Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Qi Chengzhi knew exactly how Song Yu felt. She removed her face from the pillow and looked at him with a smile. “Mm.”
…
…
Qi Chengzhi made sure they were both neat, and by then, lunch break had just finished.
Song Yu was feeling really sleepy. She closed her eyes lazily and fell asleep, leaving Qi Chengzhi to continue doing work.
At about three in the evening, Mu Huaisheng called him.
“You saw the news.” Qi Chengzhi looked at the still-sleeping Song Yu and walked to the window, speaking softly there.
“This is Sisi’s fault. My words did not affect her, but I’ll make sure to put a strict watch on her next time. How’s Song Yu?” Mu Huaisheng asked from the other end of the line.
“She was mostly angry that your sister touched me. She didn’t believe the rest.” Qi Chengzhi then remarked bluntly, “Huaisheng, my family came out this time to give one, and only one, warning. If there’s ever a next time, I won’t spare your dignity either.”
Mu Huaisheng was silent for a moment before saying, “I understand. Are you free tonight? I booked a room at the Red Roof Club. I want to apologize to your wife. I won’t be bringing Mu Sisi, of course.
After coming to B City, Mu Huaisheng asked around for some high-end places. One was Dynasty, while the other was the Red Roof Club—in both places, the application to become a member had strict vetting procedures, requiring also a referral by someone else.
In that regard, Wei Ziqi—by virtue of Mu Huaisheng’s potential cooperation with Wu Feng—settled it all for him relatively easily.
Even so, it was not easy to book a room at the Red Roof Club, but Yan Beicheng found out that it was Mu Huaisheng who wanted to book the room. Realizing that it probably had something to do with the news earlier that morning, Yan Beicheng reserved it for Mu Huaisheng out of respect for Qi Chengzhi.
Qi Chengzhi turned to Song Yu and noticed that she was awake.
Afraid to wake her up, he had earlier silenced his phone.
“I’ll talk to her about it first and ask for her opinion.” Qi Chengzhi began speaking in his normal volume. “I’ll tell you soon.”
“What is it?” Song Yu asked after Qi Chengzhi hung up.
“Did you wake up because you heard me on the phone?” He walked over and sat beside her. He was leaning on the pillow, and she was leaning against him.
“No, I woke up naturally,” she reassured. Song Yu had slept well, but when she was nearly awake, she heard Qi Chengzhi’s voice, which then roused her up completely.
“Mu Huaisheng called. He wants to personally apologize to you about what happened with Mu Sisi,” Qi Chengzhi explained. “He booked a room at the Red Roof Club. I haven’t given him an answer yet because I want to ask you first.”
Song Yu looked down and mulled over it for a moment. She then said, “Let’s just go. I trust your opinion of others. If he’s a good person, there’s no need to involve him with what his sister did.”
…
…
After work, Qi Chengzhi drove to the Red Roof Club with Song Yu.
The attendant brought them to the room that Mu Huaisheng booked. He was already waiting there.
Hearing the door click open, he looked up and saw Qi Chengzhi coming in with Song Yu. His expression, though warm, seemed slightly embarrassed.
He stood up and smiled at Song Yu. “Thank you for coming, Song Yu.”
She returned his smile but kept quiet.
The three of them sat down, and the attendant asked if the dishes could be served. Mu Huaisheng nodded, then turned to Qi Chengzhi, asking, “Can you drink tonight?”
“I can’t. I need to drive,” Qi Chengzhi responded curtly.
Mu Huaisheng then asked Song Yu, but before she could answer, Qi Chengzhi held her hand and responded, “She’s pregnant. She can’t drink.”
Briefly surprised, Mu Huaisheng smiled. “I see, congratulations.”
Turning again to the attendant, he requested some fresh-pressed juices instead of wine.
After the attendant left, he began his apology, “I’m sorry that my sister did this kind of thing at this time. If something happens, she would’ve messed up big time.”
“I trust Chengzhi a lot, so it didn’t have much of an effect on me,” Song Yu responded bluntly. “But that doesn’t mean I forgive her actions.”
“I understand. You don’t need to forgive her at all. I’ve been scolding her ever since the Wei family’s celebration the other day, but no matter what I say, she never listens. She’s even gone out to stir up this kind of trouble, so I don’t expect her to have any logic or reason. Her stubbornness knows no bounds, and I don’t plan on just letting her do as she pleases.
“In fact, I have to bear the responsibility as well because I didn’t manage to control her in time. I should’ve known earlier that she won’t listen to my advice and won’t give up if she hasn’t gotten what she wanted.” Mu Huaisheng’s voice was deep. “When Chengzhi stormed off angrily from Dynasty, I immediately booked her a plane ticket to send her back, but I didn’t expect my parents to be in Italy. They won’t be back anytime soon, and I won’t feel at ease if she’s alone there. Who knows if she does anything stupid, or maybe even secretly fly back here? If that happens, I won’t be able to locate her and keep her in check, so she’ll have to stay here. I’ll look after her properly, of course, and make sure that she won’t give you any more headaches.”
