[Think about it.]
Those were the last words that Lin Zixun had left her with before she'd departed. His manners had been impeccable and his suggestion, no matter how outrageous it'd sounded, hadn't offended her. He hadn't tried to put pressure on her either, which was just one more reason why she was treating this seriously.
Manager Yu would have to be informed, of course, once Su Qiao made up her mind. Whether Lin Zixun was for real when he'd insisted he wasn't joking about a proper marriage remained to be seen. But Su Qiao was under no illusions that this alliance of theirs, whatever form it took, would rock the boat and rock it hard. She could envision all of Manager Yu's hair turning white overnight if she failed to disclose such an important detail. Although, come to think of it…
Su Qiao's eyes narrowed. Why had Manager Yu chosen to come out of early retirement for Su Qiao? Back then, she'd assumed it was because Manager Yu had somehow caught wind of her and had seen enough promise in her to consider her a worthwhile career decision. Su Qiao had been too busy contemplating the potential backlash her deteriorating relationship with Lin Zizhou might have on her job. So, when Manager Yu had shown up out of the blue like a convenient fairy godmother, she'd leapt onto the chance without scrutinising the timeliness of her appearance. Yu Yaxiu's reputation preceded her and Su Qiao had trusted her professionalism, assuming that their pairing up had been part of an executive decision made by the higher-ups.
But now, she wasn't so sure. She still believed that Manager Yu was here in a professional capacity. Even though Manager Yu had only just taken over from Manager Zhao, she'd already done so much for Su Qiao. She didn't feel like she had to be fearful of betrayal, not when Manager Yu's credibility was also at stake here.
However, she couldn't shake off the sneaking suspicion that Lin Zixun had a hand in this satisfactory arrangement.
Just what else had he done for her that she still didn't know about and why? Was it just as a 'nuptial' gift of sorts? An extravagant display to show his sincerity towards this deal he was trying to close?
Su Qiao's head hurt. She'd intended to meet with him to come clean about her intentions and clarify any doubts about his but now she felt like her head was spinning in circles. Not only was she nowhere closer to understanding where this strange man was coming from, but she also had even more questions than before.
How infuriating.
Peng Lili had arranged for her usual driver to send her back to her hotel after. Instead of heading up to her suite—which again, had to be courtesy of that Lin Zixun, who was suddenly everywhere in her life, seriously—she went to Peng Lili's room and rang the doorbell.
"Qiao Jie? What's up?"
Su Qiao made a beeline for the couch after Peng Lili had let her in and flopped down face-first into the cushions before grimacing and rolling over onto her back. The fabric of the covers smelt musty like they hadn't been laundered thoroughly in recent times and the last thing she needed now on top of all the weirdness was to break out in pimples.
Peng Lili clearly felt the same. "Accckk! Oh my god, don't lie on that, who knows when it was last cleaned?!" She rushed over to tug on Su Qiao's arm. "Quick, wash your face!" With her face mask on and in her oversized kpop idol mascot pyjamas, Peng Lili was adorable and the sight of her panicked bumbling brought a small, unbidden smile to Su Qiao's lips.
"Don't wanna," was her lazy reply. She tugged back, yanking her cousin down until Peng Lili gave in and perched on the edge of the couch like she was afraid all the imaginary bacteria would crawl off it and contaminate her favourite set of nightclothes
"What's wrong?" Peng Lili asked after Su Qiao was quiet for some time. Her voice had subconsciously taken on a softer tone as she tried to coax Su Qiao into sharing her problems.
Su Qiao sighed. "I don't know where to begin," she said.
Peng Lili had always been very attuned to Su Qiao's moods and a note of worry crept into her voice as she said, "Qiao Jie, don't scare me, what's going on? Just tell it to me straight, you know I can't take the suspense."
True enough, Peng Lili was practically bouncing in her seat with nervous energy and Su Qiao decided to put her out of her misery. So she said, calm like she was just chatting idly about the weather, "Lin Zixun proposed to me over dinner."
A loaded silence stretched out to fill the room. Peng Lili stared owlishly at Su Qiao. Then, as though she felt like Su Qiao couldn't appreciate the full extent of her gawking, she ripped the comical face mask off and tossed it onto the nearby coffee table, where it fell with a wet slap.
"HE WHAT?!"
