After the turmoil on New Year's Eve, Qin Fujun's protests failed to stop Qin Liang's decision. The senior management of the head office received a notice and began to make personnel arrangements for Bai Song's appointment as general manager. Bai Song would take office as soon as the annual leave was over.
Qin Fujun and Song Cheng are each in charge of a subsidiary company. Once Bai Song takes office, he will be the one they report to.
The two sides have been fighting for so many years, so Qin Fujun naturally couldn't accept it. But Qin Liang has always been the one who has the final say in the Qin family business - the old man makes the final decision, and Qin Fujun can only swallow his anger.
Another thing is related to Qinlou and Songshu.
Qin Liang's original intention was to have Qin Lou and Song Shu go through a simple engagement process after graduating from high school, and then go to Country M together in August to take the SAT exam.
But this matter got stuck with Bai Song.
Bai Song had only heard about Qin Lou's "madness" before and didn't believe it much, but after witnessing it with her own eyes on New Year's Eve, she seemed to feel a little uneasy about the relationship between Song Shu and Qin Lou.
On the night of New Year's Eve, Song Shu was called out by her to talk alone -
"Tell mom the truth, are you really willing to get along with Qin Lou?"
Song Shu nodded.
"He never bullied you?"
Song Shu was slightly startled, then he smiled softly. "He just looks fierce."
Bai Song thought about Qin Lou's performance at night and obviously did not agree with Song Shu's words. But after looking at his daughter for a few seconds, Bai Song smiled helplessly, "You like him very much."
It's not a question, it's an affirmation.
Apart from Qin Lou, the person who knows Song Shu best in this world must be Bai Song now.
Song Shu did not deny it. She bent her eyes slightly and smiled, "Like I said on the phone before, because of him, I am who I am now."
Bai Song was half worried and half relieved.
"Okay. Mom respects your choice."
The engagement and studying abroad were thus verbally agreed upon.
Due to these dual public and private factors, Bai Song and the other two stayed in the Qin family's main home this year.
Then some discussions gradually began among the servants.
Song Shu first heard it during the day on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
That morning, the elders were chatting with visiting guests in the main hall and side hall on the first floor, and Song Ruyu and Song Shuai, brother and sister, were taken downstairs to be used as "mascots."
They didn't have time to hide Qin Lou, so they naturally wouldn't let him go downstairs. Song Shu wasn't the type to be eloquent in such an occasion, so both of them stayed in the empty upstairs.
Qin Lou wanted to move his little clamshell to his third floor, but Song Shu refused without hesitation:
"It was you who told me not to go up to the third floor."
"I didn't say that." The young master lied without blinking.
Song Shu glanced at him slowly, stopped the paintbrush in her hand, straightened her waist slightly, and imitated someone's tone: "You are not allowed to go up to the third floor when I am here, or I will break your legs and fill the swimming pool, doll." She picked up the paintbrush again, lowered her head and continued to paint, "Isn't this what you said?"
Qin Lou: “.”
Qin Lou has become much more unrestrained since New Year's Eve, and now he dares to talk to the girl by her neck. So now he leaned over to her ear and hummed as if he had a toothache, "Isn't it because I am young and ignorant? Don't bother with me."
"No, we must keep our word."
"Then I'll take it back first, is that okay?"
"No." Song Shu expressed with words that he was too lazy to talk to him any more.
Qin Lou's patience ran out, and he narrowed his eyes and threatened: "Little clam, I'll give you one last chance. If you don't leave, I'll carry you upstairs with you and your shell."
"… "
Song Shu didn't say anything, but raised his head and glanced at him quietly.
Then Qin Lou became scared.
"Okay, if you don't want to go, then don't go."
The two of them reached an agreement and went to the rest platform on the second floor leading to the third floor. After that incident, there was no vase on the table on the platform, leaving it empty for the two of them.
Song Shu spread out his sketchbook on the table and drew. Qin Lou sat at the corner of the table with his long legs folded. He looked at the painting written by Song Shu while turning the sixth-order Rubik's Cube in his hand from time to time.
