The Old Man Arrives

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By evening, the video Wang Zhenfeng had filmed had surpassed ten thousand likes. Once it began attracting attention, the comments below it became sharply divided.

Su Qingyi, however, did not care.

She paid the matter no mind at all.

At dinner that night, everyone was delighted for Wang Zhenfeng. But Wang Zhenfeng was still a child, and after receiving so much praise, she quickly became carried away. She began speaking to Su Yu without the slightest restraint. Sure enough, before the meal was over, Su Yu had dragged her into the room and given her a sound beating.

Afterward, she came out again, aggrieved and pitiful, calling, “Cousin.”

Seeing her like that, Su Qingyi was both exasperated and amused. She climbed out of bed and asked, “What is it?”

“I want to start a livestream tonight. Can you help me?”

“How?” Su Qingyi asked, casually tying up the hair that had fallen down her back.

Wang Zhenfeng did not know how to explain, so she showed Su Qingyi the private messages she had received backstage. Su Qingyi skimmed them. Most of them questioned whether Wang Zhenfeng was truly an inheritor of an intangible cultural heritage in wood carving. They claimed she could not carve at all and was merely filming videos to attract traffic and shamelessly ride the trend.

If it had been Su Qingyi, she would never have cared.

Where there were trees, there would always be all kinds of people. Even an immortal could not satisfy everyone. But considering that Wang Zhenfeng wanted to make a living from this, Su Qingyi handed the phone back and asked, “Are you streaming now?”

“That depends on whether you have time.”

Su Qingyi thought for a moment, then took a set of tools from beneath the desk. “Then let’s do it now.”

Wang Zhenfeng had not expected her to agree so readily. She hurried back to her room, brought out a selfie stand, and aimed it at the desk in front of Su Qingyi.

Su Qingyi casually chose a piece of wood and prepared to carve a small ornament.

But it was the first livestream for both of them, and neither had any experience. The moment they started, the camera was pointed directly at the clasp of Su Qingyi’s dress over her chest. Since there was no one in the stream yet, Su Qingyi did not care. Resting her chin in one hand, she stared at the image on the screen and said, “Director Wang, your woodcarving is still skirting the line.”

“Stop joking around.” Wang Zhenfeng was sweating with anxiety. She adjusted the camera several times, but could not get it right. Either it wavered over Su Qingyi’s chest or failed to capture the carving in her hands.

Seeing this, Su Qingyi rose to help her fiddle with it. The camera, which had originally been positioned above her neckline, was suddenly thrust directly against her chest.

The screen abruptly went black.

Lu Jingchen, who had been leaning back in a reclining chair with an expressionless face as he watched the screen, subtly lifted his head, putting some distance between himself and the suddenly darkened display.

His pale, indifferent face filled the black screen.

Then the person in front of the camera moved back a little, and the screen lit up again. This time, the angle was finally correct. The camera that had been aimed at Su Qingyi’s neckline now rested on the desktop.

At first, he did not know that this was Wang Zhenfeng’s newly registered account. He had only seen the person on the screen and inexplicably thought of Su Qingyi. The curve of that chest, suddenly pressed close to his face at the hotel that day, had been just like this.

Without betraying any emotion, he lowered his eyelids and swiped past the recommended livestream. But after scrolling through several videos, he remembered the recommendation beneath it: Intangible Cultural Heritage Wood Carving of Datong.

He swiped back.

He was nearly certain it was her. But he had no idea what she was trying to do, so he did not swipe away again.

She was still chatting with the person beside her without the slightest inhibition.

He shifted his gaze away with an indescribable unease. Only after she finished adjusting the camera did he raise his head again.

Su Qingyi noticed that there was one person in the livestream, but assumed it was one of Wang Zhenfeng’s alternate accounts and paid no attention.

Once the camera was properly adjusted, more people began entering the stream. The audience grew from one person to several hundred, and the comments multiplied as well. Most of them were lacking in courtesy, but Su Qingyi did not care. She continued working on the piece of wood in her hands.

