Chapter 8
Advance chapters of A fateful antidote is available on kofi
That afternoon, a high-spec industry auction was held. At noon, the organizers arranged an upscale buffet. The group following Shen Zhi was invited into an elegant private room, but as Xie Qianqian was about to follow them inside, Gu Lei stopped her right at the door, telling her bluntly, "You don't sit in here. Go find yourself a seat out in the main hall."
Since it was Xie Qianqian's first day, it wasn't convenient for Gu Lei to explain the reason to her, but everyone else felt a bit awkward. After all, they had all traveled here together, so leaving a young girl out like this was undeniably embarrassing.
While everyone else cringed on her behalf, the girl herself showed no emotion whatsoever, casually heading off to grab her food.
A short while later, Gu Miao returned from the conference area. After some negotiation, he managed to retrieve the security footage. The process had gone smoothly, and he presented it to Shen Zhi right away.
Shen Zhi reclined against the chair back inside the private room. Aside from Gu Lei, four or five executives from Cuiyu Pavilion were gathered around him.
Gu Miao played the surveillance video on a tablet. While Shen Zhi watched the chaotic scene that had broken out after the conference ended, Gu Miao briefed him: "After we left the venue earlier, the culprit was taken straight to the police station. According to the perpetrator's statement, he used to be the owner of a logistics and transport company that had business dealings with the group. However, his contracts were repeatedly constrained. After several altercations, his company was maliciously acquired two years ago, his wife and child died in an accident, and he ended up entangled in lawsuits. He clearly pinned all that malice on the Shen family, taking advantage of today's chaos to make a move on you."
Shen Zhi didn't say a word, his gaze heavy as he stared at the monitor. Only then did Gu Miao realize that Shen Zhi didn't seem to be paying attention to his explanation at all; instead, his sharp eyes were locked onto a corner of the screen—where Xie Qianqian was sitting. Gu Miao trailed off, and the whole group turned their attention to the video.
In the footage, when Shen Zhi stepped down from the stage, the young girl was still fast asleep with her head drooping far in the distance. The incident had unfolded in under three minutes; at the time, Gu Miao hadn't even managed to squeeze through the crowd, so how on earth had she moved to Shen Zhi's side in such a short span of time, kicking that bottle away with lightning reaction speed and almost unimaginable flexibility?
This bizarre question was precisely what had caused Shen Zhi's heart to tighten when he saw her earlier.
Now, the surveillance footage reconstructed the scene second by second. At 4 minutes and 38 seconds, the video showed Shen Zhi walking off the stage as the reporters in the front row began surging forward. The footage revealed that the moment the crowd swarmed him, the girl sitting in the corner had already raised her head.
At precisely 4 minutes and 52 seconds, she had already sensed something amiss. Her eyes locked onto the perpetrator, and she stood up. At 5 minutes and 23 seconds, the perpetrator pulled a bottle out from inside his jacket. The exact instant he unscrewed the cap, the girl suddenly sprang up, stepping onto the front-row seats with mind-boggling speed. Leveraging the height of the chairs, she leaped straight through the air, landing in the gap between two men to Shen Zhi's rear left. Simultaneously, she rotated her body 180 degrees in midair, raising her leg to strike directly at the perpetrator's wrist.
The men in the private room gasped in unison. The girl's sequence of movements in the video was crisp and decisive, without a fraction of a second's hesitation—like a lion lurking in the dark, combining softness with fierce power.
At the time, Shen Zhi was completely boxed in, with only a small pocket cleared by the Cuiyu Pavilion staff behind his left side for evacuation. In other words, when the girl leaped into the air, she had already calculated her exact landing spot with flawless precision. It was just like playing snooker, when there was only one pocket available, precise awareness, tricky angles, and calculations of both speed and force were all executed in a single split second.
Shen Zhi slowly leaned back into his seat and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Gu Miao stood there flabbergasted, murmuring, "Why am I suddenly feeling a wave of lingering fear... If that guy had been throwing acid..."
Gu Lei's eyes were glued to the monitor. The girl's movements in the footage blended power and grace—as swift as the wind, yet as light as a falling leaf.
The blood in his veins began to boil. He had long heard that Chinese martial arts were vast and profound, but he had never had the chance to spar with someone trained in genuine traditional martial arts. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to charge out and fight this girl for three hundred rounds.
Shen Zhi slowly shifted his gaze toward the window outside the private room. Xie Qianqian was sitting by herself near the window, with empty plates stacked like a small mountain in front of her, alongside a massive plate of fried rice. Her appetite was truly sight to behold.
With such a slender, delicate frame, sitting quietly in the corner like that gave her a deceptively fragile appearance that contrasted wildly with the agile figure in the surveillance footage. If the people in the room hadn't witnessed it with their own eyes, no one would ever believe that such a soft, harmless-looking girl possessed such extraordinary combat skills.
