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75 Prelude to Farewell

Su Tong said, "If it's Xie Mingyuan, he'll live a carefree life no matter what."

His response was a smile, just like when Su Tong first met President Xie during his inspection of the branch office—confident, dashing, and with a touch of aloof arrogance, yet his eyes held an indescribable emotion. Gazing at Su Tong, who was smiling at him, he replied, "I suppose so."

Since he said that, even if Su Tong knew he might not think that way, she also knew that the feelings she had truly invested wouldn't be so easily washed away by time. So she tacitly finished dancing with him and didn't say anything more. When the ball came to an end, she said goodbye and left in a proper manner.

When they left, Xie Mingyuan and Jiang Wenjun saw off the more important guests one by one. Whether it was just a formality due to Jiang Wenjun's status or because she was actually quite popular, it seemed that Jiang Wenjun was quite popular among the noble ladies of the capital. Many girls in their teens and twenties hugged her warmly and wished her happiness with smiles. She also responded with a proper and sweet smile, arm in arm with Xie Mingyuan.

When Su Tong and Xie Chengjing said goodbye, Su Tong clearly noticed that Jiang Wenjun, who had been quite relaxed while talking to a female friend, suddenly went into a tense, prepared state. Su Tong couldn't help but sigh at how she, at her age, still made the younger woman so nervous. (Seriously, who would guess you're so old? If it weren't for your calm and mature demeanor, people might think you're much younger than Jiang Wenjun and that our second young master is a cuckold.)

Su Tong chuckled inwardly at Jiang Wenjun's surprised expression, then suddenly moved closer and embraced her. Su Tong, though only 164cm tall, appeared tall due to her excellent figure, while the refined Jiang Wenjun, though possessing a strong presence, was petite, though this wasn't immediately apparent from her heels. Su Tong's embrace, with her still a head taller than Jiang Wenjun even in heels, made it seem as if Su Tong was comforting a little sister. Su Tong felt a surge of pleasure at Jiang Wenjun's momentary surprise; it seemed this assertive young woman was finally acting like a girl her age. However, Su Tong wouldn't show it. She whispered something in Jiang Wenjun's ear, and before Jiang Wenjun could react, she decisively released her.

Instead, she gave Xie Mingyuan a farewell hug. Xie Mingyuan was taken aback for a moment, then hugged her tightly. He had just caught a faint, indescribable fragrance from Su Tong when she whispered in his ear, "Be happy." Then she firmly pushed him away, her expression as calm as ever, as if she hadn't been the one who had just given them, the engaged couple, a "blessing" hug, and said goodbye to them just like that.

With a serious expression, Xie Chengjing displayed the demeanor of an elder, after all, there's a distinction between close and distant relatives. This was quite unlike his attitude towards Su Wen and Xie Mingde's wedding, where he basically ignored the couple. He gave them parting words of advice: "Mingyuan, you're going to have a family now, so you need to be more stable and mature, and take responsibility. Wenjun, you should also get along well with Mingyuan, but if he bullies you, don't hesitate to tell us elders."

On the way back, thinking about how close she had been to Xie Chengjing while dancing at the ball, Su Tong felt a little embarrassed to face him. She pretended to sleep or kept looking down at her phone in the car. Suddenly, she received a new WeChat friend request from Xie Chengjing in her contacts. Su Tong glanced up at him and saw him staring at his own phone screen with a serious expression, as if handling official business. She calmly added him as a friend. After adding him, she realized that he truly lived up to his reputation as the Second Young Master Xie. Aside from a nickname and a barely registered account called "Xie Er," his profile, photo album, and status updates were all blank. Even Su Tong, who didn't consider herself a big fan of social media, had a few short posts like "My case went very smoothly today, I'm in such a great mood."

After becoming WeChat friends, Su Tong thought for a long time about what to talk about, but felt there was really nothing to say. In the end, she only sent him "Today":

A reply came instantly: Looking at these three incredibly simple words, Su Tong realized her imagination had run wild, and the words "It was only right, only right, only right" kept echoing in her mind...

However, Xie Chengjing's expression remained serious, which calmed Su Tong's racing heart. She couldn't concentrate on the webpage she'd been browsing, so she started to wonder if Xie Chengjing, when he was so serious in front of his laptop or phone, was just doing something as ordinary as chatting on WeChat. Probably not, after all, this was the Second Young Master Xie.

Before Su Tong went to the United States, Xie Chengjing still didn't tell her the second thing he wanted her to do. Since he didn't say it, Su Tong didn't bother to think about it and focused on filming. During this time, she was flattered to enjoy the treatment of Xie Ershao cooking for her. This time, he made a simple fried rice, but the taste was really good. It was probably like the taste of a small, ordinary family restaurant.

