Chapter 72

Han Xuan said the works in the studio were all unfinished pieces and was too embarrassed to show them to her, so she quickly shifted the camera away and picked up Pipi.

It looked like it was doing pretty well here, in good spirits overall. The moment it saw its owner, it happily barked a few times.

“Have you missed me?”

Chu Susu asked with a smile, and the little dog joyfully bobbed its head up and down, as if nodding in affirmation.

Han Xuan’s hand, still holding Pipi, bore that ring, which made her feel more and more uncomfortable the longer she looked at it. She kept associating it with that inexplicable dream.

Especially when she thought back to that creepy fragment of a packaging bag by the bed, her emotions grew a bit fuzzy, pulling her back into confusion.

After a moment’s thought, she suddenly asked, “Han Xuan, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

Chu Susu said, “When I was packing for my business trip, I found some trash at home that I didn’t know who left. I checked the surveillance footage for nearly two months and still couldn’t figure it out. I’m worried someone got into my place without me knowing. Do you have any way to see who left it?”

She didn’t show any suspicion toward Han Xuan, nor did she specify what the trash was. Her words were mostly driven by concern that someone had broken into her home.

She hoped Han Xuan could find out.

She figured that since Han Xuan had mentioned before that pain inflicted on others would be tripled back during the waxing moon, and this incident didn’t hurt anyone, it shouldn’t have any negative impact on Han Xuan.

“Is that so?” Han Xuan asked. “What kind of trash?”

“Fragments from a finger cot packaging,” Chu Susu explained. “But it wasn’t mine.”

Han Xuan told her to hold on, then set her phone down on a table. Leaning over with a pen in hand, she spent a few minutes sketching something roughly.

Then, staring at the drawing, she pondered for a moment:

“It was you who left it.”

Really?

Chu Susu found it utterly unbelievable. “But I checked nearly two months of surveillance footage—nothing captured it.” And the packaging clearly looked recently opened.

“It must have been that night during the waxing moon.”

Han Xuan said, “That night, with me there and the Hunter knocking on the door, the overall energy field was chaotic, which can easily affect one’s consciousness. You might have done something even you yourself don’t know about. Ordinary surveillance wouldn’t pick it up.”

These words made Chu Susu’s face change abruptly.

In an instant, that dream came back to her.

Even though the scene in the dream was from her university days, if it had really happened, then…!?

Seeing this, Han Xuan smiled faintly and asked, “For example, that night—was your dream pretty scary? Did you dream of a lot of terrifying things? I did too.”

This eased Chu Susu’s racing heart a little.

“You had a dream too?” she asked curiously. “What did you dream about?”

Han Xuan replied, “Just some childhood memories, like feeling scared alone at home and stuff like that.”

Throughout, her tone remained as calm and steady as ever, her expression perfectly natural, without any signs of lying or flaws.

Chu Susu finally relaxed, no longer dwelling on the matter.

After all, it had already happened. Now that it was cleared up, that was good enough.

Moreover, Han Xuan had been so weak back then she couldn’t even lift a finger—how could she have done anything as wild as in the dream?

The summit the next day started at eight in the morning. Factoring in time to get ready and do makeup, she’d have to get up around six-thirty, so Chu Susu needed to turn in early tonight.

She chatted idly with Pipi and Han Xuan a bit longer, then bid them goodnight and hung up.

As Chu Susu drifted off to sleep, Han Xuan was still sitting at the desk, staring at the sketchbook in her hand, her thoughts drifting who-knows-where.

Pipi was getting sleepy too and let out a weary whine. She gently patted its head to soothe it.

But her eyes remained fixed on the outline she’d sketched in just a few minutes, lost in a daze.

Han Xuan hadn’t shown Chu Susu what was on it earlier, but Pipi had seen it clearly.

On the clean white paper, a few simple strokes depicted a certain person lying weakly and powerless in a bathtub.

Unfortunately, it couldn’t speak.

She really hadn’t been able to move a finger back then, but that didn’t mean nothing could happen.

After all, the other person could move on her own.

So in a certain sense, it really was trash that Chu Susu herself hadn’t gotten around to cleaning up.

The next day’s summit leadership speeches were even more boring than Chu Susu had imagined. She’d gotten up early to begin with, and amid the drawn-out, sluggish drone of the talks, her eyelids were on the verge of closing.

But she couldn’t doze off at such an important event—not to mention Rebecca had specifically told her to take good notes.

So Chu Susu forced herself to stay alert, pinching her thigh hard.

—Hiss, that actually hurt.

“…Thank you for Secretary Wang’s wonderful speech. Next, let’s invite the representative from Fucheng Enterprise, Miss Han Yao, to deliver her remarks!”

Chu Susu’s handwriting on her notepad was growing messy; she could barely tell what she’d written anymore. It was the host’s voice that snapped her back to reality.

Han Yao?

Fucheng’s eldest miss?

Why was she here?

But on second thought, it made sense.

