Chapter 51

Wei Xiaolu had always taken pride in the fact that her parents sold noodles for a living, but in front of someone she liked, all sense of worth seemed to vanish without a trace. Under Wei Zongqing and Tang Xiaofen’s enthusiastic “welcoming the boss,” even she felt a little guilty and awkward.

“We always hear Xiaolu praise you,” Tang Xiaofen said with a smile as she walked over. “A once-in-a-lifetime good leader. Our Xiaolu still wants to stay here and trouble you more, so please bear with her…”

“Mom.” Wei Xiaolu reached out and tugged at her sleeve, wanting her to stop; it was a little embarrassing.

Shen Siyan seemed to catch the tiny movement. Her smile didn’t change, but when she spoke again, her tone had quietly shifted.

“Hello, Uncle, Auntie. You can just call me Siyan,” she said, setting down the fruit platter and taking Tang Xiaofen’s hands in both of hers, bowing slightly. “As for Xiaolu staying on, to be honest, it’s my selfishness.”

She paused, her gaze naturally landing on the already-stunned Wei Xiaolu beside her, and added clearly, “I quite like her. With her around, the house feels livelier; I even feel more settled when I’m working.”

Wei Xiaolu’s eyes flew wide open. “CEO Shen…”

The Shen Siyan opposite her was nothing like the imposing figure she was at work. She answered Wei Xiaolu’s call, then with a kind of gentle modesty, asked her parents, “I just don’t know if the two of you would agree?”

“Well, ah,” Tang Xiaofen subconsciously looked at Wei Zongqing and let go of Shen Siyan’s hand. “Listen to yourself. If you agree, and Xiaolu herself is willing to live here, what reason do we, as parents, have to disagree?”

Wei Zongqing also said, “Exactly. As long as the two of you have discussed it, that’s fine. This kid hasn’t had much contact with work matters and doesn’t really understand them yet; we’ll have to trouble you to guide her more and be patient with her.”

“Don’t worry, Uncle, Auntie.” The smile on Shen Siyan’s face deepened a little more, and there was even a trace of ease and pleasure in it. “Xiaolu is very smart, and I’ll take good care of her.”

Wei Xiaolu scratched her head.

Something felt off.

She listened from the side, her nerves stretched tight with shock, yet she couldn’t figure out where this strange feeling was coming from.

It wasn’t until later, when Shen Siyan took the whole family to a Hunan restaurant nearby and, again and again, said things like, “We live together very well,” and “Anything about Xiaolu from now on is my business,” that made one’s face heat up and heart race, that Wei Xiaolu slowly began to understand what felt strange.

At work, she saw Shen Siyan participate in one solemn social occasion after another every day. She knew Shen Siyan would say polished, insincere official things in order to achieve her goals.

But… the things she had said today felt like an intensely private declaration of feeling.

With remarkable verbal skill, Shen Siyan had constructed a blurred space where every explanation could hold, and every emotion could be placed.

Then she walked the line between “nice talk” and “the truth,” never crossing so far as to make her parents suspicious, yet never being so vague that Wei Xiaolu missed the hint of flirtation.

It was truly unsettling.

In the end, the lavish feast to celebrate Wei Xiaolu was paid for by Shen Siyan. She even said she wanted to take Tang Xiaofen shopping for clothes, but Wei Jialuo had to hurry back in the afternoon to catch a movie with his girlfriend, so the plan had to be shelved.

At the entrance to the residential compound, after seeing the family off in the car, Shen Siyan said, “Auntie, the next time I come to see Xiaolu, I’ll take you shopping for clothes too.”

“Oh, I really don’t need clothes. If I buy any more, I won’t be able to wear them all.” Tang Xiaofen covered her mouth and laughed.

“Then I’ll buy them for Xiaolu first,” Shen Siyan said.

“Her clothes can all be worn for quite a while too,” Tang Xiaofen said, looking at Wei Xiaolu. “Xiaolu, look how nice your leader is. You’ve got to work hard later on; you can’t freeload here for nothing.”

“Got it.” Wei Xiaolu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Thank goodness her mother was the owner’s wife and not working at some other noodle shop; otherwise she’d be far too easy to fool.