Even her hands alone were breathtakingly beautiful.

Many viewers clamored for Su Qingyi to show her face. She acted as though she had heard nothing, shaving away at the wood in her hands. Even through the screen, she seemed to radiate a chill.

The earlier voices claiming that she could not carve gradually disappeared, replaced by curiosity about her appearance.

When she continued to ignore them, those viewers began attacking her looks, saying she must be ugly. Su Qingyi could not understand where such intense malice came from, but she remained wholly unmoved and continued with her work.

Wang Zhenfeng, sitting beside her, was nearly falling apart.

She repeatedly glanced at Su Qingyi’s expression. Fortunately, Su Qingyi did not take any of it to heart. After a while, those attacking her gradually lost interest. The remaining viewers were mostly women asking her to put the item up for sale and people sincerely focused on watching her carve.

Lu Jingchen watched the wood carving in her hands with undivided attention, while also reading every single comment beside it.

He found the whole thing laughable and did not take it seriously at all.

The audience in the livestream gradually dwindled. The small piece of wood that had begun in her hands had taken shape, and the comments had become friendly and charming. Just as the carving was nearing completion, a comment appeared on the screen, which had not moved for quite some time:

“SQY?”

Lu Jingchen’s finger, poised to leave the livestream, paused.

She clearly did not want to show her face because she did not want anyone to recognize her. Yet this person had immediately posted the initials of her name, which meant he was obviously very familiar with her.

He had intended to see how she would respond, but she showed no reaction.

It seemed she had not noticed.

The person posted again:

“Check WeChat.”

The other viewers saw that someone knew her, and the subject that had previously died out began smoldering again.

“You know the streamer? Then can you tell us what she looks like?”

The person had no intention of making a spectacle of himself. He ignored the other viewers’ questions. When Su Qingyi continued to disregard him, he simply began sending her gifts.

The comments erupted.

Everyone scrambled to pay their respects to the wealthy patron.

The carving in Su Qingyi’s hands was finally finished. Wang Zhenfeng had fallen asleep in the chair beside her long ago. Only when Su Qingyi saw the endless stream of gifts appearing on the screen did she notice the comments telling her to check WeChat.

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She picked up the phone beside her, which had been set to silent.

Gu Cheng: “I’ll be coming to Datong tomorrow. Let’s meet.”

Su Qingyi’s impression of him was limited to the fact that whenever she saw Pei Ling, Gu Cheng was always sitting or standing off to the side with an expression that suggested the matter had nothing to do with him. She sent back a question mark.

As soon as she replied, the flood of gifts in the livestream stopped.

Gu Cheng quickly responded on WeChat:

“I have something to discuss. We’ll talk when we meet.”

Su Qingyi thought about it. It was probably related to Pei Ling, so she did not dwell on the matter.

Instead, she asked, “What about Pei Ling?”

“Not coming. I’ll be alone.”

Su Qingyi could not guess what he wanted, but it could only be about one of a few things.

She sent back an “OK” emoji and put down the phone.

The wood carving in her hands was finished.

She woke Wang Zhenfeng, announced that they would end there, and shut down the livestream.

Lu Jingchen stared at the screen displaying the closed livestream.

Lowering his eyes thoughtfully, he left without a sound.

The orange-and-white kitten curled up beside his feet yawned at the osmanthus tree overhead, then slipped back into dreams.

***

After Wang Zhenfeng woke up, she saw that more than three thousand had been added to the account backstage. Her sleepiness vanished at once, and she immediately asked Su Qingyi what had happened. Su Qingyi had no intention of explaining in detail, so she casually made up an excuse and sent her out.

She stared at the message Fang Zhu had sent two hours earlier on WeChat and fell into thought.

Fang Zhu did not know how she had offended Lu Jingchen. Lu Jingchen was determined not to see her and seemed utterly indifferent to anything concerning her. Her plan to rent a storefront might be falling through. He had apologized to her several times.

