Hello, Heir

Zhuang Nainai waved him away. “It’s okay, I can do it myself.”

She decisively walked into the kitchen and carried all the food out. Before tucking in, she cast a glance at the butler. “Has Si Zhengting eaten?”

The butler looked at her. “Sir said that he has no appetite.”

Zhuang Nainai paused at the butler’s words. Grunting to acknowledge him, she bent down and ignored his fiery gaze, then slowly began to eat.

She knew the butler was trying to hint to her to bring food upstairs for Si Zhengting.

But… wouldn’t Si Zhengting be in a worse mood if he saw her now?

After forcing herself to eat a little, Zhuang Nainai went upstairs to continue resting.

For the past few days, they had been sleeping in separate rooms, and Zhuang Nainai had long gotten used to the wide and empty bedroom. But now, lying on the large bed, what she once thought was sweet now made her feel lonely.

She took out her cell phone and sent a message to Si Zhengting. “Goodnight.”

This sending of goodnight texts was also a habit they had cultivated with each other over the past few days.

But tonight’s message seemed destined for a lack of reply.

―

In the study room…

Si Zhengting sat in the balcony, a cigarette pinched between his fingers.

Amid the smoke, he kept his gaze on the master bedroom as if his gaze could penetrate the walls and see what she was doing.

A gust of cold wind blew at him, clearing his mind.

But the clearer his head was, the colder his heart felt.

The dreams he had woven for himself a few days ago had just shattered. In fact, he didn’t even know how to face Zhuang Nainai.

His cell phone buzzed. It was a text from her wishing him goodnight.

He held his gaze for a moment before shifting it away from the cell phone. Putting the cigarette into his mouth, he violently took a puff.

And then he thought to himself, Did Nainai really steal the design drafts?

The unconditional trust displayed earlier in the day had been instinctive.

But Gu Xingshan’s words made him suddenly recall how, previously, she and Ding Mengya had talked about something to do with design drafts…

At that point in time, he had put all his attention on the latter part of the sentence, but come to think of it…

At that point in time, had Zhuang Nainai been talking to Gu Deshou, and had Madam Ding been warning her not to let herself down…?

He recalled further how, on a particular day, she had gone with him to the Gu residence and, when they had left, she had seemed absentminded as if something was bothering her. Had it been then that Gu Deshou asked her to steal the design drafts?

He knew Zhuang Nainai was principled enough to not steal the design drafts.

Yet…

He looked down as the corners of his lips curled in resignation. As Gu Xingshan had said, she could do anything for the sake of Mother Zhuang.

All the coincidences and concealment caused doubt and suspicion to firmly grow in his heart.

Si Zhengting stood up abruptly and decisively extinguished his cigarette. Picking up his cell phone, he made a call to Ji Chen.

Ji Chen answered the call quickly. “Sir, there’s been some progress regarding the design drafts. I was about to report to you about it.”

Upon hearing this, Si Zhengting’s gaze fell on the night sky in the distance. The skies of Beijing had been smoggy the past few days, so, apart from the thin sliver of the moon, the skies were gray and almost devoid of starlight.

The mountains in the distance stood erect and still. But just like his relationship with her, one never knew when the peace on the surface would be broken by a sudden swell.