“That would be the best. But before anything else, there’s something I’d like to say. If she comes at me and does something funny, I won’t be treating her nicely. In fact, I’ll most likely be treating her rather uncivilly,” Song Yu declared. “I’m not so kind as to forgive her and be all goody-goody with her, especially when I ‘m aware that she likes my Chengzhi and is trying to wreck our relationship.”
“I’ll do my best to stop her from bothering you.” Mu Huaisheng was afraid to give them his unequivocal promise. He had company matters to attend to, and it was not easy to keep a constant watch on Mu Sisi.
Song Yu smiled plainly and said, “Please also tell her that I’m happy with Chengzhi and I trust him fully. There’s nothing she could do that can break up apart.”
Moments later, the attendant brought over the food and fruit juice.
Once the attendant left, Mu Huaisheng poured some juice for them and said to Song Yu, “Apologizing over wine is merely a formality. Tonight, I’ll use fruit juice in place of wine to offer you my sincerest apologies.”
Song Yu took a sip and smiled. “I’ve already told Chengzhi that I trust your character because you’re his friend. You are you. Mu Sisi is Mu Sisi. I’ll tell you that I hate her, but that won’t affect my opinion of you.”
Mu Huaisheng smiled. It was equally as good to say cheers even though it was only fruit juice.
“To tell you the truth, even though she’s my sister, I can tell you that she’s not a match with Qi Chengzhi,” Mu Huaisheng remarked.
Song Yu did not expect Mu Huaisheng to actually say that. Surprisingly, he was not so biased as to side with Mu Sisi.
“Sisi has the belief that she loves Chengzhi for the longest time. She was infatuated with him. But what she didn’t know was that Chengzhi loved you longer.” Mu Huaisheng looked at Qi Chengzhi with a half-smile and noticed that the latter’s expression was unwavering. Qi Chengzhi was about to drink his fruit juice, but he stopped short of it and simply held the stem of the glass.
“Chengzhi talked about me before?” Astonished, she glanced at Chengzhi. He was not the type of person who would talk about his feelings.
“Not exactly. I realized it only when I saw you. Back in America, Chengzhi had plenty of admirers, some of them Americans, but he ignored them all. There was one time I was very curious if there was something wrong with him for ignoring all those women, so I asked.” Mu Huaisheng then recounted the exact words Qi Chengzhi told him last time. “At that time, I didn’t know who it was, but when I saw you, I knew you’re the one that he had always liked. You look much younger than I thought, though. Back then, I thought that the girl would be about his age, considering he’s had his heart set on her so early on.”
Even though Qi Chengzhi was already married to Song Yu, he was still mindful of their age gap being brought up.
Mu Huaisheng did not truly mind as much and was not at all worried, since he was Qi Chengzhi’s good friend after all.
“If this is the case, then Song Yu must be rather young at that time. Isn’t that just wonderful of you to like her already?” Mu Huaisheng looked suspiciously at Qi Chengzhi as if the latter’s thought processes were abnormal.
“Have you chosen a place for your flagship store?” Qi Chengzhi changed the topic without even flinching.
It was not a smooth transition at all, and Song Yu could not help but laugh. “What are you doing? I wanna listen to the things that happened during your university days.”
“If you want to listen, I’ll slowly tell you everything when we go home.” Qi Chengzhi shot her a glance, implying that he would ‘slowly tell her everything’ in bed.
“…” Song Yu blushed. Not one second did she believe he would cooperate and actually tell her everything without a fuss.
Mu Huaisheng broke into laughter as well. Knowing that Qi Chengzhi tried getting him to stop bringing that up, he segued into the transition and answered, “We’ve chosen three potential sites and are talking with each respective owner. We’ll see which one fits best, and if we can purchase it, we will.
“Oh yes,” Mu Huaisheng said to Song Yu. “Do you have any good interior designers you can introduce? We’ll need to start setting up the interior once the location is confirmed.”
Song Yu was somewhat taken aback. “Well, since you’re working with Wei Ziqi, why didn’t you ask his mother’s company? Madam Wei is one of the very best in the industry. And with your kind of luxury products, you’d surely want to engage a renowned designer, right? It has to match your products’ style, after all.”
Qi Chengzhi knew that Mu Huaisheng wanted to find a way to make it up to her under the guise of an apology.
Even if Song Yu was not an interior designer, her line of work would definitely have given her connections with those who did. If Mu Huaisheng put the word out that he was on the lookout for an interior designer, many would jump on the chance to do so. In letting Song Yu introduce someone to him, he was giving Song Yu a chance to do the other party a huge favor, which would later come in handy for her in the future.
As Qi Chengzhi’s wife, Song Yu may not care much—if at all—about those things, but Mu Huaisheng’s intentions were like icing on the cake.
“Our initial decision was to change to a new style and make B City’s flagship store into one that stood out and fully embodied the Chinese culture.” Mu Huaisheng continued explaining, “And if we employed the services of Autumn and Co., it’s only natural that I’d want Madam Wei to personally work on the project. But she hasn’t been personally involved in any projects recently, and even if she did, I don’t think we’ll be able to afford her services. I might as well ask you if there are any friends you could introduce, rather than just employing any ordinary designer from her company. It’s more or less the same thing, and of course, I’d place more importance on someone closer to me.”