Although Su Tong's filming schedule was busy, it was still within acceptable limits. Fortunately, it was a movie set in Country A, and most of the location shooting was done in Los Angeles, so she didn't have to experience the kind of filming scenes where she was surrounded by crowds and onlookers. Su Tong was already somewhat used to being watched by the crew. On Friday, filming in China was basically completed, except for a few actors who had scenes with Chen Qi, who needed to reshoot her scenes with the actress replacing Chen Qi. As a reward for everyone's hard work, Director Lin generously gave everyone a day off and scheduled a flight to Los Angeles for Sunday night.

Speaking of Chen Qi, ever since her scandals were fully exposed, she's become infamous. She hid in her apartment for two days, when some crazy individuals broke in to try and get her out and teach her a lesson. They discovered that she and her assistant had vanished without a trace, and haven't been found since. There are many rumors online: some say she secretly went to South Korea for plastic surgery to start over, others say she just tried to leave the country, and some even say she was punished by heaven for her many evil deeds. Su Tong roughly guessed that she was taken away by Lin Shanshan or Xie Chengjing, but didn't know how she was dealt with. However, she didn't ask too much. She couldn't find a reason to forgive someone who had done such a thing, and even if Su Tong herself had the power to deal with her, she wouldn't let her off the hook.

Su Tong's scenes in China ended around 2 PM on Friday. She practiced dancing in a newly opened dance studio on the second floor of the villa for a while. Due to Kong Kong's enthusiastic invitation, she was kept in the yard playing with Kong Kong and Xie Er'er for quite a long time. Kong Kong pounced on her and licked her cheeks. The two of them rolled around on the small lawn without any regard for their image. When she saw Xie Chengjing say on WeChat that he would be back early today, she took a shower and started preparing dinner.

To be honest, Xie Chengjing's enthusiasm for cooking was quite high compared to his busy schedule, and his progress was also very obvious. This time, Su Tong decided to show him her best skills and let him know that everyone has their own expertise, and that cooking was still a step behind. However, she couldn't think of anything to cook for a while. In the end, she chatted with her mother and learned that she had cooked steamed pork with rice flour that day. Looking at the picture of the steamed pork with rice flour that Su Tong made, which looked so delicious that she could almost smell the aroma, she decided to make that too.

But a surprising discovery followed – a set of spoons, from large to small, had appeared in the kitchen. Su Tong, recalling a cookbook she'd seen at home before that had mysteriously disappeared, guessed it belonged to Xie Chengjing. She figured it was probably for handling recipes that called for adding "a teaspoon" of salt, "a tablespoon" of oil, and "a teaspoon" of soy sauce. Perhaps Xie Chengjing simply followed the recipes meticulously, memorizing them at a glance before cooking. Thinking of Xie Chengjing's serious demeanor as he faced the pots and pans, Su Tong couldn't help but chuckle, less worried that her cooking skills would soon be surpassed by him.

When she had plenty of time, Su Tong treated cooking as a leisure activity, slowly preparing the meal while estimating Xie Chengjing's return time. Kongkong and Xie Er'er played around her near the kitchen door, but they were clever enough not to bother her at all. Looking at the two lively children, Su Tong suddenly remembered that she was about to go to Country A.

Although her role in the film wasn't large, and her character Li Roujia died relatively early in the movie, filming was done scene-by-scene rather than chronologically. Furthermore, the production team prioritized the schedules of top stars like Lin Zhen, and given director Lin Lili's notoriously demanding nature, Su Tong's filming time in Country A was conservatively estimated to be over two months. This meant she wouldn't have to face Xie Chengjing's cold shoulder during this time, and she couldn't bring Kongkong along either. Fortunately, Kongkong was now quite familiar with Xie Chengjing...

Because of Su Tong's serious lack of effort, Xie Chengjing, who was originally prepared to taste all kinds of delicacies, was also impressed by the three dishes. After tasting them, Xie Chengjing finally gave his evaluation: "Not as good as before."

Su Tong was surprised. She hadn't expected Xie Chengjing to have such potential as a gourmet. Although her cooking this time was indeed a little worse than usual, she had been trained by her mother's sharp tongue for so many years, and her dishes were still quite appealing in terms of color, aroma, and taste. The average layman shouldn't be able to tell the difference. However, since the Second Young Master Xie had criticized her, Su Tong had no choice but to humbly accept it and made an excuse, saying, "I might have been a little tired lately, so my skills were a bit lacking."

Xie Chengjing nodded, indicating that he accepted Su Tong's explanation, and then brought up another topic, "There's another thing you mentioned you had to do before going to Country A. Luckily, I have a day off tomorrow, so I don't need to ask for leave. I'll take you to meet someone. Then we can go on a picnic together. Wang Lu and the others will come too."

Author's Note: Guess who I'll be meeting!

Thank you so much, Mimi Anran and Lazy Girl, for the landmines! I think I see Lazy Girl quite often, but Anran, I haven't seen you in so long, I thought you'd abandoned me 5555555~ Thankfully you're both still here ╭(╯3╰)╮ 166 Reading Network