Chapter 29
Editor: Princess
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Qin Huanxi didn’t miss the panic in Ning Ziyi’s eyes. No matter how composed she appeared on the surface or how hard she tried to maintain her elegant image, her hurried footsteps had already betrayed her inner anxiety. The corners of his lips curved, in a good mood, and even his displeasure at nearly being hit by Fu Yilei vanished without a trace.
With the main troublemaker gone, the crowd gradually dispersed, and the three of them ordered food and found seats.
Whether in his previous life or in this reborn body, Qin Huanxi had always been a pampered young master living in luxury. However, his acceptance of various cuisines was quite high. T University’s student cafeteria food court had specialty snacks from all over the country, and he had always enjoyed eating here.
“By the way, why was Fu Yilei so angry?” Mo Shanshan thought of this question just as she sat down. What had just happened was too sudden for her to think about it then. Moreover, she wondered if it was her imagination, but the usually arrogant Fu Yilei seemed very afraid of Qin Huanxi.
If Qin Huanxi hadn’t been there today, given Su Yang and Fu Yilei’s usual incompatible attitudes, they would have fought until neither could back down. Forget resolving things so quickly. Whether they could even eat peacefully would have been questionable. Just thinking about it gave her a splitting headache.
“Who knows? Isn’t she always this willful and reckless? Maybe the food she ordered didn’t taste good, or someone annoyed her. She might even have thrown a tantrum just because someone in the cafeteria wore clothes in a color that hurt her eyes. She always has various magical reasons when she wants to lose her temper.” Su Yang burst into laughter after saying this.
Mo Shanshan couldn’t help but hold her head. Although Su Yang was being dramatic, given that it was Fu Yilei, it really did sound like something she would do.
Qin Huanxi chuckled softly and lowered his head to drink some soup. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that two couples had sat down at a previously empty table nearby.
“I was really scared just now. Fu Yilei has such a bad temper. That slap made Jiang Li’s face swell up.”
“What? Are you feeling sorry for the handsome guy after seeing him get hit? You girls are so shallow, getting soft-hearted just because you see he’s a rich, good-looking guy.”
“Stop talking nonsense and eat your food properly. I just can’t understand it. Jiang Li’s personal conditions aren’t bad at all. His family is quite wealthy too. I heard his father is the boss of some big company, and he’s not bad-looking either, tall with long legs. You’d think Fu Yilei would treat him a bit better, but instead, she hits and scolds him whenever she wants, not giving him any face in public. She just slapped him right there, and Jiang Li didn’t even make a sound, letting her hit and scold him. You say we girls are shallow, but I think you guys are the lustful ones. Once you see a beautiful woman, you lose your souls. You deserve to be beaten to death…”
“Ahem…” One of the male students coughed lightly, secretly giving desperate looks to the girl who was “speaking eloquently”.
“What?” The girl was just getting excited when someone interrupted her. She shot him an annoyed glare.
“Ahem…” The male student said nothing, pressing his fist to his lips while rolling his eyes toward Qin Huanxi’s direction, signaling for the girl to be mindful of the situation.
Only then did the girl realize her voice had been too loud. Especially when she saw Qin Huanxi and his companions looking at her with smiles, her face instantly burned up. She quickly lowered her head, and because she used too much force, she nearly buried her face in her food.
At this moment, her mind was racing with countless thoughts. She was doomed! How could Qin Huanxi be sitting right next to her? So every word she had just said had fallen into Qin Huanxi’s ears? This was really embarrassing on a grand scale. Being embarrassed in front of Qin Huanxi was even more mortifying than being embarrassed in front of male classmates.
Qin Huanxi didn’t mind much. Although this girl’s appearance was ordinary, especially with Mo Shanshan and Su Yang sitting across from him, her personality was quite refreshing. She seemed accustomed to speaking boldly and directly, without any real malice. Her words were largely joking.
“Was it Jiang Li who made Fu Yilei so angry?” Mo Shanshan turned to ask the male student who had been signaling desperately.
Hearing this, the male student’s whole body stiffened. He looked at Mo Shanshan in disbelief. Then after a few seconds, his neck began to turn red, spreading all the way to his entirely unremarkable face. Even through his glasses, you could see the excited gleam in his small eyes—that kind of ecstatic craziness, as if he had won the lottery.
Mo Shanshan was somewhat puzzled and exchanged glances with Su Yang, who just smiled and shook her head dismissively.
