Of course, crooked people would definitely be willing to do so.
Across the internet, netizens were demanding that the Pink Piggy be turned in, as if the country’s allies would turn their backs on it and the country itself wouldn’t be able to return to normality otherwise.
Reinitz gazed at her, then after silently contemplating for a while, he finally nodded. “I see how it is.”
Gu Nianzhi was even more surprised by his response.
What on earth was Reinitz thinking?!
They were sworn enemies on opposing sides!
But Reinitz simply continued to stare at her with a faint smile on his face and decided to change the subject to something more lighthearted.
He asked, “Why did you give me back my money? You don’t want the gifts I gave you?”
Gu Nianzhi remained silent.
After a while, she remembered that it was Reinitz who had bought her the Hermès bag, but Huo Shaoheng had wired the money back to Reinitz.
Gu Nianzhi’s eyes flickered.
Reinitz leaned back in his seat and said aloofly, “…Mr. Huo actually knew my bank account number, which really shocked me.”
Shock was an understatement. When he had seen the extraordinary amount of extra money in his bank account, he had felt like he swallowed a whale.
Gu Nianzhi smiled. “Why would that be surprising to you? Major General Reinitz knowing that I would be in the Alps is way more shocking to me.”
Seeing that Gu Nianzhi was finally ready to talk about what truly happened at that time, Reinitz laughed at himself, looked at the red wine glass in his hand, and whispered, “…Doing it comes naturally to me, so I don’t need to be praised for it.”
Gu Nianzhi was blank.
Perhaps it was because they were spending more and more time speaking to each other, or perhaps it was because the smile on Reinitz’s face was growing more and more dazzling, but finally, someone couldn’t sit still any longer.
A member of the German delegation to China came over, smiled, and said to Reinitz in German, “Major General Reinitz, Her Excellency the Chancellor wants to speak to you.”
Reinitz’s eyes wandered to where the German Chancellor was standing and caught sight of her nodding at him.
Reinitz stood up, and the expression in his eyes tacitly told Gu Nianzhi that he would be leaving.
Gu Nianzhi nodded slightly. “Please, feel free to do so.”
After Reinitz left, the beautiful blonde woman that had been eyeing them the entire time came over, and, standing opposite of Gu Nianzhi in the place where Reinitz had just been sitting, she asked courteously, “Can I sit down?”
She spoke American English, which was rare among Germans.
Since Germany was in Europe, when Germans spoke English, British accents were most commonly heard.
On a broad scale, most people in continental Europe spoke English with a British accent.
And this woman is a rare beauty.
There were not many beauties in Germany, but the rare gems never failed to take one’s breath away, so Gu Nianzhi couldn’t help but stare at the woman a few more seconds and say politely, “That seat is not mine to give away.”
The woman said nothing.
Upon seeing Gu Nianzhi’s unwillingness to feign sincerity, she saw no further point in maintaining her facade and decided to drop the act. She sat down and said with a smirk, “Major Reinitz will not mind because he is always taking care of me.”
Gu Nianzhi smiled.
How was she meant to reply?
Regardless of how Reinitz felt, it was none of her business.
She tacitly changed the subject, and narrowing her eyes, she asked, “You came with the German Chancellor?”
“Of course.” The beautiful blonde woman sat up straighter. “I’m the public relations secretary for the Chancellor’s office, and I’m responsible for helping the chancellor coordinate communication between various departments.”
Before then, she hadn’t had the chance to come in personal contact with Major General Reinitz, the distinguished and mysterious head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service.
However, this time, Reinitz unexpectedly came along with the German Chancellor on her visit to China. She saw this as a golden opportunity to get to know him better and thought of various ways to approach Reinitz on the way there. From her point of view, the only thing left was for someone to formally introduce them to break the ice.
But who would have thought that the normally reticent Reinitz would be such a chatterbox to that black-haired, dark-eyed girl, not to mention him smiling so gently towards her?!
Gu Nianzhi could sense this woman’s extreme jealousy, but she thought this woman had the wrong person.
It wasn’t like she was anyone important to Reinitz, so why on earth was this woman acting so jealous and bitter over someone like her?
Gu Nianzhi held her cheeks in her hands and drew her eyebrows tightly together as she looked at the beautiful blonde woman in front of her. She wondered if she, too, had been in the same position as this woman during that time but with Huo Shaoheng. When she saw other women approaching Huo Shaoheng, she became annoyed and jealous as well.
But now that she thought of it, Huo Shaoheng had probably been confused by her jealousy, and she hadn’t really deserved to feel jealous, either.
Seeing as Gu Nianzhi wasn’t responding, the woman thought she had stunned Gu Nianzhi into speechlessness, and her eyes gleamed with pride and arrogance. She smiled and said, “My name is Marthy Paromeo.”
After she finished, she stared at Gu Nianzhi motionlessly, as if waiting for her to kneel and kiss her feet.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t respond.
She felt a little irritated. So what if she came with the German Chancellor? Did she really have to be so condescending and arrogant?
