Jiang Shuxuan deliberately ignored Gu Xiqiao this time. Instead, he asked very slowly, “What happened?”
These people were all keen-eyed; just a look was enough for them to discern that Jiang Shuxuan was no ordinary man.
The manager was not very familiar with Jiang Shuxuan but he was well-acquainted with Boss Dai. He was a big shot in the Imperial Capital, with many business connections. There were even rumors going around that he had links to a mysterious force operating in the country. The manager glanced at the fuming woman, then at Jiang Shuxuan and Boss Dai. He spared not even a glance at Su Qing, who had gone silent.
If Boss Dai was the only one there, at least the manager could warn him about his problematic wife. However, there was someone else standing beside him and no doubt, he must’ve been a prominent figure in the Imperial Capital. After all, these people were not too uncommon; you could pull anyone on the streets to the side and you’d be surprised to find that they held some sort of power here in the capital. This unfortunately, was beyond the manager’s control.
The woman was the quickest to react. She tidied up her appearance and a friendly smile soon broke across her face. Upon realizing that Jiang Shuxuan was no ordinary Joe, she added a few more nasty remarks about the waitress before glancing at Gu Xiqiao. Then, she started babbling away.
She mainly did this out of envy. That pretty and young face, she must be a major slut!
Her mistreatment of the waitress also stemmed from a single minuscule issue. It was because the last time they were here, her husband had flashed the waitress a smile, and since then, she had been holding a grudge towards said waitress in her heart.
“Silence!” Boss Dai stopped his wife from making any more ridiculous statements. He glared at her angrily before turning over to Jiang Shuxuan with an apologetic look. “Women, amirite? I hope you won’t mind her misbehavior, Mr. Jiang.”
What a joke, to allow Jiang Shuxuan, the man who possesses supernatural powers, to listen to a woman’s nagging. Why would a man of his standing even need to listen to such puny matters? Boss Dai couldn’t help but ponder if his wife’s brains had been fed to the dogs for her to act this foolishly.
To Boss Dai’s surprise, instead of leaving the place, Jiang Shuxuan froze in his tracks.
“What did you say just now?” He paused as he stared straight into the woman’s eyes. Then, he pointed at Gu Xiqiao. “What did you say about her?”
The woman was abruptly taken aback. She struggled to respond to his question.
Boss Dai too, failed to react in time. It was only after seeing Jiang Shuxuan point at Gu Xiqiao did he truly give the girl a look. He was thoroughly shocked as he did so.
Judging on her looks alone, she seemed to also be a member of the upper class. It was then that Boss Dai realized how he was knee-deep in trouble. So this was the girl his wife was hurling insults at just now?
To confirm his suspicion, Jiang Shuxuan started talking again.
“Come here,” said Jiang Shuxuan as he waved at Gu Xiqiao. His face was dead serious. “I want you to apologize to Mrs. Dai. Foolish child, seems like you still have a lot to learn.”
“Ah!” Mrs. Dai cupper her hand over her mouth.
Who would’ve thought that this plain Jane was related to this extravagant-looking man? Mrs. Dai froze where she stood as her face became flushed from the intense awkwardness. Oh how much she wished to throw herself into a hole in the ground and disappear from the face of the Earth forever!
Boss Dai’s senses finally returned to him. His suspicion was proven correct. In the blink of an eye, cold sweat poured out of his pores. With a trembling voice, he apologized, “Mr. Jiang, my wife here doesn’t know any better. Please forgive her for her terrible mistakes!”
Boss Dai’s heart grew even heavier after remembering the rumors he had heard about the Jiang family.
The duo left shortly after, leaving the rest standing there dumbfoundedly.
Slap!
Boss Dai was so infuriated by his wife’s actions that he gave her a good slap across the cheek. “Do you know how much effort I have invested just to meet that man?! Now it’s all gone down the drain because of you!”
Mrs. Dai was a beauty; never in her life had she been treated in such a manner. She looked at her husband, face full of disbelief.
Boss Dai received a call an hour later that almost made him collapse onto the ground. He had put in an insane amount of effort over the past three years just so he could get into the ancient martial arts world. Now, that chance was as good as gone!
“Little Qing, consider yourself incredibly lucky today,” said the head waitress to Su Qing, whose mind had yet to process the entire event. Letting out a long sigh, she continued, “If you get the chance to do so, you should really thank that young lady from before.”
