Chapter 98: “I Don’t Want to Hear Your Blessings.”
The twilight was like ink, splashing down. The terminal of Haicheng International Airport was brightly lit, and the roar of planes taking off and landing resounded between heaven and earth. The reflective vests of the ground staff flickered in the night wind as they directed the passenger planes to dock accurately.
After a plane from Jingcheng had docked steadily, the front cabin door was opened first, allowing the first-class passengers to disembark first.
Wan Yi put on her headphones, carried her violin case, and pulled her suitcase, walking towards the jet bridge.
She was wearing a mask and a hat, but her tall figure and model-like temperament inevitably attracted the attention of passersby. She had long been used to all this.
The phone rang in her headphones. She tapped it, answered, and a stream of words came out of her mouth. “Chu Wantang, can you please not test human nature? You’re having me carry a violin worth millions for you. Aren’t you afraid that I’ll run away and sell it? I happen to be low on savings.”
“It’s okay. I still have a lot of your old pictures here. I believe everyone will be interested.”
“Can you delete those ugly pictures from high school?” Wan Yi was on the verge of a breakdown. The three of them used to play together, and for a period of time, photo booths were very popular. She had gotten excited and had wanted to take photo booth pictures together.
They had agreed to make funny and ugly faces together, but after they were done, they found that there was a scheming woman named Chu Wantang in the middle who had been beautiful the whole time. Only she and Su Cheng were honest people. What was even more hateful was that Chu Wantang had saved that set of pictures until now.
“When I get Xingxing back, I’ll give the old photos to you and Su Cheng.”
“If you don’t want to give them to us, just say so.”
“…”
The air was silent for a few seconds. Wan Yi gave an awkward laugh. “Haha, the weather is really nice tonight. I’m almost at the arrival gate. Just wait.”
Oh my god, she could be quick-witted in bed, but how could she have just blurted out what was on her mind?
After hanging up, the two of them met at the arrival gate more than ten minutes later.
Chu Wantang silently took the violin case. Wan Yi looked at her like this and also felt a little sorry for her, saying, “I didn’t mean what I just said, Wantang. You’ll get her. Don’t worry. Your Yi is here to support you.”
“What do you mean by ‘your Yi’?” Chu Wantang said, walking forward and raising an eyebrow. “My 1 is named Huai Xing.”
Wan Yi held her head in her hands, her face under the mask showing a pained expression. “Ahhh!”
“I’m begging for a pair of ears that haven’t heard this! Right! Chengcheng hasn’t heard it! I’m begging you, Chu Wantang. Can you send her a voice message and let her hear it too? Don’t let her off, okay?”
Chu Wantang snorted coldly. “No. This is my unilateral revenge for what you just said.”
Wan Yi clutched her chest and muttered to herself, “July 15th, 2025, Haicheng, sunny. I have lost my innocent ears. I am no longer the person I used to be.”
Chu Wantang chuckled lightly at her appearance. In these five years, because of the company of Su Cheng and Wan Yi, her life had been relatively better at times. She was very grateful to these two friends of hers.
As they chatted and laughed, the two of them walked to the parking lot.
“Did you rent this car?” Wan Yi asked, looking at the dark green luxury car. Chu Wantang had only been here for a short time and was not yet eligible to buy a car in Haicheng.
“It’s Xingxing’s.”
Chu Wantang answered lightly. She opened the trunk, gently placed the violin case inside, and then took the suitcase and placed it at the side.
Wan Yi looked at her profile and exclaimed, “It seems you’ve really succeeded in becoming a third party. I told you you had a natural talent.”
“I want to leave you here,” she said. In fact, it was because Huai Xing attached great importance to Wan Yi’s arrival.
“That’s impossible,” Wan Yi said, quickly getting into the passenger seat, quickly fastening her seatbelt, and taking off her mask at the same time.
The car was very clean, and the smell was also very fresh and pleasant.
Chu Wantang held the steering wheel and drove the car out, and the boundless night fell into their eyes.
“But seriously, what’s your progress now?” Wan Yi asked, after replying to Su Cheng’s message, and turned her head to ask seriously.
Chu Wantang pondered and said five words unhurriedly, “We’ve kissed.”
“Wow, last time you came to Haicheng, you couldn’t even face each other at the barbecue restaurant, and now you can kiss? Then it seems the progress is very touching.”
“But there’s a countdown,” Chu Wantang said, thinking of last night’s kiss and feeling a little bitter. “Before the big show is over, I can still kiss her for eighty minutes. Five minutes at a time is so short. If it’s ten minutes, I can’t kiss her many times…”
“How did this time come about? What eighty minutes? Does it have to be strictly enforced?”
