Chapter 18

2.10 – The two people in front of me are shiny

The roar of planes landing and taking off filled the background. A man holding two suitcases stood at the exit, waiting for someone.

He wore a long beige windbreaker, half his face buried in a white scarf, and the tip of his ears were pink.

The weather was so cold that the hands holding a suitcase were slightly reddened. Tired of waiting, he stamped his feet impatiently.

A short while later another person rushed over and held a cup of warm milk to his face. “Sorry to make you wait. The weather is so cold that there were many people lining up to buy hot drinks.” He adjusted the other party’s scarf for him and took back one of the suitcases.

“Why did we meet a cold current when we returned… Am I so unwelcome?” The slightly shorter man looked up at the sky, face full of grievance. He asked, “Is it really okay to leave my sister and your brother behind in Country M? I’m worried they won’t be able to look after the two little ones properly.”

“Wen Mo is well behaved and little Elaine also won’t make trouble, let alone they also have nannies. Since they want to be parents, they should learn how to take care of children.”

Xue Ling looked at Mr. Cole with some surprise and sighed. “Hearing this kind of thing from your mouth always gives me an incongruous feeling.”

Mr. Cole shut up.

That evening’s dinner was somewhat unpalatable. With Cole’s acquiescence, Xue Ling directly laid out the facts regarding Elaine’s birth and past. Even Doyle had not known about such a secret, so when they heard about it, both he and Wen Xiuting were stunned.

Wen Xiuting didn’t get a good look at little Elaine when they first arrived because the little girl was in Cole’s arms. After carefully looking at her, she burst into tears.

Elaine did not know what happened, but was suddenly told that the beautiful big brother was her uncle, the beautiful aunt was her mother, and the little elder brother was her real brother. Although she was smart, she was still only three years old and there were many things she didn’t understand. But it was also good like this, as it would only take some time for them to make up for their past mistakes.

Wen Xiuting kept Elaine in her arms all night. Seeing that she cried until her eyes were red, Cole also felt somewhat sorry and agreed with Xue Ling and his younger brother’s suggestion to have Elaine move in with the Wen family.

It must be said that this method of shouldering one’s way into the family was worth learning from. This morning, they were still merely business partners that finalized a partnership. By evening, they had already become a part of the family. When the butler Wenbert brought over a change of clothes and other necessities, he almost wanted to kneel down and worship his own master.

He always thought that his master was extremely stifled and stingy with words. It had already been two years, and he was unable to get even a single centimetre closer the other party. He didn’t expect him to be this successful once he made his move, just short of directly climbing into the other party’s bed. The Owens family should have a matriarch soon.

They stayed for a week to let Elaine adapt to life with the Wen family and to make sure there would be no problems before Cole had Xue Ling book their tickets to Country H.

Although he wasn’t clear whether a certain someone planned to stir up the muddy waters or simply came along to watch a show, Xue Ling did not prevent him from coming. The battle he was planning to fight still more or less required some backstage support. Since Mr. Cole did not say that he could not use his name, then according to the principle of making full use of what he’s been given, Xue Ling wouldn’t mind bringing out said name to smack Xu Yongyi’s face.

In the dark, hazy winter of City X, everyone was rushing around in a hurry. Xue Ling brought out the face masks he had prepared, standing on tiptoes to put one on for Mr. Cole. Pulling along the suitcase, he said, “Let’s go. We’ll first head to the hotel, then go to the company to look for them tomorrow~”

He knew where they lived, but it wouldn’t be as sensational as meeting them at the company.

Even if it made him seem somewhat crude, Xue Ling wasn’t picky about the methods he used, as long as it made a lot of noise.

Since he had come back, he definitely mustn’t let Xu Yongyi and Bai Luzi off easily.

Cole touched the mask on his face and stroked the ear that had just been brushed by that man, the roots of his ears turned slightly red.

This should be novel experience – going out without his butler or driver. He brought his bodyguards, but, afraid the other party might have misgivings, asked them to hide themselves. This feeling of traveling side by side as if it were just the two of them was very special, and Cole felt a little addicted to it.

They all said that he liked Wen Xiuyuan, but in fact he himself did not know how to categorize that feeling…

At first, it was clearly only because when he stepped onto the stage, his manner and demeanour closely resembled the mysterious and vague oriental figure that often appeared in his dreams…

It was snowing the next morning, snowflakes lazily drifting down. Xue Ling looked outside from their vantage point in the upper levels of the building and found that most of the city was covered in a layer of white.

His trip back this time could be considered a business trip on the surface, as his company had a contract to discuss here. At the same time, he also used the name of the company to make an appointment with Xu Yongyi. Last night he even specifically confirmed the appointment to prevent being stopped from entering the company by the Xu family.

That would really be silly.

Wen’s family’s business group changed its name two years ago. The growth of their enterprises was booming. A year ago, because they achieved good results, they even moved into a new building. Xu Yongyi’s feelings of inferiority from his countryside roots also slowly receded. In this period of time, he became increasingly lax with his management, and the things Xue Ling discovered were already enough to put him in prison for the rest of his life.

Bai Luzi won the championship of an international design contest a year ago and was named as the pioneer of cutting-edge designers by the media. Now was the best time of her career. Xu Yongyi invested and set up a company for her, and she received many clients from the upper class for her high-end custom designs. It sounded very grand, but the waters were very deep: It also doubled as a channel for Xu Yongyi to contact business partners and others in the upper echelons of society.

Cole woke up before him and had already them ordered breakfast. He walked over to stand with Xue Ling by the window and stood for a while before opening his mouth to ask. “Do you need me to accompany you?”

Xue Ling tilted his head slightly, amused. “Have the distinguished Mr. Owens be my lackey and trash other people’s place? Isn’t that a little over the top?

