“Qihua, your tastes are getting peculiar, is this little girl …… an adult?”
It was the first time Zhou Sitian attended such a formal occasion, and she felt a bit guilty. Don’t listen, don’t look, don’t speak, just hold onto Uncle Shao’s hand. Zhou Sitian told herself this.
She had already made up her mind, Shao Qihua seemed to be quite good if he could help her find her brother, that would be the best. If he couldn’t, let him introduce someone who could. Anyway, he owed her a favor for saving his life, so it wasn’t necessary.
It wasn’t long after the banquet started that she met a nasty person.
The overbearing woman in front of her was about the same age as Shao Qihua, she was well-kept and graceful, so she was not a good match.
Shao Qihua was about to open his mouth but was interrupted by Zhou Sitian, “Thank you for your concern, probably because I look a bit different from your age, I’m really sorry that you had this misunderstanding.”
In the town of Qinghe, she had seen all kind of shrewish woman, if she was a mud, she would have been bullied by others.
He was about to open his mouth to excuse Zhou Simian in front of his old friend, but he only felt his arm tighten, and his footsteps couldn’t help but move to the left.
Maybe that woman wouldl cry and say that she was sorry, that she regretted, and that she was sorry.
Maybe that woman was still so proud, so cold, so out of touch with her surroundings, that she would give her an icy look when she saw her.
Or maybe she would yell at her, “I left because your presence made me sick!”
Countless times she thought of it, countless times she woke up from a dream. Zhou Sitian, however, could never have imagined that seeing Zhao Qihua again would be such a scene. Her own mother was dressed in a gorgeous dress, holding a strange man on her arm, laughing and exchanging pleasantries with the crowd.
From time to time, she exchanged glances with the strange man, and the tenderness and understanding in her eyes were unlike anything Zhou Sitian had ever seen. She had never thought that a proud woman like Zhao Qihua could have such a soft side.
Perhaps her soft side had always existed but had never been shown in front of them. Zhou Sitian tightly bit her lower lip, her hand holding the champagne glass trembled slightly.
…… father, remembering Li Qiang’s loyal and kind smile, Zhou Sweet’s eyes suddenly felt a little sour. At the same time, her heart rose again a kind of unexplainable sense of anger. How could her mother …… her mother do such a thing!
“Miss Zhou? Sitian? What’s going on?” Shao Qihua was surprised to discover that Zhou Sitian was not very tall, but she was quite strong, and if he didn’t resist, she could probably drag him for a long time.
So the famous media tycoon and transport king of Hong Kong was dragged by a little girl through half of the venue. When he met a familiar person midway, Shao Qihua could only smile awkwardly, and even he was surprised at how tolerant he was of the little girl.
After sending away a person who came up to greet her again, Zhao Qihua’s smile faded, she was a little anxious, Li Zheng slowly walked towards the other side of the venue and gradually disappeared from her sight.
Shen Wannian had a very standard smile on his face as he jawed with his business friends, taking a moment to look at his son and daughter-in-law, “Now you are representing the Shen family, don’t be tense. Keep up, I’ll take you to meet Sir Edward.”
However, as soon as he raised his step, he saw a familiar figure approaching this way. Shen Wannian immediately put a big smile on his face.
“Old Brother Shao, long time no see. You look good.” Shen Wannian walked towards Shao Qihua with Yang Wanru on his arm.
Shao Qihua was about to open his mouth to say sorry, but he found that Zhou Sitian suddenly stopped. She stood in place, waiting for the Shen family to come towards them.
“Who are they?” Zhou Sitian asked.
“Hong Kong Newspaper, the Shen family. Hong Kong Newspaper is the most authoritative newspaper in the hearts of the older generation of Hong Kong people, the government mouthpiece, and it is extremely prestigious in Hong Kong.” Although Shao Qihua was known as a media tycoon, he was after all not as old as they were, and the position of the Hong Kong newspaper industry in the hearts of the older generation of Hong Kong people was hard to shake.
“Older generation? In other words, it’s going down the drain.”
Shao Qihua coughed twice, this little girl spoke not only directly but also quite poking at the heart.
“Brother Shao, I heard that you were at the next city ah.” The Shen family walked up to Zhou Stian.
Yang Wanru surreptitiously sized up Zhou Sitian, Shao Qihua had rarely brought a female companion to such formal occasions, and if he did, it was usually Jiang Anqi, but this little girl was very fresh-eyed.
Zhou Sitian ignored Yang Wanru’s sizing up, she let go of Shao Qihua’s hand and took the wine glass, and walked straight towards Zhao Qihua.
“This lady looks so good-looking.” Zhou Sitian tried to calm herself down, but her voice was still trembling slightly.
