Chapter 355 Break Down the Stalemate
Yanqi Lake was located at the foot of Yan Mountain, which was north of Huairou City to the northeast of Beijing. It was bordered by the Great Wall to the north and the North China Plain to the south. Yanqi Lake had a broad body of crystal clear water. Flocks of wild geese would come here to have a rest every spring and winter season yearly, which was the reason why Yanqi Lake had such a name. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides, forming a natural shelter. Consequently, no wind-blown sand had attacked the lake region. The weather there was humid in all seasons. The environment was also extremely good. As a result, Yanqi Lake had been developed over the past few years. Most importantly, several major international conferences would be held here this year, making the popularity of Yanqi Lake rise rapidly.
The distance between the downtown area and Yanqi Lake was 60 kilometers. Qin Ran was skilled at driving, who took her time driving and had a stable mental state. She was simply much better than those so-called street killers. Dating back to when she had started to learn how to drive, Qin Changan had gifted her a Mercedes G63AMG. Though everybody else had thought only a car or sports car would suit a woman, Qin Changan was the only one that thought it would be more elegant of a woman to drive an off-road vehicle.
Along the journey, Qin Sheng still didn’t speak. Qin Ran had been trying to find topics to speak freely about several times, only to find that Qin Sheng didn’t even intend to respond. She had no choice but to give up her idea and stop bothering Qin Sheng. She would leave him alone.
By the time they arrived at the villa district by the side of Yanqi Lake, Uncle Li had sent someone over to deliver the key to them. After that, Qin Ran and Qin Sheng were taken to a villa near the lake. As expected, the scenery here was beautiful.
“Miss Qin, I will take my leave first.” The one who had delivered the key should be Uncle Li’s driver. After he walked Qin Sheng and Qin Ran into the villa, he left sensibly without intending to disturb them at all.
Qin Sheng stood by the side of the windows in the living room and stared at the lake surface, looking thoughtful. The lake surface had been frozen early on. Most of the flowers and trees had withered. Only a minority of the trees were still green, which could pull themselves through the winter. However, after heavy snow, it was a white world outside, making people feel like they stood aloof from worldly affairs.
Over the phone, Uncle Li had told Qin Ran that never had this villa been occupied after its furnishings were done. Consequently, everything was brand new inside. However, some life necessities were still lacking. Originally, he had intended to send someone over to deliver them the necessities. Qin Ran refused his good intentions subtly in the end. After all, she could not trouble others like this. As a result, she planned to purchase the items and stock them up in person a while later. After that, she would buy Qin Sheng something to change into, and so on. The dining problem was the most crucial one. She definitely could not accompany Qin Sheng all the time. Consequently, after Qin Ran thought it over and over again, she thought it would be more suitable to find a reliable maidservant. In the end, she picked an aunt in the siheyuan of the Qin Family who had just worked for the Qin Family for less than three years. Even so, both her temperament and cooking skills were pretty good.
After Qin Ran went downstairs, she walked to Qin Sheng’s side as she asked, “What do you think? Are you satisfied with this place?”
Qin Sheng retrieved his gaze as he replied, “It’s pretty good.”
Qin Ran said in a gentle voice, “Then, you stay here. I will go out to buy some stuff and come back later. If you feel bored, you can go out to hang around. It snowed last night. The scenery here today is extremely beautiful. You are somewhat lucky.” She had a clear target for herself, namely, not only should she shoulder the responsibility of being a sister, but also she needed to act like a mother. She had to make Qin Sheng sense the warmth of the family, the care of the family members, and so on. After all, Qin Changan was not capable of doing all of this stuff. He had been solemn all the time. He couldn’t get along with Qin Sheng the same way that the fathers and sons in other families did.
Qin Sheng didn’t know why his feelings for his sister had exploded in an instant ever since he went back to the old house even though he had just reconciled with her. He was not feeling strange about her at all. If he had any request, he would let her know immediately. Even he did not know the reason. Perhaps it might be the ties of blood that had worked.
As a result, Qin Sheng troubled Qin Ran freely once again as he said, “Sister, you can buy me some books if it doesn’t bother you. I like reading when I am alone.”Read more at l isnovel
Qin Ran pursed her lips, smiled gently, and said, “All right. What kinds of books do you want? I will go to the bookstore to check at that time.” It’s good for the young to like reading in the current society, where many impetuous and overconfident young people prevail and down-to-earth young ones lack, who work hard to enrich themselves.
Qin Sheng replied, “Books related to philosophy and history will work. You pick a few ones for me conveniently.”
On usual days, Qin Ran also liked to read, whose character was almost the same as that of Qin Sheng. She had read various books cursorily. As a result, it is not a difficult thing for her to fulfill Qin Sheng’s request.
After they chatted randomly for a while, Qin Ran left. After all, the villa was quite far away from the downtown area. It would take her a pretty long time to do a round trip. Qin Sheng stayed in the villa for a while. After that, he went out to stroll around, getting himself familiar with the surroundings and sensing the unique beauty of Yanqi Lake amid the snow.
It was not until nightfall that Qin Ran came back. Her hands were full of bags since she had purchased many things. Two men and two women came back together with her, who had helped Qin Ran carry many things inside. Otherwise, Qin Ran would not have made it on her own.
Qin Sheng was somewhat dumbfounded. If it were outsiders, they would think Qin Ran was going to move out. He had no choice but to stand by and watch how Qin Ran ordered them to place the things in the respective locations.
The two men left after all the things were packed up. Qin Ran opened one of the paper boxes as she said, “These are the books you requested of me. Check them out and see how they are. If they are not good, I will ask somebody else to buy more for you.”