“You don’t need to know how it came about. It has to be strictly enforced. Otherwise, I’m afraid she’ll… say I’m pushing my luck.” This idiom seemed to be branded in her heart, and it hurt every time she thought of it.
Wan Yi: “There’s still time. Believe in yourself.”
An hour later, they returned to the apartment.
Chu Wantang’s original intention was to let Wan Yi rest early, but Wan Yi turned around and sent a WeChat message to Huai Xing, asking if she wanted to meet now. This scared her so much that she immediately put the violin case in the study and hid it.
When she came out, Wan Yi was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed, smiling at her. “She politely declined me, saying that I must be very tired since I just got here, and that we can meet at the company tomorrow morning.”
“What a considerate and good little sister. She’s so likable. If you can’t win her back, hmph…”
“…While the contract hasn’t been signed yet, why don’t you go back to Jingcheng tomorrow?” She once again regretted asking Wan Yi to bring her something to Haicheng.
Wan Yi threw a cushion over and said with a grin, “It’s too late!”
Chu Wantang caught the cushion, sat down on the sofa in anger, and sent a message to Huai Xing. Before long, she stood up. “I’m going downstairs.”
“Are you coming back in 80 minutes? Don’t use it all up at once.”
“…”
Huai Xing stood at the elevator entrance. She was wearing a face mask, and her entire small face was covered by a white face mask, only revealing her eyes and mouth.
She lowered her eyes and looked at the note “80min” that she had changed for Chu Wantang last night. A bright smile was in her eyes. She was really upright and impartial.
When she heard a “ding,” she composed herself and looked straight ahead.
The doors opened, and Chu Wantang was standing in the car. Seeing this face covered by a face mask, she was stunned for a moment. She had missed Huai Xing so much and had wanted to see her face, but now she couldn’t even see her face.
“Give it to me,” Huai Xing said, extending her hand and opening her palm. “You don’t have to come out.”
Chu Wantang placed the car keys on it, her fingertips accidentally scratching Huai Xing’s palm.
She nodded seriously. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Huai Xing said, taking the car keys and holding them tightly. She turned and left, without a trace of reluctance.
In the apartment on the eleventh floor, Wan Yi was on a video call with Qiaoqiao. They had just started chatting and were still in the greeting stage when the apartment door opened, and Chu Wantang was changing her shoes in the entryway with a grim face.
Wan Yi glanced at the seconds displayed on the WeChat video and burst out laughing. “How many seconds are left of the seventy-nine minutes?”
“Shut up.”
…
Wan Yi’s arrival made “Silk Season” boil over. The employees’ reactions were exactly the same as those of the “Lan Ling” people back then.
After she had signed the contract, she sat down in the reception room. People frequently passed by the door and looked in. She put on her fairy-like persona on the surface and gave everyone a light smile, which immediately caused some people to cover their mouths for fear of screaming.
The marketing department started to follow up from this moment on, revealing on the internet from the perspective of a company employee that Wan Yi would be coming to the “Four Seasons Have Silk Season” show. God knows how many runway fans Wan Yi had, but her stage had not been updated for a long time. Now that it was suddenly rumored that she was going to participate in this silk-themed show, fan groups, super topics, and so on immediately spread, just waiting for “Silk Season’s” official announcement.
Just these few posts had very considerable data.
Even Lu Xuerong had seen the relevant content and had sent a message to the group to ask: [Is Wan Yi in the big show?]
Huai Xing replied: [Yes, Auntie Lu. It’s within our budget.]
Lu Xuerong: [You guys can just decide.]
Lu Xuerong: [Xiao Huai, it’s your birthday tomorrow. Do you want to go to a restaurant, or have a private chef at home?]
Tomorrow was Thursday, July 17th.
Huai Xing: [A restaurant, Auntie Lu.]
[Okay, I’ll book it.]
Huai Xing exited the chat interface, her face looking very calm. She looked at the calendar on her desk, her eyelids lowered.
At eleven fifty-five at night, in the decorated apartment living room, Lu Xianyue, Lu Zhenyue, and Wen Shiwei were also there. The gifts they had sent were on the sofa.
Lu Xianyue held a camera and aimed the lens at Huai Xing. Lu Zhenyue and Wen Shiwei each held a beautiful banner, ready to be unfurled at any time.
