Chapter 89 - 88: Turns Out They Are All Old Acquaintances, A Call of Senior Sister
Chapter 89: Chapter 88: Turns Out They Are All Old Acquaintances, A Call of Senior Sister
Hua Shao was certain that Qingyuan was hiding something from her, or had set a trap waiting for her to fall into. This realization left her completely distracted at work today.
For Hua Shao, once she became suspicious of an issue, she had to trace its underlying logic and find the exact answer.
[God of Delicious Cake]: Who’s this?
[HS]: Don’t try to fool me. We’ve crossed paths before. I reverse-engineered your method of restoring the surveillance footage, so I know it was you.
[God of Delicious Cake]: I really don’t know Lu Qingyuan. Are you crazy?
[HS]: You didn’t restore this footage?
[God of Delicious Cake]: I did. So what?
[HS]: Lu Qingyuan is in this very production crew, and you still claim you don’t know her?
[God of Delicious Cake]: I’m a pig if I’m lying! I just don’t know her. I restored the footage because a client asked for my help.
[HS]: What client?
[God of Delicious Cake]: You’re so capable, find them yourself! You even managed to track me down, who else could you possibly fail to find?
[God of Delicious Cake]: I’m not telling you! Die mad about it!
Hua Shao gripped her phone tightly and smiled faintly.
However, to the male student standing nearby, that smile signaled impending doom.
He somewhat regretted coming in at all. If he had known, he would have finished his dinner before coming here to get scolded.
"Once I find out, you two will pay," Hua Shao sneered. She shoved her phone back into her drawer and held out her hand toward the student. "Thesis."
Trembling, the young man handed the document over. "Please review this, Teacher Yan."
Hua Shao flipped it open. She read neither fast nor slow, her face entirely devoid of expression, making it impossible for him to gauge her thoughts.
Could it be that he had passed?
"Here, Xiao Zhang, take your thesis and go find Professor Bai next door," Hua Shao said, shoving the document back into the young man’s hands with an amicable tone.
Xiao Zhang was dumbfounded. "W-Why?"
Of course he knew Professor Bai. Due to certain incidents in the past, Professor Bai and his mentor had a bit of bad blood, and the two were entirely at odds when it came to academic research.
"I’ve been looking for a way to deal with him, but now I don’t need to," Hua Shao said cheerfully. "Because if he had supervised this thesis of yours, I could ruin his reputation at Mingjing University by tomorrow."
Xiao Zhang was speechless.
He would rather she just insult him and say he wasn’t human!
Only then did a female student walk into the office. Her legs and hands were trembling, betraying her inner anxiety. "Teacher Yan."
Hua Shao took her thesis. After reading it, she praised, "Our Little Yang is still the most reliable."
Little Yang felt a surge of joy. "Actually, it’s all thanks to your teach—"
"One look and I can tell this wasn’t written by a human," Hua Shao interrupted. "It’s definitely original."
Little Yang was speechless.
The two students left the office dejected, clutching their rejected papers. After taking a few steps, they began to bicker.
"You’re not even human."
"You aren’t human either!"
"So what if I’m not human? Our seniors and our future juniors aren’t human either!"
"Sigh, what exactly counts as a human in our mentor’s eyes..."
The sun slanted westward, dyeing half the sky red like crimson fire burning inside a white lantern. The wind stirred and the clouds scattered, allowing a few early stars to reveal themselves.
On the rooftop, Shaoyuan gazed at the bustling streets in the distance. His eyes swept over the people one by one, yet none of them truly registered in his vision. Only the neon lights reflected in his pupils, forming a river of stars.
His phone vibrated a few times.
[God of Delicious Cake]: Exactly who is this client you introduced to me? How does she know HS?
[God of Delicious Cake]: Oh right, you probably don’t know HS. I met HS during a collaboration a couple of years ago. The firewall of the Mingjing Research Institute was under attack, and HS and I defended against it.
[God of Delicious Cake]: I still don’t know who she actually is, though, because neither of us could breach the other’s IP address. I suspect she might be someone from Beidou.
Shaoyuan looked up just as Shi Changying finished the last physics problem. She turned her head and handed the workbook to him.
He took it and asked, "Do you know HS?"
Shi Changying thought about it for a moment, but drew a blank. Unashamed to ask for clarification, she said, "Is that an abbreviation for some technical term?"
Shaoyuan suddenly smiled. "No, it’s someone’s screen name."