“Wake up, it’s been more than a hundred years since the G-8 dissolved…” she thought.
Since the woman’s eyes weren’t very friendly, Gu Nianzhi planned to give her the diplomatic “equal treatment,” so she put a smile on her face, lifted her jaw slightly to forty-five degrees, and proudly said, “My name is Nianzhi Gu.”
She said it mockingly, as if no one should have had to ask.
Marthy froze. This woman’s reaction was not what she had expected…
Who in Europe, upon hearing her name, didn’t want to kneel down and kiss her feet?
Even the current German chancellor knew it wasn’t wise to neglect her, and everyone knew she wasn’t to be messed with, but was that indifference she sensed from the woman with black hair and dark eyes opposite her?
Marthy frowned, but then soon realized that this wasn’t Europe. The Chinese woman across from her had probably never traveled abroad in her lifetime and certainly didn’t know their family’s status in Europe, so she let it go quickly and said with a smile, “I have an older sister married to the Count of Italy, and I have a younger sister who is dating the Prince of Morocco.”
Gu Nianzhi still looked just as apathetic and unimpressed. “Well then, congratulations.”
This still wasn’t the reaction the blonde woman wanted.
Marthy finally couldn’t restrain herself anymore and asked straightforwardly, “Do you even know who Major General Reinitz is? Don’t be delusional and get your hopes too high. His family would never let him marry a dark-haired dark-eyed oriental woman.”
Gu Nianzhi was stunned into silence.
The absurdity of the very thought!
Although Gu Nianzhi was extremely impatient and annoyed inside, her face remained calm, and she said, “Who are you to Major General Reinitz? His girlfriend or fiancee?”
Marthy stayed silent.
“Tell me. Who are you to him?” Gu Nianzhi looked at Marthy’s sheepish expression, and from how speechless she looked, she knew that this was yet another one of Reinitz’s female fans…
Compared to Marthy, Gu Nianzhi felt a little more dignified and composed. When she had been jealous of Huo Shaoheng interacting with other women, sure, she might have thrown a few tantrums, but she would have never thought of actually facing off with those other women and gloating in front of them.
From how petty and despicable this woman’s actions made her appear despite her physical beauty, Gu Nianzhi was glad that she hadn’t stooped so low.
Marthy was irritated by Gu Nianzhi’s apathy and refusal to admit inferiority.
“You are too ignorant, too narrow-minded, too repulsive!” Marthy’s chest heaved up and down with emotion. “How is it any of your business what I am to Reinitz?”
That was more like it. Now they were bickering on the same level.
Alas, had she really thought that she was superior just because her family was nobility?
It wasn’t that Gu Nianzhi didn’t know beforehand—she had only been feigning ignorance about the Paromeo family’s vast influence over Europe…
Gu Nianzhi leaned back in her soft high-backed chair and said lazily and indifferently, “Miss Marthy Paromeo, your family started a small business. Shakespeare’s play, ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ was based on your ancestors, right? Oh, no, wait, or was it ‘Eugénie Grandet’? Your ancestors made that much money so that you could live a happy and privileged life in the present, so you should cherish it.”
Since her aristocratic life was so good, why did she need to ask for it right there in front of Gu Nianzhi?
Marthy trembled with rage, her face turning red and white.
She hadn’t expected this dark-haired dark-eyed woman to be so knowledgeable about her family’s background!
Although her family had indeed started out humbly as members of the merchant class in Italy, now they had the title of nobility, and they were no lowly businessmen but powerful aristocrats, part of the elite!
So her previous ignorance had all just been an act?
Marthy stood up indignantly and spat some words at Gu Nianzhi. “Major Reinitz belongs to the House of Hohenzollern. Please check the House of Hohenzollern’s royal history before acting so brazen-faced towards me!” Then she left in a fury.
Gu Nianzhi was stunned. The House of Hohenzollern?
That last name sounded very familiar.
When she had followed He Zhichu to Germany for his lawsuit at that time, she meticulously read much information about the European continent, especially European history, contemporary news, and gossip.
There were two types of news in Europe: one concerned the entertainment industry, and the other concerned the legendary royal families, so she had heard of Paromeo’s surname and also remembered reading about the House of Hohenzollern.
The House of Hohenzollern was a royal dynasty that had once ruled the German Empire with an iron fist, but their rule, like the G-8, was overthrown over a hundred years before…
So why had this woman still felt the need to keep throwing big names at her to gloat relentlessly?
Gu Nianzhi couldn’t help but feel aggrieved. “Did those aristocrats really think that they were innately superior to plebeians such as herself because of their so-called ‘blue blood’? Did they really think that they were born to have supremacy over others?” she wondered.
Gu Nianzhi sneered inside, but when she looked up, she saw Reinitz heading towards her. He asked her, “Were you speaking to Marthy just now?”
Gu Nian smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that little princess warned me to stay away from you.”
Reinitz moved closer and laughed at her, his voice soft and tender. “…In that case, I’ll have to move closer to you, lest you run so far away that I can’t catch up.”
