Chapter 81: The White-clad Woman
Chapter 81: The White-clad Woman
After breakfast, Tang Qing took Li Xiaomei to class, but Kun Li still sat in the living room, holding a laptop and looking at something.
Li Zian pushed the vacuum cleaner to mop the floor and asked, “Aren’t you going to the company today?”
“Those relatives of the Ge family left. The remaining people are all workers, and with someone managing them, there won’t be any problems. I’m in charge of recruiting, so I’m looking at resumes online right now,” Kun Li said.
“You can recruit people online?”
“It’s the internet age now. Job hunting online and recruiting online are very convenient, and it saves the trouble of meeting and checking resumes one by one.”
“Is recruiting people online reliable?” Li Zian asked again.
Kun Li looked up at Li Zian. “Look, am I getting in your way or something?”
“No, no, no. You do your work. I was just asking casually, out of curiosity.” Li Zian extended the vacuum cleaner nozzle under Kun Li’s feet. “Could you lift your feet, please?”
Kun Li lifted her legs and also gave Li Zian a glare.
Li Zian lifted the nozzle a little higher. But she was wearing long jeans. If she had been wearing a skirt, the electric dust-sucking technique might have sucked out that triangle-shaped thing, and then his blood feud would have been avenged.
Lin Shengnan came downstairs, holding a string of prayer beads. Seeing Li Zian mopping the floor, she said, “Zian, mop the balcony too. Some incense ash fell on the floor yesterday.”
“Okay.” Li Zian pushed the vacuum cleaner towards the panoramic balcony.
Next door, he was Master, perhaps even the reincarnation of Xu Xian, but here he was just a male lead disguised as a housekeeper.
That kind of life almost ended last night, but Kun Li showed up halfway, forcibly breaking up the secret meeting between Mu Suzhen and Li Xian.
After cleaning was done, there was nothing else to do.
Li Zian glanced at the door, really wanting to slip out and go next door to take a look.
But Kun Li was sitting in the living room, guarding it like a door god. How could he get out?
Ring-ring, ring-ring…
His mobile phone suddenly rang with an incoming call.
Kun Li looked back at Li Zian.
Li Zian gave her a glare, took out his mobile phone, and looked at it. It was an unfamiliar number.
He hesitated for a moment and then swiped to answer. “Hello?”
A man’s voice came from the phone. “It’s me.”
It was Yu Taishan’s voice. Li Zian recognized it but pretended not to. “May I ask who this is?”
“I’m Meilin’s dad!” Yu Taishan was like a firecracker, exploding at the slightest touch.
Li Zian laughed. “Oh, it’s Dad. I didn’t have your mobile number, so I didn’t know it was you calling. Sorry about that. What can I do for you?”
The sound of Yu Taishan taking a deep breath came from the phone.
He was suppressing the anger in his heart.
Li Zian’s mind also pictured Yu Jiaxing standing nearby, staring eagerly at Yu Taishan, waiting for Yu Taishan to get revenge for him.
“Look, Xiaomei is already three years old, right? I, as her grandfather, haven’t seen her yet. I want to see the child. Your mom had the kitchen prepare food today. Bring the child, and your grandma too, to come over for a meal. Since recovering from this illness, I haven’t had a proper gathering with my mom. I miss her very much. You must bring her,” Yu Taishan said.
Li Zian’s lips parted slightly, revealing a line of snow-white teeth.
Even when sneering, he was so pleasing to the eye.
Talking about missing her—clearly, it was a setup for a Hongmen Banquet.
If he brought the Old Matriarch over, she definitely wouldn’t be able to leave their house. They might even have thugs waiting to beat him up badly.
“Hello? Did you hear me?” Not hearing Li Zian respond, Yu Taishan could hardly suppress the fury and disgust in his heart.
Li Zian laughed. “Oh, Dad, what bad timing. I’m at the bank handling some business and can’t make it.”
“What are you doing at the bank?”
“Trying to get a loan. Meilin’s company is having financial difficulties, so she asked me to help get a loan. I’ve already arranged to have lunch with the bank’s leaders, and maybe dinner too, so I won’t be coming. You all go ahead and eat.”
“With your ability, you think you can get a loan?” Yu Taishan’s tone was scornful.
“I’ll do my best. I don’t have any other ideas. Oh, by the way, Dad, do you have some spare cash? How about lending Meilin some money? Not too much, just eighty million is enough.”
“You think I run a bank or something! No money!” Yu Taishan’s spit seemed to fly through the air.
“If not, then forget it. Don’t be angry. That’s it—someone’s calling me to see the bank leaders now.” Li Zian prepared to hang up.
“Li Zian, I’m warning you for the last time, you must come!”
“Hello? Hello? What’s with this broken phone? It cut off for no reason. Hello, hello? Dad, can you hear me?”
Smack!
A sound of a phone being slammed came from the mobile.
Li Zian couldn’t help but laugh.
Must?
If I don’t go, what are you going to do? Come at me with a knife?
Kun Li took out her mobile phone, opened WeChat, and sent a message.
Li Zian tiptoed closer to the sofa and peeked over.
Kun Li was sending a message to Yu Meilin, telling her about Yu Taishan’s phone call.
Li Zian only glanced before pulling back.
She really was the “spy” Yu Meilin sent. Guarding him and reporting what happened around him promptly.
