dinner," Xin Qing said. The call had given her no choice but to ask Ying Qingcang because Xin Pengfei had invited both of them.
Something flashed across Ying Qingcang"s eyes. "Is he trying to talk to you about the company shares again?"
"He said he wants to discuss my mom"s half of the shares," Xin Qing said. She knew that she had to listen to Ying Qingcang regarding this matter, simply because he knew far more than she herself knew.
"Agree to dinner. Make it tonight. We"ll be there just in time." Ying Qingcang decided for them quickly.
After agreeing to a time and place, Xin Qing hung up the phone once again. She turned to her side and stared at Ying Qingcang for a while. "What do you think he"s up to this time?"
"We"ll know when we get there," Ying Qingcang said, leaning back in his seat in a languid manner.
All of a sudden, Xin Qing thought of Xin Haoyu. "Do you think it has to do with Xin Haoyu? What did you guys do to him?"
"No. This probably has something to do with Xin Enterprises," Ying Qingcang said. Inwardly, he sneered. The time had yet to come for the thing with Xin Haoyu to be revealed. He estimated it would take about a month or so before they would notice.
Xin Pengfei had set the meeting place for dinner in a famous private restaurant. When their waiter ushered them to their table, Xin Qing and Ying Qingcang immediately noticed that other than Xin Pengfei, Zhao Jiali and Xin Yudie were there too.
Xin Pengfei was considered a smart man. He knew that if he brought his son here, Xin Qing would leave without even taking a seat.
"Come, come, come, take a seat!" Xin Pengfei stood up and greeted them courteously. Zhao Jiali had stood up as well, but not before pulling Xin Yudie up from her seat. Zhao Jiali greeted Xin Qing, "Oh, I can"t believe this child. Didn"t even come home for Chinese New Year. Oh, how lonely you must"ve felt out there all by yourself. Just remember to come home during festive seasons!"
Xin Qing ignored the woman. "Has this woman gone r.e.t.a.r.ded? Can"t believe she"s even saying things like that to me, as if this isn"t all just pretence," Xin Qing thought.
Xin Qing looked at the pretentious affect of her family and felt her appet.i.te leave her. "If there"s anything you"d like to say, then say it," Xin Qing said.
Xin Pengfei glanced at Ying Qingcang before he turned to smile at Xin Qing. "Xin Qing," he said, "I"ve thought about things. And I know that back then, it was me who"d failed your mother. And I know I"d failed you too. When you guys let us off the hook about that thing with Haoyu. It didn"t feel right to me." He glanced at Ying Qingcang, trying to get a read on the other man"s features. Satisfied with the other man"s comportment, Xin Pengfei kept going.
"So I"ve decided to return your mother"s share to you. I"d even brought the contract," Xin Pengfei said, pulling out said contract. "All the details are in there. Including those about annual dividends," Xin Pengfei did not hand the contract to Xin Qing. Instead, he placed it in front of Ying Qingcang.
"Well, Xin Qing doesn"t know much about this stuff. So I figured President Ying should read it on her behalf!"
Ying Qingcang picked up the contract. After flipping through two pages, he pa.s.sed it to Xin Qing. "Sign it," he said.
"Sign it?" Xin Qing looked at him, slightly shocked at the suggestion. Ying Qingcang glanced at the contract and nodded, "Sign."
Without even a hint of hesitation, Xin Qing grabbed a pen and signed her name on the pages. On the opposite end of the table, Xin Pengfei and Zhao Jiali glanced at each other with glee shining through the depths of their eyes. Xin Yudie had remained silent the entire time. Occasionally, she would glare at Xin Qing with eyes that bespoke hatred and jealousy.
Zhao Jiali and Xin Pengfei put the contract away before standing up to give Ying Qingcang a toast. "Come, from now on, we"re family!" Ying Qingcang stood up and pulled Xin Qing with him. "No need. We"ll never be family."