Su Qing nodded. This she understood. It was not entirely uncommon to hear of employees in the service sector being put through hell by cruel customers. However, she was insanely lucky today to have had her ass saved by Gu Xiqiao.
Even if she knew that the entire event was being recorded by the surveillance cameras, what right did she have to retrieve the footage from security? Even the manager did not have the authority to do this. And yet, to think that the girl had managed to hack into the surveillance system.
The manager went silent after listening to the head waitress. He was deep in thought for a while before he finally opened his mouth. “Go tell the technicians to strengthen our company’s firewall system!” How could he let a young lady like her simply infiltrate their surveillance system? What on earth were the technicians up to?!
“…”
‘Aren’t you supposed to be more worried about what comes after this?’ thought the head waitress to herself.
Also, was it even possible to reinforce a system that was so weak that it could be easily hacked into by a young girl?
Didn’t the company boast that their firewall system was procured from a well-known American tech firm?
***
Tang Qingqiu received news about the incident as soon as he returned to his office. Somehow, this made him aware of a new aspect of Gu Xiqiao that he was unaware of.
Not only that, this was also his first time seeing that look on Jiang Shuxuan’s face even though they had known each other since forever.
“Boss!” Qin Heng busted into his office whilst holding a phone. His facial expression was exaggerated, with a slight hint of disbelief as well.
“Nine… Nine Heavens…” Qin Heng managed to utter two words before letting out a huge breath. He looked at Tang Qingqiu with a pair of glittering eyes.
“What’s up with Nine Heavens?” Tang Qingqiu was surprisingly tolerant of Qin Heng’s stammering. This of course, was because he had mentioned the words ‘Nine Heavens’, which piqued his interest.
Qin Heng calmed himself down before announcing excitedly, “I almost didn’t believe my ears just now. I called Nine Heavens’ official number and expressed our wish to cooperate with them in the future. Guess what? They agreed! They somehow agreed to my proposition!”
Tang Qingqiu shot up from his seat. “Can you say that one more time?”
Qin Heng repeated what he just said back to Tang Qingqiu. He had called them, expecting to be hung up on but to his astonishment, for some reason, they agreed to his wish!
By now, the Imperial Capital was already familiar with the two descriptions of Nine Heavens—’mysterious’ and ‘cold’. There were a great deal of people looking to work with the company and most of them were on par, if not, more powerful than the Tang family. Despite this, Nine Heavens had turned down every single one of them. They made it clear that they did not need help from these families and at the same time, showed how they wouldn’t bend down in the face of a seemingly more powerful adversary.
Even the Bai family had been taken down; what was there for Nine Heavens to be afraid of.
And thus, Qin Heng only wished to test his luck when calling up Nine Heavens but to his surprise, they agreed to his proposition!
This outcome was simply beyond his expectations. In fact, his mind had momentarily gone blank when he heard their reply.
“Very well.” Tang Qingqiu’s eyes lit up, reflecting his keen interest in Nine Heavens. “I will personally discuss this matter with those at Nine Heavens. You hurry up and tell them the time and place where we would meet up!”
He was especially keen on knowing more about the online game that the company had just launched. Ever since their move to the capital, he had always kept his eyes on this company. Never once had they failed to impress him.
Qin Heng was speechless.
‘Boss, can you be a little less enthusiastic about this? Do you want the whole world to find out that you’re a mindless fan of Nine Heavens?’
“Fortunately Zhu Yuan has reported success on his cell fusion technique. Said it would be a ground-breaking reveal. I’m gonna introduce this investment opportunity to Nine Heaves. You think they’ll appreciate our kind gesture?” Tang Qingqiu thought about it for a while. It did sound like quite a foolproof plan.
Zhu Yuan had been working like a slave for the past few days. Just last night, he uploaded on WeChat, announcing that his revolution had already taken place; it was only a matter of time before the entire world gets rocked by the introduction of his new technique.
And so, his decision was final. He would give Zhu Yuan a call tomorrow, requesting it to be a joint-project with him!
