“That wasn’t what I meant, Eldest Young Master.” Lu Dapeng hurriedly denied in a terrified voice. “I- I just wanted to express that if Eldest Young Master had informed me beforehand, I could have gone to welcome you.”
Lu Dapeng was filled with apprehension and fear. ‘Wasn’t this fiend perfectly fine with remaining outside the country? What did he come back for?!’
The Lu family was a clan that had more than a hundred years of history. Their clan rules were very strict about hierarchy. Even if Lu Qingyun called him ‘Second Uncle’, he was merely a member of the side branch and Lu Qingyun was from the main line. These years the main branch had moved their base of operations out of the country, so Lu Dapeng didn’t know why he came back…
“That won’t be necessary.” Lu Qingyun’s gaze landed on Shi Sheng.
Shi Sheng immediately smiled. ‘This is the patron, the future patron, can’t offend him.’
Lin Shanshan went into a daze as she stared at him. You probably couldn’t find a man handsomer than him in the entertainment circle. And from how Lu Dapeng addressed him, one could see his status was much higher. If she was able to get this person to take a liking to her…
Thinking up to this point, Lin Shanshan immediately knocked that train of thought out of her head and the infatuation in her eyes slowly faded.
This man didn’t seem easy to get close to. If he warranted such fearful respect from Lu Dapeng, he wasn’t one she could afford to provoke. She might as well stick with Lu Dapeng, or else she might end up not gaining anything but instead losing everything.
Lin Shanshan clearly knew her own limits. But when she looked up, she saw Shi Sheng smiling at that man, who actually walked over, causing Lin Shanshan to hate Shi Sheng even more. ‘Why her?!’？
“Patr- Mr Lu, what a coincidence!” Shi Sheng greeted with smiling eyes.
When Lu Dapeng saw Lu Qingyun nod at Shi Sheng, he was so terrified his soul nearly left his body. ‘Wasn’t Jiang Wan just a normal person? When did she get to know this demon?’
“Do you still have business here, Second Uncle Lu?” Lu Qingyun stood next to Shi Sheng as he shot a side glance at Lu Dapeng who didn’t dare to move an inch.
Lu Dapeng’s body shivered as he quickly shook his head. “No, no, nothing at all. I’ll be leaving now, Eldest Young Master.”
Lu Dapeng pulled Lin Shanshan and headed towards the door, pretty much having given up on attending the party. ‘Like hell I’d still attend! With this freak here, I’d only go in if I didn’t feel like living anymore!’
“Wait a second.”
Lu Dapeng paused as he turned around and spoke in a respectful and apprehensive voice, “Does Eldest Young Master have any more orders?”
“Apologise.”
‘Apologise?!’ Lu Dapeng was beginning to feel unwell. ‘Just what relationship does Jiang Wan have with this devil? He actually told him to apologise to her!’
Lu Dapeng had cold sweat pouring off him as he looked at Jiang Wan before bowing, “Ms Jiang, it was my mistake earlier. Do be generous and let me off. I’m not the one who has enmity with you, it’s only because Lin Shanshan incited me that I let pig oil cover my heart[1]…”
Lin Shanshan paled. She hadn’t expected Lu Dapeng to sell her out so easily.
“Lu Dapeng, what is the meaning of this?” Just because he was afraid of this man, he’d put all the blame on her?
“Shut up.” Lu Dapeng rebuked Lin Shanshan with a vicious face. Had it not been for her, he wouldn’t have even looked at Jiang Wan, let alone have offended this demon because of her matter.
“I don’t need to teach you what to do, do I?”
“No, no, not at all. Rest assured Young Master, I will definitely resolve this matter satisfactorily.”
A hint of ruthlessness flashed in Lu Dapeng’s eyes. Lin Shanshan had nearly caused him to offend this devil. Having no other outlet, he could only vent on Lin Shanshan.
“Don’t let down the reputation of my Lu family.” Lu Qingyun waved his hand. As if he had just received an amnesty, Lu Dapeng immediately dragged a pale-faced Lin Shanshan out the door.
“You’re actually this impressive.” Shi Sheng made a worshipful expression. “President Lu is already one of the top players in the industry, you’re really amazing to be able to get him to call you ‘Eldest Young Master’.”
Lu Qingyun’s gaze landed on Shi Sheng’s calm eyes. There wasn’t the slightest ripple there. This woman clearly didn’t wish to praise him.
‘You should at least put more effort into your acting. Right now, you’re clearly just being perfunctory with me.’
Young Master Lu once again doubted his own charm. ‘Why was it useless against this woman?’
“You don’t feel like praising me yet you went against your conscience to do so. Don’t you feel upset?”
