Many little details that I didn't care about before suddenly became a thread in Xu Qiao's heart.
When Pi Dan borrowed the studio from her, why did she "just happen" to see the sapphire, and why did the words describing the competition "just happen" have a tendency to persuade her to participate.
Also, Cheng Lang's so-called "busy work" in the past ten days.
Xu Qiao felt stupid.
I worked from dawn to dusk for half a month. For the first time in my life, I tried my best to accomplish a big event, but I still refused to tell Cheng Lang that I planned to wait for the results of the competition to show him how good I am, but when I turned around, I found that he was the one who proposed. A person who manipulates puppets by strings.
The conversation in the bathroom stopped abruptly, as if someone was walking towards the door, Xu Qiao quickly picked up the cosmetic bag and ran back to the office.
—
When Cheng Lang walked up to the second floor of the studio to pick up people, he saw a puffer fish version of Xu Qiao.
The door of the office was wide open in a waiting posture, Xu Qiao was sitting at the desk, staring at the computer angrily, as if trying to gouge a bloody hole on the screen.
This situation doesn't seem to fit well with the "good mood" that my aunt just said.
Sensing the aura of danger keenly, Cheng Lang stopped by the door and knocked on the door twice tentatively.
Xu Qiao raised her fiery eyes, pretending to close the door and beat the dog: "Come in, close the door."
Cheng Lang raised his eyebrows, his scrutinizing gaze slowly swept across the corners of the office, and then slowly closed the door.
Xu Qiao got up, turned the computer screen around, pointed to the high-definition picture on the screen and asked, "Do you know this sapphire?"
Cheng Lang narrowed his eyes slightly, probably getting into a situation.
He nodded: "I know."
"Do you know about this competition?" She swiped her mouse and pulled the web interface to the competition bulletin board.
"I know." He nodded again.
Xu Qiao also nodded: "How stupid am I in your eyes that you need to spend so much money and effort to set up a stage for me?"
"Shall I set up a stage for you?" Cheng Lang frowned slightly, "Where did you hear that?"
"I read and understood it myself."
Cheng Lang thought for a moment in silence, and then confirmed: "Do you think I'm trying to shady you?"
Xu Qiao didn't speak, just looked at him.
Cheng Lang seemed to be annoyed and laughed: "How low-class am I in your eyes that you let me be charged with such a crime?"
Xu Qiao was taken aback, and her arrogance faded a little: "I didn't say it was so serious..."
"Manipulating unfair competition for self-interest and stepping on others to gain power, isn't the nature of this matter serious enough?"
Xu Qiao discovered for the first time that Cheng Lang was quite scary when he was serious.
She spent an entire hour imagining the scene of interrogating him, but now she forgot all the planned lines, and randomly grabbed a sentence: "Then if you are so open and aboveboard, why do you always keep me in the dark when you do things?" Li? This is how you lied to me to go back to China, and this is how you lied to me to participate in the competition. You are a dishonest person with a criminal record, and you blame me for wearing colored glasses to you?"
"If you can take off the colored glasses first, why do I have to rely on deception to achieve my goal?"
"If you can stop cheating first, why do I have to look at you through colored glasses?"
Cheng Lang: "..."
Xu Qiao: "..."
Sure enough, once a man and a woman quarrel, no matter how educated they are or how eloquent they are, they will always fall into unsolvable propositions like "Which came first, the chicken or the egg", losing their poise and logic, leaving only themselves It sounded a bit speechless and childish, but when I thought about it carefully, my mind was full of doubts—why did they quarrel? It doesn't seem like this is what you said at the beginning? Why did it go astray
Cheng Lang turned his head and stared at the white wall to calm down for a while, then turned his face away and loosened his tie: "As a matter of fact, I haven't contacted the organizer of the contest. Believe it or not, it's up to you." After speaking, he turned and opened the office door, and left go out.
Xu Qiao stayed where she was in disbelief.
At this time, what is shady and not shady is no longer the point.
