TNSFC – Chapter 74

Gu Shanxue had imagined this scene before, but she had never thought about how she would react.

Facing Que Yining, she was almost always on the defensive, retreating. She clearly reminded herself to keep her distance, but she couldn’t control her heart. Under the guise of being good friends, she ignored the other’s affection, not allowing herself to cross the line, yet her heart would still flutter at the other’s words and actions.

Gu Shanxue could only manage a slightly stiff smile to hide her inner panic and helplessness.

Que Yining watched Gu Shanxue’s flustered appearance and chuckled inwardly. She didn’t continue to tease her with words and obediently drank her soup. But while drinking the soup, her eyes weren’t idle; she kept looking at Gu Shanxue until Gu Shanxue felt embarrassed and turned her head away.

What Qiao Yuchu saw when she entered was such a clingy scene. The foot she had just stepped in with felt a bit out of place. Just as she wanted to silently withdraw her foot, two gazes locked onto her.

“Hi.”

Qiao Yuchu could only greet Gu Shanxue with an awkward yet polite smile, her face fixed in a fake grin, feeling her ability to put on a convincing act was growing stronger by the day.

Gu Shanxue nodded in greeting, packed up the lunchbox, and took out a tissue to wipe Que Yining’s mouth.

That cloying affection almost blinded Qiao Yuchu. Que Yining wasn’t incapacitated in both hands; this act of wiping her mouth was truly sickeningly sweet to Qiao Yuchu.

Gu Shanxue didn’t stay long. She had to hurry back to work. After saying goodbye to Que Yining and Qiao Yuchu, she left the hospital room.

After Gu Shanxue left, Qiao Yuchu pulled up a chair and sat next to Que Yining, winking at her.

“What’s the situation? Weren’t you saying just a couple of days ago that it wasn’t going well and you were still working on it? Are you two an item today?”

Que Yining smiled and shook her head. Seeing the smile on her face, Qiao Yuchu couldn’t help but rub the goosebumps on her arms.

“You should really take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Your smile is reaching your eyes! You’re like this even before you’re officially together; imagine what it’ll be like when you are.”

Qiao Yuchu could already foresee the scenes when these two women got together; it would definitely make single people uncomfortable both mentally and physically.

Qiao Yuchu: “Forget it, let’s not talk about this. Look at you, all radiant with happiness. What did you want to ask me? I was originally going to reply on my phone, but then I thought I didn’t have much going on, so I might as well come to the hospital to see you and answer your questions in person.”

Qiao Yuchu’s words shifted Que Yining’s thoughts from her affection for Miss Gu to serious matters. Que Yining’s expression turned serious, causing Qiao Yuchu, who had been leaning back in her chair, to sit up straight as well.

Que Yining: “Xiao Qiao, let me ask you, when you were with my brother, did you not know he was married?”

Qiao Yuchu: “Huh? Let me think.”

This old affair had long been forgotten by Qiao Yuchu. She was young and naive back then, infatuated with that charming man who doted on her. However, her tastes changed very quickly, and she never had any intention of staying with someone forever. So many years had passed, she had almost forgotten all about it.

“I… I can’t remember. I pushed it to the back of my mind long ago. But I definitely didn’t know back then. I, Qiao Yuchu, don’t have a habit of being a homewrecker,” Qiao Yuchu couldn’t help but frown, then her face paled. “Could it be that I was the ‘other woman’ without knowing? Why are you suddenly asking this? Don’t tell me your sister-in-law is going to settle scores with me? This humble servant is innocent, truly wronged!”

Que Yining shook her head. “No, forget it. It’s not a big deal. If you don’t remember, then don’t. It’s not important.”

Que Yining thought it was better that Qiao Yuchu didn’t remember. If she still had some feelings for Que Linyang, it would only make her feel more disgusted.

Qiao Yuchu muttered, “So your older brother is such a scumbag. I always thought he was a good person. Oh right, I ran into him a couple of days ago. When others heard about your injury, he seemed quite worried.”

“When? With whom?”

Que Yining immediately questioned, latching onto something, not wanting to miss any detail she might be able to learn.

Qiao Yuchu was startled by her raised voice and quickly said, “At a cocktail party, when you were still unconscious. My youngest uncle hosted it, and I went to show support. I happened to see him there. I don’t know the person he was with.”

Qiao Yuchu’s family had some connections with influential figures. Her grandfather was a retired meritorious official, and her youngest uncle also held a position in the military.

“What’s wrong, Ningning? Did something major happen?”

Seeing Que Yining’s expression, Qiao Yuchu felt a little uneasy and tried to recall who Que Linyang was talking to, but she couldn’t remember.

She had just gone to make an appearance, eat, and drink. She barely knew anyone there and didn’t plan to talk to them anyway; they weren’t big shots from her world.

Que Yining nodded. “Something did happen. Stay away from Que Linyang from now on. He’s not a good person.”

Qiao Yuchu was shocked. It was incredible that her friend, who had seemed to adore her brother ever since she knew her, would say such a thing. But she was Que Yining’s good friend, after all, and she also knew that the current Que Yining had changed somewhat. She didn’t ask why and just nodded directly.

Although one should have their own subjective judgment, Qiao Yuchu had double standards. If her good sister disliked someone, she disliked them too.