This bizarre contrast felt like learning that a fluffy white rabbit was actually a carnivore, or that a pure, fragrant lily was laced with deadly poison—utterly mind-boggling.
Even Gu Miao set aside his bias and began to re-evaluate this thoroughly deceptive girl.
Just then, a restaurant server walked over to ask Xie Qianqian to present her attendee badge. Because the convention center was hosting two separate conferences today, staff had just caught attendees from the other event sneaking in to get free food, so management had instructed servers to inspect everyone's credentials.
Having arrived with the Cuiyu Pavilion entourage, Xie Qianqian didn't have an attendee badge. The server politely informed her that outside guests would be charged a dining fee, causing her to raise her head in slight surprise.
Inside the private room, Shen Zhi gave Gu Miao a look. "Bring her in."
Gu Miao walked out wearing his red invitation badge. The moment he appeared, the server promptly apologized to Xie Qianqian, admitting it was a mistake.
When Xie Qianqian followed Gu Miao into the private room, all five or six men inside stared at her with indescribable expressions. Gu Lei, in particular, was already loosening his wrists; had Shen Zhi not been present, he would have loved to push his table aside and spar with real traditional martial arts right then and there.
Shen Zhi didn't look at her, continuing a discussion with an executive beside him. Seeing Gu Miao enter, he turned and instructed, "Pull up the market profit forecast analysis Minister Qin mentioned during the meeting earlier."
Having followed Shen Zhi for many years, Gu Miao was well acquainted with his habit of requesting data on short notice. He recorded every meeting, large or small, so he quickly opened his laptop, plugged in his headphones, and began searching through the audio files.
Xie Qianqian didn't join them at the dining table, taking a seat on the sofa by the entrance instead. Shen Zhi seemed to need the information urgently, and after five minutes, he tilted his head and asked Gu Miao, "How much longer?"
Cold sweat began pouring down Gu Miao's back. Right at that moment, a calm, clear voice sounded from the corner:
"The industry gross margin forecast is 51.48% for '16, 53.24% for '17, and 56.05% for '18. It experienced a slight dip in '19 to 54.21%. As operations scale up, the gross margin margin has room to expand, but constrained by costs, growth potential over the next few years remains limited."
An eerily dead silence fell over the private room. Gu Miao's finger twitched on the touchpad as a sudden wave of goosebumps broke out across his skin. Even though he had paid full attention throughout the meeting, how could anyone possibly remember every single metric so clearly, down to the exact decimal points—after hours of presentations by so many speakers?
He couldn't help blurting out, "You... weren't you sleeping the whole time during the meeting?"
Xie Qianqian raised her eyes, her expression plain. "Who told you I was sleeping?"
"..." A rushing wave of crisis completely swallowed Gu Miao whole. At this moment, he felt an overwhelming urge to drop to his knees.
Behind Shen Zhi's rimless glasses, an uncatchable glint gradually pooled in his eyes. He slowly stood up, bringing the meal to an end, and the others rose to their feet along with him.
Xie Qianqian stood up from the sofa and waited by the door. As Shen Zhi walked past her, he paused briefly, his voice sounding like a soft breeze: "Are you full?"
Xie Qianqian lifted her long eyelashes slightly, her clear amber eyes reflecting his figure as she replied, "I'm full."
A faint arc touched the corner of Shen Zhi's lips, and he walked out with an air of relaxed ease.
...
For the afternoon auction, Xie Qianqian was once again seated near the edge, while Shen Zhi and the Cuiyu Pavilion executives took their seats in the very front row. As Xie Qianqian looked down at the brochure in her hands, someone suddenly patted her shoulder. When she turned around, Zhuang Siqian gasped in surprise, "It really is you! What are you doing here?"
"On an assignment," Xie Qianqian replied briefly.
Dressed in an expensive custom gown, Zhuang Siqian sat down beside her. "I was wondering how I could possibly run into you at a place like this—I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me earlier."
Saying that, Zhuang Siqian cast a slightly disdainful glance at Xie Qianqian's tracksuit before asking, "By the way, are you a huge fan of Li Aiqing?"
"No, I'm only interested in her paintings."
Li Aiqing had suddenly shot to international fame a few years ago after winning a world landscape award with a garden landscape piece. Her subsequent works had reached increasingly phenomenal heights, mostly centered on garden landscapes that used the balance of life and ecology to create mythical masterpiece after masterpiece.
The auction commenced. Zhuang Siqian remarked casually, "I've already mentioned it to my friend. He's currently out of the country, but I'll let you know once he gets back next month. By the way, why are you looking for him anyway? He doesn't have any of Li Aiqing's paintings left in his hands."
