Chapter 111.1
Editor: Sahloknir
“Tsk, what’s there to be happy about?”
The young man crossed his arms coldly and disdainfully. The words ‘I don’t care’ were practically written all over his body.
Tan Mingjin smiled softly as he looked at little Shi Qing, who was on his larger counterpart’s shoulder and trying to pole dance on an imaginary pole. He wanted to chuckle.
This child, how could he be so awkward sometimes?
Because his heart had softened, the man ruffled Shi Qing’s hair again.
“What are you doing?! I’m not a child! Stop always touching my head, it’s annoying.”
No matter how you looked at him, Shi Qing seemed like a rebellious teenager. He tried to shake the man’s hand off unhappily, but he either used too little force or Tan Mingjin didn’t let go, because his long hand remained where it was, brushing against the soft strands of hair.
Even the invisible Zheng Xuexue watching from the side felt that President Tan was definitely going to be angry.
Tan Mingjin was notoriously difficult to deal with. Considering he built his business from the ground up, he was certainly no easy target.
But Young Master Shi actually dared to treat him with such an att.i.tude…
Zheng Xuexue feared she was about to witness domestic violence.
And yet…
The smile on Tan Mingjin’s lips didn’t even dim. His gaze was still soft, and his deep voice was still gentle.
“We haven’t seen each other for so long, so Uncle wants to get close to you.”
Shi Qing was not buying it, vividly demonstrating what it meant to be an unfilial son. His voice conveyed his impatience.
“Don’t you feel cringey saying those things?”
“…”
“Forget it.” The young master glanced at Tan Mingjin like he was doing the man a favour. “Since you like it, I’ll put up with it for now. But keep track of the time. You owe me a new car every ten seconds.”
As he spoke, Tan Mingjin’s ears were filled with the sounds of little Shi Qing’s jubilant babbling.
“Ya ya ya ya.”
His cat-like eyes squinted slightly, and his fair little face was full of contented joy. As he babbled on, the little guy tried to stand on tiptoe so that his uncle could pet his head better.
When he was comfortable enough, little Shi Qing would even turn around lightly and open his little arms, babbling for a hug.
“It’s been twenty seconds now. That’s two cars. If you go past thirty you have to double my allowance for a month. Triple if you go past forty.”
Tan Mingjin looked like he had been hypnotized. His smile never faded. His thoughts were almost audible, “Yes, yes, yes. Our Shi Qing didn’t want me to touch his head, but I insisted.”
“Okay, I’ll increase your allowance.”
The two of them weren’t exactly keeping their voices down. More than a few people saw what was happening.
The bystanders: “k2026;”
The world of rich people really was perplexing.
Having satisfied both Shi Qing and little Shi Qing, the man petted the youth’s hair one last time before asking, “Do you want to go eat?”
“Not really. But since Uncle wants to, I’ll keep you company so that people don’t keep saying that I treat you badly.”
The young master had a very condescending look on his face.
Tan Mingjin looked to his shoulder at little Shi Qing, who also lifted his little chin haughtily. But he kept sneaking peeks filled with antic.i.p.ation at Tan Mingjin out of the corner of his eyes. The man wanted to chuckle again.
“Good, our Shi Qing treats Uncle the best. Let’s go, my car is parked over there.”
The two left.
Zheng Xuexue, who had been there the whole time but never got so much as a look from either of them no matter what she said: “…”
That wasn’t even what made her angry the most. It was what those people pa.s.sing by immediately started to discuss what had just happened.
“OMG, what a filial uncle and nephew pair. Didn’t you say before that President Tan was very aloof and cold? Looked to me like he has a good temper.”
“He really is aloof and cold, but that depends on the person. At least, he was quite cold to me the last time I ran into him.”
“Young Master Shi really is lucky. Not only is he a rich second generation, he’s also doted upon. Although he’s President Tan’s nephew, President Tan isn’t married and has no children of his own, so the young master will inherit everything in the future.”
“Right? Wasn’t there a rumour about President Tan and Young Master Shi fighting over Cheng-laoshi? It sure didn’t seem that way to me. The young master’s been video calling the president everyday lately. It seems like they’re very close. If Cheng-laoshi marries Young Master Shi, she’ll be marrying rich.”
Zheng Xuexue grew more and more furious as she listened on the side.
These people didn’t know what she knew.
Cheng Yunling had left Shi Qing behind long ago and was now with another man.
The words they said with such envy was worth s.h.i.t.
Even if Zheng Xuexue was absolutely convinced that Cheng Yunling was with someone else, she couldn’t settle down when she thought about how her efforts just now were shut down. Especially since Shi Qing acted like he didn’t hear anything and President Tan acted like he didn’t see anything.
