Chapter 241: Cecily

Tang Qinghong was extremely nervous when he rushed over. He was afraid that something terrible might have befallen Xiao Yun. If that was to happen, he’d definitely be crushed by Gu Xiqiao fists, in addition to facing his brother’s wrath.

He definitely was not anticipating such a gory scene to play out before him.

At this moment, the ones who should be crying are probably the elders of the Tang family.

Tang Qinghong shed a tear of sympathy for the men sent by the elders. How unfortunate of them, to bump into Gu Xiqiao. Tang Qinghong peered down at his phone and realized that there was an astronomical number of missed calls from his brother. He glanced up at Yin Shaoyuan and said, “You escort Xiao Yun back.”

“Where are you going?” questioned Yin Shaoyuan with suspicion in his voice.

“I’m gonna go find my brother.” Tang Qinghong couldn’t be bothered with idle chit-chat. Without hesitation, he kicked Yin Shaoyuan out of his vehicle.

Yin Shaoyuan hopped out of the car immediately, barely missing that kick. His face darkened instantly. How dare this guy try to kick him! “Second Cousin, are you trying pick a fight with me?” Yin Shaoyuan cracked his knuckles, a gesture to show that he was eager to fight.

Tang Qinghong narrowed his eyes and flashed him a dangerous look. “Say that again?”

“Second Cousin! Second Cousin! Second Cousin!” Yin Shaoyuan hurriedly repeated these words before making a final dash for Xiao Yun’s vehicle. The moment he slid into her car, he urged her to stomp on the pedal.

“…”

Tang Qinghong went silent. Yin Shaoyuan has been back for so long and yet this was the first time he felt the urge to punch him. He was under restraints back in the ancient martial arts world but it had only been a few days since he came out here. How on earth did he manage to turn into this so quickly?

Whilst contemplating, he drove over to the residential district next to A University. He recalled Tang Qingqiu buying a house here.

Tang Qingqiu was still wide awake when he arrived. He was sitting at the bar with a glass of fine alcohol on hand. Why did he have a fully-loaded bar in his temporary residence? God damn was he enjoying himself here! With a face devoid of emotions, Tang Qinghong located a bottle of red wine which he poured a glassful for himself.

“Good choice.” Tang Qingqiu eyed the wine bottle Tang Qinghong had picked. He was amused, as his brother had picked the most expensive bottle of wine he had in his collection. “You drink?”

Tang Qinghong gulped down his glassful of wine in one go, the sight of which made the corner of Tang Qingqiu’s mouth twitch awkwardly.

“You aren’t going to ask me if everything’s alright with Xiao Yun?” By now, Tang Qinghong had already downed half a bottle of wine. He turned toward Tang Qingqiu, who had called and texted him incessantly to ask about Xiao Yun. Why then, was he shrugging this matter off as if it was nothing?

“I don’t have anything much to ask about. She’s been with Miss Gu for so long after all. Even I have no idea which level she has reached now.” Tang Qingqiu waved his hands casually as he was just slightly concerned earlier. With Gu Xiqiao by her side, he said a silent prayer for the poor souls who dared to mess with them.

Tang Qinghong chuckled. “You seem to know her quite well.”

His brother did not respond immediately to this statement. Instead, he switched over to another topic. “Have you stopped going to the Trial Tower?”

“Yeah, it’s been a couple of days since I’ve last been there.” Tang Qinghong tightened his grip on the wineglass.

“Go back tomorrow,” said Tang Qingqiu as he patted his brother on the shoulder. “Your phone couldn’t be reached. Grandpa called me up yesterday to tell me just this.”

“I’m not going back.” Tang Qinghong stared back at Tang Qingqiu with dead serious eyes. “Brother, I sparred with Yin Shaoyuan yesterday. Without using my tricks, he is already on par with me.”

Tang Qingqiu was in the middle of pouring himself a glass of wine when his brother said that. He was so shocked that he spilled precious drops of red grape alcohol over the floor. Instead of mulling over it though, he stared up with a bewildered expression at Tang Qinghong. “Didn’t he just start learning ancient martial arts?”

“Yeah, the last time he left the ancient martial arts world, he was around level 40 at the Trial Tower. No more than half a month has passed and yet he’s level 50 now,” said Tang Qinghong as he stared down at his wine.

Tang Qingqiu was again, so stunned that the wineglass fell out of his hands, shattering into a million pieces when it hit the floor.

“She brought the Trial Tower from the ancient martial arts world, out into the secular world. Also, the time ratio is 7:1.” Tang Qinghong peered up and wiped the sweat off his brows. “I forgot to mention that it’s an improved version of our Trial Tower, with zero side-effects after entering it.”

Tang Qingqiu went silent. “… Do the elders know about this?”

