"Are you joking? That plot of land used to be a dumping ground. The government had to beg developers to buy it. Now there are nonsensical claims about it being of agricultural use? Who are you bullshitting?" Zhang Mi banged the table resoundingly.
Xin Qing threw the letter of notification aside, "Now I have witnessed for myself what is a military authority."
"This was probably done by Li Susu alone," Ah Nan said with a frown, "Li family and Jiang family have a very good relationship with each other. Since Mrs. Song had assured that things are fine, that must mean that she had already communicated with the Li family."
"Whether it was her or Li family doesn't matter. Now, how are we going to deal with the matter now?" Monica looked at Xin Qing, "I should have known better to give her a slap back then."
Zhang Mi picked up the phone, "Here, give Jiang Qianren a call. The problem was caused by him after all."
"No need," Xin Qing knocked on the table, "Get the lawyer prepared. We are going to first file a lawsuit."
Ah Nan stood up, "I'll go right away."
"Arrange to meet Ding Lei and Chen Ming for me. This isn't our family's issue. Even the government should provide evidence. Let me see just how is she going to wind up."
Xin Qing's intentions coincided with Ding Lei's perfectly. Chen Ming had accompanied his wife on a vacation to help with stabilizing her pregnancy and had let the secretary give Xin Qing full decision-making authority on this matter. It had been a long time since meeting Shi Qianqian, so everyone met up to have dinner together.
"Your man has not returned?" Shi Qianqian confronted at full force, right at the moment they met, "What a drag! Had he gone to that stupid woman to work as an undercover?"
"Fuck!" Zhang Mi glared, "Why don't you say that he's changed?"
Ding Lei responded even before Shi Qianqian could, "He's not that type of person."
"Had you two been injected too? What high IQ you have!" Zhang Mi grumbled.
Shi Qianqian stuffed a piece of fruit into her mouth, "That's just because your IQ is too low."
"So sorry for dragging all of you into this," Xin Qing shrugged at Shi Qianqian. Shi Qianqian said calmly, "Just tell Xunxun later to let my son be the student union president for once."
Xin Qing sniggered, "I can't do anything about that!"
"The lawyer will be done preparing all the material by tonight. Then we can go to the court tomorrow to file the lawsuit," Ding Lei picked a piece of fish for Shi Qianqian, "You don't have to go, just me alone is fine."
Shi Qianqian saw how indifferent Xin Qing looked, and reminded her, "You should just stay at home these few days. The tricks of Li Susu and her people are the typical framing and slandering. Negative coverage of you will probably soon be all over the papers."
"She dares to escalate matters like that?" Xin Qing was surprised, then laughed, "Then good. I don't have to inform the Jiang family myself."
Shi Qianqian looked at her, "Is there really nothing between you and that Jiang Qianren?"
"Of course there is nothing!" Xin Qing sighed, "I had indeed acted too rashly. If I had not made things difficult for her that day, then it probably wouldn't have turned out this way."
Ding Lei furrowed his brows and said, "It's not your fault. This kind of people should not be condoned."
Just as Shi Qianqian had predicted, a newspaper published an article the next day, about some Little White Flower actually being a Black Spider. They had even uncovered Xin Qing and the Xin family's background, claiming that she had caused her biological father's death in order to inherit the family's fortune. All of a sudden, Xin Qing had once again become the talk of the town.
Xin Qing did not care about the papers. She stayed at home waiting for Zhang Mi and Monica's news from the court. When it was almost noon, Zhang Mi called in to inform that the matter was settled. They had won the lawsuit. The government had no reasoning at all, so after talking things out for a while, the matter was resolved.
Just as she had been put at ease, and was preparing to have lunch, Jiang Qianren called.
"Where are you?"
Upon hearing, Xin Qing asked instead, "You've come to S City?"
"Yeah, such a major issue happened, yet you didn't look for me. So I could only come," Jiang Qianren grumbled.
"Hehe. It wasn't even anything important. Come to my house, just in case you get on the news again if you got photographed!"
It was unsure where Jiang Qianren was when he made the call, and not long after, the doorbell rang. The first thing he said after coming in was, "Don't worry. My mother had already talked to the Li family. Li Susu is being grounded at home, and won't be able to come out for some time."
"Did you threaten them?" Xin Qing asked doubtfully.
Jiang Qianren inspected the interior of the house, and snickered, "Yeah, I told her, even if all the women on earth were dead, I still wouldn't marry her. If I were to learn that she is bullying you again, I'll get her older brother replaced."
"Her older brother?"
"Her older brother is working for me," Jiang Qianren said coolly, "Your house's interior is unimpressive. It's definitely not your taste."
Xin Qing grimaced. "I like it!"
Jiang Qianren suddenly looked at her solemnly, which startled Xin Qing.
"What... what's wrong..."
"Can I visit Xiao Rui's room?" He asked, "My mother wants me to take a few pictures."
Xin Qing stood up immediately, "Of course. I'll take you upstairs."
With the intervention of the Jiang family, the issue was effortlessly resolved. The consequence was that, over at the capital, everyone now knew that the Jiang family wanted to marry a woman with a child, who was still entangled with her ex-husband.
