A bright black Bentley stopped at the entrance of the pet shop. Shen Lingge sat in the car sending text messages to Chi Yanyu. Wen Xian had gone to buy cat food and toys for Qiuqiu; he was waiting for her in the car.
[Shen Lingge: Does Chi Jiaojiao like to eat snacks?]
[Chi Yanyu: That little girl already has a whole bunch of cavities.]
[Shen Lingge: How do you manage her?]
[Chi Yanyu: Deduct her pocket money, confiscate comic books.]
Pocket money was given by Wen Xian. Shen Lingge: “……”
[Shen Lingge: Any other methods?]
[Chi Yanyu: Conditional exchange. For example, if she doesn’t eat snacks, I buy her skirts, buy her bags, and so on.]
[Shen Lingge: I’ll try.]
[Chi Yanyu: ?]
[Chi Yanyu: I remember last time you asked me what if someone liked Jiaojiao?]
[Chi Yanyu: You wouldn’t…?]
[Chi Yanyu: Now you’re asking me again what snacks Jiaojiao likes to eat?]
[Shen Lingge: .]
[Shen Lingge: I recently started raising a child.]
[Chi Yanyu: …That one from the last time you called?]
[Shen Lingge: Mm, talk when I get back.]
When Wen Xian came back holding the cat food, after getting in the car, the first sentence she heard from Shen Lingge was: “Wen Xian, open your mouth and let me see, how many cavities do you have?”
Wen Xian: “……?”
Wen Xian looked at Shen Lingge with a baffled expression: “What are you doing?”
Shen Lingge patiently repeated it again, his gaze carried a slight sense of pressure, his tall figure also leaned in toward Wen Xian, looking as if if she didn’t let him see, he would force it.
Wen Xian felt a little unnatural being looked at by him. His gaze was just falling on her lips.
After being awkward for a while, she mumbled: “I don’t have cavities.”
As she spoke, she shifted her gaze away and slightly opened her mouth: “Ah—”
Shen Lingge leaned in close to Wen Xian, carefully stared at her bright white shell-like teeth and swept over them once, confirming that she didn’t have cavities. After that, he pulled back the distance between them, then drew a card from his wallet and handed it to her.
Wen Xian stared at this card for a while: “Isn’t this the card I gave you? Didn’t it already change to your number?”
Shen Lingge nodded: “There’s some money in it now. Now I’ll take you to the bank to change the bound number back. I’ll transfer money into it every month. In these two days, I’ll accompany you to look at houses.”
Wen Xian paused: “You’re going to transfer money to me? And looking at houses, for what?”
Shen Lingge tilted his head: “Didn’t I tell you last time that I took that one hundred thousand yuan and went to invest in stocks? Now there’s some money in it. Although it’s not much, it’s enough for you to buy a new house.”
Wen Xian was dazed.
Not a lot, but enough to buy a new house.
So in Shen Lingge’s place, what does money mean?
Half an hour later.
Wen Xian came out holding the card with a face full of daze. Just now, she had checked the card balance at the counter. She counted several times before confirming that after the first number, there were six zeros.
After she came back to herself, she immediately ran back to the car.
She swallowed her saliva and asked: “Gege, this is all the money you earned from stock trading?”
Shen Lingge looked completely calm: “Mm.”
But Wen Xian wasn’t as happy as he imagined. She looked at the card in her hand with a tangled face, instead showing a somewhat worried appearance.
Shen Lingge asked: “What’s wrong?”
Wen Xian stared blankly at him for a glance, muttering: “I always feel like I’m cheating…”
Although Wen Xian’s words were without head or tail, Shen Lingge understood.
He sighed and rubbed the little girl’s head. Her small face was full of worry. He said in a low voice: “You haven’t done anything wrong, don’t worry. If you’re worried, this money can also be donated.”
Wen Xian lowered her head looking at the card in her hand.
She slowly shook her head: “This is the value you created. Its existence is reasonable.”
She pursed her lips, tilted her head and asked: “Gege, do you want to change to a bigger house?”
Shen Lingge raised his eyebrows: “I want to sleep on a bed.”
On the way home, Wen Xian kept thinking about changing houses. In the end, as if making some kind of decision, she said to Shen Lingge: “Gege, if there is only one villa on the mountain, just the two of us living there, would you be scared?”
Shen Lingge parked the car in the parking lot, quietly looked at her for a while before saying: “Can you?”
Wen Xian looked at him and softly said: “As long as there’s you, I can.”
Shen Lingge patted her head: “When we get back, I’ll think about it. Let’s go home first.”
After Wen Xian obediently agreed, she got out of the car holding the cat food. Shen Lingge carried the bag following behind Wen Xian. The two of them, one in front and one behind, entered the elevator. In front of them, there was also an elderly couple.
After swiping the card to enter the elevator, Wen Xian naturally waited for Shen Lingge to press the floor. Shen Lingge stretched out his long arm and pressed the floor. Neither of them noticed anything wrong.
Until the gray-haired old lady beside Wen Xian gently asked: “Little girl, you and your husband have been married for two years now, right?”
Wen Xian froze for a moment, then immediately looked at Shen Lingge with a red face. She turned her head and softly explained: “Grandma, he’s not my husband. We’re not married.”
Grandma smiled with narrowed eyes and glanced at Shen Lingge: “Still a boyfriend, oh, pretty good, young man knows how to take care of people.”
Wen Xian blinked: “……”
Actually, saying boyfriend wasn’t wrong either.
During this, Wen Xian’s face kept burning hot, while Shen Lingge beside her remained motionless like a mountain as if he hadn’t heard anything.