As soon as it was midnight, Lu Zhenyue and Wen Shiwei unfurled the banner, on which was written “Happy Birthday, I wish Xiao Huai a happy smile and eternal luck.” A few “happy birthday”s sounded at the same time.
The sense of ceremony was very strong.
Huai Xing smiled brightly. “Thank you, everyone. I’m very happy to have you with me at 27.” She waved to Lu Xianyue. “Xianyue, come and take a group photo.”
Lu Xianyue set up the camera. “Coming, coming!”
In addition to taking a group photo, Huai Xing also took individual photos with them. Lu Xianyue hugged Huai Xing, and Wen Shiwei was behind Huai Xing, simulating rabbit ears with her hands.
When it was time to take a photo with Lu Zhenyue, Lu Zhenyue opened her palm and let Huai Xing rest her chin on it. Huai Xing did as she was told.
The shutter sounded, and the picture was frozen.
Because they had to work the next day, it was not convenient to stay up too late. After a round of blessings, the three of them went back.
Huai Xing did not immediately open the gifts, because she still had some packages from Zhuo Xin and Tu Zhaoyu and the others to receive today. She would open them all together when all the gifts had arrived.
She went up to the second floor and unlocked her phone.
The message bar was a sea of red. Apart from the few friends from Jingcheng, there were also Su Cheng, Wan Yi, and some people she had added in Haicheng these years, all wishing her a happy birthday.
She replied to them one by one, but she did not open the chat box that she had set to do not disturb again at night.
Not only that, but she had not been at the company during the day and had been out discussing cooperation with people. At night, she had had dinner with Lu Xuerong and the others at a restaurant.
The gift Lu Xuerong had given her this year was also very expensive. It was a jade bracelet worth seven figures.
Huai Xing didn’t quite understand why the gift Lu Xuerong had given her was so expensive, but she didn’t want to disrespect her elder, so she accepted it with a smile.
At nine o’clock at night, the birthday dinner was over. After taking a photo, Lu Xuerong separated from them.
On the way back, Huai Xing was sitting in the back seat, thinking of what her mother had said back then, “She has finally set herself free.” After all these years, it was not hard for her to guess Lu Xuerong’s feelings for Huai Zhao, but this kindness put a little pressure on her.
This was also the reason why she didn’t drive the dark green car much. It was as if if she didn’t drive it, she would owe Lu Xuerong a little less.
She probably wouldn’t wear this bracelet much either.
Lu Zhenyue saw her thoughts and comforted her, “Don’t be stressed, Xiao Xing. Auntie is treating you as a family member. She’s like this when she gives us gifts too.”
“I know, Sister Suisui,” Huai Xing said, her lips twitching. But she couldn’t say what was on her mind to the Lu family. She suddenly thought of what she had said to Chu Wantang at the hotel on the night the car had broken down.
Lu Xianyue at the side said, “You’re 27, classmate Xiao Xing. You deserve the best, okay?”
“Okay,” Huai Xing said, collecting her thoughts and smiling again.
…
Chu Wantang was standing at the elevator entrance on the 11th floor, carrying a violin case.
She hadn’t worked overtime tonight. After she had come back, she had been standing here, looking at the elevator’s numbers. There were only two households on one floor of the apartment, and on the eighth floor, there were only Huai Xing and Lu Xianyue and the others. If the elevator stopped at the eighth floor in the middle, then it meant that Huai Xing and the others had come back.
Huai Xing had not paid attention to her all day. She had replied to everyone, but she had not replied to her message.
She didn’t dare to call, didn’t dare to press her, and didn’t dare to go to the eighth floor to wait, lest there were Lu family members there and the scene would be embarrassing.
Wan Yi leaned against the door, looked at her profile at this moment, and sighed, thinking that if Huai Xing really didn’t want to see her today, it would be useless even if she came back.
As soon as the sigh fell, she saw Chu Wantang press the down button.
A few seconds later, her figure disappeared from the elevator entrance.
Chu Wantang knocked on Huai Xing’s door, but no one opened it.
But the door of Lu Xianyue’s room opposite opened. She stood here, turned her head, and saw Lu Zhenyue seeing Huai Xing out.
Huai Xing looked at her, the smile on her face gone. She turned her head and said something to Lu Zhenyue.
Soon, the door closed, and only the two of them were left in the corridor.
Chu Wantang’s knuckles curled, and she didn’t say anything. Huai Xing came to her and said lightly, “Go back.”
“I don’t want to hear your blessings, and I don’t want to receive your gift. Don’t make things difficult for me, Sister Wantang.”
