“Sigh, what a pity Old Lin isn’t here—I don’t even have anyone to rely on.
0
Wen Yaqian let out a slow sigh and looked at the two sitting across from her with a deliberately forlorn expression.
“I still have to keep an eye on you two… Honestly, why don’t you just stack yourselves together and get it over with.”
“Wh—”
Mentioning this, Jiang Lingwei blew out a breath. “It’s not like I had anywhere else to sit.”
“I don’t mind. Xiao Wei is light; I can hold her just fine.”
Wen Yaqian covered her mouth with four fingers, mischief sparkling in her eyes. “Oh~ So, Mr. Jiangcheng, how do you know so much about Xiao Wei’s body~?”
“Chengzi!”
Jiangcheng simply blinked innocently in response.
It’s over, Wen Yaqian’s laid a trap for me. (棒读)
This time out, Wen Yaqian hadn’t made a big scene—she’d just bought a stretch SUV in advance and parked it here, sending one of her drivers along, nothing more.
For her, there were no new places left in this world to visit; anything she wanted to eat, as long as it could be bought, was never a problem.
A small place like Canghai City—really, there wasn’t anything all that special about the sights.
But the experience of going out to have fun with friends, that was something she hadn’t had in many years.
Because of this, Wen Yaqian was in particularly high spirits, showing a side of herself rarely seen in daily life.
In her world, “friends” had never existed before—aside from family, everyone else was simply “other people.”
It wasn’t as if people hadn’t tried to get close to her; at her level, if she so much as announced she wanted friends, there’d be lines of people trying to curry favor running for blocks.
But because of her past, Wen Yaqian had a special relationship with the idea of friends; she’d never even considered the possibility.
Old Liu, who was driving, understood this all too well.
Except when she was with family, Wen Yaqian always projected a stern and aloof image—dealing with outsiders in a strictly businesslike way, never saying a word more than necessary.
Generally, bosses like this made everyone around them feel uneasy.
But Wen Yaqian had another redeeming quality: she was truly fair and businesslike.
The company treated employees well, never delayed wages, never exploited workers; for every position, she calculated a fair price. Even when overtime was needed, she didn’t sell false hopes—she just paid extra.
If you had ability, you got promoted; if you didn’t, you were out.
No bribery, no playing favorites—Wen Yaqian only cared about the ability an employee should show and the money she ought to pay them.
She’d kept this habit since her earliest days in business.
Now, Wen Yaqian didn’t have to worry about trivial details anymore; she only needed to steer the general direction.
She didn’t get chummy with her subordinates, but she also didn’t micromanage or talk too much.
And Wen Yaqian really had what it took to look down on her peers.
Her decisions were almost never wrong; whenever a critical problem came up, she only had to give a hint, and her people didn’t need to think—just following her lead would solve it.
Ordinary employees never even saw her; those who did were all elites in their fields.
Even these top talents behaved impeccably in front of Wen Yaqian—who else would dare complain?
To her subordinates, she was like a fixed program, or, to be a bit more human about it, like an NPC who issued tasks at regular intervals: well-paid, well-modeled, but never offering any dialogue for casual chatting.
How to put it… She was a good person, but just a bit lacking in “human touch.”
Only someone like Old Liu, her driver, would sometimes overhear her warm laughter when she talked to her family, catching a glimpse of the warmth beneath that icy exterior.
But Old Liu never told anyone about it.
The reason wasn’t complicated: it was about money.
As both driver and bodyguard, Wen Yaqian paid him exceptionally well. Usually, she barely needed him; if she did, she’d arrange for him to wait somewhere in advance—never any last-minute requests.
Such an easy, well-paid job, with such a straightforward boss—if he got fired for gossiping behind her back, that would really be a loss.
Just like now, Old Liu had entered a state of “no-self,” treating himself like an AI in a driverless taxi.
Apart from the road and traffic, everything else was none of his business—the voices from the back seat were just background noise!
“This is all your fault! How old are you, and you still play with bugs!”
Jiang Lingwei huffed in her seat.
Bug-type attacks and such—weren’t those too underhanded?!
She’d been fine as a child; she rarely had toys, never mind video games. There was just one TV, and the orphans all fought to take turns.
Like most kids her age, she’d naturally liked playing with bugs.
But as she grew older, those caterpillars she could grab with her bare hands as a kid—now she couldn’t touch them at all. She’d even go out of her way to avoid beetles on the street.
It’s odd—if she were in Magical Girl mode, she could face even the ugliest, grossest monsters without flinching.
But when she wasn’t a Magical Girl, she was still afraid of all the same things as anyone else.
And really, who does this kind of thing?! Only someone like Wen Yaqian, who’d snatch a caterpillar from a tree and toss it down. Even she had to retreat in the face of such an attack.
“Did you actually bring any bugs into the car?!”
“Who knows~”
Facing Jiang Lingwei’s accusation, Wen Yaqian covered her pocket with one hand, propped her chin with the other, and showed a comical grin. “Xiao~ Wei~ Don’t you want to come and see for yourself~?”