Shi Changying didn’t ask further. If it wasn’t a vocabulary word, she wouldn’t bother memorizing it.
Only then did Shaoyuan leisurely type out a reply.
[Shaoyuan]: She doesn’t know her.
[God of Delicious Cake]: Hmph. Based on my deductions, HS and Lu Qingyuan definitely have some bad blood. But if she thinks she can bait me into spilling information, no way!
[God of Delicious Cake]: Oh, it’s on! This HS actually has no sense of honor and launched an attack on me just now. I can’t talk anymore, I need to fight her properly!
Shaoyuan didn’t even read the last two messages. He took out a piece of chocolate and peeled off the wrapper. "Open your mouth."
Seeing the food, Shi Changying obediently opened her mouth.
Shaoyuan popped the chocolate into her mouth, a hint of a smile finally reaching his eyes.
She really was an obedient junior.
The next afternoon.
The Meng family and the Xu family were related by marriage, so Old Sir Xu and Old Madam Xu had headed over to the Meng family’s residence early in the morning.
Xu Yunfan and his wife both had to work shifts today, so they couldn’t attend the birthday banquet.
"Uncle Chengli, Yingying, follow me," Xu Shuangqiao declared with soaring heroism. "I’ll carve a bloody path through the front and cover you!"
Shi Changying shot her a sideways glance. "Is the script you’re studying lately about war?"
"It’s a historical script, and it has some battle scenes." Xu Shuangqiao rubbed her nose. "But it’ll probably be very hard to film. I’m just thinking about it for now."
The chauffeur drove the three of them to the Meng family’s residence. It was five o’clock; the birthday banquet hadn’t officially started yet, but most of the guests had arrived early and were streaming inside one after another.
Ming Chengli felt his neck being tightly constricted. He loosened his tie and muttered, "It would be so much better if I could just wear casual clothes."
Shi Changying asked, "Why can’t you? You should definitely wear whatever makes you comfortable."
"We still need to observe basic etiquette. After all, it is an eightieth birthday celebration," Ming Chengli replied in a low voice.
Shi Changying said, "For my twentieth grand birthday, I allowed the guests to wear whatever they wanted, as long as it wasn’t indecent or undignified."
And she was the Emperor, no less.
Ming Chengli was left speechless.
A twentieth grand birthday?
How did those two words even go together?
"Halt!"
Suddenly, a voice rang out from ahead, drawing the attention of the other guests.
Xu Shuangqiao immediately stepped in front of Shi Changying to shield her. "Meng Miaoyan, is this how you welcome guests?" she demanded coldly.
"Guests? Hmph, I don’t think so." Meng Miaoyan let out a mocking laugh. "Xu Shuangqiao, you can go in, but they can’t."
She was pointing at Ming Chengli and Shi Changying.
After observing Old Sir Xu and Old Madam Xu earlier today, Meng Miaoyan had figured out exactly where this father and daughter stood within the Xu family.
It was obvious that the Xu family was dissatisfied with them. If it weren’t for their blood ties, they wouldn’t have been able to enter Jianghuai’s elite circles at all.
"Meng Miaoyan, it isn’t up to you to decide whether Uncle Chengli and Yingying can enter," Xu Shuangqiao retorted sharply. "If the Meng family doesn’t want to host guests, you shouldn’t have sent out invitations. What, you send out invitations and then refuse to let people in? Is this the Meng family’s hospitality?"
Meng Miaoyan’s face turned livid. "Xu Shuangqiao, you have a sharp tongue, so I won’t argue with you. In short, as long as I’m here today, they are not coming in!"
They were the reason she had been fired from the "Dragon Flying Phoenix" production crew. There was no way she was going to swallow this grievance.
Standing on the steps and looking down at them condescendingly, she finally felt a sense of vindictive satisfaction.
Xu Shuangqiao’s expression turned glacial. "Meng Miaoyan, you—"
Before she could finish, she was interrupted.
"What are you arguing about? Isn’t it annoying?" Meng Qi’an walked over from the garden, his hands stuffed in his pockets. A trace of impatience showed on his handsome face.
"Qi An, it’s just a small matter. You don’t need to worry about it," Meng Miaoyan said, waving her hand. "Our Meng family isn’t a public market that just anyone can stroll into. I know they annoy you, so I’ll make them leave right now."
However, the moment he got a clear look at Shi Changying’s face, the memory of being beaten up outpaced his limited brain capacity. Meng Qi’an subconsciously blurted out, "Senior Sister!"