The man hurriedly received the folder and checked it over. Making sure that there weren’t any problems, he then spoke to her in a cautious yet fawning tone, “Ms Xu, don’t worry. No one else will know about this.”
Shi Sheng nodded. “You may leave.”
The man seemed as if he had received an amnesty as he seemed to hate that he couldn’t leave fast enough. Just as he opened the door, Shi Sheng’s voice rose again, “Don’t do stuff that betrays your conscience.”
His figure froze as cold sweat drenched his back. He turned back to give Shi Sheng a bow before escaping from the booth.
When the man left, Shi Sheng immediately let go of her image as she lazed like a small cat. There was too much dirt on the Ling family. Although she had done some work in the early stages, she didn’t have to do anything later on since there were plenty of people who wanted the Ling family to fall.
[Host, according to the data from the scan, you did not have any hacking abilities beforehand and neither did this body. Can you please explain where it came from?] All that dirt had been gathered using hacking skills. When System had seen that, it had been thrown off guard. ‘My Contribution Point Store hasn’t even opened yet, where did the Host learn hacking from? This Host does not quite fit in with common sense!’
“Have you considered that I was just born with it?”
[…Then how do you explain the matter of the explosives from before?]
“I refuse to answer your question.” Shi Sheng humphed. “Don’t you know how to mind-read? Go ahead, read my mind!”
[……] ‘The Host has been getting more touchy recently.’
Having succeeded in shutting up System, Shi Sheng straightened out her clothes before exiting from the booth. This place had been chosen by that man, apparently it provided really good privacy.
If you were to look at the corridor from a bird’s eye view, it would look like this: 回. The layout was similar to a brothel from ancient times[1]. She could see what was happening downstairs from the corridor upstairs. It wasn’t very crowded. People were sitting in small groups on the banquettes[2] below as they conversed in low voices.
And in the corners where light didn’t reach, disgusting scenes played out.
Shi Sheng swept a gaze before shifting it. She wasn’t interested at all in a live ‘spring palace[3]‘.
Shi Sheng followed the corridor until she got to the stairs that led to the floor below. When she passed by a door however, it was suddenly opened and a tall, broad figure came hurtling out, reeking of alcohol. Shi Sheng subconsciously dodged to the side. The person crashed into the railing. He made quite a pitiful picture leaning on the railing.
“Young Master Jing, let me help you.” A woman with thick make-up and skimpy clothing emerged from the room.
“Get lost.” Nangong Jing shoved the woman away as he supported himself using the railing, his face a greenish grey hue.
His gaze swept on the woman standing two steps from him. A storm of emotion emerged in Nangong Jing’s eyes as he squeezed out her name from between his teeth, “Xu Chengyue!”
While he was in there forced to accompany people in drinking, he saw her all well-dressed up outside. This caused an inexplicable hatred to surge from his heart.
“Hey, ex-fiancé!” Shi Sheng pretended like she had just recognised him. “What a coincidence that we meet here as well.”
Seeing that familiar smiling face, Nangong Jing’s heart was overflowing with hatred as he thought, ‘How dare she be this dismissive of me?!’
“You still dare to show up in front of me.” Nangong Jing ground his teeth. He had actually let her escape last time.
“Why wouldn’t I? I’m not the one who kidnapped someone. I’m already being generous by not reporting you to the police. The one who wouldn’t dare to show his face should be you!”
The reason she hadn’t reported him to the police was rather simple. It was that, even if she had, with the influence the Nangong family had back then, they would be able to resolve the matter rather easily. Why would she do something that was clearly a waste of effort? ‘Besides, even if I let him stay out of jail, I can still cause him plenty of misery.’
Nangong Jing felt that the smile on her face was extremely detestable. Under the numbing influence of the alcohol he had drank, he raised his hand and slapped it towards her face.
Shi Sheng instinctively retreated but she bumped into a warm chest. An arm reached past her head. Fingers as long and elegant as jade bamboo accurately caught onto Nangong Jing’s wrist.
A snap rang out. Nangong Jing’s face paled as his wrist dangled uselessly. The person who had caught his wrist released it in disgust and took a clean handkerchief to wipe his hand clean.
“Nangong Jing, seeing that you are free enough to bully women, it seems like your family’s issues have been settled…” Chu Tang’s voice wasn’t any different from normal but heard in the ears of Nangong Jing, it caused cold shivers to run up his spine.
“You- ” Nangong Jing was still dizzy but he recognised this man. Chu Tang, a legendary figure in the business world. ‘He and Xu Chengyue know each other! Back then these two were in cahoots! And she even pretended like she had been wronged so badly. This woman really knows how to act. She even managed to fool me.’
Nangong Jing glared at Shi Sheng before letting the woman beside him help him into the room. If he couldn’t afford to provoke them, he could still hide, couldn’t he? Shi Sheng was in no mood to care about Nangong Jing. She took a step, putting some distance between her and Chu Tang. “Why am I meeting you everywhere?”
‘This fellow here is the true lingering spirit[4]!’
“Huh… didn’t you say you wanted to court me?” Chu Tang cast a sidelong glance at Shi Sheng. He observed her facial expression which currently looked like a pet that had been fed something it didn’t like. She pretty much had ‘I’m not happy to see you’ written all over her face. ‘Back at the villa it was this woman who said she wanted to court me.’
“…” ‘Oops, forgot about this.’
Shi Sheng immediately changed her expression as she spoke, “Mr Chu and I are simply destined to be together, everywhere we go we meet each other. Won’t you consider accepting me?”
Chu Tang found it funny. ‘I would wager all my assets that she definitely doesn’t like me. I wonder why she’s forcing herself to pretend that she likes me. It really makes one curious!’
“Then shouldn’t Ms Xu be a bit more sincere?” Chu Tang felt like since there was someone similar in personality to him who wanted to pursue him, he should enjoy the feeling of being courted.
Shi Sheng wished she could just slap him to death but she forced herself to smile, “Then what does Mr Chu feel would express my sincerity?”
‘Damn pervert. I’m already offering myself up to you, how is that not sincere? Why don’t you just go ascend the heavens while you’re at it?’
“I’ll give Ms Xu an opportunity. If, in three years, you have managed to get your net worth to a tenth of mine, I’ll agree. How about it?”
“That simple?”
Chu Tang gave a slight smile and remained silent. The bodyguards at his sides however, felt like they were going to explode. ‘Do you know what our Young Master Chu’s net worth is? Do you know what one tenth of that is?? And you want to do it within 3 years??? Unless you sell off the entire Xu family’s assets how are you going to earn that much?!?’
‘Ms Xu, just where is this confidence to say ‘that simple’ coming from?!’
“Okay, deal.” Shi Sheng searched in her mind quickly for Chu Tang’s net worth.
“There’s another condition.”
“What the hell!” Shi Sheng was like a cat that had its tail stepped on.
“Do you want to court me, or not?”
“…” ‘Fuck you!’
Shi Sheng told herself to calm down. “Go on.”
“In these three years, you must pursue me like a normal person.”
“…Why should I!”
‘System are you sure this fellow isn’t here to cause me trouble? Hell, I won’t be able to court this type of pervert even till the day I die!’
The two-man bodyguard team were stunned. Right now, they wished to express very vocally that they completely didn’t understand rich people’s train of thought.
[1] It would look something like this but with more of a nightclub theme going on:
[2] I imagine it would look like this:
[3] Generally used to refer to scenes of people having sex. Which is why the word ‘春’, or ‘spring’ in Chinese is associated with sex.
[4] Metaphor for how a person is often lingering in the vicinity.