Every time he finished restoring the Rubik's Cube, he would put it in front of the girl. The girl would shuffle the cube for him, and he would take it back and restore it again.
The whole morning was quiet, and the two of them were having fun.
If you walk too much on the night road, you will encounter ghosts; if you say too much bad things behind someone's back, you will run into the person concerned. Near noon, when the two servants in the family were talking again about the gossip that had been circulating privately in the house in the past two days, the voices happened to float up to the platform from the corridor on the second floor.
"I really didn't see it after all these years. I thought Miss Bai was a simple person, but I didn't expect that she is actually the most powerful one."
"Isn't it? In order to gain management rights of the company, he even sold his daughter."
"I don't quite understand what's going on here. After all, she only has 10% of the Bai family's shares that the older generation started the business with, right? Even if she gets temporary management rights now, what good will it do?"
"Are you stupid? They say she sold her daughter, can it be as simple as just management rights? Young Master Qin Lou is the only heir of the Qin family now, and most of the Qin family's shares will belong to him in the future. If he is engaged to Song Shu, won't Bai Song still have the right to speak on these shares in the future?"
"So Mr. Qin is just going to let her go?"
"What else can we do? Young Master Qin Lou won't be in charge of the company in the future. Old Mr. Qin is paving the way for his grandson, so he puts his children's private affairs first and official affairs second - only in this way can he feel at ease to hand over the company to Bai Song!"
"I see... No wonder Qin Fujun is so against the idea of those two getting married and studying abroad..."
"I even suspect that Bai Song sent Song Shu to the Qin family for this purpose. Then this beauty trap must have been set up for a long time."
"No way..."
"Why not? Otherwise, what parents would marry their daughter to Master Qinlou? That's like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth--"
The voice stopped abruptly.
The servants were standing at the stairs, frozen in place. In their eyes, Qin Lou walked down the wooden stairs step by step, slowly and without haste.
The boy was spinning a Rubik's Cube in his hand with a bright smile on his face.
"Master Qin--Master Qin Qinlou!"
The two servants turned pale instantly.
"Keep going, don't stop. I'm really enjoying what I'm saying." Qin Lou stopped when there were still three or four steps to the second floor. He smiled and leaned against the wall beside the stairs. "Why did you say that Xiao Bangke marrying me was like marrying a sheep?"
"I, I, we... didn't say..."
The one who had been talking the most happily before was so scared that he almost trembled when he thought about what happened on New Year's Eve.
The smile in Qin Lou's eyes faded.
"You didn't say I was hallucinating?"
"… "
The servant was even more frightened and stammered, unable to utter a single word of explanation.
"Qin Lou, stop playing."
There was another sound coming from the rest platform, quiet and without any emotion.
Qin Lou turned around.
Song Shu was still lying on the table painting her picture. From beginning to end, the words of those two people seemed to have no effect or touch on her at all.
Qin Lou tutted his words, then laughed playfully and maliciously, "Little clam, they said I fell into your honey trap."
Song Shu thought for a moment, "The Beauty Trap refers to Fu Chai and Xi Shi; in the end, one of them committed suicide after the country was destroyed, and the other was drowned in the river. This metaphor is not good."
“Is it so miserable?”
Someone who has never failed to learn anything in any subject related to recitation, put his hands on his head and sighed heartlessly, "It's just a honey trap, and it's a worthy death."
After swinging around twice, he suddenly stopped, frowned and asked, "Who died first?"
"King Fuchai of Wu."
Qin Lou's brows relaxed, "That's more like it."
"…?"
The girl, who had not reacted until now, stopped painting, turned back to look at him, with a hint of confusion in her dark pupils.
Apparently, Lian Song Shu didn't understand the logic of Qin Lou's words this time.
Qin Lou did not explain, but just sat on the handrail of the stairs and laughed wildly.
"You must die behind me in the future, little clam."
Although he didn't understand, Song Shu was silent for two seconds, then slowly nodded.
"good."
"… "
Qin Lou's smile faded and he lowered his eyes.
Otherwise, in a world without you, I don’t know how I would live alone, and how desperate and sad I would be.