Qian Meigui heard a faint shuffle in her room and the feeling of someone tapping her shoulder persistently. She furrowed her brows, flicking away the hand. Then she suddenly felt the sensation of being tickled. She quickly overcame with a sudden laughing fit, "No!" she said while trying to contain it.

Qian Meigui opened her eyes, grabbing onto the person while trying to regain her breath. Song Sheng appeared in her vision with a gentle expression; she almost instantly gasped at how handsome he looked. It was early morning, but he wore a pine-green turtleneck sweater, with black pants. His black hair was neatly combed over to one side with the strands slightly falling over, but it looked good.

One of his hands were planted on the bed next to her body as he leaned over. In the morning, his eyes reflected the amber hues from the natural glow of sunlight. This time, Qian Meigui did not glance away; she remained rooted in her place, trying not to reveal a blush.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a slight dry voice of the morning.

Seeming to notice, Song Sheng handed her a gla.s.s of water from the nightstand. Qian Meigui took it suspiciously. "How did you know I was thirsty?"

Song Sheng smiled with gleaming teeth and chuckled. "It's the first thing you do every morning. Not to wash up, not to relieve yourself, but you go straight down the stairs and drink a gla.s.s as you've felt dehydrated for days."

It's true. Qian Meigui was thirsty. But for Song Sheng to pick up her habits? Qian Meigui pouted, looking away while drinking down the water.

Knowing him for years, she did not care that her hair was unkempt or that she did not wear any makeup. She naturally wore her oversized s.h.i.+rt and small shorts to bed. In front of him, she could always be herself.

"What's wrong?" she attempted to ask him why he invaded her room, despite it being the guest room of his apartment.

"I have a shoot today so that I will be coming home late again."

Qian Meigui was surprised that he reported to her, "What kind of shoot?"

Song Sheng looked at her, "modelling," he said.

"Oh," she began, "that makes sense."

"What makes sense?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Qian Meigui's eyes widened, "Nothing. Forget I said anything." She masked her face with a composed expression.

"Mhm, okay," he paused. "There's one more thing," he blurted out. Qian Meigui turned to face him curiously.

"Song Ren is returning soon, and I've done a lot of thinking."

Qian Meigui leaned toward him, her ears peering at what he had to say next.

Song Sheng then leaned in closer to her as , "I need you to think Xiao Mei, who does Song Ren trust most in this world?"

Qian Meigui's eyes widened, suspecting, not able to comprehend or accept the answer she's known all along. She faced him, knowing.

Song Sheng nodded. Qian Meigui looked at him. "Impossible," she blew out an exasperated breath, "But how?" she asked, "why?"

"We'll figure it out," he began, "as well as their motives."

"All right," Qian Meigui nodded with determination.

Feeling motivated, Qian Meigui scooted out from the bed sheets. Song Sheng rose, ruffling her bed hair and said, "I'll see you later."

"Mhm. I'll see you at night," she said as she placed on her slippers.

Qian Meigui went to the office, and the atmosphere felt relaxed as the employees knew that Song Ren wasn't in. Yet, when she walked in, most of them stiffened as they still respected Qian Meigui as a member of the Song family.

The employees hastily returned to work, and Yang Minzhe approached her while breaking out with sweat. "Thank goodness you're here. I can't get them to do anything on my own."

Qian Meigui chuckled, "Minzhe, I wonder how Ren entrusts you to do anything."

"I don't know myself," he said, "perhaps faith."

Qian Meigui gave him a harlequin smile, "Indeed," she said before she walked away.

Yang Minzhe raised a brow, but he shrugged off her odd behaviour and walked away.

As Qian Meigui made her way to the legal department, she noticed a familiar figure. She approached closer, not believing who it was. "Zhong Liu?" she questioned,

Zhong Liu was hovering around the hall as he turned around, his eyes glazed with an icy frostiness before it warmed with shock. "Xiao Mei?" he asked.

Qian Meigui smiled and shook his hand. "It's nice to see you again," she said. Zhong Liu was a close friend of Song Ren, but he befriended Qian Meigui too after he noticed that she did not have many friends back when they were in the same school. "You've changed so much," he said with a sincere smile and tone.

Zhong Liu could not believe it. The quiet girl who used to wear her hair in braids and an oversized backpack was someone who appeared to be bold now. She wore a mahogany pencil s.h.i.+rt with a matching blazer and white blouse. Her long wavy hair spilled over her shoulders, and she appeared to be more womanly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"I came to see you. I heard you are your sister's legal representative."

"Mhm," she said.

"Well, I am a legal representative for the Jian's, but when I took the case for my law firm, I didn't know it was against Song Corporation. So I'm hoping now that we can discuss over the case to settle some things before we proceed. The last thing I want to do is to hurt an old friend."

"Sounds good," she said. Qian Meigui leads him into the legal department to meet with him. They spent hours discussing. Out of all Song Ren's friends—and she had many—Zhong Lui was the only one that acknowledged her. Su Feng had occasionally greeted her, but he never got close with her because of their family rivalry.

Zhong Lui made sure Qian Meigui was taken care of at school, and though he was intelligent and popular, he treated her like everyone else.