Zhao Qiuhua was stunned the moment Zhou Sitian appeared, if she was shocked to see Li Zheng with a hint of joy, then facing this daughter made her heart much more complicated.
Zhao Qiuhua found countless reasons to convince herself that leaving was the right decision, but when it came to actually facing her abandoned son and daughter, those reasons seemed so pale and weak, and Zhao Qiuhua’s face turned slightly pale.
“Are you alright?” Shen Hongji asked in a low voice.
Zhao Qihua shook her head, her cold gaze falling on Zhou Sitian, “Let’s go out and talk?”
Shen Hongji looked at his wife in surprise, he looked at Zhao Qihua then Zhou Sitian, shrugged his shoulders and didn’t say anything.
“No need, there’s nothing to talk about between us.” Zhou Sitian clenched her teeth, you can’t cry, you can’t let this bad woman see you as a joke! Zhou Sitian kept repeating these words in her heart.
“What is your relationship?” Zhou Sitian still couldn’t hold back and asked.
“This is my wife.”
Although Shen Hongji felt that Zhou Sitian was acting strangely, but because she came with Shao Qihua and seemed to be a female companion, he could never have imagined that the young girl in front of him would be his wife’s daughter.
She bit her lower lip so hard that she was unaware of the beads of blood seeping out of her lips.
Shao Qihua, who was exchanging pleasantries with Shen Wannian on the side, smiled apologetically at Shen Wannian and walked over to Zhou Sitian, “What’s wrong?”
“Hahahahahaha, laughing to death, it’s too funny.” Zhou Sitian suddenly covered her stomach and laughed out. Her cheeks were red and she had tears in the corners of her eyes, she didn’t know if it was from laughing or …… crying.
Shen Hongji’s face was very ugly, “Mr. Shao, don’t you care about your female companion?”
Shao Qihua’s eyes flashed with a trace of discontent, a junior actually spoke to him like this. Although Shao Qihua and Shen Hongji were about the same age, he was on equal terms with Shen Wannian, and Shen Hongji was naturally his junior.
“Elder Brother Shen.” Shao Qihua turned his head to look at Shen Wannian.
The smile on Shen Wannian’s face couldn’t be hung up, “Hongji ah, you and Qiuhua should go back first.”
Shen Hongji was silent for a bit, nodded, and helped Zhao Qiuhua to walk outside.
Zhao Qihua looked up and still wanted to say something and saw Sitian’s red eyes, all of a sudden, she felt frozen in place, but Shen Hongji half wrapped and pulled her out of the venue.
Shen Wannian felt ashamed of himself and hurriedly said a few words and walked away with Yang Wanru.
“You know Shen Wannian’s daughter-in-law?” He was beside her, but he could see the little girl’s expression very clearly.
Zhou Sitian looked up, her eye makeup had been applied at some point, and she wiped her eyes with her hand, instantly blurring a black mark on her face.
“Do you believe me when I say she’s my mother?”
Sir Edward’s voice tapping his wine glass was heard through the microphone and throughout the venue.
“Today is the 24th of December 1982, I am honored that you all are honored to attend the banquet at the Hong Kong Governor’s House, the Hong Kong River is the Hong Kong people’s River, the prosperity of the Hong Kong River needs you all, let’s work together, let’s toast to a freer, more democratic and more prosperous Hong Kong River.”
“Cheers!” Everyone raised their glasses together.
The sweetness of the grapes mixed with the astringent taste of the alcohol slipped into the stomach, and Li Zheng kind of regretted coming to this banquet. Edward had indeed made a great contribution to the prosperity of Hong Kong, but from a different standpoint. Democracy and freedom, the two biggest flags of capitalism, and the words of his toast were all about rejecting China’s reclaiming of Hong Kong’s sovereignty.
“I’m a bit bored, going out for some air.” Li Zheng whispered to David.
David nodded, “The back garden of the Governor’s Palace has an artificial lake, it’s beautiful.”
Li Zheng responded, took the jacket from the attendant, and walked to the back garden.
Throughout the banquet, Liang Zhe would glance at Li Zheng’s figure every two minutes, and when he saw Li Zheng walking out, he didn’t even wait. He walked through the venue and into the back garden, just looking for Li Zheng’s figure, but he didn’t expect to see such a scene.
A woman hugging Li Zheng tightly, crying, with tears and snot on her face rubbing against Li Zheng.
“Buzz” Liang Zhe only felt his head heat up and his body had walked forward uncontrollably.
He quickly took two steps, came to the two of them, and violently pushed, ripping them apart at once.
