Nobody stopped Deng Wenchang from leaving.
When Qiao Nan left, everyone watched her as she made a move. They reminded her to be careful on the way back and pay attention to safety and contact her family in the car.
When Deng Wenchang made a move to go, no one bothered about him. They did not say a word but continued with their drinks. It was as if Deng Wenchang was already old enough to take care of himself. He could not possibly want the seniors to care for him as if he was a young man and to worry about his safety.
Deng Wenchang did not drink, but he staggered as if he had finished one bottle of white wine by himself. The only way to prove that he did not have any drinks was the pallor on his face.
People inside the room were full of laughter and fun, while Deng Wenchang was all by himself outside the door.
Deng Wenchang gritted his teeth such that his gums were bleeding. He finally made his way back home.
As soon as he opened the door, Father Deng began to ask how the situation was today. He had yet to ask and he saw the pale look on his son’s face and knew the outcome even without asking. “How can this be? It is impossible.” The Zhai family did not do anything. It was impossible that Qiao Nan found out more information than his son.
Even if He Yi showed favoritism to Qiao Nan, his son would still be the winner.
Deng Wenchang laughed at himself. “It was useless to prepare any amount of information. We might have gone to great lengths to do research, but did we find out that the ambassador’s wife is pregnant?” Qiao Nan went out for a short while before dinner. When she returned, he noticed that she had a receipt for mother and baby products in her pocket.
He remembered that before the ambassador couple left, Qiao Nan was being very careful with his wife, and she would give her gentle reminders. When the ambassador couple chatted with Qiao Nan, he faintly heard the mention of ‘child’. He knew that the ambassador couple did not have any children. Therefore, he initially thought that the ambassador couple was talking about other people’s children.
But after seeing the receipt that Qiao Nan had, he realized belatedly that the ambassador’s wife was pregnant!
Qiao Nan was privy to such personal information. No matter how much research his family did, they could not possibly know more than Qiao Nan.
Deng Wenchang was not lauding the spirit of the enemy and belittled that of his own. But this was the harsh reality and he had to face up to it. He could not possibly deceive himself now and close his eyes and cover his ears, pretending that he did not see or hear anything.
Father Deng was dealt with a harsh blow. He did not look better than his son. “How could this happen? How did Qiao Nan know all the details? Could it be that the Zhai family knows what we are going to do, and thus used other means to pass the ambassador’s information secretly to Qiao Nan?” Unless the Zhai family had invincible powers, it was absolutely impossible.
Deng Wenchang sat down on the sofa, feeling dejected. He lay listlessly on the sofa like a puddle of glue. “Alright, Dad, you don’t have to make any guesses. It’s not what you think. This has nothing to do with the Zhai family. Qiao Nan is very lucky. She and the ambassador couple know each other and they have a very good relationship. Speaking of which, it was due to the ambassador couple’s help that Qiao Nan had a strong foundation and knowledge in the related field. They spared no effort to help Qiao Nan find reading materials from overseas. This is why Qiao Nan could have a stellar performance.”
She did not resort to any tactics to find out more about the ambassador couple. Qiao Nan and the ambassador couple had built a strong friendship over the years!
“…” Father Deng was rendered speechless. No one would have guessed that the visiting ambassador would be Qiao Nan’s friend! This was a harsh blow to Father Deng.
Unless the countries had a good relationship, it was impossible to be a friend of other countries’ ambassadors. Furthermore, the United Kingdom was not on very friendly terms with China. Father Deng could not help but wonder. Would the newly appointed ambassador step down once he returned to his country since he had a personal friendship with Qiao Nan?
But regardless of whether he stepped down or not, Father Deng knew that his son did not perform as expected today. Instead, it was Qiao Nan’s stage, and his son merely blended into the background.
Thinking of this outcome, Father Deng was so angry that he felt like vomiting blood. “Qiao Nan has not been to other countries. Why would she be friends with them? There is a big difference in age. How can they become friends?”
“Foreigners don’t care. It is fine as long as they can get along with each other. They don’t mind, and as Chinese, we don’t necessarily care either. Qiao Nan might not have been to other countries, but the ambassador couple met Qiao Nan who was a voluntary guide when they came to China for a holiday.” At the mention of this, Deng Wenchang felt that it was the most ironic of all.
Since she was a guide, she should just do her job. She must be very free to help people look for their credentials!
Also, how could Chinese college students have so much time on their hands? The probability of having such an encounter was like striking the ten million lottery. It was almost impossible to win the lottery. She should have gone for her college lessons abidingly, yet why did she go to the extent of becoming a voluntary guide? “Dad, do you have a way to stop the places of interest from accepting student volunteer guides?”
If there was such a rule, Qiao Nan would not have done so well today!
Deng Wenchang knew that there was nothing that he could do now. But he refused to admit defeat. Therefore, he decided to take his anger out on Qiao Nan’s juniors so that there would be fewer ‘Qiao Nan’ in the future!
Father Deng waved his hand in frustration. “This is meaningless. We can’t do anything to Qiao Nan, and we might even implicate the Deng family.” Usually, it was the students from Peking University and Tsinghua University that would work as volunteer guides at these places. It would be doing oneself in to hinder the development of the students from the two elite universities.
It was unrealistic!