Fucheng was in real estate, and this was a government-led construction project—they, as industry leaders, investing and supporting it was perfectly normal.

The earlier leaders were all older, speaking in slow, leisurely tones, but Han Yao spoke a bit faster, which was at least less soporific.

Of course, the content was still dull. Chu Susu’s attention shifted from the PPT to Han Yao herself.

Fucheng’s young miss wasn’t dressed as flashy as at the last birthday banquet, but with mostly middle-aged leaders in attendance, the youngest one, Han Yao, still stood out sharply.

She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt like Han Yao’s gaze kept flicking vaguely her way.

Come to think of it, her encounter with Han Yao at the birthday banquet hadn’t been exactly pleasant.

In the lounge back then, the moment Han Yao saw them, she’d tossed over a box of finger cots and told them to “enjoy themselves properly.”

Later, Chu Susu had even called out to Han Yao to stand up for Han Xuan, leaving Han Yao looking utterly baffled.

So, if she still remembered her, that was normal—after all, few people were that rude to Miss Han.

After the morning’s speeches finally wrapped up, all the guests were invited to a luncheon in the grand hall by the organizers. The spread was lavish, featuring plenty of Jiang City’s local specialties.

Chu Susu quite liked hot dry noodles and was reaching for some when a figure suddenly squeezed in beside her without warning.

There was no line behind her, and this person getting so close made her frown and step back two paces.

Looking closely, it was Han Yao.

She’d thought Miss Han would bring an assistant—taking food herself?

“What are you doing here?” Han Yao opened, sounding casually familiar. “Switching to real estate?”

Chu Susu paused, not answering. Instead, she countered:

“Miss Han, do we know each other?”

The way she said it made it sound like she knew what Chu Susu did for work.

“Of course we do.” Han Yao said offhandedly, “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten—we were high school classmates?”

?!

Chu Susu shook her head without thinking:

“No way. Our school wasn’t big. If you’d been there, I’d definitely remember.”

She’d attended a private high school in the Imperial Capital—expensive tuition, small enrollment, just two or three classes per grade. Everyone knew each other. Where’d Han Yao come from?

Chu Susu had a good memory; she couldn’t be wrong about something like this, much less have zero recollection.

Plus, if there really had been a conglomerate heiress like that, everyone would’ve gossiped about it behind closed doors.

Han Yao lowered her head to grab some hot dry noodles too, though she didn’t seem to have strong preferences—just sampling a bit of everything:

“I was in the class next to yours, but I ended up skipping the college entrance exam and going abroad in the second semester of senior year. Forgot about that?”

She added a few school details.

Like which cafeteria dish was the best, what the statue by the library entrance looked like, and even their homeroom teachers back then—all spot-on with what it had been like in school.

Chu Susu was stunned.

No one who hadn’t actually attended could rattle those off. Han Yao wasn’t lying.

But when she’d seen Han Yao’s face at the birthday banquet, she’d felt like it was their first meeting—no spark of recognition at all.

Had her memory really degraded that badly?

Chu Susu was still frowning. She was only twenty-five—surely not?

Han Yao chimed in opportunely: “That was ages ago, and we weren’t even in the same class. We barely spoke. Forgetting’s normal.”

Even so, Chu Susu felt something off and planned to ask some old high school classmates later when she had time.

That said, Miss Han seemed different from what she’d imagined.

Plenty of people wanted to come over and schmooze, but she ignored them all to sit at Chu Susu’s table instead.

Rebecca had stepped out to video call her daughter Feng Zhilan and coax the kid into eating lunch, so the two of them sat face-to-face alone.

Han Yao ate elegantly, and impressively, she could talk while eating without any awkwardness:

“I heard about your job from Han Xuan.”

“Oh.”

That tracked—they worked at the same company, so of course Han Yao knew her industry.

“Ever thought about switching careers?”

“Where to switch to? Real estate?”

In this casual chatting atmosphere, Chu Susu also relaxed, feeling that this Eldest Miss was quite “approachable.”

Probably because they were high school classmates.

Although she still harbored doubts in her heart.

My major seems to have nothing to do with real estate.

“This isn’t important. Haven’t you considered submitting a resume to Fucheng?” Han Yao said indifferently, “We don’t just do real estate; our other subsidiaries span various industries. Whatever you want to do, there’s something suitable.”

Chu Susu: “……”

Why does it feel like I’m being offered an olive branch? It seems kinda unreal.

Han Yao continued, “On my birthday, I saw you with a few people… they must be your clients, right? Pitching the proposal—I thought your eloquence and ideas were pretty good.”

“Moreover, you even accused me to my face of not standing up for Han Xuan. Few people speak to me like that. I quite admire bold people.”

Chu Susu always felt like she was accusing herself, but the overall tone tended toward narration, as if there was no other meaning.

“So when I saw you today, I asked if you’re interested in switching jobs.”

Han Yao suddenly blinked, seeming a bit more approachable: “Fucheng pays better, you know.”