DF Chapter 67
by VolareWith the end of the game, their time left on Ansdert Island was also down to just one night.
The island transfer process wasn’t so simple, but Song Ji’an had already signed the documents. Song’s Group would send a lawyer to complete the subsequent procedures, requiring Song Ji’an to sign a few more contracts at most.
However, some of Selena’s pets on the island still had to be taken away, such as Ying and Shuo, and that little golden retriever.
Song Ningqiu was very busy these days and had managed to take three days off. She booked a flight for tomorrow morning and didn’t plan to return with Song Ji’an and Sheng Jia.
After all, there were still five or six days until the New Year. Song Ji’an and Sheng Jia could totally take Julia, Dong Zhen, Meng Yeran and the others to play in a few more Southeast Asian countries. This was also Julia’s suggestion, which was naturally approved by the others.
Sheng Jia didn’t want to be a spoilsport and decided to join in. The money and scholarships she had saved last year were completely enough for her to cover her own expenses for such a trip. What’s more, Ms. Grande probably knew a lot about her daughter and wanted to repair their mother-daughter relationship a little. With a cold and serious wave of her hand, she told them to go and have fun, and she would reimburse them.
Grande, on the other hand, took a private plane back to Northern Europe that night because her affairs were no less, and perhaps even more, busy than Song Ningqiu’s.
Julia stood on the pier watching her leave by boat, a hint of solemnity on her usually cheerful and optimistic face.
Dong Zhen and Sheng Jia happened to run into her while going out for a walk, and they also heard her murmur drifting in the wind: “She’s gone again, not leaving me any time at all.”
The voice, filled with a hint of unwillingness and grievance, was almost unrecognizable as coming from Julia.
Dong Zhen and Sheng Jia weren’t talkative people. They exchanged a look and tacitly chose to turn around and leave, pretending they hadn’t been there. But unfortunately, Julia caught them, pounced on them fiercely, and wrapped her arms around their shoulders.
“Dong Zhen, Sheng Jia, good, seeing me and pretending you didn’t see me, huh?” Julia put all her weight on them, making their steps particularly clumsy.
“Let go of us first,” Sheng Jia said expressionlessly.
Julia played rogue, “I won’t. We’ve known each other for so long, and you guys still turn around and leave when you see me!”
Dong Zhen couldn’t break free from her grip, so she teased in a sarcastic tone, “Oh, so should we walk up and pat you on the shoulder, one standing on the left and one on the right, carefully examine you, and then say ‘Julia, are you crying because your mom didn’t spend one more night with you?'”
Julia: “…”
“Dong Zhen!” she said with some embarrassment and annoyance, “I really want to sew up that mouth of yours!”
Dong Zhen then raised her hand and touched Julia’s head, which hadn’t moved away yet. “Okay, okay, you clearly know yourself that we left to save you some face, what are you yelling about?”
With this soothing, Julia was really appeased.
She stood up straight a little awkwardly and took the opportunity to change the subject: “Sheng Jia, how did you end up going out with Dong Zhen? Aren’t you and Song Ji’an always inseparable?”
“Auntie Song is going back tomorrow,” Sheng Jia said, and Julia understood.
Her mom was leaving the next day, so of course, she would want to be with her tonight.
“But Sheng Jia, you’d actually be willing to go out for a walk with someone?”
“I’m the one who asked her out,” Dong Zhen said lightly, “to discuss the mystery.”
Julia’s eyes lit up, “Is it about Selena and Zhimeng’s grudges?”
In fact, they hadn’t found a large portion of the evidence. Even if a few people pieced it together, they still couldn’t figure out how Zhimeng’s lover died. In the game, Selena admitted to whatever Song Ji’an said, but Song Ji’an was asking questions. Her suggestion was to find the police to investigate, but there were no real police in the game. Once it was over, it was truly over. To keep everyone in suspense, Selena hadn’t told everyone the truth of the story even now.
“You guys continue talking, I’m going back to my room first.” Even though Julia immediately became excited, Sheng Jia didn’t have the desire to join in and continue the discussion. She exchanged a look with Dong Zhen and temporarily took her leave.
