Sheng Yuxiao cast a glance at Qin Sui, unusually refraining from interrupting him.
For the first time in history, the two of them were joining forces for an "interrogation!"
Li Qingqing, at this moment, did not dare to meet Qin Sui's eyes. She quickly turned her head and sobbed to Li Xiaoya: “I truly can’t remember, I...I’m sorry...if I did it, I'm sorry...
"And... just now, when I greeted you, it was only because my father told me...he said you were in the same show as me. He said you look pitiful and asked me to take good care of you if I met you, after all, we are from the same village.”
【Li Qingqing was crying pretty badly】
【Hey, with both Sheng Yuxiao and Qin Sui interrogating her, she must be terrified. After all, she is just a little girl】
Sheng Yuxiao let out a cold laugh upon hearing this and was about to remind Li Xiaoya that if she didn’t want to forgive, then she didn’t have to, she had the right and the confidence.
However, Li Xiaoya spoke first, “Oh, okay. You don’t need to look after me, I don’t want to play with you.”
Li Qingqing froze.
That was even more damaging than saying “I don’t forgive you!”
If Li Xiaoya dared to say "I don't forgive you", she could spin the narrative, letting everyone call Li Xiaoya petty, unwilling to let go of grudges.
Yet, all Li Xiaoya said was she didn't want to play with her!
It was subtly informing everyone that Li Qingqing had character issues, and for that reason, Li Xiaoya did not want to play with her!
This pleased Sheng Yuxiao. He reached over and pinched Li Xiaoya's cheek, saying, "Right, don't play with others, play with me."
This drew Qin Sui's attention, and he cast an extra look at Li Xiaoya, wondering what it feels like to pinch that face...
Sheng Jun rubbed his temple, thinking this was all a farce, and he signaled to a bodyguard nearby.
The bodyguard immediately walked over to Li Qingqing, “Would you like to wash your face?”
Li Qingqing nodded, choking with sobs. As she walked out, her hopeful voice trailed behind her, “Li Xiaoya, won’t you stop being mad at me?”
Without an answer from Li Xiaoya, Li Qingqing covered her face and sobbed even harder, before being led out by the bodyguard.
As soon as Li Qingqing left, Sheng Yuxiao said: “Finally, some peace and quiet.”
Sheng Jun sighed, “Watch your mouth. After all, she is still a young girl.”
Sheng Yuxiao pointed at Li Xiaoya, “Isn't she a young girl? Doesn't she seem cuter? More lovable?”
Sheng Jun had no words.
Qin Sui timely interrupted, “It's getting late, Li Xiaoya should go home.”
His tone sounded exactly like a strict guardian.
Sheng Yuxiao straightened up: “Is it late? Well, you don’t have to leave. Li Xiaoya will stay over tonight. She has no school tomorrow, right?”
Before Qin Sui could respond, Li Xiaoya shook her head first, “My grandfather is home.”
“Qin Sui can go back to take care of your grandfather.” Sheng Yuxiao planned it out clearly.
Qin Sui followed up, “In that case, her grandfather might not live to see tomorrow’s sun.”
Sheng Yuxiao: “……”
Sheng Yuxiao turned to look at the staff and everything was said in that glance.
The staff hesitated, “We... look after them?”
Sheng Yuxiao laughed, "Everyone is quite enthusiastic. Doing good deeds is fine. In this case, I'll leave it to your team."
The staff member was speechless.
The room where Sheng Yuxiao stayed was private, containing not only a patient bed but also an accompany bed, which had been vacant for the past few days.
Today it was in use.
Sheng Yuxiao pointed and said, "Li Xiaoya, you'll sleep here tonight."
【Qin Sui: So, should I leave?】
【Qin Sui: Sleeping on the floor is also acceptable】
Qin Sui, after all, was a gentleman. He did not, as speculated in the comments, swallow his dignity and sleep on the floor. He turned his head and asked. "Where has Sheng been staying these past few days?"