Peng Lili wasn't like Su Qiao's other colleagues in the industry. She counted as family, however distant, and had known about Lin Zizhou. Even before Su Qiao's relationship with Lin Zizhou had fallen to shambles, she'd never had a good impression of him, always grumbling that he didn't seem to treat her right, was too cold, too dismissive to be sincere about her.
Su Qiao hadn't paid her any heed, had even stupidly become defensive on Lin Zizhou's behalf, making excuses up to justify his actions to one of the few people who had been on her side. One or two of the other young mistresses that were Su Qiao's 'close friends' had added fuel to the fire, stoking Su Qiao's displeasure against her assistant by insisting that Peng Lili was trying to sow discord between the happy couple because she liked Lin Zizhou too and was jealous of Su Qiao.
The slap Peng Lili had risked her job to land on Lin Zizhou's face after he'd broken off their engagement last time around had proven otherwise.
In this lifetime, there was no one Su Qiao trusted more than Peng Lili. As such, she had no qualms sharing her troubles. Whether Peng Lili could come up with a helpful solution was a whole other story though.
"HE WHAT?!" she repeated for the umpteenth time, sounding a bit like a very confused, very broken tape recorder. "But why?!"
Su Qiao would love to know too. She gave an ineffectual shrug and rolled over onto her side to prop her head up on one arm. "He implied that it'll be a match that'll stand him in good stead in his family's politics."
Peng Lili's sank onto the floor, her head lolling back against the couch seat as she plucked at the carpet, long forgetting about her previous doubts about cleanliness.
"That's possible," she pondered. "Now that you've broken up with that bastard, the Lin Family will have to go back to the drawing board with your father if they want to renegotiate another business alliance." She rarely swore but always did so with particular vehemence whenever it came to Lin Zizhou. The day Su Qiao had updated her about Lin Zizhou's ambiguous whatever-that-was with Bai Meixin, she'd cussed so creatively Su Qiao had felt like taking notes.
"If Lin Zixun really wanted a satisfactory match with the Su Family, I'm not the daughter he should be angling after," she reminded. They both heard what she was implying; Su Qiao was the only legitimate heir of the Su Family, for now. But how long before Bai Meixin went for a paternity test and her real identity was revealed? Where would that leave Su Qiao then? As the apple of Su Yongshen's eye and the only child of his new wife, Bai Meixin was the better choice, the one with more significance.
It wouldn't even matter that Su Yongshen had cheated on Su Qiao's mother while she'd been alive. Su Qiao wouldn't put it past Su Yongshen to package his new marriage as one of 'true love', sell a ludicrously romantic angle until all the public eye could see was a happy family of three with Su Qiao in the background as a clown, the child her father only had out of obligation.
This was what had happened last time, after all. She forced these thoughts out of her head firmly. They, like Su Yongshen and everything his new family stood for, were an insult to the memory of her mother.
"Qiao Jie…"
Su Qiao made a noise to show that she was listening.
Peng Lili chewed on her lower lip, her words coming out garbled as she hemmed and hawed over what she was trying to say like she wasn't sure whether Su Qiao would want to hear it. "Maybe…I don't know…it's just that, it seems like such a good opportunity, doesn't it? I mean, not just for the older Lin brother…ah, I really don't know if I should be saying this…"
She lifted a hand and ruffled Peng Lili's hair until it became a bird's nest on top of her head. "Just say it."
Peng Lili turned to face her, big eyes wide and earnest.
"Lin Zixun said that he'd like to marry you to secure his status in his family but doesn't it work both ways? For the sake of remaining in the good books of the Lin Family, your father wouldn't have any choice but to continue acknowledging you as his daughter…right?"
Huh. So it did and so he would. With regard to the deal she'd hoped to form with Lin Zixun, Su Qiao had thought about obtaining backing in the entertainment industry, about teaming up for mergers and acquisitions where she bought over her father's conglomerate piece by spiteful piece, even about walking down an aisle with Lin Zizhou and Bai Meixin gaping at her from the side.
But all that was based on the premise that she would be disinherited. She really hadn't considered that she would be able to forcibly remain the big young mistress of the Su Family and still have her wicked way.
How very interesting.
"Ahh, maybe I'm just talking nonsense, Qiao Jie, don't listen to me—"
Su Qiao reached out and squeezed Peng Lili around the neck in a vicious hug.
"No, Little Lili," she said, eyes twinkling with a spark of impish delight that looked so out of place on her that Peng Lili blinked in surprise. "You're a genius."