DF Chapter 45
by VolareWhen Song Ji’an woke up the next morning, the sun was shining brightly outside the window. Last night, they had drunk a bit too much, and her head was unsurprisingly throbbing violently. However, she had absolutely no recollection of what happened after she got drunk.
Of course, having no recollection didn’t stop her from being enveloped in tension and panic, and daring not to move.
After all, not everyone can remain calm when they wake up the next day to find themselves lying tightly embraced with the person they secretly admire. But she was so drunk last night that she had no idea if she had done anything out of line.
At this moment, she wished she could close her eyes again and fall back into a dream. But unfortunately, she couldn’t. The intense pain in her head forced her to get up.
Song Ji’an very carefully retreated from Sheng Jia’s embrace. When she realized that the tip of her nose was touching her cheek, she became even more cautious, afraid of waking her up.
Sheng Jia’s personality was so aloof, but her face was still soft. Song Ji’an couldn’t resist, and secretly nuzzled her again. After realizing what she was doing, she immediately stood up, feeling her ears burning.
She glanced back at Sheng Jia, who was lying on the ground. Seeing that she wasn’t awake, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she stepped over Su Zhaolin and the others who were sleeping haphazardly, and used the landline to call the guest room butler, asking the restaurant to send hangover soup, honey water, and headache medicine.
Before long, Su Zhaolin and the others gradually woke up. Without exception, they were all dazed and had splitting headaches. Only Sheng Jia was slightly better. She didn’t have a headache, but she was dizzy.
“If my sister finds out I got drunk, she’ll probably break my legs,” Su Zhaolin said with lingering fear as she drank her hangover soup.
Xu Lijing and Song Yi had already returned to their rooms to pack their luggage. Their flight was in the afternoon, and they would be taking off in two hours. Song Ji’an looked at Sheng Jia, who was also diligently packing her luggage, wanting to say something but stopping herself, hesitating again and again. In the end, she didn’t ask the question in her heart until they boarded the plane.
She and Sheng Jia sat in the same row. The alcohol from last night made everyone feel tired, Sheng Jia included. After boarding the plane, she began to close her eyes and rest.
At least, that’s what Song Ji’an thought. So, she didn’t try to hide the glances she was giving her from time to time, seeming somewhat unrestrained.
“Do you have something you want to say to me?” Sheng Jia’s sudden question made Song Ji’an shudder. She felt a little embarrassed, but also a sense of relief, as if she finally had a reason to bring up what she wanted to ask.
Looking at Sheng Jia with those glances, it was hard to say that she wasn’t trying to get her to take the initiative to ask.
“I do have something I wanted to ask,” Song Ji’an said, controlling her facial expressions, not revealing her mental state at all. She just smiled and said, “I wanted to ask if I did anything strange after I got drunk last night?”
“What kind of strange things do you think you would do?” Sheng Jia sat up and faced her, her expression unreadable. “What if I said you did?”
Song Ji’an’s heart leaped into her throat. The hand gripping the armrest tightened, but her face remained calm and curious as she asked, “What did I do?”
Sheng Jia stared at her for a long time, making Song Ji’an almost break out in a cold sweat. She subconsciously swallowed, but in the end, she just curled her lips and lay back in her seat. “I was just teasing you. I was already drunk. How would I have any idea what you did?”
“Then why did you act like that!” Song Ji’an blurted out her inner thoughts in her anxiety.
Sheng Jia looked at her innocently, making her couldn’t help but laugh in exasperation. She lowered her voice and said, “Sheng Jia, you’ve learned to be bad, deliberately scaring me.”
Sheng Jia pretended not to hear and put on the eye mask that Song Ji’an had prepared for her when they came. Song Ji’an next to her visibly breathed a sigh of relief, her whole body relaxing noticeably as she slumped into her seat.
She didn’t know that the expressionless girl beside her was also secretly relieved in her heart.
Drinking leads to mistakes.
If it were normal, she would never have revealed her inner thoughts so easily, let alone reveal her malice to Song Ji’an, which was so shocking.
Not only had Song Ji’an been observing her all the way, but she had also been observing Song Ji’an all the way. The probing just now had made her completely believe that nothing had been exposed, and that Song Ji’an had really completely forgotten those things.
Where no one could see, Sheng Jia clenched her fists, the cold sweat making her fingertips slip, leaving a red mark in her palm.
The plane descended after flying for several hours. It was just past noon. Song Ji’an wanted to ask everyone if they wanted to have a meal, but most people were tired from the alcohol last night and the long flight today, so they simply decided to go their separate ways and gather again at a better time.
The group then said goodbye at the airport.
Su Zhaolin’s sister was waiting at the airport early. Song Yi and Xu Lijing lived in the same direction. Song Ji’an wanted Auntie Liu to give Sheng Jia a ride, but Sheng Jia refused, saying she had something to do.