The point is, this man left her here? On Christmas Eve, Cheng Lang actually left her alone in the cold office
—
Xu Qiao didn't know what she was gambling with, so she insisted on walking back to the apartment, walking in the cold winter night with a flat stomach, and swearing "dog man" every few steps on the main road.
"If there is no shady, there is no shady, if you explain it clearly, it will be over!"
"Who will show your face that is as big as a plate!"
"Still blame me for hearing that wind is rain?"
"Why didn't I misunderstand that Lei Feng did good deeds with ulterior motives and misunderstood you? It's not that you are inherently bad!"
"Go to your good sister in the sea pond on Christmas Eve!"
"I am beautiful alone!"
Xu Qiao hummed and kicked a small stone, and walked all the way, thinking about it all the way, small flames sizzled all over his body, and no one dared to get close within a radius of five meters.
Walking downstairs to the apartment, the patrolling security uncle recognized her from a distance, and asked with a smile, "Why did you come back alone today? Where's your boyfriend?"
"No boyfriend!" Xu Qiao snorted and walked up the steps of the apartment building, "If you have one, you're dead!"
As soon as the words fell, a burst of engine roar approached rapidly.
Xu Qiao turned her head and saw the blue and black Pagani that she hadn't seen for a long time. She was about to dodge, but was stopped by the security uncle: "Oh, is it your boyfriend? Knowing that he is chasing you means there is help! The young man has something to say. Said, it is common for this couple to quarrel, after the bedside quarrel, the end of the bed will be together!"
"Who is at the end of the bed with him!" Xu Qiao turned and walked into the apartment building, but unfortunately, the uncle security bought time for Cheng Lang. As soon as she got to the elevator, she was grabbed by the wrist by Cheng Lang who was chasing her in.
She threw him away: "Why do you imitate your brother's hands and feet?"
"Walking back?" Cheng Lang frowned.
"Even if I flew back, do I have anything to do with you?"
Cheng Lang opened his mouth and closed it again, as if he couldn't say anything.
The elevator door moved away, seeing that Xu Qiao was about to leave, he finally closed his eyes: "I'm sorry."
Xu Qiao stumbled, turned her head and rubbed her ears: "Huh?"
It seems easier to say something like apologizing once, Cheng Lang looked down at her: "It was my fault that I just blamed you."
Xu Qiao sucked her frozen red nose, stopped, blinked and looked at him: "What do you mean to blame me?"
Cheng Lang turned his head slightly, thinking about something, turned his eyes after a moment of silence and said: "The situation in my family is more complicated. In the early years, my second uncle and my father didn't get along very well. To put it simply, it is malicious business competition with no lower limit, and there are many shady incidents in it. Affected by this, I personally dislike this approach, so... "
So when this unwarranted crime fell on him, he lost control of his emotions rarely.
Logically, he never cared about the eyes of others, but when he met Xu Qiao, many reasons became unreasonable.
Such an exception surprised him a little.
Xu Qiao was dazed when he heard it, and filtered these words in his head for a long time, then nodded in a daze: "Oh, that's it..."
"Let me explain this matter to you again." Cheng Lang sighed deeply, "The start of this competition was long before you returned to China, and I did not interfere with any preliminary work, let alone the results of the later awards. Yes, in It's easy for me to set up a shady game like this, but it doesn't make sense."
"If you don't have this strength, cheating on you in private competitions will reveal your identity when you step onto the stage of authority in the future. And if you have this strength, why should I spend money to clear up the relationship? As I said, no one's money is worth it." Picked it up for nothing."
"What's the matter with the sapphire?" Xu Qiao said sullenly.
"That's the only hand or foot I've ever touched. I didn't contact the tournament organizers, but I contacted Townsend and asked him to replace the sponsorship with the rough stone. You're bitter about that bracelet from the last auction, I think this rough stone should give you the motivation to compete."
"Townsend is a money junkie, so he just took out such a valuable gemstone?"
"Smart money lovers will put a long line to catch big fish and get in touch with me. Compared with the benefits they can get in the future, and a mere sapphire right now, which one do you think is more worthy of his temptation?"
"..." yelling, yelling, let him forget it!
