But Meng Jingwei dismissed it with a smile, raising her hand to clap, "Miss Chu makes sense. But the difference is, I was born into an ordinary family, and without the Qing family, I could still support myself. But Miss Chu is different. If your Chu family were to go bankrupt one day, I’m afraid with your delicate hands that can’t carry anything and can’t lift anything, you’d starve on the streets sooner or later."
"You..."
Chu Xue hadn't expected Meng Jingwei to be so sharp-tongued.
Furious and momentarily speechless, she then scoffed and smiled, "Miss Meng, you are truly eloquent, making people like you so much. Oh, right, in a few days there's a charity event in Lancheng. I look forward to Miss Meng's participation."
With that, she raised her hand to check her wristwatch, "It’s getting late, my friends are waiting for me. Miss Meng, see you around."
Chu Xue, with a smile on her face, waved goodbye to her and turned to leave.
Watching her retreating back, Meng Jingwei suddenly felt a strange sensation in her heart, that is... Chu Xue harbored a strong animosity towards her.
But she had to admit, Chu Xue was more resilient than Li Yun'er.
A true heiress, with outstanding气质, and unable to reveal her emotions.
Meng Jingwei turned and left. Since she was going to drink, she hadn't driven.
On her way home, she walked alone on the street, her bag slung across her shoulder, feeling the cold autumn wind, and tightening her sweater.
Ring ring ring—
Suddenly, her phone rang from her pocket.
Meng Jingwei took out her phone and saw it was Qing Muye's call.
After leaving his villa last time, she hadn't seen him for over a month.
During this period, Qing Muye had sent her two messages on WeChat, which she hadn't replied to. After that, Qing Muye had not sent any more messages.
Even when Meng Jingwei visited the Qing family's old residence to see Madam Qing, she hadn't seen Qing Muye himself.
Having not contacted each other for over a month, Meng Jingwei thought he might have an urgent matter and answered the call, "Hello?"
After saying "hello," she quietly waited for the man on the other end to speak.
However, after two seconds, there was no sound from the other side. She frowned, "Can you hear me? If you don't speak, I'm hanging up."
"How have you been lately?"
From the other end of the phone came Qing Muye's deep and magnetic voice, as pleasant as always.
"How how? I'm living well. You don't need to worry about me."
"What about the company, is it doing well?"
When he mentioned the company, although Meng Jingwei knew Qing Muye was just asking casually, the wedding company had become Meng Jingwei's Achilles' heel, making her mood even more heavy, "Speaking of the company, I have to thank you. Thanks to you, the company is doing very well. I really should thank you."
"Oh? How do you plan to thank me?"
Qing Muye smiled and asked.
"It's too late today, I'll treat you to lunch tomorrow. I'll send you the address tomorrow."
Feeling a bit tired, Meng Jingwei didn't say much more and directly hung up the phone.
She took a taxi home and lay alone on a lounge chair on the balcony, gazing at the stars outside the window, her mood somber.
The next day, at noon.
Lan Lington Western Restaurant.
Meng Jingwei had booked a private room at the western restaurant early. She ordered a cup of coffee and sat waiting for Qing Muye.
Ten minutes later, someone knocked on the private room door and pushed it open.
"Have you been waiting long?"
Qing Muye walked in, wearing a black shirt and a perfectly tailored sapphire blue trench coat.
"Just arrived."
Meng Jingwei looked up at Qing Muye. Even though his outfit was casually put together, from the door of the private room to the booth, he looked like a top male model making an entrance, exuding an imposing aura.
The man sat opposite her. A waiter followed him in and presented the menu.
The two casually ordered some Western dishes and a bottle of red wine.
After the waiter left, Qing Muye's gaze fixed intently on Meng Jingwei, "It's been over a month since we last met, you've lost quite a bit of weight."
During this past month, he had been abroad.
In addition to handling company matters, he had mostly contacted experts specifically to test and analyze Meng Jingwei's blood and the two bowls taken from the underground palace.
The results were the same as the domestic hospital examinations, with no abnormalities found.
After returning to China, Qing Muye specially went to the underground palace again and urged Song Ci to search within it, but still found nothing.
The person who had entered and exited the underground palace that day without showing themselves seemed to possess the art of earth-遁, leaving no trace, not even the slightest clue in the underground palace.
Who was that person?
Qing Muye's mind was filled with doubts.
"Dieting," Meng Jingwei leaned against the booth, took a sip of her coffee, and looked somewhat dejected.
Perhaps, she was just too cold towards Qing Muye.
Seeing that her mood wasn't great, Qing Muye took something out of his trench coat pocket and placed it in front of her, "I went abroad and brought back a little something for you."
A delicate square box made of black velvet, it looked very exquisite.
Meng Jingwei's eyelids slightly lifted, she looked at the man with a gentle and handsome face, and asked curiously, "What is it?"
As she asked, she picked up the square box and opened it. Inside was a pair of red, teardrop-shaped diamond earrings with gold edging and dangling red tassels.
The earrings were simple and elegant, sparkling under the lights of the private room, the starlight particularly beautiful.
Clink!
As a woman, Meng Jingwei naturally liked the jewelry, but she still closed the box and pushed it back towards Qing Muye, "I cannot accept gifts without reason. I appreciate your kind intentions."
With that, she took out two contracts and a signature pen from her bag, placing them in front of Qing Muye, "You asked me how to thank you, right? This is my token of gratitude."
The contracts clipped in the folder made Qing Muye's ink-like eyebrows lift slightly. His handsome face showed a hint of confusion. He opened the folder, and the first thing he saw were the large characters—Share Transfer Agreement.
"What does this mean?" he asked in a low voice.
Meng Jingwei stirred the coffee in the white porcelain cup with a floral pattern, and said calmly, "In just over a month, the wedding company's performance has surged dramatically, with its turnover increasing tenfold. This is thanks to your contribution. I feel undeserving of this money, but the team of forty to fifty people in the company, along with me, work day and night. Even if we don't have merit, we have hard work. Therefore, I will keep half of the company's profits and give the other half to you. Consider it as remuneration."
"From a humble origin to wealth and status."
This was a sentence Meng Jingwei had heard the most in the past month.
For her, it was both an objective fact and a humiliation, causing the efforts of herself and all the company employees to be overlooked.
That feeling put immense pressure on her.
After much thought, the best way to repay him was in this manner.
The man's jade-like fingers tapped on the documents. He didn't look at them any further, directly closed the folder, and tossed it onto the table.
A subtle anger surfaced on his chiseled handsome face, "Do we need to be so clear between us?"
"Why shouldn't we be?"
Meng Jingwei's delicate, fair face looked at Qing Muye, "I am just the god-granddaughter of Grandma. It seems I don't have much of a connection with you."
"Is that so? If that's the case, then I definitely cannot sign this contract." His expression darkened, and he directly pushed the contract back to Meng Jingwei.