Under Julia’s scrutinizing gaze, she returned to the castle, but she didn’t go back to her own room. Instead, she turned around and headed towards Fu Minglang’s room.
In fact, both she and Dong Zhen were lying, they weren’t discussing the mystery.
The reason Dong Zhen had called Sheng Jia out was that Fu Minglang wanted to see Sheng Jia.
Julia might have seen that they were lying, but Sheng Jia believed that Dong Zhen could handle it.
Fu Minglang’s room was on the second floor. The soundproofing made the entire castle very quiet. Most of the residents on the second floor were out. Sheng Jia didn’t try to hide anything when she knocked on Fu Minglang’s door.
Soon, the door opened, and Fu Minglang let her in.
The other party was wearing silk pajamas, and two glasses of warm milk were placed on the huge wooden table.
Fu Minglang smiled, “I’m old, I need to take care of my health before going to bed. Little Sheng, just join me.”
Sheng Jia responded and sat down opposite her, picking up the glass of milk. Neither of them spoke, just quietly finishing the milk.
Warmth and sweetness slid into her stomach. Sheng Jia pursed her lips. To be honest, she didn’t really like drinking milk. She always felt that milk was too sweet and easily eroded one’s will.
“Tell me, did you come to me because you need my help?” Fu Minglang took out two candies from a box and also handed one to Sheng Jia.
Tonight, Dong Zhen would invite Sheng Jia out because Sheng Jia had slipped a note to Fu Minglang before the afternoon banquet ended. She secretly left a note for Fu Minglang while switching positions during chess, and Fu Minglang was such an intelligent and tolerant elder, so she used her own name to have Dong Zhen invite Sheng Jia to secretly meet.
Frankly speaking, this was very much to Sheng Jia’s liking.
She tore open the candy wrapper and didn’t put the candy in her mouth. Instead, she slowly opened her mouth, “Yes, there is indeed one thing that I need your help with. It’s time for you to fulfill your promise.”
“Oh? I thought this matter would have to wait a long time. According to your attitude in the past few months.”
Sheng Jia lowered her eyes, staring at the delicate candy wrapper on her fingertip, without much expression, “Perhaps it’s because, this time in Southeast Asia, I found my future goal.”
Fu Minglang: “What is it?”
“Perhaps you’ll see it in the future, but now I only request one thing from you,” Sheng Jia said bluntly, stating her request: “If one day, Auntie Song asks about me, I hope you’ll tell her everything.”
“Tell her everything?” Fu Minglang asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Sheng Jia nodded, “All the information you investigated about me, except for our agreement, our conversation in the teahouse, and our conversation today, don’t mention it. Please tell her everything you know about me, including my life experiences, my personality, my family, the reason you investigated me, tell her everything without reservation.”
A sharp light flashed in her eyes, and she smiled, “That’s what I want to ask of you.”
“If I ask why, you probably won’t answer, right?” At this moment, there was more scrutiny in Fu Minglang’s gaze, as if she was considering what exactly this young girl in front of her wanted to do. Her goal was obviously focused on the Song family.
Even from this moment on, Fu Minglang had keenly discovered that she harbored ambitions towards the Song family in her heart. If she thought of Sheng Jia more maliciously, she might suspect that Sheng Jia had been deliberately approaching Song Ji’an and the Song family from the very beginning, and was also deliberately approaching her.
But was this possible?
Even though Fu Minglang didn’t entirely agree with some of Song Ningqiu’s thoughts about this junior, she had to admit that her old friend’s daughter was an extremely intelligent person. After fighting in the business world for so long, she had developed a pair of discerning eyes, and few people could scheme against her. The entire Song family was tightly guarded by her.
No matter what Sheng Jia wanted to do, if she could really get something from the Song family, then Fu Minglang would probably look at her with even more admiration.
As for the possibility of letting the Song family suffer a big loss, Fu Minglang had already ruled it out. In her opinion, Sheng Jia’s current goal was at most to use Song Ji’an and Song Ningqiu to enter the Song Group and seek a smooth path for her future.