Song Ji’an didn’t insist. She leaned on the car window and said goodbye to Sheng Jia. Soon, she drove out of the airport’s main road. Sheng Jia stood there for a while, then put her hands in her pockets and walked towards the airport’s maglev train ticket office with her backpack, which contained very few daily necessities. The large suitcases had already been taken care of by Song Ji’an, who had them mailed home for them.
But her destination was not the maglev train, but the deserted lawn next to the airport. The weather in Jingjiang was not much different from that in Luo Ling. Today, the sun was still shining brightly. But because it was already autumn, and it was by the sea, the climate was not hot. Instead, the wind carried the scent of fallen leaves, which was quite pleasant.
She found a bench and sat down, then turned on her phone.
There was a friend request that she hadn’t accepted.
The number was unfamiliar, but the note below was surprising.
——Hello, I am Ms. Fu Minglang’s assistant.
The WeChat introduction had a limit of fifteen characters, and these fourteen characters were exactly right, making Sheng Jia a little afraid to accept.
Was Fu Minglang so enthusiastic? She had given her a business card three hours ago, and three hours later, she had already found her WeChat account and sent an assistant to add her?
Then what was the point of giving her a business card? Moreover, the invitation to the banquet last night was not under Sheng Jia’s real name, and she had not left any information. But Fu Minglang’s assistant had easily obtained her WeChat account.
Clearly, they had investigated her.
Sheng Jia bit her lip as she analyzed this.
To accept or not to accept, that was the question.
She thought for a long time and decided to send a first tentative message to the other party in the introduction column.
——Why do you know my WeChat account?
The other party quickly replied.
——I apologize for being presumptuous, but the number came from your principal.
Sheng Jia paused. She wanted to laugh a little.
To go to such lengths to get her contact information, the other party’s motives for her should be more than just wanting to help her. The little guess she had when she received the business card last night had now completely come true.
Sheng Jia’s eyes changed unpredictably. No one knew what she was thinking at the moment. But in the end, she didn’t ask the other party why they wanted to add her, and smoothly accepted the friend request.
The assistant’s profile picture was a full-body photo of her wearing a suit. Sheng Jia quickly recognized that this was the person who had been following behind Fu Minglang at the banquet yesterday.
Seemed to be called Ru Ping?
Sheng Jia remembered, but because she didn’t know which two characters it was, she took the initiative to ask: What should I call you?
The other side quickly gave a reply again.
——Just call me Ru Ping. Ms. Sheng Jia, our chairman would very much like to meet you. I wonder if you would be willing to accept?
——Meet me? Why?
——Because the chairman mentioned you to Principal Lu Jing last night, and gained a deeper understanding of you. She admires you very much and would like to have a conversation with you.
Sheng Jia didn’t move.
Lies.
These were lies.
Lu Jing’s understanding of her was superficial. How could Fu Minglang have a deeper understanding of her?
Sheng Jia felt it. This was the other side’s test. She didn’t beat around the bush and asked bluntly: You’ve investigated me, haven’t you? Tell me, what do you want me to do?
This sentence tore through the polite facade of both sides, but the other side was clearly not prepared to take the bait.
Ru Ping only replied with meticulous care: The chairman just wants to have a conversation with you.
Sheng Jia chuckled and used the most aggressive language.
——At the banquet, I thought she was an exception in the upper class like Song Ji’an, humble, polite, and treating everyone equally. Now it seems that she only hides her arrogance more deeply. She only shows it when she is alone with others, putting on a deceptive layer of gentleness in public. In reality, she is a hypocrite wearing a mask.
——Relying on your power to wantonly investigate the privacy of a minor and contact them privately, I can assume that you are using your power to bully me. She admires me, so I should agree to your rude request?
After typing, she threw her phone into her pocket and calmed her pounding heart.
She wasn’t sure if this step was right or wrong. The content of her words was half true and half false. But no matter what, this was the second time in so many years that she had faced an opportunity to improve her plan.
It all depended on whether Fu Minglang was looking for her for what she thought.
Thinking this, she put on her headphones, put the hood of her sweatshirt over her head, and slowly walked into the maglev train station.
–
Luo Ling.
When Ru Ping came with the blacklisted red dot, Fu Minglang was flipping through photo albums in her manor castle.
She was born in Luo Ling, and her family’s roots were also in Luo Ling. This manor was a product of a century ago. She had grown up here, from learning to speak and walking to becoming an adult. Although she had been too lazy to manage the company since she was thirty years old and rarely came home, everything inside was well preserved and nothing was missing.
Yesterday, she had asked Ru Ping to find this photo album. After finding it, she had asked Ru Ping to investigate Sheng Jia, and the results had surprised her. That night, she had instructed Ru Ping to contact Sheng Jia.
Ru Ping knocked on the door and walked in. The soft carpet on the floor made her footsteps inaudible.
Fu Minglang, wearing reading glasses, looked up at her and smiled, “Let me guess, she blacklisted you?”
Ru Ping nodded helplessly, “Chairman, anyone would be wary of you acting like this.”
