Chapter 57
On the Lantern Festival, Su Man gave the entire film crew a half-day off, allowing everyone to move about freely. Some of the crew members formed groups and went to the nearby city to play for half a day. Even Su Man was pulled away by a few of the main actors for a banquet.
There was only one exception. Bo Muyu stayed in the hotel and slept for an afternoon, regaining some of her energy. In the evening, she went out for dinner and then returned to the hotel to continue working on her script until late at night.
It was the Lantern Festival, after all. In previous years, she had always spent it with her family. Seeing that she was alone this year, Ye Xialan specially sent her a video call request, asking her to eat sweet rice balls with them.
Bo Muyu had no choice but to go out and buy a bowl of sweet rice balls to take back, and then ate them with Ye Xialan and Bo Mingliang over video chat.
The next day, when Jiang Chenyin was at work, she received a video screenshot from Ye Xialan, along with a message that made her feel like she was jumping up and down: “Teacher Jiang, look, has my daughter lost weight? That silly girl is so bored she has to join some crew! Look at how thin her little face is!”
Jiang Chenyin took a closer look at the screenshot of Bo Muyu, who was looking up with a slight smile. Her face didn’t look any different. But when she thought of the Bo Muyu from a few months ago, she was indeed a little thinner now, and the way her lips curved up was already completely devoid of childishness.
She opened WeChat to see the message Bo Muyu had sent her last night, saying that she was on a video call with her parents. Then she looked up at the screenshot on her computer screen and sighed.
Her assistant, Xiao Lu, walked in with a file and, seeing the screenshot on Jiang Chenyin’s computer screen, smiled. “Sister Chenyin, Xiaoyu is getting more and more beautiful. She seems to have matured a lot since she started working. She looks very presentable.”
“What’s so beautiful? She’s so thin,” Jiang Chenyin sighed with a laugh. “She can’t gain weight to begin with, and she doesn’t know how to take care of herself.”
Xiao Lu covered her mouth, her laughter escaping through her fingers. “Maybe she’s too busy to eat, and with so much to do, it’s inevitable that she’s lost weight.”
Jiang Chenyin glanced at the Bo Muyu in the screenshot, shook her head with a smile, and then closed the picture and asked Xiao Lu, “What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”
“It’s like this,” Xiao Lu took a step closer and said seriously, “A man just called me. He wants to meet with you. He said his name is Shao Sibei, and he has some things related to his mother that he wants to talk to you about in person. He asked me to be sure to pass on the message, and for you to set the time. He can accommodate.”
“Shao Sibei…” Jiang Chenyin murmured, raising her hand to rub her aching temples.
“Yes. Should I decline?”
“Wait…” Jiang Chenyin waved her hand, and after a moment of thought, she said, “The western restaurant on Huaihai Road. Book a table and then reply to him. I’ll go over after work.”
“Okay.”
Xiao Lu left the office. Jiang Chenyin continued to rub her temples. Seeing the thinner Bo Muyu had made her heart ache, and now she had a headache.
Shao Sibei was about ten years younger than Shao Sinan. When the incident had happened, Shao Sibei was still an elementary school student. Jiang Chenyin still remembered him hiding behind his parents with a fearful look on his face, his eyes filled with curiosity and fear.
A few years ago, when Mrs. Shao had come to ask for her help, she had immediately thought of that child, and in a daze, the cute image of Bo Muyu at a few years old had been superimposed on it.
It was precisely because of this that she had agreed to help the Shao family. No matter what, the child was innocent. She had seen with her own eyes Shao Sinan lying in a pool of blood, and his family at their wit’s end. She really couldn’t bring herself to stand by and watch coldly.
During the years she was abroad, she had only been in contact with her family and closest friends. The sponsorship of the Shao family was all handled by her assistant from before she went abroad, so she had not seen Shao Sibei again.
When she walked into the restaurant and saw the man sitting at the table, her heart skipped a beat. She stopped in her tracks and waited for her emotions to calm down before signaling the waiter not to follow her for the time being. Only then did she slowly walk into the private room.