“Okay, I’ll remember. If you have any difficulties, you can tell me. Don’t carry it all by yourself. I’ll help if I can.”

Qiao Yuchu didn’t have many truly close friends. Besides Que Yining, whom she knew well and considered a sister, she had no other closer friends. In front of Que Yining, other friends had to take a backseat.

“Actually, there is. Use your network of contacts. If you can create obstacles for Que Linyang, do it. But make sure it’s aimed at Que Linyang’s own company, don’t involve my dad’s. After it’s successful, I will repay these favors.”

Que Yining wasn’t polite with Qiao Yuchu either. She needed help right now to turn around her passive situation.

Qiao Yuchu: “Okay, what are you planning to do? Are you going to compete with Que Linyang for the heir’s position? But you’ve become so capable now, if you want it, Uncle Que will definitely give it to you.”

“Yes, but others are also eyeing it covetously, wanting to take it for themselves.”

Que Yining sneered, her face full of disdain.

“On what grounds? You’re the biological one! Doesn’t he, as an adopted son, have any self-awareness? And Uncle Que and Auntie Que haven’t treated him badly all these years, have they? He didn’t seem like such an ambitious person. No, he’s just too good at pretending. Shameless!”

Qiao Yuchu was indignant, despising Que Linyang.

“Otherwise, why would there be the saying ‘ungrateful wolf’?”

“I’ll go find people right now.”

Qiao Yuchu was a woman of action. She picked up her phone and started making calls.

Her family elders were quite bewildered by Qiao Yuchu’s sudden intention to target Que Linyang personally and asked her what was going on.

Qiao Yuchu started crying, and oh, how heartbroken she sounded. She said Que Linyang had deceived her when she was young and ignorant, and she only learned the truth after all these years. She called Que Linyang a beast in human clothing, making her family members’ heads buzz from her crying.

“Don’t worry, Qiaoqiao. If he dares to bully someone from our family like this, he’ll face the consequences.”

“Boohoo, okay. Then, Uncle, remember it’s just Que Linyang, that person. Don’t involve the Que family. Uncle Que and Auntie Que are very good to me, and their biological daughter is also very close to me.”

Qiao Yuchu emphasized this point. After hanging up, she immediately dried her tears, gave Que Yining an ‘OK’ sign, and then continued to dial the next number, starting a new round of tearful complaints.

Que Yining gave her a thumbs-up, then pressed her chest.

Although she didn’t know what happened to the original owner’s family in the book in the end, connecting it to the original owner’s death, Que Yining felt it probably wasn’t good.

The original owner had a strong reaction to Fu Wenjing, feeling resentment and unwillingness every time she saw him. Que Yining thought the original owner probably believed Fu Wenjing had killed her, but Que Yining herself didn’t think so.

Of course, Que Yining couldn’t say for sure. After all, the original owner’s role was the villainous female supporting character; perhaps she had done something heinous to the original male and female leads.

The day after Que Yining asked Qiao Yuchu to create trouble for Que Linyang, Zhang Shiyu was discharged from the hospital.

Her injuries weren’t serious to begin with; besides a mild concussion, she only had scrapes and cuts. After a few days in the hospital, she could get out of bed.

She applied to Que Yining to return to work. Seeing her relatively good condition, Que Yining nodded in agreement, as the company was also very busy at the moment.

Since the official launch of Galaxy Watch, player activity had been very high. The servers were once overwhelmed, and the company had to urgently open new ones. Every department in the company dared not slack off, working with great enthusiasm.

Que Yining’s injury didn’t cause instability in the company. After all, Que Yining still held personal control; she was the boss whose word was law, so no shareholders would try to stir up trouble.

Xie Yanhuai told everyone about Que Yining’s injury and how someone was immediately going to report on it. He said it was because their game was too good, so someone was jealous and couldn’t wait to see them fail.

This game wasn’t just Que Yining’s painstaking effort; it was the result of the entire studio working overtime. When the employees heard this, they thought, “How could this be tolerated?” The more others wanted them to do poorly, the better they had to do. So, the entire company was united and full of energy, just waiting for the big boss to return and inspect their achievements.

When Que Yining learned about this from Li Suyin, she was deeply moved and felt even more motivated.

Due to her active cooperation with treatment and good mental state, Que Yining recovered quickly. Although she was still bedridden and found it difficult to move, her internal recovery speed was very impressive.

Que Yining was very satisfied with her recovery speed. After calculating the days, she began to launch an offensive against Que Linyang using the information she had gathered.

On April 1st, Que Chuling sent Que Yining a text message, indicating the mission was complete.

Que Chuling was mainly responsible for the business of a Que Corporation subsidiary. She was the top person in that subsidiary, had worked there for many years, and had a lot of say.

However, she was constrained by Que Linyang. The subsidiary wasn’t entirely her domain; Que Linyang had placed his assistant in the subsidiary, so he knew about any movements or changes there.

Que Chuling was extremely frustrated but had no way to deal with it.

But now the situation was different. Que Yining asked Que Chuling to take action, first kicking out Que Linyang’s people from the subsidiary.

Que Chuling immediately found reasons, presented evidence, and dismissed that executive. She warned everyone in the company, fired Que Linyang’s other spies, ignored Que Linyang’s phone inquiries, and directly blacklisted him.

Que Yining sat in her wheelchair, basking in the sunlight, thinking the weather was really nice today.

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