And Shen Siyan, just fooling her parents would have been enough. After sending them off, she actually seemed to take it seriously and turned around to ask, “After a few more rains, the temperature’s going to drop sharply. Do you want to buy a down jacket for this winter?”

“For that… we’ll see,” Wei Xiaolu said, circling around to Shen Siyan’s left, ready to go back to the apartment. “Oh, CEO Shen, it’s almost time for work. Shouldn’t you head back?”

Shen Siyan lowered her head to glance at her watch. “Mm, I should go.”

“Okay, bye-bye, CEO Shen.” Wei Xiaolu grinned and waved.

Shen Siyan smiled and pressed her hand down. “What are you bye-bye-ing for? My car is parked in the garage; I still have to go in with you to get it.”

So Wei Xiaolu, who had originally planned to flee in a hurry, could only force herself to walk with Shen Siyan for a while until they reached the building entrance.

Ever since Shen Siyan came back, her brain had been a little out of order. Now that it was just the two of them alone again, she really didn’t know how to speak naturally; even her footsteps were stiff, as if a shut-in were undergoing rehab.

The result was another joke: when they reached the garage entrance, she said goodbye to Shen Siyan, only for Shen Siyan to say she had come back at noon to retrieve some documents and still had to go upstairs.

Wei Xiaolu: “… ”

So that was it. But Wei Xiaolu suspected Shen Siyan had deliberately held it in until the very end, refusing to explain clearly, probably just to tease her.

Following behind Shen Siyan as she unlocked the door, Wei Xiaolu was too embarrassed to look her in the eye anymore. After changing her shoes, she was ready to dart back into her room and become an ostrich.

“Little sister.” Shen Siyan called from behind her, her tone no different from usual.

Wei Xiaolu stopped short, then slowly turned around as if on pause. “…CEO Shen?”

“Still calling me CEO Shen?” Shen Siyan curved her lips.

Wei Xiaolu understood what she meant.

But even though the internship had ended, the superior-subordinate relationship didn’t dissolve instantly. The careful, slightly fawning way she interacted with Shen Siyan was still her comfort zone, so the title CEO Shen, like a safety switch, was really hard to change.

Wei Xiaolu counted on her fingers and, in a very unfamiliar and awkward voice, quietly called out, “Sister.”

The one who’d been called smiled, very practiced, the corners of her mouth lifting easily.

“Mm.”

After that one-syllable response, Shen Siyan walked into the room, took the documents, and returned to the living room.

Passing by her, Wei Xiaolu thought this time she surely wouldn’t get it wrong and asked, “Are you going to work, Sister?”

“Yes.” Shen Siyan’s steps slowed; her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her voice was so soft it sounded almost like she was talking to herself. “If you’d called me that in front of Uncle and Auntie just now, that would’ve been nice too.”

After being around Shen Siyan for so long, Wei Xiaolu had roughly figured out that the more casual her tone sounded, the more likely it was that she actually cared.

Thinking it over, she didn’t let that concern fall to the ground. “I only kept telling them I had a good leader before. Today I just called you CEO Shen out of habit. From now on, I’ll say I’ve got a good sister instead.”

Just as expected, Shen Siyan loved hearing that kind of thing and immediately laughed out loud.

“From now on, use that version,” Shen Siyan said.

“Okay.” Wei Xiaolu nodded.

“They’ll probably feel more at ease hearing it too, thinking we…” Shen Siyan paused briefly, her voice turning lighter. “Get along very closely.”

Oh, wow. There it was again.

Wei Xiaolu had already forged an indestructible body; now, whatever playful, teasing things Shen Siyan said couldn’t shake her anymore.

“Right, Sister,” Wei Xiaolu admitted readily, putting her hands behind her back and escorting Shen Siyan to the door.

Shen Siyan walked out, then looked back at her. “Fruit bowl. Remember to eat it.”

“Okay,” Wei Xiaolu said with a straight face and a steady heart. “Thank you, beautiful lady. Heart hands.”

“You’re welcome.” Shen Siyan lifted her chin at her. “I’m heading off, baby.”

“… ”

Wei Xiaolu was dumbfounded.

Shen Siyan finished speaking and turned to leave so lightly that by the time Wei Xiaolu closed the door and retreated back into the apartment, she still felt as if that word baby was a thread hanging above her head, lifting her high into the air.

