“Bye, CFO Long! See you tomorrow!”
“Goodbye, everyone!” Long Jinjing waved at the company employees before climbing inside the waiting car.
Robin closed the door and got on the driver’s seat. “Where to, Miss Jinjing? Dragon Palace?”
“My condo first. I need to pack a few things.”
“Got it, Miss.”
“Thanks, Robin.”
“No problem, Miss.”
The car began moving. Long Jinjing noticed a golden-eyed, black cat staring at her from the dashboard monitor.
She smiled and greeted her AI nephew. “Hello, Bacon.”
“Greetings, Aunt Jinjing.”
“How are you?”
“Bacon is fine. Thank you for asking.”
She chuckled. The wonder of being able to chat with her cat AI nephew still hadn’t worn on off yet. Perhaps it never would. It was just too amazing. Her younger sister, Xiulan, was truly a genius.
Bacon had been accompanying her almost every day. He would even help her out at work sometimes when she was pressed for time, but of course, he didn’t forget to ask her for payment for his assistance. Lu Zihao had already mentioned to her beforehand that Bacon liked money, calling the kid a “little money-grubbing devil”.
Long Jinjing didn’t mind paying Bacon as long as he did his assigned tasks well. It was just that the kid had a tendency to ask for an exorbitant amount as his remuneration. Fortunately, she was not a pushover when it came to negotiating about money. As long as money was involved, she would never allow herself to be on the losing side as much as possible. In the end, Bacon could only reluctantly agree to accept a lower remuneration than he initially asked.
At first, Long Jinjing thought that Bacon liked spending time with her, hence why he was always accompanying her a lot recently. However, Bacon confessed to her after she “bribed” him with a red packet that his Uncle Zihao ordered him to keep an eye on her. Ever since the incident when she unknowingly met Wei Lan’s Spanish stepson at a menswear boutique, it seemed that Lu Zihao immediately increased the security around her. Bacon told her that there were many Shadow Winds members guarding her besides Shun and Robin that she couldn’t see every single day. Of course, he boasted that he was the best out of all of them.
She was upset upon learning that Lu Zihao had her followed everywhere without her knowledge and was ready to argue with him about it. However, when she remembered all the things that she had seen at Shadow Winds headquarters when he brought her there and revealed his secret criminal identity, she couldn’t stop herself from shivering.
The truth was that she still felt afraid of Lu Zihao’s criminal background. She wasn’t afraid of him per se but of all the dangers that came with him being the leader of a criminal group. This was why even though she didn’t like that he ordered his people to follow her everywhere, she felt safer from hidden enemies albeit uncomfortable.
Until now, she still hadn’t completely processed everything that Lu Zihao revealed to her. Her love for him hadn’t changed, not at all, but her moral values kept on urging her to stay away from him. However, she just couldn’t do that. She loved the man so much.
Perhaps this was the reason why she decided not to kick up a fuss when Lu Zihao took it upon himself to send a number of his subordinates to secretly protect her from the shadows without consulting her first. She still needed more time to completely process everything about his revelation first and what it meant to their future together—IF they would have a future together. She hoped that they would always be together, of course, but time would tell if her wish would come true.
For now, she would take things as they came while trying to live with the knowledge that her boyfriend was basically a criminal with a whole army of criminal underlings.
She sighed and watched the busy highway road outside the car window. Then she asked, “Is your uncle busy right now? Can I call him?”
“Please wait, Aunt Jinjing. Bacon will ask Uncle Zihao now.”
Before she could tell him never mind, Bacon had already disappeared. She released another sigh, heavier this time. It took more than a minute before the black cat AI reappeared in the dashboard monitor.
“Aunt Jinjing, Bacon is back. Now connecting Uncle Zihao to you in 3…2…1.”
Long Jinjing didn’t even have time to prepare herself when Lu Zihao’s voice filled the entire car.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Her heart skipped a beat. His voice was already like sex on its own. “Uhm, am I disturbing you?”
There were some unidentified background noises on his line. A few seconds later, things sounded quieter. Maybe he moved somewhere else.
“It’s fine,” he said. “The kid said that you want to talk to me?”
She bit her lower lip and knew that he must be busy. “I just miss you.”
A slight pause, then he replied, “Hm. I miss you, too.”
A wide smile spread across her face. She was pleased that he was getting more and more comfortable in telling her this kind of sweet words. What she wanted to hear the most, however, was him telling her that he loved her, but this too was already okay. For now. She would wait until the day that he could love her as much as she loved him.
“I need to go now,” he said. “The old man expects both of us to eat dinner with the others at Dragon Palace tonight.”
“I know. Grandpa Lu called me earlier today. I’ll head straight there after getting some things from my condo.”
“Good.” Pause. “Don’t let other motherfucking bastards flirt with you, especially a certain Spaniard who doesn’t know his place.”
She pouted. “I know already! You’ve already repeated this warning so many times. And even if another man flirts with me, it’s not like I’m going to flirt back!”
“Of course. That’s because you’re mine.” His tone sounded smug. “Alright, I really need to go. See you at dinner.”
“Okay, see you. I love you.”
“Hm.”
The call ended.
In a good mood, Long Jinjing fished out her phone to search for ideas online about appropriate presents for the upcoming Christmas gathering that her sister and brother-in-law were throwing soon.