“Ugh—I-I don’t want to!”
Jiang Lingwei felt her skin crawl and pressed herself against the seat back.
She’d originally wanted to sit with Wen Yaqian, but before getting in, Wen Yaqian had deliberately acted as if she’d stuffed something into her pocket right in front of her.
Thinking it over, the most likely thing was that she’d grabbed a bug from the tree.
For most people, bringing a bug in your pocket into a car was just unthinkable—at most, it was a prank to scare someone.
Let alone at their age; they should be more mature by now.
D
But Wen Yaqian wasn’t most people.
She was the type who’d blow up an entire street at the drop of a hat.
Just to be safe, Jiang Lingwei decided to assume the worst and keep her distance.
If Wen Yaqian was a no-go, and her daughter was sitting with Lin Yu, she had no choice but to sit with Jiangcheng.
As for the one remaining empty seat, Jiang Lingwei chose to ignore it.
Don’t ask—if you do, she’ll just say she didn’t see it.
“Seriously, don’t you trust me at all? Am I really that untrustworthy in your eyes?”
Wen Yaqian heaved a theatrical sigh. “Woe is me…”
“You’re the last person I’d trust.”
Jiang Lingwei’s lips twitched. “It was all fine before; blame yourself. If you hadn’t pulled this stunt, I’d be sitting next to you.”
“Fine, fine, blame me.”
After admitting it straightforwardly, Wen Yaqian’s phoenix eyes narrowed.
“But sitting together is just sitting together, isn’t it? You immediately cozied up with your Chengzi as soon as you got in—is that my fault too?”
“Th-this, I-I…”
Jiang Lingwei, shy as she was, had nothing to say.
If Wen Yaqian hadn’t pointed it out, she wouldn’t even have noticed.
Jiangcheng’s body was sturdy and comfortable to lean on; she’d gotten used to it. Sitting together now felt natural, her body instinctively leaning over—she’d totally forgotten Wen Yaqian was even there.
“Oh my, you’re blushing~ Xiao Wei really is a small fry, declaring your sovereignty in front of me? Don’t worry, I won’t steal him from you~”
Wen Yaqian kept up the teasing, and Jiang Lingwei, after struggling to find words, could only counter-attack.
“Th-then you and your Old Lin are even more shameless!”
“That’s my husband.”
Wen Yaqian straightened her chest, saying proudly, “What’s wrong with living as a married couple?”
“Well, my Jiangcheng is the father of my child too!”
Having been unable to get a word in edgewise, Jiangcheng’s arm was seized by Jiang Lingwei as he watched the two women’s banter escalate.
When it came to the verbal sparring of women—especially best friends—Jiangcheng knew better than to get involved.
Since neither was angry, he just let them talk.
Jiangcheng still remembered, back in the memory illusion, how much Jiang Lingwei cared about Wen Yaqian. Even at the end, she asked him to cast a Suggestion Spell to get Wen Yaqian to leave.
He wasn’t sure what else Wen Yaqian had experienced since then, but Jiangcheng knew the Dark Calamity had erupted in Songji City, turning the whole place into a forbidden zone.
He figured Wen Yaqian must have left Songji City before that, avoiding the disaster and building her own commercial empire.
But, knowing her personality, would she really just give up and leave?
It must have been because he later went and cast the Suggestion Spell on her.
Jiang Lingwei truly understood her friend.
Still, where had he and the Xiao Wei of that time ended up?
So far, there was still a long blank in their memories—maybe they’d fill it in someday.
“Chengzi?”
Jiang Lingwei’s puzzled voice snapped him back to reality.
“Hm?”
Jiangcheng looked down.
At some point, Jiang Lingwei had let go of his arm, but he hadn’t noticed—his arm was still stretched out toward her.
Now he looked like he was trying to shield Jiang Lingwei with his arm.
“Oh.”
Jiangcheng said calmly,
“What I wanted to say is, I like Xiao Wei.”
He placed his arm across his chest and continued, “Wen Yaqian, I hope you’ll let me have her. I promise I won’t give her everything I have, and I’ll never let her get hurt.”
“Alright.”
Wen Yaqian smiled and nodded. “You’d better keep your word.”
“Who asked you to confess at a time like this?!” Jiang Lingwei shouted, face burning, unable to do anything about the two of them. She felt like there were no humans left in this car.
In the back row behind them, the two little ones were chatting on Juxin.
Lin Yu: [Sorry, my mom just gets a little weird sometimes.]
Jiang Yao:
(It’s fine, my parents are just the same.)
[Are we the only normal ones here?] (scared emoji)
(Hahaha.)
[By the way, I haven’t seen Xiaobai anywhere?]
(confused emoji)
(Ah, you didn’t see it because I put it in the trunk.)
[(shocked emoji)]
[(speechless emoji)]
(? )
[I feel like I just don’t fit in with you guys anymore.]
(??? Isn’t that totally normal?)
[What’s normal about this!]
At that moment, Xiaobai—who’d been squashed into a fairy pancake in the trunk—muttered,
“Are we… there yet…”