Chapter 20 Reunion
"A dangerous person?" Gu Xiqiao squinted slightly.
There weren’t any people in the alley, but a cold and damp breeze blew from within, making the atmosphere of the dead quiet alley become even more bone-chilling and scary. Upon being reminded by the system, her heart went up to her throat, goosebumps popping up on her arm.
[Ding! The system level isn’t high enough, so I am unable to tell who it is!]
The edge of Gu Xiqiao’s lip twitched slightly. "What use are you?"
[Why do you always bully me, Gu Xiqiao! Huh, wait, your friend has appeared on the map, do you want to see?]
Gu Xiqiao hadn’t replied, but a semi-transparent screen appeared in front of her with two moving dots on it. One of them was bright red, while the other one was fluorescent green. On the green dot was a name...
Jiang Shuxuan.
The red dot showed the dangerous person, while the green dot showed her friend, and the two dots were both in the alley next to her.
Gu Xiqiao hadn’t had enough time to check how far away the two dots were from her before the red dot suddenly disappeared and popped up on another alley! In a split second, it had bounced three streets away.
Teleportation? Her jaw dropped in shock.
"No one came to fetch you again?" A deep voice suddenly rang out next to her along with a warm breath, snapping Gu Xiqiao back to reality. Upon looking up, she saw a familiar sculpted face that glowed dimly in the darkness.
When did he come here? Wasn’t he in the alley next to her a second ago?
He could teleport too?!
Gu Xiqiao blinked for a second, hiding the horror in her expression as her face lit up with an appropriate shock. "Brother Jiang?"
[You’re good at acting, Beauty Qiao.]
Jiang Shuxuan looked down at her and leaned in close, his eyebrows knit together and his lips pressed tightly together. He had always been a distant person, and coupled with this expression, he seemed even more aloof.
Ever since she had the system, her five senses had been honed more than the average person. Now, she could very clearly feel the cold aura that shrouded him along with an indescribable pressure. Even though he seemed to be suppressing it as much as he could, it was still there.
"Come with me." Without thinking for long, Jiang Shuxuan reached for Gu Xiqiao’s backpack and carried it himself.
There were a few books in the backpack, along with revision data and thick pikes of papers, which were quite heavy, but in his hands, the backpack seemed weightless.
"It’s not safe here." Jiang Shuxuan walked behind Gu Xiqiao as his cold gaze swept through the surroundings, walking slowly to accommodate her speed. "Girls should go home as soon as school lets out, don’t roam around town at this hour."
His tone was somewhat reproaching, but Gu Xiqiao wasn’t displeased in the slightest, replying with a soft, "Alright."
The scene from earlier was still replaying in her mind. Hm...That was teleportation, wasn’t it?
Jiang Shuxuan raised an eyebrow at the rare event of the girl not arguing with him.
After they walked for a while, they saw Jiang Shuxuan’s Bugatti parked at the entry of the alley, and a tall figure was leaning on the car slightly. Once he saw Jiang Shuxuan, he walked over quickly.
"You..." Yin Shaoyuan had just opened his mouth to speak before spotting Gu Xiqiao, pausing what he was going to say and walking closer as if examining her. "Bro Jiang, you brought a girl back with you!"
Jiang Shuxuan ignored him and looked down at Gu Xiqiao. "Go wait on the car for me for a bit, okay? I’ll be back after I deal with some business."
Gu Xiqiao took over her backpack and nodded.
Jiang Shuxuan instructed Yin Shaoyuan to keep an eye on her, before turning around and entering the alley again.
The lean figure quickly disappeared into the dark of night.
Seeing that Jiang Shuxuan had left, Yin Shaoyuan turned around and looked at Gu Xiqiao, who was looking down at the ground, having kept her smile after Jiang Shuxuan had left. The streetlights weren’t bright, so he could only see a delicate side profile with porcelain skin, and he could tell that she was quite pretty.
Such a pretty face was the type that he would be able to remember after seeing it once, so the young man squinted slightly, his phoenix eyes scanning her up and down before bonking his fist to his palm in realization. "Ah, are you the illegitimate daughter of the Gu family?"
Gu Xiqiao froze in place, her grip on the canvas tightened as she pursed her lips slightly, not replying to his question.
Yin Shaoyuan didn’t stop probing her, however, as he stepped closer with a somewhat mocking smile. "As an illegitimate daughter, why did you return to the Gu family? To fight with your older sister for the position of the family heir? No? Well even if you couldn’t do that, you would be able to get a handy pile of money from nowhere to live a safe and secure life, yes?"
Gu Xiqiao had heard many comments along the same vein in her past life, so his words didn’t affect her in the slightest.
She slowly raised her head and looked towards Yin Shaoyuan. "Is your surname Zhang?"
After she asked so, she opened the car door and got onto the back seat.
Yin Shaoyuan stood there for a while in thought, before finally getting what she meant. This girl was insulting him that his mouth was full of gossip like a long-tongued woman![1] He had the intention to tell her to come out to debate with her, but when he saw those clear apricot eyes, he suddenly couldn’t move.
He lit a cigarette and leaned on the front of the car again.
Such a pure pair of eyes made it impossible for him to continue mocking her...
Meanwhile, he thought of the rumors about the girl in high society recently.
There weren’t many young people in this generation of the Gu family, and the only pure-bred daughter was Gu Xijin. They had found an illegitimate child, but her attitude was terrible. According to the rumors, she was vain and haughty and abandoned her adoptive mother.
In addition to that, Jiang Shuxuan had him check on the Gu family for information about the second daughter a few days ago.
Seeing her again, it was inevitable that he was confused.
As the cigarette burned out, Jiang Shuxuan returned and opened the back door of the car.
Yin Shaoyuan’s hand that was held up in greeting hung there awkwardly, and he had no choice but to get on the driver’s seat and start up the car, driving into the distance.
"Go to the mansion." After the car started up, Jiang Shuxuan didn’t give Yin Shaoyuan any chance to speak.
And so, Yin Shaoyuan drove back to Jiang Shuxuan’s temporary residence without being able to say a single word, and upon arriving he was left there outside the gates without even inviting him in. The poor young man could only watch as Jiang Shuxuan led Gu Xiqiao into the mansion, lost in thought.
"Mrs. Zhang, cook some more dishes for dinner." Jiang Shuxuan instructed Mrs. Zhang who came up to meet them at the entrance.
Mrs. Zhang took over Gu Xiqiao’s things and looked up and down at her, nodding in relief when she saw that the younger girl was looking quite healthy. "Miss Gu, go and take a shower and change your clothes, dinner will be ready soon."
Gu Xiqiao glanced at Jiang Shuxuan, not moving a single step.
Wasn’t he supposed to send her back to Gu Manor?
[1] 长 Zhang, literally long