“…”
It was already past 3 pm when Gu Xiqiao and Jiang Shuxuan reached home after lunch. She started speaking to Luo Wenlang and Jiang Shuxuan tried eavesdropping on their conversation but it didn’t take long for him to realize that he understood only a fraction of what they were talking about. As expected from the two geniuses. He sighed in disappointment with himself before he looked out the window, no longer interested in their chatter.
Silently, he poured some dog food out for Haha before sitting down beside the window to read his book.
“Isn’t Uncle Mu coming over? We should let him do the talking with Tang Enterprise,” said Gu Xiqiao.
Luo Wenlang was momentarily taken aback.
“…”
‘Did you forget that this is your company?’ thought Luo Wenlang to himself.
Frankly speaking, it was tiring, working as Nine Heavens’ employee. The bosses of other firms would fight for their company while on the other hand, the boss of their company was… interested in new things every day.
Jiang Shuxuan looked over when she finally hung up the call. “Tang Enterprise?”
Gu Xiqiao blinked, acting as if she didn’t understand what he was saying. “Little Luo accepted their proposition. I had nothing to do with it.”
Jiang Shuxuan glanced at her briefly before deciding to change the topic. “Would you like to meet Aunt Tang?”
“At the Tang family home?” asked Gu Xiqiao.
“Yeah.”
“Hell no!” Now was still not the time.
Jiang Shuxuan had already expected her to give such an answer. As such, he changed the topic once again. “The elixir that Qinghong had. Did you really give them to him?”
“… I originally planned to feed them to Xixi.” Gu Xiqiao suddenly opened her mouth. Without second thoughts, she gave the pills to Tang Qinghong the moment she heard that Yin Shaoyuan needed them.
Xixi on the other side thought to itself, ‘Tang Qinghong that bastard! I’ll take his life! No one can stop me!’
Obviously, Jiang Shuxuan who did not expect this answer reminded himself “… from now on, keep these sort of things hidden. Else, it’d only bring us unnecessary trouble.”
Fortunately, the one dealing with this was himself. If it was someone else, Gu Xiqiao would undoubtedly be stripped of her possessions to pay for the precious pills.
“Understood.” Gu Xiqiao nodded solemnly. The only reason why she did not hesitate when giving the pills was because Yin Shaoyuan was the one who had gotten injured.
However, if that person really did come messing with her, she would not think twice before teaching him a good lesson.
Jiang Shuxuan only lowered his head and continued reading.
***
There were only a handful of powerful players online as of late. It seemed almost as if Smoke on Water, Brother Wu, Whispering Winds, and For A Millenium had made a pact to go into hiding together out of a sudden.
And yet, these players were all online today, with the exception of Brother Wu.
[Team] Merciless Sky: “Ah, finally my permanent team’s back. I just can’t go on playing with a bunch of randos on the net!”
[Team] Whispering Winds: “I can stay online for a while. I have to go out tonight.”
[Team] For A Millenium: “I can’t believe you still have time to play games!”
[Team] Whispering Winds: “Well, it’s definitely rare for work to end so early today! Senior Song ftw!”
[Team] Smoke On Water: “^_^”
Gu Xiqiao stared at Smoke On Water’s player ID while rubbing her chin. “Lil’ system. My gut is telling me that this person is someone I know in real life.”
“[Beauty Qiao, stop talking in such a serious manner. You still won’t fool me into thinking that you have not hacked into someone else’s computer.]”
Gu Xiqiao who was typing in a line of codes remained silent.
A handsome and familiar face appeared on the computer screen as soon as Gu Xiqiao successfully hacked into the mysterious player’s computer webcam.
“… man, you won’t believe this.”
So Tang Qingqiu has already long infiltrated into their ranks huh?
This feeling…
[Beauty Qiao, I’ve just found a suitable script.] The system suddenly spoke out. [Wait a minute, this person is…]
The system fumbled around for a moment. [You know what, I’ll just send it to your computer. Say, you two are bound pretty tightly by fate aren’t you?]
A string of data materialized on the computer screen. Gu Xiqiao glanced at it before proceeding to type in a couple strings of digits. These were all precious information compiled by the system.
Gu Xiqiao was visibly stunned after she finished looking through the data.
[Party] Merciless Sky: You guys go on playing. I’m gonna go grab something to eat!
[Party] Whispering Winds: So early?
[Party] Merciless Sky: It’s not early at all, it’s 6 pm already. I have relatives who are coming over tonight.
