Chapter 29 : Uneasiness

Xiulan was so exhausted for this day. She spent a long time working and staying in her office again and to her dismay half of it was bickering with Hongqi through phone because of his issues about Mo Dejiang. Add to her exhaustion, she has to visit her parents' house to get the parcels that were sent to her old apartment. She'll be skipping gym time because of this and she already dread the next meeting with Li Rong. For sure that woman will torture her.

According to her parents, there were a lot of parcels that were sent to their house because of her negligence. It's been months when the last time Xiulan visited her old apartment that she already forgot that most of mails and parcels are sent there. Since there were so many, the landlord had to send the parcels to her parents' house since it's the second address she wrote in case of emergency.

Her 89 years old landlord who also owns a pharmaceutical store, Huang Chao, only knew that she got married and had to transfer to her husband's home. He was not aware that she married a very rich and famous man. It also confuses him that Xiulan can't seem to let go of her unit. She still pays the renting fee yet she's not occupying it anymore.

"Oh you're here as well, big sis." Xiulan amusingly greeted as soon as she saw her big sister Qiaohui sitting prettily in her parents' luxurious living room and watching a Netflix series on the huge TV screen while she's in her fancy cat pajamas.

"Baby sister." Qiaohui beamed at Xiulan when she saw her coming inside the living room.

"You're visiting mom and dad?" Xiulan inquired as she sat beside her big sister. But she was also confused why her sister is wearing pajamas if she was only visiting them.

"No, I'm staying here for three days now. I renovated my house so the workers are there for half a month." Qiaohui explained and quickly pinched Xiulan's cheeks.

Xiulan pouted. Her big sister has this everlasting obsession in pinching her cheeks.

"What's with the sudden renovation?" Xiulan asked and removed her sister's hand on her face. She relaxes her back on the sofa and kept her gaze on to her sister.

"Ugh." Qiaohui rolled her eyes and sighed contemptuously like she remembered something distasteful." Meng Yuxian and his slutty secretary are now my neighbors. I can't believe he will live next to me!" Qiaohui hatefully ranted.

"Huh? Did you have any idea why he suddenly lives next to you? That's kind of… stalkerish and annoying." Xiulan was amused. She can't believe her sister's ex-husband would live next to her.

Her sister decided to live in a posh village for the middle class. She didn't want to stay or live in a first class village due to she might bump to her ex-husband and his acquaintances. But now that he even followed her to a middle class village, it just answered a silent question in her head. Meng Yuxian still likes her big sister.

Qiaohui shrugged. "That's why I'm renovating the house. I asked my architect to put a tall wall or trees whatever between our houses. I don't want to see them. I even hired a feng shui expert to work with my architect so every corner of my house will have a good energy. Ugh, so stressful." Qiaohui wanly ranted.

"Why not move somewhere else then?" Xiulan suggested. Her sister seems to be in deep frustration so she suggested moving to a new house.

"I don't want to move again. I have a very cute garden in that house. They are growing beautifully and healthily already. I don't want to leave my baby groots." Qiaohui quickly retorted.

"Hmmm makes sense." Xiulan now understands her sister's dilemma and nodded. She didn't try to comment anymore so she put her attention on the TV screen.

After a few minutes, Qiaohui suddenly yelled. "Ah! By the way, some of my nosy clients sent me this." Qiaohui stood up went to her room upstairs. When she came back, she handed a huge lavender paper bag to Xiulan.

"What is this?" Xiulan suspiciously asked. She tried to peek inside the bag and gasped on what she saw. "Oh my God, sis! Ew! Like no thanks!" Xiulan grunted and quickly handed the bag back to her big sister like she touched something and burned her.

"Hahaha! I know you will say that. But just accept it. It might be useful in the future." Qiaohui laughed and threw the bag on Xiulan. She sat on the sofa again and paused the TV series that she was watching.

"Sis!" Xiulan embarrassingly exclaimed and hid the bag beside the sofa. She can't help but blush. The paper bag contains an amazing amount of sexy lingerie from different expensive brands. Xiulan doesn't even want to touch it. Just by looking at the first lingerie she saw, it was so provocative and sexy. What more if she checks the others?

