The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind1
“Why are you always touching that darn nose of yours?”
Father Lin glanced at Lin Xingzhu, who had started touching her nose again while eating, and spoke irritably.
How many times had she touched it during this one meal? It wasn’t like it was newly installed, so why keep touching it!
“Just checking if it’s still straight,” Lin Xingzhu casually made up an excuse.
Father Lin snorted. “You have the nerve to worry about whether your nose is straight? I told you to bring Xiao Ying back for dinner with you. What’s the deal with you running back all by yourself?”
It was clear that Father Lin truly regarded Bai Xiying as a prospective future family member.
After eating a piece of refreshing green bamboo shoot to cleanse her palate, Lin Xingzhu said, “She’s busy with work.”
Father Lin shot her a look. “It had better be that.”
Hearing this, Lin Xingzhu raised her eyebrows and looked over, but Father Lin had already composed his expression and taken a sip of the chicken soup placed to his left.
She suspected Father Lin had figured something out.
Father Lin didn’t continue the conversation on this topic, as if that sentence had just been an offhand remark.
“You’ve been at Xingyuan for a while now. How do you feel?”
As the conversation shifted to business, Lin Xingzhu’s attitude became much more proper.
“I’m adapting well, and my work is on the right track.”
Upon hearing this, a look of gratification appeared on Father Lin’s face.
He looked at his daughter, sitting upright in the prime of her life, her eyes and brows almost an exact copy of his wife’s, and couldn’t help but feel a pang of bittersweet emotion.
“…Wait a little while longer, then you can come work at Tianqi2.”
Lin Xingzhu was taken aback. “Dad, isn’t this too soon?”
Ever since Lin Xingzhu arrived in this world and figured out the original owner’s family situation, she understood that sooner or later, she would have to take over this heavy burden from her father.
This was a responsibility that belonged to the original owner, and she had no intention of shirking it, but wasn’t it too early for Father Lin to bring it up now?
Father Lin’s tiger-like eyes glared. “Still early? The children of your uncles3 were already learning to take over their family businesses in college! I didn’t bother you and let you fool around and have fun for a few years in university. Now that you’ve finally settled down and started working, you’re telling me it’s too early to come help me? Are you trying to work me to death on purpose?!”
Lin Xingzhu was hit with a full-blown tirade from her father.
“Alright, alright, alright, I get it, I get it,” Lin Xingzhu immediately admitted her mistake.
“It’s good that you get it!” Father Lin snorted again, then said with a serious expression, “But don’t think you can just come to Tianqi, sit in an office, and point at rivers and mountains4. After you join the company, you’ll first go through the wringer at the bottom levels for me.”
Back then, to get Lin Xingzhu to work properly, Father Lin had agreed to let his daughter go to Xingyuan, which she was interested in, and let her do as she pleased. But Xingyuan was not Tianqi. Once she came to Tianqi, he couldn’t let her truly reach heaven in a single step5 and enjoy the perks; she had to properly understand the company’s details.
Even if, in the future, Lin Xingzhu really wasn’t cut out for it, they would have to hire a professional manager, and Lin Xingzhu herself would first need to understand the company’s inner workings so she wouldn’t get cheated blind.
Naturally, Lin Xingzhu nodded repeatedly, accepting all of Father Lin’s arrangements.
As the meal came to an end, Lin Xingzhu suddenly asked, “Dad, do we have any major collaborative projects with the Chu family?”
“The Chu family?” It took Father Lin a moment to realize which Chu family his daughter was talking about. “Of course not. We couldn’t be more unrelated6 to them, so what would we need to collaborate on?”
Lin Xingzhu let out an “oh” and said no more.
Father Lin’s probing gaze swept over her for a moment, but he ultimately didn’t press further.
He turned his head and pointed to the bowl of soup by Lin Xingzhu’s hand, which had remained untouched, and urged, “It’s been sitting there so long it’s getting cold. Why aren’t you drinking it? Not to your taste?”
Lin Xingzhu glanced at where her father’s finger was pointing and felt she had to respectfully decline.
Better not. She really couldn’t stomach it. The embarrassment that had shot up after last night’s gushing nosebleed was still fresh in her memory.
Lin Xingzhu sat with her father for a while longer before saying, “Dad, it’s getting late, I’ll be leaving now.”
Father Lin was momentarily stunned but said nothing. He simply watched Lin Xingzhu leave, then stared blankly at the empty seat, lost in thought.
His dark eyes flickered twice; no one knew what he was thinking.
Wednesday morning.
Bai Xiying was called into Mu Muqing’s office. The moment she stepped inside, Mu Muqing locked the door behind her.
Her brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Bai Xiying said, “Director Mu, did you call me in to assign some work?”
Mu Muqing’s already gloomy mood darkened further at Bai Xiying’s cold and businesslike attitude.
“There are indeed some work-related matters to discuss with you.” Mu Muqing tilted her head up, gesturing for her to sit, then asked directly, “Did you sign up for the ASHY Design Competition?”
Bai Xiying sneered internally, a perfectly calibrated look of surprise on her face. “You know about that too? I did sign up for it…”
“Cancel it!”
Interrupted so forcefully and rudely, Bai Xiying managed a strained smile. “Director Mu, I don’t understand why I should cancel. Registering for a competition should be my private affair. If you’re asking me to cancel, could you please give me a reason?”