"Liyang Hotel," replied Sheng Jun. Even though the Sheng Corporation and the Qin Corporation were at odds, it was uncouth for adults to bully children, so he presented a civil demeanor on the surface.
"Then I'll stay there too." Qin Sui decided.
The crew member's eyes widened, "This..this is not appropriate, right? This is a filming..."
"Otherwise, I can sleep in the car if you are not concerned about the risk of me suffocating in it." Qin Sui was very reasonable.
The crew member's lips twitched, "No, no, please stay in the hotel, we'll go back to the village tomorrow, okay?"
Qin Sui nodded as if they had reached a consensus.
For once, Sheng Yuxiao didn't oppose. As long as Qin Sui didn't cling to Li Xiaoya, he didn't care where he slept.
【I suddenly feel that Qin Sui is ten thousand times more difficult to deal with than young master Sheng】
【No wonder Sheng Yuxiao called him scheming...The description fits perfectly.】
Sheng Jun needed to go back and handle work. It was impossible to spend his whole day here. As he got up and left, Qin Sui left too.
Thinking that there's no Li Xiaoya now, Li Qingqing dared to approach Qin Sui, her eyes teary, "Brother, can you help me talk to Li Xiaoya?"
"Brother?" Qin Sui turned around to look at her, "You also call Sheng Yuxiao brother?"
Li Qingqing paused, her heart wondering: Could it be that Qin Sui was the domineering type? Did he not allow her to call other people 'brother'?
Before Li Qingqing could put her thoughts in order, Qin Sui mockingly said, "You sure have a lot of brothers."
Li Qingqing: "......"
Li Qingqing summoned her courage and said with a grievance, "I don't have a real brother. I just want to play with you guys…"
Qin Sui responded indifferently, "Play with us? Even Li Xiaoya doesn't like to play with us."
Li Qingqing bit her lip, thinking to herself: I'm not the same as Li Xiaoya...
"Don't call me brother again. I have a blood sister and if she were to see the program, she would want to tear your mouth off." After saying this, Qin Sui opened the door of his Maybach and got in.
The car door closed mercilessly in front of Li Qingqing.
A ruthless look flashed across Li Qingqing's face.
She knew very well that Qin Sui had a real sister who subsequently committed suicide abroad. Hmph, her life might not have been better than hers!
The patient room at the other end was once again quiet.
Grandpa Li had someone taking care of him, so Li Xiaoya let go of her insistence on staying. She asked Sheng Yuxiao, "Do you have someone taking care of you?"
"Yes. Why? You're not much older, are you planning to take care of me?" Sheng Yuxiao chuckled.
Li Xiaoya was looking at him expectantly, asking, "Does it still hurt?"
With her watching him like that, Sheng Yuxiao's heart softened. "I'm all right now," he said.
He asked her another question: "Qin Sui didn't bully you, did he?"
"Qin Sui?" Li Xiaoya looked puzzledly at him.
"Mm, the man who just walked out, you didn't know his name?"
Li Xiaoya shook her head, thinking so, that was Qin Sui.
She quickly responded, "No, I didn't hang out with him. But..."
"But what?"
"But we picked and sold mushrooms together today."
Sheng Yuxiao knew about this. He waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter. Did you manage to sell all of them? It doesn't matter if you didn't manage to sell them, I'll be with you next time..."
"They were all sold."
"..." Sheng Yuxiao's voice paused. After a while, he found his voice again, "How much did you get?"
"331 Yuan."
"That's quite a bit." Sheng Yuxiao's competitive spirit kicked in. "Next time, I'll help you sell even more than that," he said.
Li Xiaoya nodded and said, "I'm going to split the earnings with him because he helped me sell the mushrooms."
"Why would you give him a share?" Sheng Yuxiao grumbled with visible dissatisfaction.
Li Xiaoya took out the money from her cloth bag, counted a five yuan bill, and handed it to Sheng Yuxiao. "Hmm, I'll share with you, too."
Sheng Yuxiao's dissatisfaction disappeared at once. He held the five Yuan like he was holding five million.