Song Yu understood his intentions clearly. She did not refuse his gesture of goodwill because the first person to pop in her mind was Ruan Danchen.
Within the company, Ruan Danchen was the main person in charge of interior design. Her designs always stood out, but because there was too much competition in the industry, she never had the chance to truly make a name for herself.
Even though designing MU’s flagship store would not cause as much of a stir as designing Qilin’s hotel, it would still be enough to Ruan Danchen to finally showcase her talents.
Regarding the hotel, a time would come when the interior had to be designed. However, Song Yu was, in fact, afraid to ask Qi Chengzhi to appoint Ruan Danchen through the back-door. It was a professional matter, and she did not want to interfere with Qi Chengzhi’s work.
Since Mu Huaisheng brought it up himself, it was a different matter altogether.
“It just so happens that I do have a friend. She’s not a famous designer, but her designs are very stylistic.” Song Yu smiled.
Mu Huaisheng nodded and said, “Well then, if the store location is confirmed, we can arrange a time to meet and visit the place.”
The three of them had dinner and subsequently left the place.
In the car, Song Yu was very excited to give Ruan Danchen a call and tell her everything.
“REALLY?” Ruan Danchen was both happy and surprised. Her voice was several tones louder than usual, and the excitement was much more prominent than usual.
After that short burst of excitement, Ruan Danchen calmed herself. She took a notebook from her lap and placed it onto the sofa beside her. It was an as-yet incomplete design she was working on.
“Are you sure it’s alright to look for me? You didn’t use any favors, did you?” Ruan Danchen crossed her legs and asked.
Not once did Ruan Danchen ever ask Song Yu for more projects from Qi Chengzhi. Even the prospect of designing the interior of Qilin’s hotel was not something she ever considered.
She was unsure of her own competency, as it would be her first time doing something like that. Her biggest worry was that she overestimated her capabilities, with the consequences spilling over to Song Yu.
“I didn’t.” Song Yu looked at the beautiful night scenery before her and smiled, saying, “Mu Huaisheng was the one who voluntarily made the suggestion. He asked me to introduce a designer, and the first person I thought of was you. It’s only a recommendation, and I see him as a genuinely trustworthy person. It’s not like he’ll just jump right in and engage your service just because I introduced you. When the time comes, it’ll still have to depend on your draft. If he’s satisfied, he’ll bring you on, but if he isn’t, even I won’t have a say on anything. The most important thing is that it depends on you.”
“I understand. I’ll surely do my best, and I won’t let you down!” Ruan Danchen pumped her fist into the air.
Song Yu smiled and hung up. Qi Chengzhi’s eyes shifted to her and he said, half-smilingly, “Do you intend on being a matchmaker?”
She blushed and touched her face. “Was it that obvious?”
“I don’t know if Mu Huaisheng can see it or not, but I can,” Qi Chengzhi replied. Since she finished her call, he could once again stretch his hand over and held her hand.
“Even though his sister is a problem, I think Mu Huaisheng’s good enough. He probably won’t let his woman be bullied. Since you’re his good friend, I trust his character, and whether it works or not, the first thing is introducing each other. Even if it doesn’t work, it still benefits Danchen’s career, doesn’t it?”
Qi Chengzhi rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand and made a sudden remark. “They won’t work.”
“How do you know that?” Song Yu asked begrudgingly. ‘Is he just going to dampen my enthusiasm?’
Qi Chengzhi smiled enigmatically and said, “If you don’t believe me, just wait and see.”
He may not have said his reasons, but Song Yu was compelled to believe him. Having dampened her spirits, her jovial warmth dissipated and her mood soured, too. She made a face and muttered, “Meanie.”
…
…
On Sunday morning, the two of them woke up early to do their wedding photoshoot.
Qi Chengzhi did not book a studio, but instead, got in touch with a well-known photographer who works exclusively with magazines. The couple went to the photographer’s personal studio, with Qi Chengzhi bringing the wedding dress shipped from France, as well as a few groom’s suits he prepared for the wedding.
He took into account Song Yu’s pregnancy and was worried that her body could not take it if they did the photoshoot outdoors. He thus decided to do only indoors.
The wedding dress arrived rather recently, giving Song Yu no opportunity to try it on beforehand. The photoshoot marked her first time wearing the dress.
Qi Chengzhi was led away so he could change his clothes, and after he came out, another person brought him away to touch up his face. When he noticed that the makeup artist was going to apply some foundation on him, his thick brows furrowed into a frown and he headed for the door without another word.
“Sir!” The makeup artist chased after him. “You have to use a bit of makeup so you’ll look better in the photo.”
“That’s not necessary. There’s no use for me to look better. It’s enough if my wife looks good.” Qi Chengzhi continued walking without turning back at all.
The makeup artist trailed behind and said, “Sir, if you’re shooting like this, the effect will be vastly different from your wife. The final picture won’t look nice!”
