Sheng Jiaoyang wore black-rimmed gla.s.ses and a pink scarf with half her face buried under it. She quietly walked into the cafe in a low-profile manner and looked around. When she saw George, she quickly walked over.
Hearing the approaching footsteps, George immediately turned around. When he saw that she wasn"t the person he wasn"t waiting for, he turned back and stared out the window. However, Sheng Jiaoyang directly sat down opposite him.
George frowned and coldly said in English, "Excuse me, you seem to be sitting on the wrong seat."
"Nope, I"m the one who invited you here." Sheng Jiaoyang took off her scarf.
"You invited me?" George looked at her. "It"s you!"
"Yes, it"s me and here I thought that you didn"t remember me."
"I have nothing to say to you." George stood up to leave.
Sheng Jiaoyang wasn"t in a hurry. She leisurely smirked and asked, "Oh, really? I just had a long talk with Lina last night. Aren"t you curious about what she said to me?"
George, who"d walked a few steps away, suddenly stopped in his tracks. He then silently turned around and sat down, scrutinising Sheng Jiaoyang with a cold look in his eyes.
Sheng Jiaoyang raised her hand and snapped her fingers. When a shop a.s.sistant came over, she ordered a cup of coffee.
In the face of George"s frosty expression, Sheng Jiaoyang remained extremely calm and composed.
"What do you want to say to me?" George was already unhappy at the fact that he wouldn"t see the person that he wanted to see, yet Xu Jiaojiao was still keeping him on tenterhooks. If it wasn"t because this was related to Lina, he"d have left long ago.
"What"s the rush? In any case, you two have already been broken up for so many days, so a few more minutes is nothing."
George was silent.
Sheng Jiaoyang waited for the coffee to arrive. She then took a sip before saying, "Do you know why you two ended up like this?"
"I"m not here to listen to you preach."
"Pfft, if it wasn"t for Mei Niu, I wouldn"t bother with you."
The smile on Sheng Jiaoyang"s face disappeared as she added, "Lina can discern other people"s affairs very clearly, but when it comes to her own matters, she isn"t decisive at all. Back then, I encouraged her to take the initiative to confess her love to you, but this time, I won"t urge her to yield to you because she hasn"t done anything wrong."
"You mean it"s my fault?" George got a little angry.
"You didn"t do anything wrong, but…"
Sheng Jiaoyang paused before saying, "Aren"t you too petty? Lina has encountered so many things lately. Even if you aren"t considerate to her, how can you blame her for spending too little time with you? You like her because you like her independence and her personality. If you simply want a girlfriend who"ll remain by your side all day long, you can leave now."
George frowned. "I don"t blame her for spending too little time with me. I just want to have a more important place in her heart."
To think that this was the reason behind their breakup! George really was the king of jealousy!
Sheng Jiaoyang felt amused. She leaned forward and propped her chin up on one hand. She then curiously questioned, "Lina doesn"t have any particularly close male friends. You"re her first love, so who could be more important than you in her heart?"
George"s lips drew tight.
"Poor Mei Niu, you broke up with her over such a baffling reason. Are you sure you"re not playing a joke on me?" Sheng Jiaoyang clicked her tongue and asked.
"You don"t know anything! In her heart, I"m not as important as you, someone who she just met. If it was Jiaoyang, I"d have let it be since they"ve been together for so many years, but who are you?" George shouted the last few words angrily.
At that instant, the guests and shop a.s.sistants in the coffee shop looked over, but seeing that George was a foreigner, they were more tolerant. They were just curious about what was going on.
As for Sheng Jiaoyang, she didn"t know what words to use to describe her current mood.
Brother, you must be drinking thousand-year-old vinegar!
"I have the same place in Mei Niu"s heart as Jiaoyang. If you care about this that much, then there"s really nothing I can do because I"ll be best friends with Mei Niu for the rest of my life." Sheng Jiaoyang wrapped the scarf around her neck and stood up.
Before leaving, she cast another glance at George and said, "Think about this carefully. No matter how close I am to Mei Niu, we"re just friends and regard each other as family. However, her lover is the only one who can really stay together day and night with her, and will end up being buried next to her in the graveyard."
Hearing this, George"s expression calmed down, and his eyes fell on the empty seat opposite him, seemingly deep in thought.
On the way home, when Sheng Jiaoyang thought of the fact that George was actually jealous of her, she inexplicably wanted to laugh. Poor Mei Niu was wronged to have her heart broken like this.
As the car pa.s.sed the neighbour"s house, Sheng Jiaoyang inadvertently caught a glimpse of a familiar figure standing at the gate directing a few people to move furniture and boxes inside. "Please stop for a moment," she asked the driver to pull over.
She lowered the window and called out, "Felix!"
That"s right, that meticulous and serious man was Felix, Shen Zhining"s butler.
When Felix heard the shout, he looked over. Upon seeing her, he walked over and greeted, "Miss Xu."
"Are you moving here?"
"Yes, Boss bought this place."
Huh? Although Sheng Jiaoyang had already noticed this, she was still surprised to hear it out loud.
"Boss said it"d be convenient for us to take care of Xiao An if we lived nearby," Felix added.
Sheng Jiaoyang nodded and asked Felix to continue what he was doing. She then went home.
