The twelfth plane, the capital
The man in the lift glanced at them, then looked away with a frown.
He held a pickaxe on his shoulder, and was dressed in ragged overalls. His features didn’t look entirely human, and his skin was an ugly shade between pink and dark grey. His gaze was sharp, and his pupils’ size was the double of a regular human’s.
His skin looked humid as he raised his hand to stop the elevator’s doors from closing. ‘You youngsters, what are you waiting for?’ His frown deepened as he saw that the two still weren’t moving.
Zhai Xiaoyi got over his initial shock, and stepped inside. He noted the courteousness of the thing, and pulled Tian Xihua with himself.
Tian Xihua, ‘………’ This type of courtesy, he didn’t want any of it!
Zhai Xiaoyi leaned close to him to whisper in his ear, ‘Don’t be mean!’
Only then did Tian Xihua realise that he’d been staring at the man without blinking ever since they stepped inside. He rubbed the place where the hot air touched his ear and took the initiative to push the button for the ground floor.
Soon they reached the minus fifth floor, and the man stepped outside. He nodded at them, and left without another word.
As the doors closed, Tian Xihua let out a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding.
Zhai Xiaoyi turned to him, ‘It isn’t good to be so rude when the other party can’t do anything about their circumstances. It is likely that we will see more such things from now on, it’s better to get used to it early on.’
Tian Xihua looked at him with a before retracting his gaze. Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t try to guess what he was thinking about.
The elevator’s doors opened on the ground level, and the two stepped outside the building soon.
Zhai Xiaoyi broke the tranquil silence. ‘Where do you want to eat? I owe you a meal for helping me earlier.’
They were walking in the opposite direction from the Federal Bureau’s office. Tian Xihua glanced at the other and saw the green of the leaves above their heads reflect in those eyes. He smiled. It was a bright day.
‘Wherever is fine. Are you planning on visiting your parents later?’ He asked, but before Zhai Xiaoyi could reply, someone interrupted them.
‘Xiaoyi, is that you? Are my eyes wrong?’
It was Xue Liuhe’s voice. The two turned around and saw him walking towards them with big strides, pulling someone behind himself in his excitement.
Zhai Xiaoyi looked at Lin Ran looking somewhat uncomfortable from being pulled along at such a speed in a stunned manner. Was she the one Xue Liuhe wanted to introduce to him?
He got straight to the point, ‘You guys?’
Xue Liuhe hugged both of them enthusiastically as he replied, ‘This is who I told you about, yes, but what are you two doing here? Didn’t you say you had serious business at the beginning of the week?’
Tian Xihua nodded at Lin Ran as a greeting and answered his question, ‘We really were busy, but we’re already done. We were just talking about going out to eat..’
‘Eh? That’s just perfect. RanRan, didn’t I tell you I’d get him to dine with us? It’s even better if both of you can come. We were already planning to go out, why not go together?’
Zhai Xiaoyi patted the overly excited Xue Liuhe’s shoulder as he let him go, looking over to Tian Xihua as he asked, ‘That’s fine, isn’t it? I promised to treat them to dinner sometime, and today sounds perfect for that!’
Tian Xihua nodded as he agreed, ‘Yeah, it would be nice to catch up with everything.. Have you guys already chosen a place?’
Lin Ran finally found a chance to speak. ‘Yes, it is where we usually eat. I’m Lin Ran by the way.’
She chose not to acknowledge the fact that she had met both of them before, and reached out her hand. Tian Xihua nodded seriously as he shook her hand. He had long forgotten about their encounter the day before. ‘Tian Xihua.’
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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This time, Xue Liuhe deliberately called his cousin to ask for a private room instead of going to the restaurant. The relationship between cousins was really close, since Xiao Wenmai spent most of his summer vacations at the Xue family’s seaside villa.
The voice of a young man came from the other end of the line, ‘Ah Liu, you’re not exactly calling at the best time..’
‘What’s wrong? Is there anything I can help with?’ Xue Liuhe caught onto his meaning quickly.
The man sighed, ‘No, nothing of the sort. I’ll go out for a moment..’ His voice lowered as he spoke to someone before he walked away from the noise. ‘What do you need?’
‘It’s really nothing, I don’t want to bother you with trivial matters if you’re already facing trouble. I just wanted to ask you for something small.’
‘I’m already listening, aren’t I? The trouble has already been done, but it has nothing to do with your call anyway. Say it, what do you need?’
Xue Lihue sounded like he felt somewhat embarrassed, ‘Ah, it’s just that I met some friends and thought we could eat at yours.. I wanted to ask for a private room.’
‘Just that? You’ve got it. Or..’ Xiao Wenmai had an idea as he looked back into the lounge through the glass doors. He ran his fingers through his hair and asked, ‘Could I trouble you by inviting you all to eat with me today? My fiancée’s family is in town and.. I’ve made a small mistake recently. It would be too awkward with just us..’
Xue Liuhe stayed silent for a moment. He bit at his lips as he thought about how he could say no while not sounding rude.