Seeing those people get more and more into their conversation, she was tempted to announce that Cheng Yunling had a boyfriend. However, she didn’t do that.
Zheng Xuexue telling Shi Qing about it was gossip at best.
If she told the crew members, it would be slander.
If she did that and got exposed on the internet, her reputation would suffer a death blow.
Zheng Xuexue’s expression was twisted as she forced herself to endure.
Finally, she couldn’t help but cough dryly as she tried to maintain a neutral expression.
Crew member A: “Young Master Shi blah blah blah, Cheng-laoshi blah blah blah, President Tan blah blah blah.”
Zheng Xuexue: “…Cough cough cough.”
Staff member B: “Yes, yes, yes. Young Master Shi blah blah blah…”
Zheng Xuexue: “…”
Taking several deep breaths, Zheng Xuexue: “Cough cough!!!”
Staff member C: “And President Tan, he blah blah blah…”
Zheng Xuexue: “…”
She could no longer control her twisted emotions and roared angrily, “Are you all blind?!! Couldn’t you hear me coughing?!!”
Everyone was silent.
Zheng Xuexue snapped awake and saw the crew all looking at her with shocked and bewildered faces. Some people in the distance, who hadn’t noticed what was going on here before, looked over after the ruckus she made.
Zheng Xuexue: “…”
She covered her face in dismay and hurried off towards her room.
This incident today would definitely be posted on the internet.
After all, she yelled and screamed at the crew on set. Her company wasn’t wholeheartedly focused on supporting her either, so they wouldn’t do much in terms of damage control.
With a bad reputation on the internet, directors won’t consider her for dramas and commercial producers would avoid her too.
Zheng Xuexue’s mental state was a complete mess.
Wasn’t she just trying to set Cheng Yunling up again so she could use her as a stepping stone?
How did it turn out like this!!
Cheng Yunling was obviously the one who boldly found a boyfriend while Young Master Shi was courting her.
And people were saying before that President Tan also liked her a lot.
Now that she’s got a boyfriend, shouldn’t those two be furious??
Shouldn’t they be offended and feel like Cheng Yunling was looking down on them?
They should at least make trouble for her boyfriend, right?!
Who are they putting on this unaffected and even happy act for?!!!
Did Cheng Yunling bewitch those two or something?!
***
“I’m not bewitched, am I? How come I run into this young master everywhere I go?”
It was one of those rare days where Cheng Yunling didn’t have scenes to shoot, so she made sure to ask the director for a break and come out to relax with her boyfriend. They ate and drank while chatting about their lives. She took the opportunity to complain about Shi Qing’s immature plan to stop her from becoming his aunt by acting like he wanted to pursue her.
Cheng Yunling hadn’t even eaten two bites when she saw Shi Qing come in with Tan Mingjin.
As soon as she saw the young man who seemed born to be cherished and whose skin and figure were both better than hers saunter in, Cheng Yunling’s stomach reflexively began to grumble.
There was nothing she could do about it. She had a suspicion this young master had never been in a relationship before.
It was fine that he wanted to express his love, but the problem is that the young master seemed to only know one way of doing so.
And that was to feed people.
There were times when Cheng Yunling suspected that Shi Qing disliked her enough to purposely fatten her up.
“What’s wrong?”
When her boyfriend saw her despairing expression, he turned around, puzzled. But after seeing Shi Qing, he became sympathetic.
“Why don’t we go to another restaurant?”
“Forget it, we’ll have to hide from the paparazzi again.”
There was a reason why Cheng Yunling and the others had chosen this restaurant. It was only open to celebrities or very powerful people, there were no cameras inside, and the staff had all signed a confidentiality agreement.
Every guest who came in would be scanned by a device to make sure they didn’t have anything like a tape recorder or camera on them before they could enter.
Although Cheng Yunling and her boyfriend agreed to keep their relationship a secret for now, that didn’t mean they wanted to put on disguises just for a meal. So they came to this restaurant. They might not find another suitable place on such short notice.
Also…
Cheng Yunling was hungry.
She was already 80% full right now, and she hadn’t finished her meal yet. She was definitely going to put on weight from this…How sad.
Cheng Yunling: “Let’s go after finishing these. This is a very private place so they might not see us.”
Her boyfriend nodded: “But there’s hardly any soundproofing here. I hope they don’t sit near us.”
Cheng Yunling smiled and waved her hand. “What are the chances?”
Just as her words were spoken, she felt a burning gaze being directed at her.
Cheng Yunling subconsciously raised her eyes and met the youth who looked like he had caught a pair of adulterers.
Cheng Yunling: “…”
Those two actually ended up sitting across from us…