Ah? Xiao Yao’s jaw dropped, staring blankly at the car gradually approaching.
The brand-new, glossy car hood gleamed brilliantly in the sunset’s afterglow.
Wow! What a beautiful car! Only wealthy people could afford such a vehicle. So… if his family was so rich, why would his mother go picking up…
“I have to go now. Please remember what I asked you. Just like this. When I return, I’ll definitely thank you properly.”
Just like that? Watching him walk over and climb into the car… until she saw his hand waving from the car window, Xiao Yao suddenly came to her senses.
Staring at the car driving away, Xiao Yao suddenly wondered—what was his name?
Shi Tou? Or… Young Master!?
Touching her necklace, she opened the heart-shaped pendant, finding a photo of Shi Tou and the three-wheeled cart auntie inside.
“That’s right, you should smile like this, much better!” She mumbled to the smiling face in the photo, her gaze finally falling on the letter.
Her small hand traced over the envelope… No, she couldn’t do this! This was someone else’s letter, she couldn’t peek, right?
Don’t look, don’t look, can’t look! Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yao was about to stuff the letter into her pocket when a shout rang out beside her ear.
“Oh, what have you stolen now?” Xiao Guangzong snatched the letter. “Is this a love letter? Oh! Someone wrote you a love letter?”
“No, it’s not—Brother, don’t open—” Her protest was ineffective.
The letter unfolded in Guangzong’s hand, the words read aloud—”Mom, they say they want to take me to Japan to study, but I know they just want to separate us. Please wait for me, Shi Lun will always be your son. That woman Hu Cang Yue Ling can never replace you! You want me not to hate her, but I can’t do that. I even want to kill her—”
“Ah!?” Xiao Yao gasped.
The letter-reader also began to scream: “Xiao Yao! What is this? Murder! I’m going to tell Mom! Mom, come quickly, Yao Yao is learning how to plot murder…”
“Brother, don’t!” Chasing her brother’s figure, Xiao Yao cried anxiously.
That night, Xiao Yao was severely scolded, watching with tearful eyes as her mother crumpled the letter and threw it in the trash.
Only when the night was deep and quiet did she secretly slip out of bed. Holding the trash can, she began to search. “Ah! Found it!”
Carefully spreading out the crumpled letter, she gently wiped away the dirt with a tissue.
Finally, she placed the letter in a purple velvet-lined wooden box. This was her own “secret box”, containing her most treasured things, and now this letter.
Xiao Yao understood why her parents were angry—they thought Shi Tou was not well-behaved.
But she had her own thoughts. She would wait for Shi Tou to return and ask for clarification. Of course, she would also tell him that murder is bad, and her mother said if he was a bad person, they couldn’t be friends. So he definitely couldn’t be a bad person, because she liked him as a friend.
Decision made! What made Xiao Yao even happier was that now she knew Shi Tou’s name.
Shi Lun? That’s how he wrote it in the letter.
Hugging the cloth doll Shi Tou gave her, she returned to the warm bed, letting out a satisfied sigh and drifting to the still-beautiful dreamland.
Fifteen Years Later
The morning sunlight was brilliantly radiant.
Huawei Group’s central office building was just beginning its workday, immediately presenting a rhythmic atmosphere.
Every floor, every department, every person was energetic and in position, ready to meet new challenges.
Huawei Group, which established its reputation in East Asia early on, had formed an alliance with the equally powerful Su Group a decade ago, advancing into the West with immense financial resources and achieving further success.
However, with the founder Gao Dapeng’s health declining yearly, the company’s operations were now largely managed by his Japanese wife Hu Cang Yue Ling and their only son, Gao Yi Qing.
Recently, Gao Dapeng confirmed he would hand over the chairman’s position, and with various rumors swirling during this board election, the group was simmering with tension.
The most promising candidate was naturally the Gao family’s young heir—Gao Yi Qing.
He was Gao Dapeng’s illegitimate son born before marriage, rumored to have been accepted into the family because Hu Cang Yue Ling was infertile and faced family pressure; others said Hu Cang merely wanted to win her husband’s heart and prevent him from taking a mistress.
Regardless of the truth, Gao Yi Qing was undoubtedly the Gao family’s only heir.
Even with the subtle tension between him and his stepmother, his future looked promising.
He was currently the Executive President of the Overseas Department and the future son-in-law of Su Group, a major shareholder of Huawei Group. It was foreseeable that with the marriage between the Gao and Su families, another wave of power consolidation would begin.
Everything was within his grasp.
Have you really mastered it? Gao Yuqing left his seat and looked out through the floor-to-ceiling window, appearing deep in thought.
What was he thinking about? The topics discussed in the meeting? Investment proposals pending review? Or matters related to the shareholders’ meeting…
No. He was simply watching the tricycle moving on the ground.
The image of his mother sweating on the tricycle reappeared in his mind.
In the past, during midnight dreams, he had been melancholic about the sudden disappearance of this scene.
Only when dreaming of his mother did he not want to wake up; yet, he longed for each morning’s arrival.
Because with each passing day, he had grown a little more.
Now, he had finally waited for this day. Gao Yuqing, listed as the chief heir of a Chinese enterprise, wrapped in a halo of glory, returned to his hometown.
But what about his mother?
He heard she was doing well and had remarried. Did this mean he might have unknown “younger siblings”?
His gaze, following the tricycle, finally settled on a woman holding a cardboard box beside the vehicle.
Another image quickly surfaced in his mind – a girl called “Little Braids”.
In a trance, Yuqing seemed to see two black braids swinging, a silly, laughing expression, and those sparkling eyes…
“Xiao Yao…” he unconsciously whispered her name.
More than a decade had passed, but he had never forgotten his promise to her. He had said he would come back to thank her…
But could he find her?
During these days back in Taiwan, he chose to stay in a hotel, unwilling to return to the villa directly, with something lingering in his heart.
He was determined to find her. He wanted to see what she looked like after growing up.
The winding mountain road, an old nine-seater van carrying several young men and women, was swaying towards its destination.
Xiao Yao sat in the car, her heart also swinging uncertainly…
Suddenly someone said: “Hey, are we like a fraud group?”
Fraud group? Xiao Yao was stunned, then forced a awkward smile.
Oh yes, they were about to do something “sneaking through the sky”.
In the end, it was all because of her brother’s prospective father-in-law being so snobbish, saying no villa meant no marriage to his daughter. This forced her brother and his girlfriend Aimi to resort to this strategy – to perform a play in someone else’s villa.
But where to find a villa?
Finally, Xiao Yao thought of her good friend Tang Zhima.
Zhima’s mother helped manage a villa, and the owners had been abroad for a long time, so it was usually unoccupied. Through Zhima’s help, they naturally had a venue.
The people in the car were the “temporary actors” summoned for this purpose.
Someone in the car asked again: “But won’t we get into trouble by deceiving people like this?”