Anyone who had just met someone, and a high-ranking person suddenly said these words to someone at the bottom, would scare the other person. In the past, Fu Minglang would never have done this. Ru Ping still didn’t understand why.
Fu Minglang reached out her hand, and she placed the phone in the old woman’s palm. On it was her complete chat history with Sheng Jia.
Fu Minglang scanned it one by one, not even missing the part where she added her as a friend. In the end, she couldn’t help but laugh, as if she wasn’t the one who had been scolded.
“What a temper,” she commented.
Ru Ping looked at her nose, and her nose at her heart, not saying anything.
She couldn’t possibly follow the chairman’s lead and praise her for scolding well. Sheng Jia dared to be fearless and scold people, but she didn’t dare.
But Fu Minglang’s next sentence made her widen her eyes slightly.
“That’s what you must be thinking of her in your heart, right?”
Ru Ping noticed the strangeness in her words, “Then what do you mean?”
“A very clever little girl, exactly the same as the personality shown on her profile,” Fu Minglang said cheerfully, “Doesn’t like being passive, likes to take the initiative.”
“If you use these kinds of words to chat with her, she’ll only feel that something is wrong. But once she uses angry words to attack you and me, she can justifiably blacklist you. If I sincerely want to talk to her, then I’ll definitely be forced to go see her in person, otherwise wouldn’t that be confirming my arrogance and rudeness? If I don’t go see her, then it won’t be a big deal for her, and she’ll have one less annoyance.”
Ru Ping suddenly understood and continued her words, “If you were really a petty person, and were furious because of her words and wanted to make trouble for her, then she wouldn’t be afraid either. First, you and Principal Lu Jing are friends, and she is one of Principal Lu Jing’s most valued students. With Principal Lu’s upright character, she would definitely protect her and stand on her side. Second, because her good friend is Song Ji’an, Ms. Song. If you were to make trouble for her, Ms. Song would definitely find out and come to stop you.”
“So in reality, she wouldn’t have much trouble even if she scolded you.”
As she spoke, she couldn’t help but nod, “What a clever child.”
“More than that,” Fu Minglang muttered thoughtfully, but she didn’t say what was more than that, apparently a secret that she didn’t even want to share with Ru Ping.
“Her personality is very similar to that of a good old friend of mine,” Fu Minglang’s eyes filled with nostalgia, and she slowly said, “She also had such a bad temper when she was young. But what they are most similar in is not their personality, but their appearance.”
Fu Minglang opened the photo album in her hand, revealing several photos inside.
She picked up one of the group photos, feeling somewhat nostalgic.
One of them was her when she was young, and the other was her best friend who she had grown up with.
They both looked only ten years old, full of vigor and vitality. Even if it was just a black and white photo, you could tell that their smiles at that time were definitely from the heart.
Ru Ping looked over and her eyes narrowed slightly.
She could never be wrong with her eyesight, as she was able to be both an assistant and a bodyguard. The person in this photo had at least five points of resemblance to Sheng Jia.
She was a little surprised, “This is?”
Fu Minglang then opened another photo, also a group photo of the two of them. Only, this one was taken when they were nearly forty years old. The woman in the photo had changed a lot from when she was ten years old, and there were many more fine lines on her face. You needed to compare carefully to see the similarities in their faces from the two periods.
“See for yourself,” Fu Minglang generously turned the photo over.
On the back was a line of small words—My friend, Song Yumei.
This was Song Ji’an’s maternal grandmother.
Ru Ping had never met her, but she had heard the name of the previous head of Song’s Heavy Industry.
“Ningqiu’s personality is not very similar to Yumei’s personality. She’s not as smooth, and she doesn’t have as many tricks. She doesn’t like to play dirty, and was taught by Yumei to have too high of a bottom line. Speaking of which, she’s even a more upright junior. If it wasn’t for her being so clever, with her stubborn temper, she would have been pulled down by the board of directors many times already.”
Fu Minglang continued, “When Yumei was still alive, she often scammed money from my company. She had too many tricks, and it was impossible to guard against her. I rarely got the upper hand when I fought her, and every time I was so angry that my teeth itched, I wanted to fly back from Africa and fight her.”
“Later, when she was gone, no one made me so angry anymore. I was finally able to cultivate my mind and nourish my nature, but instead I started to miss her. People are like this, when you meet them, you’re so angry that your teeth itch, but when they suddenly leave, you feel a bit lonely.”
“When Song Ningqiu was born, Yumei no longer looked like she did when she was young. Otherwise, Ningqiu would probably be surprised to see this junior.” Fu Minglang said thoughtfully, “When I first saw her, I was surprised by her face. After you helped me get her information, I became even more curious about her as a person. She seems like an extraordinary child.”
Ru Ping listened to her quietly before asking, “Then what do you mean?”
Fu Minglang used tweezers to carefully put the old photos back, and laughed, “Of course, it’s to do as she wishes, go see her in person, and by the way apologize to her for our rudeness today.”