[Party] For A Millenium: Where do you live, Merciless? Can I drop by and have a meal too?
Although it seemed like a joke, Merciless Sky sent his own address over the chat nonetheless.
If she was gonna joke about it, there was no reason why he couldn’t, right? Either way, it’s not like she would appear outside his house, right?
***
The boy chuckled to himself after giving her his own address. “Little Wu! Dinner time!” yelled a woman’s voice from outside his room.
“Got it Mom!” Su Wu didn’t seem very enthusiastic about dinner time. The ‘Merciless Sky’ in real life was a well-read and artistic young man. Wearing a pair of glasses, he seemed like the quiet type of person you’d find in class. How his name came about was also fairly straightforward; his father’s surname was Su and his mother’s, Wu. And so, his name was the lovechild of his parents’ surnames.
Apart from his parents, there was also his aunt who sat at the dinner table. She was a person whom Su Wu had nothing but despise for. Reason being that she always had something to say about him.
“Little Wu, I don’t wanna sound too naggy but didn’t you graduate from a well-known university? Why can’t you find a job? You gotta learn from your big brother, Dazhi, who’s working for a foreign company while earning more than eight grand a month!” And so, he never heard the end of his aunt’s nagging. The ‘Dazhi’ that she referred to was none other than her own son, who was a well-accomplished breadwinner. She would always remember to brag about her son in front of her neighbors.
Mama Su chuckled. “Dazhi is a good son indeed. Say, why don’t you get him to recommend a job for Little Wu?”
The aunt responded with a sharp-pitched voice, “Our Dazhi is a graduate of the incredibly famous, B University! He’s on track to becoming a rich man someday in the future. As for your Little Wu.” The aunt eyed Su Wu with disdain. “I told you not to let him become a screenwriter! Has anyone expressed their interest in his script?! He’d be better off working as a clerk or something!”
“I don’t feel like eating anymore. You guys go on!” Su Wu placed his chopsticks down and stood up from his seat.
He then stormed into his room before slamming the door shut.
Then came the sharp voice of his aunt. “Sis, remember how I told you that your child won’t amount to anything?!”
Su Wu couldn’t bear to listen to his aunt’s crap any longer. He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Lighting one up, he angrily sucked in a lungful of smoke before blowing out a thick white cloud. His career had been stagnating for the past decade. Even if he was willing to hold out, his parents weren’t.
The sky was getting dark. He sat on the public bench for a long time, with a cigarette hanging between his fingers that was nearing its end.
From now on, he would listen to his mother; he would go job-hunting for a secure paycheck.
As for that script waiting for him in his room, he had burned it down into a pile of ashes.
Emotionless, Su Wu remained seated there for a very long time, until a small mount of grey cigarette ash piled up beside his foot.
Suddenly, a shining light penetrated the dark, forcing Su Wu to squint his eyes while raising his hand to block off the light. Looking over to the light source, he discovered that it was a car that was slowly rolling towards his direction. Even though he was no car enthusiast, there was no doubt that the car must’ve been an expensive one.
He even heard the gasps of a few who recognized what sort of car it was.
Pinching the cigarette out, Su Wu rose up and prepared to head home.
The extravagant-looking car stopped right beside Su Wu. He looked up in an attempt to get a better view of the vehicle when its windows came rolling down. He was astonished to find a young face looking back at him. The lighting here was dim but the first thing he could make out was a pair of shining bright eyes. Then, it was that flawless face, as if it was ripped straight out of a painting.
Since he was a scriptwriter, only one sentence echoed through his mind.
She was as beautiful as a flower of clouds.
She smiled at him whilst waving her hand. Her eyes were like a dense cluster of stars in the night sky. “Nice to meet you, Merciless Sky.”
Her voice was crisp and clear, like the sound of a flowing stream coming from afar. Still, the vibe she exuded was distinct from the charm of a heroine from the south.
It took a while for Su Wu to regain his senses. Merciless Sky? Isn’t that the in-game name that he gave himself while he was going through his chuuni phase?
The young lady then pushed the car door open. Even under the cover of darkness, he was able to make out her slender physique, as well as her porcelain-like skin.
She stood up straight and smiled sweetly at Su Wu when she exited the vehicle. “Remember my face, I am For A Millenium.”