Xu Qiao looked at him: "Then why don't you tell me directly."
"Little girl," Cheng Lang smiled, "If I made clear the relationship between this sapphire and me in advance, would you still be willing to participate?"
Asking herself, Xu Qiao felt that she might suspect that there was a ghost in it from the very beginning.
But "if" this kind of thing, except God, no one has evidence.
Xu Qiao raised her chin: "Who says you don't want to? You think too much about Lin Daiyu!"
"..." Cheng Lang nodded, "My aunt is not as rude as you."
Just as Xu Qiao was about to say something again, her stomach started to roar, and she let out a grunt.
Look at this grandson who is angry with his aunt, he does not commit crimes!
She sighed, and as soon as she touched her belly, Cheng Lang sighed too: "Come and eat with me."
After yelling for a long time, I finally spent Christmas Eve with this man, Xu Qiao didn't know what the fuss was about. Do quarrels help digestion
She wrinkled her nose and glanced at Pagani outside: "You drive yourself?"
"yes."
"Will the fence be erected this time?"
Cheng Lang's current situation is better than before, and looking at Xu Qiao's current attitude, it is impossible to take the initiative to make physical contact with her, so as not to get sick while driving, so he shook his head: "No vertical."
"Okay then." Xu Qiao nodded reluctantly, and just walked out of the apartment building side by side with Cheng Lang, when two black shadows flashed in front of her eyes.
"Surprise!" Jiang Fang and Shen Dang suddenly descended from the sky. Of course, the one who shouted was Jiang Fang, and Shen Dang was just dragged out by him with a look of hopelessness.
Cheng Lang and Xu Qiao: "..."
Xu Qiao immediately grabbed Cheng Lang's waist and hid behind him.
As soon as Cheng Lang covered him up, he saw Jiang Fang waving his hand on the opposite side: "Hey, don't hide, I saw clearly just outside the door!"
With a wrinkled face, Xu Qiao walked out from behind the human shield, and gave Cheng Lang a bitter look: "Why are you still being followed?"
Cheng Lang also had a headache, and looked at the two of them: "I'm asking you something, why are you following me?"
"Yo yo yo, the wife and husband are following along..." Jiang Fang looked at Cheng Lang with hurt eyes of "where is the dog food so shiny?" "I didn't follow you, we just went here to stay , I just want to see which younger sister is so obsessed with Mr. Lang that we don't even want brothers."
This Christmas Eve was originally a day for men to find women for the holidays, but Jiang Fang and Shen Dang happened to be in the vacancy period, a pair of single dogs, two lacking one, and wanted to ask Cheng Lang to play cards to kill the long night, but he said "there are arrangements" "Refused.
The last time Jiang Fang ran into Cheng Lang downstairs in the apartment, it was reasonable to guess this place.
Shen Dang raised his hands in surrender: "I didn't expect to come, he insisted on dragging me."
"Don't you have your own independent personality?" Cheng Lang glanced at him.
"That's it!" Xu Qiao agreed.
Shen Dang nodded: "Okay, this matter is our fault, I apologize to you, but the matter has come to this point, we can't lose our memory, why don't we make a confidentiality agreement in black and white, and promise to keep Miss Xu's whereabouts secret?"
"Then how much business hurts feelings!" Jiang Fang looked at Cheng Lang with a shy face, "Boss Lang, let's go, let's go to the poker table, you can send me some money, I promise to use 502 glue to glue this Glue your mouth firmly."
Why is this still extortion? Xu Qiao was surprised.
If there is no comparison, there will be no harm. When I saw this one slutty, I somehow felt that Cheng Lang was quite human.
Cheng Lang rolled his eyes and smiled: "You want to go to the poker table?"
From this smile, Jiang Fang recalled the fear of being dominated by Cheng Lang's luck last time.
"It's okay to go to the poker table, but the matter of giving money is not what I think will work." Cheng Lang reminded him.
"I don't believe it, my cards are so bad this time that you can't even give your money away!"
Cheng Lang glanced at Xu Qiao, who was still confused, and nodded to Jiang Fang: "Then you come and try."