Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xi Xiaye put her phone away as she looked mockingly at Yue Lingsi who was trying hard to hold her anger back. With a cold smile, she said, "It seems like you guys really did all these on your own."
"Tell me. How much money do you want?"
Yue Lingsi thought about it for a moment, then forced all the fury down in her chest and looked up at Shen Wenna. "How much will it take for you to hand the shares over? $20 million? $50 million?"
"If you really want it, I might consider $10 billion." Xi Xiaye raised her beautiful brows as she smiled and looked nonchalantly at Yue Lingsi.
"Xi Xiaye, don't be too much!"
When she heard this and saw the smirk on Xi Xiaye's face, Yue Lingsi, who was enduring all of this, finally exploded. She swiftly got up with her hands pressing the table firmly.
"Since you can't pay up, then don't speak to me with this attitude. What you want isn't with my mother anymore. If I see you people causing trouble again the next time, I won't be as kind as I am today. I'll just call my father. It's that simple."
As Xi Xiaye said this, she picked up Shen Wenna's handbag and handed it to her, indicating for her to get up and leave.
"Are you threatening me?" Yue Lingsi demanded with wide eyes.
Xi Xiaye did not hide it either. She nodded and smiled calmly. "That's right. Iam threatening you."
"Xi Xiaye, you... You don't have the right to speak to me like this! You will hand the shares over obediently, or you..."
"I'll wait to see how you're going to make me hand the shares over obediently." She played it down with this sentence, and then her sullen gaze swept past Yue Lingsi before she turned to walk towards the door. Shen Wenna shot Yue Lingsi a cold look too before she followed her out.
On the way back to Maple Residence in the car, Xi Xiaye did not say anything, while Shen Wenna who sat in the front passenger's seat remained calm. Her expression was a blank canvas; no one could tell how she currently felt.
It was not sure how long had passed when the silent Xi Xiaye finally spoke up, "I don't know what happened between you, Father, and Yue Lingsi. Nevertheless, I respect you, so if you won't tell me, I won't interfere, but I know that in some situations, backing off and matchmaking someone else isn't the best way to end a war."
She suddenly turned to look at Shen Wenna. "Mother, I can feel that Father still..."
"Enough, Xiaye. Don't mull over these things anymore. Your father and I have a complicated problem. There's no point in bringing up all these from the past. You work on your own things. I'm fine, so you don't need to worry. Yue Lingsi said that you stabbed a knife into your shoulder? What happened?"
Shen Wenna's cold eyes suddenly turned a little sharp as she subconsciously looked towards Xi Xiaye shoulder.
Xi Xiaye looked at the alternately flickering traffic light ahead indifferently. Soon, she parked the car, the long eyelashes covering the darkness emanating from her eyes. She fell silent for a long while, and in the end, she did not answer. When the traffic light ahead turned green, she continued to speed all the way to Maple Residence.
When they reached Maple Residence, it was already past six in the evening. Wang Hui had already prepared the food while Mu Yinan and Shen Yue were in the living room, drinking tea and playing chess. All of a sudden, Maple Residence seemed pretty lively.
When the family sat around the table for dinner, Wang Hui who stared at Xi Xiaye for a long time finally could not help but ask, "Xiaye, have you and Ah Chen discussed when you want to have a child? The other day, I went to check out the dates with your mother. The fifteenth of this month is a good day. If you quickly organize it, we can make it. Otherwise, according to your birth dates, the best day wouldn't be until the first of October, which would be Mid Autumn Festival. Yep, that's the best for you."
The fifteenth of this month?
The fifteenth of the first month of the Lunar New Year? Was that not Su Nan and Ruan Heng's wedding day?
"I think the first of October is pretty good. There'll be a lot of people, so it'll be lively. There's also enough time to prepare for the wedding..."
When Wang Hui finished, Mu Yinan wanted to add on too, but before he could finish, he already received a cold look from his wife, so he swallowed the rest of his words.
"What if we can't hide it then? All the wedding photos wouldn't have been taken yet!" Wang Hui shot Mu Yinan a stern look and exclaimed.