Looking at the item displayed on the large screen up front, Xie Qianqian said, "I'm not asking him for a painting. I want to meet Li Aiqing in person."
Utterly baffled, Zhuang Siqian turned to look at Xie Qianqian. "You're not a fan, you're only interested in her paintings, yet you want to meet her in person? Why?"
Why? Naturally, Xie Qianqian wasn't going to tell her that she had to meet Li Aiqing face-to-face to ask where those paintings had come from.
Because those were all paintings created by her mother, Miss Mu Zi.
After several items had passed, an icy, full-green jadeite pendant suddenly appeared on the main screen. Shaped like a drop of water, it was crystal clear throughout, without a single flaw.
Only then did Xie Qianqian shift her full attention to the stage, staring at that teardrop shape as she drifted into thought.
Miss Mu Zi had possessed a pendant just like this, one left to her by her own mother. When Xie Qianqian was still very young, Miss Mu Zi had told her: "Water is the source of life. When you get a bit older, I'll give this piece of jade to you, because you are the continuation of my life."
Yet later, right up until Miss Mu Zi met with her accident, Xie Qianqian had never seen that pendant again—nor any of Miss Mu Zi's paintings.
She couldn't be certain that this item belonged to Miss Mu Zi; such a coincidence was exceedingly slim. It was simply that its shape stirred up long-buried memories within her.
Bidding started at one million yuan, increasing in increments of one hundred thousand. People in the front rows quickly jumped in. Having accompanied the Cuiyu Pavilion group, Xie Qianqian naturally had no bidding paddle. She cast a glance at Zhuang Siqian beside her and decisively snatched the paddle from her hands, raising it high into the air.
Zhuang Siqian was startled out of her wits, covering her mouth as she shrieked in a hushed tone, "Xie Qianqian, have you lost your mind? Do you even have that much money?"
Xie Qianqian ignored her. After several rounds, the price soared past two million. A few wealthy socialites in the hall were all keenly interested in the pendant.
Right then, Xie Qianqian raised the paddle for a second time, pushing the price to two point five million. Zhuang Siqian wrung her fingers, nagging incessantly, "You have money for this? When I asked to borrow some from you that night, why didn't you lend me any?"
"I didn't have money that night."
"...If you don't have money, what are you doing? Do you think that paddle is a toy to wave around? Do you see those burly security guards standing along the edge of the hall? They won't let you leave if you don't pay!"
Xie Qianqian swept her eyes over them, quickly assessing their combat capabilities before replying, "I can beat them."
Zhuang Siqian felt dizzy for a moment. "Big sister, are you planning to commit armed robbery? Aren't you supposed to be working an assignment?"
The stage announced a bid of three million. Just as Xie Qianqian was about to raise her paddle again, Zhuang Siqian grabbed her arm in terror, pleading, "You can't raise it again!" Saying that, Zhuang Siqian snatched the paddle back and held it tightly against her chest.
Once her initial impulse passed, Xie Qianqian calculated that the money she had won yesterday wouldn't be enough, so she refrained from making any further moves.
However, the wealthy socialites had gotten competitive, casting subtle glares back at Xie Qianqian, suspecting she was a plant brought in by the organizers to artificially inflate the price.
Consequently, the price shot up directly from five million to six million.
Zhuang Siqian clicked her tongue. "You've successfully ignited these women's fighting spirit. They aren't bidding for jade anymore, they're bidding for their pride."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than someone in the middle seat of the very first row raised his paddle, holding up a single finger. The host asked with a hint of uncertainty, "Is that a bid for ten million?"
Gu Miao looked at Shen Zhi, who gave a slight nod. The entire hall erupted into a commotion, and the wealthy socialites who had been bidding in hundred-thousand increments fell instantly silent.
The host excitedly asked if anyone wished to place a higher bid. No one in the audience raised a hand again. When the gavel finally struck, Zhuang Siqian's little heart trembled along with it, and she swore under her breath, "Holy crap! Isn't that man the handsome guy who covered our damages at VIX?"
Xie Qianqian gave a casual response. "Mm."
"I even flirted with him that night!"
"..." The corner of Xie Qianqian's eye twitched as she cast a side-eye glance at her.
Zhuang Siqian said with proud defiance, "What are you looking at me for? You held onto him that night and called him 'Mom!'"
"???" My mom has been dead for ten years.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES
Glossary Additions & Adaptations
李艾青 (Li Aiqing): Renowned landscape artist whose works Xie Qianqian is investigating.
木子女士 (Miss Mu Zi): Xie Qianqian's late mother, an artist whose work was seemingly plagiarized or taken under Li Aiqing's name.
翠玉閣 (Cuiyu Pavilion): The corporate brand/entity under Shen Zhi's leadership within the business group.
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