“Hey, snap out of it!” The other girl poked the spaced-out male student hard with the end of her chopsticks.
The male student suddenly came back to his senses, his face turning the color of liver. He scratched his head and ears awkwardly, stealing glances at Mo Shanshan carefully. Then seeing that Mo Shanshan was just eating quietly, her movements gentle and elegant, occasionally looking up to chat with Su Yang and Qin Huanxi across from her, her smile particularly soft,
The male student felt somewhat dejected. He had finally gotten the chance for the goddess of the art department to initiate a conversation with him, yet he had performed so poorly. Not only had he failed to answer the goddess’s question properly, he had also left an extremely bad impression. That had been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of the goddess taking the initiative to talk to him. After missing this village, there wouldn’t be another shop.
“Who is Jiang Li?” Qin Huanxi asked with some curiosity.
From what that girl had said earlier, this Jiang Li should have quite a presence at T University. Earlier, when confronting Fu Yilei, he seemed to have seen a tall male student standing at the back of the crowd, surrounded by several other male and female students. That person had been watching their direction silently, however since there were many onlookers at the time, he hadn’t paid much attention.
Su Yang frowned, thinking: “He seems to be from the law school. I’ve heard people mention him before. He’s one of Fu Yilei’s many pursuers. Their families probably have business dealings, but judging by his attitude toward Fu Yilei, the Jiang family might just be dependent on the Fu family. Otherwise, what man could tolerate being treated like that?”
Qin Huanxi nodded lightly. He was only somewhat curious about Jiang Li and didn’t have any particular interest. What he cared more about was Ning Ziyi. The combination of Ning Ziyi and Fu Yilei, two people with completely opposite personalities, seemed quite incongruous. Besides, he wasn’t clear whether Ning Ziyi had some ulterior motive.
After his rebirth, he had investigated the Ning family’s current situation. During the year when the Ning family had just weathered the crisis, they were indeed severely weakened. He had thought that the Ning family would ultimately fall into the hands of Ning Ziyi’s father—his eldest uncle—but unexpectedly, the one who ended up in power was his younger uncle, Ning Shen!
Qin Huanxi thought contemplatively. His impression of this younger uncle was quite deep, and there seemed to be no grudges between him and his parents. When he was very young, his younger uncle had doted on him. And after his parents died and almost all their assets were used to pay debts, when he moved to an ordinary apartment, only his younger uncle continued to care for him and his little treasure meticulously.
However, for some inexplicable reason, he always felt that his younger uncle gave off a somewhat sinister feeling, with a kind of inexplicable hostility in his eyes. He couldn’t find more appropriate words to express that strange feeling.
In any case, since he started university, his younger uncle’s attitude toward him had changed subtly. Perhaps it was intuition, or maybe he was being overly sensitive, but he didn’t even like getting close to his younger uncle.
At that time, seeing him and his precious baby living so hard, his younger uncle had repeatedly offered to take them in to live together, however he had refused. Given the situation then, everyone in the Ning family was suspicious, and he had never let down his guard against his younger uncle. Especially after his rebirth, knowing the Ning family’s current state, that sense of incongruity grew stronger.
More than once, he felt that what happened back then was probably not as simple as the power struggle in the surface. Although his younger uncle had always been strong, his eldest and second uncles’ attitudes toward his younger uncle also seemed incomprehensible to him. Especially his grandfather. You couldn’t say he disliked his younger uncle, but it didn’t seem quite right either. Overall, he certainly couldn’t be called affectionate. He was very formal towards him, more guarded than anything.
Qin Huanxi lowered his head, stirring absentmindedly with his spoon. Now, investigating his younger uncle would be very difficult and couldn’t be done too obviously. But without relying on the Qin family’s power, investigating a person wouldn’t be so simple, especially when that person was someone with power and influence.
If he asked Mo Shaoheng to help investigate the Ning family, with Mo Shaoheng’s influence, it would be effortless. But what reason could he give Mo Shaoheng to explain this? Unless he revealed his true identity, but then Mo Siyuan’s background would also become transparent, and there was also Mo Shaoheng’s feelings toward him…
He was deeply conflicted. Actually, he hadn’t thought so much at the time. If he had known that this would happen, he would have spent more effort investigating everyone in the Ning family to be prepared.