Cole frowned, not liking the way he was addressed. “You’re the one who had me come.”

Xue Ling laughed happily, turning to pat Cole on the shoulder. “This is the first time I have seen a noble person taking the initiative to scrap with others. If your family was here, would they accuse me of being a bad influence?”

Cole pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Xue Ling could tell that Cole had already decided to follow him.. He shrugged helplessly and went on, “Well, since the distinguished noble insists on coming along, how can I reject? You are the head of my sister’s future husband’s family after all~ If you’re unhappy, you can make my sister unhappy through Doyle, and the one suffering at the end would absolutely still be me.”

Cole could not understand why his logic was so strange. He was silent for a moment and only promised, “That won’t happen.”

“Huh?” Xue Ling bit into a croissant and responded vaguely. A pair of hooded fox eyes looked over, making Cole’s heart jump in his chest.

“I won’t let you suffer,” he promised.

Xue Ling wrinkled his brows and decided not to comment on this gentleman’s promise.

When it was time for their appointment, Xue Ling brought Cole into the building of Xu Group. With a secretary leading the way, they stepped into the elevator to the president’s office.

The company’s renovation and décor was much better than the original Wen group’s, and the style was totally different. It was probably done on purpose in order to distinguish itself from the original company, as Xu Yongyi would not want his company to always be under Wen Group’s shadow.

Xue Ling dressed formally today. Because of the cold weather, he also wore a double-breasted black woollen overcoat that slimmed down his waist and lengthened his figure. The lady working at the reception desk found herself unable to look away.

He was followed by an attractive man with long legs that seemed to start from the waist, handsome to the point where others would find it difficult to keep their legs together. The two-man combination sparked off a wave of gossip from the employees – the two clearly could make a fortune off their looks alone, but still wanted to work with their brains, this was simply giving those blessed with less fortune no way to live on.

Compared with domestic enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises had more abundant capital. Moreover, the enterprise that was scheduled to negotiate a contract today had seized half of the new technology market in M country over a short period of two years. When it went public, people went crazy about investing into it. If he hadn’t been restricted by the domestic environment, Xu Yongyi would have also wanted to buy their shares. After all, they had never lost money, and their value has been increasing steadily.

Due to the importance of the other party, Xu Yongyi arrived at the company early this morning. By the time the appointment rolled around, he had already been sitting in the office for three hours.

Seeing that the other party arrived on time, he believed that they must be sincere. Xu Yongyi took a deep breath and pushed the door open to welcome them. But what awaited him on the other side was a face that had been appearing in his nightmares for two years.

“I haven’t seen brother-in-law in a long time. How have you been over the past two years?”

Wen Xiuyuan’s looks had always been outstanding, and the past two years had honed his outstanding temperament even further. When he laughed, his eyes tilted slightly and the mole at the corner of his eyes looked somewhat seductive, but looking carefully, there was no sense of femininity at all.

That kind of evil smile could easily attract many people, but could also easily scare them.

The obviously frightened Xu Yongyi put on a cold expression. “Who let you in? Secretary Ku, how can you be so unprofessional! Is my office a place that anyone can walk into?”

The secretary was rooted to the spot in shock. She didn’t understand how the president suddenly had a brother-in-law, and was cursed at by the president. She was somewhat embarrassed and wanted to open her mouth to explain, but the beautiful young man gently stopped her.

“Don’t blame the secretary. She only brought me up at the request of brother-in-law. After all, we made an appointment last night to talk about the contract today.” He was smiling the whole time. It was impossible to tell that he had come looking for trouble, and the secretary hurriedly nodded at his words.

Xu Yongyi’s breath was stuck in his throat. He stupidly asked, “Talk about cooperation? You are from the Moan Group!??”

“What else?” Xue Ling helplessly answered. “Does brother-in-law think I would dare to enter your company without a formal appointment?”

The word “your” was pronounced with extra emphasis.

Xu Yongyi’s expression cooled noticeably. “What do you want to do?”

“I naturally wanted to have a good talk with my brother-in-law~” Xue Ling made a gesture with his hand, “I came all the way from Country M in order to send my brother-in-law good news. Will my brother-in-law force me to speak from the doorway?”

Xu Yongyi had an ominous foreboding, but he had always been able to put on a good front. He glanced at the secretary and stepped aside to make way into the president’s office. “Come in, we’ll talk inside.”

Xue Ling sneered. Cole reached out a hand and patted him on the shoulder.

It was a small gesture, but Xue Ling turned and gave him a smile. The secretary noticed the short interaction between the two men and was dazed by the brilliance of Xue Ling’s smile.

Ah, what kind of lucky day is this? I feel like my eyes have been purified.

帅的让人合不拢腿 shuài de rànɡ rén hé bu lǒng zuǐ – this is really kind of vulgar, lol. (it showed up where Xue Ling & Cole walked into Xu group’s office…) literally translates to ‘good looking enough to make people not able to put their legs together’. variations of this phrase go something like ‘made them feel so good that they couldn’t put her legs together’. uhm. O.o today’s chinese class, i guess?

Also, for those who couldn’t make the connection. The chapter description’s ‘shiny’ is directly linked to the brilliance of Xue Ling’s smile~

Bluebug (Editor): You teach such vulgar things to our poor readers? Q_Q Shameful! XDD

On another note, please greet alamerysl to our little family. I know I’m a bit late on this, but there has just been so much happening in the past chapters. Be assured that we keep trying our best to bring you chapters, pretty and bountiful. Thanks to some restructuring in how we work, our poor translator will spend 15 minutes more on each chapter and I will reduce the time I spend from 160 minutes to 30 minutes (5 times less!). Together with alamerysl, there should be not much delay on the editor’s side.

Alamerysl (also an editor): Hi!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.