Lin Xi had no choice but to say a word to Duan Mingxuan before leaving with Duan Yiheng.
She glanced at Duan Yiheng, looking quite troubled. Duan Mingxuan smiled at Duan Yiheng: "Big brother, I'll take Xiao Xi back." Duan Yiheng stood by the car, silent for a moment, then opened the door and got in. With an elegant low hum, the Phantom slowly started, steady and quiet in the night, just like Duan Yiheng himself.
Lin Xi got into Duan Mingxuan's car, and he asked her why she was with Duan Yiheng. Lin Xi wasn't good at lying, and didn't want him to know she was Duan Yiheng's secretary, so she half-truthfully said, "I want to work at Yin Fan. Grandpa told me to go see Big Brother."
"You really want to work at Yin Fan?" Duan Mingxuan asked. Lin Xi hummed in agreement.
She naturally knew what Duan Yiheng had said, but the merger didn't mean all traces of "Guangxi" would be erased.
Its business and technological resources have allowed Yin Fan to develop and continue. Guangxi was a technology company her father founded the year she was born, which he later used to secure his lifelong financial security when she was six.
She firmly believes that everything Yin Fan Technology has today is due to Guangxi as its foundation. Duan Mingxuan, who grew up with her, knows exactly what she's thinking.
Afraid of another argument, he changed the subject: "Isn't the anniversary of your parents' death coming up soon?" It was a statement, something Duan Mingxuan always remembered.
Lin Xi: "Yes." Duan Mingxuan: "I'll go with you then."
"If Aunt Wei agrees, you can go if you want," Lin Xi joked.
Although Duan Mingxuan consistently visits her abroad, Chen Baiwei forbids Lin Xi from returning to her hometown to pay respects to her parents.
"I'm a grown-up now, how can she control me?" Lin Xi sighed silently. She couldn't control him, so Chen Baiwei always came to her whenever something happened. The supercar pulled into the villa's main gate. Duan Mingxuan turned off the engine in front of the main building but didn't get out.
He said to Lin Xi, "You can go to Yin Fan, but don't get too close to my brother."
Lin Xi paused, withdrawing her hand from the car door. "Why?" Duan Mingxuan avoided her gaze, grabbed her wrist and shook it, casually making up an excuse: "Look at the scar on the back of your hand. He bled so much back then, and he just watched coldly. He has no humanity at all."
There was a very shallow crescent-shaped scar on the back of her hand, barely noticeable. Lin Xi pulled her hand away, speaking up for Duan Yiheng: "That wasn't his fault." Duan Mingxuan: "You're still defending him? He only misunderstood my mother as his mother; is that worth him hitting her for?" "No, I—" Lin Xi started to explain, then stopped abruptly.
Duan Mingxuan, spoiled by his parents since childhood, wouldn't understand the plight of a child without a mother. She and Duan Yiheng shared a similar plight. Although she was living under someone else's roof, she tried to comfort herself that these people weren't her close relatives, and it was already a great help that they could shield her from the storms of life.
Besides, her grandfather treated her like his own granddaughter, and she felt content. Duan Yiheng was different; this was his home, but he couldn't be a home to him.
Therefore, she never blamed him. Her phone suddenly rang, and Lin Xi answered the unfamiliar number.
"Miss Lin, I'm sorry, could you please plead with Mr. Duan for me?" Lin Xi paused. "Who are you?" "I'm the receptionist who gave you trouble this afternoon. My name is Fang Li."
Lin Xi immediately knew what had happened; she hadn't seen anyone outside the Yin Fan Building, so she guessed.
"How did you get my number?" Lin Xi asked.
"Manager Chen gave it to me." "How did Chen Jingyi get her contact information?" Lin Xi pondered for a moment, then thought it made sense.
Chen Jingyi had only been working at Yinfan for three years after graduating from university, yet she was already a manager. And she graduated from a less prestigious university at Yinfan; she must be capable and resourceful. Getting a phone number wouldn't be difficult for her.
Lin Xi's eyes flickered slightly: "I'm sorry, I can't help you."
"Miss Lin, I beg you—" Lin Xi hung up the phone, feeling surprisingly rude for the first time, but also quite relieved. Lin Xi stepped onto the external staircase and waved to Duan Mingxuan: "I'm a little tired, I'm going to sleep."
Duan Mingxuan waved back at her from below: "Don't forget what I told you." Lin Xi smiled but didn't answer. Once in her room, thinking about Fang Li's call, she decided she should ask Duan Yiheng.
She dialed the number, then abruptly hung up, opened WeChat, and opened Duan Yiheng's chat window.
She typed "Big Brother," then quickly deleted it. Lin Xi was a little stunned. Duan Yiheng wouldn't let her call him "Big Brother," so what should she call him from now on?
After a long pause, she still couldn't come up with a solution. Lin Xi snorted inwardly, "If he won't let me call him that, then I won't." For some unknown reason, she typed furiously on her phone: Are you coming back tonight? Duan Yiheng was drinking at a bar when he received Lin Xi's text.
He was originally going back to the company to work overtime, but he received an invitation from Mu Zhao and came to Night Realm instead. Mu Zhao smiled with surprise when he saw he actually came, mixed him a drink, and pushed it towards him: "I thought you were lying to me." "
Duan Yiheng downed his drink in one gulp, then asked him for another.
"So I've become your bartender, huh?" Mu Zhao teased, his actions betraying his words. After that, Duan Yiheng didn't gulp anymore, only taking small sips.
"A couple of days ago, you left me alone at the club and ran away. When I got back, Mu Shuo told me you and Duan Mingxuan got into a fight in the street."
Duan Yiheng: "...No fight."
Mu Zhao: "Your behavior was practically the same as a fight. You've acted like he didn't exist all these years, why couldn't you hold back this time?"
"Hold back?" Duan Yiheng glanced at him. "He's not good enough." Duan Mingxuan, he'd never taken him seriously.
Time passed slowly, and Duan Yiheng had drunk quite a bit. He didn't drink one glass after another, but rather with a nonchalant air, his face as calm as still water.
Mu Zhao, his longtime friend, saw through it all and asked with a smile, "Which bar are you drinking at?" "Is it the Duan or the Lin?" Duan Yiheng tightened his grip on his glass slightly, stating bluntly, "The Lin."
"I just find it strange. Who can't you have in this world? Why did you have to fall for a little girl?" Duan Yiheng thought of Lin Xi and gave a helpless sneer, "What do you know?"
Mu Zhao: "Yes, yes, I don't understand, and I don't know what you're insisting on." Insisting on what? Duan Yiheng took a sip of his drink: "Perhaps, it's for a single sentence."
"What?" Mu Zhao didn't hear clearly. Duan Yiheng wasn't one to insist on explaining everything, so he shook his head: "Nothing." His phone rang. Duan Yiheng took it out, glanced at it, and suddenly laughed.
Mu Zhao leaned closer: "Why are you laughing like that for no reason? Who sent you a message?" Duan Yiheng didn't dodge, openly replying with a single word in front of him: Reply.
"Oh, it's my sister." Provoked by those two words, Duan Yiheng glanced at him dismissively: "What kind of sister?" Realizing his slip of the tongue, Mu Zhao waved his hand pleadingly.
Duan Yiheng then stood up: "I'm leaving."
"Has your driver arrived? Do you want a ride?" Mu Zhao asked politely, without even getting up. Duan Yiheng, however, thought: Whether he's arrived or not, I'm leaving.
Half an hour later, Duan Yiheng went to the east side of the villa and knocked on Lin Xi's door.