Su Qingyi narrowed her eyes slightly.

She said, “It’s fine,” then put down her phone and walked toward the bathroom.

The next day, just as dawn was beginning to break, Su Qingyi crawled out of bed. She spent nearly three hours fussing in front of the vanity before putting on her high heels and heading to the antique shop.

Yet Lu Jingchen seemed to be avoiding her. He did not come to the shop once all day. His phone could not be reached, and even Fang Zhu and Jiang He had no idea where he was.

Su Qingyi was not angry in the slightest. She merely borrowed Fang Zhu’s phone to send him two WeChat messages. Two minutes later, she deleted them and returned the phone to Fang Zhu.

No one knew what she had sent Lu Jingchen.

As evening fell, Su Qingyi received a call from Gu Cheng. She said goodbye to Fang Zhu and the others, then went alone to the teahouse where they had arranged to meet.

The city lights had just come on. All of West City lay submerged in a bright, amber night. The green mountains in the distance resembled an ink painting from the south, their silhouettes complementing the dark-tiled roofs and blue-gray brickwork around them.

The teahouse where Su Qingyi had arranged to meet him was near the river. She sat beside the window, and whenever she lifted her head, she could see the brightly lit, bustling riverbank beyond the lattice window.

Inside, the light was dim and the room utterly quiet.

Through the screen, one could see that other people were present, but everyone instinctively lowered their voices until almost no conversation could be heard.

Su Qingyi stared out the window.

Before long, footsteps sounded in the wooden stairwell beside her, entirely at odds with the quiet surroundings. Su Qingyi looked up at the noise and saw Gu Cheng enter in an impeccably tailored designer suit.

An air of elitism clung to him, utterly unlike anything else in the teahouse.

Su Qingyi curved her lips slightly.

Gu Cheng saw her as well. She wore a plain blue qipao with an ivory shawl draped over her shoulders. The dim table lamp cast a faint shadow across her slightly turned face, while the feather at her ear drooped gently beside her cheek, making her appear vivid yet tender.

Even so, there remained an indefinable sense of distance about her.

Just as when she had been in the capital, her entire face seemed to be smiling, but her eyes had always been cold.

Gu Cheng looked at her meaningfully.

Bracing his hands on his knees, he sat upright across from her. It was the posture of someone in a position of power facing someone beneath him.

Su Qingyi glanced at him and asked casually, “What would you like to drink?”

“Longjing.” Gu Cheng lifted his chin slightly as he answered.

Su Qingyi acknowledged him. When he still did not move, she glanced at the QR code on the corner of the table. “Order it.”

Only then did Gu Cheng understand what she meant.

His lips tightened, but he restrained himself, took out his phone, and scanned the code to place the order.

After he finished, Su Qingyi finally put down the phone she had been pretending to busy herself with and asked, feigning ease, “What is it you wanted to discuss?”

Gu Cheng stared at her without speaking.

Back in the capital, everyone had said she was detached and free of worldly ambition. Even when people trampled all over her, she merely laughed it off. She would even comfort those who were indignant on her behalf, never taking such matters to heart.

Even then, he had thought she was fake.

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Later, what she had done in the Pei household had only confirmed his suspicions. Now, seeing her again, that feeling that she had always been putting on an act grew even stronger.

“I know your parents’ company went bankrupt and left nearly sixty million in debt. I paid it off for you. All you have to do is accompany me whenever I’m in Hudu.”

Su Qingyi looked at him quietly.

She seemed not to understand what he was saying. He cleared his throat slightly and was about to repeat himself when she suddenly laughed. Unhurriedly resting her chin in her hand, she brushed the toe of her raised shoe along his trouser leg.

“You want to keep me?”

Her eyes and brows were full of laughter. Her final syllable lingered, not quite sounding angry, yet the coldness in her eyes hardly suggested that she intended to accept.

Gu Cheng naturally knew that the real Su Qingyi was not so easy to bully.

But he enjoyed making women like her lower their heads. Sitting upright, he lifted his chin and said, “Yes. And from now on, don’t make me repeat myself.”