‘.. Of course, all of you guys’ meals are on me. It is the hotel’s best private room. And.. I’ll owe you one?’ Xiao Wenmai could be said to be feeling desperate.
Xue Liuhe agreed reluctantly. ‘Alright. I’ll have to ask the others first. There are four of us, are you sure it’s fine if we dine with you guys?’
‘Yeah, it’s fine. Maolin’s cousins are going to be here too so it can only get less awkward. I’ll text you the room number. When can you get here?’
‘About fifteen minutes, if that’s alright..’
‘It’s perfect. Any time is perfect as long as you can get here before two.’ Another voice sounded on the other end of the line, and Xiao Wenmai held the phone slightly further from his ear, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ll get to it right away.’ He spoke to Xue Liuhe again, ‘I’ll be going then. Call me when you’re here.’
He didn’t wait for a reply, and ended the call directly. Fang Maolin was standing not far from him inside the room, already talking to the manager of the hotel. She was wearing a simple, green dress and held a folder in her hand, showing the old man the documents inside.
Xiao Wenmai pushed the door open, and walked into the room. The manager shot him a strange look, but Fang Maolin didn’t even glance at him. He waited patiently for them to finish.
After a couple of minutes, the woman sent the manager away after pushing the folder into his arms. She turned around to drink a cup of water from the coffee table, and only then did she notice her fiance standing there.
She swallowed the water as she shook her head, asking him softly, ‘Why are you still here? Is there anything left?’
Xiao Wenmai looked at her with a sense of helpless sorrow in his gaze. ‘Yes, I..’
‘If it is about yesterday, I don’t want to hear it. It’s already being resolved.’
‘It’s not that, I.. Don’t misunderstand me, please. I know you think that I’m just trying to get out of this, but I really just want to explain what happened.’
Fang Maolin walked in front of a decorative mirror on the desk, and stared at his reflection for a moment before averting her gaze to gather her hair up. She held a hair tie in one of her hands as she combed through her hair with her fingers. ‘You don’t need to explain.’
‘But I want to. Tong Xiang, she called me that day. She said that she wanted to reminisce about the old days, so I agreed. She said that others would be there too, so I didn’t bother calling you.. To be honest, I should have known that things weren’t what she said them to be when it turned out that everyone else had suddenly left.’
‘I.. I’m not trying to push the responsibility on her. Or, to be exact, not entirely. Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to go.’
‘Foolish,’ Fang Maolin still didn’t look at him. Her voice sounded strangely muffled. She stared at her fingers on the desk as she spoke, ‘I’ve always trusted you, and I still trust you just as much as I did before. But why are you so incapable of asking for help?’
‘When you noticed what she was trying to do, why did you want to solve everything by yourself? We are soon to be married..’
Xiao Wenmai didn’t know how to answer. He coughed and said, ‘We’re soon to be married. I didn’t want you to have another thing to have to worry about. And I would have been fine, I have all the resources I need to cover up such a mindless attempt..’
‘..But she came ready. I know. There was no way you could have known.’ Fang Maolin looked up, and the mirror reflected the teardrop in the corner of her eyes. She reached out to wipe it off.
‘I didn’t know about the cameras. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been so polite.’
Xiao Wenmai averted his gaze, and didn’t walk up to her to comfort her. He stood at the foot of the couch and sank his hands into his pockets. He nodded, his gaze still sticking closely to the ground. ‘I indeed am foolish.’
He didn’t know what else to say, and uncomfortable silence filled the room for a short while.
Fang Maolin spoke, ‘My parents will arrive soon. Two of my cousins are also coming to ease the situation. You..’
‘I invited my cousin and his close friends. I don’t want to talk about any of those articles today.’ Xiao Wenmai shook his head slowly. ‘I know what you want to say. They’re not even family, you’re worried that it will be too obvious that we’re trying to cover the situation up.’
He walked towards the door, opening it and then stopping as he looked back inside. ‘I don’t care if it’s inappropriate as long as it gets me what I want. And I want noise, enough noise so that I can pretend to not hear certain questions. I hope you understand.’
The door closed behind him silently, and Fang Maolin was the only one left in the room. She stared at the closed door for a couple of minutes before slowly walking to an armchair. She sat down and sank into the pillows, her fatigue only apparent in her expression when she could make sure that no one was around to see.
She massaged her temple with slow, practised movements as she murmured to herself, ‘Why does it feel so strange, even after so long..’
At the same time, in the lobby.
Xiao Wenmai was staring at a vase filled with flowers. A little maid peeked through the small window on the staff lounge’s door.
She stood on tiptoes and observed the outside world. A middle aged woman came out from the small kitchen behind her and placed three cups of tea on the coffee table.
The little maid sat down excitedly. ‘Ming jie, he looks really troubled. The miss hadn’t even left the third floor since two days ago.. not even to eat.. Ming jie, do you think.. maybe she fell ill from the bad news?’
The woman shook her head disapprovingly, but still chose to speak after tasting the tea. ‘Xiao Lin, you’re spending too much time watching those palace dramas again. The miss is probably just busy. Her wedding is coming up and she still has to take part in managing the hotel, it is truly too much on her.’