"Didn't we wait until Tangchuan was born before we had our wedding?" Mu Yinan softly answered, in a tone that clearly faltered because this matter was a thorn in Wang Hui's heart.
Back then, Wang Hui did not plan to have a child so soon, and the army had organized a special training. However, the night before they left, Mu Yinan went to the military district looking for her. At that time, he could hold back and did not take precautions either. In the end, when she went for the body checkup in the first month of her special training, she was informed that she was pregnant. After that...
Shen Yue and Shen Wenna got the hint of what had happened. They could not help but laugh, yet Xi Xiaye was stunned when Wang Hui said the words "can't hide it". She went blank for a while before she understood what it meant. She then blushed and responded, "Grandmother, the fifteenth of this month is my best friend's wedding, so... let's push our wedding back to the first of October. Plus, he's just taken over the company. In fact, we're quite busy in this period of time, so we might not start planning so soon... Before and after the first of October, we're relatively freer."
"That's too long. How about..."
"Let's temporarily settle on this date," Xi Xiaye insisted. They would need to work on quite a few huge projects after the New Year, so he definitely would not be able to find any extra time. As for her, she would probably be busy to no end with the South River project too. By her calculation of time, they should be freer by the first of October.
Seeing that Xi Xiaye insisted, the few of them went with her wishes.
Not too long after dinner, Shen Yue and Shen Wenna went back while Wang Hui prepared breakfast for the next day to put in the fridge so that Xi Xiaye could heat it up the next morning. She busied herself until past 9 p.m. before returning to the Mu residence with Mu Yinan.
After she tidied up the living room downstairs, she returned to the bedroom to take an indulgent bath before she sat down before the desk in the study room. She was about to continue working on the South River project when Mu Yuchen called.
Just as he heard her answer the phone, Mu Yuchen asked "Where did you go today? When I called home, it was Grandfather who picked up." On the other end of the phone, he was casually standing before a set of French windows and looking out at the glorious lights with a freshly lit cigarette in between his fingers.
Xi Xiaye opened the laptop before her as she answered, "I went to the office. I've just finished settling things with the person-in-charge from the PR department about the launch. Tomorrow, we can start preparing Entertainment City."
"Mmm, I'll leave it to you. Have Grandfather and Grandmother went home?"
Mu Yuchen casually took a drag on his cigarette as his handsome brows furrowed slightly.
"They just left not too long ago. Grandmother called Grandpa who came over too. Coincidentally, I was shopping with my mother in the afternoon, so she just came back with me to Maple Residence for dinner."
It was the first time Xi Xiaye had spoken on the phone for this long, talking about random matters. The man just listened quietly on the other end. After a while, she stopped when she noticed that she was the one doing all the talking and had not heard his voice at all.
"Mu Yuchen?" She called out to him.
"Mmm?" He replied casually.
"I thought you fell asleep. Why aren't you talking?" She frowned slightly as she complained.
He chortled. "Aren't I listening to you? Grandmother is pretty free. She won't mind coming over to help."
Xi Xiaye was moving the mouse in her hand as she responded, "Mmm, I get it. Grandmother mentioned our wedding tonight. I told them we'll set it for October the first because Su Nan and Ruan Heng's wedding is on the fifteenth, so you think..."
"Up to you. I'll leave the decision to you to make as long as it's within this year. I don't have any opinions on it," he said as he flicked the cigarette onto the ashtray.
While he was not very fond of traditional ceremonies, he did not want to let her down, so he left the decisions up to her for the wedding as long as she was happy.
Her eyes brightened, she asked mindlessly as she focused on her laptop screen, "Are you in the hotel right now? Why is it so quiet?"
"Where else do you think I'd be?"
"Who knows? You might be having fun with your business partners somewhere," she replied straightforwardly, familiar with how business talks went. She knew what could happen.
Mu Yuchen was a little stunned by Xi Xiaye's words. He grinned under the dim yellow light, his eyes turning gentle. "Are you trying to check on me now?"
Xi Xiaye took a deep breath. "What do you mean by that?"