The man before her was dressed in a suit, young and heroic, his features seven or eight parts similar to the Shao Sinan in her memory. It was as if Shao Sinan had come back to life and was sitting in front of her, smiling at her, his smile ghostly and sinister.
Jiang Chenyin’s lips curved up. “Hello.”
“Miss Jiang, hello,” Shao Sibei said with a grin, sitting up straight. “It’s my first time asking you out. I’m sorry to bother you.”
“It’s okay. You can say what you have to say now,” Jiang Chenyin said, her gaze discreetly sizing him up.
There was no impurity in his eyes. Apart from a suppressed excitement, there were no other emotions. The suit he was wearing was new, and it looked like he had prepared carefully.
He scratched his temple and smiled shyly. “Miss Jiang, I haven’t been able to thank you in person for so long. If it weren’t for you, my family’s life would have been very difficult. Thank you.”
“Mmm, I know,” Jiang Chenyin replied, leaning back in her chair.
The curve of her lips was shallow, a half-smile, a hint of appropriate distance in her gentleness, which made her even more captivating.
This made Shao Sibei feel a little at a loss. He unnaturally pulled his hands back under the table, his back as straight as if he were listening to a lecture in class. “Miss Jiang, I also want to apologize to you on behalf of my mother. My mother has a bad temper. She might have said some unpleasant things when she was looking for you. Please don’t take it to heart. I’m very sorry.”
This young man’s words were sincere, and he even lowered his head when he apologized.
Jiang Chenyin sighed inwardly, then said to him, “Forget it. Let’s not bring up the past anymore.”
“Miss Jiang…” Shao Sibei hesitated, then paused and said, “After we received your help, many of our neighbors became curious about why our family’s financial situation had suddenly improved. My mother and I couldn’t explain it to everyone, and there were a lot of rumors among the neighbors. They all thought that not long after my father passed away, my mother had latched onto a rich man.”
The warmth in Jiang Chenyin’s eyes had been gone all along. At this moment, her voice deepened. “So?”
“My mother doesn’t care about these things, but I do,” Shao Sibei’s expression became a little more serious, but after a few words, his head lowered, and his voice lost some of its confidence. “I don’t want my mother to suffer these rumors, but we signed a settlement agreement with you back then, and we can’t talk about my brother’s matter no matter what. So I was thinking…”
“Hmm?” Jiang Chenyin listened patiently.
“Miss Jiang,” Shao Sibei looked up, his hands clenched into fists on his knees, and he said firmly, “I want the money to have a more legitimate source. I don’t want our family to face rumors. So… I’d like to ask you to be with me. In the future, your help to our family won’t bring us any criticism.”
Jiang Chenyin gazed at him, feeling both amused and angry at his childish words. For a moment, she didn’t know where to begin.
She thought carefully about Shao Sibei’s words, and the anger in her heart outweighed her other emotions, her chest heaving heavily.
“Miss Jiang…”
Jiang Chenyin’s cold gaze was fixed on him. “Mr. Shao, your request is a bit too presumptuous.”
Shao Sibei shook his head. “No, Miss Jiang. It’s just a request. If you don’t agree, I won’t do anything to harm you.”
Jiang Chenyin said coldly, “But you’ve put the blame for your family’s criticism on me. If I don’t agree, my crime will be even greater, and my help to you will become a sin.”
Shao Sibei couldn’t answer her and nervously gripped his knees.
She turned her head to look at the sky, which was gradually being dyed a deep ink, and then turned back and said, “Also, you’re overthinking it. This is the last year I’m helping your family. It’s not for a lifetime. I have no obligation to deal with any consequences brought about by my help. Because it was your mother who came to me a few years ago and asked me for this last favor. I hope you remember this clearly.”