"They said that you and Hongqi should have a child soon since the both of you are ethereal looking. They all imagined cherub like babies from you and they suddenly got excited. Your future children will be very beautiful and handsome. So they wanted to fast forward and help with the love making process by sending these." Qiaohui tried to explain without laughing.

Xiulan tiredly sighed. "Please tell them that they are annoying." Xiulan angrily muttered and frown. She really doesn't like the topic of sex and babies. Now that her stress level is almost in maximum because of work and Hongqi, her complete annoyance of the naughty topic really ticks her off.

"I will send your sweet message to them." Qiaohui smiled sinisterly.

Xiulan rolled her eyes before she completely lie down on the sofa and used a pillow to hide her flustered angry face.

Qiaohui laughed hysterically at Xiulan's antics. At first she was angry at her clients for sending such things for her baby sister but now that she's seeing this annoyed version of Xiulan. She can't help but laugh at her sister's predicament.

"Qiaohui, what are you laughing at?" Mother Qingge suddenly appeared with a huge white box and put it on top of the golden coffee table, in front of Xiulan.

"Nothing, mom. What's that by the way?" Qiaohui tried to ask and stop her laugh. But instead she tears up because she's suppressing her laugh.

"Xiulan, stand up and get this box. This is the parcel that was sent from your old apartment." Qingge commanded and quickly left the living room since she was busy with her cake for the dinner's dessert.

Xiulan quickly got up from the sofa and checked the big white box. It seems that her alma mater sent some sensitive files without notifying her thru phone or email. This made her slightly annoyed. To think that she's been working on this issue for so long and they didn't bother sending her a message about it. There were also some mail and gifts from Wen Wenyan. Branded lotions, perfumes and bags were sent by her best friend.

"Tsk." Xiulan frowned while checking the folders and documents with binders that were sent by her alma mater. "I hope my landlord didn't try to be a nosy rat and checked these documents." Xiulan silently complained in her heart.

Qiaohui observed her sister's expression and she guessed that it might be related to her university. She's aware that her baby sister has been doing difficult weird and shady tasks for her alma mater but she's not sure how serious the work they gave this time.

Their parents are also aware of this but they never bothered asking her. Their father seems to know something since he only kept saying not to ask or pester Xiulan about university stuff.

Qiaohui waited for Xiulan to finish checking what's inside the mysterious white box before she invited her to eat dinner.

The night with Xiulan's family went well and they never uttered any word regarding the white box. Though they would always ask about Hongqi, she can only say to them that he's taking care of her, he's nice and annoying at the same time. Qingge was surprised on how Xiulan described Hongqi. The mother Song didn't expect Hongqi to be this nice but she still have doubts about him.

After all the chitchat and eating, Xiulan went back to Hongqi's penthouse to rest. She took a shower and while she's trying to dry her hair, she lazily glanced at the white box and the lavender paper bag that Qiaohui gave to her. She grimaced when she remembered what it contained.

Xiulan quickly stands up and irritably pick up the paper bag and checked the room where to hide such sinister item. If Hongqi finds out about this, she'll be embarrassed to death.

Xiulan can't find a great spot to hide it. So she ends up shoving it to the ends of her wardrobe cabinet. For sure Hongqi will not try to rummage over her wardrobe.

~0~

When Hongqi came back from Hong Kong, he went home and stayed in the penthouse with Xiulan for a week before going on a business trip to South Korea for a collaboration with an another entertainment company. He didn't utter any word about Mo Dejiang anymore, which relieves Xiulan. Though time to time he would give advises that she should be extra careful while he's not in the country.

Hongqi was informed by his men that there were some shady people who were following Xiulan for a week now. It was revealed that it was Mo Dejiang and Wen Wuzhou's men. He was not surprised anymore about Mo Dejiang but he's not sure why a business giant like Wen Wuzhou was spying on his wife. Though he managed to connect Xiulan's history with Wuzhou, the man was Xiulan's bestfriend's estranged big brother.

Hongqi shook his head while reading the report. It never occurred to him that he will be this super concerned over his wife. He expected that once they got married, he won't be involved too much with her. But this little wife has been surprising him with her overly amazing connections and now he's getting worried.

Currently Xiulan is busy with her new creation, the CCTV mobile hacker. It's almost complete and now she only needs to fully test it. But her problem is where to test it? She can't test in her company's building since the management will sue her for privacy reasons. Though they will not know she hacked into their CCTVs but she's not that fully confident yet that her CCTV mobile hacker will not send suspicious signals to the building's security system.