After all, so many outstanding people wanted to enter the behemoth that was Song Group every year. Talent was just the entrance ticket to see Song Ningqiu.
“Yes, I won’t answer, but perhaps you’ll get the answer soon.”
Sheng Jia’s answer interrupted Fu Minglang’s thoughts.
Fu Minglang didn’t ask anymore, she just nodded, “Okay, I promise you. But what can you offer in return in the future?”
“I also promise you one thing, as long as it doesn’t violate my principles, I will definitely help you accomplish it, how about that?” Sheng Jia’s eyes flashed slightly.
“That answer is a bit conceited.” Fu Minglang smiled.
“Perhaps you can look forward to me having enough power in the future to stand at the peak of the crowd?” Sheng Jia met her gaze without the slightest concession.
Fu Minglang laughed loudly, “Okay, I’ll just agree to what you asked.”
No matter what Sheng Jia wanted to do, harboring curiosity at this moment, she was willing to help her get things done.
After they reached an agreement, Sheng Jia didn’t stay long. She quickly returned to her room. It was eleven o’clock when footsteps and the sound of a door closing sounded in the room next to hers, probably Song Ji’an returning from Song Ningqiu’s room.
Sheng Jia leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window. From here, she could see a panoramic view of the entire island, a great vantage point. She raised the water glass in her hand and slowly drank the warm water inside.
Her phone dinged, it was Julia’s travel plan sent in the temporary small group for the few of them.
They would leave the island tomorrow afternoon, travel to three countries one after another, and then go home in four days, which would be exactly two days before the New Year.
And below the small group message were the messages that Sheng Jia hadn’t had time to read, sent to her by Sheng Huaiying.
She had only been out for four days, but Sheng Huaiying had sent her no shortage of messages on her phone to express her concern, even though she had explained in advance that her phone might not have a signal for the next three days, it didn’t prevent Sheng Huaiying from using the most simple and honest thoughts to care about whether she was eating well and dressing warmly enough.
This afternoon, after waking up from a nap, she replied to Sheng Huaiying’s messages that had accumulated for three days, which also contained some of Sheng Huaiying’s life, such as winning money playing cards with Xiyanghong downstairs, and smoking some cured meat for her to eat when she got home, all messages full of life.
Sheng Jia patiently replied to each one, and even gave some of her own opinions on some of them.
And just after ten o’clock, Sheng Huaiying sent her another menu, followed by a sixty-second voice message, which Sheng Jia only had time to open now.
——Sheng Jia, you have to pay attention to safety when you go out to play. Aren’t there a lot of telecommunications scams in Southeast Asia, where they cut people’s kidneys at every turn, and isn’t it very dangerous? Don’t get separated from your classmates, don’t go out alone, it’s best to send me a message every half day to let me know you’re safe. If you don’t have enough money, you must ask me, we don’t want to be stingy in front of our classmates. Mom got her year-end bonus from the factory the other day, so she has money now. Although there will only be the two of us for the New Year’s Eve dinner this year, it will be the first proper New Year’s Eve dinner we’ve ever had. See if there’s anything else you want, add it to the menu and send it to me.
On the sent menu, ten or so dishes were crookedly written with a water-based pen, mostly dishes that Sheng Huaiying had observed that Sheng Jia liked to eat these days. She hadn’t used a pen for a long time, and her handwriting wasn’t very good, but Sheng Jia looked at it carefully.
She replied: “No need to add anything else, these are very good.”
Sheng Huaiying’s message came back quickly.
———Okay, I’ll make these, if you think of anything else, tell me again [smiley face]. Go to bed early, you have to go out to play tomorrow.
Sheng Jia pursed her lips.
A secret bitterness suddenly rose in her heart.
She never regretted her choices, but if one day, Sheng Huaiying knew about her choices, she would probably be very sad.
Rarely, she didn’t know how to reply, and in the end, she only replied to the other party briefly, in her usual tone.
————Okay, you go to bed early too.