Shao Sibei kept shaking his head, his hands on the table. “Miss Jiang, but my brother…”
“Mr. Shao!” Jiang Chenyin’s gaze suddenly turned into a sharp blade, making Shao Sibei shudder. “You and your mother both know very well why Shao Sinan jumped off the building. I don’t think I need to repeat these things.”
She stood up and looked down at the restless Shao Sibei. “I only came to see you because you were still young back then, but now we have nothing more to talk about. Mr. Shao, please conduct yourselves with dignity from now on.”
After she finished, Jiang Chenyin turned and left, ignoring Shao Sibei, who had only just reacted and was chasing after her. She went straight to the parking lot, got in her car, and drove away.
After seeing Shao Sibei, she felt her headache worsening. What kind of people were the Shao family? Shao Sibei, who had been a timid child back then, had now made such a disrespectful request.
No, a request? What kind of request was this? This was moral blackmail!
Jiang Chenyin frowned, sped up, and rolled down the window, letting the wind blow in and whip her long hair, also trying to extinguish the anger in her heart.
She didn’t want to bring this state of mind home. She turned the steering wheel and drove in the direction of Lan Yuxin’s house.
After parking in Lan Yuxin’s garage, Jiang Chenyin walked up the steps and looked up to see Lan Yuxin leaning against the door, looking at her with great interest.
It was the time of the late spring cold, not as cold as winter but still with a hint of chill.
Lan Yuxin was wearing a long black coat over a wine-red velvet slip dress. The neckline was very low, and the slits on both sides of the hem revealed the alluring lines of her legs.
She had one arm crossed over her chest, the other holding a wine glass filled with red wine, a hint of a tease in her eyes. “President Jiang, a rare sight. What wind blew you here to see me at night?”
Jiang Chenyin had already calmed down on the way. She glanced at her, then reached out and took the arm she had crossed over her chest and walked inside. “It’s so cold. What are you posing at the door for? Aren’t you afraid of catching a cold dressed like that? Let’s talk inside.”
Lan Yuxin followed her, her eyes wide as she looked down at her chest. “Hey! Teacher Jiang, you touched my chest!”
In the living room, Jiang Chenyin casually tossed her bag onto the sofa, walked to the bar, pulled up a high stool, and sat down, then buried her face in her folded hands on the counter and took a deep breath.
Lan Yuxin sensed that something was wrong. She put down her wine glass, pulled up a high stool, and sat beside her, kicking her foot. “What’s wrong with you? Have you had dinner?”
Jiang Chenyin didn’t look up and said in a muffled voice, “No, I don’t want to eat.”
Lan Yuxin leaned over, thought carefully about her somewhat tired expression from just now, and then looked at her now, patting her back and asking, “Why do you seem so strange? Did something happen?”
Jiang Chenyin was silent for a moment, then looked up and turned to Lan Yuxin. “I think something is about to happen.”
Lan Yuxin was puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
Jiang Chenyin’s eyes were grave. “What do you think?”
Lan Yuxin was taken aback for a moment, then it dawned on her. “What’s going on? Is that family ever going to stop? Didn’t they sign a settlement agreement and settle it privately back then? What are they up to now?”
Jiang Chenyin shook her head, her eyes filled with contemplation. “I’m not sure what Mrs. Shao wants to do for now, but I met with Shao Sibei today. He asked to see me, saying that he had some things related to Mrs. Shao to talk to me about. When I went over, he apologized to me on behalf of Mrs. Shao, but then he asked me to be with him, so that my sponsorship of their family wouldn’t have an unclear source.”
Lan Yuxin frowned. “What sponsorship?”
Jiang Chenyin said, “I made an agreement with Mrs. Shao before I went abroad to sponsor their family. I had someone follow up on this before I left. This is the last year.”
“Say that again?” Lan Yuxin raised her voice and grabbed Jiang Chenyin’s clothes. “An agreement? Sponsorship? Do you think your money grows on trees? Or did you pick it up from the leaves that fell from the tree in front of your house? Why would you give it to her! That old witch, doesn’t she know what’s wrong with her son? I’ll go and read it to her face!”