Zhou Sitian and Li Zheng, who were still immersed in excitement, were both stunned and both pairs of eyes looked at Liang Zhe at the same time.
The withered yellow leaves whirled around the three of them and fell to the ground.
***************************
Time rewinded to ten minutes ago.
Zhou Sitian couldn’t hold back her sobs of frustration after she told Shao Qihua that Zhao Qihua was her mother.
Shao Qihua suddenly panicked, looking around at the eyes of people drifting over, and many of his old friends and rivals in the shopping mall were moving towards this side, so he had no choice but to pull Zhou Sitian to the back garden.
Zhou Sitian sobbed as she spoke intermittently about her experience.
“How could she be like this, how good dad was to her, not disliking her, not disliking me. Nothing at home had ever made her worry about anything, people’s mothers had to go down to the ground, so she just had to be at home. Every time dad came back from a sea trip, he was obviously very late and tired, but he still had to prepare dinner for us.”
“Why don’t good people get rewarded, she’s married. She doesn’t even know that Dad has left, she …… “Shao Qihua was a stranger, some words were not good to say with familiar people, but it was easy to say in the face of strangers.
No one had ever cried like this in front of him, Shao Qihua didn’t know how to respond, so he had to take out the attitude of coaxing his son a decade ago, good-naturedly persuading her.
At this time, another teenager came in from the back garden.
Shao Qihua took a look at him, he had never seen him before, probably whoever brought the youngster.
As soon as Li Zheng entered the back garden, he heard a sobbing sound, he stiffened, it was still weirdly scary in the middle of the night.
But soon, he realized that this cry was really familiar. When he first transmigrated to this era, his ears were still dizzy from time to time, and it seemed to be this sound.
He took two quick steps, then his body stiffened, and this woman with red eyes, dark bags under her eyes, and a few strange black marks on her face, was looking at him unblinkingly ……
“Sis …… “Li Zheng’s mouth showed a big smile and his always cool phoenix eyes curved into a warm curve.
You’re fine, just fine.
Zhou Sitian vigorously wiped her eyes, her eyeliner instantly spreading even more.
“Little Zheng! It’s really you! Little Zheng!!!” Zhou Sitian jumped up, taking three steps and two steps, and jumped on Li Zheng all at once.
Li Zheng stumbled two steps and almost fell, even though his nutrition had been good lately, he didn’t seem to have any intention of growing a bit taller, and Li Zheng thought that if he didn’t leap higher in two years, his lab would probably have to work on drugs to grow taller.
Zhou Sitian was still half a head taller than Li Zheng, so she effortlessly picked Li Zheng up and spun him around in a circle.
“It’s really you! You know how scared I was when I heard you fell into the sea! Thank God you’re okay! Thank goodness you’re okay!” Zhou Sitian kept repeating the words, this night she really experienced too much, first Zhao Qihua and then Li Zheng. It was hard to stop the tears and snot that came out of her eyes, but this time the unlucky one was Li Zheng’s clothes.
Li Zheng patted Zhou Sitian’s back reassuringly. Their eyes met with the walking Shao Qihua, and both of them had a trace of doubt and displeasure in their eyes.
But before they could formally talk each other, Liang Zhe suddenly stepped in.
The gazes of the remaining three looked at the expressionless Liang Zhe in unison.
Liang Zhe coldly looked at Zhou Sitian, a disgusted expression actually appearing on his paralyzed face, “Ugly!”
Zhou Sitian stared at him, her large almond-shaped eyes looking horrible against the miserable eye makeup.
“Ugly!”
Zhou Sitian pointed to herself, opened her mouth, and almost suffocated when her breath didn’t come up!
“You you ……”
Liang Zhe ignored Zhou Stian, only frowning at the snot and tears on Li Zheng’s jacket, the fingers of his right hand hanging at his side moved slightly, his eyes flickering.
To take off or not to take off?
Liang Zhe was hesitating when David’s oddly accented Cantonese came from the back garden entrance, “Li, are you there? The banquet is ending immediately.”
Liang Zhe remembered Daniel holding a dry towel, and a stern light flashed in his eyes as he immediately took off his jacket and quickly walked to Li Zheng’s side.
Casually plucking Li Zheng’s dirty jacket onto the ground, he then draped his own jacket over Li Zheng in one fluid motion.
Li Zheng ……
Zhou Sitian ……
“Oh! God, Banshee!” David walked closer and saw Zhou Sitian’s appearance and shrieked out in shock.
Zhou Sitian was stunned and touched her face, looking at Li Zheng and Shao Qihua with questioning eyes.
Li Zheng: “It’s not horrible, just the makeup is a bit ruined.”
