Recently, Wen Xinya had been observing Ning Shuqian and naturally knew the kind of life that Ning Shuqian was leading during this period of time. Xia Ruya, who had been injured during the car accident, had totally disappeared without a trace. As Xia Ruya was still valuable to the Korean-Chinese Alliance, in order not to alert them, she and Si Yiyan hadn’t been tracing her.
The days were rather calm.
Wen Xinya had also progressed to the finals of the International Jewelry Design Competition of the Milan World Expo ranked in the first place. Due to her budding reputation in design, she had attracted the attention of the media and the jewelry industries all over the world.
Due to the exposure of Mo Yuyao’s works before her death previously, as well as the sensation caused by the representatives of the French Vogue International Jewelry Association coming to the Capital city, the focus of most people was that Wen Xinya was the top jewelry designer, Mo Yunyao’s daughter.
This internationally renowned jewelry design competition had progressed to the finals with less than fifty designers left on the stage.
And these fifty jewelry designers were ingenious jewelry designers from all over the world. Similar to Wen Xinya, they didn’t lack the guidance of top schools and the best teachers, had a budding reputation in the jewelry design arena, and would pit themselves against each other in the finals, leaving only ten people. The remaining ten people would spark earth-shocking fireworks at the grand finals.
The grand finals would be held twenty days later, at the Milan World Expo.
Wen Xinya’s representing work was the design of that eight treasures jade necklace.
“Xinya, come in and have a seat!” Zhou Tianyu opened the door and greeted Wen Xinya happily.
When Wen Xinya and Zhou Tianyu walked into the living room, Gu Junling walked out from the kitchen clad in a teddy bear apron. It was hard to imagine that such a serious and brilliant person also had such a homely side to him.
Gu Junling saw Wen Xinya and hurriedly asked virtuously, “Xinya, come on over. I’ll get you something to drink.”
Wen Xinya requested for warm water and secretly gave Zhou Tianyu a thumbs up. “Tianyu, great job. You’re the most experienced person in training a loyal dog.”
Regardless of how thick-skinned Zhou Tianyu was, she couldn’t help but blush. “Stop teasing me. You’re the same!”
Everyone witnessed how much Ninth Si pampered Xinya.
“He pales in comparison to your Little Eunuch Gu who’s so foolishly loyal!” Wen Xinya couldn’t help but curse in her heart. Si Yiyan was totally not as virtuous as Gu Junling and totally bought the chauvinistic thought of men avoiding the kitchen. They had been together for so many years and Si Yiyan had only cooked a couple of times. Besides brewing ginger soup for her when she had been down with flu and menstrual cramps a few times, he was only good at cooking sweet porridge and nothing else.
Zhou Tianyu said without restraint, “You don’t realize how fortunate you are!”
Wen Xinya muttered, “You claim to be from my maiden family—does such a traitor who sides with outsiders exist? Are you sure you were not bribed by Si Yiyan? Be honest… how much annual salary does he pay you and what benefits does he offer?”
The maiden family members who stood up for her fearlessly in the past had now already changed camps and were completely convinced by Si Yiyan. They regarded Si Yiyan like God, treated his words like the emperor’s edict, and even Grampy was treating Si Yiyan better than herself recently. Wen Xinya couldn’t help but feel disappointed and chilly.
Zhou Tianyu couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m being objective. Also… are you sure your Ninth Si wouldn’t be angry if he knows that you used the word ‘traitor’?”
Based on Ninth Si’s vengefulness, if he knew that he had been classified as an “outsider” by Wen Xinya, it’d be minor if Wen Xinya couldn’t get down from bed for a few days.
Yup. Everyone knew that the austere and imperious Prince Charming’s favorite cuisine was—Wen Xinya!
Hearing this, Wen Xinya’s expression grew panicked as she stared at Zhou Tianyu with accusatory eyes. “Can we still chat joyfully?”
Zhou Tianyu snorted with laughter.
Indeed, everyone said that there was always something to conquer another—only Si Yiyan could conquer Xinya!
After fooling around for a while, they dived into the main discussion. Zhou Tianyu said, “Xinya, regarding the Korean-Chinese Alliance matters, recently, I’ve been sounding my Grandpa and parents out and also indirectly expressed the intention to deal with this group. However, my Grandpa has been avoiding the topic and my parents behaved disingenuously. Thus, I daren’t tell them much.”
Zhou Tianyu knew very well that if she spelled out that she knew about this group, Ninth Si’s identity, and the Korean-Chinese Alliance’s schemes against the Wen Family, she might have better odds of convincing Grandpa and the rest.
However, she couldn’t do this, as spelling out everything clearly meant the possibility of exposure and leakage of information. Come that time, not only would the plan to deal with this group be ruined, the Wen Family, which was the target of this group, would also go down the path of destruction. Xinya had told her everything out of her trust for her and the most sincere friendship—even if it was towards Grandpa, she would deal cautiously.
Wen Xinya grabbed Zhou Tianyu’s slightly trembling hand and said, “No rush, take it slow. Grandpa Zhou and Uncle Zhou are all intelligent people. Although the Zhou Family has always been deeply entrenched in the manipulation of the Korean-Chinese Alliance, the group doesn’t have too much control over them all thanks to the hard work of Grandpa Zhou and Uncle Zhou.”
Zhou Tianyu and Gu Junling didn’t betray her trust and didn’t reveal everything that they knew after such a long time. Wen Xinya was very relieved.
Zhou Tianyu’s slightly vexed emotions finally calmed down gradually. “I know I’m slightly anxious, but I really don’t want the Zhou Family to continue sinking deeper into it. I’m afraid that if this continues, the Zhou Family will completely go past the point of no return.”
Regarding this, Zhou Tianyu felt slightly defeated.
The Zhou Family had been manipulated by the Korean-Chinese Alliance for many years, seemingly treading on a thin line in mid-air and would fall into a deep abyss with any carelessness. Over the years, she had witnessed the struggles of her Grandpa and her parents. In order to reduce the group’s control over the Zhou Family, Grandpa had even designed a car accident to make him lose both of his legs so that he could use the excuse to retract from the vortex of the battles, and even Father had started to intentionally cause himself to be banished to the borders by the government in the last two years.
All these went to show their determination to stop being manipulated, helping the tyrants, and contributing to an evil cause.
However, why didn’t they take the step to deal with the Korean-Chinese Alliance?
Wen Xinya knew the pain in Zhou Tianyu’s heart. “The Zhou Family is a big family which has been passed down for many generations. With the hundred years’ of ups and downs and the responsibility of passing it down, the insufficient chips in their hands don’t allow them to make any rash decisions on this matter, as failure means to lose the entire Zhou Family, a gamble that they can’t afford to take. Tianyu, be more patient. Don’t be afraid.”
Actually, Wen Xinya could also understand the pain of the Zhou Family. Thus, she knew that there wouldn’t be a quick conclusion to this matter.
Regardless of how miserable Zhou Tianyu felt, she had no choice but to nod. “Don’t worry. I’ll convince them.”