Zhang's family business ran on the foodstuffs, possessing many restaurants packed in every part of the country. They expanded their business in the instant foods that were exported to other countries as well as widely distributed nationally.
Although the Zhangs couldn't compare to the Tangs in terms of material prosperity, they were on par with them in respect of status and as influential as them on the nation's economy.
Zhang Xiulan's father, Zhang Guangxi led in managing their business while her mother took part in creating tasty and quality foods. Her trait was relayed to her oldest son, Zhang Jinhai who was blessed in cooking and titled the best chef in the nation. The fundamental ingredients were received from their private farmland. The youngest son, Zhang Shaiming took after his father and became interested in business administration.
As a middle child, Zhang Xiulan excelled at nothing! She disliked cooking and didn't have any interest in doing business.
All she did in her leisure time was capture the so-called awe-inspiring natural sceneries in the polaroids or draw them down in her book although she lacked talent in it. She couldn't even sketch a line straight without unnecessary bending and contortion. Still and all, she enjoyed indulging herself in the tiny pleasure. She often did handmade crafts and made a collection out of them which amused her.
Her fruitless indolence was usually stumbled upon by her mother. They would squabble over her idleness every so often. Last night's quarrel was a good example. Her mother insisted on her supervising the farm in the hope that it would lessen her lethargy.
When Tang Weimin got back to his home, his grandparents, Tang Renshu and Ma Pingan were waiting for him to have a chat after they had heard about the scandal.
Tang Renshu single-handedly built the Tang enterprise. He anticipated his business to be more flourishing in his children's generation. But to his dismay, his only son, Tang Boqin was a good-for-nothing womanizer. Thank heavens he had a clever and wise daughter who helped him expand his business.
Tang Renshu hated his own son for being useless. But by good fortune, the sons of Tang Boqin had exceptional business senses which made Tang Renshu set a high hope for more glorious days ahead in his enterprise. He would not kill the goose that lays eggs because of his contempt for his son and instead, he insisted to invest his business in his grandsons' hands.
For that sole reason, he pressured his grandsons to stay together with him when their parents got divorced.
Through the connection of Tang Weimin's mother, Tang Weimin had a chance to tie the knot with the only daughter of the prosperous Zhang family. Zhang Guangxi cherished his daughter enormously and the Zhang girl seemingly had an adorable and bright personality. So Tang Renshu naturally accepted his mother's arrangement.
Eventually, the better he got to know about his future granddaughter-in-law, the more he was fond of her.
A house, which used to be boring with only grandparents and their two grandsons living in it, became a lively and cheerful environment with an extra presence of a young girl whenever she came to visit their house. Her exuberant nature amused him.
It was a win-win situation and there wasn't a day that Tang Renshu stopped waiting for her to stay in the Tang residence after they had officially got married.
To his disappointment, his foolish grandson followed in his lunatic father's footsteps. He facepalmed upon receiving the awful news. Although he hated the idea of canceling the wedding, he agreed with their decision. Xiulan didn't deserve to be with a cheater like Weimin. Out of frustration, he immediately summoned him to get back home.
As soon as Tang Renshu saw his grandson coming, he couldn't maintain his temper anymore and threw his phone at Weimin while yelling. His phone screen displayed a video attached article that was taken down by the technical staff as per his order. As of now, that was the proof of the journalists' accusation of Weimin being a cheater on his fiancee.
"Look what you've done! Now how can we show our face to her elders? Lan'er had to personally come and clean up the mess you created. If not for her, you might have left with an egg on your face. Well to be exact, the whole Tang family might have suffered the tremendous humiliation if Lan'er hadn't shown up and prevented the reporters from breaking into your private suite where God knows what you were doing inside!" Tang Renshu berated in one breath.
Tang Weimin didn't dare to challenge his grandfather's wrath and he silently endured his scolding.
"Don't you dare give me the silent treatment!!!" Tang Renshu bawled out with anger bottling up his chest. He grabbed a flower vase nearby and aimed at Tang Weimin.
Mrs. Tang who was constantly monitoring the event in silence was alerted when she saw her husband was about to harm her grandson.
Although Tang Renshu was a hot-tempered man and got irritated easily, she had never seen her husband being so enraged that he lost his control and was about to wound his own flesh and blood.