Song Chunli phoned Xin Qing to comfort her. She thought that there was no need to explain. The closer the two families get with each other, the less people would suspect their interactions with Xiao Rui in the future. Xin Qing could only cooperate on this matter. Only until Ying Qingcang could openly get together with her, then could she take further actions.
A week later, Young Master Shen returned.
"How is it?" Xin Qing looked at him nervously.
Young Master Shen remained silent, looked down, and then shook his head.
"It's not working? It can't be taken out, or, should we wait till the next time?" Xin Qing asked at a loss.
"Boss Wan is still looking into it. There is no solution at the moment."
Zhang Mi started feeling anxious, "What's so hard? Just cut it open, take it out, and it's done."
"It's right on top of the heart. Nobody can guarantee they can take it out right away safely," Young Master Shen hugged Zhang Mi, reassuring her, "What are you worried about?" He glared at her, and then looked at Xin Qing.
Zhang Mi reacted, and held Xin Qing's hand while saying, "Don't be upset, didn't they say they're looking into it? There must be a way."
"I'm okay. I'm tired, and I'll go to bed." Xin Qing waved her hand and turned around to go upstairs.
Young Master Shen and Zhang Mi knew she was upset but did not know how to comfort her. Moreover, Young Master Shen knew how serious the issue actually was. If Ying Qingcang really chose to give up, then what would happen to Xin Qing... He dared not think about it.
Burying herself under the blankets, at this very moment, Xin Qing's strength and courage all turned into tears. Waiting was not scary. It was this kind of indefinite, and even endless, waiting, which was truly scary.
"Ah Cang, I am brave because of you. If you're no longer with me, what is the point of all of my courage..." Xin Qing wrote these few words on her tablet, then spaced out while lying there, until she finally got tired from crying, and fell asleep.
The room was quiet. A figure walked in, carefully getting close to the bedside. He picked up the tablet and was about to leave a message, but after a slight startle, he stood for a long time. In the end, he did not write anything and left silently.
Rong Siman got off the plane and declined the man's request to go to the hotel. She wanted to meet Ying Qingcang immediately.
Over these dozen days, she phoned Ying Qingcang almost every day. She could hear that Ying Qingcang was very busy as if he was discussing business with somebody, but the other party's voice was completely unfamiliar. She had never heard it before.
Not sure why, but she had been feeling uneasy lately...
After getting home, and realizing that Ying Qingcang was not around, she turned on the wiretapping device. It was noisy inside and sounded like a bar.
She was about to make a phone call, then recalled she'd spent some time with that model on the plane's lavatory, and decided to take a shower first. Once she finished, she saw that Ying Qingcang had just returned.
"Where have you been?" Rong Siman tugged her pajamas, hurriedly walking over, "Ah Cang! I've been missing you."
Ying Qingcang looked shocked. "Why didn't you call to tell me that you're coming back? I would have gone to fetch you."
"I hitched a ride with those ladies," Rong Siman led him to sit on the sofa, "You still haven't told me where you've been!"
"Gone to the bar for a business meeting," Qingcang rubbed the place between his brows, "An overseas Chinese from Malaysia came over recently with a pretty good business deal."
Rong Siman was going to ask more, but Ying Qingcang stood up. "I'm going to shower. You should sleep earlier too, and go to the company tomorrow with me to meet them."
Everything seemed to be normal. But Rong Siman kept feeling like something was going to happen. The next day, she took the chance to call Ying Qingcang's secretary in, while Ying Qingcang was in a meeting.
"Xiaoding, you've been with us for two years, right?"
Secretary Ding did not know what she meant, and could only reply with caution. "Yes."
Rong Siman looked at him smilingly, "Don't be stressed. You're doing very good. I just wanted to ask you, while I was away, has Ah Cang been busy with work every day?"
"Boss and a Malaysian businessman have been working together on a project. Indeed it had been exhausting for him lately. That Malaysian is tough to deal with," Secretary Ding complained, "Boss had arranged to meet him for a meal tonight. Miss Rong should go and teach him a lesson then!"
Only then was Rong Siman put at ease. It seemed like her worries from before were because she had been toying around with other men behind Ah Cang's back, and had simply been feeling rather guilty about it. She dismissed the secretary with a wave of her hand, then decided to never look for that model again.
After Secretary Ding left, he hastily made his way to a quiet place. He looked around his surroundings carefully before taking out his phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, it's me. Miss Rong just asked me."
"Yes, I just replied as you've requested."
"Okay! As soon as possible."
Secretary Ding hang up, adjusted his mood for a bit, and returned to work.
Someone had paid him a lot of money to make him lie to Rong Siman. He only knew that Ying Qingcang had only met the Malaysian businessman once. Boss had not been in S City lately at all.
But none of these had anything to do with him. Perhaps both of them had lied. One of them went to see his mistress, and the other went to hook up with men. Heh, weren't rich people just like this? It was good as long as they paid him.
"Young Master, the money had been transferred."
Young Master Shen nodded, "Remember to send people to watch Rong Siman."
"Understood. Ah Huang asked if he still had to pretend as a model to seduce Rong Siman."
"Hehe. Let him stay in the modeling circle. He must be happy to be surrounded by so many women every day. As for Rong Siman, tell him not to lose touch with her. Surely, he'll still be in need!"