It wasn’t until they walked out of the elevator that he hooked his lips and looked at her: “Why didn’t you explain just now that you’re my master?”
After Wen Xian opened the door, she raised her eyes and met Shen Lingge’s gaze, speaking with full righteousness: “Do you know this is also a kind of fun between couples? These two things are equal sign!”
[Note: “equal sign” here implies that being boyfriend-girlfriend and being master-servant are the same kind of relationship dynamic in her meaning, expressed playfully.]
Shen Lingge was, for a moment, unable to refute.
After returning home, Wen Xian went into the kitchen, while Shen Lingge began to serve the two little ones at home. Qiuqiu lay by the kitchen door watching for a while, then strolled over to Shen Lingge’s side to nestle.
Zanzan was curling its little tail playing inside its little villa.
While taking advantage of this moment, Shen Lingge looked over the detailed information of that lawyer Wen Xian had found.
Before meeting Wen Tianlin, Jiang Zhengming was just a poor student. At that time, when he saw injustice on the road and helped an old person, Wen Tianlin happened to pass by, so Wen Tianlin got out of the car and gave Jiang Zhengming his business card.
And even invited him to work at Wen Group after graduation.
For Jiang Zhengming, this was like an opportunity to ascend in one step. From then on, he studied even harder, and after graduating from graduate school, he entered Wen Group.
Wen Tianlin was only a few years older than Jiang Zhengming, and the relationship between the two had always been very good. Jiang Zhengming had never made a mistake while at Wen Group; he was excellent in his profession.
Until Wen Tianlin passed away, Wen Group fell into internal chaos, and only then did Jiang Zhengming voluntarily resign from Wen Group.
In these years, he opened his own law firm.
Shen Lingge checked his financial transactions and found no abnormalities. After carefully reviewing the information, he was assured about Wen Xian going to meet Jiang Zhengming.
It seemed Wen Tianlin trusted Jiang Zhengming very much, and Jiang Zhengming also abided by the promise between him and Wen Tianlin. But Shen Lingge still held a certain degree of doubt regarding Qin Huai’s words.
Why did it have to wait until Wen Xian got married? Afraid someone would approach her because of her money?
The more Shen Lingge thought about it, the more he felt his deduction was reasonable. After all, that little girl was silly and foolish; if not being bullied, then being deceived.
Actually, in this life, she was supposed to be safe and smooth, but fate played tricks.
–+
Tonight’s dinner was very sumptuous. Because of Shen Lingge’s sentence at noon—“How about eating at home”—Wen Xian almost brought out all her absolute skills.
She made three dishes and one soup, among which one was her most skilled dish: red-braised pork. This was originally Wen Tianlin’s favorite dish. These past four years, she had been learning how to make this dish well.
So this was one of the dishes she made best.
Shen Lingge also gave her a lot of face. At lunch, he had only eaten a few bites of the restaurant’s food, but during dinner, he ate two bowls of rice. The two of them spent half an hour finishing these dishes.
At 7:30 in the evening.
Wen Xian arrived at the location she had agreed on with Jiang Zhengming, while Shen Lingge waited for her in the car.
She originally thought she would have to wait until 8 o’clock, but unexpectedly, Jiang Zhengming arrived five minutes later.
Jiang Zhengming was a middle-aged man around forty years old. He wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses, dressed in a suit, and was holding a briefcase in his hand. It looked like he had just rushed over from the law firm.
Wen Xian quickly stood up and called out: “Hello, Lawyer Jiang.”
Jiang Zhengming looked at her carefully for two glances before saying: “These years, have you been doing well? Miss Wen.”
Wen Xian lightly nodded her head: “I’ve been doing very well.”
After the two sat down and ordered tea, Jiang Zhengming asked Wen Xian a few more questions, all about her life these past years. It wasn’t until after the tea was served that Jiang Zhengming hesitated and asked: “Miss Wen, I heard this morning that your engagement with the Qin family was cancelled?”
Wen Xian was slightly stunned; she hadn’t expected the news to spread so quickly. It seemed Qin Huai still hadn’t called her until now—probably Qin Zan had helped.
She answered: “Yes, I came today also for this matter.”
Jiang Zhengming’s expression paused slightly: “Miss Wen, what do you want to know? If I can help you, I will definitely do my utmost.”
Wen Xian hesitated for a moment, probingly asked: “Lawyer Jiang, regarding my parents, did they have any other things they entrusted to you?”
Jiang Zhengming put down the teacup and carefully pondered her words. After a while, he furrowed his brows and said: “The only thing Mr. Wen entrusted to me before his death was to have you sign that document when you became an adult, and then take you to the bank.”
Wen Xian suddenly asked: “When did my father entrust this matter to you?”
Jiang Zhengming recalled for a moment: “It was January, four years ago.”
In that instant, Wen Xian only felt as if all the blood in her whole body was soaked in ice water full of frost, her fingertips trembling slightly as she touched the scalding teacup, lowering her eyes to cover all the emotions in them.
She had always thought this was something Wen Tianlin had prepared for her long ago, but unexpectedly, in terms of time, it was that rushed.
It was also January four years ago that Wen Xian got engaged to Qin Song.
8 o’clock in the evening.
Wen Xian slowly walked out of the tea house. When she got into the car, her head was still buzzing, until Shen Lingge’s low voice rang in her ear: “Wen Xian, Wen Xian? Xian Xian, what’s wrong?”
Wen Xian suddenly turned her head to look at him. In his black eyes, there was undisguisable worry.
After a long while, Wen Xian suddenly leaned over and hugged Shen Lingge. She tightly wrapped her arms around Shen Lingge’s neck, her voice trembling: “Hold me, I’m so cold.”