Chapter 6: When to Get Married 6
Several pairs of eyes met.
Ning Qingqing stood still, looking at the four people in the elevator, suddenly feeling as if an invisible wall separated them.
Shen Zhiqian and the others were inside the wall, while she was outside.
A storm of emotions raged within her, but she had suppressed them all in an instant, not betraying a single emotion in her eyes.
“Hello, Mr. Shen,” Ning Qingqing politely nodded to Shen Zhiqian’s father, Shen Yeyuan, then her gaze fell on Shen Zhiqian, her eyes calm and unwavering.
Just as she was about to greet him, her phone rang. Ning Qingqing quickly took her phone out of her bag, inexplicably relieved.
She nodded slightly to the people inside, stepped back, and gestured for them to go first.
So, Si Luoqing’s manager, standing at the elevator entrance, pressed the close button, and the elevator doors closed beside Ning Qingqing.
She went to the emergency stairwell to answer a client’s call: “Okay, Manager Zhang, we’ve got the results, and I’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible…”
After the call, Ning Qingqing stood in the stairwell, not immediately returning to her office.
After a while, her phone rang again, this time it was Shen Zhiqian.
“Qingqing, I just got back from a client and met my dad on the way back to the office, so I didn’t have time to ask you out for dinner,” Shen Zhiqian said. “Come down now, let’s go to your favorite restaurant.”
Ning Qingqing didn’t know why Shen Zhiqian could speak so naturally. She asked back, “Would it be convenient for you if I went over?”
Shen Zhiqian said, “It’s just me. My dad and they went to the restaurant separately.”
So, Shen Yeyuan and Si Luoqing went together? Sure enough, childhood sweethearts and family friends are different!
“You go eat with them, I’m not hungry,” Ning Qingqing said. “I’ve already ordered takeout, it’ll be here soon.”
“Qingqing, are you angry?” Shen Zhiqian’s tone became a little cautious. He explained, “I didn’t know Si Luoqing would be here, it was just a coincidence in the elevator.”
Ning Qingqing believed Shen Zhiqian, just as she had told Qiao Xiaomian, her problems with Shen Zhiqian had never been about a third party.
It’s just that the third party is like a mirror reflecting demons, clearly illuminating the cracks in their relationship!
If Shen Zhiqian really had plans for the future, he would have directly called her just now. Shen Zhiqian’s concern was Shen Yeyuan, not Si Luoqing!
“I’m not angry,” Ning Qingqing didn’t want to discuss these private matters at the company. “My birthday is coming soon, let’s go back to school then, take some pictures.”
Shen Zhiqian heard the calmness in Ning Qingqing’s voice and felt relieved. “Okay, I’ll hire a photographer to shoot.”
Hanging up the phone, Ning Qingqing went to the restroom, splashed some water on her face, and then returned to her seat.
She picked up the desk calendar and circled her 25th birthday. Counting with the tip of her pen, she found that there were only 9 days left.
Exactly 9, as if each day of the countdown corresponds to the one year she’s been with Shen Zhiqian.
This is good.
She almost foresaw the answer, but she still wanted to give herself these 9 days to uncover the final result.
At this time, there was a commotion in the tea room, it must be those two employees coming back after finishing their meal.
Ning Qingqing instinctively frowned and went back to the elevator. This time she didn’t meet anyone, she went straight to the lobby and walked out of the building.
She wasn’t very hungry and didn’t know what to eat casually. Walking on the fast-paced financial street, everyone was rushing, only her pace was quite slow.
At this time, a black business car passed by on the road beside her.
The man in the back seat inadvertently turned his head and saw Ning Qingqing walking on the roadside.
“Stop,” Gu Youchen said to the driver.
The driver quickly pulled over and stopped slowly.
Ning Qingqing caught sight of a car stopping on the road beside her, but she ignored it; she didn’t have the energy to care.
How many nine-year periods can a person have in their life? Sometimes making a decision sounds easy, but in reality, it’s a severance from one’s past.
She couldn’t truly be calm.
In the car, Gu Youchen’s hand, which was on the car door handle, paused, and the movement of opening the door stopped.
He just watched Ning Qingqing walk away.
This was the first time he saw such emotions on her. He hadn’t even seen her face, but just her back alone made him feel as if his heart was weighed down by something heavy.
“Mr. Gu?” The driver thought Gu Youchen knew the girl next door, but seeing that the person was already far away, and Gu Youchen didn’t react at all, he couldn’t help but speak out.
“Drive slowly,” Gu Youchen said.
Although the driver didn’t understand, he saw from the rearview mirror that Gu Youchen’s eyes were fixed on the girl outside.
So, he started the car again, following Ning Qingqing, but at a very slow speed.
Ning Qingqing walked for a while and arrived at the entrance of a coffee shop. She sat down in an outdoor chair and casually ordered something.
Catching a glimpse out of the corner of her eye, Ning Qingqing saw a black car parked about ten meters away from her.
She didn’t think she needed to be followed, so she didn’t bother to pay attention.