She sighed as she attempted to advise the girl, ‘There are too many things in this world that don’t need our approval, nor our opinion. Xiao Lin, you try to keep that in mind. Sometimes, things don’t need to be explained or told.’
The head butler, who had been sipping his tea quietly nodded seriously. ‘Yes. Xiao Lin, you can tell us anything but you have to be careful what you say outside. No matter what happened with Mr Xiao, it is none of our business. Of course, we can still talk about it.’
The little maid nodded reluctantly. ‘I know, I talk too much. But what else is there to do? It’s not like I could do anything but gossip.’
The man placed his cup on the table after he finished drinking, and only spoke after tidying his uniform up. ‘If you promise that you won’t say anything, I can arrange for you to be the one to bring up the miss’ dinner tonight.’
The girl’s eyes became brighter as she nodded her head. ‘Please do. I really want to..’
‘But no gossiping.’ The older maid reminded her.
‘No gossiping, none at all. I’ll be like a shadow when there, like a cold and aloof immortal when the rest of the girls ask..’
The woman sighed, but she didn’t say anything in the end.
Xue Liuhe and the others arrived at the hotel some time after Xiao Wenmai sat down in the lobby to wait for them.
Xue Liuhe was busy telling Zhai Xiaoyi about everything that had happened since they had last seen each other in detail, so Lin Ran was forced to strike up a conversation with Tian Xihua lest things got awkward.
‘You actually.. You look really familiar. I can’t remember, have we met before?’ Only the heavens knew what she meant this time.
Zhai Xiaoyi, who overheard while listening to Xue Liuhe’s story about the two’s dates: ‘……..’
Wasn’t this a well-known pick up line? Wasn’t her boyfriend walking only a few metres away from them?
Tian Xihua thought about it before shaking his head, ‘I don’t think we’ve ever met before.’
Lin Ran, who was even willing to give up her pretense of not knowing him for the sake of avoiding awkwardness: ‘……..’
Why was this guy so damn hard to talk to?
Xiao Wenmai stood up the moment he saw them enter the hotel. He walked to Xue Liuhe and greeted the group quickly.
‘It’s good that you’re already here. The others are going to arrive at around two..’
‘Didn’t you tell me to call you when we arrive? Why were you waiting here, aren’t you very busy?’ Xue Liuhe immediately focused on him entirely.
‘Ah, I just happened to have the time. I’ll still have to leave you guys for a bit later, but I wanted to make sure you were alright. Right. I’ll take you guys up and.. you can do whatever you want. At two, remember that, at two the others will be here. Please don’t make too much trouble.’
Xue Liuhe nodded seriously. ‘We won’t. This is the least we can do.’
The private rooms were a floor above the restaurant, and they were decorated in the same bright and green way as the corridors leading up to them.
The room had a small terrace with a view of the hotel’s garden. This was necessary because while Father Fang loved smoking, Mother Fang absolutely couldn’t stand the smell. Xiao Wenmai led them into the room before excusing himself to deal with personal business.
‘You’re free to do what you want, I’ll send up a waiter in some time. Order whatever you want, the meal is on me.’ He nodded at them with a smile before leaving the room.
The corridor became silent as he closed the door behind himself. His phone buzzed as he was staring at the wall in sligh confusion. He snapped out of it, and answered the call. ‘Yeah?’
The voice of a man came from the phone. ‘I did what you asked. She was scared silly and didn’t take long to tell us everything. It’s some interesting stuff.’
‘Who is it?’ Xiao Wenmai was no fool. He knew that Tong Xiang only seemed like the culprit on the surface. The issue was rooted way deeper than her.
‘Xiao Haolan.’
‘…….’ Xiao Wenmai didn’t know what to say to that. Xiao Haolan was one of the people he deeply believed would do something as dumb as last week’s events, he just couldn’t believe it was really her in the end.
He sighed as he spoke, ‘I’ll talk to her. You.. There’s no need to do anything else. You guys worked hard, take the rest of the day off.’
‘Thanks boss. I’ll tell the boys.’ The call disconnected.
Xiao Wenmai walked towards the stairway as he dialled the next number. Xiao Haolan didn’t even take a minute to pick up. She didn’t talk.
Xiao Wenmai shook his head as he muttered something to himself before speaking up, ‘Hao er, what did you do again.. This time it’s this serious too. Uncle and Auntie are coming over.’
The girl’s voice was quiet, ‘You lied to them.’
The author has something to say:
XWM’s side plot is completely irrelevant yet so intriguing to write in the sense that since it barely has anything to do with the main storyline I can just go crazy with it and say whatever. On another note, I’m soo behind on schedule with writing. It probably won’t be a problem and hopefully I’ll have enough time to catch up, but things are so busy right now.. Anyway, I’m getting a new laptop next week so everything will be going a lot smoother from then on! Hopefully. I hope you’ll all have a fun weekend!
Тhanks for the chapter! (=^･ｪ･^=))ﾉ彡☆
I am so confused lol. what exactly did he do and why is his fiancee so sad?
thanks for the chapter <3