Mu Yuchen then noticed that this woman had been with him for too long and had started to get better with words.
He put a hand on his forehead as he stopped teasing her. "It's pretty late now. Go to bed and get some rest. I've called Li Si and he'll go back to work tomorrow, so he'll be helping you."
"Mmm, got it."
She continued working after hanging up the call. By the point she noticed the time, it was nearly 11 p.m. already.
When she turned her laptop off, she finally realized that he really was not around and she suddenly felt that the villa was pretty empty. An unfamiliar silence awaited her. She turned off the lights and went to sleep.
In contrast to the quiet Maple Residence, the atmosphere in West Park was gloomy.
Yue Lingsi sat on the living room sofa with a clouded expression. All she thought about was Shen Wenna's beautiful face as well as Xi Mushan's unhappy voice...
Xi Xinyi came back without her realizing. She asked out of concern when she noticed Yue Lingsi not seeming very well, "Mother, why haven't you gone to sleep yet? What's wrong?"
Yue Lingsi came back to her senses when she heard her daughter's voice. She turned around and saw Xi Xinyi was already beside her. "Xinyi, you're back!"
"Mmm, Yifeng sent me to the door. He's afraid that he might be bothering you since it's pretty late already. What's wrong? What happened when you met Aunt Shen today?"
Xi Xinyi sat down beside Yue Lingsi, slowly holding Yue Lingsi's hands.
Yue Lingsi sighed and expressed in a depressed tone, "Shen Wenna didn't really change all these years. She seems even more... Her personality has become even more stubborn than before. It's not going to be easy for her to let go, but your grandmother..."
"Mother, I understand that you're unhappy about her. However, we're at fault here. Didn't I tell you to talk nicely to her?" Xi Xinyi frowned as she looked at Yue Lingsi helplessly.
Yue Lingsi stubbornly retorted, "I wanted to talk to Shen Wenna nicely too, but that witc-... but the way she looked just made me so angry! She even called Xi Xiaye over. Then, Xi Xiaye called your father there and then to ask about the shares. Your father..."
Xi Xinyi's eyes looked cold when Yue Lingsi mentioned it. "What did you say? Sis called Father?"
Yue Lingsi affirmed, "Yes, she's not the Xi Xiaye we know anymore. She dared to threaten me. She threatened me right in front of Shen Wenna!"
Xi Xinyi's eyes had mixed emotions as she gave it some thought. "Mother, let's give up on those shares. I'm really fine. I don't want your relationship with Aunt Shen to get worse. If Father gets upset about it, I wouldn't be happy even if we kept Yueying. I really don't care about these as long as I have my family. Moreover, I don't want Aunt Shen and Sis to bear such hostility against us..."
"You don't understand, Xinyi. Both your grandmother and I are already worried that the document is with Shen Wenna who has now given it to Xi Xiaye. Who knows what she's going to do with it? Just look at how she treats you! We're not going to be at peace if she continues being this impudent... Xinyi, you're too soft, and that's why..."
Yue Lingsi did not agree to just let this matter go and neither would Deng Wenwen. The internal drama in Yueying was getting chaotic with so much happening lately. Rumor has it that someone bought shares from the stakeholders at a high price. They would need some countermeasure for it.
"We're worried that if Shen Wenna's shares got into their hands, then Yueying..."
"Don't worry, Mother. Let me think about how to convince Sis. Yueying is Grandmother's hard work, and it's also the legacy of the Xi family. I'm sure Sis wouldn't betray us. We have to believe in her. It's pretty late already. Go and get some sleep."
Xi Xinyi held Yue Lingsi by the shoulder and supported her.
Yue Lingsi nodded. "Alright, you rest earlier too. I'm going to think of another way."
She then walked towards the staircase.
Xi Xinyi stared at the empty staircase. After some time, biting her lip as she hesitated, she took out her phone and swiftly dialed a number.
The call connected quickly.
"Go and confirm how many times did Xi Xiaye go, especially this year. I need specific information," Xi Xinyi ordered.
"I'll let you know in three days." The call ended after a cold reply from the other side.