“I don’t think things would remain so peaceful if they were to know about this,” replied Tang Qinghong whilst shaking his head.

He recalled how an elder had been defeated so badly by the Peace Squad that he had picked up the Buddhist faith. Tang Qingqiu silently put his glass down. “I get it. There is no need for you to return to the ancient martial arts world. I’ll tell Grandpa about this tomorrow.”

“Talk nicely, I don’t want to send him into shock.” Tang Qinghong put down his wineglass and located an empty guest room where he could lay down and rest. He had been continuously triggered by Yao Jiamu for the past two days; he needed to thoroughly rest his soul and mind. Else, he’d end up like that elder, who was pushed past his limits and ran off to meditate.

In the living room, Tang Qingqiu remained seated. He thought about it and in the end, he couldn’t help but send Jiang Shuxuan a text message—[That person has already left your family, why the struggle?] Half of the elders in the ancient martial arts world seemed to have been spooked by that girl!

Jiang Shuxuan had just finished reading a document sent to him from the ancient martial arts world when he received the message. He responded with a simple reply—[I’m flattered.]

“Big boss, I’ve just received news from Yi Tong. The problem they faced in N City has already been resolved,” reported Yi Tiao who entered the room after knocking. “Yi Tong could not confirm who it was that intervened and he’s asking you about our next move.”

The dark screen of his phone lit up. Jiang Shuxuan picked up his device and read the new message. His ink-dark eyes were shrouded behind his long lashes. Surprisingly, his tightly pursed lips had loosened up greatly. “Tell him to stop searching, that person’s in the police station right this moment.”

“Police station? I get it now.” Although he had no idea how Jiang Shuxuan knew that, he did not doubt that his boss was speaking the truth. His mouth opened and closed as if he was about to say something but words failed to come out.

“Spit it out.” Jiang Shuxuan patiently rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt. The bony structures of his forearms shone underneath the fluorescent lights. “After that, we’ll head on over to the mountain to take a look.”

Yi Tiao bowed his head immediately. “Um… it’s that Madam Jiang has moved into your residential district.” Jiang Shuxuan’s movement of rolling up his sleeves froze up. He peered up, revealing a look of amazement on his face. “I see,” he replied.

He slapped his forehead. Jiang Shuxuan was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Why was his mother up to? Thank goodness that lass hasn’t been around the capital recently, else there would be no way he could remain so calm at this moment.

He walked out the door with Yi Tiao trailing behind him. As they went, random thoughts popped up in his mind. ‘I see? What does he mean by that? What reaction would that count as?’

***

N City.

Gu Xiqiao packed the men up and sent them straight to the police station. Fearing that the people there wouldn’t be enough to restrain these people, she made sure to send Jiang Shuxuan a heads up.

She went straight to Nine Heavens after that.

Although Nine Heavens has expanded greatly since their move to the Imperial Capital, the core unit controlling its operations remained largely the same. They were there when the company started expanding and hence, these people had grown familiar with Gu Xiqiao.

It was nearing 10pm now. The lights at the highest level of Nine Heavens’ office building had yet to go out.

Nine Heavens’ administrators in N City were all elites, hand-picked by Mu Zong, who handed over a large pile of documents over to Gu Xiqiao.

Gu Xiqiao flipped through the pages rapidly, scribbling down amendments here and there. It didn’t take long for her to work through the entire pile. “Your performance is good, I hope you’ll keep up the good work. There are however, a handful of issues with this proposal, all of which I have already corrected.” She pushed forth a smaller pile of documents.

The manager she was talking to was also originally working under Mu Zong. He had a pretty good idea on how capable Gu Xiqiao was. He nodded immediately when he heard what she said. “I understand Miss Gu, you should take a rest soon. Mr. Mu has ordered me to book a hotel room for you. Allow me to send you there right now.”

“No need for that, I’ll head over there myself. Remember to send me information on the Baixing Village Tourism Base tomorrow.” With a wave of her hand, Gu Xiqiao left the place with the system by her side.

The administrator sat down where Gu Xiqiao was sitting and started looking through the errors in the proposal which she had pointed out. Looks like he’s gonna pull an all-nighter here again.

The secretary, who had been standing nearby was a newcomer who had no idea who Gu Xiqiao was, let alone how terrifying she was. However, seeing how respectful the administrator was toward her reminded the secretary to not to mess with the young lady. After all, she was one of the very few individuals that were lucky enough to make it through Nine Heavens’ rigorous selection process.

Out of curiosity, she asked the general manager, “Sir, do you trust what that young lady is saying?”

“See for yourself.” The general manager picked up the proposal with the errors and passed it to the secretary. He didn’t seem to fear a privacy leak as everyone here was striving up the company hierarchy. Only an insane person would willingly jump ship upon being hired by Nine Heavens!