She turned around and leaned her back against the door, lowering her head to bury her face in her palms.

Indestructible was fake.

In the end, she had still been hit squarely by these sugar-coated bullets that were supposed to make people happy.

If she didn’t take them seriously, that was fine enough; baby was baby, and if she changed how she addressed her, Shen Siyan changed too. That was fair. Besides, Shen Siyan was already used to saying such sweet, flustering things anyway. It was just a habit.

She understood all of that. She knew she ought to take this as a game of back-and-forth.

But how could feelings be controlled? Wei Xiaolu was no longer the Wei Xiaolu who didn’t understand love. Shen Siyan had opened her eyes, and under Shen Siyan’s day-after-day teasing, she had long since turned one-sided longing into imagined mutual affection.

This was a real headache.

Wei Xiaolu let out a breath, grabbed the fruit bowl, and strode back to the bedroom.

To forget about emotional troubles, Wei Xiaolu decided to work hard and become a career woman, so she sat down at her desk, opened her laptop, and prepared to start writing her paper from scratch.

Studying was easier for Wei Xiaolu than work. In one afternoon, she wrote five or six pages. Looking outside again, the sky was already heavy with dusk, and Shen Siyan should be getting off work and coming home.

But when she picked up her phone, she saw an unread message from someone.

[Shen Siyan: Little sister, I still need to go to Zhaolan. Don’t wait for me; eat first.]

Wei Xiaolu shot straight up.

[Wei Xiaolu: Why do you suddenly have to go there? Is it safe?]

After sending it, the screen dimmed again, reflecting the slight crease between Wei Xiaolu’s brows.

Just yesterday, it was exposed that because of the plagiarism scandal that had been escalating recently, there had been constant internal turmoil at Zhaolan; it was pretty frightening. Shen Siyan, as the main person responsible for uncovering the truth behind it, was going there at such a critical moment, which was basically walking straight into a dragon’s den or tiger’s lair. It was far too dangerous… her thoughts started to go off the rails.

A few minutes later, the screen lit up.

[Shen Siyan: There’s something I need to handle]

[Shen Siyan: It’s fine, don’t worry]

It wasn’t a reply about whether it was safe, but a message telling her not to worry.

Wei Xiaolu paced back and forth through the room with her phone in hand, unable to calm down. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that such a non-answer meant there was something being hidden. Shen Siyan was probably heading to Zhaolan despite the risk.

At that thought, Wei Xiaolu’s heart shot up into her throat. She opened her phone again.

[Wei Xiaolu: What are you going to handle there?]

After waiting for more than ten minutes or so, a call came in.

“CEO Shen!” Wei Xiaolu blurted out almost before she could think. “Why did you suddenly go to Zhaolan?”

“They invited me over at the last minute,” Shen Siyan’s voice came through the receiver. The background was noisy and cavernous, as if she were in a place with a lot of echo. “To talk things through.”

Her voice sounded fairly steady, but her speech was a little faster than usual.

“It’s nothing else, just a standard process…” Shen Siyan hadn’t finished when a muffled male voice faintly came through the other end.

“CEO Shen, our patience isn’t very much.”

“Got it, lead the way.” Shen Siyan’s voice moved farther from the phone, then came close again. “Xiaolu, I still have something to deal with here. I’ll reply later.”

“Oh…” Wei Xiaolu only managed that one sound before the call was cleanly hung up.

Holding her phone, Wei Xiaolu froze in place. The busy signal was like a splash of cold water, instantly dousing her mood down into a trough.

That call hadn’t reassured her at all; if anything, it had added fuel to the fire.

The hurried tone, the chaotic surroundings, the rough urgency, and the details Shen Siyan deliberately avoided talking about—all of it was wearing away at Wei Xiaolu’s composure.

Countless awful possibilities flashed through her mind: had Zhaolan set a trap? Would the employees retaliate? What if Shen Siyan had gone there without bringing anyone else? Was this going to be a banquet with hidden blades?

Panic wound around Wei Xiaolu’s heart like vines, tightening more and more.

She forced herself to calm down, but her fingers had already gone into action. She searched for coworkers in the department and called one after another to ask about Shen Siyan’s work arrangement at Zhaolan.