Shao Qihua: “Well, a foreigner’s speech is an exaggeration.”
…………
After the banquet, Li Zheng declined David’s offer of a ride and followed Zhou Sitian to Shao Qihua’s car.
He still didn’t understand how Zhou Sitian could have gotten involved with Shao Qihua.
Shao Qihua, the media tycoon and transport king of Hong Kong, in the late 1990s, Shao Qihua’s media territory almost encompassed the whole of Asia, then the decline of television and the rise of the Internet, only then did the Shao family slowly disappear from the first-class family in Hong Kong. The Shao family failed to seize the opportunity of the transformation of the transport industry from a purely road-based one to one that involved land, sea, and air transport, and eventually, the Shao family declined.
However, at that time, Shao Qihua had long since left things alone. In the twenty-first century, a famous Internet tycoon from China once described the Shao family in this way, Shao Qihua was a wolf, but unfortunately, he gave birth to a docile dog pup.
“I didn’t expect Miss Zhou to have such an amazing brother like Mr. Li.” Shao Qihua said with a smile, he had just chatted with David and found out more about Li Zheng’s background.
A biopharmaceutical genius, young and enterprising. Only a few months after arriving in Hong Kong, he bought that piece of land on the east side of Pok fu lam Road with the patent money, more than twenty acres, a big deal.
“I’m indebted to Mr. Shao for taking care of my sister.” Li Zheng didn’t answer the words either, just thanked.
Shao Qihua’s eyes gleamed, he had thought that he only needed to take care of a fierce kitten, but he didn’t expect that there was a fox hidden behind the kitten.
“Miss Zhou has saved my life, I should be the one to thank Miss Zhou for taking care of me.”
“No need to thank.” Before Li Zheng could say anything, Zhou Sitian coldly answered.
Li Zheng ……
Shao Qihua ……
The extended Lincoln was parked underneath the apartment building, Liu Zhidong was already in a hurry at the door, and when he saw a person shaped like Zhou Sitian get out of the car, he quickly stepped forward, but soon, he stopped in his tracks.
Er, was this his star of tomorrow?
However, Shao Qihua’s appearance instantly washed away the shock brought to him by Zhou Sitian’s horrible makeup, “Shao …… Shao Qihua?”
Whoever in the entertainment industry didn’t know Mr. Shao, oh no, in the entire Hong Kong, there were few people who didn’t know Shao Qihua.
“Oh, hello.” Shao Qihua responded in a perfunctory manner, at his position, there was no need to wear a mask anymore.
Only then did Liu Zhidong notice that the car that sent Zhou Sitian back was actually a stretch Lincoln, HKOO21, this license plate! Shao Qihua’s car!
He looked at Shao Qihua, when his eyes fell back on Zhou Sitian face. Err …… must be that he thought too much, this face, ahem.
“Little Zheng, this is Liu Zhidong, I just mentioned him to you.” Zhou Sitian tugged at Li Zheng.
Li Zheng frowned slightly and put a polite smile on his face, “Hello, Brother Liu.”
“Fine, fine, it’s good you’re back, Sitian na, your Uncle Zhang has gone to look for you, I need to find someone to inform him. You go up first?” Although his words were directed at Zhou Sitian, his eyes stared at Shao Qihua.
Aigoo, worthy of being a star of tomorrow, this tactic was much more powerful than Li Wenhui.
This Zhou Sitian, it was only a few days, yet the shark Shao Qihua was hung up. After Shao Qihua’s ex-wife passed away, he never married again, but there was always news that the Shao family was going to marry Ms. Jiang, but there was no actual hammer. Liu Zhidong’s smile grew wider as thoughts floated in his mind.
“Uncle Shao, thank you for today. You’ve helped me find my brother, and the gift of saving your life will be wiped out.” She waved her hand atmospherically.
Shao Qihua’s face stiffened, unable to say anything, so he could only nod his head.
“You should go to rest early. The reunion of siblings is indeed something worth celebrating, next time I’ll be the host and treat you to a meal.”
Zhou Sitian nodded perfunctorily and dragged Li Zheng like a happy bird, quickly running towards her apartment.
“Little Zheng, you see, we also have a family now. Just another room I’ve given to Uncle Zhang for the night, you have to stay in the living room, and when I become a big star, I’ll definitely buy a big house for you to live in!”
Li Zheng was dumb, “Sister, what house do you want to buy, we can buy it now, tell me first, what’s going on, what advertisement, what Shao Qihua? How did you get involved with this.”
Zhou Sitian sniffed as if she suddenly remembered something, “Xiao Zheng, before I say anything, shouldn’t you explain why you’ve suddenly become some pharmaceutical genius?”