The Devious, Seductive Older Woman Has Been Plotting to Get Me for a Long Time - Chapter 4

Was it her? Xiang Shuxing felt a complex mix of emotions. But it could only have been Chu Yingqiu. Even those who were closest to her mother hadn’t been willing to help; who else but her would have been willing to wade into this muddy water?

She pulled out the newly added number, stared at it for a few seconds, and dialed.

The call went through quickly, but the person on the other end remained silent for a long time. She couldn’t help but say, “It’s me.”

“I know,” came the woman’s cool, pleasant voice.

Xiang Shuxing poked at the soft leather of the sofa and stammered, “The buzz around Mingchen has completely died down.”

“Mm.” A simple response.

Xiang Shuxing let out a breath and asked directly, “Was that your doing?”

“Regardless, you don’t need to worry about it anymore. The National Day holiday is almost over; focus on getting your head back in the game.”

Hearing that, Xiang Shuxing understood. She hung up and poured herself a glass of water.

Outside, the sky had turned dark. The lights were off in the house, and being the only one in the vast space made it feel inexplicably cold and desolate. Looking around, Xiang Shuxing lowered her eyelids. The water in her hand was lukewarm, bringing a chill to her throat. In the past, whenever she drank cold water at this hour, her mother would always frown and remind her not to.

Now, there was only an empty house.

Xiang Shuxing sighed, got up, and headed to the bathroom. As soon as she walked in, she was drawn to several new items by the sink. She had almost forgotten that Chu Yingqiu’s belongings had moved boldly into the home that day.

She picked up a bottle of body wash next to hers. It was all in English, and Xiang Shuxing squinted at it for a long time, barely identifying the lime scent from the pictures.

A strange feeling flickered through her heart. She put it back where she found it and scanned the other new additions in the bathroom. Even though Chu Yingqiu wasn’t physically there, having their daily necessities arranged together gave the room the feeling that they had been living together for a long time.

The matter of Mingchen had come to an end, and the National Day holiday was drawing to a close. Xiang Shuxing had already bought her high-speed rail ticket to return to school.

C University.

The morning mist hadn’t yet dissipated, and the early sun spilled through the clouds. The road was filled with students returning with their suitcases.

Xiang Shuxing dragged her suitcase and pushed open the door to her dormitory. In the four-person room, two beds were empty. She looked at the bare mattresses and asked, “Did Liu Yi move out to live off-campus, too?”

Chi Jianqing, whose bed was opposite hers, pushed up her black-rimmed glasses slightly and looked away from her computer screen. “Yeah, I think she found a suitable internship.”

“Oh, I see.” Xiang Shuxing began unpacking. What used to be a four-person dorm was now down to just the two of them.

In the second semester of their junior year, classmates were either busy preparing for postgraduate entrance exams or starting internships. With the future looking uncertain, everyone was desperate to grasp a sliver of stability.

Xiang Shuxing was naturally planning for her own future, too. She had applied for internships at several companies on job platforms. The results weren’t out yet, but she intended to talk to her advisor ahead of time and move out as soon as possible.

C University had strict rules, students were only officially allowed to go out for internships in their senior year. For someone like Liu Yi to move out now, they needed the advisor’s approval.

Just as she was calculating how to explain this to her advisor, a voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

“Little Shu, these are winter jujubes I brought from home. My mom and I picked them ourselves. Here, have some.”

Chi Jianqing held out a black plastic bag and pushed her black-rimmed glasses up her nose again, a hint of nervousness flashing in her eyes.

“Thanks!” Xiang Shuxing took them readily. Just as she was about to offer some of the snacks she had brought back to Chi Jianqing, the other girl turned around and went back to her own business.

Xiang Shuxing opened her mouth to speak but ultimately said nothing, turning her attention back to her desk.

Chi Jianqing had transferred to their dorm in their sophomore year. Liu Yi and the others came from well-off backgrounds, while Chi Jianqing was from a small county. Liu Yi was always subtly picking on her, and after discovering Chi Jianqing was reserved, Liu Yi became even more unrestrained.

Perhaps to ease the tension, Chi Jianqing would bring local specialties back after every long holiday. It was a kind gesture, but Liu Yi looked down on items from a small county, and their dorm had previously erupted into an argument over it.

Xiang Shuxing hadn’t been in the room at the time and didn’t know the specifics, but afterward, Chi Jianqing never brought anything again, and she became even more reticent. It wasn’t until Liu Yi and another roommate moved out that the situation improved.

Xiang Shuxing sighed, and when Chi Jianqing wasn’t looking, she placed a few bags of snacks on her desk.

The plastic packaging crinkled softly. Chi Jianqing noticed immediately and turned her head. “This…”

“Quid pro quo,” Xiang Shuxing smiled and went back to organizing.

Time passed quickly as she cleared her things away. Night fell before she knew it, with only the dim glow of the desk lamp illuminating the room.

Her fingers clicked the final word on her PowerPoint presentation. Xiang Shuxing stretched her stiff body and closed her laptop. Since it was just after the holiday, there wasn’t much to do. She checked the time, tidied up her desk, and climbed into bed.

Out of habit, she opened the trending topics page and scrolled all the way to the bottom, but she didn’t see “Mingchen.” Xiang Shuxing finally let out a sigh of relief.

The news regarding Mingchen had stayed hot for days, yet after Chu Yingqiu stepped in, it had been settled so easily.

Xiang Shuxing lowered her eyes, suddenly remembering the day she met Chu Yingqiu. The woman had been cold and dismissive, interrupting her every time she tried to speak, and didn’t seem willing to take any risks.

She wondered what changed her mind, prompting her to take the initiative to help Mingchen suppress those speculative discussions.

Her fingertips hovered over the screen for a moment before she clicked into WeChat. Relying on her memory, she typed that string of numbers into the search bar.