Mu Muqing’s expression was cold and stern. “Because this isn’t just your personal matter; it also involves your work. You have a lot of work on your plate right now. Participating in a competition will inevitably divide your energy. If that happens, can you guarantee that the quality and quantity of your work won’t suffer?”
“Xiying, I think you should know, for a newcomer7 to be able to join Hurricane right after graduation and be quickly entrusted with the core parts of a project upon joining is truly impressive. But that doesn’t mean you have the energy to also participate in a time-consuming and energy-draining design competition.”
Her gaze was heavy and merciless. “What’s more, your chance of winning this design competition is one in a thousand.”
“This isn’t appropriate, nor is it what a smart person would do,” Mu Muqing concluded.
Bai Xiying’s face turned pale, her gaze shattered.
“But…”
Mu Muqing sighed again, cutting her off directly, though her eyes looked at her gently. “Trust me, Xiying, you don’t want to know how brutal the slaughter in the ASHY competition is. For you, it’s a complete waste of time.”
The cold sneer in her heart was about to burst forth uncontrollably. It took all of Bai Xiying’s self-control not to laugh mockingly in Mu Muqing’s face.
What a hypocrite. She clearly had her own little agenda but was spouting a pile of high-sounding, pompous reasons to stop her.
She looked deeply into Mu Muqing’s eyes and found that, as expected, there was no emotion in them other than righteous confidence.
“I’ll think about it again,” Bai Xiying said, her expression poor as she suppressed her emotions.
Seeing that her attitude had softened, a satisfied smile flashed in Mu Muqing’s eyes. She nodded and said, “You can go out now. I hope to hear your answer in two days.”
Two days later was the deadline for the ASHY Design Competition registration.
Bai Xiying nodded and pushed the door open to leave.
As she turned the corner, she happened to run into Wang Ruonan8, the very project leader Mu Muqing had mentioned these past two days.
Seeing Bai Xiying emerge from Director Mu’s office again, Wang Ruonan’s expression was not pleasant.
After nodding a greeting to Wang Ruonan, Bai Xiying walked past with her back to her, the corners of her lips curving slightly upward.
As expected, the person who snitched to Mu Muqing about her registering for the competition was Wang Ruonan.
The words Lin Xingzhu had relayed to her the day before yesterday had sounded a bit off. She had already finished her work and submitted it to Wang Ruonan before getting off work last Friday, yet on Monday, Wang Ruonan claimed she hadn’t submitted it.
Coupled with the fact that in her past life, Bai Xiying had noticed Wang Ruonan had feelings for Mu Muqing, she had paid special attention to this. And yesterday, when she was discussing the details of the competition registration with Wang Xiaoxiao, Bai Xiying had deliberately made no effort to be discreet, even though she noticed Wang Ruonan standing behind them printing something.
As it turned out, Bai Xiying’s gamble paid off. Wang Ruonan was bound to report her to Mu Muqing, using the excuse that she wasn’t focused on her work and would be distracted.
Bai Xiying was delighted. She was only afraid that she wouldn’t tell Mu Muqing.
But when she returned to her desk, Bai Xiying still put on a very hurt expression.
In response to Wang Xiaoxiao’s concerned words, Bai Xiying explained the situation haltingly with the sound of sobbing in her voice.
That night, after finishing her last practice drawing, Bai Xiying glanced at the time, got up, went back to her bedroom to change, pulled her hat down, and silently pushed the door open to leave.
On the twelfth floor, Lin Xingzhu had just taken out a bag of trash and opened her door to place it in the hallway. When she looked up, she saw the elevator display screen stopped on the thirteenth floor.
The red number flashed for two seconds, then began to descend from the thirteenth floor.
It’s so late, is Bai Xiying still going out?
A thoughtful look slid through Lin Xingzhu’s eyes. She turned back into her apartment, swapped her slippers for shoes, pocketed her keys, and went out again.
As she entered the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor, Lin Xingzhu told herself that she was just worried about Bai Xiying’s special constitution making it unsafe for her to be out late at night. Just a quick look, just one look will be fine.
After she walked out of the apartment building, she happened to see a familiar figure flash around the corner ahead.
The lights in the residential complex had always been dim, making it hard to see people clearly in the dead of night, but Bai Xiying’s all-black attire, which almost blended into the night, was still easy to distinguish.
Lin Xingzhu pursed her lips and followed along that path.
She had initially just been concerned, but looking at Bai Xiying’s outfit, something seemed to leap within Lin Xingzhu’s heart.
What reason could possibly make Bai Xiying deliberately put on these clothes, clearly meant for concealment, and rush out in the dark of night?
Her heart pounded like a drum. Lin Xingzhu suddenly realized that she might be able to use this to lift a corner of the mysterious veil that was Bai Xiying.
This was an almost irresistibly tempting path for her.
The light in her eyes flickered. Lin Xingzhu silently followed, hailing a car as well to tail the one in front.
Surprisingly, it seemed the Bai Xiying ahead didn’t have a specific destination either.
Lin Xingzhu leaned back in her seat, her eyes fixed like a hawk on the license plate up ahead, which she had already committed to memory. Her hand, resting at her side, tapped habitually—a common motion for her when she was thinking.
The car she was following had already circled the same roads two or three times, looking completely like it was just cruising aimlessly on the main road.
It almost made Lin Xingzhu think that Bai Xiying had already noticed someone was following her.
Fortunately, the person ahead didn’t seem to have noticed anything amiss. Lin Xingzhu watched as that familiar person opened the taxi door, got out, and then, naturally and purposefully, followed someone in a wheelchair from a short distance.
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