But no matter who it was, their replies were more or less the same—

“Xiaolu, your internship’s over, so it counts as leaving the company. Some matters are really not convenient to disclose.”

“CEO Shen’s schedule also falls under work matters, so don’t ask too much.”

After making a round of calls, she had gained nothing except making herself even more anxious and understanding more clearly her current status as an outsider.

A tremendous sense of powerlessness washed over her.

It was as if she had already been pushed outside a glass casing, able only to stare as the person inside was caught in a storm, unable even to knock on the glass to draw attention.

Wei Xiaolu collapsed onto the sofa in defeat. She didn’t know why she was thinking so much. By rights, the company would definitely ensure Shen Siyan’s safety, and the coworkers she had just called all sounded calm, which also suggested Shen Siyan was probably only there for work negotiations and not in any real danger.

And yet she still couldn’t stop her mind from spinning… It was only now, for the first time, that she truly realized how young and inexperienced she was. Apart from relying on the guidance and help Shen Siyan gave her, she had no power at all to protect Shen Siyan in return.

Minute by minute passed. Wei Xiaolu alternated between scrolling through her phone to see whether there were any news reports about Zhaolan, walking to the window to stare toward the garage, and drifting around the living room like a wandering ghost. Whenever she couldn’t bear it anymore, she sent messages to Shen Siyan, but none received a reply.

She even had the absurd thought of whether she should call the police. But there was no definite evidence that Shen Siyan had actually fallen into danger, and the police would probably just think she was out of her mind.

Just as she was finally unable to endure the torment of her own wild imagination any longer and was almost ready to rush out the door and go find Zhaolan herself—

The sound of a password being entered came from the entryway.

Wei Xiaolu stiffened all over and jerked her head around.

Shen Siyan was standing at the door. The light from the corridor fell behind her, outlining her slender figure.

She looked a little tired; under the light, her face was faintly pale. In her hand, she only held her phone and a small bag.

Wei Xiaolu’s heart clenched hard.

“I’m back,” Shen Siyan said.

Wei Xiaolu looked at her but didn’t say anything.

So once again it was Shen Siyan who spoke, asking if she’d eaten, asking why she was sitting in the living room, and never once explaining why she had gone to Zhaolan.

Seeing her return, Wei Xiaolu let out a breath of relief over Shen Siyan’s safety. But for some reason, she also felt a bit bothered that Shen Siyan hadn’t immediately gotten back to her after dealing with the Zhaolan matter, leaving her worried and preoccupied the whole time.

But how was she supposed to care about it? She didn’t even have a proper identity that allowed her to demand Shen Siyan report her safety to her.

After all, the identity of “intern Wei Xiaolu” had already expired.

And the concern of “roommate Wei Xiaolu” seemed so insignificant, so out of place, in the face of cold business operations and hierarchical barriers.

Still—Wei Xiaolu lifted her head and said bravely, “Sister, I’ve been so worried about you. The recent uproar has been so big; I was afraid it wouldn’t be safe for you to go to Zhaolan.”

Shen Siyan’s body paused almost imperceptibly.

“Going there today…” Shen Siyan stopped in front of her, and in her calm expression there was a trace of dazedness. “It really wasn’t just a simple discussion. They’re in complete chaos right now, and someone wanted to get something out of me to calm the internal conflict.”

Wei Xiaolu asked, “Then nothing happened to you, right?”

“Not really.” Shen Siyan paused. “The negotiation wasn’t very pleasant. The other side was emotionally agitated, and the situation was once… a little out of control. My phone was also knocked to the floor in the chaos; the screen cracked, and it wouldn’t turn on.”

“Your phone broke?” Wei Xiaolu’s heart skipped a beat.

“Mm. That’s basically the only loss; nothing else happened.” Shen Siyan smiled. “You were worried about me?”

Since it had come to this point, Wei Xiaolu couldn’t hide it anymore, so she simply admitted it openly. “Yeah. Otherwise why do you think I haven’t eaten? I was so worried I couldn’t think about food at all.”

At that, Shen Siyan broke into a smile and shook her head lightly.

Then she said, “So I’m that important in my little sister’s heart?”