Qin Sheng bent over and started to organize the books. Though he had read most of the books, at least they suited his reading habits well. At this moment, Qin Ran pulled a middle-aged woman over and said, “Qin Sheng, this is Aunt Zhao. She will come here to cook for you and do some cleaning every day during the period that you stay here.”
Qin Sheng smiled politely. “Hello, Aunt Zhao.”
It seemed that Aunt Zhao was somewhat embarrassed when facing strangers. She had been busy doing the chores in the kitchen since this morning. Consequently, she had not seen Qin Sheng at all. Looking blushed, she replied in her Mandarin, which had a somewhat Shandong accent, “Mr. Qin, feel free to let me know if you have any request and feel free to criticize me if I do something bad.”
One who is honest, kind, and obedient would be respected sincerely. Never would one get despised because of their identity, which was a bottom line of behaving in the world. Consequently, Qin Sheng nodded to Aunt Zhao smilingly.
Qin Ran made her arrangement as she said, “Aunt Zhao, it’s almost time for dinner. I bought many vegetables. Let my brother try out your cooking skills.”
Upon hearing Qin Ran’s words, Aunt Zhao nodded happily, who had not even noticed the keywords in what Qin Ran had said, namely, “He is my brother”. If it were others who had heard this sentence, it would certainly be breaking news. Consequently, as expected, Aunt Zhao was honest.
She was busy replying as she said, “All right. Miss, I will prepare the dinner right away. Do you have any favorites?”
Qin Ran ordered casually as she said, “You can cook several signature dishes.” Aunt Zhao replied with, “Well.” To her, the kitchen was the only place that could prove her existence as valuable. She feared that Qin Sheng would dislike her and Qin Ran would not be happy with her accordingly.
Qin Ran took another mobile out of her bag and handed it to Qin Sheng as she said, “This is a new phone I bought for you. Even the sim card is newly registered. You can use this number during this period. I already saved my number in the contacts. Call me immediately if you come across any issues in the future.”
Qin Ran had thought of everything she could and accomplished everything she could. Feeling moved, Qin Sheng said, “Sister, sorry for troubling you.”
Qin Ran felt resentful as she replied quite discontentedly, “You are my brother. We belong to the same family. So don’t say something polite to me. Otherwise, I will feel angry later on.”
Qin Sheng laughed happily as he replied, “All right.”
As Qin Sheng was reading in the living room, Qin Ran was tidying up his bedroom upstairs with her female assistant. They did not disturb each other. Qin Sheng picked up Memoir of the Literature randomly, which Qin Ran had bought for him, and read it appreciatively. By the time he came to his senses, Qin Ran had transformed the whole villa into a brand new look with her female assistant, especially the several bunches of flowers in the living room, which brought a unique vitality and liveliness to the villa.
After Aunt Zhao got dinner ready, she left directly. Qin Ran had arranged for her to live in the nearby Kempinski Hotel in order not to disturb Qin Sheng’s life. Her female assistant also left. As a result, the pair of siblings, namely, Qin Ran and Qin Sheng, stayed in the villa.
There was a tableful of sumptuous dishes for dinner. Qin Ran had opened a bottle of red wine in advance and left it open there for half an hour. She had selected this bottle of wine carefully. Back when they had enjoyed the lunch, she had not welcomed Qin Sheng home officially. After all, at that time, the relationship between Qin Changan and Qin Sheng was rigid. However, she and Qin Sheng were alone now. Consequently, she did not need to mind anything at all. In this case, she would welcome Qin Sheng home officially on behalf of the Qin Family.
Qin Ran took the initiative to pick up the wine glass as she said, “Welcome home. Welcome back to Beijing.”
Qin Sheng chuckled as he replied, “Thanks, Sister.” Having such a beautiful sister to take care of him was Qin Sheng’s biggest gain in recent days, which comforted his injured heart, more or less.
Qin Ran went on talking. “Whatever the experience, the wrongdoing, and the torture that you went through were, from now on, they will all go away. As for those who looked down upon you and have ever hurt you, you will pay them back in the future. Starting from today, you are no longer the Qin Sheng whom nobody loved and cared for. You have a sister, the Qin Family, and many relatives who love you dearly. Believe me, nobody will be able to or dare to hurt you again.”
“All right.” What Qin Ran had said made Qin Sheng feel quite warm. Never had anybody ever said such kinds of words to him. However, somebody did today, and that was his sister, his biological sister, his one-of-a-kind sister.
Qin Sheng put his head back and drank up the wine, as did Qin Ran. After that, they put down the glasses and smiled at each other. They felt they had gone back to their childhood in an instant. It seemed that they had transcended time and space. Nothing could stop that kind of family love between the pair of siblings. As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water.
Qin Ran replied happily, “Let’s start eating. You must be hungry at this moment since you did not eat much at lunch. Aunt Zhao’s cooking skills are very good. Eat the dishes quickly. I want to raise you to be plump and cute.” After that, she served the food to Qin Sheng.
Qin Sheng smiled foolishly and focused on eating while lowering his head. He did not like how he had been at lunch, who had looked like a frosted eggplant. He gulped the food down, which he had done previously.
After dinner, Qin Sheng took the initiative to do the washing up instead of leaving the mess until tomorrow morning. He was used to the kind of life like this.
Qin Ran walked to the side of the windows and pondered for a long time. In the end, she made up her mind to dial the familiar number. After all, she needed to break down the stalemate.
The call was answered soon. A man’s amiable voice came through the other side, saying, “Ran Ran, you have not called your uncle in some time. Could it be that you have been pretty busy in recent days?”
Qin Ran took a deep breath and replied smilingly, “Uncle, I found my brother.”