Chapter 1251 — Guessed Right

Watching everyone set into their chicken legs, Tang Yun felt a quiet contentment. Life was truly strange — she had never in her wildest dreams imagined that she would become good friends with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. All three of them had once been hailed as the beauties of the school, yet Tang Yun knew all too well the distance between herself and the other two.

One was a commoner's beauty; the other, a pampered heiress. If it had not been for Wei Zhao, Tang Yun might never have broken bread with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu before graduation — let alone gone out with them or slept in the same tent.

After graduation everyone would scatter to the four winds, with no chance of crossing paths again. Perhaps, at a class reunion some years hence, Gu Mengyao would have taken over the Gu Consortium with little Shu at her side, the two of them more dazzling than ever, while she herself, ground down by the years, would have become just like her mother.

Thinking it over carefully now, her mother's damnable snobbery was not without reason after all — who does not want a better life? Only the old her had understood none of it, and never once considered it. Thank heaven she had met Wei Zhao, and that once she did, everything changed utterly.

Perhaps, at some reunion years from now, she would still be sitting beside the young lady and little Shu. Life really was full of wonders.

"Since Yunyun and I are hosting the benefit gala, we certainly won't get to enter the singing contest. So if you and Xiaoxiao want to take part, just go ahead — all right?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"If Sister Yao isn't going, I'm not going either," Shen Yushu said.

"If Sister Yun isn't going, I'm not going either," Feng Xiaoxiao said.

Gu Mengyao and Tang Yun exchanged a glance, briefly lost for words. In that instant it seemed to the young lady that Tang Yun had truly grown formidable. Before anyone noticed it, Feng Xiaoxiao had slipped into her camp, and now the two sides appeared evenly matched.

Should another war break out, it would end two against two — a draw.

But now the likelihood of any such war seemed exceedingly small. Even if Feng Xiaoxiao really left, the three of them could never return to that former state of drawn blades. The friendship had, after all, already taken root; no one would have the face to fall out again — they could only accept one another and endure in silence.

Gu Mengyao wondered whether this was a good thing or a bad one. Hmm... what did it matter to her either way? She had never liked Wei Zhao to begin with — that was right, she did not like him.

In the afternoon the school swapped its lessons for self-study, and each class sent a few of its better singers out to the playground for the opening round of the singing contest. None of it concerned them, so Wei Zhao, Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, Tang Yun and Feng Xiaoxiao did not go to watch; they stayed in their own classrooms, studying in silence.

Qiu Lingshan drove to Donghai, the provincial capital, and there, in a hotel room, met Yang Huaijun.

Had it been anyone else, Qiu Lingshan would never have gone somewhere as compromising as a hotel room — if word got out, it would look as though she had been seducing her superior to climb her way up. But with Yang Huaijun it didn't matter.

Everyone at the bureau knew that Qiu Lingshan had always treated Yang Huaijun as her own big brother, and that Yang Huaijun looked after her in turn. Beyond that brother-and-sister affection, there was truly nothing else between them.

Of course, that was also because Yang Huaijun was an upright man, with no tittle-tattle attached to his name; otherwise, who could say.

"Director Yang, I'm not interrupting your work, am I?" Qiu Lingshan was overjoyed to see Yang Huaijun. Not long after she had been promoted to head of the criminal investigation squad, he had been seconded away, and she had not laid eyes on him since. Meeting him here now, she felt an especially warm sense of familiarity.

"Hehe — Little Song, we're not at the office. Just call me Big Brother Yang; why 'Director'? It makes us sound so distant!" Yang Huaijun was looking much improved of late. Ever since he took the Chinese medicine Wei Zhao had given him, his injuries had come under control, the pain had largely gone, and he felt a great deal lighter all over.

"All right, Big Brother Yang it is, then!" In Yang Huaijun's presence Qiu Lingshan was every bit the well-behaved little sister. Only, she regarded him purely as an idol, with nothing of romance mixed into it — admiration was one thing, love another altogether.

For some reason Qiu Lingshan was suddenly struck by a thought: was Wei Zhao perhaps even more formidable than the Big Brother Yang she so revered? The moment the idea surfaced she felt a pang of guilt. She was, after all, only an ordinary woman — find a lover, and forget her brother.

"What's the matter with you? Why does your face keep changing color, red one moment and white the next?" Yang Huaijun asked, studying her with some puzzlement.

"N-nothing..." Qiu Lingshan shook her head quickly, faintly embarrassed. "Someone just popped into my head for a moment... it's nothing."

"Oh? Who were you thinking about? Don't tell me it was your boyfriend?" Taking in her expression, Yang Huaijun threw out a tease.

"N-no! Not at all!" Qiu Lingshan nearly jumped out of her skin, thinking to herself: surely not — Big Brother Yang really did come up through criminal investigation; he had read her mind at a single glance.

"Hmm?" Yang Huaijun had only asked out of idle curiosity and had not expected that reaction. It seemed he had guessed right. He could not help smiling as he asked, "Wei Zhao?"

"Ah?" Qiu Lingshan started, and remembering the bond between Wei Zhao and Yang Huaijun, hurriedly shook her head in denial. "No such thing..."

"Looks like I guessed right." Yang Huaijun laughed. "We're all on the same side here — still hiding things from me?"

"Um... Wei Zhao once said you were his comrade-in-arms. That you knew each other before?" The words had left her mouth before she thought; then she added hastily, "Anyway, there's nothing between Wei Zhao and me — we're just ordinary friends. He doesn't like me that way."

"Oh? He told you all that? You two must be closer than I thought." Yang Huaijun looked at her with a half-smile.

Wei Zhao had no wish to dwell on the past; but if he had told her all this, it meant their relationship had already reached a certain level of intimacy — otherwise he would never have said such things to her.

"Well... a little better than ordinary friends, I suppose..." Qiu Lingshan had wanted to say — we even took our clothes off — but the words died in her mouth. It was too humiliating: she had stripped off her clothes, and Wei Zhao hadn't so much as stirred.

"Hehe, honestly, speaking as your big brother, I'd be quite happy to see you and Wei Zhao together. I know what you look for in a husband, and Wei Zhao happens to fit it exactly — marry him, and I'll rest easy." Yang Huaijun paused. "Only, I wonder how your old man would feel about it?"

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