Ma Pingan blocked his attack by snatching the vase from his grasp and convinced him, "Are you sure you want to hurt him? If you are, then I will go fetch an effective weapon to keep him hospitalized for about two years. But if you are going to give him only a swallow bruise, it will only be a mess to bother us since we have to keep on confronting him with a bloody sight."
Her words brought him to his senses and he harrumphed, "You are right! We are too old to handle a dreadful scene."
"How about we continue after chilling out for a moment?" Ma Pingan suggested.
Tang Renshu turned around to leave the place while rebuking, "We'll see!"
Certainly, Tang Renshu would be exasperated since he lost his dream of having an adorable granddaughter-in-law and his future little great-grandchildren.
Worst of all, the business deals with Zhang Guangxi were at stake!
As soon as Weimin reached upstairs, he got a call from his secretary. He rushed into his study to pick it up in the hope that she could find any lead on the culprit who was trying to sabotage the deal between the two families of Tang and Zhang.
His hope crumbled down when he heard her updates. His team couldn't trace the surveillance footage. They cleverly deleted all the leads which were concerned with him or Bai Hualing including the video that went viral that morning. The tracking system of his team failed while facing quite a few errors. They required some time for system recovery and to restart the same process again.
Lacking a choice, he made a request to Xiulan to check Bai Suying out on whether she was suspicious or not. After all, she was the one who broke the news to Xiulan.
Zhang Xiulan agreed and being as proactive as she was, she immediately made an appointment to meet with Bai Suying on her way to buy a train ticket to the countryside.
At first, Cai Roumei insisted that a chauffeur brought her by car because this was the first venture her daughter would take, she worried about her safety and at least let a bodyguard tag along if she want to go by train. Xiulan hated to break her own stereotype. If she ended up obeying her mother's orders, her mother might come up with an exorcism ritual as she'd thought that she was possessed by an evil spirit. Xiulan decisively concluded that she would be off by train on her own. Say no more! Definitely, there were no parents who won over their own children.
In the evening, she went straight to a cafe and Bai Suying was already there sipping her espresso. They chit-chatted for a while to catch up on things before Xiulan brought up an important matter.
She directly asked her how she knew about the plot of the reporters against Tang Weimin and Bai Hualing.
Bai Suying explained unhurriedly, "I eavesdropped on their discussion at the hotel entrance when I was queuing for a taxi. Then I got panicked and called you and Tengfei. But he didn't pick up my call. So I left him a message and the address of the hotel."
Her words matched Zhang Xiulan's knowledge of the case.
Zhang Xiulan couldn't sense any unusual temperament from her. Bai Suying meant well and she felt ashamed of herself for suspecting her honest friend. To ease the atmosphere, she threw a random question, "By the way, why are you there so early in the morning?"
Bai Suying tucked a lock of hair behind her ears and bashfully murmured, "I have my personal reason for being there. I prefer not to disclose it."
Zhang Xiulan collected the hints, "Of course! I am sorry. I have no clue you have a boyfriend."
"No!" Bai Suying was baffled upon hearing the words and she abruptly rejected her opinion.
"I- I mean it was supposed to be a secret. You can't divulge it to anyone, not even Tengfei and Hualing!" She stuttered and nervously sipped her coffee.
It was not her business whether Bai Suying had a silent boyfriend or not. It was understandable that she had no desire to reveal it since every relationship had its own complexity. But her reaction aroused suspicion in Xiulan's eyes.
She could accept her stammer because Bai Suying might have felt caught red-handed concerning her silent partner. However, she had no reason to ask her specifically to keep it a secret from Liu Tengfei and Bai Hualing.
After all, as far as she knew, they had never crossed paths in the past and probably not in the future either. Therefore, even if they knew about her secret, there was no need to be afraid of it.
Bai Suying regained her composure and smiled lightly, "Don't be suspicious. Fine! I will let you know to get me off the hook. I believe your lips are sealed."
"You have my word. I am sorry if you felt offended by my question. I was worried about my friends and got hurried because we couldn't find any lead or footage of them in the hotel." She exposed the facts deliberately. 'You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar', Xiulan contemplated and was satisfied with her tactic.
***
On her way back home, Xiulan ran into a shop that sold handmade materials and an idea came to her mind.