‘Even if you’re going to go against your conscience to praise me, you should at least put more effort into hiding it! Just what do you mean by completely not hiding your true thoughts…’
“Nope.”
‘Getting a verbal praise from me(bbb) is already not bad but you still want a sincere one? In your dreams!’
Lu Qingyun “…”
For the first time, he found himself unable to say anything to that. ‘Isn’t this being a bit too honest?!’
“Eh? Lu Qingyun, where’d you kidnap this girl from? All I did was go to park the car and you abandoned me! And I even went to the trouble of fetching you too, are you still human?!”
‘Kidnap? This phrasing was simply…’
Shi Sheng looked at the newcomer. He was dressed normally for this kind of event and looked rather good too.
Not waiting for Lu Qingyun to reply though, he immediately leapt to the next topic, “I saw Lu Dapeng just now. Did he eat gunpowder or something? He was ranting at a woman, just what did you do to him?”
Shi Sheng was speechless. ‘It seems like this fellow really understands Lu Qingyun ah. All he saw was Lu Dapeng getting angry and he could guess that it was Lu Qingyun’s doing. There’s only one person that fit this description, and that’s Lu Qingyun’s good friend[2]/accomplice: Su Yixiu.’
“And this is?” Su Yixiu changed the topic back to Shi Sheng in a flash as he curiously examined her. “Lady, your heart must be huge if you can stand with him for this long.”
‘Wasn’t this the one Lu Qingyun asked me about the last time? Being able to stand with him without any change in expression, no wonder he wanted to ask about her.’
“Big enough for the world[3].” Shi Sheng spoke with a straight face.
“Pft~” Su Yixiu couldn’t help laughing.
Shi Sheng glared at him. ‘What are you laughing at, eh?!’
“I am Jiang Wan.” ‘He’s on future patron’s side. Just ignore him.’
Su Yixiu revealed an expression of pleasant surprise and his tone was more excited than before. “So you’re Ms Jiang. I am Su Yixiu, Lu Qingyun’s childhood buddy cum nanny.”
Shi Sheng’s lips twitched. ‘Childhood friend and nanny… you sure those fit? I(bbb) don’t understand the logic of villains!”
“Thanks for that matter last time. Had it not been for you, I figure Lu Qingyun would’ve probably been done for back there. You might not know this but his only flaw is that his stamina is horrible. Why, back in junior high…”
“If you’d shut up, you’d be more pleasing to look at.” Lu Qingyun interrupted Su Yixiu.
“Even if I’m don’t, I’m still eye-candy.” Su Yixiu humphed though he didn’t continue his previous line of conversation.
Shi Sheng “…”
‘Hehe[4], I feel like I’ve fucked a dog[5]. Why is there such an adorably dumb person in the villain camp?’
“Ms Jiang, are you here alone tonight?” Since Lu Qingyun was interested in this girl, then as his nanny/assistant/best friend, he naturally had to help him out.
“Temporarily yes.” Xi Mo hadn’t showed up yet, not sure what he was up to.
“That’s great. Uh, I’ve got some stuff to deal with so I gotta go first. Lu Qingyun’s only just returned from abroad and isn’t quite used to this place yet so might I be able to trouble Ms Jiang to help me look after him for the night?” ‘Bro, I can only help you to this point.’
Shi Sheng felt like there was something weird with Su Yixiu’s choice of words.
“Then it’s settled. Ms Jiang you’re a good person. Then, I’ll just take my leave now.” Su Yixiu finished his one-sided ‘conversation’. As if he wasn’t reassured though, he warned Lu Qingyun, “Lu Qingyun, I am telling you right now, don’t fuck this up. Our friendship won’t be able to stand it.”
Su Yixiu then ran out the door as if someone was hot on his heels.
Shi Sheng, who had received a ‘good person card’, was speechless. ‘Hey, the hell? I haven’t agreed yet and you just left? Though… I wouldn’t have rejected anyways.’
[1] An idiom for letting petty stuff like jealousy, greed, etc win against his conscience.
[2] There’s a connotation for gay fuck buddy here. This will be relevant later on. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
[3] This has several meanings. One is caring for the world (Which I doubt is what Shi Sheng meant since she’s… well, Shi Sheng). Another is having grand ambitions (i.e conquer the world)
[4] Guess there was no getting around this one was there? Well this is the pinyin for what the raws say is ‘呵呵’. It can convey… a lot of things. Mostly used to express ‘I am so done with your nonsense’. It’s one of those language specific slangs. I couldn’t replace it here like I did before. It’s pronounced more like hurhur than heh heh.
[5] NO THIS IS NOT LITERAL. It’s just to emphasize her disbelief. See also: Looked like she had swallowed a fly. It’s basically like saying ‘WTF?!’ but reekahia said this sounded more charming so it’s staying in.