“Huanxi you might not know, but Ning Ziyi is from the Ning family in S City. Senior Ning Xue’s cousin.” Su Yang suddenly said. “She’s very popular in the law school, famous for being a refined beauty. If you set aside Fu Yilei’s family background, Ning Ziyi is much more popular than her. Moreover, she’s still a member of the Ning family, also born into wealth.”
Qin Huanxi understood. With Ning Ziyi’s personality, naturally she would be better at dealing with people than Fu Yilei, so her popularity wasn’t surprising. He asked casually: “Looking at their personalities, they shouldn’t get along easily, but from what I saw earlier, they seem to have a good relationship.”
Su Yang sneered: “That’s why I say Fu Yilei is big-chested and brainless, comparable to your second uncle’s daughter, Qin Siyu. Ning Ziyi is clearly not simple. Of course, I don’t mean her behavior isn’t proper, but rather her heart—white lotus appearance, black lotus heart. Maybe it’s a woman’s intuition, but women looking at women often have better judgment. Men looking at women are easily deceived by women’s overly glamorous appearances, losing their most basic judgment. Trust me, Miss Su has always been accurate in reading people. When you encounter this type of woman, stay as far away as possible. Don’t get close.”
This time Qin Huanxi couldn’t help but laugh. Although Su Yang often couldn’t control her hot temper and was extremely unwilling to suffer losses, what she said was very reasonable. She could be sharp-tongued, but you couldn’t find fault with her words. Her perception of Ning Ziyi was exactly how he saw Ning Ziyi.
“But with Ning Ziyi’s level, fooling big-chested brainless women like Fu Yilei and shallow women like Qin Siyu is a sure thing, not to mention T University’s vast male population, who completely buy into Ning Ziyi’s gentle, girl-next-door persona.” Su Yang said matter-of-factly.
“Persona?” Qin Huanxi chuckled. “That’s a fresh term.”
“That’s exactly what it is.” Su Yang said as if it were obvious. “Isn’t all her behavior just a character setting she deliberately created for people to see?”
Qin Huanxi raised an eyebrow: “Oh? Then in Miss Su’s opinion, what kind of person should Ning Ziyi be?”
“Didn’t I already say it? White lotus appearance, black lotus heart.” Su Yang calmly took a sip of soup.
“Alright, very succinct summary.” Qin Huanxi laughed, then seemed to remember something and asked Su Yang: “If I remember correctly, you all knew each other since childhood. How did you and Fu Yilei end up being so incompatible?”
“Not just us, this includes you too. We’ve all known each other since childhood.” Su Yang got a headache just thinking about Fu Yilei. “Who knows if there’s been something wrong with her brain capacity since childhood? Every time she sees me and Shanshan, she acts like she’s taken some kind of drug. When we were little at parties, she had to compete with us over who dressed prettier. I really couldn’t be bothered with her. I thought she’d restrain herself when we grew up, but instead, she got worse. Every time we met, she had to confront us, every sentence sharp. Fine, fine, I thought I’d just avoid her, right? But then she thought I was afraid of her and got so arrogant that I finally slapped her.”
“You hit her? When?” Qin Huanxi was very surprised. Since both were young ladies with status and position, fighting would be quite difficult to handle, wouldn’t it?
Su Yang tilted her head to think: “I don’t remember exactly. Probably elementary or middle school?”
Mo Shanshan had been eating quietly and listening to Su Yang and Qin Huanxi chat. When they suddenly brought up childhood matters, she looked at Su Yang and said softly: “It was because of me that Su Yang hit her that time.”
Su Yang was indeed this type of person. Those who didn’t understand her would think she was very willful, no gentler than Fu Yilei. But if you observed carefully, you’d discover that Su Yang’s willfulness had limits. When she lost her temper, she wasn’t being unreasonable. Someone must have crossed her bottom line.
Mo Shanshan remembered very clearly. That was the first and only time Su Yang had physically struck Fu Yilei. They had fought countless times since childhood. Su Yang was used to ignoring her, and when she was in a good mood, she’d argue back a few sentences. When she was in a bad mood, she’d just turn and walk away, leaving Fu Yilei to perform a one-woman show.
Everyone knew she wasn’t favored by Old Madam Mo since childhood, and she had been quite sensitive as a child and cared deeply about adults’ affection for her. So when Fu Yilei mocked and ridiculed her about this, she had been very sad and cried on the spot.
When Su Yang found out, without a word, she rushed up and slapped her, stunning Fu Yilei completely.