At home, Grandfather Yang and An Jing were discussing work, while Xiao An was sitting obediently by himself on the other side with a tablet in hand, watching cartoons.
"Xiao An~" Sheng Jiaoyang called out.
Upon hearing this, Xiao An immediately looked up. When he saw her, he pursed his lips and smiled shyly.
"You"re back, come and take a look at this too." Grandfather Yang beckoned.
Sheng Jiaoyang rubbed Xiao An"s hair before walking to Grandfather Yang"s side. With a glance at the computer screen, she noted that they were studying the new company"s statement of operations.
"Jiaojiao, you majored in financial management. Take a look at this a.n.a.lysis table and let me know what you think of it."
Sheng Jiaoyang sat down beside him and began to study the data on the a.n.a.lysis table earnestly.
They did not stop their discussion until around dinner time, when the housekeeper came by and asked when they wanted to have dinner.
While eating, Grandfather Yang stared at Sheng Jiaoyang, who was picking out food for Xiao An, and said, "Jiaojiao, you have a solid foundation in business. Do you really want to continue on the path of acting? I heard that filming is very hard and tiring."
"I"m more interested in acting now. I"ll give it a try first and if it doesn"t work out, I"ll dawdle around Grandfather"s company every day."
Hearing this, Grandfather Yang could only nod.
When they finished eating, he asked, "Did you know that Zhining is moving next door?"
"I saw Felix on the way back. He said that Zhining wants to take care of Xiao An, so he moved next to us."
Grandfather Yang smiled. "I"m afraid that taking care of Xiao An is just an excuse. It seems that Zhining is determined to cling to you."
"Grandfather." Sheng Jiaoyang suddenly put on a serious expression and asked, "If I were to date Zhining for real, would you mind?"
"Silly girl, feelings can"t be controlled. If you guys want to date, then go ahead. I wouldn"t mind as long as it"s something you want," Grandfather Yang shook his head and said.
Sheng Jiaoyang was about to say something when her cell phone rang. When she saw that it was Xu Ping calling, she answered the phone.
"Sis Ping, what"s up?"
"I checked your cla.s.s schedule and saw that you don"t have any cla.s.ses tomorrow morning, so please make a trip to the company. I"ve rescheduled the previous interview for tomorrow morning. Do you have something else planned?"
"No, I"ll go straight to the company tomorrow, so you don"t have to pick me up."
When Sheng Jiaoyang hung up, she saw Grandfather Yang looking at her, so she explained, "It was my manager. She told me that I have an interview tomorrow morning."
"I won"t bother about your work since you already have your own arrangements," Grandfather Yang said.
"I"ll take Xiao An to my studio and let him play there for a while."
"Wait!" Grandfather Yang called out. "Zhining still doesn"t know, does he?"
Upon hearing this, Sheng Jiaoyang immediately understood what Grandfather Yang meant and shook her head.
"You don"t want to tell him?"
Sheng Jiaoyang pouted and said, "Why tell him? Let him guess on his own."
"What if he never guesses it?"
"Then forget it!" Sheng Jiaoyang replied like a tsundere.
She beckoned to Xiao An and said, "Xiao An, let"s go. I"ll teach you to draw."
Xiao An immediately jumped off the sofa and ran to her side. He took her hand, and they went upstairs together.
Meanwhile, at the president"s office.
Jing Weinan knocked on the door with an envelope in hand.
"Boss, someone left this at the front desk and said that it must be handed over to you, saying that it was about your girlfriend."
Shen Zhining glanced at the envelope in Jing Weinan"s hand and lifted his chin slightly, motioning for the latter to open it.
After Jing Weinan had opened the envelope, he poured out several photos and a piece of paper.
Seeing these photos, he suddenly felt that he"d seen too much.
The top photo was a side-profile shot through the gla.s.s. The girl with black-rimmed gla.s.ses was propping up her chin as she stared intently at the foreign handsome man opposite her. The time printed on the photo showed that it was taken today.
Shen Zhining reached out and picked up the photos, flipped through them one by one, twice. Afterwards, he picked up the piece of paper which read: Your girlfriend went on a date with another man behind your back.
After reading it, he placed the paper underneath the photo. His hands were interlocked and propped up on the table, his expression cold.
A date?
"Who brought this over?" Shen Zhining looked up at Weinan.
"It"s still under investigation."
Shen Zhining raised his arm and glanced at the time. He then got up, picked up his coat, and walked out. "It"s getting late, time to go home."
Jing Weinan turned to look at the pile of doc.u.ments on the table before silently following Shen Zhining.
In the car, Shen Zhining made a call.
"Felix, is the house ready yet?"
"Boss, your room hasn"t been furnished yet. It"ll take two more days."
"Mhmm."
Shen Zhining asked Man Jun to drive to Golden Millet Garden.
Jing Weinan looked up at the rearview mirror as he"d obviously heard Felix say that the room wasn"t ready yet. It seems that they were going to Grandfather Yang"s house next door.
Sheng Jiaoyang, who wasn"t aware that Demon King King was on the way over, was patiently teaching Xiao An how to draw. Perhaps, the arduous life Xiao An had gone through and the blow he"d received from his parents" death made him steel himself. He was a lot more mature than other children his age, and he had the patience to learn from Sheng Jiaoyang.
As one taught and one learned, more than an hour had pa.s.sed by the time they"d finished a simple ink drawing.