Xiulan pursed her lips while staring at her laptop's screen. She really wanted to test it but she's afraid that she'll get caught since it's only a prototype.

"Damn it." Xiulan silently cursed. To reduce her bad mood, she went to the discord server to check on the other programmer's development regarding the terrorists.

The other alumni and current students of S University were still vying for the honor of catching these punks. But for Xiulan, she was only doing this because S University asked her and scary national issue. She at least should help, right?

She was busy chatting with the other programmers in the discord server when suddenly Hongqi called her.

Xiulan looked at laptop's time and it was already 12:05 PM. She guessed that Hongqi's calling her for lunch.

"Yes?" Xiulan lazily answered Hongqi's call.

"Dear, let's have lunch. I already told Bai Rong not to send your lunch today." Hongqi informed.

"Okay. Where are we eating?" Xiulan replied while her right ear is on the phone supported by her shoulders and her two hands were typing away on the discord server.

"I just finished a meeting in a Japanese restaurant. I'll ask Secretary Yang Bo to fetch you. Be ready." Hongqi said and ended the call.

Xiulan removed the phone away from her and continued typing on her laptop. It took her a few minutes before she suddenly stop typing when she remembered that she must have at least a little make up when meeting Hongqi in a public place.

She hastily went to her personal comfort room to tidy herself and add some rouge on her lips. Maintaining the beautiful image as Mrs. Xing was not a problem for her anymore. But sometimes she forgets the most basic thing in being Mrs. Xing.

While in the Japanese restaurant…

"You'll be having your lunch with your wife?" Attorney Go asked while he finishes writing a draft of the earlier transaction for a new TV drama and advertisement for the top actors and actresses in Hongqi's entertainment company.

"Yeah. I have a lot of things to say to her. I have to go to South Korea soon and I'll be staying there for four days." Hongqi said while he relaxes and stare at the beautiful garden outside the restaurant.

"May I ask something? Have you consummate yet?" Attorney Go curiously asked. This cool friend and boss of his was not mingling with other women ever since he got married. So he concluded that his boss' sex life with his wife might be so good that he's not looking at other women anymore.

"Not yet. I'm abstaining as long as I can." Hongqi nonchalantly said like it was no big deal.

Hearing the word 'abstain' come out from Hongqi's mouth made Attorney Go choke on his own saliva. He can't believe this sex fiend is now abstaining like a virtuous and innocent man.

"Don't joke around like that. No one's gonna believe you." Attorney Go frowned at Hongqi. His joke was not funny at all. It even made him choke on his own saliva. It almost killed him. Literally, a killing joke.

"Suit yourself." Hongqi shrugged and with such a relaxing demeanor as well. No one knows if he was serious or just trolling.

"Bullshit. I'm betting a million yuan that next month you can't take it anymore and you'll be the one jumping on her. Abstaining my foot." Attorney Go shook his head from bewilderment.

"Please write the cheque of that million yuan because I'm definitely getting that." Hongqi challenged and grinned annoyingly at Attorney Go.

"You're annoying." Attorney Go jeered. "Especially that you have such sexy new trainees and actresses in the company. I'm sure you're going to bed one or two." Attorney Go added. He will never believe that Hongqi will abstain.

"I'm too busy to have mistresses, Lei. Don't assume." Hongqi pressed. He's trying to be a good husband and son-in-law as long as he can yet this lawyer of his is trying to void it so early and succumbing him back to the darkness.

"Heh. You've been busy since forever. Don't fool me." Attorney Go retorted.

Hongqi didn't like where their topic is going so he gave a deathly glare at Attorney Go to stop his annoying statements. He was indeed abstaining. He doesn't want to taint his new image and cause trouble to the Song family. He's not that stupid to ruin his plans just because of women.

After a few minutes of silence, Xiulan suddenly arrived and opened the sliding door.

As usual her face still has that cold aloof poker face but something is a little off than usual. Hongqi noticed this but he chose to ignore it. He thought that Xiulan might be tired from working overtime for the whole five months. He's not sure what she's currently doing but he's getting a bit curious now. He asked Song Yingpei about Xiulan being a hard worker and busy schedule but the old man only mischievously laughed and told him that his daughter is the best. The old man's answer was quite ambiguous which piqued his curiosity more.