Su Qingyi laughed even more.

Leaning forward naturally, she brushed the sole of her shoe along his calf beneath the fabric of his suit trousers. “But sixty million is only the figure on paper. In reality, the debt is close to six hundred million.”

Gu Cheng paused.

Su Qingyi continued, “Will you still pay it for me?”

Gu Cheng said nothing.

Su Qingyi could tell he was analyzing whether her words were true. She remained silent as well.

For someone like Gu Cheng, a second-generation heir without real authority, producing sixty million all at once would not be easy, let alone six hundred million. Moreover, considering the scale of her parents’ company, he did not believe they could have accumulated such an enormous debt. It seemed far more likely that she was using the figure to deliberately embarrass him.

So he did not press the matter.

With an unchanged expression, he said, “I genuinely want to help you.”

“I already told you. Give me six hundred million, and I’ll go with you.” Su Qingyi’s expression remained warm.

Gu Cheng knew she dared say that because she was certain he could not produce so much money.

After a brief silence, he began shifting the focus away from the substance of the matter. His expression grew slightly sharper. “Do you have to humiliate everyone who sincerely wants to help you?”

“Not everyone.” Su Qingyi was accustomed to the way these people behaved: when they could not manipulate you, they shifted all the blame onto you. She smiled faintly. “Besides, I’m not the one humiliating you. You were the one who humiliated me first.”

Gu Cheng parted his lips, instinctively wanting to deny it.

But Su Qingyi gave him no chance. “Even if we aren’t friends, we’re at least classmates, aren’t we? Did you really have to begin by putting things so crudely? And you claim you sincerely want to help me—why didn’t you help me before? Didn’t you know what kind of life I was living back then?”

Su Qingyi let out a genuine, icy laugh.

“Some things are fine to tell yourself. Don’t expect to trick me into believing them too.”

“How was I supposed to help you? At the time, you were…” Gu Cheng seemed to think of something. He drew a deep breath and forced the words “Pei Ling’s fiancée” back down.

“Afraid of him?” Su Qingyi immediately guessed what he had wanted to say. Lowering her voice, she leaned toward him. “And you still dare say you want to keep me? Aren’t you afraid Pei Ling will turn your world upside down?”

Pei Ling’s indifference toward her was one matter. Humiliating Pei Ling was another.

Gu Cheng understood that perfectly.

That was why he had said she only needed to accompany him while he was in Hudu.

Su Qingyi had naturally thought of this as well. She leaned even closer and said softly, “Gu Cheng, you’re so damn pathetic. Pathetic enough to have opened the door for pathetic and invited it inside.”

Gu Cheng’s face turned deathly pale.

He pressed his lips together and stared at her without saying a word.

This was the real her.

She delivered the most piercing words in the mildest tone.

The tea had not even arrived before Gu Cheng angrily rose from his seat. He glared at her without the slightest courtesy. “Just wait for Pei Ling to come looking for you. Then you’ll see who can protect you.”

Su Qingyi folded her arms and tilted her chin upward. “That’s none of your concern. And let me remind you: the only reason you think that way is because you don’t have the ability to do anything about it.”

As though she had thought of something, she sighed faintly. “Come to think of it, it’s rather pitiful. The Gu family owns such a vast enterprise, yet in front of Pei Ling, all you can do is play the dog.”

There was even a trace of pity in her eyes.

Gu Cheng flushed with rage. He took two hundred from his wallet and threw it onto the table.

“Su Qingyi, I hope you can be just as bold in front of Pei Ling. I’ll pay for the tea today. From now on, take care of yourself.”

With that, he left without looking back.

Fortunately, there were hardly any other customers in the teahouse by then.

Su Qingyi glanced at the two hundred on the table and told the approaching server, “No need to give me change.” Then she rose and left.

At the same time, the person seated at the table behind her stood up from behind the screen.

“Then, President Jiang, I won’t keep you any longer. Farewell.”