“What happened next?” Qin Huanxi asked with great interest.
Mo Shanshan smiled gently: “Since we were all our parents’ precious daughters, when had any of us ever suffered such treatment? Fu Yilei couldn’t beat Su Yang, so she ended up crying and running away. She even brought her big brother Fu Shunfei, wanting him to get revenge for her. But after Fu Shunfei learned the whole story, probably out of consideration for my little uncle’s feelings, he actually made Fu Yilei apologize to me.”
As Mo Shanshan spoke, she couldn’t help but smile. Since her birth, only her little uncle had made her feel the warmth of family, the only warmth. If her little uncle and Su Yang hadn’t been by her side, she didn’t know how dark her childhood would have been. She probably wouldn’t have seen any sunlight at all.
“Oh right, Huanxi, let me tell you a secret.” Su Yang suddenly leaned toward Qin Huanxi mysteriously, blinking her eyes with a particularly gleeful and slightly wicked smile.
“Here you go again.” Mo Shanshan said helplessly before Qin Huanxi could speak.
Qin Huanxi’s curiosity was piqued, and he asked with a smile: “What secret?”
Su Yang rarely broke into an unladylike grin: “That big-chested brainless woman has a great life goal, and that is to marry Uncle Mo! Hahahaha… I’m dying of laughter…”
“Pfft…” Qin Huanxi who was drinking soup nearly spat it out. He grabbed a napkin to wipe the corners of his lips.
“Hahaha…” Su Yang laughed heartily. “Being able to see you lose you composure makes telling you this secret worthwhile.”
Qin Huanxi couldn’t help but smile and shake his head: “Are you sure this is a secret? Uncle Mo doesn’t know?”
“No, no, no, she told Uncle Mo she wanted to marry him when she was in middle school. Later, she even wanted her father to arrange an engagement between her and Uncle Mo.” Su Yang propped her chin on one hand. “But those of us close to Uncle Mo all know that Uncle Mo probably has someone in his heart. Of course, I was kind enough to tell her about this to prevent her from getting in too deep. Better short-term pain than long-term pain, right?”
Qin Huanxi shook his head helplessly. This meal was really full of ups and downs. Once again, he marveled at Mo Shaoheng’s special “constitution”, his ability to attract juniors, especially young girls, who flocked to him one after another. Qin Siyu was one, and now he had to add Fu Yilei…
“Sigh…” Su Yang suddenly sighed, propping her chin on one hand while poking at her dishes with the other. “Do you think the person in Uncle Mo’s heart is really Senior Ning Xue? Senior Ning Xue has already passed away for so many years, yet he adopted the senior’s son. Could it be that he plans to raise Xiao Yuan like this while remaining alone for the rest of his life? Who would have thought that Uncle Mo, who appears so cold and unfeeling, is actually such a devoted person?”
“Pfft…” Qin Huanxi nearly choked again. He took a deep breath, wondering how everyone around Mo Shaoheng—whether it was his precocious little treasure, or Mo Shanshan and Su Yang, Qi Fengyu and He Jingyi—all loved to worry about Mo Shaoheng’s lifelong romantic affairs. If Mo Shaoheng really intended to spend his life alone, this group of people would worry themselves to pieces.
“Matters of the heart are inherently the most difficult to explain clearly. If people could treat emotions so rationally, there wouldn’t be so many people trapped by love. Never mind little uncle—others only see his domineering side, but once faced with emotions, anyone could become a coward who dares not confront reality and only knows how to escape.” Mo Shanshan spoke, then turned to Su Yang. “You don’t need to worry about little uncle’s affairs. You should focus on worrying about yourself instead.”
“Hmph!” Su Yang let out an awkward little snort. “That blockhead, what’s there to worry about? You’re right, he’s just a coward who dares not face reality and only knows how to escape. I can’t be bothered with him.”
Mo Shanshan sighed. “Actually, emotions are often particularly fragile. Even the slightest disturbance can easily destroy what one believes to be an unshakeable relationship. So you, when you can grasp something, hold onto it well. Don’t let yourself end up filled with regret.”
Hearing this, Qin Huanxi turned to look at Su Yang. Su Yang kept her head lowered in silence. He knew that Su Yang had her own clear understanding in her heart. Regarding emotions, outsiders could only offer hints, but many times, emotions were just as Mo Shanshan described. Extremely fragile, shattering so unexpectedly that people couldn’t even be given the chance to feel regret.