He asked with a smile, "What is this for? Are you asking me to buy candy?"
Li Xiaoya thought for a moment and said, "Buy something else instead, I can trade the red flowers I have for candy."
Was she planning to exchange all her future red flowers for candy for him?
Sheng Yuxiao, as a matter of fact, didn’t even like candy.
He didn’t know why, but Li Xiaoya seemed to have gotten the idea that he loved it.
Either way... Sheng Yuxiao's heart was as light as if he was tied to a balloon, floating off into the sky. He felt incredibly comfortable.
He muttered, "Li Xiaoya, what will I do if there's no more candy for me in the future?"
Li Xiaoya wanted to say, 'then you can leave your address when you leave. I can always mail you candy.'
But after thinking about it, she decided not to.
Perhaps after he left, he would quickly forget about her.
"I'll get us some takeout, let's have something tasty." Sheng Yuxiao quickly shrugged off his worries and started making big orders on his phone.
There was nothing in that shabby village.
He was finally able to give Li Xiaoya a taste of the better things in life.
Before long, takeout began to stream into the hospital.
The small table was packed full of it.
"This is glutinous rice balls, have you ever tried it? This is a beef burger, this is Taro Milk Tea, this is hotpot with lamb and fish. Oh, do you want KFC? Kids usually like it a lot, don't they?"
As Sheng Yuxiao was introducing the food to Li Xiaoya, he turned and saw her wide-eyed, shocked expression.
Sheng Yuxiao instantly felt extremely satisfied.
This was just the beginning. If Li Xiaoya lived with him in the city, he would take her to dine at high-end restaurants every day. The food in this little county town was far from enough.
Li Xiaoya had the most bountiful feast in her life. She tasted many things she had never seen or heard of before.
"The outside world is so beautiful."
Li Xiaoya was stuffed and full, pleasantly content.
"Come, let's brush your teeth." Sheng Yuxiao lifted her up.
The basins in the hospital bathrooms were quite high. Sheng Yuxiao put a small stool for her, held her as she brushed her teeth and washed her face, and only after she was done, he picked her up again.
Under the light, Li Xiaoya's long eyelashes fluttered gently.
She thought, it felt so good to be taken care of like this… but Mother said, you can't become attached to all the warm things in this world. You would become weak and be bullied and trampled.
Li Xiaoya wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, and kept repeating in her head, 'it's a dream, it's a dream, it must be a dream...'
*
Li Xiaoya and Qin Sui didn't return to the village, and the Village Chief again visited Li Xiaoya's house.
"Old Uncle." The Village Chief greeted Grandpa Li as he walked in.
Grandpa Li had been in low spirits recently. He was not as courteous as before, and rudely asked, "What do you want?"
The Village Chief leaned in and whispered a few words to Grandpa Li.
Grandpa Li's face went through a series of changes and finally, hesitating, he shook his head and said, "No, I won't do it."
The Village Chief's expression hardened, and he shouted, "You wouldn't do it for eight hundred, Uncle, has your appetite grown?"
Grandpa Li sneered, "The TV crew offered me a thousand, and that young master Sheng said he would give me however much I want in the future. He said his father is worth hundreds of billions, do you know what hundreds of billions are? An amount you can't even begin to count!"
The Village Chief cursed inwardly and asserted a more aggressive stance, "Bullshit! You believe that young master's words! He's just fooling you, do you see them coming back?"
Grandpa Li's expression wavered.
The Village Chief seized the opportunity, "Look here, Uncle, you've not had it easy all these years. Li Xiaoya, that girl, took the money from the TV crew and immediately gave it to Auntie. You didn't get a penny, aren't you angry? I'm angry for you! I'll play the judge, I give you five thousand."
"No! Ten thousand!"
"You! Think about it, if we manage to do this, they will give you tens of thousands more. The money I give you now is nothing, you gotta look at the bigger picture..."
Grandpa Li's eyes flickered.
After a moment, he nodded heavily and said, "If you can handle this, that girl won't be a thorn in your side anymore!"