But if he didn’t go out, he felt a bit restless.
Staying at home watching this woman really made him uncomfortable. Sometimes he even felt like hitting her.
Li Zian thought about going to see Tang Qing teaching Li Xiaomei, but he worried it might affect his Little Cotton-padded Jacket’s studies. So, he simply went back to his room and closed the door.
His room had no balcony, only a window. He pushed the window open for ventilation and looked at the scenery outside, but his mind was full of thoughts about Mu Chuntao.
Last night.
A child got lost in the forest. It was so dark. He had no light. He stumbled along, trying to find his way home.
He bumped until his head was covered in bruises, and tears of pain streamed down, but he didn’t give up. He remained strong the whole time. He searched and searched.
The poor child finally found the way, and then…
There was no “then.”
For over twenty years, he was on the verge of realizing his dream, only to die right at the threshold of that dream.
Li Zian gritted his teeth. “You, Yu Meilin, you’re a vegetarian, and you won’t even let me eat meat, huh? Let me see if the dog you sent can…”
Suddenly, Li Zian’s gaze stopped.
On the Huangbu River embankment, tourists were bustling. Some were taking photos, some walking, and vendors were soliciting business—a lively scene.
A White-clad Woman stood on the river embankment. She had a white scarf wrapped around her head and a white veil covering her face. She was entirely dressed in white from head to toe. Among the at least several thousand people on the embankment, she stood out like a white crane among thousands of chickens—a striking presence.
She seemed to be holding a sheathed sword in her hand, slightly tilting her head, looking in this direction.
“Could it be her?” Li Zian suddenly remembered the auntie handing out flyers. Wasn’t the strange woman she mentioned the very same White-clad Woman standing on the river embankment now?
Was she cosplaying, or what was she doing?
The White-clad Woman suddenly withdrew her gaze and started walking forward.
Li Zian didn’t have time to think too much. He turned around, rushed out the door, and ran quickly towards the entrance.
Kun Li asked in surprise, “Where are you going?”
Li Zian had no mind to talk to her. He pulled the door open and dashed out.
Lin Shengnan looked up but didn’t see anyone. She grumbled, “What’s gotten into him?”
Kun Li put down her notebook and ran out after him. When she ran out the door, the elevator doors had just opened, and Li Zian had just entered the elevator.
“Where are you going?” Kun Li asked again.
Li Zian still didn’t answer.
Kun Li chased after him, but by the time she reached the elevator lobby, the elevator doors had already closed. She was a step too late.
“Let’s see where you think you’re running!” Kun Li was annoyed. She turned and rushed into the stairwell, taking two steps at a time down the stairs.
Thumping sounds echoed in the stairwell.
One minute later, the elevator doors opened. Li Zian rushed out of the building unit, sprinted with his long legs out of the Gaochen Yipin gate, crossed the street, went up onto the river embankment, and then chased in the direction the White-clad Woman had left.
The river embankment was crowded with people coming and going, but he could still manage to run intermittently.
Li Zian ran and stopped, his eyes scanning the crowd, searching for that White-clad Woman.
That White-clad Woman was dressed entirely in white from head to toe and carried a sword. Wherever she went, she would stand out. Her walking speed wasn’t fast either. From the time he went downstairs to when he caught up to the embankment, it only took three or four minutes. In theory, she shouldn’t have gone far, and he should have been able to catch up. But after chasing for at least two hundred meters, he still hadn’t seen her.
That White-clad Woman was like an illusion, never really there.
Li Zian chased a bit further. The pedestrians ahead gradually thinned out, but there was still no sign of the White-clad Woman.
Li Zian stopped a fashionable young woman walking towards him from the opposite direction. “Miss, have you seen a woman dressed in white?”
The fashionable young woman glanced at the T-shirt she was wearing—it was white too. She pursed her lips and smiled. “Is this your latest way of hitting on someone? I am that woman in white. Let’s exchange WeChat.”
The next second, she held her phone out in front of Li Zian.
Li Zian took off running forward.
The fashionable young woman was stunned for a moment, feeling ignored. She said angrily, “What’s so great about being handsome? I’m not even interested!”
Li Zian chased another few dozen meters forward and then stopped.
This wasn’t normal. With his speed, unless that White-clad Woman ran faster than him, she wouldn’t just disappear.
But the problem was, how did she know he was chasing her?
And why did she run?
He couldn’t figure it out.
“You… what are you running for?” Kun Li’s voice came.
Li Zian turned around and saw Kun Li standing behind him. She was supporting herself with her hands on her knees, bending over, panting heavily.
She had run down the stairs and then chased him all this way. If this was the finish line, she was only about a minute slower than Li Zian—pretty impressive.
“I’m asking you, why did you run here for no reason?” Kun Li asked again.
“I saw a kid snatch an old lady’s bag from upstairs, so I chased him down. Unfortunately, that kid disappeared,” Li Zian said.
Kun Li: “…”
Li Zian added, “How about this: I’ll search from this side, you search from that side, and then we’ll meet back here to see if we can catch that kid.”
“You’re crazy!” Kun Li turned and walked away.
Li Zian followed her. “I’m saying, how can you be so lacking in a sense of justice?”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“There’s a banana seller over there. Do you want some? My treat.”
Kun Li covered her ears.