"Dear, you're here. I ordered already and the food will be served soon." Hongqi greeted and pointed Xiulan to sit beside him.

Xiulan nodded and gave a curtly smile at Attorney Go before she sat beside Hongqi.

For Xiulan, Attorney Go is someone she should avoid. She already had bad impressions over this lawyer. Add to more disappointment and judgment over this man, she just heard the conversation between the two. All she could think of that this man is bad news.

Once Xiulan sat on her seat beside Hongqi. Attorney Go immediately bombarded her with questions regarding Mo Dejiang. Xiulan wanted to roll her eyes. She can't believe that this lawyer is so nosy, another minus points for him.

"So, Xiulan... I heard you are friends with the famous Mo Dejiang. May I ask what's your relationship with him? How did you become acquainted with him?" Attorney Go curiously probed.

Hongqi suddenly wanted to punch Attorney Go for bringing up the topic about Mo Dejiang. Obviously, this stupid lawyer is trying to cause some trouble.

He already hated that Mo Dejiang and now this stupid lawyer has to include that name during their lunch time. He also thought this stupid lawyer was disrespectful to his wife. Hongqi took a quick glance at Xiulan. She doesn't look offended but still he knows she might be uncomfortable.

"Go Lei, stop it." Hongqi threatened.

Xiulan faked her smile and explained "It's okay. Mr. Mo was a university classmate back then. I'm not sure if I can label him as a friend or just an acquaintance since we only talk about university stuff and computer science related topics. Mr. Mo helped me a lot back then and until now. I am very grateful to him."

Hongqi made a sour expression while listening to Xiulan. He really hates how his wife idolizes that punk casino heir.

Attorney Go only nodded and sneered. He wanted to probe more but he's wary that Hongqi might completely buy his stocks in Hongqi's company as revenge.

After eating their meal, Hongqi started to open the topic why he invited Xiulan for lunch.

"As you know, dear wife. I'll be in Seoul for four days and after that I'll be back to work on the award events for my artists. This whole three months will be the busiest time for my company. So as possible I want you to behave, don't cause trouble and make me worry." Hongqi knitted his brows while announcing his demands. He has a lot on his hands already. His attention is divided on his entertainment company, upcoming security company, the Song company. He can't totally monitor and protect Xiulan during these three months. For some unknown reason, causes him too much anxiety and uneasiness.

Xiulan nodded and all she could concentrate on is the word 'event'. She remembered that the terrorists are aiming to spread their vile actions in events.

"I understand. But may I ask what happens in this kind of events? Does it involve a lot of people and foreigners as audience?" Xiulan curiously asked.

Hongqi pursed his lips in disappointment. He didn't expect that question from Xiulan and he was looking forward for something else like 'I will miss you' or 'I'm getting jealous, you're always away' something along those.

"Usually awarding of the best of the best, music concerts and yes it involves a lot of different people. A lot of foreigners also attend to see their idols and favorite celebrities. It's a very big event actually. And also usually Hongqi has a very beautiful actress as a partner when he graces the red carpet in these types of events." Attorney Go answered instead and tried to spite Hongqi again.

Hongqi raised his eyebrows at his annoying attorney. "This idiot really wants to die early." He angrily thought.

"Oooh, okay." Xiulan nodded and completely ignored the 'Hongqi's partner' matter. "So it's a huge event." She muttered.

Attorney Go was disappointed over Xiulan's lack of interest towards Hongqi's affairs. He insinuated that Hongqi will have a celebrity partner in these events yet Xiulan ignored his provoking words.

"What's wrong? Are you interested to attend? I can give you a special pass in all musical events and awards night." Hongqi curiously asked. As Hongqi remembers, Xiulan was never interested in this kind of stuff.

"No, it's okay. I was just curious." Xiulan reasoned and smiled prettily at the two men.

Both men were not convinced. They both thought that there was a deeper meaning over her curiosity and random question.

"Her concerns were about the audience… so what's with her curiosity over the amount of audience and if there were foreigners?" Hongqi and Attorney Go both asked themselves. Sometimes, this woman is really random and very surprising, they both thought.