Chapter 191 — More Aggressive

Wei Zhao came back to his senses and saw that Wei Zhao had already run far away. He gave a soft sigh. Had he really fallen for this girl?

Wei Zhao did not know whether he had grown more mature or more impulsive. A year ago, he would never have entertained such a thought. Was it this stretch of comfortable living that had changed him?

It seemed he would have to have a talk with the old man at home...

"Boss, what on earth is going on with you?" Kang Xiaofeng, who had been standing off to the side the whole time, finally could not hold back now that Tang Zhi had run off into the distance. "What are you spacing out for? Tang Zhi came over on her own to ask if you wanted to date her, and you just stood there dazed..."

Kang Xiaofeng wore the look of a man despairing over a hopeless case—the classic picture of the eunuch fretting while the emperor himself was in no hurry.

"She only wanted to know what's in my heart. Nothing more than that," Wei Zhao said with a shake of his head. "Let's go. Nothing more to see here."

"Boss, I really don't know what to say. Such a good chance, and you let it slip right through your fingers..." Kang Xiaofeng stamped his feet and beat his breast as though the matter were his own.

"There will be other chances." Wei Zhao gave Kang Xiaofeng a pat on the back of the head. "Come on, I need to get back quickly."

In the taxi, Wei Zhao checked the text message on his phone. It was from Gu Mengyao, as expected, and it asked only one thing: when was he coming home.

So the young lady was not as cold and indifferent as she appeared on the surface. Over this period of time together, Wei Zhao had come to understand Gu Mengyao's character: cold outside, warm within. She had a bit of a spoiled young lady's temper, true, but in fact she never truly treated him as an errand boy or a servant.

That was also the main reason Wei Zhao had accepted this job and stayed on.

Waiting on two young ladies—there was no telling how many people would fight over such a fine arrangement. Wei Zhao was well aware of that.

He sent Gu Mengyao a reply saying he would be home shortly. After waiting a while with no response, Wei Zhao shook his head with a wry smile. Still the bearing of a proper young lady.

After paying the fare, Wei Zhao returned to the villa. Uncle Qing had already had a key to the front gate made for him, so there was no need to have Gu Mengyao and the others come open the door; Wei Zhao let himself in.

There was no one in the living room—plainly Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had gone upstairs. General Weiwu lay lazily sprawled at the foot of the stairs; seeing that it was Wei Zhao at the door, he lowered his head again and went back to his sham sleep.

Wei Zhao set down his schoolbag and went to the dining room. Uncle Qing had already been by with the food, and evidently Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had already eaten.

"Ha," Wei Zhao said, looking at the dishes on the dining table, and could not help but smile. The two young ladies had served themselves by taking portions out of the dishes today, a little of each onto their plates, and even so, with their small appetites, they had not managed to finish.

The food in the sealed boxes, however, had not been touched at all—it must have been left for Wei Zhao.

He did not know which young lady had decided it, but his treatment had improved.

Shen Yushu was on decent terms with him, but that little girl—Wei Zhao shook his head—he would count himself lucky if she did not tip what Gu Mengyao had already eaten back into the lunchbox and pass it off as untouched for him to eat...

It must have been Gu Mengyao, then. The young lady was not bad to him at all. So Wei Zhao thought as he went to scoop himself a bowl of rice and wolfed it down.

After finishing dinner, Wei Zhao washed the lunchbox clean, then set the concert DVD he had bought at noon on the living room coffee table and went back to his room.

Wei Zhao meant to call the old man and talk about matters on this end. After closing his door, he dialed the old man's number... As a rule, when Wei Zhao was out on a mission he did not contact the old man; only once the mission was over would he report that he was safe.

The phone rang many times before his own old man's rather lewd voice finally came through: "Hello?"

"Old man, it's me, Xiaoyi," Wei Zhao said after a moment's silence.

"Oh? That you, Xiao Wei? How's the mission coming along?" Old Wei was plainly in the middle of a drink—you could still hear the crunch of peanuts between his teeth.

The mission was one subject Wei Zhao had hoped to avoid, but the moment it came up he was struck dumb for a beat. "Listen, old man, what kind of mission have you actually assigned me? Every day I'm trailing behind the young lady like a glorified errand boy. Are you trying to turn me into a first-rate footman?"

"What kind of mission? You'll find out in due course." Old Wei clearly had no intention of wasting further breath on the matter.

"In due course—how long exactly?" That was the question Wei Zhao actually cared about, and it served as a lead-in to what he was about to say next.

"Heh heh, as long as you like—there's no time limit. It all depends on how fast you finish." Old Wei answered with perfect indifference.

"As long as I like? Truly?" Wei Zhao hesitated for a moment, then spoke his mind. "Old man, I'm rather thinking of staying here..."

"Oh? You already want to stay there? Wonderful!" The moment he heard Wei Zhao's words, Old Wei grew animated. "Then the mission must be progressing nicely. It's a fine beginning!"

"What do you mean?" Wei Zhao was baffled. What did any of this have to do with mission progress?

"Nothing—just that if you like it, then don't come back. In a few years I'll settle down over there myself... You lay the groundwork first, raise a few children, and when I arrive I can go straight to being a grandfather..." Old Wei seemed to approve heartily of Wei Zhao staying on at Songshan—more enthusiastic about it, even, than Wei Zhao himself.

"Huh?" Wei Zhao had braced himself for a hard fight, expecting to have to persuade Old Wei to let him begin a quiet life... Yet before he had even opened his mouth, the old man was already telling him to go ahead and have children? What was that supposed to mean? Was he planning to retire him?

"Listen, old man, what about future missions..." Wei Zhao eyed him with suspicion. Was this really his own stingy grandfather—the one who had assigned him perilous jobs just to pocket a few extra coins? "Missions? There are no missions after this. This is the last one."

Old Wei went on: "Of course, if you fancy stretching your muscles, you're welcome to pick up a job here and there..."

Wei Zhao sat there, silently wondering whether the old man had drunk too much. He had been agonizing over how to broach the subject with Old Wei—after all, the life he used to lead had never belonged to the kind of quiet existence he now enjoyed... And yet, before he could even open his mouth, the old man was already encouraging him to start a family...

Though Wei Zhao broke into a slight sweat over the matter, a long-standing worry was thus put to rest. Good—he could go woo Tang Zhi starting tomorrow... and there would be no need to hold himself back or second-guess anything anymore...

If it weren't for the fact that his own two young ladies were off-limits, Wei Zhao would never have gone so far afield to look for love.

"Anything else? The Widow Wang from the village entrance has dropped by. I'm going to catch up with an old friend. Nothing more? I'll hang up now. Bye-bye." Without waiting for Wei Zhao to say another word, Old Wei cut the line.

Looking at the phone in his hand, Wei Zhao allowed himself a wry smile. How had all of this come to feel so much like a dream? Ever since he had accepted this utterly baffling mission, his entire life had begun to change?