An unfamiliar WeChat account popped up. Xiang Shuxing stared at it for a few seconds before hitting “Add Friend.”

Chu Yingqiu had already moved into her home; regardless of the circumstances, their paths would cross constantly in the future. They couldn’t rely on phone calls every time.

It’s not like I actually wanted to add that woman on WeChat.

The dorm lights were out, and only the weak glow of the phone screen illuminated her face. Xiang Shuxing blinked her dry eyes, flipped the phone facedown, and ignored the friend request.

The next morning, Xiang Shuxing waited in the advisor’s office. She wasn’t a class representative, but she had been called in for talks before due to skipping class, so she knew the ropes.

Seeing that the advisor hadn’t arrived after a while, Xiang Shuxing picked a random empty chair and sat down, staring at her phone notifications. One of them was the notification that her friend request had been accepted.

She clicked into it, curious about how Chu Yingqiu reacted to their friendship, but the chat interface was empty, save for the system prompt:

CYQ: I have accepted your friend request. Now we can start chatting.

The nickname was just the initials of her name—typical of her cold, boring personality. Xiang Shuxing propped her face on her hand, took a few tries to click on the avatar, and zoomed in.

Chu Yingqiu’s avatar was a blurry image of the starry sky. Aside from that, there was nothing special about it.

Xiang Shuxing thought to herself that she must be incredibly bored to be reading into a nickname and avatar. Many corporate executives had separate private and work accounts; maybe she had just added Chu Yingqiu’s work account.

She backed out to the chat interface, and a line of small text at the bottom caught her attention:

I poked CYQ and sent a heart.

…What on earth?

Xiang Shuxing frowned, tapping left and right on the screen, only to realize there was no way to recall it. It must have been the “Poke” feature she set up when she was bickering with Fu Jin.

She must have accidentally triggered it while looking at Chu Yingqiu’s avatar.

But that’s not what I set the poke message to say. Before she could think further, Xiang Shuxing fought through her embarrassment and scrambled into her search app, desperate to find a way to delete the message.

“I’m here.” Coincidentally, someone pushed the door open, and a clear, elegant female voice spoke up beside her.

Xiang Shuxing hastily put her phone away and stood up to greet her. “Teacher Cheng.”

Cheng Yian nodded, signaling for her to sit down. “I saw the message you sent yesterday. You want to apply for off-campus housing for an internship?”

“Yes. Other people in my dorm are going out for internships, so this should be approved, right?”

“Oh, you mean Liu Yi and the others?” Cheng Yian thought for a few seconds. “You’ve come at the right time today; I was just looking for you.”

“For what?” Xiang Shuxing had a bad feeling. Before coming here, she had asked Liu Yi, who told her the process was simple—just give the advisor a heads-up. Why was it so complicated for her?

Cheng Yian pulled up a spreadsheet and gestured for her to look. “Take a look for yourself. Last semester, there were nine exams in total, and you missed six. Plus all the classes you skipped during the term. You want to leave school for an internship now? Are you expecting me to make up those lost hours for you?”

Xiang Shuxing stammered, “Teacher, you know there were reasons for that.”

Cheng Yian gave her a slightly helpless look. “I understand your family situation to an extent, but you skipping class usually didn’t have anything to do with your family, did it?”

“Also, the make-up exams are next week. Don’t forget them again.”

Xiang Shuxing nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. “Yes, yes. So, about my off-campus internship?”

“How about this,” Cheng Yian flipped through a ledger. “I’ll call your guardian. If she agrees, I’ll allow it.”

Xiang Shuxing froze and said in a low voice, “Teacher Cheng, my mother has already…”

“I know. My condolences.” Cheng Yian patted her shoulder, her tone comforting.

Now it was Xiang Shuxing’s turn to be confused. If Cheng Yian knew her family situation, she should know she had no family or guardians left.

Cheng Yian glanced at the silent girl, assuming she was still grieving, and said gently, “Don’t you still have an older sister? She already contacted me in advance. In the future, if there’s anything going on at school, you should talk to her.”

Hearing this, Xiang Shuxing understood instantly. Chu Yingqiu had contacted the school long before Xiang Shuxing even knew about it.

Cheng Yian traced the names in the ledger until she reached Xiang Shuxing’s row, then swiftly dialed the guardian’s number.

Xiang Shuxing tried to stop her: “Teacher Cheng, she—she’s very busy.”

“No matter how busy she is, she can always spare the time for one phone call.”

Knowing she couldn’t stop it, Xiang Shuxing stood stiffly, waiting. She could even imagine the expression on Chu Yingqiu’s face when she answered the phone. Once she knew about her performance at school, that woman would definitely mock her without mercy.

At this very moment, in the Yingxing Company office.

Bright light bathed the desk, and the massive floor-to-ceiling windows offered an unobstructed view of the scenery outside. Chu Yingqiu held a document in her hand, listening to her assistant’s report with a neutral expression.

Just then, the phone beside her lit up with a new incoming call.

Her gaze paused when she saw the contact name. Chu Yingqiu picked it up. Her assistant saw this, stopped the report, and tactfully retreated to the side.

The call went through, and a slightly unfamiliar female voice came through: “Hello, is this Xiang Shuxing’s older sister?”

Chu Yingqiu replied coolly: “Yes.”

“I am Xiang Shuxing’s academic advisor. Has she mentioned her off-campus internship to you?”

Chu Yingqiu frowned slightly. “She hasn’t mentioned it.”

“It’s like this: Xiang Shuxing has several make-up exams, and she has missed too many classes. To ensure she graduates successfully, our advice is to complete her credit hours as soon as possible. It is best if she doesn’t go out for an internship at this time.”

“If it’s convenient, please come to C University.”