43 Chapter 43 : To His Surprise (1/2)

It was already 11:00 pm when Xiulan arrived in the penthouse. She had to go straight to the penthouse instead of going back to the hospital because of troublesome chores she completed today.

She wanted to take a good rest and sparkly clean herself. After all, the places she has gone to were covered by dusts, pollution and smell.

She met three different clients today and had to changed venues for each one of them. First in her office, next to a posh coffee shop that was so far away from her office and the last one was in a cemetery. Yes, she went to a meeting in a cemetery. Quite peculiar!

Apparently, her client from a respectful Chinese ornaments seller had to dutifully follow their lucky Feng Shui for a whole year. And according to them, the best way to have a successful, lucky and bountiful business was to have their meetings near a cemetery or in a cemetery for the whole year.

Since the ornaments seller wanted the whole shenanigans to completely be effective, the seller would meet up with her clients in the garden of a cemetery. Really disturbing and hassle.

Xiulan thought it was a huge joke but when she saw a picnic table, fancy flowers and tea cups inside the cemetery's garden pagoda, she knew no one was joking.

She had to obliged and follow them just to finish her agendas for today. She still have a lot of things to do after. She was hesitant but she had no choice but to follow.

The ornaments seller wanted a new POS and fast database server for her company. The seller contacted Xiulan's company when she found out that the company had a lot of ”old money” companies and had a lot of positive reviews so she immediately contacted them.

The ornaments seller was really chatty and full of stories to tell. So their meeting end up like tea time with friends. Inevitably, their meeting was 30% about the business proposal and 70% gossip about being Xing Hongqi.

”How long have you been married with Xing Hongqi? It'll be a year soon, right? I wonder what's the delay with the Chinese wedding?” the ornaments seller asked and her eyes were full of curious questions.

Xiulan didn't like where this topic was going but she must kindly respond.

”Unfortunately, we are still both busy so we have to delay it.” Xiulan bluffed. She doesn't know anything why Hongqi's not relieving the topic about the Chinese wedding. She thought it was a good thing but now it seems to be the reason of her stress. The socialites are anticipating the grand Chinese wedding and everyone has been obsessed with anything about them. Especially Hongqi's hospitalization due to the terrorists.

She shouldn't be bothered by anyone's negative comments but right now it is also affecting her family, the Songs. Of course she wanted the family to continue to have a positive image. She doesn't want to add more fire to the latest and hottest topic:'the youngest Song to be part of the ”cursed” daughter'.

There has been a running joke or more like a gossip that the Song daughters are cursed women. Their marriage would always end up either in a divorce or the husband will die. Whoever created that stupid gossip sure stressed out her mother so much.

Socialites sure has a funny way of creating stories but this certain topic does makes their family reputation tarnish in a certain way.

”Tsk tsk tsk. Chinese wedding is very important! You must get married again before it reaches a year. That's not good for the lucky and positive energy around you. There are a lot of women out there who wanted to be in your shoes. Not just women, but high class women! You must secure your position as Mrs. Xing!” the ornaments seller enthusiastically advised. Then suddenly she pulls out a huge hand fan and unfolded quite dramatically and fanned herself.

Xiulan knew the lady was just concerned but it sort of annoyed her too. This Chinese wedding issue will keep on dragging for months and she must prepare herself from such agony.

”Thank you for the concern, madam.” Xiulan doesn't know what to say so she can only say her thanks and smile.

The last meeting finally finished after three hours of nonsense chatting and gossips. The ornaments seller sure knew a lot of gossips about Hongqi. Xiulan can't help but scratch her head.

While Xiulan was taking a bath, she can't help but remember the ornaments seller's shared stories about Hongqi. According to her, Hongqi used to have a long time girlfriend from college that he loved so much. They had to break up because the girl had a huge dream about being an actress in Hollywood and Hongqi's father didn't like the girl.

The ornaments seller sure has a lot of details about this old story. She said Hongqi was fine with his lover's dream. But the woman wanted to get married to Hongqi first. This was to secure her ”lifetime wallet” and position as Mrs. Xing. Hongqi's father didn't like that idea or early marriage, they were too young and he has a lot of plans for Hongqi. It didn't add to the woman's favor that Hongqi's father didn't like her to be the future Mrs. Xing as well. There was a gossip lurking around before that Honqgi's long time girlfriend slept with a director so she could be get the main lead role.

The ornaments seller said they continue to date even though the girl has a bad reputation. They finally broke up when Hongqi had to succeed his father's company. There were a lot of stories and gossips running around during those times.

During that time, Xiulan remembered that she was busy being an intern turn to an employee to one of her father's friends who owns an IT company. She was so serious about her career that she didn't know such things happened.

Xiulan shouldn't be bothered by this but she was really curious who the woman was. She could easily find who it was from her sister's report but she was too lazy to check it. Also, she has long archived that report. For some reason, reading Hongqi's past was too dark for her and she doesn't like reading it at all. As possible, she would like to remain positive in everything right now.

Bringing up the past is not a good idea for the both of them. We shouldn't use a person's past on how to treat them. It's better that her impression towards Hongqi remains as annoying, a pervert, domineering, arrogant husband and someone who would take advantage and oppurtunity of someone's weakness. Handsome and hot, yeah but still annoying.

After four days of continuous grinding, hustle and bustle, and taking care of the baby Hongqi, he's finally discharged from the hospital. Xiulan was so happy about this that she wanted to celebrate and be festive. Finally she can rest peacefully on her bed and no more babying that damn Hongqi.

Juggling from her office to the hospital to take care of that naughty husband has given her too much stress and fatigue.

She's tired from working and when she comes back to the hospital, Hongqi will pester her. She was also so annoyed how he developed his naughtiness in some kind of new level. He's more courageous now and he can easily trap her to do anything. Of course if it's something sexual she would immediately hit him really hard.

She's not even sure if Hongqi was only using his PTSD as an alibi to score some kisses and hugs from her. How can she let him manipulate her like that? She must get her wits back together. It might have been the cause of her tired state.

But first she must report back and attend a meeting with the University council and her father. She's currently inside her father's luxurious office with the rest of the council of her alma mater and some honorable members of the military.