The villas of the Tang family and the Gu family were only separated by a fence that ran between their properties.
From their respective yards, each family had a clear view of the other family's yard through the fence.
Since the two families had been living right next to each other for a long time, Gu Qingcheng was not only close to Tang Shi, but she also knew everyone in the Tang household.
On Saturday morning, Gu Qingcheng woke up bright and early. Opening her window, she leaned out over the balcony and looked into her neighbor's yard. She could see that lots of luxury cars were parked around their driveway.
Before she'd gone to bed the night before, Gu Qingcheng had noted that the car that Tang Shi had driven home was a Porsche.
After she'd had breakfast downstairs, Gu Qingcheng went back up to her bedroom and scanned the Tangs' driveway again. After she'd made certain that Tang Shi's Porsche was no longer parked there, she washed up and changed into a casual sky-blue exercise outfit before going back downstairs.
In their backyard, the Gu family had a small vegetable garden that was just about ready to be harvested. Gu Qingcheng instructed the servants to pluck some fresh vegetables and put them into a basket for her. Then, with the basket of fresh vegetables over her arm, she walked over to the Tang family home.
All the servants in the Tang family home were longtime employees who'd been there when she'd last visited three years before. So, when they saw Gu Qingcheng, they stopped whatever they were doing and greeted her, "Hello, Miss Gu."
They escorted Gu Qingcheng into the living room, calling out excitedly, "Madam! Madam!"
"What is it? What's with all the commotion?" From inside the villa, a door was opened, and someone posed this question in a crisp, clear voice.
"Miss Tang, Miss Gu is here."
Gu Qingcheng thought that she couldn't have picked a better time to visit because the target of her visit was indeed Tang Shi's older sister, Tang Wan.
When Tang Wan saw Gu Qingcheng, she looked slightly taken aback before asking, "Qingcheng, so you're really back?"
Smiling serenely, Gu Qingcheng held up the basket of vegetables and said, "The vegetables in our backyard were all ready for harvesting. Because there's too much for us, my mother has asked me to bring you some."
"Oh, Auntie Gu is too kind." Tang Wan stepped aside and said, "Do come in."
Gu Qingcheng handed the basket of greens to the servant and walked into the living room with Tang Wan.
The interior decoration of the Tang family home was completely different now from what it had been three years ago. It seemed much more luxurious and grand.
Gesturing for Gu Qingcheng to have a seat, Tang Wan asked the servant to serve them some tea, before saying, "I'd love you to try this BiLuoChun, which has just been delivered from Xihu. It's very aromatic."
"Thank you." Thanking her politely, Gu Qingcheng picked up her teacup and tasted the tea.
"Recently, I'd heard that you'd returned home, but since I hadn't seen you in person, I just assumed that it was fake news."
Gu Qingcheng smiled at Tang Wan and placed her teacup back on the table.
"Qingcheng, I trust that you were all right during your three years in the UK." At that point, Tang Wan hesitated briefly and, looking contrite, added, "About that incident three years ago, you must have felt so mistreated."