The secretary pulled out a random document. She looked down at the notes written down in jet black ink, the smooth artistic strokes, and how much it resembled the flow of water.

She took a moment to gasp at how impeccable Gu Xiqiao’s writing was before she started actually reading what they actually were. A short while later, she was stunned. She flipped through the pages, one by one. Every single one of her notes appeared to cut right to the chase. Effortlessly, she could point out the issues using a couple of words and from there, propose a new, amended solution.

The secretary lowered this document and picked up another one. It ended up being the same thing.

In such a short amount of time, what started off as a simple question now turned into an unending reading session. She could never have expected to finish reading each and every solution plan that Gu Xiqiao offered. Perplexed, the secretary asked another question.

“Sir, who was that person we met just now?”

“Didn’t you keep telling me that you wanted to meet Boss Gu? Well, there she was. You don’t recognize her do you?” asked the general manager in a nonchalant manner.

“Ahhhhhhh! My idol! Why didn’t you tell me beforehand!? I don’t know if we can still be friends after this! I’ve missed my chance to speak with my idol because of you!”

“…”

The general manager: It’s my fault now?

***

Gu Xiqiao took the elevator down the building. As she walked toward her hotel, she gave Luo Wenlang a call.

“Boss Gu, you called?” Luo Wenlang, who was currently at the Imperial Capital was still playing cards with Ning Qing and his buddies when he received Gu Xiqiao’s call. He shoved his cards into Luo Wenlin’s hands and walked over to a corner to answer the call.

“Yea,” responded Gu Xiqiao.

“I remember Dalin’s birthday is soon approaching. Tomorrow, I’ll transfer a percentage of the Gu family enterprise’s ownership to him.”

Although My Zong had acquired Nine Heavens, he did not merge Gu Enterprise’s assets with Nine Heavens. Instead, they were allowed to expand as a separate corporate entity and this was what Gu Xiqiao wished for. After all, Nine Heavens had grown so large that the addition of Gu Enterprise did not matter to them.

Luo Wenlang was at a loss for words when he heard this. Silently, he stole a glance at Luo Wenlin who was playing cards excitedly. To receive a medium-sized enterprise as a birthday gift, only Boss Gu was able to pull this off in real life. However, her mentioning Gu Enterprise reminded Luo Wenlang of another matter. “Oh right, is Gu Enterprise facing any problems as of late?” It’s been months since a report was last submitted.

Gu Xiqiao laughed. “It’s already been settled. You should be receiving the related materials tomorrow. Dalin is still underage so you should help manage his gift first. It might be awhile before I come back to the capital.”

It’s been settled? Luo Wenlang was astonished. He was about to ask another question when his phone was snatched away by Yu Ning, whose face was covered in paper strips from losing the game. “Boss Gu, you told me you’d come here… what about the web editing department?”

Before he could continue blabbering on, Gu Xiqiao hung up on him.

Yu Ning: “… sonuvab*tch!”

Gu Xiqiao saw a familiar white car approaching her right after she put away her phone. She stopped walking as the white car rolled to a stop next to her. The car window came down, revealing Tang Yanling behind it. For some reason, she seemed slightly unhappy. “Qiao Qiao, why didn’t you tell me that you’re coming back!” If not for Jiang Shuxuan, she would not have known about it!

Gu Xiqiao laughed helplessly. “Mama Tang, apologies.” She was only here for a couple of days so she didn’t want to bother the Yin family.

The white car drove off.

A minute later, multiple figures emerged from the dark.

“Mr. Yi Tong, did you discover who the interventionist was?” A tall woman wearing only a red dress in the middle of winter asked. She scanned her surroundings with a pair of dark green eyes that seemed to emit a mysterious glow. The woman had a pair of thick black eyebrows which paired well with her soul-catching eyes. It was quite obvious that this person was a foreigner. Though, her Mandarin was smooth and sounded almost local.

Yi Tong fiddled with the compass before replying, “Miss Cecillia, there seems to be energy waves around N City. It’s no longer at the city center though. We’ll have to scout the nearby counties for it.”

They received two pieces of news when they came to N City. One was that there was an internal crisis within N City and the other was that there was an energy wave surrounding the perimeter of the city.

They did not foresee that upon arriving at N City, this grave problem would have been resolved by someone else! Yi Tong almost broke down into tears whenever he thought about this. If this went on any further, would he serve any purpose by remaining here? He’d definitely get laughed at by Yi Tiao and Yi Bing when he went back.

“Sure.” replied Cecillia. “Mr. Yi Tong, has Young Master Jiang responded?”

“I have no idea, Miss Cecillia. It’s been ages since the big boss contacted me!” Yi Tong made a pained expression when he spoke about this.

Cecillia looked down dejectedly when she heard his response. “Let’s go then.”