In the car, Gu Youchen searched and operated on his phone, occasionally looking towards Ning Qingqing.
He saw Ning Qingqing pick up her phone.
In front of the coffee booth, Ning Qingqing stirred the latte art while opening her chat history with Shen Zhiqian.
She had never deleted their chat history; even when she changed phones, she transferred it all.
She searched for keywords and finally found the topic where she discussed a certain wedding dress brand.
And below was Shen Zhiqian’s reply: “If you like wedding dresses, I’ll have one custom-made and sent to you later.”
Not that we can wear it when we get married, but as a regular commodity, buy it home to play with…
Ning Qingqing chuckled to herself, haha, how self-deceptive she was before, that she had always deliberately ignored this issue?
She didn’t look at the chat history anymore, but went straight to her Moments. Just a glance, and she was somewhat surprised.
She saw that her Moments were filled with posts from the same person—
Keith: “The company is holding a ball game, for every goal scored, we donate 50 kuai to Hope Project. The game ended, I congratulated Xiao Wang: Amazing goal scorer, congratulations on winning the MVP! Xiao Wang replied to me: Congratulations my ass, almost got fired!”
Keith: “Once upon a time, there was a swordsman, he was very cold, and then…he froze to death.”
Keith: “When my brother was born, my family was very poor, so I named him Wangcai (meaning ‘prosperous wealth’). One day, the village chief’s house was robbed, and he saw me and said, ‘Can I borrow your Wangcai to watch the door?’ I was so annoyed with taking care of the kids, so I handed him the baby in the swaddling clothes.”
Keith: “Old Zhang has a neighbor surnamed Wang, Old Zhang’s wife is pregnant, so what is the child’s surname?”
Ning Qingqing couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
What’s wrong with Gu Youchen, suddenly posting jokes on Moments, is he quitting his job as a boss to become a joke writer?
The jokes he posted almost flooded the screen, some were cold jokes, and some were really funny.
Ning Qingqing read them one by one, unknowingly finishing what she had ordered.
Just as she was about to exit, she saw Gu Youchen share a video, so she clicked on it.
The video was an animation, a stuttering man queuing up to register his identity information, but because of his stutter, the 11-digit phone number was spoken as 27 digits. The registrar was dumbfounded: “Do you have to drive a Rolls-Royce to deserve such a long phone number?”
This time Ning Qingqing really couldn’t hold back, she sat in her seat and laughed, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
Feeling that this wasn’t very ladylike, it was really funny, especially the accent of the staff in it was particularly funny, and the expressions of the people queuing up behind were also quite rich.
She watched it twice in a row, laughing the whole time.
In the car, Gu Youchen looked at Ning Qingqing’s profile, and the corners of his lips couldn’t help but curl up.
Just then, his phone rang, it was a call from his best friend Zhou Linghang: “Brother Chen, is something wrong with your WeChat? Is it hacked?”
Gu Youchen frowned: “What do you mean?”
Zhou Linghang said: “I just knew it wasn’t you! Your phone was hacked by some idiot, constantly posting funny jokes! Hey, don’t say it, some jokes are pretty funny, I can’t help but laugh. I think that idiot probably planned to post jokes and then start sending scam messages!”
Gu Youchen’s whole aura turned cold, he said word by word: “I posted the jokes myself.”
Then, he hung up the phone directly.
His phone was still on the WeChat Moments interface, so the newly added comments and likes were refreshed again.
Gu Youchen hadn’t originally intended to pay attention, but as he was exiting, he saw Ning Qingqing’s avatar.
Ning Qingqing had liked three of his jokes, and commented on the last video: “So what is his phone number?”
On the other side of the booth, Ning Qingqing also got up to check out after posting the comment.
Gu Youchen’s car finally drove away and disappeared without a trace.
After Ning Qingqing returned to the company, she had a rather urgent job to deal with, and it was already past 5 pm when she finished.
She stretched her neck and casually checked her Moments on her phone.
She received a reply, sent by Gu Youchen, just a string of numbers, exactly an 11-digit phone number—
18233337777.
Ning Qingqing looked at the string of numbers in doubt, and then looked at the video again.
She found that the number the stuttering man reported in the video clearly had a 4 and a 6, while this one, except for the beginning 182, the rest were repeating digits, seemingly specially selected numbers.
A guess surged in Ning Qingqing’s heart—Could this be Gu Youchen’s phone number?
She was startled by her own thought, but quickly denied it. Gu Youchen is the only heir to the Gu family, how much is the Gu family worth, and how much is he worth, how could he easily give his number to a stranger?
Although she thought so, Ning Qingqing still couldn’t help but reach out and search for the keyword—Gu Youchen on Baidu.
Thus, the man’s basic information appeared, along with his date of birth.
It was: March 7th.
Author’s Note:
Brother Chen: Even without a trick, I can’t even give my number to my wife~
Save it, save it!
Speaking of which, I should have posted this a few days earlier, so I could have caught the 520 or 521 breakup everyone wanted, woo woo, but it doesn’t matter, everything in the manuscript will be there, everyone wait for me, the breakup is really coming soon~~